User reviews

As I have collected all 24 Jennifer Jones' films on video, (25 if you include the two versions of "Gone to Earth"/"Wild Heart"), it was only natural I should buy a video entitled "Cult of the Damned", its' later release title.

I was 23 when this was filmed in 1969 so if what now amounts to a period piece of rock stars, drugs, cults etc, appeals to you, then this film is worth a look.You may be somewhat surprised to see and hear established stars such as Jennifer Jones appearing in this film especially when she utters lines like," I made 40 stag films and never faked an orgasm" or calling her masseuse a " you're a bloody sadistic dyke".Roddy McDowell also appears as a disciple of Jordan Christopher, the cult leader."Pop" art adorns the set especially at the beginning and is designed to shock.The dialogue is full of pretentious nonsense as espoused by Holly Near playing the overweight daughter and its narrator.I did however like most of the songs especially the one Jordan sings to Jennifer Jones when he's stark naked at the foot of her bed, with just her famous necklace to cover his modesty!

I know this film gets "slated" by most people and critics but do see it if you get the chance.Its never been seen on mainstream UK TV to my knowledge and the video title is not commercially available.Your best bet is to bid on "e-Bay" as it occasionally comes up for auction.

I recommend that this is watched on a double-bill with Wild in the Streets, also written by Robert Thom. Both films contain similarities - a Messiah-like pop star with pretensions for a new social order, overbearing parents, LSD sequences, pop music, alternative forms of sexuality, camp and "established" actresses freaking out.

This film is like being in a long trance - there's so much imagery and symbolism that you'll need to watch it three or four times before it starts to make sense.

It's a little nihilistic for my liking, but well worth watching - Jennifer Jones gets to call her maid a sadistic lesbian, her husband appears in the first scene naked in the shower with his young male friend, while the daughter's voice-over says "My first memory is that my parents were perfect." There's all sorts of weird stuff like the cast taking a walk along Santa Monica Beach and Jennifer Jones buying candyfloss with her jewellery and then discarding it.

The songs are reasonably good too, especially The Fat Song, Bloody Mama (also another Robert Thom film) and Angel, Angel Down We Go. This is one freaked out movie. I love it!

In her next to last film Jennifer Jones plays once again a decadent over sexed sultry figure in Angel Angel Down We Go. In the film she did a few years back The Idol Jones plays an older woman who flips for her son's friend who just looks at her as someone he wants to nail. But The Idol was classic next to this one.

Jennifer Jones and Charles Aidman play a rich power couple who have a daughter Holly Near who's no Miss Junior Miss. Still her status requires she be given a coming out as any débutante must have. At that party she meets Jordan Christopher who is a second hand version of Christopher Jones's character Max Frost from Wild In The Streets. He hangs out with a group of Manson like followers that include Davey Davison, Roddy McDowall, and Lou Rawls. With her millions they welcome Holly into their group all the while Christopher takes aim on Jones.

We learned here that Jeanne Crain showed uncommon good judgment in turning this film down. Watching Charles Aidman I thought he was imitating Jason Robards and maybe Jason was who was originally thought of to play the father. I guess that Aidman was having his own little joke knowing he was in a Thanksgiving Day special.

The Idol and Angel Angel Down We Go were both made after the death of David O. Selznick, Jennifer Jones's second husband and career Svengali. Selznick sure had his faults but there ain't no way he would have let his wife appear in those two films, especially Angel Angel Down We Go.

Jones was apparently no good at charting her own career, but her final film was The Towering Inferno where she played the part of a respectable widow who stays respectable.

Jordan Christopher was imitating Jim Morrison in his role and I can't believe that they didn't give the genuine talent of Lou Rawls a song to sing.

Fans of Jennifer Jones will not like Angel Angel Down We Go.

What "THE BIG CUBE" was to Lana Turner, "CULT OF THE DAMNED" (aka "ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO") is to Jennifer Jones.

Ms Jones, a beautiful actress, usually playing serious roles in respectable films such as "LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING" and "DUEL IN THE SUN", makes her grand entrance into the twilight of her acting career with this extremely tasteless garbage.

Here, she is the bored, restless and needy wife of a tycoon who welcomes home her 18-year old daughter who has been raised abroad in a Swiss school. The actress who plays her daughter is pretty bad, but who could have imagined that Jennifer Jones could be worse?

I don't think anyone could have imagined as to how bad this movie would turn out. The director must have had liberating visions on the issues of homosexuality, nudity, obesity, drugs, sex and free love. Jumble them all into one movie and headline it with an Oscar-winning actress in the twilight of her career, and you have "CULT OF THE DAMNED".

