The Young Ones is a 1961 British musical film directed by Sidney J. Furie. It stars Cliff Richard and his band The Shadows, Robert Morely, and Carole Gray. The movie was one of the most popular movies of the year at the UK box office (second place; beaten by The Guns of Navarone) and, like Summer Holiday that came out later, spawned numerous hit songs and propelled Richard and The Shadows into stardom; many of the songs outliving the movie's success, such as the title song.
Scaffolding work threatens a nearby youth club and stolen blueprints reveal that it's the final ruling of property developer Hamilton Black (Morely), who wants to build more tower blocks. Unfortunately for him, his son Nicky (Richard) is a frequent performer at the youth club with his band (The Shadows) and is determined to keep the club open for all of his friends. With two weeks until the foreclosure, Nicky and Hamilton declare war with Nicky promising to raise enough money to stop production. He and his girlfriend Toni (Gray), with the help of some of their friends, decide to organise a play for their charity.
Tropes
- Book and Switch: The workers at Dench, Dench and Dench boast reading charts on their laps about recent business to their clients on the phone ... when they are actually staring at posters of models in bikinis.
- Dramatic Irony: When Hamilton hears Nick's voice on the radio, he snaps that he loathes it and tells Nicky that he could sing better.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: After discovering who Dorinda Morell is, Hamilton tracks her down and it's announced in the newspaper later that day that the two of them are engaged.
- Hidden Depths: Through a fight at the youth club, it's revealed that Nicky took judo lessons.
- Let's Put on a Show!: The entire movie.
- Limited Wardrobe: Chris is the only member of the youth club that wears the same clothing (red shirt, leather jacket, and cowboy boots) whereas the rest of the characters have a variety of clothing. Even the characters that always wear suits have shirt/jacket/tie variations.
- The Music Meister: Nicky sings most of the songs.
- No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The club members hack into the radio waves and viewers across London can hear their broadcast as they watch the television.
- Police Are Useless: Both Scotland Yard and the radio broadcasting detectors fail to track the radio hacking from teenagers.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Nicky.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Nicky discovers on performance night that his friends secretly planned to attack Hamilton on his journey across the motorway to blackmail him into surrendering.
