Posted: Wed., Mar. 12, 2003, 10:24pm PT

My Dinner With Jimi

A Fallout Films and Rhino Entertainment production. Produced by Harold Bronson. Directed by Bill Fishman. Screenplay, Howard Kaylan.

Howard Kaylan - Justin Henry

Jimi Hendrix - Royale Watkins

Mark Volman - Jason Boggs

Bill Uttley - George Wendt

John Barbata - Brett Gilbert

Jim "Tucko" Tucker - Sean Maysonet

Jim Pons - Kevin Cotteleer

Al Nichol - George Stanchev

John Lennon - Brian Groh

Paul McCartney - Quinton Flynn

Ringo Starr - Ben Bode

George Harrison - Nate Dushku

Mama Cass - Lisa Brounstein

Henry Diltz - John Corbett

Jim Morrison - Bret Roberts

Mary - Allison Lange

Louella - Wendie Jo Sperber

Frank Zappa - Adam Tomei

Herb Cohen - Curtis Armstrong

Psychiatrist - Taylor Negron

By ANDY KLEIN

Howard Kaylan -- lead singer of the '60s pop group the Turtles, later a member of the group best known as the Mothers of Invention, and then half of the duo Flo & Eddie -- penned this memoir of his early career and his encounters with (among others) the Beatles, Graham Nash, Donovan, Brian Jones, and, most importantly, Jimi Hendrix. On a minuscule budget, director Bill Fishman ("Tapeheads") and his enthusiastic cast recreate the exciting, topsy-turvy world of 1966-67. The overall energy more than compensates for budgetary constraints, and with proper handling, the film should attract an audience of nostalgic boomers, and might even cross over to younger audiences with a curiosity about the era. 

Pic's first half covers the year leading up to the Turtles' biggest hit, "Happy Together," which knocked the Beatles' "Penny Lane" out of the top spot on the pop charts in March of 1967 and stayed there for three weeks. In the pre-"Happy Together" days, the group is playing L.A. clubs and scuffling along with some minor hits. In their off-hours, they hang out at Canter's Deli, along with Frank Zappa (Adam Tomei), Mama Cass (Lisa Brounstein), and Jim Morrison (Bret Roberts). They worry about the draft; Kaylan (Justin Henry, the kid in "Kramer vs. Kramer") and bandmate/best friend Mark Volman (Jason Boggs) have to con their way through a draft physical.

Second part of the film follows the band's adventures when members arrive in England to exploit the success of "Happy Together." They look up old buddy Graham Nash, who plays them an advance reel-to-reel of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," then takes them to a club to meet the Beatles. This confrontation with the Fab Four, and with John Lennon (Brian Groh) in particular, is the most intriguing scene in the movie, more revelatory than the subsequent, much longer conversation that gives the film its title.

Still, Kaylan reproduces -- as best as he can remember through a haze of liquor -- the gist of his long sitdown with Jimi Hendrix (Royale Watkins, in a completely believable turn); and his memories are a convincing recreation of a special cultural moment from the unique perspective of someone who started out as just another fan of what was happening and then became a big enough star to cross over into the world of his heroes.

Film was shot in 12 days -- a hasty schedule, which nevertheless almost never compromises the tech credits; the generally rough feel appears as part of the movie's stylistic plan.

Groh and Watkins are easily the best cast of the celebrity impersonators -- a few of the other actors portraying rock stars simply don't look quite enough like their universally recognizable models to suspend our disbelief -- and most of the smaller roles are filled by memorable, underused character actors like George Wendt, Curtis Armstrong, and Taylor Negron.

Camera (color), Philip Holahan; editors, Londin Angel Winters, Peter Shelton; music, Andrew Gross; production designer, Phillip Vasels; art director, Kent Casey; costume designer, Connie Cappos; line producers, Preston Holmes, Cal Naylor. Reviewed at the Santa Monica Film Festival, Feb. 16, 2003. Running time: 90 MIN.

'HAPPY' HOWARD: Howard Kaylan of the Turtles and Flo & Eddie fame is happy indeed. "Happy Together," the timeless 1967 No. 1 Turtles hit penned by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, has been revived again by its key usage in the acclaimed movie Adaptation-not to mention two plays in The Simpsons this season and another in the upcoming Freaky Friday film remake.
In Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage, the main character's fellow screenwriter brother uses "Happy Together" as a means of juxtaposing a soundtrack song against the story's mood, à la "As Time Goes By" in Casablanca.
But the Carlin America-published song, which later charted for Dawn, Captain & Tennille, and the Nylons and has also been covered by scores of artists, including Mel Torme and Flo & Eddie associate Frank Zappa, remains a commercial staple as well. Recent national commercial placements include Florida Orange Juice, Marshall Fields, Red Lobster, and SunCom Wireless. Kaylan reports that he and his longtime Turtles partner, Mark Volman-who own the original "Happy Together" master-have just licensed it for an international Heineken spot starring Jennifer Aniston.
"We got more money for that usage than we've ever received for it or any song we've ever done," he says. "The song will not die-and neither will our careers!"

