Customer Reviews

Jail Bait

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jail Bait, shot by Wood in between Glen or Glenda and Bride of the Monster, is perhaps the least-known and -loved of his 1950s features, probably because it's more competently produced and slower paced than his more notorious films. The misleading title (referring to a handgun, not an underage girl) may lead to disappointment for the first-time viewer expecting sleazier fare. And Jail Bait just doesn't exhibit the unbridled lunacy and delirious verve of Plan 9 and Glen or Glenda, although there's plenty of Ed's mind-numbing, circular dialogue and a handful of ludicrous plot points for the seasoned Woodophile to savor. The cast features Hollywood veterans Lyle Talbot and Herbert Rawlinson (who died of lung cancer during production), Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller (later composer of a number of Elvis tunes), newcomer Steve (Hercules) Reeves, perennial sleazemeister Timothy Farrell (Gun Girls, Devil's Sleep, Girl Gang, Racket Girls), Vogue model (and Jack Paar's sexy weathergirl) Theodora Thurman, and apparent nonactor 'Clancy Malone' (actually Scott McCloud, Glen or Glenda's unit director). It's fun to track the conflicting acting styles (and competencies): former silent star Rawlinson (as Dr. Gregor) out-acts the bunch; Fuller is stiff as a board; Farrell and Thurman chew the scenery voraciously; Steve Reeves personifies the 'dumb hunk' (watch him attempt to run lines with Talbot while putting on a coat and tie); and Malone just tries to act his way out of a paper bag. The plot is essentially the story of a jerk (Farrell) and an idiot (Malone) who go on the lam after shooting a cop while robbing a beauty parlor (!?). Logical lapses abound (e.g. Malone's father hides him from the cops, then lets him go if he promises to turn himself in later; Farrell's moll [Thurman] is hopelessly loyal even though he constantly treats her like dirt). It all finishes with a hilarious "twist" ending involving plastic surgery. Bad Film fanatics will love to cringe at the irritating piano-and-guitar score (recycled from Mesa of Lost Women) by Hoyt Curtin (who wrote the Jetsons theme and scored all the major Hanna-Barbera cartoon series) and the embarrassing minstrel show sequence, which in true Woodian fashion is inserted into the movie for no apparent reason whatsoever. While Jail Bait never reaches the dizzying heights/depths of Wood's more famous films, there's enough chaff to be found amongst the wheat to satisfy trash film junkies with the patience to dig a little.
Image's DVD, part of their Wade Williams Collection, is as fine a presentation of the movie as you're likely to see. Although there is some light speckling and blemishing (mostly around reel changes), the source print exhibits overall excellent brightness, contrast, and shadow/highlight detail. The picture is very crisp, at times revealing some fine grain in the source material. The Dolby 1.0 sound is clear, although the level seems a bit soft. Eleven chapter stops and a slightly washed out Jail Bait trailer (also suffering from some speckling, blemishing, and vertical scratching) are included. A minimal but very fine package; perhaps a bit pricey for some considering the few extras, but nonetheless essential viewing for serious aficionados of Ed Wood or cheap, trashy movies in general.

This movie is not good/bad; it's just plain bad. "Jailbait," as a term, which normally means an underage girl, here means a handgun possessed by a parolee! This film has none of the charm of Plan Nine or even Bride of the Monster. It's just bad. It looks like amateur home movies of a community theater rehearsal. Unless you are committed to seeing every Ed Wood travesty, this one you should probably pass up. It's a stinker.

Folks, leave your brains at the door. This is good old Edwoodian schlock about a bad boy who gets mixed up with the wrong crowd. Laugh out loud at the outragous stupidity and unintentioned humor of horrible dialougue, bad acting , and sheer senselessness. Who the heck would insist that a doctor under pressure of gunpoint operate on him? (That's just for starters). The surprise ending (which I won't reveal here) is pretty good. But the Blackface minstrel performance as an abomination not only for modern P.C. reasons (as an African-American myself, I've seen far worse in old movies), but it is not funny at all (the guy in Blackface whines and strains his voice in a gross effort to sound "Black" and the gags consist of very bad puns). In true Edwoodian style, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. But if you and your friends are filled with beers and pizza and want a good howl for over an hour, then this is for you.

Ok, this movie is awful and it has a misleading title, but would you expect anything else from Ed Wood? The DVD has clear picture, and the sound is pretty good, if a little quiet. There are no real extras, besides the trailer, but this is probably the best presentation of the film out there, which makes it a must own for hardcore Wood fans.

This unintentional film-noir spoof has all the marks of Ed Wood's zany script and direction. In other words, it's absolutely hilarious! There's nothing basically preposterous about a plastic surgeon deconstructing a face, yet Wood managed to make this movie a farce--even though he obviously tried to produce a straight-up crime drama. The only competent actor involved, Lyle Talbot, moves stolidly through the story, tossing off the dumbest dialogue with professionalism and aplomb. His sidekick, Steve Reeves, however, flips off his lines as though each word were a fleck of dandruff to be brushed hastily and unobtrusively away. Wood's non-actor girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, looks like a blonde bombshell trussed up in business suits as she strides martially back and forth in her living room. The movie is a windfall of loony lines, cheap props, and ridiculous situations. A purportedly luxurious apartment is so cheaply and sparingly furnished that it looks one notch above a flophouse. Surgery is performed on the couch of a gangster's moll, and then she attends the bandage removal in a fur and cocktail gown. A corpse is propped, standing up, in a shallow closet, prompting the moll to rail about dead men cluttering up her place. As far as so-bad-it's-good flicks go, this one's so terrible it's terrific!

