Rock All Night

source: Rock All Night

source: Rock All Night

Rock All Night_720p(480P)

The best thing about this movie was hearing "The Platters" sing, as well as the performances by the other musicians. It was also nice to spot some familiar faces from popular TV shows. Any "Gilligan's Island" fans would recognize the face (though hardly the character) of the Professor. Those castaways would sure be shocked by his criminal past! Russell Johnson more often than not played an outlaw, or anyone on the shady side of the law and he was really good in those roles, equal to his talent in portraying a scientific genius. The same goes for Jeanne Cooper, who'll be recognized by fans of the soap opera "The Young and the Restless", where she played the iconic Kay Chancellor. Here, she was a party girl, dating an all brawn but no brains (and not much courage) truck driver. Quite a change from Genoa City opulence! Anyone who watched the nighttime soap "Falcon Crest" or "The "Joey Bishop Show" will recognize Abby Dalton, who played Julia and Ellie, respectively. She's a shy aspiring singer who needs a good dose of confidence and gets it during a hostage situation at a bar, where the story takes place. The story itself is rather weak, some of the characters (like an old goat who tries to act like a young cool cat) are over the top, and the script was pretty lousy, but in its own way, it's entertaining. At least, when there's nothing better to do.

If you are like me and are interesting in seeing musical acts you can not see anymore like The Platters or The Blockbusters then this movie may be for you. If it doesn't in any way interest you than you might want to steer clear of this one. For this Roger Corman 50s flick is padded with musical numbers. Just think the duration of the movie is 62 minutes and I believe there are 7 songs in it! But it works as it is entertaining to see the acts perform and the pretty thin story isn't bad. Dick Miller plays a cool cat they call Shorty. The film takes place in Cloud Nine which is a bar and is taken over by two punks (Russell Johnson and Jonathan Haze). Would have been interesting to extend the picture as in get more into the lives of the people in the bar and keep the hostage situation lasting much longer than it does. Seems like it only lasted 10 minutes and I knew the movie was ending soon. Sadly there wasn't much tension on the end. Good to see Miller in a starring role though and he is quite good in it. Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith, Story by Charles P. Harmon.

A brutally honest loudmouth with a bad case of little man syndrome happens into a troubled bar, run by a troubled bartender, & filled with a host of troubled customers from various walks of life & gives each of them a reality check. That Guy Dick Miller is brilliant as wisecracking Shorty, Abby Dalton was lovely as the shy songstress Julie, & the comic relief of Al the bartender was fantastic. The one weak point was the hipster band manager's ridiculous lingo ("If I ain't straight, it means I ain't with it; & tonight, baby, I'm with it.") But as usual, She called it as I saw it leaving me satisfied at the end. A funny, fun, & fascinating look at people's inner beings. Great film! Great rockabilly, funny dialogue.

Unless you like the Platters. The well meaning but totally outlandish story is about a smaller guy who gets to look like Superman and James Bond for a change only in the cheap setting of a 50s Bar/hangout. The unrealistic way the story unfolds doesn't give you anything to bother about. So if you enjoy the fantasy that every bad guy eventually get their just desserts via a smaller loudmouth righteous tough guy who bullies and dominates them for a change, not only gets away with winning every argument and fight he starts with those, but acts like a total superhuman in the process, then you might like it a bit. Due to the main character's absolute omnipotence against the other impotent characters, the appeal of a smaller guy as a saving the day and the helpless loses appeal. It's too convenient to the story to make the hero look too powerful and the villains look too meek. It's a cheap looking fifties movie shot around the music of the time. It wasn't meant to be more than light drive in background fare. Acting was adequate for the paper thin plot and it's corresponding characters. It could easily have been better if it had a bit more substance and dimension to the characters and story. But I guess that never is the intention at all in making such a movie.

Like Corman's "Teenage Doll," "Sorority Girl" and several others of his AIP era, this is basically a bleak little existential melodrama masquerading as a lurid exploitation movie, with talky, unpleasant human relationships in a couple cheap interior settings poorly disguising the lack of action and "fun." Only those other movies were often conceptually outlandish (and stylish) enough to be sorta fascinating in their perversity. "Rock All Night" front-loads a couple songs by The Platters, but otherwise it's just two long scenes of people arguing in bars--first comically (at a nightclub), then dramatically (at a dive). At around the two-thirds point all this yakking gets more heated as the story turns into "The Petrified Forest," with everybody being held hostage by a couple fugitive hoods (including, yes, The Professor from "Gilligan's Island"). Dick Miller gets to play his usual wiseguy, albeit a heroic one this time, and future game show regular Abby Dalton plays a bad amateur singer who inexplicably is given more airtime than any other act here. The combination of Corman, early rock and AIP should provide plenty of guilty pleasure, at the very least. But "Rock All Night" is really just pretty dull--and in a way that's primarily like a weak one-act off-Broadway play of the time, with lots of generic angst and generically lowlife characters yelling at each other. In other words, as the Mel Welles quasi-beatnik character might say, yawnsville.

Finally got to see this classic Roger Corman cheapie, and of course it's a total blast. The best part obviously is seeing Dick Miller in a rare starring role, and as a tough street kid no less, who takes no guff from anyone and is always making wisecracks. Miller plays "Shorty" who gets thrown out of one rock joint but ends up in another, where a pretty girl is auditioning and we get introduced to various assorted crazy characters. Eventually two crooks (led by "The Professor" from Gilligan's Island!) come and hold everyone hostage, and Shorty constantly insults the crooks, as well as the cowards in the place who refuse to take a stand. One of the funniest characters is a "hep cat" beatnik rock manager who comes out with great line after line. Others include a boxer, his sad girlfriend, a wanna-be tough guy, his drunk girl, a reporter, a shake-down artist and more. The musical numbers are good, and it all resolves in just over an hour. "Rock All Night" is definitely not disappointing if you expect exactly what it is, a fun hour of no-budget film making.

Roger Corman's films tend to be cheap and cheerful but this one's mostly just cheap. Mind you, the thin plot (baddies take a group of hostages) has been used for some $100,000,000 movies as well. Thirty minutes of talk, padded out with irrelevant songs. Mr Cameo himself, Dick Miller, turns up in a rare main role. (4/10)