An Unfortunate Decision

In the 1970's, Bruce (Now Caitlin) Jenner was huge. He received many offers for roles in television and film and two offers in 1979- the first was for the role of Roger Murdock in Airplane! Bruce (Now Caitlin) turned the part down and it went to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

 

So what did he choose instead? The craptacular film Can't Stop the Music. Many in his inner circle were perplexed by the decision, especially when the tacky film flopped.

 

Bruce (Now Caitlin) never worked in movies again. Now she probably regrets her decision.

Myra Breckinridge Week: Rex Reed

 

Myra Breckinridge Week: Edith Head

 

Myra Breckinridge Week: Raquel Welch

 

Myra Breckinridge Week: Mae West

 

Myra Breckinridge Week: John Huston

 

Bonus Batman

 

Batman Day - 9/17/2016

 

Happy Labor Day!

 

Unintentionally Funny

Sometimes, despite the filmmakers' best intentions, a film gets laughs instead of gasps. Sometimes a studio will just hope that people won't laugh too much and will (more importantly) keep buying tickets. In other situations, the studio will try to pretend like they always intended the movie to be funny. Like the last film of its franchise- Airport '79: The Concorde.

 

The film was a laughable mess. After its first week, Universal Pictures decided to take advantage of the mocking laughter and sell their "thrilling" disaster as a comedy. Its slogan was changed from Fasten your seatbelts- the thrills are terrific! to Fasten your seatbelts- the thrills are terrific... and so are the laughs!

 

We feel your pain, Ms. Raye

Another movie whose makers thought was a serious picture was Mommie Dearest. Originally, Paramount Pictures saw the movie as a serious drama, with Faye Dunaway thinking she would get an Oscar for her efforts. Of course, her performance was a campy, crazy, hilarious mess. The film's ads were serious at first-

 

Only to become ridiculous to take advantage of Faye's insane performance:

 

The new campaign, though it sought to make lemonade out of lemons, was despised by Faye Dunaway who quickly disavowed the film. Her performance would gain her Razzies, not Oscars.

Kelly Lynch, MD

The film Road House might seem like it was thrown together haphazardly, but a lot of prep work and effort went into its production. For example, the Double Deuce, Red's Auto Store and the barn that Dalton lives in were built specifically for the film.

 

Even Kelly Lynch got into her role. Kelly spent a month in an emergency room, learning how they operate. She also spent time with a doctor, learning how to stitch up an injury. When production started, she eagerly anticipated using her newly learned skills. Unfortunately for Kelly, however, most of her hospital scenes were cut from the film and she was given a surgical staple gun to use instead of sutures. Ms. Lynch considered her month long stint  in the emergency room to be a waste of time.

Sister Bette?

In the mid 1980's, legendary singer Bette Midler had apparently dropped off the face of the earth. Her once meteoric career had stalled, allegedly a victim of her demanding, diva-like behavior. By 1985 she was eager to get back into movies. Touchstone Pictures, a then new subsidiary of Disney, was eager to find known talent who could be hired for less. Bette Midler fell right into that category. She quickly signed with Touchstone and struck gold. Her first film under the contract- Down and Out in Beverly Hills, was a huge success. She followed up with a string of modest hits- Outrageous Fortune, Ruthless People and Big Business. 

 

It would be 1988's Beaches that would give Ms. Midler- and her ego- the boost they would need to return to the bad times. Despite doing interviews stating that she would do whatever was expected of her, Ms. Midler began to return to form. She had (sort of) agreed to make the film Sister Act, starring in the role of Dolores Van Cartier, the errant songstress who winds up in the nunnery. Ms. Midler decided that she did not wish to make the film and was certain she had told Touchstone Pictures of that decision. The late announcement of her decision led to an all-out scramble to fill the role before shooting began. Dolly Parton was asked, since she had signed a deal with Touchstone Pictures, but she didn't feel comfortable taking the role on such short notice. In the nick of time, producers found their replacement- Whoopi Goldberg. Despite the turmoil behind the scenes, the movie was a huge success.

  

Stark Industries!

 

Dark Moments in Movie History: Space Mutiny (1988)

 

Happy U.S. Independence Day!

 

Eddie is a Snoozer Too

The movie business was a tough one, even for the moguls who built it up from scratch. The world was fickle and there was no telling what the public might embrace. One thing was for certain; if the public rejected something there was no going back. The Wizard of Oz was supposed to be a franchise for MGM, though when the movie disappointed at the box office, Louis B. Mayer wrote it off and sold the movie rights to his friend Walt Disney. As far as Mr. Mayer was concerned this franchise was DOA. Of course, the film's repeated exposure on television would transform this movie into a classic. It would be too late for a sequel, however.

All that changed with the advent of cable television and home videocassettes. Cable networks like HBO had hours of time to fill every day, so rather than just buy blockbuster films to air, they would often fill out their schedules with lesser films. Films like Eddie and the Cruisers.

