Raquel Welch movies

Turner Classic Movies had a marathon of Raquel Welch movies the other day, and I was excited for this because it was a great chance to watch some of her movies for the first time. Either due to availability (never being on VHS/DVD) or on TV, I had never seen any of these movies before, ever.  

Unfortunately, most of the ones I watched were pretty mediocre, and not very good. Or they were just average. I wasn't missing much.  It's too bad because I feel Raquel Welch deserved much better roles and parts in better movies. I could see/imagine her in movies like Gloria or Coming Home. 

The Three Musketeers (1973)

I didn't like this movie! It really didn't interest me at all so I didn't even watch the whole movie all the way through. I don't remember Raquel Welch being in the movie very much. Sort of a cameo type role, really.

Fuzz (1972)

I also really disliked this comedy. For one, I hate the title; it just doesn't seem to fit. Raquel's role in the film is very small; she only has a few scenes as a detective which is a shame because I think she would have been great in a larger part. Burt Reynolds and Tom Skerrit have larger parts as police/detectives.  I didn't realize that most of this whole movie would took place in the police station. (Later I found out that this movie was based on some book or series of books) 

After about 10 minutes the movie's goofiness gave me the vibe of a Police Academy movie or a Barney Miller tv comedy episode, which might have been inspired by this film. Don't think I'd watch this one again.

Flareup (1969)

I also disliked this one! Raquel's part is much larger; she plays a stripper who is targeted by an assassin. She travels from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and the only interesting things about the movie is the scenery and location shots. And the cool cars. That's about it. It does have a '60s vibe to it, too. Everything else is really dull; all of the other performances are really bland and I didn't care much for this one. Don't think Id watch this one again.

Hannie Caulder (1971)

This Western is a bad film overall; I think this movie's mistake is that it tries to be a comedy when it should just be a straight-up drama/thriller/revenge story. Then I think the movie would have worked a bit better. It starts off with a trio of bumbling outlaw brothers (Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam) who kill a rancher and then proceed to gang-rape his widow/wife who is left behind. The rape scene is very disturbing and uncomfortable to watch so early on. It's choppily edited, but that could be the director's intent. It's also very creepy to watch Ernest Borgnine (Marty) as a dirty rapist; reminded me of his character in The Wild Bunch.

The gang leaves and then wisecracks their way out of the village. There are multiple scenes showing them in various other situations joking and wisecracking with each other, like a pair of Three Stooges, and I think that was a wrong choice since it gives the impression it's meant to be some kind of comedy; there's nothing funny about rapists. 

The best parts of the movie show Hannie (Raquel Welch) planning her revenge and learning to shoot. There are some bloody sequences in the movie, which seem to be inspired by Wild Bunch, especially with all the flowing blood that shoots up into the air when people get shot.  Raquel meets bounty hunter Robert Culp who trains her. Christopher Lee has a small role as a man who lets them stay at his house for awhile. Compared to 100 Rifes, this is the lesser of the two in my opinion. 

Kansas City Bomber (1972)

I was bored with this one and didn't like it. I liked some of the roller derby scenes but honestly, they went on for too long. The movie doesn't really explain what the point of the game is, and I guess the audience is expected to know the rules. Like with Football, or Baseball, or Hockey movies, the filmmakers don't stop and tell you how the game is played.  I did like the scenes with Raquel and her children and the scenes with her at home. It made me want to see more scenes like that or even an entire movie about her with kids.

The Last of Sheila (1973)

A very odd film. It's interesting that it's Stephen Sondheim's only screenplay he wrote. He was good friends with the other co-screenwriter, Anthony Perkins, and they came up with this interesting scavenger-hunt type movie. I thought it was just "OK". I remember enjoying the movie "Scavenger Hunt" way better; maybe since it was aimed at kids more. Both movies have Richard Benjamin. 
Incidentally, Bobby Rivers' blog had an interesting post on a collaboration between Sondheim and Perkins from the 60s - read it here. 

Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: Tonight's Movie: The Last of Sheila (1973) (laurasmiscmusings.blogspot.com)

The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)

This is a really stupid movie! But I liked watching it and got hooked once the heist got underway --- which takes over an hour to get to. The first hour is really build-up and interplay between the Italian thief and Robert Wagner, which is really dull. Sadly, Raquel Welch's part is so small. It would have been great to see her in the Wagner role instead. Watching this movie made me want to re-watch Oceans 8 (2018) with Sandra Bullock - I always enjoy seeing how she works with her team to pull off the heist that they do in that one. 

Bundle only picks up steam once Edward G. Robinson enters the picture and becomes the mastermind behind the ultimate heist which involves a train hijacking. However it takes an hour and a half to get to those exciting parts featuring the heist, and by then I'm almost not interested. But I did like the ending and it shows how they blow the heist and their expressions. I kind of wish The Italian Job (1969) ended in a similar way where we get some satisfaction out of seeing them blow the heist. 

Compared to Topkapi, my favorite heist movie of them all, this movie is far inferior.  

The Wild Party (1975)

Terrible movie! I cannot believe this is a Merchant/Ivory film. The opening credits were really amusing, jovial, and a clever throwback to silent cinema. 

But the next ten minutes were horrid. James Coco plays a washed-up silent comedian, jealous of "up-and-comers" Buster Keaton and Chaplin. If you know your history of film you may recognize similarities between the Coco character and Roscoe Arbuckle, a heavyset comedic silent actor whose career went down in a similar way.

However, modern audiences have no idea about any of this. This film is good example of when you really need context --- some type of opening "crawl" or written prologue on the screen to give you context. 

Instead of a fun movie experience, in the first ten minutes, Coco's character slaps Raquel Welch in the face and throws a hot cup of coffee on her legs. It's really horrendous and misogynist and Coco is so unlikable that I couldn't watch this movie with any real interest. The movie is so long and boring and leads up to the titular "wild party" which doesn't take place for about an hour and a half. This movie really sucks. It's a shame that Raquel Welch had to take this part. This is a totally forgettable movie. 

Should have probably been called "The Arbuckle Story" or something like that. 

100 Rifles (1969)

I liked this movie; I liked the action and that it focuses on the Yachi indigenous people of Mexico; even though it's fictious I feel it gives a bit of an idea of how the Yachi were displaced and how they might have fought the colonizers. It also is my first time learning about the Yachi, and I feel this movie could have been better at explaining them. Instead, it aims to focus on the three fugitive characters. I like how I don't know how the three would end up at the end - which one would die (if any?), which ones would romance, which ones would leave the group, etc. And the Mexican General played by Fernando Llamas was really nasty and one of the meanest screen villains. I didn't like some of the anti-indigenous sentiment, but I could see how a movie like this was an influence on Tarantino. This movie might be the only one of Raquel's that I would watch again. 

A good blog post on the movie here at Just Hit Play

Best Picture Winners I don't like: Grand Hotel and Green Book, plus Round Midnight

I recently caught up with two Best Picture Winners for the first time; both of them I didn't like!

Grand Hotel is a movie I've known about forever but never saw --- finally I had a chance to watch recently, but realized I wasn't missing much. I felt the characters were introduced to the audience too quickly and I kept trying to follow with what everyone's purpose in the hotel was. Joan Crawford shows up as a stenographer/reporter needing to interview Wallace Beery for some reason but gets distracted for about 20 minutes fighting off flirtatious advances from John Barrymore's character. Beery has a German accent in this film and his character is different from other tough-guy roles I've seen him in. Lionel Barrymore comically plays a doctor but is ultimately un-interesting. Greta Garbo also shows up but also was really un-interesting to me.

This movie didn't work for me! Apparently it was turned into a musical about 30 years ago but I can't imagine how better or worse it would be with songs. 

I also did not like Green Book.  I didn't find the Viggo Mortensen character very likeable or believable at any stage of the film. At the very start of the movie he is shown throwing two glasses in his garbage can at home because two Black workers drank from them. If he hates Black people so much I can't believe that he would ever take the job as a driver for Mahershala Ali's jazz musician character, which is almost made to be slightly comical when more seriousness should have placed on his character, I felt. And the movie should have focused more on him instead.  

