I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968) part 2

Harold Fine--uptight, soon-to-be-married attorney, firmly entrenched member of "the establishment"--arrives to pick up his younger brother, Herbie, for the funeral of a family friend.


One of Herbie's hippie friends comes out to tell him Herbie's on his way.


"Groovy car!"


Harold is instantly enchanted by her (Leigh Taylor-Young) beauty.


Herbie's friend has been successfully brainwashed and indoctrinated by the counterculture: "What a beautiful day for a funeral!"


"Mars and Neptune are at the tenth angle, and Saturn starts progressing into Aries". Harold's checking out her tenth angle.


Free spirit, Herbie, wears his Sunday finest for the funeral: "It's the traditional burial outfit of the Hopi Indians." Yes, of course it is.


Herbie's explanation doesn't satisfy horrified, conservative older brother, Harold.




The motley crue arrives at the funeral home only to find a hearse driver strike under way. Hmmm, I wonder who'll be asked to drive the casket to the cemetery?


Nancy, who's never been to a funeral, has a splendid time. Leigh Taylor-Young was in her prime in 1968. Glowing with beauty, one can see why Peter Sellers chose her for the part, and then later fell in love with her (according to her website), as he would with many of his female co-stars.


Picture from Leigh Taylor-Young's website showing Peter Sellers taking her picture the day of her audition.


Picture from Leigh Taylor-Young's website, picture by Peter Sellers


sore thumbs


"What kind of mashugina outfit is this? What LSD clothes he's wearing?"


"It's the traditional burial outfit of the Hopi Indians."


Yep, no one but Harold can transfer the coffin to the cemetery due to the driver strike. Have I mentioned the Fine family and friends are Jewish?


On the way to the cemetery, Harold gets hassled by "the man", and instructed to get a smog detector.


The first of many wrong cemeteries.




Harold begins to notice the not too subtle differences between his fiance, Joyce, and flower child, Nancy.


The choice is clear--what every man desired in 1968 v. every man's mother grandmother.



Finally, they arrive at their destination.


Harold drops off Herbie and Nancy after the funeral. This screencap shows the amount of detail someone put into the car. It's pretty awesome, actually. I think that's Dylan (the face on the door), during his Blonde on Blonde period, but it could be Hendrix.


more car detail


Harold then drops off his mom his fiance, Joyce. He'll need the room, because on his way home, he picks up a hitchhiker.


"Going to Laurel Canyon?"


The Rodriguez family from part 1!


Stereotypes are funny.


Fellow hitchers accept the Rodriguez's invitation for a ride. It's a cameo by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, the screenwriters. They had had some success writing the pilot episode for The Monkees TV series. Mazursky was actually supposed to direct I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, as well, but Sellers didn't want a first-time director on the job.


Harold: "Where's Herbie!?"
Nancy: "Oh, Herbie met Lovelady."

Wasn't she beautiful? She reminds me a little of Jessica Alba.


"Don't you know it's very dangerous to hitch by yourself out here at night? There are sex MANIACS driving in cars! Perverts. I see them in court every day. Believe me."

Harold Fine: sex maniacs driving in cars expert


Nancy crashes at Harold's almost swingin' bachelor pad.

SEE! The butterfly tattoo on Nancy's soft, inner thigh. What was the Andy Warhol connection?
SEE! Nancy whip up a mean batch of brownies, using? Pixie dust? Oregano? Lawn trimmings??
SEE! Old people behaving stoned. Really stoned. Most convincingly so. Was there a reason?
SEE! Peter Sellers in an awful wig. And more!!! In part 3. Are you diggin' it?

part 3

part 4

part 5