Musical Monday: Senior Prom (1958)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Senior Prom (1958) – Musical #822

Studio:
Columbia Pictures

Director:
David Lowell Rich

Starring:
Jill Corey, Paul Hampton, James Komack, Barbara Bostock, Tom Laughlin, Frieda Inescort, Peggy Moffitt, Selene Walters, Francis De Sales
Themselves: Ed Sullivan, Mitch Miller, Bob Crosby, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Sam Butera, The Witnesses, Connee Boswell, Toni Arden, Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, José Melis, Les Elgart

Plot:
A band, featuring Tom Harper (Hampton) on vocals and Dog (Komack) on the bass fiddle, are hired to perform at a college fraternity party. Carter Breed II (Laughlin) automatically dislikes Tom and the band when his girlfriend Gay Sherridan (Corey) automatically is smitten with Tom. As Tom and Gay begin a romance, Carter tries to sabotage the romance and Tom’s music career. However, Tom’s music becomes a hit and he appears on the Ed Sullivan Show. His new fame allows him to invite celebrity performers to the college’s senior prom.

Trivia:
• Final feature film appearance of Connee Boswell
• Originally announced that Carol Haney would star, according to a May 1958 Hollywood Reporter news item
• Louis Prima and Keely Smith filmed their scene at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel, according to an Aug. 1958 Hollywood Reporter news item
• First feature film of Paul Hampton.

Highlights:
• Peggy Moffitt

Notable Songs:
• “That Old Black Magic” performed by Louis Prima and Keely Smith
There are several songs in the film, but most aren’t worth noting or remembering

My review:
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes you start a movie and look at the actors and think, “Who are these people?” That’s how I felt when I started SENIOR PROM and Jill Corey, Paul Hampton, Barbara Bostick and James Komack are trotted out as our leads.

The only main actor I knew was Tom Laughlin and we get fleeting scenes with future model Peggy Moffit and two scenes with the wonderful Frieda Inescort. If you make it to the end, you see familiar musical faces like Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Bob Crosby.
Would this movie be better if the lead actors were better known? It’s hard to say. The story is thin, but worst of all, the songs aren’t so hot.

In the film, a band, featuring Tom Harper (Hampton) on vocals and Dog (Komack) on the bass fiddle, are hired to perform at a college fraternity party. Carter Breed II (Laughlin) automatically dislikes Tom and the band when his girlfriend Gay Sherridan (Corey) automatically is smitten with Tom. As Tom and Gay begin a romance, Carter tries to sabotage the romance and Tom’s music career. However, Tom’s music becomes a hit and he appears on the Ed Sullivan Show. His new fame allows him to invite celebrity performers to the college’s senior prom.

For some reason I had a hard time getting started on this review, because the movie was just so stupid. Worst of all, the song that becomes a hit for Tom’s band, “Love,” is terrible! The film is filled with music, but none of the songs performed by Jill Corey, Paul Hampton, Barbara Bostick and James Komack are memorable. They are, however, sprinkled throughout in a traditional musical fashion. This surprised me, because I thought the main music performed in the film would be the songs performed by the celebrities at the senior prom.

Truthfully, as actors and characters, the leads in the film stink and are stupid. I didn’t care about any of them and was on the verge of siding with Tom Laughlin’s character.

Of the tolerable characters, stately and sophisticated Frieda Inescort appears all too briefly. She even had a larger role in JUKE BOX RHYTHM!

I also loved seeing future model Peggy Moffitt slink on and off screen with her cigarette holder. She plays a minor character who is trying to get Laughlin’s attention. She later became well-known as a major 1960s fashion model with a distinctive hair cut and bold eye makeup, so it’s interesting to see her here.

Tom Laughlin and Peggy Moffitt

The film touts many big name singers from Louis Prima and Keely Smith to Bob Crosby. These singers are shown in a musical montage towards the end to make it appear they are all performing at the college prom. What a line up!

The film was nearing the end of several performer’s feature film career including Inescort. It also features Bob Crosby in his second to last film role and

Nearing the end of several careers – second to last film for Bob Crosby and is the final film credit of Connee Boswell, formerly of the singing trio, The Boswell Sisters.

What’s odd (other than the film not being great), is that the credits are so similar to how GIDGET (1959) appears a year later. The Kingsmen sing a title song and the titles pop up in a fun font with geometric shapes – though this time it’s in black-and-white.

The unfortunate thing about SENIOR PROM (1958) is that I was looking forward to it. It seemed like my kind of movie. But as soon as Barbara Bostick and James Komack came on the screen acting goofy, I knew I was in trouble. Maybe if actors like James Darren, Sandra Dee, Tuesday Weld or Connie Francis had been our leads instead, this would have been better. This movie isn’t readily available, but you aren’t missing much.

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