In the late fifties and early sixties the beatniks were cynically exploited by cinema, often they were positively hostilely depicted. At best they were adorably irresponsible pseudo-intellectual goofs; but at worst, criminal. Murderers. Rapists. Drug pushers. The level of sensationalism is amusing and quaint.
Also quaint are all the beatnik tropes: Poetry readings. Turtlenecks. Berets. Goatees. Jazz. Philosophy. Cigarettes. Leotards. Barefeet. Hipster jive. Coffee-drinking. Bongos. Interpretive dance. African art. Drug use. Black-and-white striped tops. Man, I need to cool it before I send you cats to dullsville, ya dig? If I don't can the lip, daddio, I'd never get to the groovy, far-out flicks I chose for kicks. Ahem, anyway, my top five beatnik films are: 5. The Subterraneans (1960) San Francisco. The city's unforgettable steep hills and cable cars had served as an excuse to shoehorn the action flick Metro around. Though the most memorable thing about that film was probably Eddie Murphy's hair. And that's a good line to take me to the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge, to be exact. This landmark was the very first thing we see in infamous auteur classic, The Room. Y'know, because the film had to make it clear to the audience that it's set in San Francisco. Even though the setting doesn't have a thing to do with the plot. But I digress, the reason I brought up San Francisco was because it's also the setting for The Subterraneans, where we see the same steep rolling hills as a backdrop to the '50s Beat scene of this colorful, eclectic city. George Peppard plays Leo, a struggling writer who still lives with his mother. One day he visits an underground bohemian cafe patronized by a bunch of crazies and creatives. One of whom is Frenchwoman Mardou - and after spending more and more time with her, he subsequently develops writer's block. What's notable about this movie is that it's based on the novella of the same name by Beat writer Jack Kerouac. The setting had been changed from Greenwich Village, New York; and Mardou had been changed from African-American. The resulting film is lightweight, but charmingly it has the most Hollywood spin out of everything on here. Breakfast at Tiffany's was released a year later, and you can probably tell which of the two George Peppard-starring adaptations of New York novellas was more successful. 4. High School Confidential (1958) This is a really well-made film. It is a rare example of a film from the period that doesn't condescend to teenagers, and deals with drug use sensitively. I mean, apart from the fact that it suggests that weed (grass, reefers, Mary Jane) leads to "H" (horse, junk) and goofballs(?). Tony Baker is ostensibly a tough high school student. Newly enrolled, he has a Bad Attitude, and sees himself as the new president of the wheelers and dealers. Apparently in this school is a drug ring that specializes in pre-rolled reefers at $1 each. He strikes up friendships with a couple other "weed-heads" in school, though he irks the head honcho J.I. and his cronies. Oh, and one of J.I.'s cronies sports a flat-top and is called ... Flat Top (I mean it's really comical, he's like a parody character that you'd expect to see from BTTF or something). We discover that Tony is an undercover cop, and the aunt he's living with is no more his relative than James Dean was a teenager in Rebel Without a Cause. It doesn't have lots of tropes, just live jazz in a coffee club, the donning of striped black-and-white tops, drug-use, and (an excellent) poetry recital. But Tony is a real joy to watch as the movie sets in and we see him "settling in" at school. He's very James Dean-esque (there's even a drag race at some point). Quotes: Commissioner Burroughs: "In most of the reefers a double thickness of paper is used. Now in the language the addicts use among themselves, marijuana is referred to as Mary Jane, pot, weed or tea. They never say to each other, 'Let’s smoke a marijuana cigarette.' They say, 'Let’s turn on.' or 'Let’s blast a joint.'" Poet: "My old man was a bread stasher all his life. He never got fat. He wound up with a used car, a seventeen-inch screen, and arthritis. Tomorrow is a drag, man, tomorrow is a king-size bust. They cried, 'Put down pot. Don’t think a lot.' For what? Time, how much, and what to do with it. Sleep, man, and you might wake up diggin’ the whole human race, Givin’ itself three days to get out. Tomorrow is a drag, pops, the future is a flake." Joan: "You sure you don’t want to turn on?" Tony: "No. With me it's strictly business. Y'know I knew a boy once that gave himself a little fix, and he dropped dead. Just like that. Man, you won’t ever catch me fooling around with that hard stuff." Joan: "One look at Doris, and I’m convinced to stay with reefers." 3. The Rebel Set (1959) The random opening scene doesn't seem to have anything to do with the plot. But once the titles kick in we then get an excellent track shot of the film's beatnik-patronized dingy underground coffeehouse - and there's another one later on. Once the film gets going it evolves into a crime caper: Out-of-work actor Johnny is given an opportunity to earn lots of money on a job by coffeehouse owner Mr. Tucker. The job is not on-the-level, however - and what's worse, Johnny's long-suffering wife innocently insists on coming along. Others involved include a struggling writer (who brings his typewriter along) and the hapless son of a movie star. And so they all embark on a cross-country train journey for a prize of $200,000 apiece. What I like about this film is the main character's fifties rockabilly short-sleeved shirt and slick black hair. And there's lots of the beatnik tropes. 