Rock Around the Clock (film)
Rock Around the Clock is a 1956 musical film featuring Bill Haley and His Comets along with Alan Freed, the Platters, Tony Martinez and His Band and Freddie Bell and His Bellboys. It was produced by B-movie king Sam Katzman (who would produce several Elvis Presley films in the 1960s) and directed by Fred F. Sears.
Rock Around the Clock
Robert E. Kent
James B. Gordon
Saul A. Goodkind
Jack Ogilvie
- March 21, 1956
77 minutes
United States
English
The film was shot over a short period of time in January 1956 and released in March 1956 to capitalize on Haley's success and the popularity of his multimillion-selling recording "Rock Around the Clock," which had played over the opening credits of the 1955 teen flick Blackboard Jungle and is considered the first major rock and roll musical film. The same recording was used for the opening of Rock Around the Clock, marking a rare occasion in which the same song opens films released in a short interval (the recording would be used once again to open the 1973 film American Graffiti).
Featuring the musical talents of:
Impact[edit]
Integration[edit]
Reflecting Alan Freed's real-life concerts and radio broadcasts, film advanced the cause of integration by showing white musicians performing in the same venues as black and Hispanic performers. At the end of the film, the all-black Platters vocal group briefly shares the stage with the all-white Comets and Bellboys groups. Tony Martinez, an actor-musician born in Puerto Rico, also performs several numbers with his band.
Rock-and-roll musicals[edit]
Rock Around the Clock was a major box-office success, and soon many more rock-and-roll musical films (notably the big-budget "A" picture The Girl Can't Help It) would be produced. Within a year, Elvis Presley (whose first film, 1956's Love Me Tender, was a Western, not a rock-and-roll film) would soon appear in the most popular films of the genre, including Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. Other major films released around this time include Rock, Rock, Rock and The Big Beat.
Sequel[edit]
Later in 1956, Bill Haley and His Comets headlined a loose sequel, Don't Knock the Rock, also directed by Sears and produced by Katzman, and again featuring Alan Freed as himself. Rushed into production to capitalize on the success of Rock Around the Clock, the sequel failed to duplicate the earlier film's success, though it helped popularize one of its performers, Little Richard.
Twist Around the Clock[edit]
In 1961, Katzman produced the similarly titled Twist Around the Clock starring Chubby Checker, which copied the basic plot of Rock Around the Clock, and as such is often referred to as a remake of the Haley film, just five years after the original. As with Rock Around the Clock, it was also followed up with a sequel, Don't Knock the Twist.
Home media[edit]
On January 23, 2007, Sony Pictures released the first Region 1 DVD edition of the film alongside Don't Knock the Rock. However, The film was not released in its original aspect ratio, and was instead cropped for widescreen.[4]