Sixties Posts

HERE COME THE BRIDES

I am not a huge Barbra Streisand fan in the least so of course my favorite number from Funny Girl (1968) is “His Love Makes Me Beautiful” featuring a plethora of leggy starlets as the Winter, Springtime, Summer, and Autumn Brides. See the below clip:

The scintillating Winter Bride was Inga Neilsen whom I interviewed for my book Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood. Other brides included are Thordis Brandt (Winter), and Bettina Brenna and Alena Johnston(Springtime). Below are Inga’s comments about making Funny Girl .

“I love Barbra Streisand and think she is fantastic. She was always very friendly to me and suggested me to Gene Kelly for a part in Hello Dolly. On Funny Girl I don’t think she had any say in casting or editing but if she didn’t like the way a scene was lit I know the next day they would re-shoot it. She was very fussy about her hair and makeup. I remember one day I came into costume and my hair was done a certain way. She stared at my hair for the longest time across the room. The next thing I knew my hair came down and her hairstyle became what I originally had. Nothing was said of course.”

“I wasn’t friendly with any of the girls except for Thordis Brandt and Mary Jane Mangler. I remember Alena Johnston was a beautiful quiet girl who stayed pretty much to herself. I think she was the youngest of us. Bettina Brenna and I didn’t know each other that well. Of the brides I was the only one who was married. Most of them were jet setters. One gal was dating Tony Franciosa and another one was dating a judge. I really didn’t get to know them as I came to work, did my job, and left.”

DANCING DIVA II

In my haste to post the previous Pamela Tiffin clip from Harper (1966), I forgot to include Pamela’s comments about making the movie from my interview with her for Fantasty Femmes of Sixties Cinema. See below for an excerpt:

After playing a number of ingenue roles, Pamela finally got a chance to act sexy and sophisticated in Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman. She portrayed Lauren Bacall’s stepdaughter Miranda whose father has disappeared. As a sex-starved heiress, Tiffin almost steals the film with her seductive dance in a bikini atop a diving board. Newman (whom Pamela describes as being “attractive, professional, and a car lover”) played a private detective hired by Elaine, an icy paralyzed equestrienne, played by Bacall, to find her missing husband. As the hated daughter and stepmother, Tiffin and Bacall have a number of great catty moments, which were superbly acted. After hearing that Miranda has been rejected by her husband’s bodyguard (Robert Wagner), Elaine maliciously quips to Miranda, “I should think you’d be accustomed to not being loved by now.” Miranda responds, “I love your wrinkles. I revel in them.” When an unmoved Elaine learns that her husband has been murdered, she calls out to Miranda in a singsong voice, “Miranda! Mommy has something to tell you!”

“I was very impressed with Lauren Bacall but she was very tense and stand-offish,” remarks Pamela. “Since Paul Newman likes to rehearse, we gathered around a long table and ran lines for a week, if not more. Everyone was there except Lauren Bacall because she wanted to be the big movie star. I couldn’t be angry at her or feel slighted because I thought she was fascinating!”

MOTORCYCLE MAMA!

Looking as if she would be more comfortable on the runway of a Miss America pageant than straddling a hog, Diane McBain took on the lead role of a vile biker chick in the camp classic The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968). Take a look at the trailer and then read Diane’s comments about making the movie from my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema.

“I wasn’t an obvious choice to play this part,” agrees McBain. “I think I was just the person with the recognizable name. That’s what the producers were looking for.” Described as “hog straddling female animals on the prowl,” The Mini-Skirts included Patty McCormack and Sandra Marshall with Jeremy Slate, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ronnie Rondell as their boyfriends. “After I agreed to do this movie I went out and learned how to ride a motorcycle,” remembers McBain. “A big motorcycle. When I arrived on the set they gave us these tiny scooters. It was the silliest bike you ever saw. I thought it was ridiculous to have this Mini-Skirt Mob on these small bikes. I knew then I was in trouble.” [Laughs]

“What attracted me to do this film was the role of Shayne,” says Diane. “I thought it would be fun to play such a sadistic killer because women don’t usually get to play these sort of roles. The part also required me to do my own stunts. I rode my own motorcycle. I actually hung off the mountain attached to a cable. And I did the fight scenes with Sherry. We had been roommates at one time so we were fairly friendly. We had no problems doing those scenes. Actually, all the actors got along nicely which was great because we shot it on location. Patty McCormack was very nice. Jeremy Slate was friendly and professional with me but we didn’t get close or anything. He often plays the tough guy because he has those distinct features. Harry Dean Stanton was such a character, very intense with a spark in his eye. It always looked like he was keeping some funny little secret.” Though she has the highest regard for her co-stars, The Mini-Skirt Mob is not a film McBain is very proud of because “I didn’t think it is a very realistic movie. Girl gang members didn’t wear mini-skirts! It was just AIP’s way to cash in on the popularity of mini-skirts and biker films.”