christopher-underwood One of Michael Winner's first films, he was 27 at the time, this is no great film but has charm and significance aplenty. The songs are not very strong, the acting even less so, but Winner keeps things moving along and if the story is weak, at least we don't hang about. Instead of this being a stage-bound, 'Let's put on a show' type effort it does give the impression of being something more exciting and 'happening'. Unfortunately for the makers not just the music world but the world itself was about to change. Six months after the release of this film The Beatles released their first single and within another three months they were a phenomenon and joined by The Rolling Stones and many others. The fifties would finally be over, even though this would be 1963 and the sixties would commence, a little late but with great voice. So this film represents a showcase for the last days of an old music and pretty tired it was becoming, too. Billy Fury does okay and all the performers do as well as they can be expected to with average material and are captured as excitingly as possible by the director.

getcater Michael Winner might well have felt like insuring his nascent directing career when he received the script for this pop exploitation flick. Feebly constructed as a vehicle for Billy Fury, the agenda underlying Play it Cool is painfully obvious from the outset – Fury was being groomed as a British Elvis and the movie career was just one more box to be ticked. There's no doubt he had the looks and the voice, if not, perhaps, songs of sufficiently high quality (there's only one truly memorable number on offer here). He just can't act. Not even a little, little bit. Fury fans should simply skip the plot and go straight to the musical numbers. Sorry, did I say 'plot'? My mistake.Fury's acting skills may be wanting, but worse by far is the sight of British comedy stalwart Richard Wattis mugging it up as Billy's ever-so-slightly camp manager. Good fortune intervenes and removes Wattis' utterly resistible character from the plot after about twenty minutes. By coincidence, that's the point at which the storyline seizes up. Ah yes, the storyline. That needn't detain us long. Fury (as the plausibly-named Billy Universe) and his band are en route to a pop music contest in Europe. They get no further than the airport where they become involved in some lightweight shenanigans involving an heiress who's aiming to give daddy (Dennis Price) the slip and marry no-good pop louse Larry Grainger (Maurice Kaufmann). That's about the sum of it. From Gatwick Airport, our heroes decamp to a barely recognisable Soho where begins an interminable run of sequences as Fury and co pursue Grainger through various nightclubs – a thinly disguised excuse for some mimed performances by the likes of Helen Shapiro, Shane Fenton and Bobby (Rubber Ball) Vee. And of course, Fury himself, whose best moments are when he's in his rock 'n' roll comfort zone. Badly executed though it may be, it's hard to cultivate any genuine dislike for this movie as it's all so well-intentioned, and Fury fans will rightly appreciate it as the best surviving film document of a true British rock and roll icon.

sounds-magic Its shameful how people can just write off Billy Fury OK the film itself wouldn't earn an Oscar for being original or clever but as a snapshot of what was going on in the British music screen it has an English charm OK the acting is not up to par ( although directed by the now acclaimed Michael Winner - his first feature film here ) however BILLY FURY at that stage in his career WAS NOT a copy of Elvis and definitely not a --SPASTIC BOBBY DARIN - NO WAYhe was an established artist a singer with great sounds / voice and stage presence and was just doing what every star of there day - including Elvis with his many a same plot film - going onto the big screen.Helen Shapiro was OK ,and like Bobby Vee in 2006 still going strong . the film PLAY IT COOL is a piece of little history and should not be dismissed neither disrespected of the late great BILLY FURYkeep on rockin

mm004i9868 one of if not the best music movie's to come out of 60s Britain, staring billy fury who's amazing good looks made the film even more worth watching, billy's acting is on top form and his voice is better then ever.in fact i give it 10 out of 10, a must watch film for any fan of 60s music.the story is non stop action and songs that keep the viewer glued to the screen, nice cameo roles from bobby Vee and helen shapiro. and also shane fenton who later became alvin stardust, well worth viewing is billy's other movie I've gotta horse which was made in 1965 and also that'll be the day where billy has a cameo role as stormy tempest a singer at a holiday camp.all in all i think the music industry would have been a lot worse off without the talents of billy fury