Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955) User Reviews

Popular Griffith Park

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 30 April 2008]

It must have been impossible for tourists and even working astronomers to study the stars from Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles that year with two films being done on location there. One of them became a classic and of course that's Rebel Without A Cause.

Then there's Teenage Crime Wave which seems to have been based somewhat on the Charles Starkweather/Caril Ann Fugate story. Starkweather and Fugate were a pair of thrill kill seeking young people who went a murder spree around this same period.

Tommy Cook who was trying to establish himself in adult roles at the time plays a kid who sets his girl friend, Molly McCart free as she's going to jail for robbery. A second girl, Sue England, is also freed and she becomes the Patty Hearst of the piece, ostensibly trapped by circumstances with these two punks. The film is about their escapades and eventual downfall at Griffith Park Observatory.

Cook and McCart are really a pair without any redeeming value unlike even the hoodlum kids in Rebel Without A Cause. The dialog and the situation will give you a chuckle and at times border on the hilarious.

It's like Reefer Madness with guns.

The one girl didn't figure into this as much as I thought she would

[Aaron1375 · 4/10 · 17 August 2015]

I viewed this movie on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as most people born in the last 30 or 40 years has. I do not see this being a classic that people would pull up a chair and watch without the riffing of the gang on the satellite of love. Still, it had its moments as it was better than more than a couple of the films they have done. It did make me wonder what was going to happen and who was going to die. It also surprised me as I figured this one girl who was arrested and charged, but not really a part of the gang was going to figure more into the film than she did; however, for the most part all she did was fret a whole heck of a lot!

The story has a girl leading a man to a deserted street where her boyfriend and a guy they set up with a girl who really wanted nothing to do with any of it mug a guy. The two guys get away when the police come, but the two girls get caught and sentenced to a juvenile delinquent prison. Not sure why the one girl did not just tell the police the identity of the two guys as that would have saved her a trip, but she and the girl are being transported when the bad girl's boyfriend shows up and kills a cop and springs the two girls, though the one did not want to go. They end up at a farm house where they keep a father and wife hostage and later their son. The law is closing in which makes them more and more desperate.

This movie made for a pretty good episode of MST3K. I always prefer the more horror and science fiction oriented episode, but a few of this off the wall ones were good too. This one is a lot like the one with the gang of girls who committed all the crimes, but that episode was a lot funnier. This episode had its moments as far as the riffing, but the thing that stood out the most for me were all the false endings at the actual end of the episode. My guess is the movie was too short to fill the run time, but too long to include a short.

So, the movie had some good points, it was not like The Creeping Terror or various others where there is just about no redeemable qualities, but it isn't anything you are second guessing as far as them riffing it in the first place. Honestly, the best thing about the movie was the bad girl as she was a cute little thing, much cuter than the other one who had more of the look from that era. In the end, one of those movies where you are waiting for the bad guys to get it in the end and it surprises you a bit with how it unfolds.

Mid Age Crime Wave

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 31 March 2021]

I have many movie loves, but seriously, juvenile delinquency movies are where it's at.

A Columbia stock actor and dialogue director, Fred F. Sears made a ton of movies, starting with the Charlie Starrett Westerns and Blondie series. He also made the Blackhawk serial and worked as a steady contract director for notorious cheap producer Sam Katzman, who knew how to make money for the movie companies. Sears directed Rock Around the Clock, Don't Knock the Rock and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers - and many more - before he died in the washroom of his office at the young age of 45.

Jane was an accessory at a robbery and just needs to serve out her juvenile sentence. But her cellmate Terry's man Mike (Tommy Cook, who wrote Rollercoaster) violently gets them out of young people jail. So they do what any teenage criminal would do on Thanksgiving. They hold a family hostage and everybody pays the price.

The youngest teenager in this movie was twenty-five at the time of filming. So there's that. Look, if you're a gangster and you bust your lady out of the joint, I think you should legally be able to kill anyone she flirts with. Them's the law.

