Big Screen Bust: "Cycad"
- Emma Leuschner
- Feb 10
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 26
Did you know that Concord Township was the location of a major motion picture that was never released?
“Cycad” was filmed in various locations around Delaware County, including Concord Township, in May 1969. Hugh G. Peters operated a film studio in Primos, PA, and “Cycad” was the studio’s first feature project.
At the helm of the picture was Hugh Peters as producer, Richard Bartlett as a producer, and Steve McNeil as director and screenwriter. Stars included Gary Merrill (husband to Bette Davis), Jerry Blavat, and Delphi Lawrence. Hugh Hefner even made a small cameo. The initial budget for the film was $1 million- about $8.6 million today.
The studio hosted a local talent contest in the Delaware Valley to cast the second female lead. During the talent search, local news reported that they needed a “21 or 22-year-old directly out of Bryn Mawr-type” woman for the part of Carolyn Becker. They eventually cast Temple University graduate Mary Lou Metzger for the role.
The plot of the movie was shocking for the period. “Cycad” refers to the Egyptian plant and translates to “fickle love” in English. The movie's premise centered around a controversial couple -- a turburculosis-riddled homosexual man a cheating sex worker -- and a murder in the fictional town of “Eros.”
Eros’ outdoor scenes were shot in Concord along Concord Road in the present-day Il Granaio restaurant area. The set in Ward Village was meant to resemble a “1930s Dust Bowl town in Oklahoma.” To accomplish this task, the movie production dumped 4 inches of topsoil along Concord Road between Spring Valley and Station roads. This caused an enormous amount of dust and dirt to find its way into people’s homes along Concord Road. The Concordville Fire Department eventually helped mitigate the dust when the film production failed to do so. When confronted with this issue, producer Hugh Peters said he did not realize people were living in Ward when he agreed to film in the area!
The film secretly premiered in November 1969 in Media but was so poorly received it never saw the light of day. One man who saw the movie wrote to the Philadelphia Daily News with the following review: “I see close to 100 movies a year and at age 24 have seen nearly 1000 movies and find this movie (???) to be the most ridiculous ever made, including the homemade travelogue films. My parents could write a better screenplay.” Yikes. The movie never saw the light of day after the secret premier.
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