Bye Bye Birdie (1963)

Bye Bye Birdie: Directed by George Sidney. With Janet Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret, Maureen Stapleton. A rock singer travels to a small Ohio town to make his “farewell” television performance and kiss his biggest fan before he is drafted.

“Emelia Conan Doyle (Jessica Brown Findlay) claims to be a descendant of the great writer Arthur Conan Doyle. She takes a cleaning job at a seaside hotel owned by Jonathan Fischer (Sebastian Koch). Heu0026#39;s struggling with writeru0026#39;s block and holed up in the attic. He has combative wife Joa (Julia Ormond), bookish daughter Beth (Felicity Jones), and six year old Posy. Emelia befriends Beth who is applying for Oxford. Emelia claims to be a writer but she canu0026#39;t live up to her family name. As Jonathan mentors her, they begin an affair.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJessica Brown Findlay and Felicity Jones are both lovely although this movie may be better if there is a darker, sexier edge. This plays more like a light relationship drama. The story suggests an eroticism that this movie does not have despite Findlay flashing her boobs comically. There is a darker edge that nobody is able to deliver other than Ormond. The story, the performances, and the tone donu0026#39;t completely click.”