Monday, October 06, 2014

WOMEN OF HORROR: ELSA LANCHESTER

HORROR'S NEFIRTITI! 

Of course, everyone knows Elsa Lanchester's iconic (and surprisingly brief, for all it's impact) turn in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.  The monster desired a mate, all right, but she had other ideas!  With a hiss and a cracked screech, Elsa's Bride entered the top echelon of classic Universal monsters.  She also puttered around a spiral staircase, hobnobbed with glamourous modern-day witches and returned from the dead as a plant woman.  Elsa Lanchester's romp through the field of horror:
  • THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
  • THE GHOST GOES WEST (1935)
  • THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1945)
  • BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE  (1958)
  • BLACKBEARD'S GHOST (1968)
  • WILLARD (1971)
  • NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR (1971)
  • NIGHT GALLERY "Green Fingers"  (1972)

Glamour puss!
 
as the author Mary Shelley
 
puttering around THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE
 
with Colin Clive, Boris Karloff & Ernest Thesiger
 
publicity shot for BELL BOOK AND CANDLE
 
she returns in NIGHT GALLERY's "GREEN FINGERS"

a new movie poster designed by Martin Ansin
 
conjuring with fellow witches Kim Novak & Jack Lemmon in BELL BOOK & CANDLE
 
and I ask you very confidentially "Ain't she sweet"
 
 
TODAY'S "WOMEN OF HALLOWEEN" SONG ON MY AUDIO BLOG "BATHED IN THE LIGHT FROM ANDROMEDA" IS "SPOOKY" BY DUSTY SPRINGFIELD

2 comments:

jennypower said...

Have you read her biography? Her parents were really quite unconvential - she tells stories of her parents's involvement in the early suffragette movement, her affairs with Parisian dancers, I think she was a nanny for a time? That's before we even hit her film career. And she has such a wonderful voice, like she's telling you this all over drinks. She is a treasure.

Cerpts said...

You know, I've heard bits and pieces of her story and have always wanted to read her biography. Now I'm gonna have to seek it out!