Lemon Hearts1960

Starring Taylor Mead in eleven roles. Filmed in the now-demolished Victorian houses in San Francisco's Western Division Redevelopment area. "The film opens with Taylor Mead wandering aimlessly through a shabey alley where he sees displayed paintings of Edward Lupper's 'romantic decadence.' Suddenly the paintings form a collage of ruins that lead by means of a decaying staircase into the real thing - the Western Addition rubble. The remainder of the movie concerns Taylor Mead's abortive romances with some anachronistic Victorian spinsters of various illusionary ages and fantasies, all played by himself. Ultimately Mead suffers an acute disillusionment with these shadowy beings of yester-year and flees to the modern insanity of the Jack Tar Motel, clutching in his hand a suitcase filled with the artifacts of the forgotten life... It is not pathos Mead evokes, nor derision. It is rather a Chaplinesque sense of incongruity. All civilization takes on a ridiculous note in terms of Mead, and his answer seemingly is: I am, therefore you think." Lee Stothers, S.F. Territorial News