Ruthless – Two Genre Credits of Ruth Gordon

Published March 29, 2024 by biggayhorrorfan

The people I really want to meet at conventions are often long gone. Here and there, someone like Shirley Jones or Russ Tamblyn will pop up at a show, but the magic of old Hollywood is often only present in a secondhand way. This does have its certain charms, though. Last weekend, for example, I was able to ask two celebrity attendees at Days of the Dead in Chicago about their experiences working with legendary actress-writer Ruth Gordon.

“I don’t think she liked kids.” – OR, Don’t Go to Sleep

Oliver Robins, there to highlight his work as Robbie in the Poltergeist films, appeared with Gordon in Don’t Go to Sleep (1982), often described as one of the creepiest television films of all time. In keeping with her role, a wizened mother-in-law mourning the loss of her favored grandchild, Robins recalls that the celebrated performer kept to herself, arriving on set to only do the one or two takes needed to get her scenes with him completed. Age, Robins reasons, surely paid a part in this professional curtness, as well.

Despite that un-familial remoteness, Gordon, beloved for her Academy Award winning work in Rosemary’s Baby, turns in a complex performance in the project. Her scenes with Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver, her adult co-stars, ring with the layered sadness and regret of Bernice, her character in this ghostly piece. In particular, she and Weaver go forehead-to-forehead in an emotional confrontation at the film’s mid-point. Each blame the other for the death of their beloved Jennifer, the specter haunting the proceedings, both emotionally…and, seemingly, physically. Ned Wynn’s script is often brutal, killing off core characters imaginatively and ever the trooper, Gordon even finds herself looking down the beady eyes of a mischievously placed iguana named Ed.

As an aside, Robins did have a wonderful memory of the connection that Steven Spielberg and Weaver had due to their work on Duel, another seminal television horror project. Spielberg sent a note to Weaver on the DGTS set urging him to “Be nice to Oliver!”

“She thought I was her assistant.” – CS, Voyage of the Rock Aliens

Craig Sheffer, booked to celebrate his work with Clive Barker in Nightbreed, appeared with the pint-sized super star in the bizarre, early ’80s musical Voyage of the Rock Aliens. The first day that they met, she asked him to go get the shoes that she needed for the upcoming scene…and then continued to have him run errands for her throughout the shoot. Sheffer found the whole experience amusing, though. Hell, if you’re going to be a go-fer, it might as well be for a charismatic character actress of certain renown.

Gordon, who invested her full energy into Voyage‘s diminutive conspiracy-believing sheriff, also appeared in such genre projects as Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, Isn’t It Shocking? and Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? throughout the years. Outside of her work in Rosemary’s Baby and Harold and Maude, the cult film that endeared her to a generation of film buffs, her most prominent artistic achievements occurred with her playwright husband Garson Kanin. Their scripts for Pat & Mike and Adam’s Rib gave Katherine Hepburn, whose many against the grain characterizations provided the prototype for a host of scattered, nervous lasses in horror, two of her most noteworthy mid-career roles.

Viva la Gordon…and thanks for the memories, guys!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Unsung Heroines of Horror: Patsy Kelly

Published July 4, 2021 by biggayhorrorfan

Her teaming with the stunningly tragic Thelma Todd in a series of comedy shorts in the ’30s brought the zaftig Patsy Kelly fame and critical renown for her clowning abilities. But by the ’40s, her career had dried up. Hollywood was not ready to accept Kelly’s refusal to hide her lesbianism or to even downplay her preferences to the masses.

Unfortunately, this proud, unwavering stance forced her to live through some lean years. A friendship with the iconic Tallulah Bankhead (Die, Die, My Darling) carried her through the ’50s and ’60s. (Kelly worked both as a real life and on stage companion to that mercurial talent.) Thankfully, by the early ’70s (with many of the Tinsel Town executives who shunned her either forgotten or dead), Kelly found latter day success in a number of Broadway vehicles. These turns eventually found her gainful employment – of all places – in two Disney flicks, including Freaky Friday (with future notable Sapphic, Jodie Foster).

Thankfully, in 1968, this unforgettable performer (who also provided ample buffoonery to 1939’s The Gorilla with Bela Lugosi), also made a pit stop in Classic Terror Town with her affably odd performance of Laura-Louise in Rosemary’s Baby. Playing a character who is overly devoted to Rosemary’s demonic offspring, Kelly resonates most in her final moments of the film. But any time she is onscreen here, particularly when she is sharing space with fellow golden oldie Ruth Gordon, is a fine one – making this often overlooked entertainer, a true unsung heroine of horror!

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan

Retro Shark Bait Village: Isn’t It Shocking? (1973)

Published July 23, 2014 by biggayhorrorfan

The disgruntled, time biding killers of slasher classics like Prom Night and Terror Train have nothing on the very creepy, incredibly patient Justin Oates of 1973 telefilm Isn’t It Shocking? 45 years after his then girlfriend humiliated him during a naked tumble with another gent, Oates returns to his small home town to enact his revenge – using a jacked out defibrillator that causes quite a jolt!

As enacted by veteran tough guy Edmund O’Brien (DOA, The Killers), Oates is a sweaty, candy inhaling freak. O’Brien’s commitment to this odd creature, ultimately, helps secure Oates’ place as one of the more notable villains of the small screen’s golden age of TV movies.

Working with quaint and quirky charm, director John Badham (Dracula, Blue Thunder) ekes pleasantly effective performances from his entire cast, though. Granted, many of the feature’s older generation end up on the cold end of a slab. But as the beleaguered and bewildered sheriff, Alan Alda cuts a completely sympathetic figure and he blends effortlessly with the perkily unusual energy of Louise Lasser, playing his efficient, crime solving secretary.

Ruth Gordon as the saucy Marge, the last name on the madman’s list, supplies the expected zesty fabulousness, but true pleasures are, also, derived from Dorothy Tristan (Suspended Animation) and Will Geer as a daughter-father doctor team who help Alda and Lasser solve the case. These two are so unexpectedly enjoyable that they almost steal the show from the rest of the very, very fine cast.

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

http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan