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| John Ashley |
John Abernathy III (John Ashley) lives with his two dotty aunts, Abigail (Helen Spring) and Anastasia (Dorothy Neumann). According to the dictates of a will, John must stick to the straight and narrow in his behavior, so he has to hide his interest in hot rods -- especially when he splashes mud on an old prune, Dryden Philpott (Lester Dorr) -- and rock and roll. Wearing a false beard, John becomes a singer called "Jackson Dalrymple." Meanwhile John carries on a mild romance with new girl Lois (Jody Fair of Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow), whom he at first mistakes for a square. Bandleader Gene Vincent plays himself. Ashley is nice-looking, professional, and manlier than the usual boys in these movies, but he radiates a kind of negative aura, and it's perhaps understandable why he never amounted to much as an actor (he later turned producer). Russ Bender is on hand as a cop, Dub Taylor is Al, and Claire Du Brey [Everybody's Baby], Marie Dressler's companion, plays Agatha, the peppery maid. There are several songs -- you can have a full life without hearing any of them.
Verdict: Not much about hot rods in this flick. *1/2.
The only name in this one I recognize is reliable Dub Taylor. Thanks goodness for those unforgettable character actors, they feel like old friends in a movie that has nothing else going for it. Too bad the music and the star (though cute) don't seem to make this one worthwhile.
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Ashley did have an acting career for a while but when you star in movies like this and "Frankenstein's Daughter" you'd better get to the other side of the camera real quick!
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