Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh
by Joseph Mangine, John Donne
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donn Greer, Janice Kelly, Julia Blackburn, Roger Gentry, Sheri JacksonDirector: John Donne, Joseph Mangine
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Joseph Mangine
Editor: Joseph Mangine
Writer: Joseph Mangine
Producer: John Donne
Editor: Phil Fitzpatrick
Writer: Gertrude Steen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: ID0038SWDVD
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh
Movie Review: An interesting documentary and a well shot sexploitation flick from Something Weird
Summary: 4 Stars
The first thing you need to know about this particular Something Weird DVD is that it definitely puts its worst foot forward. I cannot speak to how badly "Alice in Acidland" has been edited/censored, but any additional footage would have to be an improvement. The title character is Alice Trenton (Colleen Murphy), who is turned on to drugs and sex by her college French teacher, a lesbian who appears to be actively recruiting. Before long Alice, in the words of the narrator, "proves she belongs in the sex for pleasure inner circle."
This 1968 sexploitation film is one of those where the main point of the plot is to show naked women, by which I mean that eventually the women end up entirely naked, the men are down to boxers (or boxers and black sox for one unfortunate guy), and what ever they end up doing the key thing is not to obscure the camera's view of the naked breasts. After a lot of slapstick foreplay it becomes clear that writhing is a big thing in this movie. Then, remembering that the point here is supposedly drug more than sex, the film shifts to a lot of pot smoking and then Alice goes on her acid trip. Suddenly the movie is in color (I guess Alice is over the rainbow rather than down the rabbit hole) and what follows is a lot of stretching, lots of eye makeup, and a whole lot of writhing against music that is not particular psychadelic before the movie ends with a heavy handed moral lesson and the word "END" written on a drawing of a bikini bottom.
"Smoke and Flesh" is easily twice as good, mainly because first time writer-director Joseph Mangine is really a cinematographer who would go on to shoot "The Lords of Flashbush." There is actually some decent example of montage in this 1968 film, working in shots of goldfish and other items around the house with what is happening on the bed as seen through an aquarium. Mangine knows that he cannot go too far in showing things, so he makes a concerted effort to suggest more than he can actually show. At one point a husband is going to watch his wife with another man, but Mangine shoots the first part of the scene, in which the pair undress, from underneath the bed. It might not be particularly sexy, but it certainly qualifies for art (especially compared to "Alice in Acidland").
"The Man" shows up at a party bearing gifts and the fun begins. We then learn that using a sifter and the tube from a roll of paper towels you can create a bong, which takes forever to be passed around. A haze of smoke fills the room while in another part of town some bikers are playing pool. Eventually they crash the part where the chief sources of entertainment are arguing the preference of Butter Brickle ice cream over whipped cream, and racing models cars as a substitute for strip poker. Drugs come into play when the host of the party decides to send one of the bikers on an acid trip, which is this film consists of negative images and close-ups of eye balls. This is one of the few sexploitation films you will ever see where what the director does with the camera and in editing the film is a whole better than whatever is happening in front of it. There is a point where one of the intruding bikers attacks one of the girls at the party when he finds her in the attic. The scene is shot light by a wildly swinging light and given that I am not interested in watching a woman being assaulted Mangine's approach provides a sense of distance from the event that decidedly works against the voyeuristic goals of the genre. No wonder he did not direct another film for almost twenty years (1986's "Neon Maniacs"). But, hey, Vilmos Zsigmond shot lots of exploitation films and he went on to win an Oscar for shooting "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Now, the short for this Something Weird DVD, "Aphrodisiac! The Sexual Secret of Marijuana" is way better than the first feature. This "factual documentary dramatization" mixes sections on the history of marijuana (e.g., doctors in China first gave it to surgery patients, George Washington grew hemp as a cash crop) with street interviews with ordinary folk who talk about their drug experiences and sequences where actors show how marijuana has spiced up people's sex lives (e.g., David marries a virgin and after their first night of hell he learns how marijuana makes things better; he is told this by a psychiatrist at a go-go bar and the next thing we know his wife is dancing naked with the lights on). There is even a token attempt to present the other side (it does not work for everybody), but clearly the thesis here is that an aphrodisiac like marijuana is a lot better for your sex life than a depressant like alcohol. All things considered this is a rather fascinating little documentary that certainly makes a prima facie case for its argumentative position.
The other extras are the "Gallery of Underground Sexploitation Movie-Magazine Covers with Audio Oddities," and a whole bunch of trailers. Besides "Smoke and Flesh," this includes other exploitation favorites "The Pusher," "Devil's Harvest, and the "Hard Road." There is also the Vincent Price film "Confessions of an Opium Eater," and studio anti-drug films such as "The Narcotics Story" and Cameron Mitchell in "Monkey on My Back." Then we have trailers for "Hopped-Up," the 1930s semi-classic "Marihuana," and "The Acid Eaters" ("a film of anti-social significance"). So, two stars for "Alice," four for "Smoke and Flesh" because of Mangine's cinematography, and three-and-a-half for "Aphrodisiac!" I substitute the short for the bad first feature, throw the trailers into the mix to justify rounding up, and end up with four stars.
Summary of Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh
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