Tweet

Shelley bonded big time with Curtis on the set of WHATS THE MATTER WITH HELEN, a project very much in the BABY JANE tradition, not a stretch considering the source material was from Henry Farrell who wrote the original. Hoping that lightening would strike twice, Shelley was paired with former musical-comedy star Debbie Reynolds, who would give the performance of her career in this film. While there was no duel of the divas like the fireworks caused by pairing Crawford and Davis in BABY JANE, both ladies had high hopes for the film’s success as BABY JANE had brought both its stars Oscar nominations, not to mention a share of the profits.

Unfortunately WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN was given no build-up whatsoever from Filmways so the film opened and closed without any publicity for the two stars, who got some of the best critical notices at that point in their careers.

Curtis was also livid that some idiot in the publicity department created a poster that gave the whole ending away. The offending one sheet had the temerity to show Debbie Reynolds as a corpse…can you imagine PSYCHO advertised with Janet Leigh’s dead body in the shower? It was that bad, and the whole experience would have buried a lesser director, yet Curtis continued to work even without that all important block buster that would admit him to the exalted realm of Hollywood players.

Shelley would work with Curtis once more, in England, on a project she personally brought to American International Pictures entitled THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE, a rather camp retelling of Hansel and Gretel with horror overtones. When it finally made the rounds stateside it was now known as WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO, to connect it once again to that sub-genre of once glamorous actresses of a certain age who wind up headlining in horror films. Curtis did it because Shelley asked for him personally. The perks were, of course, a trip to the UK and the joy of working with Sir Ralph Richardson, whom he adored. Curtis arranged for them to have lunch together every day during production. He absolutely hated Michael Gothard, whom AIP forced upon him after the actor’s favorable reviews in Gordon Hessler’s SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN. Gothard had also scored with a tour de force in Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS, yet Curtis found him unpleasant and difficult in the modest but key role of the sinister chauffeur. They squared off over Michael’s long hair, which he refused to cut until Curtis threatened to fire him. I always wondered why Curtis was never offered any of those Poe films American International was making at the time in England. Perhaps the lack of success with the aforementioned films sealed his fate with that company.

In 1983 I became involved with the making of a documentary about the Horror genre for PBS entitled THE HORROR OF IT ALL, working with a really wonderful producer, Gene Feldman, and his charming wife Susie. They filmed most of the interviews in my apt in Beverly Hills and I made sure Curtis was one of the talking heads in the finished product. Curtis had known the director James Whale towards the end of his life, which included a meeting in Paris where Curtis was studying film. Whale made a point of spending time with Curtis while on vacation there, encouraging the young filmmaker by presenting him with a gift of $500 to stay on in France and finish his studies (which included a monograph on Josef Von Sternberg, which was much quoted at the time it was printed). Curtis never forgot the generosity of James Whale; years later he would be instrumental in preserving one of Whale’s early thrillers at Universal, THE OLD DARK HOUSE, by scouting around the studio for the negative while shooting his only feature there, GAMES.

Actually he was fortunate to have gotten GAMES off the ground at all, as then-studio-head Lew Wasserman was not especially “into” nostalgia, famously nixing Curtis’s original casting choice of his idol, Von Sternberg”s leading lady, Marlene Dietrich. As Wasserman would explain to Curtis after he had already flown to Las Vegas to secure the services of his “dream actress,” “Dietrich is all yesterdays, and you need something more “Today.”” Ultimately Curtis would settle on the Oscar-winning actress of ROOM AT THE TOP, Simone Signoret, who unfortunately for Curtis was, at the time of filming, losing her husband (Yves Montand) to another woman (Marilyn Monroe) so her heart was not in the project at all. Marlene Dietrich would have placed his film into the realm of the sublime. However he did at least come away with something from the Vegas encounter. As he made his pitch to Dietrich in her dressing room, she realized that she was in the presence of a rabid fan, and asked him if he’d like one of her shoes. It was a memento he would always treasure.

THE HORROR OF IT ALL included appearances by such distinguished film personalities as John Carradine and the great director Rouben Mamoulian. My contribution was locating author Robert Bloch, Hammer Horror Queen Martine Beswicke, Roger Corman and of course Curtis. Another one of the interviewees was fifties producer/director Herman Cohen who had caused a sensation by bringing teenage monsters to the screen with titles like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN. We premiered the finished product on campus at USC to a packed house. Afterwards a panel was set up on stage for a Q&A. While I was there waiting to be seated between Curtis and Martine, Herman Cohen came walking down the aisle in the company of a handsome blonde boy in his early twenties. Before they came within earshot Curtis leaned over to me and whispered “David you do know about Herman and his “boys” don’t you?” Before I could say a another word Herman and the young man had made their way onto the stage and Herman introduced the lad by saying “I want you both to meet the next Robert Redford.” Curtis managed not to burst out laughing, but just barely. I lived for moments like that, and knowing Curtis there were many more to come.

Curtis Harrington was among the second wave of American avant-garde filmmakers to show promise after the end of WWII. He became fascinated with one of the true pioneers of experimental films, a legendary woman sometimes referred to as the High Priestess of experimental cinema, the great Maya Deren. Her first name can be interpreted as “illusion” in the Buddhist sense, her film MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON was a major influence on both Curtis and Kenneth Anger in their own short films of the period. Maya died in 1961 after an intense study of Voodoo in Haiti where her fascination turned to obsession. They say she even became a voudoun priestess while filming hours of rituals and dance enchantments before her untimely death. Both Kenneth Anger and Curtis Harrington would make their early experimental films under these influences, yet the two men were destined for very different paths in their personal lives as well as their careers.

At the end of 2004, The Getty Museum sponsored an evening honoring the most influential surviving filmmakers of avant garde experimental cinema; they chose Stan Brakhage, who came down from San Francisco, followed by Curtis Harrington and the most notorious of the three, Kenneth Anger. This was bound to be an event as many of us who knew these men well also knew that for years Kenneth and Curtis either were not speaking or feuding or both. If I may, at this point, I would like to offer the following observation based on my experiences with both of them. Curtis long ago gave up the avant garde to pursue a career in the very tough and real world of directing television for hire, and making the odd feature when the opportunity made itself known. End of story.

Kenneth on the other hand has spent a lifetime living one moment in wealth and privilege with rock stars and the rest of the time in poverty and chaos, a life I might add of his own making. Kenneth was and is a destructive personality. However, with less than four hours of film to his name over the last five decades, he is nonetheless an acknowledged World Class filmmaker whose body of work has influenced some of our premier directors around the world. He is somewhat of a genius. Having said this, it does not excuse the reckless and destructive behavior that is now his calling card.

Continue to page: 1 2 3