Greaser’s Palace

Underground filmmaker Robert Downey (father of actor Robert Downey Jr.) went big with this 1972 counterculture Western satire, a surreal retelling of the story of Christ set on the lawless frontier of the 19th-century American West, filled with tasteless gags and outhouse humor. Allan Arbus stars as "Jessy," who parachutes onto the prairie in a 1940s-style zoot suit complete with brightly-colored tie, wide-brimmed hat, and vaudeville gloves, proclaiming "I'm on my way to Jerusalem to be an actor-singer-dancer." Along the way, Jessy heals the lame, raises the dead, walks on water, and then gets his big break performing a boogie woogie song and dance at Greaser's Palace, a saloon run by the despotic (and constipated) Seaweedhead Greaser (Albert Henderson). The film also features Toni Basil as a topless Indian maiden who wanders through the film (providing gratuitous nudity), and Hervé Villechaize as a sex-maddened dwarf with a transvestite "wife" (Stan Gottlieb), and it ends—spoiler alert for those completely unfamiliar with Christianity—with Jessy being crucified in the desert. Downey made this aggressively offensive, self-indulgent Christ parable on a budget of $1 million, and it was panned by the critics and bombed with audiences. Still, it is considered a minor cult film, although there is little intelligence behind the parody and it still feels like a failed attempt to simply shock. Extras include an archival video interview with Downey conducted by writer Rudy Wurlitzer, and liner notes by the late Jonathan Demme. Optional. (S. Axmaker)