When Chubby Checker performs, he has an energy that is almost as electric as Elvis. Dion's writing talents are showcased also.
Typical of its Type, this is another Teen Phenom Film that doesn't have a clue. First, more than once the Script puts down Rock n Roll as a thing of the Past and berates it and says there is no need for that Flash in the Pan, forget it, because now there is "The Twist".
This is a typical Hollywood quickie that is only watchable because it is so bad...right up there with "Don't Knock The Twist" (recently seen on TCM).
A rehash of a fairly plot-less "Rock Around The Clock" (1956), "Twist Around The Clock" functions only as a ninety-minute advertisement for the then-popular song "The Twist" and all products related to same, including the career of singer Chubby Checker.Musical staging is cheap-looking, tacky, and lacks imagination.
Teen potboilers should not be viewed with hope that great cinematography or compelling plots loom within. Instead, catch Twist and its counterparts through the decades just for the music, slang, and fashion.
***SPOILERS*** It's 1960 with the King Elvis Presley drafted into the US Army with Rock & Roll music now on life support talent scout Mitch Mason played by a very youthful looking John Cronin who according to the IMDb Bio. of him is supposed to have been born in 1904, making him 55 years old at the time the movie was made, and his friend and fellow talent scout Dizzy Bellew, Alvy Moore, travel to his hick town in New England named Alpine Peaks to checkout this new dance craze called "The Twist" thats the talk of the town.
TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK, the first of two TWIST films produced by Sam Katzman and featuring the great Chubby Checker, is basically a remake of the old BIll Haley vehicle ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, and like that film, the "star" here, Chubby Checker, is little more than a guest star in his own film. In the earlier film, Alan Dale is featured as the lead performer and his story is told, with Bill Haley merely being a "friend" who helps the lead character and who performs a handful of songs.
This movie is living proof that the same stupid gags used in the teen flicks of the 80s and 90s have now been around for decades and that Hollywood thought as little of teens 40 years ago as they do today. If you like the song "The Twist", as do I (my reason for watching), buy the record.
If I had never seen "Rock Around the Clock", this movie might be a little easier to take. You see, the producers didn't even bother to write a script; they just copied the one used for "Rock Around the Clock" some years earlier.
