Dir. Al Adamson
85/98/85 Minutes
1965/1967/1972
USA
Starring: Roy Morton, Tacey Robbins, Kirk Duncan, Tanya Maree, John Armond, John Carradine (in Fiend and Blood only)
**1/2/*****
*/*****
*1/2/*****
Wild experiment of a trio of films (the other two being The Fiend with the Electronic Brain and Blood of Ghastly Horror) that utilizes the same base narrative but adds and alters footage to try and appeal to different audiences in an effort to make some of its bank back. In many ways, the stories behind this film are more interesting than the content itself, though this first iteration does have some merits that make the endeavor worthwhile.
Psycho A Go-Go begins with a jewel robbery that goes less than smoothly, and when things get too hot they deposit them in a truck. Unfortunately, little Nancy (K.K. Riddle) has found the jewels in the street and has hidden them in her even more unfortunate Minstrel Christy doll ("I'm gonna name it Christy!"). Soon one of the robbers, Joe Corey (Roy Morton), returns to get the jewels back and taunts Nancy and her family until they admit they have them. Adamson's cat-and-mouse narrative was deemed not particularly marketable, with this version adding some go-go sequences to match the dance craze. But there is a style on display here, and the film is appropriately seedy and interesting in giving absolutely not motivation to Corey's insanity. Some sequences go on many beats longer than tension would allow (the final chase in the snowy wilderness goes on for a solid fifteen minutes, cutting from running mother and daughter to snarling Corey again and again, though it is intriguing how the story is structured, giving the narrative some digressions (noticed also in The Female Bunch which is very resistant to having one through line). But Psycho A Go-Go is an enjoyable piece of exploitation, a far cry from what Adamson and company would do with the material in the next two cuts.
The Fiend with the Electronic Brain keeps everything pretty much exactly the same, adding twelve minutes of footage that features John Carradine as a mad scientist with a backstory involving Corey as a mentally injured Vietnam soldier who has had his brain implanted with an electronic device that turns him into the psycho from the earlier film. The shoehorned motivation for the Corey character may add a science fiction element, but the Carradine scenes are awkwardly scattered throughout (though there is the schlocky fun in his performance) and giving Corey a reason for his being takes away some of the manic luster of the original. Slightly more successful in Bloody of Ghastly Horror a few years later, which adds a zombie subplot to the proceedings alongside the Carradine sequences and the jewel robbery plot. What follows is virtually incomprehensible insanity, but at least the alterations have a bit more thought put into them to offer something "new" to its audiences.Â
Ultimately, this Adamson trio is an interesting experiment in editing and marketing. Overlaps are many, but it is pretty fascinating to see how a core narrative can provide such different experiences, explore different genres, and give different meanings to its characters.
Viewed July 8th, 2020
Part of the ongoing Al Adamson Project
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