In 200 Motels, the film attempts to portray the craziness of life on the road as a rock musician, and as such consists of a series of unconnected nonsense vignettes interspersed with concert footage of the Mothers of Invention. Ostensibly, while on tour The Mothers of Invention go crazy in the small fictional town of Centerville, wander around, and get beaten up in "Redneck Eats", a cowboy bar. In an animated interlude passed off as a "dental hygiene movie," bassist "Jeff", tired of playing what he refers to as "Zappa's comedy music", is persuaded by his bad conscience to quit the group, as did his real-life counterpart Jeff Simmons. Simmons was replaced by Martin Lickert for the film. Almost every scene is drenched with video special effects which were innovative in 1971. The film has been dubbed a "surrealistic documentary".
Cast
Frank Zappa as himself
The Mothers of Invention as themselves
Theodore Bikel as Rance Muhammitz, the narrator/Master of Ceremonies
Ringo Starr as Larry the Dwarf, dressed as Frank Zappa
Keith Moon as the hot nun
Howard Kaylan as himself
Mark Volman as himself
Ian Underwood as himself
Ruth Underwood as herself
Don Preston as himself
Jimmy Carl Black as Lonesome Cowboy Burt
Euclid James 'Motorhead' Sherwood as himself
Aynsley Dunbar as himself
George Duke as himself
Jim Pons as himself
Pamela Des Barres as the interviewer
Martin Lickert as Jeff
Janet Neville-Ferguson as Groupie #1
Lucy Offerall as Groupie #2
Dick Barber as Chunga - The Vacuum Cleaner
Judy Gridley as the chorus leader
London Philharmonic Orchestra as the bewildered orchestra
Production
Principal scenes of 200 Motels, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, were filmed in a week at Pinewood Studios outside London, and featured The Mothers of Invention, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon. Tensions between Zappa and several cast and crew members arose before and during shooting. However, director Tony Palmer claims that all elements of the script derived from Zappa's trunk's worth of material were completed during production. It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film utilizing a Technicolor film printer utilized by the BBC.
Release and reception
United Artists' press kit for the film stated "For the audience that already knows and appreciates THE MOTHERS, will provide a logical extension of our concerts and recordings." The film premiere was shown at Doheny Plaza Theater in Hollywood, California to mixed reviews. 200 Motels currently holds a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, saying that the film; "is a joyous, fanatic, slightly weird experiment in the uses of the color videotape process", and also stating; "It assaults the mind with everything on hand".
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to 200 Motels was released by United Artists Records on October 4, 1971, and features a combination of rock and jazz songs, orchestral music and comedicspoken dialogue. The rock and comedy songs "Mystery Roach", "Lonesome Cowboy Burt", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy", "What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning" and "Magic Fingers", and the finale "Strictly Genteel", which mixes orchestral and rock elements, were noted as highlights of the album by reviewer Richie Unterberger. The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall after filming, was canceled because a representative of the venue found some of the lyrics obscene. In 1975, he lost a lawsuit against the Royal Albert Hall for breach of contract. When Penis Dimension was played to the judge, Mr Justice Mocatta, he responded "Have I got to listen to this?". The UK première was not until 29 October 2013, almost 20 years after Zappa's death. 200 Motels charted at #59 on the Billboard 200. The album was not released on compact disc until 1997, as a result of a licensing deal between Rykodisc and MGM allowing them to re-release numerous rare movie-musical soundtracks on CD. With the addition of this title, Ryko was finally able to offer the complete catalog of official Zappa recordings, as numerous legal proceedings both during Zappa's lifetime and afterwards failed to cede ownership of the rights and tapes to ZFT. That 2-CD edition, now out of print, contained extensive liner notes and artwork as well as a small poster for the film, as well as bonus tracksconsisting of radio promos for the film and the single edit of the song "Magic Fingers". Though many Zappa fans consider this album a key recording of the period, it was deemed by some music critics to be a peripheral album. Allmusic's Richie Unterberger critiqued what he referred to as the "growing tendency to deploy the smutty, cheap humor that would soon dominate much of Zappa's work", but said that "Those who like his late-'60s/early-'70s work will probably like this fine".
Legacy
After 200 Motels, the band went on tour; the live albumJust Another Band From L.A. included the 20-minute track "Billy the Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera set in Southern California. This track was representative of the band's theatrical performances in which songs were used to build up sketches based on 200 Motels scenes as well as new situations often portraying the band members' sexual encounters on the road.
