Film Career Nadirs

“Wicked Stepmother” makes “Burnt Offerings” looks like “Dark Victory.”

I’d argue that Bette’s nadir was all post-stroke. She’s sad to watch in The Whales of August even though it’s fecent overall.

John F Kennedy -- The Zapruder Film

Lauren Bacall “The Fan”

Fecent means decent? Hahah

You forgot Trog starring Joan Crawford

Troy understands.... he understands

Troy was Trogs non retarded cousin. Sadly he was cut from the film.

Velvet Lips looks tired in R6. Poor thing.

Cannon Films and Katharine Hepburn were awful together.

M in "Rickie And The Flash," duh.

Richard Burton -- Candy (1968)

Jennifer Jones--Angel, Angel, Down We Go

Brando--Island of Dr. Moreau

Ray Milland-' The Man with Two Heads

Louis Jourdan--Swamp Thing

Gable--Parnell

Paul Newman--A New Kind of Love

Joane Woodward--ditto

Audrey Hepburn--Paris When It Sizzles

Katharine Hepburn--Dragonseed

Patrick Stewart was asked this question at some convention. His reply was Wild Geese 2, and explains how it came to happen.

This gets my vote for Newman's least finest hour.

Carol Channing - Skidoo

Johnny Depp - Private Resort

John Travolta - Battlefield Earth

Oh twaddle OP, I looked FABULOUS!

Carol Channing -- The Corn is Brown

that was a remake I didn't want to see.

Johnny Depp in anything he’s made this century.

Basil Rathbone in "Hillbillys in a Haunted House" (1967)

Sean Connery in Zardoz

But wasn't he kind of hot in that diaper thing?

Judge for yourself, R21.

Glenn Close - Maxie

Sally Field - Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, Not Without My Daughter

Lawrence Olivier - The Jazz Singer

Cillian Murphy's character made some atrocious speech about the woman he loved in the opening scene of the third season of Peaky Blinders

Fucking awful.

Do not forget Livvie de Havilland in 1964's Lady In The Cage, also starring James Caan.

^^ although I'm sure Livvie would love if you did.

R25, the porn version, of course, was "The Jizz Slinger."

At The Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes

Boom has its pleasures.

All the actors involved in this shitty Stepford Wives remake.

Angela Lansbury's next film.

Every body in " Caligula". Ava Gardner in " knots landings" ( still hurts).

How could a distinguished actor such as John Houseman end up doing Puritan oil commercials?

All my Woody Allen movies.

Natalie Wood. Penelope. The wigs !!!??!!?

What about [italic]Be Kind Rewind[/italic]?

Soon"darling, now is the time. You can come back.

[quote]Lauren Bacall “The Fan”

I know the OP said films, but I think with Bacall all those stupid tv commercials. The cat food commercials were a real nadir, but the coffee ones were just as bad.

"Fecent" is an awesome new word for "shitty".

My entire career after " the story of Adèle H."

Some of the listed here are genuinely fantastic. Lady in a Cage may have been an entry into the hag-horror genre, but Olivia de Havilland goes balls to the wall with her performance from beginning to end.

If I had to pick a nadir for her, I’d probably go with The Swarm, which is dreadfully boring, and yet, even there, she nearly saves the movie with her PA announcement and the reaction shot of her at the window overlooking the playground.

DL is deeply endebted to her on that count.

I love Skiddoo! It’s not just a nadir for Carol Channing; you can toss in Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Groucho Marx, and literally a dozen other actors well past their prime.

It is a fascinating mess that Otto Preminger’s estate has tried to keep forgotten, but some things are just too delightfully wrongheaded and gloriously disastrous that I find a joy in their mere existence.

NB: It is playing on the big screen at IU in Bloomington, Indiana next month. Seeing it on the big screen is one of my favorite cinematic moments ever!

Michelle pfeiffer playing a woman called " Tally Atwater" in a film with robert Redford that was so bad you couldn't even start to understand why anyone involved would have accepted.

Since we’ve introduced television commercials, I submit Orson Welles’ drunken attempts at simulating appreciation of cut-rate wine.

G-d bless him. Even drunk, Orson Welles is a fucking wonder.

"Ava Gardner in " knots landings" ( still hurts)"

Oh, God. No, KNOTS LANDING is great and Gardner was great in it. That's nowhere near the level of garbage like GRACE QUIGLEY and FLESH FEAST.

Veronica Lake, "Flesh Feast," 1970.

Janet Leigh, "Night of the Lepus," 1972

Rory Calhoun, "Motel Hell," 1980

Gale Gordon, "The 'Burbs," 1989

What's wrong with Burnt Offerings? I think it is a great movie.

Jeanne Moreau in Querelle

When it comes to Michael Caine, De Niro, and Pacino, there are so many to chhose from. The choice Sophie had to make was far easier in comparison.

I don't know if I would consider Boom! Taylor's nadir. It was a pretty A-list production: Joseph Losey, Noel Coward, Tennesssee Williams were far from at their peak, but they were still pretty respectable company to keep at the time.

Not to say that it isn't a complete mess, but it's not what I would call the lowest depths.

I would reserve that for something from that weird period in the 70s when she was a little heavier and maybe a little more desperate... Night Watch? Ash Wednesday? I would probably go with "the Driver's Seat" which I finally saw on The Movie Channel a few weeks ago. Weirdly terrible.

R46 I've seen that before, but it's still funny as hell "AHHHH, the French ..."

Bette should have NEVAH done Wicked Stepmother, but she was ill and not herself. plus that damn BD book, was on her mind.

Doesn't seem fair to put a stroke-inflicted woman who needed the money in with some of these.

I mean, Liz Taylor was only about 36 when filming BOOM. At that age Davis was bringing her A-game to everything (and keeping the weight off).

Hey r37, we were pretty......oh so pretty!

Liz and Dick in the 1960s:

Boom (already mentioned)

Divorce His, Divorce Hers

Doctor Faustus

The Comedians

X, Y and Zee

Under Milk Wood

Hammersmith Is Out

^ Honestly, every single one of those films is worse than TROG.

Playing Wilma Flintstone's mom is a step up from most of those, R57, honestly.

The Staircase--Richard Burton

Taylor's career is in itself a nadir mostly

r61 I remember they honored her with some sort of 'special' award, highlighting her career sometimes in the 1990s but they stopped at the film "Giant" when showing a retrospective of her career.

Shirley Temple in The Blue Bird.

Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, "Hot Rods to Hell"

[quote] Shirley Temple in The Blue Bird.

Jane Fonda and Liz Taylor were in the 1970s version directed by George Cukor and co-produced by the Soviet Union.

She was good in some atrocious films Taylor. Reflection in a golden eye? Hammersmith is out???

Ash wednesday for Taylor and henry fonda

R32 Is that supposed to be Bette Midler on the far left? LOL I love how these poster artists like to stick heads of 60-year olds on bodies of 20-year old models.

[quote]LOL I love how these poster artists like to stick heads of 60-year olds on bodies of 20-year old models.

It started with Oprah and Ann-Margret on the cover of TV Guide 30 years ago.

Oh and " the only game in town." for Taylor and Beatty. 1970. Taylor is playing a 20 something DANCER. Yes. An apple on toothpicks people

There is a film with Bacall and Kidman about reincarnation, that is so bad you think it is part of the plot at first. You can see the boom in TWO different scenes.

I also liked Burnt Offerings!

Richard Burton - EXORCIST 2: THE HERETIC

Makes BOOM and even HAMMERSMITH look tolerable.

R70 I laughed my ass off when she told Warren Beatty to carry her to the bed.

Lol.R74. Do you remember when she's doing her dance number in the vegas joint ? Close up only in soft focus. That smile. And the WIG

Mae West in "Sextette" owns this thread. She was senile, looked like an embalmed corpse and men were supposed to find her irresistible. Mae West tried to pass herself off as a sex symbol and maintain her image as a sexually insatiable babe that men love to fuck when she was a, decrepit has been old lady. Madonna is following in her footsteps.

[quote] I remember they honored her with some sort of 'special' award, highlighting her career sometimes in the 1990s but they stopped at the film "Giant" when showing a retrospective of her career.

Liz made several more classic films after Giant and won two Oscars. I'm sure they must have included such stinkers as Suddenly Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Cleopatra (which was a huge box office draw, it just cost too much to be a hit).

[quote]such stinkers as Suddenly Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Cleopatra

Well, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER and CLEOPATRA are stinkers. They're both total camp. The other two aren't, but she sadly became at hack kinda quickly once she hooked up with Burton.

My powers to entice had not dimmed r76!

r77 No, they definitely ended it at "Giant." I thought "Cat" and "Suddenly" should have been included too. Maybe it had something to do with Tennessee Williams' estate. Who knows?

Who is the guy in the mae west pic???

I'm sure those muscular hunks that were photographed with old Mae were paid handsomely for their efforts. Most of them were probably gay.

[quote]Most of them were probably gay.

By the time filming ended probably.

The REAL Norma Desmond.....

There is this film with gary sinise, charlize Theron and ben affleck. Halfway through they don't give a shit anymore. They almost burst in laughter in dramatic scenes. It's really and truly awful

Ray Milland in "The Thing With Two Heads"

Christina Ricci owns this thread. She went from It girl/ Indie queen to Empress of straight-to-dvd

You've misspelled "highlights."

R44 Yes. Skidoo is Preminger's LSD, wall-to-wall masterpiece.

Madonna in "Body of Evidence" and "Swept Away."

r88 "Highlights" is spelled correctly.

MERYL STREEP - playing second fiddle to Uma Thurman in Prime GLENN CLOSE - that Daddy Issues movie that just came out. ANNETTE BENING - that Garry Shandling bomb What Planet Are You From? JESSICA LANGE - omg, playing Rachel McAdam's mom for like one scene in The Vow. SHARON STONE - playing the haggard mom of linda lovelace in Lovelace -- she should never play de-glammed. Ever. NICOLE KIDMAN - Bewitched. weird attempt at being likable. SANDRA BULLOCK - Speed 2

On the matter of Liz (thanks for all of the hilarious comments, guys - I've been laughing while washing dishes and mopping the floor), unlike Ingrid Bergman, who was an artist, needed a change and made the incredibly brave decision to make art films with Rossellini in Italy, Liz accept roles in trash "faux art" films for the payout. It's not as if she did BOOM!, HAMMERSMITH IS OUT and X Y AND ZEE for free. After Hollywood would no longer pay her the big salaries she was used to, she found plenty of suckers across the pond for several years, until Senator Warner rescued her from THE DRIVER'S SEAT.

Livvie, THE SCREAMING WOMAN

Lana Turner, THE BiG CUBE

Debbie Reynolds & Shelley Winters, WHATS THE MATTER WITH HELEN. A fantastically funny camp fest, but really, an awful movie.

Nobody dares mention

Shelley Winters in "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?"

Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon in "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?"

^^ I was trying to think of the Aunty Roo movie. You beat me to it.

R96 Was Aunt Alice the movie where GP kills her housekeepers & buries them in the backyard?

Under milk wood with burton Taylor o toole has to be the worst film ever

Charlton Heston, OMEGA MAN

Ava Gardner, her bloom totally off the rose in EARTHQUAKE.

Al Pacino, AUTHOR, AUTHOR.

DeNiro, pretty much everything after GOODFELLAS & CASINO.

Ruth was plugging Aunt Alice on Dick Cavett yesterday morning (on Decades). The other guests were Woody Allen and Miss Gina Lollobrigida. Ruth looked sensational in a sleeveless Mame opening costume version in white.

