Subtitled “Far-Out Films of the Psychedelic Era,” this book takes a close look at the films that shaped the past 40 years of America’s social and political consciousness, featuring individual movie reviews and essays on the people and events that underlie modern society.
Even porn fans – and reviewers – have interests beyond porn, and one-time AVN reviewer and founder Irv Slifkin has edited a book about one of his. But lest the subtitle mislead, be aware that Slifkin has interpreted “psychedelic era” broadly, though most titles are from the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Sections of this book cover secret-agent films from the hardboiled (The Ipcress File) to the silly (The Man Called Flintstone) to the child-focused (Spy Kids); horror and sci-fi (we’ve never heard of Ganja & Hess, but now we’re interested); biker flicks (She-Devils on Wheels); leftie flicks from Brian DePalma’s Greetings to Robert Downey’s Putney Swope to the nearly lost French satire Mister Freedom; music, from the Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back to Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels; actual psychedelia (Maryjane, Psych-Out, Wild In The Streets); and of course, sex: Behind the Green Door, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, The Harrad Experiment and the Playboy-funded one Hugh Hefner would probably like to forget, Can Heironymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
Also to be found along the way are mini-essays on influential people – Pam Grier, Terry Southern, Tuesday Weld and Ken Russell, to name a few – and happenings: “[Otto] Preminger Probed by the Feds”; “Beatnik Beat”; “The Celluloid Closet Opens Up.”
Simply put, if there’s a strange or even vaguely unusual movie you remember seeing in the past 40 years, it’s either reviewed here or mentioned somewhere in one of the essays – making VideoHound’s Groovy Movies a must-have volume for weird movie (and weird-movie) buffs.
VideoHound’s Groovy Movies
By Irv Slifkin; Visible Ink Press, 43311 Joy Rd., #414, Canton, MI 48187-2075; 592 pp.; $24.95
