Daddy-O (1958) User Reviews

Sorry, Can't help you, gym policy

[Jared G. · 4/10 · 2 October 1999]

This is a fun movie. It's bad enough to laugh at but not so incomprehensible as to be completely frustrated by it. Contino is a hoot as the lead and VeSota is actually pretty decent. A staple of Corman films, VeSota is not really a terrible actor, just is laden down with flat, character roles. The Guy who runs the gym though, Bruce, is just so GOOFY that it defies belief. It seems his permanent expression is to squint through thick glasses with a gawking mouth.

Has a pretty bad soundtrack too, filled with Contino songs. The rest of the score was done by John Williams. Yes, THAT John Williams, the same who did Jaws, ET, and Star Wars.

Man, this cat is like...squaresville; Dig???

[bdcflash · 4/10 · 13 March 2000]

Like a bad scene, daddy...Like every scenes a bad scene in this one. The beat is drummin' but like the vibe don't jive,dig?? ---Anyways this one is a fun bad movie to watch. I saw it a friend's place and though it is painfully bad it's also very funny....Like this cats way old, man for the teen scene, guess that's why they call him "Daddy-O".--- Check it out if you're lookin' for a middle-aged teenager movie.

"Hike Up Your Pants Just Like Mine...YEAH!!"

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 2 January 2006]

It's easy to poke fun at Contino on the basis of a film like "Daddy-O", but he did have...something...or at least enough pop culture weight to rate his own entry in Wikipedia and a novella by James Ellroy ("Dick Contino's Blues") based partly on Contino's character and experiences. Apparently he was consistently billed as "the world's greatest accordion player" and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show over 40 times. So he apparently was (and is) a real professional performing musician, even if his performances as a teen idol and ladies' man in "D-O" are pure cheese.

While "Daddy-O" is not very "Goody-O", I have to admit that it has a lot of energy, and a nicely overloaded plot. It's obvious from this that Dick Contino isn't much of an actor but he's got decent pecs and a chiseled jaw. And he jumps with both feet into his role of Phil/Pete Plum, the fast drivin'/hard rockin'/blonde romancin'/Sonny avengin'/undercover investigatin'/scene chewin' hero of this 50's flick about UNTAMED YOUTH (Forty Year Old Actors Division).

It's all by the numbers and it's all very silly, but it moves along briskly, and every time your attention starts to wander, there will be a car crash or a car race, or someone will say or do something incredibly corny, or there will be a beating or a fistfight, or the movie will stun your adrenal glands with a shot of buttery meat mound Bruno Vesota getting a massage, or the Platinum Blondie will do her best Veronica Lake impression (she makes Mamie Van Doren look like Meryl Streep). So you won't think of it as a "good" movie, but you'll probably at least be entertained by this unintentionally hilarious artifact of another era of pop culture.

I give it 3 pants out of 10. Er, STARS, not "pants", STARS.

"If you weren't a woman I'd punch you in the face"

[sebpopcorn · 10 September 2008]

Truck driver, singer and high trouser enthusiast Daddy-o is a real hip cat. He hangs out at a pizza parlour where he acts moody, sings deep songs like rock candy and dances aggressively with women while repeatedly pointing out to them that if they weren't a woman he would punch them, right in the face. Because their driving is substandard.

While Daddy-o is racing against a pointy breasted stranger his best friend gets run off the road and killed. How close were they? Some people have brothers, daddy-o had this guy. That's how close these two were, though they are only seen to exchange five lines of dialog in the entire movie.

Naturally Daddy-o isn't best pleased and after a run in with a myopic gym manager he drifts into some shady business delivering dope for a fat man who inexplicably spends all his time in the gym. Maybe he isn't getting any thinner because the gym doesn't have any actual gym equipment that I could see.

There are two reasons that I can think of to watch this movie, hence the two star rating. The first is that the songs are just so crap they have to be heard to be believed, most of them just have the same line repeated endlessly like Rock Candy which goes "rock candy, rock, rock, rock candy, rock, rock candy." (repeat 50 times).

