Cat Murkil and the Silks (1976)

Conniving little weasel Eddie "the Cat" Murkil (expertly played to the sniveling obnoxious hilt by David Kyle, who later quit acting to become a youth minister!) is a cunning adolescent psychopath who ruthlessly bumps off Punch (a nifty, albeit brief appearance by Derrel Maury of "Massacre at Central High" fame), the leader of the teenage hoodlum gang the Silks. Cat makes it look like the rival Latino gang the Ruedas did it. This leads to a violent gang war. Pretty soon the body count begins to pile up at an alarming rate (the definite highlight occurs when two scrawny 14-year-old members of the Silks sneak into a high school locker room to shiv two members of the Ruedas in the shower!). Clearly intended as some kind of grim cautionary tale about teen gangs and adolescent violence on the rise in major cities, this unjustly overlooked 70's drive-in juvenile delinquent exploitation item qualifies as a real campy hoot. Director John Bushelman takes the whole silly story very seriously, which in turn gives this goofy marvel a certain endearingly clunky charm. Bruce Logan's polished cinematography gives the film a sharp, glossy look. Better still, both the amusingly insipid soft-rock theme song "Slow Down Baby" and especially Bernie Kaai Lewis' funky garage rock score are hilariously cheesy. Popping up in snazzy supporting roles are Rhodes Reason and Doug McGrath as two hard-nosed police detectives, Steve Bond as Murkil's incarcerated older brother who's struggling to go straight, Doodles Weaver as a gas station owner and "Beverly Hills Cop" film series regular John Ashton as a high school football coach. Good dumb fun.

Okay....I suppose there was never a time when CAT MURKIL AND THE SILKS would have been called a good movie. It has become a camp-value mini-classic with its 30-year vintage, yet the subject matter at hand, although presented in a way we might see as naive today, retains significance in modern times.No-good, scrawny little punk "Cat" Murkil is the unlikely leader of a honky high school gang who wreak terror on anyone standing in the way of their juvenile-delinquent hijinks. Pitted against gangs of other races from various parts of town, they find themselves in a revolving door of violent paybacks in a blood-soaked kiddie gang war.With performances ranging from awful to adequate, and rather poorly paced, this low-budget curiosity piece is best viewed by patient bad movie fans. While far from the worst film I have ever seen(with a few pretty good moments), this ranks a meager 4/10, offered with hesitant charity.

This is without doubt one of the worst films I have ever seen. Almost everything about it is awful, especially the editing. This is no exaggeration. Watch something like Nosferatu, which was made in 1922, and then watch this, made over 50 years later and wonder why editing technology hasn't advanced in such a large period of time. The only thing this film is good for is that it's so bad you may have wet yourself by the end (which is crap, as if you had to be told). One of the worst films ever.

Sure, it's a little silly, but the film stands out far beyond other movies of the age-old "juvenile delinquent" genre. Don't even think about sordid campiness here, because this is the real thing! It is dramatically interesting, and there's enough crude action to cause mass hysteria.. Although it now pales by comparison of today's films on a higher standard, the message on teenage violence still delivers to this day. As it is, the movie remains fun and entertaining.