Hollywood has made some awful movies over the years, most of which deserve to be forgotten. But what of the films that should have been better, the ones that failed because of poor casting, unimaginative direction or an unwillingness to trust the audience?
In this week’s Friday Five, my occasional series, I offer five movies that had potential but failed to meet the mark:
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969): Not the worst Bond film, but not because of the man playing Bond. George Lazenby — with an assist from Telly Salavas as Blofeld — takes one of the stronger Bond stories and surprisingly nuanced direction (has a Bond film ever been so dark and brooding?) and sucks its life out. Now that the franchise has been revived with Daniel Craig as Bond, this one needs a retooling.
The Natural (1984): Bernard Malamud’s faux Greek tragedy is turned into one of those cliche myths that plague the baseball movie genre. I’d like to see this redone as Malamud wrote it, even if the novel was not top-tier Malamud.
Breathless (1983): A great French caper turned into a lifeless American vehicle for Richard Gere in the 1980s. it deserved a lot better and should be updated.
Get Smart (2008): Occasionally funny, but lacking the absurdist wit of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks’ original television show. The casting was brilliant — Steve Carell and Alan Arkin, in particular, were genius choices — but the story missed the point of the series. Max was Control’s top agent on television, an absurdity that was meant to undercut everything that both Control and Chaos engaged in. Turning him into the lovable loser may have gibed with Carrell’s movie persona, but it robbed the film of its energy. “Missed it by that much.”
A Farewell to Arms (1957): This had a lot of competition — Daredevil, Howard the Duck, nearly every movie made about Babe Ruth — but Jennifer Jones does such a poor job running Hemingway’s dialogue that I had to put this one at the top. One of its chief failings, of course, is that Ernest Hemingway needs to be translated to the screen; his terse, almost staccato dialogue does not read well aloud and can too easily be turned into melodramatic pap by the wrong actors. That was the case not only with Jones’ portrayal of nurse Catherine Barkley, but Rock Hudson’s turn as Lt. Frederick Henry.
Hank Kalet 