The Beat Generation

Plot synopsis:
In the opening scene, a "beatnik" named Stan Hess (Ray Danton) sits at a table in a coffee house with a woman who begs him for his affection. He scorns her, then encounters his father at another table, who announces his engagement to a younger woman who had also pursued Stan. He insults his stepmother-to-be and departs. Hess is established as a woman-hating habitué of a stereotyped and sensationalized beatnik scene.
Soon after, we learn that Hess is a serial rapist at large in Los Angeles. His modus operandi is to gain entry to the home of a married woman whose husband is away by pretending to be there to repay money loaned by the husband. Once inside, he feigns a headache, pulls out a tin of aspirin, and asks the woman for water. While she is distracted by this errand, he sneaks up behinds her, and then assaults and rapes her. He leaves the tin of aspirin behind as his calling card, leading the police to call him "The Aspirin Kid." Leaving the scene of the first assault portrayed in the film, he is nearly hit by a car. The driver, who is a police detective named Culloran (Steve Cochran), gives him a lift, and the two engage in conversation. The rapist calls himself Arthur Garret, and as the two talk, he learns that Culloran is married, and sees his address on an envelope on the car seat. After getting out of Culloran's car, he writes down the name and address, and the word "married," foreshadowing his later rape of Culloran's wife.
Coincidentally, the case of 'The Aspirin Kid' is assigned to Culloran and his partner, Baron (Jackie Coogan). Culloran is a twice married man whose first marriage has made him suspicious of women. They have a suspect, a Beatnik called Art Jester (James Mitchum) who fits a description of 'The Aspirin Kid' but his alibi checks out.
Hess/Garrett calls Culloran at the police station, and lures him to a rendezvous at a night club by promising to turn himself in. Instead of coming to the club, though, he goes to Culloran's home and attacks his wife, Francee (Fay Spain), also telling her his name is Arthur Garret. Culloran becomes obsessed with catching the rapist on his own without telling his colleagues that his wife has been raped. Francee later finds out she is pregnant. The possibility that the child may have been fathered by the rapist sows discord between the Cullorans, and stokes Detective Culloran's obsession with avenging the rape. The couple argue over their ambivalence about the child and Francee's desire to have an abortion, leading Francee to turn to Baron's wife first, and then Baron for advice.
Garrett persuades Jester to try to throw Culloran off the track by committing a similar attack on a woman named Georgia Altera (Mamie Van Doren) at a time when Garrett couldn't possibly be involved. But the cops know that Garrett is their man. Jester and Altera fall for each other.
At a party near the beach, the deranged Culloran attempts to capture Garrett. After an elaborate scuba-diving chase sequences, Culloran captures and beats up Garrett coming close to killing him before Baron intervenes. Culloran comes to his senses and returns to Francee, who gives birth.

Tags: violence

Review:
Stereotyped and clichéd exploitation film about a serial rapist known as the Aspirin Kid (Ray Danton), who hangs out with a group of beatniks while continuing to victimize attractive suburban housewives.
Set in beatnik bars and on the beaches of LA, with some humorous dialog and a misogynistic cop played by Steve Cochran who tracks down the Kid after his own wife becomes a victim, the film has a refreshing originality, though generally it is laughably ridiculous, with its goateed beatniks staring off into space while listening to recorded car crashes, jazz, and the worst Beat poetry ever recited.
With Mamie Van Doren, and a cast of several familiar faces that would crop up in Beach Party films, its nearly done in by what is now referred as camp, though there is enough of a story there to keep it moving along..
What goes on here is an Ed Wood like combination of some very odd bedfellows.The Beats are interesting with crazy mixed up stuff like Poetry Readings with white rats on the shoulder, sleazy, soft spasms of youthful Ecstasy, listening, on record, to what might now be called Industrial Music Samples, and an out of place Louis Armstrong on stage.There are some very strange, and for the time daring, sub-themes like Rape, Abortion, Serial Killers, and two Women Haters as the Leads.
Mamie Van Doren is deliciously "pneumatic" as always, a rougher version of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.This film is one of my favorite bad films - and from me that's a compliment!Juvenile delinquency films were Mamie's forte - check her out in Girls Town and High School Confidential - they have cool casts like this film, bad racy scripts, and Miss Van Doren herself "The Queen of Teen".In this film we have everything - the lovely Mamie Van Doren, a serial rapist "The Aspirin Kid"(played by Ray Danton), one of my favorite B movie hunks (namely Steve Cochran) in a bathing suit no less, a hula-hooping suburban housewife, and even a very blonde Vampira (!) in a speaking role, reciting some hip Beatnik poetry about parents being a "drag".
