Daddy-O
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Hotshot street-racer Phil Sandifer (Contino) is working as a truck driver when he is harassed by a sports car driving on the highway. He later meets up with the driver, Jana (Giles), in a local club. Jana challenges Phil to a race; Jana cheats, and Phil loses. At the same time, his best friend Sonny is run off the road and killed by an unidentified assailant (VeSota).
Later at the club, Phil is arrested for destruction of city property and trespassing in the area they raced through, reckless driving, and hit-and-run and manslaughter for Sonny's death. The hit-and-run and manslaughter charges are dropped but Phil is found guilty of the other three charges - as a result, Phil is placed on probation and is stripped of his driver's license. Phil quickly launches into an investigation into Sonny's murder, his first suspect being Jana. She denies any involvement, and joins Phil in his investigation. He follows the trail of clues to nightclub owner Sidney Chillas (Sonny's assailant), and Chillas's lackey Bruce, who runs the gym Sonny used to frequent. Chillas hires Phil as a singer under the alias of "Daddy-O".
Not long after being hired, Phil is beaten up by a couple of drug dealers who have mistaken him for Pete Plum, a pseudonym used by Sonny. Phil draws the conclusion that Sonny had been moving money around for Chillas, and that he had stolen some of the money and was killed as a result. Phil confronts Chillas with the information, and they confront one another in a liquor cellar. Phil manages to knock Chillas out, and soon the police arrive and arrest him and Bruce. The movie ends just as Phil is asked to sing.

Review: 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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
---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..
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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..
Dick Contino, he of the big pecs and mediocre singing voice, does the best he can to save this film.
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.
Pete Plum...doesn't that remind you of a certain Clue character?Dick Contino is a rocking thirtyish trucker who really swings!
"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!!!
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"!
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.
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 movie was soooo bad it was actually good.
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.
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?
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.
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.
(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..
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.
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.
Maybe it could use a little polish, but it is a fun movie and really seems to predate the 1960s AIP pictures..
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.
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).
As soon as the jokes about hiking pants up are over, the movie is pure pain.
Dick Contino's singing is pretty funny though.
I'd watch the movie just for his classic song about rocking a candy baby....
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.
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...
"Hike Up Your Pants Just Like Mine...YEAH!!".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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..
Watched this particular film on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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.
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 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.
Having been wrongfully accused of the death of his best friend, Phil Sandifer (Dick Contino) sets out to find the real killer.
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.
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".
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.