The Rebel Set

While I would never say that "The Rebel Set" is a good film, it isn't nearly as bad as you'd think. Some time back, the film was lampooned on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"--and because of this it has a reputation as a stinker. This is obvious when you see it has a score of 2.2.--which would indicate it is a 100% terrible film. But, unfortunately, it's not terrible and this rating seems unnecessarily harsh.

The film begins in a beatnik hangout run by a bearded Edward Platt ('Chief' from "Get Smart"). However, his appearing like an old beatnik is a disguise--he's really interested in masterminding a robbery. Using his business, he's learned which patrons are desperate and in need of money--and he approaches them to help him with his caper. Later, aboard a train, the film heats up, as Platt turns out to be a lot nastier than anyone in the gang anticipated. What exactly he does and how the film ends is something I'll leave up to you--it is mildly interesting.

The first half of the film is amazingly dull for a caper film. In fact, being on "MST 3000" you'd think the film was laughably bad, but it's only very slow and a bit amateurish. Fortunately, the second half is a lot better and I actually loved the final showdown. Not at all great but passable entertainment.

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.)

I went in with extremely low expectations, and anticipating many ludicrous attempts to exploit the notoriety of the beat movement. What I got instead was a decent heist flick, a villain who surprises, and even a bit of character development.

Nothing here about 'rebels' or beatniks to speak of, though the soundtrack features some really decent flute and percussion music early on to set the scene. I was kept interested all the way through and was rewarded with a pretty good chase sequence to finish things off.

A low production value film that definitely transcends its budget!

I saw this movie on MST3K also. It's a really, really bad movie. The plot is implausible and the acting is awful. The question is raised in the MST episode, "who is merritt stone?" because he seems to be the train conductor, but that's actually Gene Roth. Merritt Stone is Carol's dad in Earth Versus the Spider, and the king in "the magic sword". Gene Roth is the guy everyone *thought* was merritt stone.

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.