Hippie Double Feature: Ghetto Freaks (1970) / Way Out (1966)

Social Rejects!...

Ghetto Freaks (1970, 88 mins.): Hanging out at a late-'60s rock club, stone-freak Sonny watches as a wealthy mother tries to "rescue" her daughter from the corrupting hippie environment. Acting quickly, Sonny slips the girl the address of his nearby House of Hippies, and moments later, she's taking her first LSD trip and having group sex on the floor! Sonny then shows her the joys of panhandling and the thrill of protesting in the park before some drug dealers remind everyone that reality really sucks. Originally released as both Sign Of Aquarius and Love Commune, this stoned-out slice of hippie life - filmed in Cleveland of all places - was re-released as Ghetto Freaks courtesy of a bogus blaxploitation ad campaign and the addition of two minutes of new footage featuring the black leader of a kinky love cult.

Way Out (1966, 102 mins.): From Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., the director of The Blob, 4D Man and Dinosaurus!, comes Way Out, an intense and surprisingly affecting story of Puerto Rican drug addicts in the Bronx. Frankie and Jim are best buddies who enjoy getting high until their addiction to heroin forces them to burrow through a harrowing underworld of fellow junkies, crime and violence, where their only goal is "to get that fix, get that fix..." With a cast comprised entirely of real-life former addicts - who break character at the end to provide a startling and hopeful coda - "this is a crazy Way Out world which squares just won't believe..."

GHETTO FREAKS, originally entitled LOVE COMMUNE, is a psychedelic trip into the hippie underworld of Cleveland, complete with evil drug dealers, communes, and nude dancing. Sonny is a character created to illustrate the corrupt nature of the hippie lifestyle in all its glory. After watching a mother's attempt to save her daughter from her own inchoate hippiedom, he whisks the girl away for an LSD trip and group sex on the floor of the House of Hippies. The couple then go panhandling and protesting before meeting up with some drug dealers who remind them that reality is not something in which they're interested in participating. This rare, grungy doper trip was shown in a marathon night of Quentin Tarantino's favorite exploitation flicks.

WAY OUT: This drama about young Puerto Rican heroin addicts living in the Bronx features actual former junkies as actors, and depicts a startlingly realistic picture of street life. Frankie and Jim will do anything for a fix, including stealing a pram and leaving the baby on the sidewalk; their nights of getting high are seemingly endless until Frankie gets nabbed and put in jail, forced to go cold turkey. Jim continues his life of crime, associating with some very sleazy characters, and the outcome looks bad before a very surprising ending, which confirms this film's tagline: "this is a crazy way out world which squares just won't believe." Director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr. also directed the 1950s cult film THE BLOB before moving on to promotionals for Billy Graham.