Dietrich in JUST A GIGOLO. At least she got to appear with fellow legend David Bowie.

Brad Pitt, WORLD WAR Z.

Yes, it grossed a ton of money, but its a terrible adaptation of a great book. Brad is & looks awful in it too.

What? No mention of David Niven in "Old Dracula"

Babs, that MEET THE FOKKERS horseshit

I guess I'm the only person apart from John Waters who likes [italic]Boom![/italic] If anyone other than Liz were in it (it may be her laziest performance ever) and if it were in French or Italian [italic]Boom![/italic] might be regarded as an art movie rather than a hilarious campfest.

It's a shame that [italic]Doctor Faustus[/italic] is such a mess because Burton's voice and Marlowe's blank verse were made for each other.

I like her in boom. The set is amazing. But burton is horrible. Bad bad bad. And she is too young

Oh, please. Shelley Winters in all of those movies PALE in comparison to Shelley Winters in TENTACLES.

[quote] SHARON STONE - playing the haggard mom of linda lovelace in Lovelace

Stone actually thought there was a shot she could get a supporting actress nomination. Until she saw the movie.

[quote]Well, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER and CLEOPATRA are stinkers. They're both total camp. The other two aren't, but she sadly became at hack kinda quickly once she hooked up with Burton.

"Camp" is not necessarily a synonym for "bad." But a lot of movies that label applies to have flashes of brilliance mixed in with a lot of high-profile nonsense.

[quote] Oh, please. Shelley Winters in all of those movies PALE in comparison to Shelley Winters in TENTACLES.

Is that also John Huston's nadir as an actor or would his be [italic]Myra Breckinridge[/italic]?

John Huston's nadirs as an actor are a bottomless pit.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time: Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy with Burton as Faustus. What could go wrong – apart from it turning into a self-indulgent mess.

Tallulah, [italic]Die! Die! My Darling![/italic] (a.k.a. [italic]Fanatic[/italic] in the UK)

SPOILER ALERT for Burnt Offerings

For those who like Burnt Offerings and Boom!, I didn't necessarily list Davis' and Taylor's very worst films (consensus: Wicked Stepmother for Davis and The Driver's Seat for Taylor) but instead for Davis chose her most thankless role at a career low point (after a slew of bad TV and two weeks of the disastrous Miss Moffat at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia...NOT San Francisco or New Haven). Bette had not much screen time in Burnt Offerings and declined quickly into looking literally like death before she was crushed by a runaway coffin. Taylor was in full drag queen mode and career cliff drop-off after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Taming of the Shrew just one or two years before the disaster of Boom! Both Burnt Offerings and Boom! were enjoyably bad, as were The Big Cube and Oh Dad, etc.

"Nobody dares mention—" secret ceremony " with Liz AND Mia. I actually love it"

SECRET CEREMONY is bonkers, but Taylor is actually quite good in it, and I like the film too. But it's definitely an "acquired taste movie."

BOOM is just dull for the most part - only the scene with Taylor and Noel Coward is kinda fun.

Speaking of Shelly Winters, I finally saw CLEOPATRA JONES on TCM, and Winters is hilarious.

Poor Bette had to appear in a dreadful PSYCHO rip-off called SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY - it was a made-for-TV stinker with Ted Bessell in his most embarrassing role ever.

[quote] Poor Bette had to appear in a dreadful PSYCHO rip-off called SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY - it was a made-for-TV stinker with Ted Bessell in his most embarrassing role ever.

Really, worse than [italic]Me and the Chimp[/italic]?

Shelley definitely hit the nadir of her career with "Poor Pretty Eddie" (1975). I've seen almost all of her films and this has to be the worst. I think she did it to fuck the male lead and not for the money.

I am with you R116. Secret ceremony is one of my favourite films. Really weird and wonderful looking. Mia and Liz are fantastic together in that house. Thank God it's Mitchum in a role obviously meant for the dreadful Burton.

Seems as good a reason as any r119!

Actually Olivia de Havilland's nadir was in Harold Robbins' THE ADVENTURERS.

Her sister Joan finally gave up on theatrical films after appearing in the terrible Hammer horror film THE DEVIL'S OWN (aka THE WITCHES). She only did TV afterwards.

r122 Yes, that graphic (for the 1970s) 'mass' gang rape and murder scene was a real doozy.

"Thank God it's Mitchum in a role obviously meant for the dreadful Burton."

Burton I'm sure would have phoned it in, but Mitchum isn't really well-cast either. But he does better than you'd expect and gets to utter that immortal line "I couldn't rape a randy elephant."

One of my favorite scenes is when Taylor confronts Farrow's two aunts, played by Peggy Ashcroft and Pamela Brown.

Yes its a great scene, but my fav is the breakfast scene with Taylor 's epic burp.

Peter Finch

Liv Ullman

Michael York

John Gielgud

Charles Boyer

Sally Kellerman

Olivia Hussey

James Shigeta

Ross Hunter

Hermes Pan

Burt Bacharach

Hal David

Charles Jarrott

Jean Louis

Robert Surtees

need I go on?

Robert De Niro in "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"

Tammy Cruise in "Tropic Thunder" was nowhere near as great as the Clams would have you think. He should never, ever try comedy again.

"X, Y and Zee" was 1972 and was with Michael Caine, not Richard Burton.

WWZ did make a lot of money because it was a terrific movie. A sequel to WWZ is pending release. Brad Pitt looked great and he did a fine job of acting.

A lot of bad movies make money, R130, because they keep making them.

Faye Dunaway in Dunstin Checks In

r126 What film darling?

R85, that movie was from before Charlize was funny. .I remember on Access Hollywood, Ben Affleck said that Charlize and he had sex together at Charlize's request. And i think it was to "get into charater"or whatever. Oh Charlize.

That sould say "before she was famous".

R130 Listen, Angie, Brads not taking you back, no matter how nice you play it.

