Larry Cohen

by Michael Doyle

  4. Karen Black (1939-2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter, whose career peaked in the 1970s with a succession of impressive roles. After training under Lee Strasburg at the Actors Studio, Black made her debut in You’re a Big Boy Now before going on to appear in Easy Rider (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1971), The Great Gatsby (1974), The Day of the Locust (1975), Trilogy of Terror (1975), Nashville (1975), Burnt Offerings (1976), Capricorn One (1978), Invaders from Mars (1986), and House of 100 Corpses (2001). Twice the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, she was also nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Five Easy Pieces.

  CHAPTER 19: A RETURN TO SALEM’S LOT (1987)

  1. Paul Monash wrote the teleplay for Salem’s Lot (1979).

  2. Clint Walker (born Norman Eugene Walker in 1927) is a retired American actor, best known for his role as Cheyenne Bodie in the television series Cheyenne.

  3. Amongst his credits as an actor, Sam Fuller appeared in The Last Movie (1971) for Dennis Hopper; The American Friend (1977), Hammett (1982), The State of Things (1982) and The End of Violence (1997) for Wim Wenders; 1941 (1979) for Steven Spielberg; The Blood of Others (1984) for Claude Chabrol; Sons (1990) and Somebody To Love (1994) for Alexandre Rockwell; and Golem, le jardin pétrifié (1993) and Metamorphosis of a Melody (1996) for Amos Gitai.

  4. Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1971) was a Burlesque entertainer famed for her striptease act. The musical Gypsy: A Musical Fable (first performed on Broadway in 1959) was derived from her 1957 memoir and featured lyrics by Jule Styne and music by Stephen Sondheim. Her sister, June Havoc (1912-2010), wrote her own memoirs, Early Havoc (1959) and More Havoc (1980), after being displeased with the manner in which she was portrayed in the musical. This led to the siblings becoming estranged for many years, but they finally reconciled in 1970, shortly before Lee’s death of lung cancer at the age of fifty-nine.

  5. Tara Reid (b.1975) is an American actress. She later appeared in The Big Lebowski (1998), Urban Legend (1998), American Pie (1999), Dr. T & the Women (2000), Josie and the Pussycats (2002), Van Wilder (2002), My Boss’s Daughter (2003), Alone in the Dark (2005), American Reunion (2012), Sharknado (2013), and Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014).

  6. Terence Fisher’s Dracula (1958) was released in the United States as Horror of Dracula.

  7. The annotated version of Dracula Cohen alludes to is most likely Leonard Wolf’s The Annotated Dracula (1975), later published in a revised edition as The Essential Dracula (1994).

  8. After her efforts on Run of the Arrow (1957) and China Gate (1957) for Sam Fuller, Angie Dickinson’s subsequent career credits include Rio Bravo, Ocean’s 11 (1960), The Sins of Rachel Cade, The Killers (1964), The Chase (1966), Point Blank (1967), Young Billy Young, Big Bad Mama (1974), Dressed To Kill (1980), Death Hunt, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994), Sabrina, Pay It Forward (1999), Duets (2000), and Big Bad Love (2001). Dickinson also starred in the successful television series Police Woman, which ran for five seasons on NBC from September 13, 1974, until March 29, 1978.

  CHAPTER 20: THE MANIAC COP TRILOGY (1988-1993)

  1. William Lustig’s Maniac (1980) is a notorious grindhouse slasher film starring Joe Spinell as Frank Zito, a psychopathic serial killer who murders and scalps young women.

  2. Tom Atkins (b.1935) has appeared in The Fog (1979), The Ninth Configuration (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Creepshow (1982), Night of the Creeps (1986), Lethal Weapon (1987), Two Evil Eyes (1990), Bob Roberts (1992), Striking Distance (1993), Bruiser (2001), My Bloody Valentine (2009), and Drive Angry (2012). His TV appearances include a recurring role in The Rockford Files (1974-77), as well as guest turns on Rhoda, Hawaii Five-O, Lou Grant, M*A*S*H, Quincy M.E., Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Oz.

