Psych-Out

Dick Clark produced and Richard Rush directed this 1968 portrait of the Haight-Ashbury flower power scene centering on hippie communes, free love, bad trips, and rock happenings. Susan Strasberg stars as Jenny, a deaf girl who comes to San Francisco looking for her brother, Steve (Bruce Dern), an artist who followed Timothy Leary's injunction to tune in, turn on, and drop out. Jack Nicholson is Stoney, the callous leader of a jam band who helps Jenny dodge the cops and invites her to stay in his communal home (where there's always a party going on), and Dean Stockwell is Dave, the self-styled guru who brings his connections to her search. The music played by Stoney's group is shamelessly derivative, but Psych-Out also features the Strawberry Alarm Clock performing their hit “Incense and Peppermint” in front of a liquid lightshow, and Sky Saxon (of The Seeds) leading a funky funeral march. Cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs (who went on to shoot Easy Rider) vividly captures the psychedelic look. For all the druggie stereotypes and free love displays, Psych-Out is more open to the positive aspects of San Francisco hippiedom than most movies of the era. One of the more interesting cultural portraits of the ‘60s, featuring pre-stardom turns by Nicholson and Dern, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)