decent enough representation of Soho back in the late 50s

It was a wonderful movie before it went to video...

Old Compton Street, Soho, London, England, UK

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But you can be frank with me, mister Mayer ! What's your feeling about the boy?

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Laurence Harvey

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Yolande Donlan

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Julian More

Johnny Jackson, a sleazy talent agent, discovers teenager Bert Rudge singing in a coffee house, but their exploitative deal leads to a bad relationship.

Val Guest

Expresso Bongo

I wasn&apos;t sure what to expect from this film, not having seen it back in the day, or since. In some ways it is perhaps better than I had hoped and in another less so. The problem, for me, seems to lie in the stage musical origins. Never having been a fan of such fare, it is those elements, the all singing, all dancing with lush orchestration that I don&apos;t enjoy. The more &apos;street&apos; sections with the lads getting established, the strip club and marvellous Soho location shooting is fine by me but I don&apos;t need fat impresarios singing and &apos;dancing&apos; especially the incredible, &apos;Nausea&apos; supposedly about the very youngsters he is promoting. Cliff is fine, strangely enough his wavering and erratic singing voice seeming his biggest problem. He must have sorted that out later by sticking to what he was able to deal with. So, I loved the London streets, the decent enough representation of Soho back in the late 50s, the slightly cheeky strip scenes and although the film is not very even, still harping back to its stage roots, it is very watchable.

Johnny Jackson, a sleazy talent agent, discovers teenager Bert Rudge singing in a coffee house. Despite Bert&apos;s protestation that he really is only interested in playing bongos, Johnny starts him on the road to stardom.

Trailer

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTIzOTZmNDEtYzdlZC00NWUzLTlkZmItYjhiYThlNWY4YzIyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, not having seen it back in the day, or since. In some ways it is perhaps better than I had hoped and in another less so. The problem, for me, seems to lie in the stage musical origins. Never having been a fan of such fare, it is those elements, the all singing, all dancing with lush orchestration that I don't enjoy. The more 'street' sections with the lads getting established, the strip club and marvellous Soho location shooting is fine by me but I don't need fat impresarios singing and 'dancing' especially the incredible, 'Nausea' supposedly about the very youngsters he is promoting. Cliff is fine, strangely enough his wavering and erratic singing voice seeming his biggest problem. He must have sorted that out later by sticking to what he was able to deal with. So, I loved the London streets, the decent enough representation of Soho back in the late 50s, the slightly cheeky strip scenes and although the film is not very even, still harping back to its stage roots, it is very watchable.

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Expresso Bongo

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