B-Movie Beauties Photo Gallery

[herbsmall]

Can we really call "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" or "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" B movies? "Golden Voyage" was low budget, all right (under a million in early '70s dollars) but it took in $11 million. That would be a box office of $67 million today on a budget of $6.1 million. Okay, "Phibes" was even lower budget (under $500K) but grossed $3 million. That would be a $3 million budget and an $18.4 million box office today. B movies by budget, but not by quality.

Well, if I didn't call them B-movies, then I couldn't have posted Caroline Munro. You wouldn't have wanted me to left her out, would you? Just kidding, although maybe I should have called the thread "Cult movie beauties."

Seriously, though, I don't mean to insult the films I've mentioned by calling them B-movies. Quite the contrary.....I think a lot of the old lower budget movies were much more inventive because they had to cover up their lack of dollars. Has there ever been a more effective horror movie than the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it was made for under $100,000? I've seen a lot of movies that had the exact same plot as Haunting Fear, with much bigger budgets, that weren't nearly as effective because Haunting Fear was so much better acted and just so much darn fun. I don't know exactly how much it made, but I've read Fred Olen Ray say he made a tidy profit on it.

Plus, even though she hasn't been posted yet, there isn't a bigger Brinke Stevens fan than I am. In the 1970s and 80s, there seemed to be a backlash against sexy actresses for some reason, and I really think that is why Brinke isn't a bigger star. If you watch Grandmother's House or Haunting Fear, Brinke is a HELL of a lot better actress than most of her main stream counterparts, but she was pigeonholed....and in my opinion it was because she was just too sexy. If you look back over the postings, don't most of you think that the ladies I've posted were much more beautiful than the mainstream stars of the 70s and 80s? Now, I'll admit a few of these ladies got by on their looks and couldn't act, but a few of these girls I've posted were decent to good actresses as well....and Brinke has come close to being a great actress when she had the right material....and she is better looking than, well, anybody and everybody.

[MadMax359]

I see no problem with posting Beauties that are no longer with us, gone but not forgotten

[herbsmall]

Hi guys. I'm posting a little early this week. I hope that doesn't throw anybody off.
This time, I thought I would feature a couple of actresses (and their directors) who made several B-movies, although their entire careers were overshadowed by one absolutely brilliant film.

I mentioned Texas Chainsaw Massacre in my last post, so here is a look at its star, Marilyn Burns. Chainsaw did set the template for many of the horror films that followed it, and, according to several of the obituaries I read for Ms. Burns when she passed away recently, Ms. Burns was the first of the “final girls” who became a very welcome cliche in the horror films of the 1970s and 80s. I do apologize that I couldn’t find any “sexier” pictures of her, but most of the stuff I found was from Chainsaw. Still, I couldn’t not do a post of her because I love Chainsaw so much and she is so integral to its effectiveness.

Chainsaw is a brilliant film that has shockingly little gore, managing its frights through atmosphere and Ms. Burns harrowing performance is a large reason why. However, as much as I’ve heard about what a difficult shoot the film was, there is a school of thought that by the end of the film, Ms. Burns craziness may not have all been acting. The close-up shots of her eyes during the dinner sequence really give the viewer a clear picture of the insanity that her character is enduring and that she is now going crazy herself.

If she had a bad experience on the film, she didn’t let it stop her from appearing in Hooper’s follow up to Chainsaw, Eaten Alive. For those of you who might like to see her in something a little more revealing, I do seem to recall that she stripped down to a slip in Eaten Alive. As he did in Chainsaw, director Tobe Hooper had Ms. Burns bound and gagged again. I read that Ms. Burns was actually supposed to have a nude scene in Eaten Alive, but after Hooper was fired before the film was completed (something that would happen to him several times over the course of his career), Ms. Burns got to direct the scene herself and managed to avoid doing the nudity. That is just as well. I only want the ladies to show off if they want to. Anyway, I’ve never read what parts Hooper did and didn’t direct, but watching the movie, the scenes he didn’t direct are pretty obvious, because they are quite static and lack the flair that Hooper had. Whatever personal problems he had that caused him to keep getting fired, Hooper was a skilled director. Eaten Alive is actually an entertaining utterly bizarre B-horror film as long as you don’t try to compare it to the utter brilliance of Chainsaw.

