Wild in the Streets | |
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Directed by | Barry Shear |
Produced by |
Samuel Z. Arkoff James H. Nicholson |
Written by | Robert Thom |
Based on | novella The Day It All Happened, Baby by Robert Thom |
Starring |
Christopher Jones Shelley Winters Richard Pryor Diane Varsi Hal Holbrook |
Narrated by | Paul Frees (uncredited) |
Music by | Les Baxter |
Cinematography | Richard Moore |
Edited by | Fred R. Feitshans Jr. Eve Newman |
Distributed by | American International Pictures (1968, original) MGM (2005, DVD) |
Release date
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Running time
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97 min. |
Language | English |
Budget | $700,000 |
Box office | $4,000,000 (rentals) |
Wild in the Streets is a 1968 film featuring Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook, and Shelley Winters. It was produced by American International Pictures and based on a short story by writer Robert Thom. The movie, described as both "ludicrous" and "cautionary," was nominated for an Academy Award (for best film editing) and became a cult classic of the counterculture era.
Wild in the Streets was first released to theaters in 1968. Its storyline was a reductio ad absurdum projection of contemporary issues of the time, taken to extremes, and played poignantly during 1968 —an election year with many controversies (the Vietnam War, the draft, civil rights, the population explosion, rioting and assassinations, and the baby boomer generation coming of age). The original magazine short story, titled "The Day It All Happened, Baby!" was expanded by its author to book length, and was published as a paperback novel by Pyramid Books.
The movie features cameos from several media personalities, including Melvin Belli, Dick Clark, Pamela Mason, Army Archerd, and Walter Winchell. Millie Perkins and Ed Begley have supporting roles, and Bobby Sherman interviews Max as president. In a pre-Brady Bunch role, Barry Williams plays the teenaged Max Frost at the beginning of the movie. Child actress Kellie Flanagan, who plays Johnny Fergus' daughter, Mary, also appeared in director Barry Shear's television special All Things Bright and Beautiful in the same year. She discussed filming Wild in the Streets in a 2014 interview with Adam Gerace, telling him, "I get a huge kick out of Wild in the Streets and always have."