Was spent watching the 1960 film What a Whopper. I didn’t want to use that as a title and mislead people who do strange searches. Many thanks to
follygolightly for the heads-up that the film was available on DVD. I’d searched in vain in the past; when it arrived I found it was put out by a company specialising in B Movies. I last saw it when it came out, hopping off the bus on the way home from school to get an Adam fix.No one would say it was a great film but the screenplay was by Terry Nation, the music by John Barry and it featured Sid James and many other comedy stalwarts. Adam was a pretty good actor for a singer (better, later, as David Essex’s manager in Stardust); even so, What a Whopper is usually omitted from accounts of his life.
My favourite scene in the film is a completely gratuitous one, put in to please the fans. Adam (Tony Blake) is with girl-interest Marie when a song called The Time Has Come starts up on the transistor radio. ‘He’s all I need,’ says Adam, looking disgusted, ‘…voice like that and he’s making a fortune.’ ‘I think he’s good!’ says Marie. Big joke because of course it’s Adam and he then harmonises with his own voice from the radio. It’s lovely! If you look at that scene, you get a good view of the fab sweater he wears throughout the film. For this and two other John Barry film songs by Adam see here. The wonders of the net. Unfortunately Beat Girl with Shirley Anne Field is still not available at a reasonable price.
That took care of most of Saturday evening and I still think he was utterly cute. Those cheekbones!
From Adam’s 1961 autobiography, Poor Me
