Viva o Rock n Roll

There are plenty of hokey things in this film, but Tim McIntire's performance is one of the best ever in a rock and roll film. I don't know if this is what Alan Freed was really like, but I would like to think so. So often actors can't manage to provide charisma in their portrayal of a well known figure -- this was no problem for McIntire, who's charisma practically burns through the film. Lots of fun.

I love this movie. I saw it again on television a couple of years ago and tried to get my kids to sit down and watch it. I thought that the movie would give them a better appreciation of the music they take for granted and enjoy today if they could see what some people went through and the risks they took so that rock and roll could survive.

While a lot of movies have tried to show what the early rock'n'roll era was like -- American Hot Wax is the only movie that showed us what it FELT like.

Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and groups put together for the movie -- The Chesterfields (as Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers), The Delights (as The Chantels), and Timmy and the Tulips (as The Fleetwoods) -- Man Oh Man -- Wowee! These last three groups were in some ways better then the originals -- if that's possible. Check out those "Dee-Lites!"

What music, what a house band! What a recreation of an early rock'n'roll show in a movie theater. Hot Wax is amazing!

The Freed character -- Somewhat sanitized, but dynomite! Jay Leno and Fran Dresher -- wonderful! Lorrane Newman was a knock out! Every character is perfect. Teenage Louise's parents -- real or what?

Look for period details like the manager's (of the Laverne Baker-like singer) shades. Like the lable on the Little Richard record in the film's opening scene.

In a recent TV movie about Alan Freed, the character played a Little Richard record on the radio. The camera focused on the turntable. There was a generic record playing. Phony baloney. I changed the channel.

In American Hot Wax, the record was spinning on a turntable in the foreground. It was a Little Richard record all right -- and it was on the Specialty lable!

We originally saw American Hot Wax at the drive-in back when it first came out. Somehow it seemed fitting. I now have the sound track and a video copy of the movie from an HBO showing. Someday, hopefully, this great film will be commercially available on video. You have got to see this movie!

There is a scene in the radio station where the Program Director asks Freed why he has to play his monitor speakers so loud. "Because they know when you are listening," answers Freed. How true. Crank it up Alan!

This movie is based very loosely on the career of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed and his contribution to the development of rock 'n' roll. I thought the acting was way over the top. I do appreciate Tim McIntire's portrayal of Freed. He put the point across that Freed lived and breathed rock 'n' roll and introduced a score of hit makers to the world. But remember he was also trying his best to better his own career.

My favorite part of the movie is the finale where wild man Jerry Lee Lewis stands singing on top of a piano in the middle of a riot. Chuck Berry helped make the move legit. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins brought the house down.

I hate to say that I thought the whole movie was pretty much self serving, but very fun to watch. If you were a teen or near teen as I was when the real thing was happening, you will certainly start having flashbacks.

Also in the cast are a very young Jay Leno and Fran Drescher. There is also Laraine Newman and Melanie Chartoff way before they made careers in comedy. You also might notice Hamilton Camp, Moosie Drier and Brenda Russell.

Watch this again and don't be afraid to let the good times roll.

The anachronisms fly in this Hollywood rendition of the beginnings of Rock and Roll (a genre best defined as the introduction of black Rhythym and Blues music "crossing over" to white teenage audiences in the early and mid-fifties).

The subsequent discovery of the economic power of these teenagers buying the records would change popular music forever.

The movie is redeemed by some energetic youthful performers and the exuberance that was such a feature of the time. But nowhere near enough credit,however,is paid to the original black harmony groups who were overwhelmingly responsible for this explosion of a new popular culture without precedent in US history. They are overshadowed by white single performers who Freed never played.

The movie stars Tim McIntyre, son of renowned character actor John McIntyre, delivering a sensitive portrayal of Freed. A pretty Fran Drescher is here before she assumed her affected froggy-voiced caricature so familiar today. Jay Leno is here also, sincere as always, and quite good as Freed's chauffeur.

Framed around the payola scandals, an ill-disguised attempt to destroy the music and its too-black associations, Freed was convicted of what was hardly a major offense (a common practice in the industry at the time), lost his job, and died a few years later. It's hard to convey today how virulent was the opposition to this music by the moral majority of that time.

One has only to listen to the Chesterfield's ersatz performances in the movie imitating Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, which are workmanlike, and then listen to the original. It is probably the best way to understand how this movie doesn't quite measure up to the reality it is trying to describe (what Hollywood movie ever does?). The real Frankie Lymon had a voice that was simply unbelievable, and a stage presence that awed Bing Crosby (!). Frank Sinatra, uncharacteristically, said he had never seen nor heard anything like him. (Crosby and Sinatra had been invited to the Apollo to see Lymon). Frankie Lymon died tragically about a decade later - long forgotten, and a microcosm, perhaps, of the black groups who started the whole thing.

Worth watching, but for a more truthful approach to the music itself, and much grittier, catch the earlier rock movies from 1956 with the real Alan Freed and the great original artists. Not much plot, but - oh! what performances!