Hazel Aiken (Caroll Baker) runs an electrolysis service out of her home. She also provides a service for clients who need some kind of crime performed, usually murder. She only uses females for these criminal assignments, and she sometimes rents out rooms in her house to the girls. Also living in the house are Hazel's husband (Gordon Oas-Heim), her elderly mother (Mary Boylan), and her daughter-in-law, Mary (Susan Tyrrell), who has a small baby and is constantly awaiting the return of her absentee husband.
Hazel doesn't use men for her hit jobs, but makes an exception when she accepts "L.T." (Perry King) to perform a job for a client who wants to have her autistic son killed, simply because she can't stand dealing with him anymore. While he waits for his call to perform the job, L.T. lurks around the house, stealing pills from Hazel's mother and taking perfume from Hazel's room. Hazel tolerates the behavior because she stands to make quite a bit of money from L.T.'s hit; the client is paying $10,000 cash, $5,000 of which will go to Hazel. Hazel needs the money because she's being shaken down by Detective Hughes (Charles McGregor), the cop who gives her police protection. Hughes is beginning to bear down on Hazel, and demands not only that she pay him, but that she double cross one of her "girls" and allow Hughes to make an arrest.
Hazel sends a young woman, "P.G." (Stefania Casini) to perform a hit on an illegal immigrant who pushed a musician onto the subway tracks during a robbery; the musician's arm was severed, ending his music career, and the musician's wife orders the hit woman through Hazel as retribution for the crime, since the thief only got off with a light sentence. P.G. finds the thief working a late-night job in a garage and crushes his legs under a hydraulic lift.
Another scenario involves a neurotic woman named Estelle (Brigid Polk) who hires two girls to kill her neighbor's dog after she imagines that the man has insulted her. The girls, one of whom is a compulsive pyromaniac, take Mary out for an evening before they perform their hit on the dog. They go to a movie, where one of the girls sets a fire in the projection room. Then they abandon Mary and steal a car, which also winds up torched. The next day, they see on the news that the fire has killed 14 people in the theater. The hit on the dog does not go as planned, and the dog survives, which infuriates Estelle. Hazel writes her off when she calls to complain, telling her to get therapy.
One client of Hazel's requests a hit job on her infant, which cries incessantly. Before the hit girl can arrive, she decides to throw the baby out of her high-rise apartment window herself, saving the money she would have paid Hazel. In the street below, a crotchety looking mother tells her young son "That's what I'm going to do to YOU if you don't shut up!"
Finally the time comes for L.T. to perform his hit, but he cannot go through with it, not out of compassion or remorse, but because he seems annoyed that the mother cannot do the job herself since the boy is so completely helpless and passive. Back at the house, Hughes shows up suddenly in Hazel's kitchen. With no cash from L.T.'s aborted mission, Hazel has nothing to give him and they get into a heated argument, during which Hazel makes a racial slur against him. Furious, he drowns Hazel in her kitchen sink. Mary walks in on the scene after Hazel is dead, but is too simple-minded to understand that Hughes has killed her, so Hughes leaves, taking Hazel's book of clients with him.
