Hey, Let's Twist!

Mediocre B movie capitalizing on the twist phase of the early 60's. Italian widower works day and night in a failing restaurant business putting his two boys Enrico and Rosario (Joey and Ricky) through `college in the east'. The boys come home for Christmas break with music on their minds, not wishing to return to school; they would rather be in pursuit of rock and roll. They tell dad who then passes out due to overwork; during his convalescence his boys turn the restaurant into the wildly successful `Peppermint Lounge'. Minor subplots are added in between songs. A big happy ending - they compromise by Ricky's return to school, Joey staying behind to play the twist at the Lounge and of course the boy gets the girl. As corny as this movie gets it's a gentle reminder about when music movies had some ethics and family values.

Rock n' Roll the Early Days and the High-Energetic Popularity that Came With was Soon Halted by a String of Negative Events.

So the Powers that Be that Tried to Kill the Art-Form from the Beginning with No Success Got What They Wanted.

Elvis Went Into the Army...Chuck Berry got Arrested for Taking a Teen Girl Across the State-Line...Jerry Lee Lewis Married His 13 Year Old Cousin...Little Richard Stopped Recording and Touring Having Found the Lord and Became a Preacher...Buddy Holly Died in a Plane-Crash.

This Opened Up a Void and Filling that Void in Pop-Culture was a "Clean-Cut" Invasion of White-Bread Singers Like Fabian...Paul Anka...and Frankie Avalon to Name a Few.

Also Chubby Checker Re-Recorded a Hank Ballard Song that Stiffed, but Not This Time.

The Song "The Twist" was a Huge Hit as was the Dance. Joey Dee and the Starliters Recorded "The Peppermint Twist (also a Hit).

An Unforeseen Happening Made Sure that the "Craze" was Dead as Fast as it Came Alive.

What Happened was...The Parents of the Baby-Boomers Started Twisting Along with the Teens. That was the "Death Knell".

At the Heart, but Not the Only Attraction of Rock n' Roll was a Rebellious, Youthful Battle-Cry of Anti-Establishment Zest.

Mom and Dad Doing "The Twist" Turned Teens Off and They Moved On to Other "Groovy" Things.

This Low-Low-Budget Movie was Nothing More than the Capitalist Establishment's Way of Separating the Youth from Their Pocket-Money (a new development in America's post-war Booty).

This "Twist Phenom" was just Another Void-Filling, Soul-Less, Family Friendly Entry Along with the Aforementioned Replacements for the Departed "Hell-Raisers".

In a Short-Time Young-Folks Discovered and Wholly Embraced a "New-Sound" that Originated in Britain and an Invasion was Imminent.

So Much for "The Twist", Chubby Checker, The Peppermint Lounge, and its 15 min.

The Movie is Hyper-Innocent without an Edge and Belongs in the Graveyard, Dead and Buried.

But it May Be Worth a Watch for Those who Came of Age at the Time (between Elvis and The Beatles).

It Might Provide a Heart-Beat of Nostalgia for Those that were Young in an Unfortunate Time that was a Vast Nothingness in Top 40 "Rock n' Roll Radio"...Do you Remember?

It was the Era of "Teen-Idols" Between Elvis and The Beatles.

Where the Only Thing of Quality to be Found, Aside from a Rare, an Indeed Welcome Anomolie from All the Crop Controlled Same-Ness...

and Capitulations from Cow-Towing, Assembly Line Produced, Cookie-Cutter-Idol Cuteness...that came Shrink-Wrapped a Prevab "Show" for Sale.

The "Product" also came with "Hidden Contract Clause", Written in "Invisible-Ink & Blood"...

"We've Got Your Cash...Now we want Your Soul"

But Wait..."What's that I hear"?...

Like a "Voice" in the Wilderness at the Record Store was the Music Productions of Phil Spector.

There was a time in 1961 or so when Elvis was gone off to Germany to be in the Army, that suddenly, and for a brief time, you found Italian boys from New York and Philadelphia coming out of the woodwork with hit after hit. All of them cleancut, good Italian boys you would not mind taking home to mother. (Elvis, on the other hand, was much more blatantly sexual then these boys would ever be..). So we had Frankie Avalon, Dion and the Belmonts, and the boys that just had letters for last names instead of Italian names that sounded "too ethnic". This movie is a snapshot sort of look at that time. Joey Dee (and the Starliters...) and Teddy Randazzo play brothers who want to be leaders of Twist bands and not be a lawyer or an teacher as their Father wishes. Father owns a failing Italian restaurant and struggles to put the two boys through college.. they explain that they want to leave college and pursue music careers and Pop is taken sick in bed from the shock. While he is sick, the boys turn dads "Neapolitan Gardens" restaurant into the "Peppermint Lounge", not out of meaness but because he restaurant is failing and they just know that the place can make money as a dance club. From here that plot goes on.

Overall a better than average genre picture. There is enough plot to hold your attention and the music is just great! If you are a fan of the era, or just want to see what was going on in America when Elvis was in the Army, this is one place to look.

Another rock n roll/quasi-dramatic picture from the 60's, this film features that one hit wonder "Peppermint Twist," by Joey Dee. The film is USA network material, centering on a good o' Lounge Club in the city, where musicians are situated with bad acting roles and free booze. The film's highlight is seeing a young Joe Pesci as a stand-in guitarist for the Starliters. I understand Pesci had an ear for music before acting; this film would lead him to the latter.

Hey, Let's Twist is a time capsule to the youth culture of the Kennedy years. I remember seeing this at the tender age of 14 in theater back in Brooklyn. Those were interesting years.

This film purportedly shows how the famous Peppermint Lounge came to be. In the film restaurant owner Dino DeLuca has two sons Joey and Ricky who are into this new dance craze called The Twist and are even playing and writing about it. When dad has an anxiety attack and has to slow down, the boys take charge and turn his Italian Restaurant which was on the rocks anyway into a new youth club where they play and the kids twist the night away. More importantly it makes money so dad takes a new outlook on his two son's futures.

The dream almost dies when socialite Zohra Lampert starts patronizing the place and starts turning it into a Studio 54 operation where only the elite go. I guess we weren't ready for that in those years because The Peppermint Lounge nearly goes belly up. In the end the kids are all right.

Of course this is hardly the story of the real Peppermint Lounge which was mobbed up to the gills. But the period music is fine, Joey Dee and Teddy Randazzo are hardly great acting talents, still Hey Let's Twist is some interesting nostalgia.