ZOE TAMERLIS LUND

Zoe Tamerlis Lund, born in New York City to a Swedish mother and a Russian father was an accomplished musician, model, actress, writer and political activist by the time she was twenty. Sadly, like many others who burn so brightly so early in life, she died tragically young at the age of forty-seven.

Most would likely recognize Lund from her small role in Bad Lieutenant (1992) or for starring in Ms. 45 (1981), a  tense vigilante tale inspired by Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) and Death Wish (1974) that offers something a little more complicated than the average rape and revenge film.

Thana (Lund), a meek garment worker is sexually assaulted twice in the same afternoon on her way home from work. After killing her second rapist with a clothes iron, she picks up the eponymous .45 caliber handgun he brought with him and embarks on what some critics have deemed a misandric killing spree and others a revenge quest against casual misogyny and rape culture. Thana's victims are not randomized passer-by but are all shown to be menacing, harassing or abusing women in the moments before she attacks them. The film demonstrates that casually chauvinistic behaviors and benevolent sexism are sometimes not so far away from overt misogyny.

Film historians remark on the negative press the film apparently received on its release, but a search of the archives of Screen, Sight and Sound  and the BFI Library at London's Southbank turned up little in the way of press period upon its release. However, the collection of clippings at ZoeLund.com suggests that the reaction of contemporary critics and cinephiles was overall positive, and in a cursory glance of the press highlights one can see almost unanimous critical praise for Lund and her portrayal of Thana. 

After starring in Ms. 45 Lund played a dual roles as Mary Jean and Elaine in the 1984 thriller Special Effects. Eric Bogosian is Chris Neville, a big budget director who makes dark and dirty home movies in his spare time. After murdering a would-be actress (Lund as Mary Jane), Neville decides to make a feature about the incident, casting a dead-ringer (Lund again as Elaine) to play the murdered woman.

Often categorized as an 'Underground' film, Tony Williams published a fascinating essay on its narrative and stylistic references to Hitchcock's films, and more than one critic has pointed out the film's similarities to Vertigo (1958). 

In between Special Effects and Bad Lieutenant, Zoe did some television work, appearing as a recurring minor character Chickie on Hothouse (1988) and playing Miranda in the 1985 episode of Miami Vice, "The Prodigal Son". In 1989 she starred in a short film The Houseguest and played the femme fatale Belinda Maloney in Exquisite Corpses.

Though IMDB lists four writers for Bad Lieutenant, Lund stated in a television interview with Media Funhouse that she wrote the script alone, and Ferra himself described their collaboration as "I'd tell her a bunch of shit and she'd make sense of it".The first draft was turned around very quickly, with Lund writing it in under two weeks.

According to the same interview with Media Funhouse, the famous Vampire Speech was written on set, just minutes before the scene was filmed. Lund says that she wrote the speech, memorized it, and did it in one take. Her scenes with Harvey Kietel have been described as "intense and riveting" and the film itself has garnered critical acclaim the world over and continues to be recognized as a "uncompromising work of art" with "an undeniable morality".

The following year Lund wrote, directed and starred in a short film of her own, Hot Ticket (1993). Though the film in its entirety is less than two minutes, it is a striking piece and Zoe's utterance of "that which is not yet, but ought to be, is more real than that which merely is" stays with the viewer long after the end. Lund continued to work in film in the mid and late '90s and the last feature-length pieces in which she appeared were Hand Gun (1994) and the German language film Dreamland (1997).

In 1999, she died in Paris from heart failure. While it's difficult not to brood on her death at such a tragically young age, Zoe Tamerlis Lund left behind an impressive body of work in her films, her writings, her musical compositions and social activism. Her bright light is missed in the film world, but the works she left are intensely, sometimes strangely illuminating for many of us. 

For Your Viewing Pleasure:
Zoe Tamerlis Lund on the Script of Bad Lieutenant (1992) - Interview with Media Funhouse
Special Effects (1984) - Film Trailer
Hot Ticket (1993) - Lund's Short Film (Low Fidelity)
Zoe Tamerlis Lund on Sex and Drugs in Bad Lieutenant (1992) - Interview with Media Funhouse

Further Reading:
ZoeLund.com - The official website of Zoe Tamerlis Lund, this is an impressive collection of interviews, press clippings, writings,  photographs, film and video clips, as well as others' essays analyzing Lund's works. Created and maintained by her former husband, Robert Lund.
Exploitation Retrospect Interview with Zoe Lund - Originally ran in ER #37
Paul Rachman Remembers Zoe Lund - Interview in Filmmaker Magazine. 

JULY 10TH, 1935

A heroine was born. Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi Satana was born on this day, in Hokkaido, Japan to a silent movie actor and a circus performer. She would go on to become a legendary burlesque dancer, exploitation super-star and an inspiration to tough chicks and BAMFs everywhere.

