Marvel Comics Movies-Howard the Duck
65Howard the Duck (1986)
The Marvel comic book character Howard the Duck was created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik.
Howard first appeared in the December 1973 issue of the comic book Adventure into Fear #19.
I really liked the character.
But I could not for the life of me figure out why Marvel decided to use this as their first comic book movie.
And after all these years, I still can't.
The film version of Howard the Duck came out in 1986.
It was directed by Willard Huyck (this was the last movie he directed...go figure) and it was produced by Lucasfilm and Universal Pictures.
Yes, Lucasfilm.
Howard was originally intended to be an animated feature (which probably would have made more sense), but Universal studio wanted a big, live action blockbuster for the summer, so it was changed.
When it was changed to live action, George Lucas's buddy John Landis was tapped to direct this film. But after reading the script, Landis backed out saying that the car chases were too close to the ones he did in his 1980 film, The Blues Brothers.
I think it was just because he read the script.
It starred Lea Thompson as Beverly Switzler, Jeffrey Jones as Dr. Walter Jenning, and Tim Robbins as Phil Blumburtt.
Howard was portrayed by midget Ed Gale and voiceover artist Chip Zien.
It's rumored that Phobe Cates, Tori Amos and The Go Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle all wanted the part of Beverly.
The film was, to say the least, downed by critics.
It won four Razzies.
Worst Picture, Worst New Star, Worst Visual Effects, and Worst Screenplay.
It beat such cinematic greats as Under The Cherry Moon, Cobra and Shanghi Surprise.
What really amazes me is why this movie fell.
I mean it was done by Lucasfilm, the special effects were by Industrial Light and Magic, the soundtrack was by John Barry (with additional music composed by Thomas Dolby) and Lea Thompson was in it.
That was 1980s gold.
Imagine if it had been Spiderman done then with this kind of backing.
Of course now Howard the Duck has made it onto the revered list of Cult movies.
Some see it as good because it's just so bad.
The movie was bootlegged numerous times on VHS until it was finally released on DVD on March 10, 2009.
And if you really want to see Howard The Duck, you can watch the whole movie for free on Hulu.
http://www.hulu.com/howard-the-duck
Maybe now that Disney has bought Marvel, they'll be a new Howard the Duck movie!
::shudder::
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Mike Lickteig says:
2 weeks ago
I really liked Howard the Duck in the comics, and enjoyed it enough that I tolerated the movie. In some ways it might have actually been ahead of its time--what would Howard be like as a 21st century film? In other ways, I think Howard just didn't translate well to the big screen. I mean, let's face it--some of the best Howard comics had him facing villains like the Deadly Space Turnip, the Hellcow, and Winky-Man. It was meant as a farce, but farce in the movies often translates into failure.
By the way, I had a friend who worked for the theaters at the time, and she knew of my fondness for Howard. As a result, I have a movie theater stand-up poster of Howard's beak coming out of the egg--the kind of poster/sign they would stand up in the lobbies. It's about four feet tall on poster board and stood in the corner of my living room for years. It's in the closet now, but still one of my prized possessions!