Rare Flix: Musical Mutiny (1970)

This random Film was watched on a whim.  Thanks for suffering through it with me, Bob.  This is Musical Mutiny, a 1970 Film that is half-Documentary, half-narrative Film.  It is hard to really explain this Film, for many reasons.  It comes to us from Barry Mahon, the man who's career includes Nudist Horror Films, a surprisingly-accurate Wizard of Oz Story Adaptation, Children's Films about Christmas, just plain Erotica and the Storybook Parts from Santa Claus & The Ice Cream Bunny.  Oh and he also Directed Errol Flynn in his dying days as he supported Fidel Castro.  Who was this guy?!?!?  In his last days as a Director, he did the Ice Cream Bunny stuff and this.  The common theme- a defunct Theme Park known as Pirates World.  My best guess is that he just lived in the area and could make this stuff on the cheap.  So what is Musical Mutiny?  The best story available is that Iron Butterfly was going to play Pirates World and the Park wanted to get some extra attention.  Disney was breathing down their necks and they needed the help.  In comes Barry Mahon to make a loose-almost-a-Film around the actual events at the Park for them.  Is it good?  No.  Is it bad?  Yes.  Is it the kind of Film that certain people need to see?  To find out, read on...

In a somewhat-confusing bit, a 'Pirate' shows up and tells a guy that 'there is a mutiny.'

You're supposed to get that this is a Pirate GHOST who is mad at the Park's existence.  That's how you advertise a Park- say that it attracts angry Ghosts!

This leads to a VERY extended bit where people go from place to place and tell people about 'the mutiny.'  That's all they need to know, I guess!

Part 2 of the Ghost Pirate's Plan involves tricking the ONE GUY WATCHING THE GATES that the Concert Event with Iron Butterfly is free as a promotional event.

This works.  Also that Balloon.

The hordes of people pack into Pirates World for the Concert.  I love that the Plot of this involves the Owner getting mad about them possibly losing thousands of dollars.

How is he the bad guy here?

Between all of the music- which includes practice sessions and the actual concert- the Film tries to pretend that it has a Plot.

In Part B, they give you this rich kid and his girlfriend.  She says that he relies on his dad's money.

He takes his dad's plane to Pirates World and says that he'll hire The Fantasy (one of the other bands)...with his own money.  Is that supposed to be a Character/Story Arc?

In Part C, these 3 guys make a formula for a drink that is tantamount to mind control.  They try to sell it- mixed in lemonade- at Pirates World.

After hours of rejection, they turn away an actual customer and the 'boss' jumps in the lake.
Did he just try to kill himself?

With that out of the way, here's lots of Iron Butterfly.  They don't play the song you know...yet.

The Concert stops, however, when the Manager stops it due to lack of payment.  How...dare he?

In the meantime, they other Bands play to random shots of Pirates World.  Come visit!

Said Plot Point is ended when a random Hippie writes a check for the $15,000 the Band is owed.  He just has that!

Butterfly goes back on stage and plays the super-duper-extended-plus-riffing version of 'In A Gadda Da Vida' to wrap up the Film.

I highlighted in my screen cap just where the performance starts to show you how long it is.  The End.

What a strange almost-Film this is.  So is this really a Documentary?  I mean, the bulk of the Film is just Concert/Performance Footage.  Stop Making Sense is a Documentary, so why not?  Well, this one also features *some* of the Musicians attempting to act.  Yeah, Iron Butterfly is too big of a name to act in this one.  The whole Film has a strange and confusing narrative built around the actual footage, so it isn't really a Documentary anymore.  Mondo Films, as an example, will stage events that are mixed in with the real footage they have.  Even so, *most* of them don't make up a whole new story to go with their footage.  Good-Bye, Uncle Tom has a framing device- Documentarians coming to visit the South during Slavery- and then features reenactments/exaggerations of actual History.  That's the closest I can come to a Film like this then.  Not the best company you're keeping, Musical Mutiny!  Thankfully, the Film makes up for silliness and bad Acting to a certain degree with Music.  If you like this kind of Music, the Film can be enjoyable.  If you don't, it is just a bad Movie with lots of songs.  It tend to fall into the first category, even as I admit the the Film really gets excessive with just how long they play songs like Da Vida.  As a time capsule, this Film works great.  You can see a Theme Park that hasn't been open since 1974.  You can see what people thought 'hip culture' was like and how strange Mod Music could get.  Plus you'll see Bands you've likely never heard of before or will ever hear of again.  For instance, The New Society Band (below) only has 1 Album...

Next time, the Film I was *actually* planning to Review.  I just couldn't resist subjecting Bob to this to make the viewing experience easier.  Stay tuned...