Microscopic Liquid Subway to Oblivion (1970)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Roberto Loyola

Writer:

Roberto Loyola (writer)

Plot Keywords:

Hallucination | Visual Hallucination | Art | Art House | LSD

Cast

Ewa Aulin	...	Elizabeth
Alex Rebar	...	John (as Alex J. Rebar)
Carlo De Mejo	...	Billy
Eugene Pomeroy	...	Henry

Runtime:

Greece:85 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Great big subway to inanity

Normally, I really dig these 1960's and 1970's psychedelic freak-out movies. Sometimes though they seem to not only be ABOUT people who are on serious drugs, but also made BY people who were on serious drugs. Still, even these can be interesting in train-wreck sort of way (i.e. "The Last Movie", Dennis Hopper's virtually unreleased follow-up to "Easy Rider" which I actually like a lot better than its predecessor). This movie, however, not only doesn't hold together as a narrative (not an unforgivable sin for one of these "head" movies), but it's also sore lacking in psychedelic freak-out scenes (aside from a few trippy sequences shot with a fish-eye lens). The music is obviously pretty dated, but contrary to other opinions, I thought it was actually the best element of the movie.

After the overdose (suicide?)of a student at a college, a young svengali-like professor invites a group of students to his house for the weekend. It turns out one of the students is addicted to the same powerful drug (apparently some strange combination of LSD and heroin) as is the professor's young wife (Ewa Aulin). Apparently, the professor is planning to use the weekend to re-hab these two (thus, he's kind of a "just-say-no" version of Timothy Leary). His re-hab plans quickly go awry--not surprisingly since they involve wiring his entire house for sound for some reason, and rutting around with a random co-ed while his wife and the male drug addict go at it as well in the next room. Finally, he just ties the couple to the bed--well, actually the guy somehow ties himself (don't even ask). Then things REALLY get stupid. . .

Alex Rebar, who plays the professor, would later go on to star in the cult sci-fi film "The Incredible Melting Man", and would collaborate with David "Krug" Hess on the 80's yuletide slasher flick "To All a Good Night". He's not particularly good here though. Ewa Aulin became associated with swinging psychedelic movies after appearing in the big-budget groovefest "Candy" and several of your more far-out Italian gialli ("Death Laid an Egg", "With Heart in Throat"). Unfortunately though, she was never really an actress. She was pretty good in "Candy" where she played the very sexy but wooden centerpiece, while a cast of big Hollywood names (Burton, Brando, etc.) mercilessly chewed all the scenery around her (before moving on to her). She certainly can't carry a movie though--she underacts so much it often seems like she's going to slip into a coma. She is speaking in her natural, wood-inducing Swedish accent here at least (she's usually dubbed in Italian movies), but she has no nude scenes, even when she's having sex (something I always find especially unforgivable). I guess I really can't blame her for not wanting to strip-off in a celluloid loser like this though. . .This is basically a bloody waste of time and not recommended.