I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

Larry Hart's sophisticated lyrics have often been tampered with. The original (and my favorite) version of "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" was sung by Vivienne Segal in the original Broadway production of Pal Joey. The song includes these lines:

Until I could sleep where I shouldn’t sleep;

And worship the trousers that cling to him;

Horizontally speaking he’s at his best;

Vexed again, perplexed again, thank God I can be oversexed again.

Ella Fitzgerald's recording cuts the top one but retains the other three. The film version, sung (dubbed) by Rita Hayworth, cuts them all.

Dandy was another euphemism for gay, as was fop. Both were/are more centered on style and dress than sexual orientation, but to audiences of the day, the implication would be clear.

Re: Hart's lyrics, many of them never would get past the radio censors of the day, so to get airplay (or on film) they had to be "adjusted." Same with Cole Porter's songs (like the cocaine reference in I Get a Kick Out of You).

Even R&H lyrics had to be changed every now and then. For example, the Soliloquy from Carousel had to be changed to remove the word b****** from the stage version's original lyric (flabby-faced, pot-bellied, baggy-eyed b****** became bully instead). The "clean" versions also stop short in the same song later on when Billy utters a "what the hell" - usually becomes a "what the -" in a clean version.

Edit: I had to LOL at this. Even the board's autocensor is triggered by R&H lyrics. Never knew until now...

What was censored? B-stard?

Let's bring back umlaut swearing! Here's how it goes in this word's case (copy and paste): bästärd.

[CinemaInternational]

JAGGED EDGE -- annoying '80's courtroom thriller with Glenn Close as possibly the world's dumbest lawyer. The obnoxiously manipulative script tries to "liven" things up with foul-mouthed Robert Loggia but only falls flat.

NO LIES DETECTED.

One fun thing of note (probably the only fun thing of note about JAGGED EDGE), GLENN CLOSE goes through (something like) FOUR WARDROBE CHANGES during what is supposed to be a single scene during the summation of the case. it was supposed to be set over four days, but they edited it into one.

LMREO!!!!!!!!! I couldn't understand (after watching it on tv) how this film was such a big hit. Totally predictable "thriller".

Let's face it, even though i will normally defend the 1980s as being a better film decade than most others would say, 1985, the year Jagged Edge was released, was a pretty frowzy year when it came to films aimed at adults, and defintely the weak link of the decade. If you look at the films released that year, you see a lot of teen films, you see a lot of kid oriented things, a lot of popcorn films. So, not as much for grown adults to go to, and maybe thus, it lead to Jagged Edge getting overpraised. I am enclosing box-office stats for the year so you can go through the titles and judge the year yourself....

[Fedya]

Holden, I think it's fair to say that some older gay men still find the word "queer" extremely offensive if applied to them. The assumption that "queer" is an acceptable substitute for, say, "LGBT," is ageist, in my opinion.

I have asked other people what the "new improved" meaning of "queer" is, but everyone else seems as mystified as I am. A few years ago a new city council member mentioned twelve times in a brief article that she was a "queer woman." In context, this seemed to mean either "a lesbian who's too cool for school" or "a bisexual whose **** doesn't stink." That may not be the official meaning, however.

The libertarianish gays I know say that "queer" means "politically gay", with a certain very narrow and tedious set of political views implied. They're also, to a man, repulsed by the use of "queer" as a verb.

[TikiSoo]

for me, a semantic pedantic, I lament the loss of the word "QUEER" as a GREAT way to say "effing ODD."

I've seen a lot of "Odd Fellows" Memorials and meeting houses in my travels. My traveling partner once said "What group would want to be known as the "Odd Fellows"? It's like saying: "The Order of Nincompoops"

[Masha]

I am enclosing box-office stats for the year so you can go through the titles and judge the year yourself....

I thank you for posting that list despite the danger such things entail.

I have lived many happy years with no knowledge of the existence of: The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984). Your list injected awareness of it. Such a title creates a disturbance in The Force. I can only hope that I find its title is not its only merit.

[txfilmfan]

I am enclosing box-office stats for the year so you can go through the titles and judge the year yourself....

I thank you for posting that list despite the danger such things entail.

I have lived many happy years with no knowledge of the existence of: The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984). Your list injected awareness of it. Such a title creates a disturbance in The Force. I can only hope that I find its title is not its only merit.

I too was blissfully ignorant. Somehow I don't remember this one crossing my path during my college years. IMDb says the original title was simply Gwendoline. Thank goodness they changed it, otherwise such a plain title might draw people in.

