The Flying Maciste Brothers want to extend their heartfelt -- um -- hearty -- um -- hardy congratulations to their favorite living actor, Jeff Bridges --
-- for his win of the Best Actor Oscar this past Sunday night at the 82nd Academy Awards!!!
Jeff is someone whose 40-year on screen value has been consistently under-appreciated by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Forget your memory and just scroll down his entry on the IMDB for a list of dozens of exemplary, three-dimensional, very human performances he's left us on the Big Screen! From his first Oscar nomination at the age of 21 for THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) --
--to an unrecognizable turn as the villain with the chrome dome in IRON MAN (2008).
Everything else in-between and after has been equally extraordinary.
Finally, he wins big at the age of 60 for CRAZY HEART (2009).
Not to be confused with AMERICAN HEART (1992)...which he also starred in...
-- or Howard Zieff's magnificent (and forgotten) 1930's Hollywood comedy, HEARTS OF THE WEST (1975)...which he also starred in...
In fact, we Macistes would like to pay tribute to Jeff with a very pertinent (to any Destructible Man-iac) clip from that film:
So thank you for 40 years of sublime artistry, Mr. Bridges!
You'll forever be projected in ourhearts and never mistaken for a dummy!
...and one of the girl's outwardly square, socially upstanding mother and father, initially antagonistic towards each other, turn their mutually repressed sexual frustrations outward and transform into remorseless, vengeful killers against those responsible for their daughter's murder.
The very nature of the film is a subterfuge unto itself. Director Aldo Lado claims themes of a deceptively evil bourgeoisie manipulating the lower class into doing it's baneful handiwork --
-- a perfectly acceptable rationalization by an intelligent director who needs to validate his involvement with a project whose commercial intentions demand a copy of Wes Craven's wildly successful LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) for the European market.
He certainly fulfills his chores nicely --
-- the characters are graphically debased and tortured for the lower class audience's entertainment and the bourgeoisie audience is shamed for observing while simultaneously applauding Lado's critical social statement. Job well done.
Of course, Lado's characters aren't the only ones whose innocence and dignity have been desecrated -- the director manages his most ingenious strike against actor and audience alike by transforming the young actresses portraying the tragic victims into full-blown mannequins as both characters are chucked from the moving train by their vicious captors.
At once, an end to the tragic spectacle of savagery for the characters and a literal underscoring of the dehumanization both actresses of said spectacle must endure and live with for the rest of their actual lives.
Bring me the head of Ingrid Pitt! (we'll take the rest anytime as well!)
For most young horror fans growing up in the 1970's, the source of their first glimpse of nudity (or even just an ample, heaving bustierred bosom) was most probably a Hammer film. And thankfully, with the aid of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine --
-- and a blitz of beautifully mounted coffee-table publications like:
and: and:
most of us innocent 'lil panubbins were guided over to the dark side of sexual awareness without our parents even realizing it. The people over at Hammer were well aware that their existence depended on the interest of a growing and more demanding youth market -- more demanding, that is, for boobs! And the very first boobs that were offered were those of Ingrid Pitt.
Ingrid Pitt was certainly a capable actress --
-- but, from the moment she was unshrouded in Roy Ward Baker's groundbreaking THE VAMPIRE LOVERS --
-- Ms. Pitt was, is and forever will be --
-- for those of The Flying Maciste Brothers' generation --
-- the horror-fan's Betty Grable.
Simple as that.
And Hammer understood perfectly well how to perpetuate this impression. THE VAMPIRE LOVERS was the first of three Karnstein Family vampire movies, initially based on Sheridan LeFanu's classic gothic novella "Carmilla".
This film gave parents the great opportunity to nervously stammer out an explanation of what lesbianism was to all their slobbering, pre-teen children who were rapidly falling in love with this larger-than-life beauty on the screen before them.
Now, some 37 years since the release of THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingrid Pitt has turned 70 -- for more on this personal milestone and an outstanding appreciation of Ingrid's lifetime of accomplishments, let us point you to the November 21st, 2007 post of Kimberly Lindbergs monumental blog, Cinebeats.
But, here at DESTRUCTIBLE MAN -- as a belated birthday wish to Ingrid -- we thought it appropriate to present what for years was, without question, the most hungered-for censored dummy-death in the history of film: the decapitation of Carmilla/Mircalla/Marcilla Karnstein herself: Ingrid Pitt!
CLOSE INSPECTION
Viewed in the abstract, this sequence is quite telling. The older men surrounding the beautiful, immortally young Carmilla might as well represent the heads of Hammer, let alone the viewers in the audience --
The great Peter Cushing readies his spike -- -- taking in the intoxicating beauty that belongs, not to Carmilla -- -- but, in reality, to Ingrid Pitt --
-- he holds his spike -- erect --
-- and thrusts --
-- the spike penetrating the flesh just underneath her -- um --
-- breast --
-- blood erupts from the invaded aperture -- actually, the first deception/substitution/transformation into dummy has begun -- but not before Peter Cushing's character of General von Spielsdorf has finished having his way with her --
-- it's back to the lovely Ms. Pitt/Carmilla as she "awakens" to the act of penetration -- then, another form of substitution -- a cut to the lovely Madeline Smith in the role of Carmilla/Mircalla's vampirized lover, Emma Morton --
-- she "awakens" as well as she psychically shares the pain (ecstasy?) of Carmilla's violation by The General --
-- and immediately succumbs to another transformation -- from near-vampire/lesbian under the control of Carmilla --
-- to the living, heterosexual lover of Carl Ebhardt/actor Jon Finch --
-- The General -- with a spasm of diminishing strength -- finishes the penetration of his spike -- leaving it inside Carmilla --
-- who relaxes and closes her eyes peacefully upon completion of his ferocious gesture --
-- one expects her to ask for a cigarette -- but instead, Carmilla retreats to a state of grace --
-- everyone is spent -- emotionally and physically --
-- even guilt-ridden...
-- as The General prepares for the act that will take Ingrid Pitt/Carmilla through the final transformation to that of Ingrid Pitt/dummy --
-- with equal guilt --
-- and ferocity --
-- the final spasms of release/relief for Cushing/The General --
-- as he holds Pitt/dummy's severed head aloft --
-- before solemnly lowering it --
-- down --
-- down --
-- down --
One last touch:
The filmmakers obvious intoxication with Ms. Pitt's very real beauty perhaps enticed them to spare the actress and leave Carmilla-the-vampire's final transformation to be performed with a portrait.
-- for his win of the Best Actor Oscar this past Sunday night at the 82nd Academy Awards!!!
Jeff is someone whose 40-year on screen value has been consistently under-appreciated by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Forget your memory and just scroll down his entry on the IMDB for a list of dozens of exemplary, three-dimensional, very human performances he's left us on the Big Screen! From his first Oscar nomination at the age of 21 for THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) --
--to an unrecognizable turn as the villain with the chrome dome in IRON MAN (2008).
Everything else in-between and after has been equally extraordinary.
Finally, he wins big at the age of 60 for CRAZY HEART (2009).
Not to be confused with AMERICAN HEART (1992)...which he also starred in...
-- or Howard Zieff's magnificent (and forgotten) 1930's Hollywood comedy, HEARTS OF THE WEST (1975)...which he also starred in...
In fact, we Macistes would like to pay tribute to Jeff with a very pertinent (to any Destructible Man-iac) clip from that film:
You'll forever be projected in our hearts and never mistaken for a dummy!
