Directed by:
Norman Thaddeus Vane
Lynn Redgrave hits a career low as a thoroughly unlikable actress who works part-time as a horror movie hostess called Midnight (rising from a coffin and screeching like The Crypt Keeper) and full time at being a stupid and obnoxious bitch named Vera. Even more shocking than her tacky get-up (ghost-face, outrageous eyeliner, black crimped wig and spandex jumpsuits) is how she manages to keep a job with her third-rate act and flagrantly irritating demeanor; degrading her fans on a regular basis, telling a female reporter “How would you like it if I sat on your face?” and getting mouthy with the producer of her show. One day, Midnight notices that dim, motorcycle-riding, “hunk” and aspiring actor Mickey (Steve Parrish) is following her around (“I’m your biggest fan!”), so she reacts to this stalker by screwing him and letting him move into her large L.A. mansion the same day. Tony Curtis (who has also seen better days) is Mr. B, a slimy TV mogul usually surrounded by bikini-clad starlets. He currently has an “oral” (har har) contract with a hot blonde named Missy Angel (Karen Witter). After Midnight threatens him (“I’ll give you herpes on your pecker!”) and refuses to sign over the copyright of her name and image, he cancels her show and soon after a series of murders begins. Missy and Mickey also start an affair and get the lead roles in one of Mr. B’s productions. Midnight, Mickey, Mr. B and Missy are all pissy for various reasons, so when people start disappearing you’ve got your line-up of obvious suspects right there, so I guess I won’t give anything away by saying that Midnight’s at-home staff includes a faithful, near-mute and extremely bizarre chauffeur named Ziggy (Gustav Vintas).
There’s a drowning, a hanging, a nightmare sequence, a scene of Midnight fake poisoning herself on her TV show and plenty of terrible dialogue and one-liners. Stunning former Playboy model Witter (a 1982 Playmate) is the only thing worth watching in this offensively awful wanna-be cult film (and failed Hollywood satire). Also in the cast are Wolfman Jack, Rita Gam, Frank Gorshin, Kathleen Kinmont, Robert Miano and Tiny Lister.
There’s a drowning, a hanging, a nightmare sequence, a scene of Midnight fake poisoning herself on her TV show and plenty of terrible dialogue and one-liners. Stunning former Playboy model Witter (a 1982 Playmate) is the only thing worth watching in this offensively awful wanna-be cult film (and failed Hollywood satire). Also in the cast are Wolfman Jack, Rita Gam, Frank Gorshin, Kathleen Kinmont, Robert Miano and Tiny Lister.
★
train wreck. i almost shut this off within seconds of it starting. why is redgrave doing such embarrassing childish schtick as the horror-host? were people afraid to give her notes? is it what the director wanted? one of those films that seems so thrown together and improvised i can't imagine what it looked like on the page.
ReplyDeletecurtis tells gorshin "i saw you in THE LOBSTER MAN STRIKES BACK..."; curtis was in LOBSTER MAN FROM MARS -- one of deborah foreman's last movies -- the same year.
"i don't remember a whole lot about the movies i made toward the end of my career ... norman vane wanted to make a horror film called MIDNIGHT that he had written and was going to direct, and he wanted to know if i'd star in it. with all that child support i had to pay, it was easy for me to say yes. MIDNIGHT was a good film, and the work went quickly and smoothly." -- TONY CURTIS, AMERICAN PRINCE: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Yes this one was absolutely terrible, starting with the fact they didn't seem to get what's charming about the Elvira-like horror hostess character they were attempting to spoof. They made her bitchy, obnoxious and completely unlikable minus any kind of self-awareness that could possibly endear us to the character. I bet Elvira was like "WTF?!" when she watched it. I had to look over Redgrave's filmography again and it does look like she was having a hard time finding quality roles at this point, so not too surprising to see her here. I think she was mostly known for Weight Watchers commercials. And a few years earlier she was hanging around the "set" of Blood Frenzy. Glad Tony Curtis thought it was "good" though.
ReplyDeleteLobster Man is about the only Deborah Foreman movie I haven't seen!
I don't have the best impression of Vane based on his chapter in the Nightmare USA book. He came off kind of like a dick.