An aging widow in New Mexico is left homeless after the bank forecloses on her property and tears down the house; she chances to meet a retired bank robber still on the lam and asks him to teach her to rob the bank which took her to the cleaners. Still-relevant sociological observations (occasionally cutting quite deep) played for TV-type yuks, a mixture which had professional critics groaning in 1971. Indeed, the outré bits of business involving the hold-ups are sloppy, and Jack Cassidy gives a grueling performance as a sleazy police lieutenant. Still, Bette Davis is very fine in the lead; natural, unglamorous and earthy, she's not a tough cookie nor a weeping willow--and when she chit-chats with Ernest Borgnine and her famous voice breaks mid-sentence, she's also endearing. Borgnine looks a bit incredulous at being caught in this scenario, but he doesn't embarrass himself and works well with Bette (their second picture together after 1956's "The Catered Affair"). In fact, most of the film is entertaining on a minor level, with something to say about oldsters and their financial plight. **1/2 from ****
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apass20 July 2009This film belongs to an enigmatic category I refer to as Extinct. No VHS or DVD release. Only a TV broadcast now and then. It deserves more, as do most extinct films: they should all be available for streaming or download on the web.
After seeing it yesterday on THIS, the new CBS digital broadcast sub-channel, I found Delaney's performance to be the highlight. Her ambivalent, playful acquiescence must epitomize the fate of countless intelligent women, even to this day. I'm no feminist, but I can empathize. She's clearly the superior cop. But the best she can do is gently nudge her male boss in the right direction. And when he errs, she can't correct him, lest he lose face. Civilization would probably be a hundred years further along by now if we humans weren't so rigidly patriarchal. Too many great women have been relegated to the sidelines. Including Delaney, whose film career apparently ended here.
Davis and Borgnine, meanwhile, help us understand the unfortunate issue of exploitative adult children. They've grown up, but they don't want to be independent. They happily parasitize their aging parents, who in Bette Davis' case, actually risk life and limb to procure infusions of cash in response to concocted, irresponsible excuses. Her progeny's utter lack of conscience was bewildering to me. I shudder to think how many elderly grandparents sympathize with Bunny's futile situation. There are probably millions of real-life parent-parasites in the world, preying upon their progenitors' unconditional affections.
This is a multifaceted film. Thanks to its stars, it's engaging too. -
bkoganbing28 December 2016In a most unusual role for Bette Davis she's playing the title role in Bunny O'Hare with her partner Ernest Borgnine from The Catered Affair. Ernie maybe doing plumbing sales now, but back when he was younger he was a notorious bank robber.
Davis is having a cash flow problem mainly because of her two parasitic children, John Astin and Reva Rose. She's constantly giving them money, especially to Astin who's a degenerate gambler. Her house has also been foreclosed because she can't pay her own mortgage.
What to do but get a new source of money. So Borgnine comes out of retirement and trains Bette. They work out a lovely disguise as a pair of hippies on a motorcycle.
Wouldn't you know it, they happen to get an investigating officer in Jack Cassidy who is a vigorous opponent of the counter culture. His absolute hatred of the protesting counterculture generation blinds him in pursuing other leads.
One weakness of Bunny O'Hare is that I cannot believe Davis and Borgnine kept using the same method in their robberies. They pull off about half a dozen or more robberies and you would think that the bank guards would be ready for it. Won't tell you what it is, but the state of New Mexico's banks are being flipped the bird.
New Mexico at the time had a Governor named David Cargo who made one of the main points of his program to attract film companies to shoot in his state. Several films of varying quality were done there and Cargo always inserted himself in a small role.
I have to classify Bunny O'Hare as one of the few full blown comedies that Bette Davis did since leaving Warner Brothers. I'm sure she did that deliberately looking for something different. She's quite a bit subdued here, even generous as the laughs go to her supporting players. Most especially Jack Cassidy and John Astin.
