Big Stars Whose Last Movie Is Generally Regarded As The Worst Movie Of Their Career

Submitted by flfrleta on Fri, 08/25/2006 - 02:54
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  • BIG
  • STARS,
  • little
  • LAST MOVIES.
  • Some in film were fortunate and finished their career on a high note... Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, Clark Gable in The Misfits, John Wayne in The Shootist. Those are a few of the fortunate ones.
  • Then there are the others... The ones whose swan song was arguably the worst film of their career. Here are the depths of filmmaking into which sank some of those unfortunate ones.
  • A career high precedes the career low last movie. The IMDb user rating for both movies is shown in parenthesis following the films year of release.

  • Abbott and Costello

  • The Height: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (7.4)
  • The Depth: Dance With Me Henry (1956) (4.8)
  • Costello plays an amusement park owner who hires a friend (Abbott) with a huge debt to pay the mob.

  • Charles Chaplin

  • The Height: Modern Times (1936) (8.5)
  • The Depth: A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) (5.6)
  • Chaplin wrote and directed this story of a married U.S. politician who falls in love with a Russian countess he meets on an ocean liner en route from Hong Kong to Hawaii.

  • Ronald Colman

  • The Height: A Tale of Two Cities (1935) (7.9)
  • The Depth: The Story of Mankind (1957) (4.6)
  • Colman plays a heavenly being chosen as the counsel for the defense of mankind in a trial that pits him against the devil.

  • Joan Crawford

  • The Height: Johnny Guitar (1954) (7.5)
  • The Depth: Trog (1970) (3.2)
  • Crawford plays an anthropologist studying and teaching the prehistoric missing link between man and ape.

  • Bette Davis

  • The Height: All About Eve (1950) (8.4)
  • The Depth: Wicked Stepmother (1989) (3.1)
  • Davis plays a witch whose evil powers spell trouble for her new family.

  • Errol Flynn

  • The Height: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (8.2)
  • The Depth: Cuban Rebel Girls (1959) (2.9)
  • Flynn plays a reporter in Cuba covering the exploits of a gang of teenage girls fighting for Fidel Castro during the revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista's regime.

  • Glenn Ford

  • The Height: The Big Heat (1953) (7.9)
  • The Depth: Raw Nerve (1991) (3.5)
  • Ford plays a police captain who suspects a man with visions of murders of being a serial killer.

  • Boris Karloff

  • The Height: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (8.1)
  • The Depth: Shortly before his death in Feb. 1969, Karloff filmed scenes in California, USA that were incorporated into four low-budget Mexican produced movies...
  • The Fear Chamber (1971) (3.8)
  • Kaloff plays a scientist who finds a semi-living rock that needs human sacrifices to survive.
  • House of Evil (1971) (3.1)
  • Karloff plays organ music while killer toys murder his heirs one by one.
  • Sinister Invasion (1971) (3.1)
  • Karloff plays a scientist who shoots his ray machine into space and attracts body-possessing aliens to Earth.
  • Snake People (1971) (2.5)
  • Karlof plays a plantation owner on an island where voodoo is practiced and an evil priest is worshipped.

  • Ruby Keeler

  • The Height: Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) (8.1)
  • The Depth: Sweetheart of the Campus (1941) (3.4)
  • Keeler plays a tap dancer who hopes to save a college from financial ruin by starting a nightclub on campus.
  • Keeler returned to movies for cameos in two more duds... The Phynx (1970) (3.7) and Beverly Hills Brats (1989) (3.9).

  • Gene Kelly

  • The Height: Singin' in the Rain (1952) (8.4)
  • The Depth: Xanadu (1980) (4.3)
  • Kelly plays benefactor to a young commercial artist who dreams of owning a disco roller rink.

  • Stanley Kramer

  • The Height: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (8.2)
  • The Depth: The Runner Stumbles (1979) (4.6)
  • Kramer directed this story set in a coal mining town about a priest charged with the murder of a young nun he'd fallen in love with.

  • Veronica Lake

  • The Height: Sullivan's Travels (1941) (7.9)
  • The Depth: Flesh Feast (1970) (1.2)
  • Lake plays a doctor whose formula for restoring one's youth is to apply flesh eating maggots to the faces of her patients.

  • Walter Matthau

  • The Height: Charade (1963) (8.0)
  • The Depth: Hanging Up (2000) (4.3)
  • Matthau plays a dying man whose middle daughter is left to care for him when his other two fail to share the responsibility.

  • Vincente Minnelli

  • The Height: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) (7.7)
  • The Depth: A Matter of Time (1976) (3.9)
  • Minnelli directed this story of a chambermaid instructed in positive thinking by a penniless contessa.

  • David Niven

  • The Height: Wuthering Heights (1939) (7.8)
  • The Depth: Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) (4.1)
  • Niven plays a thief suspected of stealing the pink panther jewel.

  • Basil Rathbone

  • The Height: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) (8.0)
  • The Depth: Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) (1.3)
  • Rathbone plays a spy working out of a thought to be deserted mansion where a trio of country singers take refuge from a storm.

  • Robert Shaw

  • The Height: Jaws (1975) (8.3)
  • The Depth: Avalanche Express (1979) (4.3)
  • Shaw plays a Russian official defecting to the West and traveling across Europe by train in a CIA attempt to lure Russian secret agents into the open.

  • Norma Shearer

  • The Height: The Women (1939) (7.8)
  • The Depth: Her Cardboard Lover (1942) (5.3)
  • Shearer plays a socialite who hires a man to pose as her lover and keep her away from an ex-beau she still loves but who treats her badly.

  • Gloria Swanson

  • The Height: Sunset Blvd. (1950) (8.6)
  • The Depth: Airport 1975 (1974) (5.0)
  • Swanson plays herself on board a 747 whose pilots were killed in a collision with a small plane.

  • Robert Taylor

  • The Height: Camille (1936) (7.5)
  • The Depth: The Day the Hot Line Got Hot (1968) (3.6)
  • Taylor plays a spy double-crossed by a double agent.

  • Mae West

  • The Height: I'm No Angel (1933) (7.1)
  • The Depth: Sextette (1978) (3.0)
  • West plays a honeymooning 80+ year old reminiscing about and running into ex-husbands and ex-lovers.

  • "I am big! It's the pictures that got small!" -- Norma Desmond

    (Gloria Swanson)

    from Sunset Blvd..
  • .
AJDaGreat08/30/2006

I think I can pretty confidently suggest Walter Matthau. Hanging Up was terrible, and it is his lowest rated movie on the IMDB.

flfrleta08/31/2006

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll add Matthau to the list.