A ridiculously corny script makes this rock and roll musical a laughable look back at a bit of nostalgia in a changing world, and not one that changed the world. However, the musical sequences do stand the test of time with performances by Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, the Treniers the Applejacks and others. That's what makes this film worth rediscovering or in my case watching again, although my eyes did roll a bit more than once with lines like "rock and roll is for morons", a sequence I remembered from a movie history documentary aired on television when I was a kid.
So what you get in great music you lack in a strong story, basically the generation gap of aging long hairs, snooty columnist Faye Baker and politicians worried about losing their greatest generation vote. Baker's daughter (Patricia Hardy) falls in love with singer Alan Dale who has gone from crooning to rocking out in hopes of staying relevant, and Baker plans to expose rock and roll for turning the younger generation into degenerates. But there's absolutely no proof that rock and roll has that effect, something you couldn't convince these old fogies of.
It's clear that Baker isn't opposed to rock and roll herself but is afraid of losing her readers if she doesn't stand up to what they're against. This was the second film for famous rock and roll promoter Alan Freed who had earlier appeared in "Rock Around the Clock" and go on to have his story told in 1978's "American Hot Wax". The acting in the film isn't very good, with the line delivery of the silly dialogue less than believable. But in spite of its flaws, this is a great time capsule into the past, and that keeps it something that will remain worth viewing as long as old movies are still rerun.
So what you get in great music you lack in a strong story, basically the generation gap of aging long hairs, snooty columnist Faye Baker and politicians worried about losing their greatest generation vote. Baker's daughter (Patricia Hardy) falls in love with singer Alan Dale who has gone from crooning to rocking out in hopes of staying relevant, and Baker plans to expose rock and roll for turning the younger generation into degenerates. But there's absolutely no proof that rock and roll has that effect, something you couldn't convince these old fogies of.
It's clear that Baker isn't opposed to rock and roll herself but is afraid of losing her readers if she doesn't stand up to what they're against. This was the second film for famous rock and roll promoter Alan Freed who had earlier appeared in "Rock Around the Clock" and go on to have his story told in 1978's "American Hot Wax". The acting in the film isn't very good, with the line delivery of the silly dialogue less than believable. But in spite of its flaws, this is a great time capsule into the past, and that keeps it something that will remain worth viewing as long as old movies are still rerun.