Bad

Plot synopsis:
Hazel Aiken (Caroll Baker) runs an electrolysis service out of her home. She also provides a service for clients who need some kind of crime performed, usually murder. She only uses females for these criminal assignments, and she sometimes rents out rooms in her house to the girls. Also living in the house are Hazel's husband (Gordon Oas-Heim), her elderly mother (Mary Boylan), and her daughter-in-law, Mary (Susan Tyrrell), who has a small baby and is constantly awaiting the return of her absentee husband.Hazel doesn't use men for her hit jobs, but makes an exception when she accepts "L.T." (Perry King) to perform a job for a client who wants to have her autistic son killed, simply because she can't stand dealing with him anymore. While he waits for his call to perform the job, L.T. lurks around the house, stealing pills from Hazel's mother and taking perfume from Hazel's room. Hazel tolerates the behavior because she stands to make quite a bit of money from L.T.'s hit; the client is paying $10,000 cash, $5,000 of which will go to Hazel. Hazel needs the money because she's being shaken down by Detective Hughes (Charles McGregor), the cop who gives her police protection. Hughes is beginning to bear down on Hazel, and demands not only that she pay him, but that she double cross one of her "girls" and allow Hughes to make an arrest.Hazel sends a young woman, "P.G." (Stefania Casini) to perform a hit on an illegal immigrant who pushed a musician onto the subway tracks during a robbery; the musician's arm was severed, ending his music career, and the musician's wife orders the hit woman through Hazel as retribution for the crime, since the thief only got off with a light sentence. P.G. finds the thief working a late-night job in a garage and crushes his legs under a hydraulic lift.Another scenario involves a neurotic woman named Estelle (Brigid Polk) who hires two girls to kill her neighbor's dog after she imagines that the man has insulted her. The girls, one of whom is a compulsive pyromaniac, take Mary out for an evening before they perform their hit on the dog. They go to a movie, where one of the girls sets a fire in the projection room. Then they abandon Mary and steal a car, which also winds up torched. The next day, they see on the news that the fire has killed 14 people in the theater. The hit on the dog does not go as planned, and the dog survives, which infuriates Estelle. Hazel writes her off when she calls to complain, telling her to get therapy.One client of Hazel's requests a hit job on her infant, which cries incessantly. Before the hit girl can arrive, she decides to throw the baby out of her high-rise apartment window herself, saving the money she would have paid Hazel. In the street below, a crotchety looking mother tells her young son "That's what I'm going to do to YOU if you don't shut up!"Finally the time comes for L.T. to perform his hit, but he cannot go through with it, not out of compassion or remorse, but because he seems annoyed that the mother cannot do the job herself since the boy is so completely helpless and passive. Back at the house, Hughes shows up suddenly in Hazel's kitchen. With no cash from L.T.'s aborted mission, Hazel has nothing to give him and they get into a heated argument, during which Hazel makes a racial slur against him. Furious, he drowns Hazel in her kitchen sink. Mary walks in on the scene after Hazel is dead, but is too simple-minded to understand that Hughes has killed her, so Hughes leaves, taking Hazel's book of clients with him.

Tags: cult, comedy, violence

Review:
Although Andy Warhol's association with this movie was merely nominal, the late Jed Johnson and his screenplay writers produced, (whether consciously or not hardly matters), one of the truly subversive masterpieces of American cinema.
It is too, one of the most strangely MORAL films, peopled, (with one exception), with characters so hideous, or selfish, or self-seeking, or ruthless, or just plain cruel, that empathy is thin on the ground, and yet the exception, (the docile, trusting, slightly naive, and conventionally "plain" and "square" Mary; was that name deliberately chosen for its symbolic value I wonder?), emerges as the true survivor, whose basic humane values are so cogently reflected in her closing line of the film, "Looks aren't everything".
Technical credits are all outstanding too, (a brilliant score by the late Mike Bloomfield which fits the sleazy overall mood like a glove), and a performance from Carroll Baker that is worthy of an award.
"Andy Warhol's Bad" concerns a rapacious middle-age housewife in NYC who runs an electrolysis business and a murder-for-hire (with only female employees) business out of her home.
Although often considered "camp", a la the films of John Waters, "Bad" is in reality more of a satire in the vein of "Gulliver's Travels".
"Andy Warhol's Bad" is probably one of my top ten favorite comedies.
This is quite a turn from director Paul Morrissey's underground improvisation opuses, but isn't a bad change.Carroll Baker is great as Hazel Aiken, a lady who runs an electrolysis clinic in her home and a murder-for-hire business on the side, utilizing only female killers (save for new employee Perry King).
Susan Tyrell is great as Hazel's daughter-in-law Mary, who spends her life residing in Hazel's house caring for her baby.
