Film

All posts in the Film category

Jennifer Miro: An Appreciation

Published November 20, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

On a daily basis, I can fall down endless media based rabbit holes. One article or show can send me on an all consuming spiral, but thankfully, the landing is usually sweet. Sometimes, it can even make me quite contemplative. 

A cursory examination of The Video Dead, an ’80s horror cheese fest, this past Sunday led me to reappreciate the stunning Jennifer Miro, a pioneer artist in the LA punk scene, who appears, briefly yet magnificently, in that film. The porcelain skinned Miro was the frontwoman for the many incarnations of The Nuns, a goth-punk outfit with notable achievements and a large fan base, who never quite crossed over into the mainstream. 

But Miro, who also doubled as a successful fetish model, probably never would have accepted the stereotypical molds that the major labels would have wanted her to exploit. She truly seemed at home in the world of indie exploitation, also appearing in projects like Nightmare in Blood, Dr. Caligari and Jungle Assault, and her live performances, particularly in her band’s final form, were reportedly highly sexualized affairs. 

Even in her death, she navigated a different course. Battling liver and breast cancer for years, she kept her diagnosis a private thing and rejected traditional therapy methods. Relying on the assistance of a kind next door neighbor, Miro faded away, at the age of 54, in December 2011. According to her obituary notices, it would be a month or so before her former colleagues and friends were even aware that she was gone. Thus, those final years seemed to be an exercise in independence – a closing performance for an audience of one.

Hence, my mindful state. As a single gay man in my fifties, dying while walking a solitary path is one of my biggest fears. But, perhaps, Miro found a grace in distancing herself and dealing with her illness without the emotional distractions of others. There might even be a sort of purity in that…a grace there that I can latch onto as I navigate my remaining years, presumably alone. 

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: The Smiths

Published November 3, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Despite his reputation as the ultimate vegan curmudgeon, Morrissey must have developed a sense of fun somewhere along the line. This thought is most clearly laid out by the inclusion of Panic, a kinetic track from the dour troubadour’s classic The Smiths days, in the ecstatically rambunctious horror romp Demons 2.

Simon Boswell, the film’s composer and music coordinator, has recounted in interviews how his request to the illusive singer was framed around the film’s mild condemnation of media and consumerism. Still, as the project’s title so steadfastly reveals its true nature, one can certainly hope that this very British gentlemen is just as turned on by humor-stained gore as the rest of us.

Indeed, Boswell’s more gothic instincts gives the soundtrack, as a whole, a dark wave of jubilance. But none of the other cuts – including fun tracks by everyone from The Cult to Peter Murphy – quite give Sally’s birthday party, where the music here takes zombie-blooded root, the shot of adrenaline that is contained within this early take on social blandness from the one and only Master of Mope. 

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Be My Bai-by: Mega Ape (2023)

Published October 27, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

(A new column dedicated to the projects of the truly singular Bai Ling)

Much like the multi-layered Irwin Allen disaster flicks, Mega Ape‘s writer and director Dustin Ferguson introduces us to multiple characters and plot points in the quick 72-minute running time of this furry feature. (Amusingly, 10 minutes of that is actually devoted to the pre and post action credits – so you’ve got just a little over a television episode’s worth of stuff here.) To wit, briefly beheld, there are a group of animal activists, a hysterically gesticulating mad scientist (Ling), a woman scorned, a rambling duo of conspiracy theorists and multiple hikers in danger. 

Following the usual path of these things, our titular beast is unwittingly released by some overzealous puppy loving civil servants. Soon, ever growing and growing ever angrier, it is on the warpath. Death and mayhem, naturally, ensue. Interestingly, it seems that the power of this creature is also linked to the subconscious and soon the whole world may be one Empire State Building away from Kong-ing out.

As a creator, Ferguson is obviously having a blast here. Working with a visibly miniscule budget, technology, it seems, has finally allowed him to make one of his dream projects  –  an ambitious, leveled monster flick. Of course, the cheese and wacky humor practically ooze out of this celluloid sandwich – with our favored goddess being a huge part of that.

While it appears as if Ling’s scenes were all filmed in one spastic afternoon, her appearances are, thankfully, scattered out amongst the project’s complete length. As it stands, as Dr. Li, our heroine generally works only one emotion – mania. But I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way. Her shining exuberance is the flowery bow on an already very colorful present. 

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Va-Va-Villainess: Deborah Dutch

Published October 4, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

I’m forever crawling on my hands and knees in thrift store aisles, hoping to uncover hidden multimedia gems. This past Saturday, I was biking to a film event and stopped at Green Resale, a huge, four roomed oasis of the not-so-badly used. There I found a cheap set of DVDs from (the almost forgotten) Brentwood Home Media, entitled Toga Party. Even though a couple of the discs were missing, there were still many treasures to be found inside.

The era of film where my nostalgia hits the hardest is that late ’80s, early ‘90s late night cable era. Sexy shows reigned on cable stations then and the word Bikini was an oft used/featured thing. (For example: Bikini Drive-In, Bikini Med School, Bikini House Calls, Bikini Car Wash, Bikini Summer, Bikini Summer 2.) Nicely, the Toga Party collection included a number of episodes of a flash n dash show from that period of time called Divorce Law.

There, the prime defense team, played by such titans of this fare as Jay Richardson and Monique Parent, work together to throw the book at very naked varieties of nefarious conjugal schemers. My favorite 30-minute sequence involves my good buddy (and late night cable stalwart) Deborah Dutch. There, as a French charmer named Brigitte Dubois, she convinces a handsome attorney (Christian Noble) to marry her for her Green Card. When he discovers her lesbian lover hovering nearby and tries to divorce her, she drops a pregnancy bomb on him. Of course, her plans are waylaid when a stolen sample of her pee reveals the truth. Barren as the desert and momentarily penniless, she returns to Paris and the sexy charms of her female paramour.

Dutch is obviously having a giddy time being so mischievous here. The role is definitely a change of pace from her more charmingly comic parts in such cult fare as Hard to Die, Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds and 976-Evil II, making it recommended viewing for her devotees and for anyone who loves the material popularized on USA’s Up All Night all those magically star struck years ago.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Murder Ballads: Diva Style

Published September 13, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

I feel like my life has been an uninterrupted study of film facts and yet…I am constantly surprised, as I sit in various nostalgia screenings, to discover performers I have never even heard a whisper about previously. I am also continually uncovering facets of careers that I thought I had known, backwards and forwards.

As one of the great European movie divas of the ‘50s & ‘60s, Sophia Loren, dutifully, committed some kittenish vocalizing to a number of vinyl recordings. Evidence of these minimal offerings have shown up on such compilations as the Pin-Up Girls series and Rhino Records’ cult-worthy Va-Va-Voom in the mid-80s.

A recent dusty knee LP bargain hunt, at Reckless Records in Chicago, unveiled a previously unknown treasure, though. To promote The Millionairess, their 1960 feature film, Loren and Peter Sellers recorded a cute, off the cuff album together.  Among the cutesy duets and novelty numbers, Loren actually made like a professional cabaret chanteuse and committed a couple real live numbers to wax. One of these was Rodgers and Hart’s To Keep My Love Alive, perhaps the most literary murderous ballad ever committed to theatrical life via the use of pen and paper.*

Loren’s simple yet funny reading of the song actually brings out the humorous plot points with a precision that more classical takes on the material have sometimes failed to uncover.

Of course upon further reflection, the fact that Loren, whose career has included literary achievements along with a string of big budget action films in the ‘70s, is so eclectically motivated should surprise absolutely no one.

*The song was written as a character study of the villainous Morgan Le Fay for A Connecticut Yankee, a Broadway musical.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lola Albright

Published August 24, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

“Now, remember. I don’t want you to touch anything that you don’t recognize.” – Lola Albright, Ms. Barrett, The Monolith Monsters

Thankfully for the male persuasion, the smooth, eternally cool Lola Albright definitely didn’t need to heed her own warning.  The first cut from her debut album, Lola Wants You, certainly confirmed that she was worldly wise and definitely familiar with the opposite sex:

Often singing a sultry tune on the jazzy private eye show Peter Gunn, Albright also played into the lives of monster-kids everywhere. Her sympathetic school teacher in Universal’s (above mentioned) Atomic Age horror The Monolith Monsters made her a highlight for Scary Monsters readers everywhere. Nicely, Albright, who died at the age of 92 in 2017, also indulged in some mature suspense movement on several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a long lost 1975 television film called The Nurse Killer.

Gay Magic: Colorfully, Lola began her career as a featured actress at MGM. Her credits include smaller roles in two Judy Garland films – The Pirate and Easter Parade.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Breaking the “Psycho”: Jessica Walter

Published July 12, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

In what may have been the delicious nadir of her career, the irreplaceable Jessica Walter appeared in episodes of both Joanie Loves Chachi & Matt Houston in 1982. Of course, Walter, who proved her artistic mettle to genre fans as the psychotic Evelyn in Play Misty for Me and the bitter Frederica in Home for the Holidays, added her truly unique je ne sais quoi to her portrayals in each quickly canceled project. ( Note: JLC lasted for 2 mini-seasons and MH was terminated after its third year.) 

Interestingly, on the former, Walter played a less homicidal variant of her Misty role. As a record executive determined to get Scott Baio’s virtually hairless Chachi into bed, she aggressively manipulates the young man. In a virtual recreation of Evelyn’s actions with Clint Eastwood’s Dave, she even appears unexpectedly at his home. After all this unnecessary lasciviousness, the script does give her a nice monologue about the hardships of being a woman in business – an almost conciliatory reaction to Joanie’s hurt & that character’s unshakable importance to her desired target’s life. 

This type of emotionality is also at work in her final moments as Glynnis, a personal secretary with multiple secrets on Matt Houston. Riding shotgun to the amusingly silly plot involving a cheery yet trigger happy robot, Walter gives her teary all as her deceptions are finally revealed. This is even more impressive as Walter spends next to no screen time with the performers playing her co-conspirators, ultimately showing off the true power of her imagination and the precision of her technical skills. 

