Ride in the Whirlwind (1966; Monte Hellman)

Ride in the Whirlwind (USA, 1966) 82 min color DIR-EDITOR: Monte Hellman. PROD: Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson. SCR: Jack Nicholson. DOP: Gregory Sandor. MUSIC: Robert Drasnin. CAST: Cameron Mitchell, Jack Nicholson, Tom Filer, Millie Perkins, Katherine Squire, George Mitchell, Harry Dean Stanton, Rupert Crosse, Gary Kent. (Jack H. Harris Enterprises; Favorite Films)

Amusingly though accurately coined as “Kafka on the range” in Steven H. Scheuer’s perennial reference guide, Movies on TV, Ride in the Whirlwind was one of two westerns shot back-to-back in Utah by Monte Hellman in 1965, as a “two for one” package deal for Roger Corman. Sharing much of the same crew (including excellent colour cinematography by Gregory Sandor) and some principal cast members (Jack Nicholson and Millie Perkins appear in both), Whirlwind, and its companion film, The Shooting, share the common theme of characters thrown into situations beyond their control or understanding.

Psych-Out (1968; Richard Rush)

American Bandstand guru Dick Clark did not dig flower power. When "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" was a thing, he still was into Bobby Darin. During his short tenure as a film producer at American-International Pictures, he intended a film to show the decrepit existence of hippies for what it really was. Despite how much he may have succeeded in Psych-Out, this remains a key film for those who are nostalgic for the flower power era. Today, this film seems naive, but honestly so was much of the era, but it probably captures the “Summer Of Love” better than any other narrative film.

The Trip (1967; Roger Corman)

Would you drop acid with Bruce Dern?

Before Peter Fonda made the trailblazing Easy Rider with his co-star Dennis Hopper, he was already a counterculture icon from The Trip, in the role of Paul Grove, a TV commercial director on the verge of a divorce from Sally (Susan Strasberg) who falls in with some Hollywood hippy-dippy types, and eventually goes on his first cosmic journey of LSD at Bruce Dern’s pad (see above).  The rest of the film is that long day’s journey through a burning brain where reality and illusion jam on a merry-go-round.  It’s Blowup for the Monkees generation, it’s Chappaqua filmed as a cartoon.

The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003; Alan Rudolph)

Alan Rudolph's films are just the things for which this site seems made. For a quarter century, discerning viewers seeking departure from the usual homogenized Hollywood fare could count on a new work from the writer-director every year or two. His studies of human nature were often ensemble pieces like those of his mentor Robert Altman, yet unique in their own rights for their moody, dreamlike atmospheres, and quirky shifts in narrative tone or genre.  Even though they were often imperfect (as are most unique works of art), they were often haunting experiences that lingered for days afterwards.

 

Johnny Gunman (1957; Art Ford)

Martin E. Brooks, best known to our generation as Rudy in TV's The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff The Bionic Woman, has a rare feature-film leading man credit as "Johnny G.", one of the two underlings of mobster Lou Caddy who are left in charge of his territory while their head honcho is sent up the river for a stretch.