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The Fifty Worst Films of All Time
THE MOVIES
The unbelievable baddies from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster to Myra Breckinridge and Lost Horizon, complete with their irresistibly incredible plots and delicious dismal dialogue. Who could forget The Conqueror with John Wayne as Genghis Khan; That Hagen Girl with Shirley Temple playing Ronald Reagan's illegitimate daughter; or The Terror of Tiny Town, the only musical western in Hollywood history with an all midget cast?
THE STARS
Would you believe that Richard Burton, Jane Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Faye Dunaway and so many others could fall so far and land so hard?
THE PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS
D.W. Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hugues and Samuel Goldwyn were among them. What cloud passed over these moviemen's eyes that they could not see?
THE CRITICS
It takes a truly terrible film to bring out the venomous best in the critic's destructive art.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The money spent, the money lost, and the money paid out by the ultimate victims--the public.
Now you don't have to watch TV until three in the morning to see your favorite film flops violate every standard of intelligence, talent, and good taste. Here they all are in all their awesome awfulness for your masochistic reading pleasure!
The unbelievable baddies from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster to Myra Breckinridge and Lost Horizon, complete with their irresistibly incredible plots and delicious dismal dialogue. Who could forget The Conqueror with John Wayne as Genghis Khan; That Hagen Girl with Shirley Temple playing Ronald Reagan's illegitimate daughter; or The Terror of Tiny Town, the only musical western in Hollywood history with an all midget cast?
THE STARS
Would you believe that Richard Burton, Jane Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Faye Dunaway and so many others could fall so far and land so hard?
THE PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS
D.W. Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hugues and Samuel Goldwyn were among them. What cloud passed over these moviemen's eyes that they could not see?
THE CRITICS
It takes a truly terrible film to bring out the venomous best in the critic's destructive art.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The money spent, the money lost, and the money paid out by the ultimate victims--the public.
Now you don't have to watch TV until three in the morning to see your favorite film flops violate every standard of intelligence, talent, and good taste. Here they all are in all their awesome awfulness for your masochistic reading pleasure!
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 24, 2022
While not necessarily the worst films of all time, they certainly are bad. The interesting point of the reviews is how these films got made in the first place, where they went wrong, and why did they even get put out to the public.
John Wayne was completely unsuited for the role of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror, but ironically enough his presence drew in audiences. There were high hopes for Lost Horizon so that there was even a special screening demanded by the British royal family. And The Trial Of Billy Jack was long, repetitive, illogical, and lacked even the meager merits of its predecessor.
Mildly interesting, but nothing to seek out.
John Wayne was completely unsuited for the role of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror, but ironically enough his presence drew in audiences. There were high hopes for Lost Horizon so that there was even a special screening demanded by the British royal family. And The Trial Of Billy Jack was long, repetitive, illogical, and lacked even the meager merits of its predecessor.
Mildly interesting, but nothing to seek out.
July 2, 2017
Lots of us grew up watching laughably bad movies on late night television back in the sixties and seventies, but I suppose it was really the publication of this book in 1978 which began to articulate bad movie fandom in a way which would eventually lead to the popularity of Mystery Science Theater (a show I never got into as I prefer to watch the movies in their original form). This book was largely the work of a very young Harry Medved, with assistance from Randy Dreyfuss. Harry’s brother Michael, who would co-author The Golden Turkey Awards and Son of Golden Turkey Awards which followed on from this one, helped with this one too, but not enough, apparently, to earn a co-author credit.
I like the Medveds for their ability to shine a light on some truly crazy obscurities and I often find their corny gags hilarious, but there can be a mean-spirited edge to their writing about some of these movies. When an eccentric with next to no money turns out a ridiculously silly movie that none-the-less manages to provide audiences with substantial enjoyment over a period of decades, I don’t want to stand there and say “What an idiot!” I want to laugh, but I also want to celebrate a remarkable achievement. This problem really doesn’t effect this book so much, partly because the majority of the movies are mainstream Hollywood product which deserves the corrective of our scorn, and when Medved does include some wild low budget schlock, such as Arch W. Hall, Sr.’s Eegah! (1962) and Phil Tucker’s Robot Monster (1953), he treats the film-makers with respect, in these two cases seeking them out for personal comment on the story behind their film.
