GET CRAZY (1983)

MOVIE: ROCK-BAND CRAZINESS

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - August 8, 1983

Author: Steven X. Rea, Inquirer Staff Writer

Yes, Get Crazy has a scene in which guys clamber up a rickety ladder so they can gawk at a nubile cheerleader-type in her bubble bath.

Yes, there is a pimple-faced nerd whose virginity is taken by a beautiful blond woman who speaks in some strange Scandinavian tongue.

Yes, there are gratuitous masturbation jokes, gratuitous drug jokes, gratuitous (female) nude scenes and general gratuitous gratuitousness.

But there are also, in this low-budget, low-brow comedy, some wonderful satiric moments, one of the odder aggregations of actors and rock 'n' rollers you are likely to see in some time, and about a solid half-hour of frenzied, goofy entertainment.

What you have got here is this: a story about the backstage catastrophes/ high jinks/intrigues/hassles/

and whatnots that transpire during the preparation and presentation of a gala New Year's Eve rock concert. You have Max Wolfe (played by the not-untalented Allen Goorwitz) as the kindhearted veteran concert promoter; you have Neil Allan, our hero, an earnest, bemused young stage manager, played with earnest bemusement by the not-untalented Daniel (Diner, Breaking Away) Stern; you have aging British rock star Reggie Wanker, a shameless (and not very good) sendup of Mick Jagger by none other than Malcolm McDowell.

You have a supporting cast that runs the gamut from awful (Miles Chapin as Wolfe's simpy nephew; Stacy Nelkin as a spandexed schoolgirl) to awfully weird (Lee Ving, the rabid, cretinous lead singer of the punk band Fear, as a rabid, cretinous punk rocker called Piggy; Lou Reed as a '60s folk poet known as Auden, and Eating Raoul's Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov as a lecherous doctor and a no-nonsense lighting technician, respectively).

The bad guy in all this is Colin Beverly, a slimey rock promoter who wants/ needs/must have Wolfe's theater so he can erect an 88-story office building with his name on it. Decked out in a loose-fitting, silvery jumpsuit, Ed Begley Jr. waddles through the part of Beverly sneering snidely at anyone who looks at him crosswise, including his two dunderhead sidekicks, played by (no kidding) Bobby Sherman and Fabian. This last bit of casting is kind of pathetic.

Get Crazy was directed, sometimes deftly, sometimes shabbily, by Allan Arkush, whose Rock 'n' Roll High School has become something of a cult favorite on the midnight-movie circuit. An alumnus of Roger Corman 's New World studios, Arkush knows his dumb-teenage-sex-and-drugs-and-rock-'n'-roll movie inside and out (the new issue of Movies refers to this genre as "horny noir"). He also knows his rock concerts: Arkush made his way through New York University film school working as an usher and stagehand at Bill Graham's Fillmore East.

In fact, some of Arkush's little nods to '60s psychedelia, including footage from a spacey 1920s cartoon that used to precede Grateful Dead shows at the Fillmore, are among the most inspired bits in the movie. There is also some fierce, droning rock (courtesy of Fear) that is worked into a sharply choreographed performance by New York dancer/performer Lori Eastside and her group. And then there is all the Porky's stuff - some of it funny, some of it just lame.

As it turns out, the funny and the lame are dished up in equal dollops, making Get Crazy, with its wonky cast and cheap effects, an erratic piece of entertainment.

Footnote for trend-spotters: Like Steve Martin's The Man With Two Brains, Get Crazy features a pet - in this case, a well-coiffed French poodle - being kicked with great, violent zeal from one end of a giant room to another.

GET CRAZY

Produced by Hunt Lowry, directed by Allan Arkush, written by Danny Opatoshu, Henry Rosenbaum, David Taylor, photography by Thomas Del Ruth, original music by Michael Boddicker, and distributed by Embassy Pictures; running time, 1 hour, 42 min. ***

Reggie Wanker - Malcolm McDowell

Max Wolfe - Allen Goorwitz

Neil Allan - Daniel Stern

Colin Beverly - Ed Begley Jr.

Susie - Stacy Nelkin

Parents' guide: R