kidboots Before Richard Lester became flavour of the month by directing the very innovative "A Hard Day's Night", he was experimenting with some innovative ideas on "It's Trad, Dad". It was a low key youth movie, designed to showcase up and coming talent and featured an invisible narrator who talked to the two teens who were busy organising a show. The plot had to do with a pair of teens who want to introduce some trad jazz into their town but have opposition from a bunch of "oldies". The featured star was Helen Shapiro who may not have cracked the big time in America but certainly did in Australia. "Walking Back to Happiness" was played so often on the radio I can still sing it now, 50 years later. She was a 14 year old discovery from Clapton whose distinctive low, throaty voice was her trademark.It's amazing, this movie bought the early 60s flooding back when trad jazz was really in vogue - Acker Bilk was number one (it seemed like forever) with "Stranger On the Shore", he was a highlight of this movie with a spirited rendition of "In a Persian Market". Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen often guested on TV shows at that time, "Sounds Incorporated" were a big band and had a huge hit in Australia with "William Tell Overture" and the hilarious Temperance 7, who specialised in 1920s jazz - remember them???A disgruntled Mayor wants to stamp out trad jazz so "the girl and the boy" (Helen Shapiro and Craig Douglas) decide to bring a jazz show to their town. Interspersed between the jazz acts are the rock and rollers - Gene Vincent ("Space Ship to Mars"), The Brook Brothers ("Double Trouble"), Del Shannon, Gene MacDaniells - what a fantastic voice he had and Chubby Checker who did the "Lose Your Inhibition" twist.The kids finally get their jazz show organised but the Mayor goes all out to sabotage it so while waiting for the acts to arrive the local talent get a chance to shine. Craig Douglas who had a hit in 1959 with "Only Sixteen" and of course Helen Shapiro who sings "Let's Talk", "Just Wondering" and "Ring a Ding Rhythmn".Unfortunately the movie flopped in America with the new title "Ring A Ding Rhythmn" - as if that made more sense than "It's Trad, Dad"!! Among the other cast members was Derek Nimmo as the comical waiter and Ronnie Stevens who actually hosted a variety show series in Australia. I just loved the end credits when it said Helen Shapiro's wardrobe was made with Butterick Patterns - you gotta love it!!!

mightymezzo I see I'm not the only one who watched this on Turner Classic Movies the other night.On the surface, it follows the same pattern as other cheapie rock-n-roll movies of the time: an assortment of pop performances tied together with a thin bit of plot. But "It's Trad, Dad" is much, much more watchable than your average rock-n-roll exploitation film,thanks to its impudent sense of humor (some of which anticipates Monty Python's Flying Circus). The stick-in-the-mud grown-ups are so perfectly over the top, the kids so sweet and earnest, and the narrator SO obliging-- even providing instant club clothes for the hero and heroine. I also enjoy the glimpse of pre-Beatles UK pop, and the look at the craze for old- fashioned Dixieland jazz is a real revelation. What could be so upsetting about "There's a Tavern in the Town" or "When the Saints Go Marching In"?

Charles Herold (cherold) I watched this because it's the first feature from director Richard Lester, and while often first films are forgettably generic, Lester's film is imaginative and funny. Unfortunately, most of the movie is given to endless musical rock and jazz performances, which range from pretty good to quite dull, with more of the latter. These numbers are imaginatively filmed, but by the halfway point I was fast forwarding through most of them.The acting is pretty awful; both leads are apparently pop stars of the time (Shapiro's voice, when she sings, is shockingly deep compared to her singing voice; she kind of sounds like a guy) and Lester hadn't yet learned how to pull good performances out of unskilled actors.For fans of Lester it's at least worth watching the intro. And if you like the music then this would be a swell film.Once read a comment from John Lennon that when he was starting out in music everything in England was jazz, now I see what he means. Jazz was apparently a big thing in the early sixties, and according to this movie put off the older generation just as much as rock & roll!

mpopham This was the first effort of British director Richard Lester (credited here as "Dick Lester") and it's an enjoyable-enough museum piece that tries to cash in on the fleeting popularity of Dixieland jazz among British teeners. To hedge his bets, Lester brought in a few American rock n' roll hold-overs -- Gary U.S. Bonds, Chubby Checker and Del Shannon. Their presence gives the movie a decidedly uneven feel, but there's a great deal of energy at work, and everybody seems to be having a good time.The movie is a bit like "A Hard Day's Night" in its unrelentingly goofy sense of humor, and in how a very skeletal plot is used to string together a series of unrelated musical numbers.By the following year, the Beatles had swept all these acts into the unemployment line, but this is a great example of the British rock n' roll movie of the antedeluvian era.