Bad Movies You Love

[moira finnie]

Some sources say that Elsa Martinelli was born in 1932. Others say 1935. She was a great looking girl, but clearly much younger than most of her leading men.

[CineMaven]

Geez, M, I think I'll take Hatari. ...

Yeah, but Hatari didn't have Sabu...only Red Buttons!

Aren't they one and the same? I can never tell them apart; separated at birth?

[feaito]

I remember watching "Rampage!" (1963) as a kid and I was pretty amused by this adventure yarn set in the Jungle. I especially recall Elsa Martinelli looking deadly sexy and having a good chemistry with tough man Mitchum.

[Rita Hayworth]

I like both Hatari and Rampage equally well for different reasons that would take me eons to explain. I wouldn't call these two movies bad ... but different kind of movies and I always been a fan of these type of movies when I was growing up in the late sixties and early seventies when these movies were popular to show on a Saturday afternoon on our local television stations.

[moira finnie]

Geez, M, I think I'll take Hatari. ...

Yeah, but Hatari didn't have Sabu...only Red Buttons!

Aren't they one and the same? I can never tell them apart; separated at birth?

Time for a trip to the optometrist, Cine?

I remember watching "Rampage!" (1963) as a kid and I was pretty amused by this adventure yarn set in the Jungle. I especially recall Elsa Martinelli looking deadly sexy and having a good chemistry with tough man Mitchum.

No kidding, Fernando! She was poured into some of her gowns, which were designed by one of her many swains, Oleg Cassini. He really got around, didn't he?

I like both Hatari and Rampage equally well for different reasons that would take me eons to explain. I wouldn't call these two movies bad ... but different kind of movies and I always been a fan of these type of movies when I was growing up in the late sixties and early seventies when these movies were popular to show on a Saturday afternoon on our local television stations.

I know what you mean. King. While I wouldn't want anyone to take anything written here by me too seriously, I wouldn't exactly call these movies "good" either--though they do offer a kind of entertainment, certainly. I think of it as a form of escapism from reality and, as I mentioned, the outdoor locations and gorgeous animals (of the non-human variety) are a treat to see. If only the actors would stop talking.

[JackFavell]

The wonderful thing about Tigards

is Tigards are wonderful things.

[moira finnie]

The wonderful thing about Tigards

is Tigards are wonderful things.

[JackFavell]

[feaito]

feaito wrote:
I remember watching "Rampage!" (1963) as a kid and I was pretty amused by this adventure yarn set in the Jungle. I especially recall Elsa Martinelli looking deadly sexy and having a good chemistry with tough man Mitchum.

No kidding, Fernando! She was poured into some of her gowns, which were designed by one of her many swains, Oleg Cassini. He really got around, didn't he?

I seem to recall that she looked terribly elegant for the Jungle!

Cassini, such a lucky man

[CineMaven]

Geez, M, I think I'll take Hatari. ...

Yeah, but Hatari didn't have Sabu...only Red Buttons!

Aren't they one and the same? I can never tell them apart; separated at birth?

Time for a trip to the optometrist, Cine?

Ha! Call me CineMagoo, Moira!!

[JackFavell]

OK! I now have Rampage under my belt. It was enjoyable, but I'm not sure I want to 'enjoy' it again.

This movie seemed a lot like Murders in the Zoo, mixed with The Poseidon Adventure. And I felt like Jack Hawkins was channeling Colin Clive, BIGTIME!

[JackFavell]

Yesterday I watched Battle Cry, a movie I knew only from having read that James Dean was somewhere in it. I watched because I have an unreasonable liking for Aldo Ray.

The movie really struck me, because it didn't actually seem to be about war at all. It was more like some of the glossy soaps from the fifties. I enjoyed it very much, especially after I realized that it was kind of like a male version of The Best of Everything, with war substituting for the work world of a New York magazine empire.

BATTLE CRY SPOILED

Tab Hunter gets the Hope Lange lead from TBOE, trying to make it through basic training, becoming a good soldier instead of a business exec. He comes complete with love interest back home and complications involving the older but maybe not wiser Dorothy Malone, who managed to be trampy, overblown and sympathetic all at the same time. But in this film, Tab ends up going back to the home girl.





A cute actor that I liked a lot named John Lupton played the bespectacled Diane Baker type virgin, with a lovely Arlene Francis underplaying as his partner, who hides her past as a B-girl.

Hunky (not quite hulky yet) Aldo Ray was the Suzy Parker of the soldiers... a womanizer, too cool for school, and never going to let a woman get the best of him. He of course, falls hardest of them all for Nancy Olson, who is a war widow with issues, never planning to fall in love with anyone again. She makes lines like "Oh Andy! I'm afraid!" sound realistic. Olson seems to have always been a good actress, no matter how stupid her dialogue. Of course, her standoffishness makes her the perfect mate for commitment shy Aldo. Though Aldo doesn't do a nosedive from a skyscraper, he does lose his legs.




There was even a tough, hard driven boss who finally sees the light and connects with his young underlings.... Van Heflin in the Joan Crawford role.

James Whitmore is along to make it all seem a lot classier than it really is.

I was surprised when looking it up, that it's a Raoul Walsh film (!!!). I think he did fifties soap opera quite well.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Just have to chime in with my Hatari story.

For my seventh birthday, while we were living in New Orleans, my dear sweet Mom carried several of my dear neighborhood pals and carted us off to the theater in Metarie, Louisiana, where we watched "that important movie star," John Wayne.

6 or 7 seven-year-olds AND a screenful of wild animals. And I fell in love with playing the piano, Henry Mancini music, photography, and the idea of the wilds of Africa all at once. I still want to go there on a photographic safari and stay at Bill Holden's Mount Kenya Safari Club and play with Baby Elephants and cheetahs. Still. And how many decades ago was that?

And who doesn't enjoy having three men follow her around like Brandy?

The power of film. Yah Godda luvit, as Red Buttons would say.