Greaser's Palace (1972)

A combination of the Old West and the New Testament; a zoot-suited drifter (Allan Arbus) discovers his true calling and begins to perform miracles. What he really prefers though is doing his boogie-woogie song-and-dance act. In his wanderings he attracts many followers and finally gets to play The Palace, a saloon run by ruthless Seaweed Greaser (Albert Henderson). The act is a success, but Greaser's spoiled daughter, Cholera (Luana Anders), his hitherto star, is furious--"A man with holes in his hands is a bigger hit than me?"--and all according to the Gospel of cult filmmaker Robert Downey (Putney Swope, Pound).

Greaser's Palace

I'm surprised at how many people have missed that this movie is a not
to subtle send up of Bergman films. The lady who undergoes tragedy
after tragedy, represents long suffering humanity, and there is
a scene where Jesus is leading his followers over the hills, that
came straight out of "The Seventh Seal". Nonetheless it is a wonderful
movie, but perhaps not for the faint of heart, or overly religious.
April 26, 2008

Can be found for less than collector prices

This can be found as a dvdr copy if you look hard enough.
The "collector" prices are hard to swallow. January 11, 2008

Eh.

I had high hopes for this movie, hoping that it would become one of those bizzaro flicks that was worthy of actually buying, but bad editing/directing, horrible overdubbing and sound design, shot/scenes that linger wayyyyy to long (which could be easily forgiven if it werent for the tedious plot) make it almost unwatchable.
If you want something thats surreal, I suggest Jodorowsy's Holy Mountain. If you want something that will offend the religious folk, try Ken Russels "The Devils." June 26, 2007

unforgettable classic, brilliant!

I saw this movie several times in the 70s at the Texas Union Theater on the UT campus and elsewhere around Austin. I have NEVER forgotten it, though I had to do a backwards search to determine that it was Alan Arbus who played Jesus parachuting from the sky (Arbus also played Dr. Sydney Freedman on the MASH television series.) Can't say enough about it -- the symbolism, the sets, the acting, the plot are all superb. This is perhaps the best parody ever -- and one that has not yet been re-discovered. I think it's just a matter of time. March 5, 2007

pretentious hip drivel

(Sorry, I'm being a bad boy--the negative review below really got to me) I'm sorry but it seems any adventurous film out there gets at least one "pretentious hip drivel" review. It's almost always a mercifully short review too because, well, where do you go from there; how do you prove a movie is pretentious or drivel? Strange films always have this potential which is why I generally cut to: Was it fun, weird, interesting, amusing, whatever?

This is a fun film and it's full of surprises so it passes fine. Hey, I hated "Being John Malkovich" because there was little in the movie I hadn't seen before. It seemed like a compendium of the film maker's favorite oddball films. You want really oddball? Try "The Dark Backward" still awaiting DVD release. September 25, 2005

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