The Fifty Worst Films of All Time

"The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" is a 1978 book by Harry Medved, with Randy Dreyfuss and Michael Medved. This book represents their subjective nominations for the 50 worst sound films ever made, in alphabetical order. The book features a story synopsis for each film, the authors' opinion of its quality, and reprints a selection of contemporary reviews of the films.

The book intentionally excludes silent films because the authors consider them to be "a separate and unique artform and that judging them alongside talkies would be like weighing apples together with oranges". The exhaustive book limits the foreign films considered to only those distributed in the United States, judging it unfair to evaluate local obscurities denied an international release alongside mainstream Hollywood products, while realizing that it would not only be difficult for the authors to view the films, but unlikely that any readers would ever come across them.

Other books "celebrating" bad cinema

The Medveds later continued this theme of "celebrating" bad cinema with "The Golden Turkey Awards" which again showcased "bad" and obscure films, and "The Hollywood Hall of Shame" which examined in some detail several major Hollywood "financial" disasters, focusing on both the artistic treatments coupled with the technical and organizational ineptitude in the mounting of these films.

The films

In the book, the films were listed in alphabetical order.

* Abraham Lincoln (1930)
* Airport 1975 (1974)
* Alakazam the Great (1961)
* The Ambushers (1967)
* The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
* At Long Last Love (1975)
* The Big Noise (1944)
* Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)
* Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
* Che! (1969)
* The Conqueror (1956)
* Daughter of the Jungle (1949)
* Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946)
* Dondi (1961)
* Eegah (1962)
* (1977)
* Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1973)
* The Goldwyn Follies (1938)
* The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
* Hurry Sundown (1967)
* Ivan the Terrible, Part I and Part II (1946)
* Jamaica Inn (1939)
* Jet Attack (1958)
* Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1971)
* King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)
* The Last Movie (1971)
* Last Year at Marienbad (1962)
* Lost Horizon (1973)
* Myra Breckinridge (1970)
* New Moon (1940)
* North West Mounted Police (1940)
* The Omen (1976)
* Parnell (1937)
* A Place for Lovers (1969)
* Return of Sabata (1972)
* Robot Monster (1953)
* Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
* Say One For Me (1959)
* Solomon and Sheba (1959)
* Spinout (1966)
* The Story of Mankind (1957)
* Swamp Women (1955)
* Swing Your Lady (1937)
* The Terror of Tiny Town (1938)
* That Hagen Girl (1947)
* Three on a Couch (1966)
* The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
* Trouble Man (1972)
* Twilight on the Rio Grande (1948)
* Valley of the Dolls (1967)
* Zabriskie Point (1970)

See also

* Films considered the worst ever

References

* Medved, Harry, and Randy Dreyfuss. "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (And How They Got That Way)". 1978, Warner Books. ISBN 0-445-04139-0.
* Medved, Harry, and Randy Dreyfuss. "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (And How They Got That Way)". 1978 (1980 Reprint), Angus & Robertson Publishers, ISBN 0-207-95891-2 (cased edition), 0 207 95892 0 (limp edition).
* Medved, Michael. "The Fifty Worst Films Of All Time". 1980. ISBN 0-449-04139-5.