User Reviews

With original songs written by Jack Elliott and Lou Quadling, this will never be a threat to "Hairspray" or "Bye Bye Birdie". In fact, I'd rather be forced to go to the umpteenth high School revival of "Birdie" then have to listen to any of the pedestrian songs in this college musical ever again. and how many colleges do you know that have proms? The title alone and the setting gives evidence to the fact that this is not going to be a memorable experience.

While the song music isn't so bad, the lyrics that are written to go with it are some of the most wretched I have ever heard. Is simply an excuse for college prom going planners to what time search for talent to appear which gives us Louis prima and Keely Smith and snippets of other novelty performers of the time. Jill Corey has a good singing voice and Paul Hampton is charming, and they are no way at fault for the insipidness of this film.

I can't imagine the young movie going crowd spreading good word of mouth for this after seeing it in its first week because the songs, not only badly written, but extremely dull for the time. This is the type of film that might have done well as a B musical 20 years before (and one that would definitely have been rejected for Judy and Mickey, at least with these songs), but with late 1950's young adult sensibilities, it certainly is not hep.

....with his amazing piano skills and he really wows the crowd at a concert with "El Cumbanchero"!! Top stuff. This movie reminded me more of the type of "youth musical" they were making in England at the time eg "Jazz Boat". Maybe this movie jinxed the careers of the two star singers, pretty Jill Corey who as the rich girl, Gay Sheridan, was given the romantic ballads (of which there were many) and the very talented Barbara Bostock as the wacky Flip who handled the upbeat novelty songs. Her songs were standouts - "Now is the Time" and "I Hear Music" which took place on a beach and where Flip and Dog kidded the love scene in "From Here to Eternity". I thought "whatever happened to Barbara Bostock?" but when I went researching, the answer was not much. Either way there was small pickings for Bostock and Corey after this film, an uneasy blend of teen movie and musical comedy which had the players bursting into unforgettable songs at the drop of a hat. I thought surely Bostock had a Broadway career because she didn't do many films or television work, but all I could find was "Silk Stockings" where she was buried as a dancer. Such a waste of her talents.

The film could have gone with a dramatic theme but that was passed over in favour of lightweight entertainment. Rich, beautiful Gay Sheridan loses her heart to humble singer, Tom Harper (Paul Hampton), part of a combo that is hired to perform during the intermission of a sorority party. Tom, an aspiring singer, who has already cut a forgotten (but not for long) single when he was struggling in New York, is at college on a scholarship and runs up against snooty rich kid Carter Breed Third ("you mean there are two others like him running around"!!) (Tom Laughlin, in a very intense performance). Carter has promised a stellar lineup of performers for the Senior Prom but finds he cannot deliver.

One of the problems is that the lead singer is just not that great and it is also pretty hard to believe that he bests husky Carter in a fight which finishes in the Sheridan pool. And Mrs. Sheridan (Frieda Inescourt) is not impressed - she had hopes that Gay and Carter would someday be married and Tom's poverty and lowly status do not find favour. I remember Frieda Inescourt from the golden age of Hollywood, usually playing shy, refined types (she was just terrific with Lucille Ball in "Beauty For the Asking") but in this she was so stilted - as if she'd rather be anywhere than on this particular set.

In fact it is Tom who comes through with the stars - Bob Crosby, sounding very much like Bing, Connee Boswell proving she could still belt out a song after 30 years in the business ("When the Saints Go Marching In") and the hit of the Prom, the irrepressible Louis Prima and Keely Smith make memorable "Old Black Magic".

An interesting experiment, the young talent were good but the songs weren't that memorable and there were too many. Also the big name guests (apart from Louis Prima) only sang portions of their songs, giving one the feeling that they were filmed separately and that they weren't at the Prom.

Still Recommended.