“Paint Your Wagon” has an undeservedly bad reputation, due in large part to the popular misconception that it came out a time when musicals lost favor with the public and later reinforced by a wicked parody of its concept on “The Simpsons.”
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Back in 1972, Bob Hope inserted this unlikely joke into an opening monologue for one of his television specials: “I went to see ‘Deep Throat’ because I’m fond of animal pictures. I thought it was about giraffes.”
For those of you who were not around in the early 1970s, it might be difficult to comprehend the pop culture sensation created by “Deep Throat,” a cheaply-made ($25,000) little X-rated movie. It wasn’t the first pornographic film to gain mainstream attention, and Lord knows it wasn’t the best of the skin flick orbit. But “Deep Throat” was the ultimate anomaly – a charming porn flick with a silly sense of humor, and its off-beat personality enabled the film’s reputation to grow so quickly that even Bob Hope referenced it.
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Among Three Stooges fanatics, “They Stooge to Conga” is notorious for a few seconds of roughhouse involving a climbing spike and Moe’s head. But that’s just a one of too many brilliantly surreal moments that occur in this deliriously insane short film.
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Throughout history, the brandishing of “worst film director of all time” has been bandied about so often that it has lost value. One of the more notorious examples is Edward D. Wood, Jr., the powerhouse schlockmeister behind such turgid affairs as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. Wood’s films are a tour de force of poor editing, direction, acting and special effects. However, Wood at least gave the impression that he genuinely wanted to produce a quality product.
From the other side of the tracks and a much different time was the little known, but nevertheless intriguing director of “B” western dramas, Robert J. Horner. Horner was a producer and director of cheap horse operas who operated on Hollywood’s “Poverty Row,” a group of independent producers and studios whose primary source of income was made from cheap westerns, horror pictures and mystery films from the silent era until the collapse of the studio system in the mid-1950’s.
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“Magical Mystery Tour” could arguably be considered as both The Beatles’ worst and best film.
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This year’s list of 25 films to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry should be announced in the next few days. And while the National Film Registry has many obvious classics – not to mention more than a few oddities – there are still a surprisingly high number of landmark works that have yet to be enshrined within its ranks.
For what it’s worth, I would like to offer my list of 10 films that are long overdue inclusion on the National Film Registry’s list of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films.”
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No one approaches Heckle and Jeckle cartoons expecting art – or, for that matter, coherent storytelling, sophisticated dialogue or an ironic reflection on the emotional palette. But, of course, they were never intended to provide cerebral invigoration or display the fullest spectrum of animated creativity. As the producer of the cartoons Paul Terry once succinctly declared regarding the quality of his work compared to the master of the genre: “Let Walt Disney be the Tiffany’s, I want to be the Woolworth’s.”
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