Cheap Daddy O (Video) (Dick Contino) Price

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Dick Contino stars as Daddy-O, a.k.a. Phil Sandifer, a.k.a. Pete Plum. He was a 50's musician of some renown. In my estimation, he was one of luckiest guys in the world, as he married Leigh (Creature Walks Among Us, Hot Rod Rumble) Snowden. Contino was sort of a Stallone/Elvis cross, with a smidgen of Cosmo Kramer in the mix. If that doesn't give you a mental picture, think of him as a less-revered Fonzie, only leading a rockabilly band and wearing striped polo shirts. In this movie he likes singin', draggin', and wearin' his trousers hiked up to his third rib.
He doesn't particularly like the statuesque blonde (Sandra Giles- like wow, man, and I'm not talking about her acting ability) who keeps cutting him off in her hot rod. But he begins to dig her more after he learns it wasn't she that forced his friend off the road to his death. Still, they quarrel a lot until the end, when the script calls for them to love each other.

After some illegal (25 m.p.h.) drag racing costs Contino his license and his truck-driving job, he is approached with an employment offer by Sidney Greenstreet, as portrayed by Corman veteran Bruno VeSota. VeSota (Yvette Vickers' husband in Attack of the Giant Leeches) is a shady but polite fat man who owns a club called The High Note, and he sees everything he's looking for in Contino: he sings, he drives, he bends the law... VeSota hopes all the 30-year old teens in town will come there to wiggle in tune with rock 'n' roll and demurely sip sodas, covering up his illegal operations. Contino agrees, in order to find out more about his friend's death and the small matter of "5,000 missing skins." He takes the stage name Daddy-O, enabling him to sing out laughable ditties such as Rock Candy Baby. He is also provided with a fake driver's license in order to make some secret, late-night deliveries, maybe involving drugs from Mexico.

Eventually, after some escapes from the cops and a beating by thugs seemingly inserted into the plot at random, Contino does learn that VeSota was in fact responsible for his buddy's untimely demise. So he sets out to nail VeSota and his henchman, a beefy but nearly-blind gym manager, all without further violating the terms of his parole! Will he be able to do it? The finale is a not-bad affair, as VeSota, armed with a pistol, seeks Daddy-O in a dark wine cellar.

This is not exactly Rebel Without a Cause here, as you may have gathered. But for lovers of camp, the era, and/or the movies mentioned earlier, this is a safe bet for fun, repeated viewings.

And here's the topper: the music was done by John (Star Wars) Williams!

See also (if you can find them): Teenage Crime Wave, Teenage Doll, Hot Rod Rumble, Hot Rod Girl, Naked Youth, Untamed Youth, Shack Out on 101.