Was it Jennifer Jones who insisted that every 'close up' shot of her face be filmed directly under a spotlight with as much base plastered over it so that it looked like matte? Was it Jennifer Jones who wanted to 'step out of character' by playing a completely unlikeable lush-of-a-woman with a background in stag films? Either Ms Jones was completely into the "LSD-era" if you get my drift, or her agent was.

Ms Jones not only steps completely out of character for this movie, but she takes a giant leap into a whole new "Twilight Zone" dimension where most of her fans would be scratching their heads as to how and why she chose to star in this. I remember I got the same feeling when I saw the beautiful Ms Katharine Hepburn dragged out of semi-retirement for a small cameo in Warren Beatty's "LOVE AFFAIR" where she was encouraged to utter the "F" word amidst completely embarrassing dialogue.

Watching Ms Jones confess, "I MADE 30 STAG FILMS AND NEVER FAKED AN ORGASM!" while badly acting amid Fellini-inspired scenery filled with smoke and harsh red tones, is just bizarre.

How this film became retitled as "CULT OF THE DAMNED" is beyond me. There is no "cult" in this movie. The original title "ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO" is more appropriate as it is featured in a rather appalling set at a pool party that is supposed to conjure the likes of Jim Morrison, but instead invokes laughter.

Everyone from Lou Rawls to Roddy McDowell look completely stupified as to how they ended up in this film. There are even times where their faces look like deer frozen in a set of headlights.

I must say that after watching this movie, I now know where Jennifer Jones got the inspiration for her look that she carried with her to the set of "THE TOWERING INFERNO". There is one scene in this movie where Jennifer is sitting in the back of a limo sharing a conversation with Jordan Christopher. She is wearing the exact same white dress with choker and hairstyle that she had in "THE TOWERING INFERNO"! I honestly thought that she had stepped right out of this scene and into the glass elevator as Lisolette Mueller.

Thank God this movie would not be her final film. It would be absolutely depressing if this was credited as her last movie. She redeemed herself in her next and final feature "THE TOWERING INFERNO", and hopefully fired her agent in the meantime.

Only watch this movie if you, like me, were dying with curiosity to see Ms Jones spit, "YOU BLOODY SADISTIC DYKE!" to her maid while getting rough-handled during a shoulder massage. Other than that, avoid this dreck at all costs.

My Rating - 0 out of 10

Jennifer Jones gets to sleaze it up as the rich mother (who did NOT to stag movies, they keep saying) of an overweight deubutaunte who escapes with a bunch of drug abusing hippies and turns into a disaster. Almost all of the dialogue is overdone and over performed and it becomes the most hysterically funny camp experience since Valley of the Dolls. It must be seen to be believed.

There were so many hippie movies being churned out during those years and most of them were awful but a few of them attained cult status. Unfortunately this film is just one of the worst pieces of nonsense ever made and watching the actors wallow about in this made me feel sad for them. Story (such as it is) is about a very wealthy couple who have an overweight daughter who's completely miserable. Jennifer Jones is the mother Astrid Steele and her past includes making stag films. Charles Aidman is the father Willy Steele who is bi-sexual and he tries to make his daughter Tara Nicole (Holly Near) happy by giving her expensive gifts. One night after a party Tara runs into Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Jordan Christopher) who is the lead singer of a rock band and he seduces her. Tara meets the other members of his band which include Joe (Lou Rawls), Anna Livia (Davey Davison) and Santoro (Roddy McDowall).

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

The four members of this band/cult start playing games with Tara and fill her gullible head with all sorts of psychedelic mish-mash and finally she brings them back to meet her parents. Bogart puts the heavy moves on Astrid and eventually he seduces her as well. They talk her into going sky diving and play keep away in mid-air with one of her expensive necklaces until she plummets to her death. The film ends with Willy being killed by Bogart and Tara completely brainwashed.

