A DOCUMENTARY MADE IN HELL

Are the living rooms of America ready for Charlie Manson and his killing crowd?

“Manson,” the Oscar-nominated documentary of the Manson family that was filmed during the time of the Tate-La Bianca murders, will be available on videocassette Nov. 20.

Robert Hendrickson was shooting the strange activities of the communal group by chance in 1969 when some members became prime suspects in the August 1969 mass murders. Some footage shows family members displaying weapons and bragging about murder and mayhem. Manson, Hendrickson said, recently spurned a journalist’s offer to send him a cassette.

After delays for legal reasons, Paramount distributed the film theatrically in 1976-77, but Hendrickson’s videocassette rights just became active. He calls his involvement with the group “a trip into hell,” but thinks the film could prove valuable: “It could be positive if parents and teen-agers sat down and watched it together--teen-agers, not 5-year-olds. After all, the Manson kids came from middle-class homes.”