SCREAM FREE! - The Boston Tea Party - California Spectrum - "Free Grass" (1969)

Merry Happy everybody, and welcome to 2014 down in The Dungeon! We've got an amazing array of films on tap for this year that's even got my head reeling, so let's just get that shiny multifaceted ball spinning with a classically bad movie that personifies everything about everything there is to personify! "Free Grass!"

This movie has it all, and a whole lot of nothing, all at the same time! It's amazing! It's called "Free Grass" or "Scream Free" depending on who you're talking to, and it's got some cast members who were riding the crest of the highest cinematic wave a mere eight years earlier! Talk about flying high in April, and knocked down in May! It's about sixties drug culture with a whole lot of footage of nothing but music and imagery, and some really long, drawn out sequences about potentially nothing!

First scene: Hippie in trouble! What he has done, and to who, is not known, but he's running away from something!

This camper is in hot pursuit, and follows the young man right into this dirty alleyway!

End of story? No, it's just the beginning!

One of the gentlemen in the camper is Los Angeles's number one 60's radio DJ, Casey Kasem! One of Casey's essential credits is the voice of Shaggy in all the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, and he appeared in quite a few kickass low budget biker movies like "The Glory Stompers," "Wild Wheels," and "The Cycle Savages!"

Here we go, one of the stars of the 10 time Academy Award Winning film "West Side Story" was Russ Tamblyn! In 1956 Russ won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Promising Newcomer" along with Ray (Secret Agent Super Dragon) Danton!

Warren Finnerty is the third member of this group. In the same year as this film, Warren had a role as a rancher in "Easy Rider!"  Five years later and he'd be dead from a heart attack at age 49! So, Casey, Warren, and Russ are ruthless drug dealers/smugglers, and they don't let anything get in their way! That's what happened to the Hippie in the opening scene!

Bring into the picture the innocent and "Peace and Love" lovin'  Richard Beymer! Richard was also one of the co-stars of "West Side Story!" He's just chillin' at this club when Russ Tamblyn's character asks him to do a drug run to Mexico for him and his buddies! He doesn't want to do it, but decides it would be worth the money for a one time risk! Bad decision!

Richard falls in love big time for the lovely Lana Wood! Lana was not in "West Side Story," but her better known sister Natalie, was THE star! Lana has 7 or 8 films in pre or post-production right now! At this point the viewer is subjected to what seemed like a lifetime but was probably only 15 or 20 minutes of Richard and Lana falling deeply in love at first outta-sight! The reason I didn't bother telling you the individual character's names is because they are as follows: Dean, Link, Karen, Phil, and Barney! Doesn't really seem to make much difference, does it?

Richard goes on a successful drug run to Mexico, but when he gets back, the guys decide that he's no longer needed, kinda like the other guy at the beginning, but he's a little bit harder to dispose of, so they grab his girlfriend!

In the meantime, being the good buddy that he is, Russ Tamblyn's character slips Richard some L.S.D. After tripping all over the place for what seemed like another lifetime, Russ tells Richard that he thinks his girlfriend must be over at this other bar called The Red Velvet to see a super cool, psychedelic band playing called The Boston Tea Party! 

As far as I know, The Boston Tea Party only ever released this one album!  

Here's just a taste of one of the songs they perform in this club scene! I'm pretty sure it's a song off this 1968 Flick-Disc LP called "Free Service!" Good band!!

So they spend another lifetime tripping out in the bar before Russ tells Richard, no I guess she's not here after all! One thing that cannot be denied is there's a lot of filler in this film both good and bad!

 I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the trip in this movie, is a lot longer than the trip in the movie "The Trip!"

In a terribly insensitive moment Russ attempts a fake ceremony out on a cliff by the ocean to purify his tripping buddy by dousing him with gasoline and setting him ablaze! Richard somehow gains back his sanity just long enough to turn the tables, and then it's Russ who is blazing!

Casey keeps guard on the girl!

Even though he's still tripping, Richard has to find and release his kidnapped girlfriend against almost insurmountable odds!

The cops converge on the scene, and Richard and Snow White manage to escape just in time! In the end, Richard ends up with all the drugs which he proceeds to give away so him and her can start a new life together in Iowa or somewhere! Hence the second title, "Free Grass!"

The movie "Free Grass" is  a trip, a bad trip no doubt, and probably most of the people involved in it would just as soon forget about it, and that might be why it's almost impossible to find! The groovy Title Song performed at the end of the film just kind of puts an exclamation mark on the whole thing as it's performed by members of The West Coast Pop Experimental Band, performing as the little known California Spectrum! For more information on The West Coast Pop Experimental Band and California Spectrum, check out this in depth page from the "Acid Archives"!

HUMAN HIGHWAY - Neil Young-Devo "Jack It Up" (1982)

I like both Neil Young and those De-evolutioned guys a lot, so when I got my grubby little mitts on "Human Highway" a couple of years ago, I was ecstatic to say the least, and believe me, if you really like music, you'll want to see this movie!

Unfortunately with the recent death, destruction, and upheaval in Japan, anything to do with out of control radiation isn't funny, and even though this film is very anti-nuclear, I just find it kind of distasteful to show the Spud Boys in their glowing jumpsuits right now, so I'll just move on.

The basic storyline is simple enough, Neil Young as Lionel Switch is a mechanic in a garage next to a roadside diner out in the desert somewhere in between L.A. and Vegas near a leaking nuclear power plant! He's joined here by his best pal, Russ Tamblyn as Fred, on his way to work! You will recognize Russ Tamblyn from his "Tom Thumb," "West Side Story," "The War of the Gargantuas," and "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" days! Russ's brother Larry was the singer and organist in that awesome 60's "Dirty Water," "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White" band, The Standells!!

