GILLIAN HILLS STARRING IN HAMMER'S 'DEMONS OF THE MIND'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOh2BmxoIF6dnAzQqePCMDqGHe3BuqpJMrpA6WLA0Vqxus3ND8OiopDHtdQrAJp6FamyG6j9SL7Ywq3kYa26IJGKzGF8-f6z25FvfWxf9NgNB6k5Mj-ES4F7ypnmmKI39bWmBqQAtrXODT/s1785/2.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="1785" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOh2BmxoIF6dnAzQqePCMDqGHe3BuqpJMrpA6WLA0Vqxus3ND8OiopDHtdQrAJp6FamyG6j9SL7Ywq3kYa26IJGKzGF8-f6z25FvfWxf9NgNB6k5Mj-ES4F7ypnmmKI39bWmBqQAtrXODT/w400-h308/2.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gillian Hills in Demons of the Mind Year: 1972 Rates: **</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It was inevitable to become a disappointing spooky-titled horror flick since DEMONS OF THE MIND means that there are none... </p><p>No demons, and for one of Hammer's last psychological thrillers, no monsters at all, unless you count a young man slaying young ladies along the countryside, not far from a Gothic castle where a manipulative father attempts keeping his children locked up, believing they're cursed...</p><p></p><p>Hammer wanted James Mason in this patriarchal role, and it would have made a huge difference since Robert Hardy seems too young and lacks magnetism in controlling his bed-ridden daughter Gillian Hills <i>and</i> especially the beastly son, who share an incestual lust between killings... </p><p>Random violence which there needed <i>much more of</i> to counter nowhere subplots and ultimately wasted side-characters (like nice guy med-student Paul Jones and his mad scientist mentor Patrick Magee), who take time away from Hills' victimized ingenue, a Hammer scream queen with very little to scream about: Damn shame since she alone, with such intense, bewildered beauty, had the most potential to really <i>possess</i> this thing!</p><span></span>

body count, gillian hills, gothic, hammer films, horror, patrick magee, peter sykes, seventies, shane briant, thriller, virginia wetherell

GILLIAN HILLS STARRING IN HAMMER'S 'DEMONS OF THE MIND'

Gillian Hills in Demons of the Mind Year: 1972 Rates: ** It was inevitable to become a disappointing spooky-titled horror flick since DEMONS...

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

<p><i></i></p><p><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Ht7i0jx_YhA4WjMrsLH8DDb667ZYxCINhZ8U9W0tPmkmdmtzi2N684-msfVa-h9_rl8CQOaaYdBS-ihLu1eclAMO1TGqn4qz7fGnbscyrTxUkUHOxNzC3RHrmusJFrTy4C9rYko_XXaC2LdROdCrAIqqY_NiCAWR3_MmSfc2VYy9Pfos_DtmwHZJIWE/s2100/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-13%20at%2011.12.26%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="2100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Ht7i0jx_YhA4WjMrsLH8DDb667ZYxCINhZ8U9W0tPmkmdmtzi2N684-msfVa-h9_rl8CQOaaYdBS-ihLu1eclAMO1TGqn4qz7fGnbscyrTxUkUHOxNzC3RHrmusJFrTy4C9rYko_XXaC2LdROdCrAIqqY_NiCAWR3_MmSfc2VYy9Pfos_DtmwHZJIWE/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-13%20at%2011.12.26%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Interview with British actress and model CHRISTINA GREGG (here with William Campbell in The Young Racers)<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table></i></p><p></p><p><i>Christina Gregg was in a handful of British movies and TV from 1959 to 1964, and was one of England's top models... We asked some questions about those years where she juggled two trades that combined immense talent and beauty...  </i><u><br></u></p><p><u>START IN MODELING & ACTING</u>: I won a huge beauty contest when I was 17… Miss ABC Television… I would have won Miss Great Britain as well, but they told me I was too young to win! With this prize was a film test with Robert Day, director of <i>Women</i> Magazine, leading to a theatrical coach, Flossy Freedman, who also helped train Marlon Brando, and Angela Lansbur<i>y... </i></p><p>I was provided with an agent, so I had film training, and films came my way afterwards. Modeling took off with the cover of <i>Women</i> magazine, a huge circulation at that time, followed by many more. But it was not an advantage to be advertising products and acting at the same time… I lost opportunities because of this; however, I needed to earn money so I continued: Did advertisement commercials for Camay soap, which cost me a big part in a film.  </p><p></p><span></span>

british, british new noir, british new wave, christina gregg, christopher plummer, crime, interview, jess conrad, lance comfort, mel ferrer, race car, robert urquhart, roger moore, sixties, william campbell

