THE BATTLE OF THE MODS (aka CRAZY BABY)

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hoto-still of Ricky Shayne as Ricky Fuller in The Battle of the Mods (© Franco Montemurro/Roxy Film/Ultra Film/GG Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only

On 6 December 2023, my movie watch was a strange little cinematic offering – a gritty mid-1960s Italian/German film musical overdubbed in English and variously entitled The Battle of the Mods or Crazy Baby upon release, but nowadays wholly obscure.

Directed by Franco Montemurro, and released in 1966, The Battle of the Mods stars 60s European music star Ricky Shayne as mod guitar player Ricky Fuller residing in Liverpool until his girlfriend is fatally stabbed one Saturday evening when the club where he is performing becomes the scene of a vicious mods vs rockers battle.

 

Close-up of one of Ricky Shayne's LPs with his backing group The Skylarks (© Ricky Shayne and the Skylarks/ARC Records/RCA Victor Records – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Only narrowly escaping with his life, Ricky flees to France and thence to Italy, to meet in Rome his wealthy English consul father Robert B. Fuller (Joachim Fuchsberger), with whom he has not so much a frosty as a perma-frost longstanding relationship, and also his father's mistress, Sonia (Elga Andersen), with whom he has a much shorter but much more sizzling one!

In addition, Ricky makes some friends in Paris, Genoa, and Rome, survives various hairy encounters with a diverse selection of continental roughs and toughs, meets plenty of pretty young women, sings a lot of relatively tuneful albeit instantly forgettable pop/rock songs (opening the movie with its raunchy alternative title song, 'Crazy Baby') while playing his guitar, and ends his jounreying with a new girlfriend, Martine (Eleonora Brown). And that's about it.

 

Italian publicity poster for The Battle of the Mods (© Franco Montemurro/Roxy Film/Ultra Film/GG Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only

Visually, The Battle of the Mods is a quintessential 1960s European musical flick, a movie sub-genre that generally appeals to me, but I found this particular example to be oddly unengaging, with its central character similarly aloof and emotionally detached.  Still, it passed 90 minutes easily enough, and at least I learnt of French-Lebanese singer/actor Ricky Shayne and his backing group The Skylarks, who collectively turned out to be a big act in continental Europe back in the day (especially in Germany), but not in the UK, which explains why I'd not previously heard of him, or them.

Lastly, Eurovision Song Contest fans may be interested to know that The Battle of the Mods features an appearance by Udo Jürgens, who had won the contest for Austria in the same year, 1966 (but just a few months earlier), when this movie was released.

 

Ricky Shayne playing guitar (public domain)

If you'd like to watch The Battle of the Mods for free on YouTube, pleae click here.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Publicity material for Ricky Shayne and the Skylarks (© unknown to me despite online searches – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)