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Is it a nightmare or an actual view of a post-apocalyptic world? Set in an industrial town in which
giant machines are constantly working, spewing smoke, and making noise that is inescapable, Henry
Spencer lives in a building that, like all others, appears to be abandoned. The lights flicker on and off,
he has bowls of water in his dresser drawers, and for his only diversion he watches and listens to the
Lady in the Radiator sing about finding happiness in heaven. Henry has a girlfriend, Mary X, who has
frequent spastic fits. Mary gives birth to Henry's child, a frightening looking mutant, which leads to the
injection of all sorts of sexual imagery into the depressive and chaotic mix.
The original print of the film ran 20 min. longer and featured a number of characters who are referenced in
the credits but do not appear. The people digging in the alley show up in the second half of the movie. Henry
comes across two kinds of excavating rows of dimes from the asphalt in the street. The landlady shows up in
the second half, in a scene where Henry goes into the lobby of the apartment building and takes out his
anger on a bench. "You stop kicking my bench!" the landlady shouts at him. "That's good wood!"
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