sixties

One of my favorite late 1960s TV series was It Takes a Thief (1968-70) starring a very sexy Robert Wagner as an urbane super thief who is sprung him from prison and indoctrinated into spying as a member of an elite force called SIA. His mission was usually to steal something from the bad guys to give to the good guys. Practically every starlet in town, coiffured to the nines in Sixties mod fashions, made an appearance including Carol Lynley, Julie Newmar, Tina Louise, Joey Heatherton, Senta Berger, Tisha Sterling, Jill Donohue, Lynda Day George, Nancy Kovack, Suzanne Pleshette, Yvonne Craig, Jocelyn Lane, Pamela Austin, Lee Meredith, Martine Beswicke, etc..

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKT_hWv_fbQ

In honor of the entire series being rleased on DVD in an elaborate box set, below are excerpts from my book Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Film & Television, 1962-1973 co-written with Louis Paul.

 

 

In “Guess Who’s Coming to Rio?” (1/7/69) on It Takes a Thief, Arlene Martell played a beautiful Russian named Katrina Malenski (“I wore a slinky black lace slip in this role and had a lot of running scenes in the rain.  In fact, in most of the spy TV shows that I did I had a lot of running scenes.”).  Katrina ruins agent’s Al Mundy’s Rio vacation with Contessa del Mundo (Dana Wynter) when she asks Mundy to help her defect.  “Robert Wagner was a darling man to work with,” remarks Martel.  “He was very generous and kind.  Alejandro Rey was also very pleasant.  I remember that he had an intriguing accent and I would listen intently to him speak, in case I was cast in another Hispanic role.”

Celeste Yarnall played Ilsa Malenska in the episode titled “Locked in the Cradle of the Keep” (4/15/68).  The SIA pulls off a charade to convince a Communist named Boris (Joe Bernard) that Robert Wagner’s Al Mundy is a defector and traitor.  Boris believes the ruse and connects Mundy to the “underground” enabling him to infiltrate an Eastern block country to meet his contact.  The beautiful Ilsa (a double agent posing as Mundy’s girlfriend) then informs him that his contact (a professor) was murdered.  Nobody knows what Mundy is supposed to steal.  They only know where it is located (StateMuseum) and that it could cause great turmoil for most Iron Curtain countries if it falls into the wrong hands.  Ilsa leads Mundy to the museum and tells him the only clue to the object.  As the professor lay dying he whispered to her, “The keep, the crib in the keep…”

Recalling her appearance, Celeste Yarnall comments, “Robert Wagner was very friendly and professional.  But he had a nasty habit of changing the dialog right before we were to begin shooting our scenes.  Learning new lines that quickly is hard enough, but it is extremely difficult when you have to do it with an accent.  I thought this was a bit inconsiderate of Wagner.”

Francine York briefly played Al Munday’s Girl Friday in a few early episodes.  It was a role reminiscent of Lovey Kraveszit in the Matt Helm films and the Flintgirls in Our Man Flint.  York recalls, “I played Miss Amanda Agnew.  I would come in at the beginning of each episode and just as our characters would get romantic, Wagner would be called away by his boss [played by] Malachi Throne.  It was sort of like the parts I played on Burke’s Law with Gene Barry.  I stupidly left It Takes a Thief when my agent convinced me to take a part in a pilot Irwin Allen was producing.  I could have done both, especially since working with Robert Wagner was so wonderful.  He was very kind to me and he has a great sense of humor.”

 

 

In preperation for the release of my new book Dueling Harlows: Race to the Silver Screen within the next 10 days or so, here is a clip of Carol Lynley as Jean Harlow in Electronovision’s quickie Harlow, not to be confused with Carroll Baker as Jean Harlow in Paramount’s lavish Harlow, with Hermione Baddeley as esteemed actress Marie Dressler. Below is the real Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler in a clip from the film Dinner at Eight. Notice any differences?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzYu91lrVAI

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zQe-lVm7L4

 

 

 

 

 

Sultry brunnette Pamela Tiffin was one of the early Sixties most promising and popular starlets of the day. After receiving acclaim and Golden Globe Award nominations for her performances in Summer and Smoke and One, Two, Three in 1961 she went on to star in such popular, though fluffy, films as Come Fly with Me, For Those Who Think Young, and The Pleasure Seekers. In 1965, she held her own opposite Paul Newman and an all-star cast in the hard-boiled detective drama Harper playing a spoiled, unhappy heiress whose father has gone missing. It was at this point when she dyed her hair blonde and went off to work in Italy making only sporadic returns to Hollywood before retiring in 1975. Below is a brief overview of, arguably, her three top Italian movies.

Oggi, domani, dopodomani (1965)

A three-part 1965 comedy reduced to two parts when released in the U.S. in 1968 as Kiss the Other Sheik. In the funiest sequence (La moglie bionda), Tiffin (in a role meant for Sue Lyon) is the sexy flighty wife of businessman Marcello Mastroianni who arranges to sell her to a shiek for his harem. But his wife is not as dumb as he thinks. The witty tagline read: His Vice Was Selling His Wife…Until the Vice Went Versa

Tiffin said in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema:

When Carlo Ponti offered me this film, it was with the stipulation that I go blonde.  In Hollywood, they always asked me to be blonde and I always said no because in the Mid-West nice girls didn’t dye their hair.  So in Italy they bleached only the front of it because I said the back is mine–brunette.  I was surprised that I enjoyed being a blonde so much that I promptly dyed all of my hair.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uq4VVKC0jg

Giornata nera, per l’Ariete/The Fifth Cord (1971)

A spine tingling atmospheric giallo starring Franco Nero as a alcoholic journalist investigating a string of serial killings that always take place on a Tuesday. When people he knows begin to get diced, he becomes the prime suspect. Pamela, in a supporing role, is his free-spirited girlfriend who maybe the killer’s next target. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and scored by Ennio Morricone.

