Comments on: Alex in the Chelsea Drug Store

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:43:16 +0000

great article – thanks for posting this. so good to see the interior of the chelsea drug store which has, until now, only existed in my faded memory. it looks just as amazing as i remember it when i was about 15.

By: John

John — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:21:53 +0000

Hi Alex. I was more concerned with the albums on display for this post so didn't mention Heaven 17. Their debt to the film (and its score) is explored in a later post.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:02:47 +0000

And, as has no doubt been noted, one of the girls mentions “The Heaven Seventeen” to Alex, and the moniker was lifted by the 80s synth-pop group “Heaven 17.”

By: nel [the gospel] » Like Clockwork … Mod Moments

nel [the gospel] » Like Clockwork … Mod Moments — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:36:01 +0000

[...] Great blog on Clockwork Orange and the great scene in the Chelsea Drugstore, where the future was rather present day… points out via DVD all the music and magazines that are featured. Gotta love freeze frame! Kubrick is even in the scene! It does not talk about the charts that featured Heaven 17, Sparks and Johnny Zhivago (My fave) maybe next time. [...]

By: Bill Inglot

Bill Inglot — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:04:55 +0000

US group with gatefold sleeve?

….its “Metamophasis” by Iron Butterfly.

By: Jeff Gold

Jeff Gold — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:08:45 +0000

Great detective work. I can add some titles to the albums: in the bigger rack Alex passes, on the left side 2nd from top is Freedom! by Freedom, 3rd from the top is “Roll Over” by the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, and 5th from the top is “Rock,” a 2 album budget sampler of various artists on CBS Records. On the right side, 2nd from the top is “First Winter” by Johnny Winter. I know the album below that, but can’t remember the name–but it’s a US group and a gatefold cover. And in the record booth, the album between Magical Mystery Tour (which is a US Import, as this was only released in the UK as a double 7″ EP) and Atom Heart Mother is Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush.”

By: Michael Fremer

Michael Fremer — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:05:10 +0000

Clockwork Orange featured a very famous Transcriptor turntable…I’ve got a shot of it at home but not in Norway where I am now at a hi-fi show doing turntable set up seminars…. I hired Wendy Carlos to compose the score for the movie TRON….

By: raymond davren

raymond davren — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:16:44 +0000

hello..a most interesting read..of most interest to me, however, as a FREE fan are the pics of andy fraser, simon kirke and paul kossoff ( there is also and other of paul rodgers, but it’s just out of view in your pic), on the top shelf above the sergeant pepper lp ..as a fan with a massive collection of FREE memorabilia, it would have been good to have secured a set of these 4 pics, but none have ever shown up for sale as far as i am aware…..wondered whatever happened to them..they’ll be long gone, i assume..!!!

By: Ray Abbots

Ray Abbots — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:49:11 +0000

Interesting read about the film and the Drug Store, I worked in the Drugstore in the 70,s, it had lost its grandure by then but was still one hell of a place to be in. If anyone remembers me (Ray) get in touch through this webb site.

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 09:05:26 +0000

I forget the details but I believe the UK ban on ACO came after the family Kubrick received anonymous threats. No doubt one of the main Kubrick sites has the full story. Performance is also on my list of favourite films, as this earlier post shows.

By: Alison

Alison — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 15:43:58 +0000

No censorship problems that I am aware of in Australia – saw it when young & also quite recently & am still fascinated that my total sympathies are with Alex. Especially when his former droogs push him underwater in the horse trough. McDowell nearly died during the scene, as he was meant to bite on to a scuba type mouthpiece supplying oxygen, but missed it, so his struggles for survival were only too real but no-one realized it. Just thought what a great performance he was giving.

Dunno why Kubrick was so paranoid about a film that ia one of the greatest ever made. Perhaps he believed Burgess’ blarney about the book being based on the rape & savage assault of Burgesses wife – an event that took part purely the author’s imagination.

“Ned Kelly” was a dud but that was Tony Richardson’s fault, not Jaggers. Richardson knew nothing at all about us or the iconic status of Kelly. Overseas actors just learn the lines & take direction. Richardson gave Kelly an Irish accent, but he was Aussie born & “currency lads & lasses” i.e. native born, spoke with our distinctive accent as do the children of new migrants. Can’t have been easy for him either with Marianne hovering between life & death in St Vincent’s ICU, & an new instant Kate Kelly having to be conjured up.

