I am telling you, girls, the Holidays are getting to us. On our cozy evenings, at home, Monsieur and I have taken to watching some of the worst trash imaginable, and last night was no exception. You have got to see Janet Leigh in "Death's Head," which was on "Circle Of Fear." What a hoot, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have to hand it to Janet. From getting gang raped in "Touch Of Evil," back in 1948, to getting famously stabbed in the shower in "Psycho," and now this. One thing I never realized was how bony she was. Janet always had a good figure on her, but, with this 12 years beyond "Psycho," her face was beginning to show its age, and she had lost some weight, to where she looked almost anorexic. She had legs that could still fit the Seventies fashions, (and Jamie Lee took after her mother in thinness!!!!!) but even in that then shocking opening scene in "Psycho," you can see how bony here shoulders were.
Janet's husband, Steve, in this is played by a rather puffy looking Gene Nelson, the ex-hoofer. This must have been shot right before Nelson did "Follies" on Broadway, for in that 1971 milestone musical, he was trim and lithe.
His character, Steve, , who has a job we never know about, is obsessed with the study of insects; you know he must have taken Advanced Placement Biology, loves!!!!!!!!! All sorts of creepy crawly things are running all over the house, like tarantulas. I wouldn't allow any of this in my house, dolls!
Janet's husband is in business with a partner, played by Rory Calhoun. It is clear to us that Janet and Rory are carrying on, behind her husband's back! One day, while attending some sort of waterside carnival, Janet is enticed to The Herbal Store, by a mysteriously dressed fortune teller type, played, as it turns out by Ayn Ruymen--What the hell ever happened to her?????--and, before you know it, Ayn sells Janet a mysterious mixture made out of smashed insects, Janet stirs it in hubby's coffee...and he drops dead!
Janet thinks she is free and clear, so that she can now be permanently together, with Rory Calhoun!!!!!!!!!! But, he has some other ideas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which enrage Janet! To quote Better Davis, She "is not to be had for the price of a cheap cocktail....like a salted peanut!" I started to think, with that bug mixture, Rory is not going to be around much longer, either.
Then there is the constant intervention of her neighbor, Mrs. Norman, played by the great Doreen Lang, from "The Birds." This episode owes quite a bit to the Hitchcock classic; most of the budget seems to have gone to Janet's wardrobe, and when she begins to be mentally--or for real????--menaced by the bugs--she recalls Tippi Hedren so much, I thought Tippi herself must have coached Janet for these scenes.
You see, the Death's Head moth does not rest, until it regains its mate.
And, with Steve, Janet's husband, dead, his head embedded on the mouth, Janet is in for a lot of trouble! Especially when you stop to think, that, soon after this, she went on to do here final film, "Night Of The Lepus," where she was menaced, in the Southwest, by the cutest group of giant white bunny rabbits ever seen!!!!!!!!! And Rory Calhoun was with her in that one, too!
Janet, at her height of terror, summons Rory, who, though he has broken things off with her, comes to the house, only to find a hothouse of horror.
Janet is pinned to the wall, like a giant insect, and her head is now
on the Death's Head moth!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which is what she gets for murdering her husband!
She gets mounted, and head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And don't ever purchase anything from Ayn Ruymen. If she is even still alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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