There are very few movies that could take an issue like the reversion therapy programs that aim to turn gay people straight by brainwashing them and forcing what is essentially celibacy and guilt onto them, and make it fabulous. Somehow, director Jamie Babbit finds a way in But I’m a Cheerleader.

The movie is about Megan, played by Natasha Lyonne, a naïve straitlaced cheerleader who everyone thinks is a lesbian. So they do what all concerned parents and friends might do, they send her to True Directions, a reversion therapy camp with other teens, run by the terrifying Mary Brown, played wonderfully by Cathy Moriarty. Once Megan arrives she realizes that she is a lesbian, and is put through a process of rediscovering her gender.

There is only word to describe this film, CAMP—if you don’t know what it is, look it up, and if you think it involves a bunch of children living together in the woods look it up. You would be partly right, but not in that way. The colors are bright, the stereotypes unnerving, and the sexual references overpowering.

The movie follows the basic outline of a romantic comedy, just replace the boy in “boy meets girl” with girl and turn the urban center they met into a straight therapy camp in the middle of nowhere and you have this film. The other girl is the rebellious Graham, actress Clea DuVall, sent to the camp under threat of no college if she does not come out straight.

The film has been criticized for its camp and the way it makes fun of a very serious issue. Overall, take the film for what it is: a funny, over-the-top, colorful extravaganza full of more ridiculous stereotypes then you’ll know what to do with. And I am not just talking about the gay stereotypes, if there’s a straight one Babbit goes after it as well with as much mockery as she can muster.

Directed by John Sayles
Joe Morton as The Brother
David Strathairn as Man in Black

Synopsis: The film tells the story of an escaped alien slave, called “The Brother,” who lands in Harlem, New York in the 1980s. He is taken to be a homeless black man, though he is mute and unbeknownst to those he encounters, has three large toes on each foot. He possesses telekinetic powers and is able to use these powers to heal wounds and fix machines.

Why It’s Great: This movie is great just based on the title. A brother, from another planet. What else could you ask for in a title? Joe Morton (Terminator 2, American Gangster) is superb as the mute alien brother, and it’s amusing to see Edward R. Murrow (see Strathairn in Good Night and Good Luck) playing such a weird, emotional character. Morton’s performance brings a naiveté and innocence to the screen that I feel could only have been captured so strongly with the silence of the character next to the noise and bustle of New York City. The film touches on some interesting themes, most notably immigration and race. The Brother is called a “Three-Toe” in a derogatory manner akin to a racial slur (bringing attention to how rough blacks have it on Earth), and the way that the alien characters interact with the native Harlem-ites are great caricatures of immigrants moving to New York. The Brother encounters everything from fruit stand clerks to street basketball players to children playing arcade games, and he treats them all with this open-eyed outlook and everyone just takes him for a foreigner who doesn’t know any English. The movie is part comedy, part drama, and part science fiction, but all together it’s a cult classic.

Memorable Scene: Some of the best scenes take place in a bar that The Brother discovers in which the bartender and regulars take pity on him and befriend him. The groups sits and philosophizes in a witty but meaningful way, and when they end up defending The Brother from the Men in Black, it rings true to the story and the characters.

Quotes:

Card Trickster: I have another magic trick for you. Wanna see me make all the white people disappear?

Man In Black: [sitting at the bar] Beer.
Odell: What kind?
Man In Black: Draft.
Man In Black: On the rocks.
Trivia:
John Sayles stated that in choosing the steel drum for the music on this movie, with its unusual and technological, yet still organic, quality, he was partly influenced by the zither music from Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949).

The “Men In Black” are named Uno (played by John Sayles) and Dos (played by David Strathairn). Although they are not named in the film or end credits, the names were revealed in a photo caption on page 39 of Starlog magazine (#86, September 1984) as part of an interview with director Sayles.

Directed by Joel Coen
Written by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring:
Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough
Holly Hunter as Edwina ‘Ed’ McDunnough
John Goodman as Gale Snoats
William Forsythe as Evelle Snoats

Synopsis:

Raising Arizona is the story of a poor couple who long to have a child of their own, but are unable to conceive and are prevented from adoption because of patriarch H.I. McDunnough’s criminal record. As a last desperate act, they decide to steal a baby from the wealth Arizona family, which recently celebrated the birth of quintuplets. Just when everything seems to be going alright, the McDunnough’s are visited by Gale and Evelle Snoats, fellow former inmates of H.I.’s who have just tunneled out of prison. There’s also a bounty hunter on the trail of the missing quintuplet.

