The Young Ones [Wonderful to be Young!] ***½ (1961, Cliff Richard, Robert Morley, Carole Grey, Richard O’Sullivan, Melvyn Hayes, Gerald Harper, Robertson Hare, Teddy Green) – Classic Movie Review 4641

Director Sidney J Furie’s 1961 British musical The Young Ones stars Cliff Richard as Nicky, the son of a ruthless property tycoon millionaire called Hamilton Black (Robert Morley), who wants to flatten the local youth club to make way for an office block.

Nicky and his friends have to find a way to come up with £1500 to pay the club’s new owner to save it, but only Nicky knows that man is his father. Nicky records a song and broadcasts it as The Mystery Singer by a pirate radio station to save his youth club. Finally, if the gang stage a musical with the new but unknown heart-throb Mystery Singer, they could put a spoke in the dad’s wicked property development plans.

Sir Cliff, the Shadows and the other young ones put on a show in their best film, an old-fashioned, Hollywood-type musical that harks back to the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney heydays. It is written by Ronald Cass and Peter Myers, who also write most of the songs. In fact producer Kenneth Harper, Furie, Cass and Myers agreed to borrow the storyline of the film musical Babes In Arms (1939), where Rooney and Garland put on a show with their friends to raise money.

A lot of zest and good humour makes up for the slightly amateur air of the proceedings. Herbert Ross’s choreography is lively, though the dancing is more on the keen side than impressively acrobatic. Naturally, Morley makes a ripe juicy meal of his unlikely turn as Cliff’s dad, but Carole Grey gives a grey performance as Cliff’s girlfriend Toni.

The Sixties songs are sweet nostalgia, with the hits in The Young Ones, The Girl in Your Arms, and Lessons in Love.

Also in the welcome old cast are Teddy Green as Chris, Richard O’Sullivan as Ernest, Melvyn Hayes as Jimmy, Annette Robertson as Barbara, Robertson Hare as chauffeur, Sonya Cordeau as Dorinda Morell, Sean Sullivan as Eddie, Harold Scott as Dench, Gerald Harper as Watts and Rita Webb as woman in market.

Jet Harris (bass guitar), Hank B Marvin (lead guitar), Tony Meehan (drums) and Bruce Welch (rhythm guitar) are Cliff’s band The Shadows, who perform Peace Pipe and The Savage (both written by Norrie Paramor). The Shadows were to have acting roles, but young actors were cast instead, so the roles planned for Hank Marvin and Jet Harris were given to Richard O’Sullivan and Melvyn Hayes, while the Shadows appear only as non-speaking band members.

It was re-titled Wonderful to Be Young! for America. Cliff sings (It’s) Wonderful To Be Young, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, on the US print only.

Produced by the Associated British Picture Corporation and shot at its Elstree Studios, it had its world premiere on 13 December 1961 at the Warner Cinema in London’s West End. Scenes at the fictional Countess Theatre (bought by Hamilton Black) were filmed on location at the Finsbury Park Empire theatre.

Carole Gray, a dancer known for her roles in West End theatre musicals, lipsyncs to the voice of Grazina Frame, who also provides the singing voice for Lauri Peters in Cliff’s next film Summer Holiday (1963).

It was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1961, after The Guns of Navarone, grossing more than £750,000 on a £230,000 budget.

Choreographer Herbert Ross suggested Barbra Streisand as the heroine, so producer Harper flew to New York and saw her in a show, but thought she was unsuitable.

The film’s set remained standing at Elstree throughout the 60s and early 70s, used for TV shows such as The Avengers, The Saint, The Baron, UFO and The Protectors.

A medley of songs known as the Vaudeville routine, framed by the song ‘What D’You Know, We’ve Got a Show, was recorded by the actors in one day (9 August 1961) at the Abbey Road studios, London.

See Cliff also in Serious Charge (1959), Expresso Bongo (1959), Summer Holiday (1963), and Wonderful Life (1964).

Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Alexei Sayle borrowed the title for their Eighties TV comedy series (1982-1984), which has many references to Cliff Richard.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4641

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