Sometimes I just need a fix of a truly bad movie to lighten the spirits and make life’s tribulations float away. When such times come a callin’, “Sextette (1978)” sits proudly at the top of the pile (in this case, a sequined, feather boa trimmed pile, with fans!) Sit back and bask in the glory that is Mae West, aged 86, in her last movie (she died just two years later). Almost as if she knew it would be her “swan song”, she manages to cram every immortal line she ever uttered, into one 90-minute movie…regardless of whether or not it makes any sense in relation to the scene at hand.
She plays Marlo Manners – the world’s most famous and glamorous megastar, newly married to her 7th husband, played by future James Bond actor, Timothy Dalton. But who really cares about the plot, when you can bathe in such lines as “I’m the girl who works for Paramount all day and Fox all night”?
Directed by Ken Hughes, gifts are abundant throughout. Mae’s constant “ohhhhing” and bobbing up and down as she struggles to remember her lines, her vast wardrobe of gowns (so solid with whalebone that they could probably stand up on their own), and an endless stream of iconic actors and musicians camping it up for all their worth, including Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Tony Curtis, Alice Cooper, Dom DeLuise and the US Olympic Gymnastic Team! So there you go!
I feel better all ready!
This weekend I’ll be bobbing and ohhhhing in sequins and feathers, going down in elevators and flirting with muscle boys in gyms…just for the sheer, irresistible goddamn glamour of it all.
Enjoy the above clip from “Sextette”. For more “Friday Box Offices” with Rob Curry, click here.