Bette's fans will most definitely not get the Davis they're used to, but the film is pleasant viewing with a few chuckles besides. -
Auntie_Inflammatory13 January 2017Okay...You see this description on the on-screen guide, "An elderly woman (Bette Davis) and a plumbing scavenger (Ernest Borgnine) pose as motorcycle hippies to rob the bank that evicted her"...How could you NOT set the DVR to 'record'?!
Did Bette Davis need the money or was she just having fun with this? Bank-robber is an unusual role for an older actress. It would actually be cool if there were more roles like this for women-of-a-certain-age today.
Borgnine is on-site when Davis's house is razed and offers her a ride somewhere. He tries to ditch her a couple of times but she learns of his past as a bank-robber and uses it to blackmail him into letting her stay in his camper, schooling her in Bank-robbery 101, and driving the get-away bike. He steps in to help with the first robbery when her nerves fail her. As the robberies continue, he becomes her accomplice and friend. There's the slightest hint of the potential for romance between them but it isn't really explored.
Jack Cassidy, dimples dimpling, plays the anti-hippie detective in pursuit of the duo. He seems to be enjoying himself, tossing off lines like, "...all they want to do is sit around and smoke pot, play ukuleles and let the rest of the world take care of them...I tell you, they're a threat to the very moral fiber of this country!" Joan Delaney (aka the girlfriend of the President's Analyst) is Cassidy's very young, ex-hippie assistant. John Astin plays Davis's son and is also credited as "creative consultant." What did he consult on, bank robberies? Loan sharks? The latest styles in bathrobes? Reva Rose is Davis's daughter (with a NY accent) and Herb Marlis is her near-catatonic son-in-law. There's even a "special guest appearance by Governor David Cargo", in case you're a fan of cameos by local politicians.
It's an amusing and sometimes poignant film. No, it's not Oscar-worthy but come on! Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, think you'd see Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine riding tandem on a motorcycle?! Dressed as hippies?!! Oh, no, you didn't! -
CineTigers9 August 2011I agree with all the other comments that the premise was bizarre, the plot was beyond thin, the acting hammy, and the filming and budget woefully low quality.
However, I am walking through 1960's & 1970's movies in an effort to remember and better understand how much our world has changed. The Montgomery Wards? Cars without safety bumpers, banks without safety glass, strip malls without Wal-Mart or Home Depot . . . hippies (the cinema interpretation).
But mostly the blatant sexual harassment by Jack Cassidy's character that is eventually met with nympho encouragement, an evil grin, an eye twinkle, and an implied roll in the sheets. That a writer could script and a director could film such scenes reminds me just how far we have come in some 40+ years. The jokes about "A real cop ... a man" were predictable, for guffaws. And while a low brow comedy is not reality; to a much lesser degree, not that long ago, this was. -
oscaralbert27 November 2019. . . at its outset, becoming a dangerous marked woman after her home is bull-dozed by her mortgage banker. Her worthless son is a hopeless compulsive gambler, and his bad sister is hitched to another total loser in the burnt offerings business. Though once a housewife, the bank victim feels that she is now leading a stolen life, and wonders where love has gone following the death of her spouse. With her betting-crazed son always pressing her for a payment on demand, the newly homeless wench needs a pocketful of miracles to avoid becoming just the old maid. Then she experiences a dark victory of sorts, as her toilet stool thief gradually becomes an old acquaintance. (This harried mom is no cheap Jezebel, but more of a Virgin Queen to her loo napper.) Her traveling companion never says "It's love I'm after." Instead, the working man entices that certain woman toward a border town, such as Juarez. Successfully pulling off about eight bank robberies is so big that the now-famous front page woman feels like she's enjoying all this, and Heaven, too. Though she and her bank heist pro must exercise some deception around the police lieutenant and his hippie gal special agent to avoid a stretch of human bondage in the joint, they don't have to worry about having three on a match because there's only two of them. In this our life, they conclude, the great lie is letting the fuzz take down a dead ringer so we don't have to spend something like 20,000 years in Sing-Sing.
