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
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 34 | August 28, 2023 1:57 AM |
Of course, Anderson, a homosexual, would make a film about three old queens, Mary Steenburgen, and Vincent Price
by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 26, 2023 3:56 AM |
I have never seen it, but the insults the leads traded are the stuff of true legend.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 26, 2023 3:57 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 26, 2023 4:12 AM |
A now-closed thread from a couple of years ago.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 5 | August 26, 2023 4:20 AM |
Gish didn't care about the credit, just the work. Davis wanted all the attention.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 26, 2023 4:21 AM |
R5 that’s a shitty thread!
by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 26, 2023 4:23 AM |
[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.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 8 | August 26, 2023 4:25 AM |
I heard there’s to be a remake with Jane Fonda and Eva Marie Saint.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 26, 2023 4:26 AM |
Classy and charming, which is a nice way of saying boring
by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 26, 2023 4:26 AM |
I think the Director’s cut that restored the potato washing scene was much better than the theatrical release.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 26, 2023 4:29 AM |
R11 I personally preferred the uncut bathing scene
by Anonymous | reply 12 | August 26, 2023 4:32 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 26, 2023 4:32 AM |
Bradley Cooper is slated to play the Vincent Price role in the remake with a prosthetic limp wrist.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 26, 2023 4:36 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 26, 2023 4:52 AM |
Is this the one where Davis and Gish jump into the sea and ride the whales at the end to gain membership into AARP?
by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 26, 2023 1:51 PM |
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.” 😂
by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 26, 2023 1:56 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 26, 2023 2:01 PM |
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
by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 26, 2023 3:13 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 27, 2023 3:26 AM |
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.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 22 | August 27, 2023 3:35 AM |
Lillian Gish on not being nominated: "At least I don't have to lose to Cher."
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 23 | August 27, 2023 3:40 AM |
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."
by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 27, 2023 3:44 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | August 27, 2023 3:56 AM |
Plus Davis' viper of a daughter had just stabbed Bette in the back with the newly published My Mother's Keeper.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 27, 2023 4:22 AM |
[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.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 27 | August 27, 2023 5:20 AM |
The best performance in Gaby, IMO, was given by Lawrence Monoson, who had some notoriety from The Last American Virgin.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 27, 2023 5:25 AM |
[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.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 27, 2023 5:30 AM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | August 27, 2023 5:36 AM |
sounds like a documentary about the annual DL pool party
by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 27, 2023 6:06 AM |
I have seen Alot of whales on the beach lately, sunning themselves in their too small bikinis.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 27, 2023 1:41 PM |
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.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 27, 2023 1:47 PM |
Has there been any talk of a sequel?
by Anonymous | reply 34 | August 28, 2023 1:57 AM |
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