The Cool Ones (1967) watch online HD

Eminently watchable slice of 60's go-go pop that never gets as much attention as it deserves. "The Cool Ones" is not a good movie, but boy is it campy fun. From its first shots of the taping of a "Hullabaloo"-type teen TV dance show to its cornball conclusion with the lovers driving off into the sunset, "The Cool Ones" is a must for fans of "Austin Powers" or the 60's at its most faddish.

An oddly cynical tale of a go-go dancer who aspires to pop singing stardom, "The Cool Ones" boasts a musical score of tres-groovy songs by Lee Hazelwood (of Nancy Sinatra fame...by the way, that sounds like Ms. Sinatra dubbing Debbie Watson's vocals during "The Tantrum"...anybody know?), Teri Garr dancing up a storm, bad Sixties fashions, and male lead Gil Peterson (surely the model for the Ken doll) wearing the tightest pants humanly possible.

Roddy McDowall is good/bad as always, but my favorite is the scene - stealing Nita Talbot, who always seems to be two steps ahead of any movie she's in. Worth watching just to see the dance number in the ski lift...THOSE CLOTHES! Should be remade with Britney Spears in the lead!

This is a great movie - yes it is a bad movie, but it is great. A stellar cast, a great score and wonderful location shots all over Los Angeles and Palm Springs, circa 1966. Any movie that boasts a musical dance number in the Palm Springs Tramway can't be all bad.

The cast: Debbie Watson and Gil Peterson are perfect. Don't know where they came from, except that Debbie had her own TV series briefly, "Karen". And Gil has a great bod! Roddy McDowell - great as always. Phil Harris is wonderful. Nita Talbot all but steals the show as Roddy's Girl Friday. I mean, this woman is fierce! She shamelessly tries to steal every scene she is in - and does too. She should have been used much more in films. And you even get Terri Garr as one of the dancers. And I didn't even mention Mrs. Miller. This must be her only big screen appearance, so that alone is worth the price of admission.

The plot is a little hackneyed, but who cares. The original songs by Lee Hazelwood are fantastic. Hey, both Frank and Nancy covered "This Town" on their albums. As a spoof of the Hullaballo-type dance programs of the era as well as Roddys apeing of Phil Spector - this movie does try to say something. But that is not what it is about - it is just plain fun!!!

If you get the chance to watch this movie-just relax and enjoy-don't have to think hard here-just good clean fun! As you can see I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

Blonde, impossibly handsome Gil Peterson was one of the stars of "The Cool Ones" (1967), a wacky teen movie that poked fun at the music industry and spoofed TV shows like "Hullabaloo" and "Shindig". Peterson, who plays a washed up singing idol in the film, actually began his own career as a singer. Born and raised in Winona, Mississippi, Gil was an outstanding high school athlete who lettered in four different varsity sports. He was voted Best All Around Athlete, Most Valuable Football Player and received the Winona Sportsmanship Award. After graduation, Gil accepted a football scholarship to Mississippi State University and became star halfback for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. It was during Gil's college days that he started singing professionally. Each summer, he would tour the nightclub circuit in the deep South, doing floor shows and working with combos. Gil has said that one of his most enjoyable experiences was working one summer with a modern vocal-instrumental quintet composed of himself and four other college students. Come fall , he would find himself back on the gridiron, but he'd gotten enough of the show biz lifestyle to decide upon it as his future career. After college, Gil headed straight for Hollywood to give it his best shot. He got some bit parts on TV and made guest appearances in night clubs around the Hollywood and Los Angeles area. His singing gigs were impressive enough that Gil was tapped by Ace Label to record his first LP album, "Gil Peterson Sings Our Last Goodbye" (LP1024).

Then came Gil's big break. He was plucked from relative obscurity and given what amounted to the starring role in "The Cool Ones". Roddy McDowell may be first billed, but his thinly disguised take-off on Phil Spector is more a supporting character. Even the tag line for the film reads: "It's the story of Cliff Donner (Peterson)….a teen-age singing idol who had it all….lost it…..and had to find it all over again".

