To give criminal mastermind Ed Nelson a touch of class, the writers have him listening to classical music while planning his next criminal activity with teenaged thugs doing all the dirty work for him. One of them is an angry teen out for revenge because of the murder of his father. It is cliché after cliché, combining jazzy music into the actual crime sequences. Nelson is fine and would fortunately go onto other things that would really give his career some class. But this isn't it with a string of warehouse robberies being connected for a burp of a plot. If this is what American independent film producers considered new wave in the mid 60s I gladly wave it goodbye. At any rate, it is over in just an hour, so you won't have to put up with the excessive violence and angry atmosphere that was appropriate for the time but seems a bit too much today. When you see a movie and can only praise the score and certain technical elements, that's a pretty sad commentary.

It is an interesting coincidence that I watched "What Price Crime?" about a week before watching "T-Bird Gang" because this second movie turns out to be a remake of the earlier film. "What Price Crime?" is a dandy low-budget film and in the case of "T-Bird Gang", it's an even lower budgeted film. And, while this remake isn't bad, the original is better for several reasons."T-Bird Gang" begins with the beating death of a night watchman. The son of the watchman finds him just before he dies and all he can say is that the killers were in a white Ford Thunderbird (also nicknamed a 'T-Bird'). So, this young man decides to try to locate the gang and exact his revenge. However, a level-headed cop discovers the guy's plan and gets him to agree to work with them to bring the gang to justice. However, this gang isn't the trusting sort and it takes him some time to gain their confidence—and the viewer isn't sure if the gang will be stopped before this infiltrator is discovered and liquidated.Apart from a few small changes, the two plots in the two films are nearly identical. However, "What Price Crime?" is a better film because it is more subtle and at least has a soundtrack that seemed professional. "T-Bird Gang", on the other hand, has one of the crappiest soundtracks—often consisting of someone banging on bongos or a small combo playing free-form jazz. 95% of the folks watching this will probably hate the music—I know I did. However, if you can ignore this and just take the film for what it is (a cheap B-movie), then it's not bad and is a decent time-passer. Not great but enjoyable because the basic plot is still decent.

This flick is cool, daddio. I agree with another reviewer that the Shelley Manne bebop score alone makes it worth watching, but there's a lot more. The acting ranges from fascinatingly bad to surprisingly good (well maybe good is an exaggeration; maybe "convincing"?). Good-looking cast. The screenplay isn't half bad. It moves along at a nice pace. Has a noirish quality. The moll's makeup job! The gang leader's "understated alpha male" shtick: he's a total control freak--renames one gang member "boy", god forbid you should make a peep while he's listening to classical music. Also affects a James Cagney-like style of speaking. So much more to savor.

****SPOILERS**** 1950's youth movie about murder revenge and double-crossing that's a few steps above the average 1950's or 60's "Hollywood youth" films with an undercover bit by Frank Simmons/Minor, John Brinkley. Who's goes out to break open the Hendricks mob by getting it caught red-handed by the police in the commission of a crime. This all starts after Frank's father, a night watchman, was murdered in the robbery of the warehouse that he was guarding, with the police knowing that it was the Hendricks mob who committed the murder but not having any evidence to arrest or convict them. Frank going all over town trying to find and join the Hendricks mob runs into to it and it's leader Alex Hendricks, Edwin Nelson. That happened when he gets into a fight in a bar after breaking the concentration of a bar patron playing a pinball like bowling game. Impressed by Frank's ability to use his fists Hendricks offers him to join his mob. Even after Frank joined he was set up in a failed robbery of a gas station to see how he'll react under pressure, Frank passed with flying colors. Hendricks seems out of place with these 1950's teenage or early 20's greasers who he was using to do jobs for him all over town by breaking into warehouses and homes, even with those who lived there asleep, and stealing everything that wasn't tied or nailed down. Raymond, Tony Miller, Hendricks #2 man who did all the dirty for the gang and who killed Frank's father was getting very jealous of Frank because his boss Hendricks was getting to like the up and coming young hoodlum. Raymond felt that he'll be replaced as the #2 man in the Hendrick mob by Frank. This jealousy on Raymond's part had unknowingly uncovered the fact that Frank was working undercover for the police. Frank, knowing this, is very careful in tipping off the cops when the Hendricks mob was going to pull a new job and found a way to do it without Hendricks and Raymond knowing about it by leaving massages on matchbooks. With the police setting up a trap for the Hendricks mob at a warehouse after they were tipped off by Frank the entire Hendricks mobs gets arrested but Hendricks and Raymond and Frank get away in Hendricks white T-bird. With Frank's cover blown during the robbery the three are now back to the Hendricks bar hideout. With Frank tied up and Hendricks thinking that Raymond is outside looking out for the police he tells Frank that after Raymond knocks him off he'll have him turned over to the police in order to save the one and only one worth saving in this whole movie as well as the world HIM.Raymond who just happened to come into the bar and hearing that Hendricks is going to double-cross and sell him out to the cops goes wacko and beats Hendricks to death with a pool stick that he plunges right through his body. Running out of the bar Raymond is shot and killed by the cops as he pulls a knife on them. Even though the movie "The T-Bird Gang" has a very predictable story and the acting is adequate it did have it's moments and some scenes where very, if not original, innovative. I especially liked Hendricks girlfriend Marla, Pat George, who at first came across as a typical dumb blond but as the movie went on you realized that she was the smartest person in the film. Marla read classical novels like they were comic books and beat the smart and obviously very educated Hendricks in chess every time she played him.