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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 2 |
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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 2 |
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Note: The box-office figures for domestic grosses and non-USA grosses are fairly accurate, but must be taken as estimates only. |
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Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops of All-Time
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| Film Title, Director, Studio, Budget Information, Description | |
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The Chase (1966) Just before Arthur Penn scored a huge success with Bonnie and Clyde (1967), he directed this strangely-titled, pot-boiling action thriller with Marlon Brando in a starring role as a Southwestern Texas town's conflicted and loner Sheriff Calder - set against his entire local community on a hot Saturday afternoon/evening. The uncompromising, explosive and trashy film, with liberal doses of infidelity and sex, violence, bigotry and racism, hatred and corruption, was scripted by previously-blacklisted Lillian Hellman from the play by Horton Foote. The "breathless, explosive story" reflected the turbulent time of the mid-60s, known for political assassinations, racial problems and widespread prejudice, and the growing war in Vietnam. The disjointed, violent Peyton Place-like film with multiple storylines and characters told about the ramifications of the prison escape of framed (and innocent) inmate Charlie 'Bubber' Reeves (Robert Redford in a small star-making breakout role) for car-theft, bound for his hometown of Tarl to see his wife Anna Reeves (Jane Fonda) and take shelter. She had taken up with the married Jake Rogers (James Fox), the no-good son of powerful local oil and cattle baron Val Rogers (E. G. Marshall) - the town's "boss". Everyone had reason to fearfully anticipate Bubber's return: the unfaithful Jake and Anna for having an affair, meek bank VP Edwin Stewart (Robert Duvall) for an old childhood-related incident and for his amoral and slutty wife Emily's (Janice Rule) sexpot behavior, and Bubber's own guilt-ridden parents (Miriam Hopkins and Malcolm Atterbury) who wanted to prevent Sheriff Calder from killing their fugitive son on the run. Drunken vigilante mob rule threatened and brutally beat the masochistic, unrespected Sheriff (who owed his "bought" position and support to Val) when he stood up for himself, while his sole defender was his loyal and long-suffering wife Ruby (Angie Dickinson). [The graphic and bloody beating from redneck Damon Fuller (Richard Bradford) recalled Oscar-winning Brando's similar throttling at the conclusion of On the Waterfront (1954), but even more intense due to its being filmed in color.] Bubber was eventually apprehended and brought to jail but in a moment that echoed the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963, was tragically shot while brought into custody and handcuffed, causing Calder to beat the killer Archie (Steve Ihnat) senseless and then leave the town the next day with his supportive wife to an uncertain destination (reminiscent of High Noon (1952)). Penn was disappointed with the overwrought, in-your-face film, although it was a masterpiece of contrived volatility. He denounced it, blaming producer Sam Spiegel for interfering with the film's making and limiting his participation in the final edit. The film ended up being both a critical and commercial failure, and bombed at the box-office due to negative reviews. Revisionistic critics hailed the film, however, as a foreshadowing of recurring themes of sex and violence (and the depiction of the disintegration of American society) that would be blossoming in numerous films in the coming years and decades. |
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Doctor Doolittle (1967) This lavish two-and-a-half-hour 70 mm. Todd-AO Technicolor childrens' musical adventure fantasy from 20th Century Fox was this studio's entry into the musical genre, following the successes of Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), Fox's own The Sound of Music (1965) and other musicals. It was adapted from the classic children's books from American writer Hugh Lofting born in Britain. It told about eccentric, absent-minded veterinarian Dr. John Dolittle (Rex Harrison, fresh from the catastrophic Cleopatra (1963)) in the pretty English town of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh in the year 1845. "Talk-singing" Rex Harrison had originally been lured to star in the picture when it was promised that famed lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (who had worked with Harrison on My Fair Lady (1964)) would write the script, music and lyrics, but after struggling for a year Lerner was replaced by gifted Leslie Bricusse. Harrison was persuaded to stay on (instead of $300,000 paid replacement Christopher Plummer, star of The Sound of Music), while he endured being urinated on by sheep and chewed upon by various temperamental animals. Delays due to problems on the set were compounded by expensive on-location shooting difficulties (in the English countryside village, in the actual town of Castle Combe, and on the island of Santa Lucia in the Caribbean). Multiple problems arose during production, including torrential rains, disgruntled town citizens where the film was shot (the English village's dam was sabotaged), issues with the 1,500+ live animals, and the costly upkeep of the featured creatures at an average of $750/week. This unique doctor learned how to 'talk to the animals' through lessons from his colorful talking parrot named Polynesia. He also set forth on a worldwide quest in search of exotic, rare specimens of different species, such as his two headed llama named "Pushmi-Pullyu", including a quest to find a legendary and mythical Great Pink Sea Snail (an 8-ton machine that cost more than $65,000) and the Giant Lunar Moth on floating Sea Star Island off the coast of Africa. When Doolittle liberated a trained seal named Sophie (costumed in a dress and hat) from circus owner and benefactor Albert Blossom's (Sir Richard Attenborough) establishment, he was arrested and committed to an insane asylum run by General Bellowes (Peter Bull). After escaping with the help of Polynesia and chimp Chee-Chee (Tarzan's Cheeta in his last film appearance), he began his travels with friends including sailor Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley), young Tommy Stubbins (William Dix), and Bellowes' stowaway niece Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar). In the mid-late 1960s, a budget of $18 million (three times the original budget) was fairly sizable, and with poor returns at the box-office, the film nearly bankrupted Fox, especially for its expensive, massively-orchestrated publicity campaign and merchandising push for dozens of Doolittle promotional products. Even before the picture was released, record stores were flooded with half a million original soundtrack albums that sold poorly. It was fairly well-received by audiences that actually went and saw it, but critics despised it and lousy word-of-mouth destined it to failure. The plot was mostly leaden, meandering and over-extended, and director Fleischer was obviously more adept at adventure films (i.e., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Fantastic Voyage (1966)) than musicals with animals. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards (even Best Picture and Best Cinematography), with two wins for Best Special Effects, and Best Music - Original Song ("Talk to the Animals"). |
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Candy (1968, It./Fr.) This provocative, self-indulgent and satirical 2-hour long sex comedy starred 1965's blonde and blue-eyed Miss Teen Sweden Ewa Aulin (and subsequently Miss Teen International 1966) as the naive, carefree nymphomaniacal and sweet title character - nubile high school teen Candy Christian. It was based on scriptwriter Terry Southern's updated, racy (and supposedly 'unfilmable') 1960 novel originally based on Voltaire's 18th century Candide, adapted for the screen by Buck Henry. On her misadventures and journeys, she was continually seduced and lusted after by a number of leading men (representing various stereotypical male characters or 'father' figures) in episodic segments, including Richard Burton as alcoholic Welsh poet McPhisto, Ringo Starr as Mexican gardener Emmanuel, Walter Matthau as fanatical, ultra-patriotic, airborne right-wing military officer General Smight, John Huston and James Coburn as hospital administrator Dr. Dunlap and eccentric brain surgeon Dr. Krankheit, gravity-defying hunchback (Charles Aznavour), and Marlon Brando as eye-rolling, lecherous mystical guru Grindl. This misogynistic film was one of the biggest flops of the 60s, although it was marketed with a teasing suggestive campaign about its liberated sexpot star, with only some brief nudity on-screen. It was unappreciated by audiences for its meandering, underdeveloped, improbable and unsophisticated plot (with an anti-establishment theme), unrelated episodes and pretentious sillyness. Some of the movie's expense was due to expensively-paid stars, on-location filming in Rome and New York, and special effects for the opening and closing sequences by Douglas Trumbull (responsible for the mind-blowing slit-scan visuals in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)). |
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Hello, Dolly! (1969) This ill-considered, cumbersome big-budget Fox film musical, following their ill-received Doctor Doolittle (1967), seemed an anachronism during the politically-tumultuous late 1960s, with its miscast star, 27 year-old Barbra Streisand as the middle-aged match-making widow title character Dolly Levi, following her success in Funny Girl (1968). She was replacing the popular stage originator Carol Channing in an immortal role from the long-running show. It was directed by dancer Gene Kelly -- as a big-budget, overblown musical version of Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker that had opened on Broadway in 1964, with elaborate sets and costumes and an over-indulgent production. The musical was the most expensive (over $20 million) produced up to its time, and was another Fox financial disaster, although it was the fifth-highest grossing film of its year. It was one of a number of disappointing flops and sometimes foolhardy films that spelled an end to the large-scale film musical. The studio was attempting to duplicate its success with The Sound of Music (1965) with three films in the late 60s, with this as one of them. The other two films were the overly-long and expensive Doctor Doolittle (1967) with Rex Harrison 'talking to the animals', and director Robert Wise's $12 million Star! (1968), a biography of stage musical comedy star Gertrude Lawrence and a disastrous film for Julie Andrews. Although the musical had a number of show-stopping songs and production numbers, there was a distinctive lack of screen chemistry between stars Walter Matthau and Streisand, and it was an over-produced, overlong, overly-buoyant and overstuffed musical production that spelled the end of Gene Kelly's career as a musical film director. However, its memorable moments included Louis Armstrong's brief singing of the title song in the palatial Harmonia Gardens Restaurant filled with red-uniformed waiters. |
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Paint Your Wagon (1969)
