Daddy-O (USA, 1958) 73 min B&W DIR: Lou Place. PROD: Elmer C. Rhoden Jr. SCR: David Moessinger. DOP: Perry Finnerman. MUSIC: John Williams. CAST: Dick Contino, Bruno VeSota, Sandra Giles, Gloria Victor, Jack McClure, Ron McNeil, Sonia Torgeson, Robert Banas. (American International Pictures)
Phil Sandifer has it made. Truck driver by day, and crooner by night. Suddenly his world is turned upside down by a brassy blonde named Jana (Sandra Giles), who nearly runs his truck off the road with her little convertible. Then at night when he enters his favourite hangout, Rainbow Gardens, to sing a few numbers with the house rock band, who genially refer to him as “Daddy-O”, wouldn’t you know it, either because it’s a small town or small budget, she’s there as well, and continues to make fun of him. Still, Daddy-O is a man after all, so he makes another grasp at his unattainable machismo by having a drag race with this chick!
And here is where the plot thickens. His pal Sonny (Robert Banas) is in trouble (and you know that because Bruno VeSota makes evil eyes at him) and he never makes it to the drag race site because Bruno and his crony with the coke-bottle glasses have run him off the road! Daddy-O gets identified by the cops during the race, and briefly is mistakenly implicated in Sonny’s death. He is cleared of that charge, but loses his license (and his truck-driving job). So, he’s off to investigate the suspicious death of his nervous pal.
Daddy-O shows up at the gym that Sonny also belonged to, and when Daddy-O shows up to clean out the locker of his dead friend (he was given the key shortly before Sonny’s fateful demise), the bespectacled goon, Bruce Green (Jack McClure), tells him he can’t do it (“Gym policy; I’ll do it later”). Suspicious, Daddy-O snoops around later and thanks to a carelessly tossed cigar holder, he learns the identity of the brains behind the operation, Sidney Chillas (you guessed it- Bruno VeSota). Daddy-O gets a job working at Chillas’ nightclub and with his gracious boss’ ease at getting a fake license, he begins running dope for him; it turns out Sonny held the previous job and was holding out on his boss. With the help of his new crime-solving partner (guess who?) our crooning hero toils to bring the bad guys to justice.
It isn’t every day that an AIP drive-in picture inspires a short story by crime author supremo James Ellroy (“Dick Contino’s Blues”), but hey, Plan 9 from Outer Space inspired a musical! This offering is an irresistible, laugh-a-minute caper. This is one of those pictures where a big curtain covers one half of a tavern setting, where the same reaction shots are used in two different locations, and where the hero stops getting roughed up by the bad guys thanks to the silliest twist ever. But despite the technical crudities and continuity flubs that accompany a tight-buck picture, this is actually an inventive little movie.
For what is seemingly a JD picture turned crime caper, there are interesting undertones at work here. First of all, in a decade where women were “bad girls” if they weren’t always subservient to the man, it is rare to see such a husky, macho doofus constantly being upstaged by a woman! What more of an insult can it be to a hotrod king that not only is his beloved phallus-mobile beaten by a woman driver, but he is further emasculated as to be driven around by this same female! Also, Jana gets a job at Chillas’ nightclub to help sniff out the criminals. This infuriates Daddy-O, because she gets a job as a cigarette girl! (Couldn’t you just picture some naive kid in 1958 thinking, “Gee, he doesn’t want her anymore because she sells cigarettes?”) His “maleness” is constantly foiled by the fairer sex. His attempts to retaliate by singing a really frank song “Wait Til I Get You Home” while staring daggers at Chillas’ employee is merely a high school-age “making the other jealous” routine. Additionally, there is a frank bit of homosexuality in the scene where Daddy-O first appears at Chillas’ place. Watch the slow zoom to slobbering doofus Green when Chillas gives Daddy-O all the accolades.
Even the bit players have their quirks. Barney, the owner-bartender of Rainbow Gardens, is the crassest entrepreneur ever… “Coach”, he isn’t. And having henchman Bruce Green as such a blind fool (hmmm… a metaphor maybe?) with thick glasses (the schmuck even has to drive at night!) is also a nice touch. He is so psychotically devoted to his job at the gym, that he even tells his boss that smoking isn’t allowed in the locker room! What is more, Sandra Giles gets to do the “Mamie Van Doren biting the apple routine” from High School Confidential!, and would damn near equal it were it not for the careless framing. But Bruno VeSota positively steals the film.
His character is filled with so many quirks (he always holds a cigar… even during a massage), and the actor sends his dialogue over the top. The only other comparable screen character that comes to mind is Rod Steiger’s producer in The Big Knife; both operate on another plane, possibly another planet, from everybody else. If the rest of the cast is playing Raymond Chandler, VeSota does Aldous Huxley. And in one of his few acting roles as Daddy-O, well, you’ll see why Dick Contino was far more successful as a singer-accordionist.
Daddy-O is more than your average programmer. It has tons of laughs (intentional or otherwise) and excitement (like the chase that follows when one of Daddy-O’s “drops” is a police ambush). Watch it twice! Although this was featured as part of the MST3K sweepstakes, my viewing is from a very nice transfer on the old Columbia VHS release. As of this writing it can be viewed on Tubi for free. Like I said, watch it twice!
Updated from a review originally published in ESR #6, Summer 2002.