Knight at HOME at the Movies
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Off to Summer Camp!
Surely there's nothing greater in life than hosting your own camp movie film fest, right? Look no further than these stellar examples
of this much loved genre when hosting your next little bad movie buffet - a time honored gay man's tradition!
Surely there's nothing greater in life than hosting your own camp movie film fest, right? Look no further than these stellar examples
of this much loved genre when hosting your next little bad movie buffet - a time honored gay man's tradition!
When I tell you that it has almost KILLED me not to watch the screener of Warner Home
Video's The Wicker Man since it arrived back in December of '06 I'm not kidding. But I
PROMISED all my friends that I would hold off on watching it until we could finally get
together and howl with laughter at this dreadfully fabu-lush, misguided remake of the
1973 cult classic. I gave fair notice when I reviewed the theatrical version that this was my
intention, I just didn't realize it would take this long to crack the cellophane wrapper. Well
the wrapper's off and the friends have gloried in this really bad Nicolas Cage "thriller" in
which he looks for a missing child on an island populated only with females. Writer and
director Neil LaBute turns this into a feminist revenge fantasy that will pleasure camp fans
after the movie's set up (about 20 minutes or so) is dispensed with. AND the DVD
includes an alternate ending that's also a howl. Have as much fun with this one as we did.
Another long awaited guilty pleasure is Mahogany which arrived courtesy of Paramount
Home Video at the beginning of May. This 1975 Diana Ross vehicle, the follow-up to her
critically acclaimed performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues is nothing less
than nirvana for camp fans. Ross plays a would-be fashion designer from the Chicago
projects who leaves her politician boyfriend Billy Dee Williams to claw her way to the top of
the fashion chain in Europe. There she is pawed at by Nina Foch, lusted after by her
closeted photographer Anthony Perkins (in one of his most annoying, fabu-lushly over the
top performances), and swarmed over by a group of excessively dressed extras.
Speaking of excessive, nothing could be more so than Ross' own costume designs for the
film (they have a distinctive Asian influence), Berry Gordy's unfocused direction (he took
over when Tony Richardson quit), and Ross' own hambone performance as the girl who
learns first hand about the depraved, evil world - outside her beloved but life "affirming"
projects! Everything is drenched in that inescapable "Do You Know Where You're Goin'
To?" song. No extras on the disc but who cares when the movie is this mixed up and
melodramatic? Douglas Sirk would have been proud to put his name on this one.
Not quite as campy but still plenty of fun is 1966's Fantastic Voyage which has just
been given the Special Edition treatment by 20th Century Fox. This sci-fi favorite features
Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Donald Plesance, and Arthur Kennedy as a team of
scientists and surgeons who are shrunk down and travel inside the body of another very
important scientist to dissolve a blood clot in his brain. Anxiously awaiting the results of
their journey in the teeny, tiny submarine are military officials Edmond O'Brien, Arthur
O'Connell and a room full of chain smoking subordinates. Naturally, once the team gets
inside the body the special effects (which look like they were created for a convention of
acid freaks) ramp up. I think I love best, however, the sequence where the crew are
shrunk down at the outset. It's really a hoot - as is a lot of the rest of this not quite
fantastic but still enjoyable camp movie. For those interested, there are detailed
featurettes on how those groovy special effects were created in the first place.
Video's The Wicker Man since it arrived back in December of '06 I'm not kidding. But I
PROMISED all my friends that I would hold off on watching it until we could finally get
together and howl with laughter at this dreadfully fabu-lush, misguided remake of the
1973 cult classic. I gave fair notice when I reviewed the theatrical version that this was my
intention, I just didn't realize it would take this long to crack the cellophane wrapper. Well
the wrapper's off and the friends have gloried in this really bad Nicolas Cage "thriller" in
which he looks for a missing child on an island populated only with females. Writer and
director Neil LaBute turns this into a feminist revenge fantasy that will pleasure camp fans
after the movie's set up (about 20 minutes or so) is dispensed with. AND the DVD
includes an alternate ending that's also a howl. Have as much fun with this one as we did.
Another long awaited guilty pleasure is Mahogany which arrived courtesy of Paramount
Home Video at the beginning of May. This 1975 Diana Ross vehicle, the follow-up to her
critically acclaimed performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues is nothing less
than nirvana for camp fans. Ross plays a would-be fashion designer from the Chicago
projects who leaves her politician boyfriend Billy Dee Williams to claw her way to the top of
the fashion chain in Europe. There she is pawed at by Nina Foch, lusted after by her
closeted photographer Anthony Perkins (in one of his most annoying, fabu-lushly over the
top performances), and swarmed over by a group of excessively dressed extras.
Speaking of excessive, nothing could be more so than Ross' own costume designs for the
film (they have a distinctive Asian influence), Berry Gordy's unfocused direction (he took
over when Tony Richardson quit), and Ross' own hambone performance as the girl who
learns first hand about the depraved, evil world - outside her beloved but life "affirming"
projects! Everything is drenched in that inescapable "Do You Know Where You're Goin'
To?" song. No extras on the disc but who cares when the movie is this mixed up and
melodramatic? Douglas Sirk would have been proud to put his name on this one.
