The Beat Generation ** (1959, Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren, Ray Danton, Fay Spain) – Classic Movie Review 10,108

Director Charles F Haas’s 1959 black and white crime B-movie The Beat Generation [This Rebel Age] stars Steve Cochran as obsessed tough police detective Dave Culloran, who tracks down the vile, crazy serial rapist Stan Hess (Ray Danton) who has joined the ranks of the dreaded beatniks and attacks housewives, including raping his wife Francee Culloran (Fay Spain), who becomes pregnant.

The Beat Generation is a trashy and unwholesome but very interesting 1950s exploitation movie, with a hard edge, and given a boost by an intriguing cast (including Mamie Van Doren and Vampira), appearances and performances by Cathy Crosby as The Singer and Louis Armstrong as himself, the dark tone, its convincingly sleazy atmosphere and some sharp ideas.

Also in the cast are Mamie Van Doren, Jackie Coogan, Margaret Hayes [Maggie Hayes], James Mitchum [Jim Mitchum], Cathy Crosby, Maxie Rosenbloom, Maila Nurmi [Vampira], Ray Anthony, Dick Contino, Billy Daniels, Charles Chaplin Jr and Irish McCalla.

Producer Albert Zugsmith outwitted Jack Kerouac by copyrighting the term The Beat Generation, which he used as the title of his exploitation film The Beat Generation (1959). Zugsmith is also known for Star in the Dust (1956), Orson Welles’s masterly Touch of Evil (1958), Sappho Darling (1968), The Cult (1971) and Evils of Chinatown (1962), starring Vincent Price.

It is shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 10202 West Washington Blvd, Culver City, California.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,108

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