RING-A-DING RHYTHM

Craig Douglas and Helen Shapiro

RING-A-DING RHYTHM (aka It's Trad, Dad/1962). Director: Richard Lester.  

The mayor (Felix Felton) of a small British town is convinced that the new music the kids are playing is not only disturbing the peace, but lowering moral values. Craig (Craig Douglas) and Helen (Helen Shapiro) think the answer is to organize a jazz festival to show that the music is not that bad, but who can they get to host it? They travel to a studio to try to find a host, and encounter a large number of both British and American musical acts. But can they convince the mayor of the rightness of their cause?

"Another Tear Falls:" Gene McDaniels

Douglas and Shapiro were minor singers in the UK who were tapped to essentially host this concert movie, which makes use of such acts as The Paris Sisters, Gary (U.S.) Bonds, Gene Vincent, the Brook Brothers, Del Shannon, Chubby Checker, and others, most of whom (with the exception of Checker) are forgotten today. The musical highlight is the very talented Gene McDaniels singing "Another Tear Falls." Douglas has a pleasant voice and appealing manner, but Shapiro's voice is very odd and too deep. John Leyton (of The Idol) is billed as a special guest star, but he only shows up to sing one number. The final segment features some excellent Dixieland jazz bands, and the mayor finally gets to shaking his booty! Director Richard Lester assures that the movie is visually inventive, although producer Milton Subotsky's "script" doesn't amount to much. Lester later directed two films starring the Beatles as well as Superman III. From Amicus studios. 

Verdict: Musically interesting, but not much of a movie. **. 

THE YOUNG SWINGERS

Molly Bee and Rod Lauren

THE YOUNG SWINGERS (1963). Director: Maury Dexter.

Mel Hudson (Rod Lauren) manages a Hootenanny club called the Vanguard. The owner of the building, a witch named Roberta Crawford (Jo Helton), wants the club out of there and employs dirty tricks to get them gone, using her lawyer Bruce Webster (Justin Smith) to do most of the work for her. Her granddaughter, Vicki (Molly Bee), takes over while Roberta is out of town, and strikes up an acquaintanceship -- and more -- with Mel. Can they get her aunt to change her mind? Meanwhile everyone, including Mel, Vicki, Fred (Gene McDaniels), Pete (Larrs Jackson, who also does impressions), and the Sherwood Singers perform some perfectly pleasant numbers. 

Gene McDaniels

The Young Swingers is not a good movie, but at least everyone in it has a more than decent voice, and most sound much better than the pop singers of today, most of whom sound alike (and are auto-tuned on top of it). Rod Lauren sings better than he acts in this -- he seems tranquilized most of the time -- but he was to become more expressive in such films as Black Zoo (in which he played a mute character). Years later he was accused of hiring someone to murder his Filipino wife. Molly Bee first came to fame at 13 warbling "I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus" and had a respectable vocal career with only a few film credits. Larrs Jackson (aka Jack Larson), who does a lousy impression of Groucho but isn't bad at Ed Sullivan and Walter Brennan, had quite a number of credits after this. Of all the singers in this perhaps the most impressive is Gene McDaniels, who sings two snappy numbers and sings them really well. He should have become as famous as Johnny Mathis and others. 

Verdict: Good songs, good singing, but no real story. **1/4.