2. The Bloody Brood (1959) Long before he donned the dirty mac, Peter Falk starred as Nico in this Canuck picture. In fact it was his second ever film. The premise is pretty silly: After philosophizing murder as a work of art, Nico feeds a telegram messenger-boy a hamburger filled with ground glass "for kicks", egged on by his partner-in-crime, TV director Francis. It kills(?) him, and his older brother investigates his death due to the slow progress made by the police. If there's any film that deserves the "beatsploitation" label, it's this. The Digs, an underground jazz bar, is depicted as a seedy and shady place. However the film does include all the tropes. A great many of them anyway. And terrific party scenes, and amusing characters. 1. A Bucket of Blood (1959) I bloody love this film. It stars Dick Miller, who you may recognize from the Gremlins movies (among other things), as a slow-witted busboy who yearns to be an artist like the customers of the cafe where he works. He buys some clay and sets to work on achieving his aim. He soon does, whenceforth he is welcomed with open arms by newfound friends - the very people he had so admired and glamorized from afar. It features a really good poem (now this is a huge thing for me to say, as I can't stand poetry), delivered very eloquently by the character of Maxwell H. Brock. In fact, everything the character Brock says is eloquent. The film has a comedic-toned style. Darkly comic. Sympathetic characters. And some lovely dialogue. It may be on the short side, but I like its economy. Short but sweet. (A fairly good remake was made in 1995 starring Anthony Michael Hall known also under the name of The Death Artist. It follows the plot pretty closely, but it's still very ... '90s. Like, visually.) Quotes: Maxwell H. Brock: "Life is an obscure hobo bumming a ride on the omnibus of Art. Burn gas, buggies, and whip your sour cream of circumstance and hope, and go ahead and sleep your bloody heads off." Will: "Have some breakfast, man." Walter Paisley: "What're ya having?" Maxwell H. Brock: "Some soy and wheat germ pancakes, organic guava nectar, calcium lactate and tomato juice, and garbanzo omelettes sprinkled with smoked yeast. Join us?" Walter Paisley: "No thanks ... . Sounds great, though." Worthy mentions: Beat Girl (1960) A distinctively British take on the beatnik scene, this film co-stars teen idol Adam Faith. Though jazz is mentioned, it's definitely a more rock-and-roll vibe. In fact, not many of the beatnik tropes are included (apart from an underground venue, coffee-drinking, nihilism, and heavy use of the lingo). Such slang is rather evident in the following quote: Paul: "Where do you get your kicks from? Sitting around in cafés, listening to gramophone records? Jiving in underground cellars and caves?" Jennifer: "You are a real square, aren't you?" Paul: "This language, these words - what does it mean?" Jennifer: "It means us! Something that's ours. We didn't get it from our parents. We can express ourselves, and they don't know what we're talking about! It makes us different!" Paul: "Why do you need to feel so different?" Jennifer: "It's all we've got. Next week, voom - up goes the world in smoke, and what's the score? Zero. So now, while it's now, we'll live it up! Do everything. Feel everything. Strictly for kicks!" Plotwise, we have rebellious teen Jennifer living with her well-off, successful father, Paul. She frequents The Off Beat, a cafe in Soho patronized by other disaffected youths. But when her stepmother moves in, Jennifer is unwelcoming and openly hostile towards her. The Beat Generation (1959) This movie begins with a laughable dialogue awkwardly peppered with as much beatnik lingo as possible in the most affected way, delivered with slight self-consciousness: Meg: "I wish I didn't have to make the scene with that plane tonight. I wish I never had to go back East. I wish, I wish ... ." Hess: "Hey hey, play it cool chick, like play it like cool. You got to go, everybody's got to move. I mean we can't stand still and wait for the next mushroom cloud now, you dig?" Meg: "Crazy. But as soon as I cut out, you'll forget me." Hess: "Oh Meg you're the most, but there's no tomorrow, not while the sky grooves radiation gumdrops, man. You got to live for kicks. Right here and now, that's all there is." Meg: "You know in all the months I've known you, you never even held my hand." Hess: "The love and marriage bit, I put that down. That's for the rat race and the squares, Schopenhauer says. And I agree with him, lovers are traitors who seek to perpetuate the whole want and drudgery of life. That cat Schopenhauer also says that this world which is so real with all its sunsets and Milky Ways is nothing." Meg: "It's the only world we got." Hess: "Crazy." Meg: "Maybe we'll meet again some day and you'll read your gone poetry*, and your far-out philosophy. And maybe we'll have kicks to end all kicks." *Gone = jazz slang, 'hip', 'with-it'. "He's a real gone cat." The jazz club environment doesn't get a huge amount of screentime, despite Louis Armstrong making a cameo. But there is a nice (but short) poetry reading. The main congregation of beatniks arrive late in the movie in a beachside den and are depicted as dopey comedic foils, but provide some musical relief. This is a crime drama first and foremost, and an exploitation movie second, being openly disdainful of beatniks as unsavories. (That Hess character whose lines you just read, turns out to be a serial rapist.) It's still an entertaining film, though.
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