With Casey Kasem having died recently, I've been going on YouTube to watch some of his movies like The Glory Stompers and The Cycle Savages and then this. In this one, he plays a drug dealer named Phil with Warren Finnerty as his partner, Barney. Compared to his previous two I just mentioned, he has a pretty big role here with his name above the title along with Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, and Lana Wood. The first two were in West Side Story with Lana's sis Natalie Wood so, yes, Beymer is paired with Lana here. Oh, and one more thing: Second generation Hollywood players Jody McCrea and Lindsay Crosby-who were with Kasem in TGS as a rival motorcycle gang member and fellow bike member, respectively-appear as narcotics officers with Casey actually offing Lindsay here! Actually, another thing-the director was Bill Brame who also did TCS and the writer/producer was John Lawrence who also did TGS. In summary, this was quite a groovy trip to the psychedelic drug/music scene of LA with plenty of trippy images whenever Beymer hallucinates! So on that note, I recommend Scream Free! for what I just mentioned.
5 Reviews
Drug-Induced Psychedelia
Uriah4313 February 2017
After accidentally getting involved in an altercation at a counter-culture festivity, "Dean" (Richard Beymer) and his girlfriend "Karen" (Lana Wood) ride off on his motorcycle to escape the law. Although he is initially hesitant, he needs money desperately, so he accepts a job accompanying a couple of local hoods down to Mexico where they buy some drugs and then proceed to transport it back to the United States. Unfortunately, once they return across the border two detectives follow them to their rendezvous point and after a brief scuffle the drug traffickers subsequently kill them. Not wanting anything to do with them Dean drives off with the drugs. But that isn't all, upon heading back to pick up his girlfriend he is betrayed by an acquaintance named "Link" (Russ Tamblyn) who puts some LSD into his drink in an effort to stall for time but is accidentally killed after trying to interrogate him while Dean is in his drug-induced state. However, the two drug traffickers manage to seize Karen and are waiting for Dean to return for her. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a rather peculiar film which focused heavily on psychedelia and the effects of drugs. Overall, I thought it was an okay movie but quite frankly it may be a bit difficult for some viewers to really appreciate, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Scream free!
BandSAboutMovies2 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Richard Beymer's (Tony from West Side Story and Benjamin Horne from Twin Peaks) Dean has fallen in love with Lana Wood's (her sister was in West Side Story, too) character Karen. But they've both run afoul of a gang they've tried to help bring marijuana across the murder. The leader of that gang? Link, played by one-time Jet (yes, more West Side Story) and now full-time biker and drug movie star Russ Tamblyn (and Twins Peaks as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby).
Dean gets dosed, nearly set on fire and has his girl kidnapped. Also, Tamblyn's gang has Warren Finnerty (Easy Rider) and Casey Kasem (!) in it. This is the kind of movie that introduces Tamblyn as he shoots up. Then, Karen asks Dean if he wants to trip and a scene that's already been wild with women dancing with snakes and swirling colored lights gets even crazier, which is what I'm watching these movies for. Can you trip like I do?
Look, even if this movie was bad - and it's not, it's pretty fun if disjointed - it's a movie that has Casey Kasem as a copkiller, music from California Spectrum and The Boston Tea Party, enough strobing effects to make you think you're flashing back and direction by Bill Brame (The Cycle Savages) and John Lawrence (who co-wrote The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant).
Somehow, this movie was re-released twenty years later, with scenes slowed down, added nudity and, for some reason, a disco soundtrack.
Screenwriter James Gordon Wright was also behind Ten Violent Women, The Tormentors, both The Thing with Two Heads and The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, The Hellcats, The Devil's 8, Bigfoot and The Mini-Skirt Mob. Beyond co-writing from Lawrence, he also had some uncredited assistance from Gerald Wilson (Chato's Land, Firepower).
Finally, I absolutely love that Robert Beck got a credit for psychedelic lighting on this. He was also the special psychedelic effects producer on The Trip and did the effects for The Psychedelics and Blood of the Iron Maiden, a movie where John Carradine and a murder-minded director feed acid to starlets before killing them on film, so he was making a living showing the straights what LSD was all about, man. Ah, 1969. You were an amazing time.
Dean gets dosed, nearly set on fire and has his girl kidnapped. Also, Tamblyn's gang has Warren Finnerty (Easy Rider) and Casey Kasem (!) in it. This is the kind of movie that introduces Tamblyn as he shoots up. Then, Karen asks Dean if he wants to trip and a scene that's already been wild with women dancing with snakes and swirling colored lights gets even crazier, which is what I'm watching these movies for. Can you trip like I do?