He would have been perfect here and would have acted with/had another sex scene with one-time girlfriend Stefania Casini (they had worked together in "Blood for Dracula").
Also making an appearance is early Warhol regular Brigid Polk as Estelle, a bitchy fat lady who wants cop Lawrence Tierney's dog killed for something he said about her weight!
Andy Warhol's Bad or should it be Jed Johnson's Bad, is fascinating for the very fact that the film was released.
Also for Carroll Baker's performance as Mrs. Aiken, a woman who runs a hair removal business out of her kitchen.Baker's performance makes Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest look like a harmless little kitten.
Baker's acting is superb and she probably has the best dialogue.The other characters you won't forget for a long time.
It's fair to say that "Bad", the final film produced by Andy Warhol's studio, is not for everyone.Hazel Aiken (Carrol Baker) is a New York housewife who runs an electrolysis clinic from her home, as well as running an all-female "murder for hire" business.
Her life is complicated by the arrival of boarder LT (Perry King), who is waiting for the call for his first contract killing.The film is loaded with offensive scenes, including a mother throwing her unwanted baby out of the window of a skyscraper.
I've just watched the DVD of "Andy Warhol's Bad" manufactured by Cheezyflix.
Their Statement of Purpose, before the film begins, informs us that they specialize in films with only the poorest of production values, direction, acting, scripts, etc.I have always considered "Andy Warhol's Bad" to be a film of considerable merit; an indictment of our sick society that was ahead of it's time, with strange performances befitting the characters, a literate script with the darkest humor I had ever encountered, fine direction, cinematography, and production design.
(Filmex premiered Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" the same year.) I also recall that Vincent Canby, in his New York Times review, was very respectful of "Andy Warhol's Bad".I am appalled that Cheezyflix has this film in their inventory.
How unjust that the typical Cheezyflix audience, that takes pleasure in ridiculing inept, inane films, is now being encouraged to regard "Andy Warhol's Bad" as something to demean..
This is Andy Warhol's Bad. Meet Hazel, Hazel appears to be a regular house wife.
Bad also includes hot women like Carroll Baker, and Stefania Casini, hilarious dialogue, and were even given the pleasure of a couple cameo's by Adam Sorg from Color me Blood Red, as Hazel's insignificant, discouraged-looking husband.
The Highlights of Bad include a very dry-humored, mean-spirited, Hazel, and her lonely, whipped puppy-dog of a daughter-in-law, and let's not forget the spiteful racist, Estelle, an outlandish hog of a woman, just looking for a fight.
Bad is the first, as well as the last Warhol Film that wasn't directed by Paul Morrissey.
Thus film has a different feel all together, Bad doesn't have that improvised charm of a Morrissey/Warhol, but is more determined to shock than ever.
If you've never seen a Warhol, it's probably best to start with this one, then Trash, if you like that one, Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula will definitely impress.
They say Bad has something to offend everyone, a lot of us have seen more offensive than this, but as far as dark comedies and cult films in general go, Bad is among the elite.
As far as I'm concerned, they should have called this movie Andy Warhol's Awesome.
Carroll Baker is perfect is the self-absorbed Hazel Aiken who prefers using women to carry out these dastardly deeds.
Hazel's homely, depressed and poor daughter-in-law (Susan Tyrrell) is the only soul with a conscience in this dark but funny flick.
Although the direction credit officially goes to Jed Johnson (may he r.i.p.), the actuality is a bit different.In fact, the film was directed by Andy Warhol himself.
"Bad" was one of the most offensive, hilarious and brilliantly written films I saw in the 70's.
Carroll Baker puts forth an incredibly bland, sarcastic performance as a housewife with a clan of hit women on the side (hey, a woman's gotta pay the bills).
My only misgiving about the film was Perry King never made a very good Joe Dallesandro, and I got the feeling while I was watching it Warhol and Johnson were doing everything they could to replicate him.
The saddest thing about this film is that after waiting for years for it to show up on DVD, it's finally been presented in such poor, dismal quality that it's almost not worth watching.
Flesh, blood and bad taste; from Andy Warhol.
Bad, also known as Andy Warhol's Bad, is directed by Jed Johnson, the editor of the two better known films to feature the great artist's name; namely, Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein.
The title, while seemingly unimaginative, is actually very fitting as while the film is not 'bad' for those who like this sort of thing - it certainly is in very bad taste!
However, it would seem that this business does not bring in enough money so Hazel is also running a sideline in hit jobs, which she has carried out by women who work for her.
