Reza wrote:
You need to run and watch her in two camp classics Parrish (Claudette Colbert's last big screen movie) and Claudelle Inglish
Since, by happenstance, Parrish turned up on TCM this past week, and because my ongoing cold leaves me too weary for anything challenging, I watched the damn thing. Yeesh, what a terrible movie! Troy Donahue was a walking 8X10 glossy, with the personality of Wonder Bread. And his character was a total slut: hopping into bed with every blonde who looked his way. The most ridiculous part of the plot is how Dean Jagger initially won't let him move into his house because he fears he's a womanizer, then changes his mind, in spite of the fact his fears turn out 100% accurate.
As for McBain -- if "spoiled slut who'll turn on you in a heartbeat" is your kind of character, I guess you'll go for this utterly cartoonish performance. Not that she's alone in playing at that speed, with Karl Malden doing his usual hamola, and Hampton Fancher -- who went on to, more creditably, write the original Blade Runner screenplay -- playing the hissable villain at one level throughout.
Reza wrote:
You need to run and watch her in two camp classics Parrish (Claudette Colbert's last big screen movie) and Claudelle Inglish
Since, by happenstance, Parrish turned up on TCM this past week, and because my ongoing cold leaves me too weary for anything challenging, I watched the damn thing. Yeesh, what a terrible movie! Troy Donahue was a walking 8X10 glossy, with the personality of Wonder Bread. And his character was a total slut: hopping into bed with every blonde who looked his way. The most ridiculous part of the plot is how Dean Jagger initially won't let him move into his house because he fears he's a womanizer, then changes his mind, in spite of the fact his fears turn out 100% accurate.
As for McBain -- if "spoiled slut who'll turn on you in a heartbeat" is your kind of character, I guess you'll go for this utterly cartoonish performance. Not that she's alone in playing at that speed, with Karl Malden doing his usual hamola, and Hampton Fancher -- who went on to, more creditably, write the original Blade Runner screenplay -- playing the hissable villain at one level throughout.
I'm not sure there's any niche of American movies that interests me less than those turgid neo-soap operas of the early 60s -- the Troy Donahue/late Lana Turner patch. I remember all the movies playing, and people going to see them, but I never felt the slightest urge to watch any of them. They don't turn up on TCM all that often, either; as Magilla notes, The Caretakers was a substantial box office success at the time, but I can't recall it being shown in recent years.
I think you can make a case that American culture in general was trawling the bottom in the early 60s: American movies from 1963-66 were as dreary as any stretch except maybe the 1980s, and pop music in the Bobby Rydell/Paul Anka period was equally empty. In both cases, the British invasion, and the subsequent explosion of American pop culture, rescued us from a big downward plunge.
Mister Tee wrote:Her name is exceedingly familiar to me in that early/mid-60s way, but, looking over her credits , it seems the only time I actually saw her was in Mary, Mary, where she played the new/younger girlfriend destined to be tossed aside when the ex-wife won back her husband. I remember Debbie Reynolds' description of her in the movie: "Tiffany? I bet she signs her name in brown ink, with big circles over the i's".
She apparently hung on for a while, and I'm always happy to salute working actors.
You need to run and watch her in two camp classics Parrish (Claudette Colbert's last big screen movie) and Claudelle Inglish
Her name is exceedingly familiar to me in that early/mid-60s way, but, looking over her credits , it seems the only time I actually saw her was in Mary, Mary, where she played the new/younger girlfriend destined to be tossed aside when the ex-wife won back her husband. I remember Debbie Reynolds' description of her in the movie: "Tiffany? I bet she signs her name in brown ink, with big circles over the i's".
She apparently hung on for a while, and I'm always happy to salute working actors.
Diane McBain, Actress in ‘Surfside 6’ & ‘Spinout,’ Dies at 81
She also played stamp-company queen Pinky Pinkston on 'Batman' and starred in such films as 'Parrish,' 'Claudelle Inglish' and 'The Mini-Skirt Mob.'
by Mike Barnes (Hd Reporter) 12/21/2022
Diane McBain, whose career playing spoiled rich girls included turns as the yacht owner Daphne Dutton on the ABC crime show Surfside 6 and an author stalking Elvis Presley in Spinout, has died. She was 81.
McBain died Wednesday morning at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills after a battle with liver cancer, her friend and writing partner, Michael Gregg Michaud, told The Hollywood Reporter.
McBain also guest-starred on four episodes of ABC’s Batman, first as a hat shop assistant who’s in cahoots with David Wayne’s Mad Hatter in 1966 and then as stamp company proprietor Pinky Pinkston — she wore only pink and had a pink dog — on the memorable 1967 installment that featured The Green Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee).
In her first film, McBain appeared with Richard Burton in Vincent Sherman’s Ice Storm (1960), then starred alongside Troy Donahue and Claudette Colbert in Delmer Daves’ campy Parrish (1961) and as the title character, a farm girl who meets a tragic end, in Claudelle Inglish (1961).
A contract player at Warner Bros. straight out of high school, McBain broke out as the loopy Daphne on the 1960-62 Miami Beach-set crime show Surfside 6. Her character owned a yacht, the Daffy II, that was berthed next door to the houseboat that served as home base for the private detectives portrayed by Williams, Donahue and Lee Patterson.
She portrayed Diana St. Clair, an author of books that help women get their men, in Spinout (1966), finding Elvis’ Mike McCoy the perfect subject to track for her next project, The Perfect American Male.
In Tom Lisanti’s 2001 book, Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, McBain said she regretted being typecast as bad girls. “I wanted to play the ingenue,” she said. “I could never understand why everyone wanted to play the bitch. Because when you go into society, people view you as they see you onscreen. It’s terrible to be thought of as this messy, horrible person when you’re not!”
McBain beat out Shirley Knight for the lead in Claudelle Inglish, then starred as a farm owner in Black Gold (1962), a nurse opposite Joan Crawford in The Caretakers (1963) and a health nut in Mary Mary (1963), starring Debbie Reynolds. She then reunited with Donahue for A Distant Trumpet (1964), the last film directed by Raoul Walsh.
She entertained U.S. troops overseas in the ’60s and counseled rape survivors after she herself was victimized in 1982.
McBain published her autobiography, Famous Enough, a Hollywood Memoir, co-written by Michaud, in 2014, then wrote two novels, 2020’s The Laughing Bear and 2021’s The Color of Hope.
“She lived a full life and experienced every opportunity that presented itself. She was very kind, thoughtful, loyal and generous, and she had a wicked sense of humor,” Michaud, her friend of 35 years, wrote on social media. “Despite her remarkable professional accomplishments, she was the most un-affected movie star I have ever known.”
The pair did numerous book signings and autograph shows, the latest just months ago, he said.
McBain was married to Rodney Burke, whom she met at a Buddhist camp, from 1972 until their 1974 divorce. Survivors include her son, Evan, and her goddaughter, Mary.
