Worst movie star biopic

[Richard Finegan]

Worst movie star biopic:
Some I was thinking of have already been mentioned.
But the TV-movie (allegedly) about Thelma Todd was one of the WORST!

[Richard Finegan]

Fay's wit only shows up in flashes in his 30's work, he could all too easily become insufferable. I've never seen THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED but I've read his parish priest is truly sanctimonious. By the end of his career he'd finally learned how to tone things down.

I had fun watching God's Gift To Women. From the silly conceit of Frank Fay being a great rogue/lover like Barrymore ... the film got fun when Fay got his medical diagnosis...

I agree! I always wanted to like Frank Fay but found it increasingly difficult each time I watched THE SHOW OF SHOWS. But then when I saw GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN I liked him in that one so much that found it easier to give him a chance in everything I'd see him in from then on.

[Hal Erickson]

Since someone has brought up made-for-TV biopics, I lost interest in the 3 Stooges movie of about ten years ago when in 1930 Ted Healy was offered a contract by "20th Century-Fox", five years before Fox merged with 20th Century (which in turn didn't exist until 1933). The stuff about Joe Besser's alleged refusal ever to be hit by a pie was all the more reason to avoid the film in future telecasts.

Up until the Stooge film came along, BUD AND LOU was the all time worst TV biopic. A tissue of lies and half-truths created by the mercenary Eddie Sherman; and thanks to legal entanglements, you'd never known that Bud Abbott was a married man. Lou Costello's first Hollywood party being boycotted by the other Tinseltowners was the film's absolute low point--never happened to Lou, never never NEVER, though it did happen to Orson Welles.

Some TV biopics aren't bad, but accuracy has little to do with their quality. How much of the Errol Flynn movie MY WICKED WICKED WAYS is true I don't know, but it's worth a look for Barbara Hershey's hilarious performance as Lili Damita.

[William D. Ferry]

Henry Fonda co-starred in LILLIAN RUSSELL (1940) and always referred to this film as "trash." Of course, this film is anything but trashy but Fonda obviously resented this studio assignment in what was clearly another star's vehicle.

Right on the money! As I recall in Fonda's autobiography, he stated that he had nothing but nice things to say about Alice Faye. His annoyance was that this was a.) the first film he got with his new Fox contract (which he had to sign to get THE GRAPES OF WRATH; b.) he was only one of ten leading men in the picture!

[Jeff Rapsis]

Around here, we still laugh about that Three Stooges biopic, it was just so awful on so many levels. Even minor details were completely wrong. At one point a scene takes place at Boston's "Central Station," complete with ornate sign. Those of us in New England (who grew up watching the Stooges on Channel 38 after school) know that Boston has a South Station and a North Station, but not a Central Station. How hard would it have been to use one of the correct names?

As I recall, the Boston scene also had yucca plants and palm trees in the background.

Who made this, B.O. Pictures?

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

Fay's wit only shows up in flashes in his 30's work, he could all too easily become insufferable. I've never seen THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED but I've read his parish priest is truly sanctimonious. By the end of his career he'd finally learned how to tone things down.

I had fun watching God's Gift To Women. From the silly conceit of Frank Fay being a great rogue/lover like Barrymore (who could have done this film I believe, but JB seemed to do hardly any comedy in his early sound Warner films), the film got fun when Fay got his medical diagnosis. It wasn't much, but I thought he got funnier as the film went along.

Some actors did mellow with age. Recently I was surprised how much Barton MacLane restrained his bluff bellowing during his television appearances in the '60s.

And of course THE MAN FROM BLANKLEY'S is still missing in action...

[pbma]

How about that 2000 bio-pic of Curly Top with Ashley Rose Orr. Stick to Broadway, Ashley.

Also, where's biopics for those 1930s child actresses who were arguably better in some ways? Edith Fellows had a good singing voice unlike Curly Top who had a harsh voice and couldn't carry a tune.

[drednm]

almost ALL of them

[Frame Rate]

Making a rare, on-camera appearance in a show-biz bio-pic about a star (himself) who is portrayed by someone else (Keefe Brasselle), the real Eddie Cantor exclaims at the film's conclusion, "I never looked better in my life!"

Some time after the film had played in theaters, a more candid Cantor reportedly told an interviewer:

"If that was my life, then I guess I never lived!!!"

[Gumlegs]

VALENTINO with Anthony Dexter
THE BUSTER KEATON STORY with Donald O'Connor
THE EDDIE CANTOR STORY with Keefe Brasselle

In the words of Spike Jones, "Pee-yew."

I second the motion ... although there isn't anything else on the list so far that rises to mediocrity.

[Dave Pitts]

My vote for worst I've seen: Gable and Lombard. Sheesh!!! Trashy without being fun/trashy.
Buster Keaton Story: I see by one of my old Maltin guides that I checked it off as having seen it, probably on the 4 p.m. matinee movie on Cleveland TV. I have no specific memory of it. As far as I can tell, it's never been out officially on VHS or DVD (no surprise there) and I haven't seen it on the gray market. The film did have one positive consequence: Buster took the money for the rights to his life story and bought the land and the bungalow where he lived out the 8 or 9 years he had left.