R134 ? Oh I see. Because yeah "Charlize is now hilarious" Doesn't work. By the way ( Charlize is such a whore, she fucked Harvey like he was the last guy in the sauna on a sunday night) Guy Woodhouse son, not" Adrian", but the real john cassavetes's son, directed a Horror film, as in, a massive turd, like really really stinky, with Charlize ex, you know, trash from trailer park, what's his name, and his then wife, the HOC broad, kelly Capwell herself. Film was called " she is the lovely" and was Sooooo bad it was embarrassing to just sit there. Teash from trailer park was starting to fancy himself as a thespian, and obviously didn't understand his lines. Lots of words there. It was Awful. Anyone remembers that one?

R126, is this why you left me out?

Paul Henreid in Exorcist 2

Lew Ayres in Omen 2

John Barrymore in Playmates (an awful 1941 musical b-movie with Kay Kyser and Lupe Velez)

Robert Mitchum in James Dean: Race with Destiny

Burt Lancaster in The Island of Dr. Moreau

Liza in Rent a Cop and Arthur 2

Burt Reynolds in Cop and a Half

Kathleen Turner in Baby Geniuses

Lauren Bacall and Kirk Douglas in Diamonds

Frank Sinatra in Dirty Dingus Magee

Whoopi in Theodore Rex

More than a 100 responses and Lucy in "Mame".? I'm disappointed.

Rex Harrison in Doctor Dolittle

Joseph Cotten in Lady Frankstein

Laurence Olivier in The Jazz Singer and Inchon

Fred Astaire in The Amazing Dobermans

Gene Kelly in Xanadu

George Burns in Sgt Pepper' s Lonely Hearts Club Band

R12 Has the wretched ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO ever been adapted as an off Broadway musical satire or anything?

I mean it could work (?) Or am I crazy (?)

R137, what in the fuck are you rambling on about?

This stinker is what killed Lucy's film career the first time around.

I think Angel, Angel, Down We Go and The Big Cube are nadirs for Rosalind Russell and Lana Turner, respectively, not because they are exploitative trash, but because they are failed, boring exploitative trash. Both films are a chore to sit through.

Some of the other movies listed here, like Skidoo, Lady in a Cage, and especially most of Liz’s derided seventies output are wholly watchable, even fascinating as time capsule pieces for the period. Elizabeth Taylor seldom disappoints on the screen. I even love The Driver’s Seat!

Jessica Lange in Hush, mainly due to her terrible overacting.

Rosalind Russell, R145...?

r20, I'd watch Sean Connery in anything. I have Zardoz, not bad and he's hot to watch in it. Whadda man!

Oops, r147, I meant Jennifer Jones, but I’d also include Rosalind Russell in the even worse Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad.

Agnes Moorehead and a whole lot of decapitations go hag to hag with Bette and Joan.

If we're talking film career nadirs, how about George Nader? In. Everything.

And me!

[quote] It started with Oprah and Ann-Margret on the cover of TV Guide 30 years ago.

I didn't know what you were talking about so I googled it. Yikes!

SUSAN FUCKING HAYWORTH IN VALLEY OF THE FUCKING DOLLS.

I feel better now.

R153 HOW so we know Ann-Margret didn't steal OPRAH'S body for HER photo??

It's possible!!

R133 you're on DL and you need to ask?

And my apologies to George Kennedy though if somebody held a gun to my head I think I would rather watch Demon Warp.

John Huston, Shelley Winters and Henry Fonda (!) in TENTACLES

R157

Faye Dunaway in anything made this century (practically)

I love you for posting that, R158.

R160 Oh, thank you : )

I plan to go to my grave without ever seeing the actual movie!

#LifeGoals

All of the 70's disaster flicks are pretty dreadful. I think Avalanche might be the worst. And whoever thought that Angela Landsbury would be a great Jane Marple needs to be poisoned by arsenic with a pork and vegetable pie that everyone else had a piece of with no consequences. Does Aids affect the vision ? Couldn't Rock read the scripts at all in the end ?

[quote]And whoever thought that Angela Landsbury would be a great Jane Marple needs to be poisoned by arsenic with a pork and vegetable pie that everyone else had a piece of with no consequences.

That was the script's fault made worse by the director. She might not have gotten [italic]Murder, She Wrote[/italic] without it. She fared better than David Tomlinson, who outlived his film career by 20 years; his co-star in [italic]The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu[/italic], Peter Sellers, died of embarrassment.

But his immortal performance in the magnificent Mary Poppins carries all before it.

No, R164, it doesn't. Once again, you confuse it with [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic]. That will go down as his definitive performance both at Disney and for his whole career.

Mr. Browne danced with a black woman for three seconds. Mr. Thorndyke sold his business to an Asian. Who cares about that bullying usurer who never even saw a nonwhite person in his life? Oh, right. The same racists who got [italic]Song of the South[/italic] taken away to prop up an all-white knockoff of it.

Coreys Haim & Feldman in NATIONAL LAMPOON’S LAST RESORT (1994). I dare anyone to come up with a deeper, darker manhole for movie career to fall into.

No other established young actor with acclaimed movies under his belt has ever starred in the like, and at just 24 years old. It’s completely unbelievable that the actors who started their careers as Lucas & Teddy Duchamp and went on to become the stars of so many other cult classics also appear in this no-budget goofy barely-a-movie.

Thankfully, both Coreys scraped their dignity back in the following decade by working on genuinely entertaining television projects and indie movies. The ‘90s were mad tough on both of them.

Jonathan Demme's last film was Meryl Streep and daughter Mamie taking a dump together, basically.

Gregory Peck in Boys from Brazil

Jodie Foster's career after her oscars is very surprising. What happened ? I saw " panic room" because my repressed homo unhappily married danish friend dragged me there. It was appalingly bad.

