The Greatest Camp Scenes and Films in Cinematic History

[DonRocks]

Urban dictionary defines "camp" as well as anyone:

Camp: adj. "being so extreme that it has an amusing and perversely sophisticated appeal."

And then it goes on to cite The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) as an example (appropriately, I will add).

I cannot, in good conscience, recommend that anyone watch the entire film, "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971), but the opening scene when Dr. Phibes (played by Vincent Price) is playing "War March Of The Priests" (composed in 1845 by Felix Mendelssohn (*)) on the organ is just so ... so ... well, it is "camp" at its finest. And they simply could not have chosen a better song - it's perfect.

And it gets even creepier after the organ piece is over, so you may want to keep watching for a few minutes.

Note that during a couple parts of this, Price's intentional overacting has him raising both hands in the air while the music plays on (which is impossible) - it is hilariously executed. The movie, for all except the most hardcore viewers, isn't worth the investment in time, but the song itself is worth knowing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6FPbt8zB48

(*) This is the piece played by an actual organist. One of the comments says, "Dr. Phibes would be proud of you."

[JPW]

After Rocky Horror, I'd have to go with the original La Cage aux Folles (1978).

[DonRocks]

After Rocky Horror, I'd have to go with the original La Cage aux Folles (1978).

So far we've got three movies mentioned - from 1971, 1975, and 1978. Could the 70s have been the Golden Age of Camp?

[Al Dente]

Dug this up on the web. I'm not sure I agree all these films are camp. Would "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" or "Young Frankenstein" meet that criteria?

http://www.metroweekly.com/2012/02/13-camp-films-everyone-should/

There's a lot of John Waters of course.

[PappyVanWise]

I guess the question is were they camp in the 70s, or do we view them as campy now 40 years later?  Vincent Price was always considered pretty campy, I imagine.  I'll throw a movie from 1980 in here The Forbidden Zone.  A black and white acid trip from Richard Elfman, one of the founders of Oingo Boingo and younger brother of noted film composer and Bridget Fonda spouse, Danny Elfman.

The movie is filled with musical sequences from Oingo Boingo, so narrowing down the campiest would prove difficult.  A quick YouTube search showed a bunch of clips, some have even been colorized.  I'll include this link, not everything is safe for work, but a lot of its there.  The Forbidden Zone on YouTube

[The Hersch]

One of the campiest movies I can think of is another Vincent Price picture called Theatre of Blood, released in 1973. Vincent Price plays a bad, hammy Shakespearian actor, which is a pretty damned campy premise right there. Loads of fun, gruesome murders modeled after murder scenes in Shakespeare plays, played mostly for laughs. A standout and super-campy performance by Robert Morely as one of the murder victims. It's not in itself a great film, by any means, but among camp films it's a favorite of mine. Netflix, which I've just now discovered has rolled out a greatly modified web site, with all the changes that I've noticed being for the worse (way to go, Netflix!), doesn't have it on DVD or streaming. Amazon has both. I'm thinking of switching.

The only film that I consider great that is also very campy is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? from 1962. This is one of my very favorite movies, up there with The Maltese Falcon and High Noon. The film that it's rather obviously based on, Sunset Boulevard, 1950, is kind of campy itself, but I don't consider it a great film. (Another sort-of remake of Sunset Boulevard that's a lot of fun is Heat, aka Andy Warhol's Heat, 1972, with the fabulous Sylvia Miles and the, er, ineffable Joe Dallesandro. This, too, is campy.) If you've never seen Baby Jane, you really owe it to yourself to repair that flaw in your knowledge of western civilization.

[DonRocks]

One of the campiest movies I can think of is another Vincent Price picture called Theatre of Blood, released in 1973. Vincent Price plays a bad, hammy Shakespearian actor, which is a pretty damned campy premise right there. Loads of fun, gruesome murders modeled after murder scenes in Shakespeare plays, played mostly for laughs. A standout and super-campy performance by Robert Morely as one of the murder victims. It's not in itself a great film, by any means, but among camp films it's a favorite of mine. Netflix, which I've just now discovered has rolled out a greatly modified web site, with all the changes that I've noticed being for the worse (way to go, Netflix!), doesn't have it on DVD or streaming. Amazon has both. I'm thinking of switching.

