Psycho a Go-Go

I'm Tacey Robbins' cousin, but that isn't the reason I'm giving this movie the highest rating I can. It compares very favorably to Drive-In type movies of the same era, and was filmed on about one-tenth the budget. It's fun to watch on a number of levels: A great look at mid-1960's culture, a pretty good thriller-type story line, and Tacey Robbins' great voice. And she's pretty easy on the eyes, too! People interested in seeing this movie should be aware that John Carradine does not appear in it. Bits and pieces of "Psycho-A-Go-Go" were cannibalized over the years and randomly spliced into several other movies. This film was, in fact, lost completely until the company Troma took the trouble to edit it back to what it looked like when originally released in 1965.

I am the son, yes the son of Tacey Robbins. I have to tell you that I thought it was a miracle that Al and Tacey pulled off this movie. They had $2000, and a bunch of contributers who wanted to see Al's movie career and Tacey's singing career blossom. It took months to shoot it, and in my opinion, it was the perfect "C" movie for the cheese/sleeze era. It had a super cheezy plot, and wonderful music to accompany it. Remember, it was supposed to be a spoof on Go-Go girls who drove men crazy. Well, even the songs were meant to be spoofs and the whole idea is to make it fun and "cult-serious". YES, the acting wasn't perfect, and of course the movie was not without potholes, but I am telling you, as far as the movies of the time, Tacey and Al did a great job putting it all together and making it "campy" and goofy like it was intended. If you take this movie serious, you are wasting your time watching it, or you are some moron who just graduated from the New York School of Movie Ratings and need to find a new job.

**SPOILERS** Remade some seven years later in 1972 as "The Blood of Ghastly Horror" and the even more ridicules title "the Man with the Synthetic Brain" that had actors John Carradine and Tommy Kirk inserted into the film. "Psycho a Go-Go" seems to be, without any cuts and edits, a fairly good low-budget crime film with a nice, as well as hum-a-long, soundtrack that makes the movie a lot better then it's later absurd reincarnations.

Having their plan of robbing a jewel merchant go so smoothly at first the five hoods, Joe Travas Nick & Curtis and the getaway driver Vicky, are about to leave the building when the tied-up secretary Miss. Walker sets off the alarm alerting he security guard in the building. Making a run for it Travas throws the suitcase of jewels down on a truck and is shot by one of the guards. Hurt and asking his fellow robber Joe for help Travas gets a bullet in his chest by the crazed Joe killing him; it seems that Joe wanted to split the jewels with one less person thus keeping more for himself. Vicky who was supposed to get the jewels drives off empty handed but gets the licenses plate of the truck driver who unknowing has the stolen jewels.

Back at the crooks hideout the big mastermind of the operation and boss Vito is mad as hell for his men, and woman, losing the $500,000.00 in jewels and wants to trace the trucks plates in order to find out who owns it and get his, and his jewel robbers, ill-gotten gains back.

Finding that the truck belongs to a David Clark, a local contractor, the hoods break into his house and try to beat the truth out of him about where the jewels are only to find out that he has no idea what their talking about. The hoodlums also find out that Clark's wife and six year old daughter Linda and Nancy have left the city for a vacation at Lake Taho by bus. This has Joe & Curtis take off to get, or head, them off before they get away. Linda and her six year-old daughter Nancy don't know it but the valuable jewels are hidden,by an unsuspecting Nancy, inside a black mistrial doll that David gave her for a sixth birthday present.

What fascinated me most about the film "Psycho a Go-Go" was the appearance and acting of it's star Roy Morton playing the psycho killer Joe Corey. Looking like the Marine DI sergeant in the TV show "Gomor Plye USMC" Morton looked like he was doing, in some scenes, a Jack Nicholson imitation and this is years before most movie goers ever heard or even saw Jack Nicholson! Joe, or Roy Morton, was without a doubt the most interesting person in the movie and his acting as a mindless psycho was so real and disturbing that you had, like what it seemed like those in the movie, a hard time believing that he was actually acting.

Vito's attempt to retrieve his stolen jewels falls apart with him ending up getting shot by the police as they come to David's rescue with Nick, who was shot in the crossfire, and Vicky captured. Joe & Curtis catch up with Linda and Nancy at the Lake Taho bus terminal and kidnaps them only to have Joe go psycho, which was very natural for him, by trying to rape and murder them. Curtis, a brain damaged ex-prize fighter, comes to their rescue getting killed by Joe, with a hand gun, who Curtis at the time was beating the hell out of.

With Linda and Nancy on the run by car away from the crazed and homicidal Joe Corey he carjacks a car on the highway and is on their tail. This sets up the final scene with both Linda & Nancy trying to escape from Joe by doing some mountain climbing with Linda's husband and Nancy's father David coming to their rescue with his cop friend Frank.

Joe Corey does finally get his jewels finding them in Nancy's discarded doll only to end up together with them at the bottom of the 6,000 foot snow covered mountain that he was chasing Linda and Nancy on.

The acting of everyone in the film "Psycho a Go-Go" didn't even make a passing grade in a high-school play. Tacey Robbins as Linda Clark was out and out embarrassing with Miss. Robbins also doing a song, yes Linda Clark was a Go-Go dancer and singer in the movie, that was so bad that she sounded like she was singing it in a crowed New York City Subway car during the hight of 5:00PM rush hour.

It was Roy Morton's bone chilling performance that really made "Psycho a Go-Go" worth seeing and I often wonder what happened to him all these years since he just disappeared from sight and was never seen or heard from again?

What a blast from the past! Other reviewers have mentioned the plot so I won't repeat it here. What makes the film so fascinating is the '60s styles, the garish colors, the lounge-music soundtrack, Tacey Robbins' singing, the wild go-go dancers...We even see the director, the infamous Al Adamson, playing Travis, the ill-fated robber! Like many of Adamson's films, this one is like a car wreck-- you don't want to stare but you just can't help it. I find it amazing that a director could put this together for a mere $2,000-- alas, those days are gone forever. A real treat for B-movie fans!

This film is clearly dated to an interesting time in American history. Notice the hairstyles on both the men and the women and the type of cars everybody drove. You don't see those any more. At any rate, the reason I bring these things up is because I think that in order to understand or enjoy this film a person has to appreciate the time-frame in which it was made. Whether it's the songs by "Linda Clark" (Tacey Robbins) or the nightclub atmosphere, there is something in this movie that probably makes no sense unless you've seen it firsthand. Now, don't get me wrong, this film is not a very good picture. Other than the performance of Roy Morton (as the psycho "Joe Corey") and the presence of the "go-go dancers" at the very beginning, I found most of the film to be quite routine and dull. Even so, this film exemplifies what a B-movie looked like back in the mid-60's and that's the standard by which it should be judged. So, people who see it now might think it's a lousy movie compared to films of today. And it probably is if you compare it today's standards. But I think we need to keep things in perspective. In short, while this movie is probably a bit below average, it isn't as bad as the score most people have given it. Neither is this movie one that will suit everyone's taste. For that reason I recommend it only for those who can understand and appreciate films from this period and are willing to make allowances.