Bop Girl Goes Calypso

This is not a "lost movie" but was in fact shown on TCM in March, 2008. It could have stayed in the vaults. As is usual with this type of film, the primary value is in being able to see 1950's rock groups do their stuff. The rock groups are shuffled off, though, and replaced by, ready now, calypso acts, because rock and roll will soon be dead after 1957, to be replaced by the irresistible rhythms of the Caribbean. I wonder how that turned out? Otherwise the production values are pretty low, the plot (a term I use very loosely) is thin and any pleasure in watching this attempt at entertainment bottoms out pretty quickly. You do at least get to see Judy Tyler, the original Princess Summerfall Winterspring of Howdy Doody, who starred with Elvis in "Jailhouse Rock" and then tragically was lost in a car accident months later.

This is an easy film to mock. The leads can't act. (Nor can the supporting players.) The plot -- something about scientific proof that Calypso was about to replace Rock n' Roll as the reigning pop music --could have been conceived by Ed Wood. The fact that our hero was about to marry a Eugenics professor (yes, they did call it "Eugenics") who was enthusiastic about the genetic make up of their future child was unintentionally creepy. And, agonizingly, the titular Bop Girl cannot sing either Rock or Calypso. (She doesn't try to sing Bop -- for which the shade of Charlie Parker was likely grateful.) But these music movies of the 50s were not about the plot. Plot was an interlude for the kids to start smooching at the drive in. It was about the music. And SOME of that in this film was quite good.

For example, the first six or seven minutes are quite good. The credit sequence is Nino Tempo blowing a very hot r&b sax with a good stomping band. We move to another group (not sure who) singing pretty. Then, alas, we get some very, very, very bad music. Then some lame plot. Then, the highlight, a gentleman named Lord Flea, whose two features in the movie are exceptional. (Want to know where Bob Marley came from? Take a look. Then lobby EMI to get Flea's music re-released.) Generally, the better music is in the first half of the movie. Things start to get increasingly Ed Wooden after that, and the Bop Girl is allowed to sing far, far too often.

This story is a "B" picture, simply about a rock and roll singer who is told by a professor with a kind of applause meter at a night club tells her that rock and roll is fading out and calypso is the new hot genre of music to pursue. The title character is Jo Thomas, played by Judy Tyler, one of her few roles (she passed away young from a road accident). The film lets you listen to various groups at nightclubs, encompassing jazz, rock and roll, r & b and, of course, calypso. The story line is thin, but for someone who was born after the film was made and was raised on rock, the film is enjoyable due to the fairly solid performances of each act. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to find I've never heard of these acts, some were very good. Ms. Tyler is fairly engaging, and though the interaction between the main characters is fairly pedestrian, its still a fun film. It showed up on TCM, which is where I watched it. You can do much worse than this film, and all of us have. I kind of enjoyed it. Check it out.

Written by a Scandinavian with the peculiar notion that calypso was about to overtake rock 'n'roll, "Bop Girl Goes Calypso" tells the tale of young club-hopper Bob Hilton (Bobby Troupe), an academic trying to find the singer who will launch the next wave of mass hysteria -- which, according to his applause meter, will be calypso.

The film is laced with musical acts, all obscure, chief among them The Goofers, whose members like to take their solos on the trapeze, and the Lord Flea band, who provide the only genuine calypso in the movie. The subject of the film, Jo Thomas (Judy Tyler), is a laughable "bop" singer, whose attempts at calypso are even more ludicrous. Mix in cornball dialogue and quirky performances -- and lots of bad songs -- and you've got a great movie, albeit for all the wrong reasons. A stand-out song is "Rovin' Gal," sung by Tyler with inept dance moves that are wet-your-pants funny.

Besides the film's awful original calypso compositions, look for cool old Plymouths and sharp performances by George O'Hanlon (voice of George Jetson) as the club owner and veteran character actor Lucien Littlefield as Hilton's screwy professor. I have turned countless people on to this film, and all agree it's a wonder "Bop Girl" is not a cult classic. Often the funniest films are ones that weren't supposed to be, and by my lights "Bop Girl Goes Calypso" is chief among them.

Charlie Bonaire

I don't know how to score this movie. If you're like me, once you start watching it, you'll just sit back dumbfounded by the whole premise that Calypso music could have ever been a serious threat to rock and roll as a popular form of music. And how is this determined? Why, how else? A guy with a decibel meter goes to a club showing a rock and roll group, and another club with a calypso band, and he measures the volume of the applause! The applause registers higher at the calypso club so it's 'sorry, rock and roll, calypso's got you beaten'. Yeah, that's how I'd measure it.

Hmm. Does anyone remember any calypso bands? Any calypso hits? Ever been to a calypso concert? I can think of zero, zero, and zero respectively. (Well, actually, maybe that Harry Belafonte thing about 'daylight come and me wanna go home' would count....) However, if you give me a little time, I can probably jot down a couple hundred rock / rock & roll bands, just as many songs, and a couple dozen concerts that I attended. I have to say, I think that guy's decibel meter, scientific as it looked, was not a valid way to measure the popularity of a music form in a culture. Slightly wrong, it was.

Anyhow - this movie has a thin plot and plenty of excuses to make you listen to calypso bands to make sure you know how much you (are supposed to) like calypso music. Oh, yeah, mon! Not. I can almost feel myself blacking out, it's got to be like being violated in some way, letting this movie inflict this tropical racket on your ears! Ow, help.