PSYCHO A GO-GO

1965/Director: Al Adamson/Writers: Mark Eden, Chris Martino

Cast: Roy Morton, Tacey Robbins, Nadine Arlyn, John Armond, Joey Benson, Johnnie Decker, Kirk Duncan

Al Adamson is one of those filmmakers who divide the masses. In this case he divides not the masses of main stream movie goers from the purveyors of b-movies and fringe indie-films, but divides the very schlock movie crowd itself. Even lovers of “bad cinema” find Adamson’s work to be intolerable. Now before I continue I should make clear, as I have done before with films like The Creeping Terror, that while I put this film into my bad movies to avoid category I can still recommend it to the elect few. When I say avoid this film I am speaking here of course to the bulk of mankind who did not grow up in the shadow of a leaky nuclear power plant. There are of course those of the cognoscenti who spend a lot of time searching for these oddities in the back of small video/DVD stores or online in eclectic BT sites. I have to admit that I fall into this category of masochistic film viewers who wants to not avoid the works of people like Al Adamson but wants to see as many as I can. That being said, if you do not fall into this category you are well advised to steer clear of Psycho A Go-Go, and most certainly clear of this Double Feature’s second feature, Manos: The Hands of Fate.

There is actually a long and convoluted history surrounding Psycho A Go-Go and I am not sure I have all my facts straight and if I make a scholarly blunder I defer to the authorities in on this filmmaker to set the record straight. The film was originally released in 1965 by Admason and life long friend and partner Sam Sherman as Echo of Terror (with “cinematography” by Vilmos Zsigmond who would later go on to shoot The Deer Hunter) but it totally bombed and was quickly reedited with shots of plump go-go dancers in a club gyrating and was re-released as Psycho A Go-Go. The film has an interesting movie score really that is the subject of some armchair research by sites that focus on soundtracks such as the people over at Monster Movie Music . But the scenes with singer and star Tacey Robbins sound more like a poor man’s Patsy Cline than a typical 60’s go-go style singer but the scenes are curious in a mid-sixties exploitation cinema sort of way and she is not really a bad singer. Well the added clips of a go-go bar did not help the film much and it vanished again into obscurity until Sherman and Adamson brought it back from the dead in the form of 1971’s The Fiend with the Electronic Brain and new footage now was put in featuring Tommy Kirk and John Carradine. The extra footage was added to create a new sub-plot that explained that the original bad guy in Psycho A G-Go (Roy Morton) was actually some sort of Vietnam War zombie controlled by evil scientist Carradine. The movie was still to be re-re-released as Blood of Ghastly Horror (cool title) and this time with some added footage of Adamson’s wife Regina Carrol playing Carradine’s daughter. Now was this the final version of the film? I don’t really know. It was also released under the title The Man With The Synthetic Brain but I do not know if this included extra footage of, lets say, Adamson’s dog in the background, or if it was just a ploy distributors and film makers often used in the 60’s and 70’s to get people to pay for the same film twice.

In any case, the movie continued to bomb and Adamson must be given his due credit for really trying to sell this film over and over despite the public’s refusal to want to see it. I have not seen Blood of Ghastly Horror though I have it somewhere on my 500 gig hard drive (which desperately needs backing up) and will check it out eventually. So, I cannot compare the two films. I have read Ghastly Horror is a real mess and only Adamson devotees can endure it from start to finish in a single setting. How can anyone pass up seeing something with a reputation like that? However, I will be honest, Psycho A Go-Go is not a totally horrible film in that utterly outside Hollywood-film maverick sort of way. Of course some filmmakers are outside Hollywood for various reasons. Sometimes the filmmakers follow their own vision and passion refusing to be stifled by big studio politics. Other times they could never really belong inside Hollywood due to their basic lack of filmmaking skill. Which category Adamson fell in seems to be a topic for debate online.