Ma and Pa Kettle Meet Killer Teens

[dougdoepke · 7 April 2009]

The "teenagers" in this crime wave are all at least 25, with Sue England clearly over-age. But it doesn't much matter because the movie never really gels. Tommy Cook strikes the tough- guy poses, but despite the energetic effort can't work up a convincing menace or snarl to go with it. Too bad a Jan Merlin or a Nick Adams didn't have the part. Then too, I wonder what the story is behind Mollie McCart. Her acting is uneven at best, still she does present an interesting screen presence. Her meager credits look like she left acting after a brief fling. Nonetheless, with more seasoning, she might have developed into an actress of note. However, both look like Oscar candidates next to poor Frank Griffin who appears too petrified to register anything but a frozen stare. Rarely have I seen anyone so clearly uncomfortable performing on screen. No wonder he switched from acting to Hollywood make-up man.

1955 was the year teen sub-culture emerged with rock music, James Dean, and Elvis. Drive- in movies were catching on with both youngsters and movie-makers, a niche Roger Corman would exploit to the hilt. Actually, this Columbia release plays like a drive-in special with its emphasis on sex, fast cars, and juvenile delinquency. It's also cheaply produced, the screen time mainly confined to the drab farmhouse. I expect producers recognized this and tried to compensate with the boffo climax at the Griffith Park Observatory. The staging is pretty contrived, but does make for an interesting backdrop to the chase scenes. It looks like the classic Rebel Without a Cause and this movie were made about the same time, and I wonder which had the Observatory idea first since both use it. My guess is that fast-buck artists at Columbia anticipated Rebel's success and sought to ride the coattails. Anyway, the film blends two popular movie topics of the time—home invasion and juvenile criminality. Beyond that, there's little to recommend, except maybe a few laughs. (In passing—slight correction in another review: the Fugate-Starkweather murder spree was 1958, three years after this movie.)

Yes it's exploitational and the cast of 'teenagers' silly, but it's still very entertaining.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 14 August 2010]

"Teen-Age Crime Wave" is clearly intended as an exploitational film--to scare the audience and sensationalize the topic of juvenile crime. Plus, it's doggone silly because the teens in the film are all closer to their 30s than their teen! Oddly, this sort of bizarro casting was the norm in the 1950s--even with higher quality films of the genre such as "Rebel Without a Cause" where only one member of the starring cast was high school age! Yet, in spite of its low budget and all its other obvious shortcomings, there is something strangely entertaining about this film and I do recommend it--but still give it a 5 due to the production values. As far as entertainment goes, it's far better. The acting is good for unknowns and the script is excellent--probably too good for a film of such low pedigree! It's a great film for exploitation lovers or someone wanting something different.

The film has a familiar theme--similar to "The Desperate Hours" in that a group of psycho criminals take a family hostage and spend much of the film menacing them. A similar low-budget film made just a few later is the surprisingly good "The Sadist"--by Arch Hall--a man known for genuinely crappy films! It's well worth seeking if you like "Teen-Age Crime Wave".

A sneer for a career.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 11 June 2019]

From the moment you see Molly McCart sitting in the bar with her close-cropped hairdo, it is obvious that her character is up to no good. For the next 75 minutes, you will sit there waiting for her to get her comeuppance and when it happens, you know it won't be enough. Her character is absolutely repulsive on every single level, setting up an old letch in the bar for robbery and going on the run with criminal boyfriend Tommy Cook, taking along innocent accomplice Sue England and holding an elderly couple hostage over the Thanksgiving holidays. These two rebels without causes, along with poor England, sweet old lady Kay Riehl and her newly arrived son Frank Griffin, end up at the top of Griffith Park at the observatory where it all comes together in a dramatic and exciting fashion. It's too bad that what happens in the 65 minutes before contain some of the worst dialogue and acting ever to be seen on the screen.

Riehl and James Bell will instantly win your sympathy in spite of all the hideousness going on as the farm couple who unexpectedly open their door to danger. Riehl, reminding me of Beulah Bondi, instantly won me over (as did husband Bell), but Griffith is a bland if beautiful block of icy manhood. England also wins some sympathy as the innocent girl who didn't know the identity of the man manhandling her while McCart was picking up an old man to rob.

