A festival celebrating the Beat Generation in New York, runs from 3 to 8 June. The conceit of the organizers is to honor the late Beat Poet Allan Ginsberg, who were he alive, would turn 90 on 3 June. The film 'The Beat Generation', some 57 years old, is a haunted house that creaks. It a pair of whiskers that covers a detective story of a serial killer, who's 'Beat'. Even when the film flared across screens in America, it was obvious that Hollywood's knowledge and use of the Beats and the rage among the middle class youth, expressing a muted discontent and restlessness of the early Cold War repression of liberal thought and the starch collars of the Eisenhower years, found expression, albeit half understood, and the stereotypes are stultifying and cardboard like. Scenes from 'Bell, Book and Candle; and yes 'Funny Face' had scenes in smoked filled 'cafes', deeply set in indolence and utter boredom, and bongo playing. It was the time of daddy-o and the use of jazz expression to convey 'ennui'. The film featuring Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren and Ray Danton, is a pastiche of the Beats. At one point Danton quotes Schopenhauer, about the perfidy of the female sex, to justify his penchant for killing women, as a revolt against his oft married father who weds younger women even younger than Danton. (In fact, Danton is physically too old for the part; he's wooden throughout the film). This B film was a come down for Cochran. He had two years before starred in Antoninio's 'Il grido', but upon his return he had this script to pay his bills. Mamie Van Doren is fluff and buxom and eye candy. No Kerouac, no Ginsberg, no Cassidy, no William Burroughs...nothing of the Beat Generation. In sum, we have an exploitation film, which is hardly convincing, and maybe evoked yawns and groans. I suspect he didn't draw a big gate and was made cheaply. Overall, it is low camp at its best, a curiosity piece best left to gather dust.

The Beat Generation (1959) ** (out of 4) It's not often where I come across a movie and I'm not certain if I should call it a masterpiece for what it is or call it one of the worst films ever made. The story has a woman-hating detective (Steve Cochran) trying to track down a serial rapist (Ray Danton). A twist in the story is that the rapist raped the detective's wife who is now pregnant. THE BEAT GENERATION starts off fairly decent as it tackled some issues that weren't normally talked about in 1959 but then it just keeps getting weirder and weirder and in the end we're left with a complete mess of a film but at the same time it's an original mess. For the life of me I couldn't help but feel that this 95-minute movie was over three hours because of its slow pace and the fact that so much is going on. Not only do you have the investigation into the rape but you also follow the rapist and his friend (Jim Mitchum) as they try to plan more attacks, which leads to the friend falling for one of the attempted victims (Mamie Van Doren)!!! Even stranger is a subplot dealing with the raped wife who now wants to have an abortion. Throw in the detective/husband who is rather obsessive and hates women just like the rapist! Oh yeah, there's also the entire stuff dealing with the "beat generation," which includes an ending with a hootenanny. The rape scenes are handled with some class as we never really see anything but we do here the women scream in terror. The ending, which I won't spoil, is just downright crazy as none of it makes too much sense but then again, nothing that comes before it does either. The cast features a pretty good performance by Cochran and Fay Spain as his wife. Jackie Coogan appears as his partner and we get small performances from Louis Armstrong, Vampira, Max Rosenbloom, Ray Anthony and Cathy Crosby. And yes, Jim Mitchum is the son of screen legend Robert Mitchum. Believe it or not, Mamie Van Doren is actually given a real role here and she too turns in a good performance. THE BEAT GENERATION is a complete mess of a film but at the same time it's very original and somewhat daring for its time.

Stereotyped and clichéd exploitation film about a serial rapist known as the Aspirin Kid (Ray Danton), who hangs out with a group of beatniks while continuing to victimize attractive suburban housewives. Set in beatnik bars and on the beaches of LA, with some humorous dialog and a misogynistic cop played by Steve Cochran who tracks down the Kid after his own wife becomes a victim, the film has a refreshing originality, though generally it is laughably ridiculous, with its goateed beatniks staring off into space while listening to recorded car crashes, jazz, and the worst Beat poetry ever recited. With Mamie Van Doren, and a cast of several familiar faces that would crop up in Beach Party films, its nearly done in by what is now referred as camp, though there is enough of a story there to keep it moving along.

Set in the late fifties, this is a tale of misguided youths, music, sex, crime, beer and police. There's a crafty script with modern dialogue and social statements. The beatniks make for a easy frame and alibi for a psychotic rapist hell bent on revenge to all women and square father-like men.Behind the facade of crime there is a real police story and the inner-conflict between the cops, criminals, and victims are portrayed. Beautiful women both submissive and dominant mask the ugliness of both male characters cop and criminal. At the end we are not sure which side wins out. Beat Generation?