Note to theater-owners: If you ever need a Midnight Movie--other than RHPS, that is--please, consider this little gem. It is MST3K-style comedy GOLD, I tell you! It's has everything a cult movie should need to be popular: wooden acting, goofy dialogue, what-the-hell-is-THIS-doing-here musical numbers, racism, misogyny, and much, much, more. The girls are as cute as they are dumb, and the men are...well...let's just say they make Ryan Seacrest look ultra macho. The basic plot is that a young, vaguely Canadian hillbilly (Bobby "In-it-for-the-money" Vee) saves the, ahem, "girl" (Jackie "Just-payin'-the-mortgage" DeShannon) from a faded projection background...I mean, car accident. When they get to the University, it's revealed that (A) she's the dean's daughter, and (B) there's about to be a "Revoluton". (Excuse me while I try to overcome the Giggles.) Throughout this film Bobby and Jackie demonstrate two different schools of acting: She coming from the Marlo Thomas School; He, Pia Zadora. In short, you'll laugh (for all the wrong reasons), you'll cry (from chuckling so hard), you'll get constipated (from all of the cheese fed from this movie)!
9 Reviews
Not For Libnuts or Snowflakes
michigindie11 October 2017
This is a standard '60s teen musical, no worse or flakier than the stuff AIP was putting out between 1963-67. As with those AIP films, the plot is feather light, there are some songs, and the cast is giving it their best shot.
The film is designed as entertainment, an innocuous date film teens could see at the drive in and view intermittently while making out or noshing on concession stand goodies. And this is why the Millennials hate it.
21st century audiences have never seen a film which isn't a pasteboard for political correctness. If a movie doesn't portray white men as idiots, white women as militant warriors who are always right about everything, and blacks as the most noble and brilliant characters in history without whose contributions nothing would exist, then Millennials are against it.
Of course, Millennials are also the least educated generation in American history, and the most brainwashed by leftism. They are also the first generation in history who never knew a sober human being (their grandparents being hippies, their parents being '80s crackheads and themselves being reefer babies).
So perhaps one should consider the source when listening to their criticisms of any film made for less than 250 million dollars and bereft of subversive leftist ideology.
If, however, you remember drive-in culture and enjoy AIP's daft "beach" or "pajama" films from this period, this one will seem no worse.
The film is designed as entertainment, an innocuous date film teens could see at the drive in and view intermittently while making out or noshing on concession stand goodies. And this is why the Millennials hate it.
21st century audiences have never seen a film which isn't a pasteboard for political correctness. If a movie doesn't portray white men as idiots, white women as militant warriors who are always right about everything, and blacks as the most noble and brilliant characters in history without whose contributions nothing would exist, then Millennials are against it.
Of course, Millennials are also the least educated generation in American history, and the most brainwashed by leftism. They are also the first generation in history who never knew a sober human being (their grandparents being hippies, their parents being '80s crackheads and themselves being reefer babies).
So perhaps one should consider the source when listening to their criticisms of any film made for less than 250 million dollars and bereft of subversive leftist ideology.
If, however, you remember drive-in culture and enjoy AIP's daft "beach" or "pajama" films from this period, this one will seem no worse.
Great for laugh!
tvbuff-122 April 2004
Here is one of the many teeny-bopper flicks from the 1960's, that's so bad yet at the same time, fun to watch! The first time I saw this movie was on tv in 1982 when I was 14 years old. 22 years later in 2004 I watched it again on the "American Movie Classics" channel. I forgot how corny this movie really was! All about this hillbilly hick from the Ozarks who comes to California to enroll in college. Then sings himself into popularity on the college campus! Lots of singing and dancing!