FYeah Tura Satana on Tumblr
Pintrest board devoted to Tura Satana from Madeline Smith
A delightful later in life interview with Sandra Bernhard on Reel Wild Cinema 

TIA CARRERE

In an acting career that spans from Cover-Up (1985) to Curb Your Enthusiasm (2007), Tia Carrere's been a zombie victim, an action villain, a lounge singer in Little Tokyo, a space marine, a Sorceress Queen of Acheron, and several dozen other things. One of those things is a multiple Grammy award-winning singer, with wins in 2009 and 2011 and nominations in 2008 and 2010. Working in her musical talents to her acting career, Carrere has also contributed vocal performances to at least six soundtracks to films in which she starred, and did all of her own vocal performances in Wayne's World (1992). Still well remembered as Wayne Campbell's foxy-lady love, it remains for many her signature role. In addition to being a "babia majora" Carrere has an under-recognized sense of comic timing and expression both of which are visible in her reoccurring appearances in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and her hilarious turn as Piper Bauman, Kelly Bundy's rival from modeling school in an early episode of Married with Children (1990).

Standing at 5'8" and stunning, Carrere worked as an actual model for some time during the early part of her acting career after moving from her native Hawaii to LA,California. Her first film role was Zombie Nightmare (1986), a low-budget independent horror film that featured Adam West and later appeared in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1994). She would appear in a few more films such as Aloha Summer (1988) and Fine Gold (1989) over the course of the decade and continued to work regularly in television. Her career really took off in the early '90s, and saw her racking up multiple screen credits nearly every year for the next ten years. Earlier on in the decade saw Carrere mixed up with the action-men; she played supporting roles in 80's-style genre pictures like Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) and Harley Davidson and the Marlborough Man (1991), thrillers such as Treacherous (1992) and Rising Sun (1993) and big summer blockbusters like True Lies (1994).

Carrere's filmography has bounced all over the genre-map since the mid-90s, but additional highlights for cult fans include Kull the Conqueror (1997), a sort of sequel to the Conan films of the 1980s (originally planned to be called Conan the Conqueror, the script was re-written for "Kull" when Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to reprise his former role) that features Carrere as a vermilion-tressed witch-queen, and Relic Hunter (1999-2002) a Canadian fantasy-adventure series in which Carrere stars as a globe-trotting archaeologist. Her career shows no signs of waning or slowing down, and she's done everything from reality contest television [Dancing with the Stars, The Celebrity Apprentice] to television dramas [CSI: Miami (2009)] to video game and animation voice overs [Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated (2010), Saints Row (2006)].

Interestingly, while Carrere did not do her own topless shots in Showdown in Little Tokyo (a body double was used), she did appear nude in Playboy's January 2003 issue. It would have been easy for Tia Carrere to rest on her laurels as a total babe and focus her career strictly on playing "the hot chick", but made efforts early on to diversify beyond playing a gorgeous face and notoriously turned down a role on Baywatch (1989-1999) to audition for Wayne's World. In addition to her professional activity in the film and music businesses, Carrere is also an animal lover and charity supporter, and is an active member of Planned Parenthood. Though the press is currently pretty quiet about what projects the future holds for Tia, she's got lots of cunning and talent to protect her, whether she's working on a film, a television series, a record, or production company.



-Footage from Halloween 2009 of Tia Carrere performing Ballroom Blitz Live at the Chiller Theater in New Jersey
-Tia in Kelly Bounces Back , from Married With Children-Article on and interview with Tia Carrere by James Brady
-A great write-up of one of Tia's early films Showdown in Little Tokyo, via The Val Verde

SHORT TERM HIATUS

Tally Rose's Foxy Ladies is on hiatus this month; we'll be resuming regular updates next month in June. In the meantime, consider checking out The Swan Archives , a truly impressive archive dedicated to Brian De Palma's cult-classic Phantom of the Paradise (1974). Though De Palma's now a well established director with huge cinematic hits like Scarface (1983), Mission: Impossible (1996) and of course, Carrie (1976), his rock opera adaptation of Phantom of the Opera remains a polarizing horror-comedy that audiences seem to abhor or adore.

Highlights include the scene-by-scene exploration of the film, and the incredibly detailed notes on the production.

HAJI CAT

Very little is known for sure about the mysterious Haji, also occasionally credited as "Haji Cat" and "Haji Catton", we don't even know the story of how she got her famous moniker (when questioned, Haji says that story is a long one). One thing that is known for sure however, is that the notorious sexploitation king Russ Meyer thought enough of her to cast her in several of his films, --a noteworthy accolade from a director known for usually only working with an actress once or twice, and then never calling her again. How Haji got started in show business appears to be another one of her mysteries but she did spend some time working as an exotic dancer at a club called The Losers on La Cienega Boulevard in LA. While she was workin' it as a go-go dancer, she met Tura Satana, who Haji later introduced to Russ Meyer. The two would co-star in what is one, if not the most famous and acclaimed of all his films, 1965's Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

Before portraying the eclectically accented third of the hell-raising hell-cat gang, Haji starred in Motorpsycho! (1965), the third of Meyer's black and white gothic melodramas. Though the plot revolves around Corey, an ineffectual veterinarian attempting to avenge the rape of his wife, Haji's Ruby Bonner is easily the most compelling character in the narrative. A newly remarried Cajun widow, she falls out with her current schlub of a husband on the road, and decides to team up with our "hero" to seek vengeance on the gang-raping bikers that killed her previous husband. From the moment she appears, Ruby becomes the hardest driving force in the film. It is Ruby who sucks the poison out of Corey, it is Ruby who watches over Corey as he rests and recovers from the poisonous snake bite, and it is Ruby who defends herself and Corey from one of the bikers with a classic mantis move.

After Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Haji continued to work with Meyer, appearing in Good Morning...and Goodbye! (1967), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), and Supervixens (1975). She often wrote her own dialog for her parts in Meyer's films, and contributed psychedelic elements, like body painting, adding extra atmosphere to his rural sex-romps.

More than just a staple of the Russ Meyer stable, Haji appeared in John Cassavetes's crime-drama The Killing of Chinese Bookie (1976). She had a supporting role in the outrageous "women-in-prison" sexploitation film Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976) as a spy disguised as a dancing girl, and also made an appearance in the musical '70s soft-core take on Don Quixote, When Sex Was a Knightly Affair (1976).

Born in Quebec, Canada, Haji now lives in Malibu, California. Though more or less retired from acting these days, she still gives the occasional interview, and has contributed to several "making-of" documentaries over the last decade including Go, Pussycat, Go! (2005) a short documentary on the making of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. A long-time supporter of environmentalism, Haji has maintained a keen interest in nature and the outdoors throughout her life, reportedly starting her mornings by body-surfing in the buff at 6am.

From the Burlesque circuit to the Cult Cinema circuit, Haji's been there and back. However, she's given several interviews over the years and never sounds cynical. Instead she reveals herself to be smart and savvy, if perhaps a bit spacey. Whether she's living the glamorous life as an entertainer on La Cinega, or the quiet life near the coast, thinking about all the little creatures in the ocean, Haji remains one of the most mysterious and fascinating figures of exploitation cinema.

Further Reading:

Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film; Jimmy McDonough,(2006)
Invasion of the B-Girls; Jewel Shepard, (1992)
Motorpsycho clip

TAMARA DOBSON

Standing at a statuesque 6'2, Tamara Dobson was, and remains, one of the tallest leading ladies to ever feature in film. Starring in just a handful of motion pictures, Dobson immortalized herself in pop-culture consciousness as the unforgettable Cleopatra Jones in 1972's Cleopatra Jones. A fierce action heroine and fashion icon, Jones is dedicated to bringing down the predatory drug-dowager Mommy (Shelley Winters), protecting her community and delivering some sweet '70s justice. In contrast to many other films of the day, Dobson's Cleopatra was not handing down justice as a rogue vigilante, but as a US Special Agent in the CIA.

Dobson’s characterization as a highly-competent agent working within the system of established authority is still a revolutionary one. Both ancient history and modern-lore are filled with charismatic rebel women, rising up and reigning down vengeance on those that have wronged them or their people. From the Trung Sisters, to Boadicea, to Phoolan Devi, to Coffy, when just retribution is delivered from a lady's hands, Lady Vengeance is overwhelmingly represented. A Black woman amongst the ranks of organized authority is a radical representation, suggesting that those most oppressed by the system can come to matter within it and wield its powers to protect and serve others who have been similarly marginalized and oppressed.

The visual iconography of Dobson's Cleopatra in both Cleopatra Jones and its sequel Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975) juxtaposes sleek and chic Giorgio St. Angelo pantsuits with flamboyant wide-brimmed hats and big fur-trimmed coats, constructing a heroine who is rugged yet feminine, and stylish and desirable without being overtly sexualized. Dobson, who did her own make up and provided considerable input on the aesthetic creation of her character, refused to do nude scenes. Refusing to appear nude has helped distinguish her image from that of some of her contemporaries, and further established her reputation as a star in a genre where fame often came and disappeared quickly. That audiences never see Cleopatra Jones in the buff further cements her character as occupying a position of power, authority, and agency; Jones is never nude and nigh invulnerable.




Though Cleopatra Jones is oft considered to be the defining role of Dobson's career, her first credited role was in Fuzz (1972), an action crime comedy picture that starred Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds. Like many other foxy ladies she worked in modeling before she worked in acting, gracing the pages of Vogue, the covers of LIFE and Redbook as well as television commercials for Chanel, Revlon and Farbrege. Before her modeling career, Dobson earned a degree in fashion illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art. After Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold Dobson starred in Norman...Is That You? (1976) and Chained Heat (1983). She also worked in television, playing a series regular on Jason of Star Command (1979-1981), and making guest appearances on series such as Sanford and Son (1977) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century(1980). Her final role was starring in 1984's Amazons, a made-for-TV movie about... Amazons.

In 1976, JET magazine reported that Dobson was writing some screen plays as well working on a record for MCA. Unfortunately, none of these projects came to be and Dobson continued working as a model, becoming the face of Farbrege's Tigress fragrance at the end of the 1970s. Some time in the mid-1980s, Tamara seemed to disappear from the radar screen as well as the cinema and television screens. Little is published on her life and career post-1985 outside of the fact that she spent most of her life in New York City. Shortly after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she returned to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. A few years later in 2006, Dobson passed away from complications of pneumonia and multiple sclerosis; she was 59.