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mark.waltz16 November 2002That, of course, is a reference to the first of two films which they did, where Bette spoke with an accent that Meryl Streep would never envy. This second film together, made 15 years after the more well remembered drama, is an obscure action comedy which didn't get enough attention to even rank a nice ad in the New York Times. (Investigating this film, I was stunned to find an ad the size of my thumb nail in microfilmed copies at my local library). Based upon the fact that the two of them were both Oscar Winners and that co-star Jack Cassidy was a popular Broadway performer, this obviously was way even below "B" grade to warrant such lack of publicity.
Reviews, of course, were no better. Bette is seen as the opening credits closed pleading with the bank not to foreclose on her home. Of course, she can't get a word in edgewise when she contacts her daughter (Reva Rose, who had just come off of playing Lucy in Off-Broadway's "Your a Good Man Charlie Brown") since the phone man disconnects her. When she calls back a second time, the cat is eating her son-in- law's breakfast with the guy sitting right there paying no attention, and the daughter has to rush off. Then, as she is finally getting around to telling her daughter what is going on, a tractor plows the house down.
Ernest Borgnine, as the plummer taking out the toilet, offers her a ride to wherever she needs to go, and before he knows it, she has basically become his guest. He tries to get rid of her, but every time he makes an attempt, she some how manages to get back in his trailer. Thanks to a bumpy ride in the back of the trailer, she learns of his past as a bank robber wanted for escaping from prison, and subtly blackmails him into training her on the art of robbing banks.
In a rather funny sequence, we see Bette going through all sorts of indignities (running in unglamorous sweats; climbing on monkey bars; and not at all looking like the actress who played all those feisty Warner Brothers heroines in the 30's and 40's.) Even Margo Channing would have never allowed herself to be profiled this way! Noticing a group of hippies protesting the Bank of New Mexico, Davis and Borgnine use their looks to disguise themselves.
Nobody seems to notice the lines around Davis's mouth which make it appear she is older, so the local police are on the look-out for young hippies. A funny note about Reva Rose's looks as Bette's daughter; She was a strange choice considering that Ms. Rose is obviously Jewish, and Ms. Davis was obviously not. It's one of those howlingly funny details not considered that make "Bunny O'Hare" comically bad.
While John Astin as her son is much more believable (Gomez Addams as Bette's son---how appropriate!), his one-dimensional portrayal seems taken from Dick Shawn's portrayal of Ethel Merman's stupid son in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".
A string of scantily clad women are on and off as the latest woman in his life, making Astin a cad the writers obviously used to make the point of how children use and depend on their parents too much, no matter what they are going through themselves. Then, there is Jack Cassidy's oh-so-stupid police commissioner. His opening scene giving a speech to his underlings is oh-so-badly written; Cassidy obviously was by this time becoming a caricatured of his off-screen persona, much like John Barrymore many years before.
When he openly sexually harasses the seemingly willing Joan Delaney (as the younger new female cop assigned to help him capture Davis and Borgnine), he just takes the character into dimensions that would have today's film audiences up in arms. Delaney is supposed to be smarter than Cassidy, but her willingness to be used in this way is destructive to her character. And the finale where all four come together is made unbelievable by what occurs. The cops are presented as buffoons, and Davis, using the money she steals to help her worthless children, isn't too bright, either. The very last scene does have a payoff in that aspect, one of the only good developments which happens towards the end.
In the early 1970's, veteran stars (Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Kate Hepburn, Olivia DeHavilland, Joan Bennett, and Bette) were all working; Hepburn and Stanwyck pretty much remained unscathed, while Bennett's "Dark Shadows" was still a hit no matter what the critics thought. DeHavilland sensibly took on smaller parts, but Crawford and Davis simply took any leading script they could get their hands on. If there were awards for "Most embarrassing role for a veteran star", Joan Crawford would have won for 1970's "Trog", and Bette would have won for 1971's "Bunny O'Hare". Watch for a chance to laugh at the buffoonery which takes 91 minutes to unravel. It's evidence that the old system of Hollywood wasn't too bad, and what was to follow this era of film trash could only get better. -
blanche-224 April 2021I'm not sure if this was a feature or a TV movie. It came off like a TV movie.
