Shot on the cheap in Chicago locations with postsync sound, this flaky, black-and-white absurdist beatnik comedy (1963) by Benjamin Manaster and Philip Kaufman is interesting today mainly as a period piece. The cast includes Second City veterans (Severn Darden, Anthony Holland, Tom Erhard), novelist Nelson Algren (as himself) delivering a wry, characteristic monologue, and one of the stars of John Cassavetes’s Shadows (Ben Carruthers). I found a lot of the humor resistibleand it certainly isn’t helped by the ribs-nudging scorebut the freewheeling camera style is attractive and inventive. Adolfas Mekas was in charge of the hit-and-miss editing. (JR)