Though her acting career was relatively brief, Dobson established herself as a star and a cultural touchstone of the '70s. Forty years after Cleopatra Jones, she remains a fashion icon and inspiration to many, having introduced some of the most elegant fashions of the decade. Her star-image and the characters she played have caught the interest of many film and cultural studies academics writing on representations of race, gender, and sexuality; her career is celebrated by a variety of movie geeks and cinephiles. A woman of multiple accomplishments, Tamara Dobson's memory lives on in film, fashion and fierceness.

Recommended Reading:

Brody, Jennifer Devere. "The Returns of 'Cleopatra Jones'", Signs 25:1 (1999): 91-121.
Dunn, Stephanie. Baad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas: Black power action films. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
Sims, Yvonne Women of Blaxploitation: How the Black Action Film Heroine Changed American Popular Culture. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2006.

JOANNA LUMLEY

The absolutely foxy Joanna Lumley had her first forays in front of the camera as a swinging sixties model, but it wasn't too long before she moved from the still image to the motion picture in 1969. She's played roles ranging from Bond Girl, to action icon, to a Van Helsing, to science fiction elemental being, to the infamous Eurydice Colette Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia Cocteau Stone, and her career shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Before becoming a television star in the late 1970s, Joanna Lumley appeared in several fantasy, science fiction and horror films. After playing The English Girl in On Her Majesy's Secret Service (1969), Lumley appeared in a fantasy-horror feature based on the Scottish folk tale of Tam Lin. Released originally as The Ballad of Tam Lin (1970), this film is also known as The Devil's Widow, The Devil's Woman and Games and Toys. Starring Ava Gardner, Tam Lin retells the famous legend with a group of young and beautiful jet-setters under the power of Gardner's Black Magic Woman. Lumley only puts in so much screen time as one of the PYTs frolicking on the huge country estate but she is just as immediately striking and instantly recognizable as she is in any of her starring roles. A couple of years later, Lumley appeared as Jessica Van Helsing in what would be the eighth Dracula feature for Hammer studios, and the final starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, a film called The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). While this film is largely considered to be the worst of the Hammer Dracula series, her turn as a scream-queen was well received. Interestingly enough, in this film Lumley was replacing Stephanie Beacham, co-star of the aforementioned Tam Lin, who had played Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer's previous Dracula picture Dracula AD 1972 (1972), this film is largely considered to be the second worst Dracula film in the Hammer catalog.

Though the comely Miss Lumley may now be best known for her comedic talents as Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, she was an action heroine first. Just like fellow foxy ladies Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman, Joanna Lumley has been both a Bond Girl and an Avenger. From 1976 - 1977 she thrilled ITV audiences as the sharp-shooting secret agent Purdy. Credited with helping to name the character, Lumley high-kicked her way to becoming a television icon that combined a cool charm with an athletic sex appeal. Later that decade she starred in the cult science fiction series, Sapphire and Steel. Though made on a tight budget, the series made good use of staging and special effects. With its tense, sometimes slow pacing and eerie atmosphere, Sapphire and Steel often combined science fiction with the supernatural, adding an extra element of mystery to this striking and strange series. Curiously enough, despite the immense popularity of other similar science-fiction fantasies such as Dr Who, Sapphire and Steel has never been re-broadcast on terrestrial television.

Even after solidfying her image as a comedy star in the mid-nineties with Ab Fab, Joanna Lumley never abandoned the Horror and Fantasy genres. In 1997 she appeared as Morgan Le Fay in Prince Valiant, an incarnation of the Arthurian legend that starred Stephen Moyer. That same year she co-starred alongside Ben Kingsley as Mrs. Lovett in a television movie version of Sweeney Todd. Lumley has also done quite a bit of voice work, lending that gorgeous cut-glass voice to Tim Burton's 2005 animated feature The Corpse Bride, recording audio books including several of the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, and to informing users of AOL's UK service that they've got mail.

These days Lumley is likely just as well known for her activism and charity work as her acting roles. In 2008, she became the public face for the Gurkha Justice Campaign, advocating for the right of all Gurkha soldiers who had served in the British Army to be granted the same right of abode as their commonwealth counterparts. Impressed with her passionate campaigning, some called for her to run Parliament, but she dismissed the suggestion stating that she had no desire to run for election.

Despite becoming a household name as a comedy star and a celebrated charity organizer, Joanna Lumley has never tried to distance herself from her genre work. In her interviews and appearances she's just as proud of her roles as a Bond Girl and as the action icon Purdy, as she is of her acclaimed performance in the monolog series Up in Town. With several books, dozens of television and film roles and countless media appearances to her credit, this silver fox is not stopping anytime soon. Having just finished a turn on the stage as the iconic Eleanor of Aquatine in The Lion in Winter at the Theater Royal Haymarket, she's scheduled to reprise her most famous role as Patsy in a special episode of Absolutely Fabulous later this year.

-Trailer for The Satanic Rites of Dracula
-Brief documentary on Sapphire and Steel
-Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt promoting the 1994 video release of The New Avengers

Picture this!

Happy birthday to the very talented, very cool, very foxy Debbie Harry! Her career spans from folk musician to actress (her filmography includes films directed by David Cronenburg, John Waters and Amos Poe) to singer and song-writer in one of the most iconic bands to have emerged from the New York punk scene.

Check out this spot from Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes, 47 seconds with two people who managed to become very famous alumni of both Studio 54 and Punk Magazine's Mutant Monster Beach Party.

A Happy Birthday to the very talented and prolific Nina Hartley!

Violence! Nudity! International Spy Syndicates! Mad Scientists! Creatures on a Rampage!

Ted V. Mikel's 1968 film The Astro-Zombies is an entertaining kitchen-sink of exploitation tropes that re-tells the Frankenstein story. Surprisingly, the feature's creatures don't appear to actually be from outer-space, but are constructed with the help of modern science and the body parts of innocent murder victims. After his dismissal from the Space Agency for creating an Astro-Man from the brain of a psychotic criminal, the deranged Dr. DeMarco decides to make another monster to hunt down the first one. In addition to getting some innocent people killed, his activity also attracts the attentions of the CIA and an international spy ring. After being treated to some scenes of lengthy expository dialog, pain-stakingly long experimental procedures (complete with lots of microscope peering, switch throwing and vial filling), this movie starts to get down to business. As the CIA and Commie-spies gun each other down in the race to find the rogue Doctor, DeMarco's former colleagues try to trap the Astro-Man by using Joan Patrick as live bait. Her boyfriend Eric Porter, is played by Tom Pace who also starred in another Mikel's exploitation film The Girl in Gold Boots (1968). They never do capture the creature, but nearly everyone ends up back in DeMarco's lab for the conclusion to this convoluted tale of super-science. In between the spy battle and zombie hunt viewers are treated to an array of horror, sci-fi and exploitation clichés not already covered including: a topless go-go dancer in full body paint, stabbings, a young women writhing away in her underwear while strapped to an operating table and hunch-backed lab assistant.



Unfortunately, all the copies I've seen feature the incredibly bad sound quality not uncommon to the period, and combined with the slow beginnings and convoluted plot viewers may find themselves having a hard time following the story, especially for the film's first third. Still, you don't need to be able to follow the events of The Astro-Zombies too closely to savor the delicious wickedness of Tura Satana's evil secret agent, Satana. It isn't incredibly easy to determine who the star of this picture actually is; Wendell Corey and John Carradine get top billing, Joan Patrick is the love interest that lives, but Tura Satana completely steals the show in every scene she enters. Whether she's throwing drinks in the faces of back-stabbing underlings, stubbing out cigarettes on her victims, or gunning down the cops with glee, Satana's sinister super-spy shines as the most memorable character in this late '60s riff on the archetypal mad science tale. As the fast-thinking and more than capable leader of an international spy ring, Satana barks orders, kicks ass, and kills without mercy, using both ruthlessness and cunning to find and enter DeMarco's lab in order to steal the knowledge of his technology and ship back the secrets to her presumably Soviet home-country. Given the absolute delight it is to watch Tura's villainous vixen tear around The Astro-Zombies, one wonders what havock she could have wrought if cast as the right villain in the right big-budget picture. Still, there's a good chance any big-budget part would have probably paled in comparison to her starring role in Russ Meyer's black and white masterpiece Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

Irma La Douce: Cinema's First Taste of Tura Satana

Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce (1963) stars Shirley MacLaine as the titular Irma, a comely cocotte living and working in the streets of Paris. One fine day she makes the acquaintance of Nestor Patou, a young police officer so eager and earnest that he is dismissed from service before the end of his first day on the beat in Les Halles for conducting an unscheduled and embarrassing raid on the Hotel Casanova. With no job and nowhere to go, Patou wanders into the saloon patronized by les poules and their maquereaus. When Irma comes in to get out of the rain and have a sit, a ciggie, and a chat with Patou, her new acquaintance finds himself taunted and bullied by her "boyfriend" Ox. The dispute is brief however, as Nestor then beats Ox handily, and afterward seeks solace and spoils in the arms and apartment of Irma La Douce. Nestor then becomes her new man, protector and business manager but quickly discovers that pimpin' ain't easy as he is tortured with jealousy every time she sees a client. He attempts then to get her off the streets by becoming her sole patron, incognito, of course. Things don't go exactly as planned however and he becomes insanely jealous of his alter-ego and ends up jailed for the murder of himself! Of course, this being a Romantic Comedy it all works out for everyone in the end.

Irma La Douce marked Tura Satana's first foray onto the silver screen. Satana was no stranger to show business however, and had begun her career as a dancer in the early 1950's. Before the end of the decade she became a burlesque sensation, traveling and performing city to city with the likes of Candy Barr and Tempest Storm. While her Parisian prostitute Suzette Wong wasn't exactly a starring role, Satana puts in plenty of screen time in Irma La Douce, appearing in the background and foreground of several scenes. Though appearing is most of what she does throughout the picture, Tura did have a number of lines, which she delivers with gusto in that brilliant, tough-broad voice of her's.

There's never any doubt that Shirley MacLaine is star of the picture, but Tura Satana grabs your attention in every scene she appears. MacLaine's Irma is very sweet indeed, but the sultry Satana is more fun to watch. While we never really get to know the tassel-twirling Suzette Wong, it's easy to imagine her takin' care of business and hard to picture her ever being strong-armed by a boyfriend like Ox. Irma is a perfectly adorable Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but Satana's voluptuous Suzette has a more direct sex appeal that for some reason, is rarely seen in a serious leading role.

