Sixties Posts Archives : Page 25 of 246 : Sixties Cinema

AMAZON PRIME DAY SPECIAL

July 11, 2017 by Tom Lisanti

For Amazon’s Prime Day the Kindle price for my book Dueling Harlows is $4.99. Price increases every few hours back up to $9.99. Buy it now!

SHE SAID WHAT!?!

June 16, 2017 by Tom Lisanti

Blonde bombshell Bobbi Shaw on Pajama Party co-star Annette Funicello: “She was kind of standoffish…I felt she was jealous…”

Diane Bond on Charlton Heston star of The War Lord: “For years I loathed him for copping a feel under the cloak.”

Read more in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies.

Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies

June 4, 2017 by Tom Lisanti

She said what!?! Talking about the spaghetti western Navajo Joe, Nicoletta Machiavelli commented that her leading man Burt Reynolds “was so snooty that the whole crew couldn’t stand him!” Read more in my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies.

BearManor Media Sale

May 9, 2017 by Tom Lisanti

Big sale at BearManor Media and great time to buy my book Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies just as the warm drive-in weather is approaching! Ends May 12 at midnight.

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Sixties Cinema Books

12 hours ago

Comer and Lynley and Tarantino! Oh, My!

The recent passing of Anjanette Comer made me go back and watch her TV-movie Death Stalk (1974), co-starring Carol Lynley. They are two of my five favorite actresses of all-time. Death Stalk was based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Chastain, and in the vein of the hit movie, Deliverance. A solid cast, directed by Robert Day, braved the dangerous rapids of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers in the High Sierras near Sonora, California in this exciting saga that was beautifully shot by cinematographers, Michel Hugo and Leonard J. South. Ruthless escaped convicts (Vic Morrow, Neville Brand, Norman Fell, and Larry Wilcox, pre-CHiPs) take hostages (Comer and Lynley), the wives of two San Francisco businessmen (Vince Edwards and Robert Webber), while river rafting on vacation, in a desperate move to escape the authorities and the husbands determined to rescue their spouses.

While writing my BearManor Media book, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy & Suspense. I was surprised to learn that Quentin Tarantino was a huge fan of Carol and this movie, as well. He revealed on the Pure Cinema Podcast: “Back then any movie with Carol Lynley I would watch. She was my go-to girl [and] that is why I watched it. From The Poseidon Adventure on I was a big Carol Lynley fan.” It is too bad that he never cast her in any of his films, but I digress.

I was so relieved to learn that Carol and Anjanette got along swimmingly. Lynley remarked, “Anjanette was great! The guys had a dressing room, and they put us in the wardrobe trailer to change our clothes. I got to know her and found her to be very ethereal. I mean that in a wonderful way. It is not a quality you find in actors very much.”

One of the reasons to watch is for the pairing of Carol Lynley and Anjanette Comer as the main ladies in peril. Their careers followed a similar path, which led them to this moment. Both were hailed early on as being talented newcomers destined for stardom. Carol received back-to-back Golden Globe nominations for Most Promsiing Newcomer - Female (for The Light in the Forest and Blue Denim) and Comer earned an Emmy Award nomination for an early guest appearance on Arrest and Trial. However, their more promising movies either failed either critically or at the box office, forcing them to turn to the small screen where they excelled as the terrorized heroine in made-for-TV movies and episodic television.

What separates this movie from the typical damsel in distress TV-movies of the week with the heroes of pursuit of the bad guys is that one of the beleaguered heroines, Comer’s devoted wife, Pat, at first feisty and bossy with her husband, Jack (Vince Edwards), surprisingly falls for the convicts’ leader, Brunner (Vic Morrow). She turns passive and shoots down any of the plans to escape suggested by Lynley’s Cathy. The twist of Pat being drawn to Brunner plays credibly due to her and Morrow’s performances. She is like a cat on a hot tin roof sexually desiring him but using her “staying alive at any cost” as an excuse, while he plays it aloof knowing he can have her any time he wants.

Despite the veiled insults thrown at her by Pat, Cathy tries to warn her about men like Brunner. She consistently refuses to let Neville Brand’s Cody have his way with her, fighting off his advances to the end, even though she knows he will kill her. Carol convincingly takes Cathy from a frivolous country club wife, as she is presented at the beginning, to a woman of conviction who, despite her past, will not allow herself to be sexually assaulted just to save herself. She decides to fight back unlike her feckless friend who has the gall to suggest to Cathy to lay back and pretend it is one of her many past boyfriends. Cathy musters up a sudden backbone and in a violent brawl with Cody stabs him to death with his own knife.

Filmed with no dialogue, the ending is powerful. Pat is caught by a bewildered Jack in a compromising position with her abductor. She is on the ground with Brunner on top of her, as she willing kisses him. A shot rings out. The pair notices Jack with a gun pointed at them. Brunner jumps up with his hands in the air, while Pat slowly makes her way to her husband, who cannot even look at her, despite her clinging to him. Cathy emerges from the bush shaken and bedraggled and slowly walks over to her relieved, smiling older husband.