"The Cool Ones" was originally developed as a showcase for Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood to capitalize on their recording success as a duo. Nancy even pre-recorded some songs, two of which are used in the film, before backing out of the project. Her instincts were right. For every bright, zany scene that would inspire future films like Tom Hank's "That Thing You Do!" (1996), there were awkward, embarrassing ones, and the end result is a mixed bag at best. The movie bombed big time at the box office. The era of the lightweight beach party movies was over, and a new wave of edgy, psychedelic films about hippies, LSD and motorcycle gangs was emerging. It didn't help Gil Peterson that he looked more like a member of The Four Freshman than the Grateful Dead. Reviewers were harsh and merciless, and Peterson was dismissed as the living, breathing prototype for the Ken doll.

After "The Cool Ones" flopped at the box office, Peterson essentially dropped out of sight and has become something of an enigma. He showed up every so often on television, but in small, bit parts. He did make two other movies, a very low-budget independent feature entitled "The Brain Machine" (1977) and, intriguingly, a Japanese film shot in New Caledonia, "The Island Closest to Heaven" (1984). It is known that he became a high school teacher and taught at Hollywood High in the 70's. I personally saw him around this time in a little theater play in Hollywood. I was stunned because I immediately recognized him from "The Cool Ones". I wanted to go backstage afterwards and talk to him about his career, but the actress I was with said he'd think I was making fun of him. The play wasn't very good, but Gil Peterson was. It was just a two-character play and the other actor's name, I think, was Frank Stell and he had some buzz going at the time, but Peterson was the better actor. Regrettably, I never went backstage, but saw the play again a second time, alone. A young actor myself back then, I was completely baffled that someone who had "absolute movie star" written all over him, hadn't made it big after "The Cool Ones", and was doing some dumb little showcase still trying to get noticed like the rest of us wannabes. It gave me some pause then, because he really was such movie star material, and it's still curious today that he had no substantial career after the film. Perhaps like Cliff Donner, the character he played in "The Cool Ones", Gil's brief brush with celebrity left him with a feeling of contempt for the business. "The Cool Ones" continues to attract new audiences today despite no official DVD release. IMDb Users are still commenting on it. You Tube is still playing video clips of it. The one consistent comment seems to be from older women who saw the film when they were young and have never forgotten Gil Peterson's remarkable, impossibly handsome, blonde Ken doll looks.

Jay/James McKenna best role, Policewoman "Merry Christmas, Waldo"

When I saw "The Cool Ones" on TCM, I was bracing myself for a bad experience.

That was not the case for me.

I know my opinion is in the minority, but I liked this film much better than so many of the other teen flicks of the era. Granted, this is no masterpiece, and the plot has its moments, but the production values are far better than those from the Frankie/Annette movies.

One could find fault with the fact that this is a teen flick that has the feel of an episode from "The FBI." Gene Nelson, the director, also helmed several episodes of that 1965-74 crime drama, and both productions were made by Warner Brothers.

That said, the story seemed cohesive enough, and it offers a glimpse into a time period I remember as a kid. Perhaps the most important part of the film is its place in time. This was one of the last movies made by Warner Brothers before its acquisition by Seven Arts later that year. It also came out right before the turmoil that engulfed the United States that summer, as well as just prior to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The movie still would have played out well to Middle America, had it aired in 1965, but it was sadly overlooked and badly overtaken by national events by the time it premiered.

As a fan of Debbie Watson, I admired her performance here, especially when she was dancing and singing (even if some of it was lip-synced). When she was filming this, her second series, "Tammy," was winding down its broadcast schedule on ABC, and her movie, "Munster Go Home," was playing in theaters. Sadly, this movie did not help her career, but it seems she was regarded as a Sandra Dee clone. Too bad, because she is so gorgeous here. But by the time this movie was released in April 1967, she was pregnant with her first child, and she would retire in 1971 to tend to her family.

