The Cry Baby Killer

Surprisingly good little noirish thriller. The acting and dialogue are hit or miss as is usually for low budget films. But the real standout and not in a good way was the horrid theme song that made me want to turn the movie off before it even started.

Well, that title song was truly awful...but once things got going, this one started humming. Sure, Nicholson was pretty whiny (thus the title I guess)...but the best character was Ralph Reed's, like a goony Rick Moranis (hard to believe Nicholson wasn't the one to play that!). Stylish and gritty on a shoestring, and the satire of the media and crowds was pretty cogent ("Teenagers? Never had em when I was a kid"). Films like this had to be a major influence on the French New Wave.