The incredibly beautiful Julie Adams, paramour of The Creature From the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1953), and object of many adolescent fantasies including, obviously, my own. What a pleasure it was to see her last month at the second World 3-D Expo, in Technicolor, 3-D, and deliciously tight bluejeans, strutting her stuff in Budd Boetticher’s Wings of the Hawk (1953), and – an even bigger thrill – seeing her in person at the 3-D Expo’s screening of The Creature. Although almost 80, she looks much younger (terrific bone structure), and still has that utterly charming smile that made her stand out from other ’50s ingenues.
I also remember her vividly as the sexy, mink-coated wife of a film director played by Sam Fuller (!) in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie (1971). Though made some 20 years apart, The Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Last Movie are both about the invasion and pollution of an innocent South American jungle community (a community of one in the case of The Creature) by “civilized” whites from the North. The actress as auteur!
So you can imagine my surprise and delight when I saw Ms. Adams on television last night, guest-starring as one of the “Others” in the third season premiere episode of LOST.
