Rock Around the Clock is the title of a 1956 musical film that featured 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 and directed by Fred F. Sears. 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" that debuted in the 1955 teen flick Blackboard Jungle, and is considered the first major rock and roll musical film. Haley's 1954 recording was previously played over the opening credits of Blackboard Jungle and the same recording was used for the opening of Rock Around the Clock, marking a rare occasion where the same recording opened films released in such a short interval.
Plot
Rock Around the Clock tells a highly fictionalized rendition of how rock and roll was discovered. As band manager Steve Hollis observes that big band dance music is failing to draw audiences any longer, he comes across a new sound that piques his interest. While traveling through a small farming town, he attends the local teenage dance and is introduced to rock and roll music and dancing, in the person of local band Bill Haley & His Comets and their associated dancers. Convinced that rock and roll will be the next big thing, Hollis strikes a deal to manage the group and also strikes up a romance with dancer Lisa Johns. Hollis then turns to agent Corinne Talbot, who handles bookings for nearly all of the venues in which Hollis needs the band to play to gain them exposure. Talbot's primary interest in Hollis, however, is to have him marry her as she has been wooing him for some time, and she's determined to prevent him from succeeding without his working directly for her agency, and Lisa in any event. First, she books the band into a traditionally conservative venue, expecting them to reject the band's brash new sound. But instead, the teens and adults there are excited by the music and embrace it enthusiastically. Next, Talbot simply blacklists Hollis and his acts from the venues she controls. But Hollis maneuvers around her by calling in a favor owed to him by disc jockey Alan Freed. The resulting booking in Freed's venue grants the Comets the exposure they need in spite of Talbot's efforts. Talbot's final play is to agree to sign the group to a three-year contract that will secure their future, but only on the condition that Johns agree not to marry during the term of that contract. Johns agrees to those terms and Talbot launches their career with a national tour, confident that the contract's marriage prohibition will drive a wedge between Hollis and Johns. Once the contract is signed and the tour begins - climaxing in the Comets and other groups appearing on a coast-to-coast television broadcast - Hollis reveals that he and Johns married quickly during the time it took to draw up the contract. Talbot good-naturedly accepts defeat as they watch the TV broadcast end with Lisa and her dancing partner, her brother Jimmy, dancing as the Comets sing "Rock Around the Clock".
"Happy Baby" - Haley - first verse and chorus only
"Mambo Rock" - Haley - chorus only
"Giddy Up a Ding Dong" - Bell
"The Great Pretender" - Platters
"Rudy's Rock" - Haley
No soundtrack album was ever released for the film in North America, though some foreign compilation albums were released as a tie-in. The performance of "Rudy's Rock" is the only Haley song performed live on camera and while an off-air recording taken from the film would be released in Germany in the 1990s, a proper studio-quality recording from the set has yet to be released. The band also performs live on camera during a brief rehearsal prior to lip-synching to the Decca recording of "R-O-C-K". "Rock Around the Clock" is heard three times in the film - once over the opening credits, again in a brief rendition of the opening verse during a montage, and again at the end where only the last verse is heard. "See You Later Alligator" was a brand-new recording, having been taped at Decca's Hollywood studio in December 1955, only a few weeks before filming began. A few months prior to shooting the film, the Comets had undergone a major change in personnel, with several members leaving the group. As a result, most of the songs lip-synched in the film actually feature a different line-up of musicians from those shown performing. The only songs on which all musicians shown on screen were also involved in the recording session are "See You Later Alligator", the rehearsal prior to "R-O-C-K" and the live-on-camera rendition of "Rudy's Rock". During the performances of "Rock Around the Clock", Franny Beecher is shown playing the guitar for Danny Cedrone, who had originally been on the recording session, and who had died 18 months earlier. Cedrone's guitar work can also be heard on "ABC Boogie", the opening bars of which are performed off-camera.
Impact
Integration
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. Not only that, but at the end of the film the all-black Platters vocal group briefly share the stage with the all-white Comets and Bellboys groups.
Rock Around the Clock was one of the major box office successes of 1956, and soon many more rock and roll musical films would be produced. Within a year, Elvis Presley would soon appear in the most popular films of the genre, including Jailhouse Rock and King Creole. Other major films around this time included Rock, Rock, Rock and The Big Beat.
Sequel
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 in order 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''
In 1961, Katzman produced the similarly titled, Twist Around the Clock starring Chubby Checker, which cribbed the script and followed the basic plot to Rock Around the Clock, and as such is often referred to as a remake of the Haley picture, just five years after the original. Like Rock Around the Clock, it was also followed up with a sequel, Don't Knock the Twist.
Home video release
Rock Around the Clock was never released officially on VHS or laserdisc in North America. On January 23, 2007, Sony Pictures released the first Region 1 DVD edition of the film alongside Don't Knock the Rock. The film was not, however, released in its original aspect ratio, and was instead cropped for widescreen.
