Chicks in Their Underwear -- Could Be a Hot One!

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posted August 13, 2009 4:17 AM

screaming mimi.jpgAh, YouTube -- truly, it's the 21st century equivalent of the Library at Alexandria. I bring this up because this time last year I posted about a fabulously lurid B-movie -- Gerd Oswald's 1958 film noir Screaming Mimi -- and at the time I couldn't find a video clip for you sleazoid thrill-seekers (hey -- you know who you are). And now, I'm happy to report, I have (see below).

Anyway, if you've never caught it, Mimi is an uber stylish low budget thriller based on the pulp novel by the great Fredric Brown. Director Oswald, of course, was a prolific B-movie and TV auteur whose best stuff (including the several Outer Limits episodes he helmed) had a wonderfully distinctive German Expressionist look, and Mimi has it in spades.

And how's this for a plot :

Exotic dancer Virginia Wilson (the amazingly full-figured Anita Ekberg) sees a man get shot moments after he tries to knife her in a shower (two years before Psycho). She goes to a psychiatrist, but he falls in love with her and takes over her life, although she insists on continuing her career at a sleazy dive called El Madhouse. The club's tough owner is a lesbian beatnik played by Gypsy Rose Lee, who sings an incredibly bad version of "Put the Blame on Mame" (the classic number from Gilda) while Virginia is being stalked by a serial killer. Who may or may not actually be her. Or something.

Trust me, it's all quite wonderfully disreputable -- how they got Lee's character past the 1958 censors is a mystery that may never be solved -- and it also benefits immeasurably from the presence of the great tough guy actor Philip Carey (until his recent death, a regular on the ABC soap One Life to Live) as a hardboiled newspaper columnist who figures the whole thing out, thus earning the audience's undying gratitude.

Anyway, check out this Lang-ian (as in Metropolis) nightclub scene. That's Carey in the balcony, rather pointedly NOT looking down on Ekberg's astounding bondage dance. Note also the presence of several, how shall we say, women-oriented women in the audience. Have I mentioned that this is 1958?

Alas, Screaming Mimi wasn't available on tape or DVD last year, and apparently still isn't. Fortunately, Turner Classic Movies shows it from time to time (in a terrific print, BTW) so check your local listings.

Oh, and incidentally -- a coveted BoxOffice No-Prize© will be awarded the first reader who twigs to where I stole today's column title from. No Googling!!!

18 Comments

Cousin Kevin said:

Langian indeed -- that opening shot, heck practically the whole scene, is cribbed from Metropolis.

August 13, 2009 5:27 AM

Anonymous said:

The clip has a very beat feel to it.

August 13, 2009 5:57 AM

MasterD, damn yankee said:

Sorry Steve - I just can't look at the movie's title without thinking of, well, you-know-who...

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August 13, 2009 6:51 AM

ms. rosa said:

El Madhouse! !That's mi casa in espadas!

Amazing imagery. LOVED the balcony shot. I'm going to cop that one in a photograph...Now where'd I put my shackles?


August 13, 2009 7:26 AM

Billy B said:

Good one, steve.

August 13, 2009 8:03 AM

Gummo said:

Um... Ms. Ekberg was a very, ahem, healthy young lady, wasn't she?

August 13, 2009 8:06 AM

kent said:

Thanks steve, that was a treat?

So is this a paying gig?
:)

August 13, 2009 8:29 AM

Steve Simels said:

Kent:

Astoundingly enough, yes. The powers that be at Box Office actually do keep me in beer and skittles so that I can unearth clips like that.

Is this a great country or what?
:-)

August 13, 2009 8:33 AM

peterboy said:

that was worth the trip. simply loved the vibraphone.

August 13, 2009 8:44 AM

Gwen De Marco said:

"Suspense around every curve." Clever.

And it's funny how every era seems to think that it's the one that discovered alternate lifestyles ... the 50s obviously weren't all Leave It To Beaver.

And yes, I meant to say that. :-)

August 13, 2009 8:50 AM

kurt b. said:

Mercy.

"The 50s obviously weren't all Leave It To Beaver.
And yes, I meant to say that. :-)"

To steal a line from ms. rosa, coffee just shot out of my nose after reading that!

August 13, 2009 9:18 AM

peter spencer said:

A beautiful piece of archival history, professor. Works on so many levels, including the old joke thqt ends, "What's her act?" "She sits up."

August 13, 2009 10:27 AM

ms. rosa said:

ha! i love how no one has even *attempted* to win the coveted no-prize. we're all too busy ogling (not googling)!

August 13, 2009 12:31 PM

Steve Simels said:

In case anybody's still wondering, it's from an old SCTV sketch. The great Andrea Martin, as station manager Edith Prickley, is reading from the station schedule. "Hmm...let's see what's on tonight. 7pm -- 'Chicks in Their Underwear'...Could be a hot one!"

August 13, 2009 2:53 PM

Allan Rosenberg said:

Did the chains disappear by the last shot?

This must have been such a grade Z movie it flew under the radar of the censors.

August 13, 2009 3:03 PM

billy b said:

Damn, the lass had a set of tatas.

Good grief.

The audience was of the methaqualone variety.

The vibes and the guitar are great.

August 13, 2009 3:33 PM

Upsidasium said:

Ahem. Oh, my, as we say in Swedish when we're wildly aroused.

Somewhere in that era, my parents took us to the drive-in to see an Anita Ekberg movie, in which she did a bullfighter routine. Not sure who the male lead was (it may have been Mario Lanza, on whom my mother had a crush), but I'll confess to having been precociously aware of Ms. Ekberg's charms.

August 13, 2009 7:14 PM

Upsidasium said:

OK, do I have the count right? Two lesbian couples, one gay couple, and an older straight guy with a younger woman.

In 1958? I lived through that era. Who did they bribe to get this into distribution?

August 13, 2009 7:24 PM

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