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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 14th, 2014, 11:03 pm
by Bronxgirl48
Came in on the last half hour or so of THE BIG SHOW. I'm desperately hoping The Fox Movie channel runs it again -- must check their schedule! See Robert Vaughn, channeling Bette Davis-as-Mildred Rogers in OF HUMAN BONDAGE, scream at his wife: "Every time I kissed you, I wanted to VOMIT!" See
Nehemiah Persoff as "Poppa", in white circus tights! See suicide plus divine retribution by polar bear!

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 15th, 2014, 5:19 pm
by moira finnie
So glad you had a chance to see The Big Show...the third and by far the worst reworking of the terrific House of Strangers (1949). The second remake was Broken Lance (1954). I love the part of The Big Show (1961) when we almost see Esther swim--in The Alps, yet. Is it me, or does Cliff Robertson seem to be acting while wrapped in mental cotton wool or as though he is underwater? Nehemiah Pershoff, who really chewed the canvas under the big top in every scene, admitted in an interview I read once that he really acted to support his avocation as a painter. That explains his behavior in certain roles, including this one, I guess. In her autobiography, Esther said she did the movie for the money even though she knew it was second rate. Too bad it was the last American feature film in her career.

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 15th, 2014, 5:26 pm
by moira finnie
Lucky Vassall wrote: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.”
I watched this one to see Jack Hawkins wondering when his paycheck will clear the bank.
Lucky Vassall wrote: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
I adore Matinee (1993) & John Goodman too, Lucky. I wish that TCM would show it around the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October! It was really delightful to see monster movie veterans Robert Cornthwaite and William Schallert given funny stuff to do (instead of being subversively amusing as they had been throughout their careers). Cathy Moriarty was also great as the "nurse"/girlfriend. Here's the classic trailer for the "movie-within-a-movie" for Mant!:
[youtube][/youtube]

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 15th, 2014, 9:07 pm
by Western Guy
I really enjoy ED WOOD but it certainly is a flawed film - not the least in its depiction of my surrogate mom, Dolores Fuller. There are stories to be told there! Ranging from the way she was portrayed by Sarah "Jurassic" Parker (Dolores and hubby Philip Chamberlin's term) as a whining, cigarette smoking (Dolores never smoked in her life and in fact turned down ten grand to do a commercial promoting a certain tobacco brand) . . . well, you know, to the fact that it was Dolores who supported Ed during the making of his early films (up to BRIDE OF THE MONSTER) through her modeling and occasional acting bits. Dolores admired Johnny's performance as Ed and admitted that her breakup from Wood was fairly accurate as depicted in the movie but there is so much more to the story. Her side of the story is told in the autobiography I was fortunate to co-write with her.

And come on: Did PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE ever receive a gown and tuxedo-clad "gala" premiere . . .

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 16th, 2014, 5:26 pm
by RedRiver
ED WOOD is one of the few Tim Burton films I've enjoyed all the way to the end. Most of them introduce all sorts of appealing elements and fail to pull them together. I appreciate the discussion of MATINEE. I like it too!

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 16th, 2014, 5:43 pm
by Lucky Vassall
Moira is right. Mant belongs at the top of any list of intentionally bad movies! It also gets space in the "Movies within Movies" category.

John Goodman may be one of our most under-appreciated actors. His reading of the Argo title's meaning should have won him a Special Oscar. (With mouth duck taped!)

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: February 16th, 2014, 6:23 pm
by Bronxgirl48
moira, unfortunately I only saw the last 25 minutes or so of THE BIG SHOW, Godfrey Daniels! Your comments really make me salivate, lol. Can't wait to see this disaster in its entirety, including a water-logged Cliff Robertson.

I used to dub Nehemiah's last name "Perspiration" back in the day. He always seemed to be shouting and sweating.

I love MATINEE. Mant! Half Man! Half Ant! All Terror! Great stuff.

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 10:33 am
by moira finnie
CineMaven wrote:In The TCM March 2014 Schedule Thread, ...“Youngblood Hawke” will be on TCM this Thursday afternoon. I wouldn’t label it a “BAD-MOVIE-YOU-LOVE.” I think it’s a hoot...in a good way. And there’s lots of good stuff in there which was discussed almost three years ago here. I put this in the glossy, though black 'n white, category of "THE BEST OF EVERYTHING" where we see a person's adventure here in the big bad city trying to make a success of it. I like how TCM’s description says Franciscus 'exercises a powerful spell over every woman he meets.' If you check it out, you’ll be the judge of that. They certainly gave him interesting actresses to work with. ( Genevieve Page and Suzanne Pleshette. ) I always thought he was a sincere actor. ( ...Yeah, and a cutie pie. )
Well, a hoot or a bad movie i love--I missed the first half hour of The Thomas Wolfe Story Youngblood Hawke but the parts I saw made me laugh harder than I have in months. What a delight. I haven't seen so many toupees older but eager actors chomp and gulp down the scenery in one flick in quite some time. What fun it was to see this parade of tonsorial prostheses (I bet the hairdressing budget for the men must have rivaled the costume budget for the dames for this movie)--and I am not even mentioning Hayden Rorke & John Dehner's hairpieces:

~~Don Porter pulled out all the stops as the materialistic literary agent, especially in the scene when he ran riot in the publisher's office, leaving it a shambles and his author quivering with embarrassment. He made Swifty Lazar look like an ascetic monk by comparison to Porter's showboating greed.
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~~John Emery always sounds as though he is auditioning for the part of Mephistopheles in a Little Theater production of Doctor Faustus, and he didn't disappoint here. I love the way he literally caresses his lines with his silvery ham's tongue, milking every nano-second of screen time for all its worth. When he says "there are so many women in the world, it's frightening" you know that the erstwhile Mr. Tallulah Bankhead knows what he is talking about.
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~~Lee Bowman, managing to be both icy and oily simultaneously, how much he ached to be Youngblood Hawke! Those who can, write. Those who can't, seethe and publish potboilers.
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My favorite line, spoken by that master of understatement, Berry Kroeger, as he introduces the hero reading from the appropriately named "Alms for Oblivion":
"We reject subtlety, we have a great play here!!"

