Calypso Heat Wave (1957) User Reviews

Do Re Mi

[boblipton · 6/10 · 14 March 2010]

Another Sam Katzman Special which somehow manages to work. A mobbed-up jukebox operator goes into the song production business and turns out to have a knack for finding talent.

A large part of the movie's success is due to the effective and subtle camera work of Benjamin Kline, a man who worked as cinematographer for fifty years, for talents as diverse as Tom Mix and the Three Stooges. In this one he gives you a lot of long, leisurely takes with a slowly moving camera during the story scenes and then switches tempo effectively for the musical numbers.

A kind word should also be reserved for director Fred Sears, who averaged five movies a year and had a busy acting career going -- and died in his mid-forties the year he made this. The decent performances he gets out of poor actors indicates, as few others of his cheapjack movies do, that had he lived longer, he might have turned into a very good director.

There's also a chance to play 'spot the talent'. Try to find Joel Grey a decade before his Broadway breakout in CABARET and even Maya Angelou. It's amazing the talent that Katzman could pick up on the cheap -- even when he couldn't think of what to do with it.

Calypso takes over America.

[michaelRokeefe · 6/10 · 20 February 2015]

Also known as JUKE BOX JAMBOREE. Barny Pearl(Michael Granger)is a gangster that rules jukeboxes and forces his way into the Disco Records Company. Mack Adams(Paul Langton),the company's owner, is forced to turn over half of the company; this angers Johnny Conroy(Johnny Desmond), the label's top seller, who is not going to give up any percentage of his royalties...turns his back on topping the charts by heading south to the islands.

Adams is convinced by his assistant Marti(Merry Anders)to search for Conroy and bring him back to start making records again. When Conroy is found, he is surrounded by island music called calypso. Brilliant idea...bring the new found music back to America and start a new musical sensation. Johnny's fan clubs and radio stations rekindle his career.

Besides Desmond, there is music by The Treniers, The Hi-Los and The Terriers and others like Maya Angelou. A few of the songs featured: "The Banana Boat Song", "Calypso Joe", "Trinidad Hubbub" and the title tune.

Other players in the cast: Meg Myles, Joel Grey, George E. Stone and Pierce Lyden.

First Johnny Desmond pairing with Merry Anders

[TheFearmakers · 6/10 · 2 January 2024]

The first feature pairing singer/actor Johnny Desmond with starlet Merry Anders before the crime thriller ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN was CALYPSO HEAT WAVE, more befitting Desmond's lifestyle being about the music business, and with Desmond a singer albeit calypso instead of standard popular ballads...

And recently, anyone who saw veteran icon Alan Arkin serenade his Pandemic fans might not know, he's wasn't merely an actor who could sing but a bonafide former musician/singer that, a decade after playing with his band The Tarriers during the11th hour gig that everything leads to, had an extremely soulful voice...

Yet the most important character is the villain: like deadly convict Richard Devon not only stole but completely controlled ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN, it's Italian mobster-looking character-actor Michael Granger, playing the crooked (albeit in a goofy over-the-top fashion) owner of a monopolizing jukebox company that will only back (or play) certain artists and, basically, without him no one has a chance... especially Desmond's Johnny Conroy, whose career might vanish before it begins...

Meanwhile, Merry Anders plays the perfect-woman record company assistant, and sometimes seems she could be the perfect girlfriend for singer Desmond, only she's dating the friendly yet beguiled owner of a more honest record company compared to the bad guy...

And had jukebox-selling villain Granger's Barney Peel been a gangster, and this film led to a criminal robbery or getaway instead of a concert, it'd be what it almost is anyhow: a lightweight yet often suspenseful calypso exploitation that also features the first live performance by Maya Angelou along with a young and energetic, extremely hard-working music company employee Joel Grey...

Who has a huge crush on the villain's floozy moll Meg Myles, whose would-be music career winds up meaning more than the surrounding legitimate acts... all being promoted by this low-budget Fred S. Sears programmer.

Watch it for the music not for the plot

[mjfshrink · 4/10 · 7 August 2014]

The plot is representative of what often times happens in the music and film world. Who is who contacts, sponsors who can drop money into a record label or film production can frequently try to overtake the direction. The story is about the struggle to do what you believe in.

What I found most interesting was the selection of music. Finding Maya Angelou singing and dancing was quite a treat. This was her first film, I prefer her as a poet. Also The Treniers a long forgotten 50's rock/blues/jazz group and the Hi Los/s with theirbeautiful harmonizing voices. The dance numbers focused on calypso of course, but cheesy… All in all a C movie but by watching it I was able to revive a connection to the music of the 50's era.

Making lots of noise in the record racket.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 9 August 2022]

It's an interesting name, "Disco Records", Paul Langton and Merry Anders' flourishing record company with one hot singer, Johnny Desmond, and the narcissistic cigar smoking Michael Granger trying to muck in. Granger seems to be holding all the cards with threats of preventing Desmond's records from being heard if he doesn't play ball. The sultry Meg Myles (Granger's obvious mistress) wants a singing career and flirts with assistant Joel Grey to get into Disco's recording studio, and she just might be the key to making Disco Records a success.

This low budget Sam Katzman produced Columbia musical has some great surprises, most obviously the presence of none other than Maya Angelou showing her talents outside of poetry. I was thrilled by the young Myles who was a far cry from her deadly vixen in "Satan in High Heels" and one of the women who tried to kill Erica on "All My Children" (playing nicer characters on several other daytime soaps), with her character reminding me of "Guys and Doll's" Miss Adelaide. Granger overdoes it as her Nathan Detroit, a meglomaniac I couldn't wait to he brought down.

Fast moving musical that does go into detail about the ruthlessness of the business as the rackets try to muck in with Langton greatly changed by the tease of success. Young Grey gets a brief dance number, and plays a character you hope keeps his integrity which Anders does. The Calypso theme takes the group from New York City to the Caribbean and really provides some great rhythms. Even "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" gets a bongo beat. Maybe not the most original of plots, but filled with some very memorable musical moments. "Beetlejuice" fans are in for a real treat with one of them.

The Guy Can't Help It!

[rudy-30 · 8/10 · 26 August 2014]

I recently saw this film mainly because of Johnny Desmond. Johnny got his start with the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band during World War 2. After the war, he became a television favorite, appearing on "The Breakfast Club" and dozens of other variety shows. Here he plays Calypso Johnny, a popular singer whose partners in a record company are being bullied by a jukebox owner gangster. Hmm. About the same time this film was made, Frank Tashlin directed "The Girl can't Help It", a story about a gangster strong-arming a musician to make his girlfriend a star. Another coincidence is the appearance of the great Treniers in both films. Joel Grey is very good in this film. It's also a treat to see a young Alan Arkin and his group The Tarriers perform the original "Banana Boat Song" which he wrote. it would make a fun compilation to show these films back to back.