Bad Movies You Love

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moira finnie
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by moira finnie »

We mustn't neglect the delightful subject of bad movies we love.
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One movie that is pretty unforgettable if you have ever seen it was The Miracle (1959), directed by Irving Rapper (Now, Voyager, Rhapsody in Blue, Marjorie Morningstar) starring Roger Moore and Carroll Baker. Based on a medieval poem and traditional pantomime, in the 20th century it was a German language play by Karl Vollmöller that had been first staged in 1911 and later in 1924 in New York to worldwide acclaim by Max Reinhardt in a unique and spectacular staging designed by Norman Bel Geddes. Wolfgang Reinhardt (Max's son) had originally hoped to film the play in 1944 in a four hour version for Warner Brothers, though not surprisingly, that was shelved--not just until the end of the war, but the end of the '50s! (It had been made into silent films, a 1946 Spanish language film and has been remade a couple of other times as well.

I am actually a total sap for movies about miracles or saints or anything vaguely spiritual, but this one sort of strained my credibility with the OTT shenanigans blended with romantic swooning. I hope that my gentle mockery doesn't offend anyone's beliefs, especially since I tend to share some myself, though Hollywood really missed the boat on this one. Despite my quibbles, The Miracle is fun though I don't believe it has been shown on TCM nor is it available on commercial DVD as far as I know, though you can find VHS copies and DVD-rs occasionally.

What's good about the movie:
A great cast in support of the rather underwhelming leading players: Walter Slezak, Katina Paxinou, Isobel Elsom, Vittorio Gassman. A good, rousing score by Elmer Bernstein and beautiful cinematography (in something called Technirama, which apparently wasn't enough, so they added Technicolor too) by Ernie Haller and two good looking young leads who have a strange, operatic and heedlessly romantic way of throwing themselves into the story--even if restraint might have made it work. It's a wild ride through one last gasp of lavishness, believe me. Better yet, see for yourself in the clips I've posted below. They do capture something that English-speaking movies are embarrassed by usually, so I can't help wondering of this might have been a fantastic movie if made by a Spanish, French or Italian director with a sense of grandeur.

What's uh...questionable about the movie:
The acting, the dialogue and the dramatic logic of the cast of thousands, from the Madonna of Milles Flores to a satanic looking pickpocket Walter Slezak to the reluctantly blessed lamb trying to run away from the Blessing of the Animals (you had the right idea, lamby).

I like Roger Moore a good deal even though I never thought he was exactly a born swashbuckler. He always seemed to be a jaunty, good light comedian as an actor, though at this stage of his career, he was far too beautiful to appear on screen with anyone other than Elizabeth Taylor. In the lavish costumes they put him in (Moore in his memoirs says this movie was originally a big budget production, but the bean counters lost their minds when they realized how much it would all cost if they filmed in Europe as planned, so the back lot and locations around California stood in for Spain, France and Italy.

Carroll Baker never seemed to have a grasp on the character, or her spiritual or romantic conflicts, though she sure looks tortured in this part. To be credible, her character might have gone over with audiences if an Audrey Hepburn had played the role--though, oops, Audrey had already played a nun in that decade, hadn't she? I suspect that Baker took this role as a kind of counterbalance to Baby Doll--though with Something Wild (1961), the actress returned to her grittier Method Acting roots, (though another "great" bad movie, Harlow also loomed in her future). Baker was always hampered, at least to me, by that twangy, child-like voice of hers, and she was completely unequipped to suggest that her initially introverted character might have a believable inner life. Mostly, she reminds me of someone cast in a school pageant at the last minute.

Spoilers Below*Spoilers Below*Spoilers Below
In a nutshell the plot updated by Frank Butler and Jean Rouverol's screenplay of The Miracle re-told an old legend about a sheltered Spanish postulant (Carroll Baker) who has been having doubts about her vocation as a nun. Set in the Napoleonic era, Sister Teresa prays for guidance, but overcome by passion, runs away from her convent with a dazzling English soldier, Michael (Roger Moore), whose wounds she has tended at the convent after a nearby skirmish. and subsequently has several mystical adventures, eventually leading to her being accused of witchcraft. During her absence, a roaring thunderstorm erupts and the statue of the Virgin Mary in the convent's chapel comes to life and steps down from her pedestal, taking the nun's place in the convent, until her safe return. Mary appears in the radiant form of the erstwhile Teresa to all who see her in the convent, hanging around impressing the heck out of her fellow nuns with her extreme otherworldliness. Of course, while the BVM is off her pedestal doing time as Teresa, there is no rain and the crops and animals die precipitously. Meanwhile Teresa, who is now a camp follower of Michael's army, falls in with a band of gypsies (led by Vittorio Gassman's oily Guido the Gypsy who guffaws and slaps his belly to show he's lusty) once she hears that Michael has been killed in battle. Denouncing God for being so cruel to her, Teresa, in the course of this movie has affairs with, among others, the Duke of Wellington's nephew, a Frenchman, a bullfighter. She is eventually taken up by a Count who finances a career as an opera singer!

