Editing Dynamite Chicken

{{Short description|1971 film by Ernest Pintoff}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Dynamite Chicken
| image = Dynamite chicken dvd cover.jpg
| caption = dvd cover for ''Dynamite Chicken''
| director = [[Ernest Pintoff]]
| producer = Ernest Pintoff
| writer = Ernest Pintoff
| starring = [[Richard Pryor]]<br/>[[Ace Trucking Company]]<br/>[[Paul Krassner]]
| music =
| studio = Dynamite Productions
| distributor = [[Walter Reade#The Walter Reade Organization|Walter Reade Organization]]
| released = {{Film date|1971|1|20}}
| runtime = 76 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = 
}}

'''''Dynamite Chicken''''' is a 1971 American [[comedy film]].<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Dynamite Chicken (1970) 'Dynamite Chicken' Is Aimed at the Young|first=A. H.|last=Weiler|date=January 4, 1972|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9800EFDE1138EF34BC4C53DFB7668389669EDE}}</ref> Described in its opening credits as "an electronic magazine of American pop culture", it presents a series of interviews, stand-up comedy, countercultural sketches, documentary segments, and agitprop relating to the [[peace movement]], based around a [[Stream of consciousness|stream-of-consciousness]] [[Free-form radio|free-form]] format.

Inspired by his experience making the TV documentary ''This is Marshall McLuhan'' for [[NBC]], director [[Ernest Pintoff]] envisioned ''Dynamite Chicken'' as a collage to capture the hot-button issues of the moment. "I became interested in McLuhan and his theories of bombarding the audience with images...it seems to me the best way to impart a maximum of information to people."

The original segments involving Richard Pryor, Paul Krassner, the comedy group [[Ace Trucking Company]] and other figures were shot in 1969 and mostly improvised. Archival footage of other major celebrities of the day and repurposed film trailers is peppered throughout. The total budget for the production was $225,000.

He would state, "There's no message in the film, except for my point of view when I was making it."<ref name="newspapers/120124059"/> In another interview, he explained the title by saying, "I overheard someone say, 'I make dynamite chicken.' I liked it. You know, a chicken seems so little and the other so explosive. It's a silly title that doesn't mean too much. The film doesn't mean too much either. I hope people will respond. I had fun making it."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/287960900/?terms=%22dynamite%20chicken%22&match=1 | title=The Post-Crescent 28 Feb 1971, page 109 }}</ref>

==Sketches==
* [[Cold Open]]ing - a text crawl in a typewriter-style font details a complaint filed with the American Civil Patrol about a Richard Pryor performance and the offensive words used therein, including "fart," followed by Pryor delivering jokes about farts in a playground. (There is a copyright line in the text crawl for "Through a Looking Glass Productions" with a Roman-numeraled credit year of 1982, suggesting this may be a new addition to the previous edit created by Pintoff in 1970, possibly added by Seymour Borde & Associates) 
* Introduction - an overweight man ([[George Memmoli]]) exits an SRO hotel, underscored by "[[Also sprach Zarathustra]]*, and while walking away, scratches his rear end. Pryor then brays the title of the movie, and continues his thoughts. (Pryor material reappears throughout the film)
* Credits - the names of the artists appearing either in original segments or in archive footage play out underscored by "Mummy Doesn't Live Here Anymore (The Chicken Song)" by [[Tony Hendra]] & [[Nick Ullett]], periodically intercut with random images and clips. Text proclaims, "A contemporary probe and commentary on the mores and maladies of our age...with schtick, bits, pieces, girls, a ([[Burger King]] [[Whopper]]) hamburger, a little hair, a lady, some fellas, some religious stuff, and a lot of other things."
* [[List of Latin phrases (P)|Post Coitum]] - dim footage and audio initially suggests a couple lighting up cigarettes after sex, but several lighter flashes reveals that there are many people in the bed. Performed by [[Ace Trucking Company]]
* Contrasts - Snippets of [[Sha-Na-Na]] undercut political sound bites from Paul Krassner, Pryor (performing material later reprised in his segments of ''[[Wattstax]]''), and Malcolm X.
* What is Obscene - A naked woman on a stage asks, "What is obscene." The overweight man (Memmoli) from the prologue goes to a phone booth, and attempts an obscene phone call, grunting into the receiver while an operator (Patti Deutsch) attempts to make out where he wants his call. [[Al Goldstein]] and Jim Buckley of ''[[Screw (magazine)|Screw]]'' Magazine discuss the mandate of their publication. The obscene caller reaches another woman, leaving a message of grunts.
* Prophets - Frank Lauria<ref name="Frank Lauria"/> recites one of his poems.
* Meat and Potatoes - the staff and customers of a [[Burger King]] franchise location explain the details of their conduct of business and consumption, as a typical day is depicted.
* The New Feminists - an introduction of a tampon removed from its sheath and the "string" is lit (a firework fuse) introducing female members of the [[Redstockings]] collective discussing sexual inequities.
* Norma Jean - another Frank Lauria<ref name="Frank Lauria">
*{{cite book |last1=Lauria |first1=Frank |title=Demon Pope |date=30 September 2014 |publisher=Rothco Press |isbn=978-1-941519-22-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_G3oQEACAAJ |language=en}}
*{{cite news |last1=Trakin |first1=Roy |title=Frank Lauria, Writer, Longtime Husband Of Ex-Island Publicist Ellen Smith, Passes At 87 |url=https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/224209/frank-lauria-writer-longtime-husband-of-ex-island- |access-date=18 November 2023 |work=All Access |date=December 22, 2022 |language=en}}
*{{cite news |last1=DuShane |first1=Tony |title=Uncle Frank and the Co-Defendants |url=https://www.sfgate.com/music/bandwidth/article/Uncle-Frank-and-the-Co-Defendants-2289287.php |access-date=18 November 2023 |work=SFGATE |date=17 November 2011 |language=en}}
*https://unclefrank.bandcamp.com/
*https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/frank-lauria-obituary?id=24196794
*https://www.librarything.es/author/franklauria
*http://rothcopress.com/frank-lauria/
*https://www.hachette.com.au/frank-lauria/
*https://openroadmedia.com/contributor/frank-lauria
*{{cite web |author1=Rothco Press |title=Author Frank Lauria discusses Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Tom Waits and More. |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTq17-iFdgE |website=youtube.com |access-date=18 November 2023 |language=en |date=2014}}</ref> poem.
* Actor's Nightmare - [[Ace Trucking Company]] perform a sketch where a talent agent ([[Fred Willard]]) and his assistant (Deutsch) are forcefully accosted by a desperate actor (Michael Mislove) looking for work. However, when the agent asks him to do a cold reading from a script about a desperate actor looking for work, the actor is unable to summon the same real-life intensity.
* Andy Warhol tape records [[Ondine (actor)|Ondine]] reading from Warhol's book ''[[a, A Novel]]'', and interviews members of the [[Mattachine Society]].
