Culture Shock

By J.C.

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

Directed by SID LEVIN a nd BOB ABEL

Flashback to the teen-age '50s:

grease and black leather jackets, ankle bracelets, fins on cars, proms. And rock 'n' roll. In the cascade of nostalgia currently inundating the country, an entrepreneur named Richard Nader resurrected an assortment of vintage rock acts (Danny and the Juniors, the 5 Satins, Chubby Checker) and packaged them into a free-floating concert tour called the Rock and Roll Revival. This film is a sort of illustrated program of the show, featuring backstage high lights, biographical chatter and large-scale photo portraits of the stars.

Had it been content to record the onstage performances of the musicians, many of them still rowdy and full of solid, rough energy, the movie would have been enjoyable enough. Film Makers Levin and Abel, however, have also tried to compress the history of the '50s between the concert scenes. Some of the stock footage they unearthed is silly and funny, and some is bafflingly remote:

scenes from television quiz shows like Strike It Rich and Queen for a Day; lectures from the P.T.A. chairwoman about dress codes for the local high school, and from city officials about the dangers of this new music (it was supposed to promote riots, you may recall); Brando on a motorcycle, James Dean slumped across the front seat of a car, Michael Landon turning into a foaming teen-age werewolf.

As long as they concentrate on dusting off these pop curiosities, Levin and Abel do well enough. But they also try, unfortunately, for something a little more substantial. Adlai Stevenson joins Jayne Mansfield, Khrushchev is paired off with the Coasters. There is even a bathetic requiem to some departed figureheads of the decade as the 5 Satins sing I'll Be Seeing You:

Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift -- a soggy and unintentionally demeaning memorial. It is the music that comes off best. The Shirells are funny and sexy, Bo Didley wonderfully raunchy and Chuck Berry, his voice past the point of strain, still kinetic and outrageous. He is a performer who neatly and emphatically encapsulates the lowdown power of rock'n'roll.

sbJ.C.

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