Rock Hudson's Home Movies Movie Review

Unless it's spoofing old educational short subjects, Mystery Science Theater 3000 drives me nuts. I don't care if that guy and the robots want to yak through Dating Do's and Don'ts, but I want to HEAR Beverly Garland and Marie Windsor, not THEM, okay? I don't think I'd mind watching movies with Mark Rappaport, though. He does his homework, he knows how to read a film, and he's funny. How many people can sit through a marathon of Rock Hudson movies, anyway? But this 63-minute study, drily narrated by Eric Farr, shows the films in the context of the time in which they were made. Even at kiddie matinees, I used to wonder why Rock Hudson's he-man status was the joke of so many films, like he was such a hunk that he couldn't possibly be a mama's boy or pregnant or even an indoor guy!!! In film after film, these same themes would sneak up again and again, until 1966's Seconds, still one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. But as Rappaport's illuminating commentary reveals, Seconds, too, was more of the same, only in a threatening rather than comedic vein. The clips are well chosen and Rappaport's thoughtful, witty analysis is interesting to hear, whether or not you agree with all of it. Rappaport would go on to examine the career of another ill-fated star in From the Journals of Jean Seberg (narrated by Mary Beth Hurt). At press time, an exploration of Howard Hughes was in the planning stages.

1992 63m/C Eric Farr; D: Mark Rappaport; W: Mark Rappaport. VHS