Riot on Sunset Strip

Like the tag-line says: "The Most Shocking Film of Our Generation!" Well, that may be an exaggeration, but the film is still an entertaining relic from the 60s, and a classic from good old AIP.Producer Sam Katzman, known as the ''King Of The Quickies'' was responsible for this then-topical exploitation epic. Katzman's films (dating as far back as the 1930's) may have been on the ''frugal'' side, production wise, but his 60's output (''Hot Rods To Hell'' ''The Love -Ins'' and ''The Young Runaways''), all dealing with rebellious youth, were nicely produced and well photographed, thanks to his production team, some of whom worked for MGM in the old days, as well as iconic TV shows like ''The Twilight Zone''. The story was written to exploit the real life riots on the Sunset Strip back in 1966., and this film reached theaters within weeks of those events. It was combined with an also true incident involving the daughter of an LA Policeman who was raped (though this had no real-life connection to the Riots on the Strip). Aldo Ray is good as the police lieutenant charged with keeping the peace between the "establishment" and the "longhairs". Mimsy Farmer is his lovely, lost daughter, burdened with an alcoholic mother, Hortense Petra.( Mrs. Sam Katzman, who had small parts in most of his films) and bitterness for the father she hasn't seen in years. She becomes involved with a small group of kids who include beautiful but amoral Laurie Mock, teenyboppers Tim Rooney and future ''Rocky'producer, Gene Kirkwood.Worst of all is would-be rapist Schuyler Hayden. Music, supplied by such groups as The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband and The Enemies, is good, as is the background score by Fred Karger (two-time husband of Jane Wyman). Yes, the story is on the weak side, but the acting is fine, especially by future cult star Farmer, and Mock. The production is also praiseworthy, given the low budget. Look for Anna Mizrahi (soon to be the wife of acting guru Lee Strasberg, as Helen Tweedy, the sympathetic wife of Ray's partner, Michael Evans) and ball players Jim Lefebvre and Al Ferrara as cops. The film has achieved well deserved cult status because of the bands who supply the music. But, also of more than passing interest, is Mimsy's very sexy, choreographed ''freakout'', which is filmed (by MGM'S Paul Vogel) in beautiful psychedelic colors, and excellently scored by Karger. Indeed, Farmer's popularity in Europe is a direct result of this film. Low-Budget or not, it's extremely well photographed and edited, which is why it holds up as well as it does today. MGM is finally releasing the movie on a limited, ''On Demand'' basis, and if the print used for the DVD is as vibrant as the one shown on various pay-TV stations, it should be great!. It will be WIDESCREEN as well. I, for one, can't wait. Postscript-6-25-2011: I just received the DVD from Screen Archives Entertainment today. I'm happy to report that it exceeds my expectations. Although there have been bootleg copies circulating for some time now, (no doubt copied from pay-TV broadcasts) and they don't look at all bad, this official release beats them all. Though the DVD itself states that the best available elements were used for the transfer, (another way of saying that no restoration was done), the film is presented here for the first time in Anamorphic Widescreen, and it looks terrific. The color is vivid, print damage is miniscule, and the picture is sharp. The 2 channel sound is equally impressive. Sadly, no trailer was included. Incidentally, the TV version of this film ran 7 minutes longer, and it's a shame that one wasn't used. Still, for fans of the film, this is a MUST HAVE.

Hard to find but worth the search! This movie was filmed in 1967 and could easily have been made by Dragnet's own Jack Webb. The over-the-top hippiness of this movie is what makes it a classic. If you have ever seen hippy episodes of Dragnet, this is the same scene, man. The Chocolate Watchband perform as does The Standells. Its nice to see these 1960s bands performing live in a set that probably resembles what it was like to see them live back then. The klead singer of the Chocolate watchband sings with two maracas in each hand and emits a strange Jim Morrison vibe in his half-shouting way of singing and his stage movements. Who influenced who, I wonder? The kids hang out at a club called "Pandora's Box" and some dance, some read and others are just there into their own trips. Mimsy Farmer plays Andy, a fresh face on the strip who is led down the road to perdition with a sugar cube of LSD slipped into her drink at a "freak-out". Mimsy had just finished work as Gloria the bad boys gal on "Hot Rods To Hell" the same year. She will seem vaguely familiar as she bears an uncanny resemblance in some light to Meredith McRae back in her "Petticoat Junction" days. Mimsy is slipped drugs and the obligatory trip scene in this movie is one in which she rolls around the floor in a minidress and performs what amounts to a weird interpretive dance which I am sure was filled with profound meaning in 1967 but is rather lost on me. The men wear Sonny Bono caveman vests, the women wear bright neon miniskirts. If this is your bag, baby, definately try to find this movie.

This relic was truly fascinating. Bad, not terrible enough to be unwatchable, but bad enough to be thoroughly entertaining.

When talking to the cops, the girls say stuff like "My name is Elisabeth Ann, but my friends call me Liz Ann" and "My name is Andrea and my friends call me Andy". And cop replies, "Are they really your friends, honey?" For some reason I found that scene absurdly humorous. That is a good example of the writing and acting in this movie.

Andy's acid trip is truly trippy man. It's like a freaked out yoga session.

The movie is very earnest, like Glenn or Glenda, but also very out of touch. Hee hee a good time.

By the way, there was no riot. Guess it wasn't in the budget.

This was filmed in Joe Friday's L.A, while Joe was on a fishing trip with Gannon. The music,especially in the hospital fight scene,sounds like it was lifted from a Bat Man episode. This is typical of the older Hollywood crowd (in this case AIP) trying to cash in on the "hip" sixties,with unintentionally hilarious results.The "hippies" all look like shoe clerks, whose wardrobe truck got mixed up with the Monkees TV Show. A few of them have long hair and beards, but they are dressed like they have a job interview at Radio Shack.The "protest" outside the bars is "totally realistic". The signs looked like they were painted as part of a six grade art project. There are a few generalized anti - war placards("Peace not War"), but nothing to suggest a Vietnam protest. The female police officer, who is carding the kids in the bar, looks like a London meter maid. I know I missed something, but why is the second in command of this L.A police unit British. Was he on loan from the Liverpool PD to show our cops how to handle "mods" and "rockers". All in all, a very amusing look at the "youth culture", through the eyes of the silent generation. Acting honors go to the LSD babe, who almost escapes a police raid, even though she can't walk three feet.My favorite line is from Aldo Ray (his finest hour). The police arrive in front of the party house with two marked patrol cars parked directly in front. Six cops, including four in uniform are standing in front of the house conversing for five minutes. Ray says, " We had better go inside, I think they spotted us."

I must concur that this is the Reefer Madness of the 60's, only funnier.

The producers are so out of touch that a lot of the hippie culture seems to straddle the beatnik era, with the kids congregating in smoky dives called Pandora's Box, and the bad girl sports black Carolyn Jones-type hair and wears arm bracelets, and she brings to mind Peter Seller's sinister female companion in "Lolita".

And in the annals of memorable screen images, few can compare with Mimsey Farmer's extended Martha Graham modern dance reaction to dropping acid.

All this, plus Mickey Rooney's kid saying "groovy" a lot.