I remember this film being used as the subject of a Mad Men episode and I think it makes for a good example of a film that was wildly successful in its day but falls short of true greatness. This is a musical comedy with several well-known stars including Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh. But is probably best known for launching the career of Ann-Magret who is featured in the iconic opening scene copied in Mad Men.

Conrad Birdie, a teen idol and rock and roll star who is an obvious parody of Elvis Presley, is drafted into the US Army, disappointing female fans across the country. Albert Peterson is a songwriter whose career is going nowhere. His secretary and fiancée Rose DeLeon arranges to have Conrad perform one of Albert’s songs to be aired on The Ed Sullivan Show. In addition a teenaged girl is randomly selected to be kissed by him before he leaves for the army. This girl is Kim MacAfee and the small town of Sweet Apple that she lives in is thrown into chaos by the media circus of having Conrad in town.. Kim’s boyfriend Hugo Peabody is jealous with the plans even as Kim is predictably thrilled. Meanwhile Rose wants Albert to finally marry her but has to contend with Albert’s domineering mother who treats the prospect of her son marrying as being the death of her.

I’m going to straight out say that even though this film is appealing enough on the surface I ended up rather disliking it. Its production values are on the whole decent enough without being truly outstanding but there are just too many things that are off about it. There are too many musical sequences for one thing and while there are a few good songs, too many of them have daft lyrics and the things they sing about all over the place without any thematic cohesion. Especially cringe-worthy is ‘Kids’ in which the parents bemoan disobedient children. It feels utterly out of place and is completely unfunny, yet is plainly meant to be comedic. Most of all, I was extremely uncomfortable with the non-vocal ‘Shriner’s Ballet’ dance sequence which amounts to a temptress taking things too far leading to a stylized sexual assault scene in which Rosie has to saved by Albert. That’s something that totally would not be acceptable today.

To be fair, Ann-Magret oozes sexuality both physically and from her sultry voice so it’s easy to see how this film launched her to stardom. But as Peggy Olson of Mad Men notes, there’s something inherently creepy about her sex appeal being based on a 25-year old pretending that she is 14. I did the basic premise of it being about teen-aged girls going crazy about an Elvis Presley amusing but the film doesn’t go anywhere with it beyond noting it as a sociological phenomenon. The humor is too dumb and silly to be very funny and there’s nothing cool about the dance scenes. Even the supposedly adult romance between Albert and Rosie is juvenile.

I suppose this film isn’t without some entertainment value as it’s not horribly made or anything but it’s just not good enough. Mostly it reminds me how excellent Jacques Demy’s musicals are in comparison.