85094 " LSD INSIGHT OR INSANITY?" ANTI-DRUG SCARE FILM LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE
This 1967 color film directed by Max Miller for Bailey Films warns of the potential dangers of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), using interviews and special effects to describe the drug’s appeal and sometimes unpredictable effects. Acting great Sal Mineo narrates (TRT 19:06).<p><p>Students near Hollywood High School, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in the background (0:11). Low angle on a tall young man and a shorter young woman. A girl in a white skirt plays tennis in slow motion (0:26). A boy swallows a goldfish in a living room of onlookers (0:30). Teens pile into a telephone booth (0:40). A strolling couple passes a “square” (0:46). A girl in black with a beaded necklace, facepaint, and a bindi leaves home. Polka dot bell bottoms (1:04). Two dresses with differing hem lines. A miniskirt and a stop sign (1:07). A boy combs red hair. Another sports a crew cut. Long hair with sunglasses and a black beret. A blonde combing her hair in a bathroom mirror applies bleach. Putting on a wig. Hair rollers or curlers. Straightening a girl's hair using an iron and ironing board (1:17). A couple with similar hairstyles at a bus stop (1:56). Boys “rumble,” armed with belts and chains in a park (2:04). A driver’s eye view. Sweating young men playing “chicken” in their cars. Rubberneckers. Speeding white lines on the road (2:21). Freeze frame on a screaming girl with zoom blur at the moment of impact (2:38). Boys in a convertible pick up girls (2:42). A young man implores a girl to try a joint. A couple places white paper tabs in their mouths (3:11). Montage of crossfades between lights, a stereo turntable, kids hanging out, staring at compact mirrors and a lit match (3:44). Wide angle photography and a montage of flashing images: Teeth, wildcat fangs, a stoplight, distorted faces (4:14). Title card (4:36). Building entrance: Neuropsychiatric (4:41). UCLA Professor of Psychiatry J. Thomas Ungerleider speaks (4:51). UCLA Professor of Physiology Ross Adley. A still photo of Albert Hoffman (5:24). Colored smoke, mixed paint, concentric circles interpret the LSD experience (6:28). Jumping on a trampoline. Freeze frame (6:45). A girl looking into a mirror watches another girl appear and disappear (6:54). Young boys trap themselves in a refrigerator. A girl on a tricycle at the top of a staircase (7:12). A girl sees a carnation in the flame of a gas stove and burns her finger (7:48). An amateur chemist handles liquids and powders. Passing doses at a lunch counter (8:22). An eyedropper drips onto a tray of sugar cubes (8:45). Montage of outdoor teens. Parents. Newspaper and magazine clippings (9:14). Electrodes run from a man’s forehead to an electrocardiograph (EKG or ECG) machine (9:40). Sidney Cohen, Chief of Psychiatry, Wadsworth V.A. (09:56). Direct address from high schoolers intercut with Doctor’s commentary (10:08). A disoriented girl writhes on a stretcher. Her “bum trip” POV shows a man’s face in double vision. A shot is administered (13:12). Doctor Duke Fisher, UCLA Psych Resident (13:54). A boy reaches out to touch something unseen as a girl pulls on his waving arms (14:24). Running to a cliff’s edge. Slow motion jumps. Running into night traffic. A woman’s scream (14:38). FDA Chief of Cell Biology Dr. Marvin Legator shows the chemical structures of serotonin and LSD-25 on a chalkboard (15:03). Montage of previous scenes (15:59). A man playing Russian roulette spins a snubnosed revolver’s cylinder and holds the gun to his head. The gun clicks and passes around a circle (16:38). Closeup on the gun’s hammer. Flash frames of flames (17:35). Credits over lights in soft focus and an original psych rock song by Roy Norman. Thanks to Sequoia High School of Reseda. “A Medi-Ciné production” (17:41).<p><p>The revised edition of the film from the following year features the same footage of teenagers, but adds supplementary conversations with doctors and LSD users. Additional attention is paid to animal testing and questions surrounding birth defects.<p>