Benutzerrezensionen

I couldn't believe how this unrecognized unheralded film of the mid 1960s captured the sleaziness & the downfall of NYC during that time The photography is amazing.. the score capturers the early disco era... Sal Mineo is unbelievably sensuous, erotic, neurotic, as is Elaine Stritch who plays the Lesbian, Marian wonderful performances.. Juliet Prowse is good in this role..Plot is a bit confusing.. and why did they cast Jan Murray (great TV comic game show host of that era) in this role? Ill never know.... But as I stated before, this film captures the sleazy, unclean, dark, cold snowy sado masochistic, days of NYC in the mid 1960s when that city was on the decline.. Broadway might have been booming, Babs was on B'WAY live in Funny Girl, The Merm was still around. ETC .but the side streets, the crime, the sex shops were running abound..this film captures it all..worth seeing and or buying if it becomes .. available, Bravo ,Sal Mineo. Elaine Stritch, and the director...

Very much ahead of its time - this cult film vanished almost without trace after it was released, and it's very hard to find copies of it nowadays. So I consider myself fortunate to have been exposed to this sleaze-ball of a movie.

The highlight for me was in one of the final scenes where Sal Mineo and Juliet Prowse shimmy to one of the sassiest, silliest 60s dance tunes ever invented. Sal's wearing a little cut-off shirt and as he freaks out, more and more of his midriff is exposed. Sal's a long way from Rebel Without A Cause here, and looking all the better for it. This scene is worth the entrance fee alone. The title sequence is also hilariously evocative.

Full of weird characters, almost EVERYONE in this movie has a dirty little dark side waiting to be shown.

Every now and again, a movie washes up on the fringes of the industry that's unlike anything else of its time – or any time. Who Killed Teddy Bear (no question mark) certainly qualifies; rarely discussed or even mentioned, it's not quite forgotten, either – it's hard to forget.

By 1965, the barriers were starting to be breached in what could be shown, or even implied, on the screen (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf dates from that year). But Who Killed Teddy Bear rubs, brusquely and suggestively, against just about every taboo obtaining then or now. It's a New York story, but of the grotty 1960s, when Manhattan led the nation as an example of how American cities were surrendering to crime and vice and ugliness at the core.

Spinning platters in a seedy discotheque, Juliet Prowse starts getting obscene phone calls then finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment. Police detective Jan Murray takes the case, which holds an obsessive interest for him. Four years earlier his wife had been raped and murdered; now the world of perversion and fetishism has become his life, both professionally and privately (despite a young daughter, who listens to him listening to his lurid tapes from her bedroom). Prowse becomes so shaken by the stalking that she can't quite trust him, or for that matter her tough-as-nails boss Elaine Stritch, who, invited home to serve as protection, makes a pass at her. Shown the door, Stritch, in a slip and fur coat, wanders the dark streets and back alleys, where....

Top billing goes to Sal Mineo, 10 years after his debut as Plato in Rebel Without A Cause, as a waiter in the club. Back home he has a child-like grown sister, whom he locks in the closet when he's making the rounds of the porn shops and peep shows near Times Square. Though his character isn't gay, he's served up like prime, pre-Stonewall beefcake, halfway between raw and blue; towards the end, when Prowse teaches him to dance, he erupts like a go-go boy.

The movie bears all the marks of a starvation budget, but for once the saturated photography and jumpy cutting seem just right. The odd but savvy cast – even the young Daniel J. `Travanty' makes his debut as a deaf-mute bouncer – brings from Broadway and east-coast television a rough edge that's far from Hollywood's buffed and smooth product. But it's the vision of the TV-reared director, Joseph Cates, and writers Arnold Drake and Leon Tokatyan that makes Who Killed Teddy Bear so hard to shake. Neither a tidy thriller nor a nuanced character study, it nonetheless has a trump card to play: It's the real McCoy,a genuine creepshow.

There is a 94 minute cut out there someplace....

Yet this is a remarkable film, and much better than I'd anticipated (I'd never seen it before until recently). Shot in the winter of 1964/65, it's ahead of its time and covers subject matter taboo even now, certainly for mid-'60s Hollywood... It's B&W photography is as haunted and moody as a PSYCHO-era horror film, but TEDDY BEAR has an organic quality about it most Hollywood movies don't have today and didn't have yesterday --- and it reminds those of us old enough to remember of how the cities, from the mid-'60s to the '70s, were beginning to fall apart in the wake of JFK's death and the rise of the incomprehensible Vietnam war (where all our tax dollars were going) -- when peep shows and adult "book stores", with their wares on display in the shop windows, popped up in even "nice" business districts beside Tiffany's, creating a tense and fascinating shabbiness that helped define the schism that was "the '60s".

