FANTASIA OBSCURA: This Guy Proves That Rock ‘n’ Roll Might Be the Devil’s Music After All
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure. ‘
Sometimes, some movies really put the “cult” in “cult film.”
The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962)
(Dist.: Frenzy Productions; Dir.: Timothy Carey)
If this doesn’t seem familiar to you, don’t worry; there’s a reason this title stresses the ‘Obscure’ in ‘Fantasia Obscura.’
Timothy Carey was, by all accounts, a character actor where the “C” in character should be in uppercase bold at all times. The majority of his career found him doing one-offs on TV from the 1960s through the 1980s, often taking on villainous characters where his drawn, menacing-looking countenance served him and the role well.
As far as his film work went, he got dropped from Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick during shooting because his incessant mugging for screen time (forcing the director to use stand-ins and reshoots for some sequences Carey was not allowed on set to finish) and was assaulted by Elia Kazan on the set of East of Eden because of his antics.
Considering the consternation he gave directors, then, it’s not a real surprise that his one time as director himself would be… interesting.
The film finds Carey playing Clarence Hilliard, a man with a good family and a decent job, or so we hear from the narrator: the snake, the one from Genesis 3, voiced by Paul Frees. Frees, who through his voice animation work is the only actor to have portrayed both John Lennon and Berry Gordy, sets up the crisis and plot to follow: Hilliard, deciding that he’s no longer happy with his lot in life, abandons the insurance business as he proclaims himself a god.
With his gardener, Alonzo (Gil Barreto), as his first disciple, he looks to get his message out there. At first, he finds success when he discovers rock ‘n’ roll, ultimately getting his message out of how all of us are gods and thus eternal through his stage show.
The crowds are riled and he’s a sensation, allowing him to sleep with any woman from age 14 to 70 (which we see onscreen) among other acts of hubris, but in order to really get it out there, he’s encouraged to leave behind entertainment and go into politics.
The gold lame suits are gone as God Hilliard (yes, he’s changed his name; his new first name is even etched into the sleeves of his jackets for emphasis) barnstorms across the country, hoping to use his fame as an entertainer to propel him into the office of President of the United States.
Must. Resist. Obvious. Comment.
On the verge of his ultimate triumph, he has a wavering of faith in himself and his ideals. Wanting to test his conviction, he puts it all on the line, stealing a consecrated Eucharist from a church that he decides to puncture with a needle. He offers to abandon his course if he finds blood coming from the wafer.
Not to give away too much, but once he finishes abusing the stolen property, Hilliard finds himself in for a host of problems.
Speaking of problems, it’s a difficult film to sit through. The raw edginess of a movie directed, written, and starring a man noted for his eccentricities on set, hemmed in by a very limited budget, gives it a style and aesthetic on which there is literally no middle ground from which to judge it.
To love it fully, you need to be on board without question, almost like the religious experience depicted on screen. If you question your faith this film, you fall away from it.
And much like the early days of most faiths, word about the film spread slowly; it never got a serious distribution outside of the Los Angeles market during midnight screenings, only occasionally getting noticed here and there.
Only recently with Martin Scorsese’s championing of the film has found a wider audience; it’s Scorsese’s claim that this is one of the more interesting rock-‘n’-roll pictures that deserves attention that put it in front of a wider audience.
It also helped the film when the audience became aware of this being one of Frank Zappa’s earliest works, having scored the film (while using a few lifts from Holst’s ‘Mars’ movement from The Planets for accent here and there) years before he was in the Mothers of Invention.
But discounting the oddity of its presentation and the discovery of a musician during the early years of his cycle, what you’re left with is a film that ultimately discusses religion. It asks the viewer what role it has in their lives and how far they’d go to follow their faith.
The fact that it poses these questions as an experience as opposed to a conversation, where the tenants of the argument are discoursed over whether you can sit through the movie itself or not, may be an act of brilliance on Carey’s part. Or it may be an accident.
And that’s where the discussion of faith comes in as you decide how to react to the film. Mileage may vary as you contemplate your beliefs.
NEXT TIME: If you’re prone to say, “Heaven help us!” when you consider the actions of the guy serving as President of the United States, you may want to be very careful with that plea…
