Unfortunately, I had to duck out of this show at the halfway mark so I missed the interview with Ann Robinson and the second feature Blueprint for Murder. However, your intrepid girl-reporter will be back in the saddle for tonight’s Gothic Noir double feature.
Now, on to the film I did catch. Campy, entertaining, and worth it just to see Doris Day in a skin tight catsuit (!) Julie is a melodramatic Woman in Jeopardy thriller about a cute freckled housefrau whose first hubby committed suicide …or did he? She remarries a brooding French pianist who turns out to be insanely jealous, abusive and homicidal. To escape his clutches, she takes on her old job as a stewardess. Of course, stalker-hubby manages to sneak on board just before take off.
Cue the Airplane! gags.
The problem with great parody is that it’s hard to take the original material seriously. While Julie may have been the first movie in which a stewardess is forced to pilot a plane, I couldn’t help cracking up watching Doris Day ernestly struggle to follow instructions from ground control. I kept waiting for the automatic pilot to inflate in the next seat.
Still, Julie was a wild ride and well worth seeing on the big screen.
Tonight, the LA Film Noir Festival continues with So Evil My Love and Experiment Perilous.