Fred Flintstone dance: The Frantic

This came on TCM today and it was pretty awful. The entire time I watched I kept thinking they stole the plot from an episode of 'The Flintstones'. (lol) Fred goes to the Shindig studio to pickup tickets for Wilma & Betty. While in line he drops his bowling ball on his foot and starts yelling while hopping up and down and holding one foot in his hands. The dance is named 'The Frantic and spreads like wildfire. In this film a girl goes manic on stage and a club owner names the dance 'The Tantrum'. The fact that this film is spoofing 'Shindig' & 'Hullabaloo' confirms it. It's really too funny. But the songs are bad. We're supposed to believe the young teen crowd is dancing in clubs to jazzed up versions of 'Birth of the Blues' & 'Secret Love'?? Actually Billy Preston did a great fast version of 'Secret Love'. The arrangements of the songs in this film are dreadful. The entire films plays like an extended version of 'Love American Style'. Debbie Watson can't sing and the person singing for her in some parts of the film sounds different from one song to the next.Gil Peterson, who I was not familiar with seems to have a fine voice. This movie was simply a bad idea. He & Watson were mismatched and there was no fun or zaniness in this film like the beach films & Elvis Presley films. You're supposed to enjoy a film being "campy". I read that this was supposed to be a project for Nancy Sinatra but she backed out of it. Good call by her.

I just saw the wonderful Gene Nelson directed this. He was never praised for his dancing skills as much as Astaire,Kelly,O'Connor & Fosse were for theirs. But he should have been.

Just for the record, I'm not a Dude, I'm a Dudette!