This film was directed by Robert Thom who is primarily known as a pretty decent writer of low budget films and he never directed another film again after this. I don't mind hippie films if they're done with some sort of tongue in cheek approach like my favorite "Candy" but this film is just a mess and one with a totally narcissistic attitude. With all of the "Groovy" editing going on it was very difficult at times to figure out what exactly was real and what was just another fantasy sequence. The casting is the most interesting thing about this effort and you had to wonder what Jones was thinking. Did she need the money that bad? Did she think she was going to cash in on the new young and trendy way films were being made? She spouts lines such as "I made 30 stag films and never faked an orgasm". I will say one positive thing, though. Jones looks great! I'm not sure how old she was when she made this but she still maintained her sex appeal and looked very beautiful. But this brings me to McDowall and Rawls who have at best secondary roles and have practically nothing to say. Every once in a while Rawls would mutter something about "Afro-American Negroes" and shoot that big grin on his face. McDowall doesn't come across much better and at one point he stares upward with a glazed look on his face and warbles about being turned on by a carrot! Someone hand him a chimpanzee mask and let him really act! This film was doomed right from the start as it came out fairly close to the time when Sharon Tate was murdered. A shame the script for this wasn't destroyed instead.

The main reason to savor this deliciously decadent dress rehearsal for the entire career of John Waters is the very guilty pleasure of watching Jennifer Jones not only perform an homage to Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" but apparently actually LIVE the role. Ms. Jones (nee Phylis Isley when she began her career as John Wayne's leading lady 30 years before this cuckoo classic was release)may NOT have been certifiable when she agreed to appear...but I for one can't think of any other logical explanation.

The widow of David O'Selznic plays "The richest woman in the world" who is also "the most beautiful woman in the world" (personal quotes from the character...read with complete conviction by the actress...as is the admission to being "45"...Jones was 50...)...

The character has an pudgy daughter named "Tara" (another quote from Jone's character "I LIKED 'Gone With The Wind'")...could the whirring sound I hear be The sound of Selznic rotating and revolving in his grave?? Why this grotesque but utterly fascinating slash at "Hollywood Royalty" is not known better under either of it's titles ("Cult of the Damned" was on the print I saw) is beyond me...it should have been a spookily prescient harbinger of the collapse of "old Hollywood" especially since it was released only ten days after the town (and the world) went reeling in the Horror of the murder of Sharon Tate...a crime it is impossible to avoid thinking of while watching this study of L.A. high society brutally invaded upon by a group of sadistic drug addled musicians.

If you need more reasons to watch how about sweet little Roddy Mcdwell bearing his behind and playing gay (his lines about being rejected by the draft board aren't skating on this ice...they are more like dancing on it in toe shoes!!).

All in all...a film so amazing and appalling...that it might be a masterpiece of schlock!

Title refers to a group of aimless wealthy international jet-setters who seem to have nothing better to do than repetitive, trashy sex and drugs. What they actually do best is interminable senseless babbling. Jennifer Jones' role as a former porn star cum parvenu socialite is an embarrassment, while Roddy McDowall is wasted. Jordan Christopher in his leading role is a great androgynous irritant performing several undistinguished "hip" songs such as "Angel, Angel Down We Go" and "Mother Lover" with all the spark of a wet fuse. He may have been a hot flash-in-the-pan in Britain but he deservedly fizzled fast possibly due to the contempt shown for audiences (particularly American) as evidenced here. Lou Rawls, in a useless token role would have been a much better choice at performing during the generous screen time allotted to music. Despite slick production values and the too-frequent artsy interposing of bizarre montages, the film, much like its opening and closing monologues evokes nothing more than empty delusions.

Folk singer Holly Near ("Slaughterhouse-Five") plays Tara Nicole Steele, the plump teenage daughter of a very rich couple; her mother Astrid (Oscar winner Jennifer Jones ("The Song of Bernadette"), in her penultimate film role) is a former stag star who married well. At her "coming out" party, Tara Nicole meets a charismatic rock star named Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Jordan Christopher ("Brainstorm")). After he has deflowered her, she becomes part of his group of followers. This group also includes ever-wonderful Roddy McDowall ("Fright Night"), singer Lou Rawls ("Leaving Las Vegas"), and sexy blonde Davey Davison ("The Strangler"). Then she is understandably thrown for a loop when Bogart also hooks up with Astrid.

The brainchild of noted screenwriter / director Robert Thom (whose other writing credits include "Wild in the Streets", "Death Race 2000", and "The Witch Who Came from the Sea"), this comes off as very dated 52 years later. It's very much a product of its time, and a lot of the characters, performances, and "hip" dialogue are an acquired taste. It blends surrealism, a wealth of imagery (the collages are by Shirley Kaplan), an admittedly cool rock soundtrack, some breathtaking sky diving sequences, and a lot of philosophical musing as Bogart and his gang talk about their perception of American ideals.

