Weird sort of movie - a disco film starring Fabian. It's as if the producers wanted to make a disco movie, or could get the finance, then Fabian became available so they decided to shoehorn him in.
The film feels written for him, he's a fading pop star who gets mistaken for Frankie Avalon and Fabian ("were you in North to Alaska?" "no that was Fabian') who hangs around a disco. The film uses footage of Fabian from his hey day - being mobbed and what not - as well as a glimpse of his Playgirl centerfold.
The plot has the manager of a disco see Fabian and decide to orchestrate his comeback. Fabian wants to sing new songs. The manager wants him to sing old songs on a disco plane as a warm up act for new star Michael Blodgett. Fabian decides to stick to his guns and sing his not particularly memorable new songs. The crowd goes wild.
There's something very cute in a movie insisting this would happen. Fabian has a beard and gives a typically relaxed, professional performance - probably too relaxed... more anxiousness and tension would have added to the movie, to give it more stakes.
You never believe for a second that Fabian would be used to launch a disco singer or perform in a disco or that his new songs would go over. The bitchy female manager who wants to bed Fabian and is annoyed is an unpleasant trope. Subplots come and go like the ex of the girl interested in Fabian, and the girl Casey Kasem does coke with.
But I didn't mind this movie. There is lots and lots of disco dancing. There's a fair bit of music - disco and Fabian rock tracks. Casey Kasem plays Fabian's manager who sells him out, tries to pick up women, and does cocaine with a topless starlet. (In some ways this film is for kids with dancing, music, a silly storyline and a motorbike race just kind of thrown in... but then there's some nudity, swearing and cocaine. It's like, make up your mind, movie!) The idea of a disco plane is camp enough for its own film.
A curio, to be sure. Not appalling just a real mish mash.
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