THE AISLE SEAT - by Mike McGranaghan

"HOLD ON!"

The Beatles had A Hard Day's Night and Help!. The Monkees had Head. Herman's Hermits, meanwhile, had Hold On! This movie may not be as memorable to you as the others. That's likely because, for years, it has been a hard title to find. Released theatrically in 1966, Hold On! is now available again on a remastered DVD via Warner Archive.

The plot centers around a teen-driven petition for NASA to name its newest rocket after the band. A high-ranking official sends a hapless scientist named Lindquist (Herbert Anderson) to determine if Herman's Hermits are "rocket-worthy." Lindquist manages to get close to the band, only to find that the lads are discovering that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. (And when I say "the lads," I mean lead singer Peter Noone, the only one of them to figure prominently in the narrative.) Lonely and itching for companionship, Noone frequently sneaks away from his handlers to court a beach bunny named Louisa (Shelley Fabares). Periodically, the action stops so that Herman's Hermits can perform one of their signature songs.

Upon the initial release, Hold On! probably looked like a slapped-together attempt to capitalize on the massive success of Herman's Hermits; looked at today, it's a fascinating piece of kitsch. It has the same kind of antic rhythm that characterized A Hard Day's Night (albeit to a much more low-rent degree) and the Monkees' TV show. There's not much logic or coherence to the plot; it is simply an excuse for goofy slapstick comedy - such as Lindquist constantly getting doused with water - and poppy tunes. The musical numbers are occasionally done with creativity, such as a fantasy scene in which Noone sings a song from inside a rocket ship while his bandmates float in space just outside. Something about all this seems delightfully innocent in this age of shock artists like Lady Gaga or, at another extreme, Slipknot.

Hold On! is most definitely a commercial product of its time. It is cheesy and silly and not particularly well made, yet it's also kind of amusing. Nobody makes music movies like this anymore - maybe for a reason - so cinematically going back to a pre-MTV era when you went to the theater to see your favorite bands is fun, in a retro kind of way. The remastering makes the film pop on DVD.

Hold On! is now on DVD only at WarnerArchive.com

Hold On! is unrated. The running time is 1 hour and 26 minutes.