WONDERFUL LIFE
UK, 1964, 113 minutes, Colour.
Cliff Richard, Walter Slezak, Susan Hampshire, Melvyn Hayes, Richard O'Sullivan, Una Stubbs, Derek Bond, Gerald Harper, The Shadows.
Directed by Sidney J. Furie.
Wonderful Life is a very enjoyable and attractive Cliff Richard vehicle. While having a strong singing career for many decades, Cliff Richard appeared in several films from the late '50s to the mid~'60s. His debut was in the dramatic film Expresso Bongo. However, he made more impact in lightweight and attractive musicals like Summer Holiday, Finders Keepers and Wonderful Life.
Richard appears with The Shadows and the heroine, singing and dancing, is Susan Hampshire at the beginning of her career. Una Stubbs also appears. The older generation is represented by veteran Walter Slezak and English character actor, former hero, Derek Bond.
The film anticipates the films with the Beatles and is very reminiscent of aspects of Richard Lester's Help. Direction is by Sidney J. Furie, who uses a lot of television commercial techniques and editing to get a zany effect for his portrait of Richard and his fellow singers as well as for the very many musical numbers. Most of the numbers are particularly geared towards Cliff Richard's voice and style with a touch of rock and twist. However, the film is worth seeing for the collage effects of many of the songs, most particularly a romantic song with the hero and heroine dressed in many of the traditional cinema styles. The editing is fast-paced and the effect enjoyable and lavish. This is then outdone by a further song on the history of the cinema in which the whole cast dramatises in song various aspects of cinema ranging from Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Kops, through Valentino and vamp style films to sentimental gangsters, to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gone With The Wind, right up to a parody of the gang-dancing in West Side Story. It is done with pace and verve. In fact, this must be one of the brightest of English musicals with lively choreography and editing.
The flimsy story has Cliff as Johnny with his friends, The Shadows, stranded on the Canary Islands looking for bananas. They come across a film-making group with director Walter Slezak and heroine Susan Hampshire. It is not revealed until the end that Susan as Jenny is the director's daughter. Derek Bond is the faded matinee idol who faints at any scents of danger. Between the literal reels, Cliff and the boys become involved in making a film of their own to boost Jenny's confidence. It is a Beau Geste type film with parody of the expected scenes from such an action film - even, at one stage, dubbed as the Twist. The deception is ultimately found out but there is reconciliation all round: the good bits are combined to make one good film from two bad ones! The final song has a message ? the need for youth and vigour as well as an experience.
The film was typical of the energy in British filmmaking in the early '60s. Sidney J. Furie went to the United States and continued his career over several decades with films ranging from The Naked Runner, Little Fauss and Big Halsey to The Entity, Iron Eagle and Superman IV. Cliff Richard was still a popular singing star in the late '80s.
