The Beatniks

If there's anyone out there expecting to see a film about the Fifties counterculture prototypes, skip this one by. Skip it by for that reason and on general principles.

The Beatniks is about a gang of punks who bully and rob people for kicks and one of them, Tony Travis is discovered in true Hollywood tradition in a roadside dive by an agent. He's got a decent singing voice and the agent promises to make him the next Elvis.

But our lug-nut of a hero instead of saying goodbye Daddy-O in true beatnik fashion, doesn't want to lose the old gang. And the old gang don't want to let him go. Especially Peter Breck, a twisted psycho with some gay leanings who's crushing out on Travis big time.

Despite this film where he gives an over the top performance like Jack Palance on amphetamines, Peter Breck was the only one in this no name cast to have anything resembling a career.

The Beatniks is a film without a lot going for it. This was one of those drive-in flicks which one could get down to serious business at the drive-in without missing anything of importance.

This is my largest complaint; no Beatnik culture, no snapping fingers and performance poetry, marijuana, not even the stereotypical black clothes and sunglasses -- how can you get that part wrong? Instead the "Beatniks" are mostly your typical 50s squares and range to a geek-greaser (Mooney) and the lone woman in the group, think of a "Grease" Frenchy-Rizzo mix.

Since, the majority of the plot of this movie revolves around Eddie's musical ability the audience gets plenty of solo performances. The music is fine for a low budget movie like "Beatniks", nothing you will remember past the end credits. Again, even when Eddie was a "Beatnik" he wasn't singing Beatnik music, more like Mel Torme-like crooning.

Other glaring mistakes in this movie is the continuity (see the GOOFS section) and the character of Moon is just ridiculous, with a catch phrase that will live on forever (I'm gonna MOON ya'!). The Eddie character is a little annoying in his inconsistency -- is he a goon with a heart of gold or just a jerk? All in all this is a very, very bad movie.

I watched this movie because of my interest in voice actor Paul Frees, who wrote and directed "The Beatniks." He also wrote the lyrics to all the songs in the picture, with music by Eddie Brandt (who had worked with Spike Jones). In the Frees biography, his ex-wife (who stars in it) warns readers NOT to bother watching it because it's AWFUL. She claims that Frees knew nothing about directing, and that the photography and sound were also terrible. And she was right: this movie is a stinker, loaded with clichés about teenage troublemakers and also the entertainment industry of the 50s. It never really getting off the ground, leaving in the "deep Frees."

One of the very worst of the "troubled teenager" genre so popular in the late '50s/early '60s. Tony Travis as Eddie Crane is a dull hero who seems to be wandering aimlessly through life (and this movie), his girlfriend is about as interesting as dishwater, and his beatnik friends, especially Peter Breck as the horribly over-the-top Moon, give new meaning to the word "stereotype". However, I urge everyone to see the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of The Beatniks - it's hilarious.

You take your chances with the Digiview flicks at the Wal-Mart Dollar DVD kiosk. Every once in a while you find a small gem. Paul Frees' The Beatniks is not one of them.

This is a grade Z, bottom-of-the-drive-in-bill waste of celluloid that deservedly got a MST3000 treatment. How does stuff like this get made? You could call the distributor, but most everyone involved in The Beatniks is probably dead and Digiview just scoops up cinematic flotsam and jetsam and puts in cheap disks for your viewing amazement. The trouble is it's simply so bad, so utterly inept that no one dare get mad at it.

All one can do is--if one is so inclined to sit still for 70+ minutes--watch in slack-jawed amazement at cinematic awfulness.

C'mon . . . it's only a buck!