Look, even if this movie was bad - and it's not, it's pretty fun if disjointed - it's a movie that has Casey Kasem as a copkiller, music from California Spectrum and The Boston Tea Party, enough strobing effects to make you think you're flashing back and direction by Bill Brame (The Cycle Savages) and John Lawrence (who co-wrote The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant).
Somehow, this movie was re-released twenty years later, with scenes slowed down, added nudity and, for some reason, a disco soundtrack.
Screenwriter James Gordon Wright was also behind Ten Violent Women, The Tormentors, both The Thing with Two Heads and The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, The Hellcats, The Devil's 8, Bigfoot and The Mini-Skirt Mob. Beyond co-writing from Lawrence, he also had some uncredited assistance from Gerald Wilson (Chato's Land, Firepower).
Finally, I absolutely love that Robert Beck got a credit for psychedelic lighting on this. He was also the special psychedelic effects producer on The Trip and did the effects for The Psychedelics and Blood of the Iron Maiden, a movie where John Carradine and a murder-minded director feed acid to starlets before killing them on film, so he was making a living showing the straights what LSD was all about, man. Ah, 1969. You were an amazing time.
Zero talent behind the camera; actors left stranded
lor_30 June 2011
A quality cast never guarantees a movie will work, witness the disaster called FREE GRASS or SCREAM FREE! By any title this would-be exploitation film was too ineptly put together to even merit hard-up drive-ins to book it.
The filmmakers have some biker movie credentials, but haven't a clue here. It's trying for the Herman Hesse-inspired "finding oneself" attitude of the '60s, but heads nowhere in a hurry.
Richard Beymer, who would become an indie filmmaker years later with THE INNERVIEW, toplines as a searcher, not interested in joining the rat race. Film's best scene has him and hippie girlfriend Lana Wood on his hog, riding free down the open road (presaging the spirit of EASY RIDER). But he gets involved in drugs, especially under the bad influence of pal Russ Tamblyn.
Tamblyn was a mainstay of these drive-in movies, who along with his pal Dean Stockwell was to be counted on to deliver a quirky performance during their down-market career phase, after both of them began promisingly as leads in major studio pictures. The decline from WEST SIDE STORY to this junk for both Beymer and Tamblyn was hammered home by the marketing for FREE GRASS.
Wood, the buxom younger sister of Natalie, gets a scene recalling one of her sis' triumphs: Beymer takes her up to a high promenade with telescopes, where they can look down on the city, capturing the mood of the similar scene featuring Dean, Mineo and Natalie in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
Film's ostensible plot revolves around hammy Casey Kasem (who remarkably went for about 40 years after this without aging a bit, Dorian Gray style) as a drug kingpin who's planning a big trafficking job from Mexico with underling Tamblyn. Russ recruits a reluctant Beymer to serve as a driver in bringing the drugs across the border, with the promise of $10,000 which will allow him to flee the cops (he's wanted by the law for going crazy and billy-clubbing one during a riot) and flee to a new life in Dayton, Ohio (!).
After lots of boring filler concerning Beymer's LSD trip (after Russ slips him a sugar cube Mickey), the "action" of bringing in the drugs using an RV results in violence. Director Bill Brame stages the confrontation with narcs Lindsay Crosby and Jody McCrea (2nd generation Hollywood royalty) like a home movie.
Theater audiences were cheated out of the expected Wood nude scenes (she was one hot number back then, appearing memorably in PLAYBOY as well as exploitation films like DEMON RAGE and A PLACE CALLED TODAY), but through the magic of video one can slow down the film and barely see the buxom starlet topless in one of Beymer's psychedelic hallucinations. Other than that 1/8th of a second cheap thrill, this dull offering never gets down to the basics of entertainment, high or low.
The filmmakers have some biker movie credentials, but haven't a clue here. It's trying for the Herman Hesse-inspired "finding oneself" attitude of the '60s, but heads nowhere in a hurry.
Richard Beymer, who would become an indie filmmaker years later with THE INNERVIEW, toplines as a searcher, not interested in joining the rat race. Film's best scene has him and hippie girlfriend Lana Wood on his hog, riding free down the open road (presaging the spirit of EASY RIDER). But he gets involved in drugs, especially under the bad influence of pal Russ Tamblyn.
Tamblyn was a mainstay of these drive-in movies, who along with his pal Dean Stockwell was to be counted on to deliver a quirky performance during their down-market career phase, after both of them began promisingly as leads in major studio pictures. The decline from WEST SIDE STORY to this junk for both Beymer and Tamblyn was hammered home by the marketing for FREE GRASS.