What more could you ask for in a camp trash late '50s flick?This film is definitely a must-see for any trash, B movie lover .
as are most of Mamie Van Doren's late "50's films..
The Beat Generation exploits that post-war phenomenon of feckless and disillusioned youth as a topical gimmick  superficial parody pitched at about the level of Bob Denver's Maynard G.
Beatniks with bongo drums spout petulant poesy couched in a made-in-Hollywood argot thick with `daddy-o's,' `real gone's' and `cool cats.'  (Out of all this comes at least one good line: `I don't need a mother, man  I've BEEN born.')All of which is too bad, because here and there The Beat Generation shows glimmers of higher aspirations, as though it had started out a more ambitious project  a better movie  than it ended up.
(The co-scriptwriter, Lewis Meltzer, has some solid noir credits on his resume, including The Brothers Rico.)Out of the coffee houses comes rapist known as the Aspirin Kid (Ray Danton) who is terrorizing the community.
On his trail is cop Steve Cochran, whose wife becomes the Kid's next victim.
This proves more than Cochran can handle, who starts treating his wife the way he treated the other victims  as tramps who asked for it.
Then there's a mini-sermon about the sanctity of life which sounds as if it had been written in Vatican City, though it turns out to be the movie's viewpoint as well.)The theme of the misogyny shared by Cochran and the rapist remains the most compelling element of the story; if only it had been pursued more consistently or honestly.
One of them concerns Mamie Van Doren, whose assault is rudely interrupted, which is a shame, because she quite explicitly WAS asking for it, and stays miffed for the rest of the movie.
An obsessed cop tries to track down the "Aspirin Kid," a beatnik serial rapist.
Vampira, Mamie Van Doren (who steals the show) and real-life husband Ray Anthony, Charles Chaplin Jr., James Mitchum (a dead ringer for the old man), Jackie Coogan and performances by Cathy Crosby and Louis Armstrong.
Steve Cochran (looking quite Clooney-esque at this stage in his career) is practically psychotic, setting up an interesting parallel with the villain (Ray Danton, turning the sleaze up to 11) as both are portrayed as misogynistic creeps.
The Van Doren character sends mixed messages about the film's stance as well.This review is rambling because frankly, I don't know what to make of this movie.
I watched this movie with some hesitation, because it really received awful reviews; however, because I like Ray Danton and Steve Cochran, I decided to give it a chance.
Ray Danton and Steve Cochran both gave very good performances, as did Mamie Van Doren, Fay Spain, Jackie Coogan, and Jim Mitchum, and the plot, though trashy, was interesting, and as pointed out by Martin Teller, this movie was weirdly compelling, mainly due, I think, to Ray Danton's very menacing and interesting performance as a killer, and Steve Cochran's performance as a complex cop.
The contrast between two men with these hang-ups in relation to women seems an odd basis for a film script, but then this whole movie is pretty odd.The attempt at a psychological overall theme fails to rise above mere exploitation in this 1959 b-movie time capsule complete with Mamie Van Doren at her bleach blondest and flirtatious best.
This is 1959 b-movie heaven, complete with Louis Armstrong and an inexplicable role for Cathy Crosby that is so out of place it actually adds more camp to the camp.Fay Spain carries the acting load as she did in numerous movie roles and countless fine and noticeable performances in TV dramas.
Steve Cochran, once one of those incredibly beautiful male actors who populated 1940's and 50's movies, is clearly aging here and gives a sort of disinterested, hangdog performance that is not among his best.
Ray Danton, another movie stud of the era, is convincing as the psycho, but unfortunately is only allowed to perform at a strictly b-movie level.Fay Spain is the real deal.
The Beat Generation (1959) ** (out of 4) It's not often where I come across a movie and I'm not certain if I should call it a masterpiece for what it is or call it one of the worst films ever made.
The story has a woman-hating detective (Steve Cochran) trying to track down a serial rapist (Ray Danton).
A twist in the story is that the rapist raped the detective's wife who is now pregnant.
THE BEAT GENERATION starts off fairly decent as it tackled some issues that weren't normally talked about in 1959 but then it just keeps getting weirder and weirder and in the end we're left with a complete mess of a film but at the same time it's an original mess.
Not only do you have the investigation into the rape but you also follow the rapist and his friend (Jim Mitchum) as they try to plan more attacks, which leads to the friend falling for one of the attempted victims (Mamie Van Doren)!!!
Throw in the detective/husband who is rather obsessive and hates women just like the rapist!
Oh yeah, there's also the entire stuff dealing with the "beat generation," which includes an ending with a hootenanny.
The cast features a pretty good performance by Cochran and Fay Spain as his wife.
Jackie Coogan appears as his partner and we get small performances from Louis Armstrong, Vampira, Max Rosenbloom, Ray Anthony and Cathy Crosby.
Believe it or not, Mamie Van Doren is actually given a real role here and she too turns in a good performance.
THE BEAT GENERATION is a complete mess of a film but at the same time it's very original and somewhat daring for its time..
Like a few others have already stated in these user comments, it's kind of surprising that the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio of 1959 would get involved in a movie with a number of trashy elements.
The movie explores some topics like rape and abortion with effectiveness that even more than 50 years later still seems a little daring.
Clean-cut young man (in jackets and skinny ties) hangs out with the beatnik kids and plays the bongos, but really gets off on beating and sexually assaulting vulnerable housewives.
Standard police thriller jazzed up with slang; it uses the beatnik milieu only as ruse, it's main aim being a marriage in crisis (the rapist targets a police detective's wife, and two months later she's pregnant but doesn't know who the father is).
Steve Cochran is perfectly cast as the detective with the hysterical wife, Ray Danton is way-gone-cool as the scuba-diving psychopath (his M.O. is to call on women pretending he owes their husbands money) and Mamie Van Doren is terrific as a soon-to-be divorcée who wouldn't mind being man-handled.
After the assault, Mr. Danton hitches a ride with police detective Steve Cochran (as David "Dave" Culloran).
Danton is called "The Aspirin Kid" due to his habit of asking his victims to fetch a glass of water so he can take the tablets for feigned headaches.
The case is investigated by Mr. Cochran and his understanding partner Jackie Coogan (as Jake Baron)...On the beach, Cochran finds his first suspect, jive-talking James "Jim" Mitchum (as Art Jester).
The young son of Robert (Mitchum) turns out to be acquainted with Danton, who decides the policeman's wife would make a good rape victim.
"The Beat Generation" includes Cathy Lee Crosby, Charles Chaplin Jr. and other strange faces.
The camera angles well and the conflict experienced by Cochran's misogynist detective is interesting, but the film is too lurid and unbalanced for its own good.**** The Beat Generation (7/3/59) Charles Haas ~ Steve Cochran, Ray Danton, Mamie Van Doren, Fay Spain.
Ray Danton is sleazy and demented as The Aspirin Kid, Fay Spain is touching as Cochran's wife, and Mamie Van Doren is wonderful and beautiful and needs a bigger role in this one.A 6 out of 10.
Best performance = Mamie Van Doren.
I got this because of Ms. Van Doren, but was surprised by all the overlapping topics that are covered in this cop tale..
Any film that features Louis Armstrong, Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren, Jackie Coogan, Fay Spain and Vampira can't be ALL bad.
It's pretty bad, but in an interesting way.You want beatniks?
You want bad beat poetry read by Vampira AND frank discussion about abortion by erstwhile character actor William Schallert?
(Ray Danton plays the rapist, get it?) Ray Anthony has a short bit as Mamie Van Doren's bitter ex-husband.
(In real life they were husband and wife.)It's a bit sad to see Steve Cochran resorting to this schlock.
Like Zugsmith's classic 'Sex Kittens Go To College' (never on TV because of its topless scenes), this movie may have been considered too violent (the abortion subplot remains controversial to this day) and thus not considered acceptable television fare.One strange film..
Another Tail Fin Noir (barely), a curiosity on the cusp of Classic Noir/Neo NoirThe Beat Generation is somewhat in the vein of Detective Story (1951) the ensemble film that takes place in a New York City Police Precinct Detective squad.
In The Beat Generation Steve Cochran plays a Sergeant of Detectives Culloran, who is after a serial rapist dubbed "The Aspirin Kid" Stan Hess, (Ray Danton) a quasi "Beat" coffee house guru, who charismatically attracts women but is in reality a misogynist.
His wife wants to get an abortion, which puts Culloran into destructive obsessed overdrive trying to solve the case so that he can find out The Aspirin Kid's blood type.
Both Detective Story and The Beat Generation are examples of films with slim to none Noir visual stylistics, they are NIPOs, Noir In Plot Only type films that get listed in the Noir Canon more for the dark subject matter (at that time period) of their plots than for the cinematography.
The huge ensemble cast has some standouts, watch for Jackie Coogan (pre Uncle Fester from The Addams Family) in a serious turn as Culloran's best friend and fellow detective Jake Baron.
Sexpot Mamie Van Doren as a divorced women on the make who turns the tables on Mitchum, Maila Nurmi (Vampira, pre Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space) reciting poetry with a pet rat on her shoulder, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom the wrestling beatnik, and a guy billed as just Grabowski.
