Rent That'll Be the Day (1973)

Jukebox Realism. - That'll Be the Day review by Steve

A British version of those Hollywood coming-of-age jukebox musicals set in the rock 'n' roll years which were in vogue around the turn of the seventies. Only there's no sun, surf and sports cars. This is extraordinarily desolate! David Essex plays a mixed up kid who drops out of school to take a string of dead end jobs while working up the ambition to join a rock band.

So, there's a scene at the beach. But it's not packed with buff teenagers glistening in the sunshine. The surly runaway is working a low paid job renting deckchairs in the relentless English rain! This isn't idealised nostalgia. But it does have the best soundtrack of any of these fifties memory pieces, and the spin off album was a huge seller.

Critics assumed that the anti-hero is based on John Lennon, which doesn't flatter the former Beatle one bit. Essex portrays an abominable scumbag! Fortunately he has enough superficial charm to make plausible his incessant sexual conquest. But behind the star's good looks, this man is a monster.

Ringo Starr is pretty good as his dodgy rocker mate, and there are a few cameos by other rock stars, like Keith Moon and Billy Fury. It's interesting how the film takes a normally romantic genre and makes it so pessimistic. But of course, the fifties in the UK was a time of austerity. It's an interesting curiosity, but not a feelgood experience.