Pop!

 

                                                                                                                     

POP GEAR (GO GO MANIA)-1965-This technicolor music revue begins with The Beatles performing "She Loves You" before an audience of screaming hyperventilating teenage girls. Future perverted piece of shit Jimmy Savile (host of "Top of The Pops" at the time) introduces the first 15 acts from 1965, including Billy J. Kramer, The Animals (doing "House of The Rising Sun"), The Fourmost, The Rockin' Berries, The Honeycombs (with Honey Lantree on drums), Sounds Inc., Peter & Gordon ("World Without Love"), Matt Monro, Herman's Hermits, ill fated Tommy Quickly (managed by Brian Epstein), Billie Davis, The Spencer Davis Group (with Steve Winwood on guitar) and The Nashville Teens ("Tobacco Road"). The second half of acts from 1965 has no introductions and include The Rockin' Berries, Matt Munro ("For Mama"), The Four Pennies (doing a version of "In The Pines", here called "Black Girl"), Sounds Inc., The Nashville Teens, The Honeycombs, The Animals ("Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood") and Matt Monro (doing the title song). It ends with the Fab Four doing "Twist & Shout". Only they play live. It was directed by Frederic Goode.

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Herman's Back!

MRS. BROWN YOU'VE GOT A LOVELY DAUGHTER-1968-Herman's Hermits tries to emulate The Beatles movie success with inept talky musical. Peter/Herman is an unhappy guy who lives with his mother and works for an advertising agency. He also owns a racing dog named Mrs. Brown. At night he rehearses with the rest of the Hermits. The title cut and “There's A Kind of Hush” are in it but so are some forgettable tunes. A guy named Mr. Brown (Stanley Holloway) sponsors the band so they can raise money to race their dog. Not surprisingly his daughter Judy (Sarah Caldwell) falls for Herman. The weirdest part is that co-stars Holloway, Mona Washburn (as a human Mrs. Brown) and Lance Percival all sing too! 

Director Saul Swimmer later filmed THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH. American born screenwriter Norman Thaddeus Vane later returned to his native country and made low budget horror movies (FRIGHTMARE, THE BLACK ROOM). He may have been married to lead actress Caldwell.

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Herman's Hermits

HOLD ON!-1966-Herman's Hermits are a hit in America! They disguise themselves as policemen to get away from screaming fans. Somehow NASA winds up naming one of there rockets after the group. A government employee (Herbert Anderson) investigates the band because the State Department doesn't like the idea of naming a US rocket after an English pop band. Herman falls for American Louisa (Shelly Fabares) and he has a daydream about being a knight in shining armor. There's also a fantasy sequence where Herman dreams he and his manager (Bernard Fox) are astronauts.

This dumb but harmless Sam Katzman produced musical comedy (obviously trying to emulate The Beatles' HELP!, from a year early; both titles end with exclamation points...) also features a side plot about an actress (Sue Ane Langdon) trying to get a publicity shot with Herman. (Character actor Mickey Deems is her agent) In the end Anderson decides “the lads” are just like any other teenagers.

While no Beatles Herman's Hermits had some pretty nice songs (although almost none are in this!). Ray Kellogg (director of THE KILLER SHREWS) and John Hart (who'd played The Lone Ranger on TV for a season or two) play detectives. HOLD ON was written by B-movie Robert Kent under the pseudonym James B. Gordon. He wrote THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE (with Roy Orbison) the next year. Director Arthur Lubin had work on several Abbott & Costello movies in the early '40's. Then on the Francis the Talking Mule series. By this time he was doing a lot of TV. The title song and several others were penned by PF Sloane who died this passed November.

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