THE COOL ONES 1967lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-cool-ones-1967.html

My fondness for…no, make that absolute love for this Swinging Sixties pop musical is as close to boundless as it isbaseless. Baseless not in that I love it without reason (on the contrary, the list of things I love about The Cool Oneswould fill up this entire post), but baseless in that my affection for this unfailingly gladdening go-go groove-a-ramahas absolutely nothing to do with good filmmaking and 100% to do with the emotional, visceral, wholly subjectivedelight I derive from its cheery evocation of a particularly happy time in my youth.

Debbie Watson as Hallie Rogers

Gil Peterson as Cliff Donner

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Roddy McDowall as Tony Krum

Phil Harris as McElwaine

Nita Talbot as Dee Dee Howitzer

George Furth as Howie

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Mrs. Miller as Mrs. Miller

In the mid-Sixties I was just a kid (ten years-old in '67) but I had a teenage sister who subsisted on a steady diet ofthe latest 45s (7-inch, 45rpm records) and every dance TV show she could cram in between doing her homeworkand talking on the phone. After school she would rush home to watch Where The Action Is , Shindig, Hullabaloo,Hollywood a Go Go, or The Lloyd Thaxton Show, teaching me all the latest dance steps (which often consisted oflittle more than planting your feet in one spot and shaking like you're trying to dislodge a spider that's landed on yourclothes) and the words to the Top 40 record hits of the day. My sister's need of a practice dance partner (I was theonly boy among four girls) granted me premature entrance into the world of teenagers, and I don't think I ever gotover it. The colorful mod clothes; the crazy, code-like slang; the infectiously happy-sounding music; the dances socarefree and silly that you had no choice but to lose yourself in abandon...all pretty heady stuff for abookworm little kid like me. I was much too shy (then) to ever express myself so freely in the outside world, but inour living room, with the furniture pushed to the sides to create a dance floor, I felt like I was a part of the very"happening" world of the '60s. For some reason, The Cool Ones brings back those days to me better than any of thesimilar films of the era, and thus I find it a physical impossibility not to smile and surrender myself to nostalgia whilewatching it.

The Whizbam DancersTeri Garr (left) was a staple dancer in a great many of these '60s musicals

The Cool Ones is a breezy, above average Beach Party movie cloaked in a somewhat toothless satire of showbusiness—specifically the teen-centric West Coast music scene, circa 1966. Hallie Rogers (Watson), a professionalwiggler on Whizbam (a fictional teen rock & roll TV show patterned after its real-life counterparts, Shindig andHullabaloo) harbors a burning desire to hang up her go-go boots and pursue a career as a pop singer. Alas, at everyturn she finds her ambitions thwarted. Condescended to by well-meaning friends (“This is a boy’s world. Isn’t itenough to be with them all the time…and get paid for it?”) and rudely dismissed by Whizbam producer Mr.MacElwaine (Harris), frustrated Hallie throws an on-the-air fit that inadvertently sparks a new dance sensation: TheTantrum.

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Psycho-Chick: Hallie Makes a Bold Play for Stardom That's a young Glen Campbell back there being upstaged by desperate-for-

stardom go-go girl, Debbie Watson. Campbell, cast as Patrick of the fictionalgroup "Patrick and the East-Enders" would release two of his signature hits in

1967: Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix .

Of course she’s immediately sacked:“How dare you flip your wig on our time!” scolds McElwaine flunky GeorgeFurth–but lucky for Hallie her musical nervous breakdown has caught the attention of washed-up-at-24 former teenidol Cliff Donner (Peterson). With Cliff's help, plus the assist of eccentric pop music impresario Tony Krum(McDowall)— “Tony Krum? Like, he’s zero cool! Everything he touches gets well!” — Hallie at last lands theopportunity to realize her dream of pop singing stardom. But will true love, ethics, and a modicum of singing talentderail Hallie’s teen dreams before they even start? Well, you'll have to tune in, turn on, and stay cool to find out.

"She's young, ambitious, and therefore dangerous. It takes a few years on a girlto know how to mix a cocktail of ambition and desire"

As movies satirizing teen culture and the music business date as far back as Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It(1956), there’s really not much that’s particularly surprising or fresh in what The Cool Ones has to say about themercurial nature of show biz, fickle teenage fans, the randomness of fame, or the absurdity of pop trends. In fact,cartoon fans are sure to note the similarities between the plot of The Cool Ones and episodes of The Flintstoneswherein Fred alternately: 1) Becomes an overnight teen singing sensation named Hi-Fye (1960), 2) Stubs his bigtoe and inadvertently creates a national dance craze called "The Frantic" (1965). Now, how's that for depth?

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Have a TantrumDebbie Watson and Gil Peterson sing what seriously has to be one of the hippest,

grooviest songs ever written. Below, Olivia Newton-John resurrects Watson'sblack t-shirt and tiger-print mini-skirt for 1980s Xanadu.

