Twist Around the Clock

86 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$1.4 million (US/Canada)^[1]

Twist Around the Clock is an American musical film released in 1961. It was a remake of Sam Katzman and Robert E. Kent's Rock Around the Clock. Like Rock Around the Clock, which was followed by a sequel titled Don't Knock the Rock, the film was followed by a sequel titled Don't Knock the Twist.

Plot

Mitch Mason, ex-manager of a once-successful rock band named Jimmy Cook and his Kooks, discovers a dance craze known as the Twist being performed in the small mountain town of Alpine Peaks. He books a band led by Clay Cole and dancers Tina Louden and her brother Larry for a Boston society benefit, and they create a sensation. They are unable to get other bookings, however, because Mitch has spurned the advances of Debbie Marshall, whose father Joe is New York's top talent agent. However, a friend of Mitch's books them into a club where Chubby Checker and Dion DiMucci are also appearing. They are an instant success, and the Twist sweeps New York. When Debbie suspects that Mitch is falling in love with Tina, she gets her father to sign the group on the condition that Tina abstain from marriage for 3 years. The Twisters appear on a nationwide TV jamboree, and Mr. Marshall learns that Mitch and Tina were secretly married before signing the contracts.

Cast

• Chubby Checker as himself
• Dion DiMucci as himself (as Dion)
• Vicki Spencer as herself
• The Marcels as themselves
  • Cornelius Harp (lead singer)
  • Fred Johnson (bass singer)
  • Gene Bricker
  • Ronald Mundy
  • Richard Knauss
  • Allen Johnson
• Clay Cole as himself
• John Cronin as Mitch Mason
• Mary Mitchel as Tina Louden (as Mary Mitchell)
• Maura McGiveney as Debbie Marshall
• Tol Avery as Joe Marshall
• Alvy Moore as Dizzy Bellew
• Lenny Kent as Georgie Clark
• Tom Middleton as Jimmy Cook
• Jeff Malloy as Larry Louden (as Jeff Parker)
• John Bryant as Harry Davis

Production

Twist Around the Clock only cost $250,000 to make, but in less than six months it grossed six million - so of course I'm gonna make more 'Twist' movies !

— Sam Katzman

Critical reception

Describing the film as having "something resembling a plot," critic Eleanor Mannikka wrote in AllMovie that "In the end, this teen-oriented tale is best remembered for two of Dion's hit songs, "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer".^[2] Writing for Turner Classic Movies, critic Rob Nixon described the film as "a remake of the first true rock 'n' roll musical, Rock Around the Clock (1956), with a nearly identical plot."^[3] A review of the film in TV Guide described it as "a bit of good fun" that "bears a certain naive charm of a long-gone era," and that it "is really just an excuse for plenty of rock tunes."^[4]

References

External links

• Twist Around the Clock at IMDb