Diva

All posts tagged Diva

Unsung Heroines of Horror: Virginia Mayo

Published June 6, 2021 by biggayhorrorfan

Perhaps only rivalled, credit-wise, by Yvonne De Carlo, her luscious raven haired cinematic counterpart, the delicious Virginia Mayo spent the moonlight years of her career occupying space in a number of horror projects. Granted, with major roles in projects like Silent Scream, Cellar Dweller, American Gothic and Play Dead (along with her overpowering The Munsters cache), De Carlo was certainly the Queen Bee of the Former Technicolor Starlets set. But Mayo definitely gave her a run for her money. 

While the ’60s and ’70s found Mayo decorating such cinematic fare as Castle of Evil (1966) and Haunted (1977) (with 1990 cheapie Evil Spirits providing her employment during the VHS invasion), she is perhaps at her most effective (and eternally beautiful) as the sympathetic Carrie Crane in The Diary (1971), a second season episode of Rod Serling’s early ’70s spook show Night Gallery. As Crane, a faded, scandal plagued actress, Mayo radiates with a bruised and tender strength of purpose here. Digging her shiny yet well-trod heels into her scenes with Patty Duke’s venomous Holly Schaeffer, a gossip journalist who is out to destroy her, Mayo’s years in the Hollywood trenches are given a resourceful workout during the various character beats in this revenge fueled tale. 

Indeed, Crane’s gifting of a mysterious journal to Schaeffer soon sends that pesky muckracker into a gothic downward spiral full of death and despair – proving what many diva-worshipping fellas already know, that Mayo will forever be a prominent force in every style of cinema – terror fueled and otherwise.

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

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Hopelessly Devoted to: Patti LaBelle

Published January 1, 2021 by biggayhorrorfan

I have been binging the CW’s Supergirl lately. Now beginning Season Four, I think I am proficient enough in the world of otherworldly heroine-based antics to propose that if there truly were a magnificent extraterrestrial creature living among us in real time – it would most definitely be the divine Patti LaBelle.

From her electric ‘70s space age costuming to her otherworldly soprano accented vocalizing, she can even take such iconic performer identified songs like Somewhere Over the Rainbow and make them totally her own.

It’s also been rumored that countless hardcore rock ‘n roll mommas have bowed down and backed ass first out of grungy nightclubs upon hearing Labelle’s raucous Love Symphony piped over the jukebox.

Indeed, I’d place my money on Patti being the only diva that could cancel out the shitstorm of 2020 with one energetic, elastic note, ringing in 2021 with resounding, enthusiastic might.

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

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Style Icons of Horror: Kaye Stevens

Published August 8, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

Kaye Main

“Show any cheek and you’ll be back shoveling French fries!!” – Mrs. Kallender, Jaws 3

Whether opening for The Temptations or enacting a broken-hearted breakdown on Days of Our Lives, eclectic wonder Kaye Stevens always presented herself with passion and a grand sense of pizzazz.

Nicely, this scene stealer brought a little flair to the Jaws kingdom as well with her appearance in the highly anticipated, ‘80s personifying Jaws 3-D! As her Mrs. Kallender instructed some eager femme charges on how to conduct themselves as employees in this toothy version of Sea World, it seems like the producers took a liking to Stevens’ personal style. Flourishes of red abound in the production design, making Kaye’s bright locks a visual precursor for all that is to come in this aquatic, bloody celluloid nightmare.

In my (skin free) book, there can be no bigger compliment or sincere indication of Stevens’ immense visual (and otherwise) talents than that!

Kaye Mashup

Kaye leading the Jaws 3 color charge!

Until the next time, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Kaye Collage

Further evidence of Kaye bringing flair to soap operas, variety shows and album covers, worldwide!

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Brandy

Published August 2, 2020 by biggayhorrorfan

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Was there ever a greater ’90s female horror team-up than Brandy and Jennifer Love Hewitt in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a sequel that (in many books) out-slashed its predecessor?!? There was no way that any maniac, no matter how brilliantly twisted and calculating, would prevail with those two mini-divas on the scene.

Of course, long before ruling the screen, the singularly sensation-ed Brandy dominated the music charts with a series of top hits and bestselling albums.

Thankfully for aurally inclined cinema buffs, Brandy, who just dropped her latest LP Baby Mama, is still generating enough creativity to scare off the most ardent criminal at http://4everbrandy.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/foreverbrandy.

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

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Brandy-Norwood

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Lorna Luft

Published December 22, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Best known for her enthusiastic portrayal of Pink Lady Paulette in Grease 2 and for her famous lineage, Lorna Luft also joined the ranks of horror goddesses with her role in the Tales of the Darkside episode The Shrine.

The veteran of countless musical theater productions, Luft also knows her way around a torch song as evidenced by her take on The Music That Makes Me Dance:

Of course, New Wave enthusiasts are aware that she also backed up the likes of Debbie Harry, most notably on the popular Eat to the Beat track Slow Motion, and Hilly Michaels in the early ‘80s, making this performing dynamo a true delight in almost every entertainment medium imaginable.

https://www.facebook.com/LornaLuftOfficial/

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Barbara Stanwyck

Published September 8, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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One of the most distinctive and skilled of the golden age performers, Barbara Stanwyck excelled in dramas (Stella Dallas, My Reputation), gritty noir classics (Double Indemnity, The File on Thelma Jordan) and comedy (Ball of Fire, Christmas in Connecticut). Several of the films that she embraced with her throaty presence in the ‘40s and ‘50s, including the tautly melodramatic Two Mrs. Carrolls and the chilling Sorry, Wrong Number, also featured significant elements of the horror canon.

