A while back, I watched the David Essex vehicle Stardust from 1974. Now here I am watching him in 1973’s That’ll Be the Day and I find myself writing things like “it feels like Stardust is a spiritual sequel to this earlier film”. So, I was shocked to discover, though only after the fact, that movie is a literal sequel. I’m starting to suspect I need to pay more attention if I am going to keep writing about films. No comments from the peanut gallery, thank you.
This takes place roughly a decade before Stardust. The picture begins with Essex as a schoolboy in what I’m guessing is the UK equivalent of and American high school junior or senior year. He’s too old to be convincing physically, though he does adequately convey the shyness and awkwardness of that age.
He’s intelligent but not interested in college. He drops out, runs away from home, finds a horrible room to rent and starts doing menial jobs at a seaside resort. There he befriends Ringo Starr, a kindly man who wanders from one terrible short job to another. He takes Essex under his wing and they both end up working at a carnival.
Life for Essex becomes an endless succession of bad food and cheap sex. He becomes too cocky with his growing experience as a cocksman. His character eventually becomes downright repellant. When he rapes a teenage girl and she begs him not to tell anybody what happened, he realizes what he has become and that he needs to change.
For a while, it appears he is going to settle down, working in a chemist’s shop and settling down with a charming girl played by Rosalind Ayres. They end up having a baby together, yet he feels the pull of the vagabond life again. He is especially stirred by this new, exciting musical genre called rock ‘n’ roll. The last shot of the movie will freeze frame on him acquiring his first guitar.
The performances are all quite solid. That is a bit surprising given how many roles are played by actual rock musicians. Of these, Ringo delivers the most solid performance, which isn’t too surprising when one considers how many pictures he had under his belt prior to this. I feel he is basically playing himself, but that is a role he is awfully good at playing.
It is also quite enjoyable to see Keith Moon here, though in a limited role. What I found most astonishing is how hard he must have worked to reign in his impulses when he is forced to play in unembellished 4/4 time for a stage show at the resort.
It is curious to me the entirety of That’ll Be the Day takes place before Essex’s character seriously pursues rock stardom, and yet this is a much stronger snapshot of a particular era in rock history than Stardust, which is entirely set in the world of rock music production and promotion. Something just feels more honest here, especially in the moments where it shows how monstrous an otherwise nice guy can be.
Dir: Claude Whatham
Starring David Essex, Ringo Starr
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray