Play It Cool is a 1962 British musical film directed by Michael Winner and starring Billy Fury, Michael Anderson Jr., Helen Shapiro, Bobby Vee, Shane Fenton, Danny Williams, Dennis Price, Richard Wattis, Maurice Kaufmann and Anna Palk.[1]

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Play it Cool
British theatrical poster
Directed by	Michael Winner
Screenplay by	Jack Henry
Produced by	David Deutsch Leslie Parkyn Julian Wintle
Starring	Billy Fury Michael Anderson Jr. Helen Shapiro Bobby Vee
Cinematography	Reginald H. Wyer
Edited by	Tristam Cones
Music by	Norrie Paramor
Production companies	Independent Artists Coronado Productions Ltd.
Distributed by	Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
Release date	March 1962 (1962-03)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

It was one of several pop musicals released around this time.[2]

Plot

Struggling singer Billy Universe (Billy Fury) and his band befriend an heiress who, against the wishes of her father (Dennis Price), is searching for her lover whom she has been forbidden to see and with whom she is hoping to elope.[3] The main characters visit a succession of nightclubs where other stars are performing. There are guest appearances by Lionel Blair and Bernie Winters, as well as by record producer Norrie Paramor.[4] The only hit from the songs featured in the film was Fury's rendition of "Once Upon a Dream".

Cast

• Billy Fury - Billy Universe
• Michael Anderson, Jr. - Alvin
• Helen Shapiro - Herself
• Bobby Vee - Himself
• Dennis Price - Sir Charles Bryant
• Richard Wattis - Nervous Man
• Danny Williams - Himself
• Shane Fenton - Himself
• Jimmy Crawford - Himself
• Lionel Blair - Himself
• Anna Palk - Ann Bryant
• Felicity Young - Yvonne Pemberton
• Ray Brooks - Freddy
• Jeremy Bulloch - Joey
• Maurice Kaufmann - Larry Granger
• Peter Barkworth - Skinner
• Bernie Winters - Sydney Norman

Production

It was an early film from Michael Winner who said he was given the job off the back of several short films he had made. He later commented: "they started to make pop films and that provided the break for young directors. The French New Wave had produced a few young directors and the idea of a director in his twenties was not totally unheard of. That’s how Sidney Furie came in, you know, with Cliff Richard. Dick Lester came in with It’s Trad Dad, and the same week I came in with a film called Play It Cool with Billy Fury."[5]

Winner called it "Britain’s first twist film. Except nobody was twisting there yet, so they didn’t quite know what it was.... But working on a feature film of whatever calibre was obvious preferable to sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring." He wanted to make the movie on location in real clubs but the producers turned down the idea: “We don’t want to go into the West End where would we park the cars and have lunch? Besides we have all these lovely men at pinewood doing nothing and we think they ought to build something. So they put up a lot of rubbish as they always do a few potted plants and bits of hardboard with wallpaper on them then filled the place with extras looking bored."[6]

Reception

The New York Times, reviewer Eugene Archer called Fury "a Cockney imitation of Elvis Presley" and commented: "some low-budget British filmmakers have contrived a flimsy plot in which he and his gang of Teddyboys escort a pretty socialite around London's twist dives in search of her fickle fiancé. ... The film is full of wiggling hips, throbbing larynxes and youthful energy. As for the sound track–well, it's loud."[7]

References

External links

• Play It Cool at IMDb