Bunny O'Hare

Bette 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.

As 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.

This 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.

In 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.

Bunny 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.