Teenage Millionaire

I liked this film for a number of reasons.The big budget,cgi films of today cost mega bucks yet are tiresome,with no story,and so music video fast-paced that you can't see anything worth seeing.The old black & white low budget films are campy fun.You get to see famous people in early roles or maybe at the end of their careers.The clothes,cars and music take some of us back to times that were the happiest for us and our country.I hadn't seen this film before yesterday when I saw it on cable and it is a hoot.One minute your listening to corny dialog then a musical performance pops in.Jackie Wilson(a favorite of mine )does a great Elvis impersonation singing a song with the same moves and all or was Elvis imitating Jackie? Loved the song too.As some one else commented it was am early version of a music video.Now for a correction The Jack Larson in this film is not the same guy that played Jimmy Olsen on the Superman TV series.I made the same mistake with a TV show. This Jack played a horrible nightclub performer whose uncle hires Rob,Sally and Buddy to write his act in an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" I noted on a website for "Superman" that this Jack had changed so much it was hard to believe it was the same guy yet he had mentioned the part in his autobiography.Well someone noted they are are in fact two different men hence the reason they look nothing alike! Just 2 guys with the same name.As for Jimmy Clanton he looks like a young Donald O'Connor to me.He should have made more films no worse than any other teen singing sensation turned actor.A great find for anyone loving 60's B films.

This was like watching the proverbial car wreck...truly horrible, but you can't turn your head away.

The editing was the worst I have ever seen in a movie. (They cut to a musical number for no reason whatsoever, and sometimes they would lose a word or two of dialog - no great loss as the scriptwriters obviously failed grade school English class.) The film was in B&W, but they "jazzed it up" by having cheesy sepia color hues in the background...orange-ish, lime green-ish.

The only way to see this film would be with a six pack and a group of friends to laugh at how bad it is. The clothes, hairstyles, stupid plot and bad acting were a hoot.

I always remembered this movie because it was so vacuous. Half the film was shot by a pool, with a minimal plot. There would be a little action, sometimes with Rocky Graziano as the boy's assistant doing his shtick about boxing, after which the the boy hero would ask him to put on a record. Then the audience saw the performer doing a number. Thus, only half the film deals with the storyline. It wouldn't surprise me if the segments with the performances were shot separately for promotional purposes and then included in the film. I believe some of the performances were later cut from that film and occasionally turn up on television today. This and films like it are a major source of performances from early rockers.

I really enjoyed the movie because I love oldies. There's even a couples singers that never made it big that had some great songs. The movie itself is just average - kinda harmless amusing story. But I really enjoyed hearing all those old songs. Who knew Jimmy Olsen of Superman fame (Jack Larsen) had such a great voice? There's a gal named Vickie Spencer who sings two songs beautifully, why was she never a star? Marv Johnson, co-creator of the Motown sound with Berry Gordy Jr., has a wonderful voice - makes you wonder why he didn't have more hits. You get to hear songs from Jackie Wilson, Dion and Chubby Checker that never made the charts but were really good songs anyway. And Checker does his famous Twist song. And you don't get to just hear these songs, you get to watch the singers perform them. It was great seeing the famous Zasu Pitts, I heard so much about her. It's too bad the movie wasn't made about a year later and Clanton's "Venus in Blue Jeans" could have been the featured song in the movie. One ironic thing, the featured song in the movie "Green Light" by Clanton isn't very good. But overall, if you love oldies music, you'll like this movie.

Entertaining little musical about a spoiled young teenager who comes into his parents millions after their death and find love and fame and a stint in the US Army all within the 84 minutes of the movie.

Bobby Chalmers, Jimmy Clanton, likes to play and write music and one afternoon at his old mans radio station he secretly cuts a record "Green Light" that becomes the biggest hit in town but there's only one hitch; nobody knows who made and sang the song.

Having a bodyguard at his side in what seems like around the clock Rocky, Rocky Graziano, Bobby is not as free as he wants to be. The tough but lovable Rocky also sees that the kid needs more to do with himself then just hang around at the mansion drinking tea and eating crumpets with his overprotected Aunt Theodora, Zasu Pitts, who keeps him from going out in the world and having a good time for fear he would hurt himself.

When Bobby finally got the go from Aunt Theodora to work at his dad old radio station he meets Bambi, Diane Jergens, who also works there. Later with Rocky Bobby secretly makes the record "Green Light" under the name of Bob Schultz and the rest is history.

It was good to see former middleweight champ Rocky Graziano in what is a leading role in the movie, instead of a cameo like he usually was seen in the movies, that he was in and Rocky really did a good job acting even though he was only being himself.There were a number of songs in "Teenage Millionaire" in a number of colored over haze or cast, in reds blues yellows and greens, that looked a lot like music videos some twenty years before they came on the scene in the 1980's.

I liked the song with Cuubby Checker doing his tune "The Jet" where he looked and acted like a duck being chased across the hills valleys and ponds by a fleet of hostile UFO's. There was also the song that I liked a lot by pretty Vicki Spencer who was singing to, and hugging, her Teddy Bear with the tune "Hello Mister Dream".

With Bobby's tune now the biggest hit on the air his parents radio station is bought out from under him and it looks like the whole show is about to be over but, surprise surprise,the person who bought out the station is none other then Bobby's girlfriend Bambi's dad Mr. Bennie Price, what a stroke of good luck that was.

Before Bobby can start his singing career he gets a letter from Uncle Sam asking him that he's needed to serve and protect his country, the good U S of A. Bobby is now as happy as a drunk locked up in a liquor store overnight with him, for once, being able to do something that he'll be proud of; weren't those early 1960's a great times to live in.