Run Home, Slow

August 1965/December 15, 1965
78 min.
B&W

Music appears on:

 

Cast & Crew

Directed and produced by Tim Sullivan
Screenplay written by Don Cerveris (Frank's high school English teacher.)

Cast:
Gary Kent (as Ritt Hagen)
Mercedes McCambridge (as Nell Hagen)
Allen Richards (as Kirby Hagen)
Linda Gaye Scott (as Julianne)
Jesse Bates
John 'Bud' Cardos
Brian Casey
Tom Cloud
Chuck Cooper
Doug Cooper
Leah Cooper
Keith Goodwin
Neysa Holveck
Jim Logan
Jeff Masters
Pat Raines

Original music: Frank Zappa
Cinematography: Lewis Guinn
Production Design: John 'Bud' Cardos
Film Editing: John Winfield
Sound mixer: Ken Carlson
Sound boom operator: Bob Dietz
Director of lighting: Stanton Fox

The Credits On The Screen

JOSHUA PRODUCTIONS
PRESENTS

MERCEDES McCAMBRIDGE

LINDA GAYE SCOTT
ALLAN RICHARDS
GARY KENT
IN

RUN HOME, SLOW

WITH
JIM LOGAN
BRIAN CASEY
LEAH COOPER
NEYSA HOLVECK
JEFF MASTERS
JESSE BATES

KEITH GOODWIN
BUD CARDOS
CHUCK COOPER
DOUG COOPER
TOM CLOUD
PAT RAINES

ORIGINAL STORY
& SCREENPLAY
BY
DONALD CERVERIS

ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
COMPOSED & CONDUCTED
BY
FRANK ZAPPA

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
LEWIS GUINN

DIRECTOR OF LIGHTING
STANTON FOX

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
TIM SULLIVAN

PRODUCTION MANAGER . . . . . . BUD CARDOS
SOUND MIXER . . . KEN CARLSON
MAKE-UP . . . . BEAU WILSON
ASSISTANT EDITOR . . . JOHN WINFIELD
SCRIPT SUPERVISOR . . . . . . . PATRICIA CARDOS
SOUND BOOM OPERATOR . . . . . . . BOB DIETZ
HEAD GRIP . . . . . PAT RAINES
PROPERTY MASTER . . . . . . . . GENE POLLOCK
RAMROD . . . . . . TOM TOM CLOUD
ASSISTED BY
MEMBERS OF JOSHUA PRODUCTIONS, INC
© [...] GLEN GLENN SOUND

DIRECTED BY
TIM SULLIVAN

Release Date

August 1965

The Bakersfield Californian, August 13, 1965

Bakersfield Californian

EDISON DRIVE-IN

NOW SHOWING

. . . Maybe this picture is too sadistic for you . . . maybe you won't believe such people exist . . . but we tell you the story of an unusual family . . . living a curse . . . where the taking of a life is normal . . . where the desecration of family morals is accepted . . . and where four frightened people are bound together by their own evil.
They broke each others bodies!
They broke each commandment!

December 15, 1965—Premiere

The Soundtrack

FZ, Discoscene, May 1968

I scored a second film, a western. I only got a certain amount of money for that. I didn't get the full amount, but it all worked out very well. I was supposed to get $3,000 or $4,000 for it, and I maybe got $1,500. But I got the tapes. Because the guy owed me the rest of the money, and because at the time The Mothers were being formed, I needed a place to rehearse. He had a big studio, a very deluxe studio, which he let us rehearse in for six weeks before we recorded Freak Out! It was so ironic because we were all starving to death. We didn't have any money, and there was no way to eat. Most of the guys were driving 30 or 40 miles from a town outside of Hollywood. They would come into this place, and we were scraping nickles and dimes together.

