Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2018 August 08 • Wednesday

The poster for Stakeout on Dope Street (1958) promises to reveal "what happens when kids get their hands on dope!".

As someone with an interest in mid-twentieth century pop culture that involves adolescence and juvenile delinquency, I was curious to know what this movie says would happen.

Amusingly enough, what happens is capitalism. These three teenagers discover a lost cache of heroin and decide to go into business as drug dealers.

They meet up with this guy who appears to be their town's only junkie for some advice and then they start trying to get rich by selling the stuff.

It's not a great movie but it has nice black and white photography, much of it shot on location, and a decent west coast jazz score by Richard Markowitz.

There's also a surprisingly intense cold turkey withdrawal scene.