  3. Sheree North died on November 4, 2005, during cancer surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was seventy-three years old.

  4. Bruce Campbell (b.1958) has achieved lasting cult status for his role as Ash in Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1982) and its sequels, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992). His other credits include Crimewave (1984), Moontrap (1989), Darkman (1990), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1990), Lunatics: A Love Story (1991), Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992), Mindwarp (1992), Congo (1995), Escape from L.A., Fargo (1996), The Majestic (2001), Spider-Man, Bubba Ho-Tep (2003), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), and Cars 2.

  5. The actor originally hired to voice the sniper in Phone Booth was Ron Eldard.

  6. Gretchen Becker plays the stricken cop Kate Sullivan in Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence. Her other credits include The Doors (1991), Dream Lover (1993), and Ed Wood (1994).

  CHAPTER 21: WICKED STEPMOTHER (1989)

  1. Lucille Ball (1911-1989) was an American actress, comedian, and studio executive, and the star of the phenomenally successful CBS sitcoms I Love Lucy (1951-1957), The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960), The Lucy Show (1962-1968), and Here’s Lucy (1968-1974). After the failure of Life with Lucy (1986), Ball never again committed to making another sitcom and died a month after presenting an award with Bob Hope at the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony.

  2. Carol Burnett (b.1933) is an American actress, comedian and singer. She is best known for starring in the variety show The Carol Burnett Show, which ran on CBS for eleven seasons from September 11, 1967, until March 29, 1978. Burnett’s film roles include Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), A Wedding (1978), The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008).

  3. Phone Call from a Stranger (1952) is a portmanteau drama directed by Jean Negulesco that revolves around the survivor of a plane crash (essayed by Bette Davis’ real-life fourth husband Gary Merrill) who calls the three families of the dead passengers with whom he became acquainted with on the doomed flight. Davis plays the relatively small supporting role of Maria Hoke, the bedridden wife of a deceased travelling salesman (played by Keenan Wynn).

  4. Now, Voyager (1942), Bette Davis’ most commercially successful film of the 1940s and the first of four collaborations with director Irving Rapper, is a romantic melodrama about a repressed young woman who is driven to an emotional breakdown by her tyrannical mother (Gladys Cooper). After recovering at a sanatorium, her psychiatrist (Claude Rains) recommends a cruise — during which she begins a bittersweet romance with an unhappily married architect (Paul Henreid). The classic “cigarette scene” resulted in Henreid receiving requests for many years afterwards from female fans to light their cigarettes for them in the manner he had for Davis.

  5. Based on the play by David Berry, The Whales of August (1987) concerns Sarah, a former actress in silent films (played by ninety-one year-old Lillian Gish), and her disagreeable blind sister, Libby (Bette Davis), whom she cares for. Both reside at a seaside house in Maine, where the elderly widows reflect on their lives and the memories of past summers they shared in the company of their long-deceased husbands. A delicate change of pace for director Lindsay Anderson, the film is a beautifully restrained and contemplative drama that offers viewers a chance to see two Hollywood legends share the screen together (and also throws Vincent Price into the mix as a charming Russian exile who befriends the women).

  6. Mommie Dearest is a notorious memoir and expose written by Christine Crawford, the adopted daughter of Joan Crawford (1904-1977). First published in November 1978 by William Marrow & Co, the book details the author’s childhood and her troubled relationship with her mother. It contains allegations that Joan inflicted emotional and physical abuse on Christine and her brother, Christopher. Many friends such as Marlene Dietrich, Van Johnson, Katherine Hepburn, Myrna Loy, and Crawford’s long-serving secretary, Bette Barker, denounced the book; others such as Helen Hayes, Rex Reed, James McArthur, Betty Hutton, and June Allyson claimed to have witnessed acts of child cruelty. In 1981, Mommie Dearest was made into a campy biographical film of the same name that was met with mixed reviews but considerable box office success. Directe
d by Frank Perry, it starred Faye Dunaway as Crawford and Diana Scarwid as Christina.

  7. B.D. Hyman (b.1947) is the adopted daughter of Bette Davis and her third husband, William Grant Sherry. She made brief appearances in her mother’s films, Payment on Demand (1951) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962). Hyman actually wrote two books chronicling her difficult relationship with her mother, My Mother’s Keeper (1985) and Narrow is the Way (1987).

  8. The film Cohen brings up here is Bunny O’Hare (1971), directed by Gerd Oswald. An embarrassingly misjudged comedy that is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, the bizarre plot concerns an ageing, penniless widow (Bette Davis), who blackmails an ageing career criminal (Ernest Borgnine) into teaching her how to be a bank robber. Davis famously sued American International Pictures for their heavy-handed post-production tampering with the film.

  INTERMISSION: THE HEAVY (1990)

  1. John Carradine (1906-1988) was born Richmond Reed Carradine in New York, the son of an artist and a surgeon. A prolific character actor, he made his debut in the play Camille, which was staged in a New Orleans theatre in 1925. Arriving in Hollywood two years later, Carradine made his cinematic debut in Tol’able David (1930) under the name Peter Richmond. With his lanky frame, gaunt face, and rich baritone voice, Carradine cut a distinctive figure and capably maintained a successful stage career in classical Shakespearean roles whilst also appearing in movies such as The Invisible Man (1933) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for James Whale. Carradine was also counted amongst “The John Ford Stock Company”, working with the legendary director no less than ten times on Mary of Scotland (1936), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), The Hurricane (1937), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Last Hurrah (1958), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Although he delivered a number of accomplished performances throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Carradine began appearing in an increasing number of horror films and quickly became associated with the genre. His résumé from this period includes The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), Captive Wild Women (1943), Revenge of the Zombies (1943), Voodoo Man (1944), The Mummy’s Ghost (1941), House of Frankenstein (1944), and House of Dracula (1945). His later genre credits include The House of Seven Corpses (1972), The Sentinel (1976), Shock Waves (1977), Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977), The Howling, House of Long Shadows (1982) and Evil Spawn (1987). Married four times and the father of five sons (including actors David, Keith and Robert), Carradine once famously summed up his own career thusly: “I’ve made some of the greatest films ever made — and a lot of crap, too!”

  2. Quotes taken from “Talk of the Town,” John W. Wilson, Los Angeles Times (Nov. 11, 1990).

  3. Keith Carradine (b.1949) can be seen in films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Thieves Like Us (1974), Nashville (1975), The Duellists (1977), Pretty Baby (1978), The Long Riders (1980), Southern Comfort (1981), Choose Me (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Wild Bill (1995), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and Cowboys and Aliens (2010). He has also played recurring roles on television series such as Deadwood, Complete Savages, Dexter, Damages, Missing, and Fargo. Carradine’s song “I’m Easy,” which featured in Nashville, won him an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

  CHAPTER 22: THE AMBULANCE (1991)

  1. Archibald “Archie” Andrews is a fictional comic book character created by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana who debuted in Pep Comics #22 in December, 1941. A clumsy, red-haired teenager living in the small town of Riverdale, his exploits and capers mostly revolve around his best friend, Jughead Jones, and the love triangle that exists between Archie and two beautiful local girls, Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper. The adult Archie was dramatically killed off in the July 2014 issue of Life with Archie, fatally shot in the stomach whilst trying to protect his gay friend, Kevin Keller.

  2. The TV series Cohen mentions here is Northern Exposure, an extended fish-out-of-water story that concerned a Jewish physician (Rob Morrow) from New York, who is sent to the remote Alaskan town of Cicely to repay a student loan. Whilst there, he encounters a parade of quirky residents and experiences a series of amusing culture shocks. The show ran on CBS for six seasons and 110 episodes from July 12, 1990, until July 26, 1995.

  3. The Great White Hope is a play by Howard Sackler (1999-1982) that opened on Broadway on October 8, 1968 at The Alvin Theatre. Running for 546 performances, the production starred James Earl Jones as the fictional boxer Jack Jefferson (based on the former heavyweight world champion Jack Johnson), a man struggling against the constraints and inequities of society. It was adapted into a 1970 film by Martin Ritt, with Jones and co-star Jane Alexander resuming their stage roles. Both received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress, losing to George C. Scott for Patton and Glenda Jackson for Women in Love, respectively.

  4. Fences by August Wilson (1945-2005) was the playwright’s second play to go to Broadway and was first performed in 1983 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Seeking to write about African-American experiences in twentieth century America, Fences begins in 1957 after the Korean War and ends in 1965 with the advent of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. The focus of the play is Troy Maxson, a talented baseball player in his youth, who was unable to play Major League Baseball due to being incarcerated for an accidental murder (and the fact that “color separation” still existed in the sport). Now an embittered, hard-headed garbage-man in his early fifties struggling to provide for his loved ones, his resentments threaten to destabilise his family. Fences won Wilson the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1987 Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor (James Earl Jones) and Best Actress (Mary Alice).

  5. The TV series Cohen hints at here is possibly The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, which ran for seventeen episodes on CBS in 1966, and starred Red Buttons in the titular role.

  6. Wesley Addy (1913-1996) was an American actor. His film roles include The Garment Jungle (1957), Seconds (1966), Mr. Buddwing (1966), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Network (1976), The Verdict (1982), The Bostonians (1984), A Modern Affair (1995), and Before and After (1996). A favorite of Robert Aldrich’s, Addy appeared in Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Ten Seconds to Hell (1959), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), 4 For Texas (1963), Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), and The Grissom Gang (1971) for the director.

  CHAPTER 23: AS GOOD AS DEAD (1995)

  1. Traci Lords (b.1968) is an American actress, model and singer. Born and raised in Ohio as Nora Louise Kuzma, Lords’ initial notoriety came from her underage performances in pornographic films between 1984 and 1986. Her “legitimate” résumé includes Not of This Earth (1988), Cry Baby (1990), The Tommyknockers, Serial Mom (1994), Virtuosity (1995), Blade (1998), Zack and Mira Make a Porno (2008), and Excision (2012). Lords has also appeared in television shows, such as MacGyver, Married…with Children, Melrose Place, Profiler, The Gilmore Girls, and Will & Grace. Her autobiography, Traci Lords: Underneath It All, was published in 2003.

  2. Wings is an American sitcom that ran on NBC for eight seasons and 172 episodes from April 19, 1990, until May 21, 1997. Created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, the show concerns the fictional Tom Nevers Field Airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the Hackett brothers, Joe (Tim Daly) and Brian (Steven Weber), operate Sandpiper Air. Crystal Bernard played the brothers’ friend, Helen, who eventually married Joe during the sixth season.

  3. Please see the credits section for a rundown of the crew people on As Good As Dead.

  CHAPTER 24: ORIGINAL GANGSTAS (1996)

  1. Charles Napier (1936-2011) began his career by appearing in the Russ Meyer productions Cherry, Harry & Raquel (1970), Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), The Seven Minutes (1971), and Supervixens (1975). His later credits include The Blues Brothers (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Something Wild (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), Deep Space (1988), The
Grifters (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Philadelphia (1993), The Cable Guy (1996), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Lords of Dogtown (2005), and One-Eyed Monster (2008).

  2. Wings Hauser (b.1947) has appeared in Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978), Vice Squad (1982), Deadly Force (1983), Mutant (1984), A Soldier’s Story (1984), Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling (1986), Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987), The Carpenter (1988), Dead Man Walking (1988), Beastmaster II: Through the Portal of Time (1991), Watchers 2 (1994), Tales from the Hood (1995), The Insider (1999) Savage Season (2001), The Stone Angel (2007), and Rubber (2010).