Even if Bollywood is now more recognized in all parts of the world, Indian movie stars are still not household names in North America. After the Hong Kong movie craze some years back, stars like Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh became common knowledge but, besides from the gorgeous Aishwarya Rai, can any average movie fan name any celebrities from India, which is still in the top three countries that produces films? So I’m introducing you to Mallika Sherawat, Bollywood’s Kissing Queen and main sex-symbol.

Interestingly, some sources reveals her birthday as October 24, 1981, but some others 1976, so there’s already a mystery. Her real name is Reema Lamba. She used to work as an air hostess, was even married to a pilot at some point, but her career really started after appearing in music videos. Her film debut was in 2003’s Khwahish, soon considered to be quite racy for India’s standards (17 kisses in all!). Later, she starred in a version of Hollywood’s Unfaithful, Murder, that again was perceived as too saucy coming from the industry. Of course, Indian films cannot show nudity or lewd content, but supposedly these productions were considered immoral by many. Needless to say, they were big box-office hits. People actually wanted her to be arrested following some New Year’s Eve party, claiming her dress code was too scandalous!

Mallika is being known for speaking her mind and not being afraid of dressing up sexy. Playboy offered her a photo shoot and promises of a cover (to have been a first for a woman from India), but she declined, knowing all too well that this would have caused her blacklist from Bollywood.

In 2005, she had a small part in Jackie Chan’s The Myth as (what else?) an Indian princess and made quite an impression at the Cannes premiere. Let’s also note that her religious family doesn’t seem quite pleased with her career choices. But through all this, a real talent has emerged, as Mallika is an accomplished actress, even with sexy roles, as Pyaar Ke Side Effects in 2006 proved. The Tamil movie industry has welcomed her (known as Kollywood) and is it only a matter of time before an English-speaking film debut? But her critics called her out for asking outrageous sums of money to appear in any project…

With her beauty sometimes compared to Halle Berry’s, Mallika Sherawat is to watch out for!

76 candles today for our Swedish beauty!

1960 – Barbara Steele – Black Sunday

Even if possibly not Barbara Steele’s best performance, this remains her star-breaking role and a glimpse of things to come for the British actress (and for some comediennes soon following). Her presence here in contrasting dual roles remains a chilling visual experience in icy Black & White.

Black Sunday was the first “official” directing job for Mario Bava, who had begun his career as a cinematographer and had filmed bits and pieces of scenes for some years, sometimes replacing original directors in troubled productions. Barbara was initially chosen by the producers looking at some publicity pictures, as she was a “strange type”, according to Bava. Inexperienced and a bit naive, her lack of solid film background became an asset, playing it very raw for the role of the evil witch Asa Vajda and doubly sweet as her descendant Katia. There was an out of this world quality in Barbara’s physical presence, as she looked plucked straight out of the year 1630, where the action takes place. And, oh, that pair of eyes…

In a way, Barbara Steele became film’s first official Scream Queen, as the following years saw her working in mainly horrific projects and gaining a status nearly equal as that of male counterparts Vincent Price or Boris Karloff. To this day, she’s still best remembered for these movies and also as a model for many actresses that followed in her bloody footsteps.

The opening scene remains one of the best in the horror genre (the torture and execution of Asa) and is rightfully being displayed on the cover of Tim Lucas’s labor of love concerning Mario Bava’s life, All the Colors of the Dark, finally available after decades of research.

Next: She’s mean, she’s ugly and she wants to trap you and kill you… in a way, the ultimate female movie monster (gasp, more than the Bride of Frankenstein!?!?).

Today is Martine Beswicke’s 66th birthday, an actress that participated in three James Bond movies and some enjoyable Hammer Studios productions. I have always thought that she had the potential to become the next Barbara Steele and, in her own way, got her cult status by way of some fiery performances in the sixties and seventies.

Born in Jamaica, Martine will always be associated with bikinis and sunshine, having a fine time playing more often than not dominant characters. Alas, she hasn’t been seen on a movie project since 1995. If you have only one movie to choose from her past work, you can’t go wrong with Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

From cult magazine Cine.Zine.Zone, here’s a typical Martine pose:

Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to a worthy Siren, one that rightfully claims to be the only black woman in the Quebec film industry being capable of handling acting and stunt work. We share the same city of birth (Montreal) so I thought, why not spotlight local talent from time to time?

Sharlene Royer is the daughter of a Haitian mother and French Canadian father. She began her career by learning to dance, namely ballet, jazz and tap. This led to theater work in a troupe, some modeling, video and commercials appearances, and of course an acting debut in television.

