'RING-A-DING RHYTHM' ('IT'S TRAD, DAD')......IT WAS JAZZ ONE OF THOSE THINGS.....

 Ring A Ding Rhythm (a.k.a. It's Trad, Dad) 1962 .......continues our never ending quest to dig up the strangest, nuttiest, most whoopsi-daisy movies of the 1960's.......

                As crazy as this movie is, it's overview of the early 60's pop music scene in Britain perplexed us.  

                 We most definitely grew up in that era, but on this side of the Pond, (the USA, that is) it was  folk music, not jazz, that became the temporary craze that gripped our nation.......(which you can view lovingly satirized in Christopher Guest's 'mockumentary', "A Mighty Wind")

                  Across the othe side of the Pond, apparently American Dixieland jazz, of all things, became some huge flavor-of-the-moment thing, along with a few Rock 'n Roll crooners.......(if you're thinking those two musical styles seem wildly out-of-synch with other other.......right you are...

                   Talk about musical diversity.......we don't know of any known universe that would feature the Dukes Of Dixieland  warbling and waa-waa-ing and then segue to our own beloved Philly boy Chubby Checker, twistin' the night away........

                   This movie barely qualifies as a feature film, it's more of a long, long, long parade of jazz and crooner acts thinly connected with a premise of two young adults recruiting acts for a small town concert.

                  We hardly feel qualified to judge the performers here......our dad had  a large collection of Dixieland jazz LPs and they sounded all alike to us.......(and watching them again in this movie, some 50 years later, they still all sound monotonously similar to each other....)

                   What caught our eye and held our attention were the some of the groundbreaking cinematic stylings of director Richard Lester.......who'd shortly thereafter shake up the film world with his two Beatles musicals, "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help"......

                    Lester dearly loved intricate physical gags, a la Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and the movie's peppered with them. He also joyfully plays with cinematic conventions....(the film's offscreen narrator would at times engage with the actors to move along the storyline...)

                     And the best sequences of all involved Lester bending, warping and toying with the endless music sequences    (using split screens, and every variety of optical visual effect he could think of..,,,)

                     Essentially, Richard Lester more or less invents music videos on the spot.here......and he makes sure to throw slapstick shtick into any brief scene which fall to the actors......(and boy, does it ever help make the film far more tolerable to sit through....)

                    We've no idea how to recommend this one.......fans of Lester  and cutting edge 60's filmmaking will want to check it out.......but getting through 'Ring A Ding Rhythm' requires a very high tolerance for Dixieland jazz......so be forewarned.

                     Great gags, though. And produced and written by, of all people, the Amicus Films future horror movie maestro, Milton Subotsky.......2 stars (**).