Gil Peterson was likewise superb, and I enjoyed the rest of the cast. This movie was also one of the early outings for the late singer Glen Campbell, whose star was on the rise at that time. He would go on to score music hits and at least one great film role, in 1969's "True Grit."

It's been more than 50 years since this movie saw the light of day, so it's as much period piece as anything else. All in all, this film is one of the few that left me wanting to see more. And that alone makes me rate this one a "9"!!

Roddy Mcdowell is a gas in this musical comedy about a fun loving teenager, played coyly and sweet by the young Debbie Watson. The main character accidentally starts a dance craze by throwing a tantrum on the set of a televised dance show. The dance she creates is called, of course, "The Tantrum."

It is this campy humor that, while sometimes over the top, keeps you wanting more. There are also some great sequences shot on Olivera Street in Los Angeles and on the Palm Springs Tram. Glen Cambell is even in it.

The music is fun, that dancing a blast, it's hip and cool and ultra sixties...yeah baby! It runs on cable now and again...look for it.

This is on my list of movies you hate to love! A must see.

Yes, this film is terrible- horrific and just plain bad. But I like it, and I'm not ashamed to say it! Normally, this is not my kind of film, as I prefer obscure classics. But this film is so bad, so truly bad- it's good. See how earnest the cast treats this dreck? They're really into it, man! And what a story! Don't you wish that your pals picked you up in their little red sports car on a free trip to Palm Springs after you screw up on the "Whiz Bang" TV show because you want to be a STAR? Gil Peterson, as the erstwhile mutant heartthrob, has to be one of the world's worst actors... and he has ever so much competition. My fave moments: Don't miss Teri ("Young Frankenstein") Garr as a go-go dancer! Don't miss Gil Peterson soulfully singing an uptempo version of that Doris Day classic, "My Secret Love." And please, don't miss my favorite character in the whole darned movie: that sad little dancer doing his darndest James Brown shake and shimmy- I nearly died from laughter.

Enjoyably bad: This supposed satire of the pop music scene could never have been good, the main character is intrinsically unlikeable. An ambitious and mean pop-singer wannabe gets her big break by brawling on a TV dance show and marries solely to further her career (of course she falls for him, otherwise there would be no plot).

What separates this from all the merely boring flicks out there are the performances.

The combination of the unbelievably horrid lead, the lively, cheesy music, the unbelievable costumes (seemingly designed to show off Ms. Watson's heavy thighs), and Mr. MacDowell make this as watchably bad as an Ed Wood movie.

If anyone is interested in seeing why there was such a generation gap back in 67 The Cool Ones offers a grand view of the abyss as writers and producers try to feed the Pepsi generation the premise and execution of this mindless travesty. Part of the low end genre of films that showcased rock personalities in keystone comedy situations The Cool Ones goes radical by offering up the female Tiny Tim of her era Mrs. Miller as the musical headliner.

Go Go dancer Hallie Rogers becomes an overnight sensation on the pop scene by crashing a Glenn Campbell solo. Phil Spector like mogul Tony Krum sees an opportunity not only to capitalize on the new talent but also revive has been popper Cliff Donner's career by teaming them up. They turn out to be oil and water however and it is left up to diva Miller with a measuring tape boa around her shoulders to save the day by belting out It's Magic.

This kind of garbage used to go straight to Drive Ins and local community theatres after a week of television coming attractions featuring gyrating go go dancers and sybaritic teens promising all sought of wild mayhem. It didn't really matter since it did buy you 90 extra minutes at the DI with your date.

There's some pros in this like Phil Harris, Robert Coote looking lost and the absolutely insulting presence of Roddy Mac Dowell as Krum adding insult to insult. Miller time is an uncomfortable Dada/goof hybrid that fails to register though she did sell a ton of albums one week which is more than you can say for the abysmal Bantams.