According to Perry King, Andy Warhol wanted to make a movie about "bad women and incompetent men."[4] The film was written by Pat Hackett and George Abagnalo. "You come to use Andy's eyes to filter your own thoughts" said Hackett. "But your whole consciousness isn't Andy Warhol's world."[5]
Filming began in May 1976 and it was the first time a Warhol movie started with a definite script.[6] It was initially planned to be low-budget, but the project grew to cost more than three times any previous Warhol film to date — $1.2 million — with the involvement of the Australian music and film producer Robert Stigwood.[7] However, Stigwood eventually dropped out of the project. Warhol decided to produce the film himself using money he had made during six months of doing portrait commissions.[7] Producer Jeff Tornberg raised the funds for production mostly through selling Europe distribution rights – Andy Warhol's Frankenstein had been a big hit.[citation needed] According to former Interview editor Bob Colacello, Warhol didn't invest any money in the film.[8] Warhol's business manager Fred Hughes invested $200,000 and worked out a financing deal with art collector Peter Brant.[8]
Filming had started without an American distributor. "It was the excitement of the unknown", said Tornberg. "Everyone wants to know what Warhol can do with $1 million."[5] "We've always wanted to make a big movie but we've never had the money", said Warhol. "You can't go to an investor and say, 'Oh Holly will improvise, she'll think of something to improvise'. And we love the polish of a professional film. If you can direct this, you can direct anything."[5] The lead role was meant to be played by Vivian Vance but she dropped out and was replaced by Carroll Baker. It was Baker's first film in the US in eight years.[4] Baker had been making movies in Europe where she usually had to take her clothes off. "I'm looking to get away from that", she said. "People don't realize you're acting. They just see you're sexy and they won't take you seriously."[6]
The movie was made without Paul Morrissey and Joe Dallesandro, the director-star team from previous Warhol movies. Perry King played a Dallesandro-type role and says the crew would sometimes call him "Joe".[4] Warhol's longtime partner Jed Johnson, who had assisted Morrissey on previous films, was chosen to be the director.[1]
King says he was cast without auditioning. He had just been in Mandingo (1975) which he says "was a big deal because it was kind of trashy. And trashy, to the Andy Warhol universe, was what they liked. Trash was big art to them."[4]
King said Warhol "makes no effort to communicate his concept of the film, but it's a strong concept. You begin to feel it. There is a short hand among these people. There is a very special Warhol world view here and it's hard to define. But it will lose its edge in the professional technique."[5]
Perry King later recalled "we actually all worked very hard on that film. Both Carroll Baker and I worked very hard especially... I think it was their attempt at a mainstream film... It was cast like it was a Hollywood film."[4] "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique. These characters are normal, sweet looking people who are monsters without knowing they are monsters. It's an attack on middle class morality. These people have no conscience whatsoever."[5]
King says he and Baker struggled until halfway through the shoot. "We couldn't count on help from [director] Jed Johnson because he was just a kid and he didn't really know what he was doing", he said.[4] They asked Susan Tyrell for help and she said they made a mistake reading the script. King says, "It sounded insane to me, but you know, she was absolutely right. If you're working on a Andy Warhol film you can't approach it like it's a conventional film with a beginning, middle and a end. You had to forget about the character arc... this was an Andy Warhol movie. You had to give yourself over completely to that world. You had to embrace that world and one of the things you did was to improvise everything. They didn't want to do anything conventionally."[4]
Baker later said ""It had nothing to do with film-making, it had nothing to do with any other experience I ever had. It was like working on the moon. But he (Warhol) wanted me, he cast me in it, I wanted to do it, and it was such a big hit in Europe."[9]
King says he, Baker and Susan Tyrell threatened to quit the film if they shot a scripted scene where a baby was thrown out the window. Jed Johnson promised not to shoot the scene but King says "the minute we finished shooting and had left--they went and shot that. As much as I hate it--it really fits in with the rest of that over-the-top universe."[4]
Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a compellingly revolting experience" and "an occasionally amusing outrage for the Warhol audience. Don't see it after eating."[15]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Johnson seems to have more technical polish than Warhol or Paul Morrissey, but the surprisingly crisp, professional cinematography on 'Bad' doesn't improve a rotten sensibility."[18]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "Beware of Andy Warhol's 'Bad.' It has very little of the artist's touch ... Right away you can see 'Bad' has Warhol-brand bad taste. But what it lacks is a strong sense of humor."[19]
Maurice Yacowar wrote for the St. Catharines Standard, "The basic tone is of an absurd, catastrophic and banal society approached with detachment and understatement. Warhol remains one of the truly seminal figures in 1970s culture. The film is rich in detail."[20]
Joe Baltake of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote, "Director Johnson … stresses all the perversity and seediness inherent to the subject matter, adding even further color to it with some deadpan humor and touched of Grand Guignol … and regardless of what you might think of it, you'll have to agree that Carroll Baker's performance is the titanic supporting structure here."[21]
Johnson's mentor Paul Morrissey considered it "a good movie. Extremely irreverent, maybe a little too much so. It came out a little harsh. All the characters are terrible. Nobody's sympathetic. But Jed did a very good job, and it's undeniably funny."[22]
Andy Warhol was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).
Valerie Jean Solanas was an American radical feminist known for the SCUM Manifesto, which she self-published in 1967, and her attempt to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968.
