Wonderful Life ** (1964, Cliff Richard, Walter Slezak, Susan Hampshire, Melvyn Hayes, Richard O’Sullivan, Una Stubbs, Derek Bond, Gerald Harper) – Classic Movie Review 10,427

The cast and crew return from the 1961 hit The Young Ones for director Sidney J Furie’s 1964 follow-up musical Wonderful Life [Swingers’ Paradise].

Cliff Richard and The Shadows are stranded on the Canary Islands, where they get mixed up with veteran film director Lloyd Davis (Walter Slezak), and clandestinely make their own musical version of his picture.

In this rather amateurish British musical, the young Richard’s energy is engaging, Susan Hampshire is cute and shows off her perfect 60s hair-style, and Peter Myers and Ronald Cass’s script takes a few good-humoured swipes at the film-making business.

The musical numbers choreographed by Gillian Lynne are nervously staged and seem tentative. But Bruce Welch’s ‘Theme for Young Lovers’ is a sweet tune and there are lots of high spirits from everyone in the highspot ‘We Love the Movies’ sequence, featuring Cliff as Rudolf Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Al Jolson and Groucho Marx.

Wonderful Life is okay, but a noticeable comedown after The Young Ones (1961) and Summer Holiday (1963).

The Shadows are Hank B Marvin, Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett and John Rostill.

Also in the cast are Melvyn Hayes, Richard O’Sullivan, Una Stubbs, Derek Bond, Gerald Harper, and Joseph Cuby.

The film is shot in Techniscope.

It features 12 swingin’ songs! A soundtrack album was released in 1964 with all the music produced by Stanley Black.

Wonderful Life was shot in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria city in Spain, and the desert scenes shot on the Maspalomas sand dunes on Gran Canaria island, Canary Islands.

RIP lovely Una Stubbs (1 May 1937 – 12 August 2021). She died at her home in Edinburgh on 12 August 2021 after some months of ill health, aged 84. She was also in Richard’s 1963 film Summer Holiday, her first major film role, and also appeared in The Bargee, Three Hats for Lisa, Mister Ten Per Cent, Till Death Us Do Part, Penny Gold, Bedtime with Rosie, Angel and Golden Years.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,427

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