Wild in the Streets (1968)
I thank Boccob [not that he cares] that American International Pictures worked their specific brand of exploitation magic between the 1950s and the 1970s. Case in point: the minor gem Wild in the Streets. It is about as loopy as Beyond the Valley of the Dolls [although no one can match the Z Man], but with a satiric edge that is sharper than Meyer’s film.
Basically, the movie is about what would happen if Jim Morrison [Max in the movie] joined forces with Beatles, called for a youth revolution that focused on getting 15 year olds the right to vote, dosed the entire Senate to pass the amendment, got himself elected president, and started groovy concentration camps for everyone over 35. Throw in a couple super musical numbers [“The Shape of Things to Come” charted in 1968, and Perverse Osmosis is covering “14 or Fight“], lots of outrageous dialogue–for example, “the only thing that blows your mind when you are 30 is getting guys to kill other guys”–and drug use, and, bam, away we go. The movie loses some steam about an hour in, or otherwise this movie would be what movies such as Bob Roberts or A Face in the Crowd would aspire to. What makes it more interesting, at least to me, is that it is a left-wing version of these movies.
I know things were different in 1968, but when Max and his mom discuss making LSD in the basement . . .
This is Max’s band: notice that the drummer is wearing a strobe light around his neck:
And that drummer turns out to be Richard Pryor:
Max throwing the acid into Washington’s drinking water.
As another part of the plan, the wacky keyboard player gets elected to Congress and plays the tambourine at Max’s inauguration:
It was difficult not to sing “California Uber Alles” during the scene when the hippies are rounding up the old people to send them to their camps where the old timers get all the acid they can stomach. Mellow out or you will pay indeed.
And this is what happens when they all get their trip on:
Max soon learns that the New Revolutionaries wear bags and capes:
