Just when you get to the point where you think you've seen every weird movie made in the last 80 years, something like this pops up out of nowhere. Welcome back to The Dungeon Saturday Night Special! Bang bang, shoot shoot!
"The Annniversary" was written by the Hammermeister Jimmy Sangster, and is based on a popular play of the time that was written by Bill MacIlwraith!
Here she is, the star of the show, Bette Davis as the mean and deplorably horrible rich bitch named Mrs. Taggart! Every year on this day, Mrs.Taggart gathers her three dysfunctional sons and their families together for the anniversary of her and her late husband's marriage!
Here's the core of the cast all in one nice shot together. Starting on the left is James (Privilege) Cossins as the cross-dressing Henry Taggart, Jack (For Your Eyes Only) Hedley as Terry Taggart, Sheila (But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock) Hancock as Terry's wife Karen Taggart, Elaine (Casino Royale) Taylor as Shirley Blair, and Shirley's fiancee Tom Taggart as played by Christian (To Sir, With Love) Roberts!
"The Anniversary" is Bette Davis! There's no better way to describe it!
Haven't had a lot of chances to show you a vintage Vauxhall. Still in business, popular Vauxhall models of today include the Mokka X, the Vivaro, the Movano, and the New Grandland X.
Bette plays up the eye patch the whole way, and at times she reverts to being Captain Bligh or Long John Silver no doubt!
Mrs. Taggart asks her soon to be daughter-in-law Shirley to move a little further away because she detests the smell of body odor!
If Gross, Despicable, and Obnoxious were signs of the zodiac, Mrs. Taggart would have been born in all those houses!
Time to drag the whole proceeding down to the club!
I'm not often speechless, but this film doesn't require much further conversation! These stills speak for themselves! It's all about obsession!
Bette/Mrs. Taggart is the Queen!!!
And everybody else knows she's full of bullshit!
AARRGGHH!!"
Meanwhile, Henry's out stealing lady's undergarments! Well, not exactly stealing, he takes them off the clothesline, and pins up money in their place!
Somebody calls the cops on Henry, and they find the undies in his car, but he had borrowed his brother Terry's car, and Mrs. Taggart tries to explain to Terry, that it's better for him to take the rap, because he will only have one strike and it will never happen again, but if Henry gets arrested, the next time will be two strikes and they'll take him away for good! Terry is not happy with this concept!
There's not a chance in Hell this is going to happen!
Wherever you are or whatever you do, Bette wishes you "Happy Anniversary!"
The opening segment of "The Anniversary" has The New Vaudeville Band playing a nice version of "The Anniversary Song" or "Waves of the Danube."
A couple of years earlier The New Vaudeville Band had a killer novelty tune #1 hit with "Winchester Cathedral." So whatever happened to novelty songs? I grew up with "The Purple People Eater," and "The Witch Doctor," and "The Monster Mash," and now there's...........? Oh, that's right, there's no more real radio any more either.......except in the ozone!
1 comment:
Who did those opening credits? Somewhat Maurice Binder-esque?
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