Artsy, wobbley, nostalgic, authentic, weird. Action and tension without violence. Interestin characters and thoughtful dialog.
11 Reviews
Different. I liked it.
supermellowcali4 August 2021
12-step cure for Sixties nostalgia
tdickson10 August 2004
Mondo Hollywood is a magnificent display of Sixties self-indulgence. Timothy Leary wannabees, rootless rich kids, druggies and thrill-seekers join to make Hollywood seem like the center of the cultural universe. Too bad it's only in their addled minds.
For those who want to see footage of Jay Sebring, Manson victim, and Bobby Beausoleil, Manson family member and killer, well, look quick or you'll miss them.
There's some skin showing for fans of frumpy, dumpy, uninspiring women, and footage of Jayne Mansfield near the end of her troubled life.
There's even footage of a Ronald Reagan speech, just to cover the entire spectrum.
Oh, and if you love tedious untalented rock 'n roll, this is your flick.
For those who want to see footage of Jay Sebring, Manson victim, and Bobby Beausoleil, Manson family member and killer, well, look quick or you'll miss them.
There's some skin showing for fans of frumpy, dumpy, uninspiring women, and footage of Jayne Mansfield near the end of her troubled life.
There's even footage of a Ronald Reagan speech, just to cover the entire spectrum.
Oh, and if you love tedious untalented rock 'n roll, this is your flick.
NO Mansfield in "Mondo Hollywood"
panteliad19 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
For Jayne Mansfield fans like me -- who shelled out big bucks for a bootleg copy of this extremely rare 60s doc, "Mondo Hollywood" -- be warned: YOU WILL BE ROBBED. There is no interview with Mansfield, nor anything more of Big Jayne than a four-second-flash in a stock-footage / montage sequence along with dozens of other stars of the mid-60s out & about in Tinseltown. That's it. So don't be fooled into thinking she participates in this film. She doesn't.
Those who do appear, however, can occasionally be intriguing. Especially the Manson murder victim, Jay Sebring. Seeing him whirl about his Hollywood hair salon in his prime gives "Mondo Hollywood" is core quotient of Hollywood Babylonia, which is what I expected the rest of the doc to explore. Instead, its dippy, drifter subjects simply waft through the film on a blahs-ville high. In the end, the "underworld" hype that the film has accrued over the years was a big fat bust.
Those who do appear, however, can occasionally be intriguing. Especially the Manson murder victim, Jay Sebring. Seeing him whirl about his Hollywood hair salon in his prime gives "Mondo Hollywood" is core quotient of Hollywood Babylonia, which is what I expected the rest of the doc to explore. Instead, its dippy, drifter subjects simply waft through the film on a blahs-ville high. In the end, the "underworld" hype that the film has accrued over the years was a big fat bust.
Save your money
fuggedaboudit7 June 2014
I'd heard some interesting things about this movie and considered buying it for a very inflated price. Luckily I tried YouTube and found the entire movie uncut. Maybe it's the difference in the way the world is today and all the things I've experienced but this movie was kind of boring. The awful soundtrack doesn't help either.
There's lots of scenes of women gyrating in bikinis and some topless modeling.I found the little girl modeling the topless bathing suit uncomfortable to watch. That whole scene with the little girls modeling bathing suits had a very pedophile feel to it.
I did find what Vito Paulekas said about the drug companies being the real pushers to be very true especially today where every other commercial is for some new drug. It was also interesting seeing Jay Sebring (Manson Family victim) at work in his hair salon. I have no idea where Bobby Beausoliel (Manson Family member) appeared, but his name is in the credits so it's possible I was just dozing for a few seconds and missed him.
It's worth a viewing if you're interested but do it online for free
There's lots of scenes of women gyrating in bikinis and some topless modeling.I found the little girl modeling the topless bathing suit uncomfortable to watch. That whole scene with the little girls modeling bathing suits had a very pedophile feel to it.
I did find what Vito Paulekas said about the drug companies being the real pushers to be very true especially today where every other commercial is for some new drug. It was also interesting seeing Jay Sebring (Manson Family victim) at work in his hair salon. I have no idea where Bobby Beausoliel (Manson Family member) appeared, but his name is in the credits so it's possible I was just dozing for a few seconds and missed him.
