The Apple: The Forgotten 1980s Musical
I'm probably very much in the minority when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. When it comes to campy musicals, I'll take The Apple over The Rocky Horror Picture Show any day. When this movie hit the theaters, it bombed big time. There's a report about the first movie goers being given LP's of the movie soundtrack and throwing them at the screen rather than taking them home. Menahem Golan, the producer of this movie, was said to be so distraught that he contemplated suicide.
I probably saw this movie a year or two after it had been released. I want to say it was on Channel 100 or Marquee. I could tell this one was different. It was maybe a foreshadowing of the way our TV is these days. It started with a musical contest. Somewhat like a battle of the bands. Boogaloo International Music (BIM) was the big record label that ran the country. Actually, I think it was more implied in this movie that Mr Boogaloo ran the world and was The Devil.
As one of those kids who was forced to go to church when I was younger, the idea of the battle of good and evil and God and The Devil has been ingrained in my mind. The movie forwarded the idea that eventually everybody will have to take a "Mark of The Beast" in order to survive in a world that is run by The Devil. When I was old enough to say no thank you to church, I did, but several of its messages still resonate with me. I've only this year taken Jesus back into my heart and pray every day.
Mr Boogaloo's musical act was singing the their song and winning the contest when two contestants out of Moosejaw, Canada came out to perform their song. The song was called Love The Universal Melody. Bibi and Alphie were the singers, and they nearly won the contest until Mr Boogaloo ordered his people to sabotage the sound system to get the crowd to boo them in the end. This is how the movie begins. You get a sense that Mr Boogaloo is in control, and you learn through the course of the movie and the musical numbers that he is The Devil.
Seeing that Bibi and Alphie had talent, Mr Boogaloo invites them to a party at his headquarters. He's there to tempt them to join his label. We get more musical numbers as Dandi from Dandi and Pandi takes Bibi aside. Several musical numbers break out during the course of this movie. In this case, Dandi sings her the song You're Made For Me and she joins in. There's another scene in which Bibi and Alphie go to Mr Boogaloo's office to sign a deal, but Alphie sees there's something evil going on there and refuses to sign. Bibi, however, signs a deal.
Mr Boogaloo makes Bibi a star, and she sings the musical number Speed. Yes, that song is very much about America being addicted to methamphetamine. We see a couple of numbers by Mr Boogaloo that show us that he is The Devil. If we didn't get that message in his song, Show Business, we see it in the number I Know How To Be A Master. As Bibi rises to superstardom, Alphie tries to make his way in life as he misses the woman that he loves.
We see him singing the number Where Has Love Gone. He tries to see Bibi a couple of times. One time leads to Pandi singing the song I'm Cumming. It's an interesting setup in which he shows up at a party, she gives him a drugged drink and takes him to a back room to have sex with him. This was a disco number, and I found it to be very entertaining. Alphie resists. Later, when he tries to see Bibi again, he gets beaten up. This leads to perhaps the most moving number, Cry For Me. It's a duet with Aphie and Bibi, who is shown missing him.
We see the message that it's never too late to join the side of good and do what's right when Pandi helps Bibi escape to go back to Alphie. I'm trying to remember the name of the song she sings with Bibi, but I think it's called I See The Light. Aphie had moved to a commune, which I think is symbolic of the people who don't take The Mark. They are shunned from society. Yes, there is a "Mark" in this movie. It's basically a sticker people put on their foreheads called The BIM. Bibi eventually finds the commune and is reunited with Alhie.
This leads to the confrontation as Mr Boogaloo figures out where the commune is and goes to demand Bibi return to him. This must be at least a year later as Bibi and Alphie have a child together, and Alphie has a beard. At this point, Mr Topps comes down in a Cadillac from Heaven. Yes, it's kind of silly to contemplate that the man symbolizing God comes to Earth driving a Cadillac from the sky, but so be it. Mr Topps and Mr Boogaloo have a confrontation in which Mr Topps declares that all the people from the commune are coming with him to go to another planet free of Mr Boogaloo's tyranny.
It's not difficult to figure out why this movie bombed. It wasn't very well-executed. Even the original writers of the screenplay had a disagreement with Manheim. They didn't like the direction he was taking things, and there was also a discrepancy in money. Be that as it may, the movie had good intentions. I was caught in the right mood when I first watched it as a kid. Maybe it was all the church my parents forced me to go to when I was younger, but I saw what the movie was trying to say overall.
Forget about some of the cheesy numbers and things that some people may have thought went too far. The song about drug use and the song that was all about sex might put Christians off, and therefore a segment of fans that could have helped this movie be more profitable were turned off to it. However, some of the musical numbers are catchy, and the story was enjoyable enough for me. Am I saying this was a great movie? No. It's not even a good movie by movie making standards. However, it managed to connect with me, and I will always enjoy it.
If you get a chance to watch The Apple, check it out. Know that this is a musical that, much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, doesn't have that great of a story. However, if you go into it with low expectations and the understanding that you're not watching Shakespeare, you might manage to get a glimpse of the message they were actually going for. Just be warned one or two of those songs might be a little catchy.