What works best about The Cool Ones is its pacing (it was directed byformer movie hoofer and Tony Award nominee [for Follies] GeneNelson, and produced by William Conrad of Cannon fame), and itscandy-colored glamorization of the late '60s. It's a vision of sixteenteendom that probably never really existed, but I can't think of a singlefilm that does it better or has more fun while doing it.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM

Well I’d say it’s a neck and neck tie between the music and thedancing. Each of which is capable, at various points in the film, ofbeing both marvelous and ludicrous…frequently simultaneously.

With a soundtrack of some 20-odd songs (accent on the odd) The Cool Ones is virtually wall-to-wall music withpractically every member of the cast granted the opportunity to burst into tuneless song at one point or another. Thesongs are a delightfully mixed bag of groove-a-riffic pop ditties, duets, ballads, and plot-propelling book-typenumbers of the kind found in traditional movie musicals.

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Warner Bros. produced The Cool Ones and therefore saved a fortune in royaltyfees by peppering the film's soundtrack with songs from their vast music library.There's a great deal of amusement to be had in hearing go-go arrangements of

such standards as Secret Love, It's Magic, and Birth of the Blues

The Cool Ones is rumored to have initially been conceived as a project for Nancy Sinatra and her longtimesongwriting partner, Lee Hazelwood. (Debbie Watson does all of her own singing, but sharp ears might recognizeSinatra's trademark deadpan vocals on The Tantrum.) The late-great Lee Hazelwood (These Boots Are Made forWalkin', Sugar Town) contributes many fine and very danceable tunes to the film's score, along with composer BillyStrange and several others. Even at its most groan-inducing corniness, I am absolutely crazy about the music inThe Cool Ones and only wish there had been a soundtrack album.

Roddy McDowall acquits himself very nicely singing a number whose title mightwell have echoed the actor's own thoughts about his career at this stage: "Where

Did I Go Wrong?"

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The Cool Ones features guest appearances by several pop groups from the '60s whom you've likely never heardof. Top: The Bantams; Center: The Leaves; Bottom: my personal favorite, T.J. and the Fourmations, materializing infull performance out of an elevator.

PERFORMANCES

Acting of any kind usually gets in the way in movies like The Cool Ones, which run on charm, energy, andpersonality. Watson and Peterson make for a photogenic couple totally devoid of any real chemistry, but they havereal screen charisma and are certainly easy on the eyes.

That actually goes double for the molded-in-plastic good looks of Gil Peterson, the world's worst lip-syncer but bestwearer of tight pants I've ever seen. A male starlet of the first order, it matters not a whit that Peterson neverconvinces as a pop star and displays only a fleeting familiarity with rhythm. Not when the film can (and does)showcase his body at every opportunity.

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Dee Dee Goes for the Gusto Nita Talbot enacts the fantasy of every gay male in the audience

THE STUFF OF FANTASYIf the music in The Cool Ones sends me over the top (to use the vernacular, it's wiggy!), then the dancing is just outof this world. It's fun, energetic and just a blast to watch...I get all charged up seeing it. The unbilled choreographeris Toni Basil (of '80s "Mickey" fame) a Shindig! alumnus and student of David Winters, the great granddad of go-gochoreography. It's his distinctive style that's most apparent in the film's dance numbers. And while Winters neverwent on to have a career comparable to that of Hulabaloo dancer Michael Bennett (A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls) hiswork is TV at this time (Movin' With Nancy) is impressive and vast.

The Cool Ones dancers are recognizable from any number of '60s teen musicals.

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The Whizbam dancer with the incredible bare midriff is AnitaMann, pictured here with Davy Jones dancing in THIS VIDEO. Aterrific dancer, Mann went on to choreograph Solid Gold (and

even took a couple of dance classes from me back in the 80s!).

THE STUFF OF DREAMSHere I am at the end of my most image-filled post to dateand still I haven't even touched on a number of my favoritethings about The Cool Ones. I adore the mad, modfashions; the it's so-bad-it's-good dialog; the scenic PalmSprings and Los Angeles locations (much of it taking placejust a block away from an apartment I once had near theSunset Strip); and that odd running gag of a mystery mancoveting Cliff's vintage automobile. There's even the filmdebut /swansong of atonal '60s novelty act, Mrs. Miller (notto be confused with Merv Griffin professional audiencemember, Miss. Miller). Ah, well...as I alluded to at the start,a post about a movie that makes me so happy and bringsback so many memories could easily fill a post twice thislength.

Roddy McDowall pretty much coasts on the same performance he gave theprevious year in Lord Love a Duck (a superior satire, but not nearly as much fun)while effortless scene-stealer Nita Talbot and veteran actor Robert Coote provide

stronger support than the film sometimes deserves.

I have a hunch that had The Cool Ones been made just a few years earlier, it might likely have been a hit. Comingout at such a pivotal and changing moment in American pop culture (it was released just months before the hippy-dippy Summer of Love and the era of psychedelic rock), the world depicted in The Cool Ones had already began tolooked dated. As a 1967 movie it was terribly corny stuff, but it would have looked great and played much better in1965. For me, truly entertaining and fun movies are incredibly hard to come by, and on that score The CoolOnes rates top on my list. Although its many pleasures harken back to my distant youth, the enjoyment it gives meas an adult brands it forever a timeless favorite.

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And then of course, there are still some things that never go out of style.

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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