The Cross and the Switchblade

Trash has a certain attractiveness, especially when it's the sort that claims to be based on fact and at the same time pits Pat Boone against a ghetto full of black and Puerto Rican kids. A preacher from Pennsylvania launching into reform work in New York, Boone comes out with phrases like 'God'll get you high, but he won't let you down', and there's layings-on of sweaty palms, a lady on heroin reclaimed, bible handouts, gang fights out of West Side Story, betrayals, young love, even light forming an unmistakable cross on the screen at a crucial moment. The best thing about it, this being one of those movies that seem unconscious of what they're really about, is that Boone's motivations are never less than equivocal, so that the switch-blade wins hands down over God-is-loveism.