Tiffin said:

This film holds up to this day because of the impressive cinematography by Vittorio Storaro who captured the real Europe and not theEuropeof tourists.  During production, I noticed that Storaro lit our scenes the way Richard Avedon did during my modeling days.  When I commented on this he froze and then said, ‘Tu sei molte intelligente!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uxiX-pWVpY

Los Amigos/Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears (1973)

Set during the time of upheaval in Texas, the film starred Anthony Quinn as a deaf mercenary and Franco Nero as is his partner Johnny Ears.  When an ex-general attempts to install himself as dictator, the Texas president Sam Houston calls in Deaf Smith for help.  Tiffin played a whore with a heart of gold, who falls in love with Nero. 

Tiffin said:

I love westerns because I love nature and that kind of folklore.  Anthony Quinn is larger than life and is attractive in a primordial kind of way.  He was very easy to work with.  Franco Nero is very tall, very handsome, and very decent.  He had the impact in Europe that Paul Newman had in America.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EifMgwhE8WU

 

 

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  (1965)

Starlets: Tura Satana, Lori Williams, Haji, Sue Bernard

Continuing with my Top 10 Starlet Movies of the Sixties is Russ Meyer’s cult classic and in my opinion one of the best films of the decade, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!  Another movie about three girls’ adventures, but this is no Come Fly with Me or The Pleasure Seekers. These three go-go dancing sex kittens scratch as they go on a wild drag racing, cat-fighting, killing spree while trying to find hidden loot deep in the desert. The movie was ahead of its time and possibly made audiences especially men squirm in their seats as the buxom trio physically and verbally abused the males in the movie. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwe3Ikngwyk

Gloriously filmed in black-and-white, Faster, Pussycat opens with voice-over narration describing “a new breed of superwomen emerging out of the ruthlessness of our times” and then quickly dissolves to dancers Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji), and Billie (Lori Williams) shaking their scantily clad bodies to the Bostweeds’ title song at a seedy go-go club. The intense male customers grotesquely yell encouragement, “Go baby, go!  Faster! Harder!”  Varla, clad all in black with her ample cleavage on display, is the tough-talking, man-hating leader, Haji her fiery Latin lover, and Billie a blonde bombshell with an independent streak and a tart tongue. The girls then hit the highway in their revved up hot rods and drive to the desert.  During the course of the movie they catfight amongst themselves; race their hot rods; watch as Varla breaks the neck of a teenage drag racer and takes his terrified girlfriend (Sue Bernard) hostage; discover from a gas station attendant that a dim-witted muscleman’s (Dennis Busch) cripple daddy (Stuart Lancaster) is hiding a fortune on his rundown ranch; and hatch a plan to rob him unaware of a second seemingly normal son. As the film rolls to a rollicking end, the body count piles up.

Memorable lines:

 “Here Rosie baby, I got it all nice and wet for ya.” –Billie trying to entice Rosie to join her for a swim

“Alright, you wash… now I’m gonna spin-a-dry you!” –Rosie’s threat to the bathing Billie

“Can’t be my agent—he couldn’t afford the gas!  My desert fan club!  They went thataway partner…” –Billie while eyeing a strange car approaching them  

“Just your job, squirrel—fill it up!” –Varla to gas station attendant, who asks what he can do for her

“You won’t find it down there,Columbus!” –Varla to same gas station attendant leering at her cleavage while talking about seeingAmerica

“Oh, you’re cute… like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like the gas chamber—a real fun gal!” –Billie to Varla

“Those two make the Mafia look like Brownies.” –Billie to Linda about Varla and Rosie

“Look, me, Jane—you, Tarzan.  Now why don’t you drop that tree you’re holding and let’s grab a vine and swing a little?” –Billie trying to seduce weight-lifting Vegetable

Recalling the shoot, Lori Williams comments in my book Drive-in Dream Girls:

“I, in the meantime, had no clue who Russ Meyer was. I just thought this was an interview for a regular movie.  I didn’t know he made films like Lorna and Mudhoney before this.  Even though this film had no swearing, no nudity—I have a backless scene but my front is completely covered—it was still considered really exploitative.  I thought, ‘Oh God, what type of picture is this?’  I was also taken aback regarding the violence in the film.  But little did I know it was going to be the best thing for me.”

“I was scared to death of Tura who is a phenomenal woman and had an amazing life.  But she really was a tough chick.  She argued with Meyer constantly.  When I saw Russ—who is hard to take on—back down a few times from her I thought, ‘Whoa, this lady is not to be tangled with.’  At one point, she didn’t want to do a scene a certain way.  She slammed her hand against some railroad equipment and broke her hand.  This was enough to frighten anybody.  Off camera, I kind of hid a lot with Sue Bernard.  I felt I was out of my realm around Tura and if I made her mad she’d whip me.  But she was very nice to me and I never had any problem with her I think because I kept my distance.”

“Haji was sweet and very quiet.  She just wanted to be exotic all the time and would always say she was from another galaxy.  She was almost esoteric.  Sue Bernard was nice but she had a stage mother from hell with her.  Stuart Lancaster was a doll and he would work with me to try to teach me things about acting.  He was a phenomenal man.  Dennis Busch was sweet and kind, but you couldn’t have more than a two-sentence conversation with him.”