Blonde Cobra (1963)
Directed by Bob Fleischner / Ken Jacobs
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Synopsis by Nicole Gagne
In the late '50s, Jack Smith was acting in a film for director Bob Fleischner, but the project ended when the two had a falling out. A fire subsequently destroyed most of what had been filmed, but in 1960, Fleischner gave the remaining footage to director Ken Jacobs, who edited it into this short, which features a manic Smith putting on makeup, playing with dolls, smoking marijuana, and wearing dresses. By 1962, Jacobs' own falling out with Smith had cooled sufficiently to enable him to record a soundtrack, for which Jacobs mixed 78 rpm records and strummed inside a piano while Smith improvised a hilarious confessional rant of poverty and desperation: "Why shave when I can't think of a reason for living?"