Sandwiched between the infamous "Glen or Glenda" and "Bride of the Monster," director Ed Wood's "Jail Bait" (1954) combines fatalistic crime drama with his trademark ineptitude. Once in a while, Wood effectively captures the nighttime sleaze of Los Angeles and its environs. For the most part, however, the Master of Bad Cinema lives up to his moniker. There's plenty of Woodian nonacting and mind-numbing dialogue, with a "twist" ending that generates more laughter than shock. Bela Lugosi somehow managed to avoid this turkey, but veterans Lyle Talbot and Herbert Rawlinson were not so lucky. Always economical, Wood utilized the irritating flamenco-guitar score from "Mesa of Lost Women" (1953) - a no-budget monstrosity that surpasses "Jail Bait" in sheer awfulness.

Two "hold-up boys," Don Gregor and Vic Brady, get caught in the act, and Gregor is forced to shoot an ex-police officer. Brady plays it cool, but Gregor insists that they turn themselves in. "We're cop killers. They don't like that," Gregor explains. Brady shoots him and hides his body behind a curtain in the kitchen.
Wishing to disappear to escape the police, Brady enlists the help of Gregor's father, a plastic surgeon who admits, "Plastic surgery, at times, seems to me to be very, VERY complicated." The surgeon shows up to give Brady his new face, but when he finds his son's dead body STANDING(???) behind a curtain in his kitchen, he decides to have a little fun with Brady instead. Two weeks later, Brady's bandages come off and he's horrified to find whose face is underneath.
"Jail Bait," Ed Wood's attempt at the gangster genre, is unintentionally silly, ludicrous, and terribly enjoyable. And despite what Wade Williams says on the back of the DVD, the script is far from clever. Other highlights include: an embarrassing racist Vaudeville act (some versions replace this scene with a striptease show because it's apparently more offensive to degrade blacks than women), laughably inappropriate Spanish guitar score, and Dolores Fuller who is possibly the worst actress in history.

There is no real reason to own or watch this movie unless you are an Ed wood fan or you just love old movies with bad acting. If you fall into either of those categories, however, it is a must have.

This effort of Wood's is so much better than GLEN OR GLENDA that using the same scale, this outght to get 5 stars. Unfortunately, this is the real world and Amozon does not allow for negative number of stars. SUffice it to say, this wone is much better than GLEN OR GLENDA but that is not saying a whole lot. At least this one has a story.

The title refers to guns. Carrying a gun is tantamount to wanting to go to jail. That doesn't mean, though that this is an anti-gun diatribe, it is just the way society is perceived in this film and is fairly peripheral to the story.

The story is of a young man from a good family who falls into bad ways. He begins to carry a gun and hang around with a petty crook. One day, a holdup goes wrong and he shoots and kills a watchman. At that point, his world crumbles and he feels remorse. His partner in crime, however, is not so forgiving and neither are the police. It is up to the father, an eminent plastic surgeon to secure justice.

Fans of Steve Reeve of SUPERMAN fame might enjoy his performance in this movie. He plays a small part as a police lieutenant. The rest of the actors are utterly unremarkable but that is part of the point of seeing and savine Ed Wood movies. They are usually bad enough to be funny in their own right.

This is a fairly bad movie. The acting and dialog are pretty pathetic and the situations encountered are less than realistic. Anyone could through the loopholes but, again, that is not the point in an Ed Wood movie. Some of his other works are much worse but silly enough to be funny. This one might just barely meet that criterion for some people. For me, it was a snoozer.

If you love Ed Wood, go for it. If you like campy old police drama, ditto. Otherwise, look elsewhere for your entertainment dollar.

Before you watch this movie take a few things into account, first of all it was made by Ed Wood and I have nothing to say of him that hasn't already been said, second it's old. Now that those little things are out of the way on to the real review. This movie's plot revolves around the son of a plastic surgeon who gets caught up with crime and eventually kills a cop. I don't want to spoil the rest but any ample review has to have some kind of summary. While the acting is poor and the various effects cheesy, I found myself somewhat compelled to watch and see what happened next in this entertaining story. Call me crazy but I actually enjoyed this old relic and considering that it came from Ed Wood and I was as genuinley enjoyed as I was I give it five stars.

Although flawed with poor acting etc. I feel the story could have been a first rate crime drama in competent hands. It would have been more convincing had the killer and the brother resembled each other more. Talbot`s line, "she`s an awfully pretty girl" was repeated twice. Who was he trying to convince, the audience or the character in the scene with him? Pretty? Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of the most blatant flaws was near the end when Talbot was able to change his suit and grow a mustashe as he ran out the door to chase the murderer. Still, I found the movie enjoyable for what it is.