A highly offbeat, fairly interesting fable, complete with pretentious narration by Near, this is obviously not to all tastes, even as it attempts to illustrate both culture clashes and the generation gap. Some fans of Ms. Jones may be dismayed by her appearance here (she definitely looks uncomfortable), and shocked at hearing her utter some rather colourful lines. Still, she looks quite glamorous, and gets to play a flashy character with a fondness for jewelry.

The film does have its amusements, but definitely doesn't play as well nowadays. People who lived through this era may find more value than the contemporary movie watcher.

Six out of 10.

The late 1960s brought the world a lot of trippy psychedelic films, though one of the trippiest and strangest must be "Angel, Angel Down We Go". To say it's bizarre, amateurish and silly would be a great understatement. I would go so far as to wonder if anyone NOT intoxicated has even enjoyed this film.

Despite being immensely wealthy, the Steele family is hopelessly screwed up and hypocritical. Dad is a wimp, mom an ex-porn actress and their chunky daughter is pretty much on her own--and seems to ease her pain and emptiness with food. The family announces to the daughter that they're having a coming-out party for her, but it's really just an excuse for the mother (Jennifer Jones) to prance about and hope that everyone admires her beauty. While she looks her 50 years in some ways, I must admit that Jones' figure was amazing in the film--and you end up seeing more of it than you'd expect considering she ONCE was a star. As for the daughter, she's miserable at the party but connects up with the musical act that performed for the party. The leader is named 'Bogey' and is a charismatic and devilish guy--and he has four little disciples who follow him everywhere--even though NOTHING Bogey says makes any sense at all. She joins this little cult and they hang about saying profound things that make no sense, go skydiving and have sex. Later, to scare the girl's parents, the gang drops in and behaves like they are strung out on LSD--which I assume they were. If you think all this is headed somewhere and there is significance to it, don't bother. It all just goes on and on and on--and never makes any sense.

Aside from an incomprehensible story, the film features some really weird artsy camera-work with random pictures inserted throughout the film, a sprinkling of nudity, homosexual references, dialog that seldom makes sense, comments about the sexual prowess of black men, child sexual abuse, a lady sleeping on the ceiling and MANY actors who later must have regretted doing this film. Aside from Jones, Roddy McDowall and Lou Rawls (yes THAT Lou Rawls) star in the film.

By the way, if you are wondering why a star like Jennifer Jones did such as god-awful film, my guess is because she and her husband (the recently deceased David O. Selznick) went through bankruptcy when his films started losing money. I can only assume she had to take ANY work she could find--and this would definitely fall into the category of ANY. In fact, it might just be the most embarrassing film by a once-great Hollywood star. Mae West's necrophilic performance in "Myra Breckenridge" and Burgess Meredith's nude scenes in "Such Good Friends" might possibly be a bit worse, but neither ever were respected A-list stars like Jones. And, neither could boast that they had once won an Oscar.

As one of the reviewers said, when this film debuted, David O. Selznick must have been rolling in his grave!

the review in the "Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film" had me looking for this one, for years. Finally found it in 2003, and wouldn't you know, it has ended up on USA cable here a year later. (Showtime Beyond is really exhuming the hard to find AIP stuff regularly) So, what to say. The casting is positively bizarre, with Jennifer Jones, modeling the same outfit she later wore in "Towering Inferno"; Protest singer Holly Near as her troubled fat-girl daughter; Charles Aidman as the rich, secretly gay, father; Jordan Christopher as the freaky rock singer/producer,currently working with his new band "The Rabbit Habit" featuring Lou Rawls (who never sings?), and Roddy McDowell in his freakiest psychedelic film. It starts with Christopher appearing to be a liberating force, but by the end, the drug use/criminal activity leaves no one liberated, and some dead. It's fairly pointless overall, but there are some classic moments to be treasured. Favorite dialogue award goes to Jones, with the classic:"In my heart of hearts, I'm a sexual clam", though Roddy's mini-rant about sexuality, ending with his description of being "turned on" by a carrot comes real close. Hardly classic, but rewarding for the curious! Good companion piece to similar epics from that time, from "LSD, I hate you", on back to "Skidoo", and "Gas-s-s-s, or it may become necessary to destroy the world in order to save it!"

Fans of psychedelic trash claim to love this movie, but it is largely unwatchable. Shot in the wake of the success of "Wild in the Streets," which Robert Thom wrote, AIP allowed Thom to write and direct his first film. His freaked out ambition led to something that was barely released. The basic story is like Tennesee Williams' "Orpheus Descending" or Pasolini's "Teorama" -- a hot, vaguely homo erotic stud comes into a wealthy household, sleeps with everybody and DESTROYS them baby!! Destroys them! Tripped out with psychedelic fashions and bad rock tunes, this sounds like fun; but Thom has absolutely no sense of pace and the movie just bumps from one poorly directed scene to the next.

