Bad Movies You Love

[MissGoddess]

(I didn't know where else to put this...and I searched for a previous thread on this high brow topic, but found none. Please re-direct me if I overlooked one.)

This coming Tuesday TCM is airing one of my many favorite, slightly schlocky movie favorites, I Thank a Fool, which lands on my list of worst movie titles. It's a sort of rip-off of Rebecca and Jane Eyre but coming nowhere near either of those in terms of class or quality...yet I have to watch it every now and then. I am not even clear in my mind whether I truly enjoy some of these films or I am merely fascinated the way a rabbit can be by a cobra...

The 1960s seems to feature a larger number of this type of mind numbing entertainment, but I'd enjoy hearing what constitute guilty pleasures for the rest of you?

Some more of my foolish, thankless favorites include:

Penelope (1966)
Tony Rome (1967)
Breezy (1973)
All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
The Young Doctors (1961)
By Love Possessed (1961)
Return to Peyton Place (1961)
Portrait in Black (1960)
The Pleasure Seekers (1964)
Cain and Mabel (1936)
some of the Elvis movies

[mrsl]

.
Without even thinking two came to mind immediately:

1. Footloose and Flashdance, probably because of the music. Most of it is good get your heart going good. And they both harbor great memories of dancing in the family room with the kids and their friends, when they were a ' girl ' short.

3. Lastly is Code of Silence with Chuck Norris. Typical of his 'hero' type, but filmed in Chicago, in places I knew as a kid.
.

[moirafinnie]

Great Idea, Miss G.!

I love bad movies in an intense way too. Here are a few that jump out at me from your list:

Breezy was known as "Sleazy" in our house, though my sister and I ate up every ill-conceived moment between a washed out Bill Holden and shapely Kay Lenz with a spoon.

If you liked Breezy, you might like Tim (1979) with early Mel Gibson as a developmentally disabled fellow (only intellectually, not pectorially) who is taken under the wing of an "older" woman, Piper Laurie. I saw this remade with Candace Bergen once and it really was much better.

I think of the movies below from your list as belonging to the golden years of bad movies:

The Young Doctors (1961): this movie should have been called "Phil Karlson goes Straight", but I still love it because of the humanity of Aline MacMahon's exhausted pathologist, Fredric March's moments of self-doubt, and Ina Balin's grace while suffering. Ben Gazzara once had something for me, (back around pre-adolescence) but now all I can think when I see him is "Monkey-Boy!" which is what my sister used to call him (though she liked him too).

If you liked The Young Doctors, you may just love The Interns (1962) with Jamie MacArthur, Cliff Robertson, Michael Callan and (oh, god, no) Nick Adams as a bunch of unimpressive medicos who spread their chauvinism over their patients like a sheet--led by Telly Savalas (in, I swear, the same smock, lab coat and role as Broderick Crawford played in Not as a Stranger (1956), another epic. They can't cover up the fact that this movie is barely one step removed from a soap opera.

By Love Possessed (1961): Efrem *sigh* Zimbalist Jr. was divinely dim in this one, and I always watch it for his decent, dopey attorney whose banked fires remind me of Ronald Colman (without my glasses). Btw, this is said to be a good book that was mangled beyond recognition (even Efrem says so in his autobiography). Gotta love Jason Robards gimpy hubby who just can't satisfy that horsey Lana, (though they never really say why he limps, do they?). Best reason for watching this may be Susan Kohner, who once again took a cipher and made her into a person. I also love the whole small town vibe with class tensions and Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig as the town doxy trying to corrupt (and shake down) George Hamilton in his misunderstood youth phase.

