Do TV movies count? I remember a movie titled “Who is Julia?” It was about a woman who was badly injured in an accident, but it’s important to note her skull was intact. Another woman is also on life support, her skull crushed in an accident. The families of both women are persuaded to have experimental surgery done. The second lady is dead, but Julia, the first, has her brain transplanted into the other woman’s body. And the hell of it is she survives.
The film surprised the heck out of me because it didn’t delve into the supernatural, or spiritual, but was as accurate as fiction could be. It dealt with Julia’s trauma waking up and looking totally different. He husband had problems too as Julia had been a tall, gorgeous blonde model and now she was a short, almost plain brunette. The husband of the dead woman tried to get her to meet with his and his dead wifes child, and the little boy thought mommy was coming home.
It sounds silly but it wasn’t. How would people feel if something like this could actually be done?
Rewatching Vanishing Point right now, on DVD. Damn, this is good!
Yes, it’s one long car chase—except it isn’t. There are breaks.
This film wasn’t made so much as it was crafted. And it was crafted beautifully. Deserves much more attention than “oh it’s just a drive-in B-picture.”
One of the best things about forgotten movies is that there’s always a chance that they can be remade better.
Cervantes had a movie made about him called “Cervantez,” (not “Cervantez!” though it was 1967. Completely forgettable with Horst Bucholz. Although the recent remake of Ben Hur bombed, I’d be willing to give the battle of Lepanto a shot. What today’s moviegoing public needs is a good naumachia.
“Song of Scheherazade” was a 1947 vehicle to show off exotic Yvonne De Carlo. But the naval career of young Rimsky-Korasakov and the era in which it occurred would appeal to the steampunk/Flashman crowd. Between the Greek War of Independence and the Russo-Japanese War, the Czar’s navy doesn’t get much exposure outside Battleship Potemkin.
Luis Buñuel made “Simon of the Desert” in 1965, and it’s a good art film that I hope isn’t forgotten. But the story of a monk who retreats from human society by climbing on top of a column is worth its own telling, with the full context of what was going on in Syria on the 5th Century, perhaps with relevant intercuts of what’s happening today.
I have a few–and I’ve seen quite a few of those already mentioned. What is it with me and obscure movies, anyway?
Lessee–how about The Moon Is Blue, (1953)? Adapted from a stage play and rather frank for the day. I liked it, and it’s kind of a shame that Maggie McNamara didn’t have much of a career, she was very good in this movie and was more than a match for William Holden and David Niven.
The Magic Christian (1969) doesn’t get enough love–from a Terry Southern book, it’s absolutely hilarious and probably the best role for Ringo Starr imaginable.
Get Crazy (1983) is about as forgotten as it gets–never even got a DVD release and the only extant copy I can find online is a VHS rip. Helluva cast, quite the who’s who of offbeat musicians and Malcolm McDowell as the stereotypical overblown Brit rocker, Reggie Wanker. The music is absolutely top notch and it’s sweetly hilarious.
The most inexplicable example to me is Sirens (1994) because for a movie that stars Sam Neill as the painter Norman Lindsay opposite Hugh Grant as a puritanical Anglican preacher and one that features extensive (yet tasteful) nudity from Tara Fitzgerald, Elle McPherson, Portia DiRossi and Kate Fischer amidst stunning cinematography and quite a lot of sly humor you’d think it would be more widely known and appreciated but the only people I’ve ever known who’ve seen it are the ones I basically hounded into it. They all loved it though. It’s my go-to movie for when I’m feeling down and sad and need a pick me up. It’s very life affirming and just a gem.
This was the part that stuck with me from seeing it when I was very little (so, like over 60 years ago), and I remember you kindly let me know what movie it was from in another thread. I was able to get a dvd for myself. It was genuinely weird and wonderful to my child brain.
Me, too. But I have zero interest in any of the comic book movies.
This is one that I’ve been wanting to see for ages! I need to track it down.
The character played by Sam Neill, Norman Lindsay, was a real person. He was an author. One book he wrote was The Magic Pudding. I’ve read it. It’s a great book.
