The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame V: Comedy Edition

I did like those.

It's on our Russian Site, so I'll send ya a link in the comments just in case you get in the mood for some time over pizza

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
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¡Átame! (Pedro Almodovar, 1989)

What a gross film this is and it really doesn't feel self-aware of how gross it is. It's not a uniquely gross film though, plenty of rapey Stockholm Syndrome type movies out there but idk. this one really got under my skin. Probably because its also just piss-boring and doesn't really have anything else going on. Almodovar's style doesn't really do anything for me either and the music is almost always kinda bad and unfitting. Bad time.

While I would give it more style (well, visual style) points than you, I also can't quite get around the plot and especially the way that it .

There is that beat at the very end where But I'm not sure it's enough given how much has come before it.

I remember thinking the performances were okay, but I haven't seen it in a while.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it. Personally, I liked it a lot, but I can see why some people wouldn't. It's a crazy film that takes some big risks, but I loved the style and thought it was fantastic. I tend to like Almodovar's films a lot.

Not seen it so I don't have an opinion on the movie per say...but it seems to be true that comedy movies are a very personal thing. I didn't like a lot of the comedies I seen either and yet the person who chose them must have liked them.

The arrival of the VHS era made a huge impression on my young mind, and a series of B movies gained much more status than they would ordinarily have done. The Evil Dead found a wide audience that would otherwise have gone on to miss it, and smaller fare such as Street Trash and Basket Case found their way into my family's living room, providing much mirth. I didn't realise it fully at the time, but most of my family were broadminded film lovers and liked these low budget schlock-type entries into the cinematic universe as much as my friends and I did. They were part of a wave of low budget horror/comedy films that found a new outlet as the drive ins died and the video era began to dawn. Basket Case, directed by Frank Henenlotter, had a dark and dirty feel to it while at the same time reveling in it's ridiculously campy mindset - and as such could be seen as a comedy. It was around the same time Henenlotter got the green light to film Basket Case 2 that he made Frankenhooker - as the Eighties were drawing to a close.

I never got around to watching Frankenhooker. It arrived in 1990, and every so slightly too late to make that slate of films which were bigger fishes in smaller ponds - by 1990 there were many films to digest, and many options in local video stores. That's not to say I never noticed it's front cover - for some reason it's a cover so many people remember, including me. The wide-eyed Frankenstein monster appearing from a subway station in Times Square, and if you look more closely the mention Bill Murray gave the film to give it a boost*. It was a memorable visual image - but for some reason it never got me to fully commit to seeing the movie. I'd probably been burned many times by 1990, which were so far removed from those days in 1983 when all the videos on display in "Pam's Mobile Video Shop" (a van with around 75 to 100 videos in the back) were actually worth seeing. Not only that, but my tastes had changed by 1990 to a considerable degree, and low budget horror/comedy had changed.

Perhaps it's just as well I waited until now to watch Frankenhooker, because this version of me is much more willing to relax and enjoy the comedic side of these films (I was much more skewed towards serious "horror" at the time.) The film is played broadly for laughs, and the explosive effects themselves are purposely poor - Henenlotter decided to dial down the blood and gore that were usual staples in his films and give us something much more silly and lighthearted. It works for this particular film. Heading the cast is James Lorinz, who I'd previously noticed as the Doorman in Street Trash - he gives off a 'wise-guy' kind of vibe but has a baby-faced and some would say handsome look to him - he was 25 when playing the lead in this but he could pass for 18. Everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like it's coming from a mafia goon, and he's been in his fair share of 'mob' films, but he never broke out into the big time. He had a (very) small part in The Irishman as "Hoffa Rally Teamster #1" and Bridge of Spies as "Gentleman on Subway #2" - the kind of roles a young extra would look at as their first step towards a bigger career - except that this is very late in the career of James Lorinz. Street Trash came out in 1987, and a lot has changed.