If you liked By Love Possessed, may I recommend Where Love Has Gone (1964)? Bette Davis vs. Susan Hayward is amusing, not to mention the real life sensationalism drawn from the Lana Turner trial. And then, there is that tight-skirted bundle of passion and talent, Joey Heatherton. Anything with Joey Heatherton is worth watching. If you really like her, please catch Twilight of Honor (1963) sometime. That engaging if not very good movie has Richard Chamberlain (fresh from Dr. Kildare tv stardom) working with the great Claude Rains in his penultimate role as an elderly lawyer. Chamberlain is trying to save Nick Adams (again!!) from the chair for killing a man who went away with his wife, played by Miss Heatherton, at her most nubile. Just when you think that this courtroom movie is going to deal with some interesting issues, Heatherton fortunately sashays into the witness box!

Return to Peyton Place (1961): A few reasons to watch this--Jeff Chandler as an intellectual editor (be still, my foolish heart, that combo is music to my ears) and Mary Astor, who is phenomenal as a repressed New Englander. Astor takes this terrible role in a horrible movie and runs away with it, leaving Lucianna Paluzzi, Bret Halsey and even Eleanor Parker in the snowdrift. Also, any movie that tries to parody how a bestseller is made and early talk shows with a creepy Robert Q. Lewis or sincerely creepy Max Showalter is golden.

If you can't get enough of this, don't fret, get the DVDs of the television show Peyton Place or console yourself with another Carol Lynley whoop-de-doo, like The Last Sunset or The Cardinal (she's lost in the crowd but it's a great bad movie, with some serious talent).

Portrait in Black (1960): Oh, I always watch this for those poor working stiffs in the supporting cast, who have no problem outacting the leads (Lana and Tony Quinn). Lloyd Nolan and Anna May Wong are the best of the bunch,though they get some really good backup from Virginia Grey, Ray Walston, and poor Richard Basehart. Too bad I couldn't find the preview for this Ross Hunter production. I remember seeing this run on tv when I was a kid and thought it was very racy (and loud).

If you like it when Anthony Quinn goes over the top and really strangles a role to death, may I recommend Wild Is the Wind (1957)? I believe we have shared our mutual love/puzzlement over this movie before, though Tony Quinn + Tony Franciosa + Anna Magnani=wonderfully bad!

[ChiO]

On the one hand: If I like it -- for whatever reason -- why should I feel guilty and why should I consider it "bad"? I will proudly proclaim and defend, for example, Edward Wood as a maker of not only movies I love, but of great cinema (except for BRIDE OF THE MONSTER -- it is merely good cinema).

On the other hand: John Waters once made a good point about "guilty pleasures" -- how can it be a pleasure if it doesn't make you feel guilty?

SAVING SILVERMAN: It's awful, it's juvenile and Jason Biggs is painful to watch. But, Steve Zahn and Jack Black have me doubled over in laughter. I don't want to be, but I can't help it.

Two people actually like, albeit guiltily, PORTRAIT IN BLACK? Want my copy?

[MissGoddess]

Hi Anne,

[color=#0000BF].
Without even thinking two came to mind immediately:

1. Footloose and Flashdance, probably because of the music. Most of it is good get your heart going good. And they both harbor great memories of dancing in the family room with the kids and their friends, when they were a ' girl ' short.

I haven't seen those two in ages but remember Flashdance mainly for the music and I was at the time, a ballet student so it was cool to see movies about dancers. Remember White Nights? I had a MAJOR crush on Mikhail Baryshnikov. Who, by the way, was in another mis-step: The Turning Point. A real train wreck of a movie. I can't believe Ann Bancroft did it. I can bleieve Shirley did it, and she's actually good as a whiney, annoying housewife/ex-dancer jealous of Ann's career and Ann jealous of Shirley's family life...well, that was not so believeable. I think Ann got the part because she was skinny. Anyway, Mikhail and that ghastly girl who played Shirley's daughter "turned out" two of the worst performances (non dancing) ever.

3. Lastly is Code of Silence with Chuck Norris. Typical of his 'hero' type, but filmed in Chicago, in places I knew as a kid.
.

I've never been able to watch anything with Norris or any of those action guys EXCEPT Charles Bronson in his Euro days.

[MissGoddess]

Great Idea, Miss G.!

