There were so many hippie movies being churned out during those years and most of them were awful but a few of them attained cult status. Unfortunately this film is just one of the worst pieces of nonsense ever made and watching the actors wallow about in this made me feel sad for them. Story (such as it is) is about a very wealthy couple who have an overweight daughter who's completely miserable. Jennifer Jones is the mother Astrid Steele and her past includes making stag films. Charles Aidman is the father Willy Steele who is bi-sexual and he tries to make his daughter Tara Nicole (Holly Near) happy by giving her expensive gifts. One night after a party Tara runs into Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Jordan Christopher) who is the lead singer of a rock band and he seduces her. Tara meets the other members of his band which include Joe (Lou Rawls), Anna Livia (Davey Davison) and Santoro (Roddy McDowall).
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
The four members of this band/cult start playing games with Tara and fill her gullible head with all sorts of psychedelic mish-mash and finally she brings them back to meet her parents. Bogart puts the heavy moves on Astrid and eventually he seduces her as well. They talk her into going sky diving and play keep away in mid-air with one of her expensive necklaces until she plummets to her death. The film ends with Willy being killed by Bogart and Tara completely brainwashed.
This film was directed by Robert Thom who is primarily known as a pretty decent writer of low budget films and he never directed another film again after this. I don't mind hippie films if they're done with some sort of tongue in cheek approach like my favorite "Candy" but this film is just a mess and one with a totally narcissistic attitude. With all of the "Groovy" editing going on it was very difficult at times to figure out what exactly was real and what was just another fantasy sequence. The casting is the most interesting thing about this effort and you had to wonder what Jones was thinking. Did she need the money that bad? Did she think she was going to cash in on the new young and trendy way films were being made? She spouts lines such as "I made 30 stag films and never faked an orgasm". I will say one positive thing, though. Jones looks great! I'm not sure how old she was when she made this but she still maintained her sex appeal and looked very beautiful. But this brings me to McDowall and Rawls who have at best secondary roles and have practically nothing to say. Every once in a while Rawls would mutter something about "Afro-American Negroes" and shoot that big grin on his face. McDowall doesn't come across much better and at one point he stares upward with a glazed look on his face and warbles about being turned on by a carrot! Someone hand him a chimpanzee mask and let him really act! This film was doomed right from the start as it came out fairly close to the time when Sharon Tate was murdered. A shame the script for this wasn't destroyed instead.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
The four members of this band/cult start playing games with Tara and fill her gullible head with all sorts of psychedelic mish-mash and finally she brings them back to meet her parents. Bogart puts the heavy moves on Astrid and eventually he seduces her as well. They talk her into going sky diving and play keep away in mid-air with one of her expensive necklaces until she plummets to her death. The film ends with Willy being killed by Bogart and Tara completely brainwashed.
This film was directed by Robert Thom who is primarily known as a pretty decent writer of low budget films and he never directed another film again after this. I don't mind hippie films if they're done with some sort of tongue in cheek approach like my favorite "Candy" but this film is just a mess and one with a totally narcissistic attitude. With all of the "Groovy" editing going on it was very difficult at times to figure out what exactly was real and what was just another fantasy sequence. The casting is the most interesting thing about this effort and you had to wonder what Jones was thinking. Did she need the money that bad? Did she think she was going to cash in on the new young and trendy way films were being made? She spouts lines such as "I made 30 stag films and never faked an orgasm". I will say one positive thing, though. Jones looks great! I'm not sure how old she was when she made this but she still maintained her sex appeal and looked very beautiful. But this brings me to McDowall and Rawls who have at best secondary roles and have practically nothing to say. Every once in a while Rawls would mutter something about "Afro-American Negroes" and shoot that big grin on his face. McDowall doesn't come across much better and at one point he stares upward with a glazed look on his face and warbles about being turned on by a carrot! Someone hand him a chimpanzee mask and let him really act! This film was doomed right from the start as it came out fairly close to the time when Sharon Tate was murdered. A shame the script for this wasn't destroyed instead.