An interesting side note to The Buddy Holly Story is Gary Busey had previously been involved in a failed attempt at making a movie about the life of Buddy Holly, Three-Sided Coin, in which Busey was going to play the part of The Crickets drummer Jerry Allison. Three-Sided Coin was scrapped due to some legal wranglings over the rights to Holly's life story. That failed movie, in which Busey was working with the original Crickets drummer, gave Busey inside information about Buddy Holly. This must have really helped Busey in his portrayal of Buddy Holly, since this is one of the finest performances of an actor portraying a rock and roll star you are likely to see. Charles Martin Smith and Don Stoud also help in adding to the realism of the film's musical performances, by doing their own live singing and playing during the filming of the movie.
The Buddy Holly Story follows Holly from his teen years in Lubbock, Texas, to his eventual stardom and, of course, to the final tragic plane crash which took the life of not only Holly, but also Richie Valens and The Big Bopper. Besides Richie Valens (Gilbert Melgar) and The Big Bopper (Gailard Sartain), the film also features Eddie Cochran (Jerry Zaremba), King Curtis (Craig White) and in a surprise, at least to me, comedian Paul Mooney is terrific portraying Sam Cooke.
I first watched The Buddy Holly Story years ago and was amazed at the time by Busey's portrayal of Holly. When re-watching the film recently, Busey is still great, but the film itself isn't a good as I remembered it. Even though Holly died at the age of 23 and the movie doesn't have a long life to portray, it still had to condense a lot into the 114 minute running time. As with any biopic, events and people have been changed and some of the scenes just don't ring true. If you haven't seen The Buddy Holly Story I still highly recommend the film. Busey has allowed himself to become a punchline for jokes these days, but watching this movie should make you marvel at what he is or at least was capable of.
In La Bamba, I didn't see the complete immersion of the actor, Lou Diamond Phillips, with his character, Ritchie Valens, as I did with Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter. Regardless of my above statement, and the fact Lou Diamond Phillips only bears a passing resemblance to Valens, his acting ability was strong enough to make me so involved with his character that I was wishing there could be a different ending to the movie other than the one I knew was inevitable. A special note should be added that even though Phillips' performances were dubbed, his handling of the guitar playing in La Bamba added another level of authenticity to the film.
La Bamba begins during the period of Valens' life when his brother Bob had been released from jail and had made enough money to have the family move from the migrant fields back to a more stable home-life. A lot of La Bamba revolves around Ritchie and his relationship with his brother Bob. While Bob supported Ritchie, he was also envious of the success of his brother. Since Bob also had a problem with alcohol he made some bad decisions, some of which were detrimental to Ritchie. Not only Bob, but in a refreshing twist of the way a lot of early Rock and Roller's were looked at, Ritchie's whole family was supportive of him. The only thing I found hard to believe in La Bamba was Ritchie Valens carrying his guitar EVERYWHEREhe went. While I have read reports that Valens carried his guitar to school to entertain his classmates, the constant presence of the guitar seemed far fetched --- but what do I know --- maybe it was true.
In La Bamba, Valens crosses paths with a few other musicians: Los Lobos, who appear as a Mexican Bar Band; Howard Huntsberrry does a great turn as Jackie Wilson; Brian Setzer rocks out as Eddie Cochran; and Marshall Crenshaw makes a very credible Buddy Holly [Besides being a musician, Crenshaw also wrote the great reference book Hollywood Rock - A Guide To Rock n Roll In The Movies]
This movie is like many that came before it and many that would come after it: existing primarily to showcase a group of rock and roll performances, that are surrounded by a plot to hold things together. The best part of Go, Johnny, Go! is that Chuck Berry not only gets to perform but also gets to act. The film never makes it clear, but as far as we can tell, he is either Alan Freed's best friend or partner, since they are always hanging out together. Another plus is the lead actor, Jimmy Clanton, who can actually sing (not always the case in these movies); however his acting ability and character's attitude is on par with Elvis' in "Wild In The Country". Jimmy was from Louisiana and you can hear the influence of his home state in a couple of his songs in the movie, while his other songs in the movie are done in a typical teen ballad style.
The opening credits roll as Chuck Berry plays "Johnny B. Goode" in the background. Go, Johnny, Go! opens with Alan Freed having a stage show going on and we see The Flamingos singing a scorching version of "Jump Children". Johnny (Jimmy Clanton) is hanging out backstage with Alan Freed and Chuck Berry and when Johnny goes on stage to sing "Angel Face", Chuck gets Freed to tell him the story of how Johnny almost landed in jail instead of becoming a big star.
Go, Johnny, Go! then flashes back to when Johnny had got out of the orphanage to perform in a gospel group (did Clyde Edgerton watch this movie and get an idea for Killer Diller?). When the choir director leaves the room, Johnny sings "Ship On A Stormy Sea" and you can hear some of his swamp pop roots even in this song. The choir director returns and says he'll have to send Johnny back to the orphanage (Man! they don't cut you any slack at this church). Johnny instead sets out on his own and gets a job as an usher.
We see Johnny doing some ushering, but mostly rocking along to the acts on stage and this winds up getting him fired from his job. They do let Johnny stay on and see the rest of the show and even give him his own seat. During this segment of the movie we have performances by Harvey (Fuqua of The Moonglows) doing "Don't Be Afraid To Love Me", Jo-Ann Campbell singing "Momma Can I Go Out" and Eddie Cochran doing "Teenage Heaven". Freed tells the crowd he's looking for a new star who he will name Johnny Melody. Johnny, thinking this will be his big break, waits for Freed out back of the theater where he meets Julie (Sandy Stewart) who was in the same orphanage as him. He brushes her off telling her he has just enough money for a demo and no time for dating. When Freed finally comes out, Johnny gets the brush off as Freed tells him that the whole thing is just a publicity stunt.
