Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies Film Script

Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies

Once Upon a Time in Rock ‘n’ Roll 

By Ed Murrieta

LOG LINE

A dashing doctor with shady ways joins the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in the 1970s and becomes addicted to Baby Groupies, the under-age queens of a taboo rock ‘n’ roll scene.

CHARACTERS

Barry Buckley

Slick, predatory lothario who leads the story from the Rolling Stones’ and Led Zeppelin’s 1970s tour doctor to present-day father of a teenage daughter. 

Lisa Lyons

13-year-old rock fan who is raped by Buckley in 1972 and who reappears in the present day at age 60 to confront Buckley for the infamous attack that was filmed for a notorious movie.

Arlen Van Vliet

Buckley’s older lover and mother-figure nemesis, an eccentric San Francisco heiress who owns Bourn Mansion, home to swinging parties, porn movies and Buckley’s harem.

Truman Capote

Portrayal of the drunken, druggy author appears in a 1973 flashback that summarizes Buckley’s Baby Groupie adventures and abuses in Capote’s own words.

Erica Buckley

Buckley’s 13-year-old daughter, who along with friends of a similar age, discover Buckley’s Dr. Feelgood past and give Buckley his comeuppance.

SUMMARY

A dashing doctor with shady ways gets superstars on stage and keeps million-dollar tours flying high. If only he could cure his own addiction to Baby Groupies, the under-age queens of a taboo rock ‘n’ roll scene. An edgy exploration of 1970s sexual freedoms and abuse, “Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies” is the movie rock fans and #MeToo truthers desire. And it’s got a killer soundtrack.

TRUE LEGENDS 

“Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies” is a fictionalized telling of true stories involving rock ‘n’ roll, literary and Hollywood legends from the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin to Truman Capote, John Lennon and Roman Polanski. 

In “Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies,” Barry Buckley is a 28-year-old, Yale-educated physician fresh off a tour of dubious duty in Vietnam. After pimping for generals and curing STDs, Buckley joins the Rolling Stones on tour in 1972 and instantly cements his rock ‘n’ roll notoriety: raping a 13-year-old girl while being filmed by avant garde documentarian Robert Frank for an object de objectionable cinematic art titled “Cocksucker Blues.” 

“Dr. Feelgood” follows Buckley’s introduction to the Rolling Stones in 1972 via Bianca Jagger’s gynecologist and shows Buckley plying his new trade -- dispensing pills and recruiting groupies -- on the band’s most decadent tour.

TIME-SHIFT STORYTELLING

“Dr. Feelgood” begins in the present day, at Old Dr. Buckley’s Northern California farm, where Buckley’s 13-year-old daughter and her teenage friends are having a pajama party, dancing and rummaging through Buckley’s 1970s rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. 

A flashback within this scene establishes Buckley’s notoriety, as recounted in an interview with author Truman Capote, who observed the tour and the rape/porn movie scene first-hand and tells the tale in a video clip of a 1973 interview with Andy Warhol -- originally in a printed interview but created here in a made-to-look-vintage video seen by Buckley’s daughter on an iPhone in the present day. 

TEEN ROCK TARTS

In Baby Groupies, Buckley discovers a 1970s subculture: girls, about ages 13 and 14, tarted up and sleazed out, available to rock stars, roadies, business managers and tour doctors. Baby Groupies have their own magazine in the style of both Teen and Cosmopolitan -- filled with salacious photographs and advice for seducing rock stars. 

Buckley joins Led Zeppelin’s 1973 tour -- bigger, louder and more decadent than the Rolling Stones’ instantly infamous 1972 tour. It’s the beginning of much darker times in Buckley’s life, including personal and business battles with an older woman, harder drugs, criminal acts, violence and porn movies filmed in a creepy old mansion in a tony San Francisco neighborhood. 

Buckley’s “Dr. Feelgood” days end in 1978, coinciding with Led Zeppelin’s final concert and the news of film director Roman Polanski fleeing the country before sentencing on a charge of unlawful sex with a minor. 

RAPE RECKONING

“Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies” returns to the present day for the final act, and the girl Buckley raped in “Cocksucker Blues” returns to confront him. Now age 60, Lisa Lyons is writing a book about her legendary teenage rock ‘n’ roll rape.

We meet Lisa Lyons at Bourn Mansion, Buckley’s storied former San Francisco home, where ex-lover and nemesis Arlen van Vliet brings Lisa Lyons up to date on Buckley’s post-rock’n’ roll life and Baby Groupie escapades: medical quackery lawsuits over a defective massage device; his controversial claim he found a dietary cure for AIDS; and his current work treating opiate addicts with cannabis. 

Lisa Lyons arrives in Yescalinda, the small Northern California town where Buckley, now pushing age 80, lives with his younger wife and his 13-year-old daughter. As Lisa Lyons makes a phone call in Yescalinda Diner, two teenage girls eavesdrop on Lisa Lyons discussing her intention to confront Buckley. 

FLASHBACK TO BEGINNING

We return to the beginning of the story and again we see Buckley’s 13-year-old daughter and friends having a pajama party, dancing and rummaging through Buckley’s rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia. 

Tipped off by Lisa Lyons while eavesdropping in the diner, girls discover and share Capote’s vintage video clip recounting Buckley’s infamous rape of Lisa Lyons. Buckley enters the barn. Buckley reacts to his daughter learning of his rock ‘n’ roll notoriety.

Later that night, Buckley vainly explains himself and begs his daughter to forgive him. 

Buckley’s daughter holds a gun in one hand. 

“Are you going rape me too?” she asks.

Lisa Lyons’ car arrives in Buckley’s driveway. 

A gunshot rings out. 

Buckley’s dead body slumps in a chair.

Buckley’s daughter cries. 

Lisa Lyons walks to Buckley’s front door.

Lisa Lyons rings Buckley’s doorbell. 

Buckley’s daughter answers the door.

Lisa Lyons introduces herself.

Lisa Lyons and Buckley’s daughter embrace. 

Lisa Lyons drops the film canisters she’s carrying. 

Labels on the canisters are revealed: “Cocksucker Blues.”

The screen goes black.

-- The End -- 

Read Dr. Feelgood & The Baby Groupies script here.