4K UHD Review – Who Killed Teddy Bear

Director Joseph Cates is primarily known for two things: being the father of actress Phoebe Cates and maintaining a steady career in television, largely focused on game and variety shows. Cates offers a dramatic detour in 1965's "Who Killed Teddy Bear," which explores the roughness of a mind destroyed by trauma and the woman caught in the violence of obsession. The screenplay by Leon Tokatyan and Arnold Drake tries to push the material as far as possible for the decade, getting into the burning ways of fixation and the pressures of paranoia. It's a noir-ish take on all kinds of dangers and troubles, finding Cates trying to bring moments of style and restless energy to the feature, which works best when handling unhinged characters unable to cope with the world around them. "Who Killed Teddy Bear" has its shortcomings when it comes to editorial tightness, and the conclusion of the endeavor is too clunky, but the picture is memorable in the way in handles unsavory material, watching Cates lean into sexuality while still organizing a chiller of sorts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com