Line #12 Film/TheBeatniks


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_beatniks_1960.jpeg]]
2
3	''The Beatniks'' is a 1960 American BMovie crime film directed and co-written by Creator/PaulFrees and starring Tony Travis. Despite the title, this film contains no actual {{beatnik}}s.
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5	Eddy Crane (Travis) is a down-on-his-luck young man who, along with his pack of hoodlum friends -- Mooney (Creator/PeterBreck), Red (Sam Edwards), Iris (Karen Kadler) and [[SatelliteCharacter Chuck]] (Bob Wells) -- lives only to rob convenience stores for petty cash and then lounge around. Until one day, that is, when music industry talent scout Harry Bayliss (Charles Delaney) happens upon Eddy singing ("You call that singin'? That was nothin'!" [[InformedAbility You can say that again...]]) and quickly tries to sign him to a big record deal. Eddy is at first bitter and reluctant but eventually agrees, on the stipulation that his hoodlum gang can stay with him.
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7	Off to downtown L.A. where Eddy meets Helen (Joyce Terry), Bayliss' secretary, thus setting up the inevitable LoveTriangle. As Helen begins grooming the rather rough (or so we're told) Eddy into a straight-laced star, he begins to see the futility of his Beatnik ways (to clarify; [[NonIndicativeName no, not]] ''[[NonIndicativeName that]]'' [[NonIndicativeName kind of]] {{Beatnik}}). His [[ToxicFriendInfluence toxic friends]], on the other hand, are bound and determined not to let him leave them behind in his rise to the top, and continue to create mischief and mayhem -- which culminates in AxCrazy Mooney shooting a barkeeper dead during an altercation, thus jeopardizing not only Eddy's career, but his entire future.
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9	Tony Travis had a very brief film and television career, fizzling one year after his big break in this movie.
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11	For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E15TheBeatniks episode recap page]].
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13	----
14	!!This film contains examples of the following:
15	* AxCrazy: Mooney, who is constantly trying to pick fights even with his "friends".
16	* BettyAndVeronica: Helen (blonde) would like to see Eddy succeed in life and wants what's best for him; Iris (brunette) just wants to keep him for herself.
17	* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: Eddy accuses Helen of stringing him along for business reasons to discourage her from staying with a no-good punk like himself, mostly out of fear that she'll be implicated in the gang's crime if she ''does'' stay. It doesn't stick.
18	* DownerEnding: Eddy [[spoiler: sacrifices his career]] to atone for his past crimes.
19	* DrunkenMontage: After Eddy (briefly) drops out of show business and breaks up with Helen, he takes a Noir Walk through Los Angeles. As it turns out, though, he's not actually drunk (that we know of).
20	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Iris invokes this deliberately, just for kicks.
21	* GreenEyedMonster:
22	** Thanks to Mooney being a SmallNameBigEgo, he gets increasingly jealous of Eddie's fame.
23	** Obviously, Iris becomes jealous of the burgeoning relationship between Eddy and Helen.
24	* HamToHamCombat: After Red gets shot, it's a toss-up between him and Mooney as to who's better at making their own gravy and splashing it up on film.
25	* HaveAGayOldTime: Mooney's threat to the hotel manager: "I'm gonna ''MOOOOOOON'' YOU!!"[[note]]'''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Servo]]:''' You know, hang my butt out![[/note]] (Even at the time the film was made, the term was starting to gain its current meaning on college campuses, making the manager's nervous confusion all the more plausible.)
26	* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Eddy honestly believes that he doesn't deserve the better life that Bayliss' singing contract will afford him, even though he desperately wants it. He also assumes that others will see this 'self-evident truth' the same way he does.
27	-->'''Eddy:''' [after spilling his guts to Helen] There, now go ahead and have a good laugh!\
28	'''Helen:''' Eddy, look at me... I'm not laughing.\
29	'''Eddy:''' Hey, you're ''not'', are you?
30	* InformedAbility: Eddy's prosaic stage presence somehow sends teenage girls ([[EvenTheGuysWantHim and guys too]]) into screaming fits of [[Music/TheBeatles Beatle-esque]] hysteria. To be fair, Eddy's crooning still had some popularity -- in TheFifties, not TheSixties.
31	-->'''Eddy:''' You call that singin'? That was nothin'!
32	* LargeHam: Peter Breck as Mooney.
33	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Mooney [[LargeHam KILLED THAT FAT BARKEEP!]]
34	* NonIndicativeTitle: There are no actual beatniks in ''The Beatniks''. The writers seem to be either be under the impression that "beatnik" means something along the lines of "delinquent" or "hoodlum", or that the name comes from beat -- as in ''music'' -- niks, or possibly a bit of both.
35	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: [[RunningGag I KILLED THAT FAT BARKEEP!]]
36	** In addition, the diner is on FAWTH STREET!
37	* SatelliteCharacter: Chuck the Fifth Beatnik. While he should have similar standing in the gang alongside Red, Mooney and Iris, Chuck gets absolutely no character focus and has all of one or two small lines of dialogue in the entire film. So incidental to the proceedings is he, in fact, that the film doesn't even bother to confirm whether he [[spoiler:survives being shot in the climax]]. None of this is helped, of course, by his being TheGenericGuy compared to the others' quirks.
38	* ShoppingMontage: Helen takes Eddy out on the town to get him cleaned up for his big break.
39	* SlasherSmile: Peter Breck, again, as Mooney.
40	* TheStarscream: Although Mooney states early on that he doesn't want to be a leader, he eventually graduates into this trope as he reveals, during his final confrontation with Eddy, that he was planning to lure Eddy down to Mexico on a petty crime spree, then kill him.
41	* ToxicFriendInfluence:
42	** [[OverlyLongGag Still again]], Peter Breck as Mooney. He avoids being TheStarscream (mostly) solely because he doesn't want to be a leader: "Leaders got too much on their ''minds'', man... I only got time for one thing --" ''(incomprehensible hand gesture; EvilLaugh)''
43	** The rest of Eddie's "friends" aren't much better; they're determined to keep Eddie in their circle of petty criminals, accusing him of acting like he's too good for them any time he expresses greater aspirations than knocking over candy stores, or of shutting them out whenever they can't barge into private places that he can enter.
44	* UnusualEuphemism: Mooney likes to use his own name as a DeadlyEuphemism. But even in TheFifties, to "moon" someone had an entirely ''different'' meaning. It ''does'' also work when one considers that Mooney [[CloudCuckooLander isn't exactly all there to begin with]]. [[invoked]]
45	* WordSaladLyrics: "Sideburns don't need your sympathy..." Well, I can see how WHAT???
46	** It's Eddie's nickname.
47	* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Mooney thinks the barkeep murder will make him as famous as Eddy.

Context Film / TheBeatniks