The Girl in Lovers Lane

In reading the other reviews and/or remarks, I have to disagree with any references with regard to both male characters or one male character referenced as being gay. That is so ridiculous. The more accurate relationship between the two males, rather should be seen as older big brother and younger naive brother. Bix, like any older brother looks out and protects a younger less worldly brother. In addition, I think that Bix is afraid of making a commitment to Carrie, because he's never allowed himself to be close to a woman in a relationship, and now because he's starting to feel something for Carrie, he's fearful and ready to run. Now, with regard to the story's resolution (Act III), Carrie just suddenly screaming just made no real sense.

****SPOILERS**** Late 1950's youth movie about two young drifters Bix & Danny, Brett Halsey & Lowell Brown, drifting in on a fright train into the peaceful little town of Sherman. A town where the police chief says that nothing bad ever happened there in 20 years.

It didn't take long for something bad to happen in peaceful Sherman where on just the first night there the two outsiders are attacked by a gang of local thugs because one of them had a $50.00 bill that he changed at the towns pool hall to play a game. $50.00 seems to be a very small price to corrupt the local boys from their 20 years of peaceful endeavors.

The people of Sherman weren't that bright either by beating to a pulp ,and almost lynching, Bix for raping and murdering his girlfriend Carrie, Joyce Meadows, after her body was found in the woods. The locals didn't have enough sense to know that Carries killer may well have been the local town weirdo Jesse ,Jack Elam, who was alway after Carrie. Jesse even tried to rape her the day before but was stopped by none other then Bix himself who belted Jesse and left him in dreamland.

Bix was saved from being lynched by the mob led by Carrie's emotionally upset father Cal,Emile Meyer, by his friend Danny who came to his rescue, just when he was about to leave town, by telling them that it may very well have been Jesse who killed Carrie. Jesse who just happened to be at the scene to watch the lynching then broke down and confessed to the crime and was taken away into custody by the police. The cops were released from the towns jail in which they were locked up in when the townspeople stormed the police station to get and then try to lynch Bix. The townspeople, including Carrioe's dad Cal, were more kinder to Carrie's actual killer then Carrie's boyfriend by not trying to apprehend or kill him like that tried to kill Bix who they should have known was innocent.

It was also interesting to see that Danny who was in town for just a few days could put two and two together and come to the conclusion that it was Jesse who killed Carrie when the local townspeople, who lived in the town all their lives, who knew about Jesse's dangerous obsession for Carrie didn't have the brains to figure that out by themselves? Danny who ran away from home when his parents divorced gets the good news at the end of the movie, I guess that his parents are back together, and happily invites his friend Bix to come home and live with him and his parent which Bix readily agrees to do, just what was meant by that? Isn't two grown up young men living together a bit odd especially in movies made back then in the 1950's? The movie "The Girl in Lover's Lane" seems to have more under the covers then over them, when it comes to Bix & Danny, and may have been made for other reasons other than what those watching it back then really thought.

Like probably 90% of the people writing reviews for this movie, I saw this on "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Joel and the bots did an excellent job of riffing on this movie, and I thought that it was one of the funnier episodes.

This being said, however, this wasn't a particularly horrible movie. Especially compared to some of films they ran on MST3K.

It had it's weaknesses: the movie had about zero budget and so things like the costumes and set design were horrible. The plot, also, digressed in spots. On the whole, though, the acting was competent and the story held my interest. I actually found myself caring about the characters.

It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was nowhere near as bad as the usual MST3k fare such as "Giant Gila Monster" and "Manos Hand of Fate." As such, it doesn't really deserve to be mocked as much as it has been. It was a B-Movie from the 50s, but it was a watchable one.

For years, when MST3K fans have been polled about which riffed films were "not completely terrible," this movie has come up (along with the Godzilla and Gamera movies). It's easy to see why - unlike complete train wrecks like Space Mutiny and Manos the Hands Of Fate, you can tell that this could have been a halfway decent film if it had a little more of a budget - better sets, better costumes, a competent script editor to fix the problematic ending. The acting isn't terrible, some of the characters are actually likable, and Jack Elam's villain is genuinely creepy. It made for a very underrated MST3K episode - one of the funniest of the later Joel era. (The show's writers reported being genuinely traumatized by the film's ending - and you just KNOW that it was a rare film that could get that crew to genuinely care about the characters).

I have noticed that a lot of films that have been featured on "Mystery Science Theater" have received a tons of low ratings on IMDb. However, a few of the films featured on the films weren't that bad and it's not fair to rate a film that's been given the "MST" treatment--with the hosts making funny comments during the film. Now I am NOT saying that "The Girl in Lover's Lane" is a great film, but it's not nearly bad enough to merit its current IMDb score of 2.1.

The film begins with Bix and Danny meeting. Bix is a veteran drifter and Danny a younger guy who seems to have no particular reason to be wandering about the country. Once they blow into a small town, Bix needs to rescue Danny again and again because Danny is quite naive--a nice way of saying he has the intellect of a tomato.

Along the way, something happens to the self-assured Bix--he finds a nice young lady and finds the lure of staying put pulling at him. And, in an odd subplot, Jack Elam plays a super-creepy sicko who wanders the town scaring the crap out of everyone--yet oddly, the police don't seem to take much notice nor does anyone on their own do anything about him. Ultimately, however, when Elam puts the moves on a girl who Bix is falling for, things come to a full boil.

Overall, while not at all a great film, there were many interesting plot elements in this film--enough to merit a score higher than 2.1. The biggest negatives are a simplistic conclusion to the mystery that occurs near the end as well as the total stupidity of Danny one time too often. Considering the minuscule budget, however, it's a watchable little film.