Bye Bye Birdie

Rating:
Summary: Put On A Happy Face
Review: A great old-fashioned feel-good musical brought to the screen with enthusiasm and energy. Both a satire on and a celebration of good old rock 'n roll in the days before the British invasion when Elvis was still the king. Here we get Conrad Birdie instead of Elvis who, like Elvis, has been drafted into the army, much to the distress of his multitude of tenny-bopper fans. A publicity stunt of his farewell kiss to a symbolic average girl from an average middle American town sets the scene for music, comedy and mayhem.

A big hit on Broadway, Bye Bye Birdie actually benefits from the Hollywood treatment of expansion and opening out. The energy of the bigger musical numbers is allowed to explode rather than being confined to a stage. Only once or twice are questionable decisions made - the overly cutesy staging of the show's most famous number "Put On A Happy Face" being the prime example. But the rest of the score - the raucous "Honestly Sincere", the hilarious "Kids", the wistful "One Boy", the dynamic "A Lot Of Living To Do" - are nothing but pleasure to watch and listen to.

Dick Van Dyke shows why Bye Bye Birdie made him a star on Broadway. He does it all - singing, dancing, acting, clowning - and he does it wonderfully. Paul Lynde is a riot as a harassed father, Maureen Stapleton is equally funny as an overbearing mother, and Jesse Pearson is both grotesque and electric as Conrad Birdie. Even Bobby Rydell is good...sort of. In what I think was her first major role, Ann-Magret all but steals the picture. Whether being a tomboy, a high school cutie, or a slithering dance floor temptress, she oozes presence and star quality. No wonder they decided to create a title song for her to sing at the beginning and end of the movie - you just can't get enough of her.

Janet Leigh, on the other hand, is a very strange choice for this film. Looking somewhat weird in a black wig, she always seems to be trying too hard. It's not that she's really bad in the film, just not right for it. A good example is her performance in the Shriners musical number. She certainly gives it her all, but a real dancer or musical performer such as Gwen Verdon or Rita Moreno could have made it a genuine showstopper.

Sure, Bye Bye Birdie is extremely corny and somewhat dated. But it is also a lot of fun. It's a fine example of what musical comedies used to be like and probably never will be again (hence the plethora of revivals). Other musicals had much less successful transitions to movies but Bye Bye Birdie remains one of the good ones. Bright, joyful and always entertaining, as well as a nostalgic wallow, it looks wonderful on widescreen DVD. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Ann-Margret never so gorgeous again
Review: George Sidney was a great MGM director who, in the 1960s, had the great fortune of stumbling across a new star, Ann-Margret, and managed to make her an international star right at the beginning of the "Youth Era" that dominated Hollywood in the 1960s. Of all the young stars, maybe Ann-Margret had the most winning combination of vitality and innocence. Her lush figure and dancers' sway, and that wild mane of red hair, made her almost too hot for the movie screen, but George Sidney knew hot to focus her charms so that she became not a threat to the viewing public, but an actress of enormous appeal. He made three films with her, this one, VIVA LAS VEGAS and the later, lesser, THE SWINGER, notable for its scenes in which a group of young hipsters swing Ann-Margret through a mass of body paint to make her into a living paintbrush.

In BYE BYE BIRDIE her dancing with an ensemble to the upbeat number A LOT OF LIVING TO DO is the highlight of the film. It is one of those rare screen sequences in which every shot, every beat is perfect. George Sidney had earlier made some great showcases for Kim Novak, but his treatment of Ann-Margret shows why he is the most gallant of all Hollywood directors. Okay, so he didn't do so good by Janet Leigh, who looks awful in her black wig and can't impersonate a Puerto Rican songwriter any more than I can. She's ludicrous and almost ruins the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Buy it on sale or check it out from the library....
Review: I saw this film for the first time last night with my wife and kids (ages 16, 13, and 8) at a theatre as part of a classic film festival.

When viewing it at home on DVD, Baby Boomers will enjoy the cute nostalgia. Young kids will have fun. Younger teens will tolerate it to a point. The older teens will probably excuse themselves to another room. The musical numbers are bright and colorful; almost manic at times when compared to the scene leading up to them.

However, the whole package just doesn't hang together. The plot has several holes and some contrivances that are real groaners.

Ask yourself...would you let hip-grinding, crotch-stroking rock star Conrad Birdie kiss your daughter, let alone camp out in your house with her? Would you let his publicist and the publicist's girlfriend/secretary camp there, too? Add to that the publicist's mother stopping by the family homestead and trying to commit suicide in your oven. Would you let the publicist slip an experimental drug to your family pet? What's up with that? Get a hotel, you people!

Paul Lynde scored some large laughs with the audience and should have had a larger role. Janet Leigh's singing and dancing is a very pleasant surprise. Dick Van Dyke is always a joy. Ann-Margret was great, but her opening and closing song--dubbed in as an afterthought by some manic singer with a Brooklyn accent--is another groaner. (Compared to the conservative clothing she wears for most of the film, how was she ever allowed out of the house wearing that pink, bare-midriff outfit in "Lot of Livin' to Do?")

(...)

Rating:
Summary: Pretty boring
Review: I bought this movie because I generally like Dick van Dyke & I like the song "Put On A Happy Face"--but what a waste of money! Outside of that song, this musical has some of the most inane songs I've ever heard. With lyrics something like, "I'm sincere, so sincere, sincerely sincere. You know I'm sincere, and by the way I'm sincere..." (Seriously! Although I didn't quote the song exactly, that's pretty much the just of it.) And the music is just as incompetent. Granted, it was partially to satirize the whole "teen idol" insanity of the time, but it just wasn't funny. This movie is a pretty mind-numbing experience that requires no thought & no taste in music.