The other reason for tuning in to this highly dated yarn is the way the script can't decide if Daddy-o is a mean moody type or a fun loving hipster liable to burst into song at any moment. It probably doesn't help that the teenage rebel looks about 40 either.

Pretty funny, pretty awful too though.

Dick Contino

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 20 July 2020]

Things were really swinging in 1958, if Daddy-O has anything to say about things. And John Williams. Yes, the same man who scored Star Wars got his humble beginnings right here in a movie about street racing and singing under the assumed name Daddy-O.

It starts Dick Contino, who at one time was known as the world's greatest accordion player and ended up becoming a fictional character in the books of James Elroy. No, really.

I can get why my parents worried about my music, because Venom outright told their fans that when they meant "At War with Satan," the with meant alongside. "Rock Candy Baby," featured in this film, seems a song that no parent should ever worry about. Ever.

Anyways, back to Dick the accordion player, who is a singing and car racing man who gets beaten easily by a tough girl played by Sandra Giles, who was discovered at Canter's Deli and went the whole way from Hooker (as in Hooker, Oklahoma) to movie star, to quote an article about her in Life Magazine.

Bruno VeSota, who went on to direct The Brain Eaters, is also in this.

The verdict? Not enough rock. Too much crime. But hey, Sandra Giles should have been in every movie ever and been allowed to beat any man she wanted to in any car race.

Released on a double bill with Roadracers, you can spot a poster for this movie at Jack Rabbit Slims. And the aformentioned Elroy wrote a fictionalized narrative of the making of this movie, Dick Contino's Blues.

Must viewing for James Ellroy fans

[dave13-1 · 3/10 · 15 November 2016]

Daddy-O is another in a very long line of Juvie D / rock and rollers that tried to look like an Elvis picture from a distance. Shot for only $100 grand on cheap sets and with few professional actors, the film makes King Creole look like Cabaret. Daddy-O would be just another badly dated grade Z picture but for one thing: Dick Contino's Blues. James Ellroy watched this clumsy oldster and then wrote a richly detailed -and thoroughly speculative - account of Contino's participation in the film while tracking a serial killer! The story is an action comedy masterpiece and to actually watch Daddy-O after reading DC Blues is like finding lost gold. The movie is admittedly pretty bad. Contino plays a singing truck driver (get it? Elvis drove a truck before he became famous) who meets a platinum bad girl out on the highway and finds his life spiralling downward. The songs are terrible, a shame really since Contino had a legitimate reputation as a musician, and the characters range from bland to dislikeable, with the exception of the myopic gym manager who is flat out wacky. The crime plot involves drug running, supposedly, although by the hour mark no drugs have actually been moved anywhere. With little story or character interest to engage the audience, there is not much to do except laugh at the dated hipster expressions, groan over the awful song numbers and wonder why Contino's pants are up near his ribcage. But watching the movie as a story within Dick Contino's Blues makes for a rich experience. The viewer sympathizes with Contino for having to take work which was so obviously beneath his musical talents, owing to the damage his reputation suffered following an accusation that he was a draft dodger. (He wasn't but the papers failed to tell the whole story.) Contino himself was not a good enough actor to save a film this hokey, plus he was five years older than Elvis and getting too long in the tooth to be a convincing Juvie D. But wondering how he found the time to play amateur sleuth amidst all of this - assuming that any part of Ellroy's crazy caper was even a little bit true - makes this a truly special movie.

this is the funniest movie I have ever seen

[paul_giraldi · 1/10 · 3 January 2006]

This movie was soooo bad it was actually good. Aside from the shirts changing from scene to scent you should watch and pay attention to the cars. They also change from scene to scene, especially in the beginning of the movie during the famous car crash. Also the singing had to be the most made of, badly performed sequence on film. I have never seen a movie with so many glaring mistakes but I think that is the magic of this film, it kept you interested in seeing what else could be phonied. I could not stop watching once I started just to see what new and exciting adventures were just around the bend. Can I get a copy of this great movie somewhere?

