Moviecut—Wonderful to Be Young!

source: Wonderful to Be Young!

The Young Ones

When I was a teenager in the early sixties I thought this film was one of the best I had ever seen. I made a point of seeing it whenever it came to the local cinema - I think I even bought the LP of the soundtrack. Fast forward to today and I am watching it now - terribly dated and cheesy in the extreme. Whoever thought of putting a pop singer who is possibly the worst mover with no real sense of rhythm in a dance movie needs their bumps reading. Mind you the movie was a huge success in the UK - don't know what the USA audience made of it. Cliff Richards' supporting cast are about as good as the can be , making Cliff look a lot better than he is/was. "Why don't we do the show right here" ("in this barn"was not needed here) is the tested and tried macguffin here and it works pretty well. At least it did when I was 13/14 and knew no better

Seen in retrospect this is a hybrid, a link between the REAL musicals of the forties/early fifties, and the post 60s rubbish that's still around. For one thing everyone, boys and girls alike, are so clean cut; suits, ties, short hair, skirts, blouses, dresses, no one the slightest bit sexy despite being late teenagers at arguably their sexual peak. Tuneful, melodic songs with literate lyrics, no trace of BEAT substituting for melody and men's room gr and yet it's happening in 1961 when the rot had well and truly set in. Ronald Cass and Peter Myers who provided both the book and the lion's share of the songs were, of course, weaned in post-war Revue and were probably ill at ease with Rock and Roll. What we are left with is a hoary plot, a clutch of third-rate forties-type songs and a rock and roll idol who appealed to mums.

It's the same old faces: Melvin Hayes, Richard O' Sullivan et al, playing the same old parts they play in other films and onstage. It also displays why these types of shows were nosed out of sight by the all-swallowing rock and roll. The plot is hardly deserving of the word plot. Gutbucket Robert Morley beats up some thugs with a few judo moves and puffs his way through a simple dance routine. As in Cliff Richard's earlier film,Expresso Bongo, The Shadows sidestep off with all the honours. At the time this film was made, the Shadows, led by their charismatic blond bass player, and with Tony Meehan on drums, were at their peak. Their version of The Savage is the best thing about this film.

This movie was made when this was what people were watching. Full of fun young people doing fun things. I love looking at the fashion and t he dancing. Cliff Richard was so cute back in the early days. The ketches on the stage are cute and there is enough of a plot to make it more than just another movie to star a famous band. Yes the shadows are awesome but they only add to it not steal they show. As for predictable...so what! Most movies today are predicable in some way. So don't let anyone sway you from not experiencing this movie, make you own opinion. Enjoy the movie for what it is and don't over examine it. The Young Ones was one of my faves when I was a teenager and still is today.

This is the kind of movie to spend your fee on when you were a British teenager in the early sixties. But there is hardly a story, and what there is is very predictable. The movie has two strong moments however: the first 10 minutes are really an example of how a musical can start at full-speed, and the part where Cliff Richard sings the title song, strolling along "the serpentine" in Hyde Park, London, with the lovely Carole Gray aside him. A little bit of a cult movie, and a very weak brother of West side story. But it has its place in history and millions have enjoyed it. Cliff's fans probably still do.

... The Shadows come off best here with their few lines and great instrumentals undermining the potential datedness of pop stars' movie appearances. However Cliff really rocks and even if the cinematic techniques would be bettered in the follow-up Summer Holiday, the music is just superb. The basic plot of this is so similar to The Blues Brothers it's uncanny. I should be very surprised if John Landis and Dan Aykroyd hadn't seen The Young Ones. Forget about Grazina Frame's dubbed voice, forget about the square old pop played by Robert Morley, and remember the great songs and the unbelievably handsome Cliff!