I did not see this cable movie when it originally played on Showtime in 1994. I just grabbed the video off the dollar rental rack at my local supermarket's video dept. the other night, and I was pleasantly surprised. Well, I did see Allan Arkush's name listed as director, and felt if it was anywhere close to his "Rock n' Roll High School" (1979) it would be worth a look. I enjoyed the fact that Arkush cast the heroine of his 1979 film, P.J. Soles, and the actress who played her best friend in that movie, Dey Young, as two of the mothers objecting to rock and roll's influence on their kids. Mary Woronov, who played the evil principal in RnR HS, and Dick Miller, who played a policeman or fire chief in the first film, also appear under the same character names. Fans of cult actor Miller will note that he uses the name Paisley, which he first used in the Roger Corman Beatnik spoof horror movie "Bucket of Blood" in 1959. Yes, this is not up to the level of John Water's "Hairspray," but it is a fun movie with generally good performances, including one by sixties soul singer Ruth Brown, who was also in the Water's film. I generally avoid Howie Mandell like the plague, but he was OK here as the fast talking hipster DJ. Zellweger, John Doe, Gerrit Graham, Max Perlich, and (especially) Jennifer Lewis all give good performances and seem to be having fun in roles familiar from dozens of old American International drive-in movies. Makes me hope Dimension will release more of the "Rebel Highway" Showtime series, which all took their titles from AIP "classics."
Review of Shake, Rattle and Rock!
