User reviews

This film is a time warp of Los Angeles and the Sunset Strip in the 1960's. At first sigthing on the FLIX Channel I thought the actor was James Dean. Uncanny resemblance.

Richard Pryor as the drummer in a rock band getting high on LSD with topless white chicks must of been mind blowing for teenagers then. I missed this film totally in 1968. My parents probably made sure of it.

To see Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd, and the greatest lawyer in the nation at that time, Melvin Belli, playing themselves in a film with a whacked out Shelly Winters was just amazing.

The real night time Sunset Strip cruising footage of 1968 was really "far-out man".

Max Frost and his band want to run the country and with the help of their friends and some pharmacology, they take over the political structure of the USA. It's a reasonably well made cautionary tale of the late 60's. It briefly became a cult favorite and was said to have prompted then-mayor of Chicago, Richard Daily, to put guards around the city's water supply just prior to, and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention to prevent anarchists from "dosing" the water with psychedelics.

The storyline is fairly slick for the time; how do a bunch of don't-trust-anyone-over-30 kids take over the country? There's a little romance, a little angst, a little rock music, and a lot of scenery-chewing and overacting by the "Major Stars" including Shelly Winters and Ed Begley. Hal Holbrook was able to keep it toned down.

This was also one of the first major films the late Richard Prior appeared in. The other being Sid Cesar's "The Busy Body", released the same year.

The psychedelic aspects of "Wild in the Streets" make it a great film to pair with Peter Fonda's "The Trip" for a 60's double feature flashback fest. Enjoy and never trust anyone under 30. heh.

My high school buddies and I drove into Chicago to watch this the day it opened in 1968 and were not disappointed. On the way, WLS AM radio played "Jumpin' Jack Flash", which was the first time any of us had heard that tune. I think we may have inhaled some contraband, but I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was good to be "young, dumb and full of ***!" (-to quote Mr Busey, from Point Break.)

Some epic bits from this movie: 1) Richard Pryor spikes the DC water supply with LSD, resulting in a congress-full of hopelessly tripped-out Senators and Representatives. 2) Ed Begley and Shelley Winters wander about in flowing robes and caftans at the "Acid Concentration Camp" for people over 30. 3) Extremely young Billy Mumy confronting the great lout, Max Frost and declaring "We're putting everyone over 8 out of business!" 4)Diane Varsi cavorting nude in a fountain 4) Future Brady Buncher Barry Williams as the young terrorist Max.

See, this is one highly-lacking-in-credibility enterprise, but you have to love it. Watch and remark to yourself how this movie could only have been made in that halcyon year, 1968. Nothing this wonderfully over-the-top crazed and ridiculously sublime has been made since nor will ever grace the screen again.

For comparison (and companion) purposes, view this superb teen psychodrama in series with other 1968 befuddlements such as: "Planet of the Apes", "2001: A Space Oddysey", "Rosemary's Baby", "Putney Swope" and "The Savage Seven".

Christopher Jones only immortal role was the highly Hitleresque rocker, Max Frost.

Jeez, gimme the DVD already! This glorious cinematic potato is out of print!

I saw this movie in the theater a week or so after my junior year in high school. It was my first date where I was allowed to drive. The film received a lot of fanfare, aimed entirely at my generation. I went with high expectations and was of course disappointed. I think it was supposed to be some kind of Hollywood version of a social protest film, set in a slightly tongue-in-cheek spirit. It came off as just goofy. I thought it was goofy at the time, when I was 17 and almost anything designed especially for me I perceived as at least a little bit cool and hip. But not Wild In The Streets. Nope.

Some folks might think it has acquired some kind of cheeky flavor to it that makes it a good film, you know, like Plan 9 From Outer Space is supposedly a good movie too. But nope, Wild In the Street is simply a below par film, and for that matter, so is Plan 9.

When this movie came out in 1968, it made a bit of a stir. However, almost forty years later, it just looks incredibly dated and stupid BUT unintentionally funny as well! So for comedic value, you may want to give it a watch.

Max Frost is a very narcissistic rock star with a MASSIVE following among the youth. So popular, in fact, that he is able to mobilize the kids of America to go on strike until the voting age is lowered and they get a say in government (yeah, man--right on!). Unfortunately, his plan works too well and all the squares in Washington are sent packing and the good old US of A is now run by Frost and his hippie friends, man! So naturally, they use this power to send all the squares (aka, adults) to concentration camps and the kids run amok! Things are not that groovy, though, as the youngest members of society are left to fend for themselves and, within them, dissatisfaction begins to build and then the movie ends.

This is all meant to be some sort of allegory designed to warn us about "youth run wild". Instead of a serious message, though, it just seems overblown, ponderous and dopey,...as well as funny from time to time. These qualities make it an EXCELLENT film to show to your friends...sort of "Mystery Science Theater" style so you can all laugh at the unintentional hilarity of the movie.

Hippie dippy ridiculousness is a true artifact of it's time. Starting off with the preposterous concept of lowering the retirement age to 30 and impounding all the retirees in militant psychedelic camps is silly enough. But then throw in all the groovy 60's speak, far out outfits and Shelley Winters abandoning any pretext of modulating her performance and what you end up with is not the happening experience the producers were surely hoping for but a sloppy mess that if nothing else is good for a few laughs. Several respected actors besides Shelley risk their reputations by appearing in this junk including Richard Pryor and Hal Holbrook fortunately they were able to go on and put a lot of distance between themselves and this cinematic white elephant. Peace out baby!!

When this came out in 1968 I was 17. It made a huge impression on me then. What a wild and strange movie. I was not really ready for this movie but I liked it just the same. When Max said 14 or fight, I believed him. Of course at 17 I couldn't vote but I was facing 18 and at that time the Vietnam draft. Scary times indeed. Just the other night it was on TMC and I recorded it. I don't think I've seen it anywhere since. It was fun to watch it again, Shelly Winters looked really young, Ed Begley was perfect as the stoned out old Senator and Christopher Jones, going from rock star to politician to President and then to "old guy" played the part to a tee. The only thing about this movie I didn't care for was that it type casted Jones and he really didn't do much after this movie.

Wild in the Streets

The problem with teenagers voting is that they loiter around the ballot box afterwards.

However, the adolescents in this musical are more apt to through a dance party.

Subversive since infancy, Max Frost (Christopher Jones) now fronts a successful rock group of astute teens (Richard Pryor, Kevin Coughlin, Diane Varsi) that Senator Fergus (Hal Holbrook) would like to partner with.

But before he'll endorse the policymaker, Frost wants Fergus to lower the voting age to 14, or else Frost's fans will riot.

Eventually, Frost uses LSD to win the US presidency and send everyone over 35 to internment camps.

An outlandish cautionary tale about the social tensions affecting sixties youth, this cult classic may have some trippy ideas and seriously catching tunes, but its message of dissent is drowned out by all its bell-bottomed kitsch.

Regardless, what good is the vote at 14 if you can't go binge drink afterwards?

Yellow Light

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This film has the unlikely premise of a popular young musician using his charisma, youth and influence to win over the American public to a more youth-inclined culture, a one with no time or patience for adults. Basically this is out to shock and it succeeds in this respect..however there's really very little message or meaning here beyond that.

This film is a fascinating time capsule of late sixties fashions, music, and mindsets, as essential to an understanding to the culture of the times as BLOW-UP and BEDAZZLED. Like the decade itself, the film is funny, political, satiric, irreverent, colorful and groovy. No really. The movie involves Max Flatow, an angry teen who blows up his parent's car and runs away from his push-over father and clinging mother to become a rock star and multi-millionaire. Now flanked by a group of hangers-on/band members that include a washed-up child star-turned-druggie(Diane Varsi), a one-handed horn player(Larry Bishop), a gay business manager(Kevin Coughlin), a fourteen-year old Japanese typewriter heiress, and black militant drummer(Richard Pryor!), Max Frost, as he is now known, endorses a self-serving young senatorial candidate(Hal Holbrook, in a role that now undoubtably makes him cringe)hoping to court young voters. But Max has his own agenda, using the newly-elected senator to have Varsi elected to Congress and propose legislation that the voting age be lowered to 14!Max laces the Washington water supply with LSD, then he and his cronies enlist teenagers to escort the stoned Congressmen to the voting booths. With the voting age lowered, Max gets himself elected President and outlaws anyone over 30, sentencing them to concentration camps where they're kept perpetually stoned on LSD.

