Jail Bait Directors Cut: Lyle Talbot, Dolores Fuller, Herbert Rawlinson, Steve Reeves, Clancy Malone, Timothy Farrell, Theodora Thurman, Bud Osborne, Mona McKinnon, Don Nagel, John Robert Martin, La Vada Simmons, William C. Thompson, Edward D. Wood Jr., Charles Clement, Igo Kantor, Alex Gordon: Amazon.ca: Video

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"How can a great doctor have such a jerk for a son?" asks Ed Wood in his cheap dime store crime thriller about a sneering delinquent whose mania for handguns leads to murder. "I never thought carrying a gun would lead to this," he burbles to his far-too-understanding father, but it's too late. His cold-hearted partner Timothy Farrell blackmails Daddy (who just happens to be the most gifted plastic surgeon in the world) into giving him a new face, but Dad has a trick up his sleeve. Wood regular Lyle Talbot headlines as the investigating police inspector, former Mr. America and future Hercules Steve Reeves takes his shirt off for no good reason to flex his physique to the camera, and Wood's real-life girlfriend and frequent costar Dolores Fuller wears angora as the doctor's nice-girl daughter. "Cheap? Does this look joint look cheap to you?" demands the crook's gold-digging girlfriend? In a word, yes. There's a pleasing grungy B-movie aesthetic to Wood's nighttime location shooting, giving those moments a film noir flavor, but the rest of the film takes place on bland, generic sets with the flat look of a sitcom. Actually, flat is the operative word for this lethargic thriller: Wood displays his genius for arch dialogue and draws wooden performances from his largely mediocre cast. In other words, it's prime Ed Wood. The annoying guitar and piano score was borrowed from Mesa of Lost Women. --Sean Axmaker

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Truly "Edwoodian." So Bad it's good, Jan 24 2004

By

Andre M. "brnn64" (Mt. Pleasant, SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jail Bait (DVD)

Folks, leave your brains at the door. This is good old Edwoodian schlock about a bad boy who gets mixed up with the wrong crowd. Laugh out loud at the outragous stupidity and unintentioned humor of horrible dialougue, bad acting , and sheer senselessness. Who the heck would insist that a doctor under pressure of gunpoint operate on him? (That's just for starters). The surprise ending (which I won't reveal here) is pretty good. But the Blackface minstrel performance as an abomination not only for modern P.C. reasons (as an African-American myself, I've seen far worse in old movies), but it is not funny at all (the guy in Blackface whines and strains his voice in a gross effort to sound "Black" and the gags consist of very bad puns). In true Edwoodian style, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. But if you and your friends are filled with beers and pizza and want a good howl for over an hour, then this is for you.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Not as "bad" as Wood's classics, but a must for collectors, July 25 2003

By

BD Ashley "vidiot_y2k" (Otago, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jail Bait (DVD)

Written by the one and only Edward D. Wood Jr in collaboration with Alex Gordon. JAIL BAIT concerns Don Gregor (Lyle Talbot) a criminal whose father (who just happens to be a plastic surgeon) wants him to straighten out and start a new life; and yes that includes getting a new face.
That's the basic "plot". The more "serious" approach to this movie means it isn't as fun as say, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS; but JAIL BAIT is still a worthwhile addition to the collections of cult movie afficionados. But the feature itself is weak, flat and poorly paced, even by Wood's rock bottom standards.
So why doesn't JAIL BAIT rank as one of Ed's "classics"? Because:
a)The story is more conventional.
b)The film's direction is almost COMPETENT. If you viewed this without knowing Wood directed, you could be forgiven for easily dismissing JAIL BAIT as a forgettably bad B crime melodrama and:
c)Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson or Criswell are nowhere to be seen.
Despite this; I've given the movie 2 stars simply because it's difficult to completely dislike an Ed Wood movie, no matter how much you may wish to. The DVD is also worth a look since this edition of JAIL BAIT is the digitally remastered Director's Cut. So that's got to be worth something. The movie is also notable for Wood's casting of a pre- HERCULES Steve Reeves, using his own voice for once.
Last of all, I have a question: Is it just me, or did this inadvertently inspire the movie JOHNNY HANDSOME, which featured Mickey Rourke at his most mumbling and incoherant? Try comparing the movies sometime and you may see a few parallels between the two.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Jail Bait Lures Laughs, Sep 25 2002

By

Carolyn Paetow (Proctorville, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Jail Bait Directors Cut (VHS Tape)

This unintentional film-noir spoof has all the marks of Ed Wood's zany script and direction. In other words, it's absolutely hilarious! There's nothing basically preposterous about a plastic surgeon deconstructing a face, yet Wood managed to make this movie a farce--even though he obviously tried to produce a straight-up crime drama. The only competent actor involved, Lyle Talbot, moves stolidly through the story, tossing off the dumbest dialogue with professionalism and aplomb. His sidekick, Steve Reeves, however, flips off his lines as though each word were a fleck of dandruff to be brushed hastily and unobtrusively away. Wood's non-actor girlfriend, Dolores Fuller, looks like a blonde bombshell trussed up in business suits as she strides martially back and forth in her living room. The movie is a windfall of loony lines, cheap props, and ridiculous situations. A purportedly luxurious apartment is so cheaply and sparingly furnished that it looks one notch above a flophouse. Surgery is performed on the couch of a gangster's moll, and then she attends the bandage removal in a fur and cocktail gown. A corpse is propped, standing up, in a shallow closet, prompting the moll to rail about dead men cluttering up her place. As far as so-bad-it's-good flicks go, this one's so terrible it's terrific!

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine DVD transfer of overlooked Ed Wood crime thriller
Jail Bait, shot by Wood in between Glen or Glenda and Bride of the Monster, is perhaps the least-known and -loved of his 1950s features, probably because it's more competently... Read more

Published on Mar 9 2002 by Surfink

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS MOVIE SUCKED! i liked it
Ok, this movie is awful and it has a misleading title, but would you expect anything else from Ed Wood? Read more

Published on April 21 2001