C'mon, let's stink up the joint
ofumalow5 January 2020
This was the last thing directed by David Butler, who'd done a lot of TV in recent years but earlier had made a lot of good major-studio features including prime vehicles for Janet Gaynor, Shirley Temple and Doris Day. This film purportedly had budget problems, and it's easy to see that it was probably not a great experience for anyone, least of all Butler, who was over 70 at the time and was clearly not the guy to make a mid-60s teen musical. At best, the movie feels like a mediocre television episode of the time; at worst, it's the "rock" equivalent of such bottom-barrel country music movies at the time as "Las Vegas Hillbillys" and "Hillbillys in a Haunted House."
The print I saw was about 13 minutes shorter than the official original runtime, and I assume several songs got cut, since the first one doesn't turn up until nearly half an hour in, after which point they're almost incessant. The music is perfectly decent-Vee and DeShannon were fine singers, if not much as actors-even though the songs here are hardly memorable. But everything else pretty much blows, from the godawful comedy relief (poor Patsy Kelly and Eddie Hodges) to the utterly stupid plot engine of a terribly clean-cut campus "rebel" calling for "complete freedom," which both the dean and the movie seem to think is a terrible idea. This is a movie too afraid to do more than hint at politics, while suggesting that they are Bad. Real, wholesome youth don't have any ideas or issues on their minds!! Yeesh, even the same year's "The Cool Ones" was less antiquated.
Even as fluff, this movie is airheaded-at least the equally silly beach party movies knew not to meddle with campus protest and such. Throwing everything but the kitchen sink in, there's a "flubber"-type subplot involving a wacky scientific-inventor kid (Hodges). There's also some "hillbilly" relatives who show up for five minutes, then disappear. Needless to say, the only things that have any value here are the music and the occasional go-go dancing, and the underwhelming climax from "The Pair Extraordinarire" really does suggest they ran out of money during production--surely the movie intended to end with a slightly bigger bang. Others have claimed "C'mon" is a potential camp classic (a la "The Cool Ones," which is MUCH more fun), but really, it's too lame for that.
The print I saw was about 13 minutes shorter than the official original runtime, and I assume several songs got cut, since the first one doesn't turn up until nearly half an hour in, after which point they're almost incessant. The music is perfectly decent-Vee and DeShannon were fine singers, if not much as actors-even though the songs here are hardly memorable. But everything else pretty much blows, from the godawful comedy relief (poor Patsy Kelly and Eddie Hodges) to the utterly stupid plot engine of a terribly clean-cut campus "rebel" calling for "complete freedom," which both the dean and the movie seem to think is a terrible idea. This is a movie too afraid to do more than hint at politics, while suggesting that they are Bad. Real, wholesome youth don't have any ideas or issues on their minds!! Yeesh, even the same year's "The Cool Ones" was less antiquated.
Even as fluff, this movie is airheaded-at least the equally silly beach party movies knew not to meddle with campus protest and such. Throwing everything but the kitchen sink in, there's a "flubber"-type subplot involving a wacky scientific-inventor kid (Hodges). There's also some "hillbilly" relatives who show up for five minutes, then disappear. Needless to say, the only things that have any value here are the music and the occasional go-go dancing, and the underwhelming climax from "The Pair Extraordinarire" really does suggest they ran out of money during production--surely the movie intended to end with a slightly bigger bang. Others have claimed "C'mon" is a potential camp classic (a la "The Cool Ones," which is MUCH more fun), but really, it's too lame for that.
Corny AND bad!!
brabryant18 April 2019
I was a high school senior in 1967 and this movie is a fantasy of that era if there ever was one. Bobby Vee was a pretty good singer back in the day, and I like listening to his music, but he could forget about being an actor. He was as terrible in this as the movie itself. This movie made the 'Frankie & Annette' movies look like best movie Oscar winners!
