Don’t Knock the Twist ** (1962, Chubby Checker, Gene Chandler, Vic Dana) Classic Movie Review 9864

Chubby Checker and the twist are in the spotlight again in director Oscar Rudolph’s 1962 black and white dance craze musical film Don’t Knock the Twist, the sequel to the 1961 smash hit Twist Around the Clock.

It is producer Sam Katzman’s riposte to his own second 1956 Bill Haley epic Don’t Knock the Rock.

As before, Robert E Kent is credited as James B Gordon, so again he is to blame for the script and jokes that are pretty darned weedy. This time (apart from ‘Duke of Earl’ sung by Gene Chandler, ‘Hey Bo Diddley’ sung by The Carroll Bros and ‘Mashed Potato Time’ sung by Dee Dee Sharp) the songs are pretty poor too, though, making even thinner-seeming the threadbare script about a TV show spotlighting the twist and some orphan kids needing a summer camp.

Chubby Checker sings ‘Don’t Knock The Twist’, ‘Slow Twistin” and ‘The Fly’.

Also in the cast are Gene Chandler (The Duke of Earl), Vic Dana (Self), Linda Scott (Self), The Carroll Brothers, The Dovells, Lang Jeffries, Mari Blanchard, Georgine Darcy, Stephen Preston, Barbara Morrison, Nydia Westman, James Chandler, Frank Albertson, Elizabeth Harrower, Hortense Petra, Peter Dawson, Viola Harris, David Landfield, Tim Sullivan and Ralph Montgomery.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9864

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