It is obvious that McCart and Cook are not teenagers, and while Cook isn't hideous, he isn't aided by playing a one-dimensional character. Attempts to make McCart sympathetic by having her shown having a nightmare (most likely her descent to the pits of Hades with what she fears will come) and a few reminisces about being passed from sister to sister as a slave don't work either. She does get an ironic last few lines, but by that time, I wanted her taken out in the worst way possible. Cook gets a delightfully undignified exit that had me in hysterics. It is a film so cliched and predictable that there are no elements of surprise. Still, as one of many fun bad movies of the 1950's, it's worth a look as long as you aren't sipping anything when the camping moments occur. People sitting nearby just might end up being the victim of a Danny Thomas spit-take!

My 365th!

[ericstevenson · 4/10 · 5 December 2016]

Yep, I have been watching one movie a day every day for the past year! I am so glad to mention this even though the movie I actually saw was bad. Well, then again, I watched the MST3K version which is always nice. From the title, it seemed like this would have a lot of action in it. There was really anything but. It tells the story of this girl who get involved with these criminals and while she's being transported to a correctional facility, they bust her out. They hold this family hostage for reasons I don't even remember.

I was thinking it would be lame if it would just show the girl at the correctional facility, but they did something different. Yes, they ended up spending the whole movie in a house threatening the people who live there. In hindsight, that isn't much better. This film is mostly boring as it just nothing but talk and bad acting the whole time. There's a little bit of action towards the end. At least it was something special for me. *1/2

scared-straight

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 29 June 2021]

Terry Marsh and her guys rob lecherous old man at gun point. The guys escape but Terry and her innocent friend Jane Koberly are both caught by the cops. The girls are sent to industrial school. Terry faces 5 more years in prison after turning 21. Terry orchestrates an escape and takes Jane with them in a crime spree.

This is a scared-straight kind of a movie. The Teen-Agers are actors at least in their mid-20's. If it could dial back some of the melodrama, this could be a functional movie. This is the type of movies to snicker at. It's trying to teach lessons but it probably has the opposite effect. After awhile at the house, the movie does get stale with no kinetic forward momentum.

No teenagers, no crime wave, and no good

[scsu1975 · 2/10 · 26 November 2022]

The film opens in a bar, where a chick (Molly McCart) manages to convince an old bald fat guy that she will do anything, anywhere, anytime, for anybody. Once outside, McCart's boyfriend (Tommy Cook) mugs the loser, and McCart gets off a great line: "I saw his wad. He's loaded."

Accompanying Cook is another guy (Jimmy Ogg ... and of course, we all remember "Odd Ogg") and another chick, played by Sue England. England is in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time. Now I've always wondered - can somebody be in the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time? Or is it just the right place at the right time? And does anybody really know what time it is?

McCart and England get busted, but Cook and Ogg escape. England gets plenty of support from her mother, who says "you were out with those hoodlums. No decent girl would be seen with them. ... I don't know how your father will ever face his business friends again." Thanks Mom. Did you also poison my cornflakes this morning?

McCart and England are held over in Juvenile Hall, where they get into a good cat fight, although the punches and slaps were probably dubbed in by the same guy who did sound effects for The Three Stooges. Then it's off to an "industrial school" with a cop and some old crone of a police matron. Along the way, Cook waylays the car and the three skedaddle, ending up at a farmhouse owned by James Bell and another old crone. From here, we are subjected to below average suspense, even when Bell's son (played by a wooden Frank Griffin) arrives home from the University of Hay, or, as it's more commonly known, Hay U. Cook provides more hysterical dialogue after McCart puts on a pair of Griffin's jeans: "Hey, hero, how do you like her in your pants?"

Eventually, the cops locate the hideout, and there is the usual car chase. This one ends at Griffith Park Observatory, which, as we all know, is where a rising star met his movie death in one of the most important films of the 50s. That's right, it was here that the Amazing Colossal Man (in "War of the Colossal Beast") got offed in his XXXXXXXXXX-large Depends.

Cook is semi-menacing as a semi-psycho, which suits his semi-acting. McCart looks a little too much like a boy, so she did nothing for me. England, on the other hand, is decent looking, and the filmmakers had the good sense (even though it made no sense) to show her in a bathing suit photo alongside mug shots of Cook and McCart. Bell, whom you may recall from The Leopard Man, spends most of his time reading the Bible and wondering how in God's name he wound up in this piece of crap.