Though Tura's smoky sultriness was recorded to celluloid for a preciously small handful of films, she was almost always livin' large off-screen. In an interview at Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict Satana was workin' it at the famous Pink Pussycat Club in Hollywood when she met director Billy Wilder and his wife who suggested that Wilder give her the part of Suzette Wong. He did, and the rest is cinematic history. It has also been rumored that Satana became involved with Wilder during filming. He would not have been her most famous paramour however, as she's been romantically linked to Joe DiMaggio, actor Rod Taylor and Elvis Presley as well.

Join us again later this week for a look at the Ted V. Mikel's Sci-fi Horror Astro-Zombies!

The point is of no return

Tally Roses's Foxy Ladies would like to take a moment to remember the great, and sadly since Friday, late Tura Satana. The NY Times reports that her death was announced by her manager Siouxzan Perry and that Ms. Perry believes the cause of death to have been heart failure.

Thank you Tura, for being Varla, for doing your own stunts and fight scenes, for the other films you leave behind, for being a major -if not the major inspiration for this blog, and for never apologizing for being a girl.

Join us this month, as we re-watch, review and remember the films that were graced by Ms. Satana!

Rest in peace, Tura. No one will ever fill those black boots!

MIMSY FARMER

Mimsy Farmer, an actress who's probably best remembered claim to fame was playing a bunch of party-chicks in '60s biker flicks, got her start, acting in television sitcoms [My Three Sons (1962) and The Donna Reed Show (1962 & 1963) and family-fare (Spencer's Mountain (1963)]. Born in Chicago in 1945, Farmer has had quite a career; she stepped in front of the camera in the early 1960s and stayed there until the end of the 1980s. Though she's mostly retired from acting, Mimsy Farmer is still quite active in this business we call show.

Farmer's most well known well role was playing Andy in 1967's Riot on the Sunset Strip. Released by American International Pictures [the very same AIP that gave us The Wild Angels (1966) starring Peter Fonda, as well as the string of "Beach Party" movies that stared Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello] as an exploitation film that captured "the scene", "the moment", and "the happenings" of the day (see also: Mondo Mod/1966, and The Hippie Revolt/1967). Farmer's Andy is one of those proto-typical-timid-teens-turned-wrong, with her part of the story involving an alcoholic mother, an estranged cop father, a drugged soft-drink followed by a bizarre acid-trip dance. While the story never really ventures out of your typical teens-running-amok exploitation tropes, there's some great appearances by the Chocolate Watchband, and Miss Farmer works some fierce hair and hot threads during her little dance-freak-out scene.



That same year, Farmer starred as another troubled teen, Gloria, in Hot Rods to Hell. This time Farmer's blond-bombshell party girl already knows she's gone with the wrong crowd and finds herself yearning for more than just the "kicks" she gets when cruising around the desert with her boyfriend Duke. Her third role in 1967 was starring yet again in a youth-culture oriented exploitation feature Devil's Angels, produced at AIP by two of the biggest names in exploitation: Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff. In 1968, Mimsy Farmer starred in what would be her last role for AIP, as Katherine Pearson in The Wild Racers.

In addition to being remembered for playing a string of blond-bombshell party-girls in the last few years of the '60s, Farmer is also known for taking acid, moving to Italy and appearing in a bunch of arty-European films. While some of these were pretty obscure, vaguely artistic exploitation efforts like Road to Salina (1970) (for which she won a David di Donatello Award), and Body of Love (1972), her resume includes a starring role in More (1969), an Italian art film scored entirely by Pink Floyd. In 1971 Farmer's background in Exploitation and European Art-house met in the middle, when she stared in Dario Argento's Four Flies on Gray Velvet. She also starred in The Black Cat (Gatto Nero) (1981), directed by Fulci, Il Profumo Della Signora in Nero (1974) directed by Francesco Barilli, as well as Autopsy (1975) directed by Armando Crispino. Later roles were regulated to mostly appearances and include: Il quartetto Basileus (1983), the tv mini-series Arabesque (1983), action-flick Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) and the ten minute short Her Fragrant Emulsion (1987).

While Farmer is mostly retired from acting and no longer making movies, she now makes things for the movies. Several years ago Mimsy Farmer started working as a set sculptor and now her art department credits include: Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), and The Golden Compass (2007).

Farmer is still keeping busy, working on set sculptures for the fourth film in the POTC franchise, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides (coming 2011). She also paints and according to IMDB.com, is the mother of Italian actress Aisha Cerami.

For more on Mimsy Farmer check out:

-The trailers for Hot Rods to Hell, Devil's Angels, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (lo-fi).
-A rather nicely written article at Coffee coffee and More Coffee that further details her work after moving to Europe.
- Moon In The Gutter's detailed tribute to Mimsy Farmer in Four Flies on Grey Velvet, featuring some quotes from Farmer herself, in addition to a link to an earlier tribute to her entire career.

Happy Halloween!