It's worth a viewing if you're interested but do it online for free
Mondo Hollywood is a fascinating look at the city during the late '60s
tavm25 June 2010
Just watched this rare documentary of Tinseltown during the late '60s on fancast.com. With scenes of surfing, political meetings, premieres, and other events common to Hollywood, this film seems to have it all for anyone interested in what it was like there during a time of turbulence. We also go to Universal Studios where Alfred Hitchcock is filming Torn Curtain with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, go to a luncheon where retired cowboy musical star Gene Autry talks about the Watts riots while Carol Cole-an honoree of some kind who's the late Nat King Cole's daughter and therefore also future star Natalie's sister-listens on. There's also a musician named Bobby Jameson who performs a protest song in front of a rich, middle-aged audience that seems to not really listen to him as they're ignorant of the scathing lyrics. I could mention others but there's so many things going on that this review would just be too confusing to many of you reading this. So I'll just say that Mondo Hollywood was a fascinating time capsule to this writer who was born during this era.
Oh the past
BandSAboutMovies4 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Robert Cohen also made Inside Red China, Inside East Germany, Committee on Un-American Activities and Inside Castro's Cuba. This movie was sold as starring Jayne Mansfield, who had just died, even though she's only in it for a moment. I love how each person narrates their own scenes in the film, setting up who they are as we explore Hollywood from 1965 to 1967.
We start with hippie vegan Gypsy Boots and stripper Jennie Lee doing a Watusi dance before meeting S&H Green Stamp - points for anyone that remembers those - Lewis Beach Marvin III, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain retreat in Malibu.
We also get to meet doomed hairstylist Jay Sebring, Ram Dass, Bobby Jameson (whose protests and suicide attempts became more of his story than his music), surfers, fashion designers, actresses, transexuals, child fashion models, Bobby Beausoleil and more.
This doesn't get as scumtastic as most mondo. Your mileage, therefore, may vary.
We start with hippie vegan Gypsy Boots and stripper Jennie Lee doing a Watusi dance before meeting S&H Green Stamp - points for anyone that remembers those - Lewis Beach Marvin III, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain retreat in Malibu.
We also get to meet doomed hairstylist Jay Sebring, Ram Dass, Bobby Jameson (whose protests and suicide attempts became more of his story than his music), surfers, fashion designers, actresses, transexuals, child fashion models, Bobby Beausoleil and more.
This doesn't get as scumtastic as most mondo. Your mileage, therefore, may vary.
An examination of the peace loving era of the 60's...
onephunbum31 September 2008
I had a chance to meet the director of this documentary when I went to see the movie on screen. Robert Carl Cohen presented himself as a Social Scientist that studies the demographic inter-relationships of cultures and how they co-exist with one another. Mondo Hollywood was his first analyzing of a culture in the brink of exploding with new eccentric and openness that was the sixties. This film is a study of what Hollywood was in the 60s and how each actual persona represented the culture that was booming in that era. It's nothing like I have ever seen, so low key yet thrown in your face with eccentricities. Each persona was so beautiful in their own way but that was their reality when you can watch and merely just be baffled by the way they live in a day by day life. Extremely recommended to those that have an inkling and fascination with the era of the psycho delicatessen of the 60s and those moved by pure truthful film making! And merely those in awe of the mystical Hollywood...
Simple Dismle
arfdawg-16 April 2017
The Plot. Long considered a cult classic, "Mondo Hollywood" captures the underside of Hollywood by documenting a moment in time (1965- 67), when an inquisitive trust in the unknown was paramount, hope for the future was tangible and life was worth living on the fringe. An interior monologue narrative approach is used throughout the film, where each principal person shown not only decided on what they wanted to be filmed doing, but also narrated their own scenes.
The film opens with Gypsy Boots (the original hippie vegan - desert hopping blender salesman), and stripper Jennie Lee, working out 'Watusi-style' beneath the 'Hollywood' sign -- leading into the 'sustainable community' insight of Lewis Beach Marvin III, the S&H Green Stamp heir, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain retreat in Malibu.
This movie is horrible.
Filled with phony nobodies to fill time.
I had really good hope for this movie, but boy is it horrible.
There is not one interesting frame. The people are boring beyond belief and the stories are idiotic. Don't waste your time
The film opens with Gypsy Boots (the original hippie vegan - desert hopping blender salesman), and stripper Jennie Lee, working out 'Watusi-style' beneath the 'Hollywood' sign -- leading into the 'sustainable community' insight of Lewis Beach Marvin III, the S&H Green Stamp heir, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain retreat in Malibu.
This movie is horrible.
Filled with phony nobodies to fill time.
I had really good hope for this movie, but boy is it horrible.