Things are shook up a little when a young man arrives in town looking for work and ends up getting to stay at Hazel's house and she decides to use him on a hit, despite the fact that she prefers to use women.Bad doesn't follow a particular plot narrative, and instead focuses on a number of individual characters and basically relies on them to make something happen, which they often do and the result is a film that stays interesting for most of it's duration.
There's no role for Joe Dallesandro but Perry King takes up that area of the film and doesn't do anything that couldn't have been done by Joe. The film is categorised as a comedy and it is rather funny at times, but the humour is extremely black and the film is not a laugh a minute either.
Overall, Bad is certainly not for everyone; but it's a definitely worth a look if you caught the other two films baring Andy Warhol's name.
ANDY WARHOL'S BAD (Jed Johnson, 1977) **1/2.
I've only watched a few of Warhol's films but BAD now joins FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and BLOOD FOR Dracula (1974) in being the most interesting examples of his work (so far, anyway), if still not exactly good cinema!
Carroll Baker seems comfortable enough with her unusual (to say the least!) role - though she had cut her teeth in Italian cult films during the previous decade.
The rest of the cast is eclectic, if not especially rewarding: Perry King, Susan Tyrrell (playing a simple-minded ugly duckling who's been left stranded with a child suffering with Down's Syndrome!), Stefania Casini and Lawrence Tierney.
Baker utilizes several colorful killers for her alternately anarchic and murderous jobs: King is a wastrel, while Casini (who comes off best, despite struggling with the English dialogue) is a tough foreign broad, for instance; among others, there is also a memorable sister act - one of whom is a pyromaniac.Among the film's most hilarious - or, should I say, horrifying - sequences: a young one-armed man reacting passively to Casini's killing of the mechanic responsible for his disability; a journalist reporting a fire in a cinema, which left 14 people killed, saying that one should thank God that the film being shown was a Hispanic release with limited appeal - as, otherwise, the number of victims would have been far greater!; and, particularly, three scenes involving violence perpetrated on children: a jaw-dropping yet hysterical one where a distraught mother callously throws her crying toddler out the window of a tall building, splashing bystanders with its blood (the baby itself is then voyeuristically shown splattered on the pavement)!!; another in which King punches a retarded boy several times - and even throws him across the room - in order to make sure of his condition, but still can't bring himself to 'execute' him; and the end sequence when Baker's body is discovered by Tyrell who, in her amazement, lets go of the baby (which comes tumbling down to the floor).One last thing; "Leonard Maltin's Film Guide" erroneously lists this as having been made in 1971 - but that's quite impossible since, at one point, Tyrrell's character is asked what was the last film she watched and the reply comes that it was "that Watergate thing" (alluding obviously to ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN [1976])!.
Of the three Warhol films I have seen,(Frankenstein, Dracula, and Bad), this is definitely the most entertaining.
I wish it didn't look like the sets were lit by candles (you can't see anything) and I wish Carroll Baker were let loose a little more - her flicking a cigarette at her husband was a highlight for me.
"Bad" is pretty much a ninety minute film of people getting their limbs hacked off (figuratively, of course).
It's designed for people who think they're "cool" to laugh at the acts of cruelty and violence.Andy Warhol must have thought he was on a roll after lending his name to Paul Morrisey and Antonio Margheriti's brilliant yet deranged "Flesh for Frankenstein" and Morrisey's outstanding follow-up "Blood for Dracula," but Warhol wisely stopped letting people use his name after this one..
**SPOILERS**  ANDY WARHOL'S BAD is not as disgusting or outrageous as, say John Waters' PINK FLAMINGOS or Pasolini's SALO, but it still ranks up there among the most disturbing and unpleasant movies ever made.
The movie opens with a relatively mild example of this, when a girl enters a scuzzy midtown diner, overflows the toilet and trashes the place.However, the darker side of Baker's business slowly surfaces as we soon witness acts of cruelty which are difficult to watch: a man's legs are crushed underneath the gears of a garage lift, a dog is stabbed repeatedly, and, in the movie's infamous highlight, an incessantly crying baby is hurled from a high rise window.
Maybe it's both.A subplot involves Baker hiring her first male hit-person (Perry King, in one of his best performances) to kill an autistic boy of whom the mother has grown tired.
More sensitive viewers may find the use of a down-syndrome baby in the role of Tyrrell's child unsettling.Overall, ANDY WARHOL'S BAD is as sick and depraved as it's reputation would suggest, but it's well-written and well-acted, with some clever and biting satirical elements.
Like Joel Reeds vastly inferior BLOODSUCKING FREAKS or Carl Reiner's cult classic WHERE'S POPPA, ANDY WARHOL'D BAD has actually grown MORE shocking and disturbing than when it was initially released.
Andy Warhol's final factory film production caused quite a hoo-hah when released in the UK back in the seventies, with the tabloid press running shock-horror stories about its content, especially the scene where the baby is thrown from the tower block window.
