Cigarette Burns presents Psychomania screening in London

It's possibly the finest biker movie ever to come out of the UK - for all the wrong reasons. But there's no denying that Psychomania is a strange and wonderful movie, but one that's rarely-seen on the big screen. So all the more reason to catch it when it screens this month in London.

Cigarette Burns is presenting the vintage Brit flick for just one night, Saturday 13th November, at the Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street, London E8. It's a late night screening, starting at 11:15pm, with a DJ and a late bar keeping things going until 2am.

Tickets are on sale now from the cinema, priced at £7. More at the Cigarette Burns website. There's also a reissue DVD coming out - more on that here.

Rio Cinema website

The Leather Boys (1964)

The films shown as part of the BBC's Summer of British Film are a bit up and down, but you can forgive them for some of the poor/obvious choices when it shows a lost gem like The Leather Boys.

On the face of it, The Leather Boys is about bikers. But it could have been about mods, rockers, teds or any youth cult of the age - because that's just background. The Leather Boys is actually a movie about relationships.

Set in South London, Reggie (Colin Campbell) and Dot (Rita Tushingham) are a young couple on love - and not long after Dot leaves school, they get married and head off to Butlins for a honeymoon. But not long after returning, the cracks already start to show. Dot wants to be a 'kept' woman, while Reggie wants to spend his spare time with his bike and his biker mates at the Ace Cafe.

Psych Out (1968)

“They’ll ask for a dime with hungry eyes, but they’ll give you love for nothing!” ran the sensational blurb on its release. Psych Out was easily the most successful movie depicting San Francisco during the legendary “Summer of Love” although lets not get too excited here.

While the world watched on in varying degrees of intrigue at the antics of the love generation, few filmmakers ventured out to catch the lightning on Haight Ashbury’s streets, leaving Psych Out as the sole dramatisation of the period. Psych Out’s producer, TV pop impresario Dick Clark, was evidently keeping a watchful eye on the hippy phenomena, and despite his Hollywood leanings, he managed to lift a sizeable chunk of ambience from the hippy hangouts of San Francisco.

The cast took a young Jack Nicholson, by then on the cusp of moving from Biker B-flicks to the mainstream, and Susan Strasberg, whose innocent beauty was enough to secure a fair amount of love interest on screen. The plot concerns Strasberg’s deaf alter ego arriving in town in search of her renegade brother. With nowhere to stay, she’s picked up by Nicholson and his band of musos, who act as her guide and mentor around San Francisco. With her elusive brother playing an intricate game of hide and seek, she ends up being dosed with STP, a concoction known to fry even the wackiest of brains. Although this all might sound a trifle sensationalist, there’s little to offend here.

AIP, the film’s producing agent, had been badly burned after their previous effort, The Trip, ran into all manner of problems with the censors due to its veiled promotion of LSD. As a result, Psych Out held back on any obvious drug promotion or slap and tickle. Visually, there’s fair bit of visual vox pop from the Haight, while The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock offer up some psychedelic intrigue for the soundtrack. Within a year, Nicholson would lift off into stardom, leaving behind the likes of Psych Out to be picked over by historians of the period.

(c) Simon Wells 2007

More about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

The Frankie & Annette MGM Movie Legends Collection

Surf's up in July! MGM will releasing a new Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello Movie Collection on DVD just in time for summer. This impressive new movie Box Set will feature eight different romantic comedies that the two popular teen idols made together in the sixties, which is sure to please surf movie enthusiasts.

The new DVD set will include 4 Region-1 NTSC Discs with two films on each Disc. The eight different movies included in the collection are Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), Fireball 500 (1966), and Thunder Alley (1967). All of the films will be presented in widescreen. I haven't been able to find any information about possible DVD extras, but if I do I'll report them here.

Besides beach parties, surfing contests and rowdy motorcycle gangs, these entertaining films also feature lots of musical numbers performed by Frankie & Annette. Many popular bands and musical artists from the period also appeared in the Frankie & Annette films such as Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Lesley Gore, Dick Dale and The Del Tones, The Kingsmen, The Pyramids and Fabian. The Frankie & Annette films also seemed to attract horror legends who wanted to try their hand at comedy such as Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.

Psychomania movie t-shirt

We love Psychomania - a very British biker movie that combines two-wheel japes with some classic 70s horror. In fact, we're happy to tell the world with this Psychomania t-shirt.

It's available from the British Horror website in a variety of shapes and colours, though I quite like this retro-styled top, not unlike an old football shirt. The design is the classic gang helmet, with all the gang member names around  - and of course, the movie title.

You can pick it up for £11.90

Find out more at the British Horror website