"The Cool Ones" is definitely a second-string musical but it's more entertaining than many of the A-list musicals of the decade and doesn't deserve the obscurity to which it's consigned. It's well-paced, with lots of song and dance numbers, directed by Gene Nelson, who has a great feel for these elements. The real standout in this film is Gil Peterson who greatly resembles Grant Williams. He has enough charisma and talent to pull the whole thing together with a convincing performance and wonderful vocals. If his songs were dubbed, it is incredible how synchronized they were and how appropriately they matched his speaking voice. It's a mystery why this talented, handsome and energetic performer didn't achieve a more successful career.

Unfortunately there is far too much screen time and energy devoted to Roddy McDowall's annoying and overly fey portrayal of the promoter. Could this be an earlier incarnation of Simon Cowell?

You hear that "The Cool Ones" is "The groovy movie with the hip hit tunes" (an official tagline), so you want to dig the scene, right? Not really. The scene is a confusing mixture of pop cultural references as written by a committee of older businessmen. If you were not around in 1967, when the movie was released, you will probably have difficulty knowing what references really were "cool" in 1967 and which were manufactured, or warmed over fare from years before. If you were around in 1967, the movie is somewhat fun--despite being bad--to pick apart and reminisce about.

In my opinion, this film is a musical. Musical numbers are staged in the middle of scenes, and the characters break out in song when not on a stage. Trying to create a teen movie musical is a bold undertaking, but this is no "Bye Bye Birdie". It features a young go-go dancer(Debbie Watson playing Hallie Rogers) and a former singing idol (Gil Peterson playing Cliff Donner) who meet in a supposedly hip club called "Stan's Cellar" and are persuaded by a young pop music guru (Roddy McDowall) to combine forces to capture the imagination of gullible teen fans. They even create what they hope will be a new dance craze: The Tantrum.

Donner is supposed to be a jaded singer who once had screaming fans. He performs in the "Cellar" with a group called The Leaves. Some of the numbers performed by musical groups in this film are not bad and are authentic to the theme of the movie. But Donner is often stuck singing old tunes that are arranged in a (not so) cool way: "What is This Thing Called Love", "Secret Love", and--incredibly--"The Birth of the Blues". There is one scene where Glen Campbell sings "Just One of Those Things". Not cool. No teen with an edgy persona in 1967 would be embracing those gems. This is three years after the Beatles conquered America!

Surprisingly, the choreography is often of good quality and on a par with other musicals.

Things to look for, even if some seem out of place in a movie about "cool ones":

*The Petula Clark poster on the wall.

*The dance performed to music reminiscent of "The Hand Jive".

*The kids snapping their fingers like the cast of "West Side Story"--cool man!

*The red Mustang. Now that was a cool car!

*The mod look--the colorful London-based chic that some of the kids dress in.

*Small smatterings of psychedelia.

*The "dirty old man" who looks all of 27.

*The "draft board" reference.

*The unexpected occasional lapses into slapstick.

*The laughable computer reference. The public had so little knowledge of computers that anything will flashing lights and beeping sounds could pass. And they often performed feats that are nothing short of mystical.

*Actor Phil Harris who seems to be playing the part of "obligatory adult whose purpose is to thwart the coolness of teens".

*Actress Nita Talbot, who plays Dee Dee Howitzer and somehow manages to have screen presence despite a limited role.

*The proposal scene in the back of a bus. One might be reminded of the iconic back-of-the-bus scene in "The Graduate", also released in 1967.

This is no time capsule of 1967 in particular, but as a reminder of many disparate cultural references from the previous decade or more, it could be a fun watch.

Would-be pop singer Debbie Watson inadvertently creates a dance craze on television, quickly dubbed "The Tantrum"; she pairs up with a has-been rock-and-roll star to form a new act that's sure to wow the teenagers! Gene Nelson directed this instantly-dated piece of overripe nostalgia from writer Joyce Geller, whose pale script was also worked on by Robert Kaufman and by Nelson. Eternally-girlish Watson and Gil Peterson (outfitted like a Ken doll) are a laughably tone-deaf pair. If you can believe them as teen-sensations, you may buy Roddy McDowall as a superstar music producer who has his own jet, sits on a purple throne, and has a lackey pick the dirt off his boots. The most bizarre aspect of the movie may be the depiction of young adults acting as direct copies of their own grandparents: they dance and sing, but what they're really pining for is love and the institution of marriage. ** from ****

As a fan of 60s pop culture, I wanted to like this movie. Sadly, this wasted opportunity of a film feels like a rejected script for a proposed Elvis/Beach Party movie. (The director did two Elvis vehicles prior to this.) The muddled, meandering screenplay is by a failed, one-time writer and a studio hack who penned "Ski Party" and both "Dr. Goldfoot" flicks. This film doesn't know what it wants to be. It's a little of this, a bit of that, and a whole lot of bland filler in between. At least we have some pretty people, including a young Teri Garr, in colorful mod outfits doing Toni Basil dance numbers now and then.

The promising opener is a take-off on pop music programs like Hullabaloo and Shindig. A cute blonde go-go dancer (Debbie Watson) yearns to be the next Nancy Sinatra (supposedly, Sinatra passed on the lead role but her singing is heard in some songs). Enter scene-chewing Roddy McDowall. He has a few amusing scenes as wildly eccentric music producer Tony Krum -- a likely parody of legendary whack-job Phil Spector. His fawning assistant, played by the wonderful, sadly neglected Nita Talbot, almost steals the film in her one big seduction scene with lunkhead Gil Peterson. She has comic timing and a sophisticated sex appeal that blows everyone else off the screen. Debbie Watson is fine, but she's one of those generic, wholesome starlets who -- like Deborah Walley, Susan Hart, Pat Priest, Chris Noel, et al. -- provided charming eye-candy in countless '60s comedy/musicals but left no lasting impression.

After McDowall's grand entrance, the film almost becomes a zany spoof of absurd pop-music fads and instant stardom. But this only lasts about five minutes. The gutless, aimless script has nothing more to say about the music business and shifts to the sappy romance between Watson and human Ken doll Gil Peterson. They meet cute and cavort about, performing several song-and-dance numbers for the rest of the near-plot less story. Then it just abruptly ends due to a lack of ideas. Or maybe they ran out of film stock. No tension, no drama, no witty parody, and no resolution to speak of.

The hackneyed romance, cornball dialog, and groan-inducing attempts at humor are, as said before, on par with a Beach Party flick or a standard Elvis musical. (Bit players Talbot, Garr, and Angelique Pettyjohn all did Elvis films, by the way.) There's a couple decent rock songs with twangy, Byrds-like guitar riffs and some vocals by Nancy Sinatra. Also surprising to see a segment playing "This Town" while Watson wanders about in her trendy vinyl cap. Sinatra did a near-identical music video for this song in her "Movin' with Nancy" TV special that same year.

Recommendation: The only entertainment value is for lovers of campy 60s fashions. The mod outfits, mostly Mary Quant-style knock-offs, already seem a bit dated for 1967. The Palm Springs dance number that begins in a tram-car and continues on a mountaintop is great fun (and shows off Teri Garr). McDowall and Talbot elevate the weak material they're given. If the film had focused on them and the music industry this could have been a decent comedy instead of a watered-down, girl-meets-boy musical. If you like this genre, you'd be better off watching "Speedway" (with Elvis and Sinatra) or "Movin' with Nancy".

SPOILER ALERT Whiny wannabe star Debbie Watson is a Deborah Walley clone (the original was bad enough) who went nowhere after this movie, the pouty male lead is a stiff, and the music is terrible.

But we must admire record producer Roddy McDowell's purple convertible Lincoln with white and purple striped upholstery, his private jet, and swinging bachelor pad. And the scenery is classic Southern California: Palm Springs Tramway, Olvera Street, Valley Music Center, Ascot Speedway, and a white Excalibur sports car with chrome pipes cruising Sunset Blvd.

Roddy, the antihero in Lord Love A Duck, is wacky record producer Tony Krum. Roddy may have served as the model for Z Man, the teen tycoon of rock in Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. But in retrospect it looks like both Roddy and Z Man were based upon Phil Spector, whose notorious antics were already legend. Nita Talbot is far too pretty to be disposable, but she is thrown away anyway. No visible drugs or booze, but everyone's head is scrambled. Bottom line: a retro blast.

"The Cool Ones"..Hmm...Well the sixties cars were super cool as was Tonys'(Roddy McDowells)purple velvet lined office,complete with throne.I think the highlight of this "stinker" for me was Cliffs'(Gil Peterson) amazing ability,whilst singing, to dance like a "Thunderbird" puppet with it's finger stuck in a live light socket....(I'm wondering if he was the inspiration for the party scene in "Team America").A close second favorite was Cliffs' incredibly unlikeable character complete with immaculately groomed hair-do with not one hair out of place throughout the entire duration of the movie....Sorry gang,in my opinion this movie is just plain "badsville",I'm still not sure why I sat through it.

All attempts to be cool fall horribly flat in this showcase for some of the weaker musical talents of the 1960's. Roddy McDowell delivers the worst performance of his career in a character as shrill as he is inconsistent. It then proceeds in tortoise-like fashion to an obvious conclusion. This is a worthy candidate for the worst big budget film in the history of the cinema.

Perhaps the only good thing about this movie is the clear and consistent photography and color. The go-go style music is so bad it will make you reach for the Off knob. It's loaded with that kind of icky, artificial music they always played at party scenes in movies and sitcoms from the early-1960's era, the kind that was never heard in real life, and yet here it is being blared at you in 1967, and faker than ever. The score is composed by Lee Hazelwood, which is surprising since he is known for more acceptable work. The satellite TV blurb says the film has a loose story line about a has-been pop star being paired with a hopeful new singer for a bit TV show, but I could not stand to watch it long enough to find out. There are some talented performers in the film, but this sort of material probably contributed to their short careers.

The reviews by previous posters pretty well describe this period cash-in pic. I just watched it on TCM and at the very end spotted a real-life pop star. In actuality the car he was driving ( Excalibur) was the same as Gil Peterson's. The uncredited cameo was Paul Revere,leader of Paul Revere and the Raiders. In real life Paul owned an Excalibur so all he had to do is drive by and say hi to the camera. The Raiders appeared regularly on "Where The Action Is" which competed with "Shindig" and "Hallabaloo" fronted by the other Big Two networks for a slice of teen viewership in the 60's.

The 1960's had a lot of movies made by adults trying to tap into the huge market of teenagers. While some of those movies are memorable, this one is not. While the cast is attractive, and the color of the film is good, the writer of this script never wrote another one. It is obvious why. There is little sense to make of what is going on.

Roddy is the star of this, and there are the usual supply of good looking women around. In fact, as a veteran director of two Elvis movies including Kissin Cousins is on hand, the movie feels like it is another Elvis movie, only without Elvis. Because of this, there is forgettable music and whoever wrote the music for this committed a capital crime. The music just is no good.

Mcdowell is the youth idol in this movie and as such seems to be just an oddball from the first moment on. If you think of a guy like Bob Denver trying to carry a movie of bad music and a supporting cast that is very little help, and a script that is poor at best, that pretty much sums up this one.

This a odd little film.in the 1960s people probably rather see the graduate or bonnie and Clyde. I like this film it doesn't fit in in 1967 at all! I like it anyway despite the cheesy one liners. Glen Campbell. Roddy McDowall. Gil Petterson. Debbie Watson. George fur-th and the rest do a good bang up job with what little they had. in one scene a guy says to Gil. how are you? When someone ask who is that Gil says a international car nut. again when the same person repeats the same line,

Gil tells miss Watson it must be a international girl nut well this film turned me into a b movie nut!