200 Motels
Synopsis
"Touring makes you crazy," Frank Zappa says, explaining that the idea for this film came to him while the Mothers of Invention were touring. The story, interspersed with performances by the Mothers and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, is a tale of life on the road. The band members
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 25
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Rich HarrisonShot by Tony PalmerScored by Frank ZappaDesigned by Cal Schenkel
Box Office
1971 · Box office
Produced on a $679K budget
Production budget
$679K
Also known as
- Frank Zappa - 200 Motelsde
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Cast & Crew
25 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Mark Volman
as Member of Mothers of Invention
Frank Zappa
as Member of Mothers of Invention (uncredited)
Howard Kaylan
as Member of Mothers of Invention
Ian Underwood
as Member of Mothers of Invention
Aynsley Dunbar
as Member of Mothers of Invention
George Duke
as Member of Mothers of Invention
Theodore Bikel
as Dave
Keith Moon
as The Hot Nun
Jimmy Carl Black
as Lonesome Cowboy Burt
Ringo Starr
as Larry the Dwarf / Frank Zappa
Janet Neville Ferguson
as Groupie #1
Martin Lickert
as Jeff
Supporting cast
8Lucy Offerall
as Groupie #2 (Lucy)
Dick Barber
as Bif Debris - The Vacuum Cleaner
Don Preston
as Don
Pamela Des Barres
as Interviewer (as Pamela Miller)
Ruth Underwood
as Fake Drummer
Judy Gridley
as Chorus Leader
Jim Pons
as Member of Mothers of Invention (uncredited)
Euclid James Motorhead Sherwood
as Motorhead Sherwood (uncredited)
Directors
2Writers
4Producers
2Other crew
4Parents Guide
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