Boris Karloff is nonplussed on the set of THE TERROR for the umpteenth time during a day of reshoots of, as he has come to feel, endless and rather pointless walks down the same corridor he had tred weeks before during the shooting of THE RAVEN (1963). Finally allowed to take a break he sits down in his camp chair provided by his director of the moment, Roger Corman. Karloff takes a moment to refresh his memory of the lines he must know for the next set up, and begins to make notations on the borders of his script as his co star on both epics, Jack Nicholson, kneels by the side of the great man’s chair, absorbing as much wisdom and showbiz savvy as he can for the duration of this legendary three day wonder.

Sandra Knight as the ghost who haunts the castle originally scripted as THE LADY OF THE SHADOWS.

This is one of the many now mythic stories to come out of the making of this peculiar film, sandwiched as it was between the then-current Poe pictures THE RAVEN and THE HAUNTED PALACE. We have all heard the oft told tale of time left over on the services of the venerable Mr. Karloff, not to mention the magnificent standing sets for THE RAVEN, all about to go to waste if not for the fast thinking of wunderkind Corman, never one to pass up an opportunity to make a quick return on his investments.

Although THE TERROR is not explicitly an adaptation of any story or poem written by Poe, it nonetheless shares several features and story elements with the Corman films of the Poe cycle. It makes sense then to discuss THE TERROR as if it were a Poe film, exploring the connections to the other films in the series.

THE RAVEN had wrapped on or about the eighth of October 1962, the graveyard set that appears in THE TERROR was left over from THE PREMATURE BURIAL {1962}, and the tree left standing for Sandra Knight to lean on was from THE HAUNTED PALACE, which began filming in late March 1963. Vincent Price almost made it into THE TERROR were it not for commitments elsewhere on the Art circuit for Sears and Roebuck.

Jack Nicholson and his then wife Sandra Knight.

Boris Karloff as Baron Victor Von Leppe the tormented nobleman in THE TERROR.

Karloff was available for a few days and so the role of Victor Von Leppe went to him, not realizing at the time it was to be a dual role, at least in the script that was yet to be written.

One oft-told tale involves Roger Corman assigning several of his young associates to direct different parts of THE TERROR, including Francis Coppola, Monte Hellman and Jack Hill. Such information would not have made a difference if none of these men had not gone on to have remarkable careers of their own, which of course they did. It would be impossible for so many hands to be in the mix not to create a slightly incoherent mess of a film, or did they? Time has been remarkably kind to THE TERROR, allowing some critics to compare it to Bergman’s work, not the first time mind you if you count all the reviews for MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH which say much the same thing.

Jack Hill reflects: “I don’t think anybody involved, least of all me, even gave anything that much thought…We all made jokes about nobody being able to understand the plot. And nobody cared, so long as the requisite elements – the “money scenes” – were ample. And of course, people would come to see Boris in anything”

It is well known that Corman commissioned the script for THE TERROR in a hurry, credited to both Jack Hill and Leo Gordon. Hence THE TERROR would be a bit like the FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER in that it was made from bits and pieces of Poe and Matheson mixed together. You still had the young man coming to the castle to find the young woman who may or may not be what she seems to be and so on.

THE TERROR always suffered from not having an identity. AIP could not promote it as a Poe film because it did not star Vincent Price, nor did it have a Poe title to market. It did not matter for example that they took an H.P.Lovecraft story and turned it into a Poe film because they could get away with that by using Price and one of Poe’s poems to mask the grafting on of Lovecraft to flesh out the story line. The whole thing reminded Jack Hill of the Howard Hawks production of THE BIG SLEEP, a film famous for its incoherent plot, fun though it was… Although Hill does not think the plot of THE TERROR makes total sense, he nonetheless raised the issue of incoherent narratives: “I recently reread THE BIG SLEEP with an eye to trying to figure out the story, and found that there were things in the book that simply didn’t fit together, and as a matter of fact, Chandler, when asked, didn’t know either. I tried to figure it out because I just figured Chandler had forgotten after so many years.” THE BIG SLEEP is also a good example of a film that went on to be a box-office hit regardless of whether or not it made sense. Even the critics warmed up to it despite the lack of logic in the narrative.

Karloff as Eric the imposter to the Von Leppe title.

Sandra Knight gets a grip on Karloff in the films watery climax.

Perhaps to discuss THE TERROR from the standpoint of its production history is in order. Jack Hill remembers : I was working for Roger Corman, shooting pickups, inserts, editing sound recording etc…Roger had contracted with Boris Karloff to shoot a few days on the set that had been built by AIP for another picture, without telling AIP. He shot some scenes from a script written by Leo Gordon on the set, and then assigned Francis Coppola to write additional scenes to make it into a full-length feature. I don’t recall if Leo had written a complete script or if Roger just didn’t want to use all of it, or if Leo just knocked out something quickly that could be shot on an existing set. Francis went to Big Sur to shoot his new scenes, taking Jack Nicholson and his wife Sandra Knight, along with Corman regulars Jonathan Haze, Dick Miller and Dorothy Neumann. I went along to record sound and also drove the equipment truck. It was a pretty big operation for a Corman picture, and Francis had picked some very beautiful locations. Francis had neglected to tell Al Taylor, the DP (who later shot my SPIDER BABY), to shoot day for night, with the result that much of Francis’s footage was unusable, as there was no way Al’s beautiful photography could be printed day for night.”

“As Francis had by this time moved on to mainstream studio work, Roger assigned me to write yet another new script that would use whatever I could salvage of Francis’s work and make some kind of coherent story out of it. This was difficult, as can be imagined, but after a lot of head scratching I managed to solve the problems, more or less, in true Corman fashion, and Roger assigned Monte Hellman to direct my new scenes. Then, after the material was in the can, I personally shot various inserts and pickups that were needed, and directed the looping sessions [dialogue replacement] with Jack Nicholson and some of the other players. Again I went along on the shoot as sound recordist. Roger had originally assigned me to be “producer” on this part of the production, but Monte and his friend whom he hired as production manager simply shut me out of the meetings and ignored me, even secretly informing the crew not to pay any attention to anything that I might say. Fortunately, I had caught on to this early on and just quietly did my work. This, though, is an example of the kind of jealousy that was often prevalent among employees of Roger who were in some way in competition with each other, as well as in the motion picture industry as a whole, as I later learned .”

“Finally, many months after the first scenes of the picture had been shot, Roger had yet another AIP set on a stage, and shot the few remaining scenes there, including the collapse of the castle walls, with Dennis Jakob (who later went to the Philippines with Francis on APOCALYPSE NOW as a kind of story advisor) doubling for Karloff (if you look closely in that scene, by the way, you can see the stones of the castle walls bobbing on the water that is supposedly flooding the dungeon). Contrary to the various tales told about this production that Jack Nicholson directed parts of the film, I can say categorically that that is not true. Even the small amount of actual shooting that I did would not qualify as “directing” anything other than the ARD {dialogue replacement}”

Sandra and Jack at the very end of the film ..she is leaning on the tree they used to burn Vincent Price in THE HAUNTED PALACE.

Jack Hill and Karloff on the set of the Horror stars last films done for Mexico but shot in Hollywood...this one was called at the time HOUSE OF EVIL.

I had always heard that the shooting title for THE TERROR was THE LADY OF THE SHADOWS. Jack Hill told me that was Francis’ title for his script and he was not sure if Leo Gordon used the same title or not. Hill also confirms the actual directorial assignments. By our count, Roger Corman directed roughly 52 minutes of THE TERROR’S 79:13 running time. The additional minutes go to Monte Hellman (12m55s,), Francis Coppola (11m36s), and our own Jack Hill at six seconds. The initial scenes directed by Corman were filmed in October 1962. The scenes directed by Francis Coppola were shot in January 1963 while those by Monte Hellman were filmed a few months later in May 1963, “About as long as it took for me to write a new script and prep the shoot” says Hill.

The real obstacle in making this film was putting together Leo Gordon’s story elements, largely shot by Corman, with salvageable story material written and directed by Francis Coppola. We must then rely on the intention of the text the way the existing story and the plot elements were linked by Jack Hill after a good deal of “head scratching.” Says Hill: “One of the most difficult problems was that there was no way to make the story work unless Gustaf could talk to Andre, and Gustaf was supposed to be mute, So I made him whisper.”

Jack also recalled how little sense the story made in the first place. “ I was faced with the task of salvaging footage that was shot for a story that had to be abandoned because it would have required many days of reshooting to keep. I just used what I could and tried to make it seem like it made sense, and as economically as possible. So trying to analyze a story like that is a fruitless exercise in my opinion…although I did try and make it so.”

Karloff looks a bit non plussed at his director Roger Corman..this was their last film together and Jack Hill remembered that Karloff never wanted to hear the name Corman again after this film was wrapped.

Dorothy Neumann and Dick Miller look at her killer Falcon in a tense moment from THE TERROR.

The plot of THE TERROR is based on a twist in the first place The Baron (Eric) tells us that he has always lived in the castle as it were. He tells the Lt Duvalier that he has been a recluse for over 20 years. “I am not the man I was twenty years ago.” We only know that Eric took the Baron’s identity after killing the real Baron and we are lead to believe he did this to enable him to mourn Ilsa, his dead wife, in the tradition established by Vincent Price in a number of his Poe films. Actress Dorothy Neumann was almost 27 years younger then Boris Karloff even though she was cast as his MOTHER! In the story line she never sees her son or discovers what became of Eric’s body.

As Jack Hill recalls “My job was to punch up the thrills and horror as much as possible, which I did. My scene of the hawk flying down and gouging out Jonathan Haze’s eyes actually got applause in the theater—which shows you how much making sense matters.

See the way you have to look at this is it’s like studying a Robbe-Grillet novel (of which I’ve read quite a few). no matter how much you pursue trying to sort out the threads of the story, you always find yourself in a blind alley or doubling back on yourself”

Jack Nicholson in the crypt of the Von Leepe's.

Sandra Knight in the graveyard set held over from THE PREMATURE BURIAL.

When Karloff says to Lt Duvalier “You spare me nothing” , one must recall Vincent Price saying much the same thing to John Kerr in PIT AND THE PENDULUM. At the same point in both films the young man demands to see the crypt where his beloved is entombed. Almost every idea in the Poe cycle is used in one way or another. It does not simply stop with the recycled sets and costumes,

Jack Hill says ‘I think it only looks like a Poe film because it was shot on sets built for some Poe films. I am quite sure however that the style of the Poe films is what Roger had in mind all along.”

The film does have its “blind alley” in the scene where Duvalier and Stefan break into the Baroness’ long empty bedroom and discover a baby crib. “Did the BARONESS HAVE A CHILD?” The subject of a child is never brought up again …was there an abandoned story element that would have revealed Helene as the Baron’s daughter?

All we can be sure of is this: thanks to Jack Hill the Baron Von Leppe did indeed get his groove back…..

YOU SPARE ME NOTHING….JACK…

My introduction to the films of Eric Portman was not an easy one by any means. He was brought to my attention by an alcoholic Hindu princess by the name of Rukhmani Singh Devi. She was odd even by my standards of eccentricity, Rukhmani was a bit like the willful princess that tormented James Mason with their past lives in James Ivory’s sinister AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PRINCESS.

She behaved like a member of the British Royal family if they’d been brought up on Hammer films, and who am I to say they weren’t? She was supremely intelligent, world weary and drunk, in that order. Rukmani worshipped at the altar of British Cinema, with actors Eric Portman and Peter Cushing as the jewels in the crown.

They say every actor has a special follower and I mean much more than just a fan since these people tend to personally morph into the object of their affection in act and deed. In Rukhmani’s case she was to be referred to in these circumstances as “Patty” or “PC two”…her devotion to all things Peter Cushing was something to behold. For example she could tell you how many wardrobe changes Cushing had in say THE CREEPING FLESH…which, in case you were wondering, happens to be an amazing 12 changes in one film. I never really thought about what an Edwardian clothes horse Peter Cushing was until I met the princess, and afterwards I never ever regarded him as just a film star. Saint Peter was now an experience never to be taken lightly.

Paul Mangin {Eric Portman} lives in a dream world of his own making...

Edana Rommey as Mifaney dressing in priceless gowns to please a madman.

Eric Portman and Edana Rommey.

During this period she and I were meeting regularly, every weekend, in Berkeley to see films at the fabled “Telegraph Rep” cinema which at the time {1973} was more like seeing a film at somebody’s apt while sitting uncomfortably in rickety wooden chairs – inhaling pot smoke until you had a contact high. It was there that I first saw Eric Portman in Powell and Pressburger’s World War II epic THE 49TH PARALLEL {1941}. In it Portman played a Nazi U-boat commander to perfection. I was hooked. Who was this suave, slightly psychotic gentleman and where had he been all my life.

Rukhmani quickly filled me in on all things Eric by telling me she had a girlfriend, also from India, who was to Portman what she was to Cushing. This woman was to be known to me as simply Eurika Portman, a name she created to be on a more personal footing with the object of her adoration. So here I was living in San Francisco in the early 70′s, leading a very exhaustive night life, to now be further complicated by knowing these two wacky divas, both completely outre personalites of the twilight fringe of celebrity mania. The one saving grace of it all was the fact that these ladies approached it all with style, wit and class, all courtesy of the on screen persona’s of Messurs Cushing and Portman.

Eventually I began to seek out the films of Eric Portman on my own without the distractions of having to count their costume changes or how many cigarettes they lit during their various running times. One of the first things Eurika ever imparted to me regarding Portman was this comment he gave regarding acting, which is of course priceless: “Acting is like masturbation, one either does it or one does not, but one never talks about it.” Lord Olivier could not have said it better.

American teaser one sheet advertising THE NAKED EDGE trying to follow the example left by Hitchcock's PSYCHO...even written by the same screenwriter however that is all the two films had in common.

Even in today’s world of entertainment men like Eric Portman remain sadly forgotton I am ever hopeful that he will be rediscovered as his films turn up on you tube and netflix with fairly comtemporary titles like THE BEDFORD INCIDENT with Sidney Poriter and Richard Widmark. Eric Portman became a star on the British stage in 1929 with a breakthrough performance as Romeo at the refurbished Old Vic and this in turn led to many roles in Shakesphere there. He quickly created more modern roles as well.

By 1935 he was well known as an actor with great presence and range. by 1942 he began making films for directors like Michael Powell. Yet he always returned to the stage. In the early fifties he created the role later played on film by David Niven in Terrance Rattigan’s SEPARATE TABLES…in the play as well as the film the character was disgraced by being caught in a local cinema making unwelcome advances to a young girl, years later the playwright revealed the orginal script in which the character was gay and the offence was with a boy. Almost all of Eric Portman’s characterizarions had this coded sexuality, both on stage and screen.

