Roy Head and the Traits – "Treat Her Right" (1965)

She’s gonna love you tonight now

If you just treat her right now

I’m not a young man, and my prostate isn’t what it used to be.  So I purposely didn’t buy a drink to take into the theatre where I recently saw the new Quentin Tarantino movie – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – which is a bladder-busting two hours and forty-five minutes long.  

Once Upon a Time includes everything but the kitchen sink . . . and Tim Roth’s performance.  

Roth made memorable appearances in three previous Tarantino movies (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and The Hateful Eight), so it’s no surprise that he was signed up for Once Upon a Time.  

But Roth’s character ended up on the cutting-room floor.  His name is listed in the credits, but there’s nary a frame of 35mm film of Roth in the final cut of Once Upon a Time.

But be of good cheer!  Rumor has it that Tarantino plans to release a four-hour-long version of the movie that will include not only Roth’s missing scenes but also a bunch of other stuff he felt compelled to cut from the version of the movie that’s currently appearing in theatres.

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The Ringer’s Miles Surrey recently ranked the 20 most prominent characters in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  I think he did a pretty good job.

The #1 and #2 spots, of course go to the film’s two megastars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.  I love the always-likable Pitt’s loosey-gooseyness, but DiCaprio’s performance as a fading network-TV leading man is remarkable.  

DiCaprio and Pitt

Leo is usually a little too cool for school, but he absolutely disappears within one of the Western bad guys he depicts in Once Upon a Time.  (If I had seen only his scenes as that character, I’m not sure I would have recognized him as DiCaprio.)

Surrey also gives high marks to Margot Robbie (who portrays Sharon Tate), to eight-year-old scene-stealer Julia Butters, and to Pitt’s ugly pit bull (who saves the day when the Charles Manson crew comes calling).  Fair enough.

But Margaret Qualley deserves a much higher ranking.  Qualley, the most memorable of the several dozen Manson Family girls depicted in the movie, is simply irresistible as a hippie Lolita with dirty feet and hairy armpits.  When she hitches a ride with Pitt’s character and immediately propositions him, Pitt asks to see her driver’s license to make sure she is of age – a display of superhuman self-discipline that is as impressive as it is implausible.

Margaret Qualley

Surrey is absolutely right to rank Lena Dunham (who portrays another Manson Family girl) dead last.  

It’s not exactly a tough call.

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“Treat Her Right,” a 1965-era stick of dynamite, kicks off the Once Upon a Time soundtrack.

If you didn’t know better, you might think that “Treat Her Right” was an Elvis Presley song.  But Elvis never released a record this good.

Roy Head’s not only a great singer but a great dancer – click here to watch a mind-blowing TV performance of “Treat Her Right.”  (Eat your heart out, James Brown.)

Please note that Head is wearing a tie and a buttoned suit jacket.  Despite his frenetic dancing, there’s not a hair on his Brylcreemed head out of place at the end of his performance. 

“Treat Her Right” made it all the way to #2 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1965.  The song that kept it out of the #1 spot was “Yesterday.”  (Really?)

As political commentator Charlie Sykes once said, “Life isn’t fair.  Get used to it.”

Click here to buy the song from Amazon: