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Films With Incongruous & Bizarre Casts

Started by Absorb the anus burn, June 14, 2014, 11:09:44 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Absorb the anus burn

A friend of mine asked me to transfer two dozen or so VHS tapes to HD and then DVD.

Most of the films (taped around 1987-91) I had seen, but one piqued my interest: Sextette - a famous cinema flop written by and starring Mae West, who can snap at the heels of Wilde when it comes to dextrous wit... [nb] "There are no good girls gone wrong - just bad girls found out."  / "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."  / "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better. " / "Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution." / "I used to Be Snow White, but I drifted" etc.

[/nb]

The film is as shit as the critics said it was, as this trailer will confirm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6Iv5R1G0M

But what I can't push out of my mind are the cast:

Mae West
Timothy Dalton
George Hamilton   
Dom DeLuise
Tony Curtis   
Ringo Starr
Van McCoy   
Walter Pidgeon   
Alice Cooper
Keith Moon   
George Raft


WTF: who thought that a good combination?

Please delight me with your strange selections of thespians & guest stars who sit together uncomfortably inside terrible (or even good) films. [nb]If stuck, then make one up: COMING THIS FALL: JACK LEMMON, WILL HAY, IRENE HANDL, SANDRINE BONNAIRE AND SHIA LABEOUF are back in the hilarious prequel to WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S:...[/nb]

Ant Farm Keyboard

Casino Royale, for starters.

George Raft
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Orson Welles
Ursula Andress
Deborah Kerr
John Huston
Peter Sellers
David Prowse
David Niven
Charles Boyer
William Holden
Peter O'Toole
Jacqueline Bisset
Burt Kwouk
Geraldine Chaplin
Caroline Munro

Phil_A

The Fat Slags, appropriately for such a cinematic train crash, has a cast comprised of absolutely anyone who was available for an afternoon's shooting at short notice and didn't say "no" quick enough.

Fiona Allen
Geri Halliwell
Punt & Dennis
Dolph Lundgren
Jerry O'Connell
Ralf Little
Anthony Head
Angus Deayton
Don Warrington
Naomi Campbell
Les Dennis
James Dreyfuss.

All that, and Paul Putner.

I'd also like to give a mention to Quo-tastic crime caper Bula Quo, featuring as it does not only the Quo themselves co-starring with former Eastenders/Duck Patrol hardman Craig Fairbrass, but Jon Lovitz. JON FUCKING LOVITZ.

Remember reading the top of this DVD cover in a supermarket a while back and audibly letting out a "WHAAAT?!".  Think it was the last two cast members that really got me intrigued.


Rolf Lundgren

Always thought Tommy had an odd cast with Ollie Reed, Ann-Margret, Elton John and Tina Turner but it's when Jack Nicholson pops up that it seems especially incongruous. Even more so when you consider you've also got particularly British stars like Robert Powell and Vince from Just Good Friends.

Fabian Thomsett

Stephen Soderbergh's Kafka:

Jeremy Irons
Theresa Russell
Joel Grey
Brian Glover
Ian Holm
Simon McBurney
Keith Allen
Alec Guiness

Brundle-Fly

Dr Terror's House Of Horrors (1965)

Not unusual to see Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in a horror film, but Roy Castle, Kenny Lynch, Alan 'Fluff' Freeman and Donald Sutherland raise the stakes for strange casting.


Glebe

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on June 14, 2014, 11:09:44 PM
A friend of mine asked me to transfer two dozen or so VHS tapes to HD and then DVD.

Most of the films (taped around 1987-91) I had seen, but one piqued my interest: Sextette - a famous cinema flop written by and starring Mae West, who can snap at the heels of Wilde when it comes to dextrous wit... [nb] "There are no good girls gone wrong - just bad girls found out."  / "Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."  / "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better. " / "Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution." / "I used to Be Snow White, but I drifted" etc.

[/nb]

The film is as shit as the critics said it was, as this trailer will confirm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6Iv5R1G0M

*SPLUTTER* Whaaaaaaaaaat?! Mae West and that lot? How have I never heard of this?! I'm flabbergasted. I thought I heard her say "fuck all night" there, but I assume my ears deceived me. "Immortal comedy lasts forever." Which is obviously why this disappeared without trace.

Here's one which I'm sure folks have heard of (haven't seen it myself, though I see the entire movie is on YouTube at the moment), 1968's Skidoo (directed by Otto Preminger!), which apparently features Jackie Gleeson on LSD. The likes of Groucho, Mickey Rooney and several Batman alumni also appear and it features a soundtrack by Harry Nilsson (who apparently pops up here and there).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFO-D3TInGg

Great thread topic, actually... there are surely quite a few interestingly-cast curios out there, but nothing else really springs to mind at the moment... of course, there are fun, crowd-pleasers like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World and The Cannonball Run films that assemble a motely crew of stars and celebrities.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Highway to Hell, aka Eldorado, is directed by Richard Driscoll, who's in jail now (he financed the film through tax fraud, inflating the invoices, so he could get a VAT rebate), and he used the cut and paste approach to include for instance unrelated footage of the late David Carradine.

