Amoeba Music

2-Disc, 5-Film Collection in Black & White and Color.

Rarely do landmark works of cinema seem so . . . wrong. Robert Downey Sr. emerged as one of the most irreverent filmmakers of the New York underground of the early sixties, taking no prisoners in his rough-and-tumble treatises on politics, race, and consumer culture. In his most famous, the midnight-movie mainstay Putney Swope, an advertising agency is turned on its head when a militant black man takes over. Like Swope, Downey held nothing sacred. Presented here are five of his most raucous and outlandish films, dating from 1964 to 1975, each a unique mix of the hilariously crude and the fiercely experimental.

Babo 73 - All politics is loco in Downey's wild-mannered 16 mm comedy debut, starring Taylor Mead as Studsbury, the whiny president of the United Status.

Chafed Elbows - This underground hit about an incestuous layabout's encounters with reprobates and weirdos in a derelict downtown New York put the director on the map.

No More Excuses - This satire of the sexual revolution and so much more jumps form on-the-street interviews with real-life swingin' singles to absurd comic sketches about time travel and political assassination.

Putney Swope - Downey's preeminent cult classic, about race and truth in advertising, remain a potent piece of political incorrectness.

Two Tons Of Turquoise To Taos Tonight - Elsie Downey, Robert's wife at the time, plays every female role in this delirious cascade of inexplicable vignettes and jokes, a trippy tribute to incivility.