Bummer

"Bummer!" (1973) is one shag-carpeted, Mylar wallpapered, bong-water scented piece of a time long gone. Although this is a really terrible movie in every sense of the word, it's worth viewing for those curious about what the Seventies really looked like. Since it was filmed on a meager budget, the locations and clothing had to be the real deal....and they look it.

Let's dispense with the paper thin plot: An abysmal rock band called "The Group" is driving the honeys wild on the Sunset Strip with their happening sound. The performances from the Group are trippy for all the wrong reasons, most obviously because they're not really performing. The "band" just gyrates and pretends to play their instruments, all the rock-funk is piped in on the soundtrack. This music is enough to make the viewer contemplate suicide, but stops now and then for laughable dialog to be heard between the Group and their various girlfriends. Snappy Carol Speed provides the 'street' cred here (she would soon be the movies' first demon-possessed African American woman in a rip- off of the "Exorcist" called "Abby" 1974) while Connie Strickland gives you LA rich bitch groupie tramp who's up for anything, man. Diane Lee Hart is the doomed "nice" girl from Ohio. The Group doesn't matter, whoever these guys were is lost to history with the exception of actor Dennis Burkley, a bassist named Butts, who's the butt of every fat rocker joke that the others throw at him. He's psychopathic, has mommy issues, and swills Gilbey's Gin throughout the entire flick. Heavy. You can still spot Burkley in commercials these days, usually playing a nice biker sort who has fresh breath. A real career arc.

Anyway, stupendously bad music is played incessantly. Groupies are treated like "pigs!" and "bitches!!!". They don't care because that's where the action is, baby. Dope is smoked in filthy apartments, and love is made out in the woods during a two year long montage of the softer side of rock where the crotch thrusters treat their women right. Bummer! things happen, Butts makes an ass of himself, nice girls from Ohio get murdered, ketchup is spilled, people die, you are happy it's all over, man. The camera watching all this rockin' hassle finally lifts off the ground and spirals out into outer space showing the planet the Bummer! happened on. It's not Earth.

I appreciate this time capsule more every passing year. The ugly face of LA in 1973 has been saved. Check out the Kuddlie Kitty strip club and the sad girls who work a teeny-tiny stage by the cash register. Many unpleasant body parts are shaken to a juke box loaded with tunes by the Group. This movie features the "Pastry Chick" who has breasts the size,shape, and sell-by date of submarine sandwich rolls (featuring aureolas the size of pancakes) while a sad cellulite victim shakes her money maker which is a personal topiary that needs a gardener stat. The rich girl hangs out in her eyeball gouging bedroom with horrendous blood- colored 70s psychedelic patterned wallpaper and velour accessories. She wears a cavalcade of super clunky shoes in various colors. Her mother's hair is the size of Pluto. The Group's apartment is dirty, full of bad Danish modern furniture, and has shag carpet the color of dirt. It also features a surprising see-through shower curtain with supergraphics! It just doesn't get any better. You can just turn off the sound and watch the glamorous interiors as well as the super-long pimp nails on "Le Monde", the man who tries to woo our girls into a life doing the Frug on that 20 x 20 inch stage by the cash register.

Highly recommended, and yes, that's a pun.

Director William A. Castleman brings us this hard bitten tale of a 70's Club band ("The Group" as "The Band" was taken) trying to make it in L. A. The Group is managed by (Morie) the beautiful Leslie Mcray. The undisputed leader of The Group is the singer (Duke) played quite well by Kipp Whitman. Duke is frustrated with The Groups status as a Club Band and Morie tells him he will have to hit the road to make money. The other band members are kind of nondescript with the exception of the emotionally troubled bass player (Butts) in Dennis Burkley's first movie roll. The Group has their groupies including rich girl Barbara (Connie Strickland) who incidentally has a great body and (Dolly) Diane Lee Hart who shares a flop house room with the third groupie (Janyce) Carol Speed.

The girls have some real adventures including a tryout at a topless bar and being recruited by, (Sid Rosen) played with a lot of glee by Jay Adler, to be call girls. The girls stick to being groupies and plan to follow the fellas around. The Group heads out to a gig in Bakersfield but dumb ass Butts attempts to rape a girl in The Groups van which gets them fired from the gig so they return to LA and reunite with the girls. It's unfortunate that The Group as a band was terrible. It would have helped the film if they would have had at least one tune that was good.

Bummer really tries to explore the relationship between the girls who all want to have serious relationships with the members of The Group and the guy's sincere reaction to them. The film becomes quite gritty and is indeed a Bummer with Duke rebuffing the pleas of manager Morry to fire Butts because Duke as the leader is loyal to his psychopathic band mate. There are some quite uncomfortable scenes with Butts forcing the Girls to strip and some weird S&M stuff involving Butts. Bummer pulled me in, and I actually cared about stressed out Duke and especially the Girls. I have been a bit melancholy since watching it yesterday.

Bummer is a Jack Starrett type film that is a weird and brutal slice of life which I recommend as long as you know what your getting yourself into.

Very dated (to say the least) movie about groupies. Movie focuses on a rock band called--most imaginatively--The Group. It involves three women--black Janyce, blond Barbara and red head Dolly--getting involved sexually with various members. However everybody ignores fat, ugly, alcoholic Butts (Dennis Burkley) who slowly begins to go insane....

Boy was this BAD! Not good-bad just bad! Women are treated horribly in this film--in one particularly ugly sequence Barbara and Dolly are forced to strip and shower with each other while being verbally humiliated! Seriously...could anyone be turned on by something that sick? Also there is a long and totally pointless sequence in a strip club. Why is it in here? To pad the running time and shove more nudity in our face. Hilariously this film tries to show us that groupies are real, ordinary people deserving respect while shoving their nude bodies in our face! There's even an uproariously bad romantic monologue showing the three couples frolicking in the woods while a lousy song plays in the background.

All the songs by The Group are lousy too--very bad 70s music. The acting across the board is terrible--only Carol Speed shows any ability at all. I was mostly bored by this and couldn't wait for it to get over. I do have to admit I didn't see the tragic ending coming--that provided a jolt but it was too little too late.

A bad 70s film. Skip it.

Bummer (1973)

* (out of 4)

Three female friends (Diane Lee Hart, Carol Speed, Connie Strickland) decide to hook up with a local rock group and before long the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll turns to something much darker and deadlier.

BUMMER was produced by the notorious David F. Friedman and I'm going to guess it was meant as a way for him to do a more mainstream picture. If you're familiar with the various exploitation films that he was behind then you're really going to be disappointed by this movie on a number of levels. For starters, it's downright boring. Secondly, well, there's just nothing interesting that happens here.

I'm going to guess that the film was meant to be a view into the life of rock stars and their groupies but the film is a complete disaster if that was the case. It certainly doesn't help that all of the characters are rather boring and you just don't care what happens to any of them. The film never seems to know what it wants to do and it certainly doesn't know what story it wants to tell as the film is just constantly dragged out with scenes that add up to nothing. Just take a look at the scene with the pimp. What was the point of it?

There are a couple decent things here. If you want some nudity then there are some beautiful naked ladies for you to enjoy. Fans of William Girdler's ABBY will be happy to see Speed here and one wishes her character had a bit more to do. Dennis Burkley plays the psycho band member and he's the most interesting thing in the picture. Just take a look at the scene where he forces two of the groupies to shower together!

When it's all said and done, BUMMER really lives up to its title and it a major disappointment.

The multi talented Dave Friedman produced this "groupie" based trash classic.

It has the look of "The Blast off Girls" but it altogether nastier and more brutal, with a line in the trailer "You dont have to Rape a Groupie, You just have to Ask" (this was turned to Assault for ad's) you can get the picture of what your going to get.

I'm not going to get into detail, but if you love Friedman then get this movie and if your just dipping your toes it the water this is a good place to start