Chet Marko (Darrell Howe, in his only feature credit) idolized his older brother Duke, to the point where he genuinely believes Duke was innocent of a murder that got Duke sent to the gas chamber. Chet, an extremely troubled young man all twisted up with hatred, vows to get even with everybody responsible for convicting Duke.
This amusingly sordid young-punk melodrama provides some fun for B movie lovers, as long as they don't take it very seriously. Howe does his level best to emote and project a sense of "cool", while Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns & Gracie Allen, is fine as Mickey, the very sincere young man who intends to marry Chets' sister Pat (Pamela Lincoln, "The Tingler"). Solid support is provided by character actors Russ Bender ("War of the Colossal Beast") and Michael Granger ("Creature with the Atom Brain"), the latter playing a compassionate police lieutenant who hopes to get through to Chet rather than just write him off as a lost cause. Frank Killmond, who'd previously been in Hitchcocks' "Psycho", is the kid with a misguided sense of loyalty to Chet, whom he regards as a benevolent older-brother type. Don Devlin ("Blood of Dracula"), who plays the role of the antagonistic Moe, also co-wrote the script. (It might interest people to know that Don was the father of Dean Devlin, the actor turned writer & producer who's best known for his collaborations with Roland Emmerich.)
Once this viewer got over the fact that the film didn't really live up to its lurid title, or play out like a standard tale of vengeance, he found that this was pretty entertaining, flaws and all.
Six out of 10.
This amusingly sordid young-punk melodrama provides some fun for B movie lovers, as long as they don't take it very seriously. Howe does his level best to emote and project a sense of "cool", while Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns & Gracie Allen, is fine as Mickey, the very sincere young man who intends to marry Chets' sister Pat (Pamela Lincoln, "The Tingler"). Solid support is provided by character actors Russ Bender ("War of the Colossal Beast") and Michael Granger ("Creature with the Atom Brain"), the latter playing a compassionate police lieutenant who hopes to get through to Chet rather than just write him off as a lost cause. Frank Killmond, who'd previously been in Hitchcocks' "Psycho", is the kid with a misguided sense of loyalty to Chet, whom he regards as a benevolent older-brother type. Don Devlin ("Blood of Dracula"), who plays the role of the antagonistic Moe, also co-wrote the script. (It might interest people to know that Don was the father of Dean Devlin, the actor turned writer & producer who's best known for his collaborations with Roland Emmerich.)
Once this viewer got over the fact that the film didn't really live up to its lurid title, or play out like a standard tale of vengeance, he found that this was pretty entertaining, flaws and all.
Six out of 10.