T-Bird Gang

It is an interesting coincidence that I watched "What Price Crime?" about a week before watching "T-Bird Gang" because this second movie turns out to be a remake of the earlier film. "What Price Crime?" is a dandy low-budget film and in the case of "T-Bird Gang", it's an even lower budgeted film. And, while this remake isn't bad, the original is better for several reasons.

"T-Bird Gang" begins with the beating death of a night watchman. The son of the watchman finds him just before he dies and all he can say is that the killers were in a white Ford Thunderbird (also nicknamed a 'T-Bird'). So, this young man decides to try to locate the gang and exact his revenge. However, a level-headed cop discovers the guy's plan and gets him to agree to work with them to bring the gang to justice. However, this gang isn't the trusting sort and it takes him some time to gain their confidence—and the viewer isn't sure if the gang will be stopped before this infiltrator is discovered and liquidated.

Apart from a few small changes, the two plots in the two films are nearly identical. However, "What Price Crime?" is a better film because it is more subtle and at least has a soundtrack that seemed professional. "T-Bird Gang", on the other hand, has one of the crappiest soundtracks—often consisting of someone banging on bongos or a small combo playing free-form jazz. 95% of the folks watching this will probably hate the music—I know I did. However, if you can ignore this and just take the film for what it is (a cheap B-movie), then it's not bad and is a decent time-passer. Not great but enjoyable because the basic plot is still decent.

In a film which features Coleman Francis ("Red Zone Cuba" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats"), I wasn't expecting much. But this little movie really moves. About an hour in length, the film is cut well, and given obvious limited budget, surprisingly succeeds. I like the way they left some of the obvious character clichés at the door. Ed Nelson is a bit over the top, but quite effective in his portrayal as a gang leader who plays chess and listens to classical music. And Raymond, the henchman, isn't glaringly sadistic. The story may be predictable, but the execution is good, and the characterization was refreshing. After ten minutes, I was hooked! Vic Tayback in a cameo just adds to the fun!

The acting's middling, the direction poor, and the sets look cheap. Then there's the cinematography. They must have used really low-budget camera and film, because the DVD shows little detail, and in some scenes the white levels are so high, details are lost. Now, I love old black-and-white films that have high production values (Casablanca and Citizen Cane come to mind) but this film isn't in their class.

Now for the flaw in the plot. The gang's leader drives his white T-Bird to every crime they commit. Then why would the cops go to the trouble and risk of putting a stool pigeon in a gang, when it be easy for the cops to tail the T-Bird and catch the crooks in the middle of their burglary?

T-Bird gang is a fun quick one from the 50's, complete with hip talk and beat music. Despite the title and some descriptions, this is definitely not a car movie at all, and especially not a hot-rod movie. The title of the film really just relates to the white T-Bird that Alex, the brains of the criminal gang, drives and that car is hardly even in the movie at all! But it's an OK flick about a young man who infiltrates a local gang to get to the killer of his dad, a cop. There are some dull sequences where nothing much happens and there are some pretty girls too. It all comes down to not exactly the ending you thought would happen, but something similar.

The leader of the gang does a few funny things, such as spill milk on the dress of his "moll" because she was laughing too much, and boss his workers around by giving sudden orders and snapping his fingers. The rest of the cast isn't bad and they probably had a good time making this movie. Definitely a fun way to spend 65 minutes.

About all I can say is that the Ford Thunderbird got a lot of free publicity from this that looks like it was shot with my father'd old Bell&Howell home movie camera.

John Brinkley who authored this mess is our hero looking for the gang who murdered his father during a heist at a warehouse where dad was working as a nightwatchman. Dad retired from the police and Brinkley successfully infiltrates the gang headed by Ed Nelson. Other than Nelson the only other name you might know is Vic Tayback playing a cop.

T-Bird Gang also has a loud, obnoxious jazz score which really adds nothing to the film.

Skip this one by.