Donovan Leitch Jr., stars as 60s teenager Del Green. Del is a nerdy guy, who lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Though Del is a scholar, he loves to dance to songs on the radio. He also digs the Perry Parker show, which is an after school teen dance show, much like American Bandstand. And Del has a wicked crush, on the Perry Parker Show's reigning queen of the cast of dancers, Vicki (played by the gorgeous Jennifer Runyon).Meanwhile, Del's suburban friends, especially his neighbor Gail, think that Del should concentrate on studying to take the College Board exam, so that he can get into a good college. Gail thinks that Del's infatuation with Vicki, is just Del's 'hood fantasy', and that he ought to wise-up, and forget about Viki.Nevertheless, Del tells Gail, that he want to go and try out as one of the dancers, on the Perry Parker show. Del is hassled outside of the dance studio, by some tough, working class guys, who are regulars on Perry's show. But with a stroke of luck, and some clever thinking, Del get into the set of Perry's show. Del is hand-picked by Perry to be Vicki's dance partner, since Vicki's old partner and boyfriend Dugan, was banned from Perry's show. Seems that Dugan is a trouble-maker, who went to jail for stealing a car. For a while, Del dates Vicki, and is even accepted by Vicki's over protective father, who never liked Dugan. But Del is unaware that he's just being used by Vicki, as part of her convoluted plan, to run away to California with Dugan, without her father finding out. This film has a lot of nice touches. The glamor of the Perry Parker show, including the dancers, is palpable. The gritty, urban environment of the Perry Parker show, and the mid-60s ruffians, are very authentic. As is the the sheltered suburban environment, in which Del lives. I also liked the spot-on 60s radio jingles and commercials, that Del was listening to on his portable transistor radio. The music in this movie, was excellent. It featured many of the stellar recording stars of the 60s; Mitch Ryder, Dionne Warwick, Wilson Pickett, and many others.Donovan Leitch did an excellent job, in his portrayal of the gawky, awkward, yet charismatic Del Green. The supporting cast, was wonderful too. Especially Joe Pantoliano as the shifty, yet vulnerable Perry Parker, Scott Plank, as the charming hood Dugan, and Sean Sullivan, as Del's tough-guy, mad-cap pal Popeye. The In Crowd, is quite an enjoyable film, and I recommend it to all, who are nostalgic for the 60s.

The time:1965. The place:Phiuladelphia. The movie:The In Crowd. A fun and enjoyable timepiece about the time when Americans enjoyed and loved seeing and participating in dance shows in their various local cities. You see this when the movie ,cleverly, shows the beginnings of several dance TV shows from across the country and the hosts of these TV shows (Sam Riddle in Los Angeles, Wink Markindale in Memphis among others).The movie centers on three stories. One having the movie's star, Donovan Leitch playing a character called Del. A bright young man with a bright future ahead of him but he wants to be a dancer on the local TV dance program, "Perry Parker's Dance Party". Del doesn't know it but he has nothing in common with the dancers on Perry Parker's show , except that he is a fine dancer himself which gets him a chance to be on the show.The second part of the movie deals with Perry Parker himself, played by that great actor Joe Pantoliano. Parker .like most people in Philadelphia, feel betrayed that Dick Clark took American Bandstand away from Philaelphia and moved it to Los Angeles.He tries to tell his dancers that if Dick Clark fails the network may want to look for a replacement, like his own show for instance. Parker is like a lot of TV hosts of local shows of that era, hoping to be the next Ed Sullivan, the next Steve Allen, the next Dick Clark, the next Johnnny Carson. Hoping the networks will take him in a make him a big star on network television.The third part deals with Del and his short love affair with Vicky (Jennifer Runyon). Vicky is pretty but is too lowbrow even for Del. This is one movie where the pretty girl fails to meet the expectations of the supposed geek in the film rather than the other way around. In the end Del tries to help Vicky leave Philadelphia and join her Fonzie like boyfriend Dugan (Scott Plank) as they head for Hollywood.The In Crowd has great music using some good soul music in the film that is true to the era and not just the same old music you might have heard over and over again in other films about the early 1960's. The choreography is great and inspired and it makes for a good musical and that is what The In Crowd pretty much is. A musical. The living room dance duel between Del and Dugan is proof of that. The movie told a true tale of how things were changing in America without getting highhanded and clumsy in how they did it. Perry Parker is a prime example of this. An associate producer tells him the show is getting low ratings and that the type of music he has on his show won't work. He should try Mitch Miller instead says the producer. The station manager(Blake Soper) has no use for Parker or his dance show and wants something else. When he brings along a British Invasion like group ,longhair and all to the TV studio and wants Paker to put them on the show, Parker says no saying that,thanks to the long hair, he can't tell if they are boys or girls. He was right, the group was all wrong for his dance show but Perry Parker's days on TV are numbered anyway.Pantoliano is his usual great self here. As with all of his roles he makes Perry Parker his own. The film is a nice timepiece just before everything came apart in the US.The music, the dance numbers, and some decent acting make this a decent movie if you really wanted to know what America was like back in 1965.It is the type of tale that Dick Clark tried to tell himself through the American Dreams TV series but failed miserably because the show was all over the map. It wasn't overwrought and overrated like the NBC mini series about the sixties called The 60's. The In Crowd is a good film that wasn't all that appreciated when in came out in theaters in 1988. Hopefully people shall take a better liking to it when they see it again in the future.

The earlier review saying this is one of the worst movies ever made is obviously from someone who hasn't seen a lot of bad movies. All I can guess is that it brought back too many bad memories of the reviewer's teen-age years, teen-age angst being one of the things with which this movie deals. All in all, I found it quite enjoyable, especially because it made such good use of the music from the time, including Vince Guaraldi's big hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" (and when that song plays in the background, it is really telling you something about what is going to happen). The story line is not much, dealing with teen-age romance and growing pains, and with the difficulties of trying to fit into the currently popular styles, whatever they may be, but it's not terrible either. Joey Pants' speech in the classroom is a classic, and a lot of the other scenes in the movie transcend the story. I certainly wouldn't call it a great movie, but if you enjoyed "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", or "Some Kind of Wonderful", then you'll have a good time watching this one too.

This coming-of-age movie is sort of a male version of "Dirty Dancing" with a young man from a wealthy suburb falling for a tough city girl. The best thing about it is the soundtrack, which is packed with undeservedly overlooked R & B from the '60s--great songs like the Marvelows' "I Do," Tina Britt's "The Real Thing," the Majors' "A Wonderful Dream" and the Marvelettes' "When You're Young And In Love." It's a refreshing change from the typical '60s movie with songs you've already heard a million times. The dancing is terrific, Donovan Leitch and Jennifer Runyon are appealing as the young lovers, and Joe Pantoliano is outstanding as DJ Perry Parker.