STRAY CAT ROCK: BEAT ’71 (1971) **

Furiko (Meiko Kaji) takes a murder rap for her boyfriend and goes to jail.  She later breaks out of prison and mysteriously disappears soon after.  Her sister gets their loyal hippie gang to help track her down.  They learn her boyfriend’s father is the mayor, who vows to make trouble for the gang if his son’s guilt is ever found out.  The hippies also discover the mayor has kidnapped Furiko in order to keep her quiet while he publicly grooms his son to be his successor.  After the hippies are run out of town by the pro-mayor citizens, they return to bust out Furiko.

Beat ’71 is the fifth and final chapter in the Stray Cat Rock saga.  They didn’t have part 4, Machine Animal on Amazon Prime, but since all these movies are mediocre at best, I’m sure I’m not missing much.  I only watched this series because I’m a fan of Kaji.  Unfortunately, she is kept off screen for most of the picture and spends a lot of her time locked in a prison cell.  Most of the movie focuses on the ramshackle family of homeless drifters than Kaji’s plight, which was a miscalculation if you ask me.  The hippie heroes are colorful, but the dramatics of their situation never quite hit their intended mark.  Also, the carnage they create pales in comparison to the other gangs in previous entries of the series.  (At one point, they Krazy Glue a guy to a chair.)  

The finale, set in an Old West town, is memorable although it comes a day late and a dollar short.  We also get a funny porno shoot that provides some (sadly, all-too brief) nudity.  The best part though was the performance by a groovy acid rock band, The Mops during a demonstration in front of the mayor’s house.  That’s still not enough to make you want to adopt this Stray Cat.  

AKA:  Stray Cat Rock:  Crazy Rider '71.  AKA:  Stray Cat Rock:  Violent Showdown ’71.  AKA:  Alley Cat Rock:  Crazy Riders ’71.