Stakeout on Dope Street

A jazz score accompanies the soundtrack of this gritty story about three teens who get involved with drugs (heroin supply) and then try to make a deal with a druggie who can turn over some cash for whatever amount they come up with. Meanwhile, some drug dealers are also after the drugs and will stop at nothing to find out where the teens have stashed the goods.

The no name cast is headed by YALE WEXLER as the more sensitive one who decides the drug heist should be handed over to the cops--but by the time he makes this decision it's too late and the dealers have already trapped his friends and beat them up. He manages to elude them when they pursue him on a climactic chase that forms the climax of the story.

Interesting, gritty and worthwhile if you're a film noir buff, but nothing extraordinary. The only reason I watched it was because I had seen the screen test of YALE WEXLER for the role of "Ben-Hur" in 1959 and wondered if he ever pursued an acting career after losing that role. Evidently, he did. He gives a convincing performance here and so does the rest of the cast.

Irvin Kershner has directed some excellent, some famous, movies. This one was his first. It certainly isn't famous but it is indeed excellent.

It's about three young men who find a briefcase that contains, hidden among cosmetics, a can of heroin. The guys reminded me of characters from "West Side Story," though they are more middle-class. They kind of hang out, kind of have jobs. One kind of has a girlfriend. (She is played by Abby Dalton, the only name in the cast list I'd ever heard, and I'm not sure where I heard it.) That girlfriend notwithstanding, one of them has also drawn a head and unclothed torso of one of the others. This drawing is shown throughout the film.

Though it's a sensationalistic film, it is not pro-drug. I am going to risk some brickbats but I never liked "Easy Rider." And I'm a baby boomer. Yes, I liked Jack Nicholson but the whole stoned thing: No, not for me.

This little film has a jazz score. It plays out for us like a poem. It reminds me of Allen Ginsburg. It's smart, it's hip. It's everything a movie ought to be. And, I'd guess, it accomplishes this on a pretty low budget.

The movie has a Police Gazette type title. And it may have played at drive-ins. But make no mistake: This is real art.

Two cops arrest a criminal with a suitcase full of drugs. Bullets start flying. The criminal throws out the suitcase and is killed. The criminals can't find the bag in the dark and run away. Later, three teens happen upon the bag but it all looks like ladies makeup to them. They throw out the drugs thinking it is worthless pimple powder. After pawning the bag, they read about the shootout in the newspaper. They go retrieve the powder from the garbage dump.

This starts with an interesting premise but this Roger Corman production has its limitations. The acting is limited. The production is limited. It's a B-crime movie. I do start losing interest after the kids find the drugs. The drugs are better off as a MacGuffin because the search for it would be a more compelling story. Cops and criminal searching the pawn shops could find the bag and go down the road of looking for the boys. Actually finding the drugs is the movie's downfall. The teens look silly trying to be thugs selling drugs. It's unreal and uncompelling. This is director Irvin Kershner's first theatrical release and his work is functional.

Three aimless young men find a briefcase containing a load of valuable heroin. So what are they going to do with it. Desperate, they end up trying to sell it through an ex-junkie. The trouble is the mob wants their heroin back and are on the trail of the kids. And so are the cops.

Given the potentially explosive material, the 90-minutes comes across as peculiarly lacking in drama. The motions are there, but not the felt impact. Much, I think, has to do with the quality of the performances. Of the three boys, Marlo manages some grit as Nick. However, Wexler and Haze (yes, that Haze) appear to flounder in stand-around bland fashion. Plus, poor Abby Dalton looks completely lost. Thus, the movie's core is compromised at the outset. Then too, the cops are a particularly colorless bunch, adding nothing to the impact. Kramer, at least, looks the part of a washed-up ex- junkie, getting the big dramatic turn of painful drug withdrawal, where he writhes in expressive fashion. It's a scary public warning.

Then again, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the movie's high point. Namely, where the boys thrash through a real city dump looking for the heroin as a dozer keeps piling the trash higher. Talk about needles in a haystack, or climbing a mountain that keeps getting higher. One thing for sure, I've seen nothing like it before or since. Anyway, the direction (Kershner) is pretty spotty. There are some nice touches like the crashing bowling ball and bouncing pinball punctuating the two beatings, plus the cascade of heroin down the tank's side. Clearly, however, Kershner is more adept at staging than either coaching actors or building suspense. Even the imaginatively staged showdown doesn't generate the suspense it should. One big positive is the staging throughout. Real locations are used, lending a good glimpse of LA, circa 1958. Too bad the movie as a whole never quite gels, despite the promising premise.

This is a surprisingly strong AIP feature, a first for Irvin Kershner as writer and director. Although stylistically it seems, at first sight, little more than an expanded DRAGNET episode in which you get to see the criminals' viewpoints, this largely no-name cast gives a bunch of decent performances with some well-written characters.

The feature is about a group of rather clueless teenagers -- who appear to use all their off-screen time body building -- who discover a cannister of heroin. Neither hard core criminals nor saints, they want all the things that society says they should want, and are not choosy about how they go about getting it.

The writing and direction are stronger than the acting, but the overall effect is quite striking. Definitely worth your time.