 

Eddie and the Cruisers had been a critical and box office dud. The film hardly made a splash in theaters but it was nice enough for HBO. The pay channel put the film about a "legendary" singer who (SPOILER ALERT) fakes his own death in a selfish fight with the record label that leaves his bandmates without jobs or a future into heavy rotation. The film found an audience who seemed to enjoy the film's bizarrely 1980's soundtrack (despite this being a 1960's band) and movie producers made a note of its popularity. A videocassette release was even more successful, turning this Hollywood dud into a sleeper hit. The studio could have just sat back and raked in the windfall. This being Hollywood, however, the executives decided to spin the roulette wheel and did something unprecedented- they authorized a sequel to a film that had failed at the box office.

 

They took the charisma-free lead actor, sent him to Canada, surrounded him with a bargain basement cast and spit out Eddie and the Cruisers II. There were high hopes for the film this time, since the hope was that Eddie's numerous fans made from HBO would flock to theaters this time. Despite featuring a bargain basement Lily Tomlin and 1/3 of the original cast, the low rent film did even worse than its predecessor, quickly losing the money and goodwill drummed up by the first movie. While the first film became a mainstay of DVD dump bins around the country, the second film is often difficult to find; assuming that one is looking to find it, that is.

Starfleet Welcomes Eddie Murphy?

In 1985, no star was bigger than Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop had been a huge hit the previous year and he had his pick of any project he wanted. Having just signed a mega deal with him, Paramount Pictures was eager to start lining up projects for their newest star. It quickly came to the attention of the studio that Eddie was a huge fan of Star Trek after he had requested that copies of the 1960's television show be made available to him. Paramount had acquired the show as part of a deal to buy the neighboring Desilu Studios from Lucille Ball. While previously seen as just something the studio had to purchase to get Lucy to agree to sell her facilities to them, the show had become quite a franchise for the company. Could the studio's big star and its biggest franchise actually team up? Paramount executives certainly hoped so.

 

At the time, the studio was in pre-production on Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, a film in which the Starfleet crew would visit contemporary San Francisco as part of their mission to take some whales to the future with them. Paramount thought this would be a perfect opportunity to put Eddie Murphy into the world of Star Trek. The script would have had Eddie Murphy play a conspiracy theorist marine biologist who would help the Starfleet crew with their mission. As a result, a more lighthearted script was produced. When it was presented to Eddie, he wasn't happy. He didn't want to play a 20th Century character; he wanted to actually be in Starfleet. Eddie had thought he would be playing a serious character in a serious Star Trek movie. Paramount didn't think the public would want to see him in a serious role and they weren't willing to risk finding out if they would. Eddie was encouraged to choose a different project and he made The Golden Child instead.

 

Meanwhile, Star Trek 4 went into production retaining its more lighthearted tone, though strangely recasting the Eddie Murphy role with Catherine Hicks. She wouldn't be a conspiracy theorist, however. The film did amazingly well; earning the best box office of the films starring the original cast. This would inspire Paramount to give the greenlight to an all new television show- Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

Gotham Skidoo!

 

Otto Preminger had been one of Hollywood's preeminent directors. That's why it was puzzling when he accepted a role on the 1960's campy version of Batman. The normally serious gentleman went crazy in a scene stealing romp as Mr. Freeze.

  

Many chalked this up to his discovery of a college aged son he never knew he had with famed strip tease dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. Others claimed it might have been the early signs of dementia, but regardless of the reason, it led to his next ambitious project- the psychedelic 'today' picture Skidoo.

 

Hollywood at the time was desperate for something that could register with the youth of the day and Mr. Preminger wanted to impress his new son, so he eagerly began putting together his 'today' picture featuring the stars of yesteryear who coincidentally had also done time on Batman.

  

Frank Gorshin, teen idol

  

Burgess Meredith, Hip with the youth of the day

  

Cesar Romero, Hippie Icon

With a cast more suited to the Sunset Rest Home than the Sunset Strip, this 'Today' picture had a 'Yesterday' vibe. And it tanked at the box office, helping 'Skidoo' Otto Preminger out of Hollywood.

#BattlefieldEarth

In "honor" of today's relaunch of L. Ron Hubbard's cheesy sci-fi novel masterpiece Battlefield Earth, we remind you of John Travolta's disasterpiece film Battlefield Earth:

http://www.blindkiyomi.com/p/blog-page_19.html

 

Filmways Pictures

 

When most people think of Filmways, they probably picture hayseed comedies like The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres. While the studio was responsible for most of CBS' so called 'hick-coms', it also had a respected motion picture arm the sought to identify smaller pictures with promise and possibly prestige. Co-founder Martin Ransohoff had a penchant for finding talent before they were famous, signing actresses Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld and Sharon Tate. He also produced vehicles directed by Roman Polanski and Brian DePalma.

 

The departure of the company's principals didn't immediately cause problems at the studio; it still had a lucrative catalog of past productions after all. However shoddy record keeping resulted in a few of its television productions ending up in the public domain. The ill fated purchase of schlock cartoon studio Ruby Spears resulted in the studio almost declaring bankruptcy in the early 1980's. Its television and film rights ended up scattered around Hollywood, some landing at CBS, some at Warner Brothers. Eventually the studio was taken over and renamed Orion Pictures.

 

As Orion, the studio would have greater success, releasing Robocop and The Silence of the Lambs, eventually getting taken over by MGM who would retire then re-instate the Orion Pictures name.