In 2002 I interviewed 60s starlet (and West Side Story alumni) Suzie Kaye  for my book Drive-in Dream Girls. She was so delightful to speak with. I recently read the new book Our Story: Jets & Sharks Then and Now. I bought it in anticipation in reading Suzie Kaye’s chapter. I was disappointed to learn that she did not contribute and then was stunned to see her name on the “In Memory” page. I then learned from her friend actress BarBara Luna that Suzie had (unbeknownst to me) passed away in 2008.

Either as a sultry brunette or dippy blonde, Suzie Kaye was a talented actress/singer/dancer who made her mark in ‘60s drive-in movies. The petite Kaye, a veteran of many stage productions while growing up in New York City, made her film debut as Rosalia, a Shark girl, in the Academy Award-winning musical West Side Story (1961). She recalled in Drive-in Dream Girls, “Natalie Wood was fine to work with but a little distant. I think she was fearful and a bit uncomfortable being around all these New York dancers. I never had any run-ins with her. Off the set we were gangs through and through. We even played cards separately. We didn’t mix because a lot of us were Method Actors—I know I was.  We just stayed in character most of the time because it made it easier.” She is in the tight striped dress in the “America” number below.

As a brunette she went on to play small roles in a few more films including Tammy and the Doctor (1963) with Sandra Dee and the beach-party-in-the-snow Wild Wild Winter (1966) with Gary Clarke and Chris Noel.  Feeling her career needed a boost, Kaye dyed her hair blonde. This seemed to suit her perky personality better, as she went on to work in a string of teenage comedies and musicals including Clambake (1967) with Elvis Presley; It’s a Bikini World (1967) with Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley; and C’mon, Let’s Live a Little (1967) with Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon. Kaye is the cute blonde in teh gold lame bikini in the below clip.

After smaller roles in the biker flick The Angry Breed (1968) and the comedy The Comic (1969), Kaye was cast as Angel Chernak, one of the early Seventies most memorable daytime vixens, on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. “Angel Chernak was an absolute villainess until she got cancer and then atoned,” remarked Suzie in Drive-in Dream Girls. After a four year run, the soap was cancelled in 1973 and Kaye retired from acting to concentrate on a career in business.

Former Bond Girl Lana Wood is in the news this week good and bad. The good is that an new photography exhibition is being put together about the Bond Girls and will be exhibited in The Tate London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The bad news is that Lana agreed to talk with The Daily Mirror about the “curse” of being a Bond Girl. With that premise, Lana should have known that they were going to concentrate on the negative things in her life and emphasized them they did! Lana was one of my favorite interviews in my first book due to her sense of humor, honesty and frankness. She didn’t edit anything out. I hung out with her in person a few years ago at a celebrity autograph convention in the Memphis area and she was as nice as can be. So if you stumble upon this horrid article please read it with a grain of salt and know the Lana described by the writer is not the Lana we all know.

It was during my high school years when I began researching the careers of a number of Sixties starlets whom I admired. One of them was Nancy Kwan. She was red hot after her first two films The World of Suzie Wong (1960) and then Flower Drum Song (1961). Both were critical and financial hits earning Kwan a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female and being voted a Star of Tomorrow. However, her career took an immediate downturn with her next couple of movies beginning with The Main Attraction (1962), Tamahine (1963), and The Wild Affair (1963). These movies were never broadcast in the NY metro area as far as I could tell (if aired and I missed it, it had to be on the Late, Late, Late Show before the VCR).]

I finally saw The Main Attraction and Tamahine recently when Turner Classic Movies ran three Nancy Kwan movies back-to-back. The third was the very unfunny sex comedy Honeymoon Hotel (1964) with Robert Morse and Robert Goulet, which I had seen previously. What surprised me about both is that they were medium-budgeted movies shot in color on location in Europe and not some low-budget programmers that I always suspected. When Kwan was hired by producer Ray Stark to play Suzie Wong on screen (after France Nuyen was unceremoniously dumped), she had to sign a contract with his company Seven-Arts Productions and was obligated to do these two films as well as The Wild Affair.

