{"id":8914,"date":"2009-08-07T15:43:42","date_gmt":"2009-08-07T22:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8914"},"modified":"2020-12-20T21:20:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T04:20:40","slug":"sextette-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8914","title":{"rendered":"Sextette (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Marriage is like a book: the whole story takes place between the covers.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster-197x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-58736\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster-197x300.png 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster-672x1024.png 672w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster-84x128.png 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster-177x270.png 177w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sextette-Poster.png 715w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn aging film star named Marlo Manners (Mae West) arrives in London with her sixth new husband, Lord Barrington (Timothy Dalton), eager to consummate their marriage &#8212; but a host of issues, some engineered by her loyal assistant (Dom DeLuise), get in the way.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Actors and Actresses<\/li>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>George Hamilton Films<\/li>\n<li>Mae West Films<\/li>\n<li>May-December Romance<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Newlyweds<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptation<\/li>\n<li>Ringo Starr Films<\/li>\n<li>Tony Curtis Films<\/li>\n<li>Walter Pidgeon Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary&#8217;s review of this infamous cult movie &#8212; Mae West&#8217;s final film, made when she was 85 years old &#8212; is rather cursory. He notes simply that West &#8220;doesn&#8217;t deliver her lines badly, thank goodness&#8221;, and that while &#8220;it&#8217;s an awful picture&#8221;, it &#8220;could have been even worse&#8221;. However, I must say that I&#8217;m not quite in agreement. While there are plenty of truly <u>awful<\/u> movies listed in Peary&#8217;s book &#8212; movies that should never, under any circumstance, be associated with the words &#8220;must see&#8221; &#8212; this actually isn&#8217;t one of them. Instead, <em>Sextette<\/em> is a prototypical &#8220;bad movie&#8221; &#8212; a movie so outrageous in conceit and execution that its very existence gives one pause (how? why? what?!) and some measure of bizarre enjoyment. <\/p>\n<p>As narratives go, the story &#8212; based on a play written by West &#8212; isn&#8217;t really all that terrible: it&#8217;s a zany farce full of double entendres, sexual innuendos, and innocuous musical numbers, and director Ken Hughes moves everything along at a fast clip. The &#8220;problem&#8221;, of course, is in the casting of West herself, whose advanced age defies our sense of sexual &#8220;normalcy&#8221; and &#8220;propriety&#8221;. Could <em>Sextette<\/em> be viewed as the <em>ultimate<\/em> May\/Mae-December romance? It&#8217;s too bad, in a way, that West&#8217;s &#8220;real&#8221; age &#8212; or even something reasonably close to it &#8212; is never made explicit in the film, because a movie about an <u>acknowledged<\/u> octogenarian sexpot-actress would <u>really<\/u> be something!<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, West&#8217;s performance here is passable at best &#8212; and while it lies at the center of the film&#8217;s fame, it&#8217;s sadly (almost comically) one-note. She struts creakedly across the elaborate sets, attempting to infuse some pizazz into her lines (many of which are cribbed directly from her earlier films), but since she only has one frozen expression, and a few familiar mannerisms (gently patting her hilarious pouf of a blonde wig, pursing her lips, rolling her eyes upwards), she&#8217;s more like a moving, talking statue than a viable living creature &#8212; wind her up and she&#8217;ll spout quips like the following (chosen at random as a representative sample):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Dalton<\/strong>: Oh darling, I think I&#8217;ve pulled a muscle.<br \/>\n<strong>West<\/strong>: Don&#8217;t worry &#8211; I&#8217;ll straighten it out for you. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Faring much, much better than West are her numerous male co-stars, who deserve major kudos for being so incredibly game. Dom DeLuise is amusingly sincere as West&#8217;s loyal assistant (secretly in love with her, as he reveals in a singing solo), while young Dalton has <u>completely<\/u> redeemed himself in my eyes after the debacle of his early performance as Heathcliff in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7960\"><em>Wuthering Heights<\/em> (1970)<\/a>. He&#8217;s a Bond who can sing! (anyone who&#8217;s seen Pierce Brosnan in <em>Mamma Mia!<\/em> will understand the reference). Meanwhile, both Tony Curtis and George Hamilton seem to be having great fun making brief appearances as two of West&#8217;s former husbands (both, naturally, still in love\/lust with her). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dom DeLuise as Dan Turner<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-deluise.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-deluise.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8920\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Timothy Dalton as Lord Barrington<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-dalton.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-dalton.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8919\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Dalton singing &#8220;Love Will Keep Us Together&#8221; to his new bride<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-next-next.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-next-next.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8921\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tony Curtis as &#8220;Alexei&#8221; (Husband #2)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-curtis.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-curtis.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8922\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>George Hamilton as &#8220;Husband #5&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-segal.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-segal.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8923\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>West visiting a room full of male Olympian gymnasts<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-gymnasts.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/sextette-gymnasts.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8924\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes &#8212; it&#8217;s simply too much of a bizarre cult experience to miss sitting through at least once. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0078238\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/06\/08\/archives\/screen-mae-west-87-does-an-encoretrying-for-6th-marriage.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.badmovies.org\/movies\/sextette\/\">BadMovies.org Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shockcinemamagazine.com\/sextette.html\">Shock Cinema Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Marriage is like a book: the whole story takes place between the covers.&#8221; Synopsis: An aging film star named Marlo Manners (Mae West) arrives in London with her sixth new husband, Lord Barrington (Timothy Dalton), eager to consummate their marriage &#8212; but a host of issues, some engineered by her loyal assistant (Dom DeLuise), get in the way. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Actors and Actresses Comedy George Hamilton Films Mae West Films May-December Romance Musicals Newlyweds Play Adaptation Ringo&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=8914\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8914"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58738,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914\/revisions\/58738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}