* The Groupies - audio excerpts from [[The Groupies (band)|The Groupies]] album is played over images of groupies.
* What I'm Doing Here - Leonard Cohen reads his poem.
* Small Spoleto Mantra - Allen Ginsberg reads a poem underscored by Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" augmented by sexually charged drawings.
* Sex and Art: Audition - a naked actress auditions for ''Electra'', but after delivering lines in a modern New York affect, is dismissed for being "not Greek enough". When given a second read for a Shakespearean play, she is again dismissed for jiggling too much. After a third opportunity for ''Cinderella'', she is rejected for having small breasts.
* The Commercial - Ace Trucking Company perform a sketch where a temperamental fey actor (Bill Saluga) holds up an [[Aqua Velva]] commercial by his complaints and inability to appear butch on camera. The sketch is followed by news footage of [[Joe Namath]] crying while announcing his retirement.
* Hair - British hairstylist John DeConey discusses the thought process of men choosing to wear their hair long.
* Flag - after an introduction featuring manipulated audio by Richard Nixon, citizens opine on what the American flag means to them.
* Phoebe Zeit-Geist - [[Michael O'Donoghue]] narrates a cliffhanger installment of his bondage-themed comic strip ''[[The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist]]'', described as "a continuing chronicle of grief, misery, and despair."
* Drug Reunion - Ace Trucking Company perform a sketch where a hippie (Saluga) is busted by a narcotics officer (Willard) who discovers they were classmates in high school.
* Cojones - O'Donoghue delivers a ultra-masculine pitch for cigarettes.
* Support Your Local Police - two intersecting sketches from the ''[[Revolting Theatre]]'',<ref name="mediaburn/tulis-revolt">{{cite web |title=Tuli's Montreal Revolt |url=https://mediaburn.org/video/tulis-montreal-revolt-2/ |website=Media Burn Archive |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> one involving police officer Sgt. Paul (Tuli Kupferberg) demonstrating irritant gases on masked subjects (Lannes Kenfield, Sylvia Topp), while a sponsor, "Yippie Helmets," presents a pitchman ([[Marshall Efron]]) demonstrating the destructive abilities of a policeman's [[baton (law enforcement)|truncheon]] and the protection afforded by his product on a typical [[Youth International Party|Yippie]] (Lisa Ryan).
* Home of the Brave - the original trailer for the 1949 WWII drama ''[[Home of the Brave (1949 film)|Home of the Brave]]'' segues into audio of a segment of Lenny Bruce's "Politics" routine about jingoism, followed by the last portions of Joan Baez performing "Carry it On," and [[Al Kooper]] using a microphone, to create [[audio feedback]], on a home stereo system, proclaiming, "And that's how rock'n'roll is born."
* LBJ - [[Jay Garner (actor)|Jay Garner]] portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson while underscored by audio material performed by Lenny Bruce. A snippet of the trailer for ''[[One Minute to Zero]]'' follows.
* Contrasts/Flag (reprise) - more citizens offer their opinions of patriotism.
* {{anchor|Lionel Goldbart}}God Loves Rock'n'Roll - a priest ([[Ron Carey (actor)|Ron Carey]]) exits from a limo, and does a freestyle dance in front of [[St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown Manhattan)|New York's St. Patrick Cathedral]] to the song "God Loves Rock'n'Roll" by Lionel Goldbart.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Weiler |first=A. H. |date=January 4, 1972 |title='Dynamite Chicken' Is Aimed at the Young |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/04/archives/dynamite-chicken-is-aimed-at-the-young.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |pages=28}}</ref>
* Sister Filomena - O'Donoghue introduces "direct from Rome, Italy," Filomena, a stripteasing nun.
* Revolution - musings from Krassner, Pryor, archival footage of [[Bed-ins for Peace|John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Bed-In"]], and [[Joan Baez]] with David Friedman,<ref>[http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt687004sg&chunk.id=d0e8845&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text  52. Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?] in [http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt687004sg;NAAN=13030&chunk.id=&toc.id=&toc.depth=1&brand=calisphere&anchor.id=fn190#X  THE FREE SPEECH MOVEMENT: COMING OF AGE IN THE 1960s] David Lance Goines; Ten Speed Press; Berkeley, California; Copyright © 1993 by David Lance Goines;</ref> on leading people.
* Finale - the obscene phone caller (Memmoli) is caught in a phone booth by a detective (Roy Bond). He demands his right to call his lawyer, but upon making the call, only leaves a heavy breathing message.