So the cultural meltdown wasn't just about the hippies and their drugs and the acid rock and the protests which would soon follow this movie (not that there was much of a reaction to the film itself, as few people saw it then); for all the romanticizing of that decade (some of which is understandable), Walter Cronkite wasn't entirely wrong when he called the 1960s "a slum of a decade" and TEDDY BEAR hints at that better than most industry films of the time, and serves to remind us that the world of that era wasn't really all that innocent (even if it was a bit naive in other ways). Such was that echo chamber, filled with its cacophony of voices, that was the '60s -- where you had two decades seemingly shoved into one. And with this movie squarely on the cusp of both.

Good acting, taut direction, and a lot of layers going on at one time...

Uneven, not very well paced and with some poor elements, this low budget piece of sleaze is still a good example of what can be done with a good idea, some decent actors and some balls. Great location shooting around Times Square/42nd Street clashes somewhat with some very flat interior sequences but all the electrifying disco scenes are excellent. Prowse really can dance and if Sal Mineo thinks he's auditioning all over again for Rebel Without A Cause, who can blame him with that physique. Lots of tasteless matters are gleefully paraded before us and even within the movie the lieutenant takes his dirty phone call research home never minding that his daughter is listening in. As others have mentioned, Scorsese must have seen this and in any event this would make a great double bill with Taxi Driver, also one would have to say that this is more sleazy and less glamorised than the more well known film. On a final note, how times change; completely rejected by the UK censors in 1965 is now released with 15 certificate.

Harassed by an obscene phone caller, a young woman begins to wonder if the detective assigned to her case is behind the calls in this strange little mystery thriller starring Juliet Prowse. The film is incredibly well photographed in stark black and white by Joseph C. Brun (of 'Edge of the City' and 'Odds Against Tomorrow' fame) with awesome shots that initially obscure the phone caller's face, dizzy point-of-view shots as he later wanders the streets alone and some excellent tracking shots that walk along with Prowse. The supporting characters are refreshingly different too from those of the typical noir thriller, from Jan Murray's policeman, unhealthily obsessed with perverts, to Elaine Stritch in a terrific turn as Prowse's lesbian boss with designs on her, to Margot Bennett as a brain injured teenager. And then, of course, there is Sal Mineo, whose top billed supporting role is best left undisclosed until one has seen the film (it is really quite an experience). Tension nevertheless fades in and out throughout (an upbeat zoo scene in particular drags on too long) and the ending feels rather protracted, not to mention a little over-the-top, but this remains a surefire interesting motion picture beyond the mysterious title whose meaning eventually becomes clear. It is an aptly offbeat title too considering how daringly different the whole project feels.

This film is truly a work of art of the highest magnitude and no, I am not kidding. Shot in glorious, high-contrast black-and-white, it reeks of exploitation from the note of the cheesy theme song all the way through the strobe-cut ending and every horn-blaring, high-heeling, hip-grinding moment in between. Sal Mineo plays a busboy obsessed with aspiring actress/club DJ Juliet Prowse (and Prowse is at her foxiest in this one, with her pencil skirts, kitten heels and cat eyes), coming off like a perverted puppy dog.

The obscene phone call bits--all heavy breathing, bulging tighty whiteys and sweat--will make you want to leave the theatre and take a shower. Or, if that isn't nasty enough for you, how about the scene with bulldyke Elaine Stritch fondling Prowse's fur (so to speak), or the retarded kid sister locked in the closet or the policeman obsessively playing audio tapes of various twisted criminal's confessions as his daughter listens wide-eyed from the other side of the door? Or how about the "twist lesson" that brings the film to it's climax (no pun intended)? Another asset of this great piece of cinema are its New York City location shots, especially when Mineo goes walking the city at night, looking for filth in scenes that must've influenced "Taxi Driver" (also love the W.S. Burroughs titles in the window of the "dirty bookshop"). I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. It's not available on video (Curses!), so if it's ever screened at the theater or on TV in your area, be there.

The apex of 60s exploitation pix, with Sal Mineo, painted into over-exposing pants, as a proto-Travis Bickle: a pornophilic, body-building Times Square (filmed in its seedy heyday!) habitué fixated on disco dj/dancer Juliet Prowse. A smorgasbord of Hollywood taboos, including masturbation, incest, child abuse, transvestism, and lesbianism. Unbelievably wonderful!

