Wonderful Life (aka Swingers Paradise) (1964)

A band is stranded on the Canary Islands without funds. When they run into a film company shooting a movie, the band's lead singer (Cliff Richard) gets a job as a stunt man for the film's male star (Derek Bond). His attraction to the movie's young leading lady (Susan Hampshire) leads to complications. Directed by Sidney J. Furie (THE IPCRESS FILE). The majority of movies starring pop stars during this period are a bland lot yet audiences seemed to eat them up. Honestly, most of Elvis Presley's 1960s movies were inane and England's number one pop star Cliff Richard is no exception. The plot is silly. Instead of those "Hey gang, let's put on a show" Garland & Rooney flicks, we get "Hey gang, let's make a movie!". Cliff Richard showed some ability and a sexual heat before he became a big pop star in films like EXPRESSO BONGO and SERIOUS CHARGE, both 1959 but here he's fresh scrubbed and asexual (even Pat Boone had more sex appeal). The songs are forgettable and while Gillian Lyne's energetic choreography is very good, it's wasted here. With Walter Slezak, Una Stubbs and The Shadows (Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Brian Bennett, John Rostill).