bletcherstonerson If you can only see one movie in your life, IE, you live in the Amazon and are a forgotten indigenous tribal member and you stumble upon a plane wreck where in lies a laptop fully charged, wish upon a star, pray to your god of the oak moss that is used in owaska tea that this is the movie you find inside it. This film is so brilliant that when viewed it is like seeing burning magnesium without protective glasses. it will leave you with an indelible print allowing you to see nothing else the rest of your life. With the amazing Karen Kadler as the female lead, you will think of nothing but the wonderment of seeing her in a state of undress. The story is of Eddy, a singer so talented that the Sirens that sang to Odysseus are jealous of his velvety smooth arias that are the purest form of aphrodisiac. He and his chums are on pilgrimage of spiritual enlightenment, seeking nothing ...but "kicks" , aka..good times, tomorrow's fondest memories of the past.They settle in at a Diner and decide "this..is where it's at. " The dark side is not Peter Brecks affinity for violence but that a strange group of men named "squares" are coming for them to take them away to "Squaresville". Eddy succumbs to the strange men named " Squares" and sings for them. His close brothers, the defenders of the faith of "Kicks". Are worried for Eddy's transformation into the " Square Society". A secular society deemed to be uncool. Pete and his fellow pilgrims rush to stop the horrific metamorphosis known only as " maturation" to devastating results so grim that this viewer was aghast! You too will watch in horror as the future that unfolds was not the one that was planned, see...the jukebox play the same song over again in a state of consistent déjà Vu.See the T birds fight for the inalienable rights for Kicks, and see Eddy, god of crooners with a power no mortal man should possess, the voice of Midas brainwash record execs into believing he has talent. You shan't soon forget this visual trip of existential wonder as the Animus is destroyed and the monadic essence is released into " The Beatniks". Not to be confused with the violent blood soaked exploitation movie "The Boatniks" which starred Buddy Hackett.

bkoganbing If there's anyone out there expecting to see a film about the Fifties counterculture prototypes, skip this one by. Skip it by for that reason and on general principles.The Beatniks is about a gang of punks who bully and rob people for kicks and one of them, Tony Travis is discovered in true Hollywood tradition in a roadside dive by an agent. He's got a decent singing voice and the agent promises to make him the next Elvis.But our lug-nut of a hero instead of saying goodbye Daddy-O in true beatnik fashion, doesn't want to lose the old gang. And the old gang don't want to let him go. Especially Peter Breck, a twisted psycho with some gay leanings who's crushing out on Travis big time.Despite this film where he gives an over the top performance like Jack Palance on amphetamines, Peter Breck was the only one in this no name cast to have anything resembling a career.The Beatniks is a film without a lot going for it. This was one of those drive-in flicks which one could get down to serious business at the drive-in without missing anything of importance.

Poseidon-3 Filmed for $2.67, this routine, rather predictable film is only good for a few unintentional laughs. Among the least of its many problems is that nothing whatsoever having to do with beatniks ever appears in the movie! The story concerns a group of troublemakers who don masks and rob the same store over and over in order to gain spending money. They then head to the coffee shop run by one of their girlfriend's mother and dance to the tunes on the juke box. One day, Travis is singing along with an instrumental number and is discovered by record producer Delaney who is trapped at the coffee shop with car trouble and is hanging on the pay phone, waiting for help. Instantaneously, Travis zips to the big city where he appears on a TV show, then, after making a huge splash, is set up the next evening to record his first album! Unfortunately, he's dragged along his entourage of Breck, Edwards, Wells and Kadler who proceed to trash his hotel room, coerce him into staying out late and generally wreck his chances at success. More drama unfolds as Travis attempts to rectify his and his gang's wrongdoings and make a go of his potential new life as a singing star. Travis is an attractive young man and ought to have had a slightly better career than he wound up with. His lip-synching to the songs is abominable, though. He obviously has no idea what he's doing. (The vocals he's singing to, though, are surprisingly good!) Kadler plays his girlfriend and is a dead-ringer for Ava Gardner, though lacking Gardner's charisma and talent as a performer. Edwards (who was in his mid-forties at the time of filming!) and Wells don't have a lot to do, but do try to come up with ways to pass the time (check out Wells attempting to recreate, in the mirror, a hairstyle on a magazine cover he's holding!) Delaney is all right at times, but doesn't appear to be well and, in fact, died before the film's release! Playing his secretary and the woman who steals Travis' heart is Terry. She gives a reasonable performance, but has distracting blew eyes. That is to say that one blew one way and one blew another! Careening though the film in a reprehensibly bad performance of hellacious ham is Breck. It's amazing that he ever worked again after this unbelievably rotten piece of indulgent, unappealing "acting". (Amazingly, he went on to craft the highly likable character of Nick on "The Big Valley" a few years after this.) One major supporting role (unbilled) is the boom mike, which looms into view with regularity. It's shabbily directed by voice-over artist Frees and he cast the film with virtually all fellow voice-over performers. It's clear why most of them stayed off-camera through the bulk of their careers! The camera-work is often pitiful with uncomfortable framing and close-ups which almost get the actors' entire faces in the frame. It's got a stale story, a bad script, mediocre acting and uncreative direction. The only thing it's really good for is as a curio to poke fun at, which the MST3K guys did gleefully. Viewers may be quite surprised to find out that Edwards supplied the voice of Thumper in Walt Disney's "Bambi" (not to mention that Wentworth, playing Kadler's mom, was Madam Mim in "The Sword in the Stone".)

wbhickok First let me begin by saying that Paul Frees is one of my favorite voice over actors. In fact, he is second only to Mel Blanc. His work on Rocky and Bullwinkle helped greatly make that show what it is. So anybody who has seen this utterly worthless drivel can imagine how disappointed I was. Do not watch this movie under any circumstances. It is terrible. Not as bad as 'Manos', but damn close.