Who Killed Teddy Bear?

Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Joseph Cates

Starring: Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Jan Murray, Elaine Stritch, Margot Bennett

From: Phillips Productions

Yes, this oddity does explain why it has such a peculiar title.

While I have heard of it before (how could you forget something known as Who Killed Teddy Bear?) it was a positive review from a mutual last night that pushed me to tracking it down-I saw the movie on... Tubi. I'll talk about my initial impressions of that service at the very end. The movie is an independent production so it doesn't follow any moral code. Yet it's not “a nudie cutie” or “roughie” that are no-budget efforts mainly due to titilate. This instead has people you've actually heard of before: Sal Mineo, a young Bruce Glover NOT as a villain and (get this) even Elaine Stritch.

The movie is still rather sleazy for the time: a young lady known as Norah is harassed on the telephone by someone who also is a voyeur. It's the expected “saying lewd things to a woman while heavily breathing into the receiver” thing. That is investigated by a police lieutenant... who is a dick—there's no other way to put it. He's condescending, does not treat Norah with kid gloves, and you'd think he wouldn't bring his work home to where his 10 year old daughter can hear all about his investigations of S&M, sexual predators, and whatnot... but he does! He has a tragic backstory so he is a single dad; then again, so does the villain. Because of a childhood accident, his 19 year old sister is mentally handicapped. So this is just as bright and sunny and charming as a basket full of warm puppies! There's also homoeroticism and I am not sure how much of that was intended. After all, it mainly involved real life bisexual Mineo, sometimes seen all hot & sweaty.

For such a dark movie which does have the novelty of getting to see Times Square in the 60's (it can be as sleazy as I say NYC was from the 70's through the early 90's) the entire movie may be a rare bird. I am unsure of how many American movies between the enforcement of The Hays Code and the start of the MPAA were serious adult fare that had legit talent involved. While I wish the lieutenant would have been a more charming character, otherwise it was a trashy tale which still entertained and featured various damaged people. After all, Norah works in a small club where she spins records, catchy tunes are heard (from Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons fame) and it does have one of my favorite tropes: white people dancing! Oh is there plenty of that, and it's hilarious. Oh, and I almost forgot: the director was Joseph Cates, who primarily worked in television and yes, that's Phoebe's dad. Of all the talent involved, I was most impressed with Mineo, Stritch and as Norah, Juliet Prowse.

Before last night, I was “oh, whatever” and scoffed at Tubi. It's a free service where you have to watch periodic ads Then recently I looked into it and while there is a LOT of modern no-budget product that I'll presume is the dirt-worst, there is also movies like this and giallo put out by Vinegar Syndrome that you can't stream anywhere else. So I'll be using that once in awhile. It actually was fine as a free service and the ads weren't as obtrusive as I first feared.