Universal jump on the teen rock bandwagon and were rewarded with a hit film with this, which turned John Saxon into a teen idol.
The plot has Saxon, Sal Mineo and their friends in a band together and Saxon has troubles with his dad (Edward Platt from Get Smart).
It's got plenty of rock music and dancing at the hop - Mineo does the drums and Saxon plays the guitar extremely well. It's a studio picture so the production values are high and the acting of good quality - the cast also includes Luana Patten, Shelley Fabares, and Fay Wray! And Henry Mancini did the music.
I quite liked this film. The teens were depicted sympathetically, and there were enjoyable family scenes. I believed the family, with dad struggling to understand the son, Saxon being moody, the kid brother wise cracking and sister Fabares causing trouble. I liked the father son chat even if it is a bit annoyingly simplistic that Plat goes "oh all your troubles are because of a girl".)
Patten is very sweet and there's a hot scene where she and Saxon go for a late night swim and make out afterwards in the dark and they both kind of want to have sex but she resists. I mean, they give it the 1956 studio treatment and she says no, but there's some hot moments.
It's really Saxon's film - he's too old for a teen and dark and brooding with hair that's going to recede but he's quite good, as an imitation James Dean. Sal Mineo is wasted as Saxon's friend - he has a moment where he talks about his parents wanting him to be a doctor, and talks slang and makes out with a girl and plays drums but doesn't have his own subplot. It's a shame - they should have done that, and if they couldn't they could have turned him into a villain.
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