Guess who isn't really dead? Michael the Magnificent (who appears in gold and white uniforms no matter where he is, He is eventually reunited with Teresa, but she is now more determined than ever to return to her proper place in the convent as a bride of Christ--especially since the people near the convent really need rain, and the BVM needs to to get back on her pedestal.

[youtube][/youtube]

You can see more scenes from this whopper of a movie here.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by JackFavell »

Wow! That sounds spectacularly bad! and lots of fun!

I wish you hadn't mentioned Harlow - a movie that is so ridiculous, so false in every way that I can't understand why I always watch it whenever it is on. :D

I wonder if they are showing it this month?
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by moira finnie »

Harlow (1965) won't be casting its shadow on Jean's 100th birthday year this month, according to the TCMdb.

Still, you might enjoy this scene from The Miracle, showing Teresa's first glimpse of Michael and their subsequent courtship! Ain't love grand?
[youtube][/youtube]
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by JackFavell »

It can make the wind blow, and the trees bend.... :D

Roger Moore has such an unearthly beauty.... I can't imagine him making any female star look good.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

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JackFavell wrote:It can make the wind blow, and the trees bend.... :D

Roger Moore has such an unearthly beauty.... I can't imagine him making any female star look good.
I think he was more attractive when he was older and less pretty, though his ardor here is pretty hard to resist, even if it is more than a bit much. I like the moment when he mentions Devon and her hair being shorn...what a fool I am.

I think the wind blowing was the Virgin Mary getting ready to hop off her pedestal to sub for Teresa.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

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I think he was more attractive when he was older and less pretty, though his ardor here is pretty hard to resist, even if it is more than a bit much. I like the moment when he mentions Devon and her hair being shorn...what a fool I am.
Nah. He's GORgeous!
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by MissGoddess »

I never even heard of this one, sounds like a real winner. So this is the second time Moore tempted a "nun" out of her habits? The other being Angie Dickinson in The Sins of Rachel Cade. She wasn't a nun, really, but a missionary. He was still the tempting soldier, though. :D
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by srowley75 »

Gotta love that poster. They seem to have taken their cue from C. B. DeMille when it comes to how to make a religious-themed movie.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

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I don't know where you folks were when I wrote about this movie at least 3 times. The Miracle is one of my secret addictions. I have asked TCM to try to play it, and I'm always looking for it in the "almost giving away" bins, because nobody seems to ever have heard of it. I'm also one of those rare people who likes Carroll Baker. There's something about her that seems to be trying her best. I thought she was very good as Debbie Reynolds sister in How the West Was Won, and also in Cheyenne Autumn. I didn't like her in the dark hair, she's lovely as a blond. Anyway, all actors choose bad movies to be in from time to time, so I don't hold it against her. Of course it's been 100 years since I saw this movie the last time, so I may be coloring it with a teen age/young 20's haze over my eyes, but I do recall liking it. Being pretty non-religious, I do remember a chill down my back when the BVM walked down from the pedestal. I wish I could see it again now at my present age to determine what I really think of it.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by moira finnie »

Don't miss the thread started by scsu1975 aka Rich's on the TCM Message Board called "RICH'S B (AND WORSE) JUVENILE DELINQUENT THREAD. Rich's review of Wild in the Streets (1968) is a comic masterpiece! Talk about a bad movie you can love!
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by ChiO »

Oooo...please, SHOCK CORRIDOR is neither unintentionally nor intentionally funny. Just another lurid look at America through the eyes of a genius.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

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ChiO wrote:Oooo...please, SHOCK CORRIDOR is neither unintentionally nor intentionally funny. Just another lurid look at America through the eyes of a genius.
Oh, I dunno. I think Shock Corridor could be seen as both deliberately satirical and, when overly serious and symbolic, which it is often, funny as hell in its weirdness. Fuller's way being playful one minute and of billboarding his real intentions while hammering home "THIS IS IMPORTANT" for the audience has always seemed to be a nice mixture of the dead serious, the slyly humorous, the tragic and the really goofy.

Even Martin Scorsese has pointed out that Fuller movies don't always make sense, even if they have compelling moments.
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by ChiO »

Moira, I am willing to concede most of your observations. My dander was aroused by the context of "unintentionally funny", which seemed to be equated with "stupid" or -- please forgive me for typing this most dreaded of words --"camp". Is Fuller often amusing, satirical, and slyly humorous? Absolutely. Is his overall objective to make the viewer laugh as a matter of pure entertainment? (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I don't think so.

And "don't always make sense" is not the equivalent of "funny". I seldom make sense, but unfortunately those are often my least funny moments.

And, for contextual purposes only, my three favorite comedies are: DUCK SOUP, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, and DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. Now those are funny!
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
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Re: Bad Movies You Love

Post by MissGoddess »

Well, much as it shocks me to the corridor, I am with ChiO on this one. I find the movie rather fascinating, but I see it as a metaphor for society, not a literal tale about a mental hospital. I may be entirely wrong about this view, but it works for me and seems consistent with what makes Sammy run.
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