Bad Movies You Love

[RedRiver]

There once was a GIRL FROM THE BRONX! (Still don't have a rhyme for that.) How wonderful to see you. I haven't been Bronxed in months!

What in the wide world of sports was Elsa/Lylah doing strolling in the garden alongside Peter wearing hiphuggers and bra, with what appeared to be her shirt slung over the shoulders like a sweater?

At last. My ideal date!

[Bronxgirl48]

There once was a GIRL FROM THE BRONX! (Still don't have a rhyme for that.) How wonderful to see you. I haven't been Bronxed in months!





Hi, Mike! You are sweet, thank you. You don't really want to be Bronxed, do you, lol? Nothing rhymes with my borough except, what? Honks and bonks? (But that says it all) I'd rather be THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI, only I'm afraid of millionaires who look like turtles.



What in the wide world of sports was Elsa/Lylah doing strolling in the garden alongside Peter wearing hiphuggers and bra, with what appeared to be her shirt slung over the shoulders like a sweater?

At last. My ideal date!

Men!

[Bronxgirl48]

Thanks, king, I'm honored! Still trying to get a "handle" on Aldrich, lol, and have always wondered when he suddenly "became" the director of kitschy qrotesquery with aging female gargoyles (I don't mean Kim of course, who looks ravishing in LYLAH). Did it maybe start with AUTUMN LEAVES in 1956? Or the 1955 noir KISS ME DEADLY? But then he worked on THE LAST SUNSET, right? Another "turnaround" and we've got SODOM AND GOMORRAH, then -- then! BABY JANE, but right after that is 4 FOR TEXAS, followed by -- HUSH! Then THE DIRTY DOZEN! And wasn't THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE the next? No, wait, you said LYLAH (I'm not looking at a filmography, it's all coming from my murky little brain) What's going on with him? But then again I'm thinking, many of the females in his movies seem to act with a lot of masculine energy, ha! Did Aldrich have a secret penchant for the bizarre and melodramatic?

I love Kim's (or do they use German dubbing for that too?) laugh in LYLAH. The way she throws her head back, lol.

"Tell 'em BRONXGIRL'S COMING!"

"WARDWOBE!"

[moira finnie]

The Aldrich films featuring women tend to be campy. AUTUMN LEAVES, with Cliff Robertson throwing a typewriter at Joan Crawford. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, with Bette Davis hamming it up. LYLAH. THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, which I haven't seen. Great story, though: a friend went to see THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE and sat behind two sweet old ladies. In one scene a woman goes into the restroom of a lesbian bar and comes back dressed as a man. At which point one of the sweet old ladies gasped and said, "She went in the wrong restroom!"

That's hilarious and kind of sweet! One female character who seems to be just about right in an Aldrich film: Ruth Donnelly in Autumn Leaves.


Of course, Ruth was pretty unstoppable, no matter what the material (or the director) was like.

[JackFavell]

Hey, Bronxetta!

[Bronxgirl48]

king, I love that SISTER GEORGE story, ha! And once you see this movie, it's pretty much hard to forget, lol, is all I'll say.

"Campy" is certainly the word when it comes to his female characters.

One thing I've noticed about Aldrich is how he uses a lot of the same actors over and over, sort of like a stock company, the way Ford did.

I'm reading that VERA CRUZ is supposed to be a very influencial Western. Can you enlighten me? I've never seen it.

[Bronxgirl48]

Hey, Jackie!

"Listen...listen to the sea..."

"Getta outta here, Luke Standish, you smirkin' Judas!"




I wonder if Aldrich could be considered an auteur, lol.

[JackFavell]

I

wonder if Aldrich could be considered an auteur, lol.

ha!Hey if Jerry Lewis can, Aldrich is definitely up for consideration.

[RedRiver]

I have a hard time defining the auteur. But I imagine Aldrich would qualify. Thoughtful, pointed, certainly not generic.

I think the quality of his films is all over the place, but then I think that about many directors

Absolutely. Only a very small handful had a consistent and impressive track record. Most had as many misses as hits. The great Billy Wilder could bore me to death. Some of Woody Allen's brilliant experiments are painful to watch. Henry King made some dark, contemplative dramas. And he stuck us with some silly, meaningless junk. Good days and bad days. We all have them!

[Bronxgirl48]

I

wonder if Aldrich could be considered an auteur, lol.

ha!Hey if Jerry Lewis can, Aldrich is definitely up for consideration.

LOL, you're right. I don't agree with the French on Jerry, but we're on the same wavelength as far as UNDER CAPRICORN.

[Bronxgirl48]

See Vera Cruz if you get the chance. This is one of the first cynical westerns where no one has completely pure motives, not even Gary Cooper. Critics at the time did not like this; that wasn't what they thought a western should be. To use one of lzcutter's favorite expressions, you can draw a line from Vera Cruz to the revisionist westerns of the 60s and 70s. Location shooting in Mexico, with a great shot of the peasants standing on top of the city walls.








Yup, the French thought Aldrich was an auteur. Aldrich was an ambitious director, but when he made his own projects they turned out to be stuff like The Big Knife and The Legend of Lylah Clare, much inferior to his more commercial projects. I think the quality of his films is all over the place, but then I think that about many directors, including some of my favorites.

Oh, no! Revisionist westerns are unfortunately my bete noir, lol.

So the French share what I assume is Aldrich's love/hate relationship with Hollywood?