THE PHYNX Psych cult 1970 movie rare Fake LP sleeve ULTRA VIOLET Andy Warhol

$

90

Killer piece of MUSIC AND CINEMA MEMORABILIA : mock up sleeve (fake sleeve) (NO DISC!)  made for the release of the LEE H. KATZIN 1970 cult underground film THE PHYNX (with music made by LEIBER AND STOLLER) and featuring JOHNNY WEISSMULLER, THE LONE RANGER & TONTO, ULTRA VIOLET (from ANDY WARHOL'S FACTORY) DOROTHY LAMOUR, JOE LOUIS, CLINT WALKER and many more (in "cameo "appearances) . and of course featuring the pop psych band THE PHYNX which never really existed outside from this film!!!   this item which is really exactly like an LP SLEEVE (thick US cardboard sleeve and moreover FOLD OPEN) was made especially to be used for the film shooting and has a great picture of THE PHYNX group on front cover  . but this sleeve was also used as PROMOTION to medias when the film was released. inside the gatefold sleeve is a long detailed synopsis of the film and pictures of all actors or "guest actor"s" such as ULTRA VIOLET , and also pictures and names of the members of the PHYNX. there is also a  few lines  at the end of these liner notes stating that a record LP will be published  soon with songs from PHYNX band. but that LP was of course never released back then!   back cover has pictures and short biographies of the main actors  including a second picture of ULTRA VIOLET as well as producers and director.  but that's not all : INSIDE the sleeve are 2 press  releases: one is 3 pages long synopsis and the second one has some notes on the actors, the setting, the production activity, staff and crew etc… AGAIN: there is NO DISC inside this fake great sleeve ! . But this is a great item for collectors of bands that never existed (!!!) of for cult/underground psych films!  SLEEVE is nice Ex- condition  with some  light wear on extreme left border (rear) and corners .  HERE IS something i found on internet on the film and on this famous sleeve:

 “The Phynx”: Stan Cornyn’s “strange slice of 60s psuedo surrealism”we were also reminded of the 1970 spy movie spoof he’d written the screenplay for, The Phynx, a little pop-rock espionage farce about a band put together by a C.I.A.-type organization to help rescue kidnapped celebrities. We think it deserves to be remembered too.

First of all, let’s just start with this: the reason you may not have heard about The Phynx was that it was not a box-office success, which is understandable, since there was just one screening, the premiere at the Glendale Shopping Center in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 6, 1970, and there may have been just one screening in Los Angeles for cast members — and then it promptly disappeared for decades… or perhaps it was swept under a metaphorical giant rug or something like that (and Cornyn himself may have been the one with the broom in hand; according to music historian and writer Andy Zax, Stan Cornyn — talking about his only produced screenplay at the American Cinematheque in 2000 — said: “Watching this film for the first time in thirty years was the most embarrassing experience I can remember since my first marriage.”)

The Phynx — named for the movie’s band, and pronounced like “finks,” which in 60s-era slang is similar to “stool pigeon,” “snitch,” “stoolie”… even “narc” — was not entirely forgotten, however. Fans of the movie traded copies on bootleg tapes for decades, first on VHS and then DVD, before it was officially released by Warner Archive for the first time in October 2012. Actual screenings of the film are still pretty rare; when The Phynx was screened in L.A. in 2013 as part of the Cinefamily‘s “Everything Is” film festival, some of the sources we’ve read said it was the first time in more than thirty years since the movie had been seen on the big screen.

The Phynx was really Stan Cornyn’s project from the get-go — based on a story he concocted with writers Bob Booker and George Foster, who were probably best known as gag writers for the Kennedy family parody The First Family, starring Vaughn Meader, in addition to some other political and Jewish comedy albums in the 1960s. The First Family was the only comedy album ever to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, in 1962, and no doubt Cornyn brought them aboard — or maybe he was brought on board by them? — and perhaps it was greenlit by Warner-Seven Arts based on Booker and Foster’s past success and knowing that the movie was going to be filled with cameo appearances by more than a dozen celebrities. Or soon-to-be former celebrities, you decide.

And as for those Phynx’s songs, Cornyn no doubt flipped through his Rolodex and found the perfect team to help come up with the band’s songs, the incredible songwriting/producing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, who had penned bona fied rock ‘n’ classics that we’re sure you have all heard, like “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Yakety Yak,” “Spanish Harlem,” “On Broadway” and “Stand by Me.” For this one, the songs don’t really stand out — “I’ve Got Them Feelin’ Too Good Today Blues” and “What is Your Sign?” are probably the stand outs — and some of them were even recorded later by artists as varied as Peggy Lee, Mandy Patinkin, Nancy Wilson and The Boys in the Band (“How About A Little Hand (For The Boys In The Band”) but pretty much everyone agrees that it isn’t Leiber and Stoller’s best work.

 cover was produced as a movie prop. Then they printed up a few more to use for publicity purposes. There was a soundtrack album planned, but it was never fully assembled or released.

The film’s director was Lee H. Katzin, who is probably best remember today as a detail-oriented TV director, although he did direct the 1971 Steve McQueen racing picture Le Mans a year later, a production fraught with issues because it was McQueen’s project and he didn’t let Katzin do what he wanted to do as a director. Katzin, it seems, was known mostly as a director who directed pilot episodes, and often he would only direct a few more episodes for the series, if that, and usually never work on the show again. His résumé looks impressive — he helmed episodes for popular TV shows like “Mission: Impossible,” “Branded,” “The Wild, Wild West,” “Rat Patrol,” “Mannix,” “It Takes A Thief,” “Police Story,” and “Space: 1999,” to name just a few — but he’s probably not considered one of the “great” directors.