In the early 1970′s Norman Hudis (a well known screenwriter of the “CARRY ON” films), wrote a play about Eric Portman entitled DINNER WITH RIBBENTROP which was a bit like the recent play about Tallulah Bankhead doing sound bites for DIE DIE MY DARLING…only in Hudis’s play we discover Eric Portman’s Nazi leanings as well as his homosexuality, and how he managed to avoid ever discussing it with the press even as late as 1960. The truth of the matter is Eric Portman was a unique personality and the more we learn about him the more fascinating he becomes.

Among the many films Eric Portman would make during and after the war, the two I remember the best are the ones he made towards the end of his life. THE NAKED EDGE is always remembered for being Gary Cooper’s last film, he literally died before it could be released. And DEADFALL, made just before Portman would pass away as well. In THE NAKED EDGE Eric plays Jeremy Clay, a seedy opportunist who has a line towards the end, after much suspense has been made of a straight razor. Eric prepares a scalding hot bath for Deborah Kerr to cut her wrists in, and before he can put her in the hot water he looks up into the camera and says “Tell me, do you think women really like to get naked before they kill themselves”.

DEADFALL was made at the time of Michael Caine’s emergence as a star, and much is made of his sex appeal. The film was advertised as a heist caper, however the real plot was given to Eric Portman as the homosexual jewel thief whose daughter is used as bait to lure Caine into their web. The fact that Portman is supposed to fancy Caine is supposed to shock the audience, as is the revelation of incest later on, but through it all Eric Portman remains a legendary performer who commands the screen, making audiences wish to know far more about his character than Michael Caine’s. It was a bittersweet way to say goodbye to such a remarkable career.

US half sheet poster for DEADFALL Eric Portman's character is openly advertised as gay in the poster art.

The stage work of Eric Portman is lost to us now but I was told that during his reign upon the British stage his performances were the stuff of legends. He apparently ran up against the equally legendary Tallulah Bankhead on more than one occasion causing the press at the time to speculate on which one of them was going to kill the other after screaming matches during and after performances, both actors fueled by alcohol. Tallulah never referred to Eric Portman in her memoirs as the scars were just too deep. She also managed to keep her encounter with Stephanie Powers all to herself after making her final film, DIE DIE MY DARLING.

Perhaps the most flamboyantly artificial of Eric Portman’s film appearances would have to be his star turn in Terence Young’s CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS which, if remembered at all today, is because the future “Bond” director introduced both Chistopher Lee and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) in the opening scenes of the film, giving each a line or two.

A romantic pose for two star-crossed lovers from the past.

Eric Portman is confused by Edana Rommey's lack of interest.

CORRIDOR OF MIRROR’S is a marvel of genre homages all in one beautiful package. It references Cocteau’s LA BELLE ET LA BETE even down to having Georges Auric compose the music, which is quite beautiful. The exquisite photography recalls REBECCA and JANE EYRE, with shadowy staircases and billowing curtains with a large white cat roaming the castle to invoke Lewis Carroll for good measure.

Eric Portman plays a wealthy Londoner who is traumatized on a visit to Venice where he catches sight of a portrait of a vixen named Venetia, and spends the rest of the film trying to find a reincarnation of her, which of course he does in the character of Myfanwy Conway played by new comer Edana Romney whose presence in this film is no accident since she is one of the producers along with Rudolph Cartier, who also wrote the screenplay to favor her as well. But no matter, the film belongs to Portman whenever he chooses to enter the frame. His performance is romantic, dashing and of course slightly psychotic, as this was how the British film industry coded gay actors since the days of Ivor Novello

Belgian poster for CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS--A British attempt to create a fantasy along the lines of Cocteau's LA BELLE ET LA BETE.

Yes, it is true, Erich Portman, like Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness and Dennis Price were all gay actors working in the British film industry and doing their utmost to play straight. Fortunately for the viewing audience this still did not prevent screenwriters from coding most of their parts with tell tale signs of Wilden allure. In CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS for example, Portman plays Paul, an artist and from the looks of it an interior decorator who furnishes not only his mansion with antiques and all manner of Object’Art. No, he does not stop there, he also installs a lavish wardrobe of ballgowns that would put Cher on fashion alert and place Elton John under house arrest until he got his game on.

How Edana Romney could not suspect her phantom-like lover was gay is just a device of cinema we must refer to as fantasy. For her role in the film, Edana comes across much too mature to really be taken in romantically by his posturings of love. By the time she does sleep over at his gothic abode, our poor Eric is so worn out with all the costume changes that he finally hands her a set of velvet pajama’s and toddles off to parts unknown for the evening. They never kiss or make love on camera he might as well have worn one of those Jean Marais beast make-ups to justify his reluctance to go further than a waltz or an embrace.

The plot of CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS is really divided into two distinct halves, the first being the fairy tale world represented by Paul’s Regent Park estate, a re-creation of a palace in fourteenth century Venice. His gothic quest for the ideal woman, the Borgia-like Venetia who was wanton in the past and then again in Edana’s recreation of her later on. The films greatest moment arrives with Paul’s staging of a renaissance Venetian ball with masked party goers all behaving like the guests in Corman’s MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.

The second half of the film darkens and changes mood as we observe Paul descend into what we mistake for madness, leading to his death and then retribution through the faithful manservant that was looking out for his master all along. We also have a madwoman living in the villa not unlike the first Mrs. Rochester in JANE EYRE.

The first meeting between Eric Portman Edana Rommey in a vintage Hansom cab.

What really holds all this together is of course the performance of Eric Portman who has the style to carry off the costumes much like his colleague Peter Cushing, He does lack the necessary glamour of a matinee idol and knowing that, instinctively invests all his characters with breeding and intelligence, which makes him appear more attractive than he actually is. When it is apparent his character is going to his doom after the trail for a murder he may have committed, Eric is given another classic moment that even Dirk Bogarde (perhaps the most closeted of all British actors) could not have improved on. Portman tells his lost love the following

“There is a time to be born and a time to die, so please don’t spoil the exit I’ve chosen for myself. You ought to know I’ve always had a liking for dramatic effect.”

What an exit for a remarkable performer. Eric Portman would make a number of other films before his demise in 1969, all of them graced with his impeccable sense of timing and a desire to entertain.

“WILBER WHATELEY HAS A GIRLFRIEND”

It is early February of 1970; former teen princess Sandra Dee is in between takes reclining as best she can on a faux Druidic altar, surrounded by lighting experts–focus pullers, hair and make-up stylists. Completing the picture is a continuity girl running lines as Ms. Dee puffs on an endless string of cigarettes to quiet her nerves. Her own mother, Mary, comes to her speaking words of wisdom: “Keep your clothes on, Sandy, wait for the body double.” In other words, “Let her be,” to a lurking assistant director eager to get on with it…

This was to be a radical change of image for Sandra Dee, whose last two films, in 1967, were ROSIE (a Roz Russell comedy) and the ironic (under the circumstances) DOCTOR, YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING with George Hamilton. One can only assume the “doctor” in the title would have said something along those lines if he had been informed that Sandra Dee’s next role would be that of a willing sacrifice to an inhuman deity known only as “Yog Sothoth,” with the end result of her being impregnated with his unholy seed.

Rare poised shot of Sandra Dee's body double on bed ...onlooking are the Medocino warlocks and demons seen briefly in Dee's drug induced nightmare.

The difficult transition from debutante to mature actress was simply not happening fast enough to suit Sandra Dee and her then-management, which included of course her mother. When this project was offered it must have seemed like a golden opportunity for Sandra Dee to mature practically overnight — that is, if the film achieved any of the same success ROSEMARY’S BABY did with Mia Farrow. Ironically, both actresses would be divorced during the time of each of their respective films –Mia from Frank Sinatra, and Sandra from Bobby Darin. Sandra would miscarry during DUNWICH’s post production, compounding the depression that was about to envelop her for the rest of her life. DUNWICH sadly did not energize the career of Sandra Dee; in fact this would be her final motion picture. The seventies would yield only occasional work in Television as she retreated more and more into the shadows of depression and substance abuse. Iconic status as a pop-culture figure would finally come for her, but not until nearly the end of her life.

The film in question is, of course, Daniel Haller’s production of THE DUNWICH HORROR, based somewhat on H.P.Lovecraft’s 17,500-word “short” story of the same name, first published in WEIRD TALES magazine in 1929. Lovecraft was at the time unknown to the general movie-going public, making his name above-the-title an impossibility in Hollywood terms. However, with this his third adaptation for the screen, all-produced by American International Pictures, after eight successful collaborations with his only rival in the Horror genre, Edgar Allan Poe, all that was about to change.

The first attempt to bring Lovecraft to the screen was fumbled by the suits at AIP who had no confidence in Lovecraft as a box-office draw; so THE HAUNTED VILLAGE became Edgar Allan Poe’s THE HAUNTED PALACE, grafting Poe’s poem onto the conclusion of THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, making it the sixth Poe film directed by Roger Corman. The second attempt retained the Lovecraft name…in small caps. But at least the master did not have to masquerade as Poe. Another novella was chosen this time, THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE, retitled from the stylish THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE WORLD to the oddly Germanic DIE MONSTER DIE, a rather unfortunate name for a Boris Karloff vehicle since it was well-known how many years the then-78 year-old Karloff had to act under the shadow of the Frankenstein monster.

If all had gone as planned Karloff would have been one of the stars of THE DUNWICH HORROR alongside Christopher Lee, with Italian horror master Mario Bava directing. But this was not to be, and after languishing on production schedules since 1964 the project finally got greenlit as DUNWICH with a decent cast headed by Peter Fonda, Diana Varsi and Ralph Bellamy as Professor Armitage. However by the time the script went from Ray Russell to a very youthful Curtis Hanson, the cast changed again with Dean Stockwell replacing Fonda, having just done PYSCH-OUT the year before. Sandra Dee assumed the role of “Nancy,” known amongst the crew as the “Mia Farrow” part since ROSEMARY’S BABY became a world wide box-office success, paving the way for this film to get produced. More than likely this was the reason for casting Ralph Bellamy as the academic, since he was the infamous “Dr Saperstein” in the Polanski film. (Bellamy’s character name so intrigued Polanski that he named his pet dog after him). Bellamy would bow out soon after, leaving a mad scramble for a replacement in the guise of another equally respected character actor, Sam Jaffe (GUNGA DIN. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE).

Original Poster Art from AIP notice the star was to have Peter Fonda with a different screenwriter.

With the cast now in place, Daniel Haller would finally have the long-awaited opportunity to utilize all the set decorations and symbols that he had designed around Joseph Curwen’s dungeon altar beneath THE HAUNTED PALACE, then continued on in the UK with the decor of the Whateley mansion of DIE MONSTER DIE. As the art director and set designer for all of Corman’s Poe cycle, Haller brought great style and beauty to the floor during the making of THE DUNWICH HORROR.

Daniel Haller always regarded Roger Corman as his mentor and well he should, considering working with Roger was a crash-course in filmmaking like no other at the time. With Corman producing DUNWICH, he was given a free hand as long as things flowed smoothly on the set, and more importantly, that the film be brought in on time and under budget.

The first order of business was to modernize Lovecraft’s tale, originally set in the backwoods of New England, circa 1928, into the counter-culture phenomenon that existed in Mendocino County throughout the late 1960s, playing out in early 1970. Haller had done the very same thing with his previous film, DIE MONSTER DIE, changing the locale to rural England, and in both cases setting the scene in Gothic mansions rather than the farmhouses favored by Lovecraft.

Boris Kaloff and Daniel Haller confer on the set of DIE MONSTER DIE.

I know that this change in time and location separated THE DUNWICH HORROR in terms of Corman’s Poe cycle. While it is true that everything AIP did since then in the Horror genre was based almost entirely on the initial success of HOUSE OF USHER (1960) with each film that followed using the same basic formula as it were, DUNWICH remains unique because of the pop-culture references it reflects, both the success of Polanski’s film and the devastating aftermath of his wife’s murder at the hands of the Manson family, forever changing the landscape of Hollywood from that day forward. It is no coincidence then that Dean Stockwell would adopt a “Manson vibe” or, depending on your point of view, a “Timothy Leary” vibe as well, since the hippie movement of the day was all about getting high or following a cult — at least this is how Hollywood chose to interpret the lurid headlines.

None of this material was lost on Dean Stockwell (an avid Lovecraft fan) who realized early on that to play Wilber Whateley as written in Curtis Hanson’s screenplay was to abandon Lovecraft’s concept enough to make his “goatish features” sexy rather then repellent. In Lovecraft’s tale Wilber dies attempting to steal the Necronomicon from the library wherein the reader is given the payoff of discovering just how otherworldly and deformed he really was under all those bulky clothes. All this was abandoned to give Wilber the plot points involving Sandra Dee’s character, to make the film more like ROSEMARY’S BABY instead of the monster on the loose tale Lovecraft originally created.

Ever since the film’s debut in 1970 much has been made over how far it has strayed from Lovecraft’s original short story: by including a love interest for Wilber Whateley, also allowing him to live beyond the attack at the Miskatonic Library to perish on Sentinel Hill while performing the ritual, and allowing his cosmic sibling to have his way with Sandra Dee, thereby satisfying the fans of ROSEMARY’S BABY as well as producer Corman.

In spite of all this THE DUNWICH HORROR is as faithful an adaptation as one can expect for a low-budget film with few resources at its disposal. During my interview with Daniel Haller he remarked that the only way to keep his film from becoming “another Poe film in the Corman cycle” was to update the storyline and take full advantage of the psychedelic flower children motif which, by 1970, was about to fade from view.

The mythos as created by Lovecraft was long-considered un-filmable since his prose is clear about this unimaginable race of beings that exist outside of our known reality. Cthulhu and his followers worship Yog Sothoth, who is described as being composed of giant spheres of light. Yog is the keeper of the way, as Robert Bloch once described it. He has the power to open the gates, allowing the old ones to re-enter and take back the earth they once inhabited long ago. The Whateleys used the Necronomicon to summon Yog Sothoth long enough to interbreed with their women. The blood of Yog Sothoth now flows through Wilber’s veins and, because of the ritual at the film’s end, Nancy now is creating what Lavinia had created in the films opening credits: another offspring of Yog Sothoth.

In reexamining the film, Nancy’s drug-induced nightmare (in which she awakens only to find herself surrounded by demonic-looking flower children in body paint) makes more sense if you understand that this is Her reality of what she is experiencing in her dream state. When we glimpse the “old ones” walking side by side looking for all intent like witches in long flowing robes, could one interpret this to be the only way such deities can reveal themselves to human kind without them losing their mind completely? In the 1997 film CONTACT with Jodie Foster a similar device is used when she finally confronts the alien life forms. They choose to reveal themselves to her in the form of her dead father. Everything Nancy experiences is on her level of reality, which for American International would certainly be the Haight-Ashbury/counterculture of the late sixties (not to mention easy to present budget-wise). The psychedelic effects work for the film in the sequence in which Nancy’s friend Elizabeth confronts Wilber’s twin. The sound effects, coupled with the shock visuals, filmed with a distorted lens, allows the only bit of real nudity in the film when the inter-dimensional twin made up of tentacles ravages her, pulling away her bra revealing her breasts before devouring her completely. The camera-work as the Horror moves across the Dunwich landscape towards the Devil’s Hop yard is beautifully realized and very much in keeping with Lovecraft.

