sol ***SPOILERS*** Even though the film "Rock Around the Clock" is considered by many film as well as rock & roll historians as the movie that brought rock & roll music on the silver screen the film's theme song "Rock Around the Clock" was in fact introduced to the movie going public a year earlier in 1955 in the urban crime drama classic "The Balckboard jungle" with Glenn Ford Anne Francis and Sidney Poitier. In fact the song had far more playing time in "Blackboard Jungle" then it did in "Rock Around the Clock" never letting up as much as every 10 minutes in the films 101 minutes on screen.The plot has to do with music talent scout Steve Harris, Johnny Johnston, trying to get in on what's to be the new music rage of 1950's by discovering rock & roll while traveling cross country at this out of the way place call Strawberry Springs. It's there that Steve sees and hears this group called Bill Haley, played by Bill Haley himself, and the Comets and then as they say in show-biz the rest is history. Needing someone to promote Haley and his Comets to make the big time, New York City, Steve gets in touch with his former lover top talent and music promoter,the biggest on the East Coast, Connie Talbot, Alix Talton.Connie agrees to promote the group only if Steve comes back to her and picks up where the two let off: As boy and girlfriends.While this is all going on the 40 year old Steve falls in love with the barley out of her teens dancer and the person who introduced him to Bill Haley Lisa Jones, Lisa Gaye, that really complicates matters even more then they already were. So much more that Connie feeling spurned by Steve for a girl young enough to be his daughter starts a guerrilla war campaign against him, in order to put him Bill Haley and the Comets out of business, that as times goes by in the movie gets really ugly.Of course Steve knowing what to expect from the vindictive Connie is ready for her and in the end not only get her to promote his group,the Comets, but a number of other rock & roll groups like the Platters and Freddie & the Bellhops as well. Steve does that by him together with Lisa tricking Connie into thinking that he was still available, or single, to her when he fact he wasn't!Besides the silly May to December love story plot the movie does have a number of exciting rock & roll song numbers in it including it's title song "Rock Around the Clock" that with the exception of the opening credits seems to have trouble being sung straight through in it being interrupted, especially in the films final and stirring sequence, every time it's being played. In the end even Connie comes to see the light in what an effect rock & roll music is having not only in the USA but overseas at well with even Queen Elizabeth II, this in fact really happened, wanting to have a private screening of the film at Buckingham Palace. Knowing that she's been beaten at her own game, in trying to destroy Steve and rock & roll music, Connie then joins the party as the movie ends with everyone rocking and rolling around the clock all night till, like the song says, broad daylight and beyond!P.S There for some reason in the movie the non rock & roll song "From Here to Eternity" pops up a number of times mostly when Steve & Lisa were smooching by the lake which despite all the great rock & roll songs in it was the, it it's soft sweet and soothing sounds, very likely the best song in the movie!

preppy-3 Promoter Steve Hollis (Johnny Johnston) is looking for a new act for teenage audiences. He comes upon Bill Haley and the Comets playing in a small town. They drive the teenagers wild and feature a brother/sister team (Earl Barton/Lisa Gaye) who do some incredible dancing to the music. He signs them up and immediately falls in love with Gaye (and vice versa). However the evil Miss Talbot (Alix Talton) loves Hollis herself. He spurns her so she sets out to to make sure that Haley, the Comets, Gaye and Barton can't get a job.Really silly stuff with lousy dialogue chockful of 50s slang that just sounds ridiculous now. Everybody is so polite and nice to each other--even the "evil" schemes of Talbot are pretty mild. Also Johnston and Gaye fall in love in seconds! It's pretty creepy though--Johnston is easily old enough to be her father! None of this matters though. This shows Bill Hlaey and the Comets and the Platters performing and that alone makes this a valuable time capsule of the 1950s when rock and roll was starting to get popular. The groups ARE lip syncing to their songs (and pretty badly in the case of The Platters) but still... When the Platters sang "Only You" and "The Great pretender" this movie is just magic. The acting is pretty terrible (Bill Haley especially) but the songs are good, the movie is short and the dance routines between Barton and Gaye are really pretty impressive. Hard to believe that this was banned in some cities in the US when it first came out. In other cases some theatre owners told the projectionist to cut the sound when the music numbers came on! Check out the ending which says "The Living End"! Harmless and kind of fun. I give it a 6.

ken-lynne Although obviously not Academy Award material, this movie definitely reflects the beginnings of Rock and Roll in the mid 50's. I was in high school when this movie was first released and, naturally, as a teen, I thought it was totally "Cool". I never thought Alan Freed had much talent, on screen, and of course, he is remembered as having been a key figure in the "Payola" scandal of the late 50's. It was fun to see this movie again after so many years and it's a great addition to my collection. I was really enamored with Lisa Gaye, as a teenage boy and I had no idea she was the sister of Debra Paget until many years later but there is a definite resemblance. As for the dancing, it's fun and completely realistic of the time. My wife and I still jitterbug much the same way they did back then, even at our ages.

JoeKarlosi Though it wasn't the first film to mention "rock and roll," this is known as the "first real rock film" and it's a mixed bag. Basically it's a vehicle for rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley and his band, The Comets. In the very thin story, two square music managers realize that their old type of traditional dance music is dying out in favor of the latest "rock 'n' roll" fad. When they see Haley and the Comets perform their classic "See You Later Alligator" at a small town dance and witness all the kids dancing up a storm, they decide to try and get this group to play full-time and make it big. The film's not very interesting when it veers away from the music, but along the way we get several more Bill Haley songs (the famous title hit itself, plus "Razzle Dazzle," "Rock Rock Rock" and others), and we're also treated to The Bellboys. But the main attraction is easily The Platters, who expertly perform two of their big hits - "Only You" and "The Great Pretender". The latter is so fabulous it sends chills up the spine. **1/2 out of ****