Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955)

Disturbing yet enthralling

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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.

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!

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.

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".