WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Devil Girl From Mars 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.280 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.720 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And today 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.320 we're going to be taking a look at a nineteen 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:26.040 fifty four science fiction movie called Devil Girl from Mars, 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.120 a movie about people who are obsessed with liquor, who 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.240 in fact are in many cases even named after liquors, 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.440 and who are gather in a rural inn in Scotland 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.880 to be attacked by an evil Martian boss lady who 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:44.120 wants to kidnap and dominate Scottish men. Yes, that's right, 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.480 fans of Weird How Cinema may feel an inkling of 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.479 of a memory that this is in fact the second 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.040 movie we've done with this exact plot, the plot of 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.640 women from another planet within our Solar system are running 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.920 out of men and must come to Earth to steal 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.640 our precious earth hunks. Uh. The other one was the 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:10.080 lighthearted Mexican romantic musical horror comedy Ship of Monsters from 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.480 nineteen sixty and that one was such a delight I 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.320 still remember that so fondly. I think Devil Girl from 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.200 Mars is also a delight, but in a very different way. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:25.880 Ship of Monsters is uh is clever, spunky, charming, intentionally funny, 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.800 and made with this infectious sense of whimsy. Devil Girl 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.240 from Mars is the exact opposite. It is made hilarious 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.920 by virtue of its absurd self seriousness. Yeah. Yeah, this 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:43.320 is not a lighthearted musical romp uh that it's It's 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.800 still a lot of fun and has some great design 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:47.320 work in it, because that was one of the things 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.360 we loved about about about the Ship of Monsters has 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.400 some great monster designs, some great costumes, and we we 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.000 have we have some of that going on in Devil 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.400 Girl from Mars as well. But also there is no 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.800 character and Devil Girl from Mars like Lolo Gonzales and 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.120 Ship of Monsters you know, with the twinkle in his 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.400 eye and the funny songs and all that. No, this 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.680 is a movie mostly about men who are very serious 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.480 about staying on Earth. Yeah. And none of the male 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.800 performers are actually that interesting, either in their in their 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.120 careers or or in their performances here at least I 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.600 didn't find them so. But the but, but the female 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.880 performers are pretty great. Uh. The titular devil girl from Mars, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.880 I think is clearly the star of the show. My 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.840 initial reaction to this when I started watching it. I 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.320 got about twenty minutes in and I was like, I 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.520 don't know if this is all that great. Maybe this 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.160 movie is really going to be kind of a drag. 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.400 But then the moment the Martian shows up, the movie 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.840 kicks into high gear immediately. Yeah, I agree that that 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:49.760 you warned me about the first twenty minutes, and the 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.520 first twenty minutes of this film are indeed quite slow. Um, 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.400 and that are not all that fantastic. So um yeah, 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.560 so definitely know that going into the film. But we 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.800 mentioned Scottish, uh as much as anything is purely a 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.560 Scottish film, I guess this is kind of our first 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.240 Scottish film on Weird House Cinema, right, I can't think 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.760 of another one. And it's also it's not incidentally Scottish 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.760 is not just like made by Scott's. This is very 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.040 much set in Scotland, right right. I think you can 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.359 you can maybe get into the production credits and say like, well, 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:27.200 it's more basically a British production basically in production. But yeah, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.120 a lot of Scottish talent involved in this picture and 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.600 said in Scotland right. Uh. This film also has a 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.960 very interesting indirect role in the history of science fiction 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.960 literature because it was apparently an early point of inspiration, 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.400 a sort of anti inspiration, for the great science fiction 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.000 author Octavia Butler. I found a transcript of a talk 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.520 she delivered. It m I t in about the role 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.720 of media like movies and TV in the history of 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.880 sci fi um and she she goes over a bunch 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:05.640 of different topics in the speech, but one of the 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.880 first things she does is talk about seeing this movie 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.400 when she was a kid. So I want to read 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.080 her quote from the speech. She says, it's impossible to 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.800 begin to talk about myself in the media without going 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.160 back to how I wound up writing science fiction, and 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.640 that is by watching a terrible movie. The movie was 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.440 called Devil Girl from Mars, and I saw it when 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.599 I was about twelve years old, and it changed my life. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.320 It was one of those old nineteen fifties movies in 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.440 which the beautiful Martian woman arrives on Earth to announce 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.080 that all of the Martian men have died off and 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.279 there were a bunch of man hungry women up there 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.080 and the earthmen don't want to go. And as I 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.760 was watching this film, I had a series of revelations. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.400 The first was that geez, I can write a better 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.400 story than that, And then I thought, gee, anybody can 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.359 write a better story than that. And my third thought 0:04:55.480 --> 0:05:00.599 was the clincher, somebody got paid for writing that awful story. 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.919 So I was often writing, and a year later I 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.760 was busy submitting terrible pieces of fiction to innocent magazines. 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.760 I found this story so beautiful. Yeah, it's a that's fun. 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.479 I wasn't aware of this connection. And uh and and indeed, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.400 this is essentially I think one of the things that 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.200 I've always enjoyed about films of this nature. Not that 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.159 I mean there have been times where I've been inspired 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:27.800 to write something based on on on a on a 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.839 less than stellar plot in a film or something, but 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.000 more often than not, it's just like you're watching a film. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.920 There are spaces in it, spaces that yes that it's 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.920 not only like could this be improved, but what if 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.720 this world was improved? And so there there's this like 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.039 there's this film, there's this skeleton within the film, and 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.159 then you sort of apply the meat to that skeleton 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.680 with your own imagination, either in a in a product 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.040 based um creative endeavor, or just in the mindscape of 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.159 enjoying the film totally. I I have long been of 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.640 the opinion that if you're trying to study a creative 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.920 art you can learn just as much or even more 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.159 by studying bad examples of that art form as you 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.120 can from studying good examples. Like when you see the 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.480 bad Ones, it gives you a kind of analytical confidence. 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:21.840 You can understand how when when things aren't working. Now, 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.560 there's a lot that does work in this film, though 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.320 at least from a from a design standpoint. Uh As 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.200 we'll get into there's there's there's there's at least one 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.320 amazing costume, there's a there's some cool sets, there's a 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.839 there's a cool robot, and and there are some times 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.800 where there's a lot of technobabble, as we'll discuss. But occasionally, 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.200 as our alien visitor is talking about conditions back home 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.880 and laying down a little um world building, some of 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:49.880 it does, you know, kind of get you get at 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:51.840 least got my mind rolling. It's like, I wonder what 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.680 this this gender war was, Like? How did all the 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.240 Martian men die, you know, and you know that they're 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.320 not they're they're not feeling on all the details for you, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.599 but they're giving you, like a few visuals, some some 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.600 sites and sounds, some ideas, and then your brain kind 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.800 of sketches in the rest of it. And uh, and 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.800 that's that's something I always enjoy about a film like 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.000 this totally. I was actually I was tempted to start 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.720 asking genuinely interested questions about the War of the Sexes 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.440 that took place on Mars. I was like, well, where 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.240 they're like where they're like people on Mars who fell 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.720 in love and they were like traitors to their to 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:26.840 their side in the War of the Sexes? That I 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.040 don't know. Yeah, it raises a lot of questions you 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.400 probably shouldn't think too literally about at all. I know 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.600 that this isn't the only work of fiction to to 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.320 contemplate such a thing, so I guess, you know, metaphorically 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:43.040 at least it Uh, it's it's useful in um in fiction. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.920 You know that this plot differs somewhat from the premise 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:51.000 of Ship of Monsters and Ship of Monsters the Aliens 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.120 or one of the aliens. It comes from Venus and 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.680 the problem is that on Venus, the men all destroyed 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:02.080 each other with atomic wars. So so the men they 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.480 got nuclear weapons and they killed all the other men. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.600 So Venus has no men left, so it was an 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:12.240 intra sex dispute. The men killed each other on on Venus. 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.760 In this movie, it is that the women of Mars 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.800 went to war with the men of Mars and killed them. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.880 I don't know if that's significant anyway. Maybe not. Well, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:24.600 I guess she is supposed to have sort of a 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.200 black widow kind of vibe to her. In fact, there 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.440 is this part rather clumsily where one of the child 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.360 the child characters what's his name, Tommy, Tommy, Yes, Tommy's like, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.280 you were like that spider and that my dad sees 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.600 in the barn or something like that, you know, basically saying, oh, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.760 you're like a black widow spider, and it's kind of like, yeah, 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.880 that's yes, that's part of what they're going for with 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.880 the black costume, and you know this, and it's kind 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.320 of a trope and a stereotype of like a feminine 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.040 power in films like this. Yeah, I think the character 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.320 is written in a way that is supposed to strike 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.320 terror in the hearts of a nineteen fifties male in 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:01.959 the way that she is at least I think the 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.520 way she's supposed to be received is as like very 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:10.520 beautiful but also very like cold and rational and calculatingly evil. Yeah, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.120 and it's definitely portrayed in a way that is I 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.280 would say, um what sexually ahead of her time? Um 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:22.400 Like I was reading about this this film in um 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.600 in Michael Weldon's Sucotronic books that summarizes this, he writes, quote, 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.040 the alien herself is a real vision in boots, black tights, 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.880 padded shoulders cape and a shiny black skull cap. The 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:38.480 stuffy British males actually want to stay in England, which 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.040 is great, though not in England. They are in Scotland. 