Aka - Rock Around the World (USA release)
The first question that likely comes to most people's mind is who the hell
is Tommy Steele and why does he get a story. Good question. But Steele is
considered the first British teenage pop idol back in the 1950's. The amazing
thing though is that this film was made only a few months after his first
record release. Seems like jumping the gun a bit but the film did ok and
Steele was to be around as a musical personality in England for decades to
come (he is still alive). He was a rock and roller having given up Skiffle
when he heard Buddy Holly. It turned out to be a good decision as Skiffle
was on its way out. Recall that the Beatles originally were a Skiffle group.
This was the first British rock and roll film.
The film seems to fudge with the truth a bit. At least from what I know about
him. In the film he hurts his back practicing judo and has to spend a lengthy
period of time in the hospital. A nurse brings him a guitar to learn how
to play. And that is how his career begins. He gets a job on a ship and keeps
playing the guitar. He gets fired and keeps playing the guitar. He ends up
performing in a small coffee shop and an agent discovers him and in no time
he is a star. In real life I have seen nothing about the hospital or the
coffee shop but still he did go from nobody to somebody very quickly. The
film has a song from him about every five minutes which is good because there
isn't much drama here or comedy or much of anything - but it is all pleasantly
done.
Tommy Steele plays Tommy Steele and he seems like a nice fellow - he looks
to be 14 years old - they initially wanted to turn him into a British Elvis
but he has no snarl in him. He is the sort of fellow who would have tea with
your grandmother and be unfailingly polite. But nice works in England. When
the British Invasion came in 1963 his music became a bit passé but
he continued releasing music through the 1960's. His songs are very poppy
and driven by his guitar. But he moved into theater and film and is still
performing today. When I watched this I didn't know if he was still with
us. It was nice to see he is.
