Wig Alley
In 1953, a no-budget distributor called Van Wolk-API released Dementia, a fifty-seven minute art film masquerading as a horror movie. It was the invention of rookie (and one-time) filmmaker John Parker, who based his screenplay on a nightmare had by his secretary, Adrienne Barrett. Likewise inexperienced, she got the lead role in a cast that included such recognizable Poverty Row character actors as Angelo Rossitto and Bruno Ve Sota. (Then unknown, the young Aaron Spelling appeared briefly as a drunk.) Parker shot it without dialogue (his cinematographer was William Thompson, Ed Wood’s d.p.), and then had avant-garde composer George Antheil write a score, with input from Ernest Gold (composer of the Exodus soundtrack), siren vocalist Marni Nixon (Gold’s wife, she dubbed the singing voices of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Natalie Wood in West Side Story), and the jazz ensemble Shorty Rogers and His Giants.
Downbeat magazine was right on the money when they called it “The first foreign film ever made in Hollywood.” While it’s unlikely that Hitchcock or Welles ever saw Dementia, you can see and feel reverberations of it in Touch of Evil, The Wrong Man, and Psycho. Van Wolk-API paired it with a documentary about Picasso for a limited run. A couple of years later, Parker added narration, toned down a gruesome little dismemberment scene (which had the New York censors in a lather), and retitled it Daughter of Horror for extra mileage.
While Dementia is the superior of the two versions, Daughter of Horror is perfectly capable of knocking first-time viewers for a loop. Both are available on a single DVD from Kino, or you can watch Daughter of Horror in its entirety online, compliments of the thoughtful folks at the Internet Archive.
Buy the DVD from Amazon
Daughter of Horror online
Flickhead review
6 Comments:
Very cool. Never heard of it!
"...based on a nightmare by his secretary"--that's hilarious.
hello, for thank you about your nice comment i post 2 pictures of "peau d'Ane"(donkey skin) i hope you like it
you have a great blog
Patricia from agence eureka
Ray, as I mentioned a few days ago, I was totally unaware of Dementia/Daughter of Horror until my Arthur C. Pierce article/interview shared space with the Dementia coverage in your very own, late, great Magick Theatre magazine.
In recent years, Dementia has become one of my 5 favorite films, and ever since the Kino DVD was released (escaped?) I've made a point of watching it at least once a month.
Dementia is the strangest, breeziest, most interesting film I've seen in my fifty years. Thanks to you and MkT for bringing this most unusual flick to my attention!
I want to add that actor Bruno Ve Sota actually wrote and directed much of the film, as he claimed in the Barry Brown interview, and I believe him completely. (Even a cursory scan of Ve Sota's later Brain Eaters reveals a fair amount of Dementia-esque angles and ambiance.) I don't believe the credited director John Parker was responsible for very much of the creativity of this film, beyond the original ten minute "dream" short that inspired the feature. Having known a personal and professional friend of Bruno's (who spoke very highly and fondly of him), I can't believe Ve Sota would have any reason to lie about his work on this film, which entailed "helping" Parker turn a ten minute short into a one hour feature. Parker's main contribution to Dementia was most likely his family's money.
-KD
Thanks, KD.
I may put that Bruno VeSota interview on Flickhead.
That would be great, as it is one of the most interesting celebrity interviews I've ever read. Barry Brown did a great job getting into Bruno's heart and soul. ~KD
Incidentally, for those who don't recognize him, that's Bruno VeSota in the above photo. ~K
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