Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Requiem for a B-Movie Actress

News came today that the body of actress and model Yvette Vickers, who played the floozy in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), was found dead in her home. She also starred in Attack of the Giant Leeches, which is as creepy a movie as you'll ever see - in a multitude of ways. In her memory and in honor of all the hard working actors and actresses that don't hit the big time, the 50 Foot Woman for Mystery Men!

The plot, from Wikipedia ...

A television announcer (Dale Tate) tells of people around the globe spotting a floating red ball. Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) is a wealthy but highly troubled woman. She has been speeding along the desert roads at night, fleeing her problems. A glowing ball settles on the highway in front of her. A giant reaches for her, but she runs back to town. No one believes in her story because of her drinking problem and having been institutionalized before. Her shifty husband (William Hudson) is more interested in his floozy (Yvette Vickers). Nonetheless, he pretends to be the good husband in hopes that Nancy will 'snap' and return to the 'booby hatch'. She convinces him to search the desert with her, looking for the "satellite". Eventually, they find it, and as the giant emerges Harry flees, leaving Nancy behind. Later, Nancy is found on the roof of her pool house. She has been sedated by her doctor. Harry thinks to give her a lethal injection of sedative, but when he goes up to her room, he finds she has grown into a giant.

The sheriff and Nancy's butler find and explore the alien's spherical ship. Seems the giant alien needs diamonds, perhaps fuel. The giant alien interrupts, wrecking their car, so they walk back. Nancy awakens and breaks free. Determined to find her wayward husband, she breaks through the roof of her house, and stomps off to town. In town, she takes the roof off the bar. A beam falls on the floozy, killing her. Nancy picks up Harry and walks away, The sheriff shoots at her to no apparent effect, but accidentally hits a power line transformer. The transformer blows up near Nancy and kills her, with Harry lying crushed in her hand.


2 comments:

  1. I hadn't gotten wind of this yet. Thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah - it's always sad to hear news like that, even if she wasn't a major star.

    ReplyDelete

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