Review of Idol on Parade

One of the enchantments of British Cinema is that scattered throughout its somewhat chequered history in the most unexpected places are little flecks of pure gold like "Idol on Parade". Made by a journeyman director,co-starring an elderly American has-been and an English former child star there is absolutely no reason to expect it to be anything but hack work.Hastily put together to cash in on the public appetite for stories along the "Elvis joins the U.S. Army" lines,"Idol on Parade" should have at best,made a few bob for everybody and been quietly forgotten.But that strange and rare alchemy that no one can predict but everyone can recognise worked its way through the production.Mr William Bendix took on a new lease of life,Mr Lionel Jeffries invented the character that would ensure him a comfortable niche in films for the next 20 years and Mr Anthony Newley a young wily old pro,at last graduated into a major star - albeit not perhaps in the field he had imagined. As Jeep Jackson the conscript pop star.Mr Newley,naturally enough,had to sing a few songs.They were an immediate success and a new aspect to his career had begun. The film itself proved to be very popular with British audiences,deftly directed by John Gilling whose career was sufficiently eclectic to embrace "Old Mother Riley" and "Department S".It was tuneful and it was funny,John Antrobus,later a long-time collaborator with Spike Milligan co-wrote the script. Mr Newley was a performer who defied categorisation.Sometimes he appeared too big for the movies,too ready to push the envelope.Perhaps he was most at home with a live audience where he could depart from the script if the fancy took him.Two years after making "Idol on Parade" he was in the ground breaking "Stop the world - I want to get off".I was lucky enough to see it in the West End early in 1962.Surrounded by a stunning Sean Kenny set,dressed in a black leotard,Mr Newley gave one of the two best performances I have ever seen in the theatre(the other was John Gielgud as Prospero in the 1957 Drury Lane production of "The Tempest").Without the success of "Idol on Parade" I doubt if "Stop the World" would have happened,and a lot of lives would be very different. The gods who look after actors are capricious indeed.