The Cool and the Crazy (1958) Poster

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5/10
Memorable JD flick
JohnSeal20 February 2002
If you can overlook the over-hyped 'marijuana is a killer' message of this film, you're in for a treat. Scott Marlowe is the new kid in town, pushing 'M' to the local delinquents (who otherwise seem to like getting smashed on booze, funnily enough). It's the role of his career, even though he seems to be trying to channel the spirit of Marlon Brando. The Kansas City locations add the extra grit the film needs, and there's a super slimy turn by Marvyn J. Rosen as the big wheel of the narcotics business. Rosen never had another role, so presumably he was a KC local, and he makes the most of it. I remember watching this movie on TV back in the 70s and being impressed, and seeing it recently for the first time in 25 years rekindled my fond feelings for this nice example of indie filmmaking.
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5/10
If you love acting WATCH Scott Marlowe in this!!!!!
affiliate238 May 2007
First off the movie is very dated and fairly stupid('58) but that didn't stop me from watching it.

The Star Scott Marlow (Bennie) is off his ass!! Kept me watching until the very end..(which is crazy if you think of the time VS now. His acting for the time is completely original.

In the 50's film acting wasn't the way to go (or even really discovered yet) it was all stage acting, voice projection, big movements (more is more VS film now where Less is more) but Scott was acting like he was Vince Vaughn in Swingers, craaaaazy slick, believable and because it's in black and white you can't get over how modern his sarcasm and jokes are! As an actor i was blown away at how Scotts performance would still impress viewers well into 2007.
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6/10
Crazy Fifties Marijuana Paranoia - classy
thehumanduvet3 May 2000
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.
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Beware! Smoking the "M" will turn you … into a ham-actor!
t_atzmueller22 February 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this as a double-feature with "Reefer Madness" during a visit to Amsterdam, sitting between a predominantly stoned audience, all hep-cats and all of whom had a splendid time.

What an eye-opener! How naïve had I been, always thinking that booze was a dangerous drug that ruined lives and that prohibition only served drug-cartels, when "M" was the culprit all along. In horror I watched the plight that the "M" had brought upon this society, turning Kansas City into the bleakest concrete-jungle you could ever imagine, and making high-school kids suddenly look like 30+ year old bit-actors.

But I was weak: I did like the locals did, lit up the "stick" that a giggling hep-cats passed me and waited.

I waited for drug-addled fiends speeding up in a Chevrolet and mowing me down – but all that came was a couple of bicycle drivers (and they were smoking a "stick"). Waited for the addiction, the psychosis, the general melting of all my inner-organs and for the world around me to turn into black-and-white; it never came to pass, but much worst then that: I got the munchies, ate a huge sandwich (ham, not salami; it just seemed appropriate) and then went and played chess at a local coffeshop. Excellent chess-players in Amsterdam, some of the best in the world.

I give this film 10 sticks out of 10. Need a light?
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2/10
Get em' on the smoke.
mark.waltz25 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
"Do that, and in a few weeks they'll be wanting the needle!" It's a shame that lines like that are few and far between because this happens to be one of the most dull j.d. Movies ever. I guess reform school must age teenagers pretty bad because Scott Marlowe looks way older than 18. In fact, he was 28 when he made this movie, playing a new student in school whose interruptions gets the whole class in trouble and after partying with him, hooked on happy weed.

With students like Marlowe and Richard Bakalyan (long before he became a stereotyped Disney movie heavy), no wonder teacher Caroline von Mayrhauser becomes antagonistic. One time child actress Gigi Perreau must have felt like she was robbed out of the cradle, a decade younger than the two leading men. In fact, her makeup is altered so on the black and white screen, they all look around the same age.