It's cute. Davis plays Bunny O'Hare, a woman whose house is not only foreclosed on, but demolished. She hooks up with Bill (Borgnine) who goes around collecting toilets and sells them in Mexico. She finds out he was a bank robber, and he's wanted, so she asks him to teach her the robbing ropes.
The two deck themselves out as hippies and motorcycle around robbing banks. The only reason Bunny is robbing banks is to help her kids - her daughter's husband is an ex-butcher trying to get back into the meat business, but he doesn't want to cut liver - he needs intensive therapy. Her son (John Astin) is a playboy who tells her he has business plans but in reality is a gambler in constant trouble with loan sharks. This is what she's wasting her time on.
Jack Cassidy has a cartoony role as a police lieutenant who would be brought up on charges in the #metoo movement. He speaks for the adults - he hates, hates hippies Nixon, another lover of my generation, adorns his walls - with Agnew.
This film had potential but really misses the mark. Davis and Borgnine are very good - she's quite subdued in the role. Borgnine is very sweet as her partner in crime. I did like the ending. However, if this wasn't a TV movie, it should have been. -
Boyo-221 August 2001As a lifelong Bette Davis fan, I have been curious to see this for a long time. In the book 'Mother Goddam', the author states that in response to Borgnine's question 'What about your family'?, Bette says 'f--k them'! So hearing her say THAT word was another reason to want to see this movie.
Well Showtime aired it yesterday morning and I was glad to have my chance to see this, but boy is it lame. There is nothing to enjoy really, not a single thing. Davis is extremely subdued and SHE DOESN'T EVEN SMOKE or scream or use any of her famous mannerisms, and this movie could've used a little something to make it less painful. Borgnine tries hard but the odds were against him from the start.
And to top it, the line I was waiting to hear was dubbed (badly, I might add)! She says 'screw them' instead..somehow fitting, but boy was I disappointed. -
planktonrules21 March 2011Even by the incredibly low standards of American-International Pictures, "Bunny O'Hare" is a very bad film--with terrible writing, terrible direction and comedy that is about as subtle as "Hee-Haw"! This is pretty sad, but what makes it worse is that this dopey film stars a duo who have earned both a Best Actress (multiple times) and Best Actor Oscars!
Bette Davis (the title character) and Ernest Borgnine star in this crap-fest. Davis, is a middle-aged housewife whose life has been turned upside down when her home and all its possessions are taken from her by the evil bank. When her good-for-nothing children call her to try to borrow money, she does exactly what any good mother would do--hold up banks with the help of a professional bank robber (Borgnine). To avoid detections, they dress as hippies and the cops are completely inept and unable to stop them.
The biggest problem with the film is the incredibly broad writing--like it was written for stupid people who couldn't understand the smallest hint at subtlety. So, when the cops chase the duo, the film makers insert banjo chase music to let everyone know it's a kooky chase. When the police (especially Jack Cassidy--whose character is too dumb to be in a "Police Academy" film) are stupid, they are sub-humanly stupid and complete reactionaries. In effect, they come off as caricatures--as do Davis' kids. None of them are the least bit real and it's sad that Davis and Borgnine (dressed as hippies) are the most believable part of the story as they rob, try drugs and experiment with 'free love'!! My question is this--were Borgnine and Davis this desperate for money that they were willing to to participate in a film they knew was terrible OR did they actually think this would be funny?! Or, did Samuel Z. Arkoff (the head of AIP) hold one of their family members hostage to force them to appear in the film?! Yes, it is THAT bad. The only way I could recommend it is if you are a bad movie buff and want to see the actors completely embarrass themselves.
