If they edited out the music bits, this film would have been quite enjoyable. The musical numbers are mostly brain-clawing but they have their merits on their own.
I came across this film through MST3K and I have to say this film was a bad choice for the show. It was too good for MST3K and that their commentary was only necessary through the musical numbers.
As for the acting, not spectacular but passable enough to make me not cringe or anything like that. Even the musical numbers were passably choreographed. The plot was alright, had some themes that have haunting overtones 50 years after the fact - and that may have been the saving grace of the film. In fact, in the oblique fashion of an exploitation film, the theme was done justice in the film. If it had been a disparaging polemic on the subject, it would have gone into the deep end of ultimate Heinleinian hot-air. But it didn't do that. No, it danced around the subject as though we were supposed to be more afraid of the adults who were going to put us in our place by instigating fear into the teenagers and children of the time.
As for the musical numbers - I'd rather listen to them on a CD, not spliced into a film at random intervals. The writing could have been a lot tighter here and that is probably why it stunk for so long.
I came across this film through MST3K and I have to say this film was a bad choice for the show. It was too good for MST3K and that their commentary was only necessary through the musical numbers.
As for the acting, not spectacular but passable enough to make me not cringe or anything like that. Even the musical numbers were passably choreographed. The plot was alright, had some themes that have haunting overtones 50 years after the fact - and that may have been the saving grace of the film. In fact, in the oblique fashion of an exploitation film, the theme was done justice in the film. If it had been a disparaging polemic on the subject, it would have gone into the deep end of ultimate Heinleinian hot-air. But it didn't do that. No, it danced around the subject as though we were supposed to be more afraid of the adults who were going to put us in our place by instigating fear into the teenagers and children of the time.
As for the musical numbers - I'd rather listen to them on a CD, not spliced into a film at random intervals. The writing could have been a lot tighter here and that is probably why it stunk for so long.