{"id":37655,"date":"2022-08-05T18:02:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T22:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37655"},"modified":"2022-08-05T18:05:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T22:05:39","slug":"the-bootleg-files-vinyl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/05\/the-bootleg-files-vinyl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Vinyl"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 810: <\/strong>\u201cVinyl\u201d (Andy Warhol\u2019s 1965 unofficial adaptation of \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d. <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>Unauthorized use of Burgess\u2019 book and several classic rock songs. <\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> There is no great call for this one.<\/p>\n

Everyone is familiar with Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1971 film version of the Anthony Burgess novel \u201cA Clockwork Orange,\u201d but some people might not realize there was an earlier screen adaptation \u2013 by, of all people, Andy Warhol.
\n<\/p>\n

Warhol\u2019s film is called \u201cVinyl\u201d and the title is never explained within the production \u2013 but, then again, Kubrick never bothered to explain what \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d meant. Warhol changed the central character\u2019s name from Alex to Victor and telescoped the story into a bare bones endeavor that borrowed some of Burgess\u2019 themes within the lo-fi setting of a Warholian underground cinema setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cVinyl\u201d opens in a promising manner with a tight close-up of Victor gazing enigmatically into the camera. The character is played by Gerard Malanga, a handsome man with long blonde hair who starred in Warhol\u2019s underground films. Victor begins looking left and right, but it is initially unclear what is happening. As the camera pulls back, we see Victor clad in a leather jacket and white t-shirt sitting in a chair and lifting dumbbells. To Victor\u2019s right is a chic young blonde woman in a strapless black dress who is smoking cigarettes while drinking from a plastic cup \u2013 she\u2019s played by Edie Sedgwick, who looks like an old-school movie star. Behind him to his right is a man in a suit who is smoking a cigar \u2013 he\u2019s played by J.D. McDermott and there will be some time before his presence is explained. Behind them is a group of men hanging out in various levels of lethargy \u2013 everyone seems to be in a corner of an undefined room (actually, it was Warhol\u2019s legendary Factory studio in Manhattan).<\/p>\n

After Victor stops lifting weights, he gets up to light a cigarette and interrupts a young man delivering a huge stack of newspapers. Victor tears the newspapers from the man\u2019s hands and then leads him to the rear of the space, where another man helps him chain the hands of the bullied victim. Unfortunately, Warhol\u2019s camera remains stationary and fails to follow Victor, resulting in a sequence where most of the action occurs outside of the frame.<\/p>\n

Victor returns to where he was lifting weights and launches into a jumbled monologue where he gives self-congratulatory accolades over \u201cthe bad that I do.\u201d Malanga\u2019s voice is weak and the proclamations regarding his delinquency are dull. Inexplicably, Martha and the Vandellas\u2019 \u201cNowhere to Run\u201d starts playing and Victor begins dancing while Edie Sedgwick \u2013 who appears to be sitting on a trunk \u2013 sways her upper body.<\/p>\n

Victor then starts to rip the clothing from a man wearing sunglasses while calling him \u201cScumbaby.\u201d That man is played by Warhol collaborator Ondine, who wrestles Victor to the ground. While this happening, a man in a white t-shirt can be seen in the background interacting with two shirtless men, one standing beside him while another positioned in a diagonal configuration.<\/p>\n

Ondine\u2019s character calls on McDermott\u2019s character to arrest Victor, and McDermott is finally revealed to be a policeman. Victor is tied to a chair by the man in the white shirt (played by Tosh Carillo), who cuts open his shirt and puts a leather bondage hood over his face. Victor is forced to watch the shirtless men \u2013 the standing man is torturing his diagonal counterpart. This modified version of the Ludovico Treatment cures Victor of his criminal habits, and he is released from his bonds and fondled by the doctor while a hitherto unknown man in a leather jacket emerges and starts dancing with Edie Sedgwick.<\/p>\n

One can question whether this qualifies as a film adaptation of \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d since the film is roughly 10% of the source material and 90% Warholian excess. Not unlike many of Warhol\u2019s underground films from the era, \u201cVinyl\u201d is more interesting as a historic relic of the pop art\/underground culture movement than as a serious work of cinematic imagination. Malanga quickly becomes a bore, but McDermott is hilarious as a rough cop and Sedgwick is such a bewitching distraction that her presence almost compensates for the silliness surrounding her. <\/p>\n

While much of \u201cVinyl\u201d seems improvised, the film was scripted by Ronald Tavel. For no clear reason, the cast is identified by an off-screen voice midway through the production.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, Anthony Burgess met Andy Warhol at a New York party one year after \u201cVinyl\u201d was made, but the artist made no mention of his film to the visiting British novelist. In fact, Warhol did very little to share \u201cVinyl\u201d with the wider world. Much of this had to do with the misappropriation of copyright protected work \u2013 not just Burgess, but the unauthorized use of music by Martha and the Vandellas, the Rolling Stones, the Isley Brothers and the Kinks.<\/p>\n

The film was first seen in 1965 as part of Jonas Mekas\u2019 Film-Makers’ Cinematheque listing in and was later projected as background imagery during a pair of Velvet Underground concert gigs \u2013 all of this in lower Manhattan. The film wasn\u2019t seen again until a 1977 screening at Cinema Collective, also in lower Manhattan. The film was mostly unseen until 2017 when screenings took place at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh as part of the observance of the 30th anniversary of Warhol\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Most sources list \u201cVinyl\u201d as running 70 minutes, but an hour-long version is on YouTube. Due to copyright problems with the Burgess material and the music, it is unlikely that a commercial home entertainment release will happen soon.<\/p>\n

And while hardly a great film, \u201cVinyl\u201d is a zany fossil from a hippy-dippy past. For those who dare, check it out at this link<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Listen to Phil Hall\u2019s award-winning podcast \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall\u201d<\/a> on SoundCloud and his radio show \u201cNutmeg Chatter\u201d<\/a> on WAPJ-FM in Torrington, Connecticut, every Sunday. Phil Hall\u2019s new book \u201cJesus Christ Movie Star\u201d<\/a> is now available from BearManor Media. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 810: \u201cVinyl\u201d (Andy Warhol\u2019s 1965 unofficial adaptation of \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d. LAST SEEN: On YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Unauthorized use of Burgess\u2019 book and several classic rock songs. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: There is no great call for this one. Everyone is familiar with Stanley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":37656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[1861,2986,2985,2988,2583,2987],"class_list":["post-37655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-1960s","tag-a-clockwork-orange","tag-andy-warhol","tag-edie-sedgwick","tag-underground-movies","tag-vinyl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37659,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37655\/revisions\/37659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}