Being fluently bilingual, Sharlene had the privilege in participating in popular French and English television series, like The Hunger, Largo Winch, Lance et compte - La nouvelle génération and Les Bougon : c’est aussi ça la vie. Transforming into a stunt woman gave her the privilege of doubling for the likes of Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams, Rosario Dawson and Pam Grier, being able to handle combat scenes, gun work and various martial arts techniques.

Recently, Sharlene has begun to enjoy bigger roles in higher profile movies from Quebec, like the big hit Bon Cop Bad Cop (the highest grossing Canadian movie in the history of the country’s box office receipts). She also appeared too briefly as a seductive escort in Cheech the same year.

2007 is shaping up to be a busy year, with the sci-fi thriller Recon 2022: The Mezzo Incident, cult director Stuart Gordon’s latest project Stuck, and the black comedy/thriller Cadavres.

There’s a lot of talent and beauty here, and I hope that you’ll keep an interested eye on Sharlene Royer’s future work.

The appeal of Edwige Fenech is too often described as a mere visual pleasure (but what a pleasure!). As hard as it is to deny it, there’s also some vital observation that comes into consideration: the lady is a fine comedienne, without a doubt. She has played in mainly dumb comedies in the second half of her career, broad Italian farces with plenty of nudity and saucy misunderstandings. Let’s take one typical project, the 1975 production, Lover Boy (original title Grazie… nonna), which was available on DVD from Shoarma and seems to be sadly out-of-print.

This script would be very difficult to produce in these politically correct times: we have a single father with two teenage sons, this bunch not very inspired by the upcoming visit of the late granfather’s second wife. “Granny”, as she’s being called, is already perceived as a shrewish person, an old hag to be dealt with as callously as possible. The youngest son gets the job of picking up this unknown relative at the airport, who is finally revealed as a gorgeous twenty-something from Venezuela. So now, the three men of the family will progressively try to seduce Granny and gain her good favors. She herself is a good-natured person, aware of her own charms in this entourage, but never taking advantage from it.

Viewers of low-budget European comedies of the seventies will be in familiar territory here, especially handling productions coming from Italy. There are many broad characters (or should I say grotesque?) and situations coming straight out of vaudeville, as we can consider here Fra Domenico, a gluttonous monk.

Needless to say, this is not as serious as other quasi-incestuous motion pictures like Louis Malle’s Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart), Bertrand Blier’s Beau-père or even this classic from the golden age of adult features, Taboo, starring legendary adult performer Kay Parker. But oddly, Lover Boy, with all its lame jokes, handles its granny-gets-it-on-with-not-really-her-grandson-but-kind-of scene with surprising taste. Not a man in the audience won’t cheer this obvious but still satisfying plot point.

As I stated in the intro, Edwige’s gorgeous shoulders are all that carries the film, which is mainly plagued by bad sitcom situations. Among it all, we can perceive her own subtle talent, as her character here seems like the only one who’s not an easy caricature or exaggeration.

The Shoarma DVD is obviously a copy of a badly-dubbed English VHS, with surprising strong colors from the too-often lousy image. There are no subtitled options, so you will suffer through awkward line delivery. Even then, there’s great respect for Edwige here, with an attractive photo gallery (how could it be not attractive, considering its subject?), fascinating poster gallery (lots of painting in these mid-seventies posters), a bio that clarifies that Edwige was born in Algeria from a French mother and Tunisian father, and two interviews transcripts, one from 1982 and the other from 2000, that finally gets us inside the mind of one of our favorite cult actress.

The mystery of Edwige’s origins deepens, as I recently came across a bio on the Nanarland website stating that her mom was from Italo-Spanish roots and her dad Czech-English!

Three interesting tidbits: legendary rock group Goglin supplies the soundtrack (they who are most famous for the collaboration on Dario Argento movies and horrific Italian fantasies) and director Marino Girolami has also directed Dr. Butcher M.D.! Lastly, child actor Giusva Fioravanti (whose last film this was) would soon become a terrorist, busy in these troubled political times in Italy and condemned for the murder of policemen.

At least, Lover Boy has the benefit of showing us one of the best use of the Pisa Tower I have seen in motion pictures. No joke! Of course, the many views of Edwige’s anatomy are as welcome.

