Friday, December 2, 2016

KATHERINE VICTOR - Her Horror & Sci-Fi Movies From 1953-81

Welp, it's another Featured Female Friday, here at The Dungeon!.. Katherine Victor was born Katena Ktenavea in the Hell's Kitchen district of Manhattan in 1923, she grew up in Los Angeles and began her acting career on stage and radio in the late 1940's. She then made her film debut in the ultra campy sci-fi flick, MESA OF LOST WOMEN, in 1953. Later, she starred a series of roles in Jerry Warren's impoverished productions, and, felt that the stigma of being a regular in Warren's movies stymied her mainstream acting career (I agree!). Katherine was always busy outside of acting, in modeling, real estate and in various jobs in the animated cartoon industry... Get this, she was paid a measly $300 for acting in TEENAGE ZOMBIES and a paltry $450 for her role in CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS!

I cannot tell you how much I love this mind-boggling kitsch masterpiece, MESA OF LOST WOMEN from 1953! There's just nothing quite like it, wow!! Katherine has a small role at the beginning as the taxi driver and as a Spider Woman (which I've never noticed myself).

Her second acting credit was for a small cut-in role in Warren's made for TV movie, INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE in 1959, by cutting up TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN and adding new segments. I swear, Barbara Wilson is so damn beautiful and talented in this movie! Obviously, Jerry repackaged it in a double bill with his gawd awful, miserable ass, TERROR OF THE BLOODHUNTERS, for, I guess, the drive-in circuit... Save even more money (Jerry sez) by printing a single poster with both flicks featured on it!

Katherine's third acting role was for Jerry's TEENAGE ZOMBIES in 1959, my favorite of all the Warren dumpster dives! Features music from KRONOS!! Funny to me...

Then, she stars in Phil (ROBOT MONSTER) Tucker's made for TV sci-fi classic, CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS in 1960. Maybe that's why you can only find this make believe poster of it! This is another bad movie that's near and dear to my heart...

Five years later, it's back to work at Jerry's Joint for another redo/reshoot/recut of two Spanish speaking Chilean titles. Katherine and others are used to bring in English speaking characters to explain (complicated) things since the narrator was already being overworked in CURSE OF THE STONE HAND in 1965! Horrid movie!!

Jerry was really losing it by the time he was working on CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD, also in 1965!.. Katherine was brought in for the same thing as Stone Hand, try and make some sense of the whole freakin' thing!.. GFL!!

Here's a real dud, HOUSE OF THE BLACK DEATH in 1965!.. The producers didn't like what director Harold Daniels had done with the film, so, they hired Jerry to come in and finish it. Along with Katherine, there's Lon Chaney, John Carradine and Dolores Faith in the flick!

Jerry lets the thrills rip forth with THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN in 1966. Katherine stars as Bat Woman in this bad LSD trip from the early hippie days.

Lastly, she stars as Dr. Frankenstein's daughter in this totally insane 1981 Jerry Warren production, FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND, along with John Carradine, Robert Clarke and Cameron Mitchell. I could strangle this movie!!

Alright, so, here are three cool pics of Katherine to enjoy...



Okay, be back tomorrow as we close in on the end of 2016, yo!

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