Spotlight: Nancy Kovack

This week's episode of the Fantastic Films of Vincent Price was DIARY OF A MADMAN, a fun little film co-starring the gorgeous Nancy Kovack. Well as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I love these moments of serendipity such as occurred last night, as I cued up an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR and who did I see onscreen but none other than... you guessed it - Nancy Kovack!

THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR is a really underrated show. I've watched a half dozen episodes lately and they always delivered. This particular episode was called "The Second Verdict" and starred Martin Landau and Frank Gorshin.kovack had a minor role as Landau's fiance.

Nancy was an interesting actress who appeared in a number of fan-favorite TV series in the sixties and seventies including BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, and GET SMART, as well as BATMAN:

and STAR TREK:

 

According to the IMDB she was a native of Flint, Michigan, who became a student at the University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college graduate at 19 and the holder of eight beauty titles by 20.

She also appeared in a number of films including  JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS where she played  Medea. 

In DIARY OF A MADMAN she played the part of Odette Mallotte, a vain and ambitious model who accepts Price's marriage proposal despite being already married to painter Paul Duclasse (Chris Warfield). However, Price is possessed by an entity from another dimension, and forced to murder her, in a scene that is fairly graphic for its time.

DIARY OF A MADMAN was made in 1963, three years after Hitchcock's PSYCHO. The influence is felt clearly in this scene, however, with Price slashing his victim repeatedly in true Norman Bates fashion. Interestingly, Kovack would film the ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR episode just one year later, in 1964. She retired from acting in 1976. Today Nancy is alive and well and married to music conductor Zubin Mehta, director at one time or another of both the Los Angeles and Philadelphia Philharmonic, as well as the Israel Philharmonic orchestra.

Thank you Joel Schumacher

In classic art every art movement is a reaction to the previous one. Each is influenced by and in many cases a rejection of the movement preceding it. For instance, Impressionism was a move away from traditional European techniques toward an impression of the artist's perception of the subject matter. The artist was not concerned with creating an exact reproduction of the subject so much as presenting his own interpretation of that subject.




The Expressionists, on the other hand, were interested in distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect.  Rather than painting their interpretation of the world like those who preceded them, they exaggerated their subjects for emotional impact. Expressionism was both evolved from and a movement away from Impressionism.






With that thought in mind I turn your attention to the much-maligned Joel Schumacher Batman films. Schumacher was moving away from the dark-toned comic book feel of the Burton films towards… well, something else entirely. His films channeled the 1960s Batman TV series as much as anything else, but the problem was he was 30 years too late. People change, sensibilities change, society changes - and what worked then certainly didn't translate very well to the 1990s. His movement was a bouncy, neon splattered, nipple laden movement that confounded both fans of the 60s series and the Burton films.



The best thing that ever came out of the Schumacher films was the NEXT movement, the Christopher Nolan films. Nolan's films are the polar opposite of Schumacher's - where Schumacher was gaudy and neon lit Nolan was gritty and shadow laden. Where Schumacher was campy and humorous, Nolan was serious and humorless. Schumacher's Batmobile looked like a cheap matchbox car (complete with floppy fins), Nolan's looked like a militaristic war machine. Schumacher's Batman outfits look like bad broadway costumes, Nolan's looks like functional body armor.

 

So thank you, Joel Schumacher. Thank you for giving us Batman films that sucked so much. Without your laughable interpretation we never would have gotten the fantastic Christopher Nolan trilogy. Thank you for influencing those who followed you to drastically improve upon the shit you spewed. Your movement was a very loose one indeed.