Wood, the buxom younger sister of Natalie, gets a scene recalling one of her sis' triumphs: Beymer takes her up to a high promenade with telescopes, where they can look down on the city, capturing the mood of the similar scene featuring Dean, Mineo and Natalie in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
Film's ostensible plot revolves around hammy Casey Kasem (who remarkably went for about 40 years after this without aging a bit, Dorian Gray style) as a drug kingpin who's planning a big trafficking job from Mexico with underling Tamblyn. Russ recruits a reluctant Beymer to serve as a driver in bringing the drugs across the border, with the promise of $10,000 which will allow him to flee the cops (he's wanted by the law for going crazy and billy-clubbing one during a riot) and flee to a new life in Dayton, Ohio (!).
After lots of boring filler concerning Beymer's LSD trip (after Russ slips him a sugar cube Mickey), the "action" of bringing in the drugs using an RV results in violence. Director Bill Brame stages the confrontation with narcs Lindsay Crosby and Jody McCrea (2nd generation Hollywood royalty) like a home movie.
Theater audiences were cheated out of the expected Wood nude scenes (she was one hot number back then, appearing memorably in PLAYBOY as well as exploitation films like DEMON RAGE and A PLACE CALLED TODAY), but through the magic of video one can slow down the film and barely see the buxom starlet topless in one of Beymer's psychedelic hallucinations. Other than that 1/8th of a second cheap thrill, this dull offering never gets down to the basics of entertainment, high or low.
Casey Kasem Before He Was a DJ, West Side Story Reunion
shelbythuylinh17 November 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Kasem used to be or was trying to make it as an actor before he became a very well known DJ. And he was pretty good in what he was given. As loved to see him play someone else other than himself or Shaggy for "Scooby Doo!"
Here he is the bad guy and drug kingpin named Phil in which he and his partner in crime, the late Warren Finnerty of Easy Rider fame as Barney as they kill one hippie turned informant to keep his mouth shut and want another young person but as Phil wants someone that can be trusted not to go to the feds on them.
Richard Beymer of West Side Story and Twin Peaks fame as Dean the hero of the story. That after fighting with an officer and knocking one off and now on the run after meeting a girl named Karen over in a love fest who is played by the late Natalie Wood's younger less known sister Lana.
Dean must find a way to make money to escape to of all places, Dayton Ohio with very little to no explanation on why. He agrees to escort his WSS Jets partner Russ Tamblyn as Link over on a drug run. Link works for Phil and Barney hoping to make partner but keeps on being denied. As Kasem thinks he is a loose cannon and with good reason.
In this so called "routine" first and hopefully only run will not be as so as two narcotics agents played by the late Lindsay Crosby and the late Jody McCrea as they were sons of both the late Bing and the late Joel respectively on their tail.
It leads to Dean getting more than he bargained and how he needs to escape the drug runners while making it out alive but Karen is kidnapped as bait to lure Dean. Plus he needs to find money and fast now that he knows the true motives of Phil and Barney.
Kasem as a drug dealing cop killer cast against type there. Wonder if he stayed with it, he would had in the making it onto the A list. But really his voice was the key to his career. As well as we would miss the late DJ doing the "American Top 40" shows.
Here he is the bad guy and drug kingpin named Phil in which he and his partner in crime, the late Warren Finnerty of Easy Rider fame as Barney as they kill one hippie turned informant to keep his mouth shut and want another young person but as Phil wants someone that can be trusted not to go to the feds on them.
Richard Beymer of West Side Story and Twin Peaks fame as Dean the hero of the story. That after fighting with an officer and knocking one off and now on the run after meeting a girl named Karen over in a love fest who is played by the late Natalie Wood's younger less known sister Lana.
Dean must find a way to make money to escape to of all places, Dayton Ohio with very little to no explanation on why. He agrees to escort his WSS Jets partner Russ Tamblyn as Link over on a drug run. Link works for Phil and Barney hoping to make partner but keeps on being denied. As Kasem thinks he is a loose cannon and with good reason.
In this so called "routine" first and hopefully only run will not be as so as two narcotics agents played by the late Lindsay Crosby and the late Jody McCrea as they were sons of both the late Bing and the late Joel respectively on their tail.
It leads to Dean getting more than he bargained and how he needs to escape the drug runners while making it out alive but Karen is kidnapped as bait to lure Dean. Plus he needs to find money and fast now that he knows the true motives of Phil and Barney.
Kasem as a drug dealing cop killer cast against type there. Wonder if he stayed with it, he would had in the making it onto the A list. But really his voice was the key to his career. As well as we would miss the late DJ doing the "American Top 40" shows.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
