Who Killed Teddy Bear?

media release: USA | 1965 | 35mm | 95 min.

Director: Joseph Cates

Cast: Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Elaine Stritch

Ahead-of-its-time in sexual frankness, this independently filmed New York City noir features the diminutive Mineo as a homicidal, smut-obsessed busboy at a discotheque who makes anonymous obscene phone calls to the club’s head D.J. (Prowse). This new 35mm print of Cates’ original director’s cut, unseen in nearly 60 years, includes over 5 minutes of censored material that was cut from the 1965 release prints, revealing, among other things, a deeper exploration of the Mineo character’s true sexuality. The new restoration comes courtesy of director Cates’ grandson: filmmaker and actor Owen Kline.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.

Owen Kline Presents!

“The young director Owen Kline packs worlds of cringe into Funny Pages — shame, disgust, embarrassment, sweaty sexual panic, acres of pustules — it’s all here in this terrific, tonally flawless feature debut,” wrote The New York Times’s chief film critic Manohla Dargis upon Funny Pages’ release in 2022. The story of a young aspiring comic book artist trying to shake off his comfortable suburban NJ upbringing, the movie is as honest and funny as any writer-director’s debut in recent memory. Premiering to significant acclaim at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Funny Pages was distributed by A24 and has built up a serious cult following in the time since. On February 27, the film’s writer and director, Owen Kline, will appear in person at the Cinematheque to present his own, personal 35mm film print of Funny Pages. The screening will be preceded by a “Mystery Reel” of short films and weird 16mm ephemera curated by Kline, and on February 28 and March 1, Kline will personally introduce a marathon series of eight feature films he has selected, all of which have informed his artistic sensibility. Among the features is a new 35mm print of the 1965 Sal Mineo vehicle, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, directed by Kline’s grandfather, Joseph Cates, and featuring five minutes of footage restored that has not been seen in the decades since Teddy Bear’s release.