Like a lot of Hollywood films that attempted to replicate the 60's you get the impression that the Beat Generation wasn't just a man with a goatee and beret reciting nonsensical poetry and playing bongo drums or a base without strings, while pony-tailed babes wearing black leotards dance in abandonment.
Still, despite the nonsense, there's more than enough perversity, violence, and duality to satisfy the avid noirista.Robotic Ray Danton actually proves to be quite chilling as a vicious Be-Bop "Svengali" who gets his kicks serially raping housewives and has the same problem Susan Cabot did in Roger Corman's SORORITY GIRL (a perfect second feature) in that he's just a spoiled rich kid who's got everything but a parent's love.
Steve Cochran's a misogynistic cop who's wife (Fay Spain) is beaten and raped by Danton and when she finds herself pregnant, Cochran goes all out to nail the creep.The rapist is called "The Aspirin Kid" and gets into women's homes by pretending to be a friend of their husband's but once inside he feigns a headache and when they go get him a glass of water for his aspirin, he strikes.
And as if that wasn't enough, the bruised and swollen faces of the victims brings it all home, as well.Mamie Van Doren doesn't miss a beat as "Mrs. Alteras", a voluptuous hot-to-trot divorcée who almost becomes a victim -and no doubt would have loved it.
Danton gets one of his minions to do a "copy-cat" rape to throw the police off and when the guy (Jim Mitchum, Bob's look-alike son) is just about to attack Miss Mamie, her ex-husband (Van Doren's real-life husband, bandleader Ray Anthony) bursts in.
Her reaction to the fact her young stud may be "The Aspirin Kid" is basically "So what?"What's reely amazing, however, is the social issues this exploitation shocker attempts to tackle: misogyny, rape, abortion, disaffected youth, even God. It's also a low-rent version of Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT with tough cop Cochran out for revenge when his home-life is torn apart (Fay Spain has the Jocelyn Brando role) and Miss Mamie plays the good/bad Gloria Grahame part.
Cochran thinks all women are tramps (Danton calls them "filth") and he believes the housewives "asked for it" until it happens to his wife.
Cop Jackie Coogan's happy home-life provides the voice of reason as does Fay Spain's best friend, Irish McCalla -along with a priest (!) to discuss the abortion issue.
Mamie Van Doren and her young stud are ambiguous at best, neither good nor bad (probably both) but come around when confronted with a grim life-or-death situation and end up on the "right side of the street".
Unlike most film noir, there's even a happy ending all the way around except for Mamie and Mitchum -nothing really happens to them.It's easy to see the "noir paranoia" here; compare the misunderstood title youth in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and THE WILD ONE with the "herd mentality" of THE BEAT GENERATION (tellingly, the earlier films' titles refer to individual rebels, while the other is all-encompassing) and the later Italian Giallo would do the same thing to hippies that BEAT does to beatniks: they're either fools or followers murderous sociopaths can use to "blend in" and hide behind.A "must-see" in many ways..
I watched "The Beat Generation" on Turner Classic Movies last night.
Look for dark and brooding Steve Cochran and Ray Danton as two types of pomaded misogynists - Cochran a cop who thinks rape victims "ask for it" and Ray Danton as a Beat-slang-quoting rapist.
As I began watching "The Beat Generation", I never suspected the film would eventually turn into a giant mess of a film.
After all, it started off well and addressed several important issues that other films didn't dare talk about at the time--such as rape and abortion.
And, when it became bad, it became REALLY bad!The film stars Ray Danton as a serial rapist.
And, a narrow-minded knucklehead cop (Steve Cochran) falls right into this trap and blames the first victim.
But, this comes back to haunt him when the sicko later rapes the cop's wife--and Cochran is forced to face this.
But, since he is still a bit of a jerk himself, the cop becomes obsessed with catching this guy and ends up nearly destroying his marriage in the process.From the description above, the film sounds interesting--especially when the wife ends up pregnant and they don't know which man is the father--the cop or the rapist!
And, some of these 'young people' were simply ridiculous--including a 55 year-old Maxie Rosenblum--who, inexplicably, starts wrestling with the cop later in the film!
The film 'The Beat Generation', some 57 years old, is a haunted house that creaks.
The film featuring Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren and Ray Danton, is a pastiche of the Beats.
This B film was a come down for Cochran.
Danton here plays a character nicknamed The Aspirin Rapist because he always distracts the victim as he drops in on by politely claiming a headache and asking for a pain killer.
When one of the victims turns out to be the wife of the detective in investigating the case, it comes as no surprise when she ends up being pregnant.
In addition to Danton, there's Steve Cochran as the police investigator whose wife (a very good Fay Spain) is one of Danton's victims, the dull Mamie Van Doren as a rape victim who secretly seemed to like it and Margaret Hayes as the very mature first victim.