This 1951 Broadway musical by Lerner and Loewe was lavishly adapted for the screen by noted scriptwriter Paddy Chayefsky (and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner) in the late 60s, when musicals were already losing popularity. Obviously, musical comedy was not Chayefsky's strongest suit. Its sole Oscar nomination was for Nelson Riddle's Best Adapted Musical Score. It was one of many expensive musicals at the time that attempted to cash in on the popularity of Fox's The Sound of Music (1965). The setting for the musical was a Gold-Rush mining camp in 1840s California in a city named: "No Name City". The bloated, almost three-hour production featured the 'singing' of non-singing actors Lee Marvin (often drunk on the set) as grizzled, drunken prospector Ben Rumson and a young Clint Eastwood as Pardner, a soft-spoken ex-farmer from Michigan, while the voice of miscast female lead Jean Seberg (as Elizabeth) was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Eastwood tentatively sang "I Talk to the Trees", while Marvin sang "I Was Born Under a Wandrin’ Star" - a surprise novelty hit record. The film's best vocalist was Harve Presnell (as "Rotten Luck Willie") who sang the memorable "They Call the Wind Maria." Bing Crosby was originally intended to star in the Lee Marvin role, but declined to be involved in a lengthy on-location shoot (with realistic sets built in the wilderness of the Cascade Mountains about 50 miles from the town of Baker, Oregon at the cost of $2.4 million, and at Big Bear Lake/Valley in California). Veteran director Joshua Logan proved to be a very slow-working director (the film was over-schedule and over-budget), and ran into problems with the supervising producer Lerner. This reportedly caused Eastwood to declare that he would soon produce and direct films in a more economical and responsible way, with his own independent production company. It was also rumored that Jean Seberg had an on-set romance with co-star Clint Eastwood that enraged her husband, and further complications arose when hippies used as extras in the production organized a union of their own and threatened a strike over higher pay. The big-budget, over-produced, misguided western-tinged film, dubbed "Lerner's Folly", featured a menage-a-trois relationship between the three principals, based on a dubious polygamous, shared wife arrangement after a three-ring ceremony, and the kidnapping of French prostitutes for the gold town's brothel, with some commentary on the raunchy goings-on by Mormons and temperance groups. Marvin played a rough prospector similar to his Oscar-winning role in Cat Ballou (1965). Although the provocative film was criticized and mocked for its unlikely genre mix of western, comedy, and musical, it was lively, lusty and exuberant, with a few mild swear words ("hell" and "damn") and an "M" (for Mature Audiences) rating - the first for a large-scale musical. Upon its initial release, it couldn't recoup its exorbitant costs (it made only $14.5 million), but over the years has recovered some of its stature and financial losses. However, it was the last film for Joshua Logan, and in ten years, a depressed Jean Seberg would commit suicide. |
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Myra Breckinridge (1970)
Novelist Gore Vidal, who helped to adapt his own satirical 1968 novel about gender stereotypes and Hollywood into this odd, unusual, and controversial cult film, has since disowned this perverse X-rated (reduced to R) film. The racy, incoherent, vulgar and irreverent film was unintentionally funny and seriously chastised upon its release, although it was intentionally thought by Fox that it would be popular with hip, young film-going audiences who had seen unconventional, liberal films during the permissive sexual/political revolution (of the late 60s/early 70s) such as X-rated Best Picture winning Midnight Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider (1969) and M*A*S*H (1970). The drag-themed, debauched comedy was thought to be the voyeuristic, dreamy hallucinations of a male wishing to be a female siren. Writer/director Michael Sarne's incompetently-made film (only his second feature) told about a New York gay film fanatic/writer named Myron Breckinridge (real-life film critic Rex Reed) who had a sex change operation (performed by chain-smoking mad doctor John Carradine). Myron refused circumcision: "Let's get it over with! Myra's waiting!" - and was transformed into the statuesque, busty, trans-sexual, male-bashing beauty Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch in a self-parodying performance). He/she then appeared at the Hollywood/Westwood acting school-academy of her lecherous cowboy uncle Buck Loner (John Huston) and demanded her inheritance, claiming that she was Myron's widow. She also vowed: "My purpose in coming to Hollywood is the destruction of the American male in all its particulars." The film's tasteless plot featured aging, double-entendre-spouting, over-sexed, and campy 76 year-old Mae West as talent agent Leticia Van Allen for hunky males, two outrageous bi-sexual seduction scenes (to "realign the sexes"): an outrageous, emasculating sodomy-dildo rape scene on an infirmary examination table between domineering, star-spangled Myra and handsome aspiring star-pupil Rusty Godowsky (Roger Herren), and a lesbian scene with Farrah Fawcett (pre-Charlie's Angels fame) as dumb blonde Mary Ann Pringle, and another scene of Myra jumping up on a table and exhibiting herself without panties to prove that she had a sex-change operation. There was also an unexplicit scene of Myra delivering fellatio to Myron. Critics (and some of the stars themselves) also derided the film for its gimmickry -- arbitrarily including archival clips from old Fox Studio films to 'comment upon' the action/characters, including Shirley Temple, Loretta Young, Tyrone Power, Peter Lorre, Marilyn Monroe, Carmen Miranda and Laurel and Hardy - and as a result of lawsuits, some of the clips were removed. The unprofitable, unqualified-disaster and embarrassing film disappeared for many decades until it was finally released on video/DVD. |
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
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Introduction to Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops: Films have the potential to skyrocket the profits of a studio, or to send it into ruins and bankruptcy. Sometimes an actor’s or director's career suffers, sometimes not. Films that cost more to make than they take in revenue (both domestic and worldwide) are considered box-office catastrophes or bombs. Movie audiences often love to relish the fact that some films, such as Gigli (2003) or Heaven's Gate (1980), turn out to be monumental flops, and are fascinated by the details of why certain directors/actors and their films fail.