Hate to say it but “Performance” is also on my list of top greatest films. Mick Jagger displayed amazing versatility as he moved between the two main opposing personas with consummate skill & ease. “Memo from Turner” is still a classic Stones track (& video clip). On matters musical, Missa Luba is used to great effect in “Lost & Delirious” as is “Add it Up”

Thinking musically

By: jon

jon — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 22:26:39 +0000

i have 2 copies cinema x clockwork orange editions 4 sale.Delectus books state extremely rare & r asking 200 quid.having a laugh. offer up 4 75 each including secure packaging 1st class insured & address 4 signature.quality. my computer is going up the shoot as high def virus/worm[incl. on 2 motherboard & running rings around norton,spysweeper & bt anti-spy - these boys r gonna take over the world]insides being replaced any day next week =seeking ip range change= bt dont even know what that fucking means so have 2 resolve. so best contact me; jonpink@3mail.com 2 get pics but would prefer phone call 07742328941. dont block yr number so can call straight back or send text.pen &paper,done & dusted.

By: John

John — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:06:54 +0000

Yeah, I knew all this apart from the Atom Heart Mother thing. Strictly speaking, the score doesn’t use what later became known as a vocoder, rather it’s a similar form of vocal synthesis that Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind developed themselves. The Wendy Carlos soundtrack album is one of my favourite records of electronic music.

By: Eroom Nala

Eroom Nala — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:17:22 +0000

PS:
The shot of the bride falling through the gallows trapdoor (during Alex’s fantasy) is footage from Cat Ballou (1965).

I never would have guessed that.

Stanley Kubrick asked Pink Floyd if he could use their “Atom Heart Mother Suite” in the soundtrack. However, because Kubrick wanted unlimited license to determine what portions or edits of the song he used, the band turned him down.

One of the reasons why Stanley Kubrick withdrew the movie from distribution in the U.K. were, according to his wife Christiane Kubrick, several death threats that his family received because of the film.

This film was shot almost entirely on real locations as opposed to sets and was lit almost entirely with a Lowell Kit, a staple for film students, perhaps as a reaction against the huge apparatus needed for Stanley Kubrick’s previous film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Wendy Carlos’s synthesized score features the first ever use of a vocoder.

After filming the famed brainwashing scene, Malcolm McDowell has since had an overwhelming fear of eyedrops.

Contrary to popular claims, this film was never banned in the UK. It originally received an “X” rating in 1971 and was withdrawn from distribution in 1973 by the film’s director. In 1999 (the year of Stanley Kubrick’s death), the film was released again and received an “18″ rating.

You could have a whole trivia night based on ACO and some other Kubrick films.

By: John

John — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:26:36 +0000

Oh yeah, good point about Jagger and ACO, I should have remembered that. Can’t imagine him playing Alex somehow, he’s a pretty terrible actor. Performance was okay because he’s playing a version of himself but Ned Kelly is pretty ropey even though it’s a very well-made movie in other respects. Oddly enough, it was the Stones version of ACO that led to Performance, if I remember correctly. Sandy Lieberson was going to produce ACO but they decided they couldn’t do it so Performance started being planned instead with SL producing. A curious web of connections.

By: Eroom Nala

Eroom Nala — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 20:38:59 +0000

Stan the Man
When I bought the LP of A Clockwork Orange in Sydney, Australia I can’t remember how many years ago now the guy I bought it from told me “I was working in the record store when they made the film”. He didn’t actually tell me the name of the store and I’d always thought the Chelsea drug store was a chemists.

Terry Gilliam has a large poster of Brazil in the video store in The Fisher King. How many other directors made self references to their previous cinematic outputs in later films?

Kubrick Expert Trivia Quiz:

http://pages.prodigy.com/kubrick/kubquiz.htm

Ths Shining Trivia:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/trivia

During the making of the movie, Kubrick would call King at 3am and ask him questions like “Do you believe in God?”

2001 trivia:

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film8/trivia

various films trivia & mistakes:

http://www.moviemistakes.com/name3422

ACO Trivia:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/trivia

Anthony Burgess originally sold the movie to Mick Jagger for $500 when he needed quick cash. Jagger intended to make it with The Rolling Stones as the droogs.

Director Cameo: [Stanley Kubrick] examining magazines with his back to the camera on the right of the screen as Alex walks through the record shop.

He should have put an LP of Singin’ in the Rain in the store too

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/soundtrack

:-)