The movie as a whole just didn't work for me. The blogger and former TV personality Bobby Rivers wrote about Green Book and I tend to agree with his assessment; he explains a bit better than I can - Blog post from Bobby Rivers' blog talks about Green Book

I also recently watched another movie about a Jazz player and his white friend -  Round Midnight - it's been on my "to-see" list for years and I finally watched it for the first time, and I liked it. Liked it much better than Green Book. Like Green Book, Round Midnight is also about a Black jazz musician (Dexter Gordon) in the 1950s-early 60s era, but in a different country and in a neighborhood with less racial prejudice. Instead of at the prime of his career, Dexter Gordon is at the end of his career - and life. He's a heavy drinker. 

The film shows how he befriends a white Parisian man who has idolized him all his life. When they meet and become friends, the white man becomes his caretaker and lets him live in his home with his daughter.

It's similar to Green Book in that it is ultimately a bout how an artist inspires another man's life. But in Round Midnight there's lots of jazz and musical performances from start to finish. I was convinced that Dexter Gordon was this jazz musician in Paris, and that he really was an alcoholic. It was almost difficult to watch because I really felt I was watching a real person disintegrate on film. 

Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws: The Revenge

I re-watched these three sequels recently -- my verdict is that they did not age very well, especially Part 2 and Part 3 - I found those to be so dull and boring to watch. 

As for Part 2 - Who cares about the people on Amity Island? I mean, really? Give us some characters to like or care about besides Chief Brody. Or his kids. At least make them interesting. The Mayor is a jerk--- it would've been really satisfying to see him get eaten by the shark. 

Jaws 3 is also very dull. The characters aren't interesting, not even Dennis Quaid. Louis Gossett is supposed to play a greedy corporate type, but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to like him or not. I kind of like the idea of a shark attacking a theme park - think of all the various situations that could happen--but there's not much to it. The best part only happens in the last 10 minutes when the shark breaks through the glass - it should have happened 2 hours sooner. I always remember - Jurassic World (2015), which handled suspense and thrills at a theme park much better.

To my surprise, the Jaws sequel I enjoyed the most out of these three was the most critically panned one - Jaws the Revenge. It's almost universally panned as one of the worst movies and sequels ever made. Except by me. I found I actually liked it on this re-watch. I first saw it when it came out in theaters in 1987, and at the time, I didn't think it was great, but I didn't hate it either. There is some subtle adult humor and dialogue by some of the characters - including the marine biologist (Mario Van Peeples) that went right over my head at the time; I was only about 11 years old. I liked Peeples' character, and also liked the diversity of the cast which is really refreshing. And I liked the Brody widow/mom/grandmom and Michael Caine relationship - it was totally believable that he would be interested in her. He's such a good actor that he's good even in a crappy movie.

As for the shark stuff. Well I dunno about that. I do like that the Brody mom finally leaves Amity and goes to live somewhere else. But another killer shark following her and attacking her family even after she moves??? You really have to turn off part of your brain to enjoy this film I think. 

There is a spiritual/magical/mystical element to it that I kind of liked, and wished was explored more in this film. From what I read, the original plan was to have someone put a voodoo curse put on the Brody Family and have a shark attack them no matter where they go. That would actually explain a whole lot about this movie. But that specific element \got cut from the film, unfortunately. Apparently, the novelization of the film has the curse in place. 

One thing I didn't like - the ending...it's really bad - it's not clear what happens to the shark. That's the worst thing about it in my opinion. I guess it's good that no other Jaws movies were made after that. And hopefully these sequels are lessons to future filmmakers on how to make good sequels and avoid bad ones.

Still, out of all the Jaws sequels, Jaws:The Revenge is my favorite.

The Card Counter (2021), The Sting (1973), and Atlantic City (1980)

The Card Counter is a new movie with Oscar Isaac as an ex-military gambler who travels around to card games and teams up with Tiffany Haddish; I like both actors so this was really a fun movie to watch. 