True indeed, but the song's inclusion in Adaptation has also spurred the solo side of Kaylan's career. "When I saw the film, the audience started singing along with it," he relates. "It indicated to me that this thing had a life of its own-and that it was time for me to get off my butt and finish my solo album."
The disc will contain "Easy Street," a new song penned by High Concept Music (BMI) writers Kaylan and Volman. The latter moonlights as a college teacher and is writing a musical revolving around the music of his late Academy Award-winning uncle Leo Robin; his hits include "Thanks for the Memory" and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
Otherwise, "every song is a cover of an album track or B-side that I've been infatuated with since the early '60s," Kaylan adds, "from the Verve Folkways catalog and [its] Jim & Jean songs to British imports and unheard songs by Michael Brown of the Left Banke. I could write songs about middle-aged angst or the state of the world-or 'you and me, baby,' [but] I've had 38 years of doing that, and no one wants to hear a 55-year-old clown with an album intended to compete with Aaron Carter."

Meanwhile, Kaylan's autobiographical film, My Dinner With Jimi, for which he received the best screenplay nod at the 2003 Slamdunk Film Festival in Park City, Utah, garnered favor at its recent showing at the Santa Monica Film Festival. The Bill Fishman-directed flick chronicles the night in 1967 when Kaylan met Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles.
"It's an absolutely true story," Kaylan recounts. "It was our first trip to London, and we met Graham Nash, Donovan, the Stones, and the Beatles-who played us Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band before it was released-all on the same night! I wound up eating dinner with Hendrix at 4 a.m. and getting violently ill and puking all over his red velvet suit!"

Ah, those were the days-which brings us back to "Happy Together." "It's set up as the greatest 'lonely song' of all time-yet it's very 'up,' " Kaylan says, noting that the lyric actually concerns someone imagining being "happy together" with another. "We had guys returning from Vietnam saying that it got them through the war, and then they got back home and used it as their wedding song," he continues. "It was an incredibly emotional experience for people, and there was something magical about the sound. I'm not really sure why, because it's a simple melody and production, yet there's something transcendent about the record that I very much doubt could be duplicated today-and not just because it's something that's etched in our collective memory bank."

Jim Bessman

FIRST ANNUAL DON'T KNOCK THE ROCK FESTIVAL

For their first annual live-music and film festival, Don't Knock the Rock founders Allison Anders, Tiffany Anders and Gianna Chachere have lined up three days' worth of rock-themed movies that operates on the same something-for-everybody spirit as the festival's music programming. There are L.A. premieres, most notably for David C. Thomas' MC5: A True Testimonial (2002), about the seminal Detroit band. There are documentaries, including the first two installments of Penelope Spheeris' peerless Decline of Western Civilization series. And there are short films and narrative features, most starring, or studded with actual musicians, films including John Boorman's 1965 freeform romp with the Dave Clark 5, Having a Wild Weekend; Kurt Voss' affably rowdy Down and Out With the Dolls (2001); and Lou Adler's rough-hewn 1982 punk cult film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains, starring Diane Lane with a fauxhawk and in the company of Ray Winstone, Paul Cook and Paul Simenon.

Don't look too hard for a unifying thread, although interesting comparisons come up between, for instance, Jeff Feuerzeig's 1993 documentary Half-Japanese: The Band Who Would Be King, an ode to record-geek heroes, and Bill Fishman's low-rent, high-charm narrative feature My Dinner With Jimi. The latter, written by Howard Kaylan (a.k.a. Flo of Flo and Eddie) about his true-life experiences striking it big as the lead singer of the Turtles, is a cheery, aw-shucks tale of addled nights on the Strip and adventures with British rock heroes. By its very goofball nature, My Dinner succeeds where Feuerzeig's intriguing but overearnest portrait fails, pointing out that one of the best things about rock & roll is that it's a milieu where misfits, for once, rule.

(ArcLight, Knitting Factory; Fri.-Sun., Aug. 15-17. www.dontknocktherock.com)

Hazel-Dawn Dumpert