Sad to report that esteemed British director Ronald Neame passed away last week.  Though his impressive resume includes such well-received movies as Tunes of Glory, The Chalk Garden, The Prme of Miss Jean Brodie, and The Odessa Files, to me is the hero who directed my favorite movie of all-time, The Poseidon Adventure.  Though the press gave most of the credit to the film's huge success to producer Irwin Allen, when interviewed the cast gave props to the soft-spoken, elegant Neame.  So impressed with him, he was able to persuade his all-star cast to forego stunt doubles and do most of their stunts themselves for the sake of realism.  Carol Lynley had an intense fear of heights, but Neame got her to climb Christmas trees and ladders, and trek across a catwalk over 100 feet in the air.Click the below link to read more about him:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/magazine/19neame.html

 

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pwmTfMlEfM

Another great go-go number from Elvis Presley's Spinout (1966) as he sings the title tune.  That's blonde Arlene Charles (profiled in my book Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood) with the pink halter top and orange slacks dancing next to him early on in the song.  Spending all my time after school in the '70s watching these movies on ABC-TV's 4:30 Movie no wonder my film tastes are so warped to this day!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpYTpO3dW5I

My favorite Elvis Presley movie song, this week anyway, is "Beach Shack" from Spinout (1966).  For you eagle eyes, try to spot Christopher Riordan, Thordis Brandt, Phyllis Davis, and Arlene Charles who may be in this musical number. The King's leading ladies are Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, Deborah Walley, and Dodie Marshall. He's a singing racecar driver trying to deflect the marriage-minded ladies.

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mB52OCn86Q

 

 In the clip below Fantasy Femme Tisha Sterling go-go dances to The Prunes as Jack Lord and Susan Strasberg look on in one of the weirdest films from the 60s, The Name of the Game Is Kill!   In the film, Lord (just before he landed Hawaii Five-0) played a Hungarian immigrant named Symcha Lipa who meets beautiful Strasberg, the “normal” sister, while wandering the highways of Arizona.  Susan operates a family-owned gas station and invites him to stay with her and her sisters: child-like, spider-loving Tisha Sterling and masculine Collin Wilcox, plus dear old mom female impersonator T.C. Jones.  All three sisters try to seduce and then kill Symcha. 

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bs_wt6TL-g

 

 

 <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1bs_wt6TL-g&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Commenting on the movie, Tisha said in the book,

 

 

“Making this film was an extremely wild experience for me.  I have never seen the film in its entirety and would love to see it one day.  It was a really hard shoot because we had to work long hours in this weird little town called Jerome—it was not much more than a ghost town.  The temperature was close to 120 degrees and it was horrendous.  We also all hated Gunnar Hellstrom [the director]. He was mean and we all wanted to mutiny.  Anyway, I thought I did pretty well in this movie.” 

 

You can read more of Tisha's comments about The Name of the Game Is Kill! in the revised soft cover edition of Fantasty Femmes of Sixteis Cinema due out in late summer.  Below is the film's trailer:

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXi05egnu7Y

 

 

  

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/wat