Nancy Kwan was half British and Chinese so with her natural look she could play either Caucasian or Asian roles, but usually was cast in the latter. The Main Attraction was one of the few exceptions. In this melodramatic circus yarn, Pat Boone, trying to butch up his pretty boy image, played an American singer who joins a Continental circus as partner to ventriloquist Mai Zetterling. He fights, sings, has sex, and is shirtless a lot. When Zetterling gets jealous of the attention Boone shows horseback rider Kwan, she threatens to frame him for murder and he flees accidentally meeting up with Kwan running from her infatuated brother-in-law. Kwan is usually an ebullient actress but here she is just saddled with a boring script and is quite dull. Sorry, Nancy but the main attraction here is Pat Boone despite your equal billing. The picture was an obvious showcase to try to get the crooner future adult roles, so it seems he gets all the best camera angles highlighting his toned physique and cute butt in very tight chinos and oh yes his acting talent.

Nancy fares better in Tamahine, which is a bit more lively and entertaining than the other plus she has no competition with any other castmate. Kwan is the pretty exotic Tamahine (a sort of perky Polynesian version of Sandra Dee’s Tammy) who is sent to live with Mr. Poole the staid British cousin of her father Charles Poole (played by Dennis Price) after he passes away. He is the Head Master of a Men’s Academy in England. Kwan is immediately a fish out of water as the island beauty’s frankness with sex and boys gets her in hot water with her new guardian but makes her really popular among the other males in residence including a Bohemian art teacher (Derek Nimmo) whom she poses nude for and her kissin’ cousin Richard Poole (John Fraser) a student and son of the Head Master. It gets really icky when the older Poole finally discovers just how attractive Tamahine is as she sits in his lap resting her head on his chest. Still, Kwan is utterly charming and makes the film quite entertaining and a worth while viewing. With which suitor will Tamahine end up with is quite obvious, but the film does deliver a surprise ending of where she winds up.

Raquel Welch will appear at the NY Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Cinematic Goddess, American Sex Symbol, The Films of Raquel Welch from Februray 10-14. Films to be screened include those rarely seen in theatrical format, including Myra Breckinridge, 100 Rifles, Fantastic Voyage, The Wild Party and Mother, Jugs and Speed. What, no, A Swingin’ Summer!?! For more infomration click here.

I think it is great that such a prestigous organization is beginning to recognize the appeal of Sixties actresses. First Tuesday Weld, now Raquel Welch. Maybe Carol Lynley or Pamela Tiffin next Film Society?

Below is a trailer for the Raquel’s violent Euro-western Hannie Caulder (1973). I already have my tickets for the screening and her Q&A.

Click here for a really cool site paying homage to the unsung dancers from the syndicated teenage music TV program Hollywood a-Go-Go (1964-66).

Click here for an interesting Blog about 5 French New Wave inspired ads. Very retro chic.

I was contacted by Turner Classic Movies to see if I would be interested in co-hosting with Ben Mankiewicz their Spring Break Film Festival of 1960s beach movies–20 films over 5 nights in April including the rarely broadcast Beach Ball, The Girls on the Beach, Ski Party, and Winter a-Go-Go. Each will feature a 5 minute intro with Ben speaking with me about the flick. Of course I said yes!!!

For Singles Only (1968) from Columbia Pictures is one of the many, as I call them, too-square-to-be-hip movies released by the major film studios in the late Sixties trying to capture the Counterculture audience the way American International Pictures were doing. Others I put in this category include C’mon, Let’s Live a Little; The Cool Ones; How Sweet It Is; Hot Rods to Hell; The Maltese Bippy; How to Commit Marriage; and Norwood, among others. Most of these films’ producers/directors/screenwriters were over 45 and had no clue about the younger generation, which is all too evident in the final product. The studios were trying to connect with an audience that wanted more adult entertainment but they could not let go of their Fifties’ morals and sensibilities that were still instilled with the Motion Picture Code. Thus, you got a period of schizophrenic filmmaking with For Singles Only as a prime example.

Sam Katzman, the King of the B’s, produced For Singles Only. He also gave us during the decade Hootenanny Hoot; Get Yourself a College Girl; Kissin’ Cousins (which doomed Elvis Presley to low-budget movies afterwards); and When the Boys Meet the Girls, among others. All were released between 1963 and 1965 and were wholesome pleasant musical comedies. For Singles Only, on the other hand, is a totally out there musical/comedy/drama that features body painting, hippie bands, strip word games, computer dating, and a gang rape. You know the times they were a changin’.

Pretty Mary Ann Mobley and Lana Wood star as two friends who move into the Sans Souci Club and Apartments for Singles inSouthern California. Mobley has just returned from a stint in the Peace Corps and Wood is a librarian who wants to shake her staid lifestyle. Milton Berle is the complex’s social director and tenants include hunky John Saxon (who fills a tight pair of chinos oh-so-nicely) as a struggling PhD candidate; Mark Richman as a wealthy older guy with a possessive sexy blonde girlfriend, Chris Noel; Duke Hobbie and Charles Robinson as single dudes out on the make; and Ann Elder as a dippy redhead who thinks every guy in the apartment is after her. Elder introduces the newcomers to the residents, as jazz group the Walter Wanderley Trio with Tayla Ferro plays poolside. This being a Katzman production it is no surprise that an eclectic array of musical talent is presented including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,  the Lewis and Clark Expedition (in a weird turn clad in pioneer garb and performing the song “Destination Unknown” in an upscale nightclub), and the Cal Tjader Band.

After striking out with Mobley or as she is dubbed “Old Ironsides,” Hobbie and Robinson bet Saxon that he can’t score with her. Wood catches the fancy of Richman to Noel’s chagrin. Elder meanwhile works for a computer dating service and accidentally gets matched with Mort Sahl even though neither meet the other’s criteria in a mate. As expected, Saxon falls for Mobley and purposely loses the bet even though Mobley tries hard to seduce him. Wood learns that Richman is married from a vindictive Noel and deponent winds up in a sleazy beachside pool hall where she is chased to the shore and gang raped. All’s well that ends well, as Wood, looking glamorous and not any worse for the wear, recuperates in the hospital while Mobley and Saxon check out of the complex as newlyweds.

For Singles Only is not an especially good movie as it cannot make up its mind if it is a serious look at the changing sexual mores of the time or a musical comedy poking fun at the new fads. However, it is a pleasant diversion buoyed by an attractive cast that does well in their roles and a catchy title tune performed by The Sunshine Company. The only disappointments are the musical groups which are a comedown from Katzman’s previous movies and Ann Elder who is more annoying than funny. The part needed Suzie Kaye or Gail Gilmore both of whom excelled playing the dippy airhead in previous teenage movies. For Singles Only is a bit daring for its time, but watching it you can’t believe only a few months later Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice were released.

Below are comments from Lana Wood and Chris Noel about making For Singles Only in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema:

Lana Wood: “There’s a funny story pertaining to the rape scene.  I had to have a double to do all the rough stuff.  This casting company sent out a bunch of girls and they were all lined up.  The director asked to them walk up and down. This one girl named Ginger had a very similar build as me and she had my walk down perfectly, but I didn’t realize that I walked like that. I was in stitches because her walk was so funny. I thought, ‘My God, I have a strange walk!’ Chris Noel was just so sweet. I remember being absolutely intimidated by Chris because she was so gorgeous.”

Chris Noel: “I don’t remember too much about this film. It was a very hectic time in my life.  John Saxon was a nice guy. He is very handsome and very bright. I liked Lana Wood.  I never liked her sister Natalie, but Lana was neat. Natalie was stuck-up. I recall one scene where I had body paint all over me. They put flowers on my legs. I had to get up on this stage and do this wild, crazy dance.”

Below is an Amazon review that I just received from a book reviewer in Australia:

DUELING HARLOWS is the engrossing tale of what happened in 1965 when two Hollywood producers decided to race into production their competing screen versions of the Jean Harlow story. Jean Harlow had been the trailblazing “platinum blonde” screen sex goddess of the 1930′s, paving the way for the likes of Marilyn Monroe. Her private life was as eventful as any of her films, including the bizarre suicide death of Paul Bern, one of her husbands (MGM publicity agents weren’t newcomers when it involved keeping their top stars out of potentially career-destroying scandals). Harlow lived hard and fast, dying of uremic poisoning at the age of 26.

Jean Harlow’s story was later recounted in Irving Shulman’s 1964 book “Jean Harlow: An Intimate Biography”, written with the assistance of Harlow’s agent Arthur Landau. The bile-filled novel enraged Harlow’s closest friends who were convinced that it was nothing short of a character assassination. Shulman asserted that Harlow had been viciously beaten with a cane on her wedding night to Paul Bern and that her death was triggered by damage caused to her kidneys during this fight. Shulman also recounted remarkably clear “first person” conversations to events that he would never have been privy to. Despite all the new scandals and litigations swirling around the libellous book, Hollywood producer Joseph E. Levene secured the film rights for the Jean Harlow story, to be shot at Paramount. Levene had previously helmed the ripe trash-fests “Where Love Has Gone” and “The Carpetbaggers”.

