Bad Movies You Love

[Rita Hayworth]

Sue Sue ... Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Hatari.

[RedRiver]

I was about the same age when HATARI came out. My family went to the theatre as well. It's not my favorite Hawks adventure. Too long. A little repetitious. But nobody does "people at work" like Howard Hawks! He nailed the atmosphere, the friendly banter, the fun under pressure, like no other filmmaker. And that Mancini tune is irresistible!

[kingrat]

JF, I absolutely loved your article about BATTLE CRY, which I've always avoided because I'm not a war movies fan. But THE BEST OF EVERYTHING with guys--now I am totally down with that! One of the wittiest articles I've seen in a long time. You remind us how different genres do interact, and how you can make guys watch a "women's film" if they think it's something else.

[RedRiver]

I like romantic comedies. That's more or less a woman's area. I had a discussion with intellectual friends (all female, oddly) who have disdain for the genre. They associated it with vehicles for Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and the like. I said romantic comedies don't HAVE to be bad. Have they not seen THE APARTMENT, ANNIE HALL, BALL OF FIRE? Apparently, they haven't!

[JackFavell]

Thanks, Kingrat! that's a great compliment, coming from such a witty fellow. I guess target audiences can be manipulated to watch anything, it's all in the marketing.

Red - You're my kind of guy!

Battle Cry is a little long, but it's actually kind of fun with it's emphasis on relationships. it reminds me of a candy bar that is about 1/3rd too big.... you get kind of sick of it, but you just keep eating till you have a stomach ache. I guess most of the movies in this thread are like that.

[RedRiver]

I've never seen a candy bar that was too big!

[JackFavell]

Ha! You have a point.

[kingrat]

Speaking of guilty pleasures, somehow I'd neglected to watch the tape of WOMEN'S PRISON. Though it isn't as serious or as deliriously campy as CAGED, how can you resist Ida Lupino as the sadistic warden Miss Van Zandt who's--big Freudian insight from the scriptwriters: sexually repressed; Jan Sterling as a tough, wisecracking broad; the gal who does the imitations of Bette and Tallulah; Warren Stevens as the prisoner who slides down the laundry chute to visit his wife (Audrey Totter) who's on the female side of the prison; Howard Duff playing the good guy prison doctor instead of the villains he tended to play later in his career; and Juanita Moore as Polly, short for Polyclinic because that's where she was born?

[RedRiver]

You can't beat life in women's prison. Fond memories!

[CineMaven]

I imagine not from the inside. You've been?

[RedRiver]

Where do you think I met my girlfriend?

[moirafinnie]

It's the unofficial start of summer, gang, so put your brain pan on ice and get ready to chill out by visiting the wonderful French-Canadian Western set in The Frozen North (1952-Andrew Marton).

Above: Wendell Corey, looking pole-axed, with his prey, Stewart Granger and his homemaker-honey, Cyd Charisse.

One of my favorite Wendell Corey and Stewart Granger movies is on tap today on TCM at 4:30 PM ET. Okay, so it doesn't match Corey's performances as the subliminally gay gunsel attending to John Hodiak's every need and tossing dagger eyes toward Lizabeth Scott in Desert Fury (1947) or as Barbara Stanwyck's patsy boytoy in The File on Thelma Jordon (1950). Still, I would park this one next to The Killer Is Loose (1956) for Wendell's ability to convey a kind of odd creepiness uniquely his own. He even has a chance to use that thousand yard stare in this one to good effect--that is...after an attack by some ravening wolves!!...No, I'm not making that up.


Above: Stewart Granger, proving his mettle on location for the film The Wild North (1952).

Granger, who was apparently hellbent on making people forget that he could wear a lace-cuffed shirt and wield a sword with elan while squiring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc or Deborah Kerr, adopts one of the most amusing Pepe Le Pew accents I have ever heard in this movie when he plays "Jules Vincent," un homme dans la nature, complete with plaid shirts, a hair-trigger temper, and a tender spot for both stray kittens and half-Chippewa chanteuses such as a pig-tailed Cyd Charisse. The beauteous dancer uses her steely physical grace to play an almost unrecognizable part in a straight role as an Indian maiden who falls in with the high-principled, independent Vincent. Perhaps it is indicative of the period or the movie's stripped-down to the essentials approach to a story, but Cyd doesn't have a name. She is only referred to as Indian Girl as far as I can tell after repeated viewings of this movie.

Above: Cyd Charisse in her trading post finery in her role as Indian Girl in The Wild North.

Stopping by in an outpost offering some quasi-civilization for a moment in between trapping trips, Granger finds himself in a pickle after committing justifiable homicide on a truculent malcontent among the citizenry. Cyd and Stew take off for an idyllic cabin (at least it becomes so after Cyd whips up curtains and some good chow). Wendell, as RCMP Constable Pedley follows--as do plenty of action sequences. These scenes are enhanced by location shooting in Idaho, some good matte paintings (and some fake-looking ones), and that excellently staged scene in the wilderness as the pack closes in--thanks in large part to director Andrew Marton (Crack in the World,Gentle Annie, King Solomon's Mines). The concluding scenes shooting the rapids are just great too.

This movie is also available on DVD if you miss this all too rare screening on TCM.

Psst! Only 1 Week until the premiere of Claudelle Inglish (1961) on TCM!

[JackFavell]

Wow! The studio system does it again, casting someone as a native American just because they have black or dark brown hair. I cannot imagine Cyd as "Indian Girl".

[moirafinnie]

Wow! The studio system does it again, casting someone as a native American just because they have black or dark brown hair. I cannot imagine Cyd as "Indian Girl".

She is actually pretty good and plays her role (and all her other roles for that matter) with considerable dignity, even though that lack of a character name is pretty jarring today

Second Thought Dept. : Well, maybe Cyd wasn't quite able to overcome the silliness of her role in Two Weeks in Another Town with her formidable dignity, but that script wasn't her fault.

[JackFavell]

Cyd always comes through well in the most unlikely movies.