Amusing Terrible Film #1: Hercules in New York (1969)
imdb Link Wiki Link
This is my first "Amusing Terrible Film" entry. Sometimes films can be so bad in so many ways, so much so that they cannot be boring. Instead of a comedy to laugh with it becomes a movie to laugh at. Oh, dozens or hundreds of people may have sunk months of work into producing this... thing, but hey, unintentional humour is better than no humour at all, right?
As a disclaimer, this film is supposed to be a comedy, but it's laughs come from it's sometimes ridiculous production.
This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first film role (he's billed as Arnold Strong in it though), a good seven or so years before the 'Pumping Iron' documentary that really catapulted his career. Until relatively recently his voice was dubbed over due to "his thick Austrian accent". After watching the undubbed version I can say that this isn't the case. It's far more likely the overdub was due to Arnold not being able to act his way out of a paper bag at this point. The dialogue is flat and he's squinting off to the side half the time, as if trying to read a script card. It's really improved by the frequent third-person lines, like "Nobody touched Hercules" (before 'throwing' someone into a bush), or "Who gave him permission to impersonate Hercules?!". There are numerous 'fight' scenes in this film. When I say 'fight', I mean someone stands near Arnold grimacing, then Arnold shrugs his arms up and the other person does a prat fall either 2 seconds later or 2 seconds before.
We can forgive him this, nobody is born a perfect actor, but it really does enhance the "it'll do" feel of the movie...
A bit like "Hey, part of this film is set in Olympus, how about this manor's garden, will it do?" "Sure" "But what about the sound of traffic from just beyond the hedge? Won't the car horns sound really odd in what is supposed to be Olympus?" "Nah, it'll do!"
I have to mention Arnold Stang's character. He plays a pretzel salesman who befriends Hercules. Now, I say befriend, but what I mean is 'creepily attaches himself to'. After a dockland brawl with sailors, he bundles Hercules into a taxi with nary an introduction and gets the driver to take them to a secluded spot by Central Park. All the time he's peering at Schwarzenegger's massive body and pulling some strange facial expressions. That's a bit of a... weird... start. Later on, he starts getting jealous when anyone else spends time with Hercules. Stang's character's aim of friend/comic relief amusingly misses the mark. I like to imagine the entire story was in this character's head, and that he was imagining a Greek demigod was beating up people he didn't like. I imagine him standing at the docks making those same weird facial expressions at the sailors who were not getting beaten up, but just going about their daily business.
There are various mistakes, bad lines, weird looks, and confusing edits, but it all adds up to a rather amusing package. At the very least it's interesting to see where such a huge film star like Schwarzenegger started. It's out on DVD with his original voice. I picked it up for next to nothing, so next time you're bored and need a giggle, give it a watch.
This is my first "Amusing Terrible Film" entry. Sometimes films can be so bad in so many ways, so much so that they cannot be boring. Instead of a comedy to laugh with it becomes a movie to laugh at. Oh, dozens or hundreds of people may have sunk months of work into producing this... thing, but hey, unintentional humour is better than no humour at all, right?
As a disclaimer, this film is supposed to be a comedy, but it's laughs come from it's sometimes ridiculous production.
 | ||
| (http://docuniverse.blogspot.co.uk)" But I wanna go back to Earth gnnnaaooaaooaww" |
This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first film role (he's billed as Arnold Strong in it though), a good seven or so years before the 'Pumping Iron' documentary that really catapulted his career. Until relatively recently his voice was dubbed over due to "his thick Austrian accent". After watching the undubbed version I can say that this isn't the case. It's far more likely the overdub was due to Arnold not being able to act his way out of a paper bag at this point. The dialogue is flat and he's squinting off to the side half the time, as if trying to read a script card. It's really improved by the frequent third-person lines, like "Nobody touched Hercules" (before 'throwing' someone into a bush), or "Who gave him permission to impersonate Hercules?!". There are numerous 'fight' scenes in this film. When I say 'fight', I mean someone stands near Arnold grimacing, then Arnold shrugs his arms up and the other person does a prat fall either 2 seconds later or 2 seconds before.
We can forgive him this, nobody is born a perfect actor, but it really does enhance the "it'll do" feel of the movie...
A bit like "Hey, part of this film is set in Olympus, how about this manor's garden, will it do?" "Sure" "But what about the sound of traffic from just beyond the hedge? Won't the car horns sound really odd in what is supposed to be Olympus?" "Nah, it'll do!"
 |
| Luckily he wore more than the hat, and didn't come (un)dressed as a Greek olympian |
There are various mistakes, bad lines, weird looks, and confusing edits, but it all adds up to a rather amusing package. At the very least it's interesting to see where such a huge film star like Schwarzenegger started. It's out on DVD with his original voice. I picked it up for next to nothing, so next time you're bored and need a giggle, give it a watch.
Comments
Post a Comment