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Interview with British actress and model CHRISTINA GREGG (here with William Campbell in The Young Racers) Christina Gregg was in a handful o...

GENE RODDENBERRY'S SCI-FI TV-MOVIE PILOT FOR 'PLANET EARTH'

<p> <span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7OWJqliuz30s_jUAIy2dW9puWQU-op4gPSa7faXvZGeJ5jKgK7UE2-Qu5I1YTDaYCAbmA6F2PhLA1rjKZeIQYFIgB8RqOJiLW7rWUEjWOgXNPZK0UGClB9D2533yNFJYxiKGOndVX_gOJfaySszJLCg7x52xjFtmWPEZsjcGO9wt59iVxWj5s4614Q/s1170/Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%2010.07.38%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7OWJqliuz30s_jUAIy2dW9puWQU-op4gPSa7faXvZGeJ5jKgK7UE2-Qu5I1YTDaYCAbmA6F2PhLA1rjKZeIQYFIgB8RqOJiLW7rWUEjWOgXNPZK0UGClB9D2533yNFJYxiKGOndVX_gOJfaySszJLCg7x52xjFtmWPEZsjcGO9wt59iVxWj5s4614Q/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-03-23%20at%2010.07.38%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><u>Title: Planet Earth Year: 1974 Rating: ****</u></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">By the 1970's, because of both syndication and conventions, Gene Roddenberry's 1960's three-season gem STAR TREK was beginning to gather a big cult following...</span></p><p></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And yet, before the progressive doors opened up for another possible TREK series or, what happened instead from the financial success of STAR WARS, a trail of movies, Roddenberry attempted several entirely new science-fiction shows... </span></p><p></p><p><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span></span></span></p>

apocalyptic future, diana muldaur, gene roddenberry, janet margolin, john saxon, science-fiction, seventies, ted cassidy, tv movie, warner archives

GENE RODDENBERRY'S SCI-FI TV-MOVIE PILOT FOR 'PLANET EARTH'

Title: Planet Earth Year: 1974 Rating: **** By the 1970's, because of both syndication and conventions, Gene Roddenberry's 1960...

CHRISTINA GREGG PLAYS VICTIM FOR THE 'COVER GIRL KILLER'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQPSXXHCcZEnOjPC-WCWSbI8N8qvvAt2mE2tiB9ZiL_A2OWue0WoLmdwtuiPQxXciCWFBTDePidvGQJOLl_0QWktYEZZcI3xSffTDP3EheWSM-RaysFS-smkslimcvbNta-wsIZ9g5aDx/s2010/1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="2010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifQPSXXHCcZEnOjPC-WCWSbI8N8qvvAt2mE2tiB9ZiL_A2OWue0WoLmdwtuiPQxXciCWFBTDePidvGQJOLl_0QWktYEZZcI3xSffTDP3EheWSM-RaysFS-smkslimcvbNta-wsIZ9g5aDx/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg faces death in THE COVER GIRL KILLER Year: 1959 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Any chance to see model-turned-actress Christina Gregg is worthwhile, no matter how disappointing this particular British New Wave crime thriller is despite the cool title of COVER GIRL KILLER, supposedly the inspiration for PEEPING TOM. Gregg would later play a 15-year-old virgin stalked by a psychotic phone caller, while here she's an older yet equally shy, innocent and naïve victim of a spectacle-wearing photographer who kills cover girls, as the tile implies...</p><p>Sadly, most of the film has two cops blandly discussing the murders when there could have been more British beauties taken out in a body count fashion, mixing horror within the pulpy police procedural that's not very intriguing. Although lead ingenue Felicity Young, as the girl/friend of a flaky magazine owner no one takes seriously, is also worth the watch. You'll hope she fares better than poor Christina.<br></p><p><span></span></p>

body count, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, crime, julie shearing, sixties

CHRISTINA GREGG PLAYS VICTIM FOR THE 'COVER GIRL KILLER'

Christina Gregg faces death in THE COVER GIRL KILLER Year: 1959 Rating: ** Any chance to see model-turned-actress Christina Gregg is worthwh...

