Tuesday, October 21, 2014

WOMEN OF HORROR: JOYCE JAMESON

ANOTHER "DIZZY BLONDE" WHO WAS IN REAL LIFE INTELLIGENT AND WELL-READ, JOYCE JAMESON HAS LONG BEEN A FAVOURITE OF MINE. 

Ever since I first saw her when I was a kid in one of my favourite films of all-time:  THE COMEDY OF TERRORS.  Jameson's comic timing was hilarious and she played brilliantly against Vincent Price's sociopathic Mr. Trumbull.  The beautifully written domestic argument scenes (from the pen of the great Richard Matheson) provided some of the funniest movie fights in cinema history.  Jameson's Amaryllis Trumbull evinces vulnerability as well as backbone who was also a match for her husband in the bickering department.  She was also walled up by Peter Lorre in "THE BLACK CAT" segment of Roger Corman's Poe omnibus TALES OF TERROR.  She was also the interviewer Grace Pander in DEATH RACE 2000.  And somewhere along the line she had time to enter Rod Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE and THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR as well as encountering Herman Munster, Sergeant Schultz and Scooby-Doo!  Joyce Jameson's pathway to the pantheon of the women of horror:
  • SON OF DR. JEKYLL (1951)
  • SCIENCE FICTION THEATER "The Human Circuit" (1956)
  • TALES OF TERROR (1962)
  • TWILIGHT ZONE "I Dream of Genie" (1963)
  • THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR "How To Get Rid of Your Wife" (1963)
  • THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1964)
  • THE MUNSTERS "Dance With Me, Herman" (1965)
  • THE MUNSTERS "Herman Picks a Winner" (1966)
  • THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "The Dippy Blonde Affair" (1966)
  • DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)
  • THE NEW SCOOBY AND SCRAPPY-DOO SHOW  (1983)

"Time for your medicine, old man!"
 
casting for "The Black Cat" segment of TALES OF TERROR with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price (and friends)
 
Peter Lorre is not the most attentive husband in TALES OF TERROR
 
an encounter with Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne)
 
walled up in TALES OF TERROR
 
Grace Pander gets the interview in DEATH RACE 2000
 
"Demon rum will get you yet!" - publicity shot from COMEDY OF TERRORS
 
 
TODAY'S "WOMEN OF HALLOWEEN" SONG ON MY AUDIO BLOG "BATHED IN THE LIGHT FROM ANDROMEDA" IS "IT'S A QUIET TOWN" BY BETTY GARRETT

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