Bye Bye Birdie
Director: George Sidney
Year Released: 1963
Rating: 2.0
Music sensation and devil-may-care heartthrob Elvis Pre- ... sorry, Conrad Birdie (ahem) gets drafted to go to the Army, but before he leaves he's supposed to kiss one lucky teenager (Ann-Margret) on the Ed Sullivan Show as a kind of send-off/publicity stunt. I'm going to have to agree with original cast members Paul Lynde - who is excellent as the father - and Dick Van Dyke, who both said that this isn't a very good adaptation of the Broadway show, and that the changes made (including focusing more on the Ann-Margret character, changing the Dick Van Dyke character from agent to scientist and altering the song numbers) fail to improve upon the original. This was never exactly in the top tier of musicals to begin with - it's one-dimensional, dated and not exactly profound satire - but some of the numbers are catchy, especially "Kids."
