The Cry Baby Killer's best asset is that it confines its story to a locale appropriate to its low budget, telling it almost in real time. Second-billed, Nicholson plays troubled high school senior Jimmy Wallace. After his girl, 16-year-old Carole Fields (Carolyn Mitchell), goes bad, dumping him for local hood Manny Cole (Brett Halsey), he decides to confront her at the Klix Coffee Shop, where Manny and his gang hang out. This leads to a confrontation where Jimmy grabs the gang's pistol and starts shooting, seriously injuring Manny and one of his lackeys.

Seeking refuge in a nearby storeroom, Jimmy holds cook Sam (Smoki Whitfield), new mother Mrs. Maxton (Barbara Knudson) and her infant child hostage while police, led by Lt. Porter (Harry Lauter, colorless here), try to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Meanwhile, a mob of onlookers raise tensions, while a growing media circus headed by KQQQ television reporter Rick Connor (Ed Nelson) add a low-budget Ace in the Hole flavor.

Actor and sometimes screenwriter Leo Gordon's script is not without interest. He pays admirable attention to the supporting parts, trying to inject them with at least some bits of characterization. During the stand-off, for instance, there are several pretty good vignettes between a world-weary waitress/single mother (Lynn Cartwright, who was married to Gordon and later played the Older Dottie in A League of Their Own) and a lonely cop (John Shay), and there's some attempt to give the parents of Jimmy and Carole some shading. Most of the picture, however, is standard juvenile delinquent plotting, with characters that either make no impression at all (Lt. Porter) or far too much (Joey, an over-the-top hood played with scenery-chewing intensity by Ralph Reed). Like so many other troubled teens films from the fifties, it's neither understanding of the emotional problems of high school students nor do their parents and other authority figures come off well.

Though Nicholson eventually specialized playing characters on the edge of sanity, as The Cry Baby Killer (who, despite the title, neither cries nor kills anybody) he's not very good nor does the script offer much help. He's curiously unsympathetic trying to bring his girlfriend back from the Dark Side, and later comes off hyper-sensitive and paranoid despite the sincere efforts of the police to end things peacefully. In the end, Nicholson's simply miscast; an actor like Dennis Hopper or Nick Adams would have been more appropriate to and believable in the role.

Video & Audio

The Cry Baby Killer is presented in full frame format even though its original aspect ratio was considerably wider, probably 1.85:1. On widescreen TVs, the framing looks much more appropriate zoomed in at 1.77:1, but the poor quality of the transfer compromises this. The image is very soft and way too dark; it could very well be derived from a 16mm print. Though the story takes place at night, even interiors have an unappealing murkiness and the frame jitters noticeably in the final reels. Some have suggested that Corman's early films not released by AIP may never look any better than this but it's much more likely that companies like Buena Vista are simply being cheap. The "enhanced audio" sounds like ordinary mono to this reviewer, and certainly nothing to crow about. Optional French subtitles are included.

Extra Features

Given that the main feature runs just 61 minutes, it makes sense to include another, but Buena Vista isn't doing viewers any favors with The Little Shop of Horrors. What's worse than a colorized black and white movie? How about a movie colorized off an awful transfer? Likewise incorrectly formatted to full frame, this supplement is even softer and murkier than its co-feature, like watching a DVD through an algae-encrusted aquarium. It's not recommended.

Both films are introduced by Roger Corman, but he must have been a hurry to catch a plane. His intro to Little Shop of Horrors runs barely 30 seconds. Perhaps inspired by the film, he was trying to see how fast he could make an introduction.

Parting Thoughts

The Cry Baby Killer, even in this unimpressive form, is adequate entertainment for B-movie fans looking for offbeat night owl viewing. All others aren't likely to be impressed.

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel.