The Cry Baby Killer
The Cry Baby Killer is a 1958 teen exploitation film produced by Roger Corman that marked Jack Nicholson's film debut. The film was out of print and difficult to find until 2006, when it was issued on DVD for the first time by Buena Vista Home Entertainment as part of its Roger Corman Classics series.
| The Cry Baby Killer | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joe Addis |
| Written by | Leo Gordon Melvin Levy |
| Produced by | Roger Corman David Kramarsky David March |
| Starring | Harry Lauter Jack Nicholson Carolyn Mitchell |
| Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
| Edited by | Irene Morra |
| Music by | Gerald Fried |
| Distributed by | Allied Artists Pictures Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
17-year-old Jimmy Wallace panics after he thinks he has committed manslaughter while fighting with a group of teenage hoodlums. Wallace then takes a random man and woman, and the woman's infant, hostage inside of a food shelter outside of a popular local restaurant, and threatens them if they try to escape. This leads to a stand-off with a police force led by the sympathetic detective, Lieutenant Porter, who tries to avoid bloodshed. Meanwhile, an eager crowd of onlookers and a news reporter gather outside to see what'll happen next.
Production
Corman later claimed that The Cry Baby Killer was the first film that he produced that didn't return a profit, although he said that it earned back its budget from TV rights. Corman also said that he'd been abroad during preproduction while much of the script was changed by the producer. Corman returned to Hollywood 2 days before filming began and tried to reverse the changes, but was only partially successful.[1]
Cast
- Harry Lauter as Police Lt. Porter
- Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Wallace
- Carolyn Mitchell as Carole Fields
- Brett Halsey as Manny Cole
- Lynn Cartwright as Julie
- Barbara Knudson as Mrs. Maxton
- William A. Forester as Carl Maxton
- John Shay as Police Officer Gannon
- Ralph Reed as Joey
- Bill Erwin as Mr. Wallace
- Ed Nelson as Rick Connor
- Smoki Whitfield as Sam
- John Weed as Police Sgt. Reed
- Frank Richards as Pete Gambelli
See also
References
- Ed. J. Philip di Franco, The Movie World of Roger Corman, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979, page 16–17.
External links
- The Cry Baby Killer at IMDb
- The Cry Baby Killer at AllMovie
- The Cry Baby Killer at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Cry Baby Killer at the TCM Movie Database
- The Cry Baby Killer at Rotten Tomatoes