5/10
The boy with the gun
7 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS**** Somewhat misleading title in that the star of the film Jack Nicholson as the misunderstood teenager Jimmy Wallace is not a killer, he didn't kill anyone, but defiantly is a crybaby who cry's up a storm that almost drowns the entire cast by the time the film is finally over. Jimmy who has a confrontation with Manny Cole, Brett Halsey, and his two friends Joey & Al, Ralph Reed & James Fillmore, over his girlfriend Carole Fields, Carolyn Mitchell, is later confronted by the trio again this time using brass knuckles and a revolver. It's then in trying to defend himself Jimmy accidentally shoots one of his attackers and runs for his life thinking that he killed him and may be facing life behind bars or a one way trip to the San Quentin gas chamber.

Taking Mrs. Maxton, Brabara Knudson, and her 4 month baby girl as well as dishwasher Sam, Smoki Whitefield, hostage in a nearby diner Jimmy is ready to go down in a hail of police bullets until his girlfriend Carole as well as Sam, the real hero in the movie, talk him into surrendering to the police before anybody including himself ends up getting killed. Sacared and confused Jimmy feeling that the world is against him finds out that he's not the rotten teenager that most people think he is and deserves everything he gets-A rotten deal- in life. It's just when the cops are about to storm the place It's both Carole and Sam who end up saving the day, or night in that everything takes place in the dark in the movie, by getting a tearful Jimmy to surrender before he ends up getting shot by the police. As for Sam he gets no credit at all by the head of the police Let. Porter, Harry Lauter, not even a thank you for the great job he did by risking his life, unlike Let. Porter, to get Jimmy to surrender and releasing Mrs. Maxton and her infant daughter unharmed.

Jack Nicholson's movie debut before he made it big 12 years later with his "Five Easy Pieces" as well as "Easy Rider" that made him a top star in Hollywood. Things didn't turns out so good for Nicholson's co-star in the movie Carolyn Mitchell who later married and divorced Mickey Rooney and was tragically murdered by her former boyfriend bit part Yogoslave actor Milos Mlosevice at the age 29 in 1966 in what was described by the local police as a murder suicide .
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