HORRIBLE movies by Golden Era star

[Marc Chevalier]

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Mae West, Mae West...what were you thinking?


Here's a clip of the very, very old Mae in a 1970 film called "Myra Breckinridge". John Huston and and Raquel Welch co-star! Farrah Fawcett makes her movie debut! Rex Reed plays a heterosexual!


Take a look, if you dare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_vi_OsreNY&feature=related

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX6BM-myPqY

One more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9g3EFvWPko&feature=related


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[Marc Chevalier]

Mae West went on to make SEXTETTE, a movie even more horrible that MYRA BRECKINRIDGE.


Timothy Dalton plays her "love" interest. Mae and Timothy sing "Love Will Keep Us Together". Alice Cooper appears, looking normal and singing a schmaltzy song. Really!


Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hctzwKRVzY

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_BqAEA8G6E

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVsaAaL6UnI

The infamous wedding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC9dde6NXIY&feature=related

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[Brian Sheridan]

My god she was basically a mummy in Sextette...made 8 years after "Myra" when she was 84. She couldn't remember the names of any of her co-stars at this point or her lines. They put a earpiece in her head so she could be told the lines (story confirmed by Tony Curtis and George Hamilton) She died two years later in 1980.

As for Dalton's warbling, I thought Pierce Brosnan sounded awful singing in "Mama Mia." Maybe there is a reason James Bond movies are not musicals.

 

[jamespowers]

Well it was done in the 70s. What do you expect?
Lot of good quotes in those clips though.
"Get out your resumes boys." lol lol lol lol
John Houston definitely has quite a bit right as well.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Keith Moon was in SEXTETTE, too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hybUjvc49I0&feature=related

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[jamespowers]

Mae West went on to make SEXTETTE, a movie even more horrible that MYRA BRECKINRIDGE.


Timothy Dalton plays her "love" interest. Mae and Timothy sing "Love Will Keep Us Together". Alice Cooper appears, looking normal and singing a schmaltzy song. Really!


Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hctzwKRVzY

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_BqAEA8G6E

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVsaAaL6UnI

The infamous trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiwNYZK9Iyk

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That is a heck of a double entente film. Must have been twenty in the first clip with Mae West alone. lol lol lol lol

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I often think of how some of the best of Hollywood ended up in odd late career choices, though none may be as odd as Ms. West!

Consider poor Joseph Cotton, one of my favorites and a truly underrated and under appreciated actor, getting the crowbar to the head in "Soylent Green."

And the beret clad Edward G. Robinson in the same film.

Fred Astair in "Ghost Story" and he had a guest appearance in "Battlestar Gallactica."

I'm straining my memory, but wasn't it Ava Gardner in "Earthquake?" I sure she was and it is dreadful.

Lauren Bacall was beat up on "The Sopranos."

It's all rather sad.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

In 1968, Groucho Marx in "Skidoo" playing a mobster named "God." Embarrasing. His last big screen role.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

Poor Veronica Lake, with her final acting role in "Flesh Feast", takes the cake for me. It was supposed to be about a mad doctor trying to revive Hitler's body (or so I've heard - I'm not daring to watch it!). Come to think of it, that was made in the '70s too. Hmmm...

 

[jamespowers]

I often think of how some of the best of Hollywood ended up in odd late career choices, though none may be as odd as Ms. West!

Consider poor Joseph Cotton, one of my favorites and a truly underrated and under appreciated actor, getting the crowbar to the head in "Soylent Green."

And the beret clad Edward G. Robinson in the same film.

Fred Astair in "Ghost Story" and he had a guest appearance in "Battlestar Gallactica."

I'm straining my memory, but wasn't it Ava Gardner in "Earthquake?" I sure she was and it is dreadful.

Lauren Bacall was beat up on "The Sopranos."

It's all rather sad.

Hey! Soylent Green has redeeming qualities and Robinson's role had a powerful message.
Ghost Story is a decent watch. The end is interesting. It is better than some of the dreck that I see produced today. Again, not in the same boat as those previously mentioned by Marc.
Ava Gardener was in a few episodes of Falcon Crest int he 1980s as well. Many golden era film stars ended up on the night time soaps. Cesar Romero was another on Falcon Crest.

