Part musical romp, science-fiction, comedy, and anti-Fascist rant, STRANGERS IN PARADISE is an extended put-down of the politics of power, as well as an admonishing comparison between 1980s U. S. and Nazi Germany. It follows Jonathan Sage, a mesmerist and master of mind control courted and controlled by the power-mad.
In a black-and-white prologue, Sage (played by the director) visits Hitler (also played by Lommel) in 1939 Berlin. Drafted to mesmerize the Allied forces at the Russian front, Sage instead flees to London, where he performs at a smoke-filled hall while an energetic emcee sings, "Nobody's gonna put me down." Almost immediately, Nazi war planes start dropping bombs and Sage must again seek refuge. This time, though, he is placed in a cryogenic tube.
The movie turns color and advances to 1984. Sage is thawed and taken to Paradise Hills, a nondescript California suburb filled with "good" families. Some of the parents chastise their children for liking punk music and dyeing their hair. For a while, Sage is still groggy but retains his unusual abilities. He is brought under the control of reactionary, right-wing parents and others that want to fulfill a "master plan" that includes brainwashing anyone who doesn't agree with them. The group's leader, Staggers (Ken Letner), complains that the country being overrun by a "horde of perverted cretins."
The usual targets -- including homosexuals, rock 'n roll music, and drugs -- are blamed for America's decline. However, Lommel scores points by portraying the "perverts" as normal and the upstanding citizens as ludicrous nuts. The latter runs a covert group with wealth and connections in high places. The centerpiece of their activities is an enormous subterranean bomb shelter in Staggers' back yard, where scientists experiment on rebellious teenagers, hookers, and homosexuals using a computer called a Repentogram. This silly-looking machine goes "woop woop" a lot but repeatedly fails to change their captives' minds, who languish in a makeshift jail. That is where Sage comes in -- the group wants him to hypnotize the kids into being "upstanding citizens." Sage rebels and turns the tables on Staggers.
STRANGERS IN PARADISE is foremost a musical, although there's way too much singing and dancing, and some of it is really awful. Most of the 14 songs play out as fantasies in characters' minds, and this formula is overused. Nonetheless, there are several amusing and ironic moments. It is unlike any musical-comedy-fantasy-anti-Fascist film you'll ever see.
