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SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

Friday Fromage: Jack Nicholson saves a deaf hippie chick in Psych-Out

Before anyone had any inkling that Jack Nicholson would become a 3-time Oscar winner (and my favorite movie star ever), he cut his teeth on shoestring budget horror/hippie/motorcycle gang flicks.

Today's wheel of cinematic cheese comes from the middle group, with Nicholson and other future notables tripping in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Psych-Out (1968) casts Nicholson and the ponytail he wishes he could still grow as the appropriately named Stoney, playing in a band called Mumblin' Jim, aided by Adam Roarke and The Mack himself, Max Julien (The Mack would make a cheesy Friday treat someday, too). They meet a deaf runaway (Susan Strasberg) who's looking for her estranged brother, a local artist known as The Seeker (and played by Bruce Dern with trademark dementia).

You nearly choke on the love beads, get a contact buzz from the intoxicants that, knowing Jack, were probably the real thing, and groove to the beat of Strawberry Alarm Clock playing its "new" hit, Incense and Peppermints. Bonus points for the bad acid trip one dude endures, believing his hand is melting and cutting it off with a power saw.

Enjoy!

Posted by at 6:23:03 am on September 18, 2009 in | Permalink | Comments | | Edit Post
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About the bloggers

For new movie reviews and movie news, this blog's for you. Steve Persall, movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times, weighs in on blockbuster movies, small-budget movies, the best movies, the worst movies ever and everything in between. Steve was conceived behind a drive-in movie theater his father operated and raised in projection booths and concession stands. He doesn't care how you did it up north.

E-mail Steve Persall:
persall@sptimes.com.

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