The Jesus Trip (1971)

A blend of "Vanishing Point" and "Zabriskie Point", there does not seem to be an actual point to biker-nun movie "Under Hot Leather". If there is anything original here it was probably accidental. Those two films finished shooting just before this one started and it looks like they simply took over the equipment leases and some spare crew from those two films, found some long-expired film stock, and wrote some poor replacement dialogue for the "Vanishing Point" desert chase sequences with its early 70's counterculture paranoia subtext.

This is also available on DVD d/b/a "The Jesus Trip". Unfortunately it appears that they used the pan-and-scan VHS master for the DVD with all its grainy film stock issues, lighting problems, and generally poor quality. So you might as well go with the VHS if you can get it cheaper than the DVD.

This is "experimental" cinema in the sense that there is little attention paid to script or acting for the camera; and a lot of emphasis on what can be done with a 16mm camera, a zoom lens, and a post-production team on acid. So don't expect a complex plot, in fact be thankful there is not a complex plot because the film that was assembled doesn't do a very good job telling a coherent story.

"Five Easy Pieces" good life guy Billy Green Bush (villain) and "Peyton Place" ingénue Tippy Walker (the love interest) are legitimate actors but the rest of the cast appear to have stumbled on the set while wandering the desert and the been written into the script by an enterprising production assistant. The top billing goes to bit player Robert Porter, who came from nowhere and went right back there after this (his first) starring role.

Walker has a haunting vulnerability and is responsible for the film's best sequence, a nonverbal transformation that culminates in her removing her Nun's Headpiece and Collar Set; then shaking loose her long hair.

Russ Mayberry (the director) apparently had some free time between directing episodes of "The Brady Bunch" and "Nanny and the Professor". So he channeled Michelangelo Antonioni and cobbled together a feature length quasi-biker movie more ambitious but lower budget than the standard American International drive-in fare.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.