Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957)

Aka: Bop Girl

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050205/

[Converted to DVD from a Mystery Source]

Director: Howard W Koch

Cast: Judy Tyler, Bobby Troup, Margo Woode, Mary Kaye, The Goofers,
Lord Flea, Nino Tempo, Lucien Littlefield, George O'Hanlon, Jered Barclay,
Judy Harriet, Jerry Frank, Eddie Kafafian, Gene O'Donnell, George Sawaya,
Dick Standish

Synopsis: To prove his theory that rock 'n' roll is on its way out,
a sociologist tries to convince a 'bop' singer to switch to calypso,
much to the ire of her Hollywood nightclub manager.

Description: Although it may be less well remembered than the purported
causes of the Spanish-American War, for at least a week and a half in 1957,
the United States was caught up in a calypso music frenzy. Its sexually
charged rhythms seized the tropical passions of a nation fresh into the
second term of the Eisenhower administration, forcing them to dress like
pasty-skinned tourists, shove aside their coffee tables, and humiliate
themselves in front of whatever misfortunates had assembled in their homes.
More often than not, a meal of ham garnished with pineapple rings awaited,
segueing into a lime papaya Jell-o salad, generously spiked with miniature
marshmallows. It isn't by coincidence that this cultural phenomenon
dovetailed with the 'exotica' fad, which led to millions of suburban ranch
homes having their basements remodeled with wet bars, simulated wood
paneling, vinyl flooring, and tiki masks. Today, combing through the sad
remnants of this hysteria, the disheveled breed of archaeologists known more
commonly as estate sale vultures, snicker with knowing irony at Martin Denny
album covers, quarrel with other junk dealers over a leaping gold swami wall
hanging, and chance upon an occasional can of tiki torch fuel while rummaging
through the workshop.

Enter Bobby Troup, a C-grade jazz composer who had scored a huge hit with
'Route 66', and who would eventually marry Jack Webb's ex, Julie London,
and star with her for several years in Jack's TV drama 'Emergency!'
It's hard to know what provoked Troup to create this astounding cluster-bonk
of weirdness; perhaps Robert Mitchum's peculiar success with his 'Calypso Is
Like So...' album, or perhaps a looming balloon payment on a mortgage. But
whatever the cause, we are forever in his debt.

It's rare to find such a compelling train wreck of brain-raping awfulness,
stirred together with moments of jaw-dropping brilliance... like diamonds
in an eighty gallon drum of livestock excrement. The awfulness comes in the
form of the script and the principal characters, such as the 'Bop Girl',
belting out a merciless string of Les Baxter penned faux-calypso
abominations, many of which offer some contrived hybridization of musical
styles for novelty effect.

If that were it, this would be just another annoying, thinly-plotted
romantic tale serving as glue for a series of musical acts. But trust me,
it's much more. First of all, some of the secondary musical acts are
fantastic, and this bizarre and rarely seen cinematic flatus provides some
of the few surviving video artifacts of their existence. After the opening
credits, an underappreciated L A doo wop vocal group called The Titans nail
one of their (very) minor hits for Vita Records, 'So Hard to Laugh, So Easy
to Cry'. There's some actually good calypso music performed by Lord Flea,
and later on, there's a really insane act called The Goofers, featuring a
dancing/singing trio who do splits and play stand-up bass and trombone while
swinging upside down from ropes. And I'll be dipped in excrement if the
drummer's not Buddy Rich. They also do a memorable number called 'I Wanna
Rock and Roll Until I Die', with five of them lying in coffins. If they
still had acts like this in night clubs, I'd probably get out more.

But what puts this one over the top is the premise of the story, which is
that a brainy genius from the university (Troup) has invented a device
which can predict musical trends with uncanny precision by measuring
audience reactions. This device consists of a metal box with a meter on the
front, and a jack for plugging in a microphone. Of course using this
reasoning, downloads of Keiji Haino and sawmill field recordings should be
overloading the servers at iTunes, but the denizens of Bop Girl's night
club still take note of Troup's fad detector, to the point that friendships
are imperiled when he announces that calypso will soon replace rock 'n' roll
as America's preferred musical entertainment. Mind you, this isn't a passing
absurdity in just another forgotten bad movie. It's the fundamental premise
of the film, just like the searches for Harry Lime or the Maltese Falcon.
Layer on top of that the oatmealish sexual tension created when Bobby Troup
begins falling for the Bop Girl, threatening his relationship with a
university colleague who specializes in eugenics. (Yes, you read that
correctly... I said eugenics.) And there's even a department for this at the
university, because they have a sign on the door that says so. The
conversations between Bobby and his Social Darwinist sweetheart are
hysterical, most of them centering around her desire for Bobby to stop
fiddling with his musical fad prediction dissertation, and start pumping
her full of his high-IQ sperm so she can commence to popping out some first
rate ⁿber-kindern, which she can then use to finish her eugenics thesis.
Keep in mind this was made only twelve years after the concentration camps
were liberated.

I strongly recommend this one with the principal reservation being the
overabundance of Les Baxter calypso numbers. What is at first a mildly
amusing absurdity deteriorates into a full blown irritant about halfway
through the film. If you could toss out two or three songs, and throw in
some more prolonged pow-wows on the wonders of selective breeding, you'd
have a five Waldo film. But it is what it is, and since I don't think it's
available on DVD, you might have to download this one to bask in its dubious
splendor.

"Now suppose you stand-up on your pretty hind-legs and act like a woman
 for a change!" [Lucien Littlefield]

"It's a Rock 'n' Roll Riot!"

Trivia: This was to be Judy Tyler's only starring role before her untimely
death in 1957. Some of you may remember her as Princess Summerfall
Winterspring in 'The Howdy Doody Show' (1947).

DVD Format: NTSC

DVD5: 3.14 GiB - "Nothing Added and Nothing Taken Away..." [Ecclesiastes 3:14]

Color: Black & White

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Language: English

Subtitle: None

Closed Captioned: No

Commentary: None

Extras: None

Audio: AC-3 Monaural

Time: 01:19:59

Chapters: 27 - Blind @ 3 Minute Intervals

DVD Studio: Isis Presents...

Release Date: 2012-05-19

ASIN: n/a

UPC: n/a

Posting Date: 19 May 2012

Posting Group: alt.binaries.dvd.complete

Spatio-Temporal Footprint: 14x14

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Part Size: 536870912 Bytes [2^30 / 2]; 2% Recovery Volumes [REV]

Articles/Part: 137 <http://tiny.cc/New137/

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