An interesting one. Is it suspense? Film noir? Rock and roll musical? Why not all three?
Shorty (Dick Miller) is aptly named. He's short of stature, short of temper, and short of tolerance for the outside world. Getting himself tossed out of a club for starting a fight between customers, Shorty ends up at the Club Nine, the divest dive in town. He sets up shop near the jukebox and takes stock of the customers.
There's Al (Robin Morse) the owner. Steve (Richard Cutting) is a reporter, who Al begs to write about his bar. Sir Bop (Mel Welles) is a beatnik trying to showcase his latest find Julie (Abby Dalton), who's suffering from a case of stage fright. Angie (Chris Alcaide) is a loutish truck driver along with his abrasive gal Mabel (Jeannie Cooper). The Kid (Beech Dickerson) is a rookie boxer alongside his manager Marty (Clegg Hoyt) and his wife Syl (Barboura Morris).
Julie tries her best to belt out a few tunes, but she's lousy. Sir Bop and the other heap praise on her, but Shorty tell her truth. He isn't mean, but he does tell her all the faults. This doesn't endear him to the crowd.
Jigger (Russell Johnson) and Joey (Jonathan Haze) enter and they're not in the mood for drinks. They're holdup men, and their last heist went sour. They figure the Club Nine would be a good place to hide out for a while and let the heat die down. Shorty disagrees, and from there it's a battle of wills between the thuggish and the smart ass.
A hard film to classify. It's like Corman just wrote the characters first and scripted it around them. Miller is the MVP of the entire film. Corman just sets him up and Miller blasts away with rudeness and the truth in equal measure. Johnson is tops too. Jigger is not as smart as he thinks, but he's well armed enough to make up for his intellectual shortcomings.
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