As with most examples of this kind of book, a more appropriate title would be 50 of the Worst Films of All Time. The fact that Medved has made a point of selecting one representative each from a number of notorious genres - spaghetti western, blaxploitation, Elvis movies - shows that this is not his absolute fifty worst. The aim has clearly been to provide an overview which includes films across the time line of the sound era and across genres. The films are predominantly from the United States. Today’s readers may be surprised by the absence of Plan Nine From Outer Space, or anything else by Edward D. Wood, Jr. It was actually the voting form in the back of this book which led to that film being chosen as the worst film of all time. At the time of writing, Medved apparently wasn’t familiar with it.
Part of the fun of reading these books is disagreeing with the author. I quite like The Omen (1976). And many an art film devotee (though not myself) will be horrified by the inclusion of Last Year at Marienbad (1962) and Ivan the Terrible, Parts I & II (1946-47).
Some of the films included are favourites of bad movie fanatics everywhere, while others are probably largely forgotten as Hollywood misfires devoid of much entertainment value, except to read about. Then there is the sad spectacle of great film-makers - D. W. Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Jerry Lewis, Michelangelo Antonioni - striking out. Sam Peckinpah is included as well, but I didn’t think Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) was that bad.
The book wasn’t hilarious as often as I hoped it would be, but when it was it made me laugh out loud. It’s full of fascinating film trivia, though, and presented in a format - including quotes from reviews and from the film’s dialogue, and facetiously captioned stills - that makes it a pleasure to dip into.
I like the Medveds for their ability to shine a light on some truly crazy obscurities and I often find their corny gags hilarious, but there can be a mean-spirited edge to their writing about some of these movies. When an eccentric with next to no money turns out a ridiculously silly movie that none-the-less manages to provide audiences with substantial enjoyment over a period of decades, I don’t want to stand there and say “What an idiot!” I want to laugh, but I also want to celebrate a remarkable achievement. This problem really doesn’t effect this book so much, partly because the majority of the movies are mainstream Hollywood product which deserves the corrective of our scorn, and when Medved does include some wild low budget schlock, such as Arch W. Hall, Sr.’s Eegah! (1962) and Phil Tucker’s Robot Monster (1953), he treats the film-makers with respect, in these two cases seeking them out for personal comment on the story behind their film.
As with most examples of this kind of book, a more appropriate title would be 50 of the Worst Films of All Time. The fact that Medved has made a point of selecting one representative each from a number of notorious genres - spaghetti western, blaxploitation, Elvis movies - shows that this is not his absolute fifty worst. The aim has clearly been to provide an overview which includes films across the time line of the sound era and across genres. The films are predominantly from the United States. Today’s readers may be surprised by the absence of Plan Nine From Outer Space, or anything else by Edward D. Wood, Jr. It was actually the voting form in the back of this book which led to that film being chosen as the worst film of all time. At the time of writing, Medved apparently wasn’t familiar with it.
Part of the fun of reading these books is disagreeing with the author. I quite like The Omen (1976). And many an art film devotee (though not myself) will be horrified by the inclusion of Last Year at Marienbad (1962) and Ivan the Terrible, Parts I & II (1946-47).
Some of the films included are favourites of bad movie fanatics everywhere, while others are probably largely forgotten as Hollywood misfires devoid of much entertainment value, except to read about. Then there is the sad spectacle of great film-makers - D. W. Griffith, Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Jerry Lewis, Michelangelo Antonioni - striking out. Sam Peckinpah is included as well, but I didn’t think Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) was that bad.
The book wasn’t hilarious as often as I hoped it would be, but when it was it made me laugh out loud. It’s full of fascinating film trivia, though, and presented in a format - including quotes from reviews and from the film’s dialogue, and facetiously captioned stills - that makes it a pleasure to dip into.
June 5, 2015
Ten percent of viewers watch stock car races for the winning and not the wrecks; the rest of us are endlessly fascinated by books like this. Really bad movies transcend genre, era, director, actor, or writer to achieve an awe-inspiring attraction of their own, beyond what bad television shows(quickly canceled), music (erased from iTunes), or books (easily abandoned in mid stream) can achieve. Kept in our seats by the price of the ticket and the limited time commitment, bad movies are more memorable than all but the very best ones.
Medved and Dreyfuss pick out their 50 worst as of the 1978 publication of this edition (revised editions are promised), with critics' responses, plot summaries, performance lowlights, snippets of dreadful dialogue, behind-the-scenes trivia, and data about the financial background and history of the movies.
