REVIEW: Wild in the Street (1968)

Wild in the Streets (94 mins.):

This is a movie from 1968 that is one of the weirdest movies that I have reviewed... The first five minutes I had no idea that the movie had started. I had originally thought that the beginning of the film was exploitation film trailers from earlier in the 60s....

One of the things that made me happy with this film is the cameos. Also I am happy to see that a young Richard Pryor is in it.He was between 27-28 in the movie.

It is a movie that both support and parodies the counter-culture, from the voting age being moved down from 21 to 14, to lacing D.C.'s water supply with LSD, and the rounding up of everyone over the age of 30 for "re-education" plus a constant dosing of LSD for the 30 + population.

The movie rotates around the character of Max Frost and his entourage. Where you see from his childhood straight to him being a "Jim Morrison"-type singer. A Presidential candidate named Johnny Fergus asks him to be a performer at the political rally. The 24 year old Max Frost incites a up-bringing by the song "14 and fight". Due to the "baby boomers" are coming of age they end up electing Max Frost as President. With the election of Mr. Frost to President, people from the age of 30 and up are rounded up and transported to the re-education facilities and put on a regiment of LSD.

In the great words of Maggie "frickin' weird..."

REVIEW: The Boy with Green Hair (1948)

The Boy with Green Hair (82 mins):
Should I tell you the plot of the movie..? Hell the poster tells the viewers, not to spoil it. But it is the best part of the movie. This is a twist the M. Night Shyamalan only wishes that he could make.

Teaser trailer:

The story revolves around a young boy by the name of Peter Frye. Moving in with an understanding retired actor named Gramps, Peter starts attending school and generally begins living the life of a normal boy until his class gets involved with trying to help war orphans in Europe and Asia. During the clothes drive, Peter is in the class room looking at the posters of the children that the clothes are going to, when a classmate refers to Peter as a war orphan. Thus inciting a fight between the classmate and Peter. The next day, he discovers he has green hair.

I am not going to tell you the rest of the plot, but I am going to say to those who find the trailer and the little information that I gave you interesting, the twist was satisfying. Though at times the movie can seem preachy but the movie in a whole is good for being slightly like a PSA.

REVIEW: Freaks (1932)

Disclaimer: In this review I will use terms that were in the original movie in the summary of what the movie is.



I had the privilege of getting to watch this movie, I was very fortunate to have stumbled upon it on Maggie's and I weekly trip to the library.

The most widely recognized and memorable scenes from this movie:

Freaks (64 mins):
The movie opens to a carnival barker displaying a sideshow freak called the Feathered Hen and tells her story. Cleopatra, a trapeze artist with the carnival, is adored by a midget named Hans. Frieda, Hans' fiancee (also a midget), warns Hans that Cleopatra is only interested in him so that he will give her money. Cleopatra has an affair with Hercules, and when Frieda lets it slip that Hans is to come into an inheritance, Cleopatra and Hercules plan to get the money be having Cleopatra marry Hans. During the wedding reception, Cleopatra, although openly romantic with Hercules, is accepted by the freaks, but is revolted and mocks them.

I know in probably that paragraph some of you are slightly angered at me for using the terms but I am keeping with the terminology in the movie.

This movie feature famous side show acts of the time.Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson ("the human skeleton"); Olga Roderick ("the bearded lady"); Frances O'Connor and Martha Morris ("armless wonders"); and the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Among the micro cephalics who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence, a disputed claim. Also featured were the intersexual Josephine Joseph, with her left/right divided gender; Johnny Eck, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian (also known as The Human Torso, and mis-credited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl, who suffered from Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene where she dances on the table.

Some of the "human oddities"/ sideshow performs in this made a good living off their career. Examples from this movie is Hans and Frida (who in real life Harry and Daisy Dolls, siblings from a family of small people). Harry was in several movies before and after this one, and Daisy was revered as a tiny Mae West.


This is a movie that I do suggest people who have not seen it, to take a chance on. All I ask is when you are watching it is to not think of it as exploitative as some people make it out to be. And I firmly believe that this movie was before its time.

REVIEW: Paint Your Wagon (1969)

As of lately Maggie and I have been picking up movie from the Harold-Washington Library, we have been aiming toward older movies and movie that we think are unappreciated.Thankfully after the Missouri trip we had the AV Cable finally so I was able to restore my VCR .This week so far we have been able to find Paint Your Wagon,Boy with Green Hair and Freaks, Freaks on DVD amazingly and the rest on video tapes.



Paint Your Wagon (2hrs. 44 mins.):
This has been a bit of finding, this is a movie that I have heard about only by Maggie and her father.

Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 musical, that is set in during the Gold-Rush.

This is my favorite song from the entire movie:

Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood both actually sing throughout the movie. This at first tripped me up but I actually enjoyed this movie. I was a great adaptation from the stage version of this movie and the story even if it had not had the music it could stand rather well on its own.

There is a confirmed triangle between Ben (Lee Marvin),Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), and Pardner (Clint Eastwood), which in a weird way works in this movie.

This movie is on my very tiny list of musicals that I can enjoy. The list being "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Blues Brothers)".