Laurence Harvey gives an agonizing performance in the agonizing "Expresso Bongo," a British film from 1959.A fast-talking low-life agent, Johnny Jackson (Harvey) discovers a young bongo player/singer (Cliff Richard) from a poor family, renames him Bongo Herbert, and brings him to stardom by wheeling and dealing. Shades of Colonel Parker, especially when he takes half of Bongo's earnings. When the singer meets an American star, Dixie Collins (Yolande Donlan) who is making a triumphant return to London, Jackson starts to lose control of his talent.I have no idea what Laurence Harvey, normally a very fine actor, thought he was doing in his portrayal of Johnny Jackson. He comes off like an imitation of Phil Silvers, except when Phil Silvers did this kind of shtick he was hilarious. He's way, way over the top.I watched this film because I wanted to see the young Cliff Richard. Richard was not in this film enough, nor did he sing enough. The speaking voices of some of the other actors, such as Avis Bonnage as Bongo's mother, and Sylvia Syms as Jackson's girlfriend Maisie) were so annoying and incessantly high pitched and screamy, at one point I nearly stopped watching. Richard himself is very natural, not really acting, and he did well in the musical numbers.Sir Cliff Richard was the U.K.'s answer to Elvis and has more top 10 hits than any other artist, spanning a remarkable 50 years. He has the third-highest number of #1 hits in the UK, behind Elvis and The Beatles. He's an institution. And I hated this movie. Like some of Elvis', it's pretty unwatchable. It's a shame we couldn't do better by our national treasures.

This is kind of an annoying low-budget film, but at least I, an American, got to see what the fuss used to be about the UK singer Cliff Richard, whom I had never seen before. I also have never seen Lawrence Harvey in a semi-comedic role. He seemed as if he were on speed, or coke; very annoying. I kept yelling, "Give the guy a Valium!" And his accent drifted from plummy English to South African to European Yiddish, and back again. Most disconcerting.But watch the film for future celebs! There's Hermione Baddley (who was on "Maude"), playing a street-walking prostitute (!), there's Burt Kouwk (who played Cato in all those Pink Panther movies), playing a dissolute Soho youth, and Susan Hampshire ("Upstairs, Downstairs," and various TV movies).The film's depiction of Soho reminded me of old American films' depictions of 42nd St. in N.Y. Really cheesy.And apparently there wasn't too much censorship of British films then, because we see in this film lots of true female nudity (the strippers in the film). Man, I haven't seen breasts like those in ages! (All natural, all non-augmented.) See this as an interesting historical time capsule.

"Expresso Bongo" belongs to my youth.I idolised jazz musicians like Johnny Jackson and derided little poppets like Bongo Herbert.Johnny's ambivalence towards his protegee was perfectly understandable to me as an extension of the jazzers'ideals of not compromising their art for filthy lucre(well,I was only 19). This is the Soho movie par excellence.I'd walked the same streets and been to the same clubs as Johnny on the fringe of "The life" as they call it now.And in 1960 a certain innocence still prevailed in much of the square mile.OK,there were no tarts with hearts,but strippers and song-pluggers,wannabe drummers,agents,bookers,and their like filled the coffee bars and blocked Archer Street every day.It is a world that no longer exists,but if you stand around the "Red Lion" at midday you can still see their ghosts.So this isn't going to be an objective review then. Laurence Harvey was extremely good-looking and extraordinarily ill-used in movies.A ludicrous "Romeo",badly miscast in "Room at the top",sleep walking in "The Alamo"...the list of his bad films is very long indeed. With "EXpresso Bongo" it all came together for him.Unfortunately it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal.Fast-talking jazz drummer Johnny Jackson was meat and drink to him.Skintight trousers,porkpie hat,drooping cigarette,Johnny talked the talk and walked the walk in 1960 Soho. Discovering Bongo Herbert (Cliff Richard playing a mooncalf pop singer) seems to be his ticket to riches,but when Johnny has to swim with the sharks he finds himself outclassed. The dialogue is taut and sharp,the musical numbers(particularly the above quoted"Nausea")rather clever.Wolf Mankiewitz wrote the original show and he had a gift for the telling lyric which is used to its fullest.Sylvia Sims is very sweet and 1960 sexy as Johnny's long-suffering girlfriend.Ten years later she would have been portrayed as a hooker and he as a pimp. Meier Tzelnicker is quite wonderful as an agent who hates pop music but loves money and has absolutely no principles - a breed that has proliferated to this day. Yolande Donlan has a difficult line to tread as Herbert's patroness,obsessed by his youth and beauty and at the same time jealous of his popularity and aware of his commercial value.She is not much remembered today which is rather sad because she had a certain vulnerable brassiness that never teetered over into caricature. Cliff Richard seizes his big chance and is very good in the title role.He is,of course sui generis.There is no one even remotely like him in the world of English pop,capable of reinventing himself endlessly but remaining basically the same.The camera isn't particularly kind to him,leaving him looking oddly chubby and unappealing,but he and the Shadows make a strong impact. "Expresso Bongo" isn't the sort of show that gets regularly revived,unlike,say,"My Fair Lady" which is comparatively cast-proof. I saw the stage production of "Bongo" with Tommy Steele's brother in the Cliff Richard role,and it was frankly awful. But,on that rare occasion when cast and material blend perfectly,it results in a movie that is a pleasure to watch and listen to,doesn't insult your intelligence and is a record of a man at the top of his game exceeding everybody's expectations,except perhaps,his own.

It's really about a hustler-turned-agent (Laurence Harvey) and how opportunity comes (and passes him by) via his finding (and losing) the kid-with-talent (Cliff Richard). A scene I liked was where the agent and the label exec (Meier Tzelniker) shamelessly discuss their plans for Bongo Herbert's future - i.e., what can he do for them, never mind what he can do for himself.This might have been a much more memorable movie with a bit more backing and some rewrites. It starts (and ends) by taking us to the cruddier side of London ca. 1960 - strippers, noisy streets, the grime, the neon-lights - all of it filled with the never-was's and the never-will-be's hoping against hope for That One Break. No U.S. movie at the time would ever have thought of this, whereas this U.K. movie did so without any Hollywood-esque qualms about "how will it play in Peoria?"Strange to think: when this movie, about a young rocker getting started, was released there was a band of Liverpool kids who got a gig in a dive on the Hamburg Reeperbahn ...One last bit: check out an uncredited kid named Susan Hampshire. She has four lines but she ante-dates Monty Python's "Upper-Class-Twit-of-the-Year" sketch by 10 years - she does it to a t.