GETTIN’ “LIZZIE” WITH IT

Elizabeth Montgomery as Lizzie Borden - from a contact sheet for THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN

During a lazy summer morning in August in the year of our Lord 1892, while the township of Fall River, Massachusetts, went about their simple daily pleasures, a crime was taking place that would rock not only that sleepy little New England hamlet to its very core, but would create a legend in both criminology and pop culture a Century later. A middle-aged spinster known far and wide to the townsfolk of Fall River as a church-going, God-fearing woman was about to be accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe. The spinster in question was Lizzie Borden, and the circumstances behind the gruesome slayings have long since taken their place among those unsolved homicides of Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer as a mystery that only gets more compelling with time.

Now one would think that a story as colorful and Gothic as Lizzie Borden’s would have made the transition to the silver screen dozens of times by now, given the public’s fascination with serial killers and unsolved murders. However, there has been to this day not one single major motion picture regarding Lizzie Borden or her trial, which captured the entire nation for the fourteen days it took to find her not guilty. What could it be about this material that refuses to fire up the imagination of the vast array of writers and directors that have been working in the genre since the turn of the last century?

The one and only adaptation of the Lizzie Borden saga thus far was produced in 1975 by Paramount as a made-for-TV movie-of-the-week. The actress chosen to play Lizzie was Elizabeth Montgomery, who discovered after the fact that Lizzie Borden was her cousin, sixth removed, which means the first actress to play Lizzie in a film was also a blood relative. After the first run on television was over, the show was repackaged for theatrical release in the European market, which included nude footage of Montgomery doing the killings in flashback. One of the surprise elements in this adaptation was the theory that Lizzie performed her dark deeds in the nude, followed by a “Victorian shower” to remove any chance of bloodstains appearing on any of her garments, since she was being questioned within 45 minutes after the second murder by a doctor who happened to be nearby.

Elizabeth Montgomery is remarkable in her dedication to the role; for example, she used eye drops during filming to give her a drugged look, since Borden was on Morphine during the entire time she was a prisoner, right up through the trial itself. Anyone expecting a glimmer of her BEWITCHED persona will be impressed with how quickly she shed her sitcom image for this project.

The critical response to the production was positive, including Emmy nominations, of which it won three, which makes the fact that no other versions were ever mounted on the subject even more surprising. Montgomery was surrounded by a top-flight group of actors, with standout performances from Fritz Weaver as her father, Andrew Borden, Katherine Helmond as her older sister Emma, and Fionnula Flanagan as Bridget Sullivan, the maid. Even the smaller roles were filled with people like Ed Flanders, Don Porter and Gloria Stuart (in a clever cameo as one of Fall River’s residents who witnesses Lizzie shoplift a hatchet).

However, before I speculate even more as to why this–one of the best TV movies ever made–has all but disappeared from view with no DVD release on the horizon, I must explain my personal interest in its background. A few years ago I was having dinner with Curtis Harrington, who was a very good friend of mine, when the subject of lost opportunities in his career came up, and he lamented being passed over to direct THE OMEN, which as we all know was a box-office juggernaut and would have undoubtedly changed his life for the better had he been its director. After a moment Curtis said, “Well, there was another project that would have done much the same thing for my career, and I was already on board to direct, not to mention having researched the entire project, and that was the Lizzie Borden film over at Paramount in which Elizabeth Montgomery was set to play Borden. Now, Montgomery was a client of The William Morris Agency and as such they had the upper hand in calling the shots when it came to who was going to direct their stars. Paul Wendkos was a client of theirs, and at the 11th hour I was replaced without any provocation whatsoever. It was highly illegal, so I took it into arbitration with the Director’s Guild and won. Paramount had to pay me my full salary. It was a bittersweet victory at best, since I had spent a year of my life researching the Borden murders, even so far as going to Fall River and examining all the records of the trial. The worst thing about it was the damage it did to my friendship with Bill Bast, who wrote the screenplay, since he simply folded up when it came to standing up for what was right. They had no right to replace me and he knew it.”

Lizzie Borden's Lover, Nance O'Neal.

“Afterwards, I ran into Elizabeth at a party and she made a point of telling me it was not her call as to whether or not I stayed, yet we all know she had tremendous cache at that time, coming off eight seasons of a hit show. Yet they all benefited from my research. It was my idea to present Andrew Borden as this debauched father figure who may have sexually abused Lizzie as a child. When I discovered he was a mortician, it wasn’t hard to imagine him using this to further terrorize his daughter by forcing her to touch the dead. He was a control freak; we know this from the descriptions of him by his neighbors and businessmen in Fall River. The motive for the killings was money. It was as simple as that, yet I felt Lizzie was also repressed, as were most women at this time, especially in the social milieu of New England society in 1892.”

“We didn’t get an opportunity to reveal any elements of Lizzie’s sexuality in the screenplay, yet it was always there in the shadows. It was my idea to have Lizzie do the ‘Lady Macbeth’ nude sleepwalking gambit when she commits the murders, since this explains why she had not a trace of blood on her when the doctor and the neighbors arrive on the scene. If we could have done a follow-up of Lizzie Borden’s life after the acquittal, you could really flesh out her character, especially after she meets Nance O’ Neal in Boston. This would prove to be the undoing of her relationship with her older sister Emma, who moved out of the house in 1905, never to return. They died nine days apart after years of not speaking. It was such a fascinating subject you could really do two or three films about her and remain transfixed.”

Curtis would never really get over this betrayal in his career, and even though he did manage to direct some TV movies and two more features, he remained as always an outsider in show business, too esoteric for the suits and yet too talented to be overlooked altogether. His final film, the self-financed USHER would serve to forever remind us that like Roderick Usher, Curtis was too sensitive to survive in a world that had no place for artists anymore, unless they conformed to something he could not bear to be a part of. So he simply retreated into a shadow world of his own making, as Roderick retreated into the House of Usher, which in reality was Curtis’ home.

Curtis’s input still remains in key moments throughout the teleplay in spite of Paul Wendkos’s own style as a director (as evidenced in his later film, THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, in which he chose a similar movie-of-the-week atmosphere, with colored gels and disjointed dream-sequences). One of the most interesting moments in developing the love-hate relationship felt by Lizzie towards her father comes midway in the script when Andrew Borden savagely hacks Lizzie’s beloved collection of pigeons to death with a hatchet, not unlike the one that would later end his own life. This entire scene is staged in a manner that reminded me of a similar moment in Harrington’s WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN, in which Shelley Winters does the same thing to her collection of white rabbits. The flashbacks to Lizzie as a child being forced to touch the dead in her father’s “workshop” (in a very Harrington moment, young Lizzie accidentally bumps against the hose that is drawing blood from the cadaver, releasing a torrent of blood on both of them) allow the audience to begin to hate Andrew Borden, somewhat justifying his own gruesome demise. The suggestion of incest as a motive is also explored in these flashbacks as we witness Lizzie as a child receiving rather unfatherly attention as both father and daughter kiss each other on the mouth. The gifting of the ring from Lizzie to her father is also played out as a ritual between them; this is a relationship with subtext and shadows. One concept that keeps coming up is that Lizzie, in spite of everything, loved her father dearly.

The first murder, of Abby, the stepmother, was a passionate act of homicide, considering the savagery by which she was dispatched – multiple blows to the back and head. Lizzie realized after killing her stepmother that there was no turning back, creating a terrible certainty that her father had to die as well, since what she began was too horrible for him to ever forgive. It is my belief that money was the real motive here, since there is enough evidence to assume that Mr. Borden was about to change his will, cutting out both of his daughters in favor of his second wife.

Publicity pose of Elizabeth Montgomery as Lizzie Borden.

There really is (as Curtis pointed out to me on more than one occasion) an entire film to be made out of Lizzie’s life after the killings, with her move to Maplecroft, the mansion overlooking the town her family helped create, and remaining there the rest of her life, rubbing her crime into the very fabric of the community. Curtis also firmly believed that Lizzie had strong lesbian tendencies that were brought out when she encountered Nance O’Neil, an actress who loved to spend money and, in Lizzie, found much more than a mentor. This would explain the older sister, Emma, pulling up stakes and moving out of Maplecroft, never to return. ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS aired one of their half-hour teleplays (THE OLDER SISTER) in which we discover that it was Emma all along who did the murders, with Lizzie covering up for her at the trial.

The fascination with this case has never let up in over a century. It has become a major Feminist story with Lizzie Borden an iconic personality, a paradox of contradictions. Those close to the trial at the time could not help but comment on Lizzie Borden’s eyes and the mystery they held within her gaze. She was, of course, high on Morphine at the time, making her the true “Sister Morphine.”

The Borden case has distinct parallels to the O.J. Simpson murders, since both cases have captivated the public around the world, and to this day the real facts in both cases are shrouded in mystery, although the vast majority now believe he did the deed, and this holds true with Lizzie Borden in spite of several books that have been published with a wide range of speculation as to who else might have been responsible for the killings.

O.J. Simpson poses with Eliazbeth Montgomery for a TV movie of the week they did together in 1977... about a married cop who has an affair... life imitaing art once again.

JET MAGAZINE once ran a cover photo of both O.J. and Elizabeth Montgomery from an earlier TV movie-of-the-week which seemed to foretell the future in ways no one could have imagined in 1977. The major difference in the two trials is of course the absence of forensic technology in 1892 in any of the evidence collected by the police in Fall River. Yet flash forward a century plus and you are still confronted with inept police work contaminating the crime scene in the O.J. investigation that would later allow a killer to go free, just like Lizzie Borden, except in O.J.’s case he left the community for good. The film industry has perhaps wisely left O.J. alone in trying to adapt his case to film, since the sensitivity issue is still very much present, but in Lizzie Borden’s case all the principals are long gone; in fact, a recent survey has concluded that the majority of key people in the Borden case all died within 11 years of the 1892 trial.

So why has this fascinating case been ignored by the film world in general since the advent of the medium in the 1890s? The films about Jack the Ripper number in the dozens, as do most serial killers worth their salt, yet Lizzie’s hatchet killings seem to attract the small screen with docudramas on the History Channel or vanity projects of the Youtube variety, the one marvelous exception being THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN.

Portrait of Curtis Harrington by Dennis Hopper.

In the forties, actress Lillian Gish starred in a play based loosely on the Borden murders, entitled 9 PINE STREET, with the actual names changed, but the circumstances being similar. Gish later took the project to her old mentor D.W. Griffin hoping to persuade him to direct a film version for Paramount with Preston Sturges producing. In spite of the talent involved, it was not optioned and quickly fell to the wayside of unrealized wonders in the could-have-been department.

Perhaps the closest thing in cinema history to mounting a full-scale Lizzie Borden film was a Robert Bloch-scripted horror film made to cash in on the runaway success of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE (yet another film about dysfunctional sisters, filled with violence and murder). Bloch had been fascinated with the Lizzie Borden case all his life, writing about it as early as 1946 in his early short story, LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE (which was later broadcast on his national radio program STAY TUNED FOR TERROR).

Joan Crawford as a Lizzie type ax murderess from STRAIT JACKET.

William Castle’s STRAIT-JACKET was in essence a modern-day retelling of the Borden case with everything omitted but the faux nursery rhyme and the axe. The Legendary Joan Crawford lent her name and considerable acting skills to this penny dreadful, enduring fright wigs and emotional outbursts to compensate for the lack of talent in front as well as behind the camera. In better days at Warner Bros. this same material would have brought Joan another Oscar nomination; instead of which we get this bon mot from the TIME magazine review: “It must also be the first horror film to boast that one of its diehard victims (Mitchell Cox) is a real life Vice President of the Pepsi-Cola Company. As for Pepsi-Cola Board Member Crawford, she plainly plays her mad scenes For Those Who Think Jung.” The script also allows for Joan to have another one of those unruly daughter relationships which would come back to haunt us all in the form of the spiteful and perhaps fictional account of her adopted daughter Christina in MOMMIE DEAREST (which also finds a way to give Joan Crawford an opportunity to wield another axe for the entertainment of her public, forever demonizing a great star).

Lizzie Borden’s fame was used fleetingly in other films, the most unlikely being the Moss Hart-George S. Kaufman Broadway comedy THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, which has a subplot dealing with the unhinged sister of the poor soul who winds up with Sheridan Whiteside as a very unwanted house guest. It seems the man’s sister was a famous axe murderess from the past who had school children singing a certain nursery rhyme about taking whacks at her parents. More recently, rocker-turned-auteur Rob Zombie included a briefly-seen wax figure of Lizzie Borden in Captain Spaulding’s wild ride in his debut film HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES.

The jury may well be permanently out on whether or not the real Lizzie Borden did take that axe and give her parents those 40 whacks, yet as far back as most of us living today can remember, there has always been the shadowy figure of this certain spinster lady moving slowly down a darkened stairway clutching a shiny metal object in one hand, heading with demonic determination for that part of our collective imaginations where she may take her rightful place alongside Jack, O.J., Lucretia and Sarah Palin as one of those human monsters whose crimes go unpunished in the courts of law but ultimately are judged in that higher court of public opinion. To take a line from the poster ads used during the initial run of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE: “Sister, sister, oh so fair…why is there blood all over your hair?”

WHERE HAS MY EASY RIDER GONE?

Portrait of Hopper from THE LAST MOVIE.

As I sadly watched the frail figure of 73 yr old Dennis Hopper make his way to the podium on Hollywood Blvd to modestly accept his long overdue star on its walk of fame, he seemed like a man falling from a great height, and his entire career began to flash before my eyes. From his humble beginnings as a star struck youth from Dodge City, Kansas, to the backlots of Warner Bros where an 18 yr old Hopper would sign his first contract, Dennis Hopper always had a destiny to fulfill, not just on the silver screen but more importantly as an artist.

When Dennis’s family relocated to San Diego in 1949, his artistic life was about to take root with his very first contact at the La Jolla Playhouse, which turned out to be Mary Price – the second wife of Vincent Price. Price would prove to be a lifelong mentor to the young man, allowing him his first contact with artists like Jackson Pollack, Franz Kline and Richard Diebenkorn. Price also introduced Hopper to his personal collection of art which influenced Dennis in time to his own style of painting – abstract expressionism.

As Hopper’s artistic life began to unfold, so did his acting career, and soon he secured a seven year contract with Warner Bros beginning with, ironically, a small part in I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES. This would lead to the life-altering encounter with James Dean in the legendary REBAL WITHOUT A CAUSE. It would be with Hopper’s role as “Goon” and his now famous first line of dialogue, “What are we going to do with him”, that his second mentoring would begin in earnest with his devotion to James Dean. Dean taught Hopper the imaginary line: the difference between what was “real” – the life of crew behind the camera, and the “unreal” make believe – acting in front of the camera. Dean told him to abandon gestures and simply react to situations as you would in real life.

Lto R Donald Cammell Dennis Hopper Jodorowsky and Kenneth Anger.

Hopper’s lifelong pursuit of photography would begin on REBEL as well. Dean had opened the door not only to Dennis’s acting style, but gave him perspective in never cropping a photo, always going for the full frame. It was James Dean who first told Hopper he would direct films somewhere down the line. The next film they would work on together would also be their last. While filming GIANT for George Stevens, Dean died in the now infamous car crash that killed a man but created an icon. GIANT was a turning point for Hopper, as his performance was considered Oscar worthy, and soon he was on his way. Dean’s death seven days after Hopper did his last scene devastated him in ways he did not realize at the time. Warner Bros put him in several projects until his volatile encounter with director Henry Hathaway on the film FROM HELL TO TEXAS would lead to his expulsion from Hollywood.

The ghost of James Dean had influenced more than Hopper’s acting style, as he was now branded as “difficult” to impossible to work with as an actor. This in turn allowed him to pursue his other talent in photography in which his star would shine as brightly as it ever did on film, something Dean was also aware of in his young protege. Eventually Hopper would make his way to the East coast in 1961 where the “method” was in full swing under the influence of Lee Strasburg’s actors studio. There he would learn the phrase “sense memory” for the first time, adding to Dean advice. Hopper could now tap into the reality of any acting scene by simply using his own life experience, to recall things, which is what method acting is all about.

When Dennis Hopper finally returned to Hollywood, he was married to Brook Hayward, the daughter of Leland Hayward, the producer of Broadway blockbusters like THE SOUND OF MUSIC and SOUTH PACIFIC. Dennis and his bride took up residence in Bel-Air and began to live artistic lives in what was becoming the swinging sixties in Hollywood. A fire in mid 1961 would see Hopper’s home burn to the ground and with it all of his abstract expressionism. Not one painting would survive the flames. His photography, however, was spared because Dennis was in the middle of showing his work in a gallery at the time of the fire.

Vincent Price with Hopper between takes of STORY OF MANKIND.

Hopper as Napoleon in STORY OF MANKIND.

By 1963 Dennis Hopper was a well-established photographer and artist with many friend’s on both coasts. This was also the year he would meet Andy Warhol, introducing him to the Hollywood art scene with a series of parties and exhibitions. Dennis would also appear in what is now regarded as Warhol’s first movie, TARZAN AND JANE REGAINED…SORT OF. This 16mm production involved Hopper wandering through the rotting canals of Venice, California looking somewhat bewildered while at one point taking off his shirt and beating his chest a la Tarzan. Hopper would also make a life defining purchase at this time by paying $75 for a Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can. Hopper’s collection of art would achieve epic proportions as time went on, and this was something he worked on even through his darkest days of substance abuse, which almost ended his artistic as well as his earthly life at one point after the success of EASY RIDER.

In 1967 Hopper would stop taking photos for the next decade as he began to pursue his dream of directing films. It would be while working on Roger Corman’s THE TRIP that Hopper would be given his first chance to direct a scene as well as second unit along with co-star Peter Fonda. This film was important to Hopper’s artistic vision as well as a lifestyle, since the country’s youth was undergoing a radical transformation that would forever be known as the “counterculture movement,” the Love generation, or perhaps the more lyrical Age of Aquarius. THE TRIP was also written by Jack Nicholson, who would create the trio that would later make EASY RIDER the signature film of a generation.

The second opportunity for Hopper to test his directing skills would come in the form of a biker flick known as THE GLORY STOMPERS for which Dennis directed several scenes. This and THE TRIP made a great sounding board for what was to follow in 1968 when Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider agreed to finance another “biker” film, this one named EASY RIDER. The title comes from an old bawdy Mae West line “Where has my easy rider gone?” that stayed in screenwriter Terry Southern’s mind and then made its way into legend.

Hopper with Peter Fonda in THE TRIP.

In the sixties, the public of the day turned away from Hollywood because the studio system was ill-prepared to grasp the paradigmatic alteration that was currently in the process of overwhelming the arts as a whole. The counterculture was flexing its newly found muscles with the “new kids on the block” – Kubrick…Nichols…Penn…Altman and Polanski, with Dennis Hopper climbing to the top of that list with EASY RIDER. One can look back at all of the cinema of that era and begin to revaluate Dennis Hopper’s three films as a director as a “trilogy,” EASY RIDER is really somewhat inspired by Kenneth Anger’s SCORPIO RISING, as well as being the bastard son of Brando’s THE WILD ONE, with a dash of Conrad’s HEART OF DARKNESS grafted on, as Fonda and Hopper ride their coke filled Harleys into hell. Instead of going west young man they go east to their predestined doom. In THE LAST MOVIE, set in Peru, the Cocaine capital of the world, Hopper creates an environment filled with Brechtian devices so that we, the audience, can take a front row seat for the demise of Western culture as well as the American dream.

The western genre itself is ravaged by homage through Hopper’s camera lens while presided over by one of its auteurs, Samuel Fuller, basically playing himself. The film is on one level a tripped out riff on THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE with Hopper’s on screen persona – the stuntman – staying behind after filming is over to search for gold and drugs. The specter of James Dean hovers over this set as well, with Hopper setting up a store front and naming it “Jimmys place,” and rightly so since in Hopper’s universe James Dean will also have a place and a time to influence Hopper’s art. The legend of Hopper wearing a ring on set given to him by Dean is of interest here because it represents an energy, an occult power for Dennis to draw from. The bronze and silver Aztec artifact was always on his finger, where he was seen rubbing it for luck, or to draw some of its supposed power. Dennis dreamt of making a film with his mentor, Vincent Price, playing what else but an elder magician, with Hopper as his apprentice who owns the ring but keeps it locked away since he already knows its power and has no need to wear it. Price is killed at one point and the ring stolen, but Hopper wins in the end by using its power with the knowledge left to him by his master. I had hoped one day Dennis would actually make the film, but now it is yet another lost horizon in a long career.

Hopper acting out the climax of THE LAST MOVIE.

Hopper with Florence Marley in Curtis Harrington's QUEEN OF BLOOD.

The third film, OUT OF THE BLUE, is more or less a punk era extension of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Hopper took this film over in mid-production, altering the concept into his own dark vision, with the inspired addition of Neil Young, not to mention the punk rock take on the proceedings. During each and every one of these productions Hopper still maintained his high level of interest in art and painting, making him even more unique as a filmmaker/artist working within the system in America. He would continue this examination one step further when he directed COLORS later, his take on the urban scene in LA with street gang violence, thanks to his star Sean Penn, who suggested he direct the film.

Dennis Hopper has made more than 120 films, during which time he collected art from such longtime friends as Warhol, Jasper Johns,Edward Ruscha, Marcel Duchamp and Bruce Conner, whose style inspired the editing of EASY RIDER. He has worn the four hats of expression with vigor, being an actor, painter, director, and photographer while achieving fame in success in each and every one.

I chose two of his films in particular to try and explain how much his acting has worked its spell on my imagination over the years, While I am a fan as well as being vastly entertained by his voice and off kilter personality, he remains very much like Klaus Kinski, an actor who has stared into the abyss and something has indeed stared back. After years of substance abuse Hopper got clean and sober by the time of BLUE VELVET, yet ironically this was his most druggy, out of control performance ever, and also one of his greatest. The creation of Frank Booth is a tour de force by which all such other manic attempts will be judged. What sense memory could Hopper have channeled to bring this character into being? When David Lynch gave Hopper the part, he was told by the actor that he really had no other options, since Frank Booth was Dennis Hopper’s evil twin, at least in that dark universe David Lynch tends to inhabit

Hopper with director David Lynch BLUE VELVET.

One of the mysteries of BLUE VELVET is just how much was cut prior to its release? I have seen stills of the infamous pool hall sequence, which was apparently cut to shave the running time, with yet another murder left on the cutting room floor. There was however another moment which I am sorry is not in the final cut and that is the sequence when Frank takes Kyle and the Blue lady on a nightmarish joy ride to what Brad Dorf’s character describes as “pussy heaven” a place our young lead may or may not have gone before. Now when Kyle punches Frank you would have thought this was it; Frank would kill him. But as Hopper revealed at a press conference I attended to promote BLUE VELVET…

“When he punches me that is when I take him out of the car and put lipstick all over him…. What actually happened was I put all this lipstick on Kyle then force him to take down his pants where I draw a lip-line all around his ass and then sodomize him. When he wakes up in the field the next morning his pants are down around his ankles and there’s lipstick smudged all over his ass. That was the scene, my friends, but David decided not to go with it…you know BLUE VELVET was easy for me to do because David is not only a director but he is also the writer and, more than that, a painter. He knows exactly what he wants visually. This is a perfect working relationship. Every single thing in the film I did was scripted….wonderful experience from day one.”

Hopper with bullet between takes of BLUE VELVET.

Hopper playing dead in BLUE VELVET.

When Hopper was working on APOCALYPSE NOW, he was far from sober and it showed, yet his performance was so intense he owned the screen whenever he was on it. After years of wanting to work with Brando, by the time it came to pass, Hopper was still too out there for Brando’s taste, so his only request to his director was “Francis, please keep Dennis away from me if at all possible.” As soon as Hopper wrapped on the film he flew directly to Spain to play – what else – a drugged-out junkie named “chicken” in a film that can only be described as a mess, entitled LAS FLORES DEL VICO or THE SKY IS FALLING…a vague reference to the Chicken Little fable, I suppose. This film also stars Carroll Baker as ‘Treasure,’ a washed up star from Hollywood, which is pretty much what she was at that time, having fallen from grace after HARLOW as well as the fab CARPETBAGGERS, which is her best work in my humble opinion. Anyway this film is a must for anyone following the career of Dennis Hopper because it is a textbook of Hopperisms that would flourish to greater effect a few years later in BLUE VELVET. A hard film to find but one that is worth the effort once you have, this film also is badly edited, photographed, you name it, which is surprising since the director is Silvio Narizzano who gave us GEORGY GIRL as well as BLUE, that really culty western with Terence Stamp, and last but not least DIE DIE MY DARLING with Tallulah Bankhead. How could a pro like Silvio make such an abomination? Well, only Silvio knows, and so far nobody has ever gotten around to asking….

One of the first projects Hopper signed on for after his stay in rehab during 1986 was the long awaited sequel to Tobe Hoopers ground breaking classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. This sequel became the cornerstone in the three picture deal Hooper made with Cannon films the pther two being a remake of INVADERS FROM MARS and LIFEFORCE. As Dennis himself said at the time “My agent begged me not to make this film, he warned me that it would destroy my career all over again. I listened to his advice as well as some of my friends all saying bascially the same thing and then went down to Texas and made it anyway. I am here to tell you I made more money on that film than I did on BLUE VELVET”

Hopper between set ups with director Tobe Hooper THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PT 2.

Portrait of Hopper from Texas Chainsaw pt 2.

Dennis Hopper also celebrated his 50th birthday on the set of Chainsaw II with a party telling the press at the time doing this film made it possible for him to play lots of golf with his pal Willie Nelson. As far as his performace Dennis may have been clean and sober but his acting in this film does not dissappoint as he emotes way over the top yet again preaching the Lord while whielding a mean chainsaw.

The film was at the time a severe disappointment to the fans of the original however this is no longer the case today, a new DVD special edtion “the Gruesome edtion” has come out ranking TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PT TWO as a neglected cult classic whose black comedy was misunderstood at the time of its original release. While it borrowed from shamelessly from MOTEL HELL it has Tom Sarvini special effects to recommend it as some of his best work. One look at Rob Zombie’s THE DEVILS REJECTS and you can see the influrence was more than an homage as Zombie lifts chunks of plot from Hoopers film into his own script. As with most of Dennis Hopper’s film work one has to keep coming back to fully appreciate his legacy. While this was one of Hopper’s rare excursions into the horror genre it certainly paved the way for his tour de force as Frank Booth.

The lasting image which first began my awareness of Dennis Hopper was a still Curtis Harrington shot of him, reflected in a broken mirror. This was, I believe, his first lead, playing the young sailor in Curtis’s homage to the films of Val Lewton, NIGHT TIDE, which, like the Warhol short, was filmed in the canals of Venice, California. I spent one evening a few years ago with the leading lady of that film, Linda Lawson, and her memories were clear but not too flattering regarding her relationship with Hopper at the time of filming.

“Dennis was very talented and so excited about playing a lead in Curtis’s film, which was done for no money at all, so we all pitched in to make it work. I invited Dennis over to run lines one afternoon, and when he arrived at my apt he walked in and went straight back to my kitchen and climbed under the table and would not come out. He was really scary when he chose to act like this. Afterwards we worked together only on location or with Curtis present. I warned Dennis that if he acted that way again I would walk off the film. The end result was Curtis really did not like me that much in any case, and we never saw each other again once the film was wrapped. It is bittersweet now since I get so much fan mail about that film, and now it is a cult film with articles being done about it all the time, but it was not a pleasant experience for me because of Dennis being in such a weird place emotionally…”

Hopper in NIGHT TIDE.

It is only fitting that after all these years Dennis Hopper now resides in Venice, California, where so much of his early life as both an artist and an actor took place. His legacy is still a work in progress yet his impact is ageless and will continue to inspire future generations of artists who will ponder the question “What are we going to do with him?”

WITHIN A MAN OF LIGHT..THERE IS LIGHT

WITHIN A MAN OF DARKNESS…THERE IS DARKNESS

PAUL, ALEISTER, REX AND ALICE

Aleister Crowley.

One of the most fascinating legends regarding the life and times of “the wickedest man in the world,” Aleister Crowley, involves his attempts to evoke the Great God Pan in Paris with the aid of his disciple Victor Nueberg. The result nearly drove Crowley mad. He was discovered unconscious with hoof prints marked on his forehead like those of a goat. The Crowley legend is filled with such tales involving rituals of black magic across Europe, his devotion to Pan well known among his loyal followers at the time. Pan, the son of Hermes, was the Arcadian god of lust, a symbol, if you will, of the libido, a seducer of both sexes, something that definitely appealed to Crowley, whose sex magic was infamous in his day with both his female as well as male disciples. Horror cinema has delved into this material at least once every decade, the first being Rex Ingram’s film THE MAGICIAN, adapted from a novel by Somerset Maugham.

