The years 1967 to 1969 were a veritable gold mine of kooky, product-of-their-time films like; "I Love You, Alice B. Toklas," "The President's Analyst," "Candy," The Magic Christian," and "Valley of the Dolls." Some were very funny, some had things to say about society, others were really campy and outrageous. This film is nowhere near as memorable as those films are. It's not funny or campy or clever enough to even warrant a second viewing, let alone cult status.
The main character, Tara Nicole (Holly Near), isn't all that sympathetic. We're supposed to feel sorry for her because she's the pudgy and plain daughter of beautiful mother, Astrid (Jennifer Jones), and wealthy war-hero father, Willie (Charles Aidman), but she just seems like such a dope. Her parents might've been distant but they're billionaires. She gets to wear half a jewelry store to her debutante party and indulges in hobbies like flying. She's pathetic enough to stick around after her love-interest seduces her mom, hoping for another chance with him. Then there's the scene where Tara suddenly remembers that she may have been molested as a child and she smiles a creepy, ecstatic smile. Eeew.
What was Jennifer Jones thinking?! I'm guessing that she needed the money. There's no question as to whether she's still the same fine actress who starred in "Song of Bernadette" and "Portrait of Jennie," since she actually manages to keep a straight face while reciting the following dialogue...
"In my heart of hearts, I'm a sexual clam."
(To her masseuse) "Stop it, Hopkins, you're hurting me. You bloody sadistic dyke!"
(When asked if she likes Bogie) "Yes but he is the sort that makes you take all sorts of tranquilizers before breakfast, isn't he? And wash them down with bloodys."
(To her simpering daughter) "You ARE a fat girl, idiot! I don't know why anyone would even touch you!"
"...I'm not of your generation. I only get drunk. Occasionally. I only take pills. Sometimes pills work with liquor. Teamwork."
"I made 30 stag films and I never faked an orgasm."
"I was champion leg-wrestler at Santa Monica High."
The one time I laughed out loud while watching this was when Tara asks Astrid (who is 50), "Could you still have children, Mother?," and Astrid replies, haughtily, "You really are retarded! I could bring forth nations!" What in the hell was the person who came up with that smoking?!
Jones was the widow of "Gone With the Wind" producer David O. Selznick and there are several references to "GWTW" here. Tara got her name because Astrid was a fan. Bogie does a passable impression of Gerald O'Hara trying to instill the love of the land in Scarlett, etc. Would Selznick really have wanted his masterpiece alluded to in a wacko '60s film? If these references were added after Jones was booked to play Astrid, it seems so tacky and disrespectful.
When we first see the improbably-named Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Jordan Christopher) he's the ersatz Jim Morrison hired to perform at Tara's coming out (in the original sense of the term) party.
Bogie's entourage is a band he's working with; Santoro (Roddy McDowall), Joe (Lou Rawls), and pregnant, blonde Anna Livia (Davey Davison). McDowall and Rawls are pretty much wasted here and not just because they look stoned much of the time. McDowall gave some really good and/or funny and/or touching performances in other kooky '60s films like; "Lord Love a Duck," "The Cool Ones," and "It!" but he doesn't have much to do here. His most dramatic scene includes the startling admission that he can get turned on just by staring at a carrot! Rawls never sings, except for a bit of backup miming during "Revelation." He actually looks sort of uncomfortable in a couple of shots, in a way that implies, "Oh, man, what was I thinking?!" All of the men hang on and pet all the women but no one gets to have sex except for alpha-male Bogie who beds them all.
Bogie's motivation in attaching himself to and destroying the Steele family is unclear. Normally, the hippie or anti-establishment characters in these types of films are all peace & love and anti-capitalism. When outsiders worm their way into a household, it's usually to profit in some way. Bogie has outbursts of casual cruelty. When he first meets Tara, he says that he isn't interested in her money because he just sold a record company for two million dollars.
He tells her, "American imperialism is your dream," slaps her savagely, and continues, "You have a right to that dream! You're not a bloody drop-out, enjoy yourself! And screw anyone who hates killing!" When Astrid asks him why he isn't in the army he replies, "Why should I go out and kill mere strangers...(chuckle)...when there are much more luscious pickings right here in my own backyard? In my own bedroom."
Mean, capitalist, threatening hippies. Is this supposed to be funny? Ironic? Is it supposed to be a parody of hippie films? I'm just not sure what the screen-writer was going for.
You wouldn't generally expect much from the soundtrack of a movie like this but all of the songs were written and composed by hit-makers Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Jordan Christopher was really a singer. The (original) title song is pretty good. "The Fat Song" is quite funny. Tara's "groovy" interpretive dance to it (clad in a gown with a diaphanous skirt) is the high camp moment of the entire film. "Revelation" could've been a song that got axed from the "Jesus Christ Superstar" soundtrack.
There are some real '60s touches here, namely, the collages used in the opening and closing of the film and interspersed, here and there, with music and sound effects. Then there's the drug-induced freakouts, where Tara's on the ceiling.
A couple of scenes would've been fairly startling to movie audiences at the time. Early on, there's a flashback of Willie showering with a younger man and then that same man sauntering around while the furniture barely hides his frontal nudity. Near the end, there's a rather unpleasant scene where a frenzied, sweat-drenched Bogie beats Willie with a chain.
Astrid's fate here is pretty predictable. Willie's not so much. It all just seems pointless. Tara's narration is pretentious and silly. Why does she sometimes seem to be affecting a British accent?
This film either needed to go campier or darker. It just doesn't work as is.
"Angel, Angel, Down We Go" was a much better title.
The main character, Tara Nicole (Holly Near), isn't all that sympathetic. We're supposed to feel sorry for her because she's the pudgy and plain daughter of beautiful mother, Astrid (Jennifer Jones), and wealthy war-hero father, Willie (Charles Aidman), but she just seems like such a dope. Her parents might've been distant but they're billionaires. She gets to wear half a jewelry store to her debutante party and indulges in hobbies like flying. She's pathetic enough to stick around after her love-interest seduces her mom, hoping for another chance with him. Then there's the scene where Tara suddenly remembers that she may have been molested as a child and she smiles a creepy, ecstatic smile. Eeew.
What was Jennifer Jones thinking?! I'm guessing that she needed the money. There's no question as to whether she's still the same fine actress who starred in "Song of Bernadette" and "Portrait of Jennie," since she actually manages to keep a straight face while reciting the following dialogue...
"In my heart of hearts, I'm a sexual clam."
(To her masseuse) "Stop it, Hopkins, you're hurting me. You bloody sadistic dyke!"
(When asked if she likes Bogie) "Yes but he is the sort that makes you take all sorts of tranquilizers before breakfast, isn't he? And wash them down with bloodys."
(To her simpering daughter) "You ARE a fat girl, idiot! I don't know why anyone would even touch you!"
"...I'm not of your generation. I only get drunk. Occasionally. I only take pills. Sometimes pills work with liquor. Teamwork."
"I made 30 stag films and I never faked an orgasm."
"I was champion leg-wrestler at Santa Monica High."
The one time I laughed out loud while watching this was when Tara asks Astrid (who is 50), "Could you still have children, Mother?," and Astrid replies, haughtily, "You really are retarded! I could bring forth nations!" What in the hell was the person who came up with that smoking?!
Jones was the widow of "Gone With the Wind" producer David O. Selznick and there are several references to "GWTW" here. Tara got her name because Astrid was a fan. Bogie does a passable impression of Gerald O'Hara trying to instill the love of the land in Scarlett, etc. Would Selznick really have wanted his masterpiece alluded to in a wacko '60s film? If these references were added after Jones was booked to play Astrid, it seems so tacky and disrespectful.
When we first see the improbably-named Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Jordan Christopher) he's the ersatz Jim Morrison hired to perform at Tara's coming out (in the original sense of the term) party.
Bogie's entourage is a band he's working with; Santoro (Roddy McDowall), Joe (Lou Rawls), and pregnant, blonde Anna Livia (Davey Davison). McDowall and Rawls are pretty much wasted here and not just because they look stoned much of the time. McDowall gave some really good and/or funny and/or touching performances in other kooky '60s films like; "Lord Love a Duck," "The Cool Ones," and "It!" but he doesn't have much to do here. His most dramatic scene includes the startling admission that he can get turned on just by staring at a carrot! Rawls never sings, except for a bit of backup miming during "Revelation." He actually looks sort of uncomfortable in a couple of shots, in a way that implies, "Oh, man, what was I thinking?!" All of the men hang on and pet all the women but no one gets to have sex except for alpha-male Bogie who beds them all.
Bogie's motivation in attaching himself to and destroying the Steele family is unclear. Normally, the hippie or anti-establishment characters in these types of films are all peace & love and anti-capitalism. When outsiders worm their way into a household, it's usually to profit in some way. Bogie has outbursts of casual cruelty. When he first meets Tara, he says that he isn't interested in her money because he just sold a record company for two million dollars.
He tells her, "American imperialism is your dream," slaps her savagely, and continues, "You have a right to that dream! You're not a bloody drop-out, enjoy yourself! And screw anyone who hates killing!" When Astrid asks him why he isn't in the army he replies, "Why should I go out and kill mere strangers...(chuckle)...when there are much more luscious pickings right here in my own backyard? In my own bedroom."
Mean, capitalist, threatening hippies. Is this supposed to be funny? Ironic? Is it supposed to be a parody of hippie films? I'm just not sure what the screen-writer was going for.
You wouldn't generally expect much from the soundtrack of a movie like this but all of the songs were written and composed by hit-makers Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil and Jordan Christopher was really a singer. The (original) title song is pretty good. "The Fat Song" is quite funny. Tara's "groovy" interpretive dance to it (clad in a gown with a diaphanous skirt) is the high camp moment of the entire film. "Revelation" could've been a song that got axed from the "Jesus Christ Superstar" soundtrack.
There are some real '60s touches here, namely, the collages used in the opening and closing of the film and interspersed, here and there, with music and sound effects. Then there's the drug-induced freakouts, where Tara's on the ceiling.
A couple of scenes would've been fairly startling to movie audiences at the time. Early on, there's a flashback of Willie showering with a younger man and then that same man sauntering around while the furniture barely hides his frontal nudity. Near the end, there's a rather unpleasant scene where a frenzied, sweat-drenched Bogie beats Willie with a chain.
Astrid's fate here is pretty predictable. Willie's not so much. It all just seems pointless. Tara's narration is pretentious and silly. Why does she sometimes seem to be affecting a British accent?
This film either needed to go campier or darker. It just doesn't work as is.
"Angel, Angel, Down We Go" was a much better title.