By the way, this is an example of some of the kooky elements in the film. One of Davis' daughters is married to a man who is a butcher with an aversion to meat and needs 'meat therapy'. My sides are still splitting with laughter... -
mrkph24 April 2001Excellent movie, I just wish it was available on any format. The above summary is a line in the movie that I remember the most. Spoken by Bunny herself. I can't wait to see this movie again. If you like Bette, you'll like this movie.
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JoeKarlosi9 May 2008I recently had the immense pleasure of meeting Ernest Borgnine at New Jersey's Chiller Con, and he looked and sounded great at 91 years young. This inspired my friend and I to watch some Borgnine films, and he suggested this rather obscure yet terrible piece of garbage (though he meant well, and I certainly didn't mind giving it a shot). It's an unfunny "comedy" where Bette Davis shacks up in a trailer with former crook Borgnine and they decide to dress up as hippies in order to rob banks. And I don't mean just once, but several times, in the same idiotic costumes. And these banks never seem to grow wise. It's boring and uneven, and the ever-vain Jack Cassidy is a pain as a stuffy lieutenant trying to crack the case. I don't claim to have seen all of Bette Davis' greatest films at this point, but I've seen enough of her finest work to be comfortable in declaring that BUNNY O'HARE has got to be in the running as her worst film. * out of ****
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JoeytheBrit8 August 2010Bette Davis is a doting mother who, at the outset of this film, is evicted from her house because she has defaulted on her payments. The reason she is in such dire financial straits is because she is incapable of seeing what a pair of seedy, money-grubbing low-lifes her son and daughter are. After hitching a ride from Ernie Borgnine (who has sort of repossessed her toilet pan!) she blackmails him into helping her rob the bank that has thrown her out of her home.
This mess of a movie features one movie legend at a career low and one b-list star who, to me, seemed to get by on enthusiasm and likability rather than acting skill. We can only wonder what dire straits Davis herself must have been in to accept a starring role in a movie with so few redeemable aspects. The plot is almost non-existent, and a ham-fisted script gives Davis and Borgnine no opportunity to develop any kind of chemistry. But then whoever wrote this rubbish thought it would be a blast to have Davis and Borgnine dressed as hippies. A sub-plot featuring the inept detective on their case is mind-blowingly stupid. -
Plymouth-5818 April 2002Perhaps the worst Bette Davis movie ever. So cheaply shot it looks like a college production. Davis acts with the high-pitched little girl voice that she patented in the final reels of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and, boy, is it annoying. Worse, Jack Cassidy is woefully unfunny as a conservative cop who sexually harasses and finally seduces his beautiful young assistant. Davis keeps those famed eyes covered with dark glasses for about 90 percent of the time. Skip this one: no entertainment or camp value.
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Michael_Elliott10 August 2009Bunny O'Hara (1971)
** (out of 4)
Embarrassing AIP film has Bette Davis thrown out of her house by a bank so she and a former robber (Ernest Borgnine) start hitting banks so that she can support her deadbeat children. The only catch is that the elderly pair rob them while dressed as hippies, which throws off the main cop on the case. This is an extremely embarrassing film which certainly has its two Oscar-winning stars just picking up a paycheck. The film contains zero laughs and gets tiresome by the thirty-minute mark and the extremely lazy writing just makes one shake their head. The biggest problem is the writing because there's not a single well-written joke to be found here. It really seems like the top AIP guys found out they could hire Davis and Borgnine and then just built a screenplay around them. Someone must have thought it would have been funny seeing the two legends dressed up as hippies. The first time you see them it will leave a smile on your face but the screenplay doesn't offer anything else. We get countless robberies, which gets very boring after a while considering nothing new really happens with any of them. To make matters worse is Jack Cassidy as a stupid Lieutenant who keeps thinking the robbers must be young people because he thinks all young people are up to no good. All the supporting characters are quite bland but that's to be expected considering the screenplay. As far as Davis and Borgnine are concerned, hopefully they were paid well. It's so obvious that neither are really into the film as both come across rather too laid back and boring. Even in some of their less successful films they at least give off some of their wonderful energy and charm but that's not the case here. This is certainly a major misstep for both but fans might still want to check this out just to see them dressed as the hippies. Sitting through the entire film is debatable. -
cougarblue-696-80612828 December 2016Bette Davis made a few stinkers when she was no longer getting good roles, "Bunny O'Hare" will bring tears to Davis fans who recall her great performances in "All About Eve" for example and so many more. The plot is improbable as well as illogical, which would be OK in a farcical comedy, not so much in this low budget mess. The two principals are OK, they didn't write the screenplay, but the characters played by Jack Palance and the bit players, were drawn from bad stereotypes, Archie Bunker style, as well as starkly amateurish. I thought for a moment those who played the "Hippies", cops, and bank employees were right out of the 5th grade play. Maybe there was nothing left after Davis and Borgnine were hired. Aside from the just awful disaster films from the same decade, "Bunny" is as bad as it gets. If you get through this film once, you won't be back for a second helping.
