It's a trip, baby!

   

I'm still watching movies out of the w-z box. I wanted to watch something while having dinner and working on some landscaping. I put X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes. Roger Corman directed the film starring Ray Milland in 1963. Ray is a doctor/science guy who invents a drug that lets him see everything. He can see through the human body and helps save a young girls life during surgery. As he takes more and more of the drug his vision gets weirder and weirder. Pretty soon he can't see much of anything we could relate to and that is making him crazier and crazier. He accidently kills a guy, runs away, and winds up in a side show with Don Rickles. This was Don's first movie appearance. He was pretty good. He transforms Ray into a healer but that soon goes to hell and Ray's on the run again. His gal pal keeps on rescuing him and after a disasterous trip to Las Vegas to cheat at cards Ray winds up in the desert where he finds religion and ends his problem. It's a pretty darn good low-budget film, which gets a nice boost on the dvd by having an interesting Roger Corman commentary. He's kind of droll but I enjoyed the time spent listening to him reminisice about his past. He'd originally made the story about a jazz musician and the trouble he gets into with drugs but it was harder to get a drug movie made. He changed it into a doctor and an experimental drug. It was a 15 day shoot. Two months of editing and post and there was the completed movie. He directed several movies a year in those days as well as producing many more. Some are pretty entertaining. Corman is 82 and still producing. He's produced almost 400 films in his over 50 years in film.

       

Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It was a 1971 Corman film that was not as entertaining for it's story but more it's cultural position. A really bad gas gets let out of a military research center and it kills everyone over 25. The left overs have a hard time getting their shit together. They clump into tribes and fight amongst themselves. It's really dated and not very good in many ways. It was Corman's last film for American International Pictures and he'd only direct a couple more after that. It's on a double dvd with Wild In The Streets which is why it's in the w-z box. All of these films were AIP movies which was one of the best low-budget picture houses in the 1950's and 60's. They started the Beach Party pictures with Annette Funecello and Frankie Avalon. Wild In The Streets is a far cry from those. It has it's moments, like Max Frost and the Troopers singing Shape of Things to Come. and it does serve as cautionary tale. Max is the head of a popular rock band who wonder why they can't vote at 14. A senator is trying to push through a 18 year voting age. You should be able to vote if you are asked to go fight for your country, he says. Christopher Jones, 23 playing 15, is joined by Richard Pryor, 24 playing 15, in this bad trip for oldies. Max and the senator sign up together and change 14 and Fight to 15 and Ready. More and more the teens take over and soon the over 35's are rounded up and put into camps where they are fed LSD. It's a bad scene, man. Next it's the oppressed 10 year olds are thinking of taking over. Good luck getting roads built when 10 year olds run the country. I thought anarchy was cool when I was young but I realistic enought to know that isn't going to work. I also wanted to have a good road to drive my car on. Max never thinks that far ahead and when you get down to it, he's pretty much a jerk. He turns very facist when presented with power. Hope that 10 year old kicks his ass after the movie was over. Serve Max right.