Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies: Tom Lisanti

When you think of 60's B-movies, three words generally come to mind; beaches, bikers, and Elvis. Of course, in 2007 those words themselves conjure up images like medical waste on the Jersey shore, roving gangs of marauding wild men, and fried-peanut-butter-and-banana-sandwiches too-many-painkillers can't-poop-died-bloated-on-the-toilet Elvis... but! In the 60's all the fun movies had beaches, bikers, and/or Elvis and a bevy of beautiful babes (dig the alliteration there!); lovely, bikini-clad eye-candy who were queens of the B-movie universe.

Author Tom Lisanti is clearly a devoted fan of the ladies in his book. He spent a lot of time watching their movies growing up and felt it only right to find out what happened to the actresses who seemed to fade away as their movies did. He highlights twenty actresses who starred in some of the better-known B-movies of the day. He includes a complete filmography for each actress and a slew of pictures, as well as lavish and devotional praise for them and their work.

Just to get things started right though, he opens the book with an explanation of the studio system at the time these women were working; this system could be either beneficial or detrimental depending on what the actress wished to accomplish and how typecast she had become. He also gives a summary of the types of B-movies that were so popular at this time and what defined them as such; beach, biker, Elvis, and to lesser extent alienated-youth and horror movies.

The book is well put together and laid-out and it's definitely a fabulous piece for trivia buffs and movie fans.

-----------------
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: McFarland & Company (November 2000)
ISBN-10: 0786408685
ISBN-13: 978-0786408689
Buy the Book