The story starts off in an almost Tarantinoesque fashion with a group of rough looking jewel thieves on their way to make the perfect score that always hits the inevitable snag. Among the group is bad guy Joe Corey (Roy Morton) who we can assume is the psycho of the film’s title. We are introduced as well to boss man Vito (Lyle Felice) who sports a creepy John Water’s style mustache and a goatee. Obviously the condescending mastermind of the operation he is none too happy later when he finds things have gone awry after the female they tied up managed to set off the alarm causing the gang to panic. In the confusion Roy kills one of the gang, Travis, who was wounded by a cop and had who just tossed the case of jewels over the roof and into the back of a pickup truck owned by David Clark (Kirk Duncan)  who I gather is a cop. I am not sure really. Or he has a cop friend. Well, it does not matter really. Vito’s girlfriend Vicky was in charge of the getaway car and sees David drive off with the case of jewels and gets his license plate number. The crooks decide to pay the oblivious David a visit later and beat the truth out of him, but unbeknownst to all David’s daughter Linda had earlier found the jewels (now her “treasure”) and hid them all inside her new little negro doll. Well, that’s what it was. I have no clue why this white 60’s suburbanites would buy their daughter a little negro girl doll for her birthday but the little girl seemed to loved it. Was this some fad in 1965?

Anyway, Linda has left with her go-go bar singing mom Nancy leave for a vacation at Lake Tahoe and dad is left home to be kicked around by Vito and his gang and has no idea what the hell is going on. Psycho Joe and punch drunk gang member Curtis intercept Linda and Nancy at the Lake Tahoe bus station and take them off to some cabin in the woods to terrorize them into telling them where the gems are. Back at the Clark house a love triangle has managed to surface between Vito, Vicky and handsome and sympathetic (which means he will die soon) gang member Nick. Vito is now happy about this and whoops pretty boy’s ass. The cops show up for some reason I can’t recall, but it had something to do with David not returning a call to his police buddy, and Nick and Vito are shot.

At Lake Tahoe friction develops between the ruthless Joe and the conscientious Curtis about the safety of Linda and Nancy. No problem. Joe kills Curtis and then high tails it after Nancy and Linda who have now escaped into the snow covered wilderness around Lake Tahoe. In the final scene Joe finds the jewels, finally, in the little black baby doll and as he realizes the irony of it all he is shot dead. A note should be made about Roy Morton’s performance as Joe. He vanished from films after this and yet he could have gone on to be a great heavy. I have not seen Blood of Ghastly Horror and wonder if there are added scenes of his performance in that film. I have seen stills of what look like new scenes with him wearing a tin cap with wires that looks like something from Bride of the Monster.

I have read Adamson hated making the films he made and if this is true I wonder why he made so many. Desite the sleazy and violent nature of his filsm he was supposed to be a kind man and easy going to work with on the set. I do not think he meant this film (or his others) to be taken too seriously. I am almost certain all of this is done tongue in cheek and considering the almost zero budgets he was given to work with by producer Sherman (who admits he is more to blame for Adamson’s films than Al himself) it is a wonder anything was produced at all. Really one of Adamson’s more watchable products. But then again, when you are talking about films like Satan’s Sadists and Horror of the Blood Monsters the competition is slim. But hardly anything even from Al Adamson can prepare one for the cinematic tripe that is Manos: The Hands of Fate. The question now is: is cinematic tripe a warning or recommendation when it comes from The Uranium Café? Maybe both. Lets have a look and see.

MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE

1967: Director: Harold P. Warren/Writer: Harold P. Warren

Cast: Tom Neyman, John Reynolds, Diane Mahree, Harold P. Warren, Jackey Neyman

Though my memory about the details is a bit fuzzy I know I have actually seen Manos: The Hands of Fate as a stand alone film and not the MST3K version that has made the film a cult classic. It must have been on VHS or perhaps some strange late night cable programming. I recently got a hold of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version and certainly the on running commentary by Joel, Tom Servo and Crow T. make the movie a more enjoyable experience. In fact the Manos episode has become one of the most popular of MST3K’s 198 episodes. This may well be due to the notion that the worse the movie the better the MST3K episode will be. I think I will clear up something before going into a commentary about this film. Certainly Manos: The Hands of Fate is a lousy movie. Amateurish and inept from the opening shots to the last. But does that mean it is a film that I hate? No. And I will no doubt watch the MST3K version again late one night (though I do not know if I could watch it this again without the gags supplied by space prisoner Joel and his robot companions). I have ejected several films, all made with more technical proficiency,  from my DVD player and tried again to watch them but just can’t. In the horror genre for example American Zombie has been ejected three times and the last time is the last. I just cannot stand it. I may fast forward through it just to review it and pan it. However I have seen Manos twice now and, while it is a load of total crap, I will no doubt see it an again as there is a certain pathetically fun quality to the film. Or maybe I just want to brag about having seen this one twice in the same way a veteran may want to brag about having survived the storming of Normandy Beach.