Yet Bad is more than an exercise in bad taste - although it was clearly influenced by the work of John Waters - it's rather an anatomy of the social and ethical consciousness which Capitalist society creates in its citizens.Hazel (a stupendous performance from Carroll Baker) is a middle-aged woman with a daughter-in-law on welfare who runs her own business: she gives electrolysis treatment as well as running a hit firm from her kitchen!
What makes the film's portrait of Hazel and her milieu so extraordinary is that her money-making schemes are shown to be perfectly ordinary, reasonable and even morally equivalent; there's little difference between removing someone's unwanted body hair and removing a person who irritates or annoys them from their life.
The film shows the final product of late Capitalism's insistence on the consumer's right to their own lifestyle just as they want it once they've fulfilled their task of being a productive, money-earning citizens.The people in Bad are stupid, petty, vindictive and, when they can get away with it, lazy.
This form of consciousness is epitomised by Perry King's L.T., a wandering hunk who Hazel (who would prefer to employ women) promises a hit job.
Elsewhere in the film, Hazel's mentally challenged daughter-in-law has mouthed protests against the immorality - but her dumb Cassandra act and L.T.'s sudden sense of revulsion against the prevailing nihilism are merely jerks of a dead human spirit, barely registering as more significant on the level of narrative-importance than someone committing an act of pyromania at a cinema, attacking a neighbour or getting some hair removed from your back.Bad underplays its nihilistic scenes - the evils portrayed are banal and quotidian.
Bad. Deviant behavior abound in the Andy Warhol produced warped black comedy about a penny-pinching suburban housewife who rents out rooms to girls who agree to kill people(or dogs, if the job calls for it)!
Susan Tyrell steals the film as a pathetic wallflower, daughter-in-law to Baker, who seems to be the only one with any moral compass whatsoever.
Stefani Casini(Suspiria)has a funny cameo as a hit woman who likes to ridicule and abuse Tyrell just for the hell of it, and removes a victim's finger so she can stuff it in Baker's ketchup bottle!
I think BAD will be accepted more by fans of trash who enjoy stuff directed by John Waters, where characters show a tendency to be psychotic in a cold-blooded manner, with little conscience or guilt for their actions.
The humor is performed straight, unlike something you might see in a Water's film, but it doesn't make the acts presented any less shocking(if anything seeing a woman toss her child out a window to it's death with little expression or concern is even more shocking and potent than if it were Divine!)..
A tough middle-aged woman, Carroll Baker, does electrolysis out of her home and runs a female-assassin service on the side.
this intoxicating indie follows the nightlife of the sick and twisted throughout New York city as they: drop a car on a mechanic, beat up an old man (Lawrence Tierney) and his dog, toss a crying infant out a window, plan the murder of an autistic child, and hang around talking about nothing.This isn't a great so-bad-it's-good flick, but then again it's not a terrible b-movie (or rather, d-movie) either.
It may have had the biggest budget of any Andy Warhol film but you'd never know it based on the crude production values of BAD.
It's unlikely that Warhol had anything to do with BAD and it's closer to one of John Water's mid-career films like POLYESTER but it's still a lot of fun.
I finally watched Andy Warhol's Bad, from 1977, which I've had on DVD for years without running - yikes!
I almost turned it off a few times - I especially can't handle violence against animals - but then I'd catch some Mike Bloomfield soundtrack music or hear a great line and decide to stick it out.I've seen Carroll Baker from the original Lolita get pretty scuzzy in other movies late in her career, but this one was a shocker.
And what a trip to see Susan Tyrell - who I just recently watched in the early Oingo Boingo brothers cult flick Forbidden Zone - as the lone "good guy" in the whole flick (well, until she drops her mongoloid baby in shock from finding Baker's corpse).I think I get what the movie is saying RE rampant (& seemingly contagious) immorality overtaking both decency and sanity, especially circa '77 NYC (a cesspool indeed), but I find like-minded movies such as Jules Feiffer's Little Murders, those cynical Death Wish and Magnum Force movies (and even The Warriors) were far less abhorrant (and less abberrant) in the way they portrayed the psycho decline of civility and civilization..
I just watched "Andy Warhol's Bad" for the first time in 40 years, and it didn't disappoint.I originally saw it at a midnight showing in late 1977 at the U.
However, three real actors (Carroll Baker, Perry King & Susan Tyrell) are the leads, and they all do fine work.
He was excellent as well.I kept waiting for the ***SPOILER ALERT*** "baby out the window scene", and it shows up late to churn your stomach in a thousand knots.Check it out if you're looking for something a little different from a "blast from the past" movie.