''Wild in the Streets'' is a 1968 American

dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by

Barry Shear Barry Shear (March 23, 1923 in Brooklyn, New York – June 13, 1979 in Los Angeles) was an American film and television director and producer. Career Military He served in the United States Army Air Forces from October 1942 to March 1945. Tel ...

and starring Christopher Jones,

Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' while studying at Denison University. H ...

and

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ' ...

. Based on the short story "The Day It All Happened, Baby!" by Robert Thom, it was distributed by

American International Pictures American International Pictures, LLC (AIP or American International Productions) is an American film production company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution c ...

. The film, described as both "ludicrous" and "cautionary", was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing and became a

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

of the 1960s

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

Plot

Popular rock singer and aspiring revolutionary Max Frost was born Max Jacob Flatow Jr. His first public act of violence was blowing up his family's new car. Frost's musical band, the Troopers, live with him, their women and others in a sprawling

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

mansion. The band includes his 15-year-old genius attorney Billy Cage on lead guitar, ex-child actor and girlfriend Sally LeRoy on keyboards, hook-handed Abraham Salteen on bass guitar, and trumpeter and anthropologist Stanley X on drums. Max's band performs a song that notes that 52% of the population is 25 or younger, making young people the majority in the country. When Max is asked to sing at a televised political rally by

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

candidate Johnny Fergus, who is running on a platform to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, he and the Troopers appear, but Max stuns everyone by instead calling for the voting age to become 14, and he finishes the show with an improvised song called "Fourteen or Fight!" and a call for a demonstration. Max's fans—and thousands of other young people—stir to action, and within 24 hours, protests have begun in cities around the United States. Fergus's advisors want him to denounce Max, but he instead agrees to support the demonstrations and change his campaign, but only if Max and his group compromise, accept a voting age of 15, abide by the law, and appeal to the demonstrators to go home peaceably. Max agrees, and the two appear together on television the following day, using the less offensive mantra "Fifteen and Ready". Most states agree to lower the voting age within days, in the wake of the demonstrations, and Max Frost and the Troopers campaign for Johnny Fergus until the election, which he wins by a landslide. Taking his place in the Senate, Fergus wishes Frost and his people would now go away, but instead they get involved with Washington politics. When a Congressman from Sally LeRoy's home district suddenly dies, the band enters her in the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

that follows, and Sally—the eldest of the group, and the only one of majority age to run for office—is voted into Congress by the new teen bloc. The first

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

that Sally introduces is a

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly alt ...

to lower the age requirements for national political office to 14, and "Fourteen or Fight!" enters a new phase. A

joint session A joint session or joint convention is, most broadly, when two normally separate decision-making groups meet, often in a special session or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a bicam ...

of Congress is called, and the Troopers—now joined by Fergus's son, Jimmy—swing the vote their way by spiking the Washington, D.C., water supply with

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

, and providing all the Senators and Representatives with teenage escorts. As teens either take over or threaten the reins of government, the "Old Guard" (those over 40) turn to Max to run for president, and assert his (their) control of the changing tide. Max again agrees, begrudgingly running as a Republican, but once in office, he turns the tide on his older supporters. Thirty becomes a mandatory retirement age, while those over 35 are rounded up, sent to "re-education camps" and permanently dosed on LSD. Fergus unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Max by contacting his estranged parents, and tries to assassinate him. Failing at this, he flees

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, with his remaining family, but they are soon rounded up. With youth now in control of the United States, politically as well as economically, similar revolutions break out in all the world's major countries. Max withdraws the military from around the world (turning them instead into '' de facto'' "age police"), puts computers and prodigies in charge of the

gross national product The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...

, ships surplus grain for free to

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

nations, disbands the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

and

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

, and becomes the leader of "the most truly hedonistic society the world has ever known". Ultimately however, Max and his cohorts may face future intergenerational warfare from an unexpected source: pre-teen children. When a young girl learns of Max's age (which is now 24), she sneers, "That's old!" After Max kills a

crawdad Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some speci ...

that was a pet to several young kids, after he mocks their youth and powerlessness, one of the kids resolves, "We're gonna put everybody over 10 out of business".

