Expresso Bongo (1959)

A seedy down on his luck promoter (Laurence Harvey) discovers a teen age singer (Cliff Richard) and signs him to a four year contract even though he is underage. He's exploiting the young boy but it's not long before an aging American singer (Yolande Donlan) and a record company executive (Meier Tzelniker) realize they can profit from the young boy, too. A shrewd and clever satire on the cutthroat music business, it's based on a hit West End musical but the film makers have pretty much eliminated most of the songs from the original show and made it more of a comedy with music rather than a musical. In the film, only Cliff Richard is given songs to sing. Even so, it remains a sharp and canny look at the music business. Harvey is as unconvincing as always but since he's playing a phony, it's not a problem. Donlan is very good, she's quite amusing while still letting us see her desperation as she realizes her career is on the downswing. The songs are a forgettable bunch but Cliff Richard has a crude charm. Directed by Val Guest (THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT). With Sylvia Syms, Hermione Baddeley, Eric Pohlmann and Burt Kwouk.