Bad Movies You Love

[JackFavell]

That alternative cast and director made my jaw drop!

BTW, I'm loving Easter Bonnet Week so far, Moira.

[Rita Hayworth]

Reference - See Ray Milliard - April Star of the Month thread for more info.

Another Bad Movies You Love is FATHOM starring Raquel Welch and Tony Franciosa that every once in a while its pops up on my cable schedule and sometimes I like to watch it just out of fun.

This movie is one of those really bad movies that Raquel Welch did in her glory days and she often said that she said that she wished she had done this movie and Myra Breckenridge with Mae West. I did not see that movie ... but a friend did ... and it is so gross ... he told me to avoid it at all costs.

When I met Raquel Welch back in the late 1990's ... I was warned not to talk about Myra Breckenridge at all costs ... this is one of the many movie subjects matters that I was not to discuss with her at all. It was consider TABOO by all definition.

FATHOM is a SPY FARCE and COMEDY all roll into one ... its one of those movies you might enjoy watching on a rainy day if you like to watch a series of crazy antics, Raquel in a green bikini, dumb secret agents going at it at all times, and a whole bunch series of wackiness that makes your laugh silly big time. The Older I get, the more I like it ... as long I don't get in a habit of watching it every time its come on .... but I space it out 2-3 years apart - so I can enjoy it more.

This movie came out in 1967.

[moira finnie]

I'm eagerly anticipating Susan Slade tonight. Moira has recommended this as a classic Bad Movie. Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens. Lots of teen angst.

Sunday at 6:30 a.m. EDT (3:30 a.m. PDT) offers The Silver Chalice. This Biblical epic stars a young and handsome Paul Newman who, at this point in his career, is almost as inept as our fave Troy. Fortunately, he got a second chance and he learned very quickly. If I remember correctly, Virginia Mayo and Jack Palance are a lot of fun. Palance is Simon Magus, a magician or miracle worker who was a rival of Jesus, and Virginia plays his girlfriend and assistant.

Omigosh! Susan Slade rocks. DON'T miss the special effects scene with the baby! And you're going to want to kill to live in the Slade's jaw-dropping "shack" by the sea in Carmel. Connie really had to pull out the stops on this one, and Troy came equipped with his red windbreaker, just like a Ken doll who happened to be writing The Great American Novel in his spare time. The glorious production values are dazzling, but that script, oy! Have fun, King.

I have a bone to pick with you regarding The Silver Chalice. It may be a turkey that shamed Paul Newman until the day he died, but jeepers, those flipped-out, futuristic Palestine and ancient Rome settings by production designer Rolf Gerard were so precedent setting, I think it influenced the filmmakers behind both Dune and Battlestar Gallactica. Talk about significant! And out of that massive cast, it's hard to pick out the best acting; though I think my fave Lorne Greene as St. Peter might take the cake--though being Lorne, he manages to make being a Christian look boring instead of challenging. (It's enough to make you root for the Romans). Look quickly for Strother Martin in an uncredited bit--that voice is inimitable, and fits right into the pseudo-biblical milieu--though, unfortunately, he doesn't get to tell those overbearing Romans that what "we have here is a failure to communicate."

Best Scene: Simon the Magician (Jack Palance, in a career-killing performance), makes like a bird. Don't miss Virginia Mayo's incessant preening either. No offense, but I like Virginia when she played up her brassy chorine roots or sparred with Jimmy Cagney, but period films set in ancient times...not so hot.

[mrsl]

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One more word about Susan Slade. Moira I missed your later post about the other choices for leads and director. Yesterday I did a short post on Lawman, the movie, and how the talents of Lancaster and Robert Ryan made it a much better movie than the normal 'B" western would be. This is the case here also. Think of how Kazan turned a teen aged Natalie Wood into a sensitive young woman in Splendour in the Grass when Natalie was really living that phase of her life for real. Nothing could ever help Beatty though, just the same as Donahue, both were stiff boards with little emotion but I think with a different director, Connie could have turned in a better performance.

