I've always been into "film noir" One of my favourite's of this genre is the 1946 film,"The Big Sleep." In this film, Martha Vickers played Carmen Sternwood, the rather wild drug taking daughter of General Sternwood, for whom Marlowe (Bogart) is working. Between the completion of the film and its release six months later, Bogart and Bacall got married, A further scene, featuring the pair in a restaurant,(the one with the racehorse analogy) was added. The studio wanted to use their on and off screen romance, to help sell the picture. It's obvious to me, even from the final result, Vickers was acting the pants off Bacall. So the word amongst the movie industry, was that some of Vickers best scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. She did make more films, but never really got the chance for the major role she deserved, none were particularly memorable, from 1951 she was mostly in TV dramas. She died from cancer in 1971 aged 46. Other wasted better talents in this film, all with bit parts were Dorothy Malone, (Acme bookshop proprietor) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqoxk3SrZRw&t=25s Sonia Darin (Agnes, but uncredited) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sNhPdJFZcQ Joy Barlow (taxi driver uncredited) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVAAZfl7Yek She has a great line, when he comes back to the cab after the end of this clip, she hands him her card and says. "If you can use me again, call me, day or night..... Night's better, I work during the day."
But the whole premise itself is non-sensical. Wouldn't it be far easier to teach astronauts how to drill than to teach oil workers to be astronauts?
And there we disagree. From my review of "Popeye": "Though never advertised as such, Popeye actually offers a musical, and quite possibly the crummiest one ever filmed. Okay, that seems a little strong, but I have to wonder how much time composer Harry Nilsson put into the simplistic songs. With titles like “He’s Large”, “I’m Mean”, and “Everything is Food”, it sounds as though Nilsson spent a good 15 to 20 minutes on the material. Some may argue that a movie based on a cartoon should feature basic tunes like these, but I think the songs of Popeye take things too far."
I am sure someone has already mentioned this, but it might be easier to list the movies where the talent wasn't wasted, especially with regard to actors (do we still use the term actress any more ?)... Tessa Thompson comes to mind, I get the impression she could handle a lot heavier parts than she is usually given....
Have you seen it ? I have not... but I LOVE Elaine May.....she can do no wrong in my book.... I have read that it is not near as bad as it's reputation suggests...
I saw it at the theatre when it was originally released. I actually had high expectations for it. It was a sad, dull mess.
I had a thought when I started this thread that there are a sufficient number of movies with good casts full of talented people that don't turn out as well as they should . . . but I also figured if the movie was simply 'Average' then it wasn't a total waste, you know? CITY HEAT (1984), for instance, isn't a great movie despite having a talented cast but a viewer could also do worse. You could watch SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT Part 2 (1980), which was mostly silly wrong-headed. Why a pregnant elephant? Is it even illegal to transport a pregnant elephant across state lines? Jeepers what an oddball idea for a "Smokey" sequel. And not a very good movie.
"Ishtar" got a lot of crap because it was crazy expensive (for its era) and it featured prominent stars. It's watchable fluff, which meant it offered a disappointment given all the talent involved: Ishtar [Blu-Ray] (1987)
Knives Out. Wretched crap at best. Nope. Walked out after over an hour of jaw dropping stupidity. The Star Wars films, except The Empire Strike Back. It was decent. Game Night. Walked out after about 30 minutes of totally unfunny jaw dropping stupidity. Since the Sam Raimi Spideys aren't considered part of the MCU by fan boys, all the Marvel movies other than the 1st 2 Raimi Spider-Man flicks. 3rd Raimi Spidey flick is OK, but has too much stuffed in it to work. Mad Max: Fury Road. Makes Mad Max Beyond Blunderdo.... err, Beyond Thunderdome look like The Godfather. The promise & brilliance shown with the 1st 2 MM films is missing entirely with those 2 films. Many more I could list.
"Winter Kills" (1979) had several huge names such as Toshiro Mifune and Elizabeth Taylor appearing in only one or two short scenes and with only a handful of lines. Elizabeth Taylor wasn't even credited. I'm not sure what the point of the Toshiro Mifune role was.
lord, what a slog. Not sure I made it all the way through, given that "lord, what a slog" is my only takeaway. Don't remember anything else, like who was in it.
I was only 11 in 1967. But the more I look back at that era, the more I wonder how the Older Generation managed to cope with the first breaking wave of that madness. My best guess is that they just blanked out- refused the input. Because, just look at that. However, I'd sigh with relief if the Zeitgeist was as bonkers as that nowadays. Nonsensical silliness. It would be like an ice jam breaking loose.
I watched Help about a year or so ago, and it has a very weird vibe to it. I remeber thinking someone needed to tell the Beatles, "dont do that", seemed a bit loose at times. A Hard Days Night is such a wonderful movie, and FUNNY.
I defy anyone to watch this movie and write a defense of it. It is truly jaw-droppingly terrible. Based on a book written by sixties favorite Terry Southern, it is loosely based on the novel Candide (Candy/Candide, get it?): an innocent character travels the world and gets into weird situations. Only in this case the innocent is a hot unknown Swedish actress named Ewa Aulin, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what kind of 'situations' she will mostly get into. Hard to know who makes the biggest fool of himself, but it might very well be Richard Burton. Brando in brown face as a guru was pretty astonishing as well. Ringo as a Mexican gardener is as bad as you think it would be. Here's Marlon in action. He supposedly hated this film. Also wasted: James Coburn, Walter Matthau, John Huston, John Astin, Anita Pallenberg and a host of others.
By the way, it's Help! (exclamation point included). I'm not sure when it became hip to denigrate this flick. I loved it as a kid. I saw it again in college in a packed auditorium (this was mid-eighties), and the crowd constantly laughed and got into it. Maybe the faux Indian characters haven't aged well (although they are technically not any specific ethnicity unless you can tell me what a Fiendish Thingie is). It's definitely got a weird vibe, but that seems like a Richard Lester thing, as several other of his movies have a similar offbeat quality to them. Last time I saw it, about eight years ago, I still liked it quite a bit. I still sometimes refer to the group as Be-At-uls.