The cast is at sea through out the film and no wonder: Holly Near, now a famous lesbian singer and activist, plays a fat girl who gets raped by the rock star. She must hide her head in a pillow when this comes on TV. Jordan Christopher comes on like Jim Morrison lite and Roddy McDowall and Lou Rawls are cringe worthy as "groovy" sidekicks. Camp lovers may relish Jennifer Jones' degradation as a wealthy nympho/porn star who lusts for the stud, but her dialogue ("You bloody sadistic dyke!") resists rational delivery.

The most interesting thing about the film is the homoeroticism; quite explicit for its day. But that would hardly sell it in 1969. In fact, after previewing the film as "Angel, Angel Down We Go," AIP realized what a dog it had and shelved it. A year later they rushed it out on a cheap double bill, changing the title to "Cult of the Damned," and giving it an ad campaign that implied it had something to do with the Manson murders. Even that did not do the trick. AIP's cutting may account for the film's bumpy narrative, but what is left on screen is truly unsalvagable.

The "high" point of all this madness comes when the fat heroine gets "high" and sees the other cast members SITTING ON THE CEILING!! The scene continues as if nothing odd has happened. Utterly bizarre! It's too bad after the pop-comic book psychedelia of "Wild in the Streets," that Thom fumbled this film so badly. The rock star lead was obviously created as a follow-up role for Christopher Jones, but he escaped to A films like "Ryan's Daughter" for a few years before surrendering to drugs. No one escaped this mess unscathed. Only for the morbidly curious. You have been warned.

Jennifer Jones was unremarkable in every way. For the sake of her career, she dumped husband Robert Walker and her children to marry David O. Selznick. A year later poor Robert Walker died.

This film is part of karma for Jennifer Jones.

This film is so boring and awful it doesn't even have camp value. The only purpose of this film is to show what a failure Jones was without a powerful husband.

9me wonders if John Waters saw this film and got the idea of making a big girl a star like he himself did in Hair spray.

The film does have some fun lines that humiliate Jennifer Jones.

Did Roddy McDowall ever turn down a bad script?

Strange as it may seem, the '60s didn't end in the '70s, as is evident with "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" and neither did empty symbolism nor whacked-out stories.

Seems poor little rich girl Tara (Near) is bored with her poor little rich life and spices it up after meeting decadent rock star Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Christopher) and his equally decadent pals, who make it their mission in life to teach all a downbeat, yet mod, lesson in life. That lesson? I wasn't tripping out while watching this, so I missed it.

Too bad they had to involve names like Jones, McDowell and Rawls (!!) in this insipid, drugged-up mess. Maybe they figured that would draw attention away from such story points as Jones jumping out of a plane (sans parachute) to save her thrown-out jewelry or Tara's daddy (Aidman) being whipped on a pool table or "rock sensation" Stuyvesant singing that all-time hit "She's Fat" to Tara or everyone taking time out from the story to stare blankly into space and mouth dialogue that probably sounded good to the writers when they were dropping whatever they dropped to write this or....

Forget it, baby. I'm Austin Power-less to be further incensed and peppermint-ed at this psychedelic shack of uncool aura.

No stars. Not even good for laughing at. This "Angel" will make you feel like the devil.

Un-groovy, baby.

Jennifer Jones, a true movie star, was groomed by David Selznick starring in "Song Of Bernadette" and winning an Oscar for her portrayal of the saintly Bernadette, other great Jennifer Jones movies were Love Letters, Cluny Brown, Since You Went Away, Duel In The Sun, Portrait of Jenny Ruby Gentry, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, and Tender Is The Night.

David Selznick died in 1965 and Jennifer went to England to star in The Idol for Joe Levine and Paramount. I was in Vietnam and read in the Stars and Stripes Jennifer would star in Angel Angel Down We Go! Thrilled I was looking forward to seeing the picture. Jennifer recruited a Westmore to do her makeup and Sydney Guillaroff the maestro of heir styles to do her Hair. What was lacking is a Script and a talented Director. The movie is a mess. The only redeeming thing is to see Jennifer on the screen. But why Jennifer why? Why? This mess?

Jennifer Jones would have the biggest hit of her career in Steve McQueen's Towering I Inferno and win a Golden Globe nomination, and retire.

