I believe I will go along with the conventional wisdom shared by many of the other reviewers here. The actors here were saddled with plenty of bad assumptions and corny techniques employed by the screenwriter, the director, and the producer, Sam Katzman the king of cinema Cheese. They do the best they can, but ultimately they are doomed, unwilling participants trapped in a corny melodrama with the form of a 1950's juvenile delinquent movie.
The release date on this film says 1966, but the whole ethos feels more like 1956, or maybe even 1946. Just change Dana Andrews from injured businessman to injured World War II veteran, and there you go. I'm not even sure when this screenplay was actually written. Maybe it was sitting on somebody's shelf for 10 or 20 years.
The most annoying gaffe to my mind is the appearance and affect of the so-called "delinquents" who "terrorize" uber-square Dana Andrews and his family, a bunch of non-realistic cardboard cutouts straight out of a 1950's television sitcom like "Leave it To Beaver" or "Father Knows Best." These well-scrubbed Hollywood actors, with clean well-pressed chinos and button-down shirts, and shiny straight white teeth, are supposed to be threatening? Give me a break! These kids are about as threatening as a Nerf ball. Hard to believe that the very same year, Roger Corman released "The Wild Angels," showing off a REAL group of reprobates who terrorize the innocent straights on the road. Now those bikers, THOSE were a bunch of creepy, unshaven low lifes. These kids are just a little bored. And who wouldn't be, stuck in some crappy desert town in the middle of Nowheresville, California.
To say the acting is overwrought is like saying BP made a little oopsie in the Gulf of Mexico. And then, the doofus elderly cop comes into the movie a few times for a little Joe Friday style moralizing. I'm with the idiot in the hat, who later killed himself after crashing his car: that cop was an asshat.
"Thank you, Daddy, for not telling that cop about...what happened." Huh? What DID happen? Nothing! You made out with one of the hot rod dudes, and did a little snogging against the side of the Corvette? Holy cats, did I miss something? That was enough to drive you folks out of town?
This movie is really terrible for a major studio release. An overdone melodrama with a little hot rodding thrown in, and some bad discotheque blues-rock by Mickey Rooney Jr.! (No Gary Lewis he, his "combo" certainly never tore up the charts, but I did enjoy his lyric, something like "Baby don't mess up my hair!")
In the end, I can only recommend this movie for the snogalicious charms of Miss Mimsy Farmer. Rowrrr. Such an adorable kitten, overbite and all. Love those giant hair-dos that were all the rage in that era (the era of my birth!) And as many others have commented, Jeanne Crain was also holding it together pretty dang well at age 42, rocking a tasteful blouse and tight skirt. But, overall, these reasons to watch the movie are few and far between, so, I would recommend this film only to the most masochistic of drive-in movie buffs. Fair warning.
The release date on this film says 1966, but the whole ethos feels more like 1956, or maybe even 1946. Just change Dana Andrews from injured businessman to injured World War II veteran, and there you go. I'm not even sure when this screenplay was actually written. Maybe it was sitting on somebody's shelf for 10 or 20 years.
The most annoying gaffe to my mind is the appearance and affect of the so-called "delinquents" who "terrorize" uber-square Dana Andrews and his family, a bunch of non-realistic cardboard cutouts straight out of a 1950's television sitcom like "Leave it To Beaver" or "Father Knows Best." These well-scrubbed Hollywood actors, with clean well-pressed chinos and button-down shirts, and shiny straight white teeth, are supposed to be threatening? Give me a break! These kids are about as threatening as a Nerf ball. Hard to believe that the very same year, Roger Corman released "The Wild Angels," showing off a REAL group of reprobates who terrorize the innocent straights on the road. Now those bikers, THOSE were a bunch of creepy, unshaven low lifes. These kids are just a little bored. And who wouldn't be, stuck in some crappy desert town in the middle of Nowheresville, California.
To say the acting is overwrought is like saying BP made a little oopsie in the Gulf of Mexico. And then, the doofus elderly cop comes into the movie a few times for a little Joe Friday style moralizing. I'm with the idiot in the hat, who later killed himself after crashing his car: that cop was an asshat.
"Thank you, Daddy, for not telling that cop about...what happened." Huh? What DID happen? Nothing! You made out with one of the hot rod dudes, and did a little snogging against the side of the Corvette? Holy cats, did I miss something? That was enough to drive you folks out of town?
This movie is really terrible for a major studio release. An overdone melodrama with a little hot rodding thrown in, and some bad discotheque blues-rock by Mickey Rooney Jr.! (No Gary Lewis he, his "combo" certainly never tore up the charts, but I did enjoy his lyric, something like "Baby don't mess up my hair!")
In the end, I can only recommend this movie for the snogalicious charms of Miss Mimsy Farmer. Rowrrr. Such an adorable kitten, overbite and all. Love those giant hair-dos that were all the rage in that era (the era of my birth!) And as many others have commented, Jeanne Crain was also holding it together pretty dang well at age 42, rocking a tasteful blouse and tight skirt. But, overall, these reasons to watch the movie are few and far between, so, I would recommend this film only to the most masochistic of drive-in movie buffs. Fair warning.