Shelley Plimpton Movies
- 1971
Director Jim McBride took his first step from the avant garde underground to Hollywood with this beautifully photographed bit of thoughtful science fiction. Glen (Steven Curry) and Randa (Shelley Plimpton) are a couple in their early twenties who forage for survival after an unspecified apocalypse has wiped out civilization. Drifting from one camp of survivors to another, Glen and Randa behave like arrested adolescents with limited knowledge of the world that existed before their birth, which now seems like folklore. Glen has heard of the cities which existed many years ago and is convinced that they still exist. When they encounter a self-styled traveling "magician" (Garry Goodrow) who demonstrates ancient home appliances and plays old Rolling Stones records for his tiny audiences, Glen asks him about "the city." After the magician warns him that the cities are in ruins, Glen pilfers his collection of maps and Wonder Woman comics and sets out with a now-pregnant Randa to find Metropolis. After months of traveling, Glen and Randa arrive at the seashore where they are befriended by Sidney Miller (Woodrow Chambliss), an elderly man who gives them a place to stay and tells them tales of the world that once was. Originally rated X for several non-exploitive scenes of nudity, Glen and Randa starred Steven Curry and Shelley Plimpton who first worked together in the original Broadway production of the rock musical Hair. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
After several years working along the margins of the underground film scene in New York, director Robert Downey broke through to wider recognition with the arthouse hit Putney Swope, a wildly irreverent satire of race and advertising in America. Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) is the token African-American executive at an otherwise all-white advertising agency when the chairman of the board unexpectedly drops dead. Through a fluke in the chain of command, Swope becomes the new head of the firm, and decides its time to do things his way. He fires nearly all the staff (except for his one token white employee), renames the agency Truth and Soul, Inc., and announces they'll no longer accept accounts advertising tobacco, alcohol, or war toys. The ads they do produce -- for acne remedies and breakfast cereal, among other things -- are wildly successful, and the iconoclastic ad agency (which only accepts payment in cash) is targeted by government operatives as a threat to the national security. Antonio Fargas and Allen Garfield lead the supporting cast; Mel Brooks makes a cameo appearance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Gottlieb, Allen Garfield, (more)
Intrigued by the counterculture tale of Arlo Guthrie's epic 1968 talking-blues record The Alice's Restaurant Massacree, director Arthur Penn, co-scripting with playwright Venable Herndon, adapted the song into the 1969 feature Alice's Restaurant. Hippie outsider Arlo (Guthrie, playing himself) encounters suspicion from the straight world; visits his dying father, renowned leftist activist/singer Woody Guthrie (Joseph Boley), in the hospital along with friend Pete Seeger; and hangs out in the title converted church/commune created by his friends Alice (Pat Quinn) and her husband Ray (James Broderick). After Alice's "Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat," Arlo is arrested for littering by rule-following Officer "Obie" Obanhein (William Obanhein, playing himself). That littering arrest helps Arlo avoid the Vietnam draft, but the commune is threatened after more personal, old-fashioned conflicts over sex and partnerships permeate Alice and Ray's alternative world. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, (more)