[brendangcarroll]

For me, it will always be the ludicrous, fictionalised NIGHT & DAY, the mid 40s Warner biopic of Cole Porter with a hopelessly miscast Cary Grant. A 2 hour+ BORE, in spite of gorgeous technicolor & fine production values.

[pbma]

I'd actually pay good money to see a good hatchet job biopic done on Curly Top and her Dirty Gertie. Curly Top is overhyped, overrated and her voice sounds harsh and like a pair of drowned cats being strangled - it would count against her if she was a young child actress starting out today.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

For me, it will always be the ludicrous, fictionalised NIGHT & DAY, the mid 40s Warner biopic of Cole Porter with a hopelessly miscast Cary Grant. A 2 hour+ BORE, in spite of gorgeous Technicolor & fine production values.

Yes, the last time I watched it (the previous time was on b/w tv) I found it so tiresome I poked it into my shop stock despite being a Curtiz fan. Never sold although someone did put it aside but never collected it.

[bobfells]

I can't say that I have a worst biopic on my list although the films named in this thread certainly are contenders. My complaint about biopics that depict the lives of entertainers is that there seems to be a trope they all observe: the main character must be devoid of any ego. The only near exception I can recall is Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). At one point the character of Geo. M. Cohan finds himself blacklisted as well as his family. The Jolson Story had a big problem since everybody knew the title character had a huge ego but how can that be depicted without losing sympathy for the guy? The script had Larry Parks doing a few bold things, but these came off more as simple brashness rather than an unbridled ego. And the entire genre of showbiz biopics had the trope that the entertainment industry was just chock full of very nice people.

Bob

[FrankFay]

Fay's wit only shows up in flashes in his 30's work, he could all too easily become insufferable. I've never seen THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED but I've read his parish priest is truly sanctimonious. By the end of his career he'd finally learned how to tone things down.

I had fun watching God's Gift To Women. From the silly conceit of Frank Fay being a great rogue/lover like Barrymore (who could have done this film I believe, but JB seemed to do hardly any comedy in his early sound Warner films), the film got fun when Fay got his medical diagnosis. It wasn't much, but I thought he got funnier as the film went along.

Some actors did mellow with age. Recently I was surprised how much Barton MacLane restrained his bluff bellowing during his television appearances in the '60s.

And of course THE MAN FROM BLANKLEY'S is still missing in action...

The sound discs exist

[FrankFay]

For me, it will always be the ludicrous, fictionalised NIGHT & DAY, the mid 40s Warner biopic of Cole Porter with a hopelessly miscast Cary Grant. A 2 hour+ BORE, in spite of gorgeous technicolor & fine production values.

There's a nice anecdote about it. Porter's friends asked him why he could possibly have approved of Grant starring in the picture. "Couldn't you have asked for Astaire? He even looks like you." Porter said "Oh I know...but couldYou turn down Cary Grant?

[Frame Rate]

For me, it will always be the ludicrous, fictionalised NIGHT & DAY, the mid 40s Warner biopic of Cole Porter with a hopelessly miscast Cary Grant. A 2 hour+ BORE, in spite of gorgeous technicolor & fine production values.

Some of the hostility toward N & D, in the years between its first telecasts in color and Turner's eventual ordering a video-mastering direct from 35mm may stem from the defective soundtrack negative used for most, if not all, of the 16mm Eastmancolor prints that used to circulate for both TV-syndication and non-theatrical screenings. The wow-and-flutter on the track was likely too subtle to disturb the tone-deaf lab technician(s) who okayed the reduction job, but the ears of any subsequent viewer (even those with somewhat less than the natural ability to discern quarter-tone variations) were continually assaulted, either consciously or subliminally, with a rather shoddy reproduction of both Porter's marvelous pop-music wizardry and the brilliance of Warners' powerhouse Steiner/Heindorf/Forbstein/Chambers presentation thereof.

[Harlowgold]

In terms of inaccuracy, the recent "Being The Ricardos" seems to be in the running. Haven't seen it but here's a review by Emmy winning writer Ken Levine http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2021/12/b ... eview.html disputing quite a bit of it as well as others in their comments after the review. I mean really - Lucy jealous of Judy Holliday?? In 1941???? Lucy was hardly the jealous type - Desilu produced the sitcoms for her two greatest "competitors" Eve Arden and Ann Sothern!

Levine's comment, "As for Nicole Kidman, she's a gifted actress who gave it her all, but how do you cast someone who can't move her face to play Lucille Ball, who thrived on her many comic expressions?" may be a classic barb.

