Saturday Scream Queen: Adrienne Barbeau

Born in 1945, Adrienne Barbeau began her show-business career as a go-go dancer in a mafia-operated club in New York City, but by 1968, she had broken into Broadway theater and left exotic dancing behind. In 1978, she starred in her first collaboration with her future husband writer/director John Carpenter, and their association led to her most famous roles in "The Fog" and "Escape From New York", roles that Carpenter conceived with Barbeau in mind.

Although she is best known for her horror roles, those types of movies actually make up a very small part of her far-ranging acting resume, with the number of recurring roles she's had on television series (staring with "Maud" in the 1970s and continuing through to this very day with her regular role on "General Hospital). Not even one-tenth of her 100+ acting and voice-over parts have been horror roles, but she still makes the top of many "scream queen" lists. And Barbeau continues to return to the horror genre every so often, as evidenced by the 2007 chiller "Unholy" and her rumored involvement with the upcoming film "Manson Rising".

Countdown to Halloween with Vampirella

It's coming in October.... so don't say you weren't warned!

By Joe Chiodo

Saturday Scream Queen: Suzy Kendall

British blond Suzy Kendall had her heart set on being a clothing designer, but her exceptional beauty caused photographers and other designers to continually urge her to go into modeling. She made an initial half-hearted attempt in that field and found herself, to her surprise, in instant and constant demand. This led to movie roles, and, despite not having any formal training as an actress, she enjoyed a thriving movie career starting with "The Liquidator" in 1965 and ending in 1977 when she decided she'd had enough of the profession her heart was never fully in. She retired from show-business to focus on her family.

Kendall appeared in 25 films, with roughly half of them being European horror films. Horror highlights include Dario Argento's directorial debut "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "In the Devil's Garden", "Tales That Witness Madness", "Spazmo", and "Craze".

Dario Argento's first film is one of his best films

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (aka "The Gallery Murders" and "The Phantom Terror") (1970)
Starring: Tony Musante, Enrico Maria Salerno, Suzi Kendall, Eva Renzi, Renato Romano, and Umberto Raho
Director: Dario Argento
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

On the eve of returning home to the United States, an American writer in Rome (Mustante) witnesses a brutal attack on a young woman in a gallery (Renzi). The authorities insist he remain in Rome until they clear him as a possible suspect, as they believe the attack and in the meantime, he starts his own investigation. He witnessed the attack, but he feels there was something off with what he saw, but he just can't put his finger on what it was. Meanwhile, the serial killer continues to target young women, seemingly completely at random, and the writer and his beautiful girlfriend (Kendall) end up targeted for death as well.

"The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" was Dario Argento's first film as a director, and I think it is one of his most solid efforts. In fact, it is so solid that I had an even harder time deciding whether my write-up belongs here or with the Argento mystery films over at Watching the Detectives.

This film is, in many ways, a less bloody, more coherent version of "Deep Red," another of Argento's better efforts. Maybe of the same psychological themes are present in this one, including the one where the main character needs to recall something he saw at the scene of a violent crime but that didn't really register with his conscious mind. The conspiracies surrounding the murderer are also similar to one another, and both films "play fair" with the viewer insofar as the surprise twists and the "big reveal" of the killer's identity in both films is set up as the film progresses and the clues that lead to the solution are evident in retrospect. And while "Bird" and "Deep Red" both have characters behaving in unrealistic and stupid ways either for plot convenience or reasons that are only understood to Dario Argento, this film at least doesn't have gaping plot holes that he's trying pass off as red herrings.

More clearly showing Argento's debt to Alfred Hitchcock and Mario Bava than any of the films he made later (including his supposed tribute to Hitchcock that's more a love note to Argento himself in many ways), but also clearly a film coming from his own vision and sensibilities, it's a film that draws its tension as much from what you don't see as what you do see... there are sprays of blood but no outright gore, throats are cut but it happens off scene, and the pictures that will form in your imagination are far more horrible than what appears on screen. Its the intensity generated by the "less is more" approach in this film that caused me place it among his horror films instead of his mystery films.

That's not to say that there aren't great moments that Argento creates as well. The scene where our hero is locked between two automatic glass doors and has to watch helplessly as a knifed woman bleeds all over the floor of an art gallery; the sequence where he chased by an assassin through the deserted back streets of night-time Rome until he reaches a crowded area and then starts stalking the assassin; and some of the visual flourishes involving characters in pitch darkness silhouetted against a single source of sharp light, spring to mind as some of the most effective bits of filmmaking I've seen in any Argento picture.

Argento's "Susperia" had been presented to me as the best of his films. "Deep Red" had also been praised highly and come recommended by people I usually trust. However, I found both films to be deeply flawed, despite their admitted strong visual appeals, and after the more recent garbage he's made--"The Card Player" and "Do You Like Hitchcock?"--I was ready to give up on him completely. Then someone recommended I at least watch "Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and "Cat of Nine Tails" before turning my back on his work... and I'm glad I listened. Although not perfect, they are the best efforts I've seen from Argento yet. (And "Cat o' Nine Tails" will be get a write-up at Watching the Detectives eventually.)

I don't know what went wrong with Dario Argento as far as his skills as a filmmaker go, but he seems to have declined rather than get better as the years went by. Maybe his early films were as good as they are because he had to push himself to be the very best he could possible be, but that he got lazy once he was established and started to coast on his reputation. I wonder if that is what puts him apart from truly great filmmakers that he is compared to... they kept breaking their backs to deliver the best work possible even after they could coast on name value alone?

Saturday Scream Queen: Maryam d'Abo

Maryam d'Abo is one of the many actresses with a long career behind her, but for whom full-fledged stardom has been elusive. With more than 40 television shows and movies to her name, made over three busy decades, hers is still a face that all but the biggest fans of horror films and thrillers from the 1980s and 1990s will have a hard time placing.

A European actress (born in London, but raised in Paris and Geneva by parents who were of Dutch and Croatian extraction), d'Abo got her start playing the ill-fated, over-sexed babysitter in the goopy sci-fi horror flick "Xtro," and her wide ranging and varied resume sports numerous genre flicks and television shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including a lead role on the short-lived series "Something Is Out There," and starring turns in horror films like "Night Life", "Immortal Sins", "Stalked", and "Double Obsession".

D'Abo is, however, perhaps best known for playing Kara, the Russian cello-playing Russian spy in the James Bond flick "The Living Daylights". She used that connection for a flirtation with writing and producing that brought the 2002 documentary film "Bond Girls Are Forever", which explores the connotations of being a Bond Girl and the impact it has on actresses' careers, into being. She has since returned to acting full-time, and in recent years has appeared in horror films "Trespassing" (2004) and "Dorian Gray" (2009).

Saturday Scream Queen: Maryam d'Abo

Maryam d'Abo is one of the many actresses with a long career behind her, but for whom full-fledged stardom has been elusive. With more than 40 television shows and movies to her name, made over three busy decades, hers is still a face that all but the biggest fans of horror films and thrillers from the 1980s and 1990s will have a hard time placing.

A European actress (born in London, but raised in Paris and Geneva by parents who were of Dutch and Croatian extraction), d'Abo got her start playing the ill-fated, over-sexed babysitter in the goopy sci-fi horror flick "Xtro," and her wide ranging and varied resume sports numerous genre flicks and television shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including a lead role on the short-lived series "Something Is Out There," and starring turns in horror films like "Night Life", "Immortal Sins", "Stalked", and "Double Obsession".

D'Abo is, however, perhaps best known for playing Kara, the Russian cello-playing Russian spy in the James Bond flick "The Living Daylights". She used that connection for a flirtation with writing and producing that brought the 2002 documentary film "Bond Girls Are Forever", which explores the connotations of being a Bond Girl and the impact it has on actresses' careers, into being. She has since returned to acting full-time, and in recent years has appeared in horror films "Trespassing" (2004) and "Dorian Gray" (2009).

Ginger Rogers Double-Feature Fright Fest!

Everyone one knows Ginger Rogers for doing what Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels, but did you know that, early in her career, she starred in a couple of horror films, one of which holds up rather well, despite nearly 80 years having passed since it was released?

(Well, if you're a regular reader, you probably did, because you read her Saturday Scream Queen profile back in July... but here are the details on the movies themselves.)


The Thirteenth Guest (aka "Lady Beware") (1932)
Starring: Lyle Talbot, Ginger Rogers, and J. Farrell MacDonald
Director: Albert Ray
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When Marie (Rogers), the young heiress to the Morgan fortune, is found mysteriously electrocuted in the family manor that has remained sealed since her father died during a dinner party 13 years prior, Police Captain Ryan (MacDonald) calls upon the assistance of playboy criminologist Phil Winston (Talbot) to help solve the baffling murder. Before Winston can even begin to investigate, the mystery takes an even stranger turn: The dead girl turns up alive and in police custody for car theft... and soon there's a second dead body at the old Morgan place.

"The Thirteenth Guest" is a pretty good little mystery movie for most of its running time. The three lead actors all give decent performances that are in line with what is to be expected from one of these "who-dunnit in the dark, old house" mysteries, and the murderer had a fairly clever set-up with which to commit the murder. There are also just enough plausible suspects and clever plot-twists make it real mystery film.

Unfortunately, for every clever twist there's a plot logic-hole that a truck could be driven through. Equally unfortunate is the presence of a truly lame comic relief character. And I won't even dignify the idiotic mask and cape they have the murderer prance around in with comment. (Hang on... did I just comment on the idiotic mask and cape? Curses!)

The good parts outweigh the bad parts--but only barely--in "The Thirteenth Guest." It's not a film I recommend you rush out to find a copy of, but if you're looking around for a little something to round out a "home film-festival" selection of mystery movies, this might be what you're looking for. Just don't make it the main attraction.


