For once, we’re talking about Iron Man’s dad. No, not Howard Stark. We’re talking about Robert Downey Sr. Back before Robert Downey Jr. was the biggest name in Hollywood, he was a small kid that showed up from time to time in his dad’s experimental and outré films. One of those films is “Greaser’s Palace.”
Robert Downey Sr. is a director that was known for his underground satirical films in the ’60s and ‘70s. And in “Greaser’s Palace,” you see the director’s big-budget debut, which takes the Christ story and puts an Old West spin on it. The film follows Jessy, complete in one of the best suits ever, who is a performer with a penchant for miracles. That’s when he goes to perform for Greaser at The Palace saloon.
The film is finally getting the HD treatment thanks to Doppelganger Releasing, who just recently released the cult comedy on Blu-ray. And we’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to give away some copies to The Playlist readers!
To win a copy of “Greaser’s Palace” on Blu-ray, all you have to do is follow us on Facebook and Twitter, tweet: “I want to win the ‘Greaser’s Palace’ Blu-ray from @ThePlaylist. #WinThePlaylistContest,” and include the URL of this story. Your final step: just email us your tweet to [email protected], with your full name and address, and tell us the name of your favorite cult classic movie. Good luck!
Here’s the synopsis for the film:
In GREASER’S PALACE, the story of Christ’s sufferings is “updated” and set in the wild and woolly Old West, where a zoot-suited drifter named Jessy (Allan Arbus, Damien: Omen II, Cisco Pike) performs miracles and attracts a large following. But what he really wants to do is sing and dance! He finally gets a chance to bring his act to The Palace, a saloon run by the ruthless Seaweedhead Greaser (Albert Anderson, Serpico), and he’s a big hit. But Jessy’s got more miracles to do…like restoring life to Greaser’s son Lamy (Michael Sullivan), who’s been killed by his father, and then contending with Greaser’s envious daughter Cholera (Luana Anders, The Last Detail). Meanwhile, an unnamed woman (Elsie Downey) struggles to reach the town after her husband and son are murdered.