The truly amazing Dean Stockwell is Otto Quartz, the guy who inherited the diner from his recently deceased father, Old Otto. Dean Stockwell was "The Boy With The Green Hair" in 1948, "The Werewolf Of Washington" in 1973, Duke Nukem in 9 episodes of "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" in the early 90's, and shortly after that, Admiral Al Calavicci in 97 episodes of "Quantum Leap," and that just scratches the surface. He also co-wrote and co-directed "The Human Highway!"

Otto realizes the diner is a loser and decides to torch it for the insurance money, but in the meantime, he's gotta lay off somebody, because Fred's going to work for him for free! The sign on the door says, "Come In, We're Closed!" The Dinettes are Sally Kirkland as Kathryn(Sally was in a 1965 flick called "13 Beautiful Women" as a 'beautiful woman' and if that ain't enough, Sally is still very active, and has a bunch of stuff in production today), Charlotte Stewart as Charlotte (Charlotte somehow managed to segue from Mary X in "Eraserhead" to 45 episodes of "Little House On The Prairie" as Eva Beadle Simms), and Geraldine Baron("Targets") as Irene! They're joined by the cook named Cracker played by the infamous Dennis Hopper! Dennis had dual roles and also appeared as Stranger! What a cast!!

Along with various license plates, Lionel has his garage decorated with a poster of his musical hero Frankie Fontaine! Lionel believes that he himself, could really be a musician someday if he wanted to!

The luck of the gods brings Frankie Fontaine's limo to Lionel's garage for some emergency repairs, and Lionel is beside himself!!

There is a great exchange between Lionel and Frankie through the car window! The part of Frankie Fontaine "alive and in person" is played by Bernard Shakey, aka Neil Young, and Neil does such a mind-boggling job, I'm still not sure if I believe it's really him!

The music plays on and is a very cool, but twisted version of "Mr. Soul!"

Fred helps Lionel get situated underneath the limo, and then Lionel knocks himself out with a wrench while he's laying on the creeper removing the drain plug which induces a real shift in the gears of that transmission and.........

............a krazy psych-o-delicatatonic dream where Lionel is a rock star! Hey, this movie is just getting warmed up! Check out the headlines!

Buffalo Springfield, Devo, and Pearl Jam, who else but Neil Young could bridge those kind of gaps?

I admit it, I didn't know completely what the Hell was going on half the time, and especially during the dream sequence, it was just like some kind of a wacky music video!

Cut to Neil and Devo and my favorite part of the whole film, playing an insane 8 minute live version of "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)" with Mark Mothersbaugh as the "Booji Boy" doing the vocals!

I think it just might be one of movie rock and roll's finest moments, and just like everything else in "Human Highway," you can bet your sweet bippy that it's no coincidence that Neil Young is wearing a "Never Mind The Bullocks" tee shirt!

The Spud Boys really kick it up a notch, and give "Hey Hey, My My" a new vitality, and a brilliant combination of new and old!!

I think these three shots epitomize what's going on here, and as far as I know this is the only time that Devo and Neil Young recorded anything together, and it's a good one!!

The dream goes on for 15 or 20 minutes, but Lionel was only out for a few seconds, and when he comes to.........

.......it's time for the big "A Worried Man" whole cast ensemble dance number to usher out the end of the world as we know it, with nuclear weapons! "A Worried Man" was originally recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1962! The Kingston Trio were so popular, they had 5 number one albums, and 14 top ten albums, and I'll bet a lot of them were stashed in fallout shelters!

Last but not least, Frankie Fontaine gives his humble opinion!

I don't know, I guess just put your head between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye! It was fun while it lasted!

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM / Cinerama Productions Corp., MGM - 1962

Here's an early sixties movie we haven't done yet, so... Here we go!! It's all about the fictionalized lives of the Bavarian story tellers, the Grimm Brothers. In the early nineteenth century, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm are commissioned to write a family history for a local Duke, the reenactments of three of their stories, "The Dancing Princess", "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone" are showcased.

It's an all-star cast, including Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Claire Bloom, Walter Slezak, Barbara Eden, Oskar Homolka, Arnold Stang, Yvette Mimieux, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Backus, Terry-Thomas, Buddy Hackett, Otto Kruger, Billy Barty, Angelo Rossitto, Gene Roth and many more, wow!! Directed by Henry Levin and George Pal.

We're introduced to the Grimm Bros and the story starts to unfold. This is a 135 minute Cinerama production with an intermission...

In "The Dancing Princess" the King, Jim Backus, wants a handsome young man to follow his daughter and find out where she goes after she disappears in the middle of the night. Russ Tamblyn plays The Woodsman, who takes on the assignment.

He follows her and discovers she wants to dance with the gypsies, Russ shows off his dancing chops and the two fall in love! He must get back to the castle before the Princess is caught, he has a cloak of invisibility and catches a ride on the Princess's carriage to save time.

In "The Cobbler and the Elves" the cobbler is threatened to get his client's shoes finished in a timely manner for a change!

George Pal directed all the animated scenes in the movie, here, he puts his magic to work on the very cute elves scenes.

"The Singing Bone" has Terry-Thomas and Buddy Hackett as Ludwig and Hans, they are searching for the legendary Singing Bone. They find the entrance to a cave where the thing is supposedly hidden.

Once inside the cave, Hans discovers that the Singing Bone is guarded by a big old dragon!!

Ludwig is a big chicken and tries to elude the reptile, but, the mean old dragon uses its fiery breath to send a message to the guy hiding behind a rock!

Anyway, Hans takes on the dragon and kills it after sticking a long sword in to the monster. After the stabbing, it leaks out a ton of pink smoke... Go figure!

The end finds the brothers signing a contract for their book of fairy tales, making them very popular with the children, besides making some big bucks! Join us again Wednesday when Eegah!! haunts this space!!