Crime And Punishment USA

In this appealingly ambitious Z-grade independent feature, shot around the seldom-seen streets and beach-houses of 1950s' Santa Monica, the perennial tale of youth’s directionless anger and outsider stance is appropriately transplanted to the Californian beat era, discretely pervasive (save in the overbearing score). The shakiness of execution is balanced by tangibility of time and place and a real sense of commitment from all involved, not least from the tanned one in his debut, earnest and young; if he hasn’t nearly the range or expressiveness to take on Rashkolnikov he is nonetheless surprisingly effective, yet to grow into his too-pretty features, with pouting lips and beetling brows that convey adolescent arrogance and insecurity all on their own.

d Denis Sanders p Terry Sanders sc Walter Newman ph Floyd Crosby ed Merril G. White ad Robert Tyler Lee m Herschel Burke Gilbert cast George Hamilton, Mary Murphy, Frank Silvera, Marian Seldes, John Harding, Wayne Heffley
(1959, USA, 78m, b/w)