Curtis Harrington

Experimental filmmaker

He began his career as a film critic, writing a book on Josef von Sternberg in 1948. An early protege of Maya Deren,^[2] he directed several avant-garde short films in the 1940s and 1950s, including Fragment of Seeking, Picnic, and The Wormwood Star (a film study of the artwork of Marjorie Cameron which was filmed at the home of multi-millionaire art collector Edward James). Cameron also co-starred in his subsequent film Night Tide (1961) with Dennis Hopper. Harrington worked with Kenneth Anger, serving as a cinematographer on Anger's Puce Moment and acting in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) (he played Cesare, the somnambulist).

Harrington had links to Thelema shared with his close associates Kenneth Anger and Marjorie Cameron who frequently acted in his films.^[8]

Horror films

During the 1950s, Harrington began working as an assistant to producer Jerry Wald.^[9] He wrote the story for Wald's 1958 production Mardi Gras, a musical starring Pat Boone. He subsequently worked as an associate producer under Wald on Hound-Dog Man (1959), Return to Peyton Place (1961), and The Stripper (1963).

After leaving Wald, Harrington was employed by Roger Corman, who assigned the burgeoning director two American films which used footage from Soviet science fiction films, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) and Queen of Blood (1966). The latter film has developed a cult following, and has been cited as an influence on Alien.^[10]

In 1967, Harrington wrote and directed Games for Universal Pictures, a psychological thriller starring Simone Signoret, James Caan, and Katharine Ross. The film earned Signoret a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

In 1971, Harrington directed two "psycho-biddy" films starring Shelley Winters - Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? and What's the Matter with Helen?.

Throughout the decade, Harrington directed a string of made-for-television horror and thriller films, including Killer Bees (1974) with Gloria Swanson in one of her later roles. Harrington he made two television movies based on screenplays by Robert Bloch: The Cat Creature (1973) and The Dead Don't Die (1975).

Later works

Harrington had a cameo in Orson Welles's long-unfinished The Other Side of the Wind. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Harrington directed episodes of television series such as Baretta, Dynasty, Wonder Woman, The Twilight Zone and Charlie's Angels.

Harrington's final film, the short Usher, is a remake of his earlier Fall of the House of Usher. He cast Nikolas and Zeena Schreck in his updated version of Edgar Allan Poe's story. Financing of the film was partly accomplished through the Shrecks' brokering of the sale of Harrington's signed copy of Crowley's The Book of Thoth.^[11]

The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Curtis Harrington's films, including Night Tide, On the Edge, and Picnic.^[12]

Death

Harrington died on May 6, 2007, aged 80, of complications from a stroke he suffered two years earlier.^[1][14] His remains are interred in the Cathedral Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.^[15]

Film

Television

Acting roles