You mean a great bad idea? I sometimes enjoy these topics more for the
replies than the movies themselves.

PART ONE (I still can't write long posts here, so I have to spilt my reply to you, Moira,
into two parts )

If you liked Breezy, you might like Tim (1979) with early Mel Gibson as a developmentally disabled fellow (only intellectually, not pectorially) who is taken under the wing of an "older" woman, Piper Laurie. I saw this remade with Candace Bergen once and it really was much better.

Last night I was re-watching my DVD of Breezy (yes, I paid money for it) and I finally
figured out the attraction. It reminds me of my own gypsy days. Thank heavens I
never hitch-hiked or slept with a hippie for a night's lodging, but I've done things
almost as crazy in my travels. And for the same windy-minded reasons as "Breezy".

The Young Doctors (1961): this movie should have been called "Phil Karlson goes Straight", but I still love it because of the humanity of Aline MacMahon's exhausted pathologist, Fredric March's moments of self-doubt, and Ina Balin's grace while suffering. Ben Gazzara once had something for me, (back around pre-adolescence) but now all I can think when I see him is "Monkey-Boy!" which is what my sister used to call him (though she liked him too).

Ha! "Mummy Boy" is what Bronxgirl calls him. She and I both though a mummy had appeared instead of him
in one of those recent indie movies about Paris. Gena Rowlands, I believe, played his former flame. I can't
remember the name of the movie, but i was aghast at how Gazarra looked. Worse than Brad Dexter!

[moirafinnie]

Ha! "Mummy Boy" is what Bronxgirl calls him. She and I both though a mummy had appeared instead of him in one of those recent indie movies about Paris. Gena Rowlands, I believe, played his former flame. I can't
remember the name of the movie, but i was aghast at how Gazarra looked. Worse than Brad Dexter!

I didn't realize he was still working. The last time I saw him he was touring in a one man show about Babe Ruth! Well, after a quick look, I found this clip of him accepting an Italian Maestro Award. I don't know about a Mummy, but he has definitely begun to look a bit dehydrated, if not freeze dried. It's sort of fun to hear him speak Italiano. Wish I could understand more of it, though I think I get the gist of it.

[MissGoddess]

PART TWO of THREE (yes, it cut me off again)

Moira wrote: If you liked The Young Doctors, you may just love The Interns (1962) with Jamie MacArthur, Cliff Robertson, Michael Callan and (oh, god, no) Nick Adams as a bunch of unimpressive medicos who spread their chauvinism over their patients like a sheet--led by Telly Savalas (in, I swear, the same smock, lab coat and role as Broderick Crawford played in Not as a Stranger (1956), another epic. They can't cover up the fact that this movie is barely one step removed from a soap opera.

I have seen that one, and found it pretty rough going. The Young Doctors was better for the story
about Ina Balin's character.

And I'd love to know what everybody thinks about "SOAP OPERA". What does it mean to you?
Does it equal "bad"? I've always been puzzled by it. I love love stories, and that is often
labelled as something bad. Or does "SOAP OPERA" refer to a cheesy handling of the subject?

By Love Possessed (1961): Efrem *sigh* Zimbalist Jr. was divinely dim in this one, and I always watch it for his decent, dopey attorney whose banked fires remind me of Ronald Colman (without my glasses). Btw, this is said to be a good book that was mangled beyond recognition (even Efrem says so in his autobiography). Gotta love Jason Robards gimpy hubby who just can't satisfy that horsey Lana, (though they never really say why he limps, do they?). Best reason for watching this may be Susan Kohner, who once again took a cipher and made her into a person. I also love the whole small town vibe with class tensions and Yvonne "Batgirl" Craig as the town doxy trying to corrupt (and shake down) George Hamilton in his misunderstood youth phase.

Its coming out as a M.O.D. by MGM!

http://www.classicflix.com/love-possese ... eb1ccb3380

This is the first movie I ever bought any kind of "memorabilia" for...it was a press kit from ebay. I think I just did it because it was a Lana Turner movie.

[MissGoddess]

PART THREE of THREE

Yes, Gazarra keeps employed, good for him. To me, he'll always be Lee Remick's problematic husband in Anatomy of a Murder.

If you liked By Love Possessed, may I recommend Where Love Has Gone (1964)? Bette Davis vs. Susan Hayward is amusing, not to mention the real life sensationalism drawn from the Lana Turner trial. And then, there is that tight-skirted bundle of passion and talent, Joey Heatherton. Anything with Joey Heatherton is worth watching. If you really like her, please catch Twilight of Honor (1963) sometime. That engaging if not very good movie has Richard Chamberlain (fresh from Dr. Kildare tv stardom) working with the great Claude Rains in his penultimate role as an elderly lawyer. Chamberlain is trying to save Nick Adams (again!!) from the chair for killing a man who went away with his wife, played by Miss Heatherton, at her most nubile. Just when you think that this courtroom movie is going to deal with some interesting issues, Heatherton fortunately sashays into the witness box!

Who's "Nick Adams"? Wasn't he a Hemingway character? I tried watching Where Love Has Gone once but forget why I wasn't able to finish it. I don't remember Joey Heatherton and can't picture her. I've seen Twilight of Honor mentioned in that Claude Rains tribute on TCM by Chamberlain, but never the movie itself. I think TCM recently played it, too.

Return to Peyton Place (1961): A few reasons to watch this--Jeff Chandler as an intellectual editor (be still, my foolish heart, that combo is music to my ears) and Mary Astor, who is phenomenal as a repressed New Englander. Astor takes this terrible role in a horrible movie and runs away with it, leaving Lucianna Paluzzi, Bret Halsey and even Eleanor Parker in the snowdrift. Also, any movie that tries to parody how a bestseller is made and early talk shows with a creepy Robert Q. Lewis or sincerely creepy Max Showalter is golden.

I love Jeff Chandler, too. Lucisann Paluzzi, poor girl, one of many European transplants. European performers used to get much more work over here than now, which is odd. Tuesday Weld and Carole Lynley head the list of many bad movies in the sixties. At least Tuesday could half-way act, not Carole.

If you can't get enough of this, don't fret, get the DVDs of the television show Peyton Place or console yourself with another Carol Lynley whoop-de-doo, like The Last Sunset or The Cardinal (she's lost in the crowd but it's a great bad movie, with some serious talent).

I saw The CArdinal a while ago, I don't remember Carole, which is probably a good thing. I keep confusing The Cardinal with Carnal Knowledge...just like Edith Bunker did in an epi of "All in the Family".

Yikes! I don't think I can take wispy Mia Farrow.

b]Portrait in Black [/b](1960): Oh, I always watch this for those poor working stiffs in the supporting cast, who have no problem outacting the leads (Lana and Tony Quinn). Lloyd Nolan and Anna May Wong are the best of the bunch,though they get some really good backup from Virginia Grey, Ray Walston, and poor Richard Basehart. Too bad I couldn't find the preview for this Ross Hunter production. I remember seeing this run on tv when I was a kid and thought it was very racy (and loud).

If you like it when Anthony Quinn goes over the top and really strangles a role to death, may I recommend Wild Is the Wind (1957)? I believe we have shared our mutual love/puzzlement over this movie before, though Tony Quinn + Tony Franciosa + Anna Magnani=wonderfully bad!

Poor Virgnia Grey...she played so many unmarried women unrequietedly in love in her later days...I sometimes wonder if it was art imitating life, if what is said about her flame for Gable is true.

P.S. thanks for the offer, ChiO, but I already have the DVD.

