Year:  1962
Rating: 4.0

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After the success of Twist Around the Clock, it was perhaps inevitable that a follow-up would come along. Someone must have complained about the lack of plots in most of these rock films because they throw in a plot here. Big mistake. At least through the eyes of today. Still there is plenty of music to be seen which falls a bit short from the previous film or maybe I was just getting tired of songs that had "twist" in the title. The film offers us plenty of Chubby Checker both on and off stage (and introduces another one of his dance moves that he created - the Mash Potato), Gene Chandler doing The Duke of Earl which was a huge hit in 1962, Linda Scott who I like a lot doing one song and a few more obscure artists like Vic Dana, The Dovels, The Carrol Brothers (doing Hey Bo Diddley of all things) and Dee Dee Sharp.


But I came away with the impression that popular music in 1962 was in a downward spiral. Kind of in a holding pattern between the 50's and the next big thing. For a film about popular music this comes across as square as a waffle. For example, Chubby is performing in a small club doing his thing and the camera pans the audience who all look to be of age to be collecting their Social Security checks moving to the twist. No wonder the song soon lost its teenage audience. But it is the plot that would upset the PC police if this came out today. This squareness in these rock films was unfortunately something that so many of these films suffer from. The producers just have no clue what would appeal to young audiences other than the music. Again - give credit to the Beatles for A Hard Day's Night that cut through all these dull plots like a knife and gave us pure joy.


Ted (Lang Jeffries) is a TV executive who has been told to put together a TV Spectacular revolving around the Twist because it is the hottest thing in the world. He also wants to marry his fashion designer girlfriend (Mari Blanchard - She Devil) who is totally focused on her career and not ready to settle down. This paints her as the villain in this film - how dare a woman choose career over a husband and children. So he turns his wandering eye to a young hot curvy innocent dancer that he spots through a window (dancing with her brother as was the case in the previous film - which just strikes me as strange that these well-filled out women are dancing with their brothers). The kind of girl that just wants a man to take care of her. Even for an old codger like me this kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. As did the fact that again - though these films include lots of black acts which for the time was probably considered progressive they don't have any black people in the audience or working somewhere. They are just here for our entertainment. It rankles.


Both this film and Twist Around the Clock were directed by Oscar Rudolph who people might know - though probably not- for directing many episodes of Batman, My Favorite Martian and The Brady Bunch. In truth, that was more in his line I expect.