The first feature pairing singer/actor Johnny Desmond with starlet Merry Anders before the crime thriller ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN was CALYPSO HEAT WAVE, more befitting Desmond's lifestyle being about the music business, and with Desmond a singer albeit calypso instead of standard popular ballads...
And recently, anyone who saw veteran icon Alan Arkin serenade his Pandemic fans might not know, he's wasn't merely an actor who could sing but a bonafide former musician/singer that, a decade after playing with his band The Tarriers during the11th hour gig that everything leads to, had an extremely soulful voice...
Yet the most important character is the villain: like deadly convict Richard Devon not only stole but completely controlled ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN, it's Italian mobster-looking character-actor Michael Granger, playing the crooked (albeit in a goofy over-the-top fashion) owner of a monopolizing jukebox company that will only back (or play) certain artists and, basically, without him no one has a chance... especially Desmond's Johnny Conroy, whose career might vanish before it begins...
Meanwhile, Merry Anders plays the perfect-woman record company assistant, and sometimes seems she could be the perfect girlfriend for singer Desmond, only she's dating the friendly yet beguiled owner of a more honest record company compared to the bad guy...
And had jukebox-selling villain Granger's Barney Peel been a gangster, and this film led to a criminal robbery or getaway instead of a concert, it'd be what it almost is anyhow: a lightweight yet often suspenseful calypso exploitation that also features the first live performance by Maya Angelou along with a young and energetic, extremely hard-working music company employee Joel Grey...
Who has a huge crush on the villain's floozy moll Meg Myles, whose would-be music career winds up meaning more than the surrounding legitimate acts... all being promoted by this low-budget Fred S. Sears programmer.
And recently, anyone who saw veteran icon Alan Arkin serenade his Pandemic fans might not know, he's wasn't merely an actor who could sing but a bonafide former musician/singer that, a decade after playing with his band The Tarriers during the11th hour gig that everything leads to, had an extremely soulful voice...
Yet the most important character is the villain: like deadly convict Richard Devon not only stole but completely controlled ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN, it's Italian mobster-looking character-actor Michael Granger, playing the crooked (albeit in a goofy over-the-top fashion) owner of a monopolizing jukebox company that will only back (or play) certain artists and, basically, without him no one has a chance... especially Desmond's Johnny Conroy, whose career might vanish before it begins...
Meanwhile, Merry Anders plays the perfect-woman record company assistant, and sometimes seems she could be the perfect girlfriend for singer Desmond, only she's dating the friendly yet beguiled owner of a more honest record company compared to the bad guy...
And had jukebox-selling villain Granger's Barney Peel been a gangster, and this film led to a criminal robbery or getaway instead of a concert, it'd be what it almost is anyhow: a lightweight yet often suspenseful calypso exploitation that also features the first live performance by Maya Angelou along with a young and energetic, extremely hard-working music company employee Joel Grey...
Who has a huge crush on the villain's floozy moll Meg Myles, whose would-be music career winds up meaning more than the surrounding legitimate acts... all being promoted by this low-budget Fred S. Sears programmer.