[moirafinnie]

I think you know me well enough to know that my eclectic tastes embrace all forms of "SOAP OPERA," but I can appreciate the "cheesy handling of the subject" as a genre that tells a story that would otherwise not be told at all due to subject matter (taboos such as sexuality, illegitimacy, race) or representations of a relatively marginalized (though not really powerless) group, which could encompass women, immigrants, minorities, gays, etc. This was particularly true decades ago with women's pictures, but continues today, though the tabloidization of American life means that the material is handled in a truly ham-fisted way.

Also, years ago, the studio system, with great teams in front and behind the camera, could elevate the material to an incredibly polished artistic level, as you pointed out in the performance of Ina Balin in The Young Doctors. This is only occasionally done now. For instance, The King's Speech or Shadowlands or Brokeback Mountain were all kinds of soap operas, no? The combo of affliction, struggle, and a degree of triumph/acknowledgment formula still works and can be elevating for the audience as it entertains. Most people think that latter aspect is too bourgeois to acknowledge, but it is still of value to some.

Bad soap opera is when characters in a story behave in a formulaic way, but even then that could be enjoyable.

[moirafinnie]

PART THREE of THREE

Yes, Gazarra keeps employed, good for him. To me, he'll always be Lee Remick's problematic husband in Anatomy of a Murder.

If you liked By Love Possessed, may I recommend Where Love Has Gone (1964)? Bette Davis vs. Susan Hayward is amusing, not to mention the real life sensationalism drawn from the Lana Turner trial. And then, there is that tight-skirted bundle of passion and talent, Joey Heatherton. Anything with Joey Heatherton is worth watching. If you really like her, please catch Twilight of Honor (1963) sometime. That engaging if not very good movie has Richard Chamberlain (fresh from Dr. Kildare tv stardom) working with the great Claude Rains in his penultimate role as an elderly lawyer. Chamberlain is trying to save Nick Adams (again!!) from the chair for killing a man who went away with his wife, played by Miss Heatherton, at her most nubile. Just when you think that this courtroom movie is going to deal with some interesting issues, Heatherton fortunately sashays into the witness box!

Who's "Nick Adams"? Wasn't he a Hemingway character? I tried watching Where Love Has Gone once but forget why I wasn't able to finish it. I don't remember Joey Heatherton and can't picture her. I've seen Twilight of Honor mentioned in that Claude Rains tribute on TCM by Chamberlain, but never the movie itself. I think TCM recently played it, too.

Nick Adams was a Hemingway character, but he was also Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock (1938-1968), a pint-sized bundle of wannabe ambition who was active in the '50s and '60s. He was often the fellow who shows up in the background in supporting roles in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause, Sweet Smell of Success, No Time for Sergeants and others. NOT a convincing actor, though he was a busy one, he allegedly supplied gossip columnists with material about his "movie star friends" from Natalie Wood to Steve McQueen to Elvis. He had a hit tv show called The Rebel in the late '50s in which he carried a larger than normal gun (compensating?). Maybe he had talent, though I can't recall any

Return to Peyton Place (1961): A few reasons to watch this--Jeff Chandler as an intellectual editor (be still, my foolish heart, that combo is music to my ears) and Mary Astor, who is phenomenal as a repressed New Englander. Astor takes this terrible role in a horrible movie and runs away with it, leaving Lucianna Paluzzi, Bret Halsey and even Eleanor Parker in the snowdrift. Also, any movie that tries to parody how a bestseller is made and early talk shows with a creepy Robert Q. Lewis or sincerely creepy Max Showalter is golden.

[color=#000080]I love Jeff Chandler, too. Lucisann Paluzzi, poor girl, one of many European transplants. European performers used to get much more work over here than now, which is odd. Tuesday Weld and Carole Lynley head the list of many bad movies in the sixties. At least Tuesday could half-way act, not Carole.

