Watch a free stream of the definitive Beat Generation short film Pull My Daisy

The 1959 short film Pull My Daisy is often described as the ultimate and typifying footage of the beat generation's biggest players. The film, directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, is based on the third act of Jack Kerouac's play simply titled Beat Generation. The 28-minutes of footage takes place during a dinner party, in which a railroad brakeman and his wife invite an esteemed Bishop over for dinner, when the gathering is eventually crashed by a group of beatnik bohemians (Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, and Larry Rivers) and quickly transcends into a night of poetic banter and drink.

Kerouac provides improvised narration that burns brightly with his stinging rhythmic ramblings. Despite initial praise that the film captured the great spontaneity of an evening with the praised beatnik poets, it was later revealed that the film was carefully architected and professionally shot by Frank. The German production company Steidl has just released a reformatted box set of the film that comes with film set photographs and a book of Kerouac's transcribed narration. 

Though, if you can't wait to take part in all the delightful absurdity, you can check out the free stream of Pull My Daisy here.