Low-budget film producer Albert Zugsmith (Sex Kittens Go to College, High School Confidential) presumably thought that beatniks would make this crime thriller more marketable. So the film features a couple beatnik hangouts, including a small club that somehow manages to book Louis Armstrong without much fanfare or even a packed house; a bunch of self-conscious bohemian wannabes who desperately chew the scenery while spouting hip lingo that would have embarrassed Herman Munster; and an amoral serial rapist who happens to love free verse and hate straight society. Ray Danton plays the villain with all the haughtiness he can muster, while the rest of the cast, which includes William Schallet as a pro-life priest and Mamie Van Doren in another sexy role, struggle professionally with material that's both heavy-handed and exploitative. The movie does make a creditable (if rather unsubtle) point about some men's attitudes toward women who have been victims of sexual assault. However, the criminal investigation is fairly dull, the characters are fairly wooden, the filmmaking is mostly perfunctory, and the few moments of intelligence are cheapened by the tawdry nonsense that surrounds them. In other words, this isn't close to being a good film if you take it seriously. Fortunately, you aren't required to take it seriously, regardless of what the filmmakers may have intended. The Beat Generation isn't a nonstop laugh riot, but lovers of camp movies will be satisfied by this film's preposterous depiction of beatniks. Also, the movie holds some historical interest as both a period piece and one of the inspirations for Richard Hell's classic punk song "Blank Generation."