Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gymble.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!scherzo!allegra!ulysses!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!dday From: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Re: More on Totally Bad Movies Message-ID: <378@gymble.UUCP> Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 10:59:02 EDT Article-I.D.: gymble.378 Posted: Mon Oct 7 10:59:02 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Oct-85 06:33:45 EDT References: <333@cylixd.UUCP> Reply-To: dday@gymble.UUCP (Dennis Doubleday) Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 71 In article <333@cylixd.UUCP> dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby) writes: > >Thanks to all who have mailed me their opinions and nominations for the >list of Totally Bad Movies. Keep those bits and characters coming, >folks. This discussion is nowhere near through yet. > > >The list, in order of badness, now stands at: > >*(1) Felicity > (2) Silent Night, Deadly Night >*(3) Glen or Glenda >*(4) Star Crush >*(5) First Family > (6) Sheena of the Jungle (on the "doubtful" list, however; see below) > If this list is simply to be made up of movies with no redeeming features whatsoever, then GLEN OR GLENDA (subtitle: I CHANGED MY SEX, even though it's not about sex changes but about transvestites) does not belong. It is high camp of the most hilarious kind. I consider it at least as funny as Edward D. Wood's other masterpiece, PLAN NINE. The list of truly unredeemable, awful movies is endless. I offer in evidence the entire output of Hollywood for the year 1966. This must be the worst year in Hollywood history. Few movies from that year rise to even the level of mediocrity. Unfortunately, this list is also not very interesting. It would be much more interesting to make a list of movies which were made with serious intentions but were so ineptly done that they make us laugh all the way through them. For three years (1981-1983) I was the programming head of Northwestern University's annual 24-hour B-movie Horror and Science Fiction Festival (a tradition which sadly died after I left). We attempted to seek out and exhibit the funniest bad movies of all time. Almost all of the best ones were from the 1950s. The best ones were: THE CREEPING TERROR absolutely the funniest bad movie I have ever seen GLEN OR GLENDA PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE ROBOT MONSTER IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (it didn't really; also may have the distinction of being the worst movie ever *remade* into an even worse movie; I think the remake was called ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS.) THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH Any serious movie buff must not turn down a chance to see any of these movies (??). There were many others almost as entertaining. Someday soon I'll list the REST OF THE BEST WORST MOVIES. There were some duds, of course, movies that were just *BAD* and difficult to stay awake through at 5 a.m. Examples: WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY -- despite the extremely promising title, this was a snooze. A dubbed Mexican film, it was really more a weak attempt at a spy film than anything else. The Aztec mummy didn't even show up until the last five minutes or so. ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES -- I'll probably get flamed for this because I've seen some expressions of enthusiasm for it on the net, but any true conneisseur (sp?) of bad science fiction will recognize it as an extremely weak attempt to satirize same. It simply fails to recognize that you can't satirize something which is already in the realm of self-parody. A definite must-miss. I would put these last two films on your list without hesitation. -- UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!dday Dept. of Computer Science CSNet: dday@umcp-cs University of Maryland ARPA: dday@maryland College Park, MD 20742 (301) 454-4247