Not As Awful As Some Assume

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 9 February 2016]

Phil, a part-time truck driver and singer who wears his pants far too high, meets a feisty platinum blonde who challenges him to a drag race through Griffith Park. When he is caught and loses his license, he meets up with the sketchy Frank Wooster who offers him a job singing in his new nightclub.

What makes this film notable is that it is the first film score for John Williams. Maybe it is not something he is proud of, but I would love to see the soundtrack released if it has not been already. It is good to appreciate all the work of a great composer, even the work that might not be considered great.

Because the film ended up on "Mystery Science Theater", people assume it is bad. But it actually seems to be a decent film. Maybe it could use a little polish, but it is a fun movie and really seems to predate the 1960s AIP pictures.

Burn in hell Daddy-O! And your pants too!

[Torgo_Approves · 2/10 · 30 December 2006]

A disastrously outdated and just basically unlikeable comedy/thriller/musical/torture device from the late 50's, Daddy-O chronicles the life of badass singer/womanizer/tough guy/knucklehead Pete Plum and his involuntary involvement in the drug dealing business. As the informative IMDb plot description states, Pete Plum a.k.a. the title character wears his pants far too high. I mean, this guy is to wearing pants what George W. Bush is to improving the US' relationship with foreign countries. He's *so* unbelievably bad at wearing pants, Joel and the 'bots even write a song dedicated to his pants-wearing skills (let's face it, it's pretty unlikely that you would watch this movie anywhere outside the MST3K show).

And there you have it, the one funny thing about this movie. As soon as the jokes about hiking pants up are over, the movie is pure pain. PURE, TOTAL PAIN. There's not an iota of anything of interest ever happening. It's just oh so dull, dull, dull! This junk brings a new meaning to the world "dreary". The only scene I even remember is when the fat boss takes off his shirt (oh, how I wish I could forget!). Beached whales are more appealing.

There is one positive aspect of this garbage, though: once you've seen it, you'll be more tolerant of boring movies. So the next time you walk out of whatever dreary, soapy melodrama Paul Haggis unleashes next upon his unsuspecting audience, and one of your friends complains about what a borefest it was, you can always say "hey, at least it wasn't as dull as Daddy-O".

Avoid.

ROCK, ROCK CANDY BABY!

[evileric13 · 2/10 · 12 September 2002]

One of the better MST3K episodes. Wouldn't wanna watch it without Joel, Servo and Crow's help though. Dick Contino's singing is pretty funny though. I'd watch the movie just for his classic song about rocking a candy baby...

Some people had brothers. I had Sonny !!!

[CelluloidRehab · 4/10 · 16 August 2004]

Dick Contino (Bruce Campbell's deformed evil older brother - based on facial similarities) plays the role of a truck driver/stock car racer/singer who gets involved in a dope ring when his best friend Sonny gets killed. This movie is dull, boring and painful. Do not watch this movie un-MST3k and alone. The dancing is atrocious, Dick's singing is quite painful (maybe not quite as bad as the music from the Beatniks), the acting is worse than any high school production and worst of all - we get to see Bruno VeSota in a towel getting a manicure and a massage (think old, fat, sweaty Orson Wells look alike). If you are watching this movie, press eject now, and put in something better... like Manos. Want some ???

Good 50's Movie

[carmen-24 · 10/10 · 2 June 2000]

I saw this movie when I was about 10 years old in the Studio before it had even been released... since my cousin (Sandra Giles) was in it. She is a very beautiful and kind person and would take time to talk to us children like we were adults. I live in Texas so the only time I got to see her was when we went on vacation to California. I remember her taking me for a ride in her 1959 T-Bird that was covered inside and out with pink fur. I bet she caused lots of confusion on the California Freeways back then. I wish the movie was on VHS so I could keep a copy for my son. If anyone has a copy for sale please let me know. Thanks Carmen

Not quite the most, cats, but not the least, either.

[Laughing_Gravy · 6/10 · 16 April 2005]

An entertaining little potboiler with rock, drag racing, beautiful girls, and a score by John Williams (yes, THAT John Williams, apparently), DADDY-O – if not, like, the most, cats, it's at least an above-average 1950s exploitation picture.

Dick Contino is Phil, a truck driver who moonlights as a rock 'n' roll singer at the local teen club (just like young Elvis, man). He meets a gorgeous woman (Sandra Giles of LOST, LONELY & VICIOUS) who loves hot cars and fast men and who challenges him to a midnight race through Griffith Park. Phil is arrested for drag racing, and in fact is under suspicion for vehicular homicide, because a guy named Sonny (who just happens to be Phil's best friend) was killed in the park that night. Phil is cleared of that charge, but in trying to uncover the real killer, puts himself and his new sweet-patootie in danger from drug runner Sidney Chillas (Bruno Ve Sota).

Favorite moment: Phil asks his sweetie if she'd like to hear him sing; she says, "Your singing can't be any worse than your driving." He immediately proves her wrong by ripping into a song called "Rock Candy Baby" that'll make you long for the melodious and lyrically mesmerizing "Nobody Lives on the Brownsville Road" from EEGAH! or even "Do the Jellyfish" from STING OF DEATH.

Second favorite moment: Phil "quietly sneaking" from a back alley into a gym to look for evidence in Sonny's death; he makes more noise than Keith Moon.

Least favorite moment: Nude, sweaty Bruno Ve Sota, hot from a steam bath, getting a rubdown. It's like watching somebody try to sculpt a replica of Mt. Rushmore in jello.

Second and third least favorite moments: Phil (who has adopted the professional name of "Daddy-O") sings "Angel Eyes" and "Wait'll I Get You Home". For some reason, his pants are pulled way, way up, so that his belt is roughly in the middle of his chest. This apparently helps him hit the high notes.

"Couldn't help ya if I wanted to, fella. Gym policy."

[bensonmum2 · 5/10 · 11 August 2015]

Having been wrongfully accused of the death of his best friend, Phil Sandifer (Dick Contino) sets out to find the real killer. To do so, he goes undercover as a singer in a new club where he's offered a chance to make some extra cash running drugs for the club's owner. Can Phil find the killer before he gets into more trouble with the law?

Daddy-O really isn't all bad, but it's not all good either. I think the thing that intrigues me the most about the movie is Dick Contino as Phil. What a weird dude! In appearance, he looks like a cross between James Best and Tom Jones. For whatever reason, he wears his pants so high (complete with belt buckle on the side) that there's only about 8-10 inches between the top and his underarms. I've seen 90 year-old men who don't pull their pants up this high. And, I can't tell you how many times someone in the movie calls Phil "kid". It's hysterical. When Daddy-O was made, Contino was 28 years-old - and he looked it or more. I guess someone deiced that if they called him "kid" enough, maybe the audience would eventually buy into it as well.

Other than Contino, Daddy-O has a decent little plot, Bruno VeSota, generally bad acting, a Jayne Mansfield wannabe, a low budget, and some horrible 50s style bubble-gum pop. A 5/10 from me.

"Want some?"

[eminges · 7 December 2001]

Oh, Lordie, is this a wonderful movie. The only JD movie that compares is High School Confidential. You'll watch it again and again, consumed with envy at Dick Contino's sheer studliness and convulsed in laughter at some of the worst continuity in modern history.

Hot rods! Well, a T-Bird and a TR-3. Hot sex! Well, more naked Bruno VeSota than is probably good for you to see. Steamy dialogue! Well, "Want some?" was pretty hot in 1959. Juvie crime! Well, Dick Contino was no more a teenager than he was a Soviet cosmonaut, but he WAS running dope for Big Bruno.

And it DOES feature Bruce, the gym rat. Watch this movie, ponder this movie, and remind yourself that someone, the actor, the director, the writer, SOMEONE had to invent the incredible bundle of character twitches that is Bruce.

Daddy-O Notes: Dick Contino is alive, well, still studly in his early seventies, and the living master of the show accordion. You can buy current Dick Contino CD's and promotional merchandise, you can see him live in person. According to one interview, Dick is famous for, and I quote, "humping" his accordion as he plays. Oh, that I should live so long. Does he still hike, hike, hike hike his pants up?

Jack McClure, who played Bruce, was also in "Friendly Persuasion." At one point the poor deluded fellow might actually have thought he had a career going.

When the movie came out, my little brother and I, absolutely forbidden to see this or any other immoral movies about juvies and their chicks, were enthralled by the ads that ran constantly on the radio. One featured a woman's voice shouting, "Daddy-O! Look out BEHIND you!" and a stock sound clip of a skidding car's squealing tires. When MST beat up on Daddy-O I taped it (naturally) and watched it over and over - kids, that line is NOT in their version. Is there a "long" version, a la Wicker Man? A director's cut?

Ghod, when it comes to sheer entertainment value, they just don't make 'em like this any more. All this movie lacks is beatniks, a polar bear on a tricycle, and a coupon for free beer.

A film that is kind of all over the place

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 24 August 2015]

Watched this particular film on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Another in a long line of films featuring grown ups pretending to be younger than they really are and crooning in the local bar. Most of this films usually are kind of all over the place, but this one really takes the cake. From not really establishing a relationship between two characters on screen, to one minute the film being about singing and getting a girl to running drugs, this film just does it all and does it all pretty badly. Still, the film while bad, still had enough going for it that I did not want the two lead characters dead and battered at the bottom of a ravine and torn apart by animals. So it had that going for it.

The story has a part time truck driver who occasionally sings and also was apparently racing having a bit of a time with a blond who likes running guys off the road and later offering them a bite of apple. Well this guy's best friend in the whole world dies in a tragic car accident and the driver suspects foul play. Though, to be honest, their super great friendship is almost implied as there really are no scenes depicting them as super best buds. The truck driver ends up onto something big and soon gets hired on to sing at a club while he is on probation and though his license is revoked he also starts running drugs too. Oh Daddy-O, you are busy.

This film was a pretty good episode of Mystery Science 3000. The short preceding this one was kind of weird as it went through all the letters of the alphabet in the most random way possible and the bumps were pretty good. My favorite being Michael Nelson as the gym leader demanding Joel give him the key. The movie was pretty good as it may have been like a couple of other films they did, it had enough differences to keep it funny (the blind gym coach for example). Though I do prefer it when they do horror or science fiction, a couple of these older films featuring young folk gone crazy are usually pretty good too.

So the movie was not as bad as many of the films riffed, but by no means good. The riffs done here were pretty good and the film was so all over the place that it was varied and never got boring. The lead two characters were also done well enough that I did not want them dead. Which is good, because this was not a horror so the chances of them ending dead were very low.

Groovy-O!

[InzyWimzy · 6/10 · 1 September 2004]

Pete Plum...doesn't that remind you of a certain Clue character?

Dick Contino is a rocking thirtyish trucker who really swings! He wears a Santa belt pulled to the side and I swear he has no crotch due to really elevated pants! The moviemakers really wanted to make him so cool especially in the musical numbers. "Rock Candy Baby" is like Kids in the Hall: the more you see it, the more you appreciate it and laugh, and laugh, and LAUGH!!! I love the band members swaying to and fro in the background...I wonder how many times they laughed seeing poor Dick clapping his hands with faux soul. John Williams, how could you??

Sandra Giles (RAWRRRR!!!) plays the bad, feisty feline Jana who makes me wish they let her star in a sequel "Bad Momma-O"! Better her than old Chinbutt Contino. This gal will do anything to win a pizza and she can really handle an apple (<SLAP> I want ANSWERS!!!). I'd give her some toppings! My favorite scene is when she defiantly says, "Anything goes Daddy-O!!" And that cigarette girl outfit...I'd take up smoking anyday!

Extra kudos to my B fave Bruno VeSota who plays the ominously evil Chillas and the even more dastardly rubdown scene. He always manages to give great performances; not too over the top, but small, yet memorable roles. No one skulks around in a wine cellar better than Bruno!

Daddy-O isn't your best delinquent, sing-along flick, but it's loads of B schlock fun, and one of my favorite MSTed eps too.

This whole movie is fun, with or without MST

[ticklemetorgo · 16 August 2005]

Well what can you say about Daddy-O, it really isn't good at all, I don't even know how to rate it, though there are worse movies out there. This film actually has a story, plot, action and a decent ending. The problem, IT"S ALL GOOFY!! And I don't think the director meant it to be that way, but it is.

Dick Contino is our hero, an aged teenager who wears skin tight shirts and extremely hiked up pants (with the belt buckle to the side)Anyway he's accused of killing his friend Sonny while racing a peroxide queen who becomes his main squeeze. Anyway he investigates Sonny's death because the LAPD are too lazy to do it themselves. He gets involved with running drugs for doughy guy and squinty (which again the LAPD don't bother to investigate)Lots of things happen which will take too long to explain but in the end the bad guys lose, Dick gets his girl and pants stay hiked.

Daddy-O, can I borrow the Car-eo?

[icehole4 · 23 May 2003]

This film is extremely dated. It's a typical youth-gone-amok movie that populated drive-ins in the 1950's. Dick Contino, he of the big pecs and mediocre singing voice, does the best he can to save this film. however, it's not enough. Sandra Giles, who played Jana, was definitely chosen for her large chest and blonde locks, and not her acting ability. The guy with the coke-bottle thick glasses really was an offensive stereotype. The main problem is that Daddy-O's character really doesn't give you a lot to like him; the heroine Jana gives you even less to like her.

Avoid this one unless you're watching the MST3K version. "got to keep your pants up!"

Daddy-O's going to be Dead-y O!

[Oosterhartbabe · 3 March 2005]

Ahh, the passions and trials of forty year old teenagers! Welcome to the fifties, home of some of the most unintentionally hilarious films of all times.

Here we have Phil-a pushing forties truck driver with pecs bigger than his girlfriend's breasts. Phil likes to hike up his pants to his chest a la Ed Grimley, leading to a song by Joel Robinson that is unutterably hysterical. Phil's supposed to still be a teenager, but than so are all of the aging characters in this film except for the fat guy and his manicurist. He's a drag racer with a taste for speed(the drug, I presume).

He'a almost run off the road by a blonde bombshell in a VERY tight blouse. he later races her, losing very spectacularly. He also loses his license, which is just as well. If this guy was a stunt driver, it was in a circus clown car, obviously.

Phil becomes involved in the death of his best friend, a thin gloomy kid who's car is run off the road the same night as Phil's race with the Peroxide Queen. Phil decides to get like Kojac, man, and investigate Sonny's death.

Re-enter the bleached blonde. The two of them set off to poke around the locker room of a gym-why? Did they enjoy the smell of gym socks and jock straps? In the process, we are introduced to the two funniest characters in the film-the effete fat man Chilas, and his goofy sidekick Bruce(a.k.a Squint Boy). They're on the look out for some drugs that Sonny stole from them and hid in his locker. The commentary between these two is just hilarious. The scene is made even funnier by the fact that pomade man and blondie are crouched in one of the showers nearby, hoping that the smell of sweat will overwhelm the smell of bleach.

Chilas hires Phil to be a singer in his new club. I don't know why, since this guy has a karaoke level of singing talent. Maybe he thinks that the aging teenagers in the audience will be hypnotized by how high Phil's pants are pulled up and be unable to look away. Or perhaps that they'll be amused by the corny lyrics of the songs he sings. I think my favorite is that one about how he won't do anything with his (girlfriend?) in public, but.."Just wait 'til I get you home, baby".

Phil discovers that the fat man had Sonny running dope for him. He and his platinum headed baby doll fool the bad guys(not that this is exactly hard)with some puerile ruses, and the cops sweep in in the end(they answered Phil's special police hot line)and scoop up blind as a bat Bruce and the oily Mr. Chilas.

Perhaps this was the first sound track ever done by the great John Williams. It certainly isn't up to his later standards. But it started a trend in which his music is the saving grace of some fairly mediocre films. Daddy-O isn't the worst film by far that I've ever seen on MST3K, but it is cheesy enough to inspire a laugh or two.