Bad Movies You Love

[Sue Sue Applegate]

More moldy: Uh, and Ava supposedly caused nimble Tony to have a nervous breakdown, if the specter of Shelley around the corner wasn't enough.

[moira finnie]

Ava supposedly caused nimble Tony to have a nervous breakdown

Didn't Ava do that more than once in the '50s? After all...look at her! She could make anyone lose their mind (though being yoked to Shelley must have been...um...challenging, shall we say?)


Tony, making like the genius (and probably wondering why Ava is toying with him):

[Sue Sue Applegate]

I also enjoyed Michael Rennie. He just had a way of taking what might be a mediocre role and turning it into a little something with substance.

Ah, Ava. I saw some of that film for the very first time today, and it was lovely to look at, and I had lots of errands around the house, so luckily the lack of plot assured I didn't really miss anything. Ava, however, looked stunningly fabulous in spite of all the aperitifs, tiffs, and tumbles she'd taken in the 50s. Her "Spanish" reputation and her love of flamenco added to her allure in this film. It is a bad movie about which we can find things to love.

Tony, however, seemed to twitch a great deal, kind of like Jane Fonda early in her career, n'est-ce pas?

[RedRiver]

When the silent LOST WORLD came out on VHS, I was excited to see it. The truth is, even that version didn't do much for me. I imagine the effects were very impressive for the time, especially in a theater. Now? I'm glad to have seen this instrumental classic. But I'll probably never watch it again!

[Bronxgirl48]

kingrat, moira, Mike, I had the supreme pleasure of seeing THE LOST WORLD this afternoon. Oh...my...goodness! Before anything else, I have to say that Jill St. John in this movie gives one of the worst female performances ever commited to screen, almost up there with Shirley Jones in ELMER GANTRY.

Claude Rains -- who doesn't love him? -- looking like a carroty little owl as the proud, blustery Professor Challenger ("I do not deal in SMALL dinosaurs!") delightfully/hammily struts around giving enthusiastic orders and curmudgeonly opinions, with variations on "young whippersnapper!" directed towards the younger members of the troop. He puts together a rigidly scientific group for his Amazon jungle expedition: titled, weary, coffin-esque, ascot-wearing Michael Rennie; social climbing, poodle cradling (yes, she schleps her dog), pastel-clad, I-am-woman-hear-me-whisper Jill St. John ("I can shoot as well as any man!" Yeah, right...); befuddled adenoidal academic colleague Richard Haydn; surly raccoon-faced newspaper reporter David Hedison; scowling, tanned Fernando Lamas (pilot? engineer?), managing to look both mysteriously reptilian in his own right, and vaguely dyspeptic. All that's missing to give this journey even more rigorous intellectual credibility is Gertrude the duck from JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

Jill is initially excluded from the trip, but you know she's going to turn up on her own to "surprise" Rains, and show everyone what an independent and headstrong female she really is! He's shocked, shocked! "What is this WOMAN doing here? And her DOG????" This miniature fuzzball, by the way, as adorable as can be --- and I'm an animal lover -- started to immediately annoy me no end, and, even though it had a home with St. John, seemed to be a sort of canine equivalent of one of those dreaded street urchins I so volubly despise. Don't ask me why. There's one scene where he/she, I can't remember the doggie's name, actually manages to upstage Claude. This is an SSO avatar I'd love to alternately display. (even though I'm faithful to my LA DOLCE VITA Marcello) The poodle is standing high up on a crate, barking down at Rains -- he looks up and growls back, lol.

The script gives Jill about five seconds of lip service to feminism (the above early quote, also: "Does he know how to USE that gun?") then she's back to being the helpless heroine, shrieking a la Fay Wray whenever a giant lizard or tempermental plant starts to attack. At first I thought St. John was parodying Marilyn Monroe, but then I changed my mind. No, this was just Very Bad Acting. Squeaking, squealing, pouting, breathless, importuning, wailing for her beloved four-legged child, at one point I thought about the mute button, so obnoxiously coy and oogly-googly was the sound of her voice.

At one point the obligatory spineless, greedy member of the group gets gobbled up by a you-know-what, but it's not enough to see him dangling in the mouth of the creature. No, Claude has to exclaim: "How terrible! Eaten alive!" Yes, yes, we can see that for ourselves. I was reminded of Lionel Atwill's "helpful" expose of a corpse in front of the dead man's traumatized wife in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN: "Look there! His heart burst!"

Lousy dialogue ("These guns are like toys to them!"), cheesy special effects, and, to top everything off, a young Indian girl guide who resembles Anna Magnani's daughter, in a loincloth.

[Bronxgirl48]

>Ramon Novarro (in hospital bed): "I can't see!"
Garbo (tenderly): "Is it . . . your eyes?">



hahahahahahahahahaha! Priceless!

I love Gertrude too! What a cutie-pie. To the duck aye-aye-aye-aye! I thought she had more personality than Pat Boone.

That LOST WORLD poodle should have known better than to try and steal a scene from Claude Rains.

[moira finnie]

Thanks for the laughs. You both made me want to see The Lost World & Mata Hari again.

[Bronxgirl48]

Whatever happened to David Hedison? Wasn't he in THE FLY?

[Bronxgirl48]

I must give a brownie point to the scriptwriters for having Richard, and not Jill, momentarily struggle in the grip of squirmy vines lining the entrance to some cave. Haydn at this juncture even gets the film's best (i.e., only) line, almost a throwaway: "Excuse me", to a skull, as he successfully passes through the tentacles.

I just found out that the toy poodle was named "Frosty".

New Christmas lyrics...

[moira finnie]

Whatever happened to David Hedison? Wasn't he in THE FLY?

And Voyage To the Bottom of the Sea. He has his own website. It looks as though he's aged very well.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Thanks for the link, Bronxie!

[Bronxgirl48]

Thank moira, Sue Sue, for the David Hedison link. Wow -- he certainly does look terrific at 85. A very interesting biography. It seems Hedison embraces the nostalgia-con side of his career.

From moira's link, David talks about THE LOST WORLD!

http://www.davidhedison.net/hedison/gal ... /index.htm

[Lucky Vassall]

I’ve always had a special fondness for “Land of the Pharaohs” (1955). Who could resist 22-year-old Joan Collins already playing a temptress. As the promotional material put it: “Her treachery stained every stone of the pyramids.”

While not bad films, I’d also like to give a shout out to “Ed Wood” (1994) and “Matinee” (1993), two films that managed to have a lot of fun with the reputations of the two most notorious bad film makers without being mean. The first is well known, of course, and features one of the best casts ever assembled. If you’re not familiar with “Matinee,” John Goodman gives his usual delightful performance playing a character who bears more than a passing resemblance to William Castle