Not Since Dorothy In The Weird Forest Of The Jitter Trees, Has Anyone Been As Cinematically Associated With Them As Marilyn Burns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            Yes, girls, I know the look is familiar, but that is not Peggy Lipton of "The Mod Squad." Though the look was common at the time this shot was taken.  It is actually Marilyn Burns, then 25, in her most famous role--that of Sally Hardesty, in Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."  To think, that film is now 40 years old, and, on Tuesday, August 5, when she failed to respond to calls from her brother, police went to her home in Houston, where she was found, dead, on the floor, of apparently natural causes.  Though I wonder. Chemical, maybe?

                             Who could forget the terrifying, yet poetic, sequence, of Marilyn screaming as she was running through what looked like an overhanging forest of thorns, screaming a mile a minute,  so much so that the screaming (which had to exceed that of Fay Wray in "King Kong!!!!!!!!"0 was as nerve shattering as anything in the film itself.  It certainly heightened the gruesome imagery.

                                  Marilyn was 65, and I will always have fond memories of the original 'Chainsaw', because it was the first film I ever saw at New York's old Thalia movie theater, back in the days when the seats were broke, and your feet often stuck to the floor!  Ah, those were the days.

                                    It was on a double bill with something called "Driller Killer," which has long been forgotten, and was not even the fun film I was expecting.  But, then after Tobe Hooper's masterpiece, and Marilyn, what could eclipse it?

                                      Until recently, I had never heard of the three other horror films she was in--"Eaten Alive"(1977), which does sound fun--a sadistic killer, feeding his victims to a man hungry crocodile.  I bet the reptile steals the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Four years later, in 1981, she appeared in something called "Kiss Daddy Goodbye,"where she plays a social worker, whose clients. a set of twins, having supernatural powers.  Not too exciting.  As recently as 2012 she was in  a film called "Butcher Boys," in which she was pitted against an urban street gang, who were cannibals.  She just could not escape that last bit throughout her career.

                                      Even her one mainstream crossover was bizarre--Linda Kasabian, member of the Manson family, in the 1976 TV film of "Helter Skelter," which even I refuse to read or watch, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       But, Marilyn and those trees!  They will never be forgotten!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        Get those DVD'S going in her honor, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!