''The Cool and the Crazy'' is a 1958 motion picture that was distributed by American-International Pictures as a

double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...

with ''

Dragstrip Riot A dragstrip is a facility for conducting car, automobile and motorcycle acceleration events such as drag racing. Although a quarter mile (1320 feet, 402 m) is the best known measure for a drag track, many tracks are eighth mile ( ...

''. It stars

Scott Marlowe Scott Gregory Marlowe (born Ronald Richard DeLeo; June 24, 1932 – January 6, 2001)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. Social Security Administration was an American actor who had a starring role in the 1957 teen exploitation film ''T ...

and

Gigi Perreau Gigi Perreau (born February 6, 1941) is an American film and television actress. Early years The daughter of French-born Robert and Eleanor Child Perreau-Saussine, she was born Ghislaine Elizabeth Marie Thérèse Perreau-Saussine. Career Perre ...

Plot

''The Cool and the Crazy'' tells the story of Ben Saul, a

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were ...

graduate who is transferred to a Kansas City high school. There, Ben's clowning in class ticks off the local gang of tough guys, but he soon wins all of their admiration when he begins buying them beer, taking them to dances, giving them "kicks," and then finally turning them on to

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

. Ben is working as a frontman for a local marijuana ring, but the local police detective is hot on his trail. When a marijuana-crazed addict teenager whom Ben has sold the drug to dies trying to hold up a filling station for drug money, the police question him and events begin to spiral out of Ben's control. In the dramatic (or melodramatic) finale, Ben ends up killing the pusher for more marijuana only to find that there is none, and gets his just deserts in a fiery car wreck. Then there is an obligatory moralizing segment, where a policeman screams at the surviving addicts, "Is this what you call 'kicks'?! Sooner or later, if you don't wise up you're all gonna wind up like this, one way or the other."

Cast

as Bennie Saul. *

Richard Bakalyan Richard Bakalyan (January 29, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor who started his career playing juvenile delinquents in his first several films. Early life Richard Bakalyan was born on January 29, 1931, in Watertown, Massachuset ...

as Jackie Barzan. *

as Amy. *

Dickie Jones Richard Percy Jones (February 25, 1927 – July 7, 2014), known as Dick Jones or Dickie Jones, was an American actor and singer who achieved success as a child performer and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns. In 1938, he played Artimer ...

as Stu Summerville. *

Shelby Storck Shelby William Storck (October 3, 1916 – April 5, 1969) was an American newscaster, actor, writer, journalist, public relations specialist, and motion picture and television producer-director. He was a radio actor on '' The Air Adventures of J ...

as Detective Lt. Sloan. *Marvyn J. Rosen as Eddie. *Caroline von Mayrhauser as Miss Ryan. *John V. Quijas as one of the fellows (Black Sweater)

Background

The producer of the film, Elmer Rhoden Jr., was president of the

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

-based

Commonwealth Theaters Commonwealth Theaters, Inc. was a movie theater chain based in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. History In 1936, Commonwealth purchased its headquarters in downtown Kansas City, part of a "film row" that hosted several regional film distribution compan ...

, a prominent chain of motion picture theaters with outlets in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

. In 1956, Rhoden Jr. had established a small film complex in Kansas City to produce low-budget teen exploitation films for the teenage audiences, primarily for showing in drive-in theaters. After finding success with

juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

melodrama '' The Delinquents'', directed by Kansas City filmmaker

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...

, which was sold to

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

and released in 1957, grossing $1,000,000, Rhoden Jr. put up about $170,000 for a second film in Kansas City. Rhoden Jr. began with a title: ''The Cool and the Crazy'', and hired

Richard C. Sarafian Richard Caspar Sarafian (April 28, 1930 – September 18, 2013) was an Armenian-American film director and actor. He compiled a versatile career that spanned over five decades as a director, actor, and writer. Sarafian is best known as the direct ...

, a Kansas City writer and friend of Altman's, to write the screenplay for the film.

Production

The film was shot in about two or three weeks on-location in Kansas City sometime in the latter part of 1957. Locations included a Kansas City high school, where most of the students appeared as cameos, a run-down Aberdeen Hotel in downtown Kansas City, a

greasy spoon A greasy spoon is a small, cheap restaurant – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods or home-cooked meals. The term ''greasy spoon'' has been used in the United States si ...

called Pat's Pig,

Penn Valley Park Penn Valley Park is an urban park overlooking the Downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The park was developed in 1904 on land through which the Santa Fe Trail had passed. It contains several famous landmarks: '' The Scout'' statue and the United Sta ...

and the Indian Scout Statue overlooking the city, the Blue Note Club, the

Kansas City Jazz Kansas City jazz is a style of jazz that developed in Kansas City, Missouri during the 1920s and 1930s, which marked the transition from the structured big band style to the much more improvisational style of bebop. The hard- swinging, bluesy tra ...

hall, and several real homes and neighborhoods. Rhoden Jr. had cooperation from many local businesses and also from the

Kansas City Police Department The Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Kansas City, Missouri. Jackson County 16th Circuit Court Circuit Court Judge Jen Phillips swore in Stacey Graves as the 46th chief of police of the KCPD on ...

, who were contacted for several reasons. While standing on the street between takes, actors Dick Bakalyan and Dick Jones were arrested for

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

by Kansas City police. They spent several hours in the local jail before someone explained that they were just acting for a film. As with ''The Delinquents'', Rhoden Jr. had ''The Cool and the Crazy'' post-production and editing executed under professional conditions in Hollywood by

Helene Turner Helene Turner (sometimes credited as Helen Turner) was an American film editor who worked in the industry for over 30 years, beginning during the silent era. For part of her career, she worked as a cutter at Florida's Sun Haven Studios. There wa ...

. Rhoden Jr. also now had enough money to order an original music score, written and conducted by film composer

Raoul Kraushaar Raoul Kraushaar (August 20, 1908, Paris, France – October 13, 2001, Pompano Beach, Florida) was an American composer who worked on Hollywood feature films in the 1940s and 1950s. He continued working on low-budget films through the 1960s and ...

. Kraushaar's score featured recurring versions of the film's theme song, some which were done in a fast tempo and beat, and other versions that were performed in a slower, bluesier style. Rhoden Jr. agreed a distribution deal with American-International. AIP made no mention of the drug plot in the trailer or on the poster, and tagged on disclaimers at the beginning and end assuring parents that this was a film made for the purpose of warning teenagers about drugs. The film was released in the spring of 1958, with the "gala world premiere" in Kansas City, accompanied by a live radio broadcast, house lights, live music, a dance contest, and a parade of the Kansas Citians involved in the film.

Legacy

''The Cool and the Crazy'' was a box-office success, grossing more than $5,000,000 for AIP and was hailed as one of the most popular delinquency films of 1958. ''The Cool and the Crazy'' has recently gained a devoted

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

for its rabid anti-marijuana message and Dick Bakalyan's performance. It first began to be shown on television in the 1970s, when it first began to attract its following, and was released on video the next decade.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cool and the Crazy, The 1958 films 1950s teen drama films American black-and-white films American films about cannabis American International Pictures films American teen drama films Films directed by William Witney Films set in Kansas City, Missouri Films shot in Missouri Teen sex comedy films Films scored by Raoul Kraushaar 1958 drama films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films