Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: She's A Lady! - Part XIII

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's All Go To The Movies:

She's A Lady!

Part XIII

How appropriate that this is part thirteen!

Sometimes? It takes a lady.

Or so these films would have us believe.

And today, because it's Halloween? It takes a scary lady!

These films promise lots of high drama, the occasional murder or monster, plus a little bit of dirt!

Let's take a walk down Hollywood BOO-levard. and shine a flashlight on these magnificent classic films.

This way, if you dare! But remember...

Ladies first!

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The Lady And The Monster

(1944)

AKA: The Lady And The Doctor, The Tiger Man

Professor Franz Mueller is trying to sustain brain activity to keep important people's minds alive beyond their deaths. A fortuitous plane crash allows Mueller to remove and preserve the victim's brain in a special solution he has been developing. As the brain is treated with plasma, it begins to telepathically take control of the scientist's assistant, Patrick Cory. The longer this continues, the stronger the connection to Patrick's mind. In fact, his whole personality takes on aspects of the man who died, Henry Donovan, a ruthless millionaire financial wizard. Donovan wants Patrick to win freedom for Roger Collins who has been wrongfully imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Mueller's other assistant, lovely Janice Farrell, is conflicted. She knows that Mueller has eyes for her, but is repulsed by him as a person. She is sweet on Patrick. The two plan to run away together until Donovan's personality takes over.

Based on the book, Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak's, this American science fiction horror film was directed by George Sherman, and stars Vera Ralston, Richard Arlen, and Erich von Stroheim.

The film went under several working titles, including Donovan's Brain, The Monster's Castle, and The Monster and The Brute. It was based on Curt Siodmak's novel Donovan's Brain released in 1942. Among the cast was Josephine Dillon, in her first role in a film for more than a decade, and former ice skater Vera Hruba Ralston in her first dramatic performance in a film.

In an interview, longtime Republic Pictures director Joseph Kane said that director George Sherman found working with star Vera Ralston so taxing that after this film was completed he quit Republic, where he had spent many years, because he thought he was going to be asked to direct another one of her pictures.

Vera Ralston was an ice-skating champion from Czechoslovakia who had made a few skating pictures for Republic. Studio chief Herbert J. Yates, who was also her boyfriend, decided she could be a star and put her into the lead in this film. Unfortunately, she spoke very little English and, according to longtime Republic director Joseph Kane, spoke all of her lines phonetically, without having any idea of what she was actually saying.

The film's copyright was renewed in 1971, so it will enter the American public domain in 2040.

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Lady Morgan's Vengeance
(1965)

AKA: La Vendetta Di Lady Morgan

A young woman is killed by her treacherous husband and returns as a vengeful ghost. After losing her boyfriend Lady Morgan(Barbara Nelli) marries Sir Harold Morgan. Harold is having an affair with a sinister housekeeper Lilian(Erica Blanc) and they both plan to murder Lady Morgan. But after she dies Lady Morgan becomes a ghost keen on supernatural revenge.

This5 Italian horror film was directed by Massimo Pupillo, written by Gianni Grimaldi, and stars Gordon Mitchell, Erika Blanc and Barbara Nelli.

The film was the last horror film Pupillo directed due to his lack of interest in making any more films in the genre; he turned down offers to make other horror films and spoke on the topic, explaining: "I started in the horror genre because I wanted to get out of documentaries, I wanted to enter the commercial market. In Italy, when you do a certain type of film, you become labeled and you can't do anything else. I remember one day, a producer called me to do a film only because the other producers told him he had to get either Mario Bava or me. When I understood this, I felt dead."

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Lady Frankenstein
(1971)

When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments. The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen, in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life. Meanwhile, the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts  to Dr. Frankenstein used in its creation. Then it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter!

This Italian horror film was directed by Mel Welles, written by Edward di Lorenzo and stars Rosalba Neri (sometimes billed as Sara Bey), Joseph Cotten, Mickey Hargitay and Paul Müller.

Mel Welles was originally approached by Vanderbilt family member Henry Cooke Cushing IV with a screenplay titled Lady Dracula. Cushing was determined to produce a film starring actress Rosalba Neri, whom he was romantically pursuing. Recalling the film's development and their relationship, Welles said that Neri "...was turning him down, everywhere. She couldn't actually stand him. Harry was actually quite good-looking, but he was a pain in the neck because he had never lived in the real world and that's what she resented about him. He never worked a day in his life. So here, in my lap, he dropped the script and the money to do it. What a windfall!" Upon discovering that the rights to the Lady Dracula script were actually held by actor Brad Harris, Welles wrote a new screenplay with his friend, television writer Edward di Lorenzo, which was completed in three weeks.

Welles was assisted by fellow expatriate producer Dick Randall in assembling the remainder of the cast, which included Joseph Cotten and Mickey Hargitay. $90,000 of Lady Frankenstein's budget was originally intended to be provided through a letter of credit given to Welles by producer Skip Steloff, but it was denied by the Italian banks prior to the start of production. The money needed to make the film was eventually secured by Welles' old colleague Roger Corman.

The film's low budget, estimated to be less than $200,000, resulted in Joseph Cotten's schedule being shortened to two weeks. To accommodate, his part was rewritten so that his character's death would take place earlier in the film.

Bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay's first film role came when Jayne Mansfield demanded that he be cast in her movie, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Hargitay and Mansfield had met in 1956 while he was performing in The Mae West Show at the Latin Quarter. When Mansfield noticed Hargitay performing, she allegedly told the waiter, "I'll have a steak and that tall man on the left." The couple married on January 13, 1958 and had three children: Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska. Mariska Hargitay grew up to be an actress, starring on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Joseph Cotten was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story (1939) and Sabrina Fair (1953). He then gained worldwide fame for his collaborations with Orson Welles on three films, Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), which Cotten starred in and for which he was also credited with the screenplay. But he was no stranger to horror films, having starred in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964) with Bette Davis and Olivia De Haviland. He was married to actress Patricia Medina.

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Lady Dracula
(1977)

A beautiful blonde bitten by Count Dracula 100 years previously is unearthed in Vienna, and soon she goes on a killing spree. The skeptical cop on the case falls in love with her.

This West German comedy horror film was directed by Franz Josef Gottlieb and stars Evelyne Kraft, Brad Harris, Theo Lingen, and Stephen Boyd.

This was Theo Lingen's final film appearance. Lingen was a German actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1929 and 1978, and directed 21 films between 1936 and 1960. He died of cancer in 1978 at the age of 75 in Vienna.

This was also Stephen Boyd's last movie. He died from a heart attack shortly after filming was completed. Boyd was a Northern Irish actor who appeared in some 60 films, most notably as the villainous Messala in Ben-Hur (1959), a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. He received his second Golden Globe Award nomination for Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962). Romantically, he was linked to actresses Brigette Bardot, Dolores Hart, and Marisa Mell.

This film was shot in 1975 on location in Vienna, but its release was delayed until 1977.

Evelyne Kraft later said she thought the movie was stupid and hated being in it.

Stephen Boyd

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The Lady In White

(1988)

Locked in a school closet during Halloween in 1962, young Frank witnesses the ghost of a young girl and the man who murdered her years ago. Shortly afterward he finds himself stalked by the killer and is soon drawn to an old house where a mysterious lady lives. As he discovers the secret of the woman, he comes to realize that the killer may be someone close to him.

This American supernatural horror mystery was directed, produced, written and scored by Frank LaLoggia, and stars Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco, and Katherine Helmond.

Filmed at the end of 1986, the film was not released until 1988.

This was the first tarring role in a motion picture for Lukas Haas. It was also the first time he received top billing. Incidentally, Emily Tracy, who plays Frankie's mother, is Lukas Haas' mother in real life.

Frank LaLoggia based this film on a popular and long-standing urban legend known as 'The White Lady'. Legend has it that the White Lady had a daughter who disappeared at the hands of a predatory young suitor. Grieving, the White Lady then roams the lake front to this very day, searching for her missing daughter. The supposed residence of the White Lady is actually the base of a demolished hotel that was built in the 1800s. Known as the White Lady's Castle, it has become a popular tourist attraction and party site for teenagers.

Despite glowing reviews from critics, the film was considered a box office bomb. However, The LaLoggias, by pre-selling the foreign rights to Samuel Goldwyn Productions managed to recoup the film's budget before the film had even hit theaters. In the end, they made a small fortune (over $4 million in profit) off this film.

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Lady Morgan's Vengeance - Movie Trailer

(1965)