Bonjour my lovely isotopes--the time has come for my next film event, this time another ode to those intriguing staples of the film noir, femme fatales. Our last venture into celebrating women in film noir was an Ida Lupino double feature of Moontide (1942) in which she starred and The Hitch-Hiker (1953), which she directed. When referencing women in noir, Ida Lupino, I will admit, is not the most exciting, though her involvement in the male dominated genre is important to mention. Returning to the intriguing theme of women in noir, I would like to showcase a woman discussed much less, a woman considered to be one of the more moderately successful B-noir actresses, Coleen Gray. Now, as a cinephile, I will admit, I could invite you all to sit and orally masturbate all over screenings of The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Touch of Evil (1957) among other more well known noirs, but I like to live dangerously and make you watch movies you might never watch on your own. Now, I have had a curious interest in Ms. Gray since I was a young boy being breast fed on Mystery Science Theater 3000, but even more insanely intriguing is the fact that Coleen Gray graduated from the same University I did (albeit in the 1940's) and yes, that would be Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. And I believe she's still alive, though she became one of those irritating people that testified in front of Congress in an appeal to keep prayer in school --- but let's forget about her possible icky religious ideations (and all the assumptions I don't want to make) and focus on two of the better Gray pictures. As I had planned to do a Kubrick double feature (but most of his films are a bit long to expect a whole group of patient friends and loved ones to sit through, even if they are unwittingly medicated) this Gray double feature upholds part of that plan with our first showing of the evening, Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). One of my personal favorite noirs (and what I think is Kubrick's best American feature) The Killing is about an elaborate racetrack robbery and most miraculously of all, manages to make Sterling Hayden interesting. Coleen Gray is his girlfriend in a rather minor role. Poor Coleen, in some of her more minor noir work she tends to chew the scenery a little (see Kiss of Death - 1947 or some goofy histrionics as John Wayne's girlfriend in the altogether over the top Red River - 1948). But in The Killing, well, she's mostly just gorgeous and appropriate. Speaking of being breastfed on MST3K 3000, the second half of the double feature is the MST3k treatment of The Leech Woman (1960). It's too bad--Gray is really quite good in this sc-fi turkey that's borrowing a bit heavily from Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman (1959), which resurrected Susan Cabot.
For sustenance I plan to serve you all Quiche Coleen (who is the Lorraine broad, anyway?) which is basically like Lorraine but I'll add some bacon (I was banking on this lending a leech-like theme to the popular French dish). Additionally, some Pineal cocktails will be served (you should google or wikipedia what the pineal gland is ahead of time) and during intermission, I plan on rousing the guests with a quick run through of a game called Pineal Pleasure, which I am still devising. So far, it's something like a head-hunting game involving cantaloupes and the simulation of the piercing of a pineal gland. This all relates to the ridiculous but hilarious second film we are screening. That should be grand! Each film is roughly 90 minutes, so we'll start the evening at around 6PM.
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