Hard to believe and very sad to realize that we are coming close to the 30th anniversary of the death, in February-1976,of the brilliant, beautiful, enigmatic, and influential talent of Sal Mineo. He was one of the original 50's heartthrobs who debuted with his poetic performance in the now legendary James Dean classic, Rebel Without a Cause. Later, Mineo became known for his talent and his courage in his art and in his life. He would tackle much more difficult roles and become the first actor to declare his homosexuality, unapologetically. Teddy Bear is Mineo at his most brilliant, most haunting, most daring and most heartbreaking. Coming at a time in his career when he was frustrated with very little roles to choose from, came this harrowing film from director Joseph Cates. It is important to note, and upsetting to say that Teddy Bear is mostly regarded as a "cult classic" and sometimes viewed as a late night schlock/camp film. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here is a film that was not only ahead of its time in subject matter, as well as actors pushing the envelope, but also influencing Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver(1976) and Alan J. Pakula's Klute (1971).First, it is important to note how much "Teddy Bear" resembles the great Italian films from the late '50's, early'60's. Another great feat for Joseph Cates, is showing the remarkable influence from Michaelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse. This is another film dealing with the issues of disillusionment with life and society. Antonioni films Italy as though the surroundings of the characters are being consumed by their environment, a constant theme in Cates' Teddy Bear. Even more remarkable, one can see similarities between Monica Vitti in L'Eclisse and Sal Mineo in Teddy Bear. Both actors never indicating, but truly feeling the confusion, the sadness, and despair with their lives and what they have amounted to. Cates is the one director who beat all others to the punch before imitation of Italian cinema in America became the norm. Joseph Cates dared to show New York as it sadly sometimes can be, a dark, hedonistic, and self absorbed web of sex, self satisfaction and ultimately personal confusion turning to crisis. And he found the perfect actor to personify this as well in the form of the lead character. Mineo never compromises from film's beginning to end. It is a performance of the kind James Dean would have probably played had he lived. And Mineo plays it with all of the same courage, energy and longing that James Dean himself did in Kazan's East of Eden. Alas, Mineo himself had surpassed Dean in some ways with this performance and still, it is ignored. By watching Mineo in this performance, one sees the influence for Robert De Niro's historic Travis Bickle character. A decade earlier Mineo created a character who becomes a victim of an uncaring society, sexual disfunciton and a New York spiraling into hell. Mineo's character certainly would have made movie legend, like DeNiro had done with Driver, if Teddy Bear had been accepted by theatergoers in the first place. Joseph Cates' brilliant directing is overlooked as well. One is reminded of Scorsece's Taxi Driver throughout. The parallels are very easy to see. Cates had made the first movie to address some very upsetting and complicated issues that apparently no one wanted to see on the screen in 1965. Cates treats each character it seems as though they have lost all sensiblility in some cases and are detached from any kind of emotion. Sadly, when each character comes close to any kind of connection, they become even more bitter or face a confusion they can't comprehend or would even want to. Cates also did a brilliant job in creating the other characters through through the other actors in the film. Juliet Prowse as a jaded but still hopeful actress who desperately seeks independence. Jan Murrey as a soul sick cop. And last but not least, the stunning,incandescent Elaine Stritch who steals every scene that she's in and showing a vulnerability and human frailty that would still surprise people in 2006. Teddy Bear has yet to be available on DVD in wide release. It is the last in a series of insults to Cates' vision and Sal Mineo's heartbreaking talent. How soon we forget and overlook an actor of such talent, grace and beauty as Sal Mineo. After seeing his shattering performance in Who Killed Teddy Bear he will be even more greatly missed.

