This movie is being released on Blu-ray by Olive Films (www.olivefilms.com – www.facebook.com/olivefilms) on August 16th, 2016.
Here’s an eccentric effort that those of you who grew up in the 60s might remember. Wild in the Streets was a low-budget cult oddity about a celebrity who takes control of the White House. Olive Films is releasing the title this week on Blu-ray, allowing fans of the feature the opportunity to own it in high definition.
Max Frost (Christopher Jones) lives a less-than-ideal suburban life, with bossy mom Daphne (Shelley Winters) adding to his troubles. When he grows up, he rebels in a dramatic way, blowing his dad’s car up, joining the psychedelic drug scene and becoming the world’s most famous rock star. When he’s asked by the Senatorial candidate Fergus (Hal Holbrook) to endorse his campaign (which promises to lower the voting age to 18), Frost initially helps. But slowly, the lead develops a taste for politics and takes things to the next level, demanding 14 year olds be given the honor. Frost’s popularity helps him influence and usurp the government – leading to a country run by the world’s youth.
The events that follow are both humorous and grim. Truthfully, the movie might have had a stronger impact if Frost weren’t such a… well… asshole to begin with. As it stands, he’s arrogant from the beginning and acts like a maniacal sociopath from the time he leaves home. I could be misreading it, but at times the feature seems to want viewers to completely side with the old establishment. I argue the tale would have been more compelling if Frost were a relatable protagonist who turns nasty as his beliefs warp due to the pressures of office, not to mention his own paranoia and personal issues.
Yet as bad as he is, this anti-hero is clearly a product of his abusive, selfish and inattentive parents. In the end, the movie doesn’t seem entirely clear about what it is trying to say. It appears to hedge its bets in many respects, eventually painting everyone in a negative light. Upon reflection, one assumes that it must be a satire of the entire political system and a look at how even the most liberal of citizens can turn into monsters when given great power.
Despite the fumbling, there are some amusingly diabolical elements. In fact, the movie jolts to life as Frost rises in the political world. He plots to make the government and public ineffectual by tainting the water supply with LSD (hilariously, it only takes one jar to contaminate an entire state’s reservoir). Once in power, he turns cruel and militaristic, building prison camps to house all citizens who have reached the age of 30. The elderly are then forced to ingest a drug cocktail to keep them from fighting back. It’s dark, but it’s also interesting to watch a nightmarish vision of the future begin to unfold. The funniest element is a children’s resistance who plot to take down Frost and enforce their own, even crueler mandate (in essence, wiping out all persons over the age of 10!).
And it’s also nifty to see the impressive cast ham it up in a B-movie. Holbrook is actually quite understated and carries himself in the most believable manner. Everyone else.. really goes big. Winters does some entertaining scenery-chewing as Frost’s mom, determined to do nothing more than leech off of her son’s success. It’s also entertaining to see Richard Pryor in an early role as one of lead’s bandmates/advisors.
It may have been a low-budget, independent release from American International Pictures aimed squarely at the drive-in market, but the feature attracted attention from the press and even nabbed an Academy Award nomination for best editing (likely due to the cutting of the psychedelic concert sequences and extensive use of freeze-frames). Yet, the movie is perhaps most known for its soundtrack. A few of the tunes aren’t half bad, and one, “Shape of Things to Come”, is remarkably strong. Over the years, this song has been covered by everyone from Slade and Paul Revere & the Raiders to the Ramones.
The Blu-ray itself looks and sounds good. The image quality isn’t the sharpest and suffers from some grain in darker sequences, but it’s all due to the original source material. It’s definitely an overall improvement over previous releases. I was particularly taken by the audio track during the music sequences; these bits really sound like a significant upgrade.
As a movie, Wild in the Streets is a mixed bag that doesn’t always tie all of its elements together in the most effective way possible. It is, however, an out of the ordinary B-movie that occasionally lands a few solid notes. The notion of a hugely popular media celebrity turned presidential candidate is certainly intriguing, especially today. And the fact that Frost’s selfish interests, manipulative streak and inflated ego end up leading a country into a totalitarian police state is downright scary. It’s these aspects that are the feature’s most memorable, and should raise a few eyebrows of cult film fans along the way.