Rock Rock Rock!

Another rock 'n' roll quickie. Flimsy plot, but some very good musical performances. Future sex-kitten, thirteen year old Tuesday Weld makes her debut with the situation of trying to buy a dress for the prom. She 'lip syncs' to the voice of Connie Francis. Her boyfriend(Teddy Randazzo) wins a talent contest and somehow talks DJ Alan Freed into bringing a gaggle of talent to the prom. Randazzo's singing was about as boring as little Ivy Schulman's was dreadful.

Redeeming this film are the performances by The Moonglows, Chuck Berry, The Flamingos, Lavern Baker, The Johnny Burnett Trio and Frankie Lymon. The Bowties and the House Rockers were a joke. There were worse movies out there at the time. This is surely worth the price of admission and a cherry coke.

Note: I found it pretty cool that Miss Weld's character admits spending allowance money on playing Elvis records on the jukebox. Later, in 1961, she would actually play a sexpot trying to seduce him in WILD IN THE COUNTRY.

The reason to see "Rock, Rock, Rock," like most 50s quickie rock 'n' roll pictures, is, of course, to see great stars like Chuck Berry, Lavern Baker, The Moonglows and The Flamingos. You also get a fair amount of dreck like Cirino and the Bowties and the insufferable Ivy Schulman. Plus, this picture obviously had a budget lower than the cost of a car. (You can tell that some shots look out of sync.) Then, there's Tuesday Weld with her songs dubbed (not too well) by Connie Francis! Still, the picture is fun and early rock 'n' roll DJ impressario Alan Freed looks like he's having a good time. Of course, it wouldn't last.

A movie that pre-dates music videos by a number of years, "Rock, Rock, Rock" showcased a number of well-known and not so well-known groups in a venue that, admittedly, had very little plot. However, this was 1956, and to have Alan Freed take groups that had, and still were having, so much social impact in "the real world" and put them together on celluloid was a marvellous event. Again, this was 1956, and I don't think I would have seen Cirino and the Bowties, Johnny Burnette, Teddy Randazzo, Jimmy Cavallo and the Houserockers anywhere else during that period. I watched/shouted to/screamed to/danced/to this movie in 1956 (at 10 years of age) and have seen it about 14-15 times since. I'm certain that had I seen it in 1999 for the first time, my point of view would have been much different, but that's only natural. After all, what kind of critical analysis will Pink Floyd's "The Wall" get in the year 2020? If you can look at this movie with "1956 eyes," you get a heck of a lot more than just "weak plot." By the way, Chubby Checker was NOT in this film.

This essential time capsule musical from the very dawn of Rock and Roll is really beyond criticism. Many other comments bleat about the quality and the story, but really, would you prefer it did not exist? Is "EIGHT MILE" or (groan) "COOL AS ICE"or (double groan) "GET RICH OR DIE Trying'' a better reminder of their music and time in history? Alan Freed should be almost revered for the work he did in promoting rock and roll in the mid 50s and it is because of him this astonishing record of fascinating music acts of 1955/56 exists. Reacting to it as if it was made today is ridiculous. ROCK ROCK ROCK is a complete world unto itself and made with a keen-ness to entertain and elate through some of the essential music stars of the day. It is also charming. Something none of the other three films mentioned above are or could be in the slightest., given their retarded aggression. ROCK ROCK ROCK is fun and a real surprise. A good complimentary film is the 1976 drama "AMERICAN HOT WAX" which is a bio of Alan Freed with spectacular recreations of the 50s and the Brooklyn Paramount days with Freed causing dancing strife with uptight authorities. Believe it or like it or not.

This movie is a riot. It's got the typical 50's music with some excuse for a show put on by Alan Freed, of course. Tuesday Weld plays a real simpleton of a girl who stupidly gets herself in serious 'trouble' at the hands of another equally stupid teenage girl - she lends the other girl money to buy a dress, thinking 100% interest was a fair amount, but the other girl says that rate is so high it's illegal so she isn't going to pay back the money at all. OH MY GOSH! Now Tuesday won't be able to buy her OWN dress for the dance - and she has lost her boyfriend to the other girl, because he loves blue formal gowns like the other girl bought with Tuesday's money. Can you grasp the level of sophistication of this plot? Tuesday also gets her banking advice from the local bank president named - are you ready? - MR. BIMBLE! Is that a scream or what? Maybe the most agonizingly funny part of this flick is the singing by Tommy Rogers. His song "Thanks To You" is so insanely sour and off-key, if you are even the slightest bit 'impaired' you may rupture yourself laughing at it. Some movies are so bad they just stink, but this one is so bad it's entertainingly bad. Highly recommended, but it is NOT a serious look at the 50's. There are some good musical performances which of course were lip sync'd. "Tha-ANKS... to yooo-ooou...." Stop, you're killing me!