Sleaze Blender: Slash-Mess Day 12: Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde (1971)

On the 12th Day of Slash-Mess my true love gave to me - one mixed up movie.

Merry Slash-Mess! On this, the 12th Day of Slash-Mess, the Sleaze-A-Saurus presents: Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde (1971).

Oh, unwary manlings! Your so-called "Sexual Revolution" pathetically epitomized your lack of clear identity within your own confused culture. The Sleaze-A-Saurus, being it's own self-contained civilization, scoffs at your befuddled attempts to re-arrange the role of your bifurcated species loins. This self-inflicted confusion has never been more apparent then in Roy Ward Baker's Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde (1971).

Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde's director was Ray Ward Baker. Baker was something of a legend in his own right which explains his knack for turning B-movie material into a thought-provoking film. Early in his career, Baker worked as an Assistant Director for Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938) before WWII turned vast areas of urban England into war torn rubble.

Baker signed up for the British Army Kinematograph Unit, a news reel production unit - the American Signal Corp being the American counterpart and documented battles against the Nazi's as well as the bombing campaigns in his home country. The experience undoubtedly shaped his future view of humanity as he went onto direct dozens of horror and suspense movies and television shows.

Selected Filmography:
The October Man (1947)
The Weaker Sex (1948)
Paper Orchid (1949)
Morning Departure (1950)
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
Inferno (1953)
Jacqueline (1956)
Tiger in the Smoke (1956)
The Singer Not the Song (1961)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
The Anniversary (1968)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
Asylum (1972)
The Vault of Horror (1973)

Roy Baker Ward published his memoirs Director's Cut: A Memoir of 60 Years in Filmat the age of 86 in 2002. In October of 2010, Ward reached the end of his remarkable life in London passing away of natural causes.

References:
IMDB, Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde (1971)
Wikipedia, Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde
Wikipedia, Roy Ward Baker
Imperial War Museum, Roy Ward Baker

Corridor Of Blog Tags:

Actors:

Featuring the legendary Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price and Brad Dourif.

Actresses:

Galleries and bios about the adorably sexy Bettie Page, scream queen Barbera Steele, busty cheesecake goddesses, pinkie violence kitten Reiko Ike and the queen of late night soft-core: Nikki Fritz.

Flicks:

Screwed-up reviews of the most tasteless movies ever unleashed including Blackenstein and Robot Monster! Guest bloggers take on They Eat Scum, The Stuff and more!

Models:

Beautiful women of stage and screen including Bettie Page, Bernie Dexter, Vikki Blows and Sabina Kelly.

Twilight Zone Guide:

The series that brought sci-fi and horror to mainstream television. Featuring Rod Serling, Charlie Bronson, Burgess Meredith and Lee Marvin.

Directors: Barry Mahon

Barry Mahon,1921-1999, infamous B-Movie director was born in Bakersfield CA. and enlisted in 1941 as an Royal Air Force fighter pilot. Mahon was a POW in WWII, shot down in the English Channel while raiding the Nazi occupied port of Dieppe in France during Operation Jubilee. He escaped through prisoner dug tunnels with 76 other airmen at Stalag Luft III only to be re-captured on the Czechoslovakian border. The real life story would later be the basis of the David Lean's Great Escape (1963).

After World War II ended, he became engrossed in Hollywood even acting as Errol Flynn's personal pilot years before lauching a directorial role with Cuban Rebel Girls (1959) - a campy adult thriller starring Flynn.

His filmography includes exploitation golden nuggets 1,000 Shapes of Female (1963) and The Beast That Killed Women (1965) both defined the worst films of the Times Square spankcore genre.

Reference:
Operation Jubilee, Dieppe France 1942
RAF 71st Squadron
Barry Mahon, IMDB
Wikipedia, Barry Mahon

Actors: Arch Hall Jr.

Arch Hall Jr., 1943- , best known as the slack-jawed guffawing Sadist (1963) and Eegah (1962) co-star was a teen actor and singing sensation in the 1950's as loosely retold in Wild Guitar (1962).

His father was Arch Hall Sr. (aka William Watters ) whose production company Fairway International Films cranked out Z-Grade gems like Choppers (1961) starring a young Jack Nicholson. More often than not these flicks featured his son Arch who more interested in being a rock 'n roll musician.

In 1967, he hung up his ruff and switchblade and took up airline and cargo piloting - something he did until he retired in 2003.

Word from the Wikipedia is that a PA. documentary company shot video in 2006 about the Halls and Fairway Films. Whether it's schedueled for a theatrical or video release or not is still unknown.

References:
Choppers (1961)
Wild Guitar (1962)
The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961)
Arch Hall Sr. on IMDB

Famous Monsters of Sleazeland:

Robot Monster (1953)

Taglined with "Horror so incredible it stretches the mind of Man beyond the breaking point!" This Ro-man vs. the last 6 Hu-mans on Earth epic stretches more than the average person's patience for gorilla suits and diving helmets. A classic!

It Conquered the World (1956)

"Hey lady, that's not in the script!" Roger Corman's 10th film (10th of 385 and counting...), a Lee Van Cleef vehicle prior to his comeback in spaghetti westerns.

Monster on Campus (1958)

Aka Big Monster on Campus, Jack Arnold's classic one monster love affair with chronic fear of commitment and school shooters.

The Ghost (1962)

Sequel to The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock, another Poe derived Mario Brava production, features a Dr. Mabuse-like (Langian?) atmosphere of suspicion, poison, demonic possession, and greedy lovers. Starring the adorably evil Barbara Steele in one hell of a role. FYI, there are dozens of hacked up versions of this release.

Eegah! (1962)

Richard "Jaws" Kiel as the misunderstood (and also club wielding) cro-mag Eegah!

Equinox (1970)

Student film for Dennis Muren (Jurassic Park, Star Wars) and screened by Ray Harryhausen himself. In this scene, Ranger Asmodeus ain't takin' kindly to no face sucking.