I remember a slumber party in my teens where we stayed up to watch "Head" on the late show. We were so disappointed. Perhaps I'd view it differently if I saw it today.
Yeah, it sucked, as did the abysmal SKIDOO with Groucho Marx in his last film (as "God"), Frankie Avalon and Cesar Romero as son-and-father mobsters with matching mustaches, Carol Channing, Jackie Gleason, George Raft, etc. directed by Otto Preminger. WAtching it made you feel you were on a very, very bad trip.
OK, now I read it and see SKIDOO did indeed make the list. Also, I've seen everey one of them! I liked PSYCH-OUT and even THE TRIP, but I saw both in the '80s rather than when they first came out. Bruce Dern, Nicholson, Susan Strasberg, Peter Fonda, and Roger Corman. How could they be bad? And of course The Strawberry Alarm Clock appeared as themselves singing "Incense and Peppermints" in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, co-written by Rogert Ebert.
I think it was Chuck Esola in Overlooked Films who first brought to my attention, at least, that Preminger was bullying Marx on the set to such an extent that Gleason intervened. Model Donyale Luna looking pretty if too thin as Marx's mistress is among the few eyecatching aspects of the film.
OK, Richard, no...MEDIUM COOL is easily the best of these. Seriously. BLOW UP has its points...but MC has the genuine warning from Chicago'68, to director/cinematographer Wexler from another crew member, "Watch out, Haskell--this is real!"...as, as Zappa noted in the song "Mom and Dad" (included in the soundtrack, while footage of the Mothers of Invention in concert appears elsewhere in the film), the cops killed some girls and boys...and as the last bits of audio in the film demonstrate, clubbed and/or gassed even random middle-aged passers-by, who gained new perspective as a result.
10 comments:
EASY RIDER is easily the best of them.
I remember a slumber party in my teens where we stayed up to watch "Head" on the late show. We were so disappointed. Perhaps I'd view it differently if I saw it today.
I thought it was awful even back in the '60s, Deb. Maybe I'd picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue.
Yeah, it sucked, as did the abysmal SKIDOO with Groucho Marx in his last film (as "God"), Frankie Avalon and Cesar Romero as son-and-father mobsters with matching mustaches, Carol Channing, Jackie Gleason, George Raft, etc. directed by Otto Preminger. WAtching it made you feel you were on a very, very bad trip.
Jeff
OK, now I read it and see SKIDOO did indeed make the list. Also, I've seen everey one of them! I liked PSYCH-OUT and even THE TRIP, but I saw both in the '80s rather than when they first came out. Bruce Dern, Nicholson, Susan Strasberg, Peter Fonda, and Roger Corman. How could they be bad? And of course The Strawberry Alarm Clock appeared as themselves singing "Incense and Peppermints" in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, co-written by Rogert Ebert.
Jeff
I've never seen SKIDOO. I don't think I want to, though Mark Evanier always mentions it on his blog when it's being shown on TV.
SKIDOO
Jee-zus!
I think it was Chuck Esola in Overlooked Films who first brought to my attention, at least, that Preminger was bullying Marx on the set to such an extent that Gleason intervened. Model Donyale Luna looking pretty if too thin as Marx's mistress is among the few eyecatching aspects of the film.
http://cinematicobsessive.blogspot.com/2011/02/tuesdays-overlooked-films-skidoo.html for Chuck's review...
OK, Richard, no...MEDIUM COOL is easily the best of these. Seriously. BLOW UP has its points...but MC has the genuine warning from Chicago'68, to director/cinematographer Wexler from another crew member, "Watch out, Haskell--this is real!"...as, as Zappa noted in the song "Mom and Dad" (included in the soundtrack, while footage of the Mothers of Invention in concert appears elsewhere in the film), the cops killed some girls and boys...and as the last bits of audio in the film demonstrate, clubbed and/or gassed even random middle-aged passers-by, who gained new perspective as a result.
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