Look what I just found on youTube ...

[Uncle Fiesta]

I also watched Summer Holiday all the way through this week, for the first time in years.

That too was on YouTube ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4usgq-F3YYA

... although I've yet to locate The Young Ones or Wonderful Life. I'm sure if anyone does find them , they will post the links here!

[GrahamH]

"Finders Keepers" was a fun/fantasy movie, not to be taken too seriously, and always struck me as a cross between The Monkees and The Beatles' "Help". Still, it was good to see the Shadows so much more involved, both musically and acting.

Makes me wonder if they could and should have been much more prominent in the earlier films. Could they have been aboard the bus in "Summer Holiday"?

Just a thought

Graham

[GoldenStreet]

I also watched Summer Holiday all the way through this week, for the first time in years.

I liked the opening credit for The Shadows And Their Guitars... pity we didn't get to see a bit more of them (and their guitars)!

Bill

[JimN]

I've never seen this film, for some reason it's never been on TV and it's not on dvd but i wanted to see it as it has more of the Shadows than previous films. It also has one of my favourites 'My Way' which i still think would have been a bigger hit than 'The dreams i dream'. And the picture/sound quality isn't too bad either.

It has definitely been shown on TV in the UK, as early as 1972, in fact. And it has been on more recently, leading to air-check VHS and DVD-R copies coming into circulation.

[JimN]

I also watched Summer Holiday all the way through this week, for the first time in years.

That too was on YouTube ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4usgq-F3YYA
... although I've yet to locate The Young Ones or Wonderful Life. I'm sure if anyone does find them , they will post the links here!

Posting commercially-available films on YouTube is not really on.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Collection-Summer-Holiday-Wonderful/dp/B0000695KB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418135438&sr=8-2&keywords=cliff+richard+movies

[Stratpicker]

I also watched Summer Holiday all the way through this week, for the first time in years.

That too was on YouTube ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4usgq-F3YYA
... although I've yet to locate The Young Ones or Wonderful Life. I'm sure if anyone does find them , they will post the links here!

Posting commercially-available films on YouTube is not really on.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Collection-Summer-Holiday-Wonderful/dp/B0000695KB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418135438&sr=8-2&keywords=cliff+richard+movies

True, Jim but at £60!! Holey Frijholey!!
Ian

[Iain Purdon]

Makes me wonder if they could and should have been much more prominent in the earlier films.

I'm sure they could. I don't know whether they should! I think it's safe to say that we would have liked that.

The Young Ones first. I can't quote the sources to back this up but, off the top of my head, I seem to recall that Jet was considered for a part. I dare say his James Dean looks were thought camera-friendly; I suspect also that his reliability by then was a factor. Anyway, it didn't happen. There is also the backdrop that the film was primarily a vehicle for Cliff as an actor. The Shads were brilliantly used doing what they did best but little more. The crew of Una Stubbs, Melvyn Hayes, Richard O'Sullivan etc were there because they were actors and could be relied on to play parts as Cliff's mates. Likewise Teddy Green was there as a dancer for the mandatory hoofing required.

Summer Holiday saw the Shads being used a little more, as semi-comic visual characters. Licorice was good at looning about, likewise Hank who was given that memorable line "Oh I feel so cool!" But again they relied more on the professional actors and dancers.

Wonderful Life followed a similar pattern but with far less of the Shads as a performing group, which was a massive let down. The odd line was allowed, though. If I remember rightly (?) John's speech debut as a Shadow was to reply "Was it?" The film also led to the backstage discovery of Flingel Bunt ...

Finders Keepers was quite different. The Shads had written all the songs and tunes and not only got to perform them but also to act as Cliff's mates. Hank's comic talents were used more extensively and the other three were given incidental lines. They all had dance routines to do.

All the films were cheesy even by the standards of the time. The Beatles films were tons better, I think.

But if you didn't see Finders Keepers, I recommend that you watch it. Once! (as Brian might say)

Oh, and as with the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, so there was the Shadows Rhythm'n'Greens. Everyone did everything in that but it only went on release as a supporting film. True fans will have sought it out, and it was fun, but for the Shads I think it simply came too late.

[exprog]

I remember obtaining DVD's for Cliff Richard films,when they were given away each day by a certain newspaper. (Can't remember which paper).

However Finders Keepers was not among them..

[Iain Purdon]

Correct. VHS only. See post #8 above

[piecrusty]

Finders Keepers, probably my most favourite Shadows film, and I endorse what Graham said above, it was fun, it was a fantasy, it was daft, funny escapism and full of unforgettable music. I saw it many times on the TV in my teenage years and frankly it glamourised the idea of being in a band so much that it probably helped drive me on to have one of my own. I mean, come on, who didn't want to be chased by the baddies, screamed at by the girls, dance with the most gorgeous ones around and sing and play songs that everyone was going to love. Perfect teen heaven. Remember Hank met his second wife as a dancer in this film, and it plays into just what a fantasy pop film of the Sixties was all about, fun, sun, singing great songs and everyone having a great time...............work who needs it, just do this! The paper thin plot doesn't matter!

I mean how cool is 'My Way' with the matching green Burns and Bruces' super cool sunspecs, highlight of the film, with Hank using an invisible De Armond pedal as he walks about. Brian bashing out on the piano in the castle cellar as they break the bars on the window, the whole thing ending in the fiesta, it was happiness nothing less, and you always felt better at the end of it. The scene at the beginning where they jump off the train and fling a Marshall amp head was always picked on by the conspiracy theorists as the Shads and Vox having a dig at the reliability of Marshalls. Second favourite song was 'This Day' sung in the cave and heavily featuring Alan Hawkshaws organ, brilliant song made the hairs on your neck stand up! Least favourite song was 'Washerwoman' which would be banned by the PC brigade now, sorry but this one always made even me cringe, as a fan . Hell are there no launderettes in Spain? Just enjoy this film for what it is, don't think about it too much! Now if ever our peers chose to do this music as a stage show, I'd want a front row seat. Perhaps one of us umpteen tribute bands on here should do a show based on the music of the film, could we fill a theatre? I'm not singing 'Washerwoman'!!

Cheers