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DEMENTIA13

                                                           January 14, 2013

  "Dementia 13" (1963)
                                                Produced Roger Corman
                                                Written and Directed
  Standardized furniture-- plotting to          Francis Copola
  seize a piece of an inheritence by
  concealing a death, getting a woman
  to change a will, a mysterious death
  in the family many years ago, etc.
                                                       CORMAN
  What's remarkable to my eye is
  the protagonist: a remarkably
  sympathetic anti-hero, an                  Played by Luana Anders: Her
  intelligent, manipulative,                 acting is a bit weak in
  grasping woman.                            places, but she's a character
                                             that's supposed to be acting,
  In the first scene, her husband            so the occasional false note
  (he connection-by-marriage to a            works.  And when being
  rich family), dies of a heart              herself, she's supposed to be
  attack while they're both out in           emotionless and cool...
  a row boat.  Her immediate          
  reaction is "I've got to get rid                 It's an interesting
  of the body", which she quickly                  thought that a complicated
  sinks in the lake.                               character can be easier
                                                   to act than a simple one.
      When she's put out of          
      commission mid-way through--
      all bad girls must be           
      punished, after all-- then  
      the movie veers into a basic  
      horror movie mode.              
      
                        



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