Dick Clark Productions, 1968
starring: Susan Strasberg, Jack Nicholson, Dean Stockwell and Bruce Dern
directed by: Richard Rush

the plot: In 1960s San Francisco, Jenny Davis (Strasberg), a young deaf girl, arrives in Haight-Ashbury looking for her brother, Steve (Dern). Jenny is immediately thrown into the thick of the city’s hippie enclave courtesy of Stoney (Nicholson), the front man for Mumblin’ Jim, a struggling psychedelic band. The only clue Jenny has to her brother’s whereabouts is a cryptic postcard that says, “JESS SAES,” and while Stoney and his bandmates help Jenny search for her brother, the fuzz is in hot pursuit of Jenny, who ran away from home. In order to help find Steve, Stoney turns to Dave (Stockwell), a former member of Mumblin’ Jim who now spends his days dropping acid, staring at a crystal and spouting wisdom. As Jenny’s search continues, she learns free love and easy drugs carry a hefty price.

why it’s good: The saying goes that if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there. For those who weren’t there or have hazy memories, there’s “Psych-Out,” a nice slice of psychedelic weirdness that’s neither a complete celebration of free love nor the usual anti-hippie cautionary tale. A young, pony-tailed Jack Nicholson is the leader of this band of long-hairs, and for all their idealism and platitudes about peace and love, they’re mostly selfish jerks. Stoney has no compunctions about taking advantage of a deaf girl, and his easy-going attitude vanishes the instant Mumblin’ Jim gets a legitimate agent and lands a big-time gig. Nicholson’s great, as is Dean Stockwell, who has a small-ish role as a doper oracle who calls bullshit on Stoney’s barely concealed bourgeois values. Of course, there’s plenty of great psych-out moments in “Psych-Out,” and during the more hallucinatory moments, zombies show up, a dude imagines he’s a knight in an epic sword battle, and Steve recalls a time when Jenny vomited up all her rage and anger in the form of some goopy, black, spider-like thing. Along the way, Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Seeds supply the film’s music and show up for a couple of performances, including a weird funeral that ends with the dead man returning to life so he can get tender with his lady. Though Jenny’s quest for Steve kicks off all the action, that plot soon becomes secondary—there’s a gang of toughs out to get Steve, but why they want to bust his face is never explained. But as those long-haired youngsters were fond of saying, it’s the journey and not the destination that matters, and the epically freaky journey “Psych-Out” sends you on ends up being its own paisley colored, incense-laden reward.

why you should own it: “Psych-Out” is worth adding to your library just for the performances by Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Seeds. But even if you’re not into ’60s psych, it’s still worth checking out. “Psych-Out” is bundled with its companion film, “The Trip,” as part of MGM’s “Midnite Movies” label, meaning you get two hippie freak-out flicks with Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern for the price of one.