As this month's Foxy Lady will be a day or two fashionably-late, check out Leopard Moon's two-part series on what sadly seems to be a disappearing phenomenon in late-night television: the horror hostess.

Leopard Moon: A Regional Overview of Elvira's Little Sisters

Leopard Moon: Elvira’s Descendants, Part 2: A Few More Horror Hostesses

NICHELLE NICHOLS

Born Grace Nichols on December 28th near Chicago in the early 1930s, Nichelle Nichols was an accomplished singer and dancer on the stage long before she became a television icon as Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura. Touring early on in her career with such illustrious names in entertainment like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, Nichols' resume also included roles in several big-city musical productions by the time she reached the bridge on the Enterprise.



Before Star Trek, her television acting experiences were largely confined to guest roles on series such as Peyton Place and Tarzan. However, one television role can often lead to another. In 1963 Nichelle Nichols had a part in a series called The Lieutenant. It was working on this project that she met Gene Roddenberry, who, three years later would cast Nichols in the best remembered role of her career: Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

While by today's standards, Uhura may not look like much more than a telephone operator or office manager in space, the role was considered quite groundbreaking at the time. As the head communications officer, Uhura was just as educated and similarly accomplished as the rest of the crew on the bridge. Like them, she was an officer and many times in the series she demonstrated that she was a highly qualified, capable if under-utilized member of the USS Enterprise's crew. Despite her lines often getting cut to little more than "Hailing frequencies open" or "Incoming transmission", Nichols was always a professional, and always committed to her character. Co-star Leonard Nimoy in his book I Am Spock noted: "... Though she was often not given many lines... she nevertheless was totally present and made an emotional investment in whatever was happening in the scene".

Despite often being regulated to such a minor role in most episodes, she was given a few moments in the sun. The most famous being: first, in The Trouble with Tribbles, as the crew member to bring the furry critters aboard the Enterprise and second, as being one-half of the first interracial-kiss in a scripted television series in Plato's Stepchildren. While NBC execs initially feared controversy, the reception to her on-screen kiss with William Shatner was overwhelmingly positive.

After TOS wrapped in 1969, Nichols experienced the frustrations of being thought of as Uhura first and Nichelle second. Still, despite her understandable grievance with this type-casting, she never deserted the franchise or her fans and continued to appear regularly at Star Trek conventions over past several the years. Nichelle has also attended many NASA events and helped the organization to recruit women and minorities for the space program. According to Great Images in NASA (GRIN), some of her recruits include Sally Ride, and Guion Bluford.

Though Star Trek and outer space activity remain a part of her life, Nichols has been involved with a wide variety of projects over the past four decades. In 1974, she appeared in Truck Turner as the successful, fierce and foul-mouthed Madam, Dorinda. Dorinda may not be the most progressive role ever written for a Black woman, but the intensity and commitment with which she plays the character that is the very antithesis of the distinguished space officer she for which she is known is impressive. It would have been easy to reject the role entirely as another unflattering exploitation stereotype, but Nichols plays Gator's wicked woman with such a fire and flair that you don't question her decision to have accepted it.

More recently, Nichelle Nichols has done some voice work for several animated series. In addition to having recurring roles on Gargoyles and Spider Man, she also guest starred twice on highly acclaimed prime-time series, Futurama. Voicing herself on both occasions, she and most of the rest of the core cast of Star Trek: TOS appear in a full episode with Fry, Leela, and Bender for an adventure in outwitting the Trek-obsessed energy being Melllvar. This episode threw a shout-out to her and Shatner's historic on-screen kiss with the following dialog:

Nimoy: Hey! We've done heroic things too.

Nichols: Yeah! In the third season I kissed Shatner!

Other current activity includes: a recurring role the TV series Heroes in 2007, starring in and producing 2008's Lady Magdalene's and roasting William Shatner on Comedy Central (2006).

Suggestions for additional viewing and further reading:

Lady Magdalene's Offical Site, complete with trailer, photo gallery and videos.
A collection of some of Nichols' scenes from Truck Turner.
Nichelle Nichols at IMDB.com
GRIN's profile on Nichols further detailing her work with the space program.
Nichols, Nichelle (1995). Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. New York: Boulevard Books.

DEY YOUNG

Dey Young may not be the most prominent actress on television or even in science-fiction, but she's certainly been prolific over the past thirty years. Born on July 28, 1955 in Bloomfield Hills, MI Young began her acting career in 1979, after studying at Kingswood School. Apparently the theater and film trade runs in the family; in addition to once being married to David Ladd, Dey Young is sister to actress Leigh-Taylor Young.

One of Young's earliest and best-remembered roles, was co-starring with fellow Foxy Lady P.J. Soles in the made-to-be-a-cult-hit, Rock n' Roll High School (1979). In addition to starring Dey Young, P.J. Soles, Mary Woronov, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard, the film also features seminal punk-band and rock folk-heroes, The Ramones!