Paul Joseph Morrissey was an American film director, known for his early association with Andy Warhol. His most famous films include Flesh (1968), Trash (1970), Heat (1972), Flesh for Frankenstein (1973), and Blood for Dracula (1974), all starring Joe Dallesandro, 1971's Women in Revolt and the 1980's New York trilogy Forty Deuce (1982), Mixed Blood (1985), and Spike of Bensonhurst (1988).
I Shot Andy Warhol is a 1996 biographical drama film about Valerie Solanas' life and her relationship with Andy Warhol. The film marked the feature film directorial debut of Canadian director Mary Harron. The film stars Lili Taylor as Valerie, Jared Harris as Andy Warhol, and Martha Plimpton as Valerie's friend Stevie. Stephen Dorff plays Warhol superstar Candy Darling. John Cale of The Velvet Underground wrote the film's score despite protests from former band member Lou Reed. Yo La Tengo plays an anonymous band that is somewhat reminiscent of the group.
Trash is a 1970 American drama film directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Warhol superstars Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlawn and Jane Forth. The film features graphic scenes of intravenous drug use, sex, and frontal nudity.
Flesh is a 1968 American film directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro as a hustler working on the streets of New York City. It highlights various Warhol superstars, in addition to being the film debuts of both Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling. Also appearing are Geraldine Smith as Joe's wife and Patti D'Arbanville as her lover.
Women in Revolt is a 1971 American satirical film produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey. It was initially released as Andy Warhol's Women. The film stars Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, and Holly Woodlawn, three trans women and superstars of Warhol's Factory scene. It also features soundtrack music by John Cale.
Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging.
Blood for Dracula is a 1974 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey, and starring Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Maxime McKendry, Stefania Casini, Arno Juerging and Vittorio de Sica. Upon its initial 1974 release in West Germany and the United States, Blood for Dracula was released as Andy Warhol's Dracula.
The Los Angeles International Film Exposition, also called Filmex, was an annual Los Angeles film festival held in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was the predecessor of the American Film Institute's Los Angeles International Film Festival. After the final Filmex festival in 1983, the founders/organizers of the festival devoted their attentions to developing a new nonprofit cultural organization, the American Cinematheque, which they created to be a permanent year-round film festival in Los Angeles.
Heat is a 1972 American comedy drama film written and directed by Paul Morrissey, produced by Andy Warhol, scored by John Cale, and starring Joe Dallesandro, Sylvia Miles and Andrea Feldman. The film was conceived by Warhol as a parody of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. It is the final installment of the "Paul Morrissey Trilogy" produced by Warhol, following Flesh (1968) and Trash (1970).
Susan Blond is an American publicist. She is the owner of entertainment and lifestyle publicity agency Susan Blond, Inc.
Jed Johnson was an American interior designer and film director. TheNew York Times hailed Johnson as "one of the most celebrated interior designers of our time."
L'Amour, also known as Andy Warhol's L'Amour, is a 1972 underground film written and directed by Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol. The film stars Donna Jordan, Michael Sklar, Jane Forth, and Max Delys.
American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol directed and produced more than 600 films between 1963 and 1976. Since 1984, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and worked to preserve, restore, exhibit, and distribute Warhol's underground films. In 2014, the MoMA began a project to digitize films previously unseen and to show them to the public.
San Diego Surf is a 1968 feature film directed by Andy Warhol. The film stars Viva, Taylor Mead, Joe Dallesandro, Ingrid Superstar, Tom Hompertz, Eric Emerson, Nawana Davis, Michael Boosin, and Louis Waldon.
Geraldine Smith is an American actress. She is best known for having been a Warhol superstar, starring in the film Flesh (1968).
Patricia Ann Ast was an American actress and model. She was best known for starring in Andy Warhol films and being a Halston model and muse in the 1970s.
Pat Hackett is an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. Hackett was a close friend and collaborator of pop artist Andy Warhol. They co-authored the books POPism: The Warhol Sixties (1980) and Andy Warhol's Party Book (1988). She also edited TheAndy Warhol Diaries (1989). Hackett was an editor for Interview magazine and she co-wrote the screenplay for the film Bad (1977).
On June 3, 1968, artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol was shot by radical feminist writer Valerie Solanas at The Factory in New York City.
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