You see, the studio we were talking about was the second studio. The first studio was a studio that I owned with the money that I got. This is how it works. The cowboy movie was written by my ex-high school English teacher. He's a really amazing guy. He stopped teaching school. He was just a few hours away from his Ph. D., and decided that he wasn't going to get his Ph. D.; that he was going to write films. He took a part time job as a mailman, and did his writing in his spare time. He wrote this script, and got some guys to produce it. He recommended me to score it, so they took me on to score it. They tried twice to shoot the film. The first time they tried, the leading lady had a miscarriage the third day of shooting, and the guy lost $30,000. Two years later, he paid all of his debt back, and started again on the film. He got Mercedes McCambridge to play the lead in it. It was her first job after she tried to commit suicide, and she was still a little on the alcoholic binge. So he started, and he got me again to do the music. With the $1,000 I earned to do the film, I bought the studio, in a little town called Cucamonga, from another guy. I took it all over. All the tape, all the equipment. I moved in there and just never came home. Shortly thereafter, I got a proper divorce from my wife. We just couldn't make it any more, and I moved into the studio. There was no bathtub, no shower. I had no food, no money, but I had a whole studio. I'd sit in there, and I'd make multiple recordings. I could plug the guitar directly into the board. I had a set of drums, a piano, electric bass: I could play all the instruments myself, and I recorded things . . . for 11 hours straight, just to do it. It would seem like nothing. There was no light in the studio, no daylight coming in. I didn't know what day it was, what time it was. I was just going out of my mind with all this equipment, which was really pretty basic stuff. At that time, Ray, who is the lead singer of the group, (I had known him for about four years), was working with a group at a local bar. I needed some money, and he had just had an argument with the guitarist in the group. So he called me up and asked me if I would come down and substitute. I liked the group very much. I thought this was our chance. The guys are groovy enough, and if we can stick together long enough, we can do something.

 

Comments

Patrick Neve

This must be the worst movie of all time. Zappa described it perfectly as a a "super cheap cowboy movie". I'm not kidding, it's a real stinkaroo. This synopsis from YCDTOSA vol 5 is prefect: "A bad ranch lady, a nymphomaniac cowgirl, and a hunchbacked handyman named Kirby who eventually ends up pooching the nympho in the barn, next to the rotting carcass of the family donkey." That's exactly what happens.

But the music is good, and there is quite a bit more of it in this film than in The World's Greatest Sinner. There are strong themes that would later evolve into the Duke of Prunes and Idiot Bastard Son. And of course the Run Home Slow theme which we'd hear on YCDTOSA vol 5, The Lost Episodes, and Mystery Disc.

Review by Michael J. Weldon on Psychotronic Video:

RUN HOME SLOW (JFTHOI, 65) P/D Tim Sullivan, S Donald Cerveris

After their criminal father is lynched, the Hagens find a treasure but wander, starving in the desert. The hate filled leader Nell (Mercedes McCambridge at her most outrageous) says "Son Of A Bitch!, Jackass Damn fool!, Hellnation!.." Linda Gaye Scott (also in PSYCH-OUT) is the giggling idiot bride (with hair like "a mess of long yellow worms crawling out of her skull" and a "puke pink parasol") of cousin Rip (Gary Kent, who spends most of the movie laid up). Then there's the cartoonish idiot hunchback Kirby (Allen Richards) who has to kill the mule for dinner. The (very rare) theatre of the absurd western has one scene that could have been in a Bunuel film, but it's too long and often too dark to see. The selling point for many will be the fact that Frank Zappa composed and conducted the instrumental score (his first after WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER!). The fast paced theme is obviously Zappa's work (it sounds almost like a track from Uncle Meat). From Emerson Films (CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS, MANOS, THE HANDS OF FATE, MONSTROSITY..). John "Bud" Cardos was production manager and has a small role. Sullivan had been a dialog coach for DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST and KISSIN COUSINS.

 

Availability

"D.G. Porter"

Is this available for sale or rent?

Jerry Hull

Check out: TRASH PALACE, P.O. BOX 2565, dept. WEB, SILVER SPRING, MD, 20915 USA Phone: 301-681-4625 or E-mail: trashpal[at]erols.com http://www.trashpalace.com/

 

Additional informant: Javier Marcote.

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