Showing posts with label tuesday weld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tuesday weld. Show all posts

23 Sept 2023

On Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, and the Curious Sex Appeal of Dudley Moore

Dudley Moore, Suzy Kendall & Tuesday Weld
 
"Dudley possessed a pagan, almost Pan-like ability to attract women." 
                                                                               - Jonathan Miller
 
I. 
 
Other than the fact that he was funny and highly talented, the thing I admire about diminutive Oxford-educated Essex boy Dudley Moore [1] was that he had an excellent eye for the ladies - four of whom he even married, including two that I'd like to speak of here: Suzy Kendall and Tuesday Weld ... [2]

 
II.
 
Suzy Kendall is one of those beautiful blonde British actresses best known for her film and TV roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s [3]
 
I remember her fondly, for example, as Kay Hunter in an episode of The Persuaders! entitled 'The Man in the Middle' (dir. Leslie Norman, 1971), which also co-starred Terry-Thomas as Brett's cousin Archibald Sinclair Beachum: click here to watch her first scene alongside Roger Moore and Frank Maher. 
 
Born in Derbyshire in 1937, Kendall was an art student turned fabric designer turned photographic model, before finally becoming established as an actress - not just in the UK, but in Italy also, where she appeared in several giallo films [4]
 
Kendall married Dudley Moore in 1968 and although they divorced just four years later, she remained close friend's with Moore until his death in 2002; she even hosted his memorial service.    
 
Having retired from acting in 1977, Kendall made a return to the big screen in 2012 as a special guest screamer in the (giallo-inspired) psychological horror film Berberian Sound Studio, directed by Peter Strickland and set in a 1970s Italian horror film studio.
 
 
III.
 
Tuesday Weld is a beautiful blonde American actress, born 1943, who began acting as a young girl and progressed to adult roles in the 1950s. The name Tuesday - which she officially adopted in 1959 - was an extension of a childhood nickname (Tu-Tu) and doesn't reflect the fact she's full of grace.
 
Weld often played impulsive and reckless young women acting out sexually; at least that's how I remember her - as a bit of a rock 'n' roller, with curves and attitude [5]. Danny Kaye, who played her father in The Five Pennies (1959), described her as 'fifteen going on twenty-seven' and so she was perfectly cast the following year as Jody in the classic comedy Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) [6].
 
Interestingly, like Suzy Kendall, Weld once acted alongside Terry-Thomas [7]. But the main thing these two women had in common was that they both accepted a proposal of marriage from Dudley Moore; Weld tied the knot with the latter on 20 September, 1975, and they had a son the following year. Sadly, they divorced in 1980 (though Weld received a generous financial settlement, plus alimony and child support). 
 
Newly single, Weld enjoyed the attentions of some of Hollywood's leading male actors including Al Pacino, Omar Sharif, Richard Gere, and Ryan O'Neal, before eventually marrying husband number three, in 1985 (an Israeli violinist and conductor whom she divorced in 2001). 
 
Meanwhile, away from the romantic rollercoaster she seemed trapped upon, Weld's acting career continued to blossom and she won the critical acclaim of her peers throughtout the 1970s and 80s [8]. She retired from acting in 2001, having given over 45 years of her life to the profession (which is long enough to give to anything). 

 
IV.

So, returning to Dudley Moore ... What was it about him that women such as Suzy Kendall and Tuesday Weld found so attractive? 

For Moore was a man acutely aware of his own inferiority; the fact that he was only 5' 2" tall and had a club foot was something about which he remained self-conscious throughout his life. But he was still regarded as a sexually charismatic figure and perhaps this demonstrates that if you are intelligent and can make a woman laugh, then physical limitations don't matter ...?
 
Or perhaps it shows that if you combine confidence with a certain vulnerability - and then openly profess a desire and a need to be loved - you'll soon have women eating out of your hand ...?
 
But then again, it could simply be that having international movie stardom and millions of dollars in the bank pretty much enables you to fuck whoever you want ...
 
