Expresso Bongo is a 1959 British drama musical film directed by Val Guest, shot in uncredited black & white Dyaliscope and starring Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, and Yolande Donlan.

[2] It was written by Wolf Mankowitz adapted from the stage musical of the same name by Julian More, which was first produced at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958.

Sleazy hustler Johnny Jackson is always on the lookout for fresh talent to exploit, while managing his hectic life with his stripper girlfriend, Maisie King.

Jackson discovers a teenage singer named Bert Rudge in an espresso coffee shop and sets about sending him along the rocky road to fame.

Only "The Shrine on the Second Floor" — a song that was intended to drive a sharpened stake into the heart of all sentimental ballads about mother – made it into the movie, but Richard sang it straight.

Nevertheless the numbers from the original show, "Nausea" and "The Shrine on the Second Floor", have real bite, and the background and atmosphere of the Soho jungle are brilliantly sketched.

Oozing the easy charm and shiftless opportunism that had just served him so well in Room at the Top, Laurence Harvey is perfectly cast as the talent agent hoping to get rich quick through rookie rocker Cliff Richard, who, for all his raw appeal, is also very religious.

Val Guest captures the fads and fashions of the late 1950s, but it's Wolf Mankowitz's crackling script that gives the film its authenticity.