Psych-Out
1968American
International
Pictures
Not Rated89min
Directed by:
Richard Rush
Starring:
Susan Strasberg, Dean Stockwell, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Adam Roarke
RATINGS
Statcat


Written by StatCat (Statcat@webtv.net)






Stoney - Jack Nicholson with a fake looking ponytail! Leader of the band Mumblin' Jim and very uptight usually. Seems to have a magic guitar that can play by itself.

Ben - Stoney's friend and keyboardist for Mumblin' Jim.

Elwood - Drummer for Mumblin' Jim, usually stoned.

Wesley - Bass in Mumblin' Jim, lets Stoney borrow his wife.

Wesley's Wife - Flute, tamborine in Mumblin' Jim.

Dave - The weirdest of Stoney's associates, previously in Mumblin' Jim. Lives in a box atop a roof in San Francisco and pretends like he is a guru of wisdom. He doesn't like the success Stoney is having with the band and how it's changed him.

Warren - The poster designer for Mumblin' Jim with the strange Lincoln sideburns. Often caught in many bad acid drug trips.

Jenny - Deaf girl looking for her brother Steve Davis in San Francisco. Soon finds herself with the hippie crowd there.

Steve - Bruce Dern as a Jesus-like impersonator referred to as "The Seeker." Wanders around strangely supposedly giving speeches.

Junkyard Gang - A crew that don't like Steve the seeker and want to beat him up.

Harry - A vendor of narcotics to the hippies running about.





*Steve - I'll tell ya what, you give me a day to get my head straight and I will come.

*Stoney - Don't turn me off! I just want to tell you not to dirty the sheets until I get another chick to clean them!

*Dave- You're righteous Stoney but you're not very hip.

*Stoney - You don't sound so good without acid.

*Warren - Yeah, I'm fine. Now I've been seeing a couple things but I can come out of it anytime I want to.

*Dave - Reality is a deadly place, I hope this trip is a good one.










1 min - What could this ruckus be all about?
2 min - Jenny gives very strange happy reactions to those doped freaks on the street.
3 min - Nice dirty feet welcome you to Haight- Ashbury in San Francisco.
4 min - March of the strange flower children and protesters with blank signs?
7 min - Jack Nicholson chilling out smoking dope at an underground cafe with his Mumblin' Jim crew.
13 min - A shower of peace and love nonsense.
14 min - Mumblin' Jim blacklight posters, where can I buy one?
16 min - "Incense and Peppermints" poster pasting party.
19 min - Take whatever you'd like, I suppose its a store rummage.
23 min - I question myself again as to what is going on.
27 min - Stoney has so many chicks they just pop out of nowhere, like under his bed...
28 min - Baby aligators in a refridgerator?
31 min - Bad acid trip for Warren as he attempts to cut his hand off.
41 min - Stoney and friends beat up an evil junkyard gang while looking for Steve.
43 min - Purple Haze backwards!
44 min - Stoney rocks out without any strain- hell he doesn't even move his fingers!
48 min - Once again I question what is going on.
53 min - A random funeral with live music by garage rock legends the Seeds!
55 min - Stoney's guitar continues to play magically by itself, even in rehearsals when he walks away from it.
67 min - Steve tells a rather strange story tripped out as usual with these characters.
68 min - A young Jenny spews out black motor-oil with eels as Steve recalls!
70 min - The Strawberry Alarm Clock- watch their guitars and clothes magically change when the camera cuts back to them.
71 min - Mumblin' Jim with Stoney's amazing skills on guitar, I suppose it's all in the swaying?
76 min - RANDOM ACT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST A CURTAIN!
88 min - Dave is hit by a car trying to save Jenny and has a final word of wisdom. Reality is a deadly rotten place indeed.


STATCAT'S REVIEW

Here I am back again to review the 1968 Dick Clark production entitled Psych-Out. The story revolves around the 60's psychedelic/ drug culture and takes place in one of the centers of the scene at the time in the US, San Francisco. The movie seems overly strange and crazy at times but has a certain charm to it that makes it unique and flat out hysterical. Jenny, a deaf runaway, searches for her brother Steve. This leads her to San Francisco, California. She soon runs into a hippie named Stoney who is a lead guitarist of a band called Mumblin' Jim at a cafe. Jenny, with no place to go, stays with Stoney and friends at a house there. People crash in and out at Stoney's- sleeping on the floor and falling into drug trips. Jenny continues to search for her brother with only a few clues such as a postcard he sent to her at home that says "God is alive and well in a sugar cube." From some tips they still can't find this strange lunatic though.

Jenny soon falls in love with Stoney but he seems to have no problems attracting other women. Stoney soon happens to walk in on Steve Davis when he sneaks into the house. Steve came there looking for a statue he created that supposedly God led his hands to model. How it reached Stoney's pad- no one knows. Steve tells a strange story about how his mother was the most evil woman on earth and this is what led his little sister Jenny to run away. He tells Stoney to give him a day to get his head straight and he'll see Jenny.

Stoney's band Mumblin' Jim gets an opportunity to play the ballroom to the dissaproval of his friend Dave. After a short show there with the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Stoney pushes Jenny away looking for other thrills. Jenny, upset takes a drug known as STP given to her by Dave and falls into a trip. She goes wandering around looking for her brother with another clue, his address that Dave had written on a paper. Stoney and company go looking for her while she finally runs into her brother who is trapped in a burning house after being chased by a gang that dislikes him and wants to attack him. Jenny is pulled away and eventually finds herself in the middle of a highway. Stoney and his friends find her there and Dave is hit by a car in the process of saving her.

This is by far the most entertaining movie I think Jack Nicholson has been in. This film is a take on the late 60's scene with odd characters and strange situations pieced together. Its message is against drugs but not in a way that overly screams it as Dick Clark said. The cinematography is done quite well for this kind of flick with several different kinds of shots. The soundtrack itself is pretty interesting if you enjoy psychedelic/ garage 60's music with songs by The Seeds and The Strawberry Alarm Clock. There are also songs by unknown bands such as The Storybook and The Boenzee Cryque that appear to be used for the Mumblin' Jim songs and parts where people are high. It has been released alongside The Trip, a lesser movie in comparison, on MGM's Midnite Movie Series. Supposedly the version on the dvd has some small parts cut out to fit it on the disc sadly. I'm eagerly awaiting for Psych-Out part two which could have Nicholson reprising his role as Stoney all these years later living as a poor homeless guy in the San Francisco area attempting a Mumblin' Jim comeback. These guys were bigger than Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead at one time - the history books just fail to mention it.