Judy Bamber Movies
Judy Bamber was one of a bevy of buxom, blonde-haired actresses to make the trip to Hollywood in the wake of Marilyn Monroe's rise to fame in the early '50s. Born in Ann Arbor, MI, she became interested in modeling as a teenager in high school, as a motivation to lose weight and improve her posture. By the time she entered Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn she was already making money as a fur model for a local manufacturer and later worked for department stores modeling hats and gloves. After moving to Detroit, she began making appearances on local television, even making it onto The Soupy Sales Show, and she met Frank Robinson, a television announcer whom she later married. He went to Hollywood to produce a movie, but the couple didn't find much success in either of their chosen careers for a long time. Robinson ended up hawking Vega-Matics and other gimmicky products on latenight television, while Bamber did low-level modeling jobs. Luckily, she had chosen to work a trade show where her photo was taken and reprinted in the Los Angeles Times; one thing led to another and she ended up with an agent. She began studying acting with James Stacy, the young aspiring leading man, who also helped her get a contract at Warner Bros. Alas, unbeknownst to Bamber, her agent had been busy getting her a contract with American International Pictures. Both studios ended up dropping her over the mistake, but she did get a movie out of it, the low-budget thriller Dragstrip Girl, directed by Edward L. Cahn. After this misstep, she went off on a USO tour of Korea and returned to a modeling career. By this time, she was rated a choice pin-up with her impressive physique and started doing a lot of appearances on the covers of the suggestive and overheated men's magazines of the pre-Playboy variety, which were still very common in the late '50s. She occasionally did one-off film roles, appearing in low-budget movies such as Up in Smoke, the Bowery Boys take-off on Damn Yankees, playing a gangster's moll. Her most memorable film role came about when director/producer Roger Corman hired Bamber to work in A Bucket of Blood, one of his trio of horror-comedy satires (the others were Creature From the Haunted Sea and Little Shop of Horrors). She also got an increasing amount of acting work on television throughout the late '50s, including several episodes of Bachelor Father, the comedy series starring her romantic idol John Forsythe, as well as installments of GE Theater, Suspicion, Dobie Gillis, Hawaiian Eye, The Untouchables, Grand Jury, and M-Squad. She appeared in comedy sketches, as well as reading commercial copy, with actor/game show host George Fenneman on the quiz show Anybody Can Play. By this time, she was in considerable demand for commercials and was one of the original Hertz girls. Bamber is probably best remembered on film by horror movie buffs, not just for A Bucket of Blood but also for her final film appearance, as the female lead in Joseph Mascelli's 1964 chiller Monstrosity (aka The Atomic Brain). She kept doing modeling work throughout her busiest years on television; like Mary Tyler Moore and other young actress/models of the period, she appeared on numerous LP covers, her physique adorning the packaging of music that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with her image. She ended her career following the birth of her son. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
This weird, morbid little sci-fi thriller stars Marjorie Eaton as a filthy-rich but decrepit old widow who has devoted much of her wealth to funding the dubious (to say the least) scientific research of Frank Gerstle, who has constructed a mad lab in the widow's basement in order to perfect a technique in which an infusion of atomic energy (or something) will enable him to transfer the widow's brain into a young and sexy physique. To this end, three subjects are solicited through a want ad (under the pretense of employing a housekeeper). The three young women, all of different nationalities (represented by horrendous accents), are subjected to the old woman's scrutiny, until she selects the prime candidate... as the others become fodder for the doctor's pet projects. Needless to say, things don't turn out quite as planned: people are burned, torn apart by man-beasts, and get their eyes ripped out -- one poor lass even winds up with the brain of a cat. This has a certain perverse charm and is competently directed (excepting some boring stretches) by Joseph V. Mascelli -- who, in spite of his work on this film and Ray Dennis Steckler's The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Zombies, would later publish a well-known book on cinematography. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Gerstle, Erika Peters, (more)
A fine example -- perhaps the best available -- of "B"-movie overlord Roger Corman's "Weekend Wonders" from the producer/director's early career (see also the original Little Shop of Horrors), this horror-comedy was also the first of beloved actor Dick Miller's dozen-odd portrayals of the character Walter Paisley. A geeky waiter and busboy at a happening Beatnik café, Walter is intensely jealous of the swinging social lives of the artistic types who hang there. A bizarre twist of fate changes everything; when Paisley accidentally kills his landlady's cat, his frantic attempts to hide the body lead him to encase it in a layer of clay, creating a morbid sculpture -- which is eventually discovered and hailed as an artistic triumph by the unwitting Bohemian art crowd. (When asked what he's named the piece, the befuddled Walter stammers, "Uhh... Dead Cat?") Beset by numerous requests for similar "truthful" works, the moronic Paisley is forced to find inspiration -- a matter which is readily solved when a nosy undercover cop tries to slap a heroin-possession charge on him and finds himself on the business end of a cast-iron skillet. Before long, the creative urge prods Walter to narrow the competition by whacking his peers with various blunt or sharp implements, and the demand for more sculptures just keeps growing. Miller's tour-de-force performance, writer Charles B. Griffith's hilarious "Daddy-O" dialogue, and Corman's emphasis on the story's more lurid aspects raise this bargain-basement production (ultra-cheap even by Corman's standards) to classic status. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, (more)
- 1958
This is the very last entry in the long-running Bowery Boys saga. This time the gang gets involved with English diamond smugglers after they are hired to safely escort a valuable poodle on a Transatlantic voyage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
A wild young buck settles down and becomes a decent fellow after he falls in love with a sweet young girl in this youth drama. He is a delinquent with a reputation when they meet. During their first date, they end up at the police station. Her protective parents are outraged and forbid her to see him again. Soon they are seeing each other on the sly, and fortunately her natural goodness begins to rub off and he changes his ways. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Damon, Lili Gentle, (more)
- 1957
In this entry in the long-running "Bowery Boys" series Sach sells his soul to the Devil so he can atone for spending a charity fund at the track. The bargain enables the young man to successfully predict winning horses at the track. Soon Sach finds himself pursued by greedy mobsters who want him to work with them. Sach demurs and then ends up riding a horse in the big race. Despite his efforts to force the steed to slow down and lose, it wins. Fortunately, the horse is disqualified because Sach was an illegal rider. This has the added benefit of proving the Devil wrong and nullifying their contract. To pay for his crimes, Sach must work in a diner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Originally double-billed with Rock All Night, Dragstrip Girl is a typical J.D. potboiler from American-International. The title character, played by Fay Spain, is insatiable in her search for new thrills. Fay derives great pleasure in playing her two boyfriends, garage mechanic Steve Terrell and wealthy, arrogant drag-racer John Ashley, against each other. The story comes to a lively conclusion during a winner-take-all race, but not before the viewer is treated to a rip-off of the "Chickie Run" in Rebel Without a Cause. The 1994 entry in Showtime Cable's "Rebel Highway" series titled Dragstrip Girl bears little relationship to the original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fay Spain, Steve Terrell, (more)
