Deadbeat at Dawn
Deadbeat at Dawn | |
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Directed by | Jim Van Bebber |
Written by | Jim Van Bebber[2] |
Produced by | Michael King[2] |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Michael King[2] |
Edited by | Jim Van Bebber[2] |
Music by |
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Production company | Smodeus Productions Inc. |
Release date |
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Running time | 81 minutes[1] |
Country | United States[1] |
Deadbeat at Dawn is a 1988
Plot
The main character is Goose (Van Bebber). Goose is leader of "The Ravens", a street gang located in
The Ravens organise a hit and coerce Goose into joining them in a plot to steal $100,000 cash from the federal government. For this and a follow-up deal, they agree to put aside their differences with the Spiders and agree to meet at a place where nobody is armed in order to carry out the transaction safely. Goose plans on taking the money directly from the drop and secretly arms himself—unbeknownst to him, the Spiders were laying a trap. The Ravens are killed but Goose manages to escape with the money, calling Christie's sister he arranges a meetup near a freight train station in order to give her the money, lying to her by saying her sister is still alive. As he makes his way to the meeting point he's spotted by one of the members of the Spiders. As he waits for Christie's sister to arrive he falls asleep, awaking he finds himself cornered and a fight ensues.
The fight extends to the streets below whereby Christie's sister arrives and is threatened by one of the other gang members. Goose fights him off and kills him but in doing so is stabbed multiple times in the kidney and begins to lose a lot of blood. He greets Christie's sister and hands her the money, urging her to flee; upon her questioning he reveals that Christie is in fact dead. Walking away from her he begins to make his way into a well-populated street before collapsing onto the ground as sirens can be heard in the background.
Cast
- Jim Van Bebber as Goose: Leader of the Ravens and Christie's boyfriend.
- Paul Harper as Danny: Leader of the Spiders. He is an abusive and misogynisticthug.
- Megan Murphy as Christie: Goose's girlfriend. She is into mysticism and threatens to leave Goose if he doesn't quit the Ravens.
- Marc Pitman as Bonecrusher: A member of the Spiders. He is a psychoticman, full of uncontrollable rage.
- Ric Walker as Keith: The Raven second-in-command, he takes over as leader when Goose quits.
- Charlie Goetz as Dad, Goose's father.
Release
Deadbeat at Dawn was shown at The Dayton Movies theatre in Dayton, Ohio on November 18, 1988.
Reception
In a contemporary review, Terry Lawson gave the film a rating of two out of five stars, referring to the film as "part action film, part horror pastiche, part home movie and all pure, raw energy" stating it was "garish, violent and purposely absurd little action thriller" which had "about twice the impact of most films of its kind - whatever that kind might be."[3] Lawson concluded that Van Bebber and "specifically photographer Mike King" have "an inherent understanding of how movies work: Deadbeat at Dawn may be crude and silly and even incoherent at times, but it has an undeniable vitality and a snotty sense of style: It is never dull."[3]
From retrospective reviews, Nick Pinkerton of
References
- ^ a b c d Pinkerton 2019, p. 82.
- ^ Arrow Video. p. 3. AV160 / FCD1784.
- ^ a b c Lawson 1988.
- ^ Balun 1991, p. 29.
- ^ a b c Gabbey 2019, p. 16.
- ^ a b "Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) - Jim Van Bebber". AllMovie. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
- ^ Buchanan.
Sources
- Balun, Chas. (Fall 1991). "Van Bebber's Family". Deep Red. No. 1. The Chunkblow Press, Inc.
- Buchanan, Jason. "Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) - Jim Van Bebber". AllMovie. Archived from the original on February 6, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
- Gabbey, Scott (2019). "Fire in the Streets: Exploring Jim Vanbebber's 'Deadbeat at Dawn'". Deadbeat at Dawn (Booklet). Arrow Video. p. 16. AV160 / FCD1784.
- Lawson, Terry (November 17, 1988). "'Deadbeat at Dawn' may be crude - but dead it's not". Dayton Daily News. p. 12-C.
- Pinkerton, Nick (March 2019). "New Releases". Sight & Sound. Vol. 29, no. 3.
External links
- Deadbeat at Dawn at IMDb