Jack Collins Movies
Rock, Rock, Rock stars 13-year-old Tuesday Weld, who looks 11 if she's a day. Even so, Weld's Dori is trying to get together enough money to buy a strapless gown (she's far more self-confident than she should be at this biological stage of the game). Daddy has cut off Dori's allowance, but gee, she's gotta go to the prom. Nevermind all that, you'll want to see Rock, Rock, Rock for its dynamite lineup of guest stars. In alphabetical order: LaVerne Baker, Chuck Berry, he Johnny Burnette Trio, Jimmy Cavallo House Rockers, Cirino and the Bowties, the Coney Island Kids, the Flamingos, Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, the Moonglows, and Teddy Randazzo. As a bonus, Connie Francis provides Tuesday Weld's singing voice. And say, kids, it's Alan Freed serving up platters 'n' chatters and stax o' wax on prom night. This marked Valerie Harper's film debut; she was in her teens at the time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tuesday Weld, Connie Francis, (more)
- 1956
Nanette Fabray and Joey Faye repeat their original Broadway roles in this live, 90-minute TV adaptation of the 1948 Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn musical comedy hit High Button Shoes. Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Stephen Longstreet, the story is set in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the year 1913. Returning to his home town after many years, glib con artist Harrison Floy (a part immortalized on stage by Phil Silvers, but played here by Hal March) hopes to find at least few people he hasn't already fleeced. Floy targets his former girlfriend Sara Longstreet (Fabray) and her husband Henry (Don Ameche), smooth-talking them into unwittingly participating in a land scam. As if that wasn't enough skullduggery, Harrison and his cohort Pontdue (Joey Faye) even try to fix the upcoming Princeton-Rutgers football game. The musical numbers include "I Still Get Jealous", "Papa Won't You Dance With Me?", "You're My Girl", "Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers" and "The Cops and Robbers Ballet" (originally titled "The Mack Sennett Ballet until former comedy-movie producer Sennett sued for unauthorized use of his name). An abridged version of High Button Shoes was later staged as a 1966 episode of The Garry Moore Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of several low-budget mellers directed by scriptwriter Maxwell Shane, Fear in the Night was based on the short story Nightmare by William Irish (pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich). In his first starring role, DeForest Kelley plays Vince Grayson, a young man who has a terrible nightmare wherein he sees himself killing someone. When he awakens, Vince finds a couple of pieces of evidence indicating that his dream was no dream. Detective Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly) doesn't believe that Vince has killed anyone, but agrees to investigate. While taking shelter from a storm in a remote mansion, the detective and the young man stumble upon a mirrored room -- just like the one in Vince's dream. The frenzied Vince is nearly driven to suicide, but Detective Herlihy deduces that his friend's nightmare was the handiwork of Lewis Belnap (Robert Emmett Keane), the mansion's owner, who is a dabbler in hypnosis. Fear in the Night was remade in 1956 as Nightmare, with Kevin McCarthy and Edward G. Robinson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, (more)
