The Girl in Lovers Lane

This is a film I would have thought I would be seeing as part of one of those Something Weird Video double feature disc's. Pretty much your typical 1950's "troubled youth" films. Though this one is a bit talky and light on the action, I did enjoy it somewhat. I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for these kinds of films. Basically you have this young guy who leaves home in order to come to terms with the fact that his parents have decided to get a divorce. He meets Bix, a road weary and very experienced drifter. They end up in a small town and stay longer then they expected which leads to romance, complications, confrontation, rape and murder. Brett Halsey stars as Bix and gets fine support from Joyce Meadows and a perfectly cast Jack Elam as the town letch. All in all, it's no great shakes but it is entertaining enough.

This one is one of those classic B movie following the exploits of 2 hobos. It's done really cheesily and Big Stupid running off one-liners like a cardboard cassanova. But Jack Elam steals every scene he's in as the creepazoid Jesse (now Jerome!). My favorite scene is the lynch mob and the dad's voice going up 10 octaves ("You loved her?"). Danny, Big Stupid's protege, is surprisingly stupider, but not as loathsome as our lead star. There's also a quaint scene of a guy pimping at the diner. Joyce Meadows is the sweet, naive nice gal and probably the least annoying. And those yellow ruffles (RAWR!). Oh, and booze is evil according to Mr. Stupid.

This movie's a hoot. Watch the MST cover of this and Crow's terrific Elam homage!

Like probably 90% of the people writing reviews for this movie, I saw this on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Joel and the bots did an excellent job of riffing on this movie, and I thought that it was one of the funnier episodes.

This being said, however, this wasn't a particularly horrible movie. Especially compared to some of films they ran on MST3K.

It had it's weaknesses: the movie had about zero budget and so things like the costumes and set design were horrible. The plot, also, digressed in spots. On the whole, though, the acting was competent and the story held my interest. I actually found myself caring about the characters.

It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was nowhere near as bad as the usual MST3k fare such as "Giant Gila Monster" and "Manos Hand of Fate." As such, it doesn't really deserve to be mocked as much as it has been. It was a B-Movie from the 50s, but it was a watchable one.

A young man, named Danny, has run away from home and meets a drifter, named Bix, who agrees to tag along with Danny and watch out for him... and his money. They end up in a small town where they meet Carrie - a shy, naive girl working in her father's diner. Bix starts seeing Carrie but he plans on leaving soon (because he's a drifter, see? He's no good! Understand?). Meanwhile, the town creep, Jesse (played by a perfectly casted Jack Elam), keeps showing up at the diner and bothering Carrie. Danny keeps inadvertently picking up whores left and right (because he's loaded with money – he has almost a hundred dollars!) whom Bix has to constantly chase away (there are a lot of ambiguously gay overtones between Danny and Bix in this flick). Eventually, Bix and Danny decide to leave town but trouble is a-brewing, due to Jesse the creep.

My review of the movie itself: a terrible, dated "Troubled Youth" flick from the '50s.

My review of the MST3K version of the movie: I've got to say that this is one of the best episodes of MST3K ever. The riffing is dead-on, all the time. Except for the somewhat downbeat ending, this movie is easy material for Joel and the Bots, especially Danny's constant screw-ups that Bix has to rescue him from. The host segments are pretty good too, especially the segment with the `Train Song.' Hopefully, Rhino releases this episode to home video one day.

****SPOILERS**** Late 1950's youth movie about two young drifters Bix & Danny, Brett Halsey & Lowell Brown, drifting in on a fright train into the peaceful little town of Sherman. A town where the police chief says that nothing bad ever happened there in 20 years.

It didn't take long for something bad to happen in peaceful Sherman where on just the first night there the two outsiders are attacked by a gang of local thugs because one of them had a $50.00 bill that he changed at the towns pool hall to play a game. $50.00 seems to be a very small price to corrupt the local boys from their 20 years of peaceful endeavors.

The people of Sherman weren't that bright either by beating to a pulp ,and almost lynching, Bix for raping and murdering his girlfriend Carrie, Joyce Meadows, after her body was found in the woods. The locals didn't have enough sense to know that Carries killer may well have been the local town weirdo Jesse ,Jack Elam, who was alway after Carrie. Jesse even tried to rape her the day before but was stopped by none other then Bix himself who belted Jesse and left him in dreamland.

Bix was saved from being lynched by the mob led by Carrie's emotionally upset father Cal,Emile Meyer, by his friend Danny who came to his rescue, just when he was about to leave town, by telling them that it may very well have been Jesse who killed Carrie. Jesse who just happened to be at the scene to watch the lynching then broke down and confessed to the crime and was taken away into custody by the police. The cops were released from the towns jail in which they were locked up in when the townspeople stormed the police station to get and then try to lynch Bix. The townspeople, including Carrioe's dad Cal, were more kinder to Carrie's actual killer then Carrie's boyfriend by not trying to apprehend or kill him like that tried to kill Bix who they should have known was innocent.

It was also interesting to see that Danny who was in town for just a few days could put two and two together and come to the conclusion that it was Jesse who killed Carrie when the local townspeople, who lived in the town all their lives, who knew about Jesse's dangerous obsession for Carrie didn't have the brains to figure that out by themselves? Danny who ran away from home when his parents divorced gets the good news at the end of the movie, I guess that his parents are back together, and happily invites his friend Bix to come home and live with him and his parent which Bix readily agrees to do, just what was meant by that? Isn't two grown up young men living together a bit odd especially in movies made back then in the 1950's? The movie "The Girl in Lover's Lane" seems to have more under the covers then over them, when it comes to Bix & Danny, and may have been made for other reasons other than what those watching it back then really thought.