Love Her Madly

A review of the NYC film premiere as part of the

New York Independent Film & Video Festival

Before the film began, Ray was introduced by the show's producers and gave an intro to what Love Her Madly was about.  He stressed that it was a film noir and that the basis of it, three friends in pursuit of the same woman on a college campus, was actually suggested by Jim Morrison way back when. He also based the character of the sculptor on Morrison as well.

The film opened up to some cheesy organ sounds that were distinctly Manzarek and coalesced into a trance-like hypnotic jumbled glob of sounds and beats. It worked well unto the films' opening scene of a TV reporter at the scene of a bloody crime on the 6 o’clock news. The rest of the film worked itself backwards in time to the three gents and their relationship with the blond bombshell.

The aspiring actress’s relationship with the sculpture, a college professor and a video artist forms the basis of the film. How they all manipulate each other gives us the tension in this very tangled web.

The sculptor who is also a coffee shop owner is madly possessive of the woman. The college professor is a cocaine snorting, washed up, womanizing lout who is in jeopardy of losing his tenured position and being exposed for plagiarizing a work he received a Pulitzer prize for by his former lover and administrator at the college.

The videographer needs to raise some fast cash to pay back a loan after his bank discovers that he obtained the monies under a fake identity. He decides to do so by filming the woman in suggestive poses, and selling the images on the web without her consent to a horny fat guy.

The film’s subplots entangle and entwine off other at the sculptor’s opening art show where Ray Manzarek and Michael McClure are doing their spoken word/piano duo. The girl doesn’t show, the professor doesn’t show and the profits from the evening’s entertainment are pilfered by the videographer. The three men meet on a street corner, two giving chase on foot in suburban L.A. with one on a motorcycle holding an old fashioned barbers razor blade for the grand finale. Wheels slide, bodies crash, heads rumble, a gun bounds across the pavement and the blade ends up in someone’s hand.

The ending is unexpected and brings cheesy film noir to another level. It’s peppered with fluffy prose that is distinctly Ray, dramatic and corny at times but ironically cheeky too. The characters play off each other like stereotypical baboons. The cocaine guzzling professor on one hand, the dire, romantic sculptor and the preppy videographer give us a good cross section of generational stereotypes to poke fun at.

At the end of the film "Love Her Madly" played over the screen credits and the crowd clapped.

After the film Ray took on questions from the audience in a well mannered, affable, funny and humorous way with the screenplay writer that highlighted the following:

-the film cost $300,000 to make

-Ray financed the film

-it took 17 days to film

-it was filmed digitally

-it will be coming out on DVD in November with outtakes and a tour of Venice Beach with Ray detailing Doors sites

-a film based on "Riders on the Storm" is currently being worked on

-the entire cast is made of SAG actors and they were all paid well for their efforts

Someone asked how it felt when filming was completed and Ray chimed with a smile "Like a good fuck". Ray and Dorothy hung afterwards and talked to all.

Like a good fuck this film left you wanting more. Thanks Ray !!!!

by Glyn Emmerson, NYC