To add to these ridiculously bad performances, Shelby Storck is added as the detective covering the string of j.d. Crimes, so one note as he describes the gas chamber for the benefit of the crime causing tough teens. It's all a heavy handed, finger wagging lecture with trite dialog and really very little action. At under 90 minutes, it seems so much longer.
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4/10
Beware of that nasty 'wacky weed'.
michaelRokeefe19 February 2002
Intended to show the results of smoking marijuana, this movie is interesting in the fact it is fun to watch the 'over acting' or lack thereof. A young punk(Scott Marlowe)fresh from reform school enrolls into a Kansas City high school with the intent to push marijuana. It is comical watching the results of just the introduction to the 'special smoke'. Watching this today is a hoot with or without the munchies! Also in the cast are:Richard Bakalyan, Dickie Jones and Gigi Perreau.
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3/10
25-35 year-old 'juvenile delinquents' run amok due to evil marijuana!
planktonrules24 March 2020
While not quite as ridiculous as "Reefer Madness", "The Cool and the Crazy" is a ridiculous propaganda film designed to warn folks that marijuana kills! While filled with lies, it is quite unintentionally funny. Now my expectations for "The Cool and the Crazy" were low to begin with....with such a nutty title and the film coming from American International Pictures!

Benny (Scott Marlowe) is a new cool 'kid' who arrives at some high school. I put kid in quotes because he and the rest of the students are generally in their upper 20s! Anyway, he's a rebel and the kids soon are won over to his coolness. Then, he introduces them to marijuana...and soon he's out of control and going through withdrawal because he's become addicted and hell-bent on self-destruction!

This film is packed with misinformation--the type that actually ended up encouraging kids to use pot. After all, in the film, Benny uses it and soon becomes out of control and suicidal. But when folks see that none of this really happens with folks they know who use pot, they tend to ignore and laugh at such over-the-top warnings.

So is it any good? Not really. The acting isn't bad and the look and style of the film are good...but the story itself is goofy and silly at times. But, it is unintentionally funny...and is worth seeing in this light.
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7/10
very addictive film
kidboots27 September 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I don't know who was "cool" but there were a lot of "crazy" kids at the end of the movie.

This is a very addictive JD drug exploitation film.

Gigi Perreau (a 40s child star) was the only genuine teenager in the film.

Scott Marlowe (26) at least looked young but Dickie Jones (a 30s child star) at 31 looked even older than his years with his 5 o'clock shadow.

Scott plays Bennie, a reform school graduate that comes to the high school as a pupil but he has a mission. He has been recruited to push M to the unsuspecting high schoolers (most look old enough to be teachers).

Bennie had a very "cool" way of talking that would not be out of place now but in the 1950s - that was probably why he was picked on in the movie.

In my copy - the "violence" was deleted. One minute Bennie was standing in a group - the next he was running for his life muttering something about his torn sweater. One minute they were mucking around in the hall - the next they were sprawled in the street and the police were saying someone was in hospital with a fractured skull.

After only a day of smoking weed of course they are completely addicted and willing to do anything (robbery or worse) to get money to buy drugs. There are suggestions by the older guy to Bennie that once they are hooked on M!!! they will want harder stuff but all the events seem to take place over a couple of days.

There is also the obligatory "understanding" policeman coming into the film at intervals to comment on the "crazy, mixed up kids".

I liked it and would recommend it.
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1/10
Really!!!!!
valstone5229 December 2023
This has to be one of the worst movies ever. The actors that were,supposedly teenagers, had to be going on thirty, if not older. Never considered Scott Marlowe that good an actor. He was really over the top in this. Talk about ham, if that was method acting, he definitely missed a few classes. The guy Jackie was pitiful, a regular wimp. First he starts out being big and bad like his lump of a friend cookie. I don't know what kind of weed they were smoking, it made them claw at their throats. Come on be serious, saying they feel like they're dying. If anything this would make some dummies try it, just to see if it could make them, feel like that. 😂
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7/10
Enjoyable for fans of the teen crime genre
mbhur11 June 2020
This juvenile delinquent movie is definitely a cut above similar films of the era I've seen, thanks to a good script and a strong lead performance by Scott Marlowe. Marlowe had the looks and charisma to be a major star, but never get a chance at a breakout role in a big Hollywood movie. (He did at least have a long career as a supporting player.) When I say it's a good script, perhaps I should qualify that to say except for the ridiculously overblown responses to smoking pot by the "teenagers," who freak out as if they were on a bad acid trip. There's also a romantic subplot with second lead Richard Bakalyan and nice girl Gigi Perrau that goes nowhere and keeps Marlowe off the screen for long stretches. When Marlowe's not on the screen the movie suffers. Also, typical of many of these movies, several of the alleged high school students look like they're pushing 30. But the movie rolls along along at a brisk pace, has some good action sequences, and Marlowe delivers the '50s existential alienation in spades. (Per the title, he's both cool and crazy.)

