Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957)

Another "experiment" of mine, uploading full movies.
In this case, I've uploaded the 1957 rock n' roll quickie "Bop Girl Goes Calypso" in it's entirety. (Well, at least as "complete" as it was when I taped it off of the tv back in 1994!)
Portions of this movie have been uploaded here on You Tube before, but I think that this is the first time the whole movie has been uploaded.
In it, real-life songwriter Bobby Troupe plays a scientist with a special applause-o-meter. While conducting experiments, he discovers that the level of applause for rock n' roll has gone down(!) while calypso is on the rise! (And, as anyone who's collected the Time-Life 1950's Collections can assert, this movie was 100% accurate and of course calypso supplanted rock n' roll...and the Beatles were influenced by Harry Bellafonte and NOT Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, or Buddy Holly!!) :-)
In addition to the "realism"(?) of this slice of pop culture, you can see the late Judy Tyler as the love interest and title character. She's a rock n' roll night club singer who Bobby Troupe has to convince that the rock n' roll tide is about to be washed out and that she should, well, "Go Calypso"...before it's too late.
Of course, many rock n' roll fans, unfamiliar with her work on children's tv back in the '50's, would recognize her as Elvis' love interest in that same year's "Jailhouse Rock."
Look for performances by do wop group The Titans (where you can find complete versions of their "So Hard To Laugh" uploaded here on You Tube), as well as the incredible acrobatic "Goofers."
Nino Tempo (who would hit big in the early '60's with sister April Stevens) gets to perform his "Horn Rock", in it's entirety, at the opening credits, contrasting his earlier edited performance of the same number a year before in "The Girl Can't Help It."
Lounge performers The Mary Kaye Trio bring in more rocking numbers in a sort of Louis Prima/Keely Smith/Sam Butera sounding-kind of way, and of course, this movie about calypso wouldn't be complete without an actual calypso act. So also on hand, is Lord Flea and his Calypsonians, the only "calypso" act in this movie supposedly about calypso. (Where's Harry Belafonte?!)
Swing dancers, you'll also note the presence of those latter-day '50's lindy hoppers who frequented '50's rock n' roll movies with, admittedly, '40's style swing dancing. Gil and Nikky Brady, Joe Lanza, and many other professional dancers do their thing, even though they don't get as much screen time as they would in "Don't Knock The Rock" or "Untamed Youth."
Still, all in all, it's a wonderful, if absurd, slice of American b-movie drive-in cinema, circa, 1957.
Enjoy it while you can, since this version will be replaced in a few weeks with...additions (more on that on this channel, later.)

[@pierredubois719]

Been telling people about this movie for 40 years. Immense inadvertent entertainment value. The songwriting is strictly from hunger but Tyler gives it her all. Always wondered if she did her own singing. Fine performance by the great Lucien Littlefield, as well as George O'Hanlon (Joe McDoakes, George Jetson). Rises above average with fine musical guest numbers. Thank you for posting.

[@SWRealMusic]

Love the sound

[@prestonwilson7281]

So cool! Love the music and the movie too.

[@DRIVEIN101]

The story of lovely starlet Judy Tyler is one of the sadder ones in Hollywood. This and "Jailhouse Rock" were her only two movies. She would never get to enjoy the final prints of eiither one as she lost her life tragically at the way-too-young age of 24...just after finishing her work with Elvis 😢

[@chrisrattray8958]

The guy Bob, at looks like a young Liam Neeson

[@KingOFuh]

Bobby Troup, jazz pianist who wrote "Get Your Kicks On Route 66." He was a friend of Jack Webb and appeared in several Dragnet 1967 episodes. Then, in the 1970's, he starred in the Jack Webb-produced series, Emergency, along with wife Julie London.