Bad (1977) (a.k.a. Andy Warhol's Bad)
Andy Warhol's last feature film
has a promising premise: An aging suburban housewife
runs an electrolysis parlour and a "hit-woman" operation
out of her home. But this film, which is falsely accused
of being similar to a John Water's flick, never lives
up to it's potential.
The main fault here lies within
the script which was supposedly based on "tabloid"
articles. Screenwriters Pat Hackett and George Abagnalo
not only don't make us laugh, they don't give us anything
interesting to watch either. This film plods along
without anything substantial or interesting ever happening.
It is hard to make such an interesting premise so
banal but Hackett and Abagnalo succeed.
Jed Johnson, Warhol's then live-in
love interest, directs the film with no flair and
great indifference. With a script this weak a visually
stunning style is necessary but Johnson, who had worked
as Warhol's film editor up to this point, shows no
discernable style here. Johnson later went on to become
a successful interior designer, which is odd since
this film is so visually uninteresting.
Warhol wanted desperately for his
films to be accepted by mainstream Hollywood and never
understood why his little underground pictures didn't
lead to a Hollywood deal. Warhol apparently had little
to do with the actual production but he must have
spent a lot of money on it. This film looks much more
"slickly" produced than any of Warhol's other films.
The budget here is obviously much larger than on any
other Warhol film and this may be it's biggest fault.
The subject matter here calls for campy sloppiness
not slick production. And where was Paul Morrissey
at during this time? He had split from the Warhol
entourage (His last movie with Warhol was "Dracula"
in 1974). It's too bad he wasn't around. Morrissey
is probably the only guy, besides Waters, whose visual
style and free-form direction might have saved this
film.
In front of the camera Carroll Baker
(the ingenue some years earlier in the banned "Baby
Doll") plays Hazel Aiken, the ring leader of the "hit
women" squad. She lives in her dreary suburban house
with her daughter-in-law Mary (Susan Tyrell) and Mary's
baby. Tyrell is the only interesting character in
the film. She plays a frumpy loser with pizzazz. Perry
King plays L.T., Aiken's first male "hit-person" employee.
He has a supposedly emotional scene where he is sent
to kill an autistic boy and cannot complete his job
but the scene rings hopelessly false, as his character
would obviously have no problem making the hit in
reality.
One-time "Chelsea Girl" Brigid Polk
is humiliated in her role as a client who wants a
dog killed. She burps and farts and lugs around 300
pounds of ugly fat only to be not funny.
See, apparently the scriptwriters
thought that killing babies, dogs and autistic children
were hilarious ideas for plot twists. They are not.
Although the scene where a baby is thrown from a upstairs
window and splats blood on a female by-passer at impact
is funny, it is hardly acceptable humor. Killing a
baby, even if it is funny, just can't be acceptable
to any viewer, even the most jaded. And here it just
isn't presented correctly to be accepted as "black
humor" either. It is not presented as being disturbing
at all. The scene where a dog is stabbed is the most
distressing one in this film and it is so repugnant
that one cannot even tolerate watching it. But make
no mistake, this is not a compliment. This film wants
desperately to be funny in a "John Waters" sort of
way and never, ever succeeds. Not once. Waters could
film a baby's murderer and make it campy and acceptable.
Johnson is simply out of his league here.
Andy Warhol's "Bad" is a very bad
film indeed. Not just because it is poorly acted,
not just because it is poorly scripted, not even because
it tries to make repugnant situations funny. No. This
film is bad because it simply isn't humorous. When
a comedy film has to show an infant's blood splattering
on an unsuspecting person's face to get a single laugh
something is very, very wrong.
Note:
Vivian Vance (Ethel of "I Love Lucy"
fame) was approached to play the role of Hazel Aiken
and apparently liked the script. However, she felt
her audience could never accept her in the role and
politely declined the offer.
Scripter Hackett was Warhol's redactor
for "Interview" magazine and ghost wrote his book
"A to B and Back Again" with "Interview" editor Bob
Colecello. She also redacted and edited the "Andy
Warhol Diaries," an extremely interesting and lengthy
daily account of the pop artist's last years.
Tyrell would later go on to play
the hilarious Ramona Ricketts in John Water's "Cry
Baby." Waters, incidently, was friends with Warhol
and the director would often visit Warhol's Factory
and show his films.
Baker came back to America, from
a self-imposed exile, to make the film.
Distributed by Roger Corman's New
World Pictures.
Viewed on VHS in 1993.
