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MovieMail's Review
A musical comedy fronted by Anthony Newley, Idol on Parade sees a pop star pressed into National Service (possibly inspired by Elvis Presley’s joining the US Army the previous year) and by various ruses manages to continue his recording career.
It’s a breezy confection with a certain pedigree: director John Gilling is better known for his horror work with Hammer Films; and screenwriter John Antrobus wrote for TV and radio shows including The Goon Show and That Was The Week That Was.
The cast is a virtual roll-call of postwar film comedy, from David Lodge, Harry Fowler and Sid James to Lionel Jeffries, Bernie Winters, Percy Herbert and a very young Susan Hampshire. A notable US import is William Bendix, who made his name in 1940 films noirs (The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia) and here plays the gruff-but-softhearted Sergeant Major.
Newley wasn’t famed for his rock’n’roll credentials (the script chooses, rather quaintly, to call it ‘rock-a-boogie’), but the film ironically launched his own chart career, when one of the featured songs, ‘I’ve Waited So Long’, reached number 3 on the singles chart.
Anthony Newley found his career taking off after being cast as the singing idol 'Jeep Jackson', the ‘King of Rock-A-Boogie’, who is called up to National Service in this 1959 British musical comedy.
Jeep does his best to fit in as a squaddie – but soon there are hordes of screaming pop fans at the barracks gates, the other recruits think he’s after their girls – and the C.O.’s daughter (Anne Aubrey) decides that he is the boy of her dreams! Jeep’s devious manager (Sid James) is determined that a little thing like National Service won’t spoil his star’s career. He smuggles him out of camp at every opportunity to perform pop concerts and to cut new hit records. But Jeep’s Sergeant (William
Bendix) is getting very suspicious of what’s going on after lights out...
Idol On Parade features no less than five songs from Anthony Newley, including Idle Rock-A-Boogie, Sat’Day Night Rock-A-Boogie, Won’t Get No Promotion, Idle on Parade and I’ve Waited So Long – two of which were to become smash chart hits.
