"Beaches" - a Gary Marshall film w/Bette Midler & Barbara Hertzstein

Stood in line for the first show on opening day in NYC at the upper east side Cinema One, Two Third Ave. Packed, couldn't throw a Milk Dud without blinding a queen. Then walked around the corner and saw "Torch Song Trilogy" at the UA Gemini Twin and it was empty.

I just read the book for the first time. It's good but it isn't the same story. Some fairly significant changes.

More proof of similarities between hausfraus and fags..

Dart wrote a sequel (I think smartly titled "Beaches II, I'll Be There or something) in hopes of it becoming a movie as well.

Unfortunately, the daughter turns out to be a truly annoying, drug addicted mess no one would want to watch for longer than 10 minutes.

I read it back when I was working in a bookstore, and it is truly lame.

Out of print now, I think.

Al, get me a stinger.

The result of this swindle is pointedly clear:%0D Do you buy a titsling or do you buy a brassiere?

A gay classic, up there with "All About Eve" and "The Wizard of Oz." Younger generations need to study this movie to really understand the gay male experience.

Donna Mills screen tested for the Barbara Hershey part. Wonder why it is not on the DVD release?

"It looks like a flamingo threw up in here!" and who wrote that weird "Oh Industry" song?

"You could be watching the Lakers game in there for all I know!" This scene where she punches the director seems based on Bette's experience with "Jinxed" and probably's not in the book.

Back. Back, you braindamaged bag of bones or I'll have ya gassed!

"Bitches? Yeah I saw Beaches." - some comic on one of those I love the 90s shows.

Bette to Barbara: "Well...look who's here!"%0D %0D Bette to the daugher: "Happy dear?"%0D %0D I use both of these expression reguarly, Bette Midler intonation and all.

Spaulding Gray as a sex object???%0D %0D Only in the movies, kids....%0D %0D I heard Bette was SO PISSED she didn't get an Oscar nomination for this dreck.

"I heard Bette was SO PISSED she didn't get an Oscar nomination for this dreck."%0D %0D Not only that, but she took a blood oath that for the next five years, she would deprive Hollywood of her acting talent just to spite them. And this is how she repaid them:%0D %0D Stella%0D %0D Scenes From A Mall%0D %0D For The Boys%0D %0D Hocus Pocus%0D %0D

If you hate this movie, does that mean you aren't gay?

She did get that Oscar nod, for "For the Boys".%0D %0D Did Martha Raye die before that defamation suit got settled?

The stereotype that gay men love this movie irritates me more than any other gay stereotype. Never seen it. Never will.

Who cares if you see it, douche. Get outta the thread, then. Wendy Waldman, longtime Ronstadt back-up singer and songwriter of Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best for Last" wrote "Oh Industry."

"Stella" is also fun. A hoop fest. Is it on dvd? One of John Goodman's best film performances.

Mayim Bialik is so much like Bette it's SCARY! Does she do her own singing?

[quote]One of John Goodman's best film performances.%0D %0D That's like saying Taylor Swift's debut at the Met was fantastic. %0D

Go ahead, barklina, get the operation.

"Does she do her own singing?"%0D %0D No, they had already pre-recorded all of young CC's music before Mayim was cast.%0D

R21 Bialik played Little Red Ridinghood in the reading/workshop for the film version of INTO THE WOODS that was greenlit for Disney/Jim Henson Company to produce in the mid-90s. A few scripts were written and Sondheim wrote some new songs (a few of which are quite good and better than anything else in the score).

Goldie Hawn, Robin Williams, Cher, Roseanne, Brenden Frasier and many more were in it, too. Penny Marshall was slated to direct. Everyone had to do their own singing and Sondheim had to approve them first so I assume she can carry a tune. Then again, Sondheim has also christened Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Liz Taylor, Catherine Zeta Jones, Alexis Smith, Blythe Danner, etc. and allowed them to sing his songs, so who knows?

Bette should have been nominated for an Oscar for this.

Why wasn't she?

Cause Jodie Foster, Glenn Close, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep gave better performances that year.

Bette is an underrated actress. She should have been nominated for 'Down and Out in Beverly Hills', and she definitely should have won for 'The Rose', over Sally Field. Who should not have two Oscars.

She should have never turned down Sister Act.

R29

Meh. Whoopi's film career didn't last too long after Sister Act. And was Sister Act 2 a hit?

But Whoopi has an Oscar - Bette doesn't!

When I was 5, my mother dragged me out of Kindergarten to watch this movie with her.

It's no "dialing the phone with a pencil," but it comes pretty darn close.

Was Miriam the hand-walking queer?

I remember loving it in the theater, and then hating it a couple of years later on video (and the guy I was watching with agreed, he had previously liked it, too).

Or maybe it was just buzzkill and not a good choice for that evening. I think that's it...the best moments in the film are sad, and this was a second or third date, at his place).