One added bonus for jazz fans is the unnamed combo we see playing at a local club. The band really cooks. Too bad there's no credit for them. (Kansas City once had a very active jazz scene). As others have commented, the Kansas City locations gave the movie some grit and authenticity, when compared to the vanilla suburban Southern California setting of most '50s teen movies. (The Wikipedia article on the movie has some interesting info on the producer, a Kansas City theater chain owner who wanted to carve a niche for himself in the teen exploitation market. He had earlier hired KC local Robert Altman to make another juvenile delinquent movie).
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4/10
DRUGS MAN
BandSAboutMovies24 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Ben Saul (Scott Marlowe) is a reform school graduate who is starts classes at a public high school and wins over the students by buying beer for them and getting them into weed. He's actually working for the syndicate and things start getting out of hand when a kid tries to hold up a gas station and gets killed. Of course, Ben starts getting high on his own supply and of course, he dies because that's the moral of this movie.

This was produced by Elmer Rhoden Jr of the Kansas City-based Commonwealth Theaters, a prominent chain of motion picture theaters that needed low-budget teen exploitation films. The first movie he made, The Delinquents, was directed by Robert Altman. This would be the second film he made, which was directed by William Witney and written by Richard C. Sarafian.

It was picked up by American International Pictures and ended up being one of their bigger juvenile delinquent movies. It was so realistic that Richard Bakalyan and Dickie Jones were arrested by Kansas City police for vagrancy in between filming.
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10/10
Quite simply the best JD movie ever made, or at least I have seen
darryllmonroe15 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This movie centers on Bennie, a new bad kid in town who is a front for a drug syndicate of sorts, sent to get all the local kids hooked on "M" as a prelude to bringing in "The Needle" .Marijuana, it seems, is highly addictive gateway narcotic and has horrible debilitating withdrawal's , referred to as "I got the smoke" {clutching your throat in withdrawal agony }. and it makes you wanna "crawl into the woodwork" dance with objects other then people and indulge in drug crazed violence . Golly, I never smoked anything even half as good as what Bennie's got. Of course the very first time the kids get turned on by Bennie they start acting like the stuff is heavily laced with PCP.... Gosh, maybe that's it...Indeed. The only place these kids are going is to drug hell, at least so it seems. And the "take a good look at it" scarred straight approach of the grimed face cop at the end is priceless. Move over Joe Friday. I love this movie, always have since I saw it on TV at 3 in the morning like 35 years ago. Yes , it is preposterous , yes, it is even ridiculous but Scott Marlowe's over the top performance as Bennie is incredible , even inspiring. Perhaps the funniest movie I have ever seen, sure , most of it unintended , but still. Every dire warning cliché in the book can be found here.."Do you know what this is Amy, this is M , marijuana !" Jackie says after showing Amy the "stick". She does the right thing any red blooded all American girl would do, grabs the thing and tears it up. {Just like my mom did} Thinking about it makes me want to relapse . If you have any sense of humor at all, find this movie, get high if you get high , and even if you don't {I don't anymore} watch it and laugh your ass off...." You ruined it man, I was gonna drive right between those two motorcycle cops " .....see the movie and you will understand...Oh, I forgot to mention, The Jump Blues band at the big dance , who ever they are, are wonderful, performing a song called "The Cool and The Crazy " of course...
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9/10
A real surprise -- taut, entertaining thriller
Laughing_Gravy12 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen a lot of cheesy 1950s juvenile delinquent movies, but THE COOL AND THE CRAZY took me by surprise – it's a top-notch pot movie with a good script and an excellent cast.

