Liz Renay Movies
An American actress whose life was as sensationalistic as the films in which she appeared, Liz Renay has developed a minor cult following. Born Pearl Elizabeth Dobbins in Mesa, AZ, the curvaceous blonde started out as a model and a show girl. She made her film debut in 1959 playing a gangster's moll in Date With Death. In real life, Renay was the girlfriend of gangster Mickey Cohen. In the early '60s, she appeared in court where she was asked to discuss her alleged Mafia connections in detail. She refused and was sentenced to three years at Terminal Island prison on perjury charges. Following her release, Renay returned to exploitation films. Later she became a stripper and for a while had an act involving her daughter; it was the first act of its kind. In 1971, she published her autobiography, My Face for the World to See. Ten years later she published Staying Young, a beauty book. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1959
A transient finds the corpse of a murdered policeman and decides to steal his clothing and his identity to find the killers and bring them to justice. What makes this routine crime drama out of the ordinary is that it was shot in "Psychorama" a process in which subliminal messages were inserted to heighten the suspense. Used once before in director Harold Daniels' Terror in the Haunted House, it wasn't all that effective. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
That grand old barnstormer Henry Jones guests in this episode as a garrulous wino named Harry Craig. While Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) are investigating a murder, Harry staggers forward to declare that he can identify the killer. There's only one problem: In addition to being a boozehound, Harry is also one of the most notorious liars in Los Angeles County. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Brilliant surgeon Dr. Frank N. Stein (John Hart) employs a new experimental technique on horribly-wounded Vietnam veteran EddieTurner (Joe De Sue), combining restorative surgery to his limbs with injections of altered DNA. Problems arise when Stein's assistant becomes insanely jealous of Ed's girlfriend and switches the DNA injections, resulting in Eddie's transformation into a lumbering monster with a cylindrical Afro and a fondness for attacking scantily-clad women and popping off people's heads like champagne corks. A poorly-conceived attempt to put a "blaxploitation" spin on another classic horror pantheon (in the mode of the far-superior Blacula released the previous year), this film emphasizes crude exploitation at the expense of creativity, leaving only a gory, misogynist mess. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1965
The wife of a commercial artist risks her life to discover the truth about her husband after he is accused of killing a woman. She believes that he could have committed the crime and sets out to prove it after the police are unable to locate a corpus delicti. First she visits her husband's father, a shrink. Just after leaving, she runs into the "corpse" who is very much alive and out to kill her. Fortunately, the wife survives. Unfortunately, her father-in-law isn't so lucky, but before he dies, he recognizes the she-killer as someone he knows all to well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Divine was touring as a cabaret singer when director John Waters made this comedy of the grotesque, but he filled the void admirably with the equally rotund Jean Hill and burlesque-queen Liz Renay. The film tells the story of Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), a mad housewife who kills her husband then goes on the lam with her 300-pound maid Grizelda (Hill). After being sexually accosted by a lewd, cross-dressing cop with gingivitis, the women are directed to Mortville, a shanty-town for fugitive criminals ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey). Carlotta's daughter, Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce) wants to renounce the throne and marry a nudist garbageman, so the Queen has him killed and enlists Peggy's aid in infecting the kingdom with rabies. Waters uses a fairy-tale framework to indulge his penchant for nauseating set-pieces, such as a transsexual lesbian (Susan Lowe) having her new penis cut off with scissors and fed to a dog, women being fed live cockroaches, and Peggy being assaulted at a lesbian glory-hole. Massey is hilarious as the Queen, urging her leather-clad bodyguards/sex-toys to "rob my safety-deposit box!," but the oddly-named actor Turkey Joe steals the show in his brief role as a lecherous cop, spouting lines like "I love the feel of cold nylon on my big butt!" and slobbering over Grizelda's huge underpants. The pinnacle of gross-out humor, Desperate Living is Waters' strangest and funniest film. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liz Renay, Mink Stole, (more)
- 1968
Lady Godiva livens up the old West in this campy western. It all begins when she and her sexy entourage go on a US tour. They end up in a western town where a villainous cad begins putting the moves on the buck-naked beauty. Fortunately, hero Tom Jones and his gleaming white horse are there to save her. Later she reenacts her infamous ride. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The existence of mankind hangs in the balance as two warring factions of aliens do battle in Mark of the Astro Zombies. The film begins with an invasion of Earth by aliens who plan to turn human beings into zombies. They gather high-level government officials and attempt to get from them certain knowledge and information they will need. A kind race of aliens lands on Earth and decides to try and stop the evil ones from succeeding with their plans. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
In this comedy drama that spoofs detective pictures from the 1940s, Tucker (Michael Caine) is a private eye hired by Anglich (Michael Constantine), a wealthy man who is trying to find the whereabouts of his long lost daughter. Tucker's sleuthing leads him to Ellen (Natalie Wood) and Mianne (Kitty Winn), two members of the decidedly unusual Prendergast Family. So far as Tucker can tell, either Ellen or Mianne is Anglich's missing child, but he's not quite sure which. The supporting cast includes Timothy Carey, Thayer David, Liam Dunn, and Liz Renay; Humphrey Bogart impersonator Jerry Lacy appears in the opening credits. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Natalie Wood, (more)
- 1970
- R
The Hard Road is a 1970s exploitation flick posing as a crusading expose. Connie Nelson plays a "nice" girl who goes from bad to worse after she becomes pregnant. Kicked out of school and virtually driven from her home, Nelson finds solace in drugs. She starts out with pot, graduates to the hard stuff, and ends up selling her body in order to support her habit. This is your brain on drugs: any questions? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Connie Nelson, Catherine Howard, (more)
Joe Saxon (Brick Bardo) is an unsuccessful actor in Hollywood who refuses to accept defeat. His wife, Liz (Liz Renay), is fed up with his dreaming, not to mention the wild parties he throws to suck up to movie industry bigwigs. Worried over their finances, Liz leaves him and goes to stay with her cousin, Linda (Laura Benedict), at the roadside café she runs, but Joe follows with a movie producer in tow who wants to give him a break. Meanwhile, a trio of lunatics has escaped from a mental hospital, cutting a swath of mayhem across California. The axe-wielding psychopaths murder a pair of newlyweds, dispatching their victims with cackling glee. The paths of all these characters cross inevitably at the café, and the fugitives hold the diners hostage. But even after escaping from her captors, Liz is abducted by Mort "Mad Dog" Click (Cash Flagg aka director Ray Dennis Steckler), the brother of one of the killers, and he is more dangerous than all three put together. A lengthy chase scene through Topanga Canyon featuring a station wagon, a motorcycle, and a horse leads to a violent conclusion. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cash Flagg, Liz Renay, (more)
