A minor movie specisalial interest of mine are British pop films of the early 60s. Few are any good but for very different reason I really love "Summer Holiday" with Cliff Richard and "Hard Days Night" with the Beatles. To set this Frank Ifield vehicle in its historic context in the 1960 - 1966 era every British act of any merit got a film, a good example is "Ferry Across The Mersey" featuring Gerry and the Pacemakers and Cilla Black. In these the plot never really mattered just a fun 90 minutes in the company of popular pop stars. Elvis Presley made loads of them which I soppose was the gold standard of the day. This outing starring Aussie singing senation Frank Ifield. Who had 12 top 40 hits 1062 to 1965 that included four cosecutive number one's samdwiched betweeh a number four during 1962 into 1963. Clearly with the clean cut handsome Frank Ifield the films producers were aiming to repricate the huge success of the Cliff Richard films but the film sufferes from very poor writing and plot developement. The result is far from iconic but has historic interest shot in central london in lucious colour my DVD from Network video has a terrific transfer which helps show off a London and Britain just a memory nowadays. Frank Ifield comes over as a palatable singing star and the musical numbers are generaly well presented and more than mearly enjoyable but the movie I must admit is a real dogs dinner of adhock sketches and mild romantic froth none of which ever makes much sense. None the less this is my teenage era and I remember how popular Frank Ifield was just before the Beatles hit. I discovered that this movie was released just in time for Christmas 1965 so would of gone on general release in early 1966. Unfortunatly for all concerned musical and pop tastes had changed very considerably by 1966 and Frank and his pop movie would of been somewhat old fashioned. And I hardly remember the movie coming out even though I was a regular movie goer by this time. None the less I found much to enjoy in "Up Jumped The Swagman" and the fact it is badly dated and more silly than funny I rather enjoyed the show and especialy the Ifield song book.
Review of Up Jumped a Swagman