There is not one interesting frame. The people are boring beyond belief and the stories are idiotic. Don't waste your time
Low budget 60's hippy exploitation fare.
bux13 October 1999
This low-budget 60's hippy/peace/love exploitation fare features Mansfield at an all time low in her career. Of main interest here is Beausoleil, who is now in prison for a Manson Family related murder, Sebring, who was soon to be a Manson Family victim, and a musical score by Mike Curb, who would go on to become Attorney General for the sate of California!
OMG! Worst Movie Ever "Made!"
artpf18 November 2013
Long considered a cult classic, "Mondo Hollywood" captures the underside of Hollywood by documenting a moment in time (1965-67), when an inquisitive trust in the unknown was paramount, hope for the future was tangible and life was worth living on the fringe.
An interior monologue narrative approach is used throughout the film, where each principal person shown not only decided on what they wanted to be filmed doing, but also narrated their own scenes.
The film opens with Gypsy Boots (the original hippie vegan - desert hopping blender salesman), and stripper Jennie Lee, working out 'Watusi- style' beneath the 'Hollywood' sign -- leading into the 'sustainable community' insight of Lewis Beach Marvin III, the S&H Green Stamp heir, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain
The movie is also peppered with stock footage from Hollywood events and pretend to "star" these actors! Huh? What a rip off.
The original segments are largely filmed silent and overdubbed with some creepy overacted voice over.
This movie is so tedious, it's beyond belief. The "underbelly" of Hollywood isn't underbelly at all. Surfers? A guy who lives in a garage? Who cares? I suppose Beuasoleil is the only draw for this film. An somehow this cold blooded murderer who is now in prison for life, has a facebook and web-page selling his crap! Huh?
I was also on the look out for Rodney Bingheimer, but never saw him, except in the credits. Guess I blinked.
This movie is absolutely the lowest of the low in movie-making.
An interior monologue narrative approach is used throughout the film, where each principal person shown not only decided on what they wanted to be filmed doing, but also narrated their own scenes.
The film opens with Gypsy Boots (the original hippie vegan - desert hopping blender salesman), and stripper Jennie Lee, working out 'Watusi- style' beneath the 'Hollywood' sign -- leading into the 'sustainable community' insight of Lewis Beach Marvin III, the S&H Green Stamp heir, who lived in a $10 a month garage while owning a mountain
The movie is also peppered with stock footage from Hollywood events and pretend to "star" these actors! Huh? What a rip off.
The original segments are largely filmed silent and overdubbed with some creepy overacted voice over.
This movie is so tedious, it's beyond belief. The "underbelly" of Hollywood isn't underbelly at all. Surfers? A guy who lives in a garage? Who cares? I suppose Beuasoleil is the only draw for this film. An somehow this cold blooded murderer who is now in prison for life, has a facebook and web-page selling his crap! Huh?
I was also on the look out for Rodney Bingheimer, but never saw him, except in the credits. Guess I blinked.
This movie is absolutely the lowest of the low in movie-making.
A Hash with Few Rewards
dougdoepke29 April 2019
Overall, the movie's a mess. I don't know what other description to use. There's no structure I could detect, just a bunch of clips thrown together, some interesting, most not. A voice-over or some kind of chapter structure would have helped. Producer Cohen seems to think if he throws in enough nubile breasts at least the guys won't care. Well, it did work for me for a while, but even that eye-full got repetitious. There's also little on anti-war or free love, themes that animated much of the counter-culture, and much in evidence among Hollywood types as I recall.
One well-covered topic is the effects of LSD, a mind-altering drug then making inroads among both young and old. But then there's nothing on marijuana, also making inroads. I also like glimpses of an aging Gene Autry, cowboy hero of my youth, and the iconic Alfred Hitchcock directing Torn Curtain. Nonetheless, snapshots of the many movie celebrities come and go in an eye blink-- in fact movie magazines furnish just as much momentary glitz for those who care. At the same time, too much of the remainder also comes and goes mostly in haphazard fashion. As a frequenter of Hollywood's Strip during that era, I was certainly looking forward to more than I got. So unless you don't mind wading through an aimless travelogue for a few rewards, skip it.
One well-covered topic is the effects of LSD, a mind-altering drug then making inroads among both young and old. But then there's nothing on marijuana, also making inroads. I also like glimpses of an aging Gene Autry, cowboy hero of my youth, and the iconic Alfred Hitchcock directing Torn Curtain. Nonetheless, snapshots of the many movie celebrities come and go in an eye blink-- in fact movie magazines furnish just as much momentary glitz for those who care. At the same time, too much of the remainder also comes and goes mostly in haphazard fashion. As a frequenter of Hollywood's Strip during that era, I was certainly looking forward to more than I got. So unless you don't mind wading through an aimless travelogue for a few rewards, skip it.
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