{"id":1230,"date":"2006-07-06T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2006-07-07T01:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2021-07-24T21:50:04","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T04:50:04","slug":"go-johnny-go-1958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1230","title":{"rendered":"Go, Johnny, Go! (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Make it happen out there, Johnny! Swing it!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Poster-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-20954\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Poster-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Poster.jpg 491w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nRock &#8216;n roll deejay Alan Freed tells Chuck Berry the story of a fictional orphan (Jimmy Clanton) who becomes beloved rock star &#8220;Johnny Melody&#8221;. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flashback Films<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Rock &#8220;n Roll<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary points out, this rock musical has a &#8220;paper-thin story&#8221;, &#8220;static direction by Lew Landers&#8221;, and an &#8220;overly rude, chip-on-his-shoulder portrayal by Clanton, which makes one think Johnny doesn&#8217;t deserve a break&#8221;. My advice is to ignore the lame storyline altogether, and focus instead on the run of &#8220;solid-gold&#8221; musical performances by 1950s legends such as the Cadillacs, the Flamingos, Eddie Cochran, and Ritchie Valens (singing &#8220;Ooh My Head&#8221; in what Peary believes &#8220;is the only extant footage of him&#8221;). As Peary notes, &#8220;you&#8217;ll love how teenagers and adults on-screen react to this music&#8221;; meanwhile, he provides an interesting bit of trivia by pointing out that, because &#8220;rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll was going through an image problem&#8221;, the stars are all &#8220;well groomed and unthreatening&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ritchie Valens in his only (?) on-screen performance<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens-1024x641.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"401\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-46928\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens-1024x641.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens-128x80.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens-768x481.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Valens.png 1525w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The Cadillacs performing &#8220;Jay Walker&#8221; and &#8220;Please Mr. Johnson&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs-1024x643.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"402\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-46929\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs-1024x643.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs-128x80.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs-768x482.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Go-Johnny-Go-Cadillacs.png 1533w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s worth a look for the musical acts, which are indeed a treat. However, this one really should have been a performance film rather than a pseudo-biopic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0051665\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/reviews.thatcow.com\/review\/1234\">That Cow Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/70336.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Make it happen out there, Johnny! Swing it!&#8221; Synopsis: Rock &#8216;n roll deejay Alan Freed tells Chuck Berry the story of a fictional orphan (Jimmy Clanton) who becomes beloved rock star &#8220;Johnny Melody&#8221;. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Flashback Films Musicals Rock &#8220;n Roll Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: As Peary points out, this rock musical has a &#8220;paper-thin story&#8221;, &#8220;static direction by Lew Landers&#8221;, and an &#8220;overly rude, chip-on-his-shoulder portrayal by Clanton, which makes one think Johnny doesn&#8217;t deserve a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1230\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74333,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions\/74333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}