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doodlesjr-896-69868413 January 2014All Young Home Buyers Should Watch This Before They Buy a Mortgage. I wish I had seen It, If I did I wouldn't have bought a House. Bette Davis Ernest Borgnine, Masters of Their Craft. An Honest View of What Hard working Americans will experience after they retire if they do not develop a solid financial plan from 18 years old on to old age. Very Entertaining Movie, I also like the message of staying away from marijuana This is were its at then Im getting the heck otta here ..lol Anyone that appreciates good movies will like this one. Not hard to follow, Great Actors with a good plot. The Banksters May they all fall too ruin, when the well runs dry.
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Cristi_Ciopron26 February 2012A trite and severely disheartening comedy from '71, 'Bunny O' Hare' stars two tired actors, Bette Davis and Borgnine, who was but a character actor, mastering one routine; and as a redneck melodrama about the misfortunes, loss and misery of the old age, 'Bunny O'Hare' is a rather cheap, unpleasant and essentially vulgar sentimental exploitation, and also, and more gravely and saddening, of geriatric exploitation, and it shows, together with countless other useless movies, that in the '70s the American cinema had already became a mindless business. It is also true this kind of movie goes right against my very notion of cinema, either as art or as _divertissement, so I'm in no position to judge it fairly.
We are supposed to laugh at Bette Davis' physical training for the bank robbery. Two old farts pass as two hippies. The satire is uninteresting (Greeley and the hippies' counterculture), the senile romance (B. Davis and Borgnine) is lousy. -
alfredpr-6961127 November 2019I will make it short, this is an insanely boring movie. Bette Davis was washed up and hungry for a role at this point. I just could not not bring myself to care for the main characters, I was hoping a bank guard would blow the top of Bunny's head off. What a travesty.
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journeygal29 November 2019I tried to be lenient when watching this but it really was a hot mess. Bette was about 62 when it was made, not quite the "elderly woman" mentioned in the TV listings. There were several plot holes and hammy acting to suffer through, making it a bit aggravating to watch. However, my goal in life is to see every movie BD appeared in. Bunny O'Hare is not an easy movie to come by. It's not available anywhere so the only way to catch it is the off-chance it's ran on TV.
The premise is that a widow named Bunny O'Hare has fallen behind on her mortgage, so the bank is repo'ing her home. Which is a standard enough plot design, but for reasons never explained, they start tearing the house down while she's still in it. I'm pretty sure, even back then, the bank would just keep the house and resell it. Why go to the trouble and expense of levelling it? And while this is going on, salvagers like Bill Green (Ernest Borgnine) are making off with the toilet and bathroom sink to "sell in Mexico".