 
Notes
 
[1] Dudley Moore (1935-2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer, who first came to prominence (alongside Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett, and Peter Cook with whom he formed a hugely popular and influential double act) as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He later achieved big-screen success in Hollywood; including a role in one of my favourite Goldie Hawn pictures, Foul Play (dir. Colin Higgins, 1978), about which I have written here
 
[2] Moore was married (and divorced) four times: to actresses Suzy Kendall (1968-1972); Tuesday Weld (1975-1980); Brogan Lane (1988-1991); and Nicole Rothschild (1994-1998). In writing here of only the first two women, I mean no disrespect to Lane and Rothschild. 
 
[3] Other actresses who might be categorised in this manner include Susan George and Juliet Harmer - both of whom, like Kendall, appeared in an episode of The Persuaders!
 
[4] In Italian cinema parlance, giallo refers a genre of murder mystery movie combining elements of sex, horror, and psychological suspense in order to create a unique form of violent thriller. The genre developed in the mid-1960s and peaked in popularity during the 1970s. It was a predecessor to - and a significant influence upon - the later American genre of film known as the slasher movie.  
 
[5] Weld played alongside Elvis in Wild in the Country (dir. Philip Dunne, 1962) and had a brief off-screen romance with Presley.
 
[6] Click here to watch the official trailer. Stanley Kubrick was so impressed by her performance in Sex Kittens Go to College, that he selected Weld as his first choice for the role of Lolita in his 1962 film adaptation of Nobokov's notorious novel. Weld, however, turned the offer down, explaining that she was already living the part so didn't need to play it on screen.  
 
[7] Weld and Terry-Thomas star together in Bachelor Flat (dir. Frank Tashlin, 1962).
 
[8] Weld was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the 1972 movie Play It as It Lays (dir. Frank Perry); for an Academy Award for her role in the 1977 movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar (dir. Richard Brooks); and, finally, for a BAFTA for her role in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984). 
 
 

16 Jul 2020

I Am Elektro: My Brain Is Bigger Than Yours

1: Elektro sneaks a fag (and cops a feel) backstage before a show (1954)
 2: Elektro and Sparko go through their repertoire of tricks for a 
female admirer at the New York World's Fair (1939-40).


An American correspondent writes (with reference to a recent post):

"You Brits may have built the first robot, Eric, but in Elektro we had the biggest, the best, and most bad-ass." 

And, whilst my fondness for Eric - the man without a soul - remains undiminished, I have to admit that Elektro was pretty impressive: seven feet tall and weighing in at 265 lbs, his steel frame was covered with an aluminium skin.

He could not only walk, talk, and respond to simple voice commands, but blow up balloons and smoke cigarettes like a trooper. Further, as can be seen from the above photos, Elektro also had an eye for the ladies and owned a robotic dog, Sparko, that was trained to bark at humans.  

Manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1938, Elektro made his debut appearance the following year at the New York World's Fair. He then made a career in the 1950s working in a promotional capacity for the company, touring all over the US and helping to sell their fridges, washing machines, and other electrical goods.  

Alas, people are fickle and times change; Elektro's popularity eventually waned ...

Finding himself out of work, he accepted the role of Thinko, in the sexploitation comedy Sex Kittens Go to College (dir. Albert Zugsmith, 1960), appearing alongside Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld, and Mijanou Bardot. The version released in adult theatres included an additional nine minute dream sequence featuring Thinko with some erotic dancers.   

Unfortunately, the film was neither a great critical nor a commercial success and, having failed to make a name for himself in Hollywood, Elektro ended his days as a minor attraction at an amusement park in California before slipping into almost complete cultural obscurity. 

However, I'm delighted to inform readers that Elektro managed to avoid the scrapyard and now has pride of place at the Mansfield Memorial Museum, where he is billed as the oldest surviving American robot in the world.


Notes

Photo credits: 1: Bettmann / Getty Images. 2: Westinghouse Electric Corporation

For a wonderful short colour film featuring Elektro in action at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, click here.

Musical bonus: Meat Beat Manifesto, Original Control (Version 2), (1992), ft. Elektro: click here.

This post is for Zena, a long term lover of robots.