There is some speculation as to whether or not the film was actually began as a bet between El Paso Texas fertilizer salesman Harold P. Warren and screen writer Sterling Silliphant who was in El Paso to help with the filming of the TV series he was working on the time,  Route 66, or if that story is pure myth. Legend has it that Warren met Silliphant and told him that he thought film making was so easy that even he, lacking any training whatsoever, could raise the money and write and direct his own film. It is said he began the script on a napkin while still seated the table with Silliphant. Another version of the story simply claims that while Silliphant and Warren did meet and discuss films no bet was ever made. Rather Warren was so impressed and inspired by the hard working Silliphant that he simply took it on himself to create a movie. Whichever version is true the actual course of human history was little altered.

Warren was apparently a smooth talker and businessman and managed to raise about $19,000 and recruited actors from a local theater and modeling agency. Unable to pay wages Warren promised the cast and crew portions of the films profits. Well I think we know what they all got paid then, right? The film absolutely bombed and Warren never even broke even. If not for the MST3K episode the film would have remained perhaps in darkest obscurity forever. Ed Wood Jr.’s films are often panned for their incompetence but I have honestly never thought they were all that awful. What that says about me is a matter for the Freudians perhaps but when compared to abominations like this Wood’s film show some technical skill and passion that his detractors just do not want to allow him. I have never thought Plan 9 from Outer Space was the worst film ever made, if there is such a thing. And if there is I think Manos would easily nudge out Plan 9.

Manos was shot with an antiquated Bell and Howe 16mm camera that had to be manually rewound after 32 seconds of filming. This is cited as a contributing factor (along with the cast and crew’s  complete lack of film making experience) for the editing and continuity errors that plague the movie from start to finish. There are also issues with lighting and sound that make the film look very cheesy in the worst ways imaginable. The camera did allow sound recording and all sound was dubbed later. This does not mean a good audio track could not have been laid down in post production and I have read that Fellini added all the audio to a couple films after they were completely shot with no live sound. Here though the sound production is so shoddy as to defy belief. At times the MST3K gags focus on the fact that some of the dialog sounds like it is being done by the same person and very likely could have been. The camera work is of the poorest quality and the acting is simply laughable. And all of this is Warren’s baby as he (in Orson Welles style grandeur) has his name all over the credits as producer, writer, director and star.

The story is a simple one really and involves the barest of plot and interaction between the characters who all remain undeveloped and one dimensional. The cast is led by Warren himself as Michael the husband and father of a family who decide to take a soothing vacation in the hostile, barren deserts around El Paso Texas. I have driven through El Paso and it is not a place to stop and hang out. Since Warren was from El Paso it seems sensible to make the film there I guess. Along for the relaxing ride in the blazing sun is his wife Margaret and his daughter Debbie and the family dog, a black poodle whose name is Peppy if that ever comes up a quiz. They get lost while looking for the picturesque (I am sure) Valley Lodge. While they drive around endlessly we are treated to camera shots from the front seat of the car of bleak dirt roads and are introduced to a reoccurring couple in the film, the obligatory 60’s make out pair. In almost all of these old films like this there are horny necking teenagers (who all look thirty at least) who are totally oblivious to the world around them. A couple hick cops keep interrupting them and when Romeo complains that they aren’t doing anything the cops advises them, “well, whatever it is you ain’t doing go and don’t do it somewhere else.” That is a paraphrase but I am not about to review the film just to get the correct prepositions.

