Line #15 Film/TeenageCrimeWave


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teenage_crime_wave_movie_poster.png]]
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3	''Teenage Crime Wave'' is another 1950s juvenile delinquency B-movie.
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5	Our story begins with a doughy old man hitting on a young woman, Terry Marsh, in a bar. She lures him to be mugged. Unfortunately, an innocent girl by the name of Jane Koberly is brought along on a blind date with Al, one of Terry's gang.
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7	The mugging, performed by Terry's boyfriend Mike Denton, goes off without a hitch at first, and Mike and Al get away. Jane and Terry are caught by the police, cuffed and stuffed in prison.
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9	Because Jane wouldn't talk about what she knew (the only one she really knew beyond a first name was Terry), [[WronglyAccused she's fingered as an accomplice]] in the court system, and her parents are too busy [[IHaveNoSon being ashamed]] to help her out. Before long, Jane and Terry are on the way to the reformatory.
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11	But lo! Mike has been tailing the prison van, and frees them, wounding the prison matron and killing the driving officer. But since Mike didn't kill both cops, a description is sent out, and the gang must hole up in a farmhouse. There, they take two farmers, and later their war-hero son, hostage -- but they can't call Al for help [[LandlineEavesdropping because the farmers' phone is on a party line, and anything suspicious]] ''[[LandlineEavesdropping anyone]]'' [[LandlineEavesdropping says will be overheard by someone who might tell the cops]].
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13	Can Jane prove her innocence? Can Mike and Terry's [[OutlawCouple Bonnie and Clyde–like]] rampage be stopped?
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15	For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E22TeenageCrimeWave episode recap page]].
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17	!!''Teenage Crimewave'' contains the following tropes:
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19	* AskAStupidQuestion: Late in the movie, Terry asks Ben if he hates her when they're alone in the barn together. Keep in mind that by this point she and her AxCrazy boyfriend have been holding him and his parents hostage for several hours and have just murdered one of their friends. Ben lampshades the stupidity of the question.
20	--> '''Terry:''' You really hate me, don't you?\
21	'''Ben:''' What kind of an answer do you expect?
22	* AssholeVictim: The mugging victim is a middle-aged man who spends his whole scene creeping on ([[DawsonCasting allegedly]]) a teenager.
23	** Al, the guy who tried to rape Jane, is stopped by police on his way to the farmhouse. He pulls a gun when they try to inspect the car and they shoot him in the head.
24	* AxCrazy: Terry really could've done better than a short-tempered, trigger-happy lunatic, which she realizes far, far too late. Mike is just jumping for the chance to kill somebody.
25	* BoyishShortHair: Terry's hair is cut quite short, fitting with her aggressive personality and delinquent lifestyle. It also helps contrast her with Jane.
26	* CantGetAwayWithNuthin:
27	** Presumably Terry, Mike and Al have gotten away with petty crimes many times before; but when Jane unwittingly accompanies them on their latest spree, a cop catches her and Terry at the site of the mugging, almost immediately.
28	** One that's plot-crucial: During the jailbreak, Mike kills the driver, incapacitates the matron and hides the car, thinking this will give them enough time to get to their remote hideout. Less than an hour later, the car is found and the matron has a description of the getaway car, forcing the gang to hole up in a nearby farmhouse.
29	** During the attempted getaway at the climax, Mike wants to take a shortcut through town. No sooner are they in the city than they are spotted by the cops. Even Terry points out the logical oversight.
30	* CharacterFilibuster: A newsman reports on Terry and Jane's jailbreak, then slips into a lecture about how something needs to be done to counter the threat of juvenile delinquency.
31	* ClosedCircle: Everyone's trapped in the farmhouse for most of the movie.
32	* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:Terry is gunned down but before dying she informs the police that Jane was innocent the whole time]].
33	* DepravedBisexual:
34	** Terry may be this. Mike's her boyfriend but she leers at the picture of Jane in a bathing suit and makes suggestive comments.
35	** Some of Mike's reactions to Ben might also suggest this.
36	* DidIMentionItsChristmas: [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible Well]], the week of, and including, Thanksgiving.