I just read a very serious critique of the actresses from this period from a feminist POV, though I'm sorry I can't remember where I came across this item. The gist of the thesis was that in order to quell male and female anxiety about the changes that were rumbling beneath the surface of American society in the '50s (which were hardly as banal as supposed), a slew of actresses came to the fore whose primary features included blonde, almost white hair, a roundish baby face, pursed lips like a baby, translucent skin, wide, empty blue eyes and guileless, childlike demeanor, though these girls could portray someone whose undemanding form of sexuality, a la Marilyn, was the primary reason for living. Kim Novak, Tuesday Weld, Carole Lynley, Yvette Mimieux, and a few others were the usual suspects in this lineup. Interesting, huh? Not sure I entirely buy it since a few of these actresses managed to communicate some dissatisfaction with the whole arrangement of the social order (the late Ann Francis, for one, Kim Novak in her more disquieting films), but it is intriguing to think that society might unconsciously gravitate toward such girls.

If you can't get enough of this, don't fret, get the DVDs of the television show Peyton Place or console yourself with another Carol Lynley whoop-de-doo, like The Last Sunset or The Cardinal (she's lost in the crowd but it's a great bad movie, with some serious talent).

I saw The CArdinal a while ago, I don't remember Carole, which is probably a good thing. I keep confusing The Cardinal with Carnal Knowledge...just like Edith Bunker did in an epi of "All in the Family".

Yikes! I don't think I can take wispy Mia Farrow.

b]Portrait in Black [/b](1960): Oh, I always watch this for those poor working stiffs in the supporting cast, who have no problem outacting the leads (Lana and Tony Quinn). Lloyd Nolan and Anna May Wong are the best of the bunch,though they get some really good backup from Virginia Grey, Ray Walston, and poor Richard Basehart. Too bad I couldn't find the preview for this Ross Hunter production. I remember seeing this run on tv when I was a kid and thought it was very racy (and loud).

If you like it when Anthony Quinn goes over the top and really strangles a role to death, may I recommend Wild Is the Wind (1957)? I believe we have shared our mutual love/puzzlement over this movie before, though Tony Quinn + Tony Franciosa + Anna Magnani=wonderfully bad!

Poor Virgnia Grey...she played so many unmarried women unrequietedly in love in her later days...I sometimes wonder if it was art imitating life, if what is said about her flame for Gable is true.

P.S. thanks for the offer, ChiO, but I already have the DVD. [/quote]

[kingrat]

Moira, I must confess I still haven't seen the guilty pleasure you heartily recommended to me: Susan Slade. Of course, it stars one of the names synonymous with guilty pleasures: Troy Donahue. Twenty bucks or so will buy a box of Troy's movies on Amazon, including Susan Slade, which sounds like a good investment in guilty pleasures.

Troy's mom in Parrish, Claudette Colbert, demonstrates exactly how a nice girl hooks her man by holding out for marriage. You almost have to see Parrish for this alone.

Two words: Claudelle Inglish. Diane McBain as a Southern white trash gal (so far so good); Constance Ford as her mama (the goodness continues); mama wants to steal daughter's suitor, and it's Claude Akins = you gotta see this movie. When Nabokov said, "Nothing is so exhilarating as philistine vulgarity," had he been sneaking out to see it?

Count me in for Portrait in Black, especially for Anna May Wong and the sexy young John Saxon (not a duo, though it would have been interesting). But ChiO, count me in for Saving Silverman, too. A hilarious film.

Several of you saw to it that I didn't miss The Oscar last year, for which I'll always be grateful. Stephen Boyd's acting! Elke Sommer's hair! The list could go on and on.

SueSue would probably agree that big hair is always a plus.

[moirafinnie]

Moira, I must confess I still haven't seen the guilty pleasure you heartily recommended to me: Susan Slade. Of course, it stars one of the names synonymous with guilty pleasures: Troy Donahue. Twenty bucks or so will buy a box of Troy's movies on Amazon, including Susan Slade, which sounds like a good investment in guilty pleasures.

Hey, no problem. Even though Troy plays the great American novelist if he lived in Northern California and wore cashmere red sweaters in Susan Slade you can catch him in other movies. Besides SS is really Connie Steven's moment in the sun, not Troy's. Troy will be on TCM soon in one of the wooziest of Delmer Daves' mistakes after he had to stop making Westerns: Rome Adventure, which is on March 9th at 12:15PM ET. It's almost as good as SS, but not quite.