==Cast==
(as originally billed in the initial 1971 advertising)
* [[Richard Pryor]]
* [[Paul Krassner]]
* [[Patti Deutsch]] (as [[Ace Trucking Company]])
* [[Michael Mislove]] (as Ace Trucking Company)
* [[Bill Saluga]] (as Ace Trucking Company)
* [[George Memmoli]] (as Ace Trucking Company)
* [[Fred Willard]] (as Ace Trucking Company)
* [[Roy Bond]] (as Ace Trucking Company)
* [[Lenny Bruce]]
* [[Joan Baez]]
* [[Rhinoceros (band)|Rhinoceros]]
* [[Ron Carey (actor)|Ron Carey]]
* [[Tuli Kupferberg]]<ref name="nyu.edu/mss_385"/>
* [[Sylvia Topp]]<ref name="nyu.edu/mss_385">[https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/fales/mss_385/ Tuli Kupferberg and Sylvia Topp Papers] - [[New York University]]</ref>
* [[Lannes Kenfield]]<ref name="nyu.edu/mss_385"/>
* [[Sha Na Na]]
* [[Allen Ginsberg]]
* [[Leonard Cohen]]
* [[Malcolm X]]
* [[Peter Max]]

==Reception==
''Dynamite Chicken'' was originally screened only on college campuses, serviced by specialty company EYR (Educational Youth Recreation), who had also handled initial screenings of [[L. M. Kit Carson]]'s documentary ''[[The American Dreamer]]''. "It was initially booked in 35 schools," Pintoff told ''San Francisco Examiner'' film critic [[Stanley Eichelbaum]], "And the response was so good, we thought we should try a theatrical run."<ref name="newspapers/120124059">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120124059/dynamitechickensfexaminerreview012171/ | title=DynamiteChickenSFExaminerreview012171 | newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner | date=21 January 1971 | page=27  | via= [[newspapers.com]]}}</ref> [[Walter Reade#The Walter Reade Organization|The Walter Reade Organization]] acquired the film and began releasing it in cinemas in January 1971.

The ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' called the film "a blue version of ''"[[Laugh-In]]"'' that bombards us with a collage of political protest, hip sloganeering and sophomoric nonsense...It strikes me as insincere, inadequate, and superficial in its entire approach to the comedy of dissent."<ref name="newspapers/120124059"/> Kevin Thomas of the [[Los Angeles Times]] was more positive, saying "Pintoff, always in control of his wide-ranging material, remains an oasis of sanity in the eyes of the storm...Pintoff is fresh and disciplined in the choice of images he bombards us with."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120126820/dynamitechickenkevinthomaslatimesreview0/ | title=DynamiteChickenKevinThomasLATimesreview070171 | newspaper=The Los Angeles Times | date=July 1971 | page=88 }}</ref>

==Legacy==
The "magazine" format of blending comedy, unusual documentary coverage, and music featured in ''Dynamite Chicken'' would serve as the template for the subsequent [[WNET]] variety series ''[[The Great American Dream Machine]]'', on which ''Chicken'' co-star Marshall Efron was a contributing writer. [[Ken Shapiro]], another contributor to the show, would perform a improvisational dance on New York City streets, similar to the Ron Carey priest sketch, in his own comedy project ''[[The Groove Tube]]''. Members of [[Ace Trucking Company]] would participate in the 1976 sketch comedy film ''[[Tunnel Vision (1976 film)|Tunnel Vision]]'', which featured a stripteasing nun segment similar to the "Sister Filomena" sketch.

In 1982, Seymour Borde<ref name="variety/1117796410">{{cite news |title=Seymour Borde |url=https://variety.com/2000/scene/people-news/seymour-borde-1117796410/ |access-date=17 November 2023 |work=Variety |date=8 December 2000}}</ref> & Associates reissued ''Dynamite Chicken'' to theatres and drive-ins, with a new ad campaign, poster, and trailer, that focused almost entirely on Richard Pryor's presence, capitalizing on the success of Columbia Pictures' concert film ''[[Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (film)|Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip]]''. Pryor was upset with the campaign's misleading tone suggesting that it was a new film and not a reissue, and that he was the star when his contribution only amounted to 10 total minutes, and initially filed a $6 million lawsuit to stop its distribution until the ads were changed. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John Cole issued a preliminary restraining order to the distributors on November 13, 1982, and ruled on December 2 in Pryor's favor, saying that the campaign must be corrected to properly reflect Pryor's limited role.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkEDAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22dynamite+chicken%22+lawsuit&pg=PA58 | title=Jet | date=6 December 1982 | publisher=Johnson Publishing Company }}</ref>

Despite the ruling, almost all subsequent video releases of ''Dynamite Chicken'' have centered Pryor as a primary star of the film.<ref name="dangerousminds/dynamite-chicken">{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=Martin |title=Richard Pryor's 'Dynamite Chicken' is a raunchy, NSFW time capsule of the hippie era |url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/richard_pryors_dynamite_chicken |website=DangerousMinds |access-date=17 November 2023 |date=4 February 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1971]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{AFI film|54489|Dynamite Chicken}}
* https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/495116/dynamite-chicken
* {{IMDb title|0067030|Dynamite Chicken}}

[[Category:1971 films]]
[[Category:1971 comedy films]]
[[Category:American comedy films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ernest Pintoff]]
[[Category:Lenny Bruce]]
[[Category:1970s English-language films]]
[[Category:1970s American films]]