Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965)
Often we've grown nostalgic and soft hearted remembering how Hollywood depicted New York City, especially in the romantic films of the 1960's.
Ah....New York....the Big Apple....Central Park....the Plaza Hotel....the skating at Rockefeller Center.....and that towering Christmas tree....
What a place for comedy and romance.....and audiences delighted in movies like 'Breakfast At Tiffany's', 'Barefoot In The Park', 'Sunday In New York' and 'The World of Henry Orient',"Lover Come Back", "Boys Night Out", "That Touch of Mink"
All that came to an end at the start of the 70's, with the release of "The French Connection" and the slew of action-crime thrillers that followed in its wake. NYC, financially crumbling, riddled with rampant street crime and an entire populace working on their last nerve, became the East Coat version of a wild west frontier....gritty, gory and gruesome.
But this was no breaking news to the city's community of actors, writers and independent filmmakers.
Smack in the middle of the 1960's, when Hollywood had turned the city into a technicolor rom-com playground, the hardy bunch who concocted "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" showed the cinema world a side of New York that big studios wouldn't exploit for another 6 years or so.....
In short, a violent hellhole.
In this trim and grim little black-and-white psycho-sexual tale, Norah, a young dance club DJ (Juliet Prowse, of "G.I.Blues" and "Can Can") is relentlessly stalked on the phone by a cuckoo-for-coco-puffs pervert.....and who's actually the club's young waiter Larry (Sal Mineo, really embracing the crazy.)
Norah gets some help from her tough-as-nails boss Marian (veteran stage actress Elaine Stritch) until Marian's hugging becomes....uh..a little too up close and personal. Our poor girl's main protection comes from single-dad vice cop Dave (a rare dramatic turn from comedian and game show host Jan Murray).
But Lt. Dave's got problems of his own. His single minded obsession with hunting down sexual predators has him literally taking his work home with him......playing back recordings of victims' experiences where his little daughter can hear them while she's trying to fall asleep....wow, some bedtimes stories.....
And meanwhile the mad, mad Larry's trying to find a release for his desires as he tours 42nd street, the city's now long gone Mecca of sleaze and porn......(which you'd never catch sight of in the Hollywood NYC movies). His home life offers no comfort either, as he copes with his 19 year old sister Edie (Margot Bennet), afflicted with the mind of a 7 year old.
Sorry to report that all of this dysfunction and and dread offers no real surprises or shocks in the film's conclusion but that didn't stop 'Teddy' from developing a cult reputation over the years, even finally a DVD and Blu-Ray release. (Though its startling presentation of a grimy, hellish NYC marked the film as well ahead of its time.)
(Some film pundits think of 'Teddy' as a gateway to the ever more graphic psychological thrillers of the 70's and beyond, even the Italian Giallos which took audiences in their grip five years later with Dario Argento's "Bird With the Crystal Plumage".)
Sadly, the star-crossed career of Sal Mineo was cut short 12 years later when he was randomly stabbed to death in the street. The charismatic and strikingly beautiful Juliet Prowse, a talented singer and spectacular dancer, could find only moderate success in her brief TV sitcom, Mona McLusky and in nightclub and theater appearances. We couldn't take our eyes off her in any scene she appeared in and wished she could've gone on to bigger and better projects. 'Teddy Bear' was one of her last film credits.
Seekers of oddball cinema and fans of the two leads might want to hunt this one down.......but don't expect too much. 2 stars (**).
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