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FEUD's recreation of those STRAIT-JACKET scenes:
FEUD's recreation of those STRAIT-JACKET scenes:
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I have all these grand dame guignol pictures in my head they never made. It's weird.
I want to see Bette and Tallulah square off. Relatives, obviously.
I want to see Crawford playing twins (as Bette did more than once) one evil with her mid-'60s beehive coif ruling cruelly over her hornet's nest of a family in a big PSYCHO-esque mansion at the top of a hill; her sister, a quiet clairvoyant who wears her hair down modestly, is determined to stop the wickedness of her wealthy sister... Final scene: Good Joan walking down at sunset away from Evil Joan's burning house, her man-eating hydra strangling Evil Joan who smashes out a pane of the creepy conservatory and screams in horror, Good Joan at the bottom of the hill turns and sobs in equal horror at the carnage her terrible sister has wrought and by which she is now being destroyed. All shot in vivid halloweenish color.
Smells like 1966. And probably a Hammer production.
I just see it. Yet it doesn't exist.
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I love that idea! I can see it in my head so clearly, too.I have all these grand dame guignol pictures in my head they never made. It's weird.
I want to see Bette and Tallulah square off. Relatives, obviously.
I want to see Crawford playing twins (as Bette did more than once) one evil with her mid-'60s beehive coif ruling cruelly over her hornet's nest of a family in a big PSYCHO-esque mansion at the top of a hill; her sister, a quiet clairvoyant who wears her hair down modestly, is determined to stop the wickedness of her wealthy sister... Final scene: Good Joan walking down at sunset away from Evil Joan's burning house, her man-eating hydra strangling Evil Joan who smashes out a pane of the creepy conservatory and screams in horror, Good Joan at the bottom of the hill turns and sobs in equal horror at the carnage her terrible sister has wrought and by which she is now being destroyed. All shot in vivid halloweenish color.
Smells like 1966. And probably a Hammer production.
I just see it. Yet it doesn't exist.
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Love it!I think I'd call it "Hornet's Nest" like the evil twin's beehive hair.
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Maybe we can soon do it digitally. Perhaps I can call on @Richard Channing to help...!
As I said in the "Bette Vs. Joan" thread, there is something very dowager-y about the mid-'60s, although I can't quite explain why. Aging women surrounded with their ashtrays and candy dishes, in their sleeveless sack dresses and their sculpted hair of the period, personal objects dustily ancient and tackily modern, angsty and pensive and looking older than their years as was typical then, a bottle of something not too far out of reach, awaiting visitors or family or something banal.
Post-menopausal gothic, directly upon that tear in the space-time continuum occurring at the center of the decade.
That's Bette. And it's certainly Joan. It's a specific pitch, a flavor of delicious decay.
http://www.soapchat.net/threads/bette-davis-vs-joan-crawford.1947/
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I guess this entry was the closest Swanson would come to the Grand Dame Guignol genre --- nicely directed by Curtis Harrington, it's an okayish made-for-TV movie with a stupid generic title like KILLER BEES. That shrouded, overcast thing that distinguished the early-'70s stuff is in evidence.
All sorts of horoscopic details to unpack here that few will understand, but you have a Sun in Pisces/Gemini Rising heir to wealth bringing his beautiful slightly-bitchy Aquarius Rising bride/bride-to-be home to his family who do not welcome her in the '70s.'
And then the Sun in Scorpio/Moon in Libra takes over for the Scorpio Rising/Moon in Libra diva as queen of the empire.
All sorts of horoscopic details to unpack here that few will understand, but you have a Sun in Pisces/Gemini Rising heir to wealth bringing his beautiful slightly-bitchy Aquarius Rising bride/bride-to-be home to his family who do not welcome her in the '70s.'
And then the Sun in Scorpio/Moon in Libra takes over for the Scorpio Rising/Moon in Libra diva as queen of the empire.
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Cecil Colby makes out with his big sister, Constance:
Wouldn't a slew of Vic Mizzy scores for the later years of FALCON CREST beat the pants off of all of those dreadful synthesized compositions they used?
Wouldn't a slew of Vic Mizzy scores for the later years of FALCON CREST beat the pants off of all of those dreadful synthesized compositions they used?
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So interesting to see them out-of-character and in color -- and with that Crawfordless Coke bottle:
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It's kinda funny that she said The Colbys were the biggest pile of garbage she ever did, when 20 years before she did a movie with the same kind of story than Sable trying to prove Connie to be mentally sick.
And i'm sure she did a lot more "garbage" like that.
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Much better montage than the film it introduces...
