The Cool and the Crazy

While not quite as ridiculous as "Reefer Madness", "The Cool and the Crazy" is a ridiculous propaganda film designed to warn folks that marijuana kills! While filled with lies, it is quite unintentionally funny. Now my expectations for "The Cool and the Crazy" were low to begin with....with such a nutty title and the film coming from American International Pictures!

Benny (Scott Marlowe) is a new cool 'kid' who arrives at some high school. I put kid in quotes because he and the rest of the students are generally in their upper 20s! Anyway, he's a rebel and the kids soon are won over to his coolness. Then, he introduces them to marijuana...and soon he's out of control and going through withdrawal because he's become addicted and hell-bent on self-destruction!

This film is packed with misinformation--the type that actually ended up encouraging kids to use pot. After all, in the film, Benny uses it and soon becomes out of control and suicidal. But when folks see that none of this really happens with folks they know who use pot, they tend to ignore and laugh at such over-the-top warnings.

So is it any good? Not really. The acting isn't bad and the look and style of the film are good...but the story itself is goofy and silly at times. But, it is unintentionally funny...and is worth seeing in this light.

Intended to show the results of smoking marijuana, this movie is interesting in the fact it is fun to watch the 'over acting' or lack thereof. A young punk(Scott Marlowe)fresh from reform school enrolls into a Kansas City high school with the intent to push marijuana. It is comical watching the results of just the introduction to the 'special smoke'. Watching this today is a hoot with or without the munchies! Also in the cast are:Richard Bakalyan, Dickie Jones and Gigi Perreau.

Oh the dreaded "smoke". The dreaded "M". Take the Blackboard Jungle movie and spice it up a little bit and you have The Cool And The Crazy. The performances may be weaker but I give it an 8 as it succeeds in being an outstanding piece of propaganda; and thus a genuine cult classic.

First off the movie is very dated and fairly stupid('58) but that didn't stop me from watching it.

The Star Scott Marlow (Bennie) is off his ass!! Kept me watching until the very end..(which is crazy if you think of the time VS now. His acting for the time is completely original.

In the 50's film acting wasn't the way to go (or even really discovered yet) it was all stage acting, voice projection, big movements (more is more VS film now where Less is more) but Scott was acting like he was Vince Vaughn in Swingers, craaaaazy slick, believable and because it's in black and white you can't get over how modern his sarcasm and jokes are! As an actor i was blown away at how Scotts performance would still impress viewers well into 2007.

If you can overlook the over-hyped 'marijuana is a killer' message of this film, you're in for a treat. Scott Marlowe is the new kid in town, pushing 'M' to the local delinquents (who otherwise seem to like getting smashed on booze, funnily enough). It's the role of his career, even though he seems to be trying to channel the spirit of Marlon Brando. The Kansas City locations add the extra grit the film needs, and there's a super slimy turn by Marvyn J. Rosen as the big wheel of the narcotics business. Rosen never had another role, so presumably he was a KC local, and he makes the most of it. I remember watching this movie on TV back in the 70s and being impressed, and seeing it recently for the first time in 25 years rekindled my fond feelings for this nice example of indie filmmaking.