Maugham had actually encountered Crowley during his heyday in London where the two men enjoyed (at least it seemed they did) each other’s company, since Maugham had later remarked to friends that he found Crowley to be a fascinating conversationalist, and very well read. However the novel Maugham chose to write depicted Crowley as a latter day Svengali with a touch of Dracula in the mix. This homage so infuriated Crowley that he reviewed it in that year’s Vanity Fair, calling it rubbish, which of course it was.

Paul Wegener as Oliver Haddo.

In 1926 Rex Ingram decided it would be an ideal project for his newly acquired studios in Nice, bankrolled by MGM no less, and to star his beautiful wife Alice Terry and the legendary Paul Wegener, the sensational creator of THE GOLEM, as Oliver Haddo, the Crowley clone of the piece. Wegener was an ideal choice for the role since he was a larger than life character in his own right. One of the leading actors of his generation in Germany, he was perhaps their first bonafide auteurs since he was much more than merely a star. He was also a writer and director whose talents paved the way for the fantastic cinema in all its aspects to evolve into the genre we know today. THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE was his pet project, and his love of trick photography was historic at the time of cinema’s infancy.

This is not the film by which we should remember Rex Ingram, since his reputation was made on the international success of THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE which catapulted Valentino into a screen icon for eternity. Ingram also directed the first version of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA as well as SCARAMOUCHE, both with Alice Terry. THE MAGICIAN came back into the limelight early in 2010 when Turner Classic Movies screened it on their Sunday silent film series, allowing countless horror fans to tape the beautiful print they ran and making the film at last accessible for study. While the film boasts a fantastic Infernal fantasy about 20 minutes in, where Haddo arrives unannounced at Terry’s home and, through magic, allows her a glimpse into a Hellish tableau of dammed souls at the mercy of a faun, or is it the great God Pan himself, since Ingram was influenced by Arthur Machen’s THE GREAT GOD PAN as well. If not for the aforementioned sequence and the presence of Paul Wegener (who owns the screen whenever he appears – a true horror star in the Lugosi/Atwill/Karloff tradition) this film would hardly be worth recommending. The good news is that being able to see it without the disadvantage of bootlegs and fuzzy dupe prints, it holds up better than I would have expected. The tinting of the different sequences involving fire are now bright red, and one can really appreciate John Seitz’s beautiful photography for the first time.

Premier dancer Hubert Stowitts as the faun/Pan in the Hades sequence.

When I first came across this film, thanks to the late Carlos Clarens, he always remembered THE MAGICIAN as we all have – from the stunning stills of one Hubert Stowitts 1892-1953, a premier dancer who performed with the legendary Pavlova, and whose tour de force as the faun/Pan figure is unforgettable. It has always been the still of Stowitts holding Alice Terry in his arms that was used to advertise the film, more so than its real star Paul Wegener, yet the other positively outre photo from that moment is Wegener with his hair made to look like horns and his eyes evil incarnate, seated under a burnt out tree in Hell as if he is the one in charge.

The Infernal sequence as it unfolded on TCM seemed a bit short, as did other elements in the print, especially the film’s title cards. What remains however is a visual feast . One of the eye-witnesses to the filming was director Michael Powell, who also had a small part in the film. Powell revealed that the Hades footage was organized by the film’s still photographer Harry Lachman, although I am sure the concept belonged to Ingram, whose Irish heritage was in full bloom during the making of this film. He even flew the Irish flag over the studio so all of inhabitants of Nice were aware of his Irish pride. The locals were also aware of the semi-nude dancers seen cavorting about the Hades set presided over by Stowitts, who was a last minute replacement for the legendary dancer Serge Lifar whose commitments with the ballet prevented him from accepting the role.

Stowitts in make up as a faun/Pan and director Rex Ingram on the Hell set.

Among the other artisans involved in the making of THE MAGICIAN were Henri Menessier, a protage of Nazimova, who did the art direction. He had been a part of Ingram’s inner circle since the end of MARE NOSTRUM. The noted artist Paul Darde was responsible for the mammoth statue of the faun that Alice Terry is nearly crushed by in the film’s opening sequence. The Sorcerer’s tower was created near the village of Sospel in the mountains below Nice and is almost identical to the Frankenstein tower in James Whale’s BRIDE OF FRANENSTEIN (it has been said that Whale screened THE MAGICIAN several times while making FRANKENSTEIN.) This comparison is but one of many influences Ingram’s film is noted for now that THE MAGICIAN is finally available for study after decades of being a “lost film”. Anyone familiar with the Universal horror films of the 1930′s will notice the plot points later used in THE MUMMY, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE and THE RAVEN.

The casting of Paul Wegener in his only American film seemed providential, since he remains one of the pioneers of the genre, not only as the creator of THE GOLEM, but as a champion of the fantastic in all that is cinema. Ingram and Wegener were both enamored with writers like Poe and Hoffmann, not to mention their mutual fascination with Eastern mysticism and the occult. Looking at his performance by today’s standards it seems more comic than horrific since Ingram chose to dress him in loud checkered suits which, by the way, is not unlike the wardrobe Sidney Blackmer’s Roman Castevet wears in Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY. Wegener is every inch the showman in his performance, so much so that Ingram sends him up with the card “He appears to have stepped out of a melodrama.” One must appreciate Wegener’s swagger in every gesture he makes, sweeping his black cape up into his arms at every opportunity. He reminded me a bit of Lugosi in WHITE ZOMBIE with his melodramatic gestures and intense eye movement. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is with the Satanic character Karoff plays in THE BLACK CAT, which as we all know is yet another thinly veiled portrait of Crowley, however when Ulmer’s writers named his character Poelzig, the connection to German expressionism came full circle since designer Hans Poelzig was an active force in that period of cinema, having worked on Wegerer’s GOLEM as well.

Paul Wegener and Alice Terry in the dream sequence in Hell (notice the devil horn hairdo on Wegener).

The unveiling of THE MAGICIAN on TCM was for me very much like finally getting to see LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT after decades of imagining what it was like based on all the fantastic stills we’ve seen published over the years. This of course sets us up for disappointment: as with all the films of the silent era, not every moment is a golden one, and THE MAGICIAN is for the most part slow and confusing, with lackluster performances from the secondary actors leaving Paul Wegener standing tall, if not in a different film altogether. Alice Terry is not used to her best advantage, considering her fine work opposite Valentino and Ramon Navarro. I think I know the real reason for this since I had chance to ask the lady herself in 1979 when John Kobal was in LA researching one of his photo books, and allowed me to join him in meeting Alice Terry in the flesh.

One of the disadvantages of youth is not taking advantage of a golden opportunity when it is presented to you, as my encounter with Alice Terry would prove in 1979. At this time in my life I was collecting movie material more than commenting on it, and in spite of meeting Mae West face to face, I never took her sage advice to keep a diary since, as she wisely pointed out, it might one day keep me. John was forever in the habit of interviewing Hollywood personalities from both era’s. He had amazing luck, especially with legends like Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth – with whom he did a biography. I was already somewhat familiar with Alice Terry as the damsel in distress in THE MAGICIAN, and when faced with the prospect of meeting her all I could think of was this woman acted with The Golem! I knew very little about her body of work in silent films, or her importance as a MGM star.

Paul Wegener in his hill top castle laboratory at the climax of THE MAGICIAN.

In those days John always liked to have someone along when he did these interviews to carry his tape recorders and keep him amused as well as driving him around town since he hated to drive himself. I wish I could remember more details of that afternoon so long ago, and why I didn’t bring my camera as I did when I stayed with him in London. As I remember it, John was working on a photo exhibit that included several images of Valentino and Ramon Navarro from films like THE FOUR HORSEMEN and BEN-HUR. Alice Terry was a leading lady to both stars, as well as being a star herself, so John was very pleased she had consented to an interview to take place at her home in the most rural part of the San Fernando Valley.

On the drive up we speculated if she would be anything like Norma Desmond in SUNSET BLVD, as John made the point that her husband’s cameraman, John Seitz, photographed Billy Wilder’s film as well. We drove for the longest time, getting lost several times in the process, until we finally reached the road that lead up to two large houses separated by trees and a driveway. Alice Terry was around 79 at the time, still handsome, with a regal bearing one would expect from a movie star, yet there was nothing of Norma Desmond in this woman, since she was without any vanity regarding her time in the spotlight. In fact she laughed a great deal during our time with her about both Hollywood and her role in it as a film star.

Alice Terry seated with her husband Rex Ingram just before filming THE MAGICIAN in Nice.

The first thing you noticed about her surroundings was just how much art figured into her world. She still painted, but was charmingly modest about her work, preferring to show off her collection of other painters, of which there was a good representation on every wall of the house. Her sister lived with her and made a brief appearance before drifting off to other parts of the house as John began preparing to show Alice Terry the prints he brought from the exhibit. You got a sense from her that the past was something she had put to rest with no regrets, yet her love and respect for her husband was always forefront when dealing with historians like John. When he displayed a print of Ramon Navarro she was visibly touched, saying he had been a close personal friend and his needless death in 1968 was still a subject best left untouched.

I had asked John to please include a question or two regarding THE MAGICIAN and he kept his word, asking her during a moment when she was recalling her days with Ingram in Nice, which she described as being his most productive of their time together. My partner, Chris Dietrich, transcribed the following from John’s tapes and this is the first opportunity I have had to share them, since John never got around to using the material himself.

Peter Lorre with Rex Ingram and his wife on the set of CRACK-UP at FOX in 1936.

JK: What was it like working as well as living in Nice ?

AT: It was a very creative period for Rex. I remember we lived in a wonderful hotel called the Negresco filled with the most charming and talented people including, at the time, Isadora Duncan. She was living at the hotel without any money yet the innkeepers never said a word about her bill because she was such an attraction – a true force of nature that the locals adored her free spirit . One afternoon Rex invited Matisse to lunch just to meet her and of course he was charmed. We all were…

JK: Could you talk for a moment about the film you made with Paul Wegener while you were there?

AT: You mean of course THE MAGICIAN…well this was never a favorite of mine since I really had very little to do except either look mesmerized by Mr. Wegener or be frightened to death by what he was about to do to me…. The atmosphere of that film was rather otherworldly because Mr. Wegener was always somewhat in his character. Rex was quite taken with his face, which was remarkable, his eyes were positively demonic when he focused them on you. He was quite a star in Germany and of course we all had seen THE GOLEM.

JK: Did you enjoy working with him?

AT: Well yes and no, I mean he was very kind towards me and took direction beautifully from Rex. Since they were both of the same mind about his character, their working relationship was good. Mr. Wegener was a great star in his native land and this was the only film he ever made outside of Germany. The crew was put off by his pomposity, especially John {Seitz} who photographed the film. Mr Wegener was, shall we say, a prima donna who insisted on being treated with great respect. He lost his temper quite a bit, always dressing down his servant, and especially his long suffering make-up man who one could not help but feel sorry for. Mr Wegener brought along his personal valet as well.

JK: Did this behavior ever bother your husband?

AT: Not really, you see Rex always knew what he wanted as a director. I mean he visualized the whole film well in advance. The structure of it was fully realized before the cameras ever rolled. He wanted Paul Wegener from the beginning and visualized it with his personality and especially his physical appearance, which was commanding at all times.

JK: Was the film well received?

AT: No it was not well received, not by Rex’s standard not at all… His relationship to the author, Mr. Maugham, was non-existent by the time the film premiered. He did not like Rex’s adaptation in the least. Rex found Maugham’s novel lacking in many ways and thought to improve on it, and this drew a wedge between them that was never removed. THE MAGICIAN was never a favorite of mine, nor did Rex think much of it afterwards.

I wish I had been more agressive in asking John if I could do a separate interview, yet looking back on that afternoon, I think Alice Terry said about as much as she cared to on the subject, even as an eye witness to film history. She was more then content to let the past remain exactly that and simply move on with her life, which was as peaceful and content as I ever saw for anyone who had such an active part in the film making process on two continents.

Last year I saw yet another film taking on the Crowley legend, only this time the man himself was front and center as his unholy spirit is brought back into the 21st century by computer technology in a CHEMICAL WEDDING. The always-entertaining Simon Callow played Crowley to perfection in my opinion. It was unfortunate that the script he was given let him down. For me the project is not without its guilty pleasures, not the least of which was the name the screenwriter gave for Callow’s character – OLIVER HADDO.

“MEN CRIED OUT TO HER AT DAWN”

I am 11 years old and it is late in the evening on a Saturday night. I sit cross-legged on the floor in front of the television set with rabbit ears watching the Shock Theater premiere of DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. The scene unfolding in front of me takes place in a forest shrouded in darkness, the ground swirling in mist, the trees filled with fog. In the distance a wolf howls at the moon. In the foreground is a tall, aristocratic woman clothed in the blackest of velvet. A hood covering her head, she stands in front of a huge funeral bier blazing with fire. She lets the hood fall from her face revealing a chalk white beauty, then turns to her left and lowers her hand to the ground, seizing a large make-shift cross fashioned from two pieces of oak. As she raises the cross skyward she turns her head away in fear, speaking these words as the flames consume the mortal remains of her father, Count Dracula.

” Unto Adoni and Aseroth, into the keeping of the lords of the flame and the lower pits, I consign this body, to be evermore consumed in this purging fire. Let all baleful spirits that threaten the souls of man be banished by the spilling of this salt. Be thou exorcised O Dracula and thy body, long undead, find destruction throughout eternity in the name of thy dark unholy master. In the name of the all holiest, and through this cross, be this evil spirit cast out until the end of time.”

I have seen this film countless times since but the power of that moment has never diminished in its ability to bring an audience into a spider-webbed world of fantasy that was Universal pictures from 1925 until this film was wrapped in March of 1936, effectively ending the first golden age of Horror in American cinema. The film itself was always a curiosity in the genre, mainly because it lacked the star power of a Karloff or Lugosi to keep the flames of cult worship alive in the thousands of baby boomers that were being exposed for the first time to the first cycle of horrors flooding our TV screens in the late fifties where most of would see films like DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN along with THE MUMMY and THE WOLF MAN.

Since the legendary star of DRACULA, Bela Lugosi, was nowhere to be found in this sequel, the film has taken decades to find its audience. The actress who was given the role of a lifetime, Gloria Holden, was unknown at the time (1936) having worked on Broadway and then radio, doing several weeks on the popular Eddie Cantor program. Once you finally get over the loss of the Vampire King, whose presence is seen ever so fleetingly in a coffin, fully staked by Von Helsing (still played by the stalwart Edward Van Sloan) in the lower regions of Carfax Abby, the film takes up exactly where DRACULA left off – with the romantic team of David Manners and Helen Chandler walking up the staircase into light, and well out of camera range, dissolving into the end credit roll.