The whole premise belies the generational tensions that laid just below the surface of everyday life in the late sixties. What looks like far-fetched camp now was very much a concern to the older people who felt overwhelmed by the predominant youth culture of the time. Still, it is a fun romp. The musical sequences are eye-popping precursors to MTV, with psychedelic light displays and cutting edge(for 1968)graphics, and the camera angles and editing are top-drawer(the film was nominated for an Oscar for editing). Yet the film does have a good deal of camp, primarily in Shelley Winters, out of control as Max's overbearing mother. Winters was well into the insane/conniving/perverted mother stage of her career(starting with LOLITA and ending with WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO)and she hits her stride here: she not only chomps the scenery but gobbles it down and goes for seconds! Everyone has a favorite scene: Winters commandeering the wheel of Max's Rolls and rolling the car, killing a small boy in the process; Winters in a long blonde wig and hippie get-up, extolling the virtures of LSD therapy; Winters(about five minutes after the last scene)in a pill box hat, suit, and finger waves haughtily telling a reporter about her recent appointment as U.S. Ambassador to England(?!); and my personal fave, with Winters, disheveled and whacked out on LSD, wearing a hospital gown and scaling a chain-link fence as she screams, "FEATHERS! I MUST HAVE FEATHERS!!" Whatthehell??

The movie was on video at one point, but may be out of print. AIP, that teen fare sausage factory, put this one out, and it supposedly got a bigger budget that their average flicks. It also made quite a bit of money. A true cult classic, and, did you know, the theme song, "Shapes Of Things To Come" was released as a single credited to Max Frost and the Troopers? It charted at #22 in 1968!

The prevailing youth culture of America in the 1960s certainly had tremendous impact, as noted in this interesting social / political satire courtesy of writer Robert Thom. Christopher Jones plays a young man who yearned to break free of his strict upbringing, and became a leading rock star and counterculture figure, rechristening himself "Max Frost". He becomes a voice for the kids of the nation, and youthful looking career politician Johnny Fergus (Hal Holbrook) figures to capitalize on this. Fergus reasons that any person old enough to be drafted into military service is at least old enough to deserve the right to vote. Their relationship bears some strange fruit, with Frost letting power completely go to his head.

While very much a film of its time, "Wild in the Streets" does capture a pivotal point in the pop culture evolution. It's an amusing and reasonably intelligent examination of the generation gap, which was even more pronounced in past decades than it is now. Kids didn't have a voice, anybody to speak for them, or individuals to relate to. And adults just assumed that they knew best; that experience was all that really mattered. The characters here are stereotypical, by and large, but that is entirely the point. When Frost and his followers - whom he calls his "troops" - get into power, things change to a radical degree, with official law enforcement organizations like the FBI and CIA seeming to become obsolete.

The music is, for the most part, quite catchy and groovy. The cast is impressive all the way down the line. Jones has some charisma going for him, and Richard Pryor is fun as his drummer, although the latter doesn't really get much opportunity to be funny. The young generation is extremely well supported by veterans such as Shelley Winters and Bert Freed (as Frosts' parents), and Ed Begley (as an angry senator). Co-star Millie Perkins, who plays Fergus's wife, was married to screenwriter Thom at the time.

"Wild in the Streets" may seem dated to some viewers now, but back in 1968 I can believe that a story of its kind would have great appeal to its audience.

Seven out of 10.

