La bestia

Enjoyed this old time film from the 1950's where Tommy Cook, ( Mike Denton) plays the role of a two-time loser in robbery and his sidekick is Terry Marsh, (Molly McCart) who also has a police record. Mike & Molly commit another robbery and Mike kills a police office while he is escaping and this couple wind up taking over a farm house where an elderly couple live. There is another girl named Jane Koberly,(Sue England) who is a delinquent girl and gets deeply involved with Mike and Molly. Mike continues to shoot and kill people at the farm house and then there is a big shoot out at the historic Griffith Park Observation in Los Angles, California. This is not the greatest of black and white films from the 1950's, but I bet plenty of people enjoyed this film during those years.

Fred S Sears could not avoid the juvenile delinquency fashion wave that spread in the Hollywood industry; thanks to REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, about which this film is a pale, lame, rubbish remake. Many elements are similar, the Observatory element is a so that obvious tribute o the Nicholas Ray's so famous film. This film produced by Columbia by the infamous and horrible Sam Katzman is a pure waste, you can live without it, but if you are a film searcher, and are a Fred S Sears' fan, then go for it. I am not a lover of this kind of films. If you want some crime films directed by Fred S Sears, choose instead CHICAGO SYNDICATE, MIAMI STORY, MIAMI EXPOSE, INSIDE DETROIT.

Kind of surprised at the low rating here at the IMDB for this flick (3.1 as of this writing). There were many JD flicks around the time but this one is a cut above the rest.

Thing is, even though there's an intro about the "teen" problem in the beginning, the movie really isn't about that, or a "crime wave" at all - it basically just centers on a few teens who take a farm family hostage (along with a girl who inadvertently gets involved).

Sounds very standard but there is some pretty decent drama and suspense, and the two main young girls are very attractive (bad girl Molly McCart especially). The finale is exciting and although there are some inconsistencies (like why the bad boy teen shoots some people and not others), and also some odd shots (like a telephone ringing six times, we get it the recipient isn't home) this is still a good way to spend watching some 50's low-budget action with girls, guns and an interesting resolution.

Teen-age Crime Wave (1956)

** (out of 4)

Good girl Jane (Sue England) gets mixed up with bad girl (Molly McCart) and soon both of them are headed to jail even though Jane is innocent. On the way to jail June's boyfriend (Tommy Cook) kills the cop and takes the girls with him where they land at a farm house where they hold an elderly couple hostage. This is yet another juvenile delinquent movie from this era, which seemed to have at least ten per month. This one here comes from director Sears who's best known for the laughable The Giant Claw and thankfully this one here features just as many laughs. Yes, if you're expecting Citizen Kane then you're going to be disappointed but if you want some cheap, exploitation laughs then this is a decent little time killer. The movie runs at a pretty fast pace except for the final twenty-minutes where things slow up a tad too much. I think knocking off ten-minutes of the 77-minute running time would have helped things. As for the actual film, you get girls fighting and bad guys Cook and McCart acting tough. All of this makes for some pretty good laughs but McCart actually manages to be very entertaining with her seduction/tough girl image. The scene where she tries to seduce the farmer's son in the barn is priceless. Cook doesn't give what I'd consider a good performance but it is campy enough to deliver some fun. The production values aren't too bad and the supporting players do decent enough of work but in the end this film is all about nostalgia and laughs and it has plenty of both.

It must have been impossible for tourists and even working astronomers to study the stars from Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles that year with two films being done on location there. One of them became a classic and of course that's Rebel Without A Cause.

Then there's Teenage Crime Wave which seems to have been based somewhat on the Charles Starkweather/Caril Ann Fugate story. Starkweather and Fugate were a pair of thrill kill seeking young people who went a murder spree around this same period.

Tommy Cook who was trying to establish himself in adult roles at the time plays a kid who sets his girl friend, Molly McCart free as she's going to jail for robbery. A second girl, Sue England, is also freed and she becomes the Patty Hearst of the piece, ostensibly trapped by circumstances with these two punks. The film is about their escapades and eventual downfall at Griffith Park Observatory.

Cook and McCart are really a pair without any redeeming value unlike even the hoodlum kids in Rebel Without A Cause. The dialog and the situation will give you a chuckle and at times border on the hilarious.

It's like Reefer Madness with guns.