Children of the Stars
Ernest and Ruth Norman founded a religion, Unarius, in 1954. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus; she professed to be an archangel. Bill Perrine’s documentary visits their kitschy temple in El Cajon, Calif., records worshippers who claim Star Wars as a “psychic memory” of true events and collects a trove of schmaltzy Unarius videos that make Ruth look like Glinda the Good Witch as she prepares Earth for the arrival of the “space brothers.”
The Trip
Hollywood’s big studios had a hard time coming to grips with ’60s counterculture, but indie director Roger Corman came close with The Trip (1967). Written by Jack Nicholson (before Easy Rider made him a star) and starring Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper, The Trip’s dialogue sounds a bit too “groovy!” for its own good, yet the scenario affords a glimpse of the psychedelia that flourished amid the ruins of Hollywood’s golden age.
Destroyer / Edge of Sanity
After Psycho, Anthony Perkins became the go-to weird guy. In Edge of Sanity (1989), Perkins plays Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde)—and maybe Jack the Ripper. Director Gerard Kikoine handles the Victorian set piece well (if you can get past the crassly exploitative sado-masochism, fake blood and “I can’t look!” moments of gruesomeness). Perkins plays his roles with a quizzically demented expression. Edge of Sanity is paired with another late period Perkins movie, Destroyer (1988).
“Death Valley Days: The Complete First Season”
Nowadays, “Death Valley Days” is remembered as Ronald Reagan’s last gig before trading show business for politics, but he wasn’t the show’s first host. In early years, the western was introduced and narrated by Stanley Andrews (“The Old Ranger”). The “based on true” stories were usually a cut above B-western fare—compactly dramatized with realistic characters facing hardships in an often-unforgiving frontier landscape that brought out the worst and the best in human nature.