 

[jamespowers]

Come to think of it, that was made in the '70s too. Hmmm...

Yep, it was the era of majority dead films. [huh] :eusa_doh:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Mr. Powers is right: late in life, some Golden Era stars made a graceful final bow.


Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche had memorable roles in "Trading Places" (1983).

Bette Davis, Lillian Gish(!), Vincent Price, Ann Southern and Harry Carey Jr. were in the dull but respectable film, "The Whales of August" (1987).

As JP said, "Ghost Story" was an okay enough movie; it also starred Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Melvyn Douglas.

*** Extra bonus point: Melvyn Douglas was really superb in "Being There" (1979).***

Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn were fine in "On Golden Pond" (1981).

David Niven, Elsa Lanchester and Alec Guinness were fun in "Murder by Death" (1976).

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[Paisley]

Let's not forget commercials

Didn't Rosemary Clooney end up plugging paper towels? And didn't "full-figured gal" Jane Russell hawk bras? I know I've seen Lauren Bacall advertising Tuesday Morning (a houseware store). My guess: they needed the money.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Thanks to royalties and residuals, Jane Withers made millions from her long-running Comet Cleanser commercials. (She played the role of Josephine the Plumber.) Far more money, in fact, than Withers' films ever earned for her.

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[Mahagonny Bill]

I always think that it's funny when people bemoan great actors making bad films. Take Laurence Olivier's later work (Clash of the Titans anyone?) or the horrible drek Samuel L Jackson has done lately. We might put these people on a pedestal, but the truth of the matter is they are actors. A jobbing actor takes the roles they are offered and gets paid. You can't really be surprised that sometimes these offers are not the most artistic. Everybody's got to eat.

That being said, I can not agree with the comments about Soylent Green. I think it's a great movie and Edward G Robinson was especially good in it and playing against type. The movie would not have been the same without him.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

It may look disgraceful to us but someone once said "if you aren't acting, you are not an actor."

These people took roles for whatever reason. It kept them fed and made them feel productive. Sometime a job is just a job...they all can't be "Gone With The Wind."

What often seems worse is when they are past their prime and they try to hold on to the same type of roles. Groucho was brilliant in his early movies but didn't try to be that character when he hosted "You Bet Your Life." He allowed for maturation and was still hysterically, wickedly funny (that didn't change).

But there is something perversely fun about seeing these stars in the later, campy films.

 

[Sefton]

They made 'em bad in the 50's too:
Errol Flynn in "Cuban Rebel Girls" (1959) He plays himself as a war correspondent! Filmed in Cuba with the approval of Fidel Castro. It tells of the overthrow of Batista. Oh,yes ; he stars in this one with his 16 year old girlfriend Beverly Aadland. His drug and alcohol problems (not to mention his propensity for underaged "companions") helped put him in the position where he had to do films like this. A sad final bow for a great star of the Golden Era.

 

[dhermann1]

I saw it when it first came out, so maybe my memory is foggy, but I enjoyed Myra Breckenridge. It was meant to be surrealistically campy, and it was. As far as Soylent Green is concerned, I've never seen it, but Robinson really believed in the film, so more power to him.
I loved Astaire in his penultimate flick, "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit", he made a great Santa, and Lillian Gish's penultimate film, "Sweet Liberty" was quite a showcase for her.
And Betty Bacall ain't dead yet, folks. She may have a couple of surprises left.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Dana Andrews didn't do too badly in his final years, with one groovy exception: HOT RODS TO HELL (1967).

***Extra bonus point: an excellent turn as General Buck Brinkman in "The Loved One" (1965).***

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[jamespowers]

That being said, I can not agree with the comments about Soylent Green. I think it's a great movie and Edward G Robinson was especially good in it and playing against type. The movie would not have been the same without him.

Hear, hear! Soylent Green maybe people but it can be a people pleaser.