This “jukebox musical” was the first movie produced by the team of Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg, the brains behind Amicus Films. It was also the film debut of Tuesday Weld, whose singing voice was provided by Connie Francis. It features a veritable cavalcade of rock n’ roll talent including Chuck Berry, The Flamingos, The Johnny Burnette Trio, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Alan Freed (a few years away from his infamous payola scandal) serves as the host of his own TV show and turns up later to emcee the prom at the end.
Weld wants to buy a dress so she can go to the prom. Her tightwad dad wants to teach her the importance of having a budget and refuses to give her money for the dress. (“Money doesn’t grow on fathers!”) To add to her woes, the new girl in school is making eyes at her boyfriend. How can she compete with that unless she has that strapless evening gown that’s all the rage with the kids nowadays? Why, think up a get-rich-quick scheme, that's how! In the meantime, she watches Alan Freed introduce The Flamingos singing “Would I Be Crying”, The Moonglows doing “I Knew from the Start”, and Jimmy Cavallo and the House Rockers belting out “Big Beat”.
The highlight though is Chuck Berry singing, “You Can’t Catch Me”. There’s no backing band. Just him on stage, tearing it up on the guitar. It’s simply awesome. He even does his patented duck walk too.
Oh, and… uh… Freed sings too (badly).
It should come as no surprise that the musical numbers are the main draw. Even the ones that aren’t so hot are preferable to the inane sub-sitcom subplot with Weld running a collections racket. Still, Weld is cute is a button, so it’s not totally without merit. I also liked the scene where the dad slowly begins to enjoy the acts on Freed’s show and winds up giving them a big round of applause by the end. Little moments like this help keep Rock Rock Rock! rocking, even when the bands aren’t front and center.
The future director of Space Mutiny, David Winters, also appears in a small role.
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