Concert plus fictional footage.
Director: Joe Gannon
Stars: Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071572/
Watched online, mediocre copy.
16 songs in the Soundtracks, all Written by Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith or some subset thereof, except the opener by Rodgers and Hart.
To open the film, AC came out with his band on an all-white stage in white plus black trim lounge singer outfits, with blonde mop-top wigs, and did The Lady is a Tramp. He sang the lyrics as "I", but kept the word "lady" to go with them. He wasn't acting fey, so I don't get the point of it. Maybe playing off his name? Then he gets cranky and breaks up the set, the director gets angry and provides additional fictional footage cut into the concert that follows at (guessing) 20 min intervals. The band doesn't appear in that extra footage (that I recall), but the director, later security guard (same actor, different character) does talk about the band in each chunk. Really pointless: not clever or amusing that I could see.
The 1 AC song I know well, School's Out for Summer, was performed, which helps me tell you that AC was not in fine voice nor performing very enthusiastically.
Somewhere on IMDb I read this was his last tour. Wikipedia says the band formed in '64, and they pioneered shock rock. It's weird to realize that it's been 18 years of rock in films already. No wonder it's changed so much.
I'm not impressed by the boa constrictor that a wrangler had to pull off him. I wondered how snakes react to sound. I was impressed by his willingness to, er, execute a guillotine trick with his own neck, although I didn't watch it carefully. It just felt like a good opportunity for a Columbo episode.
I'm not more interested in this sort of music than I was when it was live. The film illuminates nothing, especially since it offers NO behind-the-scenes insights.
Penthouse Prod, dir. Gannon; 5
