Can't Stop the Music Reviews

After the huge success of GREASE, flamboyant producer Allan Carr tried to hit box-office pay dirt again by using the 30s' "Let's put on a show" formula as a vehicle for the then-popular disco group The Village People, whose worldwide hit "Y.M.C.A." sold more than 10 million records, and whose carefully crafted macho-satirizing image won them a large gay following. More or less telling the story of the group's formation (French songwriter and producer Jacques Morali actually advertised for mustached dancer-singers), CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC follows aspiring pop composer Jack Morrell (Steve Guttenberg) as he and The Village People (Simpson, Hodo, Rose, Jones, Hughes, and Briley) are brought together by his friend Samantha Simpson (Valerie Perrine), who is trying her damnedest to win the heart of straight-laced (emphasis on straight) attorney Ron White (Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner). The directorial debut of Nancy Walker--best known as the pitchwoman for Bounty Paper Towels--this botched affair, costing more than $20 million and promoted with plenty of self-aggrandizing pizzazz by Carr, goes absolutely nowhere and failed to cause much of a stir with moviegoers who, by the time of its release, were jumping on the disco backlash bandwagon. Among the film's musical numbers are a San Francisco concert and a Busby Berkeley-esque treatment of "Y.M.C.A.," featuring scores of scantily clad young men.