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Goodbye Charlie (1964)
Fifties Flop Becomes Box Office Bomb . . . but it's not all bad. How bad depends on what you like.
Man falls into water and comes out a girl. But this is decades before Ranma 1/2. George Axelrod got $150,000 for the motion picture rights to his play before it ever hit the stage. And it's a good thing too. It opened in late 1959 and closed in early 1960. Even having Lauren Bacall in the title roll couldn't keep it from closing after little more than 100 performances. But, thanks to those film rights being purchase in advance, it will be back. Originally they wanted Marilyn Monroe, but she felt the part wasn't feminine. That's kind of the point, isn't it? Shirley MaClaine was considered, but it was Debbie Reynolds who would play Charlie.
And so a few years later it gets made with more Hollywood Stars and an Academy Award winning director, but they couldn't make a profitable movie out of it. It's not terrible, but it's not exactly the greatest either. There were loads of Sixties Screwball Comedies that were just as mediocre as it is. Tony Curtis made a lot of these, some better, like Love And The Single Girl (6.4). Some were worse like Wild And Wonderful. Paris, When It Sizzles (6.3) rounds out the year 1964 for Tony. Four of these in one year! Personally, I like these so, even though Goodbye Charlie is a (6.1), I give it a solid 7. But it kind of goes over the top to make it's point, that Charlie treated women badly, if only in self defense, of course, and is turned into a woman for it to see how the other half lives and, of course, he's not better any than other women, worse than some, and is treated just as badly as he/she treated them.
His/Her best friend, George, tries to find ways to help him/her, but Charlie reverts to type and blackmails the wives he/she was having affairs with. Besides George and Charlie's agent, they were the only ones that showed up for Charlie's funeral. She burns the check to show George some remorse but George has had it, and packs to go home. Without someone to talk to honestly about the situation Charlie freaks out and the ol' hormones kick in, in spite of Charlie hating girls who cry. George tries to comfort her and she lets him, until George snaps out of it and recalls that it's his buddy in there and then he freaks out himself. He won't leave her, but moves into a hotel down the road so nothing like that will happen again.
That's as far as it goes for Charlie (Debbie) and George (Tony), but then there's Walter Matthau and Pat Boone . Pat Boone plays the Millionaire Momma's Boy, Bruce Minton III, who found the transformed Charlie wandering on the roadside and offered his coat and car. He gave her/him a ride to Charlie's old beach house where George had taken up temporary residence after the funeral to go over Charlies accounts as executor of the estate, and as the old saying goes, hilarity ensued.
Bruce, who has fallen head over heels in love with the newly minted woman, returns to check on her/him. In nearly no time at all he has decided that he want's to make Charlie, Mrs. Bruce Minton III. Is Charlie desperate enough for money to become a wife? Matthau plays Sir Leopold, the Hungarian producer who shot Charlie on his yacht for seducing his wife, Rusty and starting the whole thing. And, like Charlie, Sir Leopold is an inveterate womanizer, who attempts to seduce Charlie, who he believes is the widow of the man he killed. Matthau's over the top performance, and accent, give the movie some of the best laughs. Sir Leopold is so bad you have to wonder what Karma has in store for him.
Now you would think with the young Romeo and the old Lothario chasing after Charlie that Charlie would at least get more than her hand kissed, even in the 1960s. But it manages to steer clear of those waters so that Charlie can continue to get his/her Karmic Comeuppance. Even the detective on the case of Charlie's murder by Inspector Frank McGill played by Rodger C. Carmel goes nowhere as well. One has to wonder why his character was even introduced into the story.
In spite of all the fluff it was considered a vulgar one joke play in the 50s and didn't fair much better as a film in the 60s. When Blake Edwards remade it in the 90s as Switch it did slightly better, turning a profit, but only just, grossing just 15 million with a budget of 14 million. The original made about 4.5 million, but needed to clear 7 million to be profitable. Perhaps someday someone will make something more of it than just a mildly amusing comedy about role reversals. There seem to be lots of those many of which did better with less. Some give this one a 10, others a 1. It is neither. It's somewhere in the middle. What number will you give it? That will depend on if you like Gender Benders or Screwball Sixties Comedies.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
Not Bad, But . . .
How do you give a positive revue to a compilation of Tales Of The Old West where not one single story has a happy ending, not one? It's not a bad film, just dark. In fact, I would call it a Dark Comedy, if there was more comedy in it. But it just seems to get darker and less comedic as it moves along. My suggestion would be to watch the vignettes backwards. Start with the last one and then work forwards to the Ballad Of Buster Scruggs. Then it at least ends with a brighter outlook. The Coen Brothers probably should have ordered them that way, but then everyone would have walked out half way through and never seen the best ones. But being a made for Netflix film, they didn't have to.