More reviews of the film from other bloggers here:

• Cinemascope: The Card Counter [2021] (cliched-monologues.blogspot.com)
• Filmhounds review here

There's plenty of card games in the film, and afterwards, I felt like rewatching The Sting, which is one of my favorite movies and rewatch it from time to time. The plot is so detailed and each time I rewatch I pick up on some new things I missed the last time.  I love how the characters pull off the cons in the movie. And also love the music, sets (some scenes filmed in Chicago), and costumes as well. 

I wondered why I enjoy this movie so much. The two main leads are criminals, liars, and thieves. But there's a likability about them; their personalities really connect with me. Even though they are so conniving, Paul Newman's behavior and mannerisms make me laugh. I like how the gang all cares about each other's families, especially when Luther (Robert Earl Jones) gets killed, and how they come together to avenge his death. 

I also was curious about The Sting II so I rented it from Netflix to give it a try. It's horrible. I couldn't even finish watching the whole movie, it's so bad. What were they thinking when they made this movie?  The dialogue (by the same writer as the first movie, unbelievably) is atrocious, and features some homophobic slurs by Karl Malden, presumably an attempt to make his character more loathsome. He must have needed the paycheck. This has got to be the worst comedy sequels of the 80s. It makes Caddyshack II look way better in comparison. 

And finally, to close out my gambling-themed movie kick, I tried watching Atlantic City (1980) with Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, but I didn't like it so not much to say about it. 

The Blues Brothers (1980) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

I recently had a craving to watch The Blues Brothers again for the 3rd or 4th time. I didn't have the DVD in my collection, so instead of renting or streaming it, I decided to buy the blu ray to add it to my collection. Then enjoyed it again. It was great to see all the legendary music performances by Aretha, Ray, James Brown, and Cab Calloway again. With another repeat viewing I picked up on some subtle jokes and humor I missed the previous times. It's really a crazy movie and even ridiculous and absurd at times but it is still really funny to me to see the Brothers' building blown up, and then in the next shot, see them climb out of the rubble unscratched and unhurt and walk off to their next stop. The chase in the mall is also hilarious to me. It was cool to see all Chicago locations again, and I forgot that Steven Spielberg appears at the end. It is one of those movies I'll enjoy again sometime soon.

For the first time ever, I watched a movie that has long been on my "to-see" list - the Clint Eastwood comedy Every Which Way But Loose. I liked it. It kind of reminded me of the Blues Brothers because throughout the whole movie, Clint and his friends are chased by people that either want to kill him or get revenge for something. 

It's another crazy road movie but instead of blues, there's a country vibe to it, and even features a few cameos by country singers Charlie Rich and Mel Tillis. Eastwood manages to get into a lot of dive bar fights, enters street fights for quick cash, and even tries to get his pet orangutan laid at the Santa Fe zoo. Ruth Gordon has a small part as the mother, and she's pretty funny in it, too. She keeps failing her driver's license test, but eventually passes at the end, sort of predicable. 

Pretty much the entire movie is ridiculous but really amusing. 

Throughout the whole movie, Clint pursues a woman (Sondra Locke), but then at the end when he does meet up with her she blows him off. I liked that ending; it's so unconventional. In the climatic fight at the end Eastwood nearly beats the best street fighter in the nation, but he decides to go down and lose  because...well, its left to the audience to decide why. I think it's because he didn't want the fame and reputation. 

Eastwood's best friend (or was it his brother - I don't remember) in the film is played by Geoffrey Lewis, who is really good in this part, very believable and funny. Never saw any movie with him before, so I checked out what else he did on IMDB, where I also learned that his daughter is Juliette Lewis. I never knew that.  

Read another blog post about this movie from  Diary of a Movie Maniac here

Incidentally, the other day I was in a Hallmark store and saw a new Juliette Lewis/"Audrey Griswold" Christmas Ornament for the 2022 season; it's part of a new set of "Christmas Vacation" ornaments -- the others in the set are Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo (who is also in Every Which Way But Loose), and Johnny Galecki ("Rusty Griswold"). Geoffrey Lewis died a few years ago but I'm sure he would have been proud to have an ornament feauring his daughter's likeness, maybe.