FAntasy Island Archives : Sixties Cinema

Carol Lynley Front/Back Covers Unveiling

September 30, 2020 by Tom Lisanti

Soon to be released from BearManor Media. More details to follow in coming weeks.

Facebook Posts

5 days ago

Actress Carol Lynley turns up twice on The Highest Rated Movies on Television list from 1992 with the granddaddy of disaster movies, The Poseidon Adventure #6, and the vampire horror TV-film, The Night Stalker #24, both from 1972. That was a banner year for Carol, starting off with the highest rated made-for-TV movie at the time and ending the year in 1973's top box office grosser. So why did Carol not strike while the iron was hot and have an even better 1973? That is the question I needed to solve when I wrote the book, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy & Suspense.

Although Carol promoted the hell out of The Poseidon Adventure from doing radio and print interviews (one of which got her a lot of notoriety when she called her costar Red Buttons the c-word) to personal appearances, to guesting on TV talk shows (4 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson alone), she did not make a single film or TV show from the time Poseidon wrapped in June of 1972 to late fall of 1973.

Carol said she was exhausted from the Poseidon shoot which was like no other working on upside sets and having dirt smeared on you and then hosed down a few times a day. She took 6 months off to visit family in Ireland. When she came back to Hollywood in early 1973, there was a writer's strike that prevented her from working and when that ended claimed it took her awhile for her to get back into it. And what was her choice after all this time for a big comeback? A guest role on the syndicated British anthology program Orson Welles's Great Mysteries. Although she had a meaty role as the bad girl, a far cry from Poseidon's hapless Nonnie, it did not ignite the world on fire.

Although Carol then worked steadily for the next 10 years bopping from films to stage to TV, she never got a Poseidon Adventure/Night Stalker moment again. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books

1 week ago

Save the date, New Yorkers! I will be talking with Eden Cried's leading lady, Carol Hollenbeck, about her movie and her connection to the two rival 1965 biopics, Harlow, one starring Carroll Baker and the other Carol Lynley. I will have my Dueling Harlows book, which Carol was interviewed for, on hand for sale and maybe my soap opera books, as well. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books

3 weeks ago

Classic Hollywood fans, mark your calendars: Turner Classic Movies: TCM is airing Carroll Baker's Harlow (1965)—for the very first time—on Wednesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. EST.

Too bad TCM did not pair it with its rival, Harlow with Carol Lynley. A head-to-head comparison between Baker’s lush, color, big-budget production from producer Joseph E. Levine and Lynley’s stark, black-and-white, low-budget Electronovision experiment from producer William Sargent would have been quite interesting. Same story—completely different visions. Yet neither film truly reveals the full story—nor captures the real Jean Harlow behind the legend.

Discover the full, untold story about the making of the rival biopics in my book: Dueling Harlows: The Race to Bring the Actress’s Life to the Silver Screen from McFarland Publishers. Go behind the scenes of one of Hollywood’s most fascinating rivalries—a publicity war fueled by ambition, ego, and a race against time to bring Jean Harlow’s life to theaters first.

As an added bonus, relive the making of Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell (1977) starring Lindsay Bloom as Jean Harlow.

If you love classic film history and Hollywood rivalries, this is a story for you. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books

4 weeks ago

Flying back and forth to Arizona this week and thought, "Boy, have flight attendants changed from the days of Come Fly with Me (1963)," a time where all airline hostesses were single, shapely females all under 30. Here Dolores Hart, Pamela Tiffin, and Lois Nettleton don their Pan-Am uniforms and set out to trap themselves a man while flying the New York to Paris and Vienna routes in this beautifully filmed, entertaining travelogue.

Determined Dolores Hart is a gold digger, and proud of it, who thinks she has snared a wealthy baron, Karl Boehm. Ditzy novice stewardess Pamela Tiffin falls for playboy copilot Hugh O'Brian who has a married woman on the side. And pragmatic Lois Nettleton is attracted to goodhearted widower Karl Malden, unaware that he is a millionaire. And yes, in between their romantic misadventures, they do manage, with style, to serve and take care of their passengers.

Read about the making of the movie in my book, Pamela Tiffin: From Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974. ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books updated their profile picture.

1 month ago

Sixties Cinema Books ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books updated their profile picture.

1 month ago

Sixties Cinema Books ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Sixties Cinema Books

1 month ago

I am a little behind, but I was so saddened to hear that 1960s big-eyed, blonde bombshell Joy Harmon passed away. The lovely actress graced many movies and TV shows from the late 1950s into the early 1970s usually playing the kooky ding-a-ling. Below is a link to a very thorough obit from Mike Barnes in The Hollywood REporter about her (quoting from my interview with Joy for my first book, Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema).

Joy was truly a joy to behold and was just as bubbly in person as she usually was on screen. She invited me to her home for the interview and kept feeding me her homemade baked goods including the most scrumptious chocolate covered strawberries that I ever had.

In 1960s starlet Geil Gerber's memoir, "Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember" from McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, she wrote that there were two people that she worked with that Terry Southern wanted to meet and then hit it off with. One was Elvis Presley and the other Joy Harmon, Gail's costar in the cult, Village of the Giants (1965) with Beau Bridges, Tisha Sterling, Johnny Crawford, and Ronny Howard. Gail remarked:

"Terry had met her [Joy] previously on The Loved One ... Joy was a sweet girl, but she was so formidable and so big in so many ways. I was a bit put off by her. But Terry was just drawn to larger-than-life people and thought she was wonderful. Joy was just so full of energy." This also sums up Joy's screen presence. She was always a standout even if her role was no more than a walk-on with a line or two. Her iconic turn in Cool Hand Luke (1967) where she seductively washes her car in front of the chain gang is a testament to the energy she put into all her roles. ... See MoreSee Less

Joy Harmon, the Woman Who Washed the Car in ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Dies at 87

www.hollywoodreporter.com

She also appeared on Broadway, worked with Groucho Marx on a game show and starred in the films ‘One Way Wahine’ and ‘Village of the Giants.’

View on Facebook