Playing the monster in this 'Frankenstein monster' flick is Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen, who is very impressive for a lady of those particular talents, but with expectations obviously dialed down. She goes missing for most of the movie after being chopped up by a lawnmower, only reappearing after she's reconstructed three-quarters of the way in. It's up to Lorinz to carry the main load. Lorinz plays Jeffrey, scientifically gifted but morally bankrupt, with a girlfriend called Elizabeth (played by Mullen who starts the film in an unconvincing "fat suit") who has a love for pretzels and is very suddenly run over by the aforementioned remote controlled lawnmower. Jeffrey manages to pinch a few parts (most importantly the head) before hatching his plan to bring her back to life with body parts supplied by New York's ample stock of prostitutes. To do this he devises a drug called "super crack", which makes it's users explode not long after smoking or otherwise ingesting it. With those parts he indeed reconstructs his girlfriend, with unintended hooker-like results, leading to a showdown with a pimp and a "surprise" ending.

The film's highlight is it's hilarious scene with "exploding hookers" in it - all plaster-casted dummies which were explosively erupted with fireworks while set in specific poses. It's an obviously fake effect, but makes the scene all the more funny due to it's ridiculous nature. The pose the "actresses" get into before the effect was hard to match up with the dummies, and as such the phoniness becomes part of the film's charm. Here Henenlotter decided against full-frontal nudity and blood and gore to enhance the more funny aspect of what's going on. The screenplay (which Fangoria editor Robert Martin shares a co-credit with Henenlotter with) has Jeffrey decide to not go through with his plan to blow these ladies up, but they find the drugs regardless and can't be stopped. There's always attempts to make this insane character as sympathetic as possible, although when he's constantly drilling into his own brain to help stimulate or pacify himself you'd just as soon see him as completely insane.

Robert M. Baldwin was cinematographer - someone straight from exploitation pictures who had filmed the likes of The Exterminator and The Soldier in the 1980s, but Frankenhooker was one of his last films (Henenlotter used him for Basket Case 2 as well.) The score, which was very 1980s and unremarkable, was composed by Oscar winner Joe Renzetti (his Academy Award was for the score of The Buddy Holly Story in 1978 - his first film.) Renzetti was also heavily involved in exploitation fare in the 1980s, and also scored The Exterminator making him a collaborator of sorts with Baldwin. Like Baldwin, he had little success after that 80s period, although he wrote the theme music for Child's Play, which was used again in Ghostbusters : Afterlife. He was also used in Basket Case 2 - as were most of the crew from Frankenhooker. Editing was the Oscar-nominated Kevin Tent - and I only include him because it's unbelievable Oscar winners and Oscar-nominated people worked on Frankenhooker. Tent frequently works with Alexander Payne and was nominated for editing The Descendants. Of course he also edited Basket Case 2 - both films (that, and Frankenhooker) were two of the first four films he ever worked on, and perhaps two films he leaves off his resume these days.

Makeup artist Dan Frye deserves a special mention, as Frankenhooker herself has what became an iconic kind of look, and the visual effects in the transformation scene are quite good. There are animatronic creatures, such as a brain with a single eye (inspired by the Crawling Eye in The Trollenberg Terror) and an amalgamation of body parts from Jeffrey's freezer which comes to life and terrorizes the same unfortunate pimp who earlier was struck in the face by the head from one of his exploding prostitutes. Gabe Bartalos worked on a lot of this stuff, a special effects makeup artist who has worked on such films as Leprechaun, the 1998 Godzilla, Blade and Darkman, along with many horror sequels that aficionados would be familiar with. Director Frank Henenlotter himself though, never pushed onwards with low budget horror or comedy after his third Basket Case movie which came out one year after Frankenhooker. He devoted himself to low budget film history and exploitation, at one stage directing a documentary about Herschell Gordon Lewis in 2010.

