Don't Knock the Rock / Rock Around the Clock
by Fred F. Sears
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alan Dale, Alan Freed, Fay Baker, Jana Lund, Patricia HardyDirector: Fred F. Sears
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Benjamin H. Kline
Editor: Edwin H. Bryant
Editor: Jack Ogilvie
Editor: Paul Borofsky
Producer: Sam Katzman
Writer: James B. Gordon
Writer: Robert E. Kent
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 162 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Don't Knock the Rock / Rock Around the Clock
Movie Review: Don't Knock the Rock/RockAround the Clock
Summary: 5 Stars
The story line in both films is puerile rubbish but the nostalgic and historic value is priceless. The visual quality of the reproductions is excellent. Were they lovingly restored or merely almost perfect master copies? I had a copy of Rock Around the Clock videotaped from TV back in the 1970s and have been searching for a commercial copy ever since. I am amazed it took until 2007 for Sony/Columbia to release these icons of their era but the wait has been rewarded in full. Rock is by far the better movie and an absolute must for BillHaley, The Platters and Freddy Bell devotees. Rock on! These movies really are "The Living End".
Summary of Don't Knock the Rock / Rock Around the Clock
Don't Knock The Rock spotlights rock music in its infancy and features some of the genre's true originals. DJ Freed is credited with inventing the term, "rock n' roll," and Haley was a durable star for over a decade, selling 22 million copies of his hit, "Rock Around the Clock," and helping to establish rock music once and for all. Little Richard had his first bonafide hit, "Tutti Frutti," while making this film, and the film shows this self proclaimed architect of rock and roll at the beginning of his storied career. Rock Around The Clock, is a title based on Bill Haley & His Comets' enormous hit from 1954. In this film, also produced by Sam Katzman and directed by Fred Sears, Haley and friends get to demo their singing chops, singing a string of hits, including the title song.Rock 'n roll movies have rarely been more true to the spirit of the music than these two from the mid-'50s. That's not to say that Don't Knock the Rock and Rock Around the Clock, both of which were directed (in black & white) by Fred Sears and released in 1956, are anyone's idea of classic cinema. On the contrary, this is assembly-line stuff: the stories are flimsy and predictable; the dialogue is often risible, and much of the acting is on a high school drama club level. But these movies are all about the music (featuring multiple performances by Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, the Treniers, the Platters, and others), with a lesser but still heavy emphasis on dancing, and on those levels they are an unexpected but unqualified delight. In Rock Around the Clock, agent Steve Hollis (Johnny Johnston) and his bass playing pal Corny (Henry Slate) quit their big band gigs and hit the road, where they happen upon Haley and his band in a Podunk farming town. Although they don't quite know what to make of the Comets' music ("It isn't boogie, it isn't jive, it isn't swing. it's kinda all of 'em!"), they know a hot prospect when they find one and promise to secure them a legitimate shot at the big time (with the help of Alan Freed, the pioneering Ohio disc jockey, who plays himself, albeit in a different capacity). Complications ensue, including romantic ones, but, well, who really cares? Haley and his band are on fire; they're lip-syncing, but the recordings of "See You Later Alligator," the title tune (which had made its debut a year earlier in Blackboard Jungle), and others are filled with snap and crackle, the musicians are great (especially jazz-influenced guitarist Franny Beecher), the stage show is a riot, and the dancing siblings played by Lisa Gaye and Earl Barton are simply amazing.
It's more of the same in Don't Knock the Rock, in which reluctant star Arnie Haines (Alan Dale, a crooner who's not entirely convincing as a rocker), weary of life on the road, packs it in and heads home to sleepy Mellondale, wherever that is. The kids love him, but the adults, led by the odious old mayor, ban his "outrageous, depraved" music; Arnie then sets out to show them that "rock 'n' roll is a safe and sane dance for all young people." Once again, the plot is about as subtle as a Slayer concert, but Haley, Little Richard, and especially the hip and hilarious vocal trio the Treniers more than make up for that, as do several dynamic, beautifully choreographed dance numbers. The two-disc set includes no bonus features. --Sam Graham
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