Jodie has always been hard to cast. She’s not a conventional leading lady and has a very limited range as well as zero chemistry with male co-stars which results in strangely sexless roles as astronomers, FBI agents, rural retards, what have you.

R171 Chicka, chicka, chickabee. T'ee an me an t'ee an me. Ressa, ressa, ressa me, Chicka, chicka, chickabee.

Joan Fontaine - Voyage to the bottom of the sea...or career

33 so you think Lansbury should retire?

She just played Aunt March in a PBS version of Little Women.

I think it’s great that she still able to be so active I just don’t think she’s being given quality in a long time.

Was Joan Fontaine a big deal in America ? She is only known here for Rebecca, suspicion , and being de Haviland's sister. Same with Bacall. She is known as Bogarts wife and partner for a couple of 40's noirs. Are they big stars in the US?

Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- what took you guys so long?

R175, Joan Fontaine was certainly popular back in her day, with 3 Best Actress Oscar nominations (Rebecca, Suspicion, The Constant Nymph), 1 win (Suspicion), and audience favorites This Above All, The Women, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, etc. But today, she barely even ranks among the greatest or most popular actresses of all time.

Getting lost in the plethora of possibilities, R176.

I recognize every inch of that body. But when did I get 𝐒𝐎 drunk I fucked a black chick?

R175 Yes, the the 40’s Fontaine was as big as her sister. They both made many memorable and classic movies, but because Olivia de Havilland was in Gone With the Wind she is so much better remembered. She was also, IMO the kinder more humble of the two.

There are about 10 good interviews on YouTube from Fontaine and they are pretty facianating. Especially hearing about her Hitchcock films. She is a bit fancy but I think these starts literally believed (in 1980 say) that people in Kansas that went to the movies for glamour in 1947 after a War were still expecting her to dress well and speak with a trans-Atlantic accent.

R179 when Oprah was worth 250 million not 2 billion. What is that like ‘97?

R175 Bacall was more A well known Hollywood studio system personality that married someone very famous and was just a household name in America. She did almost winning Oscar in the 90s. Blame Weinstein for that too.

the way Joan Fontaine 's character is dispatched in Voyage to the bottom of the sea always struck me as cruel

Joan's last time above the title was for Hammer Films and was lower than Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea...

Jessica Lange and Goop in "Hush". Hilariously awful. And, although it made a tonne of money, M will never do anything more embarrassing or shameful than "Mamma Mia", one of the worst films ever made.

R185 A problem with HUSH is it just looks too expensive, when it's actually a cheap Gothic melodrama at heart.

Goop (if we'll admit it) and Jessie are talented actors, and too naturally gifted to ever give embarrasing performances. But the movie takes itself too seriously, when it needs a messier BABY JANE edge to it.

The film is an embarrasment on their resumes, but I don't think it's specifically [italic]their[/italic] fault.

Is it?

Hush would've been a better movie had they left the original suspense/thriller-movie ending in tact, but test audience didn't like it and the result is a boring mess of a movie.

Jane Powell

Hedy Lamarr

George Nader

In "The Female Animal"

"HEDLEY!"

Shelly Duvall's shitacular performance in The Shining. She was so bad she was nominated for a Razzie in it.

I win.

What ever happened to G.Paltrow ??? Is it a neverending nervous breakdown in slow motion following her father's death? She WAS good actress! And quite charming in fact. Saw her on Colbert recently. For all her goopisms she looks rough. Her skin is too tight for her face. Tragic hair. The faltchouk thing is pathetic. She' pulling a Cruise.She should have stayed in England and do euro art movies and theatre, instead of the demented 'Martha Stewart for the $$$'thing. What's the movie with fellow trainwreck Depp ? What are they gonna do next ? Scooo beedooo 2 ???

Not so fast, Bela!

R192 She's raising her kids and enjoying being rich. Now that she's older, moviemaking probably doesn't hold the same thrill it once did. You do have to get up at 5:00 in the morning or something.

If some fantastic role came along she'd probably do it. Otherwise, why bother?

Once her kids are grown she'll make a comeback playing a classy, widowed lawyer on some new HBO series (?)

I like her as an actress, I just wish she'd shut her stupid, insufferably overpriviledged mouth offscreen.

R194 but it's fun to have an upper middle class celeb for once no? They 're all trash these days. Wasn't her movie about sex addition awful? Guess no one saw it anyway

Sally Field in Legally Blonde 2

Ava Gardner in Earthquake

The Mirror Has Two Faces

[quote] Shelly Duvall's shitacular performance in The Shining. She was so bad she was nominated for a Razzie in it.

They nominated her for that over [italic]Popeye[/italic]? That got really terrible reviews IIRC despite actually making money and despite Robert Altman being more proud of it than John Huston was of [italic]Annie[/italic].

Merle Oberon's INTERVAL....well, at least she got Robert Wolfers, the corpse fucker!

I don't think someone like Streep can have a film career nadir. Because she's an actress, first and foremost, They can have a worst film, of course, but they as an individual aren't as tied up with the film they're in (they're more tied up with the performance within). It's different for someone like Crawford, Turner, Lake, Gardner -- not so much actors as Stars (and gloriously so) where so much of their appeal is that they're lovingly dressed and photographed. Since every film Joan Crawford appeared in was A Joan Crawford Picture it stings a little more for her to be reduced to something like TROG. Streep's talent for getting lost in character isolates her from those depths.

Anyway, I don't know if TROG is the worse case, but it's what first springs to mind. Such a great finishing such a storied career with a pre-human costume B picture. Sad Ol' Joan wasn't appreciated then, though she certainly gets the recognition she deserves now.

Burnt Offerings was far from the worst role Bette Davis ever got. I think she was genuinely humiliated in the comedy pilot flops she kept getting for a while from the networks.

Pauline Kael loved Shelley Duvall in "Popeye" and said she was ideally cast as Olive Oyl.

