The Beat Generation - BLU-RAY

By the end of the 1950s, Hollywood's fascination with bongo-beating, poetry-spouting Bohemians was waning. With The Beat Generation, co-writers Richard Matheson (Duel, I Am Legend) and Lewis Meltzer (The Man With the Golden Arm) seized an opportunity to playfully mock the pseudo intellectual by using the beatnik world as a backdrop for their detective story - at turns a potboiler and an exploration of the criminal mind. Steve Cochran stars as Dave Culloran, a woman-hating cop who has much in common with the serial rapist (played by Ray Danton) he is pursuing. The paths of the black-hearted cop and the black-gloved stalker converge when Culloran's wife (Fay Spain) is assaulted by the criminal, becomes pregnant and, not knowing which man is the father, must decide whether or not to keep the baby. In it's final act, the grim drama takes an unexpected detour into slapstick, as Culloran pursues the culprit through a Beatnik hootenanny, and must navigate through a bizarre assortment of counter-culture stereotypes. In addition to featured cameos by trumpeter Ray Anthony and popular personality Vampira, this Albert Zugsmith production includes musical cameos by Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars and early pop star Dick Contino (playing guitar, rather than his usual accordion)

It [Blu-ray]

Streetwise mobster-turned-movie producer Chili Palmer is back, but this time Chili has abandoned the fickle movie industry and veered into the music business, tangling with Russian mobsters and gangsta rappers and taking a talented, feisty young singer named Linda Moon under his wing. From the recording studio to an Aerosmith concert to the MTV Music Awards, he manipulates events to watch them play out the Chili way, using his signature blend of wiseguy skills and negotiation tactics. It's a dangerous business, and everyone's looking for their next big hit.