In the popular imagination, the 1950s marked an era of unsullied innocence, a period of peace and prosperity for America marked by little of the turmoil that would engulf the '60s. But 1959's Daddy-'O' suggests that behind the white picket fences of Eisenhower's America lurked a world of unabashed rocking and rolling, accidental drug-smuggling, and blatant disregard for the nation's traffic laws. Hunky Dick Contino, an accordionist in real life, stars as the film's titular antihero, a former stunt driver and carnival performer turned singing trucker who takes a liking to tough-talking blonde Sandra Giles after she suggestively forces his truck off the road. The two later continue their courtship at a roadside shack, shortly before Contino steps onstage and reveals a gift for Dylanesque wordplay by belting out the memorable couplets, "Sweeter than cherry / Boysenberry! / Sweeter than coffee / English toffee! / Sweeter than jam is candied yams / Rock candy, baby, you're mine!" Impressed by Contino's swarthy good looks and way with words, Giles challenges him to a drag race, but not before issuing the cryptic warning, "Anything goes, Daddy-O!" Giles eventually defeats Contino by running him into a poorly dubbed, station-wagon-driving square, but during the race, one of Contino's slack-jawed associates is killed. Eager to add "amateur sleuth" to his already overstuffed résumé, Contino decides to go undercover, accepting a job with a portly small-time crime kingpin and club owner in an attempt to find out whether his buddy's death was linked to a mysterious, missing "5,000 skins." Although Contino's murderous boss assures him, "I put a great deal of thought into making the High Note an inducement for our young people to gather for wholesome fun and music," it isn't long before he's sending Contino to deliver mysterious packages from Mexico containing premium narcotics. Thanks to his powers of deduction, Contino soon turns the tables on the duplicitous kingpin and his musclebound, bifocals-sporting flunky: He uncovers their evil plan, turns them over to the police, and reunites with Giles, secure in the knowledge that his heroic actions would make the '60s the most drug-free decade in American history.
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