Too Much Candy Can Make One Ill
OregonTraveler12 August 2005
'Art pour l'art' may be a french way of saying that all art is worthy by its very existence, but this film may give future viewers a distorted view of life in the 1960's. I think that the movie is so bad that it is interesting to watch. Bobby Vee's straw hat is a fashion statement in itself---one that didn't catch on, I might add. The year 1967 was a difficult one for the United States with war, urban riots, and voting rights struggles, yet this film must represent what Richard Nixon would later refer to as the "great silent majority" in America: really nice kids arguing about what kind of events should be allowed on a small college campus. Should students be allowed to speak out on the issues of the day? Not if it involves topics that the administration of the campus finds provocative. If the "Miranda rights" an accused presently enjoys were overturned and coercive measures could be used by law enforcement, it wouldn't be necessary to use physical means to gain a "confession" from a suspect. Merely tie the accused to a chair and play this film on a loop for a few hours. Case closed!
C'mon, be cheezy a lot!
mark.waltz14 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Only trouble is, cheese wiz, this silly teen musical is eye rollingly awful, with leads Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon having absolutely no screen charisma and one time child actor Eddie Hodges having low hopes and even lower comic skills as stars of this extremely dated drive-in B film. Vee is the new kid on campus, dating the dean's daughter (DeShannon) and making a rival out of big man on campus John Ireland Jr. Vee's hillbilly relatives arrive (with aunt Ethel Smith, one time organ playing specialty star absolutely annoying), with malapropism spoutung housekeeper Patsy Kelly sadly getting a ton of embarrassing stuff to do. As a fan of her earlier work, I felt very sorry for her.
The musical numbers are genuinely weak, not one memorable song in the film, and Hodges flying around with the help of a hand held spaceship like contraption. DeShannon is photographed in a very unflattering manner, looking ten years older than what the age of her character is supposed to be. This looks more like a bad color TV special with a slight ploy attached than anything remotely like a bog screen movie. No life at all makes this college musical worthy of expulsion.
The musical numbers are genuinely weak, not one memorable song in the film, and Hodges flying around with the help of a hand held spaceship like contraption. DeShannon is photographed in a very unflattering manner, looking ten years older than what the age of her character is supposed to be. This looks more like a bad color TV special with a slight ploy attached than anything remotely like a bog screen movie. No life at all makes this college musical worthy of expulsion.
"American corn"; utterly horrible must-see; portends today's "retro" US society
Marian_typepad_com11 August 2005
This corny 1967 film could yet earn itself a serious camp following. I stumbled onto seeing it and thought it must date from the late '50s. Boy was I wrong. It was shocking that someone in Hollywood actually made something like this in 1967. It comes off like they were still trying to save "mainstream" (read white) American youth from the dangers of soul and r&b music and such. Much in this movie seems to fit in well with today's full throttle attempts to throw (not turn) back the clock. Jackie De Shannon, Bobby Vee (whom I don't remember except the name), and also singer Kim Carnes who made this one film appearance. As an American in and from the Upper South I did not find that this film offends the South. It offends everyone in it. Actually one has to brace oneself for its backasswards gender attitudes expressed by some of the guys. Without giving everything away I'm left guessing that (stereotypically) the tail-end of this film (the cinematic equivalent of "the back of the bus") seems to advocate nonverbally the existence of Equal Opportunity Corniness. Some critics have dismissed this poor film as a bomb. They're right. But there's much more to it than that which makes it worth seeing. ... a jaw-dropping, side-splitting, cautionary reality check on today's societal resurrection of the whitebread past.
Funny . . . but not meant to be
stevesacks13 July 2008
10 out of 10 if you need a great laugh! It should be noted that the writer, June Starr and the producer, Alex Alexander (among other aka's) were husband and wife. Unfortunately neither one recognized how bad this film really was. Much to my surprise it was on TCM about 2 years ago and I was spellbound by it. It's just not a classic for the right reasons. I agree with those who believe it would make a great midnight movie. There is real talent on screen with Bobby Vee, Jackie DeShannon, and Kim Carnes. Eddie Hodges had a TV acting career, but best of all is Ken Osmond who we all know as Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver. There's just not enough talent to overcome the archaic script and a fairly low budget. Direction seemed to be at a minimum . . . and it shows. It looks and feels like a movie out of the 50's which would never do well in the late 60's. Enjoy it for the comedy it is.
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