Film Forum

U.S., 1965
Directed by Joseph Cates
Starring Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Elaine Stritch
Approx. 95 min. 35mm.

The apex of lurid ’60s exploitation movies and a virtual smorgasbord of Hollywood taboos: voyeurism, cross-dressing, lesbianism, pornography, masturbation, incest, child abuse, sexual violence, even necrophilia…  In sharp contrast to his innocent but equally disturbed Plato in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, Sal Mineo stars as a porno-obsessed, body-building, proto-Travis Bickle, with Juliet Prowse as a go-go dancer/hostess whose seemingly inevitable states of undress are spied on by an unknown Peeping Tom. After one too many X-rated phone calls, it's erstwhile comedian/game show host Jan Murray on the case, as a sex-crime-specializing cop whose research includes re-playing victims’ interviews, while his 10-year-old daughter listens in next door; plus all-too-friendly sympathy from lesbian disco boss Elaine Stritch.

TEDDY BEAR seethes with a sweatily frustrated libidinousness: as the camera caressingly photographs the faceless voyeur in his jockey shorts, you'd swear you were watching a recent Calvin Klein commercial. Shot on location in New York in a glistening black and white recalling SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, TEDDY BEAR offers a unique documentary record of mid-60s Times Square sex shops, when magazines like Teenage Nudist were displayed alongside books by Frank Harris and William Burroughs.

This new 35mm print of Cates’ original director’s cut, unseen in nearly 60 years, includes over 5 minutes of censored material (cut from the 1965 release prints), revealing, among other things, a deeper exploration of the Mineo character’s true sexuality.  

Says filmmaker Owen Kline (FUNNY PAGES), grandson of director Joe Cates, “Of all the lurid discoveries hiding in the lost director's cut, the most staggering was a moment of Mineo sifting through nudist magazines in a Times Square adult book store. The last title he picks up is a gay pulp novel called Beach Stud. Mineo was already running from gay rumors in the tabloids when he fearlessly took on the character in TEDDY BEAR (it officially put him on the “weirdo list,” as he put it), but to us, restoring this lost detail cements the film's already-beloved status as a touchstone of Queer Cinema.”

Film description by Bruce Goldstein and Michael Jeck.

New 35mm print courtesy Owen Kline and Vinegar Syndrome.

Special thanks to Brian Block and Stephen Darren Holmgren, Esq. of Film Arts Legal.

A DREAM WALKING PICTURES RELEASE IN ASSOCIATION WITH VINEGAR SYNDROME

Reviews

“Imbued with a glorious sleazy quality.”
– The Guardian

“A skewed and savage portrait chronicling the perverse underside of a swinging ’60s subculture.”
– Scarlet Street Magazine