Low-budget pulp thriller, the epitome of a Guilty Pleasure, casts Juliet Prowse as a Broadway hopeful working nights as a record-spinner in a small discotheque; she's being hounded by obscene phone calls and complains to the police. Script by Arnold Drake and Leon Tokatyan is alternately thin and overwritten, though the movie does boast a most interesting group of actors. Prowse has a nice, dry way of tossing off a line; Jan Murray is just fine as a smitten police lieutenant and single dad; Elaine Stritch is terrific as Juliet's salty, concerned boss (and proverbial predatory lesbian); while Sal Mineo is erotic and hypnotic as the club's busboy. Mineo may be doing sort of a low-rent Brando here--and I'm not completely sure he's really invested in this role--but you can't take your eyes off him when he's on the screen. Distributed by Magna Pictures, "Teddy Bear" isn't much, though it's better than it had to be. Director Joseph Cates keeps it moving and gets lively support from the pop songs by Bob Gaudio and Al Kasha. Cinematographer Joseph Brun captures Manhattan circa 1965 quite wonderfully, though the padded film tends to dawdle over shots of theatre and movie marquees (which may be heaven for stage and screen buffs). Drive-in fare, certainly, but highly entertaining of its type. **1/2 from ****

When you think of movies about New York from this period in time, what comes to mind to me as a foreigner is a woodwind instrument blowing in the background while Jack Lemmon (or a lookalike) in a shiny suit neurotically babbles away something insignificant. Who killed Teddy Bear comes along and sticks its fingers up at the Hollywood system and is a break thru movie in every sense. This flawed, creaky, creepy and cranky movie is a delight. Not forgetting that you are led into the wonderful atmosphere by the wailing and unforgettable theme tune, which sounds like an old 45rpm record where the center hole has not been cut quite right.

IMHO due to Hollywood, American Independent film makers were just not taken seriously enough at this time, because of this, films like this have been unfairly over looked as great examples of low budget, gorilla technique( getting the shot before the police arrives etc). Taxi Driver was classic, but you know it was meticulously planned, every location permission was got and sums agreed, shots were retaken until they got it right. Well Who Killed Teddy Bear is wild and untamed and surely a minor classic?

There's something quite untypically erotic about the opening scenes of this film as the scantily clad "Larry" (Sal Mineo) telephones a woman and talks suggestively to her. Though not explicit by current standards, this whole film take quite an honest approach to the issues faced by "Norah" (Juliet Prowse) as she becomes more and more frustrated by this stranger who becomes more daring. She reports it to the police and they assign "Lt. Madden" (Jan Murray) to the case. It's clear quite quickly that he has some skin in the game here - but can she trust even him? When her stalker starts to bother her at work, her boss "Marian" (Elaine Stritch) tries to comfort her but will any of that stop what would appear to be the inevitable - an assault? This is quite a cleverly crafted game of sexually charged cat and mouse with the casting delivering quite enthrallingly as the story develops. Even though we always know who the pervert is, we are still not sure how the story will pan out and if he is the only man out to torment "Norah". The ending is a bit disappointing. It doesn't really do justice to the build up, but Prowse delivers her fearful character well and Mineo imbues his predatory persona with a sort of boyish vulnerability that can be quite disturbing to watch at times. It's quite a potent ninety minutes of cinema that I think was well ahead of it's time.

Filmed entirely in real New York locations (much of it on the fly, by the look of it) and dripping with sordid Times Square atmosphere, this is a cheap, sensationalistic, slightly arty psycho-sex-thriller with a startling cast drawn from Broadway, Hollywood, and the Borscht Belt. Elaine Stritch is unforgettable as a lesbian in furs, and the camera drools over Mineo and Prowse in various degrees of undress amidst acres of risibly salacious dialogue. If all this weren't tempting enough, three original songs by Al Kasha and Bob Gaudio grace the very 60's soundtrack (and is that an unbilled Joanie Sommers singing the haunting title theme?) Director Cates is Phoebe's dad, and had done much classier stuff on TV before it fled west.

Here is one of the lost gems of the early 60's. Joseph Cates "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is a dark, seedy, and sex obsessed oddity that must have unnerved audiences in it's day. The sexy Nora Dane, played by Juliette Prowse, is receiving some very disturbing phone calls, complete with heavy breathing and some obscene suggestions. She doesn't know who this man is, but he seems to know a lot about her, like her name, where she lives, where she works, and what she looks like in her underwear. Elaine Strich plays the tough talking owner of the swinging nightclub where Nora works as a deejay. Her interest in the young Nora goes beyond simple friendship. After the mysterious phone calls become more threatening, Nora consults a detective, who has his own perverse obsessions. And then there is Lawrence, played by Sal Mineo, a shy and polite busboy who works at the club with Nora. And Nora seems to be the center of everyones obsessions, probably due to the fact that she seems to have no interest in sex at all. "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is filmed with an incredible amount of style, in shadowy, dreamlike black & white. For the segments featuring the obscene phone caller, the camera lens actually seems to be fogged up from the body heat and animal lust of the near naked stalker, as he lies on his bed and enjoys the sound of fear in the woman's voice, as he describes what he wants to do to her. And then there are the amazing shots of New York city, by day and night. Everything is light and shadow, lurid and overwrought. This is classic film noir, and it's low budget only adds to it's unique appeal, and adds an extra level of sadness and desperation to the tale. Sal Mineo especially, is outstanding here, as the sexually messed up loner, who lives with his retarded sister in a gloomy apartment. Why Sal never made it on the same level with James Dean and Brando, I cannot understand. This guy always turned in a great performance in everything he did, and possessed an incomparable screen presence. i recommend 'Teddy bear' to people who love cinema, and who have an appreciation for the art of film making. Though it is difficult to find, as there has never been an official video or DVD release, and most likely never will be. There are various online distributors selling bootlegs of this and other Sal Mineo titles, ranging from very good to poor quality. See this if you can. It's unforgettable.