IMDb's plot overview says "Gwendoline, a runaway nun, arrives in Hong Kong on a mission to find her father, who was last seen in the legendary Land of the Yik Yak searching for a rare butterfly." Kind of like The Nun's Story, crossed with the Indiana Jones franchise and Barbarella, with a "fifty shades of grey" subtext thrown in, as it's based on a character found in a series of fetish comic books and magazines.

[Hibi]

CI,
I seem to remember Jagged Edge was released in early fall and had little to compete with at the BO. I think that probably helped.

[Lorna]

TEEN WOLF MADE $33 MILLION????????????

[Lorna]

CI,
I seem to remember Jagged Edge was released in early fall and had little to compete with at the BO. I think that probably helped.

ALSO, JEFF BRIDGES has- and has always had- valid appeal and about the only thing that gives the film any punch is the ending which plays on that appeal

also, OMG, THE HAIR IS ICONIC

[Lorna]

oh wow, if this trailer doesn't make you wanna check out THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE etc etc. I DUNNO WHAT WILL

THIS MOVIE LOOKS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

STAY TILL THE END, I THINK IVE FOUND THE INSPIRATION FOR THE DOMINATRAX BIKER SCENE IN "SHOWGIRLS"

ALSO, HOLY **** THE MALE LEAD IS HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lorna]

SERIOUSLY [GAYS AND STRAIGHT WOMEN AMONG THE POSTERS], PAUSE THE VIDEO ABOVE AT 51 SECONDS IN AND TELL ME THAT IS NOT ONE FINE-ASS MAN!!!!!!!!

WOW.

MIGHT HAVE TO SEE WHAT STREAMING SERVICES THIS FILM IS AVAILABLE ON.

PS- FOR YOU STRAIGHT GUYS, TAWNY KITTAEN IS IN THIS TOO. NO WORD ON WHETHER ANY CAR HOODS WERE DAMAGED

[Lorna]

so i checked out THE MAD GENIUS (1931)- which is a QUEER movie in the very traditional sense of the word meaning: EFFING ODD and UNUSUAL... and not entirely wholesome. There is really nothing gay at all about it in spite of the fact that it is set in the world of PROFESSIONAL DANCE and two characters wear these in one scene:



ah, legitimate theatre...

even though it's directed by MICHAEL CURTIZ, it's not good, and that is largely due to JOHN BARRYMORE who is not good in his part and clearly only about 30% committed to HIS EASTERN EUROPEAN "ACCENT" ...it comes off a lot like a very DARK ORIGIN STORY for COUNT VON COUNT



AND I'M not entirely mad at JOHN for not giving his all, because this movie is pretty much a shameless retread of SVENGALI without the interesting sets- and he had JUST MADE THAT MOVIE WITH THE SAME COSTAR A FEW MONTHS BEFORE.

So I get his not bringing the "A" Game, but still...it's watchable, and goofy and there is a surprising appearance early on from both a very young FRANKIE DARROW who has a real STAR QUALITY and BORIS KARLOFF in a role that I ABSOLUTELY HAD NO CLUE WAS BEING PLAYED BY HIM UNTIL I WENT TO IMDB AFTER SEEING THIS!!!! it's amazing how many times to this day I am still coming across GREAT KARLOFF PERFORMANCES I did not know about.

SPOILERISH there is also a surprise AXE MURDER in this and the obvious and blunt use of COCAINE as a plot device (we see the shadow of a character lifting his hand to his nose and see and hear the SNIFFFFFF and then he returns to work WIRED FOR SOUND, MAMA)

[Masha]

IMDb's plot overview says "Gwendoline, a runaway nun, arrives in Hong Kong on a mission to find her father, who was last seen in the legendary Land of the Yik Yak searching for a rare butterfly." Kind of like The Nun's Story, crossed with the Indiana Jones franchise and Barbarella, with a "fifty shades of grey" subtext thrown in, as it's based on a character found in a series of fetish comic books and magazines.

My first impression from reading the synopsis was that it is a mash-up of: King Solomon's Mines (1950), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and: Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989).

[CinemaInternational]

TEEN WOLF MADE $33 MILLION????????????

The only thing I can guess is that it was residual Michael J. Fox afterglow. Family Ties had hit TV's top 10 the previous season, and while Teen Wolf was filmed before Back to the Future (the year's biggest hit), it was released almost two months after it.

[CinemaInternational]

CI,
I seem to remember Jagged Edge was released in early fall and had little to compete with at the BO. I think that probably helped.

Yes, it most likely did. The only other film released around the same time to have similar box office numbers was the Schwarzenegger film Commando.... and, uh, I just don't see those audiences being compatable.