Not to be outdone, maverick producer Bill Sargent announced his own “Harlow” property, but it wouldn’t be based on the Shulman book. It would however be filmed in Sargent’s specially patented process entitled “Electronovision”. This process involving using multiple cameras which fed into a single editing suite, speeding up the film editing process considerably. The downside was that because the system involved upconverting Kinescope-grade tape into 35mm, the visual quality of the final image was noticeably diminished. Sargent had only ever used the process with stage productions (including Richard Burton in “Hamlet” and “The T.A.M.I. Show”). HARLOW would be the first real movie in the “Electronovision” process.

Then came the actresses who’d play Jean Harlow herself… For the Paramount/Levene version, Carroll Baker (who’d previously starred in “The Carpetbaggers”) was announced. Meanwhile petite blonde Carol Lynley was signed for Sargent’s HARLOW. So now it wasn’t only a battle of the HARLOW’s, but also a battle of the Carol’s! The press couldn’t have been handed a better gift.

Author Tom Lisanti has been able to access the extensive press coverage of the fracas, which documented the running verbal war of words between Levene and Sargent, and also reconstructs the hellish production shoots for each of the HARLOW’s. Thanks to the quick editing facilities of the “Electronovision” process (believe it or not, the whole thing was shot in the span of a few days), Sargent’s HARLOW was–by a several weeks–the first to arrive on the screen, but neither picture earned the critical raves the producers had hoped for, or really captured the true essence of Jean Harlow. Sargent’s HARLOW (a collector’s grail especially for Carol Lynley fans) has never seen the light of day on DVD, but Levene’s HARLOW came to DVD a couple of years ago in all it’s trashy glory.

Lovers of classic movies will be the ones who’ll most appreciate this effortlessly read-able tome, which I happily devoured in a single sitting. Recommended.

Click here to read the sad story of former sex symbol Anita Ekberg. The poor woman has lost her money and her home. One of the most iconic cinema moments of the Sixties is of the buxom blonde frolling in the Trevi Fountain in Federico Fellini’s classic, La Dolce Vita (1960) with Marcello Mastroianni.

Click here to access yet another survey, this one from Entertainment Weekly, of the Best & Worst Bond Girls in the history of the series. Again it galls me how Jill St. John as Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) is considered one of the best and Luciana Paluzzi as Fatima Blush in Thunderball (1965) is always ignored. And I also do not think Karin Dor in You Only Live Twice is one of the Worst, but I digress.

Back to Jill St. John. It is most likely without a doubt that the reason shewas offered the role of Tiffany Case was because of her fine work in two previous spy films, The Liquidator and The The Spy Killer. In this alternately appreciated and hated entry in the series, Diamonds Are Forever featured the last ‘official’ appearance by Sean Connery as the British secret agent 007 who is sent to Las Vegas, Nevada to investigate the disappearance of a cache of diamonds.  Along the way, he discovers that his old arch nemesis Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Charles Gray) is once again involved. Blofeld and his criminal empire are planning to use the diamonds to affect an orbiting satellite system.

There were many problems with Diamonds Are Forever.  It reveals the beginning of a distinct, formulaic structure of a comedic, sometimes campy tone in the series that carried on to and throughout all of the Roger Moore Bond entries.  Much of the film looks cheap, garish and ugly and Connery, appearing world weary, delivers a disappointing performance.  As for St. John, she undoubtedly was one of the most most voluptuous actresses cast in a Bond Film however she is attired in a tight, form-fitting, sometimes not entirely flattering bikini. Bathingsuit aside, acting-wise she is a disaster delivering a shrill, often one-note performance (especially contrasted with the delightful Lana Wood as perky, busty Plenty O’Toole). She brings no class to the part and plays it like one of her sexy dumb broad roles from her many Sixties sex comedies. But here she is so annoying you could care less if she lives or dies. In my opinion, she ranks as one of the worst of the Bond girls of all time. Where was Raquel Welch or Stella Stevens or Tina Louise when Bond needed her?