Rock, Rock, Rock! (USA, 1956) 85 min B&W DIR: Will Price. SCR: Phyllis Coe, Milton Subotsky. PROD: Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky. MUSIC: Milton Subotsky, Frank Virtue, Ray Ellis. DOP: Morris Hartzband. CAST: Tuesday Weld, Chuck Berry, Alan Freed, Teddy Randazzo, Fran Manfred, Jacqueline Kerr, Ivy Schulman, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, Jimmy Cavallo and His House Rockers, The Johnny Burnette Trio, La Vern Baker, Cirino and the Bowties, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. (Vanguard Productions)
Rock, Rock, Rock! offers us the charmingly simple dilemma of young Dory (Tuesday Weld in her film debut) trying to scrape up 30 dollars to buy a dress for the prom. Her crush Tommy (singer Teddy Randazzo) is a new singing sensation on Alan Freed’s TV show, and her rival Gloria is also in the running to be asked by this dreamboat (hot with his talent contest crooner “Things You’re Heart Needs”) to be his date for the prom. Ah, if only all of life’s problems were like this.
Occasionally, Dory breaks out into song to communicate her feelings, and sounds remarkably like Connie Francis (who dubbed Tuesday’s voice). At the end of “That’s Never Happened To Me” (one of those numbers where a full orchestra is heard but not seen whenever a number is sang in an everyday location), Dory shrugs to her friend in the archetypal malt shop, “Well, that’s how I feel.” The acting is on the level of a Coronet educational film, from the hopelessly naïve “Gee Willikers” demeanour of the young, to the rigid squareness of the old.
But even so, people paid money to see the movie (and why we look at the Alan Freed films today) for these valuable rock and roll performances. More than once, this plot thankfully disappears so that Freed can introduce acts on his TV show (Dory’s dad catches himself bopping along to it), or even at the prom. Wow! This senior prom features Alan Freed, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, and The Moonglows (a Platters-ish vocal group that Freed had produced). Sure beats the hell out of that lame cover band at mine!
Even though Freed does promote Tommy as a new singing sensation, his role in this film is basically relegated to being the emcee of these acts. And for your money you get Chuck Berry (doing “You Can’t Catch Me” on a stage without any accompaniment), The Moonglows (“I Knew From the Start”), The Flamingos (“Would I Be Crying”), and of course Frankie Lymon, who had talent to burn (“Baby Baby”, “I’m Not a Juvenile Delinquent”). But wait, the story! In fact, you easily forget this trifling teenage pillow talk after a long procession of musical talent. Will true love prevail? Will our competitive teenagers learn the value of money? Yeah sure… put Frankie back on.
This is third of Freed’s rock and roll pictures, followed by Mister Rock and Roll(1957), and Go, Johnny, Go! in 1959.