I am writing this during the very month the film wrapped 74 years ago, and since that time the entire cast and crew have gone on to their respective rewards. What makes this so relevant for me is that I received in the mail a soft bound book from a colleague of mine (who has been in and out of my life for the last 35 years) named Phil Riley. He has edited together an early draft treatment of DRACULA’S DAUGHTER by John L.Balderston, and then the real find is a draft by R. C Sheriff that was submitted to the Breen office by James Whale when it seemed like the director of FRANENSTEIN was going to helm it with an all star cast and a lavish budget. The cover has a faux poster of the film had Whale directed it, boasting Jane Wyatt as the Countess and Lugosi, of course, as the Count. Phil has done the genre a favor in bringing to light this particular bit of history that almost fell into the cracks of time and space. Now we can read for ourselves what might have been if James Whale had been given carte blanche while the production code looked the other way.

Gloria Holden with Dracula star Bela Lugosi, and producer David Diamond. Feb 24th 1936.

Gloria Holden with Dracula star Bela Lugosi, Gloria Stuart and producer David Diamond. Feb 24th 1936.

In 1981 I was working as a researcher for a number of writers including John Kobal, Kenneth Anger and especially Richard Lamparski who was still writing his very successful series of “Whatever Became Of?” books, I owe a huge debt to Richard for putting me in touch with the tragic “little Maria” whom Karloff tossed into the lake to drown in FRANKENSTEIN, and he would also connect me with the fabulous Countess Marya Zaleska, or at least the actress that made such a lasting impression – Gloria Holden, then Mrs. William H Hoyt of Redlands, California.

I went the way of a mailgram to her home in the desert community where she had been living all these years, introducing myself and hoping she would not feel intruded upon and perhaps grant an interview since nobody had gotten around to asking about her career, at least in print. Gloria Holden ended her Hollywood career after filming THIS HAPPY FEELING for director Blake Edwards in 1958. I received a typed response in which she acknowledged that she was indeed the Gloria Holden, but wanted to know just what I had in mind, and especially how I discovered her address and married name. This was more than fair considering I was invading her privacy.

Gloria Holden with Dracula star Bela Lugosi. Feb 24th 1936.

I sent her some copies of my work as well as a letter from Richard giving me a clean bill of health and assuring her I was not some crazed stalker bent on terrorizing her. Gloria responded with great charm and candor after that. She explained that her life in Redlands was a quite one with a close circle of friends cultivated by her husband from his days of teaching at the local college. After the first letter came another, which explained her current state of mind, as well as why she had been reclusive for the last ten years. In 1970, her only son, Chris, had just graduated from Redlands university and, as a reward for such hard work, his parents gifted him a red sports car to begin his new life. On the way back from a post grad party at the college he drove by a hillside that dislodged a 60 pound rock on top of his car, crushing Chris Hoyt to death. Gloria was inconsolable, went into mourning, and never really came out of it. By the time I reached her she was a fragile woman with a heart condition that made visits impossible, but she agreed to talk to me on the phone.

The first response from Gloria Holden was one of reluctance to break her silence, partly out of grief, but also, after so many years, who could possibly care about “some horrid old film best left forgotten?” It took all my powers of persuasion to make her think otherwise. I began to ask her about some of her other films like THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA and STRANGE HOLIDAY. She warmed to recollections of Paul Muni. “Muni was a beautiful man, a real artist, it was my pleasure to be in his company and I feel we did good work, I thought ZOLA was a wonderful film. I played Madame Zola once again on radio after we did our film.”

On the subject of Claude Rains and the film STRANGE HOLIDAY, “Claude Rains was next to Muni my favorite actor to play opposite, a total professional blessed with a magnificent voice. I wish our film together had been a better one as so few people actually went to see it”

Gloria Holden in Strange Holiday with Claude Rains.

Gloria sent me a letter after our phone call and had this to say: “I have worked with so many of the film greats, and that experience was a valuable part of my life. Yet it seems, looking back, too small a contribution to say it was a life’s work. I can at this time (1981) do no more than try to overcome a serious heart condition, and keep the home fires pleasant and bright. I cook–I write–I watch KCET 28/TV and read. Your attention to me and my work has me amazed that things I did thirty years ago really matter anymore… I am living in the world today. I mean if I write a fine poem today, make someone happy today, help someone today, and of course I pray for those whom it is my duty and privilege to keep in mind and heart. When I get well and stronger I will likely be more responsive to the outside world, mostly I want to work, complete so many unfinished projects. I am fortunate to have a good strong husband who is a professor at a college, he is active and athletic. We have good friends in his profession. I was always so incredibly shy and afraid of people in my own profession. It is also strange and wonderful how Mr. Lugosi is still bringing people into my life with his curse of the Draculas. In this case may I say it was a blessing and not, thank God, a curse. Love Gloria Holden Hoyt…

During the time I was in touch with Gloria it became known that she had resurfaced, not through me but from a married couple who were autograph hounds known for acquiring arcane signatures of the most oddball kind. They have become infamous in fan circles for not taking ‘no’ for an answer, which of course is not a good thing. They made a pilgrimage to Redlands, staying nearby and telephoning until Gloria finally gave them what they wanted just to get them off the porch. A month or so after Gloria passed away they began selling her signature for $150. This is a primary example of the “fandom” William Shatner was lampooning on Saturday Night Live, only it is not so amusing in real life.

The result of this situation for me was receiving a telephone call one evening from the most eccentric of the “undead cult” that surrounds the myth of Count Dracula – the President of the “Count Dracula Society” Dr Donald A Reed. If you wish to learn more of this weird little man with the high-pitched voice, I highly recommend “My life with Count Dracula” written and produced by the Oscar winning writer of MILK, Dustin Lance Black. This must have been one of his first projects, and to his credit he stayed with it to the bitter end where we as an audience follow this deluded passionately devoted fan to his grave. Now Donald could be charming in a morbid kind of way if he was in a social situation like an awards ceremony, however I saw both sides now as Join Mitchell would have put it, and it wasn’t pretty.

French 2-sheet for the film

I remember this as if it were yesterday. I dressed in my best black suit and drove down to the location Dr Reed sent me to hopefully mount the stage and explain just how fragile Gloria Holden was at this time, and how grateful she was to be so honored. I also had a short thank you speech signed by her to give to Dr Don as a sort of memento even though he had been such a moron about the entire situation.

I parked my car and noticed there was no shortage of spaces. Then the ‘coup de grace’: the location was correct but it had been held the night before, not only that but I was later told by an Academy member who was there that night: “Dr Reed used the event to announce in a ballroom filled with industry notables as well as fanboys and such that Gloria Holden would have been here personally to collect her award, however a certain villain named David Del Valle was simply too selfish to share her with the fans that waited all these years to pay their respects. Well I was pissed to say the least, and time does heal all wounds as they say. To this day I cannot muster even a tear for the loss of such a pathetic yet fascinating creature of the night.

Gloria Holden performing a vampires last rites including the Holy Cross for which she may not gaze upon

At least we have this document to give a taste of the forbidden.

Those of us that admire DRACULA’S DAUGHTER have little reason to sing to the choir, however if you have not had the pleasure let me enlighten you on a few things regarding the movie itself. Like all films of this period they are not without their faults. This film suffers from what Gloria described as a film made during the collapse of a regime. It is ironic that DRACULA’S DAUGHTER would be one of the most expensive of the lot and yet it looks like a programmer compared to say the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. The budget for DD was taken up in writers fees paying Bela Lugosi $4000 to stand about for photo ops, and at one point he had to sign a contract permitting the making of a dummy to be placed in the coffin at the beginning of the film even though it looked nothing much like him. This would later help the Lugosi family in settling a longtime lawsuit with Universal over the rights of actors who create characters so vivid that the movie- going public can think of no one else in the role.

Unaurthorized model kit done in the late 90's fully painted of Gloria Holden.

Nan Gray as Lili about to undress to pose for a sculpture..regarded as a Lesbian proposition that escaped the censor's of 1936.

The rarest moment in Dracula's Daughter as it is seen today and perhaps the rarest artifact in the golden age of Horror from Universal, a tapestry is glimpsed for a second on camera of Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula imperally standing at the center of his court before the wizard transforms his court into swine and the Count into a vampire from the R.C Sheriff script.

I must thank once again my college Phil Riley for providing me with a copy of DRACULA’S DAUGHTER–from Bear Manor Media press [the forgotten version by RC Sherriff] which upon reading instantly rekindled the fire allowing me to write this long overdue tribute to a great actress, a loyal friend whose kind heart and generous nature touched me in ways I am still discovering

…after all “There are far more things in Heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your…psychiatry.

Dan O'Bannon at home in Santa Monica during filming of Return of the Living dead. Photo by Dan Golden.

The recent passing of genre writer/director Dan O’Bannon caused me to unearth my picture file on his directorial debut, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, which since its first screening has steadily built a substantial horror fan base as a classic zombie film in the tradition of the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. This act created a Pandora effect, unleashing a flood of memories I thought long forgotten about my time on the LIVING DEAD set during the months of May and June of 1984. When the Mike Dalling Company first asked me to cover this film for them I thought it was a vampire film, agreeing at once to go down to the Burbank location with my photographer, Dan Golden, and check out the scene.

Looking back I can better understand why Dan O’Bannon was so paranoid about the press in Hollywood, especially concerning his image, since he was after all an outsider, a maverick railing against the system he so wanted to be a part of. Yet he refused to play the game. It is very telling then that when I asked him what his favorite H. P. Lovecraft story was he replied, “THE OUTSIDER,” a short story filled with the intense longing to escape from a desolate castle into the outside world only to discover at the climax that he, too, was a monster unable to take his place among the living. When I asked about his favorite work of Poe he chose the poem ALONE, a piece in which even Lovecraft could see himself in the words, “From childhood’s hour I have not been as others were.” Neither Dan O’Bannon nor his literary idols could see themselves as part of the mainstream no matter what endorsements came their way in terms of praise or success. Dan wrote blockbuster screenplays like TOTAL RECALL and ALIEN, yet never achieved the kind of mega-success of, say, a Joe Eszterhas, who could turn in a treatment and receive a million-dollar advance for rubbish like SHOWGIRLS. The last time I spoke to Dan was about the time of his second directorial effort, THE RESURRECTED, ironically an adaptation of Lovecraft’s THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD (filmed once before by Roger Corman as THE HAUNTED PALACE). Dan had chosen to frame the tale in the present-day with a neo-noir motif and, to his credit, it was somewhat successful as a stand-up Lovecraft film with Chris Sarandon giving a creepy performance in the dual role of Charles Dexter Ward and his evil ancestor Joseph Curwin. Dan was, as usual, at odds with the company who produced it, as they cut his film without his approval, de-fanging the film of its blood and gore and trimming away his vision yet again. Dan would get his revenge at the end of his life by writing his own adaptation of Lovecraft’s most famous creation, THE NECRONOMICON. Dan himself was always an outsider, first as a child his parents did not understand, then arriving in Hollywood after film school only to find the same situation on a larger scale, failing to adapt successfully in what he regarded as a nest of vipers cannibalizing themselves in franchise film-making.

Dan O'Bannon rehearsing zombie attack...with assistant at window.

Dan rehearsing James Karen and Clu Gulager onset.

Sometimes these on-set encounters can be fun, since you get to not only engage with the director and crew while they are at work but (as with this film) also lunch with the actors and hopefully stay long enough to observe some cinema magic in the process. My first experience on the LIVING DEAD set was anything but fun since I arrived just in time to witness actor Clu Gulager square off with his director in a verbal shouting match that left the crew silent and tense. Now, before I go on with this it is important to know that both Clu and Dan, who would lock horns several more times before this film would wrap, came out of the process the best of friends and remained so until Dan’s death this past December.

After witnessing this encounter I stayed away from both men until lunch broke. As I entered the area set aside for the cast and crew to eat I saw Clu heading straight in my direction, whereupon he greeted me like a long lost relation. “You are the journalist from the Mike Dalling office, are you not? I am Clu Guluger. Please just call me Clu.” He then walked me over to where the food was being served and together we took a table and sat down to our lunch. Clu was concerned about what I had just witnessed and was determined to deflate any bad press that might come from it. He explained that what I observed was a very heavy scene in the film where his character was supposed to react with rage and frustration over the hopelessness of the situation his character was in and at that moment someone had walked into his range of vision causing him to lose his concentration altogether, which in turn caused him to lose it for a moment since, in his view, the director is supposed to keep the set free of distractions, among other things.

It was impossible not to like this man. He and I became fast friends during that first lunch and I for one understood how that might just be the straw that would break the camel’s back at that moment. I later discovered that Dan had made more than a few enemies on this shoot and he knew it. O’Bannon was a product of USC FILM School and was at that moment practicing the auteur theory they teach so well at that institution. In other words the director has a vision and in order for that vision to reach the screen he has to take command of every department, telling each and every crew member and technician their job so they can do it better, thus making a better film all the way around. Most of the other actors found Dan to be somewhat difficult but it was all for a good cause since he was, after all, the very talented screenwriter who wrote ALIEN. Almost everyone on the set was in agreement about one thing and that was Dan O’Bannon had written a great script for them to make, which accomplished the difficult task of making a Horror film funny. It was a parody of George Romero’s film and that was exactly what was needed.

Zombie masks on display in prop dept.

Clu Gulager's autographed photo with personal drawings in green.

The next time I went on-set was to watch the scene where the yellow cadaver played by Terry Houlihan comes to life and causes all kinds of havoc. Terry was covered in this yellow body make-up with a bald cap in place so he all but resembled a mannequin from hell. The set was filled with faux toxic fumes from the gas leaks that set the stage in the script for the living dead to return in the first place. This made the whole set smell like black flag insect spray. It was never a comfortable shoot under any circumstances, both in temperament and design. There was a tenseness going on with Dan as he was under great pressure not only from the producers but from his special-effects people, including make-up which had to be checked and doubled-checked as so much depended on every aspect of the zombies looking just right. I remember that the producers were worried about the zombies moving way too fast in some scenes to match what they thought an audience had come to expect from their zombies onscreen. If only they could have imagined the end result, everybody would have just chilled and really dug the scene.

As I watched Terry the yellow cadaver come to life, check his marks once more, then go back behind the door, there was a break for some tech stuff and I had my first chance to speak to Dan face-to-face. He was polite with me but there was always a distance since I was after all the press, so watch out! I kept thinking all during the rehearsals for this scene that it was so like that scene in Howard Hawks’ THE THING, where all the men are watching the door knowing that at any moment a bloodsucking thing was going to break in and kill them. I had this scene running in my head so I mentioned it to Dan and bang! It was like a bell went off in his head, and he looked at me as if he had just discovered my existence. “I fucking love THE THING! Hawks is like one of my heroes. You know, I was hoping for that moment with this scene as well, and now you have confirmed my thoughts. This is great! Thank you so much for noticing.” From that moment on Dan O’Bannon liked me and respected the fact that we both were film buffs. I was no longer the dreaded press but a colleague. This was as good as it got on the set of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, and a memory I will always hold dear when I think of Dan.

Production sketch of the most famous dialogue in the film...

James Karen autographed still from sequel to Living Dead.

Dan O’Bannon arrived at this point in his career with an enviable resume of credits, the most exotic of which was his involvement with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ill fated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s DUNE. Dan flew over to Paris where he literally wowed Jodorowsky with his talent and creativity. He was put in charge of all the special-effects, working for six months before returning to LA to do more work on the project. This all came to an end when Dan received word from Paris that the money failed to materialize, ending a magical experience with the dean of avant-garde filmmakers. His career from his days after USC, beginning with the filming of DARK STAR alongside John Carpenter, are well documented elsewhere so let’s just say that Dan had more than enough background to direct. He just needed this baptism of fire with LIVING DEAD to understand that a good director hires the right people from day one, allowing them to do their job while you as a director involve yourself, keeping it all in focus. Dan was never much of a “people person” and this led to much of the animosity felt by cast and crew during the making of the film. There were moments during the filming like the day Dan was set to film the weird little guy they brought on set to play one of the misshapen zombies. One of the more unpleasant requirements was that he actually eat calf brains on-camera. Well the crew was up in arms about this and Dan, to his credit, walked over and ate some calf brains in front of everyone present, remarking afterwards, “I would never ask an actor to do anything on camera I would not do myself.”

James Karen remembered the shoot as being very physical from his standpoint because his character was so manic and did so much jumping around. But there is one thing on which both Jimmy and Clu both were in agreement, and that was how good the script was, really funny and edgy in ways a zombie film had never been allowed to be; even ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY left their zombie to react by the book, relying on the two comic actors to add the humor (which on that film was in short supply, making Lugosi the only reason to remember it now). I will always be grateful for RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD as the film which brought both Jimmy and Clu into my circle of friends where they have remained all these years later.

It is well known that Tobe Hooper was set to direct RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD when his schedule changed abruptly, allowing Dan, the screenwriter, to take over. Time has been more than kind to this film, allowing it to turn into a classic first-of-its-kind punk-rock zombie flick, and this in turn caused a change in Dan himself as time went by. He actually got involved with the fans’ grass roots campaign to get RETURN out on DVD, sending the internet fans flocking to dozens of websites devoted to the film to write and email their demands to the studio directly, the result of which was the deluxe edition of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. The real pleasure of this DVD is Dan O’Bannon’s personal observations about the film while he was still well enough to make them.

James Karen with wife Alba at wrap party for Living dead at my Beverly Hills Apt.

James Karen's death scene in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD...

Soon after the film was completed I was invited to spend some interview-time with Dan at his small house in Santa Monica where he greeted both myself and photographer Dan Golden in his bathrobe because his stomach was bothering him that day. Looking back it is now clear Dan suffered far more than he let on about the illness which would ultimately take his life. Away from the set Dan was more laid back and reflective about the experience. I think he was beginning to feel he had created something that was unique, although at that point there was no way of knowing just how popular the film was going to be. Dan was a like a proud dad, showing off his “outer office” which contained floor-to-ceiling scripts, drafts and treatments of his entire output as a writer. In rows divided by shelves, he had every draft of ALIEN from the early THEY BITE right through to the STAR BEAST and beyond, to the version we all have come to know as Ridley Scott’s masterpiece. Dan was always savvy enough to acknowledge Ridley’s contribution which sort of reminded me in a strange sort of way of how Robert Bloch regarded Hitchcock, the only difference being Dan O’Bannon was a far more accomplished screenwriter than Bloch. Bob was really a novelist with a real talent for the short story. His screenplays were always rather routine in comparison to his writing.

The afternoon went by pleasantly enough with Dan regaling us with tales of Jodorowsky and a couple of rather wicked observations on John Carpenter, not to mention producer Tom Fox. At one point I asked if we could do stills of the two of us together and then some portraits of just him. Dan reflected for a moment and then asked if we could hold back printing them for a time since he really wanted to enjoy being private a bit longer, reasoning that it was just a matter of time before his fame would overwhelm his life to the extent that he would be mobbed in public once his fans knew what he looked like. And you know what turns out to be sublimely funny about Dan O’Bannon? He really meant it.

Martine Beswicke in a test make-up for Ken Russell's VALENTINO entire concept and photography by Leonard J Pollack.

I was raised in a “No, you don’t” world overrun with rules, to lift a line from the “woman in the moon” from the second remake of A STAR IS BORN; so imagine if you will what it was like for someone like me to be living in Hollywood during the Disco era of the late 1970′s where one could reinvent oneself in a glittery world of “Yes, you can”–anything you want is there for the asking. It would then be no surprise to find yourself partying with larger-than-life characters that once dazzled you on the silver screen.

There is one very special woman of all the show business characters I encountered during my decades in Babylon. She became in time more like a sister to me, sharing most of my ups and downs in the process. Martine Beswick came into my life like a bolt from the blue. The signs of the Zodiac were in full swing and Jupiter aligned with Mars that night in the summer of 1978 when I blissfully walked into the Blue Parrot (a long-ago watering hole on the corner of Larrabee and Santa Monica in West Hollywood, named after the bar in CASABLANCA run by Sydney Greenstreet) to meet my friend, Steve Tracy (an actor soon-to-be somewhat of a household name as a semi-regular on LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE). Steve and I went way back to my college days in San Francisco when he got his start in the first 3-D soft-core gay film, HEAVY EQUIPMENT, with Jack Wrangler and Al Parker. Steve was a curly-haired guy with a great sense of humor who stood about 5’4.” Everybody loved Steve. It would be hard to believe that in a few short years (1986) we would lose him to HIV. Steve loved Hollywood so much that he requested his ashes be scattered under the Hollywood sign. To this day I always think of him whenever I pass in its direction.

Now, the mad British director Ken Russell figures into this as well, since I was carrying with me that evening a set of 11×14 photos taken by David James, from Russell’s THE MUSIC LOVERS. By the time I arrived, the bar was in the process of filling up, so Steve and I found a place by the window facing the boulevard where I could show off my latest treasures. As we examined the photos, another attractive curly-haired guy was watching us with great interest (which in the Blue Parrot was not unusual). Looking back, this would prove to be a life-changing moment. The curly-haired guy finally came over and introduced himself as Mark Baker, asking if he could see the photos and recognizing them instantly as from a film by Ken Russell. Steve looked at Mark for a minute, then asked, “Weren’t you Candide on Broadway?” I then gave him another look and said, “I just saw you at a cast-screening of SWASHBUCKLER in Westwood last week!” Mark playedPeter Boyle’s boy-toy, complete with long silver nails that dripped poison. Well, it turns out that our boy Mark knew Ken Russell far better than any of us, because he played a small role in VALENTINO, acting alongside the great man himself.

Martine Beswicke in a test make-up for Ken Russell's VALENTINO entire concept and photography by Leonard J Pollack.

Steve and I had a couple of drinks with our new friend before he drifted off into the night, leaving Mark and I to our own devices. This was a Friday night so Mark stayed with me until Sunday morning, where we then met actress June Gable (who appeared on Broadway with Mark) at Joe Allen’s for brunch. It was during that brunch that Mark insisted I hook up with another friend of Ken Russell’s, Leonard Pollack, giving me his phone number on the spot.

The afternoon that I first met Lennie was another of those life-altering moments as I instantly got who he was and knew I wanted this talented man as a friend. Lennie was packing to go off to London the next day so our first visit was cut short; but with Lennie ten minutes can be illuminating, so during my first glimpse of his flat (which was decorated with his designs, artwork and photographs) I noticed a double-exposure of a very Art Deco woman posing with a beaded scarf around her neck. Her hair was almost Afro in design. I later learned the entire concept, make-up and hair, was Lennie’s. Lennie told me that she was Martine Beswick, an actress he observed sitting in an outdoor cafe in London while he was working on VALENTINO for Ken Russell. He thought she would make an amazing Nazimova so he approached her for contact information, which he then passed on to Ken. Lennie took that photo of Martine in the manner of Nazimova; the results were fantastic. When he said her name I knew instantly who she was as I had long admired her work in films like DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE as well as PREHISTORIC WOMEN for Hammer Films of England. Most movie fans would know her from the two James Bond films she appeared in, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and THUNDERBALL. I would later discover that Russell would have loved to use her but United Artists insisted on a “name” actress in the role so he gave the part of Nazimova to Leslie Caron, who emoted quite well, but it would have been a tour-de-force if “La Beswick” had been given a chance.

Director Michael Carreras kneeling before the great white rineno while Martine Beswick takes a nap during the filming of PREHISTORIC WOMEN

I made such a fuss over Martine once I realized he knew her that even though we had just met, Lennie gave me Martine’s phone number, explaining that she now lived in West Hollywood and would most likely enjoy having a drink with me. After leaving a message for Martine on her answering service introducing me, my new friend was off to the UK, having done me a kindness neither one of us could even begin to appreciate until much later.

The first encounter with Martine was simply a Mardi Gras of the mind, and leave it to my other new friend of the moment, Lennie Pollack, to have known simply by his remarkable instinct for connecting people that it would turn out that way. I first spoke with her on the phone, explaining how amazed I was that she was living in Hollywood, to which she replied, “Darling, one simply has to be where it all is happening, don’t you know? And right now that place is Hollywood. After all, you’re here as well, aren’t you, Darling?” I invited her on the spot to come over to my Beverly Boulevard abode for drinks the next evening and so she did. My first glimpse of La Beswick was equally unforgettable. She arrived wearing a tricked-out Minnie Mouse combo of red and black; her black-and-red jeweled top was sleeveless, her mini-skirt was black with a bright red heart for a buckle and a matching heart in her hair, which was up. When I opened the door she looked me up and down and then said, “Well, Darling, as you can see, your phone call gave me a heart-on so here I am wearing mine just for you!” I was hers from that moment on, and the rest of the evening was one huge admiration society for all things Beswick.

Martine and David dancing the night away circa 1978 in Beverly Blvd Apt.

This first meeting was around the end of 1977 and Martine had just done an episode of BARETTA with Robert Blake. She played a belly dancer who entices guest star Strother Martin into some intrigue involving a stolen jewel, as I recall. She loved working with Martin, who told her she was an eye-full, and from that moment on they were a double act on-and-off the set. When I visited her place the following weekend she had a poster of herself made up as the belly dancer tacked on her bedroom door. Her charming apartment at that time was filled with flowers and hearts with a cat residing on its own pillow of pink and red. Martine was always filled with an optimism that came from an inner beauty she possessed, probably all of her life. When someone like Martine is born, invested with great beauty, some things in life come easy and this can lead to a certain hauteur or cruelty towards those not quite so blessed. In Martine’s case she was never too self-involved not to be aware of other people’s feelings and never in the twenty-plus years I have known her have I ever seen her be vindictive or unkind to anyone in her orbit. This is a quality she shares with Vincent Price, who also fell in love with her on the set of THE OFFSPRING some years later when I was the unit publicist for that film.

Martine and David recovering from a night at STUDIO ONE 1977.

Looking back now after all these years it is providential why we clicked so well. I think we both felt comfortable with each other; then came a trust that good friends have that allows a certain bond to develop. Up until I met Martine I tended to be the guy who always looked at a bottle that is half full and thought it half empty. After a lifetime dose of Beswick it was always to be half-full, and for that I am in her debt. One thing we shared in common was the love of talking on the telephone, and remember, this was well before cell phones, so we behaved like those teenagers in BYE BYE BIRDIE–always filling each other in on all the gossip that hovered over Hollywood like the smog it is so well known for. One of the first serious conversations we had was, naturally enough, about her career. I was stupefied that she was not already a huge star in Hollywood with that glowing personality she possessed, not to mention being gorgeous. It was her belief that her exotic quality, which separated her from the rest of the women she came up against for parts, played against her. Sometimes I think she simply overpowered the casting directors she read for and many of them were sadly lacking in imagination, so parts went to other less flamboyant actresses. This dilemma she tried to solve by consulting a numerologist, who suggested she add an extra letter to the end of her name so the gods of chance would once again smile on our Bond girl. Hence “La Beswick” became “La Beswicke.”

From the time Martine won the title of Miss Jamaica, winning a car (which she then sold to go to London and begin her career), her looks opened the door and then it was up to her to do the rest. Of course, luck always plays a role in there somewhere. Her first turn in a James Bond film was appearing in the credits of DR NO, and this followed with a speaking role as one of the gypsy dancers that vie for the attention of James Bond in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Martine loved to tell the story of how much the other exotic woman who played her adversary hated her, leading up to the fight itself. The rehearsals went without incident but when the cameras started to roll this woman really put her claws into Martine and what you see onscreen is a bona-fide fight to the death. Her next experience with Bond proved to be one of the highlights of her early career. As Paula in THUNDERBALL she is given a bit more to do and never once had to perform a catfight again onscreen. THUNDERBALL’s director, Terence Young, liked her very much, making this a delightful time to be Martine, who was now officially a “Bond Girl.” Martine remembers the attention she received, which became so intense that the car she was riding in during filming was almost overturned by fans screaming for the “Bond Girl.” The set was overrun with millionaires wining and dining cast and crew in a style not seen since.

Martine Beswick with Sean Connery, Claudine Auger and director Terrance Young on location filming THUNDERBALL.

The kind of La Dolce Vita lifestyle Martine was leading in the days during and after the Bond films became what is now known as the golden age of film making in Europe. She became romantically involved with actor/model John Richardson while they were filming ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. for Hammer Films, a studio Martine would also work for a bit later down the road. Their relationship was so intense that many, including Hammer star Christopher Lee, thought them married even years after they parted company. Martine explained that being with John was always filled with drama, both high and low, because he was constantly being hit-on throughout their relationship, which she found to be quite a turn-on. While he was filming ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. he was required to wear a full beard. She remembered how the day he no longer needed it he would shave a portion of it off and then they would make love for awhile and then he would shave off a bit more and repeat the lovemaking. “I loved helping John remove that beard!” John had also starred opposite Barbara Steele in BLACK SUNDAY. Both Barbara and Martine were well-acquainted with one another by then, and Martine was frequently mistaken for Barbara on film sets since they both were dark-haired and exotic. Martine used to make me laugh with her impersonation of Barbara by folding her arms over her head and then pretending to be a Venus flytrap opening her petals for the unwary fly. They were night and day as people but they both found themselves cast as dark divas in horror films, although Martine never got as typed as Steele because of her connection to the Bond films. They kept her more action-oriented than Barbara, whose one and only film for Fellini gave her a more art-film allure at the time.

