Rock 'n' Roll

Relatively harmless Universal-International JD flick. Mancini supervised the music, which is mostly NOT rock and roll, as much as Saxon, Mineo, their girlfriends, and eventually hip parents shout that it is!

The quality of the photography is much higher than that of the film in general, reflecting U-I's overabundance of talent relative to its lowered late 50s production standards. This results in transforming the conceivably banal -- a beachside conversation with light "necking" -- into a fabulous play of light and shadows in the old Germanic tradition. Or, in other words, something truly lovely emerging from a pic that was meant to last a week.

Anyway, the film itself is pretty engaging, but much too long. Not enough thrills or "crazy" speeches to satisfy those strictly into JD "kicks", and not enough rock to really roll.