Tweet "What Were They Thinking???" films

I just picked up Red Garters -1953--at an estate sale.....started to watch it and and was speechless.....I guess this film could be categorized as one of those "WHAT were they thinking??!" films. Visually I admit it was interesting and I believe was shot or maybe planned for in 3-D.....I get that they were trying for an highly stylized artificial look.....but....I was speechless! What other "What were they thinking??" films come to mind???

Yes, it was filmed in 3D. The best I can remember, it was sort of a parody western. Beyond that, it's too long ago.

I just picked up Red Garters -1953--at an estate sale.....started to watch it and and was speechless.....I guess this film could be categorized as one of those "WHAT were they thinking??!" films. Visually I admit it was interesting and I believe was shot or maybe planned for in 3-D.....I get that they were trying for an highly stylized artificial look.....but....I was speechless! What other "What were they thinking??" films come to mind???

They were doing a western spoof with a stylized look more like a Broadway Show, nothing to get that exasperated about, I think RED GARTERS is a lotta fun. The only "what were they thinking" moment I had regarding that film was the fact that they had Buddy Ebsen in it and didn't let him do any dancing until the last couple minutes.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Don't know about that film, but there was a 1955 musical that had Rosalind Russell dancing around in a short hillbilly costume. I spent three days in an ICU afterwards.

Irene Dunne's shimmy dance in Showboat (1936).

Irene Dunne's shimmy dance in Showboat (1936).

Shimmy? Do you mean "shuffle?"

Yolanda and the Thief and The Pirate strike me as "what were they thinking" films. Huge production values, very arty - and virtually no music. Or at little music ("Be a Clown" aside) worth talking about.

And of course, Golden Dawn and Madam Satan have caused many a head to be cratched.

As in the
What's this doll?" thread, the problem isn't not knowing what they were thinking, but realizing what they were thinking, Anyone who can figure out what they were thinking is a BAD PERSON.

For me, that's the Buster Brown series that Lamont directed in the late 1920s. It fits in so well with pieces like POLLY TICKS IN WASHINGTON.

Bob

[ Madam Satan have caused many a head to be cratched.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures-airships,crazy costumes,deco dance numbers,Lillian Roth and DeMille--only thing that would have made it a perfect guilty pleasure would be Gloria Swanson.... too bad she had been talked out of the lead by Joe Kennedy...well that and add a Technicolor production number-then it would be an over the top guilty pleasure!

RED GARTERS was planned to be shot in 3D, but ultimately wasn't. Obviously past the dimensional effects, they were going for a very stylized look that was popular on Broadway at the time.

[ Madam Satan have caused many a head to be cratched.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures-airships,crazy costumes,deco dance numbers,Lillian Roth and DeMille--only thing that would have made it a perfect guilty pleasure would be Gloria Swanson.... too bad she had been talked out of the lead by Joe Kennedy...well that and add a Technicolor production number-then it would be an over the top guilty pleasure!

Gloria was considered? Kay Johnson was actually livelier than I'd have expected from past work, but Gloria would have been divine. But the DeMille protege who'd previously played wicked Satan Synne is my fantasy-choice...I mean Bebe Daniels. Makes me feel guilty only to think I waited far too long before seeing this delight.

Kay Johnson's transformation to Madame Satan is even more effective because no one would expect she had that much personality in her.

I like MADAM SATAN, particularly for the saucy Lillian Roth.

I like MADAM SATAN, particularly for the saucy Lillian Roth.

also nice to see Reginald Denny as a leading man before he turned to being a character actor.

Here he is looking quite dashing in WWI:

Madam Satan has been mentioned. Coincidentally, exactly 24 hours ago, I watched Madam Satan for the first time (the reason the "musical" thread got revived is because I moseyed over to NitrateVille to see what people had been saying, and it's mentioned there, leading me to read the rest of the thread). I picked up the show for the uncompelling reason that I had been amused by Earl McCarthy in the Hairbreadth Harry efforts (when will someone put together a collection of the whole HH series?), saw that he was in this (ha ha, just try to find him), and thought I'd give it a whirl. On-line reviews tend towards the "this is an incredibly bad movie" assessment. I disagree strongly. I was unironically enthralled by it. It carves out its own niche: Die Fledermaus meets The Poseidon Adventure meets Noel Coward--such a deal! I found it intriguingly poignant that, while the usual buffo scene is going on in Trixie's bedroom, the audience is sent to see Angela's heart breaking as her worst fears about her husband are validated. I won't be able to see another film in which such monkeyshines and witty banter are going on without thinking to myself, "Yes; but someone's heart is breaking..." And I'm sure that that was the director's intention. Bravo, Mr. De Mille--you've made me more humane! "It's a waste of time to take a husband to Hell" made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, the audio of the print I saw left something to be desired, so a lot of the snappy dialog and song lyrics went by the wayside for me. Reginald Denny, in my estimation, did a splendid job with a minefield of a role; you like the character a little while disliking him a lot, but you can see how someone like Angela could love him despite everything. Meantime, Angela is "angelic," but we see--as she herself ultimately sees--a lot of truth in Bob's complaints about her. Stock characters are turned inside out, there's singing, dancing, spectacle, disaster, pretty girls, sophisticated humor, corny humor, and, ye gods, a happy ending too. A fine, unique, memorable piece of work, a good investment of the viewer's time, and, say I, a film ripe for and worthy of a good restoration.

