Year:  1966
Rating: 3.0

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Ferry Cross the Mersey put me in the mood to watch another one of those 1960's rock movies - but this was sadly dreadful - like coming across a dead dog on the sidewalk. What were the writers and producers thinking. Make a quick buck I guess. The pull here is the Spencer-Davis Group - quite popular at the time. Somehow I missed this group when I was growing up but years later when I discovered that Steve Winwood had been in it, I went back to listen to their music and was amazed at how good it was. They formed in 1963 when Spencer Davis heard Windood and his brother playing in a bar and asked them to join him. Winwood was 14 years old. A musical prodigy. By the time of this film they had hits with Keep on Running, Somebody Help Me, Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm a Man - but for me they are an album group melding rock and blues together with Winwood's unique voice floating above it all and an organ pounding below.


Winwood later said making this film was a dreadful mistake and in fact he looks embarrassed the entire time and though he sings a few songs, he doesn't utter a word of dialogue. I have no idea if this was the reason he left the following year to form Traffic but if so I can understand. This is just so lame - full of non-funny comedy and unending silliness. Again, what were they thinking. You have this great group and put them in such rubbish. Oh well, I have been wanting to see this for years and now I have. I can go burn it now.


The Spencer-Davis Group plays The Spencer-Davis Group and they get invited by their manager to his parents ancient manor full of suits of armor - and one ghost. His parents are in typical English fashion - dotty and eccentric as hell. There is a young blonde maid played by Sheila White who gets to sing two songs. Why? No idea. She is ok but there is a reason you have never heard of her as a singer though she had an acting career for years - she was of all things the tramp sister of Caligula, Messalina, in I, Claudius. Basically nothing happens for 40 minutes except hijinks for 10 year old's - and then the filmmakers simply give up as if they knew they had a turd on their hands and had no idea how to flush it down the toilet. So literally for the final 30 minutes plus we get one song after another. From Spencer-Davis? Of course not but from groups like these legends - The Lorne Gibson Trio, the female group The Three Bells, St. Louis Union and a few other groups who I can't find a credit for. They probably paid them off not to include it. They can't all be classics.