Nilsson wrote the soundtrack and song the credits after an earlier attempt to get Bob Dylan involved failed.
The story is quite interesting. Preminger wanted to have Dylan, because he was the most famous guy from the counterculture, and invited him to a screening of a rough cut at his home, a large lavish manor. Dylan went there with his wife and an entourage. The guy who reported the story explained that everybody apart from Preminger in the screening room realized how awful the film was, but Dylan surprised them by having a quick word with his wife, then asking for a second screening, with a condition he and his wife would be the only people in the house (apart from the projectionist, I guess). Otto Preminger okayed it, then after the second screening, Dylan was quite dubitative and didn't give a clear answer about his potential involvement.
The entourage wanted to know what Dylan's take on the film was, and Bob explained to them that he felt that it was an abomination, but that he was in the middle of redecorating his house, and that he and his wife had noticed Preminger's home was designed with exquisite taste. So they spent the second screening checking the other rooms and getting design tips from them, without having to be bothered by Preminger's repeated pleas for Bob to score this piece of shit.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: Glebe on June 15, 2014, 02:47:53 PM
*SPLUTTER* Whaaaaaaaaaat?! Mae West and that lot? How have I never heard of this?! I'm flabbergasted. I thought I heard her say "fuck all night" there, but I assume my ears deceived me.

She says something along the lines of, "I'm the girl who works at Paramount all day and Fox all night."  So you're meant to hear 'fucks all night'.

Phil_A

I believe Sextette was actually based on a script for an old West stage play, resurrected as a movie when she was several decades past her prime. The poor old girl was in her 80s and virtually blind(she was fed her lines through an earpiece), but the film was made and released anyhow.

Absorb the anus burn

Some great replies, thanks.

I just thought of 'What A Carve Up' (which should have been called Carry On Carving) which contains some real anomalies alongside Sid James and Kenneth Connor's double act. They include Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Donald Pleasence, Michaels Gwynn & Gough plus a cameo from Adam Faith.

Glebe

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on June 15, 2014, 03:16:10 PMShe says something along the lines of, "I'm the girl who works at Paramount all day and Fox all night."  So you're meant to hear 'fucks all night'.

Ahhhhhhhhh...

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on June 15, 2014, 03:37:41 PMSome great replies, thanks.

I just thought of 'What A Carve Up' (which should have been called Carry On Carving) which contains some real anomalies alongside Sid James and Kenneth Connor's double act. They include Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Donald Pleasence, Michaels Gwynn & Gough plus a cameo from Adam Faith.

Phil Silvers in Carry On Follow That Camel always intrigued me... but I guess it doesn't count since we're talking about unusual ensembles.

another Mr. Lizard

Pete Walker's THE COMEBACK, a late seventies horror movie about a rock star being haunted by strange visions and tormented by a string of savage murders happening around him, was originally intended to star either Cat Stevens, Ringo Starr, or Bryan Ferry. When these stellar names passed up the chance to add a cheapo axe-murder shocker to their c.v., M.O.R. superstar Jack Jones was called in to head the cast (with his profane dialogue and his character's tales of drug-addled buddies consequently taking on a bizarre aspect). Anyhow, the cast also included top horror granny and Walker regular Sheila Keith, at-the-peak-of-LOTSW-fame Bill Owen, aspiring starlet Pamela Stephenson (immediately prior to NT9OCN, and apparently cast here in preference to another promising young blonde named Kim Basinger), and David 'Bosley from Charlie's Angels' Doyle, with Jack Palance's daughter Holly and 'Are You Being Served' totty Penny Irving some way down the cast list. June SPINAL TAP Chadwick and Richard Johnson are in there somewhere too, and the screenplay was by Murray Smith of 'Strangers/Bulman' fame.

Talulah, really!

How about On a clear day you can see forever?

The film that has the sexually explosive chemistry of both...



Jack Nicholson and Irene Handl in it.

Also starring Barbara Streisand, Bob Newhart, John Le Mesurier, Yves Montand, Richard "Jaws" Keil and Roy Kinnear.

Now try and imagine what kind of storyline could combine all those people, then go and look up the plot summary and see how much weirder than that it is and it's a musical and someone gave them the money to make it.

biggytitbo

Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on June 15, 2014, 10:24:15 AM
Remember reading the top of this DVD cover in a supermarket a while back and audibly letting out a "WHAAAT?!".  Think it was the last two cast members that really got me intrigued.




Richard Driscoll isnt it? He's like our Ed Wood. ALways manages to get some astonishing casts for his terrible films. Another one he did has Norman Wisdom and Jason Donovan in it, plus Christopher Walken's voiceover.

