Maybe I can sum it up best by parodying the title. Oh, Roz, poor Roz, whatever possessed you into accepting the lead role in this movie? Seriously. You thought Mommie Dearest was whacked-out? 😓
Rosalind Russell is Madame Rosepettle, an eccentric widow with a backwards (today we might call him autistic), repressed son. They go on holiday to Jamaica, but self-discovery and complications ensue. Also, Roz lugs around her husband's coffin everywhere she goes, with his dead body in it. Yet she seems never to have loved him at all, according to later parts of the film. These later parts are told in a sort of flashback/home video way, with Roz narrating, and if you can get over the fact that Roz in her late fifties or early sixties is playing her younger self (twenties or thirties), it's probably the best part of the film.
Roz's performance here would likely rival Faye Dunaway's screechfest characterization in said Mommie Dearest- she doesn't screech, sure, but she tries too hard to be a calculating viper, and that causes her character to become all the more campy. The material she is given to work with (or lack of) and the costumes she is put it. THE COSTUMES. Who decided it was a good idea to make her up to look like a full-on drag queen? With ludicrous outfits and hair in every colour of the rainbow? Yeeee-ikes.
Robert Morse is alright as the son, I guess. He's VERY pale (in appearance) and his character is played so that you don't feel sorry for him. Okay, you do, but if you had a mother like Madame Rosepettle...yikes. Now I know why he never became a household name, or even a star.
Hugh Griffith is your average drunken old sea captain with a horny niece? Granddaughter...or whatever...that falls for Roz Russell's drag queen bat-s*** crazy widow. Why? This makes no sense, but, you know, none of this film makes sense.
Barbara Harris (I recognize that name) is said horny niece-grandaughter woman, who tries to get Robert Morse to find his manhood, but ultimately finds her demise at the end. Her character of Rosalie is very, very horny in that sixties sort of way. You'll know what I mean when you see the film. Lots of awkward seduction scenes and the like.
And, to top it off, we have Jonathan Winters as Dad (the one hanging in the closet). His character gets annoying- because he is dead, yet every so often he'll pop up in a bubble in the corner of the screen and narrate whatever happens to be going on, or what he thinks (often biting comments about his widow). There's a sight gag with him at the end, in the denouement.
Oh, boy. The middle of the film is rather boring and the end is just...wow. There's some breaking stuff, Dad falling out of the closet, seduction, water-skiing...
One more note: WHAT IS THAT SCORE? You thought the Scooby-Doo-style thriller music in I Saw What You Did was bad...the music score for this one is a thousand times worse. Sure, it's original, but that doesn't mean it's GOOD. The title song is the worst part: a (children's) choir singing the title of the film again and again to jazzy stereotypical 1960s music. ARGH!! 😡
I'd skip it if you don't like bad films, or if you don't have the stomach for things this...well, like this. Once you've heard the title, you won't forget it, and once you've seen the movie, you'll probably forget it almost instantly. Which is a shame.
Rosalind Russell is Madame Rosepettle, an eccentric widow with a backwards (today we might call him autistic), repressed son. They go on holiday to Jamaica, but self-discovery and complications ensue. Also, Roz lugs around her husband's coffin everywhere she goes, with his dead body in it. Yet she seems never to have loved him at all, according to later parts of the film. These later parts are told in a sort of flashback/home video way, with Roz narrating, and if you can get over the fact that Roz in her late fifties or early sixties is playing her younger self (twenties or thirties), it's probably the best part of the film.
Roz's performance here would likely rival Faye Dunaway's screechfest characterization in said Mommie Dearest- she doesn't screech, sure, but she tries too hard to be a calculating viper, and that causes her character to become all the more campy. The material she is given to work with (or lack of) and the costumes she is put it. THE COSTUMES. Who decided it was a good idea to make her up to look like a full-on drag queen? With ludicrous outfits and hair in every colour of the rainbow? Yeeee-ikes.
Robert Morse is alright as the son, I guess. He's VERY pale (in appearance) and his character is played so that you don't feel sorry for him. Okay, you do, but if you had a mother like Madame Rosepettle...yikes. Now I know why he never became a household name, or even a star.
Hugh Griffith is your average drunken old sea captain with a horny niece? Granddaughter...or whatever...that falls for Roz Russell's drag queen bat-s*** crazy widow. Why? This makes no sense, but, you know, none of this film makes sense.
Barbara Harris (I recognize that name) is said horny niece-grandaughter woman, who tries to get Robert Morse to find his manhood, but ultimately finds her demise at the end. Her character of Rosalie is very, very horny in that sixties sort of way. You'll know what I mean when you see the film. Lots of awkward seduction scenes and the like.
And, to top it off, we have Jonathan Winters as Dad (the one hanging in the closet). His character gets annoying- because he is dead, yet every so often he'll pop up in a bubble in the corner of the screen and narrate whatever happens to be going on, or what he thinks (often biting comments about his widow). There's a sight gag with him at the end, in the denouement.
Oh, boy. The middle of the film is rather boring and the end is just...wow. There's some breaking stuff, Dad falling out of the closet, seduction, water-skiing...
One more note: WHAT IS THAT SCORE? You thought the Scooby-Doo-style thriller music in I Saw What You Did was bad...the music score for this one is a thousand times worse. Sure, it's original, but that doesn't mean it's GOOD. The title song is the worst part: a (children's) choir singing the title of the film again and again to jazzy stereotypical 1960s music. ARGH!! 😡
I'd skip it if you don't like bad films, or if you don't have the stomach for things this...well, like this. Once you've heard the title, you won't forget it, and once you've seen the movie, you'll probably forget it almost instantly. Which is a shame.