What else is there to be said about Frankenhooker? It captures areas of New York which since have been cleaned up and transformed - at one stage real prostitutes are caught on camera on location as filming was done surreptitiously in a van. Nudity doesn't extend to below the waist, and there's not much gory horror on display, but in spite of this the ratings board came down hard on the film. Mostly, there's a series of gags which play on the Frankenstein films of old, or else on 1980s American culture and mores. Patty Mullen had a certain ability to twist her mouth into a cute configuration which helped win audiences over with her charm, but she never ended up appearing in any other film after her performance here. Out of everyone involved, only editor Kevin Tent had anything approaching a solid career.

I found Frankenhooker to be a certain level of funny and amusing, and while not being the most hilarious comedy I've ever seen, it's on the positive side of the ledger. Little things, like the news broadcast which details the aftermath of Elizabeth being run over by the lawnmower were hilarious. Other things, such as Jeffrey's strange habit of drilling holes into his own head I felt more strange than funny, but the exploding hookers scene is a highlight of the entire genre. Like Evil Dead 2, released 3 years before this, there's no pretense of the film being a flat-out horror movie - there was no momentum left in the low-budget horror genre, and these films now completely played up the ridiculous nature for laughs. I got some laughs from Frankenhooker, which for me rates as just above average. The film as a whole hasn't been weaved like a fine tapestry, but rather has great moments. I enjoyed some of the effects, such as when Elizabeth's head is accidentally knocked off, but continues to function as it flops around behind her. If that was done today, it'd be done with CGI and I'd be unimpressed - but done practically, I love it and admire it.

I think the following gif says it all perfectly. As Zorro (played by Joseph Gonzalez, another hopeful who only ever appeared in this and Henenlotter's Brain Damage) walks into that room where everything is going on, and gets a surprise :





* Murray had made acquaintances with the Frankenhooker crew while Quick Change was in the editing process, and they tried to get an endorsement from him - overstepping their bounds, but when Henenlotter apologized to him the endorsement actually came to fruition. Also - the original VHS cover had a button which, when pressed, said "Wanna date??" in Patty Mullen-style vocals.

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We have just a bit over 2 weeks left! Deadline May 24th...some of you have a lot of movies to watch

I'm off next week so I'll be making hay.

Frankenhooker rules!!

I’ve watched all 10 already and sent in my list a while ago. Didn’t you get my list?

Yes I got it. Sorry, I hadn't updated the 2nd post, but I do have your voting list.

Wyldesyde just PMed me and said he can't finish. He had a very good reason too so no hard feelings. But I do have to remove his movie choices. As it turns out everyone has already watched his choices except Ed...So don't include his choices on your voting ballots.

Wyldesyde choices for the members:

Citizen: Beetlejuice
Allaby: Zero Effect
Ueno Station: Duck Soup (1933)
@edarsenal : Bananas
John Dumbear: The Apartment
The Usual Suspects: Some Like It Hot
Phoenix: Arthur
Siddon: CODA
Takoma: Werewolves Within
Cricket: Thank You for Smoking (2005)

Too bad Wyldesyde couldn't finish, but I'm glad to have watched Thank You for Smoking. It was a great pick for me.

TheUsualSuspect just PMed me and said he can't finish. He had a very good reason too so no hard feelings. But I do have to remove his movie choices. As it turns out everyone has already watched his choices except John Dumbear and Siddon...So don't include his choices on your voting ballots.

UsualSuspect's choices for the members:

Citizen Rules: Hear No Evil, See No Evil
Allaby: Four Lions
@John Dumbear: Paddington 2
Wyldesyde: Best in Show (2000)
Ueno Station: The Burbs
edarsenal: Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
Phoenix74: Kung Fu Hustle
@Siddon: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Takoma11: Jackass: The Movie (2002)
Cricket: What We Do in the Shadows

I actually watched Bananas last week and will be posting a review for it along with a few others I've seen.

Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

Orville J. Spooner: You heard me. O-U-T. Out!
Dino: Take it easy. E-A-Z-Y.

