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Shark Bait Retro Village: The Sex Symbol

Published October 20, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Let’s get this out of the way, right off the bat – it is super creepy watching legendary producer William Castle, always a naturally congenial presence onscreen, play Jack P. Harper, a sleazy Golden Age movie mogul in the 1974 television film The Sex Symbol. A fictionalized, ridiculously exploitive look at the life and times of Marilyn Monroe, this greasy bio-pic stars silvery Connie Stevens as the luscious, deeply troubled Kelly Williams. Granted, there are several evocatively disturbing components here. For instance, the screenwriters seem obsessed with the rumor that Monroe veered towards the asexual side in the bedroom, remitting countless scenes of a barely clothed Stevens bemoaning her lack of interest in the carnal as her partners smoke, hazily, in rumpled bedrooms. But Castle’s supporting role, as the executive who helps create Williams’ translucent aura, hits the hardest when he rapes the titular character in a fur-stained boardroom. We’re a long way from the innocent charms of the original 13 Ghosts here, folks!

Almost as a counterbalancing routine, we get a bit of Sapphic intrigue occurring throughout this perfumed reimagining, as well. To that matter, the exquisite Madlyn Rhue is on hand as Kelly’s trusted secretary, Joy Hudson. Hudson, an obvious stand-in for Monroe’s lesbian acting coach Natasha Lytess, spends her screen time glowering at anyone who dares disturb Williams’ autonomy on the celluloid baby-voiced diva market. Of course, whether she is drying her charge’s never ending tears or, lasciviously, giving her an oily rubdown, Rhue excels with a hardened demeanor and sultry essence of control.

Nicely, even though the premise, a flashback laden journey as Williams teeters on the brink of alcoholic immobilization, is an often exhausting one, Stevens is surprisingly good in the project, too. She offers up a raw and truthfully connected pathway to her character, showing both heart and watery persistence in equal measures. 

To balance out Steven’s pert femininity, perennial bad guy and 70s horror icon William Smith makes the scene as (the Joe DiMaggio-esque) Butch. Although, the most wickedly inspired casting here might belong to the laidback Don Murray, as a randy politician on the rise, and the overbearingly camp Shelley Winters, essaying a outwardly flowery yet intrinsically vengeful gossip columnist. As many celluloid fans are aware, Murray co-starred with Monroe in Bus Stop while Winters was her roommate, once upon a glistening Hollywood memory, when both women were young starlets. 

Horror Hall of Fame:

While Stevens has her share of cobweb strewn credits – Two on a Guillotine (a personal favorite, btw) & Tales from the Darkside, for instance, it is Winters who is the true horror maven here. Her credits include Who Slew Auntie Roo?, What’s the Matter with Helen?, Tentacles, Witchfire, The Tenant and The Visitor. Check ’em out!

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

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Hopelessly Devoted to: Rhoda Gemignani

Published October 12, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Often playing smaller and supporting roles, the divine Rhoda Gemignani floated throughout the background scenes of many a cinema buff’s childhood. Terror tykes might know her best, though, for her portrayal of the Real Estate Agent in the original Ghostbusters film. 

Nicely, in the mid-70s, Gemignani was given the chance to play a character of dramatically gothic proportions on The Forgotten Room, an episode of the classic detective show Kojak. There, as a lusty widow named Katrina Patropoulos, she embraced all of the desperate, almost Southern characteristics of the role. Obviously inspired by Anna Magnani’s Serafina from Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo, Gemignani shines like a diva personified throughout the various mechanics of the straightforward plotline. Short-handedly here, the long ignored Patropoulos falls into a passionate affair with a handsome stranger (George Pan Andreas) – one who has an unfortunate propensity for killing prostitutes. 

As many of Williams’ female characters seem to be the prototype for the troubled divas of such films as Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? & their ilk, career-wise, it would have been nice to see Gemingnani go full throttle in a celluloid escapade of that caliber. As that was not to be, her work in this primetime caper will have to be the dreamy stand-in for all that could have, wonderfully, been.

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

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Va-Va-Villainess: Frances Reid

Published August 17, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

She delighted generations as the donut baking Alice Horton on Days of our Lives. But like most of daytime television’s seasoned matriarchs, actress Frances Reid had quite a career before joining the ranks of the ultra-beloved performers in the continuing history of soaps. 

Of special note is her appearance on a season 6 episode of the original Perry Mason (The Case of Constant Doyle) – the show that featured the indomitable Bette Davis, as the titular Doyle, in the steed of an ailing Raymond Burr. Here Davis’ shrewd yet kind lawyer is determined to help the young Cal Leonard (Michael Parks) evade a murder charge. Her investigation soon uncovers that the true killer may be closer to her than she ever thought. 

