Shot entirely in Toronto, Canada in 1959, the film ‘Ivy League Killers‘ is a rather interesting B-movie where the leather jacket wearing bikers are the good guys, and the preppy guys in the sports cars are the evil ones.
As the opening credit are rolling, the Black Diamonds motorcycle club are hanging out at the race track, when they’re harassed the rich kids in their 1957 Mercedes Benz 300 SL The confrontation spills into the street where the bikers run the fleeing sportscars into the ditch. If only they knew that the 300 SL would be a million dollar car in the future. Should have just stolen the cars!
The ‘ivy league’ guys plot their revenge in a truly evil manner. They’re going to rob the Palace Pier dancehall while dressed in stolen Black Diamond leather jackets and motorcycles. Not only does this pin an armed robbery on the gang, they preppies even killed a parking lot attendant during the escape. Now its a murder rap. Oh…and they burn the cash they stole from the dancehall to hide the evidence. When one of their girlfriends snoops around and figures out what the Ivy League killers have done, they tie her up, throw her and the motorcycles in the back of a truck, and plan to drive it off a cliff! The perfect crime.
A couple interesting notes about the film.
Palace Pier was a lakeshore dancehall in Toronto that was popular with all types back in the 50s. But it burned to the ground in 1963 (it’s now a condominium) and this movie provides a glimpse into real Toronto teen culture of the era. The dancehall was so much different than the ‘juke joints’ seen in movies like ‘Running Wild‘.
The final scenes of the waterfront cliffs, was filmed at the Scarborough Bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario. The location looks a lot like the cliff where the deadly game of chicken was played in ‘Rebel Without a Cause‘. Yet today, the bluffs have been turned into a family-friendly park with docks for expensive sailboats, rather than a place to dump a body and hide evidence.
You’d think this was a cult-classic in Canadian cinema. Just one look at that final shot of the hero (Don Borisenko, called the James Dean of Canada back in the day) walking along the beach as the villain’s dead body bobbs in the waves behind him, really gives the movie an epic appearance. But no, it’s just another hot-rod / JD movie lost to time. Too bad nobody even remembers it because it’s got cool cars, juvenile delinquents, hot girls and rock n’ roll music; all the right elements.
It needs to be rediscovered.
It needs to be re-uploaded to YouTube from a DVD because the one online now looks like a copy of a copy of a print.
And Youtube compresses the videos which makes copies of copies look worse.
That’s why I still love DVDs and especially CDs for music in the car. There’s a big difference.
Did you notice the motorcycle guy is holding a pipe wrench? Ye-owch!
Canadians are SO violent. Swinging a pipe wrench at another motorist is how we signal a lane change up here.
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In all seriousness though, that movie poster has so many errors. I guess that’s called creative license to get folks to the movie theatrem
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First off, the motorcycle boy never has a pipe wrench in his hand. He just rides close by and intimidates the sports car boy.
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And that car…
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In the movie it’s a Mercedes 300 SL roadster. In the poster it’s suddenly a ’57 Corvette. You can tell by the ‘cove’ on the door.
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Didn’t they think we’d notice that?!?
I believe they did NOT think we would notice that. Spoiler alert: we noticed that.
So when you do the pipe wrench lane change I assume you hold on to it as opposed to having an infinite number of pipe wrenches in the back seat?
Yes…first you raise the pipe up menacingly, then point it in the direction of your lane change.
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You only have to swing the wrench if the other maniac motorists don’t comply.
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And actually throwing the wrench? No. Only if you’re dealing with American tourists.
Ha.