The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned this Billy Wilder sex romp at release. It pits Ray Walston (Orville J. Spooner), an insanely jealous husband/songwriter desperate to sell one of his songs, to a "passing through" Dino (Dean Martin) playing a parody of himself; who's looking for that night's "action." Spooner's writing partner, Barney (Cliff Osmond), talks him into getting rid of his wife (Felicia Farr) for the night and hiring Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak) from the local bar, The Belly Button, to appease Dino's appetite. At the same time, they try to sell him one or more of their songs.

A twisting scenario that Wilder sets to a spiraling crescendo that mocks the American Dream and the willingness to sell one's wife to buy a slice of it. It wasn't a bust-out laughing experience for me, but there were a few Wilder moments in supporting roles that caused me a laugh. Wilston played hot and cold for me and felt a little out of his element or a bit overacted at times. Martin was Martin, without charm and a far more rapey. Novak's character was the absolute highlight for me, along with Felicia Farr, who both rise above the baser selfishness of their male counterparts.

Being an utter Wilder fanboy, this should have been an easy home run for me. Not to say it wasn't enjoyable, and there were some great moments sprinkled throughout, but I found that I enjoyed it more after the fact than during. Though I imagine a secondary run could adjust that somewhat.
I am pleased to have seen a much lesser-known Wilder film to expand on my list of one of the great American Writers/Directors of his time.

Surprised that you didn't like this more, I'm guessing it's Dean Martin's character that's the deal breaker? You might think I wouldn't like this film but it's actually one of my favorite Wilders (I'm a Wilder fanboy too). I'm also a fan of Dean Martin and of all his performances this is my favorite. Just to be completely different I didn't totally like Kim Novak as a casting choice, I haven't really liked her in much.

Alfie (1966)

Alfie: I don't want no bird's respect - I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Though featured in a Comedy Hall of Fame, I found the dramatic aspects of this film that truly shines and brings a far more meaningful substance to this misogynistic Cockney rogue played perfectly by Micheal Caine. From opening to closing, who continually turns to the camera to converse with us, the audience, even during onscreen conversation. Sharing his every thought, perception, belief, and general outlook as we follow along with his many "escapades" and find something far more resonant beneath his calculating self-interests - not a heart beneath, far from it. Alfie is a heartless, callous individual, to be sure. What we find is the insecurities beneath the arrogance. We witness the failings beneath the swaggering confidence and the blunt honesty of his loneliness, and the refusal to be anything to anyone.
Those moments of self-awareness never go repentant. The consequences knock at the more profound lessons that he covers with his continual tidbits of self-wisdom that genuinely does this movie justice - rising above the "grifts" and the glamour of being a heartless rogue.

As I said, the drama outweighs the comedic, making it a truly excellent, worthwhile film experience.

I grew up watching and enjoying Dean Martin and own most of his "Roasts" that I really love. I have a lot of love for the man including when he paired off with Jerry Lewis. He's a helluva comedian and entertainer. But yeah, the parody was a bit more Producer/casting couch creepy for me. Which did taint the overall experience for me from all-out enjoying it.

Bananas (1971)

Nancy: You're immature, Fielding.
Fielding Mellish: [whining] How am I immature?
Nancy: Well, emotionally, sexually, and intellectually.
Fielding Mellish: Yeah, but what other ways?

Fielding Mellish: We fell in love. I fell in love - she just stood there.

The quick-firing, Vauldvillan-esque humor parodying life, love, sex, guerilla warfare, and ABC's Wide World of Sports, Woody Allen keeps things constantly moving without pause, improving one scene after the other.
Irrevelent, screwball antics with equal parts physical comedy and sarcastic-infused self-deprecating dialogue, Allen clowns about, taking nothing seriously and parodying anything and everything that crosses his path or catches his attention.

This is one of the few screwball films that I haven't seen and it definitely lived up to everything I had expected and everything I had enjoyed in similar films of its nature by an early Woody Allen.