The film’s cult reputation grew over the years and in 1996, it was given a limited theatrical re-release. In 2009, the film was released on home media for the first time by British company Network Releasing. The company gave the film a Blu-ray transfer in 2018.
Plot
Norah Dain, a nightclub disc jockey and aspiring actress living alone in a Manhattan apartment, receives a series of obscene phone calls from someone who seems to be watching her on a daily basis. She also finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment. A police detective, Lt. Dave Madden, whose own wife was raped and murdered, takes a personal interest in Norah and her case. Lt. Madden engages in suspicious behavior such as suggesting to Norah several times that he himself could be the caller, secretly recording his discussions with Norah, listening to tapes of Norah and other women talking about obscene phone calls, and obsessively studying pornography and the behavior of sex perverts, despite the fact that he is exposing his ten-year-old daughter to such adult concepts and he is being reported to his superiors at work.
The obscene caller is seen to be Lawrence Sherman, a waiter at the nightclub where Norah works. Lawrence lives with and cares for his 19-year-old sister Edie, who is brain damaged and has the mind of a child. Edie's brain damage is apparently the result of an accident when she was a little girl and saw her older brother, Lawrence, having sex with an unidentified older woman; she ran away in horror or fear and fell down the stairs. Lawrence is unable to have a normal romantic or sexual relationship due to his guilt over the accident and his duty to look after Edie following the death of their parents. He is also frustrated when Edie dresses up in an adult dress, high heels and makeup and seems to make advances towards him. He tries to get rid of his frustration by visiting adult bookstores and movies in Times Square, but still is obsessed with watching and calling Norah. Despite Lt. Madden's warnings that the caller might be someone Norah knows, Norah Durant does not suspect Lawrence until it is too late. Instead, she is friendly to him and even attracted to him, complimenting him on his body when they meet at the gym, and offering to stay late after work to teach him to dance.
Marian Freeman, the older, experienced manager of the nightclub where Norah and Lawrence work, also takes a personal interest in Norah and tries to advise and protect her. She offers to stay overnight with Norah at her apartment so Norah will not be alone and afraid. While Marian is visiting, Norah receives yet another telephone call and starts to cry. Marian consoles her, but Norah senses that Marian is actually making a lesbian pass at her and, revolted, asks her to leave the apartment immediately. Marian leaves in a huff, still wearing Norah's coat, which she had been using as a bathrobe. Outside, Lawrence sees Marian leaving (wearing Norah's coat), and mistaking her for Norah, he chases after her and kills her.
Lawrence attacks Norah after closing time in the empty nightclub and rapes her, but does not kill her. Lt. Madden, who has just figured out that Lawrence was watching Norah through the reflection of a mirror, arrives too late to prevent the rape. He beats Lawrence and then, inexplicably, lets him leave the club. Lawrence runs through traffic in Times Square, imagining that he is running through Central Park towards a welcoming Norah. Police officers chase him and ultimately gun him down as the film ends.
Mineo, playing against type as the antagonist, hoped that the film would re-start his career after aging out of the types of roles that made him famous.[7] A scene of the film required Mineo's character to imply he was masturbating, but no nudity could be shown due to censors. Thus, Mineo had to wear jockey shorts, and the actor remarked, "It turned out that was the first American film where a man wore jockey shorts on-screen."[8]
Set in New York City, the film was shot on location in Manhattan and features footage of Times Square.[8][9]
Release and reception
Although Mineo's performance was praised, the film received negative reviews. Box Office said, "Mineo's performance in an unsavory role is superior to the tone of the picture."[1] Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film one and a half out of four stars, calling it "sleazy" and "a waste of talent".[10]
In 1996, Who Killed Teddy Bear was theatrically released in select theaters.[13] In January 2010, the film was given a limited run at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City.[14] The opening night screening was introduced by Owen Kline, the grandson of director Joseph Cates.[15]
In a retrospective review, Anton Bitel of Channel 4 wrote: "The film’s sexual panic captures perfectly the mood between the repressive 1950s and the liberated 1970s – and for those with an interest in cinema history, Teddy Bear represents an important missing link between, on the one hand, Peeping Tom (1960), Psycho (1960), and the nascent Italian giallo genre, and on the other hand, Black Christmas (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and the American slasher genre."[15]
Home media
In 2009, Network Releasing released Who Killed Teddy Bear on DVD for the first time.[2] The BBFC updated its rating for the film to a '15' Certificate.[11] On September 17, 2018, Network released the film on Blu-ray and VOD.[16] Special features include a booklet with the essay "Sexual Transgression in Sixties New York" by Laura Mayne, an episode of the TV series Court Martial with guest star Sal Mineo, and the documentary LSD: Insight or Insanity?, narrated by Mineo.[17]
^Derry, Charles (2009). Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century. McFarland. p. 368. ISBN978-0-786-45695-6.