Quentin Tarantino was fascinated with the plot point of the Anjanette Comer character’s matter-of-fact realization that they must have sex with the convicts to keep themselves alive because once they reach their destination there is no reason for them to live. He commented on the Pure Cinema Podcast, “That’s her plan and it strikes the audience as pretty pragmatic. You get it. But the movie also suggests—and does more than hint, but it doesn’t say—that Anjanette Comer is drawn to the masculinity of Vic Morrow as the leader. She’s scared of him but drawn to his alpha male status … That whole second half is when the movie gets really, really good."

He continued, "The best thing about the movie is the last scene. It is one of those scenes—it is almost frustrating because it stops just before whatever is going to happen happens. Because it does that it makes you talk about what happened. I watched it with two friends of mine and when the movie is over you talk about it for twenty minutes … It is one of the most thought proving endings of any TV movie I ever seen because it demands a twenty-minute discussion.”

Tarantino’s assessment of Death Stalk is pitch perfect and why it deserves a full Blu-Ray or at least DVD release with him providing a commentary track See less ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

3 days ago

Wow! Thank you so much Mike Poirier. I am literally blown away. I was more nervous about this book than any of the others. Your kind words have squashed any self-doubts that I had. ...

Another World: The Drama Behind the Drama — Tom Lisanti’s Fascinating Oral History

www.welovesoaps.tv

We Love Soaps is a leading source for soap opera news, interviews, and history—exploring the past, present, and future of serialized storytelling.

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Sixties Cinema Books

4 days ago

Happy to finally announce that my new book is available for purchase.

Another World was one of daytime television’s longest-running and most innovative soap operas, airing on NBC for thirty-five years (1964–1999). But its boldest experiment—a shift from sixty to ninety minutes—sparked one of the most turbulent periods in its history.

Another World: The Drama Behind Daytime TV’s Only 90-Minute Soap explores the pivotal years 1978–1982, revealing what led to the expansion—and its eventual reversal. At the center of the story are the failed companion soaps Lovers and Friends and For Richer, For Poorer, whose struggles helped shape this unprecedented decision.

Through candid interviews from cast and crew from all three soaps, this book offers a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at the creative clashes, challenges, and triumphs of daytime television—along with an unfiltered portrait of influential producer Paul Rauch. Interviewees include director Barnet Kellman; actors Richard Backus, Richard Bekins, Vicky Dawson, Maeve Kinkead, Dorothy Lyman, Janice Lynde, Laura Malone, Christopher Marcantel, Petronia Paley, Tracy Brooks Swope, Paul Tinder, cover gals Julie Philips and Wesley Ann Pfenning, and others.

Featuring rare photos and insider accounts. ...

Another World: The Drama Behind Daytime TV’s Only 90-Minute Soap

www.amazon.com

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Sixties Cinema Books

1 week ago

I heard rumors of her death but now confirmed that one of my favorite actresses of all-time, Anjanette Comer, passed away in May. I first became aware of Anjanette after seeing her in the dark satire The Loved One (1965) on ABC's 4:30 Movie. I thought she had the perfect ethereal, quirky quality for her role as a funeral parlor's off-beat cosmetician working for the outrageous Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger).

I then began following her career playing the damsel in distress in a number of 1970's TV movies including Five Desperate Women (one of my favorites), The Deadly Hunt, Terror on the 40th Floor, and the exciting Deliverance ripoff, Death Stalk. In the latter, she and my favorite actress, Carol Lynley, are abducted by escaped convicts (led by Vic Morrow) while on a rafting trip with their corporate businessmen husbands (Vince Edwards and Robert Webber). I was glad to hear from Carol Lynley that she really liked Anjanette and had fun working with her.

Carol and Anjanette also had in common careers that went up and down. Both let the men in their lives affect their working or not. I knew that Anjanette walked off Funeral in Berlin with Michael Caine due to her then boyfriend, but I have never heard that she turned down Barefoot in the Park or Bonnie and Clyde. I do know that producer Hal Wallis seriously considered Pamela Tiffin for Barefoot. And it is fact that Natalie Wood and Tuesday Weld turned down Bonnie and Clyde. Warren Beatty considered Carol Lynley, Jean Hale, and Sue Lyon who reportedly almost got the role until Faye Dunaway was brought to Beatty's attention.

During the seventies, Anjanette was on a bit of an upswing appearing in three theatrical features (Lepke, Fire Sale, The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery). However, a snarky writer titled his interview with her: "Once Upon a Time, Anjanette Was a Comer." Witty to be sure but quite condescending.

Anjanette's career slowed down considerably in the 1980s with TV guest shots and an occasional TV-movie but she did have a bit of a resurgence during the mid-1990s to early 2000s with direct-to-video films and TV guest spots.

Her other 1960s movies that I enjoyed were the westerns The Appaloosa with Marlon Brando and Guns for San Sebastian with Anthony Quinn. Anjanette is very good as the other woman in Rabbit, Run (1970) with James Caan, based on a John Updike novel. And she has the distinction in appearing with Marianna Hill and Ruth Roman in one of the most bizarre, twisted horror movies of all-time called The Baby (1974). You'll want to take a shower after watching it.

