The UK in the 60’s produced an endless run of fictional films starring whichever acts were most popular at a particular time. These movies were inevitably quirky and insanely perky. That trend continued into the 70’s, though the output quickly reduced to a trickle. Those later films, however, cast a more cynical eye towards stardom.
1974’s Stardust opens on the night of the JFK assassination, as David Essex seems to wander from nowhere and into a sad little carnival bereft of patrons. Obviously, this isn’t going to be A Hard Day’s Night. He runs into the carnival’s manager (Adam Faith), tells him about the band he’s in and asks him to be their manager.
If you have ever seen a movie of this genre, you pretty much know how the plot of this is going to unfold. Heck, you may be able to predict every step even if you haven’t.
I’m going to assume nobody reading this will be surprised if I tell you the band achieves near-instantaneous fame, like The Beatles, only to implode horribly after reaching their creative peak, like The Beatles. If there’s one thing that’s constant across the films in this genre, every fictional band is more or less the lads from Liverpool.
As the lead, Essex’s performance is far from the worst I have seen from a musician. At the same time, he doesn’t have much presence. It is no surprise he is most effective in moments where he’s on stage or in a recording studio. In the colonies, we know him best for the song “Rock On”, but I’m sure he had many more hits in his home country.
Unfortunately, he is least effective in the rare moments when he’s supposed to be intimidating. He not only fails to act menacingly, but it is hard to be threatened by a guy who goes from looking similar to Paul McCartney to looking like the overlapping area of a Venn diagram where the circles are Marc Bolan, Brian May and Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.
Faith fares better here as the first, and foremost, of the band’s many managers. His performance is more nuanced than something like this requires. And, since everything in a movie like this must tie back to something relating to The Beatles, it turns out his character is closeted—much like Brian Epstein was.
Epstein was apparently enough of a presence in real-life to be represented by two characters here, the other being a well-to-do older man who invests in the band because he is looking to diversify his investments beyond his successful laundromat chain. I had a suspicion the guy also didn’t mind hanging around with young men in leather trousers.
Speaking of trousers (um, I just realized how weird that read), it isn’t long before the lads are ready to please the corporate suits by wearing matching suits. Care to take a wild guess which famous band those suits will remind you of?
A later manager will be Larry Hagman, in what was an unexpected casting choice. He is very effective as a wealthy Texan who buys 75% of the band’s contract. Oh—I can’t believe I forgot to mention this: the band’s name is The Stray Cats. Surely this can’t have inspired Brian Setzer to give his rockabilly band the same name.
Another surprising bit of casting is Keith Moon as the drummer for The Cats. He isn’t doing much more here than playing a more restrained variety of his real-life person, but his manic joy is contagious. One moment I found incongruous is a scene where The Who’s “My Generation” is playing on the sound system in a café. How can that song exist in a world where he is in another band? Wouldn’t that be like James Bond going to see a Bond film in a Bond picture?
There isn’t much humor in this movie, but I found one moment unintentionally hilarious. That would be a faux-opera Essex composes and performs in a televised concert with choir and orchestra, to ensure it is as bombastic as possible. His earnestness when delivering such garbage had me gasping with laughter, but I don’t think it was intended to be funny.
Stardust isn’t a bad movie, it’s just one I feel I have seen too many times before and often done better than this iteration. I guess it isn’t surprising this genre didn’t continue into the 80’s, lest we have the rise and fall of Rick Astley playing a tough street kid whose music is his life. If that had happened, I guess he at least never would give you up, and never have to let you down.
Dir: Michael Apted
Starring David Essex, Adam Faith, Larry Hagman
Watched on Studiocanal UK blu-ray (region B)