The only film that I consider great that is also very campy is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? from 1962. This is one of my very favorite movies, up there with The Maltese Falcon and High Noon. The film that it's rather obviously based on, Sunset Boulevard, 1950, is kind of campy itself, but I don't consider it a great film. (Another sort-of remake of Sunset Boulevard that's a lot of fun is Heat, aka Andy Warhol's Heat, 1972, with the fabulous Sylvia Miles and the, er, ineffable Joe Dallesandro. This, too, is campy.) If you've never seen Baby Jane, you really owe it to yourself to repair that flaw in your knowledge of western civilization.

I remember "Theater of Blood," or should I say, I remember seeing it. I was 12 years old, my dad enjoyed cheap horror films, and he took me to see it in the theater on release. 

 The only thing I specifically remember (other than that Vincent Price was in it) is that some older man (whom I vaguely recall as being a familiar character actor, and who may have been in some British Airways ads) was forced to eat his poodle baked in some type of casserole dish, maybe with a funnel shoved into his mouth, I'm not sure.

This brings up an interesting question. If these types of movies - which are essentially short stories, each ending with an outrageous murder - are considered "camp," what about a movie such as "Seven," which has mostly the same structure? If not, why not? Maybe because Seven was well-financed enough so that it appeared more "slick," and tried (unsuccessfully, I will add) to take itself seriously? It is incredibly difficult to believe that this film grossed $327 million, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

The evolution of torture porn (which, with Tom Six, has reached its wretched, inevitable apex) - that's all these were and nothing more.

And no, I wasn't trying to be clever with Seven and Six.

[SeanMike]

When you said greatest camp scenes of all time I immediately thought:

[DonRocks]

When you said greatest camp scenes of all time I immediately thought:

Oh, SeanMike, how could you.

This pretty much defines "NSFW."

[SeanMike]

Not if you work near me. (I've been eating nothing but chili for almost 24 hours.)

[The Hersch]

The only thing I specifically remember (other than that Vincent Price was in it) is that some older man (whom I vaguely recall as being a familiar character actor, and who may have been in some British Airways ads) was forced to eat his poodle baked in some type of casserole dish, maybe with a funnel shoved into his mouth, I'm not sure.

That was Robert Morley, whom I mentioned. His character, a rather effeminate gourmand, calls his toy poodles his "babies". He's force-fed some sort of toy-poodle casserole as a parallel to Queen Tamora being fed the flesh of her dead sons baked in a pie in Titus Andronicus.

[The Hersch]

I found a clip of the Robert Morley scene in Theatre of Blood here. The video quality is pretty awful, but the scene is watchable. I, too, remembered the dish as a casserole, but it's actually a pie. The funnel thing they use to cram the food (his dogs) down the Morley character's throat appears to be an old fashioned style of gavage tube used in foie gras production.

[DonRocks]

I found a clip of the Robert Morley scene in Theatre of Blood here. The video quality is pretty awful, but the scene is watchable. I, too, remembered the dish as a casserole, but it's actually a pie. The funnel thing they use to cram the food (his dogs) down the Morley character's throat appears to be an old fashioned style of gavage tube used in foie gras production.

I found one earlier, too.

If what you say about the funnel is true, that is brilliant.

And the guy presenting the dish looks a *lot* like Jean-Louis Palladin.

[The Hersch]

And the guy presenting the dish looks a *lot* like Jean-Louis Palladin.

SPOILER AHEAD!

That "guy" is actually Diana Rigg.

[DonRocks]

SPOILER AHEAD!

That "guy" is actually Diana Rigg.

Bullocks. This has been rigged.

[DonRocks]

On 5/28/2014 at 2:09 PM, DonRocks said:

So far we've got three movies mentioned - from 1971, 1975, and 1978. Could the 70s have been the Golden Age of Camp?

Would this qualify as camp? (NSFA)

(Not Safe For Anything)

Believe it or not, I saw this at Beltsville Drive-In with three high school buddies (in case anyone is wondering, the three principal characters in this scene are our hero, Flesh Gordon, Dr. Flexi Jerkoff (pronounced "Yerkoff," you perverts!), and, of course, the dreaded Penisaurus (*)).

And yes, there's a collector's edition:

(*) Actually, this *isn't* the Penisaurus - that's an entirely different monster in another scene.

Also, to keep this on a higher intellectual plane (for those who have been following our Troilus and Cressida analysis), go to the Wikipedia entry and do a search on "pandering."