Directed by Dean Stockwell and Neil Young (billed as ‘Bernard Shakey’), Human Highway is a fever dream of a film – part musical, part comedy, part fantasy, part anti-nuke message film – and a strong contender for the title of “weirdest movie of all time.”
Otto Quartz (Dean Stockwell) is the unscrupulous new owner of a roadside diner-cum-garage stuck in a town built around an always-leaking nuclear power plant owned by the Cal-Neva Nuclear Power Authority, where – coincidentally – the band Devo work as irradiated garbage men and play music.
He plans to torch the place to collect the insurance, but an assortment of bizarre characters and weird events gets in his way.
Neil Young is Lionel Switch – a goofy, not-too-bright, and very incompetent mechanic working in the garage, who dreams of being a rock star like his hero Frankie Fontaine.
Russ Tamblyn plays Fred, Lionel’s even more incompetent best friend, who’s hired to help him out in the garage.
A clearly stoned Dennis Hopper is Cracker, the diner’s short-order cook, constantly pestered by radioactive flies.
The world comes to an end in the final act as the cast sings Worried Man Blues while dancing around with shovels . . .
The film (personally financed by Neil Young) took four years to complete, and it’s probably fair to say there were some drugs involved.
If you’re not a fan of Young or Devo, it’s probably really not worth it.
Lionel Switch/Frankie Fontaine
Neil Young Fred Kelly
Russ Tamblyn Otto Quartz
Dean Stockwell Cracker
Dennis Hopper Charlotte Goodnight
Charlotte Stewart Kathryn
Sally Kirkland Irene
Geraldine Baron Mrs Robinson
Mickey Fox Arthur
Danny Tucker Earl Duke
David Blue Sheik
Fox Harris Secretary
Trish Soodik Starlet
Karen Jumper Whitlow Kingsley
Elliot Roberts Yoko
Yoko Arimiche Nuclear Garbageperson/Booji Boy
Mark Mothersbaugh Nuclear Garbageperson
Jerry Casale Nuclear Garbageperson
Bob Casale Nuclear Garbageperson
Bob Mothersbaugh Nuclear Garbageperson
Alan Myers Biker Girl
Pegi Young Harem Girls
Geri Barton
Bambi Myers
Rocky Bonifield (as Rocky Meyers) Construction workers
Ron Denend
John Herzog
Marie Janisse
Kiel Martin
Kedric Wolfe
Director
Dean Stockwell
Neil Young (as Bernard Shakey)
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Otto Quartz (Dean Stockwell) is the unscrupulous new owner of a roadside diner-cum-garage stuck in a town built around an always-leaking nuclear power plant owned by the Cal-Neva Nuclear Power Authority, where – coincidentally – the band Devo work as irradiated garbage men and play music.
A clearly stoned Dennis Hopper is Cracker, the diner’s short-order cook, constantly pestered by radioactive flies.
Lionel Switch/Frankie Fontaine
Charlotte Goodnight
Whitlow Kingsley
Nuclear Garbageperson