Of all the art forms I listed earlier (TV, music, books), movies are the end result of the largest number of inputs from the widest array of arts and crafts, so one of the things that makes bad movies so good is the awe-inspiring convergence of so much bad art and craft in one product. As Medved and Dreyfuss suggest, there are many categories of bad movies, all of them represented here, including big budget flops and low-budget bombs, overrated art films and tarnished-star vehicles (Bogart in a hillbilly rasslin' movie?).
With the advent of the internet and websites like IMDB and badmovies.org, it is easier than ever to find and find out about bombs like these listed here. And with NetFlix, you can even view some of them in your own home with no investment of good money on bad art. I was particularly intrigued by "Robot Monster", a 1953 low-budget bust starring a gorilla-suited "robot" in a plastic diving helmet, a bubble machine (credited!), and the last six hu-mans on earth. Originally filmed in 3-D, it is sadly available only in the 2-D version now on my NetFlix queue.
Good bad-movie hunting!
Medved and Dreyfuss pick out their 50 worst as of the 1978 publication of this edition (revised editions are promised), with critics' responses, plot summaries, performance lowlights, snippets of dreadful dialogue, behind-the-scenes trivia, and data about the financial background and history of the movies.
Of all the art forms I listed earlier (TV, music, books), movies are the end result of the largest number of inputs from the widest array of arts and crafts, so one of the things that makes bad movies so good is the awe-inspiring convergence of so much bad art and craft in one product. As Medved and Dreyfuss suggest, there are many categories of bad movies, all of them represented here, including big budget flops and low-budget bombs, overrated art films and tarnished-star vehicles (Bogart in a hillbilly rasslin' movie?).
With the advent of the internet and websites like IMDB and badmovies.org, it is easier than ever to find and find out about bombs like these listed here. And with NetFlix, you can even view some of them in your own home with no investment of good money on bad art. I was particularly intrigued by "Robot Monster", a 1953 low-budget bust starring a gorilla-suited "robot" in a plastic diving helmet, a bubble machine (credited!), and the last six hu-mans on earth. Originally filmed in 3-D, it is sadly available only in the 2-D version now on my NetFlix queue.
Good bad-movie hunting!
January 9, 2017
I am like many people in that I am occasionally drawn to watching a really bad movie. Whether the poor quality is due to a ridiculous plot, bad dialog, lousy special effects, absurd costumes or some combination of two or more of them, I love to groan and snicker. While there is room for argument concerning the actual list of fifty, these movies have all earned their position in this book.
They are not all movies shot on a shoestring budget with unknown actors. Stars such as Clark Gable, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Gary Cooper, Richard Burton and Ronald Reagan appear in these movies. The two highest on my list of the ridiculous are “The Conqueror” starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Yes, there is such a movie.
For each movie, there are comments from the critics, plot summary, unforgettable performances, sample dialog, the story behind the film, the balance sheet and any special awards the film received. Needless to say, the awards were not those one wants to receive.
There were many times when reading the book when I pondered the question, “Who would have ever thought that such a premise would work?” Yet, without the bad for comparison we wouldn’t know the good, so watch some of them and and groan along with the rest of us.
They are not all movies shot on a shoestring budget with unknown actors. Stars such as Clark Gable, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Gary Cooper, Richard Burton and Ronald Reagan appear in these movies. The two highest on my list of the ridiculous are “The Conqueror” starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Yes, there is such a movie.
For each movie, there are comments from the critics, plot summary, unforgettable performances, sample dialog, the story behind the film, the balance sheet and any special awards the film received. Needless to say, the awards were not those one wants to receive.
There were many times when reading the book when I pondered the question, “Who would have ever thought that such a premise would work?” Yet, without the bad for comparison we wouldn’t know the good, so watch some of them and and groan along with the rest of us.
February 11, 2008
A good intro to some of the vintage "so bad it's good movies", e.g. "Robot Monster" and "Rat Phink A Boo Boo".
December 12, 2009
Well researched and cleverly written. Has a ton of background info on 50 movies that are so bad that they must be seen. Excellent companion book to the Golden Turkeys Awards.
August 26, 2009
this book is hilarious! I don't always agree with their choices, but the reviews really make their case. Some of the lines from the worst movies are priceless.
February 9, 2010
somewhat fun but mostly films no one has heard of in 2010.
June 3, 2013
Read many years ago, more than once. A formative tome in my ongoing movie education.
July 24, 2016
Another great contribution to the Golden Turkey series. I like the structure of this more, as it adds further detail.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews