Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene
Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene is a short film released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.
Narrator: Robert Mitchum.
0:49:17 VS Chicago cityscapes: tracking shot along highway, tracking
shot from street, corn-cob apartment buildings
0:49:31 VS tracking shot of suburban street 0:49:35 LS great aerial of San Francisco 0:49:41 MS San Francisco street car (with Tanqueray ad on side) goes
down hill
0:49:52 CU street sign on corner of Haight and Ashbury 0:49:54 CU stern cop wearing sunglasses 0:49:57 CU blond hippie makes strange hand gesture, looks like he's
tripping, friend adjusts his shirt
0:50:04 VS hippie montage: three hippies with long hair, man with
goatee, bearded hippie chewing, man with long hair and
painter's cap, bearded man yawning, man wearing Afghan, man
wearing headband, girl leaning against lamppost
0:50:35 CU pan across wall of pictures of runaway teenagers / missing
persons
0:50:51 CU hippie girl exhaling (marijuana) 0:50:53 CU boy (looks like Ron Howard!) exhales smoke through his nose 0:51:02 CU hippie with curly hair and sleeveless shirt holding up
marijuana paraphernalia
0:51:11 VS int, man passes corncob pipe, man rolls joint, three people
put something in their mouth (LSD tabs?), man passes
cigarette lighter toward cam, man smokes joint
0:51:36 VS Tapia Park Love-In, 1968: large crowd, God's Eye on long
stick, hippie with baby in papoose, loudspeaker megaphones,
bearded man talking psychedelic psychobabble into microphone
on stage, two men do very bizarre conceptual dance, people
sitting on hill, man and woman walking (green ankh in bg),
drum circle, black man dancing with white woman, rock band
on stage (lead singer has no shirt), crowd dancing, bongo
players
0:52:56 VS psychedelic discotheque (ballroom): flashing lights,
dancing, sandals, light show, rock band on stage, people
dancing in front of strobe light, movie projected onto wall
behind band
0:53:28 VS college campus (probably UCLA): ext buildings, students
talking, hip and square students
0:53:43 VS Love-In: hippie girls, man combs woman's long hair, LA
feral man (star painted on forehead) doing strange dance
0:54:19 CU flame under spoon (heating methedrine / methamphetamine) 0:54:24 CU boy looks anxious, pants 0:54:26 CU syringe
marijuana paraphernalia
0:54:29 ECU eyes, boy nods 0:54:31 VS syringe fills with methedrine from spoon, boy nods, needle
into arm (yow!!!), woman taps pacifier at end of syringe
(this is easily the longest and most horrifying injection
sequence in the collection; although she's doing
methedrine, it could easily pass for heroin)
0:55:21 MS hippie girl discusses her suicide attempts, going to a
psychiatrist, being shunned by her parents and going cold
turkey at a clinic ; several cutaways to boy blowing smoke
0:56:26 VS strange angles of boy and girl on methedrine 0:56:35 MS tracking shot of generic high school 0:56:45 MS two school buses drive by 0:56:52 CU high school boy sitting on grass, talks about marijuana use
in high school
0:57:14 VS Love-In: nodding hippies, man on ground lifted by police,
police hodling up shirtless man (Barry McGuire?), man on
stage talks about arrest of Barry McGuire (who had a #1
with "Eve of Destruction"), crowd listening, man led away
by police
0:57:55 CU man with headband and missing tooth talks about police
planting drugs on hippies
0:58:10 CU seated man combs woman's hair 0:58:12 CU headband man with tall black man in green turtleneck 0:58:22 CU incense holder necklace (?) 0:58:24 CU wall of pharmaceutical products (including Nervine)
0:58:30 CU sign montage: "Liquor" (neon), "Package Goods" (neon),
"Dixieland Hall - The Bourbon Gallery"
0:58:35 CU int New Orleans jazz club, band plays dixieland jazz,
dancers on stage
0:58:45 VS motorcycle gang, Comencheros Manhattan (could easily pass
for Hell's Angels): man shows off back of jacket, man with
sunglasses and headband holds up chain, gang plays with
chains, man shows off badges on jacket, belt buckle,
several swastika pins, they walk away with fists up, one
turns a cartwheel; VO narration discusses how gang
disapproves of drugs other than marijuana and that their
attire is a symbol of their "unconformancy"
0:59:41 VS NYC streets at night, POV from car; storefronts, young
people in front of store
0:59:53 VS London: Trafalgar Square (lion statues, fountains), street
lined with British flags from window, Big Ben in bg,
British hippies
1:00:15 CU Russian (?) man in leather jacket talks about the
tribulations of living like a beatnik
1:00:27 VS London: double decker buses, POV from car down street
(marquee for "How I Won the War", Coca-Cola and Guinness
signs, young people (students?)
