Beat Girls and Hep Cats

Among the numerous Hollywood films that attempted to explore the subculture of the emerging beatnik and bohemian scene of the late fifties, none is odder or more blatantly miscast than The Wild Party (1956) which casts Anthony Quinn as Tom Kupfen, a former star football player turned full time deadbeat, hanging out at basement jazz clubs and dive bars, looking for action. He’s joined by a motley crew of hipster accomplices that includes Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff), a jazz pianist of some talent, Honey (Kathryn Grant), a spaced-out former girlfriend, and Gage (Jay Robinson), a switchblade-toting psychopath.

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Robert Frank and The Rolling Stones

Photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank (left) and Mick Jagger (right) on The Rolling Stones’ private jet during their 1972 tour of the U.S. to promote the album “Exile on Main Street” as depicted in the rock documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972).

After being withheld from release for 15 years, Gerald Fox’s Leaving Home, Come Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank, is finally receiving a U.S. theatrical release. Famous for his seminal 1958 collection “The Americans,” Swiss-born photographer Frank is no stranger to films being withheld from public viewing and one of his most infamous projects C*cksucker Blues, a behind-the-scenes account of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour of America, remains unreleased to this day.  Continue reading