The movie switches to Julie, who is also an aspiring singer, and she's in the recording studio singing "Playmates". Johnny arrives at the same studio and barely has enough to pay for studio time and desperately needs a backup female singer which, of course, Julie agrees to be. Johnny/Jimmy Clanton then sings " My Love Is Strong" (this song would fit great on any Swamp Pop collection). Johnny gets his song to Freed's office, but the only information he includes with his recording is that he is the future Johnny Melody. Chuck pushes for Freed to find out who Johnny really is but Freed is tired of fooling with the whole thing and goes off with Chuck to watch him perform on a TV show and we get to see Chuck doing "Memphis, Tennessee".
Johnny is hanging out with Julie at her adopted parents house watching Chuck on TV. Julie is trying to assure Johnny that he has plenty of time to make it by pointing out that Chuck probably didn't make it until he was 27 or 28 and Johnny delivers one of my favorite lines in the movie "Who wants to wait until they're middle-aged". Johnny explains to Julie that he's barely been making a living by playing his trumpet and this leads to Johnny playing his horn while Julie plays the piano. Her adoptive parents come home and we find out they're "hip" squares as the foursome take off for the "The Krazy Koffee Kup" to catch some late night tunes.
Alan and Chuck are already at the club and we get to see The Cadillacs do two staged performances "Jay Walker" and "Please Mr. Johnson" and Jackie Wilson do "You Better Know It". Chuck is still pushing for Freed to find Johnny and as luck (or a convenient plot twist) would have it, when Julie finally convinces Johnny to go talk to Freed, he has just left.
Freed goes back to the radio station and plays Johnny's song every 15 minutes waiting for him to call in and identify himself. Unfortunately, Johnny is so mad at Freed that he refuses to listen to Freed's show and doesn't hear the announcement. Johnny wants to know what Julie wants for Christmas and she tells him that she wants him to have a hit record, but he pushes for a real present and she tells him about a pin she saw at a jewelry store. Johnny tries to pawn his horn but has no luck and decides to smash in the jewelry store window and steal the pin (conveniently there are a pile of bricks nearby).
Julie, alone in her room, is thinking about Johnny and sings "Heavenly Father", after which she turns on the radio and hears Johnny's song and that Freed is looking for him. She rushes to the studio, but Freed has left and gone to an "after hours" jam session at Henry's Hideaway. Here we get to see Freed on drums backing up Chuck singing "Little Queenie". After Freed gets off stage, Ritchie Valens (in his only film appearance) sings "Ooh My Head". Julie finds Freed and tells him about Johnny and they both go on a search for him. Freed convinces the police that he is drunk and is the one who broke the window. Instead of going to jail, Johnny goes on to become a big star and the movie returns us to the present where we also find that Johnny will be marrying Julie in the near future.
After watching several movies built around rock/country music with the plot secondary to the music, it was refreshing to see this light romantic comedy where the musical performances are integrated into the plot. Unlike some of the similar movies from this time period, The Girl Can't Help It (GCHI) could easily exist without the music acts and still be entertaining.
A gangster (Edmund O'Brien) wants to reclaim the limelight from his golden years of fame. His plan is to make his girlfriend (Jayne Mansfield) into a famous pop singer, then he'll marry her and as the husband of someone famous he'll have his name back in the newspapers. Of course, in today's world O'Brien would be counting on getting his own reality show. O'Brien hooks a washed up press agent (Tom Ewell) into his plan and everything is set to go. Only a couple of problems: Jayne can't sing, she'd rather be a housewife, and as if we didn't know this was going to happen - Jayne and Tom fall in Love.
Using the construct of the music business enables GCHI to include musical acts as part of the story. The very first music act we see in the movie is Nino Tempo (No April!) performing in a nightclub where Tom is sitting alone drinking. As the movie rolls along we get perfomances from Little Richard, Eddie Fontaine, Johnny Olenn, The Chuckles, Abbey Lincoln, Julie London, Gene Vincent And His Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran, The Treniers, Fats Domino, The Platters, and Ray Anthony
Tom gets a phone call at the nightclub to come talk about a job. Since Tom recognizes the address to be in a ritzy part of town, he agrees and that's when he first meets up with O'Brien and gets drawn into the plan; but more importantly, this sequence also includes the first appearance of Jayne Mansfield. She throws open some connecting doors and the director frames her in the doorway. With her perfect hourglass figure, I can only imagine the audience "gasping" when they first saw her on the big screen. Frank Tashlin, the director, who previously directed cartoons, has been quoted as saying "big breasts were some of the funniest things going". GCHI has a lot of of cartoon elements, including a great sight gag sequence as Jayne makes the Iceman's ice melt, the Milkman's milk explode and another man's glasses crack. The below photo from the movie seems to combine Tashlin's thinking about big breasts and a sight gag into one shot.
As with any movie with so many great music acts, everyone will have their favorite(s). I especially liked Little Richard and Fats Domino, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that they are both already two of my favorite performers and I'm thrilled anytime I get to see them. There really wasn't a bad or boring musical performance with any of the acts, which isn't always the case when so many performers are included in one movie. Julie London appears in a sultry dream sequence singing "Cry Me A River" that is still embedded in my brain.
GCHI is available in a DVD box set that includes "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?' OR You can rent it through Netflix OR catch it on The Fox Movie Channel, since it seems they show it at least once a month (sometimes more than once a month!)