Naïve political rabble-rouser from American International Pictures casts Christopher Jones as a sexy pop star who is elected President of the United States after the voting age is lowered to 14. Screenwriter Robert Thom, working from his short story "The Day it All Happened, Baby", addresses heady issues but in a campy manner, skimping on anything too harrowing for the sake of his target audience (presumably around 14 or so themselves). Thom also leaves out a major part of the story--the voting process--in favor of an 'ironic' subplot which parallels a chapter of World War II! The picture does look good and sound good, and it has fine acting from Jones, Shelley Winters as his mother, Diane Varsi, Millie Perkins and, in a bit, Richard Pryor. One Oscar nomination: Best Editing (Fred R. Feitshans Jr., Eve Newman). **1/2 from ****

"Wild in the Streets" is a film about the youth of American rising up to take political power via a reduction in the voting age. It was released in the 60s and reflects some of the issues of its time.

Today, the messages of the youthful upstarts might be seen as similar to the confused political fledglings referred to now as millennials. But the film is a parody of the counterculture--those who wanted more than change, they wanted revolution. In the 60s, many objected to the fact that 18-year-olds could be drafted but could not vote. Christopher Jones plays the role of Max Frost, a megalomaniacal rock star who energizes American youth--and some older members of the establishment who want to benefit from younger voters--to push for a younger voting age--somewhere between fourteen or eighteen.

The film imagines what might happen if such a movement took hold and gained power. It shows Frost as a near-dictator whose power corrupts him. He is without a conscience and he indulges his every whim. Frost also is immature (surprise!). And as a member of the counterculture, he endorses the use of hallucinatory drugs and the disbandment of all institutions of authority.

Though the film offers some moments of sharp insight, it mostly feels like it was written by a writer who himself was under the influence. And in the end, it is no more relevant regarding youth culture and politics than "Bye Bye Birdie".

The ending is anticlimactic and ham-handed--hoping to deliver a pithy insight that it undercuts by final scenes that are amateurish.

Which came first, Robert Thom's Esquire novella or his screenplay? Doesn't matter - the premise of "the youth vote" (as if it were monolithic, a consistent mistake during the Sixties) working to overthrow the establishment and creating a fully functional dystopia was a winner from the first word. Immaculately filmed despite the shoestring budget and remarkably well-acted by an amazing cast, the New York Times referred to it as the only film that year to "get it" in terms of the impact of youth culture. Academy award nomination for editing, largely from clipping what appears to be Monterey Pop footage and overlaying our presidential candidate, Max Frost. A delight then, a delight now. Nothing can change the shape of things to come.

A great cult film of the late Sixties, Wild In The Streets was a projection in fantasy of what the shape of the world would be if youth actually took over. Needless to say this was not the shape of things to come. For one thing the vote at age 18 was actually passed a couple of years after this film came and Congress did it without tripping on LSD. We responded in turn by re-electing Richard Nixon and in 1980 the youth vote went as a demographic majority for the oldest elected president we've ever had with Ronald Reagan.

Proving that we really do separate our politics from our entertainment. Not here however as charismatic Jim Morrison like rockstar Christopher Jones rallies the youth of America to assert their status and demand that the voting age be lowered to 14. A very ambitious Congressman played by Hal Holbrook who wants to be California's next Senator tries to ride this particular tiger and gets consumed in the process.

Shelley Winters and Bert Freed play Jones's parents and Winters looks like she's having a ball in a part that calls for her bravura style of overacting. Ed Begley also in one his last films first playing one of pillars of Congress as the senior Senator from California and later on as a caricature of an old Testament prophet which is what mandatory LSD has turned him into.

Young people today can't quite grasp what Wild In The Streets was all about back then which is why it's an anachronism today. We had the draft back in those days so when older people over 30 in the government sent you to the Army and to some war you didn't quite understand what the issues were there, a slogan like 'Don't Trust Anyone Over 30' had real meaning and it wasn't just a matter of tastes. That's the mentality that Jones in his character of Max Frost is playing into. He calls his followers 'troops' and in a real sense they are.

But today in America young folks played a major role in re-electing Barack Obama. If Max Frost was a candidate for president today we might be electing a Jonas Brother. And I only exclude Justin Bieber because he's Canadian.

Still this film is quite a view of the Sixties be it a jaundiced view.

