Please God tell me I'm not dreaming this...

Tell me that you can see it too...please?

I did actually do the cartoon thing where you rub your eyes in disbelief the first time I saw this; my delicate eyes have seen a few strange sights in their time, but...Steve Martin (apparently still in his Little Shop of Horrors persona/character/costume) 'singing' a Beatles song while accompanied by a chorus of high-stepping androgynous brainwashed 'Boy' and 'Girl' Scouts? And then having an optically-enhanced reflex-hammer fight with Peter Frampton? While the Bee Gees get their arses kicked by some kung fu fighting nurses...

Actually, I only wish this was the most headfucking scene in the film; let's just say: Donald Pleasance in a wig as a music mogul; Frankie Howerd (ask your Gran) singing 'When I'm 64'...The Bee Gees (again) in ballsachingly tight satin trousers. Personally, I could comfortably have spent a lifetime without ever being forced to contemplate the exact outlines of Robin Gibb's batch; and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Although...if you think of this scene at least as some kind of lithium-induced mad dream experienced by one of the minor characters in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, then it does have a sort of internal logic to it...However, for the scene where George Burns 'vocalises' (I can't make myself type 'sings') Digging A Hole...I have no excuse.

Director Michael Schultz (who is apparently still working in TV), I salute you, if only for being at the right place at the right time; that precise moment in the 70s where a shitload of money, a never-again cast, some actually-fairly-good songs and a ton of drugs combined to make a perfect storm of 70's-ness.

Overall, it's a film that transcends mere human notions of 'Good' and 'Bad' purely by virtue of leaving my 'Whatthefuck-o-meter' needle buried solidly in the red for the entire running time, and that counts for a lot here at Chamber Towers. It's on DVD (Region 1 NTSC only, sadly); make yourself a triple-bill with 'Tommy' and 'Phantom of the Paradise' (or the Rocky Horror Picture Show if you must), and pretend as though High School Musical never happened...