The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak
It’s like Raiders of the Lost Ark crossed with Emanuelle in Bangkok.
Sounds like Village of the Damned, possibly. Were they blonde with weird eyes?
One of mine is a Polanski flick called Bitter Moon, with Hugh Grant. I haven’t seen it since my girlfriend and I did in the theatre, and it was full of notable, terrible details, but what sticks in my mind most is the crippled guy telling Hugh about how his lover once sexily pissed all over his TV.
I’m sure a lot of people don’t have nice thoughts about Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch’s picture with Johnny Depp, but I love it.
I saw this movie. It was weird, but no weirder than the original
Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang
I saw Plan Nine from Outer Space last night. I think that one belongs on this list, because it does have some funny parts, but a lot of it is boring.
Zardoz, but I don’t know if it was weird so much as horribly, horribly bad. Parts of it (mostly in the city of the immortals) were hilarious, however.
I think they pulled their ears to communicate.
Sir Rhosis
Released in 1995, after being in development since 1968…and it still needed work. Still, it was a true labor of love, and personal vision…just like the Frankenstein monster. Or Glen or Glenda. Or Gerald Bull’s superguns.
Mr. singular & I love Dead Man - some of the most startlingly beautiful images and bizarre personalities I’ve ever seen on screen.
But last AMC introduced one of the weidest films I have ever seen - Zoo in Budapest. I will search for another showing of this movie for the entire year if I have to - it was apparently a one-time showing, and we didn’t record the 40 minutes of it that we caught. It’s the story of a man, obviously an acrobat in real life, who works at the zoo and loves the animals so much that he steals the fur stoles off the women wearing them in the zoo. Somehow, Loretta Young is convinced to escape from the group of orphans she is with to live with him in a bear cave on the grounds. At the end is an amazing scene where all the animals are let loose in the main building, and there are horrific fights between the various big cats and elephants and monkeys, and you can be sure there is no disclaimer at the end assuring us no animal was harmed-these animals were really fighting, and back in 1933 I don’t think there was any animal society looking closely at filmaking. It is a bizarre, yet diaphanous and enchanting movie that seems to have slipped through the cracks.
I don’t think it’s ‘horribly bad’. The only part I hated was when they were doing that weird hippy chrystal-gazer tonal thing at dinner. I love the end scenes, and still thinik of ‘We’ve been used!’ ‘And reused!’ ‘And abused!’ ‘And amused!’. I also occasionally say, ‘Absolute acquittal.’ And you get to see Charlotte Rampling naked. 
Of course it’s on my DVD shelf.
Dead Man is typical of Jim Jarmusch’s films in that it’s incredibly slow-paced. But it’s neither weird nor horrible. The B&W footage is beautiful. Jarmusch’s characters are as wonderful as ever. The dialog is great. Nice story. The scenes are nicely-shot.
Here’s a review of Candy from Jabootu, giving pretty well a scene-by-scene account. I haven’t seen it, but it looks jaw-dropping in a “WTF?” way.
Also, it looks like this one won’t be forgotten; every time I go into Hastings, I see a few copies of the limited edition tin of Candy on the shelves. I have no idea who could possibly have wanted such a thing. Why was it created? Who is it for?
It seems Burt Lancaster made another weird movie besides “The Swimmer” and it was Castle Keep (1969). It also featured Peter Falk, Patrick O’Neal, Bruce Dern and other famous people but this was strange.
This was a World War II film and for background music what could be more out of place than the “Swingle Singers” ? (You’d know them if you heard them).
Very weird dialog too. (This isn’t verbatim, but here’s a good example)
Burt Lancaster: Private, I want you to steal a German “gerry” can with 5 gallons of gasoline in it.
Private: Anything else?
Burt Lancaster: Yes, I want you to come back with it.
(What??)
And of course Vanishing Point (1971)
Among other actors it featured Cleavon Little and Oscar-winner Dean Jagger. Most of you are probably familiar with this one, so I won’t go into any details.
This was a dig at the civilian gas rationing that went on during the war. 40s audiences would have dug it.
For what it’s worth, I saw both “The Swimmer” and “Castle Keep” in movie theaters when they were originally released and enjoyed them immensely.
Here are a couple of other weird ones from the same period, also seen by me in theaters when originally released:
Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? Way weird! Especially Georgie Jessell as “The Presence.” But pretty darn funny - both Jessell and Milton Berle have some great scenes.
The Last Movie Way weird and pretty bad! It was Dennis Hopper’s next movie after Easy Rider. I think Hopper took his profits from Easy Rider, invested them in acid and blow, and made this head-scatcher!
Never saw the movie, but it’s based on an excellent short story by John Cheever. I may have to find the movie to see how it translated to the screen.
Don’t laugh when I tell you that I saw this at the theater when I was 11 with my mother, aunt and cousin. What was Borgnine thinking? What was my mother thinking? There had to be a better movie out that day that an 11 year old could watch! I had no idea it had been dubbed into English.
Theodore Rex
Whoopi Goldberg plays a cop teamed up with a T. Rex.
I kid you not.
Never read the story. I think it was a way for the teacher to have a class period off–I have no recollection of ever reading any Cheever in school.
I think it would make a better story than a movie. The movie features BL getting in and out of pools, ALOT, and ends with him unable to get in his own front door as winter starts–he is wet, cold and likely to die as the credits roll.
The dialogue–don’t remember there being any–except for BL saying, “yes, I’ll swim across the county. It’s a chain of swimming pools…” The reasons for this act are not clear (it’s been a few decades, so I could be wrong)–I could never understand WHY he wanted to do this odd task. Mayhaps he was mad.
OK.
“The Phantom Tollbooth” was a weird, horrible film that came out in the late '70’s.
I think it might have been Disney. I loved the book and still do–the film was an insult to the author and to Milo and Tock.
Over in this thread, there is a discussion about odd, unlikely casting choices. That got me to thinking about Little Buddha. And I instantly knew that it deserved a mention here. This film stars Keanu Reeves as the Buddha.
Yes. You read that right. Keanu Reeves as… the Buddha!
If Reeves’ slackjawed vacuity is indeed the equivalent to the supreme state of Nirvanic heavenly bliss…well then I hope I’m going to Hell.
The saddest thing is that this film actually does have some truly visionary, artistic merit to it. But whenever Reeves appears on screen, the flick screeches to a halt as I try to wrap my mind around the concept of “Ted” from ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ portraying the human embodiment of ultimate enlightenment.
The true Buddha’s native nation of India only has close to a billion people in it. Was it asking too much to think that the producers might have found a genuine Indian person who had the acting chops to portray Buddha?
Not Disney – it was Chuck Jones. Oddly, I’ve never seen this film, only bits and pieces. But it’s Chuck Jones, fer cryin’ out loud, Grinch-who-stole-Xmas, Road-Runner, arguably best -of-the-Bugs-Bunnys Chuck Jones, a certified cartoon genius, near tyhe peak of his prime.
Was it really that bad?
I’ll nominate The Keep.
Nazi’s in a Castle during WW2 get picked off by an evil force & must join forces with a Jewish professor…or something.
So bad that it got me interested in crappy films