37	* EvilerThanThou: Terry is perfectly willing to hurt others to get what she wants, but she is also perfectly willing to not inflict harm when she feels it's unnecessary. Mike, on the other hand, is positively itching for a reason to shoot somebody. Anybody. Any reason.
38	* FanService:
39	** The first thing that happens after Terry and Jane are arrested is them being sent to the showers.
40	-->'''Guard:''' (''addressing women wrapped in towels'') This is the shower room.
41	** Later, as our cast watches the crime report on TV, the mugshots of the fugitives are shown. For some odd reason, Jane's photo is of her modelling a bathing suit.
42	** Halfway through the movie, Terry changes into a satin shirt and tight pants; she ups the fanservice by tying up her shirt to show off her stomach and [[LegFocus cutting off the bottoms of the pants]].
43	* GuiltByAssociation: Jane goes on a blind double-date which turns into a mugging (which she doesn't participate in but was just there); and on the strength of that alone, she is sent to jail and juvie hall. The judge handing down Jane's sentence even tells her explicitly that her being at the scene of the crime and in the company of the criminals is enough to convict her since Jane herself refused to testify in her own defense.
44	* IHaveNoSon: Jane's parents pretty much disown her at the sentencing hearing. The father, at least, comes around midway through the film.
45	-->'''Mother:''' You've sinned, and you'll pay for your crimes!
46	* InformedAbility: Ben, the decorated war hero, is not much more effectual against Mike or Terry than his elderly parents.
47	* LandlineEavesdropping: Invoked once Mike realizes that the farmhouse uses a party line; he realizes that if anybody calls Al for help, they might be overheard by someone who could become suspicious. Once Ben is captured, Mike comes up with a plan to have the college student call Al, pretend to be one of his friends, and get the message across with plausible deniability to any listeners.
48	* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Played straight with Al's death, and then subverted with Terry; the story builds her up as a more reasonable and sympathetic antagonist than the hot-headed, violent Mike, but at the climax of the movie she's the one who winds up dead.
49	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Jane's dad joins the police in their search, having realized that by not helping Jane, she's gotten deeper in trouble.
50	* OutGambitted: Ben allows Terry to seduce him, then snatches her gun from her. Unfortunately for him, her gun is empty, and she has a spare. Which '''is''' loaded.
51	* PinballProtagonist: Jane plays pretty much no part in the proceedings, except for one scene where she is able to talk down an enraged Ben from risking his and his family's lives attacking the AxCrazy Mike. It makes more sense after the jailbreak, where they bring her along only because she could finger them; but the blind date ''cum'' mugging that got her into this mess? Since she didn't do a thing to assist in said mugging, there is absolutely no reason for her to have been there at all except to get arrested and kickstart the plot.
52	* TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction: This movie does it twice; the first successfully, the second failed miserably. The second can count as an inversion, since it was [[BoringFailureHero Ben]] that attempted to turn the tables on Terry, who started the seduction.
53	* SympathyForTheDevil: Sarah Grant clearly pities Terry, especially after hearing about her difficult childhood. When Terry is dying in a cop's arms, [[AlasPoorVillain Sarah is openly crying for her]].
54	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Downplayed; when Jane's parents sever ties with her, she goes over the DespairEventHorizon, but she never stops being a good person.
55	-->'''Jane:''' Well, if you don't care what happens to me, then '''I''' don't care what happens to me.
56	* VillainousCrush: Terry isn't terribly subtle about her interest in Ben; she changes into a more fanservicey outfit specifically to try and catch his interest and [[ForcefulKiss aggressively kisses him]] when they're alone in the barn together.
57	* VulnerableConvoy: Mike ambushes the prison van taking Terry and Jane to the reformatory: killing the driver, wounding the prison matron, and freeing the girls.
58	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Possible; when Jane and Terry are caught by a policeman at the initial mugging, Terry fakes a limp and seems to act like she too was a victim. It doesn't work.
59	* WronglyAccused: Jane, culminating in her freakout while listening to a radio report of her "sins". [[spoiler:[[PetTheDog A dying Terry testifies Jane's innocence to the police at the end of the film]].]]
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Context Film / TeenageCrimeWave