This is the title it plays as on Cultpix, but it’s also known as The Now People, Tell It Like It Is, and The Irv Carlson Show. 

Directed by Anthony M. Lanza, who also made The Glory Stompers, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant and Squezze Play (I did spell that correctly), this stars Don Forio as Irv Carlson, who hosts a talk show called The Beautiful People. Probably the most gorgeous of those people would be Leslie McRay, who was Cleopatra in Death Race 2000 and also showed up in Girl In Gold Boots, The Female Bunch, Blood Orgy of the She-Devils and Wonder Women. 

Carlson’s show is supposed to showcase the glamorous and the famous, the movers and shakers of the “now” generation. Instead, it mostly becomes an excuse for the movie to bounce from guest to guest, gag to gag, and occasionally wander into strange satirical territory that feels like a variety show beamed in from an alternate universe.

The screenplay comes from none other than Arch Hall Sr., which should already tell you what kind of ride you’re in for. Hall is one of those figures who could only have existed in the wild west era of regional exploitation filmmaking. If there were a camera around and a chance to put his son in front of it, he would make a movie. This is the same man who gave us Wild Guitar, which was essentially a homemade rock-and-roll star vehicle for Arch Hall Jr.

Hall Sr. also appears in the film as Morrison Whales, which is about as subtle a parody name as you’re ever going to get. Whales is, of course, meant to be none other than Orson Welles, and Hall goes after him with a kind of weird, personal venom that feels almost surreal. Remember, we’re talking about the guy behind Citizen Kane, widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made, being dunked on by the director of Eegah.

The film even shows fake clips from supposed Morrison Whales movies, as if Hall is trying to prove—visually, no less—that this Welles stand-in is a complete fraud. The whole thing has the strange energy of a grudge that somehow turned into a screenplay.

You can watch this on Cultpix.