Amid a character brigade of financial shysters and drunken society ladies, Reid’s proper Ms. Liza Gibney is ultimately a standout. Seemingly prim and proper, she also presents a devious side -making for a complicated character that steals focus with a hysterical breakout when pertinent evidence is revealed about her in Davis’ summation in the show’s final act.

Nicely, besides the participation of Davis and Parks, who both have numerous horror credits in their multifaceted resumes, childhood actress Peggy Ann Garner (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Daisy Kenyon) provides an acerbic, fun appearance as the afore mentioned inebriated, high society wife.

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

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As The Stab Burns: Kim Coles

Published August 2, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Proving that the tears of the clown do run the deepest, comedienne Kim Coles’ (Living Single, In Living Color) recent run as Nurse Whitley on Days of our Lives was decorated with both tragedy and laughter…with a good ole dash of psychotic fury thrown in for good measure, as well. 

After Abe (James Reynolds), the show’s mayor and a legacy character extraordinaire, was hospitalized, he discovered one major post-surgery complication – Coles’ overly friendly, extremely deluded healthcare practitioner. Convincing him that she was Paulina (Jackee Harry), his powerful and loving wife, Whitley kidnapped him and held him captive in her apartment – one strewn with colorful stuffed cat plushes and overly cheery paraphernalia. As the confused Abe grew ever leery of her story, Whitley conceived scheme upon scheme to keep him in the dark and by her side. 

With definitive echos of Stephen King’s Misery, the increasingly desperate caregiver even began drugging Abe, eventually finding a way to convince his family that he was dead. Of course, all that begins badly generally ends happily in the world of daytime and, after one last ditch effort to erase herself & her captive from existence, Whitley was caught and brought to justice.

Besides proving that King’s tales should provide more fodder for soap opera stories, this saga gave Coles a delightful way to expand her talent palette. Alternately vibrating with tenderness, confusion and menace, she made the most of this unusual opportunity, ensuring this story was a fun…& historic ride. *

(* – This tale was one of few in the show’s many decades that revolved around and utilized a Black cast almost exclusively.)

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

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Shark Bait Retro Village: Hardcastle and McCormick

Published July 28, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

Each week the gang on Friday the 13th: The Series tangled with the discovery of yet another destructive, escaped object from their antique store. Similarly, every Sunday night for three years, Hardcastle & McCormick were trafficking in lost items of their own. Of course, this duo’s artifacts were of the human variety – felons and bail jumpers. Sometimes, they even had a special guest or two to help them out.

Inquisitive senior citizens have long played a part in horror – From Olivia de Havilland’s shattered matriarch in The Screaming Lady to the overwhelmed & curious residents of the more recent Bingo Hell. Unsurprisingly, the quirkily divine Mildred Natwick was often found playing investigative elders. In the early ‘70s, she, along with the legendary Helen Hayes, was one of the crime solving The Snoop Sisters. Then in 1985, on the detective show Hardcastle & McCormick, she returned to that familiar territory. This time her co-star was the equally renowned Mary Martin, who joined her as one of the gruff Hardcastle’s (Brian Keith) aunts on the (unsurprisingly titled) Hardcastle, Hardcastle and McCormick episode. 

Ever quick to accuse an innocent gardener of burying bodies, May (Narwick) and Zora (Martin) have a hard time convincing their nephew and Mark McCormick, his ex-con ward (Daniel Hugh Kelly), that they have overheard a murder plot when wrapping up their stay with them. Forcing the reluctant Mark into action, they soon find the intended victim floating in his pool. Of course, this planned one shot kill hits a snag as the curious women uncover more and more and find themselves in the line of the murderer’s fire.

As expected, these seasoned pros – Natwick was nominated twice for a Tony Award while Martin won three – have great chemistry with Kelly, who nicely mixes exasperation and affection when dealing with the overreaching arms of their characters’ curiosity. The ladies, of course, eventually make it out of these dangerous circumstances alive, ending their visit on a note of humor. As both women leave, they affirm that Hardcastle’s promise to come stay with them soon is met on deaf ears – he is way too unpredictable and hard to control for a drawn-out vacation with them! Thus, as Martin’s last acting credit ends, one is filled with a true sense of fun if not artistic significance.

Horror Hall of Fame:

Most of Martin’s work was done on the stage while (series regular) Brian Keith made an appearance in a 1982 television film adaptation of John Saul’s Cry for the Strangers. Natwick, meanwhile, made many appearances on such classic genre anthology shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Evil Touch and Suspense. Kelly, whose major motion picture debut film was as the cuckolded husband in Cujo, also has multiple terror credits (The Monkey’s Paw, Devil May Call, Mischief Night).

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

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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!

