Who Killed Teddy Bear

source: Who Killed Teddy Bear

A long out of circulation cult film, Who Killed Teddy Bear is a kind of stepping stone between Hitchcock's excavation of the warped mind in psycho, with its final psychiatric classification of Norman Bates, and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, with its disturbed lonely man lost amongst the newly permissive urban landscape. The primary focus of Joseph Cates' 1965 film is a sometime dancer and barmaid (Juliet Prowse) who has been receiving obscene and threatening phone calls from an unknown person. Yet as the case unfolds, the film becomes more intrigued by the characters surrounding her – the possibly lesbian manageress of the bar (Elaine Stritch), the investigating detective who is obsessed by abnormal psychologies (Jan Murray) and the disturbed busboy who turns out to be the caller (Sal Mineo). Each of the characters seems alone and immersed in the modern urban condition. Throughout the film, a preponderance of mirror shots (the "solving of the case even involves a mirror) suggests a world in which everyman and everywoman's sickness reflects everyone else's. The detective seems to have become so obsessed with his quarry that he almost crosses the line into psychosis himself, the manageress might have her own sexual agenda in wishing to help her victimized employee and each of them seems as much of a threat as the unknown caller. Prowse does not know who to trust, even whether to trust herself, and although the film descends into a "get the culprit" finale, even this traditional end fractures into a private turmoil lost in an alienating environment. The film offers a series of very strong character studies, all remarkably well acted, but often seems concerned to conjure the feel and sound of the times through montages to music, of dancing, working out and wandering, and its black and white footage cut to pop hits makes it seem like a greyscale Kenneth Anger at times. One of the montages involves Mineo drifting through the fleshpots, bookshops and cinema foyers of Times Square, an eerie presentiment of Travis Bickle. Mineo is particularly strong in the role of the tormented busboy, tortured on a rack between the unfettered expression of carnal nature he sees all around him (and has the potential for within) and the last psychotic jerks of a Puritan sexual consciousness. Mineo proves here what a remarkable actor Hollywood wasted when it underused him, and his physical presence – often showing his toned body in swimming trunks or flaunting his butt in the tightest of Chinos – suggests a missing link between mainstream Hollywood and underground stars like Warhol's Joe Dallesandro and Pink Narcissus' Bobby Kendall. Who Killed Teddy Bear isn't a perfect film – there's something missing structurally and a tendency towards melodrama – but its picture of a world fallen from a childhood Eden into an adulthood of sticky and strange sexual dramas, it was way ahead of its time and still stands head and shoulders above most of the so-called sophisticated cinema of today.

When I saw this movie the first time I was blown away. The movie itself is filmed in Black and White using a softener in some scenes to make the picture look very dreamy. The cast is great and the movie works so great with the act of Sal Mineo. He is such a good dancer and can play someone really sweet and innocent but also be very scary and hard. To bad the movie is hard to find on DVD or VHS, but there is a British DVD available now. Its also fun to see that the film was made with low budged, in the nightclub there is always exact the same music and the same people dancing. Doesn't matter what day it is. But because the movie didn't had a big budged it feels authentic and real! Everybody who wants to see a great black and white movie with intelligent story, very good acting and sexy Sal Mineo should watch this one...

