I'm going to get it out of my system so this entire article isn't about me gushing about Sue Lyon, but I am not made of stone. With only two previous acting roles, she was cast in the lead of Stanley Kubrick's Lolita at just 14 years old. The book's writer, Vladmir Nabokov, who also wrote the screenplay and said that she was the "perfect nymphet." Compounding his cringe was that he wanted the 12-year-old Catherine Demongeot to play the role. Man, dudes were weird about this movie - Otto Preminger would not permit Jill Haworth to take the lead nor would Walt Disney let Hayley Mills, even not allowing her to see the movie - and I would like to think things are different, but no, they aren't.
Now back to me waxing on and on about Sue Lyon.
After winning the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female and releasing a single on MGM - "Lolita Ya Ya" which was written by Nelson Riddle - Lyon would later say that her life fell apart early: "My destruction as a person dates from that movie. Lolita exposed me to temptations no girl of that age should undergo. I defy any pretty girl who is rocketed to stardom at 14 in a sex nymphet role to stay on a level path thereafter."
She signed a seven-year professional services contract to Kubrick, producer James B. Harris and production company Seven Arts Productions, making The Night of the Iguana, 7 Women, The Flim-Flam Man and Tony Rome before being released from her deal. She went to Italy in 1970 to make Four Rode Out and Evel Knievel before two of her marriages - the first to African American football player Roland Harrison in 1971 just four years after interracial marriage was passed by the Supreme Court and another in 1973 to imprisoned murderer Cotton Adamson - ruined her box office appeal, at least to people in the U. S.
At this point, she started making Spanish genre movies like this and Murder in a Blue World, a wild ripoff of A Clockwork Orange starring a Kubrick ingenue. She also made the TV movie Smash-Up on Interstate 5 and Charles Band films such as Crash! And End of the World as well as the baffling The Astral Factor and the last movie she'd make, Alligator.
In this film, Lyon draws on her sex appeal as she plays Angela, a woman who has married a rich older blind man named Arthur (Fernando Rey) for his money. It's a pretty good deal because she gets a life of luxury and also gets to take advantage of the attractive young hired help in Marc (Christian Hay), who actually set the whole thing up.
You know who isn't happy with this motorcycle-riding, tarot-dealing blonde American taking her man Marc? One of the other servants, Natalie (Gloria Grahame, Mansion of the Doomed).
Also known as Autopsy - no, not that Autopsy - as well as Game of Murder, Angela and The Magician, this was directed by José María Forqué (he also wrote Un omicidio perfetto a termine di legge and directed It's Nothing Mama, Just a Game), who wrote the story with James M. Fox (Stoney) and Rafael Azcona.
Lest you think that this is all high class, inserts with Claudine Beccarie were added to the French version. And hey, when else can you see a classic film noir actress like Grahame act in a quasi-giallo with Anne Libert, the Queen of the Night from A Virgin Among the Living Dead?
Now back to me waxing on and on about Sue Lyon.
After winning the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female and releasing a single on MGM - "Lolita Ya Ya" which was written by Nelson Riddle - Lyon would later say that her life fell apart early: "My destruction as a person dates from that movie. Lolita exposed me to temptations no girl of that age should undergo. I defy any pretty girl who is rocketed to stardom at 14 in a sex nymphet role to stay on a level path thereafter."
She signed a seven-year professional services contract to Kubrick, producer James B. Harris and production company Seven Arts Productions, making The Night of the Iguana, 7 Women, The Flim-Flam Man and Tony Rome before being released from her deal. She went to Italy in 1970 to make Four Rode Out and Evel Knievel before two of her marriages - the first to African American football player Roland Harrison in 1971 just four years after interracial marriage was passed by the Supreme Court and another in 1973 to imprisoned murderer Cotton Adamson - ruined her box office appeal, at least to people in the U. S.
At this point, she started making Spanish genre movies like this and Murder in a Blue World, a wild ripoff of A Clockwork Orange starring a Kubrick ingenue. She also made the TV movie Smash-Up on Interstate 5 and Charles Band films such as Crash! And End of the World as well as the baffling The Astral Factor and the last movie she'd make, Alligator.
In this film, Lyon draws on her sex appeal as she plays Angela, a woman who has married a rich older blind man named Arthur (Fernando Rey) for his money. It's a pretty good deal because she gets a life of luxury and also gets to take advantage of the attractive young hired help in Marc (Christian Hay), who actually set the whole thing up.
You know who isn't happy with this motorcycle-riding, tarot-dealing blonde American taking her man Marc? One of the other servants, Natalie (Gloria Grahame, Mansion of the Doomed).
Also known as Autopsy - no, not that Autopsy - as well as Game of Murder, Angela and The Magician, this was directed by José María Forqué (he also wrote Un omicidio perfetto a termine di legge and directed It's Nothing Mama, Just a Game), who wrote the story with James M. Fox (Stoney) and Rafael Azcona.
Lest you think that this is all high class, inserts with Claudine Beccarie were added to the French version. And hey, when else can you see a classic film noir actress like Grahame act in a quasi-giallo with Anne Libert, the Queen of the Night from A Virgin Among the Living Dead?