A weird and hopeless mishmash of elements which will make you wonder how on earth this film ever got made and also why stars such as Jennifer Jones signed on in the first place. The plot revolves around an overweight young girl named Tara ("you know, after Gone With The Wind") whose life has been distorted by her rich parents who never loved her in the first place. She becomes involved with a rock singer and he and his group ingratiate themselves into her home and family. It is obvious that the film is supposed to be symbolic because we are continually shown a painting of the characters in morbid poses with their eyes gouged out, etc. but you would have to be on an acid trip to grasp them). Most of the lines are thrown in for shock value, and it is indeed shocking to hear Jennifer Jones (as Tara's mother) utter such lines as "I made 30 stag films and never faked an orgasm" or call her maid a "bloody sadistic dyke". A must see to believe it all but very bad cinema indeed.

This must be one the greatest, least recognised trash films of all time. It has such a strange mixture of truth and pretentious phoniness that it is in a class of its own.

What Hollywood film of the time (or now even) would dare show anything as pornographic (for Fat Amerika) as Holly Near's binge eating scene at her birthday party?

Yet the incredible tackiness of it all perfectly illustrates the tackiness of late 60s rock culture, even if it gets all the details wrong, oh so wrong.

I love it, it's one of my top ten all time favourite films.

A chubby debutante (Holly Near) returns from school in Europe to her lousy filthy rich parents in Beverly Hills (Jennifer Jones & Charles Aidman). At her coming out party she falls for the charms of a charismatic rock star (Jordan Christopher) and he & his group proceed to move into the mansion and manipulate the family with their 'hip' drug-addled nonsense. The band members are played by Lou Rawls, Roddy McDowall and Davey Davison.

"Angel, Angel, Down We Go" was released ten days after the Manson Family murders in August, 1969, but understandably failed at the box office and so was retitled & rereleased the following year as "Cult of the Damned" with an ad campaign that capitalized on those infamous hippie murders. It was written & directed by the scripter of "Wild in the Streets" from the previous year and so there are similarities, but this is the lesser film.

The comparable "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" came out the following year and it's just all-around more entertaining if you want an amusing taste of the late 60s, but both flicks are marred by too much fruity twaddle, if you know what I mean. Thankfully, there are at least a handful of legitimate laughs to be had here.

Speaking of which, I can't believe some people describe this movie as "unintentionally funny" because, trust me, it's all intentional. The opening scenes advertise beyond any shadow of doubt that this is a comedic take on counterculture nuttiness, at least in the satirical sense. It's also noticeably stagey and sometimes surreal, but there's some decent late 60's rock in the mold of The Doors mixed with The Mamas & the Papas.

Despite some amusing or interesting bits here and there, the story simply isn't compelling as a whole. It starts witty enough, but bogs down in the first 15 minutes with focus on Holly Near's character and she's just not an interesting person IMHO. Once the ersatz Jim Morrison enters the picture things perk up but the proceedings bog down again at the Steele estate with random happenings and dull, spacey dialogues. A couple of skydiving sequences are thrown in, but who's looking for that in a flick like this?

As for the post factum tie-in to the Manson Family slayings with the title change and a new tagline claiming "Drugs, thugs and freaked-out starlets, ritual murder and cannibalism, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created evil," it's mostly false advertisement. I suppose the Bogie-led band could be viewed as a mini-cult of sorts, but there's no ritualistic murder or cannibalism, merely "If it feels good do it" libertinism and self-damnation.

If I'm in the mood for zany 60's youth entertainment, I'll go with "Lord Love a Duck," starring Roddy McDowall, or even "Village of the Giants." If I want something serious, I'll go with "The Wild Angels," "Easy Rider" or "Billy Jack."

The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica with studio stuff done in Culver City.

GRADE: C-

American-International Pictures during the 1960s usually had a good idea of what their drive-in audience would like to see, but they really missed the boat with "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" (a.k.a. "Cult of the Damned"), which was a box office disappointment. Studio head Samuel Z. Arkoff theorized that the failure of the movie was because the characters in the movie simply were not sympathetic, and the movie was extremely downbeat. That's certainly true, but the movie has additional problems. It's also pretty slow, with its thin story stretched out to the breaking point. Also, I am not sure what point the movie was trying to make, unless it was that life is a real downer. The movie is sometimes directed in an eye-catching manner (particularly the opening minutes), but it doesn't manage to hide that the story and characters are drab and uninteresting. It took a long time for this movie to get a home video release, though if you ask me, it could have stayed in obscurity.