Eventually Michael and family wind up at a weather worn old house and are met at the door by the only really interesting character in the film, Torgo. Torgo is played by actor John Reynolds who committed suicide not long after the film’s release. The suicide was related to issues Reynolds had been suffering before the making of Manos, such as a drug problem, and his involvement with the film did not influence the act. Though had it been the only factor involved it would be a reasonable explanation for suicide. Torgo stammers and stutters his lines in such a odd way that you can’t help but watch and wait and wonder if he is going to actually say anything. He has the hugest thighs in the world and walks like he was just chugged a bottle of Tequila. There was actually a reason for the huge thighs not many people may be aware of and that was that Torgo was actually supposed to have been a Satyr with goat legs. Shots all through the film show him wearing shoes but that was the original intent auteur Warren had in mind. Reynolds was supposed to have designed the wire mesh contraption that was used and may have even designed a pair of cloven hoves that was never used.

Torgo keeps warning the family that “The Master” will not be happy with their presence but they feel it is okay to intrude into the house of someone named the Master who has a simpering, wobbly manservant named Torgo in the middle of the El Paso wastelands. Some of what happens next is not clear to me because, to be honest, often nothing happened. The shots are static and dull and the characters often ramble or repeat dialog. If I cannot recall the sequence of events perfectly it does not matter in the big scheme of things I assure you. There is some sort of howling outside and Peppy the sissy poodle does what any lapdog does when it hears a possibly rabid wolf in a howling frenzy, it runs out the door and after it. Michael later finds Peppy dead and he and Margaret decide to not tell Debbie the truth and so they just keep avoiding her inquiries into where her doggie is. At one point while Michael and Margaret are arguing about what they should do and not do Debbie gets up off the sofa and leaves the room, prompting them to exclaim moments later “where is Debbie!!!”. They soon find her outside with a Doberman Pincher, the same one that appears in a portrait of the Master on the wall of the sparsely furnished living room. And that is another issue here, the house itself is simply the sort of run down desert shack you find all over Texas usually occupied by beer drinking rednecks. It just does not have any atmosphere. About this time there is a scene where Torgo starts to play with Margaret’s hair and after just a little longer time than is necessary she freaks out and tells him to never do it again. It is obvious Torgo really likes Maragret. Torgo lonely.

It is discovered as well that outside the house where Debbie went looking for the now deceased Peppy there are a bunch of sleeping women tied to Grecian style pillars all dressed up in gowns that look like something from an old  sword and sandal film. Soon Torgo is outside and whispering sweet nothings in the ears of and fondling the bodies of the sleeping women, who are in fact the Master’s wives. He also insults the sleeping Master but does not know that the Master and his wives, though in a deep trance like sleep for some reason, can still hear and understand everything he says. Soon the Master himself is awake and is not very happy with how Torgo handles things while he and his wives are sleeping and tells Torgo that he must die as a sacrifice to the god Manos and then takes his sweet time about carrying out the punishment and dumb ass Torgo just continues to hang around. Outside the women have all began wrestling in the sand over their disagreements about what to do with the family. Some say let them go. Others say kill them. Michael has since been knocked unconscious by Torgo and in a strange scene one of the Master’s wives seduces and slaps his unconscious body. The two hillbilly cops show up later and chase off the still necking teenagers and wonder if they should investigate the sound of gunfire they hear in the desert night. Torgo gets his hand burned off by the Master and runs off into the desert screaming while the Master busts his gut laughing over the situation. When Michael shows up later with a gun he had in his car (and just finished using on a stock footage rattlesnake to protect his family) he confronts the Master and empties the pistol into him to no effect and the film fades to black. In the closing scenes Michael has taken Torgo’s place but is not as interesting really and Margaret and Debbie (the little girl !!!) are dressed in togas and tied to pillars with the other wives. Does this mean the Master is a pedophile or what? Freaky. The movie ends with Michael talking to two young girls lost in the desert and the closing title “THE END?” Get it? A question mark. Is this really the end or not?

Well this film is only for the special few I assure you. For those who enjoy cinematic ineptitude only. As I stated earlier I recommend the MST3K version. The character of Torgo would reappear in later episodes of MST3K for comedic relief.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 2:45 pm and is filed under American Horror, Double Feature, Exploitation . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.