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Jessica Simpson

Published July 5, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

I’ve always kind of dug Jessica Simpson. From the start, I liked her voice and look. Granted, her (decades ago) relationship with Nick Lachey may have been a bit publicly infantilizing, but I always admired that, in its aftermath, she seemed to come into her own and take control of her artistic narrative.

Then there is her acting career. While her contemporaries like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera made appearances on Will and Grace & The Voice, Simpson truly went the distance and put in a chilling appearance in The Collection episode of the Forrest Whitaker hosted The Twilight Zone reimagining in 2003. Here, as a child psychology student named Miranda Evans. Simpson learns, without a doubt, that Mattel is madness and that the seemingly sweetest little girls are never to be trusted.

Indeed, after being assigned by an agency to babysit the angelic Danielle (Ashley Edner), Evans/Simpson soon discovers that the child’s dolls have a life of their own. But, as the vengeful toys surround her, she ultimately learns that the danger she faces might be a bit more lifelike than she at first realized.

Nicely, acting-wise, Simpson resonates with the cinematic energy of multiple ’80s final girls and it would have been nice to see her do more horror-related projects. Perhaps, the future may find her playing the matriarch in a haunted house story or enacting the travails of a forensic expert turned novelist facing down a clan of serial killers. —- Now that would be the sweetest sin!

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

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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!

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Shark Bait Retro Village: Haunted by her Past

Published April 18, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

If you’re going to decimate an evil, mirror dwelling sorceress, its best to do it in a hot red teddy! Just ask Susan Lucci! After a weekend of tortured nightmares and heated bodily possession, in the 1987 made for television fright fest Haunted By Her Past (AKA Secret Passions), that is exactly how daytime drama’s most famous diva eradicates the evil spirited temptress that has been torturing her character’s fragile psyche.

The character in question here is the usually mousy Karen Beckett. After taking a detour on her anniversary weekend with her devoted husband (John James) and her best friends (Marcia Strassman, Robin Thomas), Beckett winds up at a tiny inn that soon seems to tie into her violent (yet previous unknown) history. Beguiled into a closed off room at the establishment, she is captivated not only by its furnishings, but by the evil Megan (Finola Hughes), who resides in the wooden looking glass that dominates the space.

As often happens in the course of these potboilers, the more Karen falls under her spell, the stronger Megan grows. In one of the film’s most ludicrously fun moments, a poor manual laborer is sent flying to his death merely by the reflected menace of this century’s dead wraith.

This project also nicely glances back at film’s golden age by featuring the indomitable Madeleine Sherwood as the town historian. Best known as Sister Woman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the veteran actress provides subtle nuances to this traditional role. As the provider of much needed backstory, she is a revelation of economic fun.

Horror buffs will also be happy to spot Page Fletcher as the cad who causes Megan’s downfall in the movie’s flashback sequences. Fletcher, of course, was the titular character in the terror anthology series The Hitchhiker. Interestingly, his first film appearance in the slasher semi-classic Humungous closely echoes his role here. There, in the opening moments, his character violates a young woman, ultimately helping to creating the havoc raising beast that serves as the film’s unstoppable backwoods killer.

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

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Margo

Published February 8, 2023 by biggayhorrorfan

I am forever diving into the cheap bins of LPs at my local record & thrift shops, searching for vinyl treasures to make their way into my ever-expanding collection. Try as I might to resist the lure of overwhelming my domicile with tuneful aluminum-based creations, I truthfully admit that I spend far too much time in these pursuits of rampant purchase. A couple of Sundays ago, with minutes to spare ‘til closing, I hit up the Brown Elephant in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago for some late afternoon perusing. There I found an old, old school Kapp recording of film & television star Eddie Albert & his singing companion, a glamorous creation named, singly, Margo. 

Low and behold, it turned out this was the very Margo who, starred with coquettish precision, in the moody Val Lewton produced horror The Leopard Man (1943). Further research revealed that Margo & Albert we’re married for decades. Albert’s continued fame, with projects ranging from comedy sensations like Green Acres and kiddie favorites like Escape to Witch Mountain, compared to Margo’s relative obscurity reveals an all to common tale of masculine privilege, though.  

Politically progressive, the couple both faced ostracism and backlash for their liberal viewpoints during the McCarthy era and often lost work because of it. A war record and his Caucasian background ultimately freed Albert from this witch-hunt, but the very feminine, very Mexican Margo never regained her momentum. She was relegated to sporadic television appearances, with a 1965 episode of Perry Mason marking her last acting credit. Albert’s career, meanwhile, continued for decades after that. 

Thankfully, we can still appreciate her magnetic presence in the well regarded Lewton film while gratefully acknowledging the sacrifices that this one of a kind woman made for truth & justice in society.

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

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