Ringo Star as a dwarf in Frank Zappa disguise,
Keith Moon as a suicidal groupie in a nun's habit, and two half-naked groupies, flitting around to music by The Mothers Of Invention, fronted by the two clownish fatmen
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. All elements of the 1971 film 200 Motels by Frank Zappa and director Tony Palmer. Sounds intriguing but the feature film as a whole is a hard sell to wade
… through, with no real story and lumbering band members acting in images full of epileptic effects. Film and soundtrack are therefore definitely not known as masterpieces by the hand of master Zappa. His heirs hardly looked back on this disastrous project, which was plagued by lack of time and budget, band member Jeff Simmons who didn't see any point and quit halfway through the recording and a hired The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra that not only had trouble with Zappa's score, but whose members also started misbehaving in protest during the chaotic shooting days. This beautifully remastered soundtrack - a motley collage of solid rock, abstract orchestral passages and corny film dialogues - also shows that Zappa's work is not always brilliant, but timeless and utterly original. (MR)more 
