WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR (1965)

Joseph Cates was drawn to stories combining psychology and sexuality. His first feature, Girl of the Night (1960), starred Anne Francis as a prostitute seeing a psychiatrist. For this 1965 follow-up, he let the characters’ impulses run wild. Juliet Prowse works as a hostess and DJ at a disco. She’s beautiful and talented, and has a stalker, who starts with obscene phone calls before becoming violent. Early on, it’s revealed to be the club’s busboy, played by Sal Mineo in a role he hoped would blast him into adult stardom. The film offers a gritty view of the Times Square area long before family-friendly tenants moved in, but it was even grittier before three minutes were censored and cut after the film’s initial screenings. This new restored print — made under the supervision of Cates’ grandson, filmmaker Owen Kline — not only enhances Joseph Brun’s moody black-and-white cinematography but returns the lost footage that expands on the stalker’s psychology. 

d. Joseph Cates, 95m, DCP

DCP courtesy of Dream Walking Pictures.