Why It’s Great:

First of all, the idea of stealing a baby is inherently funny. Second of all, the film is written and directed by the Coen Brothers, who have a serious inability to do no wrong. This is one of the movies that is continuously placed on lists of greatest comedy ever. And third, the John Goodman in Film Rule applies, which states that any film that has John Goodman in it will be several times better than it would have been without him. Case in point: Coyote Ugly and Evan Almighty

Trivia:

H.I. wears a uniform with the name “Hudsucker Industries” on it. The company in the Coen Brothers’ later movie The Hudsucker Proxy also features this company, though much more prominently.

Florence, Arizona is the site of a State Prison, as well as the name of the mother of the quintuplets in the movie.

The Coen brothers wrote Holly Hunter’s character (Ed McDunnough) with her in mind.

The lullaby that Ed sings to Nathan, Jr. is the song “Down in the Willow Garden”, a folk song about a man sentenced to death after brutally murdering his fiancée.

Quotes:

H.I.: I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn’t easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House. I dunno. They say he’s a decent man, so maybe his advisors are confused.

Evelle: H.I., you’re young and you got your health, what you want with a job?

H.I.: We figured there was too much happiness here for just the two of us, so we figured the next logical step was to have us a critter.

Evelle: Do they blow up in funny shapes?
Grocer: Nope. Unless round’s funny.

H.I.: Now, Y’all who’re without sin can cast the first stone

There once was a man with a chin, a chin so strong and masculine that it could only find its true calling in film. And not just any films called unto this chin, but the wonderful world of B-Movies, in which he is not just a man, but a god!

This chin belongs to a man named Bruce Campbell, one of the greatest cult actors the world over, a master of the one-liners, reverse acting (filming action scenes in reverse) and head shots.

His start came in The Evil Dead series of films, directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) in which he must battle evil spirits first in a cabin in the woods while on vacation and then, in the sequel Army of Darkness, in the past. These films, especially Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, have become cult phenomena and are filled with the best horror, gore, and humor a little bit of money can buy.

Over time, the series has inspired an off-Broadway musical, featuring songs from all three films including such catchy and self-explanatory titles as “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,” “Ode to an Accidental Stabbing,” and “Do the Necronomicon.”

Since that auspicious time, Campbell has starred in a number of cult films, often shown on the Sci-Fi channel. The Man with the Screaming Brain and Alien Apocalypse are two more recent such films. These films have endearingly horrible graphics and wonderfully spotty dialogue, adding up to films that are good because they are bad.

Campbell has since appeared often in bit parts in major movies, such as cameos in the Spider-Man series (one in each), due to his long friendship with director Sam Raimi. He also appeared briefly in The Majestic, in which he spoofed his strong adventurer as “Roland the Intrepid Explorer.”

In another stroke of cult genius, Campbell was cast in Bubba Ho-Tep as an elderly Elvis, who instead of dying, grew tired of his fame and switched bodies with an Elvis impersonator, who died in his place. Elvis now lives in a west Texas nursing home which is haunted by a mummy, a Bubba Ho-Tep. Campbell would later record a full length commentary for the movie in character.

Campbell’s work has not been limited to film either. He had a recurring role as the King of Thieves in the Hercules and Xena TV shows in the 90s, and even starred in one of the best short lived TV shows ever: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., a western sci-fi action comedy show. Brisco, Campbell’s character sought to find his father’s killer, had a horse named Comet, with which he conversed, and dealt with mysterious orbs that could grant supernatural powers.

He can currently be seen on the USA Network in the show Burn Notice, a spy show which combines humor and action.

For more information about Bruce Campbell, check out his two books: “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” and ” Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way.”

Quotes:

There is a large element of me in every role I do. Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.

From Evil Dead series:

[upon gaining the chain saw in place of his lost right hand]
Ash: Groovy.

Old Woman: I’ll swallow your soul!
Ash: Come get some.

Ash: Lady, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you to leave the store.
Possessed woman: Who the hell are you?
Ash: Name’s Ash.
[cocks rifle]
Ash: Housewares.

