The Rebel Set

The first half of this movie was absolutely boring with nothing going on. I was at least able to follow it on the second half of the movie. It was mostly stupid, because at this point you don't care about any of the characters and are too far gone to care about it. I really have no idea who that priest guy even was. I mean, he was probably a minor character before, but I didn't care to pay attention. I thought at first that this would be a movie about music. While that isn't a topic I'd want to see a movie about, it would certainly be better than this. At first, there's little going on at all and then there's too much going on.

I really wanted to see the movie synopsis here just so I could follow it. Yeah, I don't recall any characters' names. I also don't recall any actors' names. There's nothing unique about it. Was there some love story I was supposed to notice? It's pointless on all levels. *1/2

I saw this film thanks to the cult show, Mystery Science 3000 where Joel and the gang riffed this caper movie and chances are that is where most people have viewed this film. It was not a super terrible film by any means, just plays out like a lot of other films, but only with worse acting and plot points. The film is titled rebel set, but there is not all that many rebels to be found here. I guess the caper is sort of rebellious, but not really. Though the film is bad I did feel for the main character who was a struggling writer and I wanted to see "Chief" get caught and get his in the end! The movie also moves at a fairly brisk pace as we have an introduction to the characters, we have the plan and then we have the caper and then we have murder on the not so orient express!

The story has a man who seems to run a nightclub where a bunch of beatniks hang out and read poetry and such. Also, three gentlemen frequent the establishment. A writer who is rather bad at his craft. A man who desperately wishes to get out of the shadow of his mother and a down on his luck actor who cannot land a job and whose wife is literally supporting the both of them. They are approached by the man who owns the club about a job that involves them robbing 1 million dollars from an armored car. So they hop a train and during a stopover in Chicago they set their plan in motion and once back on the train and seemingly successful things begin to unravel as greed begins to take over.

This made for a good episode of MST3K and it is rather funny. This film was named, "The Rebel Set" yet the characters resemble beatniks more than they do rebels. Then they riffed a film named "Beatniks" where the characters resembled rebels more so than they did beatniks! The short at the beginning of this one featuring a little boy lost at the fair was rather funny too.

So, this film is not that great, but it was not a super terrible film. I did pull for the guy who plays the Chief on Get Smart to get his in the end, but at the same time the film just seems like a mess and it totally breaks down at the end with a rather tepid chase scene that goes on for way too long and was probably added to simply pad the film. That being said, at least you could tell what was going on and had more of a plot than The Beatniks that featured rebels...

I saw this movie on MST3K also. It's a really, really bad movie. The plot is implausible and the acting is awful. The question is raised in the MST episode, "who is merritt stone?" because he seems to be the train conductor, but that's actually Gene Roth. Merritt Stone is Carol's dad in Earth Versus the Spider, and the king in "the magic sword". Gene Roth is the guy everyone *thought* was merritt stone.

I went in with extremely low expectations, and anticipating many ludicrous attempts to exploit the notoriety of the beat movement. What I got instead was a decent heist flick, a villain who surprises, and even a bit of character development.

Nothing here about 'rebels' or beatniks to speak of, though the soundtrack features some really decent flute and percussion music early on to set the scene. I was kept interested all the way through and was rewarded with a pretty good chase sequence to finish things off.

A low production value film that definitely transcends its budget!

"The Rebel Set" would have zero significance except for the fact that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" showed it, and for the fact that it stars Edward Platt, better known as the Chief on "Get Smart". Otherwise this is one pathetic flick. Platt plays a man who gathers some people to assist him in a heist. As can be expected, Joel, Servo and Crow have a lot of fun trashing the movie. Among the people whom they mention are Rose-Marie, Martha Mitchell, and of course Merrit Stone. Trust me, you won't want to watch this movie outside of the "MST3K" version.

PS: Director Gene Fowler Jr. was better known as a film editor. He edited "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Hang 'Em High". His other directorial efforts include "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "I Married a Monster from Outer Space". His father was journalist/author/dramatist Gene Fowler.