Christopher Jones is one of those too cool of school actors that pop up every generation or so – brooding types who get all the women, and who men get crushes on. He was a quasi-star for a few years, making this and Three in the Attic for AIP, before graduating to Looking Glass War and Ryan’s Daughter, then dropping out. This is probably his best known film – he plays a 22 year old pop star who winds up President when the voting age is dropped to 15. (NB this doesn’t happen until the last act.)
It’s a bright idea for a 60s satire, although the film doesn’t really explore the issue of young people voting to any great extent. This is actually quite a conservative film, reassuring to elder viewers – young rock tycoon simply wants to be a dictator after money and power; young people do whatever Jones tells them; the young people aren’t particularly political just greedy and stupid; if someone got into power based on the youth vote they would turn fascist. Even the songs are seem old-fashioned (they are also quite ordinary).
The cast is notable: Shelley Winters plays a – surprise – ball busting mother; Barry Williams aka Greg Brady is young Jones; Richard Pryor is Jones’ drummer; Diane Varsi is Jones’ often-nude-and-wacked-out keyboardist and girlfriend (she’s supposed to be 24 – yeah, right); Hal Holbrook is a senator (who is presented as the most reasonable character); Millie Perkins is Holbrooks’ wife.
There are some effective moments – such as the only casualties from a youth demonstration being Orange County matrons who died of a heart attack watching the demonstrations on TV at home; the only state which doesn’t vote for Frost is Hawaii. But it’s mean-spirited and lacks genuine cleverness of a Wilder, Sturges or Chuck Griffith. (Although the writer, Robert Thom, worked on Death Race 2000 with Griffith.)
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