See this film for the performance footage of legendary bands like the Standells and Chocolate Watchband and also for future Eurotrash starlet Mimsy Farmer's LSD freakout dance. Other than those highlights this film is dragged down by too much melodrama which was all too common in the string of Juvenile Delinquent films in the 50s. The Hippies are represented as drunken, riot-prone thugs and rapists while the Establishment are seen as uptight squares who fully endorse conformity through police brutality. Aldo Ray as the police captain and a nightclub owner represent the sensible side of the Establishment while a small band of well-spoken college-educated Hippies represent the sensible side of the Counterculture. What's always interesting in these 60s exploitation films is how the older generation businessmen like Arkoff and Katzman view the youth culture of the time. Director Dreifuss himself was 60 when he directed it, so what you're seeing is a distorted view of youth through older eyes which gives these films the camp appeal they have today.
Review of Riot on Sunset Strip
