Good idea lost in the noise

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

"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".

**SPOILERS** Your usual troubled youth of the 1950's movie that has the distinction of being filmed at the famous Griffin Park Observatory just two months-in January 1955- before the granddaddy of all 1950's troubled youth movies was filmed there "Reble Without a Cause".In "Teenage Crime Wave" we have these two crazy mixed up kids Mike & Terry, Tommy Cook & Molly McCart, who get themselves in hot water by gunning dawn a deputy sheriff during an escape, with Terry being the one who does the escaping, attempt. Along with both Mike & Terry is Jane, Sue England, who was being transfered to a womens detention center for armed robbery. As we've seen earlier in the film Jane was an innocent bystander, but go tell that to the judge, when both Terry and Mike mugged Freddy Boy, George Cisan, who picked up Terry at a sleazy bar thinking that he'll score with her.Now on the run from the state troopers the three end up at the Grant House where both Tom & Sarah Grant, James Bell & Kay Riehi, are preparing to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with their son handsome US Army hero Ben, Frank Griffin. Not realizing the fix that they find themselves in the two fugitives from the law not only hold the Grants, together with Jane, hostage but tip off the police in getting their not too bright friend Al, Jimmy Ogg, to drive over to the place with a carload of weapons! This has Al, when he resist arrest, get gunned down by the state troopers who then, knowing where Al was headed, surround the Grant house!***SPOILERS*** Besides having, because of his incompetence, the place surrounded by the police Mike also has his girlfriend Terry fall for the handsome Ben who just about had it with his both bizarre and mindless behavior. The movie ends with Mike trying to elude the police by getting himself trapped like a rat, with all escape routes blocked, at the Griffin Park Observatory. Knowing that his brief, and very unsuccessful, crime career is over-with his girlfriend Terry gunned down by the police- Mike finally comes to his senses. It's then that the cops, together with war hero Ben Grant, put the cuffs on him and haul the notorious "Cry-Baby Mike Denton" away to face ultimate justice.

Teen-age Crime Wave (1956) ** (out of 4) Good girl Jane (Sue England) gets mixed up with bad girl (Molly McCart) and soon both of them are headed to jail even though Jane is innocent. On the way to jail June's boyfriend (Tommy Cook) kills the cop and takes the girls with him where they land at a farm house where they hold an elderly couple hostage. This is yet another juvenile delinquent movie from this era, which seemed to have at least ten per month. This one here comes from director Sears who's best known for the laughable The Giant Claw and thankfully this one here features just as many laughs. Yes, if you're expecting Citizen Kane then you're going to be disappointed but if you want some cheap, exploitation laughs then this is a decent little time killer. The movie runs at a pretty fast pace except for the final twenty-minutes where things slow up a tad too much. I think knocking off ten-minutes of the 77-minute running time would have helped things. As for the actual film, you get girls fighting and bad guys Cook and McCart acting tough. All of this makes for some pretty good laughs but McCart actually manages to be very entertaining with her seduction/tough girl image. The scene where she tries to seduce the farmer's son in the barn is priceless. Cook doesn't give what I'd consider a good performance but it is campy enough to deliver some fun. The production values aren't too bad and the supporting players do decent enough of work but in the end this film is all about nostalgia and laughs and it has plenty of both.

This film made for a hilarious MST3K show, so I'm kind of surprised no one has commented on it yet. At any rate, It's a fairly typical "juvenile crime" flick of the fifties that might hold your interest on it's own. The actress who plays the good girl is a real dish; and the character of Terry makes the film somewhat ahead of it's time in that the movie asks for sympathy for her despite the fact that She is really, really mean. These movies where a gun is held on the good people by the bad guys can rate some suspense in spite of themselves. Kind of fun in any case, and it uses the Griffith Park planetarium just like in "Rebel Without a Cause".