For the Love of Bad Cinema

Double Bills, Don't Get Much Better Than This

We all like good movies, that's pretty obvious, but the thing I like about my fellow Studd fans, is that along with the great films, the great actors and the great directors, we've still got room in our hearts to also find the fun in some of the cheapest, cheesiest films ever made.

And with that in mind, here's some trailers for some of my very favorite bad movies....

Two of the greatest outlaws of the American west vs two of the worst monsters of Europe. What could possibly be better than that?

Okay, I'll admit that Jessie James vs Frankenstein s Daughter is a little weak even by bad movie standards, but Billy the Kid vs Dracula is great fun, directed by Twilight Zone regular William Beaudine, and with a bouncy scenery chewing performance by the great character actor John Carradine.

Started in 1967 and finished in 1970, Equinox, is a very silly story of possession and demonic attack, featuring the very odd casting of future WKRP, Herb Tarlek, Frank Bonner and famed fantasy writer Fritz Leiber.

Being shot years apart the film is disjointed to say the least, but the earnest performances and the badly executed and yet creepy premise makes for a fun little popcorn feature.

Speaking of truly bad movies, 1980's Caveman, starring Ringo Starr, reaches a pinnacle of bad that few films have ever met. With overplayed support by Shelly Long and Dennis Quaid, Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach mug their way through every prehistoric cliche and oversized poop joke that have ever been put to page by a hack Hollywood writer. It's awfulness is so extreme that getting through the entire film without several very large stiff drinks says something about either the viewers constitution or personal grooming, I'm not sure which.

And yet, because of it's very baddness, I actually have some affection for what is easily one of the very worst movies ever put out by a major film studio.

Which brings me to, The Apple.

To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of the "Rock Opera", oh sure I enjoy Jesus Christ Superstar, but really as an artform, the rock opera never really took off.

And The Apple is a perfect example of the very worst of the genre.

Bad music, pretentious, but incomprehensible storytelling, high school level acting, terrible singing, all mixed together with every 70's excess imaginable, the Apple, will make even the most casual of viewers want to go out and punch a hippie

 Cashing in on the box office success of Saturday Night Fever, Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger and Donna Summer, have a much more lighthearted time at a popular Los Angeles Disco, where oddly most of the customers talk with New Jersey accents. Really stupid humor mixed with a huge dose of disco at it's most popular moment make for a film that isn't quite awful, but will hurt your eyes after awhile.

And finally, there's Myra Brekenridge, starring Rachel Welch, as Rex Reed after gender reasignment surgery, and featuring leering performances from numerous Hollywood stars, but most especially John Huston and a partially mummified Mae West.

Offensive in so many ways I can't even begin, including a rape played for laughs, and shot in that irritating self-important early 1970's, "I want to by Kubrick, but I'm just not that good" school of film making, Myra Brekenridge is enough to make some people give up watching movies altogether, but if you've got the stomach, it's worth watching just to be able to say that you have.