From Bubba Ho-Tep:

Elvis: Even a big bitch cockroach like you should know… never, but never, fuck with the King.

Tagline: “Being the adventures of a young man … who couldn’t resist pretty girls … or a bit of the old ultra-violence … went to jail, was re-conditioned … and came out a different young man … or was he?”

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Malcolm McDowell as Alex de Large

Synopsis:
In a future Brittan, a delinquent named Alex de Large and his gangs of “droogs” commit violent crimes at night, including sexual and extreme violence. Alex is intelligent and well-spoken, and loves classical music. He and his droogs speak in their own language called Nadsat, and all they want to do in life is rebel against the adult’s laws. Alex is betrayed by his droogs and left for the police at the scene of a crime. Once in custody, Alex is submitted to a conditioning technique which leads to him developing a psychological aversion to violence. Alex then returns home a new man to find that his room has been rented out by his parents and that he is not even capable of self-defense.

Why It’s Great:
It goes without saying that Kubrick was a genius. I mean, he did 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. Each is a totally unique film; the only similarity is that all are adaptations of books. The world he creates in A Clockwork Orange, however, is one of his most identifiable and unique works. Visually, it is stunning and dark. It is majestic and iconic in its use of the classic composers, setting them to scenes of violence and rape. Thematically, it is captivating as it explores humanity’s darker side and dehumanization. Malcolm McDowell is spectacular and disturbing at once.

Best Scene:
The greatest scene is probably either the most iconic, in which Alex is subjected to the mind alteration technique or the scene in the writer’s home in which he commits his act of extreme violence while singing “Singing in the Rain.” In the former, his eyes are forced open, and scenes from Nazi rallies and extreme acts of violence are shown in rapid succession are shown with a soundtrack of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In the latter, he beats a writer and rapes his wife while inging the classic song performed originally Gene Kelly.

Trivia:
After Alex is released from prison, he is attacked and dragged through the woods by two policemen who used to be droogs. They wear badges marked 665 and 667 and it is implied that Alex, who is between them is number 666, a number commonly connected with Satan.

When the droogs arrive at Mr. Alexander’s, the doorbell chimes the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony would later become something that Alex could not listen to, due to a side effect of his conditioning.

Quotes:
[First lines]
Alex: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Alex:[ Voiceover] It was around by the derelict casino that we came across Billy-boy and his four droogs. They were getting ready to perform a little of the old in-out, in-out on a weepy young devotchka they had there.

Alex: Well, well, well! Well if it isn’t fat stinking Billy goat Billy Boy in poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip oil? Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarble, ya eunuch jelly thou!
Editor’s Note: Trivia comes from IMDB and quotes are from the film.

They figured he was a lazy time wasting slacker. They were right.

Written and Directed by
Joel and Ethan Coen

Starring:

Jeff Bridges…Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski
John Goodman …Walter Sobchak
Steve Buscemi …Theodore “Donny” Kerabatsos

Synopsis : The film depicts a few days in the life of The Dude, a slacker in Los Angeles. When a group of thugs mistakes him for another Jeffery Lebowski, beat him up and demand the money the other Lebowski owes them, and piss on his rug, The Dude gets caught up in the kidnapping of the Big Lebowski’s trophy wife bunny and is asked by the Big Lebowski to retrieve her and pay the ransom. Along the way he is alternatively helped and hindered by his friend and bowling mate, Walter.

Why It’s Great : While the movie got a wide release at the time, it has been the repercussions of the film’s release on DVD that makes it such a classic (other than the story and characters, which I will come to shortly). Heralded as the first cult classic of the internet era, The Dude and his attitude have spawned Dudeism, a new religion that celebrate and honor The Dude’s relaxed outlook on life and allow followers to become Ordained Dudeist ministers and priests. Also, there is now an annual Lebowski Fests from Austin, TX and Los Angeles to New York City and Louisville, KY to Edinburgh , Scotland . These fests celebrate bowling, trivia, and White Russians (the drinks, a Dude favorite).

