Review of "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss

Review of

The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way) by Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss ISBN 0445041390

Five out of five stars

 I am like many people in that I am occasionally drawn to watching a really bad movie. Whether the poor quality is due to a ridiculous plot, bad dialog, lousy special effects, absurd costumes or some combination of two or more of them, I love to groan and snicker. While there is room for argument concerning the actual list of fifty, these movies have all earned their position in this book.

 They are not all movies shot on a shoestring budget with unknown actors. Stars such as Clark Gable, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Gary Cooper, Richard Burton and Ronald Reagan appear in these movies. The two highest on my list of the ridiculous are “The Conqueror” starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Yes, there is such a movie.

 For each movie, there are comments from the critics, plot summary, unforgettable performances, sample dialog, the story behind the film, the balance sheet and any special awards the film received. Needless to say, the awards were not those one wants to receive.

There were many times when reading the book when I pondered the question, “Who would have ever thought that such a premise would work?” Yet, without the bad for comparison we wouldn’t know the good, so watch some of them and and groan along with the rest of us.