[klondike]

I think Warren Beatty matured into an actor of far greater range than did Mr. Donahue, and his body of work over 30 years stands testament to that fact.

[Papermoon]

There's too many to name off the top of my head, but I do love the classic exploitation films, you know the really badly acted ones about the danger of drugs and such.

[moira finnie]

The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) is being shown on TCM this evening at 11:45PM ET as part of the celebration of Angie Dickinson's birthday today. I love this movie. First we have Rachel played by Angie, looking lovely, of course, since even though she is stationed in equatorial Africa, she never sweats. Rachel Cade is a highly religious-minded nurse who is guilty of the sin of overscrupulosity, feeling guilty about her every carnal thought and burying herself in her mission while WWII rages. She encounters Peter Finch there, in a role that must have felt awfully familiar to him after his (memorably restrained but still hubba hubba) role in the beautifully made The Nun's Story. This movie is not beautifully made, though with director Gordon Douglas (Between Midnight and Dawn, Them!, I Was a Communist for the FBI) behind the camera, it has an irresistible pulpy zestiness--even if the jungle is clearly on a soundstage leftover from a Tarzan movie. The movie also has Roger Moore (see The Miracle, above) working out his Warner Brothers' contract and looking far more delicate than the sturdy Angie, who never let her sleek beauty and femininity get in the way of being one of the boys.

Best of all, the film features some of the best African-American actors of their time: Juano Hernandez, Woody Strode, Frederick O'Neal, and Errol John (also from The Nun's Story), along with the stellar Olympian Rafer Johnson. Is this film worthy of them? No, but they bring their dignity, grace, resonant presence and whatever reality the movie has to all their scenes. Their ability to lend credibility to a movie that tiptoes rather clumsily around the largely unspoken topic of "r-a-c-i-s-m" makes this movie's awkwardness bearable and even fascinating at times.

Rachel becomes an effective jungle medico (much more convincing than snarlin' Susan Hayward in White Witch Doctor), but the suds in the plot gets pretty thick in this story of forbidden love, lost ideals, pantin' passion, frustrated love, serious medical emergencies, and keeping up a brave, if self-lacerating face when guys never write when they go away.

Enjoy! And Happy Birthday, Angie! Maybe next year TCM can unearth that other forgotten "gem" from your filmography, The Bramble Bush (1960). Now that is a bad movie I really love.

[Gotta go get ready to catch a very young Angie with Richard "guilty pleasure" Egan in Tension at Table Rock on TCM just before Rachel Cade slinks into view]

[MissGoddess]

I love this movie, and thoroughly enjoyed your description of its, um, charms. Angie has skyrocketed in my esteem this past year since I've been revisiting her "Policewoman" series (only the 1st season is on DVD, alas, but Angie does some fun commentary on the episodes with her series partner, Earl Holliman) and I'm glad TCM is honoring her tonight. I can't resist comparisons of The Sins of Rachel Cade to The Nun's Story and 1959's The Miracle in which Roger Moore again tempts a spotless femme, this time Carroll Baker.

I'm also a fan of Peter Finch and found him quite captivating in The Nun's Story. It's great seeing this cast even if the movie is at times over the top. I can't remember if I've seen The Bramble Bush, the title is naggingly familiar so I probably did years ago, via some obscure VHS rental.

[ChiO]

How can one honor Angie Dickinson without CHINA GATE and THE KILLERS?

My DVR is on tonight.

[MissGoddess]

Ooh, Richard Egan...love him! That voice and those ice blue eyes...who cares if he can act!

[RedRiver]

Lorne Greene as St. Peter might take the cake

As long as he doesn't refer to Jesus' father as Little Joe!

My bad movies are the giant monster films. Some of them are actually good. But that's not required. I enjoy them all. REPTILICUS. GORGO. Peter Graves and the grasshoppers! The atrocious (and I mean that in the nicest way) GIANT GILA MONSTER. Turn a big lizard loose and I'm happy!

THE GIANT SPIDER, THE BLOB, THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. Need I go on?