This or Swept Away? They are neck and neck.

"I acted the shit out of this."

Streep is just as capable of making movie misfires as anyone else....

"She was also, IMO the kinder more humble of the two."

If there's one thing for sure about those sisters, it's that neither of them were remotely humble. Olivia certainly had the better career overall, at least up until LADY IN A CAGE.

"Pauline Kael loved Shelley Duvall in "Popeye" and said she was ideally cast as Olive Oyl."

She was. The film itself doesn't work at all, but it's not Duvall's fault.

"Streep is just as capable of making movie misfires as anyone else...."

Indeed she is: HOPE SPRINGS, THE GIVER, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, PRIME, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE.

"And whoever thought that Angela Landsbury would be a great Jane Marple needs to be poisoned by arsenic with a pork and vegetable pie that everyone else had a piece of with no consequences."

Honestly, the only first-class Jane Marple was Joan Hickson. Whatever you think of Lansbury in THE MIRROR CRACK'D, she's actually closer to Christie's Marple than the dithering Margaret Rutherford (who's fun, but not like the books' character at all), Helen Hayes, or Geraldine McEwan.

Speaking of THE MIRROR CRACK'D, it does contain one of Elizabeth Taylor's better post-1960's performances.

Bette Davis did a movie called Bunny O'Hare in the early 70s that was just embarrassing.

A nadir of a nadir...Full Moon Video exploiting the memory of Karen Black's classic segment in Trilogy of Terror in the subtly-titled Ooga Booga.

[quote]Who is the guy in the mae west pic???

His name was Ric Drasin. He was a pro bodybuilder back in the 1970s and '80s. Early in his career he posed nude for Roy Dean and Colt Studios. He also did a famous semi-underground gay porn film called Loadstar that anonymously starred several bodybuilders from the old Gold's Gym. It starred Colt's Dakota, aka Ken Sprague, who had earned enough from porn and escorting to buy Gold's. I think Ric was just gay for pay as he can barely get it up with a guy.

Below, Ric fucks Dakota in Loadstar. I've never seen a good quality print of the film. That's Ric bending over to take Dakota's tongue.

[quote]"Streep is just as capable of making movie misfires as anyone else...."

[quote]"Indeed she is: HOPE SPRINGS, THE GIVER, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS, PRIME, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE."

Not really. They're just bad films she happened to appear in. Streep has never had the kind of power of her films someone like Garbo, Davis, Taylor had at their peak. I don't think she's ever even commanded a Julia Roberts salary. She's more of a jobbing actress. So it's less embarrassing when she turns up in something less good. It's just a project in which she turns up and does her thing, as opposed to a project centered around her.

That's kind of the difference between someone who simply works as an actor and someone whose name is used to sell a film. For Streep it's always been about the craft. For Joan Crawford it was always about the Travilla gowns, the back-end of profits, the autograph signing at premieres, etc...

Carol Channing in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

[quote]Actually, did she ever have a film career zenith?

No, she was primarily a stage actor.

"Not really. They're just bad films she happened to appear in."

Which is the same thing as appearing in a misfire. Who are you kdding?

"Streep has never had the kind of power of her films someone like Garbo, Davis, Taylor had at their peak."

Oh, please. No one forced her to make those films - she could do other things, like more stage work.

[quote]Which is the same thing as appearing in a misfire.

You're either missing the point or disingenuously trying to obfuscate it.

[quote]Oh, please. No one forced her to make those films

No one forces her to make any film. She could stay at home with Don and bake cookies.

Many stars actually made bad films at or near their peak. I'm sure something less than great slipped out during Bette Davis' titanic run at WB -- unequaled by any actress, I think, in giving so many great performances year in year out.

But most of this thread is made up of sad B-pictures of faded Golden Age stars. In most cases, it's forgivable. Davis herself worked to the end because she needed the money (though I glad she made stuff like BURNT OFFERINGS and THE WHALES OF AUGUST) But then they're are some where you think, "why did this have to happen"?

Liz Taylor springs to mind. She was still only in her mid-thirties, independently wealthy, still okay looking when managed to keep the weight off, not totally outdated like Sandra Dee, and just coming off a second Oscar win when she and Burton began teaming up for garbage. It was like she just threw a lot of it away. At least Crawford tried to hold on as long as she could before TROG was the only game in town.

Anyway, I think that's what's worse: not when actors simply need a paycheck to keep the lights on, but when they don't and are signing up for them anyway.

Actually......The First Traveling Saleslady was my film career zenith.

Oh, I think Ginger Rogers' nadir was that super-cheapo version Jean Harlow biopic released in the same year as the bid-budget one. In the big budget one Rogers' role was played by Angela Lansbury. Awkward!

Miss Ross in Mahogany.

Joan Hickson, bless her heart, WAS Jane Marple. R208. We worship her. Taylor 's part in the dreadful " mirror crack'd" was originally intended and adapted for Natalie Wood. Darling Natalie perhaps realized that she had enough stinkers to her name, enough money to pass, and still a serious career ahead of her. Tragically, it was not to be. As for Streep, she might not be embarrassed to appear in such pieces of shit as 'julia &julia" or " august osage county" - and be so hideously gross in them-but everyone else is for her. Has she ever considered venturing into different territories outside the hollywood studio system/ weinstein kiss ass oscar bait? Isabelle Huppert style? No.That woman is disgusting. If " it's complicated' isn't a career nadir, nothing is.

[quote]Has she ever considered venturing into different territories outside the hollywood studio system/ weinstein kiss ass oscar bait? Isabelle Huppert style? No.That woman is disgusting. If " it's complicated' isn't a career nadir, nothing is.

