reprtr Review of Riot on Sunset Strip

Riot on Sunset Strip (1967)

Topical Exploitation Movie That's Still a Lot of Fun 50+ Years Later

[6/10 · 5 January 2019]

There may well have been a movie or two built around the emerging youth "counter-culture" before RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, but none of them seems to have left quite the impression that Arthur Dreifuss's movie did. Between its line-up of musical contributors (The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband . . . .) and exploitation plot featuring Mimsy Farmer and a put-upon-looking Aldo Ray, plus relentless late-night showings on local stations for decades after its theatrical run rendered RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, along with Richard Rush's PSYCH-OUT (1968), the two most oft-quoted and cited cinematic touchstones of 1960s counter-culture (along with concert documentaries such as MONTEREY POP and WOODSTOCK). As it happens, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP was a case of art capitalizing on real-life, released just a few months after the actual events referred to in the plot (making this an even faster turn-around off of real-life than Phil Karlson's fact-based THE PHENIX CITY STORY, or Roger Corman's Sputnik-inspired sci-fi thriller WAR OF THE SATELLITES). Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth," recorded by the Buffalo Springfield, was built around the same events, and one early episode of Dragnet, "The LSD Story," was also set against the backdrop of the Sunset Strip's youth explosion.