After Eaten Alive, Ms. Burns did appear in the TV movie Helter Skelter, about the Manson killings, which is her most mainstream work. I’m surprised that didn’t launch her to stardom. However, after that she appeared in Kiss Daddy Goodbye, which appeared on Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Actually, that was the first place I ever saw her, since my parents didn’t let me watch R-rated movies, and I only saw Chainsaw once I got to college. She then re-teamed with Chainsaw co-star Edwin Neal in Future Kill. Other than that, her career mostly seems to have consisted of cameos in movies in the Chainsaw franchise.

As for Hooper, he directed the TV movie of Stephen King’s Salem Lot and had a hit with Poltergeist, although rumors abound that he was fired from it and producer Steven Spielberg actually finished the movie. I actually love Hooper’s Lifeforce, but I don’t know of anyone else that likes it. When Hooper directed Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, instead of making a horror film, he made a flat-out comedy. A lot of viewers were disappointed with it, but since Chainsaw had been cloned so many times, I admire that Hooper and company did try something different and do appreciate its zaniness. Since then, Hooper released a string of stinkers and I don’t know if he ever recovered. To be honest, he made about five or six movies in the 80s and 90s that were so bad that I quit watching his films. As a trivia tidbit, he was the first director attached to Spider-Man when the movie was first announced in the 1980s. He also was supposed to direct the cult classic Return of the Living Dead, but was replaced on it as well.

[herbsmall]

texas_chainsaw_massacre_1_bust_01.jpg

I went with an Italian and a Japanese movie poster for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, since the US poster had Marilyn Burns' co-star Terri McMinn instead of her. The Italian title translates to "Don't Open That Door" which is nowhere near as catchy a title as Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'll bet that Texas Chainsaw Massacre wouldn't have been as big a hit if it had been released under one of its working titles, Head Cheese.

[herbsmall]

Next up is Barbara Crampton, who is, of course, best known for Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator. She will always be remembered for the scene where she’s strapped naked to a table and a decapitated doctor who is carrying his head in a tray tries to have his way with her. Re-Animator is one of the best of the horror comedies that were so prevalent in the 80s, and, although it would be hard to top, she also appeared in such B-films as Fraternity Vacation, Jim Wynorski’s Chopping Mall, From Beyond and Castle Freak. Those last two were directed by Stuart Gordon as well.

However, Ms. Crampton abandoned the B-movie world for what I can guess was the far more lucrative world of starring in soap operas. As for Stuart Gordon, he has continued to work in horror films, but in the midst of them he wrote the screenplay for the Disney film, Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

[herbsmall]

More pics of Ms. Crampton

[herbsmall]

I had a little extra time this week, so I thought I would do another round. However, just this once, I'm going to skip the actresses and focus on a pair of B-movie hostesses.

I think one reason those of us who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s had such an appreciation for B-movies is that there were several TV shows showcasing them, including Elvira's Movie Macabre, USA Up All Night and Joe Bob's Drive-In Theatre. Joe Bob's show was probably the funniest, but if you want some pictures of him....Well, you'll have to post them yourself.

Anyway, here is Elvira, as played by Cassandra Peterson. Cassandra did have at least one B-movie acting credit, as a stripper in director Stephanie Rothman's Working Girls.

Here is Cassandra dressed as Elvira

[herbsmall]

Elvira UNDRESSED as Cassandra

[Fred588]

She looks very different, but that's definitely her. I say keep these coming.

[herbsmall]

Rhonda Shear hosted USA Up All Night on Fridays and Gilbert Gottfried hosted it on Saturdays. We're just going to look at Rhonda, though. I've always been grateful to Up All Night because it is where I first discovered Brinke Stevens!

Rhonda starred in the movie Basic Training (as a brunette) before Up All Night and also appeared alongside Scream Queens Linnea Quigley (and don't worry guys. I will do a Linnea post in the future) and Michelle Bauer in Assault of the Party Nerds 2. . At one time, she was Miss Louisiana.