The Wild Ride (1960) – Harvey Berman.

'He's big, he tuned me in!'

This curiously low-geared Bongo & Beatnik B-quickie presents all-round narcissistic A-Hole, and psychopathically kick-seeking hot dog Johnny (Jack Nicholson) descending precipitously into a hot rodded downward spiral to delinquency in The Wild Ride. A bit of a lame duck, daddio, funky midnight fare for those with an exceptionally high tolerance for overripe beatnik patios, distractingly shaky photography, toxic peer pressure, asinine macho posturing, and dingle-berry dramaturgy. Not so much a curates egg as altogether rotten one, The Wild Ride conjures up all the daredevil impetus of a palsied turtle. There's scant evidence of Jack Nicholson's darkly magnetic charisma, but I was momentarily distracted by his most brazen display of manly nipples. The Wild Ride played like a spectacularly crude road safety propaganda piece, since Nicholson's loathsome skell Johnny, and his equally malodorous cronies are all portrayed in such a brutally unsympathetic manner!