Not quite as campy but still plenty of fun is 1966's Fantastic Voyage which has just
been given the Special Edition treatment by 20th Century Fox. This sci-fi favorite features
Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Donald Plesance, and Arthur Kennedy as a team of
scientists and surgeons who are shrunk down and travel inside the body of another very
important scientist to dissolve a blood clot in his brain. Anxiously awaiting the results of
their journey in the teeny, tiny submarine are military officials Edmond O'Brien, Arthur
O'Connell and a room full of chain smoking subordinates. Naturally, once the team gets
inside the body the special effects (which look like they were created for a convention of
acid freaks) ramp up. I think I love best, however, the sequence where the crew are
shrunk down at the outset. It's really a hoot - as is a lot of the rest of this not quite
fantastic but still enjoyable camp movie. For those interested, there are detailed
featurettes on how those groovy special effects were created in the first place.
Finally, Warner Home Video has smartly realized that there are a LOT of us camp film fans out here and are going to give us a
movie equivalent of a sugar rush with the FOUR (count 'em) volumes of their new series, Cult Camp Classics. The first
volume is titled Sci-Fi Thrillers and includes Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Giant Behemoth and Zsa Zsa Gabor herself as The Queen of
Outer Space.
Next up is Volume 2, Women in Peril, which I previewed. This includes a much longed for trio of movies finally out on DVD. First
up is the 1968 hilarious Lana Turner vehicle The Big Cube in which nasty, gold digging George Chakiris convinces Lana's step
daughter to repeatedly dose her with LSD until Lana isn't just acting she's ACTING. This is the true cult camp classic in the
bunch - hilariously bad (although Lana's eyebrows are always in place). Next up is Joan Crawford in her last film, 1970's Trog in
which Joan plays an anthropologist (!) who wants everyone to try and get along with the neanderthal man who has recently
been discovered alive (and responsible for a couple of killings but hey...). No one wants to listen to Joan's pleas of tolerance
for the hairy beast and everyone thinks Trog is nothing but a monster. Naturally, Joan is the only one that Trog will obey (and
why not - when she screamed "TROG!!!!" my entire neighborhood sat up at attention as we scrambled for the volume
control). Finally in the set is 1950's Caged, the movies first real in-depth look at women in prison. The movie features Oscar
nominated performances from Eleanor Parker, Hope Emerson (the 6'2" matron) and Agnes Moorehead as the tough but
understanding prison warden and is only camp because the characters it portrays were endlessly parodied thereafter (these
parodies include a hilarious musical version as recently as earlier this year by Chicago theatrical troupe Handbag Productions
whose spot on send up was called "Caged Dames"). The film itself is still great melodrama - almost 60 years later.
Volume 3, Terrorized Travelers includes Hot Rods to Hell, Skyjacked, and Zero Hour! while Volume 4, Historical Epics has The
Colossus of Rhodes, Joan Collins in Land of the Pharoahs, and The Prodigal. All four volumes are attractively priced and let's face it,
for camp fans these are, no question about it MUST HAVES!
movie equivalent of a sugar rush with the FOUR (count 'em) volumes of their new series, Cult Camp Classics. The first
volume is titled Sci-Fi Thrillers and includes Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Giant Behemoth and Zsa Zsa Gabor herself as The Queen of
Outer Space.
Next up is Volume 2, Women in Peril, which I previewed. This includes a much longed for trio of movies finally out on DVD. First
up is the 1968 hilarious Lana Turner vehicle The Big Cube in which nasty, gold digging George Chakiris convinces Lana's step
daughter to repeatedly dose her with LSD until Lana isn't just acting she's ACTING. This is the true cult camp classic in the
bunch - hilariously bad (although Lana's eyebrows are always in place). Next up is Joan Crawford in her last film, 1970's Trog in
which Joan plays an anthropologist (!) who wants everyone to try and get along with the neanderthal man who has recently
been discovered alive (and responsible for a couple of killings but hey...). No one wants to listen to Joan's pleas of tolerance
for the hairy beast and everyone thinks Trog is nothing but a monster. Naturally, Joan is the only one that Trog will obey (and
why not - when she screamed "TROG!!!!" my entire neighborhood sat up at attention as we scrambled for the volume
control). Finally in the set is 1950's Caged, the movies first real in-depth look at women in prison. The movie features Oscar
nominated performances from Eleanor Parker, Hope Emerson (the 6'2" matron) and Agnes Moorehead as the tough but
understanding prison warden and is only camp because the characters it portrays were endlessly parodied thereafter (these
parodies include a hilarious musical version as recently as earlier this year by Chicago theatrical troupe Handbag Productions
whose spot on send up was called "Caged Dames"). The film itself is still great melodrama - almost 60 years later.
Volume 3, Terrorized Travelers includes Hot Rods to Hell, Skyjacked, and Zero Hour! while Volume 4, Historical Epics has The
Colossus of Rhodes, Joan Collins in Land of the Pharoahs, and The Prodigal. All four volumes are attractively priced and let's face it,
for camp fans these are, no question about it MUST HAVES!