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.120 I guess a couple of them are from England and 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.040 stuck in Scotland and others are from Scotland. But whatever 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.280 the case. Yeah, they for some reason do not want 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.800 to return to Mars with her and become part of 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.560 like a captive earthling breeding program. Right. But then, I 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.880 mean I was also thinking this whole time. I was like, like, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.280 if they were excited to go, they would get to 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.680 Mars and they'd find out that their participation in the 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.840 breeding program involves being like hooked up in a tank 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.679 somewhere and having their brain removed or something. Um So, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:12.440 which would I think would have been fitting? That would 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.360 have been a nice um like. I don't know if 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.160 that would be a maybe be a nineties outer limits ending. Oh, 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.000 that would be a good twist if like the character 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.199 who goes as very like over eager young man um. 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.160 But I was thinking the other twist given that like 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.679 they didn't the Martians didn't realize Earth was gonna have 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.560 a thick atmosphere, so when they got here, you know, 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.880 they had trouble landing. It makes me think, well, what 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.000 if they get the Earthlings back to Mars and they 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.160 don't realize that Earthlings need to breathe oxygen, so as 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.080 soon as they get there, it's just suffocation. We gotta 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.360 go back for more. Now, I think we've already done 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.560 the elevator pitch, so maybe we can skip that. But 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.000 we've got to hear some trailer audio. All right, let's 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:55.920 do it. We saw this with our own eyes, and 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.360 object the like of which we had never seen before. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.360 A frightening, strange sheep descending from outer space with relentless putts. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.200 Where did it come from? And God? Did it want 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.680 to the Us? How I've ever seen before? Hellon? Would 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.559 you mean hello? Hello? It's like something from row flat 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:24.720 to do not try to follow me. You cannot get 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.280 help around it. Yes, I've drawn an invisible walls through 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.000 which no one may pass. Here is a news reporter 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.880 with a world shattering storm, a girl trying to escape 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.959 from her posts, the scientist trapped in spite of his knowledge. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:43.040 And here also is the barmaid hiding a murderers secret, 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.360 a murderer with a life already off it, and introducing 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.640 the devil girl from Mars herself. Got back on, fireful, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:12:18.560 get back, shoot one shoot alright, alright, sounds pretty good. 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:20.760 Let's see. So there are a bunch of places you 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.800 can watch this one. I think I just streamed it 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.360 on Amazon. Yeah, I I rented it through through Prime. 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.480 You can stream or buy it wherever you get your 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:30.679 digital movies. It also looks like you can stream it 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:36.400 um via film Movement uh flicks fling uh some other places. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:39.959 And I should also point out that there have been 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.600 some basic physical releases as well, but also Bridget and 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.079 Mary Joe covered it on riff tracks, so I haven't 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.040 actually experienced their riff of the film, but I've I've 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.720 very much enjoyed Bridget and Mary Joe's riffing in the past, 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:55.640 so I bet they do a good job with this one. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:57.920 There's a there's all, there's a lot of stuff to 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.960 to have fun with here. Yeah, I've got to watch 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.160 that now. All right, Well, let's get into the various humans, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.440 mostly Scottish humans, involved in the creation of this picture, alright. 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.160 Starting at the top, we have director David McDonald born 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.200 nineteen o four and died in nineteen eighty three, Scottish 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.920 born director who at one point worked under Cecil B. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.120 De Mill in the US as a production assistant. This 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.199 would have been like the late nineteen twenties and I 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:30.200 guess early thirties, uh, basically an apprenticeship. Before returning back 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.720 to the UK. He worked with the Crown Film Unit 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.160 during World War Two to produce morale boosting pictures. And 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.480 I've seen this film referred to as a career low point. Uh. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.960 And certainly he seems to have maybe been more successful 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.920 during his lifetime with various other film and TV projects, 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.559 most of which I'm not familiar with. I don't think 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.480 he did much in the way of sci fi or 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.679 horror outside of this film. For instance, his most noteworthy 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.600 films seem to have been ninety seven, The Brothers, ninety eight, 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:05.480 Christopher Columbus in the nine seven Swashbuckler, The Moonraker, The Moonraker. Yeah, no, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.560 no connection or at least um, I don't know. Maybe 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.000 maybe Moonraker has something to do with the plot of 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.000 this fifty seven Swashbuckler. I'm not sure. So when I 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.439 was watching the credits for this movie, one of the 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.040 weirdest things I noticed was the credit indicating that this 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.240 is somehow based on a play for the stage. Yeah, 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.440 this was weird. This was it was similar to something 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.320 we encountered with Dr X. Right, yeah, but in this one. Yeah, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.040 you you have the credit that reads, uh like the 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.960 credit for a play based on the play by John C. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.840 Mather and James Eastwood. And then James Eastwood also has 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.160 a screenplay credit, which, because at first one I was 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.160 looking at just how it was listed on IMDb, I 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.840 was like, well, maybe they say play, but they mean screenplay. No, 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.479 it seems more more clear that this was a play. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.920 And then it was adapted into a screenplay. Okay, yeah, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.880 I don't know. This is Matther's only film credit. Eastwood 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.000 also worked on the screenplay for such films as nineteen 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.200 fifty five The Case of the Red Monkey in nineteen 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.720 fifty six is Beyond Mombassa, which has Christopher Lee in 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.960 it and the young Christopher Lee. But it started seemingly 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.760 mostly just a shirtless Cornell Wild and then also Donna Reed. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.840 Oh but let's not bury the lead. If there is 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.120 one reason to watch this movie, it is our villain 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:29.360 played by Patricia Lafawn. That's right, she plays Naya. This 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:36.320 is our martian visitor. Lafon lived nineteen nineteen through And yeah, this, uh, 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.600 this is a this is a really fun role of 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.800 our vamping space lord here. And it's fitting because her 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.120 biggest film role outside of this, uh and I guess, 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.400 probably being fair, probably her biggest screen role period was 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:53.200 playing Imparius Pompeia in MGM Sword and Sandal blockbuster Quo 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.080 Vadis from nineteen fifty one. That was a film that 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.600 had Robert Taylor, uh Peter Houston off in it, and 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.880 also an uncredited role as a chariot driver. We have 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.120 Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee is just in the background, creeping around, 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.720 uncredited with a goatee and sometimes credited in one number 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.680 of pictures from this era. Uh, this movie. I don't 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.560 know if it's primarily about Nero, but it's Nero is 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.160 a major character in an Emperor Nero And I think 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.040 she plays a Queen of Rome. Is that right? Oh, yes, 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.840 she's queenly. You can look up footage and stills from it. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.000 She's in that. She's decked out in gold and its 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.320 elaborate hair do. Uh. And but she has that let 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.880 look on her face. She's got that smirk and those eyes. 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:37.680 And I do have to say, like, if you look 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:40.040 up images from Devil Girl from Mars, there are probably 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:44.680 any of her performances. Yes, uh, stunning outfit, stunning screen presence, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.280 but you're missing it. You're missing out on all the 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.360 nuances if you don't see her alive in the scene. 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.160 Because her her sneer has a life all its own. 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:58.240 She's using her her eyebrows in very expressive ways. It's 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:01.400 a it's it's a wonderful performance. Yeah, I mean in 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.040 some ways you would say it's in a it's a 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.439 very emotionally flat performance, like she's supposed to play like 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:11.399 a very like unfeeling like a cold, imperious, unfeeling creature. 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.280 But she is very expressive in like the way she 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:19.080 raises her eyebrows at the pathetic attempts at heroism by 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.280 earth men. Yeah, it's kind of like sometimes you hear 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.439 a criticism of a villain roll and say, well, this 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.920 is a real mustache twirling villain roll, meaning that yes, 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:31.760 it's leaning into a whole bunch of stereotypes and and 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.960 tropes for regarding you know, the particular classic cinematic villain 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.800 and this over the top evil. Yeah. Yeah, and this 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.480 is very much similar case. But the thing is when 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.800 a mustache is is twirl just right on screen, Um, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.480 it's it's satisfying. So this is definitely a performance that satisfies. Yes, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.840 this is a pencil thin, eyebrow twirling role. Yes. So. 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.680 Lafon also appeared in twenty three Paces to Baker Street 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.600 in fifty six that had And Johnson and Estelle Winwood 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.840 in it. She was an actor of stage and screen, 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.280 and she also seems to have had some connections to 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.520 the London, Paris, New York fashion world. I love her 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.719 every time she she It's like, um, you know, it's 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.320 like Pucci. It's like every time Naya was not on screen, 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.520 character should be asking where is Naya? When is she 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:24.360 coming back? I felt the same way. Yeah, alright, I'm 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.560 gonna mention some of these male performers, though again they're 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.840 the least interesting part about the film. For the most part. 