Tag Archives: shock cinema magazine

Video of the Week: “Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy”

Posted by Marisa on

OH MY GOD. Shield your eyes, folks, it’s Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976) in its entirety. Horrible print, horrible film, and Timothy’s most over-the-top, unhinged performance ever. Well, maybe tied with The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962).

Co-star Rosanne Katon told Shock Cinema magazine that the production of this film was “chaotic”: “That’s another one where we had new pages every day, three directors – after a while it was like, ‘How do I get out of this?!’ It was one absurd situation after another. I think I stayed on just to watch Timothy Carey around the Craft Services table! He was certifiable. I mean, he was climbing the walls. They almost had to get a net just to pull him over so he could say his lines, and then he’d wander off again. It was insane. They had all these garbage trucks around, and girlfriends of the investors – when I wasn’t laughing at what was going on, I was reading a book in the corner. I’ll put it that way.”

 

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

THE WORLD’S GREATEST SINNER (1963). Run, do not walk, to check out this movie! Timothy Carey, the character actor fave who appeared in everything from Kubrick‘s THE KILLING to The Monkees‘ HEAD, spent several years directing, writing and financing this below-low budget blast. One of the most bizarre movies ever made, and over three decades later, it’s STILL ahead of its time! A grotesque parable that’s as innovative and subversive as any film ever made. Carey sticks himself in the lead as Clarence Hilliard, a middle-aged insurance agent who goes nutzo and decides to become a rockabilly messiah. Abandoning his normal life, he changes his name to “God” and stands on street corners, handing out flyers, recruiting white-trash greasers to his fire ‘n’ brimstone “Life is Hell” doctrine. To raise money for his cause, he seduces old ladies for cash, and performs in an Elvis-like silver-lame suit. He even starts his own “Eternal Man” political party, which promises to make everyone a “superhuman being” (their motto: “There’s only one God, and that’s Man.”) This is seriously whacked stuff, folks, and Carey pulls off one of the most intense, overwrought performances of all time (putting novice scenery-chewers like Dennis Hopper to shame) – ranting, crying, dancing, and looking wasted, his eyelids at half-mast throughout. Eventually, Clarence’s followers begin rioting and vandalizing, but that type of social upheaval has to be expected when a new God emerges – especially one promising “No Death”. When the political machines get wind of his rock’n’roll charisma, they run him as an independent candidate for president, but Clarence is corrupted when his dogma takes on fascist overtones and he starts seducing cute, 14-year-old volunteers. Though lacking in little things like coherency, Carey packs this volatile tale with venom toward modern politics, the media, dried-up religion, and the entire sorry state of the human race. It’s even narrated by The Devil, represented by a snake! Carey is dead serious with all this craziness (even the heavily religious finale) and his outrageous direction is beyond belief! Most of the extras seem like they were simply pulled off the streets, and the score was provided by a young musician named Frank Zappa. Even its theme song is hilariously unforgettable: “As a sinner he’s a winner/Honey, he’s no beginner/He’s rotten to the core/Daddy, you can’t say no more/He’s the world’s greatest sinner.” This is a true work of warped genius.

– Steve Puchalski, Shock Cinema magazine #6 (1994)

The World's Greatest Sinner

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

Sure, this is a true story, but writer/director Millard Kaufman (who penned BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) turns it into B-movie pabulum, right down to a groan-inducing finale. The actors try hard, but it’s a lifeless gig. In fact, the only humor comes from the always-reliable Timothy Carey in an all-too-brief role as inmate Nick Pukalski – talking through clenched teeth and with his eyeballs spinning, he steals every scene as a pal from Resko’s old neighborhood. Location scenes were filed at Folsom Prison, but that’s the closest this ever gets to hard-hitting realism.

– Steve Puchalski, review of Convicts 4 (1962), Shock Cinema magazine #19 (Fall/Winter 2001)

Convicts 4

Pics of the Day: “Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy”

Posted by Marisa on

Happy Monday! Unfortunately we kick off the week with what is undoubtedly the ghastliest film Timothy ever appeared in – Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976). I’ve only posted one pic from this so far, because the film is so onerous that I can’t even bear to fast forward through it to get to Tim’s scenes – that, my friends, is how bad it is. However, it seems that the good proprietor of Gastrocinema has done our work for us. Behold – animated .gifs of Timothy as utterly insane mobster Vincent the Terrible, partying with the stunned Marcie Barkin and the buxom Pat Parker during the dinner scene. He also dons the same white gloves and eats chicken in the same ecstatic manner as he did in the Baretta episode “He’ll Never See Daylight” (1.17.75). The gloves appeared later on Flo in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).

courtesy Gastrocinema

courtesy Gastrocinema

courtesy Gastrocinema

courtesy Gastrocinema

Co-star Rosanne Katon told Shock Cinema magazine that the production of this film was “chaotic”: “That’s another one where we had new pages every day, three directors – after a while it was like, ‘How do I get out of this?!’ It was one absurd situation after another. I think I stayed on just to watch Timothy Carey around the Craft Services table! He was certifiable. I mean, he was climbing the walls. They almost had to get a net just to pull him over so he could say his lines, and then he’d wander off again. It was insane. They had all these garbage trucks around, and girlfriends of the investors – when I wasn’t laughing at what was going on, I was reading a book in the corner. I’ll put it that way.”

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

This week’s quote is once again not by Timothy but about him:

“I think I stayed on just to watch Timothy Carey around the Craft Services table! He was certifiable. I mean, he was climbing the walls. They almost had to get a net just to pull him over so he could say his lines, and then he’d wander off again. It was insane.”

– Rosanne Katon-Walden, speaking of her experiences during the extremely chaotic filming of Chesty Anderson, U.S. Navy (1975) in Shock Cinema magazine #25 (Summer 2004), interview by Chris Poggiali

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on

EC: You worked with Timothy Carey, of course, in both The Killing and Paths of Glory. And you also worked with him in Bert I. Gordon‘s The Boy and the Pirates (1960). You have any interesting stories to tell about Timothy Carey?

Turkel: Oh, Tim is delightful, may he rest in peace. He was his own man, and he would do anything to call attention to himself in a scene. All the actors would say, “Tim, will you tone it down a little? Just play the scene.” (laughing) He was a nice man, and he had a nice career… Let me say this, all the producers who hired him had to pay a price. However, they got something for what they paid. He was well worth the price.

— Joe Turkel, interview with Eric Caidin, “Lloyd Speaks!: An Interview with Actor Joseph Turkel,” Shock Cinema magazine #20, Spring-Summer 2002

Paths of Glory