Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

dbdumonteil Sir Cliff Richard was then England 's biggest star ,and the thing George Martin had in mind was to surpass his success,which meant a lot! It's 1961 ,still in the pre- Beatles days ,but girls (see the scene in the theater) already scream when the "mystery " singer appears on stage.Nicky is a millionaire's son but he does not want to let the cat out of the bag ,for fear he may lose all his good pals (only his girlfriend knows);and,you would never believe it, daddy wants to destroy the youth club to build big buildings;and he is so wealthy he can buy everything ,"lock,stock and barrel " to be precise .Blackman Sr is played by highly talented Robert Morley,who makes his character nicer than ,say ,Uncle Scroodge ( both Dicken's and Barks/Disney's)Richard ,21,is good-looking ,and there's a good chemistry with Morley (who could easily have stolen most of the scenes he is in);his ballads are tuneful and pleasant ,particularly the title track;he is less at ease with pure rock and roll :Elvis Presley,he is definitely not.The talented Shadows have an instrumental and ,with hindsight,can be considered influential in the future of rock,which is not really the case with their singer.Too bad the movie tries so hard to emulate the American musicals in an interminable sequence ;the best scenes ,from that point of view,are to be found in the youth club :the scene in which a deadpan Sir Cliff dances with the "star" is worth the price of admission;the illegal TV advertisement is also a good moment.This is delightfully old -fashioned stuff,which retains a certain pristine charm.

beresfordjd When I was a teenager in the early sixties I thought this film was one of the best I had ever seen. I made a point of seeing it whenever it came to the local cinema - I think I even bought the LP of the soundtrack. Fast forward to today and I am watching it now - terribly dated and cheesy in the extreme. Whoever thought of putting a pop singer who is possibly the worst mover with no real sense of rhythm in a dance movie needs their bumps reading. Mind you the movie was a huge success in the UK - don't know what the USA audience made of it. Cliff Richards' supporting cast are about as good as the can be , making Cliff look a lot better than he is/was. "Why don't we do the show right here" ("in this barn"was not needed here) is the tested and tried macguffin here and it works pretty well. At least it did when I was 13/14 and knew no better

ianlouisiana "The Young Ones"seem to have been 30 years old at birth.Led by "The Mild One " himself - Mr C.Richard - they are clean,polite,and,apart from a token cockney or two,remarkably well - spoken.They all overact like mad and none of them can dance for toffee.Not surprisingly then,the movie is very bad.The dance numbers are a straight rip - off from "West Side Story"so blatant I swear I could see one or two of them blushing.The musical arrangements should have sent Mr L.Bernstein reaching for the phone to his lawyer,but somehow I doubt if he ever got around to watching this one. There is note a single note of rock 'n' roll to be heard in its whole length despite it often being described as a "Rock 'n' Roll Musical. The estimable Mr Stanley Black was the MD.Here was a man with the mindset - not surprisingly - of a Dance Band Leader.His orchestrations, no doubt played by moonlighting British jazzers,could have come from a Glenn Miller musical.Was this really the music young people danced to in 1961?No.They liked Trad Jazz,Acker Bilk,Chris Barber,or proper rock 'n' roll like Gene Vincent,Jerry Lee and Elvis.Cliff and the Shads were all right for smooching to but that was about it. I hesitate to mention Miss Cordeau whose main assetts were clearly displayed,but they didn't include acting or singing. Mr Melvyn Hayes with his Italian suit and one of those handkerchiefs that consisted of a small piece of linen sewed onto a card to be inserted in one's top pocket,looks fairly daring with his dyed hair and slightly camp persona,but,rather boringly turns out to be one of the boys after all. Mr Robert Morley gives full rein to his customary over - acting,treating each line like a polished gem from the pen of Oscar Wilde and generally behaving like a spoiled ageing fat baby wailing for its rusks. The movie is essentially a Mickey Rooney musical revamped.However,the downside that clearly never occurred to its producers ,was that Mr Rooney could sing and dance brilliantly,had energy and talent to spare and,if necessary,could carry a movie single - handedly. Unfortunately none of these attributes applied to Mr Richard who possessed a small,plaintive voice,a sweet innocent face and two left feet.Er,that's about it really. Unlike many films from my youth,"The young ones" has not got better with age.It really is that bad.

MartynGryphon Years before Sidney J. Furie went on to direct bone fide screen epics such as the fantastic Ipcress File or the not so epic Iron Eagle movies, He directed Cliff Richard in a couple of his manufactured movie musicals simply designed to cash in on both Cliff's youthful good looks and his raw Rock n' Roll talent.Back in 1961 Cliff's clout with the record buying public was at it's peak. The Beatles were still a year or so away, and Cliff was our home grown British Rocker. (despite being born in Lucknow, India).Like Elvis, The movies saw potential in Cliff's box office appeal and immediately put him in the movies. The films didn't really have to be good or entertaining even, the fact that it starred Cliff Richard was enough to but the bums on the seats.His first two movies (Serious Charge and Expresso Bongo Both 1959), had done well, but neither really gave Cliff the starring vehicle his Godlike status with the teenagers required. However, all this was to change with The Young Ones. For the first time movie audiences were able to see him in both Technicolor and Cinemascope.Cliff plays Nicky Black a member of a local London youth club under threat of closure from a ruthless property developer, Hamilton Black (Robert Morley). Nicky and his friends become determined to stop this closure by any means necessary. This task is not made easy for Nicky as the aforementioned property developer is actually his own father.In order to raise £1500, (a HUGE amount of money then), to buy an extension of the lease to keep their club open, Nicky & Co decide to take a leaf out of Mickey Rooney's book, and PUT ON A SHOW. However, Hamilton Black is just as determined, and manages to scupper their plans as soon as they make them.The youth club gang then decide that they will use pirate radio broadcasts, in order to let their audience know when and where their show will take place so Hamilton Black cannot put yet another fly in yet another tub of ointment.The Shadows, appear here too, and over the previous two years, they had already emerged from being simply Cliff's backing band and become (and remain to this day), Britian's most successful instrumental band. Because of this, It's a shame that none of the Shadows actually get a speaking part in this movie, but are always on hand whenever a song needs to be performed. They do get their own shining hour though, when they perform their hit "The Savage".Carole Gray woodenly plays Cliff's love interest, yet her singing voice was dubbed by the ultra-talented Grazina Frame. Why did the producers go to all that trouble? Why did they not just cast Grazina straight from day one? In fact, when you compare Carole Gray and Grazina Frame, Grazina was not only the better singer but their better looking of the two.Robert Morley is quite amusing in his role, as are Melvyn Hayes, Richard O'Sullivan and Teddy Green in theirs, but it's Cliff & The Shadows that actually make this movie even remotely watchable.The reason being, is that the film, when viewed as a complete film, is pretty crap, but that is a failing of ALL British musicals dating back to Jessie Matthews time. With each generation since the 1930's, we Brits have tried to make a decent movie musical and have fallen flat on our faces every single time. (Did you ever see Spiceworld?). Our inability to make a decent musical might have something to do with those awful big 'Production Numbers' like the ones displayed in this movie.The Young Ones is a harmless way of spending a couple of hours, as there is nothing hear to shock or offend anyone, after all this is Cliff Richard we're talking about.Enjoy.