FALLGUY is a cheap and dreadful indie drama that feels like it was made by somebody trying to be the next Hitchcock. It's a classic wronged man premise in which a teenager stumbles upon a car accident one night and is soon involved in a plot in which he gets accused of murder and must fight to clear his name. It's a gloomy story with very little in the way of life or effort, mainly consisting of shady characters hanging around in shady locations. The dialogue sounds very creaky to the modern ear.

This low-budget 1962 crime drama seems to have been rejected by small screen producers as to violent and graphic for airing on television. certainly, it is much more disturbing than many of the troubled teens films that were being produced in the 1950s and 1960s for drive-in movie audiences. It all surrounds a crime ring which brings as its main suspect a teenager who simply by trying to help someone ends up as the suspect in murder and must defend himself to prove his innocence. A lot of jazzy music accompanies the thrilling location sequences, and it certainly has some moments that are truly thrilling. Utimately it is defeated by its lack of a major cast (lacking even any B actors) and somewhat slow pacing. When the violence does occur, the film leaves the audience feeling like they have been punched in the stomach and in reflection makes today's audiences look back at the 1960s with an element of fear that is still gripping society today with other styles of social unrest even more disturbing. perhaps today's youngsters could use a vision of what Society was like during the era of their grandparents and even great- grandparents, and hopefully see the world in a different light that doesn't need to thrive through this type of violent activity.

This film was being shown on a specialty TV channel named "Drive-In" that plays obscure B movies. Right away, the low "production values", i.e. the money spent on sets and location, became apparent, so much so it reminded me of a 1940s era episode of a serial like Space Gordon.True to it's B movie stature, there are obvious flaws, primarily the "wooden" performances. Occasionally, the actors' dialog would hesitate as if the next line of the script was forgotten. Some of the acting was altogether unbelievable, bordering on the ridiculous. For example, in a scene toward the end of the movie, the lead actor was slapped across the face with a left hand, but his head spun to the right so that he would fall through a doorway and down a flight of stairs! Was a director on the set?I suppose this movie with it's dim lighting was attempting to be a "film noir" of some variety. But no matter what the genre, the film seemed too dark and shadowy, at least as it appeared on my TV. After awhile, a daylight scene came as a relief! Finally I found the abrupt and otherwise amateurish scene transitions and loud jazzy score intrusive. So much so they were not only distracting, they competed with the plot for interest. As the film skipped along, it became fascinating to see what laughable scene the movie would stumble into next. The movie suddenly ends with no credits, just the film title!As much as I thought I could make an amateur movie that would compare favorably, the movie had enough merits to hold my interest. And even seem likable. The plot, such as it is, does move quickly, the culture of the late '50s and early '60s was fascinating and you couldn't predict how the next plot twist, or yet another incongruous exchange of dialog, would unfold. So in the end, I found I couldn't take my eyes off it!

This obscurity is one of the stream of grungy B-movies with boisterous jazz scores and snazzy credit sequences that followed in the wake of iconoclastic A-pix like "Anatomy of a Murder" and "The Man with the Golden Arm". The credits, with a twisting, falling cut-out silhouette, are a pretty cool Saul Bass imitation, and the main title appears abruptly at the very end of the picture.The story concerns a hot-shot teen who stumbles onto a mob execution in progress. The gangsters conveniently set him up as the fall guy. He spends most of the picture on the run from both the cops and a brutish hit man called "the Indian" while he tries to unravel the plot against him.This seems to be a one-off independent production and the low budget shows. The sets are minimal (several scenes look like they were filmed in someone's basement), the low-key lighting harsh, and the day-for-night photography and post-sync dubbing are too obvious. Nonetheless, the filmmakers are canny enough to make this a very watchable film. The throbbing score and quick cutting keep up the pace, the acting is edgy and believable, and there's a good sense of visual composition with noirish shadows. Best of all, the story throws something sensational at us every ten minutes (my favorite bit being a cat-fight that breaks out incongruously in the middle of a mob sit-down).It doesn't have the resonance of "Blast of Silence" or "Angel's Flight", but taken on its own terms, it's much more successful than one would expect.