Solid hostage drama

[stevenfallonnyc · 8/10 · 8 August 2019]

Kind of surprised at the low rating here at the IMDB for this flick (3.1 as of this writing). There were many JD flicks around the time but this one is a cut above the rest.

Thing is, even though there's an intro about the "teen" problem in the beginning, the movie really isn't about that, or a "crime wave" at all - it basically just centers on a few teens who take a farm family hostage (along with a girl who inadvertently gets involved).

Sounds very standard but there is some pretty decent drama and suspense, and the two main young girls are very attractive (bad girl Molly McCart especially). The finale is exciting and although there are some inconsistencies (like why the bad boy teen shoots some people and not others), and also some odd shots (like a telephone ringing six times, we get it the recipient isn't home) this is still a good way to spend watching some 50's low-budget action with girls, guns and an interesting resolution.

A Teenage Version of "The Desperate Hours"

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 30 June 2018]

SPOILER: Fred F. Sears' claustrophobic hostage melodrama "Teenage Crime Wave" reminded me of the Humphrey Bogart & Frederic March thriller "The Desperate Hours," except-as the title dictates-felonious teens take refuge in a farm house and await an accomplice to show up and take them away. Roughly, this is the same set-up in William Wyler's "The Desperate Hours," but Bogie and company were grown-up prisoners on the lam. Actually, when you get down to it, Sears and "Black Dakotas" scenarist Ray Buffum and "49th Man" scribe Harry Essex appear to have taken the "The Desperate Hours" script and sized it down to a teen version of Joseph Hayes' "Desperate Hours" plot. Clocking in at a trim 77 minutes, "Teenage Crime Wave" dealt with the growing problem of juvenile delinquency that was a popular Hollywood staple during the 1950s. Mind you, "The Desperate Hours" was released in October 1955, and "Teenage Crime Wave" came out a month later in November. Notorious low-budget producer Sam Katzman, who was known for producing quickies to cash in on fads, undoubtedly drew on Wyler's "Desperate Hours," and assembled this vintage nail-biter.

Although Mystery Science Fiction theater has lampooned the film, "Teenage Crime Wave" isn't a bad little movie. A slutty teenage girl, Terry Marsh (short-haired Molly McCart of "A Kiss Before Dying") seduces an older man at a bar, and a couple of armed tough teens, Mike Denton (Tommy Cook of "Night Passage") and Mike's partner Al (Jimmy Ogg of "Flying Leathernecks") rob him as she is taking him back to her apartment. The two teens are waiting for Terry to show, and one of Terry's girlfriends, innocent Jane Koberly (Sue England of "Funny Face"), is dragged into the crime. Mike and Al scram, leaving Terry and Jane behind. Since Terry has been arrested before, Jane and she are sentenced to serve time in an industrial school for girls. Once Terry reaches the age of twenty-one, she will be moved to a women's prison. Although Jane didn't have anything to do with the mugging, the authorities sentence her to industrial school because she refused to cooperate with them in their investigation. Keep in mind, Mike and Al got away.

While the authorities are transporting the girls to the industrial school, reckless Mike overtakes them in his jalopy and runs them off the road. Before the cop driving the car can extract his revolver from his holster, Mike plugs him and beats up the matron sent along as an escort for Terry and Jane. Mike screws up when he decides to let the old lady live, and she provides a description of Mike's car. Mike ditches his jalopy. Indeed, he releases the hand brake and the car plunges into a ditch. The three of them barge into a farm house when an older gentleman, Thomas Paul Grant (James Bell of "The Tin Star") and his wife Sarah Wayne Grant (Kay Riehl of "The Red Menace") are living without a care in the world. Despite having a phone on a party line where the other parties could listen in on their calls, the Grants cooperate as best they can with Mike who constantly threatens to kill Mrs. Grant if her husband doesn't do as Mike commands. They manage to reach Al, and he promises to bail them out. Meantime, the police are closing the dragnet on the teens. As it turns out, the Grant's son Benjamin David 'Ben' Grant (Frank Griffin of "Westworld") is coming home to visit them. Mike adds him to the hostage list, and he waits impatiently for Al to show up. Eventually, the authorities locate the ditched jalopy as Mike grows more impatient as their predicament stretches out. Al cruises out to meet them, but the cops stop him, and he dies in an ensuing shootout.

