David Essex Double Bill - That'll Be The Day / Stardust (DVD)

CAST:

David Essex (as Jim MacLaine)
Ringo Starr (as Mike)
Rosemary Leach (as Mrs MacLaine, Jim's mother)
Robert Lindsay (as Terry Sutcliffe, Jim's schoolfriend)
Billy Fury (as Stormy Tempest)
Keith Moon (as J D Clover, drummer with Stormy Tempest's band)
James Booth (as Mr MacLaine, Jim's father)
Deborah Watling (as Sandra, Jim's one-night stand at holiday camp)
Patti Love (as ...
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PRODUCERS: David Puttman and Sandy Lieberson

SCREENPLAY: Ray Connolly (adapted from his novel of the same name)

LENGTH: 194 minutes

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1973

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That'll Be The Day is set in 1959, and tells the story of how school dropout and rock'n'roll singer wannabe Jim MacLaine, loses his innocence.

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CAST:

David Essex (as Jim MacLaine)
Ringo Starr (as Mike)
Rosemary Leach (as Mrs MacLaine, Jim's mother)
Robert Lindsay (as Terry Sutcliffe, Jim's schoolfriend)
Billy Fury (as Stormy Tempest)
Keith Moon (as J D Clover, drummer with Stormy Tempest's band)
James Booth (as Mr MacLaine, Jim's father)
Deborah Watling (as Sandra, Jim's one-night stand at holiday camp)
Patti Love (as Sandra's friend, Mike's one-night stand at holiday camp)
Rosalind Ayres (as Jeanette, Jim's girlfriend then wife)
Beth Morris (as Jean Sutcliffe, Terry's sister)
Daphne Oxenford (as Mrs Sutcliffe, Terry & Jean's mother)
James Ottaway (Jim's grandfather)

DIRECTOR: Claude Witham

PRODUCERS: David Puttman and Sandy Lieberson

SCREENPLAY: Ray Connolly (adapted from his novel of the same name)

LENGTH: 194 minutes

YEAR OF RELEASE: 1973

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That'll Be The Day is set in 1959, and tells the story of how school dropout and rock'n'roll singer wannabe Jim MacLaine, loses his innocence.

Like with the other films and plays I have reviewed, I don't want to give the plot away to anybody who hasn't seen it and wants to, so I will just give a very brief outline of the setting for That'll Be The Day.

This was David Essex's first major film role (he had played tiny parts in one or two other minor late 1960s films), and he was nominated for Best Newcomer, with Rosemary Leach who played his mother, being nominated for best actress.

On coming home in 1944 after serving in WW2, Mr MacLaine tries to settle down with his wife and then small son (Jim), working behind the counter in the grocery shop which the family owned and ran. After not too long, Mr MacLaine becomes very disillusioned with the small town way of life - he saw too much while in action during WW2 - and he packs his bags and leaves, with his wife and young Jim watching, as he walks down the road, out of their lives forever.

The film then jumps forward to Jim at age 15, bored and restless in the school classroom. He and his friend Terry are cycling home, when Jim suddenly empties his satchel, and throws his books into the river. He goes home, packs a bag, and hitches a ride on the back of a truck to a seaside town where at first, he takes a job hiring out deck chairs on the beach.

A little time passes, and Jim goes to work at a holiday camp where he is befriended by his Jack-The-Lad chalet mate, Mike (Ringo Starr). Mike bit by bit teaches Jim the tricks of the trade, and at the end of the summer season, Jim joins Mike working for a travelling fair. It is at this fair that Jim really gets down to the business of learning what life is all about, and much more happens to him in his life throughout the rest of the film.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS:

JIM MacLAINE

Naive, but intelligent young man who has dreams of being a rock & roll star. He learns the ropes of life through Mike, his working colleague, yet gradually Jim becomes disillusioned with life on the road.

MRS MacLAINE

Jim's mother is a rather feisty, yet dutiful lady who dreams of her son doing well in life and going off to university. This one-sided vision she has of what Jim should be doing, makes her at times somewhat controlling and just a little emotionally blackmailing here and there. A strong lady who is a survivor, but can't bear letting her son go.

MIKE

Mike is a sharp-witted but friendly, easy-going sort of man who teaches Jim the ways of the world.

TERRY SUTCLIFFE

Jim's rather straight-laced friend who stays on the straight and narrow, pleases his parents, and, like a good boy, goes off to university. Terry doesn't really approve of Jim's decision to chuck in school and follow his dream - his (Terry's) catchphrase throughout the film is "well bugger me!".

JEAN SUTCLIFFE

Terry's sister who .......... well, you'd better see the film for that!!!

JEANETTE

Jim's rather innocent and naive doe-eyed girlfriend. Jeanette can see no wrong at all in Jim, and defends all of his actions throughout the film.

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A BRIEF DESCRIPTION (without giving away the story) OF SOME OF MY FAVOURITE SCENES IN THE FILM:

1) That wonderful part where Jim rather clumsily loses his virginity in a holiday camp chalet. Ten out of ten to David Essex for the way he acted this scene.

2) The wild drum solo performed by J D Clover (Keith Moon), played while in "attack" mode on Stormy Tempest (Billy Fury).

3) The jiving contest held at the holiday camp. It's wonderful watching the way the winning couple dance.

4) The exchange between Jim and Mike when Jim for the first time spots Mike's tattoo.

5) The backbiting which goes on between Jim, Jean and Terry at a family gathering.

6) A wonderful scene where Jim is scorned by Terry's friends at a university dance.

7) Terry's ride on "The Whip" at the fairground where Jim works.

8) The very ending of the film, which I won't give away....it's so incredibly well-acted.

9) Jim's drunken scene with the policeman on the end of the pier.

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What is so good about the film "That'll Be The Day"?

I think above all, it just has to be that the directors, producers and actors worked so very well together, and managed to create a powerful atmosphere throughout the film which is so very accurately reminiscent of how Britain truly was in those days - there is a very marked contrasting of the rebellion of youth running alongside the rather stoical lives of the adults, who expected their children to behave in the same way as themselves.

So very much attention was paid to accurate detail in this film. For instance, the corner shop which Mrs MacLaine ran is, in the film, exactly how a typical corner shop would have been back in those days, which is very different to how they are now, or even in 1973 when "That'll Be The Day" was released.

The whole film, especially the scenes shot at the fairground, is done to a backdrop of 1950s rock & roll music, and it appears to me that great care was taken to make sure that music which hadn't yet been released in 1959 wasn't used in the score.

On a more personal level, and aligning the fairground scenes in "That'll Be The Day" with my own childhood experiences in Southend-on-Sea's infamous Kursaal during the late 1950s, I can honestly say that this film hits the nail spot on, right into the very heart and soul of what it was all about. It is very hard for me to find the right words to explain exactly what I mean, suffice to say that no matter how good and well produced, directed and acted, any film may be, this one truly is a work of art for its historic portrayal down the road of creating the right atmosphere.

The whole thing is just so RIGHT.....there are no duff moments in the film at all. The clothes worn are spot on, the conversations passing between the actors are spot on, the places look exactly as they would have done at that time - this is just true perfection.

As far as the acting is concerned, it is a little sad that David Essex's speaking voice let him down a lot. It isn't the cockney accent....far from it....it's just that a lot of his lines, especially in the earlier part of the film, are rather stilted and lacking in character......but, on the other hand, David's other areas of acting such as his body movements, facial expressions etc., are so very well done by him that it more or less completely compensates for him falling down a bit on the vocal side.

Rosemary Leach was wonderful as the rather domineering matriarchal type, but in my opinion the no.1 acting award in this film has to go to Ringo Starr. He was a true natural playing the part of Mike - he looked the part, he spoke his lines in exactly the right way, he pulled all the right expressions on his face and did all the right body movements/language. I believe in this film, Ringo showed us that maybe he had missed his vocation? As a Beatle, I (sorry Ringo but this is just how I felt) always tended to see him as a bit of a "token Beatle" and that John, George and Paul were the force behind the band....but Ringo opens up a side of himself in "That'll Be The Day" that makes us see him as a truly talented individual in his own right, but outside of The Beatles and the world of music.

To summarise - "That'll Be The Day" is my 4th all-time favourite film, and I can appreciate it from two angles - the first, is that the early part of the film touches closely to my own early life, and the second is that viewing it dispassionately, it is just a damned good all-round piece of entertainment that hasn't got one single boring moment in it, from start to finish.

If you want to know what the 1950s felt like, watch "That'll Be The Day".

Now...as I close, I have to put a slight downer on what is an otherwise perfect film. In 1975, a follow-up to "That'll Be The Day" was made....this was "Stardust". Recently the two films have been put together on DVD, and you can buy them in any music shop or from various movie DVD outlets on the internet. Even though "Stardust" was a deliberate follow-up to "That'll Be The Day" and took Jim MacLaine (still played by David Essex) onto the next phase of his life, it is my opinion that it ("Stardust") is one of the very worst films ever made and is only fit for industrial land-fill. The acting on it is diabolical, by everybody (yes including David Essex), and the most ridiculous part of all was that the story continues with Mike from "That'll Be The Day", but in "Stardust", Mike is played by Adam Faith. I don't know if the same directors and producers were responsible for "Stardust", but whoever directed/produced this trashy debacle, might at least have chosen somebody who vaguely resembled Ringo Starr to play the ongoing part of Mike. Even though it wasn't very good, I'm not necessarily criticising Adam Faith's acting - in fact, he probably was the best actor in "Stardust" - just that it didn't make sense using him as Mike when in the previous film Mike had been played by Ringo Starr.

The storyline of "Stardust" is weak, and it is a complete mish-mash of disjointed, tedious nonsense. What an anti-climax for somebody to buy this DVD containing both films - to settle down for the evening and thoroughly enjoy "That'll Be The Day" (as I'm sure most, if not all people would), then to be utterly deflated by watching "Stardust" as the worse than 10th rate follow-up.

As far as "That'll Be The Day" is concerned, I'd nag everyone to watch it as you will find it utterly delightful, but if you buy the two films together on DVD, forget all about "Stardust" as it is truly crap, and may even taint your enjoyment of "That'll Be The Day".

Better still, try and find a video or a DVD of "That'll Be The Day" on its own, and enshrine it as a golden gem of 1970s cinema.

Thanks for reading!

~~Also published on DooYoo under my GentleGenius name~~ 

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