Troy's mom in Parrish, Claudette Colbert, demonstrates exactly how a nice girl hooks her man by holding out for marriage. You almost have to see Parrish for this alone.

I have not seen this movie, or I should say, I've only seen a few minutes of it when Troy (i think) was hanging tobacco in a barn in Connecticut. That seemed so odd to me. Guess I gotta find it. So we're even.

Two words: Claudelle Inglish. Diane McBain as a Southern white trash gal (so far so good); Constance Ford as her mama (the goodness continues); mama wants to steal daughter's suitor, and it's Claude Akins = you gotta see this movie. When Nabokov said, "Nothing is so exhilarating as philistine vulgarity," had he been sneaking out to see it?

Above: Constance Ford as Mom of the white trashy Claudelle played by Diane McBain.

You know I love Constance Ford in anything. Whether she's a schizo barging into Perry Mason's office or having her teenaged daughter examined by a doctor to ensure her virginity is still *ahem* intact, or she's a wisecracking spinster running a bookstore next to the Spanish Steps with her English Sheepdog as a business partner or a gum-chewing nurse in some soap opera on tv, I'm there for Connie! The only other time I love Connie more is when she had to divide up the few choice moments on screen with Arthur Kennedy, who was in A Summer Place and Claudelle Inglish!

Is Claudelle Inglish finally out on DVD? I've heard about this trashfest for years

Count me in for Portrait in Black, especially for Anna May Wong and the sexy young John Saxon (not a duo, though it would have been interesting). But ChiO, count me in for Saving Silverman, too. A hilarious film.

Oooh, I forgot about John Saxon!! He was dreamy.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira

Thank you for reminding who NIck Adams the actor was...I now know him as someone I saw him in lots of TV shows.

I just read a very serious critique of the actresses from this period from a feminist POV,

Oh dear.

though I'm sorry I can't remember where I came across this item. The gist of the thesis was that in order to quell male and female anxiety about the changes that were rumbling beneath the surface of American society in the '50s (which were hardly as banal as supposed), a slew of actresses came to the fore whose primary features included blonde, almost white hair, a roundish baby face, pursed lips like a baby, translucent skin, wide, empty blue eyes and guileless, childlike demeanor, though these girls could portray someone whose undemanding form of sexuality, a la Marilyn, was the primary reason for living. Kim Novak, Tuesday Weld, Carole Lynley, Yvette Mimieux, and a few others were the usual suspects in this lineup. Interesting, huh? Not sure I entirely buy it since a few of these actresses managed to communicate some dissatisfaction with the whole arrangement of the social order (the late Ann Francis, for one, Kim Novak in her more disquieting films), but it is intriguing to think that society might unconsciously gravitate toward such girls.

Ick. I should say I just can't get into all that sociological stuff. At any rate, they were many of them very pretty and added variety that is missing today (oh, and they looked like women, something else that's missing). I wonder how would those writers explain today's ideal of looking like a 12 year old child with or without fake breasts. Nothing womanly about that, ha!

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Well, I would never cut the 12-year-old waif look!

I am reveling in the Ben Gazzara revival...I, too, found him alluring and intriguing for awhile. I also enjoyed his performance, along with the lovely Lee Remick, in QB VII, where he emoted as another naughty boy searching for his spiritual self while indulging with Lana Wood.

Another Diane McBain vehicle, I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Girl Crew, was something I sought out for purely Gardner McKay reasoning. He was 6'4", so any of those high-altitude fellows I would hunt down with a passion. Anything to give me hope.

Besides, the taller my date, the pouffier the 'do.' !

But, alas, not much of a script. Mainly a male fantasy--Bond on a budget where it seems like they could write off or depreciate the sailboats . But, Oh, that Gardner....