I might give it a third chance someday. I've never stopped liking Bette, and Barbara Hershey is one of those "why wasn't she bigger" actors, to me.

That "Oh Industry" number is bizzare. It's supposed to be during the 60's and all of a sudden this eighties new wave music starts blaring. %0D %0D

[quote]Everyone had to do their own singing and Sondheim had to approve them first so I assume she can carry a tune.

Honey, Sondheim would approve Marlee Matlin singing if it would get one of his dirges on film.

[quote]Spaulding Gray as a sex object???

Well he was a porn actor.

Lainie Kazan is funny as Leona: "Do you know why I moved down here?" "I dunno, you like the sun?" "The sun? No, it was to get away from you!"

I like Bette's version of "Under the Boardwalk" and the arrangements by Arif Mardin are great, I don't like "Wind" however.

One of the worst films ever.

Right up there with Ghost, Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing and Forrest Gump.

They're not as fun as this, 'though.

Even as a young gay (21) when Beaches came out, I could tell how bad it was. It just didn't have "it."

As for being in the same league as "Wizard of Oz" and "All About Eve," that amounts to heresy.

It's not even in the same league as "Valley of the Dolls."

Bette didn't deserve an Oscar nom for this one.

Love the bitch fight at Bergdorf's cosmetics counter. "Could I have a tissue, please?"

It's a combo of a Douglas Sirk soaper, a "Gypsy", "Valley"-ish show biz tale, and a musical. I like it much better than Gary's "Pretty Woman" - I hate Julia. Bette is a protagonist worth rooting for.

"You did everything you set out to do!" That line resonates with me, because I came to NYC to be a singer and failed! Irish Rainer Dart started out as a comedy writer on "Sonny & Cher" and wrote a best-seller in 1981 based on her experiences with Cher, "Boys in the Mail Room" - it's about guys working at ICM and contains a character based on David Geffen.

"You needed too much attention, you wore me out, you wore your father out, may he rest in peace!"

Now Beaches, Bitches.

When in the hell is there a thunderstorm in SFO?

I'm Schvitzing!

Is there a Bette Midler Troll bumping threads about her movies?

Anyway, I love Beaches. It's a complete fraufest soap opera, great for a rainy day.

I must confess that I also love Stella and For the Boys, as flawed as they both are.

Donna Mills auditioned for the Barbara Hershey part

I'm not, r50. I'm on a roll today with Midler films. I am bumping old threads.

Midler's open toe sling pump we'd goes with a cork heel are glorious.

A hottie like John Heard would never have fucked Bette Midler let alone married her.

He was hot! Yum!

" I only do encores for cash."

Industry, charity and hoooope.

[quote]A hottie like John Heard

And Datalounge sinks to even lower levels of bad taste. Have some self-respect, ladies!

I liked that song "I Know You By Heart" duet she does with some unknown guy. It only plays for a second while she's driving in the car. Turns out Smokey Robinson and Dolly Parton did a version around the same time. I think I like that one ever better.

R57 "Industry" was the only interesting thing in the entire film. Can't understand why they never released it as a single after Bette's surprise #1 with "Wind Between My Wings".

This and Steel Magnolias make me barf.

This is like the Thomas Kincade of movies. Pure schlock. BTW, just as Keane Eyes is now becoming "real Art" so will Thomas Kincade. Remember when Norman Rockwell was considered schlock? Now he's revered.

I love Bette, can't help it, even though she's not nice to the help.

My late best friend & I saw this several times together at the theatre when it came out. Then watched it many more times on VHS. We'd could quote the whole movie. CC feels things. She feels them deeply.

I miss my sister so much.

Please call him Garry!

Can you really be friends if you only saw each other 4 times over 25 years

Mayim Bialik playing. .. Her future self

[quote]Bette should have been nominated for an Oscar for this. ... Why wasn't she?

A rare display of good taste?

you got him by default.

she was so mean to take CC's boyfriend to bed in the first place.

Why do a bunch of posts have %0D %0D in them? Same poster doing that?

One of my favorite movies is TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. I hate when people compare BEACHES to it. BEACHES is lame.

Turn up the heat, you cheap Greek!

Gawddammit "Beaches" is a craptastic movie! I was ashamed to be gay for months after seeing it!

Beaches is bad enough but I showed it in an 80s melodrama course last week.

Midler still gets laughs (considering most of my students were born after Beaches was released!) and it made some people sniffle and cry at the end.

Does anyone remember who it was that said "Beaches... scariest horror movie of 1989"? I also need to go dig out Pauline Kael and see what she had to say about it.

Gary Marshall sure has churned out a lot of crap during his lengthy career, hasn't he? In both film and television.

Bette and Barbara had ZERO chemistry. I didn't believe the friendship as adults for a second. The only time Bette really clicked with another actress was with herself in the underrated "Big Business".