Here is one of the lost gems of the early 60's. Joseph Cates "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is a dark, seedy, and sex obsessed oddity that must have unnerved audiences in it's day. The sexy Nora Dane, played by Juliette Prowse, is receiving some very disturbing phone calls, complete with heavy breathing and some obscene suggestions. She doesn't know who this man is, but he seems to know a lot about her, like her name, where she lives, where she works, and what she looks like in her underwear. Elaine Strich plays the tough talking owner of the swinging nightclub where Nora works as a deejay. Her interest in the young Nora goes beyond simple friendship. After the mysterious phone calls become more threatening, Nora consults a detective, who has his own perverse obsessions. And then there is Lawrence, played by Sal Mineo, a shy and polite busboy who works at the club with Nora. And Nora seems to be the center of everyones obsessions, probably due to the fact that she seems to have no interest in sex at all. "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is filmed with an incredible amount of style, in shadowy, dreamlike black & white. For the segments featuring the obscene phone caller, the camera lens actually seems to be fogged up from the body heat and animal lust of the near naked stalker, as he lies on his bed and enjoys the sound of fear in the woman's voice, as he describes what he wants to do to her. And then there are the amazing shots of New York city, by day and night. Everything is light and shadow, lurid and overwrought. This is classic film noir, and it's low budget only adds to it's unique appeal, and adds an extra level of sadness and desperation to the tale. Sal Mineo especially, is outstanding here, as the sexually messed up loner, who lives with his retarded sister in a gloomy apartment. Why Sal never made it on the same level with James Dean and Brando, I cannot understand. This guy always turned in a great performance in everything he did, and possessed an incomparable screen presence. i recommend 'Teddy bear' to people who love cinema, and who have an appreciation for the art of film making. Though it is difficult to find, as there has never been an official video or DVD release, and most likely never will be. There are various online distributors selling bootlegs of this and other Sal Mineo titles, ranging from very good to poor quality. See this if you can. It's unforgettable.

'Who Killed Teddy Bear' is far better than its kitschy-exploitation reputation would suggest. The script is admittedly pretty bad, with some terrible dialogue, and some of the more clichéd 'swinging-sixties' scenes are laughable to modern audiences. However, the relatively frank discussion of psycho-sexual deviancy, excellent performances from Mineo and Stritch, and striking cinéma vérité photography, lift the movie well above the drive-in norm. Taking visual cues and a raucous jazz score from French New Wave, and predating the Times Square Sleaze of 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'Taxi Driver' by several years, 'Who Killed Teddy Bear' is a thoroughly bizarre time capsule offering both a rare and fascinating glimpse into the sleazy porno subculture of sixties New York and an early cinematic attempt to provide a psychological motivation for mental instability. A movie well worth seeking out that captures a disturbing time and place that is genuinely lost forever.

Pretty, young Juliet Prowse is a NYC discotheque DJ being stalked by sex-psycho Sal Mineo in this flawed but ahead-of-its-time shocker, a film perched on the median between arthouse and grindhouse which might appeal to enthusiasts of Sam Fuller's contemporaneous work. Performances are strong from the key players(especially Elaine Stritch as Prowse's inured lesbian boss, Jan Murray as the solicitous investigator, and Mineo...a deeply disturbed but ultimately pitiable predator). Unfortunately, the film is marred significantly by the comically written and overplayed character of Mineo's little sister, doomed to eternal childhood as the result of a tragic accident. Though there is intermittent creative camera-work at hand, production values are pretty low overall. Fortunately, the tawdriness of the whole affair calls for just that, and WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR succeeds, perhaps despite itself. It's a gripping, stark, and quite depressing meditation on obsession, loneliness and perversion which touches bravely on every taboo in the book. This rife lurid sensationalism feels strangely at-odds with itself, however...the tone here seems more cautionary than joyously libertine, possibly an ill-boding advisory propelled by the whiling fears of 60s-era reactionaries. The times, they were a-changing, and many at the far-right felt the nation's moral compass had become a pinwheel in the wind. . 7.5/10.

