Bye Bye Birdie

When the rock star Conrad Birdie is drafted, his manager comes up with one last publicity idea: on television, he will kiss an ordinary fan chosen by lottery. The draw lands on a town in Ohio and on fifteen year old Kim, and the town comes apart. George Sidney's musical is openly mocking the drafting of Elvis in 1958. The real event of the film is Ann-Margret, since the opening and closing numbers were written straight at her and made her a star. Dick Van Dyke repeats his role from the stage version. That the film ridicules teenage hysteria while staging and selling that same hysteria is an odd contradiction, and it works. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties Broadway adaptations and Ann-Margret. Who it is not for: anyone wanting fidelity to the stage show, since the weight has been shifted considerably.