Scott Marlowe is Benny, the new boy in school, and he's all attitude, which ticks off the local gang of toughs, led by Stu and Jackie (Dickie Jones and Richard Bakalyan). Benny's got a little secret, though: he's a pusher who's come to town to infect the kids with marijuana and, inevitably, heroin (since we all know that mary jane leads to the hard stuff). When one of the "nice guys" in school gets the marijuana habit ("I gotta have some 'smoke' – I'm DYIN' for it!") and gets shot robbing a gas station for drug money, events begin to spiral out of Benny's control.

THE COOL AND THE CRAZY was filmed on location in Kansas City, giving the picture a rough, realistic edge missing from the similarly-themed HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. The cast is terrific, and there's genuine tension between the three leads. Best of all is Richard Bakalyan as Jackie; the gang's clown prince, he resists the lure of drugs and meets a nice girl (former child star Gigi Perreau), but his efforts to help his pals leads to tragedy. Yeah, the film's anti-drug message is blatant (and inaccurate; one puff does not a nutcase make, in most cases) but that's going to be a given in the films of that era. Also, if you're looking for a film that lives up to its lurid exploitation ("Seven savage punks on a weekend binge of violence!") you're going to be surprised, as I was, to find, not a seedy little cult thriller, but a taut, well-done drama that ranks very close to the top of 1950s J.D. pictures.

In the late 1950s, famed serial and B-Western director William Witney had found a comfortable niche in television (ZORRO, FRONTIER DOCTOR, BONANZA), but he turned out a series of exploitation pictures that are all outstanding bits of low-budget cult pop; besides this one, he gave us THE BONNIE PARKER STORY, JUVENILE JUNGLE, and YOUNG AND WILD. If it weren't for his earlier reputation director of such classic serials as THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and MYSTERIOUS DR. Satan, he'd still be well remembered for his '50s cult films.
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Pot Invades Kansas City, 50's Style
dougdoepke27 February 2008
One puff of pot and you're hooked for life and on your way to the hard stuff and a life of crime. That's the over-the-top message that makes this teen flick a 50's version of the notorious Reefer Madness of the 30's. Too bad, because the movie has some good points if you can get past dewy-eyed Scott Marlowe working hard at an antic version of James Dean or a 30-year old Dick Jones playing a teenager with thinning hair.

There are of course the usual juvenile delinquents of the 50's youth era otherwise known as the Silent Generation, riding around in their hotrods, hanging around drive-ins, and talking back to the teacher-- sort of the norm for the cool crowd of the time. Then again, maybe not so much for Kansas City, where, if I recall correctly, at least one cast member was hauled in for sporting a banned haircut called a "ducktail". Anyway, this is the sort of thing many wanna-be teens of the time aspired to.

Two points almost redeem this exploitation cheapie. First, filming on location in Kansas City gives the background an unusually gritty and realistic appearance. Director Witney makes good use of this in his staging, especially the night scene with the carpet of downtown lights stretched out below the carousing youths. Second is the showcase provided for teen super-star Richard Bakalyan (Jackie) who manages to give the show some depth of character. For a lesson in acting, contrast his natural style with that of the heavily mannered Marlowe-- Dean may have been a master of the latter, but with Marlowe, the antics become plain annoying.

Anyway, the movie remains an interesting capsule of the time. Younger viewers can begin to understand the youth rebellion of the 60's in this movie's twisted portrayal of pot smoking, a hype that millions of youngsters were only too eager to disprove 10 years later. Had the film-makers really wanted to perform a public service, they could have inserted something about the effects of smoking of any kind, especially cigarettes so popular among teens of that day. Watch Marlowe who lights up like a smokestack. He also died relatively young. But, guess how many tickets that message would have sold.
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8/10
a genuine cult classic
Mister OEX22 February 2002
Oh the dreaded "smoke". The dreaded "M". Take the Blackboard Jungle movie and spice it up a little bit and you have The Cool And The Crazy. The performances may be weaker but I give it an 8 as it succeeds in being an outstanding piece of propaganda; and thus a genuine cult classic.
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