Kroeger, as far as I (and the actor himself) was concerned, was a great, unrecognized star, particularly when he played the Sorcerer who changed men into pigs for Circe in The Lost Continent of Atlantis, made in the same year as this epic.
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Above: The estimable Berry Kroeger, in his mind's eye, if not in Youngblood Hawke (1964).
CineMaven wrote:The photo of Franciscus and Pleshette with the NYC skyline in the background was filmed on the Promenade over in Brooklyn Heights. ( He’s told an apartment there would cost $65.00 a month. ) Brooklyn Heights is one of Brooklyn’s toniest neighborhoods. Now...fifty years later, you couldn’t get a closet there for $65 bucks.
Oh, I loved his Brooklyn garret, one flight up from Susan Pleshette's "hovel." His apt. and the Greenwich Village studio where Joan Crawford "suffered ' in Daisy Kenyon (1947) are two of my favorite humble homes, NYC style. Of course, the cozy image of Youngblood's aerie below--complete with compliant if permanently peevish mistress--also reminded me of the set design in the Al Pacino-Keanu Reeves bromance between Satan and his son, in The Devil's Advocate (1997)--now that was a Bad Movie I Loved (sort of).
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Above: The grand piano, skylight, and clothesline make the living room complete in Youngblood Hawke's den of creativity.

A few questions still nibble away at me about this movie:

a.) Did Mildred Dunnock sign a contract in her own anemic blood at some point that said she was only to play disappointed women? (See Youngblood Hawke, Butterfield 8, Peyton Place, Death of a Salesman).

b.) Do you really think that Eva Gabor knew that she was in a movie and not at a party that just happened to be on a movie set?

c.) Did Genevieve Page speak English phonetically, or did she understand every other word? It makes for some unique line readings, that is for sure.

d.) Does anyone else melt when they see that dimple in James Franciscus' right cheek? :oops: (You're right, CineMaven, he's a cutie)

e.) Did Jack Warner have some dark secret to hold against Delmer Daves to make him keep filming this kind of movie at the end of his career? (See everything from A Summer Place on in his ouevre).

f.) Couldn't anyone find Suzanne Pleshette a worthwhile role for her to play in a movie? EVER?

Two very good things about YH:

1.) Mary Astor looked great in her beautiful duds and (under)acted rings around everyone.

2.) New York City never looked more beautiful in the black and white location shots until Woody Allen's Manhattan years later!

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 12:20 pm
by RedRiver
Suzanne Pleshette had a charming, and sultry, personality. Some actors take a while to find their niche. The strong, smart sit-com wife was the perfect fit for this enormously talented performer.

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 12:54 pm
by Western Guy
I really wanted to like YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE as I'm that possible rarity who enjoys movies about writers (MISS POTTER is a particular fave), but, boy, was that pic slooowww moving. Too much time spent on Hawke's uninteresting romances and too little on his literary life. That's my preference, of course, and others might not agree with me, but those turgid scenes with Genevieve Page just went on and on and on . . . First time in a long while I actually got physically restless watching a movie. I think I'm going to try and track down the book for comparison. It's gotta be better since Herman Wouk for heaven's sake penned "The Caine Mutiny".

Oh, and Moira: In reference to your comment about Mildred Dunnock . . . at least she was spared being pushed down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair. But appearing in this movie certainly wasn't much better, IMO.

Ditto Mary Astor. Couldn't believe how small her role was.

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 2:59 pm
by RedRiver
those turgid scenes with Genevieve Page

There should be a Turgid Film Festival!

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 3:59 pm
by RedRiver
The nominees for Most Turgid are...

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 16th, 2014, 11:51 am
by CineMaven
moirafinnie wrote:Well, a hoot or a bad movie i love--I missed the first half hour of The Thomas Wolfe Story Youngblood Hawke but the parts I saw made me laugh harder than I have in months. What a delight. I haven't seen so many toupees older but eager actors chomp and gulp down the scenery in one flick in quite some time. What fun it was to see this parade of tonsorial prostheses (I bet the hairdressing budget for the men must have rivaled the costume budget for the dames for this movie)--and I am not even mentioning Hayden Rorke & John Dehner's hairpieces...

f.) Couldn't anyone find Suzanne Pleshette a worthwhile role for her to play in a movie? EVER?

Two very good things about YH:

1.) Mary Astor looked great in her beautiful duds and (under)acted rings around everyone.

2.) New York City never looked more beautiful in the black and white location shots until Woody Allen's Manhattan years later!
:lol: LOL!!!! :lol:

Re: Bad Movies You Love

Posted: March 17th, 2014, 10:51 pm
by Bronxgirl48
Moira!!!! Can you believe I missed YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE????????? :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

However -- I caught (unfortunately only a smidge) of GO NAKED IN THE WORLD.

Ernest Borgnine (winning the Lee J. Cobb Bellow award) to family: "Don't talk dirty on the porch!"

Lollo looked wonderful!

From the little I saw, it seemed like CAMILLE crossed with BUTTERFIELD 8.