Recently, I was sent a kind e-mail announcing an upcoming movie starring RuPaul. Now, what better way to describe that unique performer than as a Cult Siren, I ask you? Of course I agreed to say something sweet about it, since this motion picture, Starrbooty by name, is described as an exploitation film that is in part Russ Meyer, John Waters and ‘The Naked Gun’. With lots of makeup. And colorful costumes.

What does the official site says? “When supermodel/agency operative Starrbooty learns her niece has been kidnapped by her archrival, Annaka Manners, Starrbooty’s only option is to go undercover as a street hooker to rescue her. The only snag in our heroine’s plan is that in order to infiltrate the prostitution underworld she has to gain street credibility by going ’all the way’ with the johns.” Maybe I’ll finally see some kind of homage to Cleopatra Jones, right?

Oh, and if a picture can tell it all:

Starrbooty is making its way around film festivals and will be available on DVD on October 30 (a perfect day for a flashy disguise, wouldn’t you say?). Female impersonators are definitely welcome on this blog, as long as they fit our tough criteria (and they almost all do!).

Hum, I still have my RuPaul’s 2001 (or is it 2000?) calendar somewhere…

1959 – Edith Scob – Les yeux sans visage

We’re jumping now a few years ahead to greet our third guest on this list. It was an unlikely project to come out of France at the time, with a most unusual shock scene. Probably one of the most poetic horror film of all time, Les yeux sans visage (AKA Eyes Without a Face or the more exploitative title Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus) was directed by an unique talent, namely Georges Franju. Of course, Franju is also mainly known for his 1949 B&W short film, Le sang des bêtes, which proposes an incursion in a day in the life inside a Parisian slaughterhouse, and his 1963 feature Judex, which pays homage to silent serials, among many of its inspiration.

In her early twenties at time of filming, Edith Scob plays the disfigured daughter of a brilliant surgeon, who dedicates his life in trying to give her a normal appearance (even if this means kidnapping teenage girls to experiment on and transplant some skin bits, all in the name of science). Wearing an expressionless white mask and gliding around her deranged dad’s mansion in a large bathrobe, frail Christiane already looks like a ghost, sharing with us some choice moments of despair.

I don’t want to reveal too much, but the final scene of the film is a chill-inducing visual, once again involving the young woman’s fragile presence. She’s not in every scene of the film, but without Edith’s involvement, there will be no movie.

One of the earlier gore scene in the history of world cinema is actually in Les yeux sans visage, as we can witness one of the good doctor’s transplantation procedure. Yes, a French movie depicting a teenager having her face removed in graphic detail. Oddly, that kind of script would be remade many times over the following years, mainly by Jess Franco, who proposes similar projects with his Dr. Orloff series and others.

Soon to be seventy, Edith Scob is still working in movies today.

Next: dual roles in the first official directing effort of a soon-to-be horror master… is it so hard to figure it out?

Today Asia Argento turns 32, Maggie Cheung 43, Brinke Stevens 53, Dany Carrel 75. Best wishes to this amazing quartet!

1935 – Elsa Lanchester – Bride of Frankenstein

As I claimed several times, this is the ultimate monster role for an actress in the history of world cinema. Yes, there are many vengeful female Japanese ghosts floating around, alongside a couple of Mexican crying women (La Llorona) and many other vampire fiancées or possessed teenagers. But this unique part in Universal’s legendary horror series was destined to be perceived as the definitive monster representing the weaker sex.

Masterfully portrayed by eccentric performer Elsa Lanchester, the Bride’s unique appearance as not aged one bit after more than 70 years. Pop culture still pays her homage to this day and rightfully so. That campy bird-like Egyptian look would still turn heads at any chic drag queen nightclub. Only a performer as eccentric and unique as Elsa Lanchester could pull it off, blending pathos with her distinctive sense of British humor (she was actually inspired by London swans!). She remains one of the best supporting players to ever grace the big screen, at ease either in an historical drama or an Elvis Presley musical.

On your next (or first) viewing of James Whale’s classic, think about all the homosexual subtext running around in this brilliant 75 minutes piece of black & white cinema. Here’s a genial essay on the production. The enjoyably grotesque finale of Bride of Frankenstein is still considered the ultimate blind date nightmare (as is a similar scene in David Lynch’s Eraserhead). Talk about feelings of rejection… Elsa was billed in the credits as “The Monster’s Mate…?” Finally, what would have happened if previous prestigious actresses under consideration for the role (like Louise Brooks or Brigitte Helm) had actually got the part?

Next time: She walks around in a bathrobe, wears a mask, doesn’t say much, owns a lot of dogs and is the star of… a French horror movie?