Nicely, she fully embraced the genre in such latter day projects as William Castle’s The Night Walker and ‘70s television films like A Touch of Evil and The House That Would Not Die (above).

As with many silver screen damsels with numerous credits, a percentage of her saucy, hardened characters sang. Occasionally, she was dubbed by more skilled vocalists. But with projects such as the fun and frisky Lady of Burlesque, her own whisky tones were allowed to sell the tune.

Nicely, https://www.barbara-stanwyck.com/, a fan created site, plays eternal homage to this one of a kind icon and golden throat nominee.

Lady of burlesque

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Cynthia Johnson and Ma

Published June 16, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

Cynthia Johnson Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer commands the outrageous horror fest Ma…and she gives upmost respect to an under sung diva of dance music in one fantastic sequence. With enthusiasm, Spencer accentuates a scene where the classic dance track Funky Town, performed by Lipps Inc, is playing.

While that song is practically legendary, the magnetic Cynthia Johnson, who sang the lead on all of the band’s songs on their first three recordings, is not nearly as visually present in people’s minds. Hopefully, Johnson, who has continued to perform as a vocalist and instrumentalist over the years, will be given renewed interest as Ma continues to dominate viewers with its sassy thrills.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Patsy Kensit

Published December 9, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

 

Patsy Kensit (20)

The magnetic Patsy Kensit burst upon the global consciousness with her pert maneuverings in Absolute Beginners. Her band Eighth Wonder also made a positive dent in the music charts around the same time.

Kensit, best known for her roles in action films like Lethal Weapon 2, definitely proved her lack of fear by appearing in such genre flicks as The Turn of the Screw, Full Eclipse and Hell’s Gate (AKA Bad Karma). An entrepreneur as well as an actress, Kensit’s website is www.patsykensit.com.

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

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Olivia de Haviland

Published November 18, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

 

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Filled with iconic musical numbers, the 1943 revue-style film Thank Your Lucky Stars is notable for showing the world a much sillier side to the usually regal and calmly gentile Olivia de Haviland. In the goofy The Dreamer, wherein this award winning performer is paired with George Tobias and the equally iconic Ida Lupino (Thriller, The Devil’s Rain, Food of the Gods), she so revels in the chance to be outrageous that the fact that her singing voice was dubbed by Lynn Martin doesn’t do anything to diminish her work here.

Haviland, who is still living a life of refinement and grace in England, nicely, lent her talents to such goth-tinged efforts as The Dark Mirror, in which she plays twins suspected of nefarious dealings, Lady in a Cage, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte and The Swarm, as well. These credits add irrefutable evidence to the fact that she is the one of the true queens of all genres of filmmaking prowess. Hail, hail!

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

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Hopelessly Devoted To: Julie Strain

Published August 11, 2018 by biggayhorrorfan

 

Julie Strain

It is hard to think of a cult figure that has been more impactful than the glorious Julie Strain. After a tragic equestrian accident, this 6’1” beauty transformed herself from a thin beauty into an Amazonian goddess. She then went on to conquer the worlds of late night cable and print media proving, behind a doubt, that we are all capable of doing anything when we put our minds to it. This hard won success, nicely, has made her a true inspiration to anyone who has felt slighted or ignored or misjudged…a true champion for the underdog and the unappreciated.

julie strain double impactComing on like Jane Russell for the midnight set, Strain has well over 100 movie credits including such mainstream fare as Out for Justice, Double Impact, Beverly Hills Cop 3 and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. While she eventually made her cultural mark as one of the boldest bad-asses in Andy and Arlene Sidaris’ series of beloved female charged action adventure projects, she has made many other notable appearances, as well. MCDUNTW EC002

For instance, only someone of Strain’s magnitude could effectively play a Lovecraftian creature…something she did to menacingly aerobatic effect in The Unnameable II.

This goddess with the raven tresses also proved to be quite lethal in the noir-esque Starstruck. Throwing off an aura of hypnotic destruction, she provided a slinky ambience to the hardboiled action here…and her watery fade-out provides the proceedings with a memorable aquatic twist.

Julie Strain StarstruckHer most amusing work, on the other hand, may have occurred in How to Make a Monster, a remake of a classic ‘50s monster fest, which allowed her to play an over-the-top, extremely demanding version of herself. Her committed and enthusiastic work in Delta Delta Die! also rates high on the humor scales, with Strain’s maniacal Marilyn Fitch stealing the show as she madly grinds up frat boys into meat soufflés.

Subtler and deeper work is nicely provided by this icon in Magus, one of her last acting roles. Playing the spiritually sensitive Madame Zelda, Strain connects with softness and concern, proving that her range, despite her comic book athleticism, is a wide one. This along with her enthusiastic love for her fans and often self-deprecating humor truly makes this celluloid exploitation goddess one for the ages.

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

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