The 1962 Move "Don't Knock the Twist"

Four movie were made featuring Chubby Checker and the twist dance that he made popular.

* Teenage Millionaire in 1961

* Twist Around the Clock in 1061

* It's Trad, Dad in 1962

* Don't Knock the Twist in 1962

I recently was able to watch the fourth movie, because it was broadcast on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) television channel. The movie's story was lousy, but it did depict popular culture -- dancing, fashions, entertainment and male-female relationships -- in the early 1960s.

I assume that the movie's target audience was people who liked to watch Chubby Checker perform. Checker was a young man -- he turned 21 years old in 1962 -- but he was a handsome, pleasant, talented Negro who appealed largely to an Caucasian audience of all ages. In that regard he was similar to the other popular Negro male entertainers such as Nat King Cole, Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby.

In the movie's opening scene, the president of the GBC television network orders Ted Haver, the Director of Special Programing, to prepare a 90-minute show about the twist, to be broadcast on August 28, 1962, which is only four weeks away. The preparation is being rushed so that GBC will be able to broadcast its own twist show before a rival network, FBS, will broadcast a twist show on September 15.

Haver visits Checker, an old friend, to ask for help in preparing the twist show. Notice that Checker performs with Caucasian musicians. In this scene they are merely rehearsing, so they are dressed casually. When they perform, they all are dressed in suits and ties.

The following video clip shows the entertainment in the nightclub where Checker performs. In general, all the performers in the movie are Caucasians except for Checker and one other singer (whose face is obscured).

Ted Haver is in a sexual but unmarried boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with Dulcie Corbin, a professional designer of women's clothing. Inspired by Ted's preparations for the twist show, Dulcie begins designing a new clothing line for women who want to dance the twist.

Through a series of events that are worthwhile to tell here, Ted and Dulcie become acquainted with a young woman, Madge Albright, who is an attractive and talented dancer of the twist. Ted hires Madge to dance in the twist show, while Dulcie hires Madge to model the clothing line.

More stuff happens that is not worthwhile to tell here. Then the GBC network broadcasts its twist show, which feature Madge dancing the twist in a dress that Dulcie had designed.

After Madge's dance, the GBC continues with Checker performing again. The show ends with the entire studio audience getting up and dancing the twist.

======

The actress who played the character Madge Albright was Georgine Darcy, who reminds me of the Dirty Dancing character Penny Johnson (played by actress Cynthia Rhodes).

Georgine Darcy dancing in the foreground

Unfortunately, YouTube did not have any videos showing Darcy dancing in the movie -- except the fourth video above. In the movie, Darcy is beautifully photogenic and a great dancer.

As a teenager, she worked as a model and studied ballet. She left her New York home at age 16 and moved alone to California to pursue a career as a movie actress. She did not achieve success in movies beyond this 1962 movie, but she did appear in various bit parts in movies and television.

Georgine Darcy

Georgine Darcy

Darcy was about 30 years old when the movie Don't Knock the Twist was made, although her character Madge is a young woman who still lives at home with her father and brother (the brother character is dancing with her in the above photograph).

=====

There are no real teenage characters in the movie. The actors who played Ted and Dulcie were well past the age of 30. In general depicts the lifestyles of middle-aged successful professional people in 1962. They dance the twist when they dress up and date in nightclubs because the dance is easy and popular. They dance to pop music performed by Caucasian male musicians who wear suits and ties.