![]() Having divorced Fregonese, Domergue then made three films in England, Ken Hughes's taut Timeslip (1955), Vernon Sewell's B-movie thriller Soho Incident (1956) in which she headed a gang of racketeers, and a disappointing crime film, Man in the Shadow (1957). When six GIs photograph a secret ceremony she puts a fatal curse on them, and they are then killed by the exotic snake-lady. My marriage to Hugo was breaking up - he was in Europe and I was in Hollywood." The bizarre tale cast Domergue as leader of an Asiatic cult of snake-worshippers, able to transform themselves into snakes at will. Universal had started the film with the actress Mari Blanchard but were unhappy with the footage and replaced her with Domergue, who later said, "That film was not a fond memory for me. The film also benefited from being one of the last shot in the three-strip Technicolor process.ĭomergue was a scientist again in Robert Gordon's It Came From Beneath the Sea, helping to destroy a giant octopus (created by Ray Harryhausen, who cut costs by giving his monster six arms instead of eight) which invades San Francisco.Īfter Santa Fe Passage ("with a wonderful director named William Witney who was the best director I've ever worked with"), Domergue was asked to take over the lead in Cult of the Cobra. Metaluna was constructed on Universal's old Phantom of the Opera stage, said to be the biggest in the world, while the film's giant mutant (which grapples with Domergue on the platform of the spaceship near the film's climax) showed the make-up expert Bud Westmore and his team at their most imaginative. "It has attained more popularity than anything else I've done," said the actress, "though such films are really for the technicians - actors take second place to them and the sets." ![]() What you see in the final version is bits and pieces of everything - but nothing of what Preston shot at all except a couple of long shots.ĭomergue was in three minor movies - Don Siegel's Duel at Silver Creek (1952), Lloyd Bacon's The Great Sioux Massacre (1953) and Stuart Heisler's This is My Love (1954) - and travelled extensively with Fregonese, by whom she had two children, before her most significant year in pictures, 1955, when she starred in This Island Earth, It Came From Beneath the Sea and Cult of the Cobra as well as the western Santa Fe Passage ("I don't think I had one day off in the whole of 1955!").Ĭonsidered one of the more intelligent science-fiction tales, Joseph Newman's This Island Earth (partly directed by Jack Arnold when Newman fell ill) featured Domergue as a scientist shanghaied with her colleagues to the alien planet Metaluna to help defend it from invasion. Unfortunately all of the performances that Max and I worked on were out the window. In 1947 Domergue had married the director Hugo Fregonese, and on completion of the film went with him to his native Argentina:īut we all were quite good. Two years later Hughes, having taken over RKO, shot more footage for the film (now retitled Vendetta), then hired Mel Ferrer (who received sole screen credit as director) to shoot six weeks of retakes. Stuart Heisler was hired, primarily to shoot close-ups, before the film was temporarily abandoned. When Hughes became aware of the situation, the company was dissolved and Sturges and Ophuls dismissed. ![]() The whole picture was supposed to be for my benefit and here it was all going down the drain. Actor Nigel Bruce became short- tempered and my leading man George Dolenz wanted to leave. So much hubris came into his actions, this arrogant pride. Just before we started shooting Howard had been piloting his plane and had crashed into a house and remained between life and death for weeks, so now Sturges had total control of the company and at this point he lost his bearing. Max would be allowed to say "Action!" and that was it - he was not allowed to say "Cut" or instruct any of the actors.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |