This over-the-top '50s juvenile delinquency melodrama has developed a cult following for its rabid anti-marijuana message and a thoroughly enjoyable performance by teen-pic icon Dick Bakalyan as one of the teenagers gone bad. A reform-school graduate turns some long-in-the-tooth high schoolers onto the loco weed; before long, they're hopelessly addicted, with crime, insanity, and death the inevitable results. The Cool and the Crazy was shot on location in Kansas City, where Dick Bakalyan actually spent a few hours in jail when local cops thought he was a for-real bad guy and not just acting.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide