Question: What was the genre of the 1956 film about a band directed by Fred F. Sears ?

text: List of films about bands
List of motion pictures about music bands ( real or fictional )

Popular music and motion pictures have been linked since the dawn of the talkies and 1927's The Jazz Singer. While numerous films in the intervening years have featured popular music in their sound tracks, and many have profiled solo artists, the list of films about popular bands is much shorter. The following are significant theatrical films that tell the stories of real or imagined musical groups.
Year Film/Title Director ( s ) Cast/Leads Notes
1954 The Glenn Miller Story Anthony Mann James Stewart June Allyson The film tells the story of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and big band leader Glenn Miller ( 1904-1944 ) ( James Stewart ) from his early days in the music business in 1929 through to his 1944 death when the airplane he was flying in was lost over the English Channel during World War II . The film features ten songs performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra
1956 Rock Around the Clock Fred F. Sears Bill Haley and his Comets Alan Freed Considered the first true rock and roll feature film , it is a highly fictionalized account of the origins of rock . The film features several major acts of the day , including The Platters , but largely focuses on the success of Haley and his band , whose single Rock Around the Clock is widely considered to be the first rock and roll hit
1964 A Hard Day 's Night Richard Lester The Beatles Several days in the lives of the Beatles
1966 Charlie Is My Darling Peter Whitehead The Rolling Stones The first documentary film about the Rolling Stones , shot during the band 's tour of Ireland in September 1965 . A restored edition , with additional material , was released theatrically in 2012
1970 Let It Be Neil Aspinall The Beatles Billy Preston A documentary about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be , it was filmed in January 1969 . The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group , their last performance in public . Released just after the album , it was the final original Beatles release
1970 Gim me Shelter Albert and David Maysles Charlotte Zwerin The Rolling Stones A documentary film chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones ' 1969 US tour which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert . The film is named after Gim me Shelter , the lead track from the group 's 1969 album Let It Bleed
1975 Flame Richard Loncraine Slade Tom Conti Alan Lake Film starring the British rock band Slade . The film charts the history of Flame , a fictitious group in the late 1960s who are picked up by a marketing company and taken to the top , only to break up at their zenith . Described as the Citizen Kane of rock musicals by BBC film critic Mark Kermode , the film went on to achieve critical acclaim years after the mixed feelings on its original release
1977 ABBA : The Movie Lasse Hallström ABBA Robert Hughes Largely filmed during ABBA 's 1977 Australian tour , the film is a record of a pop band at the peak of its global chart success . It was the first English-language feature directed by future Academy Award nominee Hallström , who also directed most of the band 's pioneering music videos . He is also credited as writer , though he has admitted that much of the story , involving a radio reporter trying to land an interview with the band , was mostly improvised on the fly . The film features 19 live performances including one song , Get on the Carousel , that has never been officially released on any other medium
1978 Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park Gordon Hessler Kiss In this made-for-television film , Kiss use their superpowers to battle an evil inventor and to save a California amusement park from destruction
1978 The Last Waltz Martin Scorsese The Band Arranged by travel-weary Robbie Robertson as a farewell concert for The Band . Containing comments by the bandmembers and a host of notable guest performers associated with The Band , it contains concert footage and interviews taped both upon the occasion and afterward . The film drew controversy in part , as the other bandmates did not share Robertson 's eagerness to part . Other issues , according to Levon Helm , involved the lack of visibility of The Band itself , drug use both on set , ( including by Scorsese and musicians ostensibly affecting the quality of the film ) , and Helm felt the film portrayed Robertson the key player in a star role , minimizing what appeared to him as the importance of the other bandmates and their contributions
1978 Sgt . Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band Michael Schultz Peter Frampton The Bee Gees The film uses the music of The Beatles to tell the story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their home town of Heartland
1979 Rock ' n ' Roll High School Allan Arkush Ramones P.J . Soles A musical comedy about a high school girl and her quest to meet her rock heroes , The Ramones
1980 The Blues Brothers John Landis John Belushi Dan Aykroyd Paroled convict Jake and his brother Elwood , set out on a mission from God to save the Catholic orphanage in which they were raised from foreclosure . To do so , they must reunite their R & B band and organize a performance to earn $ 5,000 needed to pay the orphanage 's property tax bill
1982 Ladies and Gentlemen , The Fabulous Stains Lou Adler Diane Lane Laura Dern A cult classic starring about three teenage girls who form a punk rock band
1983 Eddie and the Cruisers Martin Davidson Ellen Barkin Tom Berenger A Jersey band in the 1960s rises to fame but right before their second album comes out , the master recordings and the lead singer Eddie , mysteriously disappear . Twenty years later a reporter investigates
1984 Purple Rain Albert Magnoli Prince Apollonia Kotero A singer with a trouble past , the Kid ( Prince ) is a Minneapolis musician on the rise with his band , The Revolution . While trying to avoid making the same mistakes as his father , the Kid navigates the music scene and a rocky relationship with a captivating singer . But a rival musician , Morris ( Morris Day ) , looks to steal the Kid 's spotlight -- and his girl
1984 This Is Spinal Tap Rob Reiner Michael McKean Christopher Guest A famous mockumentary about a heavy metal band trying to make a comeback while being followed around by a filmmaker
1986 Sid and Nancy Alex Cox Gary Oldman Chloe Webb ( Also known as Sid and Nancy : Love Kills ) A 1986 British film which portrays the life of Sid Vicious , bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols . It stars Oldman as Vicious and Webb as his girlfriend , Nancy Spungen . The movie chronicles the lives of the couple and their early deaths
1987 La Bamba Luis Valdez Lou Diamond Phillips Esai Morales Rosanna DeSoto Biographical story of the rise from nowhere of early rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens who died at age 17 in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper
1987 Rock ' n ' Roll Nightmare John Fasano Jon Mikl Thor The rock band Triton travels to a remote farmhouse to rehearse only to be attacked by an evil presence there