Cast

as Mrs. Max Flatow (Frost) * Christopher Jones as Max Jacob Flatow Jr., a.k.a. Max Frost *

Diane Varsi Diane Marie Antonia Varsi (February 23, 1938 – November 19, 1992) was an American film actressHyams, Joe (December 16, 1957)"In Hollywood: Diane Varsi Sees Herself as 'Just an Actor,' Not Star" ''New York Herald Tribune''. p. 15. Retri ...

as Sally LeRoy *

as Senator Fergus *

Millie Perkins Millie Perkins (born May 12, 1936) is an American retired model and film and television actress known for her debut film role as Anne Frank in ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film), The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959), and for her supporting actre ...

as Mrs. Fergus *

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Known for reaching a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, he is widely regarded ...

as Stanley X *

Bert Freed Bert Freed (November 3, 1919 – August 2, 1994) was an American character actor, voice-over actor, and the first actor to portray Detective Columbo. Life and career Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, Freed began acting while attending Pen ...

as Max Jacob Flatow Sr. * Kevin Coughlin as Billy Cage *

Larry Bishop Larry Bishop (born November 30, 1948) is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He is the son of Sylvia Ruzga and comedian Joey Bishop. He has been featured in many Hollywood movies including '' Hell Ride''. Early life Bishop atte ...

as the Hook *

Michael Margotta Michael Margotta (born September 1, 1946) is an American actor. Career Margotta appeared in the film that was Jack Nicholson's directorial debut, ''Drive, He Said'' (1971). In the year of its release, the film caused a stir because of Margotta ap ...

as Jimmy Fergus *

Ed Begley Edward James Begley Sr. (March 25, 1901 – April 28, 1970) was an American actor of theatre, radio, film, and television. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1962) an ...

as Senator Allbright * May Ishihara as Fuji Elly * Salli Sachse as hippie mother * Kellie Flanagan as young Mary Fergus * Don Wyndham as Joseph Fergus *

Gary Busey William Gary Busey (; born June 29, 1944) is an American actor. He portrayed Buddy Holly in ''The Buddy Holly Story'' (1978), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics Award fo ...

as concert attendee (uncredited)

Production notes

The film was completed in 20 days. Lowering the voting age was an issue in 1968 and was passed in 1970, with '' Oregon v. Mitchell'' lowering the presidential minimum voting age to 18 and 1971 with the 26th Amendment lowering local and state election minimum voting ages to 18. The movie features cameos from several

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

personalities, including

Melvin Belli Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a United States lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Ch ...

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid (game show), ...

Pamela Mason Pamela Mason (10 March 1916 – 29 June 1996), also known as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author, and screenwriter, known for being the creative partner and first wife of English actor James Mason. Early life and personal life Born ...

Army Archerd Armand Andre Archerd (January 13, 1922 – September 8, 2009) was an American columnist for '' Variety'' for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for ''Variety' ...

, and

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...

and

have supporting roles, and

Bobby Sherman Robert Cabot Sherman Jr. (born July 22, 1943) is an American singer and actor who was a teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He had a series of successful singles, notably the million-seller " Little Woman" (1969). Sherman left show bus ...

interviews Max as president. In a pre-''

Brady Bunch ''The Brady Bunch'' is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired five seasons from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC. The series revolves around a large blended family of six children, with three boys and three gir ...

'' role, Barry Williams plays the teenage Max Frost at the beginning of the movie. Child actress Kellie Flanagan, who plays Johnny Fergus's daughter Mary, appeared in director Barry Shear's television special ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' in the same year. She discussed filming ''Wild in the Streets'' in a 2014 interview with Adam Gerace, telling him "I get a huge kick out of ''Wild in the Streets'' and always have." According to filmmaker Kenneth Bowser, the part eventually played by Christopher Jones was offered to folk singer

Phil Ochs Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...

