Human Highway (1982) – Nostalgia Central

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)