Product: Sextette (1978)
Rating: 4.0
SHOULD BE CALLED "OCTOGENETTE"
Don't get me wrong, this is a d-r-r-r-eadful movie, but for once the phrase "So bad that it's good" is actually true. This was Ms. West's last movie before her death and she appears to be semi-mummified and barely conscious in all her scenes. (After all she was nearly eighty years old.) Still she trots out all the lines for which she's famous - "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" "Come up and see me", etc. - standing or lying stiff as a board, however the crew happens to have propped her up I guess. Several well-known actors disgraced their resumés with this picture - Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr and George Hamilton play former husbands, Timothy Dalton plays her current one, Dom Deluise is her manager, the likes of Regis Philbin and Rona Barrett play themselves in cameos, and Alice Cooper plays a singing waiter. (I don't think anyone has heard of him since.)Yes, it is a musical. When Ms. West (in her role of Marlo Manners, famous movie star) enters the lobby of the British hotel where she is spending her honeymoon, the hotel staff begins to dance in a circle around her, singing "Hooray for Hollywood". Ms. West is given such numbers as the Lennon/McCartney crooner "Honey Pie", a disco rendition of "Baby Face" delivered to the members of an international summit meeting, and a Sedaka song about someone turning twenty-one sung to a roomful of nearly-naked bodybuilders. Absolutely not to be missed, however, is Timothy Dalton singing "Love Will Keep Us Together" to his newlywed bride. As if the Captain and Tennille version wasn't bad enough.This isn't one of those DVD's that presents a lovingly-frame-by-frame restoration of a film. There are no extras whatsoever; it's not widescreen. It looks crappy, but then, it IS crappy.