I tried to make it clear to them that Beaches, even its own time, was largely considered a campfest.

Hearing Garry talk about his craft for two hours felt like an SCTV skit.

"Them" being the students in my class.

I don't know, R75. Even though Beth hated it, I thought she and Shelley Long were hilarious together and had dynamite chemistry in the comedy classic, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE.

What was it with dramas from the mid to late 80s? They were such shitty films? A real dark time for cinema. Everyone looked like shit in them, as well.

Look at all those Oscar winners and nominees. Just awful crap. Places in The Heart, Out of Africa, Children of a Lesser God, Rain Man, Trip To Bountiful, Accidental Tourist, Big, Mississippi Burning,

Thankfully the 90s rolled around and we started getting interesting films like The Grifters, Misery, Silence of The Lambs, Crying Game, The Piano, etc...

The late 80s was just BLAH!

I know R48 probably won't see this, but the thunderstorm was in LA. She left the Hollywood Bowl in LA and went straight to the airport. Not that thunderstorms are common in LA either, although I do remember one once. CC can't get a flight out cause of the fog so she rents a car and drives up to San Francisco.

Oh, Little CC, you're so beautiful.

R79: AIDS taking away so many people with a sense of style contributed to that.

Hated it. All I remember now is that Barbara Hershey's lips entered a room way before the rest of her did.

Oh I really loved this movie! It was fun, silly, campy and entirely worth watching. Not every movie needs to be Gone with the Wind FCS!

John Heard was really thin in this. He really porked by The Pelican Brief. Even in Home Alone.

Anyone watch the recent Lifetime remake with Idina Menzel? What a bore. Much like the Steel Magnolias remake with Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodward. Total yawn fests..

"I know you better than anyone, and my memory is long, it's very long."

R78, who the fuck is "Beth?" Maybe a mean babysitter?

Buck never would have confused me with Bette.

Buck would never have confused me with Bette.

Bette isn't very good at drama. Y'ever see her version of "Gypsy?" She's perfectly fun until things start to get dark and then it becomes shockingly amateurish. That said, she's rather good in "Hello, Dolly" right now. It suits her to a T.

I cringe at the idea of Bette in Misery.

wendy waldman......gorgeous and

check out this song. i did not post the live version due to too much yapping and BS.

I have NO IDEA why I posted Wendy here.....I could have sworn I saw her name mentioned.....none the less

enjoy anyway....

I just realized the guy who played Barbara Hershey's husband was also Clyde Weston from Days of our Lives.

r95 no kidding?? i saw the guy was plays Dario in The Invitation on Netflix......these guys pop up everywhere! and THAT was a creepy movie too.....

R19: THANK YOU !!! from

R94

XXOO

gary marshall really? what a hack.

I dated John Heard when he was still cute and I have an Oscar.

I didn't even know it was possible to bump a thread from seven years ago.

I was in 4th grade when this came out. I wanted to see it so bad. I took my "girlfriend" and one of her friends to see it, but it wasn't playing at the theater, so my mom took us all to see Rain Man instead. Wow, that movie had a lot of needless swearing in it!

I finally saw Beaches at home, either on HBO or as a VHS rental, and I cried and cried and cried. Wow, was I ever a depressive little boy. Saw this shit so many times, but never realized it was awful.

Now, just the memory of it makes me sick, but I haven't seen it since 1990. I did meet another gay guy a couple years ago who loved it as a kid. He said he would get home from school every day—and he meant every single day—and watch his videotape of this movie. I almost didn't want to continue pursuing him after that, but it would've been hypocritical.

I had the cassette soundtrack to this. Knew all the lyrics... And it still took me another 20 years to realize I was gay!

For anyone in the area or visiting , I live near the beach cottage in the movie and it's a cool place to visit. Crystal Cove in Laguna Beach. There's a great restaurant there right on the water and they have docents to give a blurb about the houses (all rentals now- it's a state park) and info on the movie.

What's the restaurant name?

Mad Mad Me is a classic. Waldman had something of a revival of interest a few years ago but otherwise very low profile, although I think she tours the acoustic circuit.

I had never seen this before but it is streaming on Showtime now so I gave it a go.

While not a good movie, it is certainly captivating in a camp way. The costumes/hair alone...

It's styled sort of as a Bette Midler music video film... which is what it is.

The actress who played the daughter sucked, but Mayim Bialik was shockingly brilliant and all too apt. Wow.

Worth a watch and more entertaining than most of the schlock from around the same period.

The Beachcomber.

For R92:

[quote]Anyone watch the recent Lifetime remake with Idina Menzel? What a bore. Much like the Steel Magnolias remake with Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodward. Total yawn fests..

How did it compare to the 2014 TV remake of THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL starring Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams, and Blair Underwood?