The movie is filled with hilarious, offbeat characters such as Walter, who is a Vietnam vet and tries to relate everything to his time there, is a converted Jew despite being divorced from his wife for whom he converted and is completely convinced in the correctness of his every action and plan, despite being wrong most every time. Donny is the tag along to the Dude and Walter in their bowling team and frequently misses out on the story, and is told constantly to “Shut the fuck up” by Walter when he asks about what he didn’t understand. There’s also the nihilists, who “don’t care about anything,” the Jesus Quintan, a child expositionist and bowling opposition of The Dude, and Maude Lebowski a feminist and avant-garde painter who is very strong of her very “vaginal” artwork, which makes men nervous.

Trivia :
Throughout the movie, “fuck” and variations of “fuck” are said 281 times. To see “The Fucking Short Version” click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU2ZgaQ_H-Y

The Dude says “man” a total of 147 times, which is nearly 1.5 times a minute.

Many of the clothes that The Dude wears actually belonged to Jeff Bridges.

Comedy Central attempted to edit a scene in which Walter yells “Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass?” They had trouble because to edit that line out would have caused the flow of the scene to be lost. They ended redubbing the line, so it ended up “Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?”

Quotes :
Repeated line by The Dude and others: That rug really tied the room together.

Walter Sobchak: Fuck it, Dude, let’s go bowling.

The Dude: No, you’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an ASSHOLE!

The Dude: [While being shoved into a limo] Hey! Careful, man, there’s a beverage here!

Walter: If you mark that frame an ’8′, you are entering a world of pain. (Pulls out a gun) A world… of pain.

The Dude: Yeah, well. The Dude abides.

All trivia comes from imdb.com.

As the writer of the Cult Movie Colum, I have tried to inform and educate readers on the many cult films that deserve to be viewed by the uniformed and to steer people away from the unoriginal mainstream schlock that is often in theatres. Up until now, I have done this by focusing on the movies themselves, but I feel it is time to expand on the format I have previously used and begin to explore those that bring us the movies we love: the directors, the actors, and the writers.

I can think of no director more unique or timely than fellow Baltimoron, John Waters: the Pope of Trash.

Waters was born and grew up in Baltimore and its suburbs, and as such, has been twisted and corrupted (in only the best possible ways) by the city around him. Looking back on his childhood, he most fondly remembers seeing a wrecked car with real blood on it at a scrap yard and imagining car crashes. He has also subsequently been infatuated with true crime and would attend murder trials across the country until he began to be recognized.

All of his movies are set and filmed in Baltimore and reflect the oddballs and crazies that populate the city in real life, only slightly twisted by Waters. His characters—often played by several of the same group of actors—range from sex addicts to transsexuals to cross dressers to serial killer mothers to paranoid racists to flashers and shit eaters. One such actor was named Divine, a drag queen who was childhood friends with Waters. He was the originator of the character Mrs. Turnblad, who was recently portrayed (quite less satisfactorily) by John Travolta in the recent movie, “Hairspray.”

Waters’ movies have always found their way into the cult consciousness, often due to the purposeful bad taste and odd characters and plots. The most important of his films is “Pink Flamingos.” The film centers around Divine who lives in Phoenix, Maryland (incidentally just around the corner—almost literally—from my house) under an assumed name because she is infamous for being the most filthy person in the world. She and her family (son Crackers, with whom she shares an incestuous relationship and her mother Edie the Egg Woman, who is mentally ill and as her name suggests, is obsessed with eggs) are challenged for the title of Filthiest People Alive by Raymond and Connie Marble. The Marbles run a baby-selling ring in which they pick up hitchhiking women, have their servant impregnate them and sell the babies to lesbians, expose themselves in public, and burn down the trailer in which Divine lives.

Naturally, Divine is up to the task of “out-filth-ing” the Marbles. I will not reveal how she manages this, but it is sufficient to say that she is very, very, clearly the winner by the end of the film. Eating fresh dog shit tends to give one an edge.

While this is the penultimate John Waters movie, it is not for everyone, for obvious reasons concerning most people’s natural decency. Waters has also written and directed several more accessible, mainstream movies. Hairspray, for instance, is much less risqué while still preserving Waters’ quirky, twisted sense of humor. The movie spawned a brilliant musical adaptation on Broadway, which was in turn adapted recently into a movie in its own right. It is worth noting that a certain amount of the eccentric brilliance of the original is gone from the more recent movie, a much more PG affair.