I doubt, despite her stature, she has all that much choice. She might get first dibs on any woman-over-fifty role, but neither she nor anyone have the clout to make movies that are aimed at an audience that will result in a loss. Huppert has the benefit of being able to work in French cinema, perhaps more forgiving to an older actress, but in English -- it's L&O:SVU for her like it is for everyone else. Streep's career hasn't actually had a nadir. You simply dislike her. It's silly to suggest that IT'S COMPLICATED (bland rom-com fare, yes) is on par with TROG and just reveals what you really think.

It's not like the big budget HARLOW was the fuckin' zenith off my film career r219!

R222 I think Streep is an overrated ham, a hypocrite, and a greedy monster with no class. Candice Bergen asked after fifth emmy nominations to be taken out of the pool, out of respect for her co-workers, considering that acting is a group effort. Sit down and take note, Streep. I think that you are a frau, and should read the educational thread about fraus running now, and their obsession over Streep. And I am pretty sure that a young director from Taiwan, or Poland, would be more than happy to have Streep in his cast, like Huppert, if madame Cunt was willing to cut her salary for a little artistic effort.

R222, you do realize that pretty much any picture Meryl makes these days gets made (at least to the point where it gets the full Hollywood treatment) is because she's in it. She is a star, not just some jobbing actress, her star persona just happens to be that she is 'the actress', this was also how Norma Shearer was marketed back in the day and Bette Davis, as well. Streep might be lucky enough to not have to do projects like 'Trog', Katherine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman were as well, but it's not because she's not a star or is a 'jobbing actress'. She just got first billing over Tom Hanks.

She's been in movies longer than Tom Hanks, who first got attention in 1984 for "Splash".

[quote] I think Streep is an overrated ham, a hypocrite, and a greedy monster with no class.

Nice that you finally admit it -- instead of pretending she's in any way applicable to this thread.

[quote]you do realize that pretty much any picture Meryl makes these days gets made (at least to the point where it gets the full Hollywood treatment) is because she's in it. She is a star, not just some jobbing actress, her star persona just happens to be that she is 'the actress', this was also how Norma Shearer was marketed back in the day and Bette Davis, as well. Streep might be lucky enough to not have to do projects like 'Trog', Katherine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman were as well, but it's not because she's not a star or is a 'jobbing actress'. She just got first billing over Tom Hanks.

You're right. She has, at this point, risen to the level of star; but that was after decades of never being 'commercial' in the same way someone like Marilyn Monroe or Julia Roberts were. She's in fact probably bigger than ever now, all things considered.

That's why she not applicable to this thread.

I adore Vincent Price, but “Doctor Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs” is just awful.

[quote] I adore Vincent Price, but “Doctor Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs” is just awful.

Yes but he redeemed himself by his Citibank commercial with Coral.

[Quote]Miss Ross in Mahogany.

Actually, I think "The Wiz" was her nadir. She had no business playing Dorothy in that unfortunate movie. In fact, that performance ended her potentially big screen career. If I remember correctly, she only did two TV movies afterwards - and both were comparatively better than "The Wiz."

R230, I would probably think that too if I had the guts to actually watch it.

[quote]R221 Taylor 's part in the dreadful " mirror crack'd" was originally intended and adapted for Natalie Wood. Darling Natalie perhaps realized that she had enough stinkers to her name...

Had Natalie Wood done the role, we would have missed yet another divine caftan display by the portly Taylor.

Which is important.

The only reasonably good films Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton made, besides "Virginia Woolf" were "The Taming of the Shrew" and the "V.I.P.s", though that one is stolen by Margaret Rutherford, Maggie Smith and Rod Taylor.

I can't imagine Natalie Wood in Taylor's role in MIRROR CRACK'D. She doesn't do diva well. The version of the book done with Joan Hickson had the sublime Claire Bloom in that role.

Streep has been dreadful and/or embarrassing in many films but she's like the Barack Obama of Hollywood - if she fucks up, everyone just pretends it didn't happen because she's "special" - an object placed before us strictly for admiration. No honest critical evaluation allow.ed Detractors are run out of town.

She was awful in THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, JULIA & JULIA, MARVIN'S ROOM, RICKI AND THE FLASH...on and on and on. And I agree with a poster upthread about her greed, her refusal to take risks and her complete lack of support for interesting young filmmakers. It's taken the world a long time to catch up on who this woman really is and it's becoming more apparent by the day.

[quote]r233 "The V.I.P.s"

Such a depressing message in their storyline - the wife chooses the man "who needs her more" at the end...like she's obliged to be everyone's mommie (!)

I adored that shoot r236 I got SO much Rod!

Meryl Streep in She-Devil

Deborah Kerr in Prudence and the Pill

Rita Hayworth - The Naked Zoo

R238 And what's so stupid about that "marry the man who needs you most" message is, Is that what ELIZABETH TAYLOR did in HER life?? Did she stay with any of her husbands because they "needed her" more than the next guy she fell in love with? Try telling that to Eddie Fisher or Michael Wilding [bold]: o [/bold]

I mean, what a joke...!

De Niro - Frankenstein

Meryl - Ricki and The Flash

THREAD CLOSED.

Kate Winslet in The Divergent She was so bad in it

Natalie Portman in Thor. awful.

Eddie Redmayne – Jupiter Ascending as Balem Abrasax

Johnny Depp and his moustache, Mortdecai

Does Susan Sarandon's behaviour during the 2016 election count? I'd say no, but I'm sure her many anti-fans might disagree...

R57

Four of the films you list were made in the 70s

Jessica Lange in Feud.

Joanne Woodward in the "The Stripper." Was she a gangster's girlfriend, a stripper, or a prostitute. The film couldn't decide.

Meg Ryan, In the Cut. It's a given nobody wanted to see topless. But nobody REALLY needed to see her new face.

Fun thread!

Sir John Gielgud - The Power of One

Halle Berry - Kidnap

Will Smith - Bright

Sean Connery - Highlander 2

Kevin Spacey - Nine Lives (Kevin's Trog!)

