Der Tod fährt erster Klasse

Without mst3k, most people would never have watched these crappy movies again. Maybe people aren't happy that a bunch of puppets make fun of movies that they like, but at least it ensures that geeks (including me) everywhere will be entertained by classics like "The Creeping Terror" and "The Rebel Set" (which isn't that bad, I agree, but you really should lighten up) for years.

Yes, this is one movie I can actually watch without the mst3k filter. It starts out slowly but once they do the crime, it moves along pretty well. I like how the guy disguises himself as an evil priest. The on- foot chase at the end goes on forever though. Completely unnecessary.

Plot-- A slippery mastermind recruits a crew of failed bohemians from a beatnik coffee house. The target is an armored car with a million dollar cargo, and an escape aboard a train. It's all planned out with split-second precision.

Another mediocre heist film trying to emulate the start-up success of Kubrick's The Killing (1956). This one's undone on a number of levels, including spotty acting (a weak Palmer in a central role), slack direction (fails to heighten plot high points), and a leaky script (a number of plot holes). Plus, that opening beatnik scene is more like a spoof than a mood-setting suspenser. At least there's the notorious Vicki Dougan as the waitress. Her way of getting Hollywood attention was to show cleavage from the backside instead of the more usual front. Judging from her credits, it didn't work.

On the other hand, the climax is action-filled with a good look at LA's elaborate train yards. However, I'm still wondering why men crawl under freight cars when they might start up any moment. Too bad that the characterizations never get enough chance to gel. As a result, there's not much sense of irony or loss at movie's end. Instead the story simply plays out in impersonally remote fashion. And that's a problem with the movie as a whole, which I guess is a good reason why the 72-minutes has remained buried in 1950's vaults.

(In passing—the "beatnik" fad was brief, mainly 1958 & '59 on the west coast, and mainly a bohemian reaction to suburban conformity of the Eisenhower years. My guess is the stylistic change of the 1960 Kennedy election undercut the novelty appeal.)

"The Rebel Set" would have zero significance except for the fact that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" showed it, and for the fact that it stars Edward Platt, better known as the Chief on "Get Smart". Otherwise this is one pathetic flick. Platt plays a man who gathers some people to assist him in a heist. As can be expected, Joel, Servo and Crow have a lot of fun trashing the movie. Among the people whom they mention are Rose-Marie, Martha Mitchell, and of course Merrit Stone. Trust me, you won't want to watch this movie outside of the "MST3K" version.

PS: Director Gene Fowler Jr. was better known as a film editor. He edited "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Hang 'Em High". His other directorial efforts include "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "I Married a Monster from Outer Space". His father was journalist/author/dramatist Gene Fowler.

A nice entertaining suspenseful quirky '50s B-movie with a straight-forward no-frills script and dialogue. I liked this flick each of the two times I saw it, years apart.

Stand-outs are: Edward Platt as an eccentric mastermind crook, Kathleen Crowley: you can feel her pain and disappointment; and Gregg Palmer, torn between love and greed.

The drawback is that the movie was deceptively packaged as a "beatnik/rebel" movie-which, of course, it was not about (except for a few semi-coffeehouse scenes).

The first half of this movie was absolutely boring with nothing going on. I was at least able to follow it on the second half of the movie. It was mostly stupid, because at this point you don't care about any of the characters and are too far gone to care about it. I really have no idea who that priest guy even was. I mean, he was probably a minor character before, but I didn't care to pay attention. I thought at first that this would be a movie about music. While that isn't a topic I'd want to see a movie about, it would certainly be better than this. At first, there's little going on at all and then there's too much going on.

I really wanted to see the movie synopsis here just so I could follow it. Yeah, I don't recall any characters' names. I also don't recall any actors' names. There's nothing unique about it. Was there some love story I was supposed to notice? It's pointless on all levels. *1/2