Alabama's Ghost

Credit's role from the front of the movie. They do not have names matching the pictures of the actors. We get an introduction narrative as with many old-time sci-fi movies.

I will not go through the details because if you can stomach this so-called movie then you will need the surprises. Keep the fast forward button handy.

This movie has all the ingredients for a good-bad movie. This is a renegade ... oops, independent, local movie maker in the genre of Ed Wood. An attempt to make it look old but with contemporary (1973) puns. Grainy screen with fake reel change and ad brakes marks.

The problem is the jokes and puns are dated, the attempt to be campy flat out misses the mark. We get fake movies today that are filmed as old-time black and white horror or sci-fi movies but they at least try to look like a fake black and white movie; this one just looks like a high school attempt without looking at any how-to books.

Some movies are artsy-fartsy and are valued for their uniqueness. Not this one. Some films are valued by their producers or actors. Not this one. I could write a book on what this movie is not. It could be a comic book.

Race car drivers say that 100 mph seems fast till you've driven 150, and 150 mph seems fast till you've driven 250.

OK.

Andalusian Dog seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen Eraserhead, and Eraserhead seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen Begotten.

And Begotten seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen the works of C. Frederic Hobbs. Race fans, there is NOTHING in all the world of film like the works of C. Frederic Hobbs.

Alabama's Ghost comes as close as any of his films to having a coherent plot, and it only involves hippies, rock concerts, voodoo, ghosts, vampires, robots, magicians, corrupt multinational corporations, elephants and Mystery Gas. And the Fabulous Woodmobile, cruising the Sunset District in San Francisco, of course.

What's really startling is that somebody gave him a LOT of money to make Alabama's Ghost. There's sets, lighting, hundreds of extras, costumes, lots and lots of effects. Somehow that makes Alabama's Ghost SO WRONG. You watch some awful cheeseball like Night of Horror or Plutonium Baby, and at least some part of the weirdness is excusable on the basis that they were obviously making the film off the headroom on their Discover cards. But Alabama's Ghost was made with an actual budget, and that's EVIL. I mean, I've got a script about a tribe of cannibals living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, building a secret temple in the woods out of Twizzlers, and nobody's beating down MY door waving a checkbook - how did this guy get the funds for FOUR of the flakiest movies ever made?

Frederic Hobbs, a famously reclusive indie cinema dissenter, upreared a brief but somewhat celebrated index of offbeat pictures during the 70s...movies so waywardly absonant and creatively impulsive that only a highly preferential entente is likely to apprize them. Case in point...ALABAMA'S GHOST.

The demented story(which is overdeveloped to Rube Golberg proportions) concerns Alabama, a San Francisco jazz club employee, who discovers by mere chance the hidden bounty of a legendary magician. Among the relics is an experimental Nazi drug confection which has been long sought-after by a groovy underbelly society of music industry vampires. These creatures of the night learn of Alabama's discovery, and devise a scheme to make him an unwitting gambit in their sinister world domination plot.

As is case with the director's other projects, ALABAMA'S GHOST exhibits more streamlined professionalism than the wackadoodle material really calls for. It presents well-defined characters, variably solid performances, and acceptable effects for the time. To think that genuine erudition and skill were applied to this kaleidoscopic hash-dream is mystifying...but maverick 'metteur en scene' Hobbs did it again with GODMONSTER OF Indian FLATS, an equally nonrepresentational but surprisingly well supervised celluloid freakshow.

An exotic truffle enjoyable to only the most...ehh...distinguished palates.

6/10.

If you like cult movies, you'll love Alabama's Ghost. It's about a black man who discovers a cave full of old magician's equipment and uses it to become a national celebrity. It turns out that his magical equipment is more powerful than he thought. The movie then takes on several bizarre twists involving a cult of vampires and a take-over-the-world plot. There's even an elephant at the end that plays an important role. It's hard to tell what this film was intended to be as it covers so many targets. It may take a couple of viewings to really understand it but it is definitely one of the most unusual films of the early 70s and is far more intelligent than a cheap schlock horror flick.

We all know of Ed Wood and John Waters. Some know HG Lewis or Al Adamson. Not too many people have seen cheap films by Andy Milligan or Ted V. Mikels. If you've seen Andy Warhol it was probably in school. Here's the new kid on the scene, Fredric Hobbs. I have seen alot of bad movies that are good.I've only seen a few that were honestly GREAT BADFILMS. This is one of the best. It stars Chris Brooks(look up his career it will amaze you how successful he became)who stars as "Alambama". Alabama is a stage manager at the nightclub "Earthquake Magoons" who discovers a hidden chamber under the nightclub. Alambama stumbles onto the tomb of "Carter the Great", a stage magician from the 20's. Alabama dresses as Carter and becomes certain that he could be a magician as well. What Alabama doesn't know is that Carter the great was developing a substance called "Raw Zeta". Zeta looks like hashish and is refered to as "Cartoon Khaki". Raw Zeta refined gave Carter complete control of people electronically. Sound weird yet? O.K., here we go. Jazz bands, dope smoking transvestite vampires,voodoo ceremonies, Hip Lingo,greedy Scottish rock promoters,motorcycle races,hippies and more hippies, and last,parading Elephants and a vampire smorgasboard. need I say more except please put this on DVD! I only have an Elvira Chiller Theater VHS of it.