Even before you see his face, you can feel the sensuality of Sal Mineo thrusting its way off the screen, wearing nothing but tighty whities as he makes several obscene phone calls at 6 O'clock in the morning. He's only fondling his legs, but the point is made. When you finally see Sal's gorgeous face, he's inside a really swinging nightclub where the customers are rude, crude, long to be *, and using food to get the girls in the mood. Mineo works busing tables and takes over waiting them when the servers don't show up. "If you're going make it in show biz, you're going to meet some pretty weird types. Of course, that is assuming that you're planning on making it on your feet, so to speak!" That's how you're introduced here to the legendary "Ladies Who Lunch" diva Elaine Stritch, playing an extremely glamorous lesbian who has the hots for D.J. Juliet Prowse. Tough but with a sense of compassion to the underdog, Stritch has a drunk customer kicked out and stands up for one of her deaf employees when the customer attacks him. She reminds me a great deal of Grayson Hall's character in the cult movie "Satan in High Heels", although this was obviously made on a bit of a higher budget even if it's still down the scale on its vision of a lack of polite society. As for Mineo, don't let his polite on the surface nature fool you; He disguises his voice on the phone as you see only his bare chest and the tip of his jockeys, and this is where the perversion takes on a sexual film noir story, pre-dating "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction" by more than two decades. This is the village, and it is not a polite society. The film turns dirt into art, and it is absolutely fascinating to watch, even though you are praying that circumstances like this never happen to you. But when you work in the bar world of a big metropolis, you never know what type of sociopath is going to come in. Even the police detective interviewing Prowse after she is harassed on the phone has a very verbal way of describing the types of characters he has come in contact with. Don't click your heels together to hope to go back to Kansas; Once you're in the land of Odd, you're stuck there. A jazzy music score aids in the vision of New York's dark side, and there's no turning back when you stay out past happy hour. Nights in New York always bring film noir to life, whether it's on screen or in reality. I have been searching for this dark and disturbing film ever since I became fans of both Mineo's and Stritch's, and in biographies on Mineo's life, Ms. Stritch went into great detail in her remembrances of him as a man and as an actor. Jan Murray is fantastic as the police detective overshadowed by the grittiness in his life, yet still leading the life of perfect father. A lot of detail went into the creation of each of these characters, and every moment is fascinating. Every character (including Murray) has their own elements of darkness, showing the inner anxieties we all carry and which can explode at any minute. The teddy bear reference is an interesting metaphor both psychologically and visually, and in spite of the tacky nature of the theme, it is sensationalism that titillates no matter how much the viewer tries not to admit it. As Jean Simmons' missionary said in "Guys and Dolls", she's supposedly afraid of sin, so naturally, she's attracted to it. But these aren't the friendly colorful gamblers of Damon Runyeon's New York. This is a John Cassavettes/John Waters view of a changing society, filled with a gritty ugliness that the early film noir only dared to touch on.

Uneven, not very well paced and with some poor elements, this low budget piece of sleaze is still a good example of what can be done with a good idea, some decent actors and some balls. Great location shooting around Times Square/42nd Street clashes somewhat with some very flat interior sequences but all the electrifying disco scenes are excellent. Prowse really can dance and if Sal Mineo thinks he's auditioning all over again for Rebel Without A Cause, who can blame him with that physique. Lots of tasteless matters are gleefully paraded before us and even within the movie the lieutenant takes his dirty phone call research home never minding that his daughter is listening in. As others have mentioned, Scorsese must have seen this and in any event this would make a great double bill with Taxi Driver, also one would have to say that this is more sleazy and less glamorised than the more well known film. On a final note, how times change; completely rejected by the UK censors in 1965 is now released with 15 certificate.

When you think of movies about New York from this period in time, what comes to mind to me as a foreigner is a woodwind instrument blowing in the background while Jack Lemmon (or a lookalike) in a shiny suit neurotically babbles away something insignificant. Who killed Teddy Bear comes along and sticks its fingers up at the Hollywood system and is a break thru movie in every sense. This flawed, creaky, creepy and cranky movie is a delight. Not forgetting that you are led into the wonderful atmosphere by the wailing and unforgettable theme tune, which sounds like an old 45rpm record where the center hole has not been cut quite right. IMHO due to Hollywood, American Independent film makers were just not taken seriously enough at this time, because of this, films like this have been unfairly over looked as great examples of low budget, gorilla technique( getting the shot before the police arrives etc). Taxi Driver was classic, but you know it was meticulously planned, every location permission was got and sums agreed, shots were retaken until they got it right. Well Who Killed Teddy Bear is wild and untamed and surely a minor classic?

Sal Mineo at his sexiest in this 65 thriller.This film must have really made shock waves when it was released. Although,sleazy,campy and exploitive,it is also compelling,and a dirty pleasure to watch.Juliet Prowse plays the victim.This film offers an ending that would still shock viewers in the 90's