Don't Knock the Twist

Fans of REAR WINDOW curious to see Georgine "Miss Torso" Darcy up close and personal may want to check out schlockmeister Sam Katzman's DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST. Be forewarned, though: The closer you get the more likely you'll be yearning for the view from James Stewart's vantage point. Garbed in tacky outfits and shot with hard, unflattering lighting that emphasizes every wrinkle and crow's foot, poor Darcy looks haggard and careworn as the least convincing teenager this side of Stockard Channing in GREASE. The Katzman touch strikes again.

And again and again. Especially on the dance floor, where the hip-swiveling twisters provide an excuse for lingering shots of backfields in motion, zeroing in on one twitching female butt after another.

All of this leering leads to one of the film's, ahem, cheekiest moments: the psychotronic spectacle of sixtyish Hortense Petra -- the real-life Mrs. Sam Katzman -- twisting up a storm as the camera tilts down to ogle her outsize keister. Apparently Jungle Sam loved his wife not wisely but too well.

Other twisted sightings include a raven-haired Mari Blanchard as a haute couture designer of Twist fashions, Barbara Morrison, aka Mrs. Kipfer, the snooty English madame in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY ("Why, if it isn't Ah-n-gelo Mah-ggio!") as a society doyenne/twistin' fool, Frank Albertson (the flirty geezer with the 40 grand in PSYCHO) as a TV exec, and background actor extraordinaire Bess Flowers as a snooty oldster who winds up going 'round and around and up and a-down thanks to Chubby Checker, The Dovells and Gene Chandler.

The median age of the cast has got to be around 65 years old, making DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST something of a groundbreaker -- the first rock 'n' roll film aimed expressly at assisted living communities. Actually, the median age seems more like 75, what with the elderly extras playing Twist-happy revelers in the night club scenes. It isn't every day you see refugees from "Kick the Can" bopping to the beat of The Bristol Stomp and flashing their dentures at the Duke of Earl as he walks through his dukedom. Perhaps that's for the best.