The Last Place I Would Want To Live In

 

Have you ever been in a place, or watched a movie, where you thought that this town or area would be the last place in the world where you would ever want to reside in? I have been through some towns that looked so boring that I was happy when I pushed the metal to the pedal. There are some pretty blecchy places I have seen in movies that made me wonder what on earth would make a person want to live there ( Dorothy’s home in Kansas is one. I’d want to stay in Oz) and so I chose 3 films that I would not even stop to take a pee.

1. BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK-1955

This is an excellent film about war heroes and rascists who bully the few nice people who live in this dusty, dreary town. Spencer Tracy plays a war vet, with one arm, who is trying to locate Komoko, a Japanese man who had a nearby farm, to give him a war medal that his son earned. Unfortunately, Tracy meets up with some real nasty, rascist men who will do anything to stop Tracy from meeting Komoko. The dreariness of the town, the dust and sand helps propel the starkness and evil that lives in this town.

2. BAGDAD CAFE-1987

I would love to see this film again because it is such an odd, quirky film that appeals to me. A German couple are having an argument while driving through the desert in Southern U.S. They are tourists but this lady has had enough and demands her husband stop the car, which he does and she gets out, slamming the door, leaving him and ending up at this restaurant, motel in the middle of nowhere’s ville. When she enters the restaurant, she is greeted very coldly by the proprietor, a woman, who has been through too many events in her life and has ended at the end of the road in the Mohave desert. Soon, this uptight German Hausfrau get down to doing what Germans do best…clean! I’m not kidding, Germans know how to clean…they dust every day, wash the floors daily and scrub them weekly and clean the windows every week. My mom was German so, I know what I am talking about. You watch as this German Hausfrau starts cleaning every motel room and gradually, ingratiates herself with the locals and is being wooed by a former Hollywood Set designer turned painter who lives in an old air streamer, played so well by Jack Palance. Her and the owner soon become good friends and this German lady brings in the crowds with her infectious personality and her magic tricks. It was a sleeper hit when it came out and deserves to be more widely known. It is a delight and there was even a short-lived TV show that starred Whoopi Goldberg.

3. TREMORS-1990

This is a dumb movie but one, for some reason, I can watch over and over…tell me why and I can’t. It stars Kevin Bacon and Fred Wardas a couple of handymen who live in this desolate town called Perfection. They can’t wait to leave this town( I can’t blame them) and talk about it while in the General store/restaurant/post office owned by the opportunistic Walter Chang. The 2 decide to leave but come across an old man perched up on a hydro pole, dead. The local doctor says he died from dehydration but, for some reason would not return to the ground. Soon after, the 2 come across a sheep herder and his sheep, dead. They head back to town bringing with them some worm like creature attached to Bacon's truck. They realize they need to go for help but they must find the local student who is studying seismic activity. They find out that the only road out is blocked so they get back on their horses, yup, horses and take off before the horses rail up throwing them off and the horses take off. Up from the ground, rises a giant ugly worm( that probably looks like Trump’s colon) tht tries to et them. They take off and end up in an aqueduct saving themselves because the ugly worm rams right into it and dies. There they meet up with the student who sees the worm and surmises that there are 3 more from what she has been following with her equipment. They soon find themselves running from another worm and end up on a bunch of rocks which the worms cannot penetrate. They find a way to get out of there and back to town telling the residents about these worms. The locals soon realize they must crawl up on the roofs of their homes while one couple, one scary, survivalist couple, played so well by Michael Gross and Reba McIntyre, venture to their homes while where they own way, way, way too many guns. These worms follow the trio back to their town and devise a way to destroy the town to eat the residents. It is gross…the stinky, slimy worms, but it is funny and enjoyable if you want to sit and watch something and not think. This is one town that is anything but perfection.

Can you tell I would never want to live in the desert? Which desolate town or place would you never want to live in?