A Shriek in the Night (1933)
Starring: Ginger Rogers, Lyle Talbot, Purnell Pratt, Harvel Clark, Lillian Harmer, Louise Beaver, and Arthur Hoyt
Director: Albert Ray
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A series of murders take place in an upscale apartment building, and reporters Pat Morgan (Rogers) and Ted Kord (Talbot)--working for rival newspapers but involved in a romantic relationship--are hot on the trail of the killer, or killers. Morgan happened to be working on an investigative piece about one of the victims, so she is in a perfect place to help both her career and the police... so long as she doesn't end up a murder victim herself.



"A Shriek in the Night" is, for the most part, a fairly typical early 1930s low-budget mystery, with dimwitted maids, cranky police detectives (although in this one the detective is not incompetent, just cranky), and wise-cracking reporters running circles around everyone and ultimately providing the clues needed to solve the mystery. The acting is above average here, and the characterizations of the two reporters and the police detective are also a bit more intelligent and three-dimensional than is often the case in these movies. (The comic relief maids are still as annoying as ever; if this is what American-born house-servants were like, it's no wonder we took to importing illegal aliens to turn down our beds and clean our homes!)

What really sets the film apart from others like it is its villain, and a surprisingly chilling sequence where he prepares to burn Pat Morgan alive. This character feels in many ways like an ancestor to the mad killers who came into vogue during the 1970s, and which continue to slash, strangle, and mutilate their way across the movie screen to this very day.

Another thing I found interesting in this film is how different Ginger Rogers' character was from the one she played a year earlier in "The Thirteenth Guest".

Many actors and actresses that appeared in these B-movies gave pretty much the same performance in movie after movie--for instance, there's very little difference between the smart-ass character Lyle Talbot plays here and the one he played in "The Thirteenth Guest." I haven't seen enough of Rogers' performances to really know why there is this difference--was she lucky enough to have a chance to show different facets of her acting ability, or did she make each part she played different somehow?--but it was an unexpected surprise.

Those of you out there with more than just a passing interest in suspense and horror movies may want to check this film out for its very modern, proto-"maniac killer" character/sequence. Those of you who just enjoy this style of movies--mysteries that get solved by wise-cracking reporters who take nothing seriously--should also check it out. It's a fun way to spend an hour.

Saturday Scream Queen: Faith Domergue

Born in 1923, Faith Domergue's acting career was one that almost ever happened. In 1939, just after graduating from high school, she was involved in a car accident and was severely disfigured by being thrown into the windshield. She underwent a painful year-and-a-half worth of plastic surgeries, and emerged with looks and grace that captured the interest of billionaire industrialist and movie mogul Howard Hughes, and he had her signed to a contract.

Hughes' RKO studio spent a great deal of money and resources trying to make Domergue a star, but all three big budget pictures they featured her in were busts at the box office. Dropped by RKO, Domergue became a freelancer, accepting roles from a variety of studios, appearing in westerns and crime dramas... and eventually in the string of horror and sci-fi movies for which she is during the late 1950s.

Most notable of her horror flicks from this period are "Cult of the Cobra" and "It Came From Beneath the Sea".

During the 1960s, Domergue turned to television, appearing on several top-rated series while squeezing in a couple of sci-fi movies along the way.

During the early 1970s, Domergue returned to horror film with starring turns in "Legacy of Blood" in 1971 and "So Evil, My Sister" and "The House of Seven Corpses" in 1974. Those would prove to be her final screen appearances, as she retired from acting soon thereafter.

Domergue died in 1999 from cancer.

Saturday Scream Queen: Faith Domergue

Born in 1923, Faith Domergue's acting career was one that almost ever happened. In 1939, just after graduating from high school, she was involved in a car accident and was severely disfigured by being thrown into the windshield. She underwent a painful year-and-a-half worth of plastic surgeries, and emerged with looks and grace that captured the interest of billionaire industrialist and movie mogul Howard Hughes, and he had her signed to a contract.

Hughes' RKO studio spent a great deal of money and resources trying to make Domergue a star, but all three big budget pictures they featured her in were busts at the box office. Dropped by RKO, Domergue became a freelancer, accepting roles from a variety of studios, appearing in westerns and crime dramas... and eventually in the string of horror and sci-fi movies for which she is during the late 1950s.

Most notable of her horror flicks from this period are "Cult of the Cobra" and "It Came From Beneath the Sea".

During the 1960s, Domergue turned to television, appearing on several top-rated series while squeezing in a couple of sci-fi movies along the way.

During the early 1970s, Domergue returned to horror film with starring turns in "Legacy of Blood" in 1971 and "So Evil, My Sister" and "The House of Seven Corpses" in 1974. Those would prove to be her final screen appearances, as she retired from acting soon thereafter.

Domergue died in 1999 from cancer.