When the authorities come knocking on the Grant's door, Mr. Grant has to make up a story so the police will leave. Later, Mr. Grant tries to attack Mike, but the paranoid teen wounds him. Mike piles everybody but the wounded husband into a car and they drive away. Before long, Mike notices that they are being tailed by the police. Mike's big idea is to drive up to the Griffith Park Observatory where he hopes that they can lose the police in the crowd. Little does Mike realize that the Observatory is closed. A fight breaks out between Mike and Ben, and Ben triumphs over Mike. During the fracas, Terry catches a bullet. Later, Jane is cleared of all charges. Sears maintains a palatable atmosphere of tension during the hostage sequence. If you can see the film from the perspective that he was produced, "Teenage Crime Wave" qualifies as an average crime thriller. Mind you, it is far better than those asinine buffoons at MST3K make it out to be. The MST3K idiots love to ridicule old movies and take them out of context simply because the movies look hokey by today's standards.

Like the writings of the Marquis de Sade, it pretends to expose the weaknesses of the bad guys while it romanticises them.

[antifonz · 10/10 · 5 November 2005]

I love MST3K. It was my favorite TV show, ever. That in mind, this was the only movie I've seen them do that I would have preferred watching without the ironic comments, and that's because of how subversive this film is intended to be. It's obvious that the director intended the audience to find the "Teen-age Crime Wave" glamorous, and every other character completely corny and bullet-worthy. It's a forerunner of Natural Born Killers. In fact, I found myself wondering why the "villians" didn't murder more people! It really would have been in their best interests, after all, and, hey - once you've killed one straight who wants to put you away forever, you may as well keep on doing it, right? Despite the attempts at making the male criminal somewhat unappealing, for his stupidity and reliance on his gun for courage, Terry is one of the most successfully appealing criminals in the history of film. Notice the scene in the barn where she tries to seduce the Good Son, who then thinks he got the drop on her when he steals her pistol, but - oops! It's not loaded. And she has the loaded one! Anyone not entranced by this vixen yet is a neuter. I highly recommend this film to any admirer of the perverse and subversive. It's one of those films from the mid '50's that only masqueraded as a morality tale.

You're dirt, Terry

[rufasff · 30 March 2003]

This film made for a hilarious MST3K show, so I'm kind of surprised no one has commented on it yet. At any rate, It's a fairly typical "juvenile crime" flick of the fifties that might hold your interest on it's own. The actress who plays the good girl is a real dish; and the character of Terry makes the film somewhat ahead of it's time in that the movie asks for sympathy for her despite the fact that She is really, really mean. These movies where a gun is held on the good people by the bad guys can rate some suspense in spite of themselves. Kind of fun in any case, and it uses the Griffith Park planetarium just like in "Rebel Without a Cause".

Above-average juvey film

[mollytinkers · 6/10 · 26 June 2021]

I haven't read the IMDB reviews yet because this deserves a higher rating than given. If you can get past the recycled plot, stereotypes, and cliches of its decade, this film delivers strong performances. I expected a farce based on the title, and I got a cerebral jolt of surprise.

The dialogue often feels forced and obligatory, but the cast makes the most of the script. I think the director cared. A nod to music conductor Mischa Bakaleinikoff!

This was a Great film in 1955 !

[whpratt1 · 6 May 2008]

Enjoyed this old time film from the 1950's where Tommy Cook, ( Mike Denton) plays the role of a two-time loser in robbery and his sidekick is Terry Marsh, (Molly McCart) who also has a police record. Mike & Molly commit another robbery and Mike kills a police office while he is escaping and this couple wind up taking over a farm house where an elderly couple live. There is another girl named Jane Koberly,(Sue England) who is a delinquent girl and gets deeply involved with Mike and Molly. Mike continues to shoot and kill people at the farm house and then there is a big shoot out at the historic Griffith Park Observation in Los Angles, California. This is not the greatest of black and white films from the 1950's, but I bet plenty of people enjoyed this film during those years.