Constance Colby marries her brother -- talk about your static acting directive!:
Missy's screams:
Constance Colby marries her brother -- talk about your static acting directive!:
Missy's screams:
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In 1973, critics and audiences ignored NIGHT WATCH which was dismissed as part of Elizabeth Taylor's cinematic slide of the period. But it popped up on the late-late movie a few years later, and everybody I know who saw it really liked it. I think it's a downright good film and has one of the best re-watch values of any Taylor motion picture --- whenever I need an Elizabethan fix, NIGHT WATCH has all the requisite elements, muu-muus included. It's kind of a period mood piece, and it's got that shrouded, overcast early-'70s thing going for it. Plus a surprise ending you ought to see coming but probably didn't.
Despite excellent work here, the director Brian G. Hutton quit the business and became a plumber.
Despite excellent work here, the director Brian G. Hutton quit the business and became a plumber.
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It was pretty common for actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age to go slumming in horror films in the 60s and 70s, but I don't think that automatically qualifies all entries into the "hag horror" sub-genre. Personally I only regard those films directly inspired by BABY JANE to fall into that group, and there's not many; the film has to feature a middle-aged to older famous actress and center on one character psychologically tormenting another. MISERY fits the motifs, but Kathy Bates wasn't famous enough or old enough (at the time) to qualify; if the role had been played, by, I don't know, maybe Sally Field, I would consider it a later entry in the genre.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? - Obviously the first and most famous, and a pretty darn good film. Not particularly scary, but taut and efficient. Davis is hammy as all get out, but the role justifies the performance. Crawford gives one of her best performances, tightly controlled desperation; I think her under-valued performance grounds the film and prevents it from sliding into Campland.
HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE -- The best of the bunch, the only entry in the genre to have pretensions at being more than a lowgrade shocker -- and pulls it off. A Tennessee Williams-esque melodrama filtered through Grand Guignol with a dash of William Castle-esque shlockery. I love DeHavilland more than Davis or Crawford and I think she's great in it; but given my druthers, I'd rather have the film with Crawford.
FANATIC (more commonly known as DIE! DIE! MY DARLING) -- A pretty effective horror film and the first time in years that Bankhead played an actual character rather than a caricature of herself. Tidbit: the off-Broadway play LOOPED was based on a true incident of a drunken, rattled Bankhead requiring 8 hours to record (loop) a single line of dialogue for the film. Bankhead was originally played by Valerie Harper; when she left due to ill health, the role was taken over, in a circularly brilliant piece of casting, by Stephanie Powers who had co-starred with Bankhead in the film.
STRAIT-JACKET -- The most disappointing of the films; not good enough to be effective, not bad enough to be trashy fun. Dull and inept.
It's been too long since I've seen DEAD RINGER or THE NANNY, but I believe they both fit into the genre and I have vaguely positive recollections of them.
I've never seen WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? or PICTURE MOMMY DEAD, but I believe they both could be classified of the type.
HUSH (1998) is an obvious late entry in the genre, although I don't recall seeing if mentioned as such. It hits all the beats, a shlocky potboiler with Jessica Lange tormenting her pregnant daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? - Obviously the first and most famous, and a pretty darn good film. Not particularly scary, but taut and efficient. Davis is hammy as all get out, but the role justifies the performance. Crawford gives one of her best performances, tightly controlled desperation; I think her under-valued performance grounds the film and prevents it from sliding into Campland.
HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE -- The best of the bunch, the only entry in the genre to have pretensions at being more than a lowgrade shocker -- and pulls it off. A Tennessee Williams-esque melodrama filtered through Grand Guignol with a dash of William Castle-esque shlockery. I love DeHavilland more than Davis or Crawford and I think she's great in it; but given my druthers, I'd rather have the film with Crawford.
FANATIC (more commonly known as DIE! DIE! MY DARLING) -- A pretty effective horror film and the first time in years that Bankhead played an actual character rather than a caricature of herself. Tidbit: the off-Broadway play LOOPED was based on a true incident of a drunken, rattled Bankhead requiring 8 hours to record (loop) a single line of dialogue for the film. Bankhead was originally played by Valerie Harper; when she left due to ill health, the role was taken over, in a circularly brilliant piece of casting, by Stephanie Powers who had co-starred with Bankhead in the film.
STRAIT-JACKET -- The most disappointing of the films; not good enough to be effective, not bad enough to be trashy fun. Dull and inept.
It's been too long since I've seen DEAD RINGER or THE NANNY, but I believe they both fit into the genre and I have vaguely positive recollections of them.
I've never seen WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? or PICTURE MOMMY DEAD, but I believe they both could be classified of the type.
HUSH (1998) is an obvious late entry in the genre, although I don't recall seeing if mentioned as such. It hits all the beats, a shlocky potboiler with Jessica Lange tormenting her pregnant daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.
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I guess Juliet Prowse wouldn't qualify as a "hag" though -- although Jan Murray certainly might... This infamously "sleazy" 1965 cult classic is a smarmy delight and stars Sal Mineo… what's not to love??
The un-blurred title sequence:
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Shoulda watch? Woulda like?
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Then you should also love Diana Rigg's MOTHER LOVE. Fans worldwide are craving a DVD release but strangely enough it hasn't happened yet.