She tried to reach her kids for help, but both calls end up with her kids asking her for money. I do not know who played her daughter Lulu but her son was played by John Astin and boy was he annoying. So Bill takes pity on Bunny and offers her a ride. When they go to get gas he tries to ditch her, but she's hard to shake. He drives a crappy old truck with a camper on the back. This camper is amazing...by the end of the movie it has become wide enough to hold two cots side-by-side with three feet of space between them! Oh, and the toilet and sink taken from Bunny's home are never seen or mentioned again. You think they'd be tripping over them, cracking their shins on them, etc. And at another point they also have Bill's motorcycle hidden back there. Ridiculous.
So she comes across a wanted poster Bill had tucked away from his days as a bank robber and she gets the wise idea to rob the bank that took her house, to get even with them. She asks him to teach her everything he knows. He protests a little, but of course eventually goes along with it. They notice a lot of hippies in the area, so they dress the part, which is how they are able to pull off so many heists. Everyone's looking for young mod kids in their 20s, not a couple of 60-somethings.
It was only supposed to be the one and done, but every time Bunny checks in with her kids they need more money. Her son is a gambler, and a lousy one at that, and her daughter is married to a butcher who has to have expensive therapy because he doesn't like meat. I know, I know, I rolled my eyes several times during this movie.
Jack Cassidy played the part of a bungling cop, Lt. Horace Greeley (yes, more eye rolling). Jack was quite the ham, not sure if it was satirical on purpose for the movie or if it's just the way he was. Either way, it was annoying. His antics would get him fired now, but back then it was okay to be sexist and give massages to his cute little cohort, J.D. Hart. He is about the dumbest cop ever, luckily she (played by Joan Delaney) is the brains of the outfit. If he would ever listen to her, they could have caught the bank robbers about half a dozen times... -
TheLittleSongbird16 March 2020Despite finding the plot completely idiotic on paper, there was no doubt about 'Bunny O'Hare' regardless. Due to my appreciation of comedy, aiming to appreciate all types (though preferring some to others) and of the cast. Not that difficult to go wrong with the brilliant Bette Davis and Ernest Borgine has also shown greatness a number of times. Loved Jack Cassidy in his 'Columbo' appearances and still hold 'The Addams Family' series with fondness (talking about John Astin).
'Bunny O Hare' does absolutely none of them justice and was to me and many others a very bad film regardless of who was in it. It may not be Davis' (who was in her twilight years at this point) very worst film or performance, 'Wicked Stepmother' will always hold that dubious distinction on both counts, but it is one of them. Not many Davis fans will be particularly proud of this as an overall film and most likely will want to watch some of her best work after to wash the bad taste looming inside the mouth. Borgnine is the least bad out of everyone here but even he has done better, there are far better representations of Astin and this is career-worst work for Cassidy.
The best and most professional performance in 'Bunny O Hare' comes from Borgnine. The only person who seems to be trying without overdoing it and with the only character that doesn't bore or annoy, you'd think that it would be Davis in both cases but not so to my very own surprise.
Some of the music is not too bad either, Bunny's open you up like a can of tomato soup is a fleeting smile-worthy moment and Cassidy does have one mildly amusing line starting with "all they want to do is sit around...".
However, Davis' heart does not seem to be in it and she is practically sleepwalking through her role here, something that she very rarely did. She has very little chemistry with Borgnine, a shame because they worked previously in 'A Catered Affair' (a vastly superior film in every way) and had plenty of that then. Astin has to work with a character that's both dull and implausible and ends up being annoying and Cassidy is practically a cartoon in a distastefully stereotypical type of role that makes the character looks like an idiot and a sleaze. The direction has very little energy or wit.
It is almost non-existent, well it is very slight at the very least, on the story front and what there is is even more idiotic than it seemed from reading the plot line. The script is just not funny and is far too over-worked, to the point it is too broad or strained. Anybody looking for any sophistication, wit or subtlety will be disappointed and best looking elsewhere. 'Bunny O Hare' even looks cheap and like it was made in a hurry in little time on little budget, that may not have been the case in real life but it came over that way here.
Overall, very bad. 3/10 -
rmreddicks1 March 2020The reviews in the title. There are worse ways to spend a dreary sunday afternoon.