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DIRECTOR: Rock All Night: Roger Corman (Fall of the House of Usher) / Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Edward L. Cahn (Invisible Invaders, Drag Strip Girl)
STARS: Rock All Night: Dick Miller (Bucket of Blood), Russell Johnson (Gilligan’s Island), Abby Dalton (Carnival Rock), Jeanne Cooper (Kansas City Bomber), Mel Welles (She Beast), Jonathan Haze (Little Shop of Horrors), Bruno VeSota, The Platters, The Blockbusters / Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Mike Conners (Swamp Women), Lisa Gaye (Castle of Evil), Sterling Halloway, Tommy Charles, Margaret Dumont (Duck Soup), Percy Helton ,Fats Domino, Joe Turner, Choker Campbell, Tommy Charles, Annita Ray
SYNOPSIS: Two “Rock ‘N Roll” (1950’s style) features on one disc.
Rock All Night: Despite the nightclub / bar setting and numerous musical performances this is really more of a crime film. Sort of a low budget Desperate Hours. A large cast of characters are introduced including a cute singer, her beatnik manager (Mel Welles, very funny), a boxer who just lost a fight, a newspaper reporter, a mob figure, two desperate criminals (Johnson and Haze) and a brutally honest, angry at the world, ain’t-afraid-of-nobody fireplug (Dick Miller). After many musical numbers the players settle into the club and end up as hostages when the cops corner the two crooks. It’s great to see Dick Miller steal the show as the diminutive but tough “Shorty“. Everyone insults him about his height and at one point he’s called “Low Pockets”. But by the end he has more balls than all the other men. Three years later Corman would direct Haze, Welles and Miller in Little Shop of Horrors. Running time: 1hr 2mins
Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Mike “Touch” Conners hosts an “American Bandstand”-style TV show with teenagers dancing while he introduces the latest hit songs. His right hand man, and liaison to the kids, is Sterling Halloway who only speaks in beatnik slang. A group of seniors (led by none other than Groucho’s old nemesis Margaret Dumont!) have formed an activist group to fight the evils of Rock and Roll. They protest and petition to put an end to the fun. The kids just want to fix up an old building and turn it into a permanent clubhouse to play music and dance. It all ends in a televised court scene as Conners and the kids plead their case against the oldster do-gooders. Lots of musical performances are shown with Fats Domino and Joe Turner getting the most musical screen time. Like a lot of these types of films it’s an excuse to show a bunch of musical performances before there were music videos, MTV, or the internet. Running time: 1hr 15mins
Fullscreen / Black & White (Both films)
DIRECTOR: Rock All Night: Roger Corman (Fall of the House of Usher) / Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Edward L. Cahn (Invisible Invaders, Drag Strip Girl)
STARS: Rock All Night: Dick Miller (Bucket of Blood), Russell Johnson (Gilligan’s Island), Abby Dalton (Carnival Rock), Jeanne Cooper (Kansas City Bomber), Mel Welles (She Beast), Jonathan Haze (Little Shop of Horrors), Bruno VeSota, The Platters, The Blockbusters / Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Mike Conners (Swamp Women), Lisa Gaye (Castle of Evil), Sterling Halloway, Tommy Charles, Margaret Dumont (Duck Soup), Percy Helton ,Fats Domino, Joe Turner, Choker Campbell, Tommy Charles, Annita Ray
SYNOPSIS: Two “Rock ‘N Roll” (1950’s style) features on one disc.
Rock All Night: Despite the nightclub / bar setting and numerous musical performances this is really more of a crime film. Sort of a low budget Desperate Hours. A large cast of characters are introduced including a cute singer, her beatnik manager (Mel Welles, very funny), a boxer who just lost a fight, a newspaper reporter, a mob figure, two desperate criminals (Johnson and Haze) and a brutally honest, angry at the world, ain’t-afraid-of-nobody fireplug (Dick Miller). After many musical numbers the players settle into the club and end up as hostages when the cops corner the two crooks. It’s great to see Dick Miller steal the show as the diminutive but tough “Shorty“. Everyone insults him about his height and at one point he’s called “Low Pockets”. But by the end he has more balls than all the other men. Three years later Corman would direct Haze, Welles and Miller in Little Shop of Horrors. Running time: 1hr 2mins
Shake, Rattle and Rock!: Mike “Touch” Conners hosts an “American Bandstand”-style TV show with teenagers dancing while he introduces the latest hit songs. His right hand man, and liaison to the kids, is Sterling Halloway who only speaks in beatnik slang. A group of seniors (led by none other than Groucho’s old nemesis Margaret Dumont!) have formed an activist group to fight the evils of Rock and Roll. They protest and petition to put an end to the fun. The kids just want to fix up an old building and turn it into a permanent clubhouse to play music and dance. It all ends in a televised court scene as Conners and the kids plead their case against the oldster do-gooders. Lots of musical performances are shown with Fats Domino and Joe Turner getting the most musical screen time. Like a lot of these types of films it’s an excuse to show a bunch of musical performances before there were music videos, MTV, or the internet. Running time: 1hr 15mins
Fullscreen / Black & White (Both films)
