It is impossible to make an intentionally campy film. The whole point of camp is that it never realizes that it is camp. For example, “Valley of the Dolls” is genius camp because it is so wonderfully wrong at every imaginable turn, with the gifted cast trying and cluelessly failing to create alchemy with their material. If the actors started winking at the audience or smirking at their material, then it is not camp – it is just plain dumb.
Continue reading
One of the funkier aspects of the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry is the inclusion of extraordinarily obscure amateur works alongside Hollywood productions. In 2008, a home movie made in Connecticut in 1956 by Robbins Barstow called “Disneyland Dream” was added to the National Film Registry alongside such classics as “Foolish Wives,” “The Invisible Man,” “The Asphalt Jungle,” “Flower Drum Song,” “Deliverance,” and “The Terminator.”
Continue reading
BOOTLEG FILES 586: “Another Nice Mess” (1972 comedy film starring Rich Little).
LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Even the film’s producers admitted it stank.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Unlikely.
Humorist Leo Rosten once commented, “Satire is focused bitterness.” It is hard to find a more accurate description of satire – and in view of today’s surplus of Alt-Left comedians going out of their way to denigrate the president and his family, the level of bitterness has become hopelessly poisoned.