Jukebox musical which followed in the wake of the success of The Tommy Steele Story though it wasn't as well received, in part because the film revolves a lot around Terry Dene who had a few hits ("A White Sports Coat", not in the movie) but didn't become a big star... although there are lots of other artists in the movie too, none of whom I'd heard off.
Dene is an interesting figure - he couldn't handle his fame and kind of flipped out and become a has-been very quickly. He's good a look look but doesn't command the screen or even the mike - he seems hesitant, unsure. He doesn't have the confidence of Steele or even Cliff Richard.
It was directed by Don Sharp who does a brisk job - it goes from musical act to musical act. The script which he co wrote is less good, focusing on a boy and a girl who go into business at a coffee shop where music acts perform (coffee shops were big at the time!) The boy is played by Lee Patterson, an American who was in a bunch of British films, and the girl is Mary Steele, who was Mrs Sharp.
I like a good "coathanger plot" but this isn't a good one - they're always talking about money, and costs and Patterson whines that people judge him because of his father. There's some old duck in there too to show the oldies are down with It.
But it is an artefact of its time and there's a lot of music.
No comments:
Post a Comment