[FrankFay]

In terms of inaccuracy, the recent "Being The Ricardos" seems to be in the running. Haven't seen it but here's a review by Emmy winning writer Ken Levine http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2021/12/b ... eview.html disputing quite a bit of it as well as others in their comments after the review. I mean really - Lucy jealous of Judy Holliday?? In 1941???? Lucy was hardly the jealous type - Desilu produced the sitcoms for her two greatest "competitors" Eve Arden and Ann Sothern!

Levine's comment, "As for Nicole Kidman, she's a gifted actress who gave it her all, but how do you cast someone who can't move her face to play Lucille Ball, who thrived on her many comic expressions?" may be a classic barb.

In 1941 Lucy was having a good enough run in Hollywood but wasn't really going anywhere - it was her "Queen of the B's" era. Holiday was getting good notices as part of a night club act - she had potential but hadn't had much chance to show it off other than some recordings.

[silentfilm]

In terms of inaccuracy, the recent "Being The Ricardos" seems to be in the running. Haven't seen it but here's a review by Emmy winning writer Ken Levine http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2021/12/b ... eview.html disputing quite a bit of it as well as others in their comments after the review. I mean really - Lucy jealous of Judy Holliday?? In 1941???? Lucy was hardly the jealous type - Desilu produced the sitcoms for her two greatest "competitors" Eve Arden and Ann Sothern!

Levine's comment, "As for Nicole Kidman, she's a gifted actress who gave it her all, but how do you cast someone who can't move her face to play Lucille Ball, who thrived on her many comic expressions?" may be a classic barb.

I have seen it. It isn't terrible, in fact parts of it are pretty good. I know that it is fashionable for movies and TV shows to jump around in time (ala This is Us) but part of the problem with this film is that it is not always clear which scenes happened when. Another glaring error is that they used the term "show runner", which was not a term back then. While placing the film during one week (except for the flashbacks) when Lucy was accused of being a communist was a good idea, the film's fatal flaw is that we only see Lucy the business person and wronged wife. We never get to see her being funny at all.

[bobfells]

I haven’t seen the Ricardos but as a rule I avoid watching impersonations of actors who made plenty of films on their own. They are never as good because the people they impersonate were unique. After seeing a slew of Jolson movies I couldn’t bear to watch Larry Parks in TJS. He wasn’t bad but the original was so much better.

Bob

[pbma]

I'd like to see a telemovie or theatrical biopic of Juanita Quigley or Edith Fellows. The Good Ship Lollipop needs to be torpedoed once and for all. Shirley's on screen persona gives simpletons a bad name.

Jackie Cooper should have just gone ahead with his planned movie in the 1980s about Edith Fellows. Which child actress active in the mid eighties would i cast? Kaleena Kiff.

[FrankFay]

I'd like to see a telemovie or theatrical biopic of Juanita Quigley or Edith Fellows. The Good Ship Lollipop needs to be torpedoed once and for all. Shirley's on screen persona gives simpletons a bad name.

Jackie Cooper should have just gone ahead with his planned movie in the 1980s about Edith Fellows. Which child actress active in the mid eighties would i cast? Kaleena Kiff.

I'd liked to see a really good biographic film on Shirley Temple. She'd be suited for "American Masters" - except that she was too Conservative for PBS.

[pbma]

Temple had one done:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233274

[bobfells]

This might be called a variation of this topic. The 1940 Fox musical biopic LILLIAN RUSSELL conflated the star's life as well as other characters who were part of her life. I like this film because it has much to admire including Alice Faye's performance, but its missteps are hilariously bad. The screenplay was written by former Ziegfeld writer William Anthony McGuire who was quoted as saying, "I didn't write about Lillian Russell the way she actually was, but the way people remember her." I thought that was a good distinction especially considering that the project was an escapist piece of entertainment.

Keeping this distinction in mind, it is laughable how other characters were portrayed, in particular, Don Ameche had the most thankless role in the film. He plays Lillian's first husband, the character was really her second husband but who's counting. Anyway, Ameche is a composer who is made up to look just like he did in SWANEE RIVER (1939) where he starred as the ill-fated Stephen Foster. Foster has a cute little daughter and at the end he dies of a heart attack. Fast-forward a year to LILLIAN RUSSELL and Ameche again is an ill-fated - and humorless - composer who dies of a heart attack while composing at a piano. Later when their baby girl has grown up a bit she is played by - wait for it - the same kid who played Stephen Foster's daughter.

The absence of creativity is astounding and to make matters worse, the facts are more interesting. Ameche's character was based on and named after the real-life husband of Russell named Edward Solomon. You'll be pleased to know that the real-life Solomon didn't die tragically but he may have wished he was dead. He and Russell had to part ways when he was arrested for bigamy! He was already married when he tied the knot with her. Screenwriter McGuire conflated the fate of the songwriter who wrote a hit song for Lillian, "Come Down My Evening Star," perhaps thinking that the public would vaguely recall that somebody connected with Lillian died suddenly. I can see folks watching the film saying, "Oh yeah, I remember that." Fate wasn't much kinder to McGuire - he died before 1940 was out.

Bob