1:00:50 VS Rome, the Spanish Steps: man sets up display of artwork,
groups of young people talking on steps, view of Rome from
steps
1:01:28 MS house and rubble, Istanbul 1:01:30 CU sign: "Welcome to Yener's" 1:01:34 VS int Istanbul hippie restaurant / cafe: bearded man smokes
cigarette, woman pets white cat, people looking at
postcards at table, women eating
1:01:56 CU man talks about scene in Istanbul 1:02:04 VS Istanbul: men talking in cafe, hotel (it's an expat
flophouse), four women (one holding a guitar) enter black
car, man talking in cafe, hippies and locals dance in cafe,
CU of young people
1:02:55 VS Crete: man walks along verdant street, old tower,
waterfront, group of hippies talking, man walks down
brick-paved street
1:03:16 CU neon sign: "Hippies Club" 1:03:19 VS int dance club: group of people dancing 1:03:30 VS Katmandu, Nepal: two robed hippies walk up steps toward
temple, group of hippies sitting in circle engagin in
intellectual debate, monkey sitting under carving of Kali?,
woman plays talking drum, HA view down steps to temple,
monkey (baboon?) walks around temple grounds, man smokes
from large pipe and prays, CU girl playing drum
1:04:43 CU reverend discusses drug addicts 1:04:58 MS hippies stand on street corner, hold pamphlets 1:05:03 CU lead singer of rock band with shirt off 1:05:07 MCU HA people dancing at Love-In 1:05:12 VS Katmandu: hippies talking, woman making strange gestures 1:05:30 MS hippie couple walk down street 1:05:39 CU UCLA doctor discusses danger of LSD 1:05:55 MS POV from front of ambulance, siren 1:06:02 CU ambulance drive through gate 1:06:09 CU ext building, sign: "Bellevue Hospital" 1:06:12 MCU fat black cop opens ambulance door 1:06:16 ECU red siren 1:06:19 CU Bellevue psychiatrist discusses increase of psychiatric
hospital admissions due to drug use
1:06:47 VS psychiatric patient talks to doctor: smoking cigarette,
nervous gestures, discusses "speed freaks and meth heads"
1:07:07 ECU sweaty upper lip, man holds cigarette 1:07:10 ECU hand clenched nervously 1:07:13 CU man leans in 1:07:17 ECU sweaty chest 1:07:19 ECU hands hold cigarette in lap 1:07:22 MS doctor speaks to patient 1:07:28 MS women exit building, TU to sign: "Psychiatric Hospital"
1:07:34 VS "adult" pot party: man in suit smokes joint, host passes
joint to woman on couch, host offers joint to woman in
black dress with flower lapel, she turns it down but he is
insistent, she pushes his hand away
1:08:01 CU British man tells how his son overdosed on heroin 1:09:07 MCU doctor discusses the inevitability of drug experimentation 1:09:24 MS hippies smoking pot 1:09:27 CU woman dancing wildly 1:09:29 ECU man crumbling pot in hand 1:09:32 CU Katmandu: man smoking from pipe 1:09:37 CU doctor proposes to invite young people to join adult world 1:09:59 MS NY: extremely LA office building, tilt to ext Grand Central
(the Helmsley Building)
1:10:04 LS San Francisco (bridge in bg) 1:10:08 MS Kathmandu (Katmandu): hippies sit in circle, smoke pot 1:10:13 MCU dancing at Love-In 1:10:16 VS two men hitchhiking 1:10:19 ELS ext college campus 1:10:22 MS students on campus 1:10:24 VS hippie montage: boy and girl talk in front of clothing
store, various hippies on street, man using tongue to roll
joint, man crossing street, methadrine addicts, CU of girl
on meth, she closes her eyes
1:10:42 VS credits roll over final images in film: display of
psychedelic artwork, San Francisco streetcar, men in cafe,
NYC at night, ambulance drives through gate, siren spins,
cloudy sky
1:11:32 end| Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene | |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Airlie Productions |
Production company | Airlie Productions |
| Distributed by | Airlie Productions |
Release date | 0 |
Running time | 22:19 |
| Language | English |
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