TxMike My public library added DVDs with select older movies, that is where I found this one from 1956. I was 10 when this movie came out, I was not yet a fan of the 1950s music but my three older sisters were. I watched this movie for Tuesday Weld, I fell in love with her as Thalia Menninger in the early 1960s on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" TV Series, but I wanted to see her in an early role. This is her first movie, filmed when she was just 12, just deciding if she wanted to be an actress. It is a very cheesy movie with high-schoolish acting, more reminiscent of three episodes of a 1950s TV series spliced together. It is of course B&W. The romantic story is of a high school boy and a high school girl liking each other, a rival girl trying to split them up, and a dress that will cost either $30 or $45 for the prom. Tuesday Weld is in the lead role as Dori. She has two singing numbers, both dubbed vocally by Connie Francis before she began acting in movie roles herself.The rest of the movie is a musical review hosted by Alan Freed, the man given credit for the term "rock and roll" to refer to the music. He would host televised music variety shows for teens and featuring the most popular bands of the time, just as Dick Clark did a bit later on his "American Bandstand." And one of the guests for the Freed show was Frankie Lymon, 13, with his backup singers the Teens. Lymon was a Michael Jackson style singer and every bit as good as Jackson with his high-pitched young boy voice. I had a big grin when he sang "I'm not a juvenile delinquent." Judged by current movie standards this is not a very good movie, but it is good to understand the musical tastes of the 1950s, and to see the very earliest Tuesday Weld.

rooster_davis This movie is a riot. It's got the typical 50's music with some excuse for a show put on by Alan Freed, of course. Tuesday Weld plays a real simpleton of a girl who stupidly gets herself in serious 'trouble' at the hands of another equally stupid teenage girl - she lends the other girl money to buy a dress, thinking 100% interest was a fair amount, but the other girl says that rate is so high it's illegal so she isn't going to pay back the money at all. OH MY GOSH! Now Tuesday won't be able to buy her OWN dress for the dance - and she has lost her boyfriend to the other girl, because he loves blue formal gowns like the other girl bought with Tuesday's money. Can you grasp the level of sophistication of this plot? Tuesday also gets her banking advice from the local bank president named - are you ready? - MR. BIMBLE! Is that a scream or what? Maybe the most agonizingly funny part of this flick is the singing by Tommy Rogers. His song "Thanks To You" is so insanely sour and off-key, if you are even the slightest bit 'impaired' you may rupture yourself laughing at it. Some movies are so bad they just stink, but this one is so bad it's entertainingly bad. Highly recommended, but it is NOT a serious look at the 50's. There are some good musical performances which of course were lip sync'd. "Tha-ANKS... to yooo-ooou...." Stop, you're killing me!

joe_lvn I like this movie more every time I see it. It may be a very low budget film, but it looks great taking that into account anyway. And even though it was basically a showcase for the musical acts of that time, the thin storyline was really pretty good. A thirteen year-old Tuesday Weld proved that she could act quite well, this being her first film. And getting back to the musical talent here, almost all of it was great. I only wish that Chuck Berry had done one or two more numbers. The Moonglows, The Flamingos, and especially Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were fantastic. Another minor musical criticism: I wish the great LaVern Baker had sung a better, more rocking r'n'b number. Jimmy Cavallo and his House Rockers were great too with the title tune (what ever became of him?). And of course, of great historical importance, this is the only film around of the legendary Johnny Burnette Trio performing (as far as I know).I'm pretty sure that this was filmed in the New York area, and if you look closely toward the end of the picture, you'll see a young Valerie Harper.This is one of the top rock'n'roll movies of the '50's, along with "Go,Johnny,Go" and "The Girl Can't Help It". It's a piece of musical history; a great time capsule.

futures-1 "Rock Rock Rock" (1956): Alan Freed was to Rock and Roll movies what Ed Wood was to sci fi: an idiot. But, I side with Wood - at least he did it for the "love". Freed was creating a market and nothing more. He was the P.T. Barnum of Pop music. Shoving known and unknown singers and other musicians in front of a camera – many for the very first time, expecting them to dub a tune – many for the first time, and expecting them to have any sort of stage presence, gave everyone the results they deserved. If these films weren't so painfully staged, they could hold up as Rock and Roll documents. As they are, they are laughable, pathetic, embarrassing collections of awkward, amateurish kids who are being scooped up, wagered upon, and thrown away by music industry investors. NONE THE LESS, if you're a fan of movies, this one is so transparent it's entertaining. Watch Alan Freed sell himself with his wide eyed, crap-eating grin as he pretends to be a band leader, or introduce the next act; watch the premier of Tuesday Weld – so young she's still a gawky teen - not the beauty of later years - as she dubs songs in the voice of Connie Francis (!); watch countless singers and groups who are getting their one shot – and were never heard from again; watch Frankie Lymon lead "his" Teenagers through a couple of their actual hits with slick professional behavior (corny as it was, the entire film is worth their performance of "I'm not a Juvenile Delinquent")… but keep in mind he was 13 years old, in 2 years would be a heroin addict, and 10 years later would be dead of an overdose; watch La Vern Baker do the dumbest song of all time ("Tra La La"); watch Chuck Berry stand on stage like a funky puppet performing "You Can't Catch Me"; watch many others make fools of themselves; and remember that only a year later, Freed would be busted for DJ payola, lose everything, and drink himself to death by the age of 32. There is some good décor detailing, incredibly lame dialog, numb-skulled plot devices, awful acting, and primitive editing… yet, I'm already in the mood to watch it again. I must have a mental problem... like those jerks who tie up traffic by slowing down and rubber-necking a car wreck