The Whales of August (1987)

Does anyone else remember this charming film? The story follows two elder sisters as they summer on the Maine coast.

Directed by Lindsay Anderson

Written by David Berry, based on his play

Music by Alan Price

Starring Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Ann Sothern, Harry Carey Jr., Frank Gorshin, Mary Steenburgen, Margaret Ladd, Tisha Sterling, and VINCENT PRICE

Of course, Anderson, a homosexual, would make a film about three old queens, Mary Steenburgen, and Vincent Price

I have never seen it, but the insults the leads traded are the stuff of true legend.

Just watched it again three weeks ago. First time since it came out. Yes, the Bette / Lillian feud was legendary. Gish was also so much healthier than Davis despite Gish’s advanced age.

A now-closed thread from a couple of years ago.

Gish didn't care about the credit, just the work. Davis wanted all the attention.

R5 that’s a shitty thread!

[quote] that’s a shitty thread!

Well it does answers the question "Does anyone else remember this charming film?"

Thread from last year regarding the Davis/Gish on-set feud.

I heard there’s to be a remake with Jane Fonda and Eva Marie Saint.

Classy and charming, which is a nice way of saying boring

I think the Director’s cut that restored the potato washing scene was much better than the theatrical release.

R11 I personally preferred the uncut bathing scene

Vincent Price is having a resurgence. I love it. I thought it was cool he’d do almost anything so he could buy art. Or maybe he’s always been liked.

Bradley Cooper is slated to play the Vincent Price role in the remake with a prosthetic limp wrist.

R13 Vincent Price was a classy, sophisticated, and intelligent man. He loved art, gourmet cooking, literature, wine, poetry, and classical music.

Not only was he friends with both Dwight Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy, he also shared close friendships with Lillian Hellman, Sir Michael Hordern, and Kirsten Flagstad.

He invested and endowed a community college.

And he supported his daughter when she came out as a lesbian in the 1960's.

Is this the one where Davis and Gish jump into the sea and ride the whales at the end to gain membership into AARP?

I love this film. Wasn’t this the one where off camera, the director was pondering how to get a close-up right and Queen Bette pointed to Lillian Gish and said, “Ask that bitch over there. She created the close-up.” 😂

I was working at the time with renowned theatrical wig designer Paul Huntley, who designed Bette's wig for the film, and he loved telling stories of the fights they would all have over who got the first closeups of the morning before their faces would start melting.

They were both envious of each other. They both wanted the Oscar. The nominees that year were:

Cher for Moonstruck

Glenn Close for Fatal Attraction

Holly Hunter for Broadcast News

Sally Kirkland for Anna

Meryl Streep for Ironweed

R20, that's a pretty strong year, I can't think of one of those nominees that I would replace. Too bad as I think in many other years both or at least one of the two would have been nominated. IIRC, they were both very good, certainly at least equal to, if not better than Hepburn in a similar type role in On Golden Pond.

Bette scolds the Tonight Show audience when they doubt her sincerity about Lilian Gish. To prove it she names Faye Dunaway as being someone she'd never work with again. At 9:30.

Lillian Gish on not being nominated: "At least I don't have to lose to Cher."

What they ACTUALLY said:

According to director Lindsay Anderson, one day he said to Lillian Gish, "Miss Gish, you have just given me a perfect close-up." Bette Davis overheard him and said, "She should. She invented 'em" (which in some way was true).

But then Lillian Gish got more than her own back in a hilariously passive-aggressive way. She was asked about Davis's comment by an interviewer from People Magazine, and referring to Davis' s stroke, she said (and this is the exact quotation), "That face! Have you ever seen such a tragic face? Poor woman! How she must be suffering! I don't think it's right to judge a person like that. We must bear and forbear."

Bette Davis had two feet in the grave and was already lying down by the time of Whales of August. It's no wonder she was cranky and miserable.

Plus Davis' viper of a daughter had just stabbed Bette in the back with the newly published My Mother's Keeper.

[quote][R20], that's a pretty strong year, I can't think of one of those nominees that I would replace. Too bad as I think in many other years both or at least one of the two would have been nominated.

Another strong candidate for me that year was Rachel Levin in GABY: A TRUE STORY, which was about a Mexican disability rights activist of Austrian Jewish descent, who suffered from cerebral palsy.

Very reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis' performance of Christy Brown two years later in MY LEFT FOOT. Except he won the Oscar and she was overlooked. Go figure!

Later, Levin would change her surname to Chagall and co-star on THE NANNY as Val Toriello -- a total 180 from this character.

Nevertheless, the actress who played Gaby's caretaker, Norma Aleandro, received a deserved Oscar nod as Best Supporting Actress... which brings me to Ann Sothern's nomination for THE WHALES OF AUGUST that year.

How? She really didn't do much of anything. And she had like one scene.

The other nominees were Anne Archer in FATAL ATTRACTION, Anne Ramsay in THROW MAMA FROM THE TRAIN, and eventual winner Olympia Dukakis in MOONSTRUCK.

Needless to say, I recommend GABY: A TRUE STORY. If anything, it's got a great cast, including Liv Ullmann, Robert Loggia, and Tony Goldwyn.

The best performance in Gaby, IMO, was given by Lawrence Monoson, who had some notoriety from The Last American Virgin.

[quote]Another strong candidate for me that year was Rachel Levin in GABY: A TRUE STORY, which was about a Mexican disability rights activist of Austrian Jewish descent, who suffered from cerebral palsy.

You're not just begging for an Oscar, you're sucking it and jerking off on it.

R27, it would have been nice if Anne Ramsey had gotten it.

I loved her since Goonies and she only had a fraction of the film career she could have managed.

sounds like a documentary about the annual DL pool party

I have seen Alot of whales on the beach lately, sunning themselves in their too small bikinis.

The last scene of that film justifies the long, drawn out root canal that the rest of the film is. Ann Sothern is the best thing about the whole film. All of them do a good job, but only AS really has a clear, active motivation.

Has there been any talk of a sequel?

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