Angel Angel

 

ANGEL, ANGEL DOWN WE GO-1969-Wacky hippie drug mess about Tara (folksinger Holly Near), the dumpy headcase daughter of decadent gay father (Charles Aidman) and self obsessed ex-porno actress mom (Jennifer Jones) who winds up taking drugs and having sex with weirdo rock star Bogart (Jordan Christopher) and freaky friends Joe (Lou Rawls), Santoro (Roddy McDowall) and Davey Davidson (Anna Livia). Bogart seduces mom and after she dies skydiving he whips dad to death with a chain. 

This movie is not very good and it's a shame to see Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Jones in such a sleazy production, one of the last produced by the legendary Sam Katzman and released through AIP. It's the only directing credit for screenwriter Robert Thom (it's based on an unproduced play he wrote) who was no stranger to off beat films previously writing WILD IN THE STREETS and THE LEGEND OF LYlAH CLARE. He later wrote DEATHRACE 2000 and CRAZY MAMA. Star Christopher had been the lead singer in "The Wild Ones" who after he left the band recorded the original version of "Wild Thing". 

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Put Your Weight On It!

DISCO GODFATHER-1979-Oh my god! Now I know why I don't miss the '70's! The legendary Rudy Ray Moore stars as Tucker Williams, a retired cop who now runs his own disco where he is the main DJ (He says "Put your weight on it!" over and over). At first when his nephew Bucky (Julius Carry) freaks out on angel dust Tucker just says "Get a hold of yourself". Bucky imagines his uncle as a skeleton and an old hag with a sword. ("Bucky what has you done to yourself?!"). After they take Bucky away Tucker takes a tour of a PCP facility where he sees a lot of nutty addicts and hears the story about how a woman roasted and served her baby to her family. ("Haven't you heard, godfather? Our children are dying"). Later Tucker starts a "beat the whack" campaign which leads to him being targeted by Stinger Ray (Hawthorne James), an entrepreneur who runs the PCP making factories. Meanwhile a pastor and his congregation try to cure a girl on angel dust with an exorcism! The craziest part is Tucker's own PCP nightmare with scary faces and even a quick animated scene. "You're not my mother! You're E-vil!". Tucker seems to have lost his mind by the end of the movie. Carol Speed (later the star of the horror film ABBY) plays Tucker's girlfriend Noel. Keith David makes his movie debut in a small role.

DISCO GODFATHER is full of dancers in outrageous over the top '70's style clothes, terrible acting, awful fight scenes and funny out of place Moore reaction shots. It's the only film directed by J. Robert Wagoner.

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Just In Time For Mother's Day!

THE BIG CUBE-1969-Stage actress Adriana Roman (Lana Turner) retires from acting to marry rich widower Charles Winthrop (Dan O’Herlihy) whose daughter Lisa (Karin Mossberg) has mixed feelings about it. Her friends are a bunch of psychedelic mod hippies who like to hang out at clubs, say weird things and experiment with acid. Her gold digging boyfriend Johnny (George Chakiris from WEST SIDE STORY) is thrown out of his college for making LSD in his lab. When Dad breaks up a party where a dancer (Pamela Mason) does a striptease Lisa blames her step-mom (who in actuality is her real mom). When Dad gets lost at sea Mom inherits his estate and the right to choose who their daughter should marry. Naturally she sees through Johnny boy and will not give her consent. After sex Johnny convinces Lisa that mom actually killed dear old dad. They spike her pills with LSD and she becomes a paranoid nut who’s colorful “trips” are pretty wild. She's committed to a sanitarium and Lisa marries Johnny. After Lisa realizes Johnny’s a dirt bag she helps Adriana’s manager (Richard Egan) bring her out of her funk by having her star in a play he wrote that relates her trouble! Johnny winds up having a pretty bad acid trip of his own.

Shot in Acapulco by director Tito Davidson.

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After The Trip...

PSYCH-OUT-1968-A year after THE TRIP Jack Nicolson re-teamed with Bruce Dern and Susan Strasberg to star in this psychedelic peace and love drug movie for director Richard Rush (made between HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS (also with Nicolson) and THE SAVAGE SEVEN).

Strasberg is Jenny a deaf runaway looking for her brother (Bruce Dern) in Haigt-Ashbury. She gets help from level headed hippie Stoney (Nicolson) and his two pals (Adam Roarke; also in the aforementioned two Rush movies and Max Julien, 5 years before THE MACK) who are also in a rock band.

While looking for her brother (nicknamed The Seeker) they ran afoul of a gang led by John “Bud” Cardos and Gary Kent (they were also part of the crew) and have a fight in a junkyard. Dean Stockwell is the philosophical stoner with a headband. Director Henry Jaglom is a gallery owner who freaks out and imagines his hand is rotting. Nicolson is pretty funny but Strasberg’s bad trip on STP is the highlight. TV producer Garry Marshall is a cop in the opening scene and Sky Saxon, The Seeds and The Strawberry Alarm Clock perform.

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Tripping With Corman

THE TRIP-1967-This Roger Corman directed psychedelic drama is the first and best of ‘60’s “drug culture” films. Although it’s sparse on storylines and character development Corman manages to keep it all together in a low budget miasma of lights, sex scenes and various weird scene changes. Peter Fonda is a director of TV commercials who’s going through a divorce with his wife (Susan Strasberg). Bruce Dern convinces him to try LSD. The remainder of the story has him wandering the city “tripping”. Corman uses a lot of quick editing and weird lighting to achieve this and basically succeeds but there’s not much of a plot.

Two years later Fonda and Hopper would team up to make EASY RIDER.

THE TRIP also features appearances by Barboura Morris, Dick Miller, Luana Anders, Michael Blodgett and Angelo Rosetti. Screenwriter Jack Nicolson had an un-billed role in Corman’s THE ST. VALENTINE’S MASSACRE and co-starred in HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS and THE SHOOTING the same year.

"Perhaps it’s a mutation. There’s a lot of that going around"-Patrick O’Neal in “Fear of Spiders” (NIGHT GALLERY TV episode)

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