Kelly Curtis in La Setta

In 1991, Kelly Curtis starred in a horror movie called La Setta. The film has been released with several different titles (the literal translation is The Sect) including The Devil's Daughter and Demons 4. It was directed by Michele Soavi, a cohort of famed Italian director Dario Argento (who co-wrote and co-produced the film).

La Setta is an engrossing, beautifully shot film which offers a fantastically unique viewing experience. Kelly Curtis is the star (alongside the prolific Herbert Lom) and simply put she does a great job here. The daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis and the sister of the famous Jaime Lee Curtis, Kelly Curtis prior to this mostly contented herself with small roles in various film and TV projects. Somehow, she came to take the lead role in La Setta and proved herself quite worthy. Director Michele Soavi favor the actress with many close-ups and she looks great throughout the movie.

In the most basic terms, Kelly Curtis is more physically attractive than Jamie Lee Curtis. There, I said it. Why? Mostly because Kelly Curtis looks more like Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis resembles Tony Curtis. Kelly Curtis also gives a very organic, natural performance in La Setta which I can only view positively and consider somewhat more watchable overall than the typical Jamie Lee Curtis performance.

Anyways, La Setta is an incredible film. I guess some people have unjustly compared it to the other work of Michele Soavi and Dario Argento, which is quite unnecessary. La Setta stands on its own whether or not one is familiar with the other work of the people involved. It is a magnificent film.

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Here are some images of Kelly Curtis in La Setta:

Samantha Eggar gets painted

Here are two publicity stills from the 1970 film The Walking Stick starring Samantha Eggar and David Hemmings. In the first picture he paints her and the second image shows her reaction.

Jo Ann Harris in The Beguiled

In 1971, Jo Ann Harris co-starred in The Beguiled, playing the youngest of three Southern women who fall for an injured Union Army solider they are caring for during the Civil War. Though much of the praise has gone to the other two lead actresses, Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman (who were both excellent), Jo Ann Harris indeed holds her own here as the luscious and vindictive Carol. In fact, (spoiler ahead) the trouble that Clint Eastwood's character gets into during the end of film is mostly due to the fact that he chooses to go to bed with the seductive Carol.

In The Beguiled, it is clearly stated that Jo Ann Harris' character Carol is 17 years old, though the actress was actually several years older in real life. Her birthday is said to be in May 27, 1949 and The Beguiled began filming in April 1970 which would make Jo Ann Harris 20 years old when she began making the movie (due her youthful appearance Jo Ann Harris would often play younger characters on her various TV guest appearances in the early 70s).

It would have been nice if The Beguiled had helped propel the feature film career of Jo Ann Harris. However, the film (amazing as it is) was not an overwhelming financial or critical success at the time and Jo Ann Harris returned to primarily doing television work for the rest of the 1970s (with the notable exception of Act of Vengeance and some other minor roles).

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Here are some pictures of Jo Ann Harris in The Beguiled. These images are presented chronologically (so some of the "best" ones may occur a little further down) and each pic can be clicked on for a full size view:

Barbara Seagull in Diamonds

In the mid-1970s, Barbara Hershey was calling herself Barbara Seagull and one of the final projects where she used this name was the movie Diamonds. Filmed primarily in Israel and produced by the legendary Israeli film-making team of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, Diamonds is fun, largely forgotten movie. With incomparable Robert Shaw in the lead with Richard Roundtree backing him up, it is actually a bit surprising this one isn't more popular. Most modern reviews I've read, in books and online, have been lukewarm at best and contemporary reviewers of Diamonds also had reservations about the film (some couldn't help themselves and titled their reviews things like "These diamonds aren't forever").

To me, Diamonds sounded great on paper: starring Robert Shaw (who would play an Israeli super-agent two years later in Black Sunday) and Richard Roundtree, with the gorgeous Barbara Seagull helping out with a diamond heist in Tel Aviv. After watching the movie, I was not disappointed and actually found it quite entertaining and competent crime film.

Barbara "Seagull" Hershey doesn't have all that much to do in Diamonds, but people often think that situations like that are entirely negative. She looks great throughout the movie, does well with the limited material she is given and adds to the the film as a whole.

Here is a summary of Diamonds which accurately describes the plot and the feel of the film:

Here are some images of Barbara Seagull in Diamonds:

Barbara Seagull and Robert Shaw