The Cool and the Crazy (1958)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

William Witney

Writer:

Richard C. Sarafian (writer)

Release Date:

March 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Seven savage punks on a weekend binge of violence!

Plot:

High school thug is front man for a local marijuana ring. |

Plot Keywords:

Marijuana | Delinquent | Sergeant | Teen | Drugs

Cast

Scott Marlowe	...	Bennie Saul
Richard Bakalyan	...	Jackie Barzan
Gigi Perreau	...	Amy
Dickie Jones	...	Stu Summerville (as Dick Jones)
Shelby Storck	...	Det. Lt. Sloan
Marvyn J. Rosen	...	Eddie (the pusher)
Caroline von Mayrhauser	...	Miss Ryan (teacher)
Ken Plumb	...	Marty (a teenager)
Robert Hadden	...	Charles 'Cookie' Tyler
Joe Adelman	...	Desk Sgt. Harry
John Hannahan	...	Drunk teenager
James Newman	...	Det. Sgt. Myers
Jackie Storck	...	Amy's mother
Leonard Belove	...	Amy's father
John Quihas

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Company:

Imperial Productions Inc. (III)

Trivia:

Richard Bakalyan and Dickie Jones were arrested by Kansas City police for vagrancy as they stood on the street between takes. The police saw their long hair and leather jackets and wanted to get them off the street before they "infected" the local youth.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cool and the Crazy (1994) (TV)

Crazy Fifties Marijuana Paranoia - classy

A classic paranoid fifties b-flick aiming to scare the pants off those rebellious youths hanging with the wrong crowd, or more likely their parents, this shockingly inaccurate reefer madness flick has a kid hitting town fresh from reform school, hooking up with the bad-influence pusher who got him put away, and dealing the demon weed to the local kids (none of them looking under twenty-five) in hopes of getting them hooked and making a packet; however, the kids, suffering the usual hallucinations, all-day hangovers and "eating me up" stomach problems (hello?) need a "fix" so much after apparently only one night on the spliff they end up getting involved in crime and in all sorts of trouble, as of course they deserve, during the course of what seems like a couple of days. Well enough constructed, with some top intense, frown-heavy performances, especially from the lead bad kid and his nice friend, but it's those mental 50s attitudes that make it worth checking out. Dig the message at the end - "in the interests of scaring you kids, everything in this film has been made up or exaggerated" (or words to that effect). In a parallel universe, this could be a movie about the evil of drink in a world dominated by smokers - at least the hangovers and bad driving would be appropriate.