Les rats des caves

Tasteless adaption of a great beat novel. The big MGM studio setup is not suited for a story like this. A low budget B/W Noir style, would have suited the story better.

...and I shall begin by saying that this movie (once I found it) was exactly what I expected. In the spirit of later 'films' such as Psyche Out and The Trip, this one delivers the same one dimensional portrayal of a sub-culture that the makes were loath to understand, grasp or even approximate.

I will not disparage the good name of the actors involved. I will disparage the names of the script writers and everyone else involved in the embarrassingly inept screen play of this film, but you'll have to look them up as I care not to.

Oh boy, where to start. First, the presence of real jazz cats with their music and some lovely location shots around Coit Tower are about the best things in the movie, other than the physical attractiveness of the principle actors and actresses. The staging is pure hack Hollywood with groups of old 'young' people standing around silently as the principles deliver their lines and then shuffle off like zombies. It makes me wonder what first time theater goers must have made of this back in 1960 when Beatniks were a thing (thank you Dobie and Maynard). I was just a lad, but my sister was 18 and had some Kingston Trio albums. We took a trip to San Francisco about that time and stayed at a motel near Fishermans Wharf. I later moved to 'the city' after High School and joined in with the hippies. I was always appalled at the way hippies and beats were portrayed on TV and in movies; which explains why this movie and it's shortcomings did not surprise me one bit.

One thing has done is cause me to pursue other Peppard films such as 1968's What's So Bad About Feeling Good?, which I have never seen. Also need to brush up on his other efforts as I believe him to be a terrific actor of some depth and he is certainly a great looking fellow. Honestly, as a celebrity he's everything that Robert Redford is supposed to be, but isn't. Ok, that's it. I warned you.

This MGM film starred the lovely Leslie Caron so great in MGM Musicals such as American In Paris and Gigi and two up and coming MGM stars: George Peppard and Jim Hutton. Both Peppard and Hutton had 7 year contracts and MGM was still at the time of filming the Number 1 studio in Hollywood. Howard Strickling a maestro of PR set George Peppard to be in the mold of a Spencer Tracy: A great Actor, and Hutton who has a brief role as a combination in the vein of Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemmon. See this movie just too see Peppard as a lading Man and Hutton in a brief role

This movie about the "beatnik" scene in the Bay Area fails. Leslie Caron is miscast and George Peppard made the most of this casting to move onto Home From The Hill with 2 other MGM contract players: Luana Patten and George Hamilton, Jim Hutton would team up with another MGM contract star Paula Prentiss in Where The Boys Are, a smash hit also starring other MGM contract stars Yvette Mimieux. George Hamilton and a great actress Paula Prentiss whom Hutton would mean up with at MGM: Where The Boys Are, Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise and Horizontal Lieutenant. Jim Hutton did A Period Of Adjustment with Jane Fonda at MGM and then went on a 15 month suspension until MGM released him from his 7 year contract. Hutton was supposed to do the role Russ Tamblyn did in How The West Was Won but the deal fell thru. Hutton got his release from MGM having to do Looking For Love, a Connie Francis film which had cameos by the MGM stars Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and his former co star Paula Prentiss.

MGM was a great studio in the early 60's.

If this film is hard to get a hold of, it's probably because anyone involved in it has tried to buy up and destroy the prints. Never mind the faithlessness to Kerouac -- this is about as close to the spirit and vision of Kerouac as Howdy Doody is to Shakespeare -- the script provides ample opportunities for the humiliation of actors, opportunities which, unfortunately are exploited to the full. George Peppard is miscast as a soul-searching intellectual writer, but seems to have the soul of a soft, fluffy robot. Roddy MacDowell doesn't speak his lines, but declaims them. The otherwise charming Leslie Caron has the depth of a neurotic paper doll. It's a kind of exploitation film: instant beatnik, just add intelligence. My compliments to anyone who can watch this for five minutes without cringing.

Hooray I thought, another San Francisco movie that TnT shows from time to time and I can't think of a better place to set a beat generation based production than here. The good news is that there is plenty of location shots set around the North Beach/Telegraph Hill exteriors but bad that most of the interiors are the usual Paramount style back lots that just oozes, well, not authenticity anyway. the acting style is labored and theatrical almost like pantomime and if you think of a less plausible West Side Story with the singing removed you would be pretty close to what can be seen here. The acting particularly from the female lead is over the top whiny and mostly unsympathetic making this a movie to watch but with the sound turned down.