According to a recent biography of Sal Mineo he was going through a lot of professional and personal angst at the time he was making Who Killed Teddy Bear. Professional because he was no longer the teen idol of the Fifties and roles were getting scarce. He was in the early Sixties discovering the fact he was indeed gay. Maybe the role of the sexually confused busboy might do something or maybe it was the best he could get.

Whatever it was Teddy Bear might have been the low point of his career and a few others in the cast. No one comes out of this with any glory.

Juliet Prowse is a disc jockey at a disco and of course she takes her turn on the floor as well. She's picked up a stalker and when she turns to the police for help she gets a cop with issues.

That would be Jan Murray, late of the borscht belt and of the television game show Treasure Hunt which I first remember seeing him in. His wife was brutally killed in a sex crime homicide and he now quite obsesses on the subject of sexual predators. He's also feeling a little lustful towards Juliet.

And he's not the only one. The owner of disco Elaine Stritch would like to make a little time with her. Normally I might applaud the fact that lesbianism even got a hint on the screen, but in such a crass and a exploitive film as Who Killed Teddy Bear.

It's one weird film, shot totally on location in New York with what looks like someone's Bell&Howell home movie camera. Production values are near zero.

Skip this trash by.

Sal Mineo at his sexiest in this 65 thriller.This film must have really made shock waves when it was released.

Although,sleazy,campy and exploitive,it is also compelling,and a dirty pleasure to watch.Juliet Prowse plays the victim.This film offers an ending that would still shock viewers in the 90's

I heard a lot of good things about this one but wasn't overly impressed. I do like a lot of the psycho-thrillers from this era but this one is far too padded with endless back and forth dialogue and day to day stuff with the imperilled heroine. Sal Mineo is good value of course as the mixed-up young man at the centre of it all and the sexual aspect of the film makes it ahead of its time, but the low budget is all too obvious throughout and, for me, this just goes nowhere.

"Who Killed Teddy Bear" is irresistible trash, an utterly sleazy film that wallows in B-movie murk without apology. The performances are fine (with the camera leering at the often half-dressed Mineo and Prowse), the script is the stuff of now-extinct 42nd Street grindhouses, and the cinematography seems right out of an early '60s voyeuristic fantasy. This one is guaranteed to touch a salacious chord in anyone with the nerve to sit through.

Pretty, young Juliet Prowse is a NYC discotheque DJ being stalked by an unassuming sex-psycho(Sal Mineo) in this flawed but hard-hitting post noir shocker, a film perched on the median between arthouse and grindhouse which might appeal to enthusiasts of Sam Fuller's contemporaneous work.

Performances are strong from the key players(especially Elaine Stritch as Prowse's inured lesbian boss, Jan Murray as the solicitous investigator, and Mineo...a deeply disturbed but ultimately pitiable predator). Unfortunately, the film is blemished markedly by the comically written and overplayed character of Mineo's little sister, doomed to eternal childhood as the result of a tragic accident.

Though there is intermittent creative camera-work at hand, production values are pretty low overall. Fortunately, the tawdriness of the whole affair calls for just that, and WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR succeeds, perhaps despite itself. It's a stark and quite depressing rumination on obsession, loneliness and perversion which touches brazenly on every taboo in the book. Somehow, this rife lurid sensationalism feels strangely at-odds with itself...the tone here seems more sententious than defiant, possibly an ill-boding advisory propelled by the whiling fears of 60s-era reactionaries. The times, they were a-changing, and many at the far-right felt the nation's moral compass had become a pinwheel in the wind.

. 7.5/10.