Psych-Out (1968)

A deaf runaway arrives in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury hippie district looking for her missing brother.

Director:

Richard Rush

Writers:

E. Hunter Willett (screenplay), Betty Ulius (screenplay)

Stars:

Susan Strasberg, Dean Stockwell, Jack Nicholson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Susan Strasberg	...	Jenny Davis
Dean Stockwell	...	Dave
Jack Nicholson	...	Stoney
Bruce Dern	...	Steve Davis
Adam Roarke	...	Ben
Max Julien	...	Elwood
Henry Jaglom	...	Warren
Linda Gaye Scott	...	Lynn (as Linda G. Scott)
Mireille Machu	...	Pandora (as I.J. Jefferson)
Tommy Flanders	...	Wesley
Ken Scott	...	Preacher
Garry Marshall	...	Plainclothesman (as Gary Marshall)
Geoffrey Stevens	...	Greg
Susan Bushman	...	Little Girl
John 'Bud' Cardos	...	Thug (as John Cardos)

Storyline

Jenny, a deaf runaway who has just arrived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district to find her long-lost brother, a mysterious bearded sculptor known around town as The Seeker. She falls in with a psychedelic band, Mumblin' Jim, whose members include Stoney, Ben, and Elwood. They hide her from the fuzz in their crash pad, a Victorian house crowded with love beads and necking couples. Mumblin' Jim's truth-seeking friend Dave considers the band's pursuit of success "playing games," but he agrees to help Jennie anyway.

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Plot Keywords:

hare krishna | psychotronic film | drugsploitation | runaway | deaf | 

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Taglines:

come where the PLEASURE LOVERS are

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Richard Rush's original version ran 101 minutes, but this was cut to 82 minutes by Dick Clark for unknown reasons. The film was not restored to its original running time until a 2015 DVD release.

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Goofs

During The Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow" song, the lead guitarist's guitar changes halfway through the song.

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Quotes

Preacher: Death - death is merely the instant passage to eternal being. A final escape from the travail that man has heaped upon himself. It is a loss only for the living. We who in our loneliness cherish his sweet memory. And now, while we celebrate his needless death, we celebrate the end of death! This glorious day when man has finally denied and revolt his right to assassinate. Denied and revolt his right to assassinate his fellow man.

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Alternate Versions

The UK cinema version was unreleased until 1972 and then cut by the BBFC to heavily edit the yard fight between the workmen and the hippies. All later video and DVD releases were fully uncut.

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Connections

Edited into Gone with the Wind: The Remarkable Rise and Tragic Fall of Lynyrd Skynyrd (2015)

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Soundtracks

Two Fingers Pointing To You
Written by Sky Saxon
Performed by The Seeds

User Reviews

Bad Trip Dude.

(Minor Spoilers) Trveling to the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco to find her hippie brother Steve, Bruce Dern, pretty but hard of hearing Jenny Davis, Susan Strasberg, get's hooked up with a number of local hippie musicians and an high hippie Guru. The Hippies soon get her addicted to their free love and drug lifestyle that in the end almost cost Jenny her life.

Not that hip with what's happening Jenny falls for smooth talking Stoney (Jack Nicholson) ,by reading his lips, and ends up being bedded down by him at his pad together with a number of his other girlfriends.

Turned on to dangerous hallucinogenic drugs not only by Stoney but hippie Guru Dave(Dean Stockwell) who thinks he's the real deal, when it come to the free-love hippie lifestyle, that his fellow hippie Stoney's isn't. Jenny's brother Steve it turns out is on the run from a gang of thugs who dislike his free-love philosophy. When Jenny and her hippie friends Ben & Elwood, Adam Roarke & Max Julien, together with Stoney go to the junkyard, where Steve had made his home away from home,their attacked by these goons who try to rape Jenny. In the end they gets their butts kicked in by the suddenly non-peaceful but hard hitting hippies.

The fact that Steve, and artist, has his masterpiece on display at the Warren Gellery ,where Stony & Co. are staying at, has him sneaks in at night in order to retrieve it. Confronted by Stoney Steve is told that his sister Jenny's looking for him.

Complety blowing his cover Steve's trapped in a burning building by the thugs who've been looking for him and ends up possibly killed. Were never really shown what happened to Steve much less told just why these thugs were so hateful to him. Since he was just one of thousands of hippies in the city who shared the same ideas that he did; so why did they single him out for special treatment? Jenny is later turned on by Dave, who should have know better, on acid that blows her mind and causes Jenny to drift out on the dangerous Golden Gate Bridge.

With Jenny staggering onto the bridge's roadway and about to be run down and killed by the oncoming traffic Dave, in a moment of redemption for what he did to her, heroically saved Jenny's life but at the cost of his own.

Pretty good film about the 1960's counter culture with guest appearances by the popular late 1960's musical groups "The Seeds" & "The Strawberry Alarm clock". With Jack Nicholson looking more like an extra from the Mel Gibson American Revolutionery epic "The Patriot" then a 1960's type hippie.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 March 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Revolt of the Flower People

Filming Locations:

1466 Haight Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dick Clark Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1