Chafed Elbows

Chafed Elbows is a 1966 film directed by Robert Downey Sr.

A manic comic parody made for $12,000,Chafed Elbows was a commercial success that raised the flag of the underground film scene and elevated the good cause of bad taste. The film was premiered at The Gate Theater in New York City and ran for over one month alongside Scorpio Rising.

Downey photographed most of the movie with a still 35mm camera and had the film processed at Walgreens drugstore. These pictures were animated alongside a few live-action scenes and almost all the dialogue was dubbed to rather hilarious effect. One scene was shot in Anthology Film Archives’s upstairs theater back in the days when the building was still a defunct downtown courthouse.

All 13 of the female roles were played by Elsie Downey, Robert Downey's wife, and the lead male role by George Morgan.

Hapless Walter Dinsmore undergoes his annual November breakdown at the 1954 World’s Fair, has a love affair with his mother, recollects his hysterectomy operation, impersonates a cop, is sold as a piece of living art, goes to heaven, and becomes the singer in a rock band, but not necessarily in that order.

The DVD is available in The Criterion Collection.

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