Click here to read the sad story of former sex symbol Anita Ekberg. The poor woman has lost her money and her home. One of the most iconic cinema moments of the Sixties is of the buxom blonde frolling in the Trevi Fountain in Federico Fellini’s classic, La Dolce Vita (1960) with Marcello Mastroianni.
THIS DIAMOND BOND GIRL IS CUT-GLASS
Click here to access yet another survey, this one from Entertainment Weekly, of the Best & Worst Bond Girls in the history of the series. Again it galls me how Jill St. John as Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) is considered one of the best and Luciana Paluzzi as Fatima Blush in Thunderball (1965) is always ignored. And I also do not think Karin Dor in You Only Live Twice is one of the Worst, but I digress.
Back to Jill St. John. It is most likely without a doubt that the reason shewas offered the role of Tiffany Case was because of her fine work in two previous spy films, The Liquidator and The The Spy Killer. In this alternately appreciated and hated entry in the series, Diamonds Are Forever featured the last ‘official’ appearance by Sean Connery as the British secret agent 007 who is sent to Las Vegas, Nevada to investigate the disappearance of a cache of diamonds. Along the way, he discovers that his old arch nemesis Ernst Stavros Blofeld (Charles Gray) is once again involved. Blofeld and his criminal empire are planning to use the diamonds to affect an orbiting satellite system.
There were many problems with Diamonds Are Forever. It reveals the beginning of a distinct, formulaic structure of a comedic, sometimes campy tone in the series that carried on to and throughout all of the Roger Moore Bond entries. Much of the film looks cheap, garish and ugly and Connery, appearing world weary, delivers a disappointing performance. As for St. John, she undoubtedly was one of the most most voluptuous actresses cast in a Bond Film however she is attired in a tight, form-fitting, sometimes not entirely flattering bikini. Bathingsuit aside, acting-wise she is a disaster delivering a shrill, often one-note performance (especially contrasted with the delightful Lana Wood as perky, busty Plenty O’Toole). She brings no class to the part and plays it like one of her sexy dumb broad roles from her many Sixties sex comedies. But here she is so annoying you could care less if she lives or dies. In my opinion, she ranks as one of the worst of the Bond girls of all time. Where was Raquel Welch or Stella Stevens or Tina Louise when Bond needed her?
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R.I.P. Shelby Grant
I was saddened to learn that Sixties starlet Shelby Grant passed away on June 25, 2011 of a brain aneurysm. Married to actor Chad Everett since 1966, she is most remembered as being one of the Flint Girls in Our Man Flint (1966). Below is a profile excerpted from my book Film Fatales (co-written with Louis Paul).
Shelby Grant was born Brenda Thompson on October 19th, 1940 in Orlando, Oklahoma. After graduating college she became a schoolteacher but left the profession when she was discovered by a 20th Century-Fox talent scout and put under contract. Needing a more original name, she told columnist Hedda Hopper that she “drew Shelby Grant out of a hat.” Her first roles at Fox were bit roles playing a party guest in The Pleasure Seekers (1964) and a nurse in Fantastic Voyage (1966). Nevertheless, Grant got noticed and due to her poise, offbeat beauty, and talent she was voted a Hollywood Deb Star for 1966.
The classic spy spoof Our Man Flint (1966) stars James Coburn as Derek Flint, a hip high-living secret agent sharing his luxurious New York penthouse with four luscious international beauties— Leslie (Grant), Anna (Sigrid Valdis), Gina (Gianna Serra) and Sakito (Helen Funai). Their ideal living arrangement is interrupted by Lloyd Cramden (Lee J. Cobb) the head of ZOWIE when a computer picksFlint as the most qualified agent to stop an organization called GALAXY from controlling the world through its weather. As the shapely French cutie, Shelby Grant’s first appears on screen shaving Flint to the consternation of Kramden who has come to personally plead with Flint to accept his assignment. After Flint refuses, he accompanies his lady friends (in beautifully designed futuristic evening gowns by Ray Aghayan) to one of New York’s most fashionable restaurants. As Flint is dancing with Sakito, one of GALAXY’s assassins’ Gila (Gila Golan), thrusts a poison dart at Flint. It misses him but instead hits Cramden. The murder attempt forces Flint to change his mind and flush out GALAXY. He bids his women adieu and heads to France when he learns that three of GALAXY’s top agents are operating out of Marseilles. Flint is seized and taken to a remote volcanic island off of Italy where he learns his lovely roommates have been programmed into pleasure units. Flint finds Leslie and the rest of the girls in the “reward rooms.” He de-programs them (“You are not a pleasure unit”) and sabotages GALAXY’s weather controlling machine. As the island paradise blows upFlint gets his girls out of danger by putting them in barrels and floating them to safety.
As with the other actresses, Grant plays her part enthusiastically. She commented to Hedda Hopper, “I had some good action, a chic wardrobe and featured billing.” However, most of the time Grant and the other girls are there to just fawn over Coburn’s Flint. They are forever kissing him or looking adoringly into his eyes. So it is a bit surprising—or maybe not—that by the film’s end they heartily accept Gila into their circle. Most of Grant’s reviews were like Variety, which found she and the others “nice to look at” or Leo Mishkin of the Morning Telegraph who wrote “Gila Golan, Gianna Serra and all the others decorate the scenery most attractively.” In the film’s sequel the number of girls is reduced from four to three with none of the actresses from Our Man Flint reprising their roles.
Grant curtailed her acting career to raise a family but did appear in the low-budget cult horror movie The Witchmaker in 1969 and a handful of episodes in her husband’s popular TV series Medical Center during the Seventies as seen below.
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COME ABOARD! THEY’RE EXPECTING YOU!
The Elvis Cruise sets sail January 12th and it is like an episode of The Love Boat with guests Marlyn Mason, Celeste Yarnall, Christopher Riordan, Cynthia Pepper, and Chris Noel (pictured with the King). All are Presley co-stars from his movies. Click here for more information.
You can read comments about working with him from Celeste and Chris in my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema and from Marlyn and Cynthia in my book Drive-in Dream Girls.
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