Martine Beswick with Alizia Gur during their all too real catfight for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

“During the making ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. I became quite friendly with Hammer executive Michael Carreras and his wife, so as the film was coming to an end he approached me with this idea of doing a kind of spoof of B.C., which eventually became PREHISTORIC WOMEN. His pitch to me was, ‘Martine, you will play the Queen of a tribe of dark-haired amazons who falls for an English explorer who wanders into her domain.’ I of course said, ‘Absolutely, Darling. I am your Queen.’ We did this film very quickly with Michael directing, which was very much like making a home-movie Hammer style. Once again my leading man, Michael Latimer, was less than my idea of bliss but whatever. My character was such fun to play it didn’t matter. At one point my director brought out this enormous prop of the white rhino sporting a huge white tusk. Without really thinking about it, he suggested that I worship the tusk by rubbing my hands up and down it while invoking some chant. I simply looked at Michael Carreras and burst out laughing. ‘You really want me to do that? I mean, really Michael, I’ve been asked to do some outrageous things in my time but giving a 1200-pound rhino a hand job has to be in a realm of its own.’ The film is a cult classic today and while I was living in Hollywood I would get asked about this film almost more than any other. In fact I was at a party at Curtis Harrington’s one night that was being given for Helmut Newton and his wife. Helmut was such a fan of bad movies that he made a deal with me that if I got him a tape of PREHISTORIC WOMEN he would love to photograph me for one of his projects. I of course was happy to oblige.”

Martine in a publicity pose with James Bond (Sean Connery) FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

“The other Hammer I did was of course DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE, which is a cult film as well. The interesting thing about that one was the actor who played Dr. Jekyll, a lovely fellow named Ralph Bates who sadly is no longer with us, began the film looking nothing like me at all and yet as the film progressed we really began to resemble each other in some strange way that only the camera picked up on. I mean, our hands began to look alike, etc. We did some publicity stills where we did look like brother and sister. The director on this one, Roy Ward Baker, was a seasoned pro to be sure, so we got along fine. However the producers kept after him to do more nudity than the script called for and at that point I had to put my foot down. I mean they even had second unit guys putting cameras under stairwells and such to try and get some extra bits, but it was all for nothing and in the end I think we did a classy film considering what they were really after.”

THE SILENT SCREAM OF BARBARA STEELE

When Barbara Steele, {the star of quite possibly the greatest Italan Horror film ever made THE MASK OF THE DEMON (aka BLACK SUNDAY) vowed “to never crawl out of another fucking coffin again,” she would have been wise to have included attics and hidden rooms in her pronouncement. The reason I make this distinction is the current release on DVD of a film that marked the only screen appearance for the Queen of Horror for the year 1980. For years this film existed only on botched VHS releases and one attempt on Laser disc, fans that were far too young to have seen it first run had to make do with this situation. As one who knew a bit more than most about how this box-office gross-er came to be made with Barbara in the first place, I was more than mystified as to its new status as a “classic” slasher film in the tradition of HALLOWEEN (1978). As far as I was concerned, the one and only reason to sit through this catalogue of cliches was to see an icon at work. She appears only at the film’s closing moments and she is worth the wait. With no dialogue Barbara uses her amazing face to register every emotion required and then some, dominating every frame she is in. As I sit in the glow of my computer screen, reading all these online reviews, I have to smile. Read on and see why….

The name of this classic bit of hokum is SILENT SCREAM, made by the late Denny Harris at the crest of the ‘slasher’ craze that began with the superior HALLOWEEN. I know something about this film, since I was the one who got Barbara Steele the part and negotiated the contracts as her agent at the time. This was the only feature film she did in 1980 after three disappoints in a row, beginning with Louis Malle’s PRETTY BABY (a film Barbara first suggested to Malle during an affair in Italy in the 60′s that took place during her reign as the Queen of Terror when her beauty and fame was at its zenith). I had just gotten to know Barbara when this film opened in Westwood, with all the attention focused on the underage Brook Shields. Barbara had shot for weeks in New Orleans in this controversial film by a world-class director, hoping it would bring her back to the screen with dignity. However, the shoot turned out to be a rocky one, with Barbara hiding in the background, having made it clear to Louis that Susan Sarandon was not on her wish-list of co-stars to be filming with for weeks in an old house in the Big Easy. Apparently Sarandon was having a fling with Malle, which just rubbed our Barbara the wrong way. She did however make friends with Antonio Fargas and most of the other “ladies of the night” in the cast.

After PRETTY BABY premiered she lamented, “If only Louis had given me just five more minutes of screen time I might have emerged as someone this town would employ.” The next film to come along was I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN by Anthony Page. In this, Barbara was cast as a figment in the imagination of a young girl suffering from mental illness. Barbara looked amazing in her fantasy costume with an elaborate headdress. Unfortunately the whole sequence was cut prior to the film opening, so this became another lost opportunity in the re-emergence of the Queen of Horror. The last film at least kept her front and center and was directed by the fannish Joe Dante, who knew her work but made no attempt to help her look her best. In fact he paid no attention to her until the end of the film where she has the last line and the final close-up; but in a film entitled PIRANHA, the gesture was more akin to throwing pearls before swine.

I began working in earnest with Barbara immediately after the Dante film since we had discussed her lack of visibility in Hollywood after she returned from the Texas locations where PIRANHA was shot. Placing Barbara in the Academy Players Directory, which in those days published two books a year, was the first step to get the word out that she had U.S. representation and was actually living in Hollywood rather than Europe (The Academy Players Directory is a comprehensive list of actors and actresses containing pictures and contact information, often used by casting directors). In those days before cell phones and lap-tops, actors had to make the rounds of the studio casting offices regardless of who they were. The big stars were, of course, offered scripts through their agents, but for my clients at DEL VALLE, FRANKLIN AND LEVINE I had to rely on the daily Breakdown Service to give me the lowdown on what films and parts were coming up on any given day. Looking back, I sent Barbara on some pretty lame projects for a woman of her ability and grace. I tried episodic television at first, sending her to both Bert Remsen and his partner, Dick Dimman, as well as Bobby Hoffman over at Paramount. She actually read for things like BARNABY JONES, if you can believe that! It was humiliating for me to do this and I still remember receiving a call from her after the BARNABY JONES reading: “David, I went to this fucking thing looking–if I do say so myself–rather good. In fact, I got whistled at as I walked across the street to the casting office.” One of the issues in those days was an actor’s TVQ, which in layman’s terms meant, “How many shows have you had done?” and “What were the ratings of each?” This was then tallied into a score and that was how they rated you. Barbara read for the part of Morgana in the TV movie DR. STRANGE with Sir John Mills, only to lose the part to Jessica Walters who had a much higher TVQ than Barbara.

Barbara Steele's represetation page from the Academy players directory.

The first project I tried to involve Barbara in as her agent was a made-for-TV movie with the ridiculous title DEVIL DOG: HOUND OF HELL. The only reason I felt this might help her is that number one, it was being directed by our mutual friend, Curtis Harrington, and secondly, it might at least start to build a TVQ rating for Barbara, who had up till then done very little American television. The film turned out to be a new low for Curtis, whose reputation did not need to go down this road in the first place, since the network gave him no opportunity to display his talent other than to direct the train wreck put before him. The part that suited Barbara to a ‘T’ on paper at least was that of the high priestess to a coven of witches. The part was no more than a cameo but it was work and I wanted her to have it. All went according to plan and Barbara went down to read for Curtis at the offices of CBS. Later in the day I received a call from her, laughing about the whole experience. “David, there I was standing in front of Curtis and some 20-something casting director trying to summon a sense of urgency to lines like, ‘O Satan, appear before us…Let us offer you this puppy for your infernal desires,’ or some shit like it. I mean, give me a break, I began my career summoning the Devil. I mean, I just give up, David.”

I will always remember one of the perks in knowing Barbara was to be privy to her off-kilter sense of humor, which saved many a situation like this one. I assured her that she didn’t need to worry, Curtis would cast her on reputation alone for a part like this….Well, I could not have been more wrong. The part went to our dear friend, Martine Beswicke, whom Barbara had known in Rome at the start of both their careers in movies. Martine’s behavior always amused Barbara, who described her to me once as, “A double Long Island Iced Tea disguised as a teenage nymphet.” Martine had always been the Bond glamour girl while Barbara proclaimed her disdain at “climbing out of anymore fucking coffins.” As fate would have it, Martine was having a “White Party” in Santa Barbara the very next weekend and both of us were invited along with Curtis Harrington. Martine lived at that time with her manager/agent Robert Walker and at least three of his other clients, in a large, rambling house in a joyful commune atmosphere…at least that was the way Martine described it at the time.

David Del Valle and Barbara Steele in 1979 posing by a vintage poster for DRACULA'S DAUGHTER

I was a bit down for the occasion as I was still focused on getting Barbara some work and not much in a party mode; however, the creme of the jest was about to take place. The day before the party a group of Italian film journalists had arrived in Hollywood to interview the “Queen of Italian Horror,” and Barbara wasted no time in inviting them as well to what she described as “her” celebration on the park-like grounds of her Santa Barbara friend…neglecting to mention it was Martine’s affair. The afternoon of the White Party, all went as planned. Curtis and the rest of us turned up for cocktails and a buffet in this beautifully landscaped park by a pond. Barbara looked amazing (as always) in white, but of course so did Martine, who was also celebrating her new role in Curtis’ TV movie. At the end of the day Curtis stood up from his little group of friends and said, “Excuse me, I must say hello to a very special lady.” He then walked over to Barbara and explained that he could just not bring himself to cast her in such a demeaning role and hoped in the future they could work together in a project worthy of their time.

A few weeks later Barbara received a copy of the magazine spread from Rome which heralded the event, “La Strega di Roma,” entertaining her friends on her Santa Barbara estate.” Martine of course was not amused, but later on laughed it off because after all this was Barbara Steele we were dealing with here, and to take a line from Charles Vidor’s GILDA, “If I was a ranch they would call me the Bar-nothing.” After all, there are no limits to the Queen of Horror.

The original Italian two sheet for MASK OF THE DEMON/BLACK SUNDAY

Having exhausted the acting breakdowns during most of 1979, the idea came to me to create our own vanity project with her fan base in mind. Vampires have always been a successful commodity in the cinema, with Dracula in any incarnation a compelling draw at the box office. Frank Langella had brought the character back that year both on Broadway and then as a film (with Olivier as Van Helsing, no less). One of my personal favorites of the Universal Golden Age of Horror films has always been DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, a direct sequel to the Lugosi film and yet underrated at its time of release. It became obvious that Barbara Steele was the perfect choice to play the Countess Zaleska, following in the footsteps of Gloria Holden, who made such a lasting impression in the original.

My idea was well received by Barbara so we set about to put together a treatment setting the whole thing still in the 1930′s, not realizing how expensive this was going to be if we ever did get a studio interested. The whole concept was to update the story only in terms of censorship, which prevented the original from addressing the sexuality of the Countess directly. Our version had the Countess seducing a beautiful cocaine addict named Lily, to be played by her old friend Martine Beswicke. In the script Lily chooses to become a vampire to end her addiction and begin life as an undead with Dracula’s daughter. The ideal director for this was to be Curtis Harrington; at least in this he would not have to work with children, pets or Shelley Winters.

Looking back I can blame the whole thing on the boogie. We never could get such a project greenlit in the Hollywood of 1979 with a star who was only revered in Europe and a director who was doing episodic television. All this was so unreal for someone like Barbara Steele, who could still remember when films were offered to her over an elegant lunch near the Spanish Steps, and it was her decision whether or not to accept. Now those days of La Dolce Vita were all but a dream as she and I contemplated our futures over margaritas at El Coyote. No wonder Denny Harris’s offer seemed so well-timed and providential.

I was desperate to find Barbara a decent part in something and then it happened. One morning the breakdowns came into my office with this notice at the top of the second page: “Denny Harris Productions is looking for an actress in her forties with a Horror-movie following. Dark hair, dramatic personality.” I took a resume and photo personally to Denny’s office and within a day Barbara went over for a meeting, signing the contract the same day. I got her special billing and $5,000. for the week she worked on the film. The best news for her was the fact she had no dialogue to memorize. It was a walk in the park for the Queen of Italian Horror. The whole thing was a bit of a holiday. She wore very little make-up, her wardrobe consisted of a worn-out pink robe and a butcher knife, and when she wasn’t sticking someone with the knife she cuddled a teddy-bear…her idea, since she was playing a traumatized teenager gone-to-seed in the mansion’s attic.

Chris Dietrich holding a wax head of Barbara Steele from Black Sunday

The second day on which Barbara worked, my partner, Chris Dietrich, visited her between takes of mayhem. I treasured a photo of the two of them which is now lost, in which Barbara is standing over Chris, who is doing his own silent scream, as she appears to be getting ready to stab him with her bloody butcher knife. Chris was always her biggest fan, having seen BLACK SUNDAY as a child in Danville, Illinois. He became her close friend and at one point lived with her on Lasky Drive, babysitting her then-eight-year-old son Jonathan. I think Barbara really enjoyed working before the cameras again, playing a silent force of nature, allowing her to act as if she were making a silent film, which we know is the truest form of cinema.

In the tradition of one of her previous films, YOUNG TORLESS, Barbara was cast after the film was made and then her sequences were added to it. In the TORLESS film it was to give the young lead a sexual outlet, which gave his character more depth. In the case of SILENT SCREAM, Harris had shot the film once in 1977 and then scrapped the better part of the footage, recasting it with recognizable names like Cameron Mitchell and especially Yvonne De Carlo. Barbara loved working with Yvonne the most. She would call me after she left the set and describe Yvonne’s arrival on a Harley with a leather-clad boyfriend half her age. “I want to be just like her at that point in my life, doing just what turns me on, and fuck everybody else!”

Barbara’s sequences were all shot on a soundstage dressed to look like the attic-in-question, with claustrophobic walls leading in and out of her hidden room, which was created like a teenage girl’s boudoir from the fifties, with a record player that played 45′s. The most tragic moments occurred when Victoria sat before the mirror of her dressing table, reflecting on the loss of her youth. It is a testament to Barbara’s ability that this cameo set this otherwise pedestrian film in a class by itself. In spite of all the internet ramblings about this being a sleeper hit or a genre classic, don’t you believe it for a moment; this film exists for one reason only, and that is the presence of an actress whose legend has grown more potent as time goes by. And in the years since 1980, more and more fans have sought out her classic Italian output to watch her at the top of her game as a cult figure, which as of 2009 is more available than ever.

The Scorpion release of SILENT SCREAM is anamorphic, with a commentary by the writers who went on to do PITCH BLACK, which gave Vin Diesel a career…something SILENT SCREAM didn’t accomplish for any of its leads in 1980.