To me, this movie is perfection.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Harassed by an obscene phone caller, a young woman begins to wonder if the detective assigned to her case is behind the calls in this strange little mystery thriller starring Juliet Prowse. The film is incredibly well photographed in stark black and white by Joseph C. Brun (of 'Edge of the City' and 'Odds Against Tomorrow' fame) with awesome shots that initially obscure the phone caller's face, dizzy point-of-view shots as he later wanders the streets alone and some excellent tracking shots that walk along with Prowse. The supporting characters are refreshingly different too from those of the typical noir thriller, from Jan Murray's policeman, unhealthily obsessed with perverts, to Elaine Stritch in a terrific turn as Prowse's lesbian boss with designs on her, to Margot Bennett as a brain injured teenager. And then, of course, there is Sal Mineo, whose top billed supporting role is best left undisclosed until one has seen the film (it is really quite an experience). Tension nevertheless fades in and out throughout (an upbeat zoo scene in particular drags on too long) and the ending feels rather protracted, not to mention a little over-the-top, but this remains a surefire interesting motion picture beyond the mysterious title whose meaning eventually becomes clear. It is an aptly offbeat title too considering how daringly different the whole project feels.

Although the Italian giallo officially dates from Mario Bava's 'Blood and Black Lace' (1964), the genre didn't bloom until the early seventies; with the unfortunate result that they are indelibly associated for this viewer with ugly colour and even uglier clothes and haircuts. 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' gives an interesting glimpse of what gialli would have looked like had they been made just a few years earlier when a modicum of taste still prevailed, and male dress sense (an oxymoron if ever there was one after the late sixties) hadn't yet been wrecked by the bizarre notion that flares and sideburns looked cool, and sharp suits, thin ties and short back and sides were still standard male apparel (it's nice to see Dan Travanty (sic) and Bruce Glover, for example, looking so young and clean-cut; the former playing a deaf mute, the latter an unnerving security adviser). That goes for the women too: I've never seen Elaine Stritch look more chic and glamorous than she does as the elegant lipstick lesbian she plays here.Most of the conventions of the giallo are present and correct in this movie: including voyeurism, transvestism, flashbacks depicting childhood sexual traumas, the stalking of women, weird camera angles making us complicit with the killer, obtrusive musical accompaniment and cops who make the Keystone Kops look like Maigret (the unprofessional way the detective behaves at the end has to be seen to be believed!). But 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' could only have been made at that fault-line in the mid-sixties when censorship was being rapidly eroded and subjects that would have been absolutely taboo just a couple of years earlier could even be hinted at; but before the descent into full-frontal crudity that makes so much modern cinema almost unwatchable. The script is liberally sprinkled with words like "pervert" and "hooker", for example; but there's no swearing. And of course - although no one had any inkling of this at the time - it was made just at the moment that the black-&-white feature film as the cinema's default setting was on the verge of disappearing forever. Six years earlier cameraman Joseph Brun had shot one of the most breathtaking black-&-white features ever made, Robert Wise's 'Odds Against Tomorrow' (1959); so when I saw his name on the (extremely stylishly designed) credits I knew I was in for something special.

It's lurid and gritty to the point of exhaustion...unfortunately WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR isn't a very good movie. Sal Mineo, wearing tight pants, a tight shirt and a tight jacket, is a busboy obsessed with record spinner Juliet Prowse. He makes dirty phone calls to her and follows her around NYC. Prowse suspects cop Jan Murray of being the perp and her lesbian boss Elaine Stritch thinks she's just plain crazy. Certainly way ahead of its time, but nevertheless oddly unsatisfying. The direction by Joseph Cates is mightily uneven and the occasional pyrotechnics (swirling cameras, strobe effects) don't go very far. The acting is a real odd mix, with Mineo giving a fine performance and Stritch and Murray offering solid support. Prowse, a dancer with a seemingly unending overbite, is somewhat bland. There's a lot of swinging music on the soundtrack.

'Who Killed Teddy Bear' is far better than its kitschy-exploitation reputation would suggest. The script is admittedly pretty bad, with some terrible dialogue, and some of the more clichéd 'swinging-sixties' scenes are laughable to modern audiences. However, the relatively frank discussion of psycho-sexual deviancy, excellent performances from Mineo and Stritch, and striking cinéma vérité photography, lift the movie well above the drive-in norm. Taking visual cues and a raucous jazz score from French New Wave, and predating the Times Square Sleaze of 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Taxi Driver' by several years, 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' is a thoroughly bizarre time capsule offering both a rare and fascinating glimpse into the sleazy porno subculture of sixties New York and an early cinematic attempt to provide a psychological motivation for mental instability.A movie well worth seeking out that captures a disturbing time and place that is genuinely lost forever.