Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

odd mixture of rock, dixieland and jazz breaks 4th wall--comes off screen music video mayor banning music really like dixieland"It's Trad, Dad!" (later renamed "Ring-a-Ding Rhythm!") is not much of a movie in many ways. There's barely any plot and it consists mostly of a bunch of music video-like performances all strung together. Yet, it might be worth your seeing it if you like this sort of music or if you are curious what Richard Lester's first film as a director looks like.As for the music, it's a VERY strange combination. Some of it is clearly pop and rock but quite a bit also is Dixieland Jazz! Was there some sort of Dixieland fad in the UK in the early 60s?! I dunno...but these are actually more fun to listen to than the pop numbers...as they are VERY easy to listen to and tap along with as you listen! The Lester touch is obvious when they're not doing musical numbers. Weird stuff like breaking through the fourth wall by having actors walking OFF the film early on and some of the other silly sight gags seem like his later films and I could see why the Beatles would use him because of his odd, hip style.So what's the story? Well, there's about 10% story and about 90% just song after song after song. The Mayor of some town is mad because young people love their music...and it drives him crazy. So he tries, in vain, to stop the invasion of noxious music into his town!Overall, a VERY odd film and one that is VERY difficult to rate. The bottom line is that this movie is NOT for everyone....you have to love the music and you have to be very patient to see an almost plot-less picture! Mostly for Lester fans and for folks who like the music. I enjoyed it and recommend it...but could easily understand someone NOT liking or recommending it.

With more Dixieland (in Britain they called it Trad) than a Casual Viewer/Listener could possibly stand, this Fun Frolic from Creative British Director Richard Lester is a Time Capsule of the British Teen Scene just before Beatlemania. Jazz was the Thing then and one can see and hear its Limitations while viewing/listening to this Curiosity.There are some American Hit-Makers thrown in to Sweeten the U.S. Market and it is neat to see Gary U.S. Bonds, Gene Vincent, and Gene McDaniel. The Female Lead Helen Shapiro makes an Impression as do the Paris Sisters, but the Overwhelming amount of Dixieland submerges the Movie with a Flood of Ear Piercings (inner not outer).Overall, Music Historians and Pop Culture Enthusiasts should give it a watch, and Fans of Dixieland Jazz, but others might find it more Irritating than Essential. The Movie does have an Innocent Charm and is more Professional than its American Cousin RnR Movies, mostly because of the Talent of the Director.

Fun, music-filled film about a teenage boy and girl from a small, nameless UK village who want to bring a jazz show to their town. But one problem - they must go up against town mayor, a guy who thinks the local teenagers are disrupting the peace with their WILD music. The two youths head out to the big city in search of a disc jockey who can bring some great bands to their town for the show.This is an enjoyable, funny film fully loaded with great musical acts performed by a variety of performers. Though this film does drag a bit in the second half, it is still a treat to see, full of innovative photography in the musical segments, amusing voice-over narration and British humor throughout the film in a style that reminded me of "Monty Python". The version I saw of this film, as shown on TCM, featured a very clear print. Good fun.

Richard Lester's deliberately (and delightfully) silly and absurd musical comedy debut feature, an early Amicus production released in America by Columbia no less, serves as a fabulously frothy primer for his subsequent rock film milestone "A Hard Day's Night." It takes place in some anonymous quiet English country suburb. Bland teen scream leads Craig Douglas and Helen Shapiro conspire to hold a Dixieland jazz festival in order to thwart the portly killjoy mayor's efforts to have both jazz and rock music banned from the town.Milton Subotsky's script, which brazenly recycles his earlier 50's rock quickie "Rock, Rock, Rock" 's central premise, is little more than a barely serviceable excuse to showcase a marvelously eclectic mix of 25 songs alternating between wildly swinging traditional jazz bands and powerfully primal rock'n'roll stars. The divinely cool Gene Vincent, looking super-smooth with slicked-back shiny black hair and an immaculate gleaming white suit, pile-drives his way through the sublimely groovy "Spaceship to Mars." Chubby Checker grinds his hyperactive hips to giddy glory and gets down with several audience members, roaring the transcendently asinine "Loose Your Inhibition Twist" with infectious full-throttle brio. The Paris Sisters deftly tug at your heartstrings with the beautifully affecting ballad "What Do I Do?". The Brook Brothers lay on the swooning charm, croaning the zesty "Double Trouble" in prime loverboy style. The ever-incendiary Gary (U.S.) Bonds shreds his hoarse, frayed vocal chords wailing his anti-school gem "Seven Day Weekend." Gene McDaniels lays on the heavy high drama and smoky melancholy ambiance something fantastic, declaiming the potently brooding sizzler "You Are Still in My Heart" with strikingly impassioned panache. Del Shannon's heart-wrenching weeper "You Never Talk About Me" goes straight for the sentimental jugular vein. The ebulliently kicking jazz bands, which include such unjustly forgotten acts as Bobby Wallis and His Storyville Jazz Men (Bobby really tears into a super-fine song with his wonderfully worn'n'raspy foghorn grumble), the Dukes of Dixieland, the nicely mellow the Temporance Seven, and the especially cooking Ollita Paterson backed up by Chris Barber and His Band (Ollita delivers a forceful double whammy rendition of the hoary old chestnuts "Down by the Riverside" and "When the Saints Go Marching In"), make for seriously scorching listening as well.Still, it's Lester's perfectly pacy'n'punchy direction and bravura cutting edge cinematic prowess which gives the film its brilliantly glowing, hopped-up, bustling vitality, a burning energy that's so lively and unbridled that it practically erupts off the screen. Snappy editing, a quick, jumpy tempo, a deliciously dry'n'droll sense of humor, a smartly self-conscious and self-referential flippant tone (Douglas and Shapiro sporadically converse with the film's ridiculously sober narrator), splendidly sour performances by Felix Felton as the pompous, uptight mayor and crusty longtime character actor Arthur Mullard as the dumbbell police chief, and the dazzling virtuoso cinematography (overhead shots, split screen, new images being built over old ones with animated blocks, that sort of flashy stuff) all bear Lester's trademark flair and style, displaying a hearty gusto which in turn makes for irresistible lightweight entertainment.