Petey Pate

Bula Quo. Status Quo - The Movie!  Starring Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Craig Fairbrass, Laura Aikman and Jon Lovitz!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxBDVo1Nn9c


Danger Man

Noel Coward and Benny Hill in The Italian Job.


Bad Ambassador

Nicole Kidman and Eric Sykes in The Others.

Tom Cruise and Timothy Spall in both Vanilla Sky and The Last Samurai.

How about Christopher Lambert, Jon Lovitz, Rebekah Del Rio, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Geller, Miranda Richardson, Justin Timberlake, Sean William Scott? That's enjoyable art blockbuster mess Southland Tales.

Honorable mention goes to Party Monster, where Macaulay Culkin stars with both Marilyn Manson and someone whose real name is Richie Rich.

Glebe

This thread is jam-packed with unusual individual cast appearances, worth a look. Two notable curios I've watched recently - The Borrower and Whore - both feature Antonio 'Huggy Bear' Fargas, who would later pop up on I'm a Celebrity... and has also apparently been on Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show, which David 'Hutch' Soul has also appeared on!

Ignatius_S

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a good one:

Peter Frampton
The Bee Gees
Frankie Howerd
Paul Nicholas
Donald Pleasence
Steve Martin
Aerosmith
Alice Cooper
George Burns

Quote from: Danger Man on June 15, 2014, 08:07:37 PM
Noel Coward and Benny Hill in The Italian Job.

Re: Coward - Not sure how unusual that casting is when his other film roles are considered as he had started to be cast against type, rather than the persona for which he's remembered. He was friends with the director, who helped early in his career – don't know if that played a part in the cast, though.

Re: Hill – I think it's unusual in that he made very few films, but I think the timing of this role makes it less unusual, as Hill was clearly dipping in toes in the film water. Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hill was permitted to rewrite some of the scripts and he then followed The Italian Job up with two short films (The Waiters and Eddie in August) which destroyed any further ambition in this area.

IIRC, originally, Sir Ralph Richardson was due to be in The Italian Job, but after he dropped out, Hill was cast. In the original script, the computer expert was persuaded into helping the criminals after being bribed with a train set, but Hill thought it would work better if the character was a pervert. I rather prefer the original.

Brundle-Fly

Mars Attacks (1994)

It's the Martian bubblegum card version of The Player.

Jack Nicholson   
Glenn Close   
Annette Bening   
Pierce Brosnan   
Danny DeVito   
Martin Short   
Sarah Jessica Parker      
Michael J. Fox   
Rod Steiger
Tom Jones   
Lukas Haas   
Natalie Portman      
Pam Grier   
Jack Black       
Joe Don Baker   
   

Glebe

Here's another thread (started by yours truly) ripped off similar to the one I already linked too. There's also a thematically similar thread which never took off (to be honest I couldn't think of anymore odd colabs meself).

Couple of things that caught my attention in that 'Unlikely Film Cameos' thread... Gremlins 2, JFK and Hot Fuzz all feature wonderful ensemble casts.

Jim 'Bishop Brennan' Norton appears in Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall, playing a role that seems a little too similar to his Father Ted role.

I've haven't seen it, but in any case I didn't know Tom Waits was in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, his appearance in Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus doesn't seem so strange now.

Of course Brian Glover in Alien3 is a fairly obvious one... apparently he provided support for a stressed-out David Fincher on set.

Also, didn't know John 'Fred Elliot, I say FRED ELLIOT!' Savident was in Ghandi... Martin Sheen's appearance always felt strange for such a British film.

Blumf

Star Wars : Had the Green Cross Code Man, Doctor Who, George Smiley, George Bulman, and, if you include all the original trilogy, Mr. Bronson (at least two cast members played Hitler too)

Big Hollywood movie.

If you told me the cast of Rent-a-Ghost were in Storm Troopers costumes, I think I'd believe you.

Puce Moment

Nitin Ganatra who plays token Asian man in Eastenders, plus Oscar James who played token black man in Eastenders, both appear in Tim Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

Outlaw has Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings: Those Towers and Bob Hoskins from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but also Danny Dyer from Eastenders makes an appearance.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Blumf on June 17, 2014, 01:38:09 AM
Star Wars : Had the Green Cross Code Man, Doctor Who, George Smiley, George Bulman, and, if you include all the original trilogy, Mr. Bronson (at least two cast members played Hitler too)

Big Hollywood movie.


Big Borehamwood movie film, surely?

Bad Ambassador

Street Fighter:

Jean-Claude van Damme
Raul Julia
Kylie Minogue
Simon Callow
Ming-Na Wen

Yes, Simon Callow. An interesting choice for Blanka.

Blumf

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on June 17, 2014, 10:33:51 AM
Big Borehamwood movie film, surely?

Yes, but that's not where the money came from.

How many 'Hollywood' films are made in Hollywood these days?