Riot on Sunset Strip

Riot on Sunset Strip
Riot on Sunset Strip
	Film poster
Directed by	Arthur Dreifuss
Written by	Orville H. Hampton
Produced by	Sam Katzman
Starring	Frank Alesia; Aldo Ray; Mimsy Farmer; Michael Evans; Anna Strasberg; Tim Rooney
Cinematography	Paul C. Vogel
Edited by	Ben Lewis
Music by	Fred Karger
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date	March 1, 1967;
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,200,000 (US/ Canada)

Riot on Sunset Strip is a 1967 counterculture-era exploitation movie, released by American International Pictures. It was filmed and released within four months of the late-1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots.^[2]

The film stars Frank Alesia, Aldo Ray, Mimsy Farmer, Michael Evans, Anna Strasberg, Laurie Mock, Gene Kirkwood, Tim Rooney, and features musical appearances by The Standells and The Chocolate Watch Band. Earlier that year, Farmer, Mock and Kirkwood appeared in Hot Rods to Hell, where Farmer portrayed the bad girl and Mock a vulnerable virgin. In this film, they switched characters.

The film attempts to capture the essence of the period around the Sunset Strip riot, and also adds a subplot that revolves around a young girl's troubled relationship with her divorced parents. Her dosage with LSD by a would-be seducer, the subsequent 'acid trip' she experiences, and her later discovery by a police sergeant as the victim of gang rape, are among the movie's peak moments.

The film is now available on DVD through the MGM Limited Edition Collection.

Production notes

"Riot on Sunset Strip", a classic song in the genre of garage punk, was written for the film by Tony Valentino and John Fleck of the Standells.

The film was made for MGM but they could not move fast enough to release it so Katzman sold it to American International Pictures.^[3]

Cast

Aldo Ray as Walt Lorimer
Mimsy Farmer as Andrea Dollier
Michael Evans as Frank Tweedy
Laurie Mock as Liz-Ann Barbrey
Tim Rooney as Grady Toss
Bill Baldwin as Stokes
Anna Strasberg as Helen Tweedy (credited as Anna Mizrahi)
Hortense Petra as Margie
Schuyler Hayden as Herbie
Gene Kirkwood as Flip
Pat Renella as Perry
Forrest Lewis as Aynsley
George E. Carey as Arnow
John Hart as Pritchard
Dick Winslow as Curtis

References

^ "Big Rental Films of 1967", Variety, 3 January 1968 p 25. These figures refer to rentals accruing to the distributors.
^ Clifford, Terry. (May 8, 1967). "'Riot' Takes Superficial Look at LSD Parties". Chicago Tribune. p. b8.
^ Mark McGee, Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures, McFarland, 1996 p263