Compass Rose

Compass Rose (1967)

As of me writing this, Andy Milligan's COMPASS ROSE is technically a lost film. If you look at the right places (ala YouTube) you will find an unfinished workprint that fans of the cult director will want to check out but I'd say others will want to wait in hopes that a complete version is found.

As far as the film goes, it's impossible to fully judge this workprint because it's incomplete for starters but there are also some major issues with what is available. The dialogue at times is impossible to understand so trying to really judge this film is rather pointless.

I must say that a lot of the characters were quite annoying to me and incredibly over-the-top. I'm not sure what Milligan was going for but there are a couple moments that really caught my attention. One was a scene towards the end when a group of characters are basically having a fit that turns into some violence. The madhouse sequence was quite effective and packed a nice little punch.

There's another scene where a man and woman lock themselves into a room while doing drugs. Just listen and watch the craziness that follows when another man finally gets into the room. The entire second half of the 73-minute running time is pretty bizarre and nutty and it was honestly some of the most entertaining things I've seen from the director. The first half, well, that there was rather annoying and boring.