RIP dear Anjanette. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

4 weeks ago

This ad from the 1990s made me laugh.

Early in her career, especially modeling, a teenage Carol Lynley was mistaken for Sandra Dee or Tuesday Weld a lot. Later in Hollywood as she matured, she was mistaken for Yvette Mimieux, Diane McBain, or Sue Lyon (Who in an interview from the late 1960s expressed her frustration with fans who thought she was Lynley.).

However, the actress she was most confused with was Carroll Baker. They had the same first name, they were blonde and posed for Playboy, and they each played Jean Harlow in two rival biopics both titled Harlow. Lynley even said that when she finally met Baker in the mid-1990s she exclaimed to her, “I’ve been signing autographs for you for years!”

It is forgivable for audiences to make this mistake but not the marketing department for Stage West in Edmonton, Canada. Someone with a half a brain should have caught that Baby Doll was not Lynley but Carroll Baker! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. BTW, Carol played M’Lynn to very good reviews. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

4 weeks ago

Remembering Carol Lynley on the day she passed Sept. 3, 2019. She graciously spoke to me about playing Jean Harlow for my book Dueling Harlows from McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Her input and others greatly helped me win a bronze medal IPPY Award for Best Performing Arts book. ...

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Sixties Cinema Books

1 month ago

Following up on Mike Poirier's superlative article on General Hospital pre-Gloria Monty, I thought I would share an excerpt from my interview with Valerie Starrett for my BearManor Media book, Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies. Valerie starred opposite burly William Smith in the hit biker movie, Run, Angel, Run (1969) before starting her soap career.

This is from a magazine article I wrote with more on General Hospital than what was in the book:

Valerie Starrett had a few TV appearances under her belt (Dan Raven, Death Valley Days, I Spy) when she wrote the screenplay and co-starred in Run, Angel, Run. Shortly after, also in 1969, she began her long run playing scrappy waitress-turned-nurse Diana Maynard Taylor on the popular soap opera General Hospital. “I was in my early thirties when I did Run, Angel, Run,” admits Starrett. “The only place—at least in my thinking—for me to work again and support a daughter was something steady. I had film offers, but when I was offered the soap I thought, ‘Okay, regular life. I can go back to the PTA.’ I would be able to raise my daughter and not have to deal with the film world again.”

Starrett quickly became one of the most popular actresses on General Hospital and in all of daytime television. Fans were enthralled by the trials of tribulations of her character who has an affair with married man Phil Brewer, becomes pregnant, and then enters into a marriage of convenience with another, Peter Taylor. After losing the baby to pneumonia, she is raped by Phil, becomes pregnant again, and tries to pass the kid off as Peter’s but he leaves her when the truth comes out. In 1975, Starrett’s Diana Taylor was one of five people suspected of killing that cad Phil Brewer in one of the series’ most suspenseful mysteries up to that point. For weeks, the audience was kept guessing who the killer was. Trying to keep the culprit’s identify hidden, each actor filmed a scene revealing that their character murdered Brewer.

Knowing she may be out of a job, Starrett remarked in the Los Angeles Times during this period, “A few years ago [Diana] had Hodgkin’s disease and at that time it was almost incurable. Well, when I read that in the script, I made all my preparations for leaving and finding a new job. Then we found out that that the diagnosis had been a mistake. The writers can work marvels; so I’ve been very fatalistic about my career her ever since.”

Starrett recalled that doing the show was hard. Low budget, it was shot like a live TV show and you couldn’t break tape. If there was a miscue or someone flubbed their lines you had to keep going. “I had one scene where Diana was being raped in the kitchen and I had to reach for a frying pan to hit the attacker over the head, “ she recalled. “The prop guy situated the pan incorrectly so the handle was not sticking out for me to grab. I was able to reach for the rim of the pan and beat him with the handle. Blood then ran down his face as planned. It was absurd.” Of course, they could not reshoot so that is what the audience watched.

In 1977, fans were outraged when Starrett was let go and the role was recast with Brooke Bundy. “I left—I love this term—because of creative differences,” laughs Valerie. “Tom Donovan replaced the producer I had always worked with and who I’d been the darling of. I was the antithesis of that with Donovan. It was amazingly bloody. I didn’t fall into the mix nor would I. I didn’t like the lines now being written for me. I remember being called to his office right before I was fired and he screamed at me, ‘You’re Marilyn Monroe!’ I yelled back, ‘You’re worse!’ It was not a happy relationship.”

Donovan did not last long at General Hospital when ABC quickly replaced him with Gloria Monty, the former producer of The Secret Storm, to shake up the show and boy did she deliver. To be fair, she had full support of the network along with a much bigger budget than what was previously allocated. Her pairing of Luke and Laura would change the dynamic of daytime television forever.

As for the character of Diana Taylor, she went from the show’s heroine to a grasping, desperate woman who would do anything to keep her adopted son from his biological parents. Four years after Starrett left the role, Diana was found murdered lying in a pool of blood in her kitchen. Valerie was so glad that she did not have to enact the character as she was now being written. And Valerie had a happier ending than Diana. After retiring from acting in the early 1980s, she became co-owner of a successful bookstore in Malibu, California. ...

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