Matt Damon - The Legend of Bagger Vance

Ben Affleck - Gigli

[quote]R251 Joanne Woodward in the "The Stripper." Was she a gangster's girlfriend, a stripper, or a prostitute. The film couldn't decide.

I believe this role was originally intended for Marilyn Monroe...but she died : ( The script's based on William Inge's play [italic]A Loss of Roses.[/italic]

HERE'S a surviving costume sketch:

R254 Ben Affleck has given excellent credible performances in exactly two films, DOGMA & CHASING AMY both from Kevin Smith. BA is an Askewniverse character more than a real person. He can’t act well when he isn’t grimly lampooning himself, although he can basically direct others.

Ben is also very good on SNL doing impressions, and I think he’s better at that than acting in serious drama or directing. His Keith Olbermann still has me in stitches and it’s been 100 years since he first did it. Call that his zenith, if you’d like.

Vanessa Redgrave - Deep Impact

Julie Christie - Troy

Peter O'Toole - Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage

Albert Finney - Looker

Without horror a lot of older actresses would have been homeless.

I have a soft spot for the "Grand Dame Guignol" horror movies. One of my camp favorites is The Night Walker with Barbara Stanwyck.

I actually LOVE those Grand Dame Guignol films (MARY!, I know). I wouldn't rank any of them as a stain on their respective actresses' careers. In fact, they're a highlight.

Another vote for Jess Lange in FEUD (for TV) and ROB ROY (dear God that attempt at an English accent) for film.

Check this out, R260...

I can think of one "actress" in particular, but selecting one of her efforts that is a nadir is rather like finding the deepest divot on the shores of the Dead Sea, 1,410 feet below sea level.

But maybe this thing? Let's go with it.

A two-fer

HOW was no one mentioned "Moment to Moment," with John Travolta and Lily Tomlin? There's bad, there's terrible, and then there's...."Moment to Moment."

Also, no mention of Liz' late-career musical, "A Little Night Music." Sluggish, visually appalling, and Liz really, REALLY couldn't sing.

So glad to see that there's a tiny fan club for "Boom!" and "Secret Ceremony." I am a member.

R261, it was a Scottish accent, and Irishman Liam Neeson's attempt at a Scottish brogue was shaky as well. Rob Roy was a fine film anyhow.

Pearce Brosnan, Grey Owl

Scottish, Irish, English accents all sound the same to Americans. They can't tell Geordie from Essex.

SJewParker -- 2014 Kentucky Derby

[quote]HOW was no one mentioned "Moment to Moment," with John Travolta and Lily Tomlin? There's bad, there's terrible, and then there's...."Moment to Moment."

Maybe because there’s no such film.

There’s a film called “Moment BY Moment” that was mentioned at r264. Is that what you’re referring to?

La Close had an uncredited cameo in Warcraft.

Christina Ricci in SPEED RACER.

She should never have had to breathe the same air as that angry little troll Emile Hirsch.

R23, I am sorry but Maxie is my favorite Glen Close movie. I saw it in the 80’s and now it is nearly impossible to find. When I consider it, I have to tell you it’s the only Glen Close movie I like at all.

Choo Choo and the Philly Flash, the infamous home wrecker Carol Burnett

I worked on that film and WE ALL knew it was a stinker, r274.

There is a film called MOMENT TO MOMENT, but it's from the 60's, with Jean Seberg and Honor Blackman. Not a nadir for either, but not a zenith either.

Seberg's worst was probably BIRDS OF PERU, though her woeful performance in SAINT JOAN would be her saddest bit of acting. Come to think of it, SAINT JOAN is also Richard Widmark's worst piece of acting - he's just awful, overacting all over the place.

Natalie Portman - Jane Got a Gun

Naomi Watts - The Book of Henry

Greg Kinnear - Heaven is For Real

Aaron Eckhart - My All-American

Let's all sai it - nadir!

R276

I've waited several years to see someone pick up on the difference between the 2 films. Thank you.

A cameo implies a name star. Was she, what we in the industry, call an 'extra'?

Honor Blackman and Jean Seberg?

Sign me up!

Olivia Newton-John in anything after Grease

Sir Derek Jacobi and Kristin Scott Thomas - the recent Tomb Raider remake

Merle Oberon with her piece Robert Wilders. Seems to have a thing for older women...first Merle, then Audrey, Leslie Caron and now Henry Fonda's widow Shirley. But Merle used her then husband's money to pay for this opus and fell in love with Robert, who was 25 years her junior...

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Meryl - The Iron Lady.

Ronald Reagan

I don't think Michelle Pfeiffer is proud to have [italic]Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen[/italic] on her resume.

Too many stars to mention suffered in this:

Midler and Wahl, "Jinxed."

Already mentioned, but Ava Gardner in Earthquake.

I remember my Dad taking use to see that movie; he cringed when she uttered the first line of dialogue in that movie, Da-a-a--a-a-a-mit.

Faye Dunaway in Supergirl (that is, if took that part seriously).

Joan Crawford in Berserk.

Joan Crawford in I Saw What You Did.

Beware of the video near the Mae West posts about the Colt body builders, I got a virus/computer damage warning from that.

John Travolta - Gotti

Return From Witch Mountain

A tour de force for Christopher Lee and Bette Davis...

...or a camp classic. You decide.

Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope in

THE IRON PETTICOAT

the 1956 turd of a film that was suppose these two in a remake of NINOTCHKA.

[quote]r291 Faye Dunaway in Supergirl (that is, if she took that part seriously).

Somehow, I almost feel personally humiliated when I see this pic from [italic]A Place for Lovers[/italic] [bold] : (

[italic]Creator[/italic] starring Peter O'Toole. Dreadful. I was embarrassed for O'Toole; however, I kept watching because it stars Vincent Spano and includes a shower scene.

r85 r134 Reindeer Games. Produced by Harvey Weinstein and directed by John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer made some great movies and some very bad ones. This was not one of the great ones.