1h 29min | Comedy, Music | December 1956 | b/w, ws
Director: Richard Bartlett
Stars: Sal Mineo, John Saxon, Luana Patten, Edward Platt, Fay Wray, Rod McKuen.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049683/
Watched online, good print.
Finally, we get a rock backstager, with no professional rock bands/singers appearing onscreen. Instead, this is a tale of a high school band who've been playing small local gigs, striving for bigger opportunities.
JS (b. '35) is the focal point, as the "teen" with all the conflicts. He does a good job, although he is a bit old to be credible as a high schooler.
Henry Mancini, Bobby Troup and Rod McKuen are familiar names credited with creating some of the songs here. (Troup was credited in at least 1 of the rocksploitation films.) The poster used on the video site said the film had 12 songs, but IMDb lists only 5. So I sought AFI, and they list more than a dozen. They also have performer Allan Copeland, not listed on IMDb. I suspect he was the voice of the primary teen ballad singer (Rod McKuen?).
This is shrugworthy. Nothing here gives me any great insights into anything of interest, nor is the music fun.
Universal, dir. Bartlett; 6-