I like MADAM SATAN, particularly for the saucy Lillian Roth.

Don't get me wrong. I like MS too. A lot. Who knew that Hell was somewhere in France?

But it is an odd film and really out there for such a wellknown director. Odder still is the complete change in tone once they get on that blimp. The first hour is leaden, which is odd considering all the marital infidelity dramedies CB did in the 20s. Even Ms. Roth isn't really convincing until she gets in that pheasant costume.

But once they get on teh catwalk, wow, is it silly fun!

But I still can't see how anyone at the time thought this was a good idea.

But I still can't see how anyone at the time thought this was a good idea.

It's a slight escalation in madness over "Turn Up the Heat," or Just Imagine, but not much. And airship-fever was in the air...that spire atop the Empire State Bldg. wasn't put there for King Kong to play with.

Or some of those Vitaphone shorts from the early 30s, like that hilarious comedy about suicide "No Other Way"(Duuuuuuuuhhhhh).

Or some of those Vitaphone shorts from the early 30s, like that hilarious comedy about suicide "No Other Way"(Duuuuuuuuhhhhh).

That would be "One Way Out" (1931) and yes, it's a very odd one. It's especially odd seeing Ray Collins in it.

How about PEPE, with a 50 year-old Cantinflas acting like a little boy, and so many guest stars that there's no time for any comedy.

RED GARTERS was planned to be shot in 3D, but ultimately wasn't. Obviously past the dimensional effects, they were going for a very stylized look that was popular on Broadway at the time.

Right. Compare to Li'l Abner.

I've seen bits of RED GARTERS- individual segments would play perfectly as television sketches, but the visual gimmick wears thin after a time. Not in any way a bad film though

How about PEPE, with a 50 year-old Cantinflas acting like a little boy, and so many guest stars that there's no time for any comedy.

Thanks (no thanks) for the reminder! All the cameos looked as if they were done while the stars were hurrying on their way to something else ("Hey, got a minute?"). The ending, if I recall correctly, is Pepe perfectly content to be back in the world of dire poverty.

Right. Compare to Li'l Abner.[/quote]


Good comparison. ABNER works quite well as its own world. In fact, this film should be more widely seen and appreciated. Not until THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (1983) was a theatrical approach so overt on film, and that worked well too.

In re: theatrical or stagey movies:

What about 1962's The Music Man? While I'm fond of the show both on stage and on the silver screen, I've always felt the deliberately stagey effects in the movie to be somewhat unsuccessful; I'd ask "what were they thinking?" on that one. --And this with me as very much a fan of "stagey" movies (a la Sally, Whoopee!, The Cocoanuts, Anna Christie, 1931's The Front Page etc. etc. Hm, perhaps "stagey movies" would make an interesting thread . . . )!

In re: theatrical or stagey movies:

What about 1962's The Music Man? While I'm fond of the show both on stage and on the silver screen, I've always felt the deliberately stagey effects in the movie to be somewhat unsuccessful; I'd ask "what were they thinking?" on that one. --)!

Stagey in what way? The blackouts? (DaCosta did the same thing with Auntie Mame.) The combination of backlot and (for the production numbers) soundstages as opposed to on-location filming? WSS aside, that was pretty much state of the art for the time.

For me, the places where the film is less than perfect is in the opening-up bits. Or, more precise, the visual underlining of what was more subtle on stage (the shots of the train during "Rock Island," the cut-away to the chickens during "Pick-a-little" etc.

You want a piece where they didn't open it up? How about the movie version of the musical version of THE PRODUCERS? Or even more egregious, the musical version of CHICAGO? Best picture for 2002!

Bob

In re stagey films, from the WAC Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 4 set, Jewel Robbery certainly played like its stage origin, though not in the locked-down camera style of The Cocoanuts.

I watched 1976's GABLE AND LOMBARD for the first time, and had I not seen MANOS or THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, I'd have said it was the worst movie I'd ever seen.

Young Thomas Edison (1940): (spoilers) - After a marvelous 3/4
the climax involves young Thomas Edison (Mickey Rooney)
tweeting the whistle of a steam train in Morse Code
to alert an approaching locomotive.

John Cassavetes as a biker gang leader
in Devil's Angels (1967).