The Cry Baby Killer

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The Cry Baby Killer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoe Addis
Written byLeo Gordon
Melvin Levy
Produced byRoger Corman
David Kramarsky
David March
StarringHarry Lauter
Jack Nicholson
Carolyn Mitchell
CinematographyFloyd Crosby
Edited byIrene Morra
Music byGerald Fried
Distributed byAllied Artists Pictures Corporation
Release date
  • August 17, 1958 (1958-08-17)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Cry Baby Killer is a 1958 teen exploitation film produced by Roger Corman that marked Jack Nicholson's film debut. The film was out of print and difficult to find until 2006, when it was issued on DVD for the first time by Buena Vista Home Entertainment as part of its Roger Corman Classics series.

Plot[edit]

17-year-old Jimmy Wallace panics after he thinks he has committed manslaughter while fighting with a group of teenage hoodlums. Wallace then takes a random man and woman, and the woman's infant, hostage inside of a food shelter outside of a popular local restaurant, and threatens them if they try to escape. This leads to a stand-off with a police force led by the sympathetic detective, Lieutenant Porter, who tries to avoid bloodshed. Meanwhile, an eager crowd of onlookers and a news reporter gather outside to see what'll happen next.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Corman later claimed that The Cry Baby Killer was the first film that he produced that didn't return a profit, although he said that it earned back its budget from TV rights. Corman also said that he'd been abroad during preproduction while much of the script was changed by the producer. Corman returned to Hollywood 2 days before filming began and tried to reverse the changes, but was only partially successful.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ed. J. Philip di Franco, The Movie World of Roger Corman, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979, page 16–17.

External links[edit]