I was curious to read some reviews of Wild in the Streets from when it was released (i.e. Ebert's) to get an idea of what the movie was thought of at the time. There was a good line that nails what is probably at the core of the film, which is "the fascist potential of pop music," but it can be taken a step further to what the fascistic potential is of anyone who appeals to a section of the culture that can be galvanized. The movie wasn't well received- it was, granted, an AIP picture dumped on the masses as a hippie exploitation flick along the likes of Psych-Out- but now in looking back I wonder if the writer, Robert Thom (also responsible for the cult classic Death Race 2000) and director Barry Shear (mostly a TV director) were much ahead of their own audience. It skewers the old and politicians, yes, but it also skewers pop music and LSD and hedonism and even communism to a certain extent. It's a fun, absurdist nightmare 'trip' on what would happen if the "kids" took over, which leads eventually to the question: what happens when they're too old.

Four sentence summary: Christopher Jones plays Max Frost, a pop star who had one of those shaky childhoods that led to a lot of acid and blowing up his parent's car. His band, a bunch of Monkeeys rip-offs (yes, that's right), are filled with a bunch of who's whos, like a 15 year old super-genius account and a black anthropologist played by Richard Pryor. At a political rally for a "youth" senator (Hal Holbrook) who wants the voting age lowered to 18, he comes up off the bat with a rallying song, "14 or fight" to lower the voting age to 14! And then everything soon spirals into a youth-controlled congress and presidency (think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with over-ecstatic flower children), with all the "old" pulled into camps where they're doped on acid and given frocks to wear.

Trippy, man, trippy. Contrary to what some have said, and perhaps I read more into it than was necessary or warranted, Wild in the Streets takes a hold of its principal subjects as something that is meant to be mocked mercilessly. While nowhere near the brilliance of Network, it does have the same kind of super jaded view of humanity below the surface. Everything becomes so exaggerated that the only conceivable way to take it is as a satire; if it is meant as a "serious" look at politics and the youth culture then only a few moments stand out (actually the "Shape of Things" song is ironically powerful in the context of where it comes which is right after a few students are shot at a rally - a foreshadowing to Kent State?), but on its terms of it being a nutty but oddly lucid spoof on the political scene then it works really well.

If for nothing else the cast is a hoot: Shelley Winters hams it up as the star's mother who in one scene literally crashes through security gates to get to her son who really doesn't want anything to do with her, especially after she basically kills a kid with a car! Also big props to Hal Holbrook who takes the quasi William Holdon in Network role (the one "serious" guy amid the chaos) and Ed Begley as a crusty old politico who quickly gets run out to the old-folk farm singing in circles. Along with Pryor look out for Larry Bishop and Millie Perkins. It's not high art, but Wild in the Streets has some scenes that are excruciatingly funny (I was dying during the 25 year old "chick" speaking to congress about lowering all ages to run for office to 14), and there's even some good pointers made about the state of the nation. It's exploi-satire, baby!

I am always a bit of a sucker for any late 60's American counter-culture offerings, so inevitably I picked up this effort from Roger Corman's AIP studios. Turns out it is a psychedelic political satire that doubles up as a teen movie. In it a young pop idol called Max Frost decides to run for president. He and his cohorts put LSD in the Washington D. C. water supply leading to zonked out members of congress voting in favour of his reforms, which include shipping people over 30 off to concentration camps where they will be given daily doses of hallucinogens and lowering the voting age to 14.

Its all pretty ludicrous of course but it works well nowadays as a time-capsule portrait of the west coast counterculture in exaggerated movie form. Needless to say, like many other films in the same bracket, its main strength is its far out late 60's vibes, which include colourful fashions and décor, of-its-time hip talk and psychedelic musical segments. The satire is pretty light-weight and the film overall is a pretty uneven experience but on the whole, it is another effort from the era which gets by primarily on its love generation vibes. My vote is seven lava lamps out of ten.

It was inevitable that the '60s would produce a movie like Barry Shear's Academy Award-nominated "Wild in the Streets". This musing on the hypothetical result of letting the younger generation take over the country has to be seen to be believed. I should note that it doesn't depict the youth as heroes; it basically depicts their idealism as the result of LSD. It's easy to see why the younger generation didn't want to trust anyone over thirty.

Aside from that, it's certainly a funny movie. The last scene makes clear what the protagonist has wrought.