BRITISH STARLET CHRISTINA GREGG RUNS AWAY WITH 'RAG DOLL'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqkfDUIrtKyBu8quZUFjHxn8pWA075U2JeEh6nZoJxSi6JbDkynJGtrRzDVkLC7Zvy4-LOrQFRb4pOjpHRnQ2GvCDEIslEBR9ry52CHvupz1P3ose9c99tvfIlFiOc48GkwsUIix2Qv_t/s1655/Screen+Shot+2021-02-17+at+12.10.52+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="1655" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqkfDUIrtKyBu8quZUFjHxn8pWA075U2JeEh6nZoJxSi6JbDkynJGtrRzDVkLC7Zvy4-LOrQFRb4pOjpHRnQ2GvCDEIslEBR9ry52CHvupz1P3ose9c99tvfIlFiOc48GkwsUIix2Qv_t/w400-h343/Screen+Shot+2021-02-17+at+12.10.52+AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg in RAG DOLL Year: 1961 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A cinematic dream come true for fans of Christina Gregg — the incredibly beautiful British model and actress — in an extremely strange programmer preaching the dangers of running away from home... even when and if home has a stepfather whose intentions aren't so innocent... </p><p>Stepdad owns a countryside cafe where married customers lust after Gregg's naïve and vulnerable Carol with the nickname RAG DOLL from when she was young and awkward... </p><p></p><p>So she storms out of a lukewarm frying pan into a guarded fire in the big city, finding immediate safety with an old lady medium moonlighting as a jazz club waitress, and the owner... an older guy so nice he's hardly creepy but should be... wants to save Carol from bad boy singer Jess Conrad... </p><p>And right when things get intriguing there's a sudden tragic downturn, similar to the decade-later BADLANDS, only without all that much danger, which there was far too little of to begin with: A shame since Christina Gregg, as pitifully innocent and naïvely curious as ever, really does seem a lot more (as the alternate title reads) YOUNG, WILLING AND EAGER than her <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/the-break.html">THE BREAK</a> director Lance Comfort allows her to be. </p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, crime, heist, sixties, teddy boys

BRITISH STARLET CHRISTINA GREGG RUNS AWAY WITH 'RAG DOLL'

Christina Gregg in RAG DOLL Year: 1961 Rates: *** A cinematic dream come true for fans of Christina Gregg — the incredibly beautiful British...

CHRISTINA GREGG MAILING IN A STRANGE 'FATE TAKES A HAND'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PgdWAMGndEWMd6vcBdVXTO9jq_bdAk7LNmkAe1mY5vUzoMumYVraz8m5ijo70_-W0obLwioz-4nV4IraB3HYK3APQ8B-pXV7S_aVfEfkvQbW3P8udE_kc8gfIAaEiSzX0_tDx0JCTTPF/s1590/Screen+Shot+2021-02-10+at+10.36.44+PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1590" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2PgdWAMGndEWMd6vcBdVXTO9jq_bdAk7LNmkAe1mY5vUzoMumYVraz8m5ijo70_-W0obLwioz-4nV4IraB3HYK3APQ8B-pXV7S_aVfEfkvQbW3P8udE_kc8gfIAaEiSzX0_tDx0JCTTPF/w400-h328/Screen+Shot+2021-02-10+at+10.36.44+PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg & Ronald Howard Year: 1961 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This British hour-long b-movie feels like a reality-TV pilot with Christina Gregg, who starred in several crime thrillers, which FATE TAKES A HAND has only a little to do with, but it's important since, fifteen-years earlier, a batch of letters were stolen in a heist — and having turned up it's now the Post Office's duty to return each to an assortment of eclectic characters...</p><p></p><p>Christina Gregg plays a reporter tagging along with mail officer Ronald Howard, meeting the would-be-recipients at home or work, each telling a flashback yarn about how bad their lives have gotten for which each letter will mend...</p><p>These tales include a love-lorn blind woman, paling to the rudimentary comic relief of a working man standing up to his boss after winning money... while the most earthy has a prisoner recollecting a little girl's kidnapping... Saving the best two for last: One about a husband being framed by a crooked wife... the only to occur before and after the letter-carrying-duo arrive: And a punchy and depressed ex-brawler who "could have been a contender" before throwing a fight... Making FATE not so much a Christina Gregg vehicle but a window seat she breezily looks out of.</p><p><span></span></p>

anthology, christina gregg, comedy, drama, jack watson, sixties

CHRISTINA GREGG MAILING IN A STRANGE 'FATE TAKES A HAND'

Christina Gregg & Ronald Howard Year: 1961 Rates: *** This British hour-long b-movie feels like a reality-TV pilot with Christina Gregg,...

BRITISH BEAUTY CHRISTINA GREGG IN 'TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING'

<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUqXmeDNB8cM2Vx3bavlIr7b2lxk41HnNHnE_Cn9BoyRiq4XKmFO9sayuhbYwNH_TNKClTimjq2n2czdHfKn59-MPu7LI4vTWhkyySThrqOVNJwap7S0r63Y3I23eZL4pUMCaIxksQasX/s1398/1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1398" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUqXmeDNB8cM2Vx3bavlIr7b2lxk41HnNHnE_Cn9BoyRiq4XKmFO9sayuhbYwNH_TNKClTimjq2n2czdHfKn59-MPu7LI4vTWhkyySThrqOVNJwap7S0r63Y3I23eZL4pUMCaIxksQasX/w400-h280/1.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg in Two Wives Year: 1961 Rating: **</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Watching TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING strictly for the presence of British model/actress Christina Gregg is a big let down... </p><p>And can be summed up in one sentence that her would-be husband, a World War II vet played by Gordon Jackson, says before facing the climatic face-off against two con artists: "Stay in the car!" </p><p></p><p>Sadly that (mostly proverbial) car includes the present time that's only half the picture, mostly taking place in flashbacks in war-torn France where he's taken into a safe house, wounded, delirious. And winds up blowing-it even worse than a few years later when he infamously utters "Good Luck" in THE GREAT ESCAPE... </p><p>The biggest let-down however is that this living-room-mystery's French-accent femme fatale, Lisa Daniely, crashing on Jackson and a passive Gregg's wedding by claiming that she married him during the war (and that flashback), never embraces or is allowed to embrace her villainy, making TWO WIVES a talky exercise in futility, and one that should have ended in a cat fight. </p><p><span></span></p>

british, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, con man, drama, gordon jackson, lisa daniely, melodrama, mystery, sixties, world war II

BRITISH BEAUTY CHRISTINA GREGG IN 'TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING'

Christina Gregg in Two Wives Year: 1961 Rating: ** Watching TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING strictly for the presence of British model/actress Chri...

STEVEN RITCH MAKES A MELANCHOLY CREATURE IN 'THE WEREWOLF'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JWgJy5dPpCiVy2rl7VR9mLVqfBRbn93QWZA-84xN27lMzZYNfzPtzcqdM2O3GzsfT-ee5pLq5eaSd5rYbJdz-TYrXyTfRt-N6KEmBqeUaDIQ6-ZzBNAGudCfotMmAGzUlImk2rkd1p3gVt4ZwzpVsOunuDDkYqopN3yItAzH5oD_4BKN8eHlpi6jafjW/s1580/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-19%20at%2012.49.04%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7JWgJy5dPpCiVy2rl7VR9mLVqfBRbn93QWZA-84xN27lMzZYNfzPtzcqdM2O3GzsfT-ee5pLq5eaSd5rYbJdz-TYrXyTfRt-N6KEmBqeUaDIQ6-ZzBNAGudCfotMmAGzUlImk2rkd1p3gVt4ZwzpVsOunuDDkYqopN3yItAzH5oD_4BKN8eHlpi6jafjW/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-19%20at%2012.49.04%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE WEREWOLF Year: 1956 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Lon Chaney Jr. was the most famous movie werewolf, David Naughton the best, and Steven Ritch makes the most sympathetic... as a stranger who stumbles into a mountainous town (actually filmed in Big Bear) and can't remember his name, or his problem, that quickly kicks into gear while he's mugged... turning into THE WEREWOLF and eventually hunted by gentle giant sheriff Don Megowan (with deputy Harry Lauter) who's hen-pecked by fiance Joyce Holden and her pacifist doctor uncle to take him alive...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But the villains want only death, and are two mad scientists that add "Sci-Fi" to the "Horror" who, learned through exposition dialogue, had injected Ritch's Duncan Marsh with a serum as protection for nuclear fallout...<br></p><span></span>

action, adventure, don megowan, fifties, fred f. sears, harry lauter, horror, joyce holden, kim charney, rural, science-fiction, steven ritch, werewolf

STEVEN RITCH MAKES A MELANCHOLY CREATURE IN 'THE WEREWOLF'

Title: THE WEREWOLF Year: 1956 Rating: **** Lon Chaney Jr. was the most famous movie werewolf, David Naughton the best, and Steven Ritch mak...

RITA HAYWORTH IS 'MISS SADIE THOMPSON' W/ CHARLES BRONSON

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFD5BktEAxeDUQwVq9yhynsIpVn6fV9fmD-qu_vqwWoiOSjeW0_pNLB9uJFKsnq0ilvq8xYHovFPq3P_5almcqbKUmW06aWqBBH2nUOG-ySchQoD0WI_CxsE7IzwpHXYqiVfXDwg349ncU/s1831/1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="1831" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFD5BktEAxeDUQwVq9yhynsIpVn6fV9fmD-qu_vqwWoiOSjeW0_pNLB9uJFKsnq0ilvq8xYHovFPq3P_5almcqbKUmW06aWqBBH2nUOG-ySchQoD0WI_CxsE7IzwpHXYqiVfXDwg349ncU/w400-h286/1.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson and Henry Slate Year: 1953 Rates: ***</u>1/2</td></tr></tbody></table><p>This adaptation of Somerset Maugham's sordid tale about an alluring woman who gets progressively judged and berated and then lusted upon by a Christian missionary is less about moral hypocrisy and more about Evolution since, from the moment Rita Hayworth lands on a Samoan island full of Marines, the biggest and toughest jarhead in Aldo Ray has her number, and won't let go... None of his underlings, not even a more muscular Charles Bronson, harmonica-playing Henry Slate or goofball Rudy Bond has a chance... and most of MISS SADIE THOMPSON seems like PR for the noticeably-aged Rita Hayworth to still be a relevant sex symbol... for young male audiences...<br></p><p></p><p>And she <i>does </i>look pretty great despite overacting the 'good time girl' routine, singing her lines while speaking her songs. But that older, experienced countenance neatly blends into a free-spirited yet enigmatic character that bible-belting Jose Ferrer realizes <i>could have</i> been a prostitute, forcing our marooned goddess in bright red (symbolically contrasting with the grainy-dull browns and greens for what was originally 3D) into a sudden guilty change of conscience. And this 11th hour melancholy-Hayworth, although turning in a far more subtle, natural performance, is but a means to an extremely rushed ending: Instead of building a hate/trust/lust relationship between leads Hayworth and Ferrer, the latter gradually frowns then sermonizes and then explodes, leading back to that rushed romance with Ray, an infatuation as equally empty and hollow — but on HER terms. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

aldo ray, charles bronson, drama, fifties, jose ferrer, melodrama, military, religion, rita hayworth, romance, rudy bond

RITA HAYWORTH IS 'MISS SADIE THOMPSON' W/ CHARLES BRONSON

Charles Bronson and Henry Slate Year: 1953 Rates: *** 1/2 This adaptation of Somerset Maugham's sordid tale about an alluring woman who ...