thejcowboy22
Being a a six year old boy who has a limited attention span, who also gets distracted easily with a dash of restlessness can result in natural recipe for disaster in a controlled space ,mainly a movie theater.. My older sister Donna was a huge fan of actress Ann-Margeret who was the up and coming talent of that time coupled with Bobby Rydell recording artist and heart throb of the top 40 circuit was the hook as Donna gave me the third degree by telling me to be quiet plus the list of DON'TS. Don't kick the person's chair in front of you. Don't pull your sisters braids. Don't interrupt us by going to the concession stands for candy or drinks. Don't yell out or make annoying sounds during the film and just don't touch anything! Off to the Franklin Square Cinema for an afternoon of watching an adult picture.The movie grabbed my attention right from the get go with the opening choreographed and brilliantly edited Telephone sketch entitled (Going steady) About the lovely red headed KIm MacAfee (Ann-Margaret) and Hugo Peabody (Bobby Rydell)high school boy friend. Kim won a contest to say goodbye to Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson)the hottest Rock and Roll star in the U.S.A.who is drafted in this man's army.Putting this contest together is Songwriter/ biochemist Albert Peterson played Dick Van Dyke and his patient girlfriend Rosie DeLeon (Janet Leigh).This contest was suggested to Ed Sullivan by Peterson. Not only will Kim represent all the young hopeful screaming teens but Conrad will perform the Song One Last Kiss written by Peterson on the ever popular Ed Sullivan Show seen by the whole country on Sunday night with that part of the show live from Sweet Apple,Ohio. At the conclusion Conrad will give a big wet kiss to the vivacious Kim under heavy objections from her father the wise cracking Harry MacAfee (Paul Lynde) and his Wife Doris (Mary LaRoche)who end up housing Peterson, Rosie and Conrad Birdie complete with jumpsuits and his motorcycle which is a great addition to the Macafee's living room. Also crashing the MacAfee Houshold if that wasn't enough,is the Mink stole clad, dour, meddling and extremely overbearing Mother Peterson played to perfection by Maureen Stapleton who throws constant guilt at her Son and Rosie plus attempted suicides for good measure like putting her head in the kitchen stove.The musical numbers just superb. The MacAfee's tolerate the mayhem because Harry is awestruck with the thought of appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show which manifests into the heavenly dream sketch as Harry and Family break into comical song.I loved all the musical numbers so much so my sister bought the soundtrack. The What's The Matter With Kids routine was another of my favorites as Paul Lynde puts his imprint all over this movie. The Camera seems to love Dick Van Dyke and Ann-Margeret as for the most part their stars shine throughout. Janet Leigh in that black wig din't seem to bother me but her agility and dance routine with the fez gang is something I'll never forget. The afternoon sped by and before I knew it Ann was singing Bye Bye Bird-hee and waved bye bye. All the "DON'TS" didn't come into play as this movie captured my imagination. Thank G-d we didn't go see Come Blow Your Horn. Great family entertainment. I only wished I'd seen the Original Broadway cast production but some things are kept unseen. I only wonder what the film would be like if Elvis Presley was in the role of Conrad?
ags123
On the surface, this film is still moderately entertaining. But there's much to take away from it half a century later that was never intended. It depicts a world that suddenly disappeared soon after. Clinging to the last vestiges of Eisenhower-era innocence (when the Broadway production played) the film was dated by the time it opened. 1963 ushered in a slew of events that changed everything - the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, The Beatles. The people of "Bye Bye Birdie" didn't know what was about to hit them. Ann- Margret's chaste romance with Bobby Rydell is way too saccharine. Janet Leigh is an uncomfortable choice as a Latina spitfire (a role played onstage by Chita Rivera who apparently wasn't palatable for movie audiences). Paul Lynde steals the show with his hilarious signature shtick, which today would be openly gay. It's hard to take any of this without a grain of salt. Not to be overlooked are the embarrassing opening and closing sequences where Ann-Margret sings and mugs for the camera while inexplicably mispronouncing "Birdie."
Vern Sheldon-Witter
All that Progesterone and Testosterone packed into one movie? It looks innocent now,but in it's time it was a bit racy. Thinly veiled parody of Elvis going into the service,and how one lucky(?) young teenage girl scintillatingly played by Ann Margaret (straight out of Northwestern)as the symbol for all that hormone driven lust (as we are supposed to believe it)from Sweet Apple Ohio representing all female teenagers getting "One Last Kiss". The high spots of the movie were the side stories,Paul Lynde as Ann's Dad who develops a pill to speed up agriculture gone horribly right-and Dick Van Dyke with a constantly frustrated girl-patiently played by Janet Leigh. It is more of a snap of an era and less of a musical-but I would have given my right arm to have seen it played out on stage. Dick Gauthier would have made a better (and more believable) Conrad Byrdie.
Edgar Soberon Torchia
Ugly hetero-maniac fantasy that unintentionally gives a revealing portrait of American middle class' fears and morality in the 1960s. The inhabitants of a little town feel threatened by Conrad Birdie, a pop rock singer (inspired in Elvis Presley) who unwittingly questions their social, cultural and sexual roles, just by being himself. When this film was released in 1963 I was 12 years old and for some reason I never saw it, but I remember that Jesse Pearson (in his personification of Birdie) caught my attention, as much as Ann-Margret, whose career was in ascent, playing Kim McAfee, the teenage girl who will receive a farewell kiss from Birdie, when he is recruited by the Army. Today when at last I saw it I realized that both are the best elements of this motion picture. However, when the musical ends, the starry-eyed and rebellious Kim has been "tamed". As she sings the final song, the 22 year old actress, who looked like a teenager during the rest of the film, suddenly seems older, more "adult", but not because Birdie passed through her life, but following the Hollywood strategy to turn her into a new Swedish sex icon. Growing up for Kim does not mean renouncing to the pleasures that Birdie offers, but to adjust to the romance with her hometown boyfriend (Bobby Rydell), including the games in car backseats. Conrad Birdie, on the other hand, disappears during long stretches of the narrative and is finally disposed of, when the silly hometown boyfriend knocks him down. But Birdie is not the typical vain and blunt rock star. He is a pleasant parodic character, and Pearson plays him with gusto, always smiling, always mocking. It is obvious that the actor is enjoying it, and making fun of the character in the best Brechtian tradition. He makes fun of what Birdie represents, and it is not only Elvis, but all those macho singers who, with a boastful "profusion of testosterone", seduce women and men alike, even if males opt to deny the erotic attraction, accusing the artist of homosexual (as it often happened with Elvis). With every pelvic movement (as emphatic or perhaps even more striking than the movement of hips during sexual intercourse) Birdie creates chaos among the white citizens of the Capraesque town of Sweet Apple, Ohio, dazed with his arrival. Birdie is fun; he preaches sincerity and expresses his philosophy of pleasure in song and dance. But there was no space for him (and for that matter, for Pearson, who quickly disappeared from films) in this reactionary state of things: and I do not mean the supposedly funny jokes on the Soviets, so typical of American humor during the Cold War, but its agenda in defense of the respectability and status quo of the moral majority, opting to exalt the romance of the heterosexual couples (one of which changes music composition for chemistry to get married), through lackluster songs and trite choreography.
