thoroughly awful

I thought enough time had gone by - yipes! more than 40 years - that I'd give it a second chance.

I'm referring to George Roy Hill's dismal "Thoroughly Modern Millie," the 1967 pseudo-musical which Turner Classic Movies disinterred - a premiere showing for TCM - at 8 p.m. last night, Friday, 26 February.

Let's just say that it hasn't improved with age.

In fact, it's now much worse, particuarly considering that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences saw fit to hand it seven - count 'em - seven undeserved Oscar nominations, including one for Carol Channing's embarrassing supporting performance. (There's a reason why some stage performers never make it as film personalities.)

Aside from the film being a truly annoying example of forced fun, it remains jaw-droppingly racist. Its presentation of Asians, as personified by the wince-producing performances of Jack Soo and Pat Morita, is unconscionable - almost as unwatchable as Mickey Rooney's notorious turn in Blake Edwards' "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961).

What's disconcerting is that "Millie" was produced by Ross Hunter who presented Asians in such a fabulous light six year earlier in Henry Koster's film of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song" (1961), a movie musical whose entire cast (except for one Caucasian in a brief supporting role, Herman Rudin, who played the vagrant who robs Benson Fong) is composed of Asian performers, including Soo.

In "Flower Drum Song," Hunter and Koster nudged the talented Soo towards a winning performance that's best described as Martinesque (as in Dean Martin). One can only guess why Hunter and Hill elected to diminish Soo (and Morita) in such a cruel way in "Millie." It was shameful.

Anyway, it's still a lousy movie.