Other forays into the more mainstream include “Cry-Baby” and “Pecker.” “Cry-Baby” is John Waters’ parody of teen musicals, especially Grease. Johnny Depp starred as a gang member who falls for a preppy girl. Like “Hairspray,” “Cry-Baby” features Watersian characters such as Depp’s character’s hick family and fellow “drape” Hatchet-Face, whose face looks like it was hit with the blunt side of a hatchet. “Pecker” deals with one man’s sudden shot to nationwide fame and the way it affects him and his offbeat family and friends.

Besides being a brilliant writer and director, Waters has also made several wonderful forays into the world of acting. He has cameos in each of his movies, including a hypnotist who tries to insure that a girl adopts her mother’s racist views, a flasher, and a pervert. He has also been Simpsonized in the episode “Homer’s Phobia,” and now plays “The Groom Reaper” on the Court TV show “’Til Death Do Us Part,” which chronicles marriages from the ceremony to the inevitable murder of one of the spouses.

A final and hopefully capstone-ing depiction of the sense of humor and thought process that is John Waters’. As a side project he has also compiled two holiday CD’s. A John Waters Christmas contains such songs as “ Here Comes Fatty Claus” by Rudolph & Gang and “Santa Claus Is A Black Man” by AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company. A Date with John Waters includes “I’d Love To Take Orders From You” by Mildred Bailey & Her Swing Band and “Johnny Are You Queer?”by Josie Cotton.

“To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits watching one of my films, it’s like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.”

“I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.”

“Without obsession, life is nothing.”

Directed by Tim Burton
Starring
Johnny Depp…Ed Wood
Marin Landau…Bela Lugosi
Sarah Jessica Parker…Dolores Fuller

Synopsis: The biopic of Ed Wood, widely regarded as the “worst director of all time,” focuses on his life during his peak years of the 1950s and the filming of such classics as “Glen or Glenda” and “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” as well as Wood’s relationships and life as transvestite.

Why It’s Great: Rarely have a better team existed than that between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, for together their combined bizarreness becomes genius. Their eccentricities are perfect when trying to capture Ed Wood, who certainly had a vision unique to himself when it came to cinematography. The eccentric character of Wood is a perfect role for Depp (who doesn’t want to see Johnny Depp in drag, I say in all straightness), who has made his career by portraying the offbeat and bizarre.

Besides Depp, the other cast members are also excellent, especially Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, the actor best known for playing Dracula. Hearing him rant about Boris Karloff and curse every other word in his thick Hungarian accent is priceless.

With all the pieces in place—Burton, Depp, and of course the man who brought the worst movie ever into existence as the focus of the film—this piece is perfect for cult fans everywhere, especially those who have witnessed the amazing badness that are Wood’s original works.

Best Scene: After Lugosi’s death, Wood is confronted by his landlord about his rent, and after the landlord reveals his church’s interest in getting into the movie industry, Wood convinces him to help finance his new movie “Grave Diggers from Outer Space,” now just a script and the few shots of Bela. Finally, to ensure funding, Wood and the majority of the cast get baptized by the Baptists. The baptism scene, while short is very amusing, and the whole sequence leading up to the actual filming of “Plan 9” shows all sides of Wood’s and his cast’s peculiar personalities extremely well.

Trivia:

This film cost more to produce than all of Edward D. Wood Jr.’s films put together.

Johnny Depp has said that his characterization of Edward D. Wood Jr. was a mixture of “the blind optimism of Ronald Reagan, the enthusiasm of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Casey Kasem [the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo].”

One story claims that the decision to film in black and white was made because no one could decide how Bela Lugosi should look filmed in color.

Martin Landau’s winning of the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi is the first time in Academy Awards history that a performer in any category won for playing an actual movie performer.

Great Quotes:

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: My girlfriend still doesn’t know why her sweaters are always stretched out.

Bela Lugosi: This is the most uncomfortable coffin I’ve ever been in.

Orson Welles: Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Kathy… I’m about to tell you something that I never told any girl on a first date. But I think it’s important that you know… I like to wear women’s clothes.
Kathy O’Hara: Huh?
Edward D. Wood, Jr.: I like to wear women’s clothes. It’s just something I do. And I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I really like you, and I don’t want it getting in the way down the road.
Kathy O’Hara: Does this mean… you don’t like sex with girls?
Edward D. Wood, Jr.: No, I love sex with girls.
[long pause]
Kathy O’Hara: Okay.

Starring
Paul Giamatti…Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar…Himself
Hope Davis…Joyce Brabner

Synopsis: This is a biopic/film adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Harvey Pekar. Harvey is a curmudgeon-y Cleveland Hospital file clerk who writes comic books about his everyday experiences. Pekar sought fame and found it thanks to his comics (which are full of observations on life’s mundane and mysterious moments, and feature artwork by such friends as Robert Crumb) and his appearances as a guest on David Letterman’s talk show.

Why It’s Great: This is the film that brought Paul Giamatti out of the bit part character actor stage and onto the lead actor scene, and it is clearly one of his best works.

The film combines drama and documentary (a docu-drama, if you will) using narration and commentary from the real Harvey Pekar and others depicted in the movie. The film also mixes live action with images from the cartoon “American Splendor” throughout, creating a truly unique look and style.

Best Scene: One of the best scenes is the first meeting between Harvey and Joyce. It’s such an awkward scene, which opens with Harvey ’s winning line “You might as well know right off the bat, I had a vasectomy,” and ends with Joyce’s “I think we should skip the whole courtship thing and just get married.”

The other great comedic scene is when Harvey, Joyce, and their friend Toby (who is borderline autistic) go to see Revenge of the Nerds, which Harvey bombasts for being unrealistic. It’s a classic Paul Giamatti explosion, the kind of conniption that he has been excelling at for years.

Trivia:
The jacket that Paul Giamatti wears for Harvey’s first “Late Night with David Letterman” (1982) appearance is the exact same piece of clothing that we see the real Harvey wearing on the TV.

Rob Schneider and Leonardo DiCaprio were considered for an early film version of the book.

Directed by Richard Lester

Starring: The Beatles
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr

Synopsis: Ringo accidentally becomes the target of an obscure Indian cult that practices human sacrifices when he puts on the victim’s ceremonial ring and cannot get it off. The band is pursued by the cult, a pair of bumbling scientists and the London Police as they try to help, and a member of a side cult who wishes to save Ringo’s life.

Why It’s Great: Because it is completely and utterly pointless. The movie was clearly made in an attempt to create another Beatles vehicle after the success of “A Hard Day’s Night.” Plot? What plot? Character development? Who needs character development? You are watching THE BEATLES! And its absolutely hilarious British humour (note the “u”—just trying to get into the British mood). The film is filled with James Bond references, Beatles music, gags, and witty marijuana induced repartee as The Beatles travel from London to The Alps to the Caribbean, and Paul is shrunk to the size of a pencil. See? No plot at all.

Best Scene : Throughout the movie, followers of Kali try numerous madcap attempts to capture Ringo and/or cut his finger off to regain the ring. At one point the leader, Clang, hides in a mailbox and tries to grab Ringo’s hand when he attempts to deposit a letter. They also periodically try to poison his soup or throw red paint on him, as part of the sacrifice. Later, Clang tries to get his hand while he reaches into a sandwich machine, which brings me to my favorite part: the house all The Beatles share. It is a row house building with the walls between four houses torn down. In short, I want that house. It has got it all. A bed dug into the floor, a pipe organ, all The Beatles instruments for practice and jamming purposes, and the aforementioned sandwich machine. Who would not want to live in that place, I ask you? Or at least see it on screen?

Trivia:
George Harrison was introduced to the sitar during the filming of the club scene, which features an Indian band playing an instrumental sitar version the song “Hard Day’s Night”. His interest in Hinduism was also sparked when a lady came up to them on set with a book about the religion. Harrison would later learn to play the sitar and was highly influenced by Hinduism later in life.

Throughout the filming, Paul McCartney drove director Richard Lester to distraction by constantly playing the melody of a new song he was working on called “Scrambled Eggs”. By the time filming had wrapped, “Scrambled Eggs” had acquired new lyrics and a new title: “Yesterday”.

Great Quotes:

Clang: [offering a bagful of gold] Psst! Hey, Be-a-tle! You shall have fun, yes?
John: No thanks, I’m rhythm guitar and mouth organ.

Professor Foot: It’s the brain drain, his brain’s draining.

Ringo: They have to paint me red before they chop me. It’s a different religion from ours. I think.

Ringo: Look, John, I’ve had some great good times with this finger, and how do you know I wouldn’t miss it?

Paul: You don’t miss your tonsils, do yer?