Poll: Alice Cooper's 1974 concert film "Good To See You Again". Do you own this thing?

As I prepare myself for the always fitting Autumn "Cooper-athon", I couldn't help but ask about this bizzare cult classic.

Do you own it? Do you like it as a ridiculous piece of Cooper camp? Or was it tossed away somewhere, never to return to the disc player?

I like it myself. I wouldn't dare take the thing to the Cannes Film Festival or anything, but I think it's very much "Alice", and very much a product that fits perfectly alongside anything else the band released during their 1969-1974 blueprint years.

One of the best, and most hilarious, summaries of this film I found on bluray.com. I think it pretty much says it all...

So, yes, this is one weird movie. Part traditional concert film and part Mystery Science Theater 3000 reject sort of lame-o no-budget picture, "Good to See You Again", Alice Cooper is more of a curiosity than anything else. It's certainly not a movie to be taken seriously, and if there's a point outside of aiming for the most ridiculous and shoddiest movie ever made, it's not readily evident. For as flat-out strange as it may be, there are two built-in audiences that will want to give this rarely-seen "gem" a shot: Alice Cooper fans and cinephiles in search of anything that's about as far outside the mainstream as is humanly possible while still staying in somewhat good taste. For all of Cooper's strange and occasionally sadistic on-stage antics, the film surrounding his performances is surprisingly tame; it's low on foul language and free of any real violence. It plays as straight and clean Comedy for the most part, and that's in stark contrast to Cooper's decidedly adult-themed performance that sees the entertainer wearing knee-high leopard-print boots over tight, tattered, and filthy underwear, accentuated with a small green appendage between his legs that at one point has a gigantic plastic fly attached to it. That's not even to mention Cooper's unique uses for an anatomically-correct female torso, his chasing of a giant tooth with an oversized toothbrush, his slithery companion, a staged beheading, and a jab at 1970s American Conservative politics. It's not only that the film footage around the concert is bad, it's that it's so contrary to what plays out during the concert, and that complete randomness is the true star of the film and what makes it so strangely appealing.

 

There should be a choice stating:
Yes I own this turkey, but the live footage is well worth it, as you can program the disc to just play that.

 

Yes, I've heard some fans say that they like the concert but not the campy storyline, which I can understand. Although, myself, I kinda just go along with the whole crazy thing.

 

I tried...honest I did! And I LIKE campy weirdness. Maybe I'll try again soon.

 

I bought it but couldn't watch it.

 

Maybe it just needs to be played precisely on Halloween, after about 12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! Or a 12 pack of something...

 

Very badly thought out and hardly anyone got to see it on release. The opening is great after that it should have been the show with interviews, behind the scenes etc. Michael Bruce claimed Shep stashed some of the budget and used it for WTMN.

 

The best version of Hello Hooray I've ever heard.

 

I vaguely remember it. I think it was ok. Some variety show like musical skit and some backstage tour footage. Maybe I'll watch it this week if I have some down time.

 

Have the DVD and now that I have blu-ray, I wish I had the blu-ray but don't watch it enough to warrant buying again. Love the concert footage, don't watch the silly skit footage except Lady is a Tramp.

 

The only thing that would have made the whole campy package even better, for me, is if they had added the "Elected" video, either in the film (hey, nothing else in the movie makes any logical sense either), or at least as an extra somewhere. Unless it is hiding as an "Easter Egg" in the menus and I never found it?

But that video is probably my favorite video of all-time and, since the film comes off the heels of the Billion Dollar Babies tour in the first place, it would have been perfect here. But it's still a fun and, yes, ridiculous film.

 

Well, I re-bought it on blu-ray. I couldn't resist. I haven't seen it in years and this thread has me wanting to watch it and I would like to see how the HD version looks on my projector. Will probably toss the DVD up in the classifieds.

 

Had the dvd, didn't like it at all and sold it years ago.

 

Enjoy the blu! At least it's pretty inexpensive so you can't go too wrong. And even at worst it will still bring out the absurdity of the whole thing in better resolution!

 

Thanks. Yeah, that's what I figured. It was cheap enough that I might as well upgrade and it gives me a good reason to watch it again. I love the concert footage, which I've been watching since I had a bootleg of the version with the old B&W movie footage.

 

Both the DVD and the Blu-Ray have an option to play the concert footage by itself without the goofy skits in between.

 

Concert footage is great and the "film" segments are completely unwatchable (tedious to the max.) Opt for watching just the concert footage and you have an essential filmed live document of the B$B era Alice Cooper group and mid-'70s Rock Americana.

 

I've owned it since it was made available on DVD around '05 or so. I'm thankful that there was a "concert footage only" option within the format as the stupid and silly film segments are the worst attempt at catching a Beatles/Monkees type of goofy/funny vibe with the band. Once in a while, I'll play it in its presented form, but very rarely. I wish there were more vintage concert footage with the original band that could be marketed. Maybe since Welcome To My Nightmare(the tv special) has been restored and just recently released, there could be some other shows in the pipeline for release.

 

Please let us know the quality of print used. The DVD used a very faded print and then goosed the color saturation in effort to help correct it. I'd like to know all the prints are not ruined by bad film stock or poor storage, etc.

 

From what I've seen of screen grabs, it looks like the same transfer, but I'll do a compare when it gets here and let you know.

 

I couldn't believe how bad they were when I first saw them. I had only ever seen the vintage B&W movie clips version for the longest time and heard there was another version with footage of the band in a running story skit which was kicked off by the Lady is a Tramp part. That song was the only non-concert AC footage seen in the version I had and I thought it was kinda funny and I knew the band was kinda funny, so I had this idea the skit footage must be funny. Boy was I wrong when I finally tracked down a bootleg of the skit version.

Wiki claims the B&W movie footage version was the original one for the US theatrical release. Anyone know if that's true? I had always assumed this one was some unofficial bootleg or foreign print that was put together much later. IIRC, though, it did have extra footage during "Unfinished Sweet" vs the skit version (but the full version of that is included as an extra on the DVD/blu release).

 

Never heard of this one, but now I'm curious. I watched some of "The Strange Case of Alice Cooper" on Shout! Factory streaming a while back, and the audio was so atrocious the film was unwatchable. It sounded like white noise.

 

Own it and love it. Of commercial available Alice concerts it's my fav. As for the goofy story, eh, it's representative of the underground headspace/times I suppose.

 

The audio is nice on the Good to See You Again release. Remixed from multis for surround sound. Here's a clip:

 

I remember before it was officially released I had to download this as three separate files off WinMx to create 3 separate VCD's just so I could finally see it.
Must have for any Alice fan!