Three teenage "delinquents" draw an innocent into their web of misbehavior and head for the hills and further misadventures.

[thedeuce-1 · 6/10 · 10 August 2008]

This is a very worthwhile diversion. Tommy Cook overacts all over the place, but it does provide many enjoyable chuckles. Molly McCart does a fine job as Terry and deserved a successful career based on the talent she displayed here. While Sue English as Jane portrayed her character satisfactorily, the role did not require much of a stretch. Given her obvious attractiveness, I am surprised I was not previously aware of this actress! This production must have had an "in" with the Griffiths Observatory, as they were certainly given full access to the site! Recommended fun! James Bell,the farmer, is immediately recognizable from the dozens of TV and film roles he's had over the years!

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 24 May 2008]

Teen-age Crime Wave (1956)

** (out of 4)

Good girl Jane (Sue England) gets mixed up with bad girl (Molly McCart) and soon both of them are headed to jail even though Jane is innocent. On the way to jail June's boyfriend (Tommy Cook) kills the cop and takes the girls with him where they land at a farm house where they hold an elderly couple hostage. This is yet another juvenile delinquent movie from this era, which seemed to have at least ten per month. This one here comes from director Sears who's best known for the laughable The Giant Claw and thankfully this one here features just as many laughs. Yes, if you're expecting Citizen Kane then you're going to be disappointed but if you want some cheap, exploitation laughs then this is a decent little time killer. The movie runs at a pretty fast pace except for the final twenty-minutes where things slow up a tad too much. I think knocking off ten-minutes of the 77-minute running time would have helped things. As for the actual film, you get girls fighting and bad guys Cook and McCart acting tough. All of this makes for some pretty good laughs but McCart actually manages to be very entertaining with her seduction/tough girl image. The scene where she tries to seduce the farmer's son in the barn is priceless. Cook doesn't give what I'd consider a good performance but it is campy enough to deliver some fun. The production values aren't too bad and the supporting players do decent enough of work but in the end this film is all about nostalgia and laughs and it has plenty of both.

Where did you buy your medals hero in a pawn shop?

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 27 March 2009]

**SPOILERS** Your usual troubled youth of the 1950's movie that has the distinction of being filmed at the famous Griffin Park Observatory just two months-in January 1955- before the granddaddy of all 1950's troubled youth movies was filmed there "Reble Without a Cause".

In "Teenage Crime Wave" we have these two crazy mixed up kids Mike & Terry, Tommy Cook & Molly McCart, who get themselves in hot water by gunning dawn a deputy sheriff during an escape, with Terry being the one who does the escaping, attempt. Along with both Mike & Terry is Jane, Sue England, who was being transfered to a womens detention center for armed robbery. As we've seen earlier in the film Jane was an innocent bystander, but go tell that to the judge, when both Terry and Mike mugged Freddy Boy, George Cisan, who picked up Terry at a sleazy bar thinking that he'll score with her.

Now on the run from the state troopers the three end up at the Grant House where both Tom & Sarah Grant, James Bell & Kay Riehi, are preparing to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with their son handsome US Army hero Ben, Frank Griffin. Not realizing the fix that they find themselves in the two fugitives from the law not only hold the Grants, together with Jane, hostage but tip off the police in getting their not too bright friend Al, Jimmy Ogg, to drive over to the place with a carload of weapons! This has Al, when he resist arrest, get gunned down by the state troopers who then, knowing where Al was headed, surround the Grant house!

***SPOILERS*** Besides having, because of his incompetence, the place surrounded by the police Mike also has his girlfriend Terry fall for the handsome Ben who just about had it with his both bizarre and mindless behavior. The movie ends with Mike trying to elude the police by getting himself trapped like a rat, with all escape routes blocked, at the Griffin Park Observatory. Knowing that his brief, and very unsuccessful, crime career is over-with his girlfriend Terry gunned down by the police- Mike finally comes to his senses. It's then that the cops, together with war hero Ben Grant, put the cuffs on him and haul the notorious "Cry-Baby Mike Denton" away to face ultimate justice.