Die Henker des Teufels

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.

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.