Two hardworking actresses from the 60s are still going strong and both gave recent interviews. Francine York just appeared on TV’s The Mindy Project and talks about her career and her 3 appearances on the cult 70s TV series Jason of Star Command on The Unofficial Jason of Star Command Appreciation Page.
Tina Louise has been surprisingly busy lately and will have 2 new movies in release. Below is a telephone interview where she discusses the horror film Late Phases where a retired vet moves to a retirement community and discovers the residents are dying from what seems to be dog bites and Tapestry where she plays the mother of Stephen Baldwin a man in personal turmoil.
Interviews with Francine York can be found in my books Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema and Film Fatales.
For me Bunny Lake Is Missing is one of the most underrated movies of the 1960s. Producer/director Otto Preminger’s engrossing b/w mystery about the disappearance of a little girl or may or may not exist sucks you in right from the get go. The opening credits designed by the legendary Saul Bass features one of the most haunting but ignored film scores by Paul Glass as a hand strips away pieces of construction paper revealing the film’s cast and crew.
http://youtu.be/9XwegEKlQHw
Carol Lynley stars as the harried young American mother newly arrived in London who misplaces her daughter Bunny Lake at a nursery school (or does she?); Keir Dullea is her overprotective and hyperkinetic brother; Laurence Oliveir is the doubting police inspector who begins to suspect there is no Bunny Lake when not a piece of evidence can be produced to prove her existence; and red herrings as suspects pop up in the forms of Noel Coward as a lascivious landlord who collects shrunken heads and idolizes the Marquis de Sade; Martita Hunt as the eccentric former school master who lives in the nursery’s attic writing her book about children’s fears; Lucie Mannheim as the school’s disgruntled cook who agrees to keep an eye on Bunny Lake left in the First Day Room; etc.
In 1965, Bunny Lake Is Missing opened to mixed reviews. Carol Lynley rightly complained a lot of the critics were reviewing Otto’s notorious bad behavior on the set towards actors than the film isself. A box office disappointment, both Otto and Columbia Pictures washed their hands of it to Carol’s grave disappointment as she stated that she put her heart and soul into this picture. It shows, as Carol as never been better. Her desperation to find her missing daughter turns to sheer panic when she realizes Scotland Yard doesn’t believe she exists and won’t help her. However, her look of permanent bewilderment causes the moviegoer to doubt her as well. Come Oscar time, Columbia Pictures threw all it weight behind The Collector (a film that has not held up as when it was first released) earning its female star Samantha Eggar an Oscar nomination in my opinion that should have gone to Lynley.
Only a few years after the movie was released, critics began giving it a second look and realized it was much better than thought. The new persceptive continues to this day. With Bunny Lake Is Missing now on Blu-Ray you can judge for yourself. Click on reviews from The New York Times and DVD-Savant.
For me, Rod Taylor was one of the most rugged leading men of the 1960s. I enjoyed many of his movies, but one of my all-time favorites was Dark of the Sun with Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, and Jim Brown. I love adventure movies set in Africa (though this was filmed in Jamaica), and this one delivers nonstop action with Taylor and Brown as mercenaries in the Congo jungle during its 1960s civil wars. Hired to retrieve diamonds, they also reluctantly try to save the trapped mine workers and their families plus aid worker Mimieux. Just check out the trailer for a small taste.
Yesterday, I tweeted about the fabulous-looking new book Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures from the 20th Century-Fox Archives by Angela Cartwright and also included a link to her promo video. I wished her well with it, but said I would only be getting it if there were photos of my fave 60s gals Carol Lynley, Pamela Tiffin, or Julie Newmar. Angela’s co-author Tom McLaren, who I omitted from the tweet due to space constraints (sorry Tom!), responded and said there are 2 full pages photos of Carol and 3 of Julie. He thinks they have never been published before. 2 out of 3 is not bad. Sad no Pamela Tiffin. Hoping Diane Baker and Jill St. John did not make the cut either, meow! Do know per Tom there are photos of Barbara Eden, Farrah Fawcett plus Raquel Welch, Ann-Margret, Sandra Dee, Tuesday Weld, etc.
The book is now on my Must Have list and just from the video you know it would make a wonderful coffee table gift book for the movie lover in your life. And I think Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema or Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood would make a wonderful companion piece.