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.320 You have Hugh McDermott playing Michael, a journalist. Uh this 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.240 actor who of nineteen o six seventy two, Scottish actor 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.159 also known for Pimpernell's Smith from forty one and The 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.440 Flying Swan from Not familiar with either of those pictures. 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.639 He plays a loudmouth journalist who I think is supposed 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.360 to be likable, but he is not. He comes off 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:56.320 as an absolutely insufferable jerk. Yeah. But hey, now we 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.680 have another of the female players in this film, and 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.240 so it's a really good one. We have Hazel Court 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.960 playing Ellen, a fashion model. You know, I haven't introduced 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.359 this concept yet, but the beginning of this movie is 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.760 sort of like the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, where 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.880 it's just a gathering of all of these randos into 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.920 an inn somewhere and finding out all about like, why 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.200 is this person here? Oh, it's a surprise that they 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.280 showed up and she she is also like sort of 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.280 an odd puzzle piece amongst all the others here. She's 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.320 like a a a fancy London fashion model who's all 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.000 glitz and glam. She drinks tomato juice notably, and people 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.560 repeatedly point this out throughout the movie. In fact, I 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.800 think they even refer to her sometimes as tomato juice girl. 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.919 And I think she's meant to be taken in in 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.040 the situation of the film. Is sort of a gym 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.240 amongst the rough pebbles. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's a 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.240 it's a it's a fun it's a fun performance. I 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.399 feel like she she brings a lot of life and 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.679 character into this into this role, um probably more than 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.399 was necessary, and also in a way that lets you, 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.240 it gives you a hint of what's to come, because 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.439 uh British actor here, but also essentially a horror queen 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.040 of the late fifties early sixties. She'd go on to 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:16.520 become a star of Hammer horror films, and she also 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.720 worked with the likes of Roger Corman. Her credits include 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.439 the Curse of Frankenstein, from seven, The Mask of the 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.240 Red Death from sixty four, The Man Who Could Cheat 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:29.199 Death in ninety nine, Dr Blood's Coffin in sixty one 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.760 and also ninety three is the Raven. On TV, she 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.919 appeared on both The Twilight Zone and Thriller, and I 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.119 suspect we'll discuss her once again in an upcoming Halloween 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.879 selection for Weird House Cinema. Her final film was The 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.040 Final Conflict, and which she had basically a cameo. But 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.560 this was the This was the OMEN picture that had 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.800 Sam Neil playing a grown up Damien. Oh, okay, it's 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.840 called The Final Conflict, but it's all it's the OMEN three, right, 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.120 It's like the OMEN three colon the Final Conflict. Yeah, 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:01.120 or sometimes I think it's just called The Final Conflict. 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.760 I don't know. You're right, Yeah, it's both. I think 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.679 the demonic Sam Neil becomes President of the United States, 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:08.560 I think something like that. I don't. I don't think 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.000 I ever saw that, and I think I only saw 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.040 the first one. Yeah, all right, but but she's not 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.879 the only exciting of female presence in the picture. We 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:21.359 also have Adrian Corey, who plays Doris, a barmaid. Uh So, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.080 Corey lived through two thousand and sixteen. Scottish born actor 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:27.960 known for her roles, probably best known for roles in 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.840 Doctor Shivago and A Clockwork Orange, along with such films 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:35.159 as nineteen sixty five A Study in Terror. This is 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.919 a film that had John Neville as Sherlock Holmes taking 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.439 on Jack the Ripper. And then she's also in a 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:43.760 film that I know you've you've seen, but but I haven't. 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.399 I remember you talking about this Mad House starring Vincent 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.800 Price and Peter Cushen. Looking this up, I don't know 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.760 have I seen this? Maybe you haven't seen it. Maybe, 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.240 but if I said I've seen it, I don't remember 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.880 seeing it now, Okay, well maybe maybe we just will 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:05.720 see it in the future at some point. But Corey 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.240 was also in the fun Hammer Space Romp Moon zero 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.600 two from in a film from seventy two called Vampire 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.399 Circus that I don't know much about, but with a 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.199 title like Vampire Circus, you know there's got to be 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.160 something interesting in there. I would say that both Hazel 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:24.800 Court and Adrian Corey do more with the roles they 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.320 have in this movie than is actually there on the page. Right, Yeah, 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.440 they both like clearly these are these are two actors 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.920 who would go on to have much bigger roles and 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.679 bigger pictures, and you can see why. Oh you know, 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.639