Per yesterday’s post in which I discussed and summarized the Sunset Strip riots of late 1966, above is the trailer for ‘Riot On Sunset Strip’, the movie that was hustled into existence in order to capitalize on the riots national coverage. Since the first (main) ‘riot’ occurred on November 12, 1966 and the movie went into general release on March 1, 1967 this would mean that the film was written, cast, shot and edited in a three and a half month period. This is roughly the amount of time it usually takes somebody to read a script (assuming they bother to read at all) and, whatever the quality of the movie, one can only admire the professionalism necessary to pull off such a feat. The film was made and released by the legendary Samuel Z. Arkoff’s company A.I.P. (American International Pictures) and was directed by Arthur Dreifess, a B movie director who I must confess I’ve never heard of. A quick web search, however, turned up this very provocative article from the LA Times in 1956. In it, actress Barbara Brier who was then divorcing Dreifess testified that he once threw a highball–glass and all–in her face after she accused him of ‘keeping company’ with other women. He also had some unkind words about her acting ability, saying that “as an actress, I would make a good carpenter”. What a bastard!