ianlouisiana Review of Stardust

Stardust (1974)

A Hogarthian catalogue of excess.........................

[8/10 · 18 October 2009]

A relative innocent abroad in the wild world of rock'n'roll,wannabe pop star Jim Mclaine takes his band "The Stray Cats" on a typical early 1960s tour of British music venues,clubs,halls and eventually TV studios.With the inevitable van covered in girls' phone numbers they cover incalculable miles on the emerging motorway network doing countless gigs.Many people over 50 will remember seeing groups of grey - face scruffy young men huddling round the tables in the service areas of the M1 wolfing their egg and chips and reading "The Melody Maker" to find out where they were playing the following week. For most of them that was as good as it ever got,but some,like "The Stray Cats" through good management,good luck,good publicity and perhaps just a touch of talent,made that extra leap to stardom. The late Mr Adam Faith is superb as the band's manager.He is perhaps the best example of the British pop star turned actor.From "Beat Girl" and "Mix me a person" onwards he displayed a rare talent for serious performance and a decade on from "Stardust" was regularly acting on television. He "creates" Jim Mclaine,and in doing so,simultaneously sows the seeds for his destruction.Svengali - like he watches over his creature's adventures.Then he destroys him. Rather like "The Rake's Progress","Stardust" follows Jim's downward spiral from success to excess with a certain voyeuristic relish. It doesn't have to be judgemental,quite clearly doing serious substance abuse is a Bad Thing and certainly poor Jim pays for it and for his rather poor treatment of the opposite sex. If,when he first picked up that guitar in the shop,he could have seen the way things were destined to end up,would he hurriedly have put it back down again and studied for his 'A' levels?.....That'll be the day!