The Cry Baby Killer ** (1958, Harry Lauter, Jack Nicholson, Carolyn Mitchell) – Classic Movie Review 7,849

Producer Roger Corman’s 1958 teen exploitation film The Cry Baby Killer stars Jack Nicholson, who makes his promising début as a teenage juvenile delinquent at the age of 21.

Director Justus Addiss’s 1958 teen exploitation film The Cry Baby Killer stars Jack Nicholson, who makes his promising début as a teenage juvenile delinquent at the age of 21, in this Roger Corman-produced quick flick, advertised as ‘YESTERDAY a Teenage Rebel… TODAY a mad-dog slayer’.

Nicholson gives a gripping turn as Jimmy Wallace, a teenage gunman, who shoots two hoods when they beat him up, runs from the law and takes hostages – a mother and her baby – in a drive-in theatre’s storeroom.

This fairly effective little action crime thriller, pretty capably done on its low budget and incredibly fast shooting schedule, is still acceptable entertainment, and now a cult item. Harry Lauter plays Police Lieutenant Porter and Carolyn Mitchell plays Carole Fields, the girl Jimmy Wallace and Manny Cole (Brett Halsey) are fighting over.

Producer Corman had seen 21-year-old Nicholson on stage before giving him his break. ‘Jack was very good,’ he said later. Nicholson worked conscientiously away throughout the Sixties, but it was another 11 years till he became a real star with Easy Rider.

Corman appears briefly as a TV cameraman atop a van. Also in the cast are Brett Halsey, Lynn Cartwright, Ed Nelson, Ralph Reed, John Shay, Barbara Knudson, Jordan Whitfield, Claude Stroud, Ruth Swanson and William A Forester.

It runs 70 minutes, 75 minutes in the director’s cut, 62 minutes, or 61 minutes on DVD, with the TV version running 60 minutes.

It was released on DVD for the first time in 2006 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment as part of its Roger Corman Classics series.

Corman said it was the first film that he produced that failed to make a profit, though it earned back its budget from sales to TV. He said while he was abroad during pre-production much of the script was changed by producers David Kramarsky and David March. When Corman returned to the US two days before filming, he was only partly successful in reversing the changes.

Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Wallace.

Jack Nicholson frequently collaborated in the Sixties with the film’s producer, Roger Corman, who directed him in The Little Shop of Horrors, The Raven, The Terror, and (uncredited) in The St Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The Cry Baby Killer is directed by Justus Addiss [Joe Addis], runs 70 or 61 minutes, is produced by Allied Artists Pictures, is released by Allied Artists (US) and Associated British-Pathé (UK), is written by Leo Gordon (screenplay and story) and Melvin Levy (screenplay), is shot in black and white by Floyd Crosby, is produced by Roger Corman, David Kramarsky and David March, and is scored by Gerald Fried.

Carolyn Mitchell

Model and actress Barbara Ann Thomason (stage name Carolyn Mitchell) was Mickey Rooney’s fifth wife but she was murdered, aged 29, on 31 January 1966. They were married seven years and had four children. She was murdered in 1966 by stuntman and actor Milos Milos (at the time bodyguard for Alain Delon), who then shot himself. Thomason and Milos had an affair while Rooney was travelling, and police thought that Milos had shot her after she wanted to end it. ‘I died when she did,’ Rooney said. Rooney then married Thomason’s best friend, Marge Lane, though the marriage lasted only 100 days.

Jack Nicholson (born April 22, 1937)

Jack Nicholson has won three Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award.

The cast

The cast are Harry Lauter as Police Lieutenant Porter, Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Wallace, Carolyn Mitchell as Carole Fields, Brett Halsey as Manny Cole, Lynn Cartwright as Julie, Barbara Knudson as Mrs Maxton, William A Forester as Carl Maxton, John Shay as Police Officer Gannon, Ralph Reed as Joey, Bill Erwin as Mr Wallace, Ed Nelson as Rick Connor, Smoki Whitfield [Jordan Whitfield] as Sam, John Weed as Police Sgt Reed, Frank Richards as Pete Gambelli, Claude Stroud, and Ruth Swanson.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,849

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