. After reading the screenplay, Ochs rejected the offer, claiming the story distorted the actual nature of the youth counterculture of the period.

Music

A soundtrack album was released on

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchising, franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when ...

and became successful, peaking at No. 12 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' charts. Taken from the soundtrack and film, " Shape of Things to Come" (written by songwriters

Barry Mann Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and was part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early ...

and

Cynthia Weil Cynthia Weil (October 18, 1940 – June 1, 2023) was an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Weil and Mann were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and in 2011, they jointly received the ...

) and performed by the fictional band

Max Frost and the Troopers Max Frost and the Troopers were a fictional rock music group created for the exploitation film ''Wild in the Streets'', released in 1968. The film featured Christopher Jones (actor, born 1941), Christopher Jones as the highly influential singer M ...

, was released as a single (backed with "Free Lovin' ") and became a hit, reaching No. 22 on ''Billboard''.

Reception

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Wild in the Streets'' holds an approval rating of 67%, based on 21 critic reviews with an average rating of 5.8 out of 10.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' unfavorably compared ''Wild in the Streets'' to '' Privilege'' (1967), another film that dealt with politics driving the worship of pop idols. Despite the two-star rating, he admitted that the former was the more effective of the two because it has a greater understanding of its teenage audience. He added, "It's a silly film, but it does communicate in the simplest, most direct terms."

Renata Adler Renata Adler (born October 19, 1937) is an American author, journalist, and film critic. Adler was a staff writer-reporter for ''The New Yorker'' for over thirty years and the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1968 to 1969. She h ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' raved about the movie, declaring it "by far the best American film of the year so far" and compared it to ''

The Battle of Algiers ''The Battle of Algiers'' (; ) is a 1966 Italian-Algerian war film co-written and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. It is based on action undertaken by rebels during the Algerian War (1954–1962) against the French government in North Africa, the ...

'' (1967).

Release

''Wild in the Streets'' was released in theaters in 1968. Its plot was a ''

reductio ad absurdum In logic, (Latin for "reduction to absurdity"), also known as (Latin for "argument to absurdity") or ''apagogical argument'', is the form of argument that attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absur ...

'' projection of contemporary issues of the time, taken to extremes, and played poignantly during 1968 – an election year with many controversies (the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

the draft Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

, the

population explosion Overpopulation or overabundance is a state in which the population of a species is larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migr ...

rioting A riot or mob violence is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The p ...

and

assassinations Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

, and the

baby boomer Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...

generation coming of age). The original magazine short story, titled "The Day It All Happened, Baby!" was expanded by its author to book length, and was published as a paperback novel by

Pyramid Books Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers (also known as Almat Publishing Corporation) (Alfred R. Plaine an ...

. In 1969, Fred R. Feitshans Jr. and Eve Newman were both nominated for the Oscar for Best Film Editing for their work on this film. ''Wild in the Streets'' was released on VHS in the late 1980s, and in 2005 appeared on DVD, on a ''

Midnite Movies ''Midnite Movies'' is a line of B movies released first on VHS and later on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment. The line was launched by MGM in March 2001 following its acquisition of Orion Pictures, which bought out Filmways, the owner of American ...

'' disc with 1971's ''

Gas-s-s-s ''Gas-s-s-s'' (on-screen title: ''Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.'') is a 1970 American Post-apocalyptic film, post-apocalyptic black comedy film directed by Roger Corman, written by George Armitage, and ...

''.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wild In The Streets 1968 films 1960s exploitation films Fiction about ageism American International Pictures films American political satire films American rock musicals American satirical films American exploitation films Films about drugs Films about fictional presidents of the United States Films based on short fiction Films produced by Burt Topper Films scored by Les Baxter Films set in the 1960s Films about runaways Lysergic acid diethylamide Hippie films Films directed by Barry Shear 1960s English-language films 1960s American films