The Beat Generation (1959)

The Worst Film Ever

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Clean-cut young man (in jackets and skinny ties) hangs out with the beatnik kids and plays the bongos, but really gets off on beating and sexually assaulting vulnerable housewives. Standard police thriller jazzed up with slang; it uses the beatnik milieu only as ruse, it's main aim being a marriage in crisis (the rapist targets a police detective's wife, and two months later she's pregnant but doesn't know who the father is). Low-budget potboiler from MGM was probably a second-biller, though it has gleaming black-and-white cinematography from Walter Castle and some good performances. Steve Cochran is perfectly cast as the detective with the hysterical wife, Ray Danton is way-gone-cool as the scuba-diving psychopath (his M.O. is to call on women pretending he owes their husbands money) and Mamie Van Doren is terrific as a soon-to-be divorcée who wouldn't mind being man-handled. Co-written by Richard Matheson (!) and Lewis Meltzer, the action gets too crazy, ya dig, near the finish, but for the most part it's a rough little jewel, dad. ** from ****

On one level this movie is sort of pop psychology trying to make a subtle distinction between the slippery slope of ordinary misogyny (non- violent here) and serial rapist (extreme brutality of course). The contrast between two men with these hang-ups in relation to women seems an odd basis for a film script, but then this whole movie is pretty odd.The attempt at a psychological overall theme fails to rise above mere exploitation in this 1959 b-movie time capsule complete with Mamie Van Doren at her bleach blondest and flirtatious best. Also you have some beatniks who say "lets have a hootenanny". And dig these cats as they really do have a hootenanny. Its a crazy beat event as self-absorbed oddball characters endeavor to find nihilistic and existential new ways to waste their time and practice the fine art of hanging out. Watchable chaos ensues as a campy b-movie police manhunt goes on literally in its midst. This is 1959 b-movie heaven, complete with Louis Armstrong and an inexplicable role for Cathy Crosby that is so out of place it actually adds more camp to the camp.Fay Spain carries the acting load as she did in numerous movie roles and countless fine and noticeable performances in TV dramas. She was a true acting talent. Steve Cochran, once one of those incredibly beautiful male actors who populated 1940's and 50's movies, is clearly aging here and gives a sort of disinterested, hangdog performance that is not among his best. Ray Danton, another movie stud of the era, is convincing as the psycho, but unfortunately is only allowed to perform at a strictly b-movie level.Fay Spain is the real deal. Aside from her this is just a fast-paced psychological mumbo jumbo of a b-movie that is priceless as a time capsule of the age.

This MGM-released (!) opus from the late '50s is rife with unsavory excess and a pretty sick puppy from the fertile mind of that renowned horror & sci-fi scribe, Richard Matheson. As a classic example of Albert Zugsmith-style exploitation, it's got a little bit of everything but some of the playfulness (that "let's all go to the moon" number and the "drag stakeout", for example) diluted what could have been a solid little thriller. Still, despite the nonsense, there's more than enough perversity, violence, and duality to satisfy the avid noirista.Robotic Ray Danton actually proves to be quite chilling as a vicious Be-Bop "Svengali" who gets his kicks serially raping housewives and has the same problem Susan Cabot did in Roger Corman's SORORITY GIRL (a perfect second feature) in that he's just a spoiled rich kid who's got everything but a parent's love. Steve Cochran's a misogynistic cop who's wife (Fay Spain) is beaten and raped by Danton and when she finds herself pregnant, Cochran goes all out to nail the creep.The rapist is called "The Aspirin Kid" and gets into women's homes by pretending to be a friend of their husband's but once inside he feigns a headache and when they go get him a glass of water for his aspirin, he strikes. He drags them to the bedroom and the camera lingers on the door while the viewer hears the slapping, beating, pleading, and screaming going on inside. And as if that wasn't enough, the bruised and swollen faces of the victims brings it all home, as well.Mamie Van Doren doesn't miss a beat as "Mrs. Alteras", a voluptuous hot-to-trot divorcée who almost becomes a victim -and no doubt would have loved it. Danton gets one of his minions to do a "copy-cat" rape to throw the police off and when the guy (Jim Mitchum, Bob's look-alike son) is just about to attack Miss Mamie, her ex-husband (Van Doren's real-life husband, bandleader Ray Anthony) bursts in. Mamie whispers to Jim to give her a call when her "ex" isn't around and ends up having a very "special" relationship with her would-be rapist. Cochran thinks she knows the perp's identity and asks her out; she's willing ....but when she finds it's not sex but information he wants, she clams up. Her reaction to the fact her young stud may be "The Aspirin Kid" is basically "So what?"What's reely amazing, however, is the social issues this exploitation shocker attempts to tackle: misogyny, rape, abortion, disaffected youth, even God. It's also a low-rent version of Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT with tough cop Cochran out for revenge when his home-life is torn apart (Fay Spain has the Jocelyn Brando role) and Miss Mamie plays the good/bad Gloria Grahame part. Cochran loves his wife but hates all women because of his first wife and Mamie is exactly the kind of woman he despises. This becomes a journey of discovery for Cochran, who gets his epiphany in a "mirror image": when Steve and Danton face off, it predicts the scene in PSYCHO when Gavin and Perkins stare at each other over the motel reception desk. Cochran thinks all women are tramps (Danton calls them "filth") and he believes the housewives "asked for it" until it happens to his wife. There's no truly evil people in this film; even the rapist breaks down and cries, begging to die. Cop Jackie Coogan's happy home-life provides the voice of reason as does Fay Spain's best friend, Irish McCalla -along with a priest (!) to discuss the abortion issue. Mamie Van Doren and her young stud are ambiguous at best, neither good nor bad (probably both) but come around when confronted with a grim life-or-death situation and end up on the "right side of the street". Unlike most film noir, there's even a happy ending all the way around except for Mamie and Mitchum -nothing really happens to them.It's easy to see the "noir paranoia" here; compare the misunderstood title youth in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and THE WILD ONE with the "herd mentality" of THE BEAT GENERATION (tellingly, the earlier films' titles refer to individual rebels, while the other is all-encompassing) and the later Italian Giallo would do the same thing to hippies that BEAT does to beatniks: they're either fools or followers murderous sociopaths can use to "blend in" and hide behind.A "must-see" in many ways.

With no apologies to Jack Kerouac, this is an odd mix, to say the least. The title and the backdrop is a surreal, but stereotypical set-up with some Real Gone Cats looking drugged-out and oblivious to all except contemplating time and space. What goes on here is an Ed Wood like combination of some very odd bedfellows.The Beats are interesting with crazy mixed up stuff like Poetry Readings with white rats on the shoulder, sleazy, soft spasms of youthful Ecstasy, listening, on record, to what might now be called Industrial Music Samples, and an out of place Louis Armstrong on stage.There are some very strange, and for the time daring, sub-themes like Rape, Abortion, Serial Killers, and two Women Haters as the Leads. There is bizarre, incomprehensible stuff like a Wrestling Match (out of the blue), and an ending that takes place underwater with scuba gear (huh!). There is enough quirk here to fill three Movies and it is all fascinating to behold. An undeniable underground Classic that is marvelously mishandled and has more angles than a Picasso. It is all so gut-wrenchingly charming that it cannot be overlooked and is a great example of Hollywood with its most unflinching, insoluble, insights and misrepresentations that makes the jaw drop and the Brain boggle.