In case you can't tell from the trailer... In this particular Roger Corman Classic, Young plays the fairly-nerdy best friend Kate Rambeau. Don't be deceived by her good-girl shirtwaists, Young's Rambeau is brainy but hot-blooded and even gets her own sub-plot! Just as into the boys as her gal-pal Riff, Kate's girlish lust sits on Van Patten's clueless blond-jock, Tom. While Kate's efforts to hook it up with the object of her desire are often played for laughs, everything in Rock n' Roll High School is played for laughs. In the end, Young's Rambeau not only gets her man, she gets to go to the Ramones concert and then later watch them (SPOILER ALERT) blow up Vince Lombardi High. Are these not the things of which a teenager's dreams are made?

One of Young's most widely seen appearances to date may have been a fairly small one; a few years after starring in Rock n' Roll High School she appeared in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987) as the saucy space-diner waitress. Some of Dey Young's other Sci-Fi roles include: Carol Martin in The Outer Limits (1998), Judy Bishop in The X Files (1994), and Amy in The Running Man (1987). She's also appeared on Star Trek several times, making appearances in four of the franchise's different series. Young is still acting today and has appeared in What Just Happened (2008), The Young and the Restless (2008) as well as AMC's runaway-hit MadMen (2007).

Dey Young's artistic inclinations are not limited to acting, she's also been sculpting since 1977. Working in stone, bronze and terracotta, her work often features or is highly reminiscent of the curved contours of the feminine physique. Young has had exhibitions at the University of Judaism, Arcona Studio, and the Earl McGrath Gallery. See her sculpture for yourself here!

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED VIEWING/READING:
-Back to School: A Retrospective - 'Rock 'N' Roll High School' Rock on Edition DVD (2005)
-Dey Young's extensive list of credits at IMDB.com

LORNA MAITLAND:

Jimmy McDonough once described the notorious, yet mysterious Lorna Maitland as being, "a trashy melon-breasted blonde, one who'd look good in the back of the a pickup in a torn dress"; one page later he described her as having "a terminally unimpressed scowl that seemed to suggest your balls were not long for this world". Given such a description, it's little wonder that Russ-"King Leer"-Meyer cast this corn-fed foxy lady in the first of his black and white Gothic films, 1964's Lorna.

Born Barbara Popejoy on 19 November, 1943 in Glendale California, she wasn't christened "Lorna Maitland" until twenty years later by her discoverer. According to some biographers, Maitland grew up in Norman Oklahoma, but by the time she answered the cattle-call for Meyer, Lorna was working as a dancer in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. Despite thousands of hits on Google for her name, few other biographical details are known. Several sources have mentioned but fail to cover Maitland's romantic involvement with Ben "Dino" Rocco, musician and one time member of an early incarnation of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, known then as Psyrcle. Reports conflict as to whether Maitland and Rocco were actually married or just "practically married", but Rocco himself stated at least once that the two spent seventeen years together.

After starring in the then ground-breakingly visceral Lorna, the twenty year-old Maitland went on to a major role in Meyer's next film Mudhoney (1965). Another black and white Southern-Gothic "roughie", Mudhoney is a Meyer classic being critically acclaimed while featuring topless, buxom blondes. Following her two major roles for Meyer, Lorna Maitland had appearances in Mondo Topless (1966), Hip, Hot and 21 (1967) and Hot Thrills and Warm Chills (1967). Given the extensive coverage she received in Fling magazine in 1967, it must have seemed that her career was poised to take off. Once rivaling the prolific and by then, already established Angie Dickinson for the same contract, it seems all stranger that Lorna Maitland's current whereabouts are completely unknown.

Though her career as a sexploitation star was brief and she never achieved mainstream acting success, Lorna certainly made her mark on 60s-cult-culture. Before finally sliding off into the unknown, Maitland used some of the money she earned during the 60s to fund the Autumn Records subsidiary Lorna Records. The label recorded "Baby Don't Do That" for the aforementioned Psyrcle. While she may be remembered by most for her bodacious bust-line, Maitland left another legacy: eternally disturbing auteur and weirdo, Russ Meyer.

Described as "intimidating" and known for sometimes terrorizing his casts during filming, Meyer couldn't have been a character that was easily shaken. Yet, over twenty years after working with her, Meyer was still telling interviewers "Lorna did a number on my head". Convinced that "she hated (his) guts", Meyer rarely had anything nice to say about his two-time leading lady. In a 1980 interview he mused to the UCLA Daily Bruin that "her tits must be down to her knees by now".

What accounts for such ire for so long? Some might chalk it up to the King of the Nudies being something of a grudge holder who was easily crossed. Others hint that perhaps Meyer unconsciously found Maitland a bit intimidating; standing at 5'9, she was one of the few truly Amazonian of his stacked-starlets. Perhaps his film's tagline was spot on and Lorna really was "too much for one man!", too much for even one Russ Meyer.

Want more Maitland?

Video and Images:

- Clip from Lorna (NSFW)
- Trailer for Mudhoney (NSFW)
- Lorna Maitland Tribute site, featuring several black and white photos (NSFW)

Further Reading:

-Throughly researched, and fast-paced read Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film; Jimmy McDonough,(2006)
-The incredibly detailed Russ Meyer-The Life and Films: ; David K. Frasier, (1990)
-The two-part article in contemporary lad-mag Fling, vol. 10 no.1/2 3-5/67, author is uncredited but it may have been Arv Miller