Something Weird - Alice in Acidland (1969)

Thanks to those wonderful folks at Something Weird Video, here is Alice in Acidland.

Adult material involved in this post.

Ongoing Blog post...

Alice in Acidland

Alice in Acidland is your typical “teenage girl ‘of age’ is introduced to the ‘dark side’” adult feature as the sexual revolution was underway leading into the debauch 70s where full on explicit sex would soon be an attraction. The late 60s fed into this unveiling of the dismissed inhibitions and the curtains that once hid so much were not only drawn back but thrust open like Mama Bates as she was about to slice and dice Marion. Alice is just a cheaply made exploitation feature, with added jazzy score and narration describing a teenage girl’s “descent” into sex and drugs.

The face of innocence lost according to this film

Take a slide down the ladder into the pool of debauchery

Lil' Blondie is quite popular with the boys

Her first smoke and drink.

Your drunk and wasted...time to get the two-piece off

I think I'll join you

Alice embraces the touchy feely.

We get an insight into the bourgeoisie class that led a different kind of life than what was seen in the Ozzie and Harriet days. No Leave it to Beaver or My Three Sons in this film. A whole different culture was shown to us. It was as if Alice had left the confines of those pleasant wholesome, God-fearing middle class shows into the rich, sexually active, grass-smoking class that had “hot pads” that were “warming up” with couples making out, boozing up, and devoted to “having a good time” where morals are “loosened” and sex was encouraged. It was only slightly later that the sex would be out in the open for everyone in a room to see, with even orgies breaking out more explicitly.

Alice was introduced to "a whole new world of pot, LSD, and free love." Yep, the narrator calls her a "Twi-night hippie" whatever that is. Her blond gal pal Alice tells us is a "nymphomaniac with the face of an angel" and a "sex machine that just about ball anybody".

Freda loves to watch Alice undress

Time to take another hit.

Make out time!

Freda's new college girl conquest

A key character in this little 54 minute film is Freda, a slightly older (but just as nice to look at if not better) woman with a way of influencing the college girls she eyeballs in her “circle of friends” (or introduces to them) into joining in the debauch festivities. She likes the girls which this film cares more about detailing than the hetero makeouts. Didn't bother me none, admittedly.

What I find amusing in films like this is how the narrative would seem to indicate that the behavior in the film isn’t condoned yet the salacious details are dutifully performed as far as could be taken in that period of erotica/smut.

Let's get these ole clothes off, shall we?

The film shows couplings really having fun while kissing and fondling each other. For a film that is "condemning" LSD, its focus on sex seems to point out loudly how their intended message is a bit unfocused. Haha. That's what makes something like this absurd. Then there's the "trip" itself which is just weird, with two particular women "overlapping" one another as Alice wishes to "join them". "Take me. Love me. Don't ever leave me. Wet, sweet tongue of tears. Wet lips. Open wide. Take me." Thanks to Alice's insurgence within the "grist mill of the party group", the end has her tripping to LSD, realizing a friend of hers found dead was killed by "Animal" (some guy named Bob), and then falling prey to her hallucinations, never returning from "acidland". The real serious tone by the narrator as Alice is shown in a strait-jacket is unintentionally hokey. The trip itself is the only time in the film it is in color. The use of the color accentuates the trip itself while the B&W of everyday reality seems less vibrant and worth existing in. Well, I guess. The parties don't exactly look all that dull. The camera work is focused on face and tits as cunnilingus was still quite forbidden although those receiving it appear to be wrapped in orgasmic delight. Alice is especially fond of Animal and their time on the carpet floor of his pad seems to meet her approval. Alice even convinces her virginal college buddy to join the group, but her time isn't stressed as much as the trip the lead experiences that night. I'm not quite sure the message this film cares to convey will exactly hit pay dirt. If anything it would say that sex seems like a helluva a good time.

To be honest, I like to look for these kinds of movies to see if there are taken shots on streets at night because I just dig this era in film and recognize it as the catalyst in the burgeoning "realist era" in the 70s where characters "on the wrong side of the tracks" were gaining exposure. This film remains in pads, rooms, and fails to really alternate away from inclosed places to breathe; well, not for the exception of "meeting outside the school" or that bit around the pool. One lone street scene had me desiring more but such would not be the case. Still, this is an oddity I'm sure the SWV crowd will at least want to watch once. If just so we can put that extra notch on our belt. But, shit, the company put out a lot of oddballs for us to comb through.

Some extras below...

 The Trip

Poor Alice.

Best thing about the movie might be this rocking poster

Brought to you by...