Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers  I can’t bear to give Cliff Richard less than a 6 – I refuse.

“Finders Keepers” from 1966 is another film for Cliff’s fans. He and the Shadows, playing themselves, go to a job and find the hotel deserted. An atom bomb has been dropped by mistake into the ocean and until it’s found, no tourists, no fishing, no nothing. At the hotel there are spies and agents who want to find the bomb for their own purposes.

You want to talk about a bare bones plot, there it is. Cliff Richard is absolutely adorable. Over here in the States, we were all very busy with Beatlemania and the rest of the British invasion – for some reason, Cliff never caught on over here, though he was certainly popular everywhere else. Just one of those odd things – possibly the press claiming he was the British Elvis is what did it, as we had the original.

Richard is nothing like Elvis, of course. Too clean-cut, boyish, and wholesome, and though he could take on an Elvis style, his actual style was smooth and bright. No one just filmed him from the waist up, broke his records, or talked against him in church pulpits.

Here he and the Shadows perform with lots of energy, though the songs maybe aren’t great. And they do stupid antics that the kids probably got a kick out of. It’s nowhere near as good as “A Hard Day’s Night,” and probably this film is best compared to one of Elvis’ travelogues – beautiful scenery, some music, a cute guy and pretty women. Richard just tried to be himself in these films, and that was more than enough. I think Presley deserved better films – he was more sexual and more intense. But for Cliff and the Shadows, while not as good as earlier films, this is a pleasant watch.