Date Bait

"Danny Logan" (Gary Clarke) and "Sue Randall" (Marla Ryan) have been going steady for a while and have fallen deeply in love. Unfortunately, another young man who Sue dated once or twice named "Brad Martinelli" (Dick Gering) has returned after an extended illness and wants Sue back in his life. Not long afterward Brad tries to muscle his way back into Sue's life at a local dance which results in a scuffle between him and Danny. Yet even though Danny manages to hold his own during the fight what he doesn't count on is the fact that Brad has an older brother who is more than willing to do whatever it takes to protect him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film turned out to be an okay grade-B drama from a particular time notable for films appealing to teenage audiences and young adults. It's not a bad movie but the main problem with it is that it condenses too much material in a very limited time (only 72 minutes) which causes it to look a bit shallow. Along with that the ending was also a little corny. Be that as it may, the story was still somewhat interesting and Marla Ryan was quite cute as well. Accordingly, I rate this film as about average.

This film goes under the category of drive-in drivel, the stuff that went on the screen and possibly inspired teens to get down to business.

Date Bait is the story of a love triangle between Marlo Ryan and new boyfriend Gary Clarke and old boyfriend Dick Gering. Gering went away to a rehab for his heroin addiction and while he was gone Ryan started to date Gary Clarke. Ryan who's a light version of Sandra Dee doesn't see much of a future with a drug addict. However her clueless father for reasons I can't explain just dislikes Clarke.

It might be a simple matter if Gering would just leave, but he won't and he's the younger brother of the local gangster and Clarke and anyone who stands up for him gets a going over.

This independent production boasts nothing really good about it. The direction is totally lacking, the cast is awful and the sets are bad. Even the rock and roll music is second rate.

The theme should have been Dion's Teenager In Love or more like teenagers in heat.

I accidentally stumbled on this rarely seen movie and it was pleasant surprise. Almost like finding a hidden gem. The story was rather silly and naive but still interesting enough to engage you to screen. A girl from wealthy family is in love to lower class boy and there are many obstacles standing on their way. Girl's parents aren't much supportive and then there is obsessive drug addict who is desperately in love of the girl. And mix into a pair of brutal but funny gangsters and you get quite intriguing little movie. Nice mixture of classical love story and crime film.

The acting wasn't cheesy. Another reason to be pleasantly surprised. Specially I liked Richard Gering as drug addictive Brad. Don't wait anything Oscar worthy though but I already know you won't.

Date Bait is nice small JD film and I was personally more entertained than watching Transformers. But it's just me. I am a sucker for old movies.

I disagree with the other comment on here. I really enjoyed this film. There are hot car chase scenes, heroin junkies, cute guys (Logan!), crazy gangster power struggles, dumb older brothers, cool music and the greatest awkward wedding night scene I've ever seen in a movie. Perhaps I'm easy to captivate, but I was into the movie the whole time, not bored once! The acting and characters were interesting, too. I loved Frida, who was always playing jokes on her lanky, tolerant boyfriend. Danny Logan just keeps getting crapped on even though he seems to do everything right, and you can't help but cheer him on the whole time. The gangsters are laughably dumb and the heroin junkie Freddy is very entertaining with his obsessive face-covering. I thought it was well directed film and well thought out plot. If you think '50s teen movies are lame, then don't watch this one because it's pretty classic in my book.

Dick Gering returns from rehab to go back to work for his drug-pushing brother, John Garwood. First, though, he goes to the bar where they play rockabilly to let Marlo Ryan he's back. She doesn't know what he's talking about. She's with Gary Clarke. Gering attacks Clarke and gets beat up for the effort. Meanwhile, Clarke and Miss Ryan want to get married. But her father forbids it. So they elope to Vegas. When they gt back, her father tells her he's getting the marriage annulled. And Garwood is looking for Clarke to beat him up, as well as a junkie who owes hm money.

Everyone is very clean cut here, and Clarke drives a modified Buick that looks really cool. Other than the general mess everyone seems to have made of their lives, I'm not sure what this movie is about, nor how the title relates to anything. Still, cool car.