I viewed this movie on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as most people born in the last 30 or 40 years has. I do not see this being a classic that people would pull up a chair and watch without the riffing of the gang on the satellite of love. Still, it had its moments as it was better than more than a couple of the films they have done. It did make me wonder what was going to happen and who was going to die. It also surprised me as I figured this one girl who was arrested and charged, but not really a part of the gang was going to figure more into the film than she did; however, for the most part all she did was fret a whole heck of a lot! The story has a girl leading a man to a deserted street where her boyfriend and a guy they set up with a girl who really wanted nothing to do with any of it mug a guy. The two guys get away when the police come, but the two girls get caught and sentenced to a juvenile delinquent prison. Not sure why the one girl did not just tell the police the identity of the two guys as that would have saved her a trip, but she and the girl are being transported when the bad girl's boyfriend shows up and kills a cop and springs the two girls, though the one did not want to go. They end up at a farm house where they keep a father and wife hostage and later their son. The law is closing in which makes them more and more desperate.This movie made for a pretty good episode of MST3K. I always prefer the more horror and science fiction oriented episode, but a few of this off the wall ones were good too. This one is a lot like the one with the gang of girls who committed all the crimes, but that episode was a lot funnier. This episode had its moments as far as the riffing, but the thing that stood out the most for me were all the false endings at the actual end of the episode. My guess is the movie was too short to fill the run time, but too long to include a short.So, the movie had some good points, it was not like The Creeping Terror or various others where there is just about no redeemable qualities, but it isn't anything you are second guessing as far as them riffing it in the first place. Honestly, the best thing about the movie was the bad girl as she was a cute little thing, much cuter than the other one who had more of the look from that era. In the end, one of those movies where you are waiting for the bad guys to get it in the end and it surprises you a bit with how it unfolds.

"Teen-Age Crime Wave" is clearly intended as an exploitational film--to scare the audience and sensationalize the topic of juvenile crime. Plus, it's doggone silly because the teens in the film are all closer to their 30s than their teen! Oddly, this sort of bizarro casting was the norm in the 1950s--even with higher quality films of the genre such as "Rebel Without a Cause" where only one member of the starring cast was high school age! Yet, in spite of its low budget and all its other obvious shortcomings, there is something strangely entertaining about this film and I do recommend it--but still give it a 5 due to the production values. As far as entertainment goes, it's far better. The acting is good for unknowns and the script is excellent--probably too good for a film of such low pedigree! It's a great film for exploitation lovers or someone wanting something different.The film has a familiar theme--similar to "The Desperate Hours" in that a group of psycho criminals take a family hostage and spend much of the film menacing them. A similar low-budget film made just a few later is the surprisingly good "The Sadist"--by Arch Hall--a man known for genuinely crappy films! It's well worth seeking if you like "Teen-Age Crime Wave".

Enjoyed this old time film from the 1950's where Tommy Cook, ( Mike Denton) plays the role of a two-time loser in robbery and his sidekick is Terry Marsh, (Molly McCart) who also has a police record. Mike & Molly commit another robbery and Mike kills a police office while he is escaping and this couple wind up taking over a farm house where an elderly couple live. There is another girl named Jane Koberly,(Sue England) who is a delinquent girl and gets deeply involved with Mike and Molly. Mike continues to shoot and kill people at the farm house and then there is a big shoot out at the historic Griffith Park Observation in Los Angles, California. This is not the greatest of black and white films from the 1950's, but I bet plenty of people enjoyed this film during those years.

It must have been impossible for tourists and even working astronomers to study the stars from Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles that year with two films being done on location there. One of them became a classic and of course that's Rebel Without A Cause.Then there's Teenage Crime Wave which seems to have been based somewhat on the Charles Starkweather/Caril Ann Fugate story. Starkweather and Fugate were a pair of thrill kill seeking young people who went a murder spree around this same period. Tommy Cook who was trying to establish himself in adult roles at the time plays a kid who sets his girl friend, Molly McCart free as she's going to jail for robbery. A second girl, Sue England, is also freed and she becomes the Patty Hearst of the piece, ostensibly trapped by circumstances with these two punks. The film is about their escapades and eventual downfall at Griffith Park Observatory.Cook and McCart are really a pair without any redeeming value unlike even the hoodlum kids in Rebel Without A Cause. The dialog and the situation will give you a chuckle and at times border on the hilarious.It's like Reefer Madness with guns.