Of course, sadly, due to her death in 2021 at the age of 80, there will be no more deliciously campy guest spots such as these for Walter. But with over 160 credits before her passing, her memory will proudly live on (in a variety of genres) throughout the decades to come.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Hopelessly Devoted To: George Nader

Published June 25, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

k

Often cast as chiseled heroes and stoic police detectives, George Nader’s talents as an actor were never fully exploited. Granted, rising to fame after playing the bare-chested lead in the execrably notorious Robot Monster could have had something to do with the lack of diversity in his roles. That the majority of his Hollywood films were with B-Movie factory Universal Pictures also might have helped seal his fate. 

But what stands out the most about his life to me is how long lived (and seemingly happy) it was compared to many of his other queer contemporaries. His relationship with former actor Mark Miller lasted 55 years, ending only with Nader’s death, at the age of 80, in 2002. A sense of resiliency also seems at play in his personality. When an injury made working on camera difficult, Nader, creatively, turned to writing. His novel Chrome was one of the first widely distributed science fiction novels to deal with homosexual themes. 

Ultimately, even his performances have a celebratory impact to them. Akin to (fellow expat sex symbol & equally well-regarded performer) Carroll Baker, he was embraced in Europe in the ‘60s, appearing as a stalwart FBI Agent named Jerry Cotton in a number of fun espionage features. Even the most ardent numerologist couldn’t resist such titles in his resume as The Million Eyes of Sumuru & House of 1,000 Dolls, as well. Nicely, both of those features have been re-released, in the last decade or so, as special editions, granting him a much-deserved celluloid legacy and the privilege of being thought of as a cinematic cult figure of note.

#georgenader #pridemonth #pride2023 #lgbtqia #family

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Va-Va-Villainess: Monica Lewis

Published June 18, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Sybil Meriden. If you guessed that might be the name of a cinematic troublemaker – then you’d be correct! As enacted by vivacious singer-actress Monica Lewis in the 1952 MGM musical Everything I Have is Yours, Sybil was definitely the type of woman that no self-aware wife would trust. Vixenish to the extreme, this slinky contender not only gladly eclipsed Marge Champion’s devoted Pamela professionally, but she decided she also wanted her husband, played by Marge’s real life spouse Grover, as well. Naturally, as in all feel good entertainment, her plans were vanquished by the final sequence. Lewis, herself, soon realized that Metro, to whom she was signed, wasn’t going to promote her adequately. Thus by 1953, much like Meriden, she took the proverbial A-Train, hightailing it back to the glamourous nightclubs of NYC.

Nicely, decades later, Lewis would regain her celluloid grounding by appearing in number of the disaster flicks being produced by the legendary Jennings Lang, her husband. The most popular of those appearances include Earthquake, where her resolute secretary is lowered from a destroyed building via her own pantyhose, and Airport ’79. In the latter, she essentially played herself, a successful jazz singer traveling with her famed accompanist, played by Good Times’ popular Jimmy Walker.

Remaining active until her death at the age of 93 in 2015, Lewis’ eclectic career is properly memorialized at https://truecompassdesigns.com/monica-lewis/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Unsung Heroines of Horror: Lucy Lee Flippin

Published May 19, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

For old school cinema buffs who revel in the stern antics of such character actresses as Fern Emmett and Margaret Hamilton, the divine Lucy Lee Flippin, nicely, offers up a contemporary answer to her predecessors’ judgmental, high-strung activities. Best known as Alonzo’s strait-laced schoolmarm sister in Little House on the Prairie, Flippin is highly recognizable to students of ‘70s and ‘80s television and film.

Her roles in such films as Summer School, Flashdance and Earth Girls Are Easy, often in administrative or secretarial roles, gained her widespread recognition. But much like Emmett, who played cameo bits in many of the Universal horror features, Flippin also appeared in such projects as zombie-comedy Surf II and the Chuck Norris slasher Hero and the Terror in blink & you’ll miss her performances.

Significantly, unlike Emmett and Hamilton who were stuck performing characters without an ounce of sexuality, Flippin got to indulge in earthier aspects with her characterizations. As the slightly vengeful Natasha Jones on The Munsters Today, she gave full essence to the lustful nature of the part, ending that experience as part of a May-December pairing the likes of which Miss Gulch never would have seen. Nancy, her arched eyed hotel worker on a popular episode of The Golden Girls, also rang with the heart of a manipulative grifter, a criminality that the citizens portrayed by her cinematic forebears never would have approached.

Even more impactively, Helen, the desperate character she essayed on the second season of (the original) Charmed would have caused Martha Steele, Babe in Arms’ show business folk disapproving miser, smartly played by Hamilton, much alarm. There Flippen essayed a woman willing to murder and conjure skin shredding demons, all for the hoped for pleasure of eternal youth.

Certainly, the distinctive actions of roles like that emphatically earn Flippin a place in the Unsung Horror Hall Of Fame.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan