Jackie Wilson Movies

Schuyler (Kirk Douglas) is a hard-boiled detective who turns in his badge when he believes the criminals are being handled with kid gloves and too much respect. He is hired by prominent attorney Fredericks (Eli Wallach) as a bodyguard for his client Rena (Sylva Koscina), who is accused of murdering her husband. Her playboy boyfriend Fleming (Kenneth Haigh) is also under suspicion. Schuylur keeps one eye on his beautiful suspect while trying to uncover more information about the murder. Fredericks displays a disarming, folksy nature which belies his shrewdness. The detective soon comes to believe that Rena is being framed for the murder. Singer Jackie Wilson delivers the song "A Lovely Way To Die" during the opening credits of this murder mystery. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A few unusual performers and actors are among the cast in this otherwise routine teen musical with more rock 'n roll than story. The legendary Zazu Pitts plays the role of Aunt Theodora, the woman who tries to keep her nephew Bobby (Jimmy Clanton) from getting on with his singing career. Bobby's millionaire father owns radio stations, and one day the teen sneaks his song into a station to be played on the air. As in any kid's dream, the tune is an overnight success. The problem is that when Bobby meets the young woman of his dreams, he cannot bring himself to tell her who he really is. Meanwhile, Aunt Theodora has hired a bodyguard -- none other than Rocky Graziano the World Middleweight Boxing Champion, 1947-1948 -- to watch over Bobby. And among the many warblers in the film, two are destined for special fame: Chubby Checker and Dion, who had just left his group Dion and the Belmonts. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Go, Johnny, Go! was second and last of a proposed trio of jukebox movies built around and co-produced by DJ Alan Freed. He plays himself in this rags-to-riches tale, told in flashback, of a young rock & roll singer named Johnny Melody (Jimmy Clanton), whose rise from life in an orphanage where no one wanted him to his "discovery" by Freed through an unsolicited demo recording sent to the disc jockey's office is told in 75 minutes, in a dramatic time frame that's impossible to determine. Along the way, Johnny meets a girl (Sandy Stewart) with whom he falls in love, and nearly gets himself arrested when it looks as though everything has turned against him. The plot is a threadbare reprise of the kind of juvenile delinquency-with-music stories that Elvis Presley had been doing, but it offers glimpses of several very worthwhile (and a couple of legendary) music acts of the era who were otherwise undocumented on film: Jimmy Clanton himself, who was one of the best white singers to come out of that New Orleans R&B/rock & roll sound; Sandy Stewart, who was (and is still, 40-plus years later) a serious vocal talent; Chuck Berry, in a pair of performing clips that are brilliant; Ritchie Valens, in his only film appearance, doing a hot rocking number called "Oh, My Head"; Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows; the Cadillacs, in a pair of killer comic-relief numbers; Jo-Ann Campbell; and Jackie Wilson, showing how little Michael Jackson actually brought to performing that was new more than 20 years later. No, Go, Johnny, Go! isn't A Hard Day's Night, but it is a lot of fun to watch, and is easily the best of Freed's handful of feature films, before his downfall in the payola scandal. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

The music compilation release Soul Patrol: Soul's Greatest Hits assembles numerous vintage live performances by soul and r&b superstars. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi