A Shining Light

  Marie Windsor belongs in that very select group of gifted actresses who were able to build a remarkably long career by being a shining light in mediocre, or even hopelessly bad, films. The limitations of her career didn’t hurt her personal life either. She is a remarkably sensible woman with a good marriage and a healthy attitude about life, dismissing any regrets about her career with the comment: “How could I be bitter when I’ve loved every bit of what I have been doing in films?!”

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  She was born December 11, 1922, in Marysvale, Utah. First child of Etta and Lane Bertelsen, she was christened Emily Marie. She was 11 when brother Jerry was born and 17 when her sister Louise arrived, by which time, Emily Marie was already in her first year at Brigham Young University.

  Marysvale is a farming community of perhaps 200 residents, and Marie, a lifelong lover of animals, became aware of animal abuse at a very early age: “The way animals were and are abused appalls me to this very day,” she told this writer. “For instance, it was very rare for anyone there with dogs to allow them into the house. Often these “pets” had to sleep outdoors in sub-zero weather even while their owners expected the animals to be their “best friends.” Sometimes those dogs had to eat snow just to get moisture.”

  But despite “fighting with other kids about this,” Marie recalls having had a lot of friends. Of course, she was less than popular with many of them when she graduated from high school in three years. School, she says, is something she loved from the beginning. Math she hated (and still does), but she was particularly good in spelling, English, and art. There was no art teacher when Marie was in high school, but the principal, favorably impressed with her work, gave her two books on art and told her if she learned to draw and paint well, he’d give her scholastic credit for her work. In junior high, the lady who now stands at 5’9” was even then the tallest girl in her class and for a time was captain of her basketball team “because of my height.”

  Lessons didn’t end at school. By the time the youngster was 11, her parents were driving her to Richfield, Utah (30 miles away) for weekly dancing or dramatic lessons. Marie recalls with gratitude how her parents always encouraged her in this, and she feels they knew even then that she would be in show business. This possibility dawned on Marie herself even earlier. By age 8, her maternal grandmother, whom she called “Gunga” and who had been postmistress at Marysvale for 33 years, regularly treated the child to (silent) movies which left the youngster enthralled. It wasn’t long before Marie was play acting on the family porch, either by herself or with other kids in her neighborhood, in improvised plays.

  Hollywood seems to have been her primary goal even before her two years at Brigham Young where, because of her very real aptitude for acting, she was “permitted to appear in upperclass plays.” By 1939 she entered and won first place in a “Queen of Covered Wagon Days” contest.

  Then, with her parents and “Gunga,” she went to New York hoping to be accepted as a student by actress-drama coach Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya. But by then the latter had relocated in Hollywood. Back in Marysvale, the local Chamber of Commerce “unofficially” gave Marie that year’s “Miss Utah” title which enabled her to enter (and ultimately win) The Jesse Laskey Radio Talent Show at Salt Lake City. Her prize in this then-annual “Gateway to Hollywood” contest was $100, and she soon made contact with Mme. Ouspenskaya through friends of her parents who were acquainted with the drama coach.

  Marie’s parents drove her to Hollywood in 1940. She was interviewed and accepted as a student by Ouspenskaya. Her parents returned to Marysvale, and during Marie’s first weeks in Hollywood, she stayed with family friends. She then moved to the famed Hollywood Studio Club (other residents have included Donna Reed, Ruth Roman, and Marilyn Monroe) where she stayed “three years the first time; then a year more at a later time.”

  Marie was introduced to producer LeRoy Prinz. He was favorably impressed with her youth, beauty, and ambition, and used his influence to get her a membership card in the Screen Actors Guild - enabling her to make her movie debut as a co-ed showgirl (in a student production) in the Frances Langford film All-American Co-Ed (Columbia, 1941). By this time she had rechristened herself “Marie Windsor,” and made her next film appearance in RKO’s Weekend For Three (‘41) “as an extra with one line.” In the same studio’s Playmates (‘41) she appeared momentarily with John Barrymore, who later signed a photo for her which she still has. She stayed on at RKO for Call Out the Marines (‘42) as one of two girls on a double date with Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe. She had several scenes as a nurse in Monogram’s Smart Alecks, a Dead End Kids’ opus in which Leo Gorcy kissed her at the fadeout; and then she appeared in Columbia’s Parachute Nurse (“but my role can’t have been much because I don’t even remember what it was!”). She does remember a scene with Donna Reed and Barry Nelson in Eyes in the Night (MGM, ‘42) in which Marie played a stage actress, and she then appeared in a party scene with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (RKO, ‘42). Miss Windsor very adroitly (and silently) played the princess in The Lady or the Tiger (MGM, ‘42), a nine-minute short based on the classic Frank R. Stockton story.

  Warners then cast her as Jack Benny’s “dream girl” in George Washington Slept Here. Marie recalls being on salary for three weeks for this film: “Then there were script changes, and my part was written out of the picture.”

  Miss Windsor then had a brief scene in Three Hearts For Julia (MGM, ‘43) opposite actor Lee Bowman, who remained a good friend until his death. Her next “brief moment on screen” was as a service wife (opposite actor Dick Simmons) in Pilot No. 5 (MGM, ‘43), followed by an appearance as one of several professional dancers in Bob Hope’s Let’s Face It (Paramount, ‘43). Then Marie received an offer to tour (in ‘43) with “Henry Duffy’s Merry-Go-Rounders,” which Marie describes as “a last stab at vaudeville.” She was straight woman for a comic in six skits. The show opened in Detroit, progressed on to Buffalo and then to Washington, D.C., where it closed.

  Marie then went to New York where she met a Captain Eddie Byron who had seen her show in Washington and who urged her to meet radio producer Jerry Devine. The latter was to cast her in more than 400 radio shows, including a nine month stint on the soap opera Our Gal Sunday between the years 1943-45. Miss Windsor also landed a small part in the Broadway-bound play Stardust, which folded in Philadelphia. She also auditioned for the Guthrie McClintic-Katharine Cornell stage production of Antigone: “Miss Cornell told me I was too young and lacked proper stage diction. This I regard as a classic example of my not being properly prepared for a part I very much wanted. But I treasure the very sweet and apologetic note I later received from Miss Cornell.”

  During Miss Windsor’s last year in New York, she replaced Karen Stevens as the femme heavy in the play Follow The Girls. Six months later she was spotted by an MGM talent scout who signed her to a studio stock contract.

  Marie, who recalls herself as “a gal with a lot of beaux but no great desire to marry any of them,” changed her mind when, on April 20, 1946, she wed band leader Ted Steele: “But he was still in love with his first wife, so we rarely lived together. I soon sought and obtained an annulment and decided to really concentrate on my work.”

  Her first assignment at Metro was as a man-crazy starlet on a Hollywood-bound train in Clark Gable’s The Hucksters, based on the explosive best seller by Frederic Wakeman. This was released in ‘47 as were three more of her Metro films: Romance of Rosy Ridge in which Marie was a pioneer girl whose family home caught fire; Song of the Thin Man, which presented her as “a rich bitch ... had a very good scene in a night club with William Powell, Phil Reed, Leon Ames, and Jayne Meadows”; and Unfinished Dance (Technicolor) in which Miss Windsor played a glamorous saleslady in the glamorous hat department of a glamorous department store.

  Marie then played a script girl in On An Island With You (MGM, ‘48, Technicolor) which was shot mostly at Cypress Gardens, Florida. She recalls a particularly unhappy incident during the production of Island: “We were back from Florida locations and had to do ‘pick up’ shots at the studio. Nobody alerted me to this, so I went to the beach that day. Somehow the studio tracked me down, and did I ever get hell for something that simply was not my fault.”

  Windsor had her best screen exposure to that date in Metro’s Technicolor Three Musketeers (‘48), as the silent, stealthy, conniving lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury) and as court informer to Cardinal Richelieu (Vincent Price). She was then one of several love smitten girls who was loved and left by Frank Sinatra in MGM’s The Kissing Bandit (‘48, Technicolor). Then for Enterprise she played the second female lead in Force of Evil (which Metro released in ‘48). Marie played Roy Roberts’ sultry, promiscuous wife in this story about the numbers racket. For the first time she received (featured) billing and was pictured in the advertising.

  “In ‘48,” the actress recalls, “when I left Metro, I tried to go back to radio, but somehow just didn’t do well at it. Then I underwent 17 hours of aptitude testng at UCLA and learned that I could have been a mechanic; this certainly was due to helping Dad years earlier, when he worked on cars at his garages and service stations. The tests also showed I could have been a painter, an art form I love because it is the most satisfyingly peaceful work I’ve ever done. But painting can be too lonely ... I like being with people too much to have ever made that my life’s work.”

  Work was what she found in abundance when she won the role of George Raft’s leading lady in Outpost in Morocco (U.A., ‘49). Both critics and audiences liked her as the sympathetic Princess Cara, a desert lass hopelessly and tragically in love with Legionnaire Raft. But Marie hated herself “and my terrible French accent” when she then played a showgirl in Preston Sturges’ Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (20th-Fox, ‘49, Techicolor).

  But her next, Hellfire (Republic, ‘49, Trucolor), opposite William Elliott, was something else altogether; “Bill Elliott saw the test I’d made as well as the George Raft film,” Marie remembers, “and when he learned I was a horsewoman, he fought with the studio to use me instead of one of their contract players. He later taught me to twirl guns, and I did a lot of stunt work in this western that normally an actress simply would not do.”

  Hellfire is one of Miss Windsor’s three favorites of all her films, and small wonder! She describes her role of Doll Brown as “rich, rangy ...” but what the actress doesn’t say is that she had to portray a young woman who’d suffered betrayal; who’d lost all caring about anyone except her still innocent younger sister; that to pay-her-way while trying to locate the girl, Doll had turned outlaw and traitor to the rugged but gentle prairie preacher (William Elliott) who had tried to help her; that she realized the enormity of her transgressions when, in an ironic but believable turn of events, she nearly killed the man (Forrest Tucker) whom her sister had married. Doll then had a final chance to run, but her better instincts got in her way and, heeding the “Sky Pilot’s” words, she turned instead to God for help.

  It is too glib and easy to describe Hellfire as “a tear-jerker.” For actress Windsor’s understanding of her misguided hellion/heroine, along with the bitterness, the anger, the humor, and the ultimate warmth with which she revealed all the facets of this girl’s character, inspired the same gratitude a viewer could feel for Bette Davis in Dark Victory or Now, Voyager or Eleanor Parker in The Seventh Sin.

  But neither Hellfire nor two more star-making films to come - Narrow Margin and The Killing - were really pushed by their distributors. Any of them could have propelled Windsor to superstardom if they’d been more widely seen. Instead the lady had her hands full just surviving in the Hollywood rat race.

  For survival was more than just a word to her: “I never got great salaries and was constantly concerned with rent and car payments. I never had enough self confidence. I’d have been so much better in simply every film I ever did. Of course, in later years, I’d studied acting more than ever before - mostly with the late Stella Adler, who was marvelous! - but in my earlier years, I couldn’t afford to do this.”

  Marie says she always worried about front office reaction to her work and then about audience reactions: “I really don’t know of any serious actor who ever felt otherwise. Bette Davis once said, ‘Acting is harder than digging ditches,’ while the late Bob Mitchem, on the other hand, had observed ‘Acting? Well, it sure beats working!’ But dear ‘Mitch’ was one of the fortunate few who really didn’t have to try very hard to be effective. He was born with that ability. And while I may have been ‘born’ with my ability too, I had to work very had to develop it. So, I certainly subscribe to what Bette said about acting being very hard work.”

  Certainly Miss Windsor had to work to be effective in her next, a bit of frontier frippery titled The Fighting Kentuckian (Republic, ‘49). John Wayne (who produced) was the hero, Vera Ralston was the heroine, and Marie Windsor was the chief heavy in a ham-fisted flick that made a lot of noise but little sense. Far better was Dakota Lil (20th-Fox, ‘50, Cinecolor), which gave Marie her first above-title co-star billing. She was a glamorous cabaret singer (dubbed by Marni Nixon) whose lucrative sideline was counterfeiting. While not a great film, it was consistently lively, humorous, and action-packed, and Windsor came across with a sexy performace that was, by turns, hard-boiled and sympathetic.

  She had another good film in The Showdown (working title: Sleep All Winter) (Republic, ‘50). Again teamed with William Elliott, Marie portayed a tavern keeper/adventuress who proved to be warmly sympathetic in this action-filled western where the love interest, for once, made sense and was not hauled in by its heels.

  In Frenchie (U-I, ‘50, Technicolor) Marie appeared as a respected (western) townswoman who secretly nursed a most unladylike letch for Marshal Joel McCrea. Shelley Winters was Windsor’s rival for his affections, and the two engaged in a brawl which is best described as a fur flying cat fight. No stunt women were used; Windsor and Winters nursed many bumps and bruises after their brawl and, of fellow actress Winters, Marie recalls: “A fascinating girl with a great deal of temperament but fun to know!”

  Fan magazine publicity was coming Marie Windsor’s way, and she was often photographed on dates with Scott Brady, Clark Gable, Stacy Harris, and others. She also told one fan writer that, “for the Right Guy,” she would always put her personal life ahead of her career.

  That career was progressing with its share of ups and downs. A “down” in the form of Double Deal (RKO, ‘50) cast Marie as a good girl (for a change) being romanced by Richard Denning and menaced by Fay Baker. Marie got top star billing (her first) for this less-than-epic saga of intrigue in the Oklahoma oil fields. But Little Big Horn (Lippert, ‘51) was good and might have been better if the budget conscious front office hadn’t pulled the plug on this film when the director ran one day over schedule. Windsor was cavalry commander Lloyd Bridges’ wife, lonely and bored with frontier life and in love with cavalryman John Ireland. She had two excellent confrontation scenes with both actors at the outset and was saddened that, because of the shutdown, two other equally good scenes, in which the romantic conflict was resolved, never went before the cameras.

  Marie’s next was the forgettable Hurricane Island (Columbia, ‘51, Cinecolor). This low budget epic had Jon Hall as an American-accented Spanish explorer; Miss Windsor as a bloodthirsty pirate; and the Columbia ranch hopefully got up to resemble the Florida Everglades where a search for the Fountain of Youth had to wait out a hurricane. Marie calls this “a most inferior film, which ‘B’ pictures don’t have to be!”

  Two Dollar Bettor (Realart, ‘51) was low budget too but worthwhile as law abiding family man John Litel finds himself victmized by conniving crooks Marie Windsor and Steve Brodie. By now Windsor was so firmly established on screen as an evil woman, that there were public protests:
“Fans would send me Bibles with specific verses underscored and accompanied by hand written warnings that ‘the devil would get me and I’d go to hell’ if I didn’t ‘reform.’” One threatening letter so unnerved Marie that she turned it over to local police, “who had quite a time getting me to calm down about it ...

  “ ... and, of course, a lot of people, on first meeting me, are surprised if not disappointed when I don’t come on like a bitch. This never bothered me. In fact, I was flattered to think I may have been so convincing in those roles that people really believed it was me, Emily Marie, up there on screen. Regrettably, I do sometimes have to fight a tendency to be bitchy. I don’t like this in myself and after such occasions, I’m always overwhelmed with guilt feelings. This has taught me that being pleasant is always so much more productive, for I know well the rewards for being good-natured. Some actresses seem to thrive on chaos, and I’ve often wondered if they felt they had to be that way in order to perform well?” She further feels she has a good sense of humor and is apt to make jokes at her own expense. She calls people who ridicule others “sadly sick” but is happy she can make people laugh at her witticisms about herself.

  Her next role in Japanese War Bride (working title: East Is East) (20th-Fox, ‘52) was no laughing matter: “She was the bitchiest dame I’ve ever played, and she really deserved the slapping around she got (from Cameron Mitchell).” King Vidor, who helmed this film, is one of Marie’s favorite directors: “He really understands actors well enough to allow us to ‘create’ on our own. If he felt we weren’t right, he’d always know what to do!”

  Windsor feels a director “must always have definite ideas of his own. I work best with those who’ve had enough experience with actors to know not to belittle them and who will instill confidence - like Stanley Kubrick on The Killing. Most actors are insecure enough already without having a director who adds to that.” (“Burt Kennedy, for whom I did Mail Order Bride, Good Guys and Bad Guys, and Support Your Local Gunfighter always had a lot of faith in me, and he’s great both on a one-to-one working level and in scenes requiring a lot of action. Andy McLaglen [One More Train To Rob and Cahill, U.S. Marshal], Richard Fleischer [Narrow Margin)], John Farrow [Unholy Wife], Harry Keller [Day of the Bad Man], Ralph Levy [Bedtime Story], Don Taylor [Wild Women], and Howard Koch [Girl in Black Stockings] are other special favorites - for reasons as individual as each of these men are, personally and professionally.”)

  More than insecurities about her work have bedevilled this blue-eyed, brunette. Her height, 5’9”, had always been a problem. She often towered over potential leading men and feels if it had not been for this, she might have had greater success as a romantic leading lady. “I knew I had a great figure, but I never regarded myself as beautiful. My forehead is sometimes too high, but bangs could correct this. I thought my nose was too prominent so I had this corrected via plastic surgery in 1959.

  “But I’ve often questioned my decision to have my nose reshaped ... I thought perhaps I’d be offered more sympathetic roles if this feature was less acquiline. Afterward, I did get more of those roles and a lot of people, including my husband, liked the change. But now I’m not sure I wouldn’t have gotten those roles anyway. About that time, stronger features became fashionable on the screen. My present nose contour isn’t bad; it’s just that I wish I’d been more secure and had accepted myself as I was.

  “I feel the same way about my name. Nowadays my real surname, Bertelsen, would have been great, and it certainly fits me more than Windsor. But in the earlier days, studios and agents insisted you change your name even if it wasn’t too long for a marquee. These examples prove to me I’ve survived in this industry more on guts than I ever did on self-confidence.”

  Certainly the actress’ next two films should have bolstered her self confidence: The Sniper (Columbia, ‘52) and Narrow Margin (working title: Target) (RKO, ‘52). In the former Marie was effectively enticing as a bar room pianist gunned down early on by deranged sniper Arthur Franz. Marie was determined not to fake her piano playing so she took lessons for six weeks, learned her compositions and was able to have her hands photographed while she played - even if the music itself was dubbed. And in Narrow Margin, filmed two years earlier “but held back by Howard Hughes for a great promotional campaign which never materialized,” Windsor had her second star-making role as a Dragon Lady-type siren who is the endangered widow of a gangster ... or is she? Margin is 70 minutes of believably heart-stopping action - mostly aboard a train racing through the night - and both Windsor and Charles McGraw as the detective who was her equal in toughness earned Academy Award nominations they never got. Margin has become a great cult favorite and deservedly so.

  But Outlaw Women (Lippert, ‘52, Cinecolor) will never be anyone’s favorite. It’s a lot of nonsense about a gang of female toughs who rule a western town, and not even top-billed Marie Windsor could make it work. Nor was The Jungle (Lippert, ‘52, Sepiatone) an award contender; but it did benefit from seven weeks of location shooting in India. A very exotic Miss Windsor as a humane East Indian princess helped a lot too!

  In the summer of ‘52 Miss Windsor interrupted her career to go to Korea for several weeks as one of many celebrities sponsored by “The Hollywood Coordinating Committee.” She visited hospital wards; wrote letters for servicemen too badly wounded to fend for themselves, collected phone numbers and addresses of many wives, sweethearts, and parents; and, upon returning home, made 30 long distance calls and wrote even more letters on behalf of “those wonderful guys.” She has one album devoted entirely to her trip to Korea, and she allowed me to copy in part one letter from a mother worried about her wounded son but reassured by Marie’s letter: “ ... Your letter arrived on my birthday, and God bless you, my dear! For you have given this grateful mother the finest birthday gift she could ever have!”

  Marie’s next film was The Tall Texan (Lippert, ‘53) a good western in which she lost her greed for gold as she succumbed to virile Lloyd Bridges in the title role. Of the late Bridges she says: “A thoroughly pleasant man ... very intelligent and creatively ambitious in organizing his career. He was also a very dear friend.”

  Warners’ Trouble Along The Way is what Marie Windsor caused John Wayne in this ‘53 comedy-drama about a football coach and the three very different women in his life (working title: Alma Mater). Marie liked the late “Duke” Wayne: “He had a terrific sense of humor. He was warm, friendly, always good with both the cast and crew and a real pro!” In City That Never Sleeps (Republic, ‘53), Marie was at her most seductive as a treacherous society matron who betrayed both her husband (Edward Arnold) and her criminal lover (William Talman). Of co-star Gig Young, whose tragic death made headlines several years ago, Marie observed, “Gig was bubbly ... warm ... humorous ... kind of a funny, even silly, guy with a big heart. But he only seemed like a free soul ... even then I suspected that somewhere inside of himself, he felt very lost.”

  Marie went from a small supporting role as a temperamental stage star in So This Is Love (Warners, ‘53, Technicolor) to female lead in the lowercase sci-fi Cat Women of the Moon (Astor Pictures, ‘53), of which the title says it all, to yet another temperamental performer in The Eddie Cantor Story (Warners, ‘53, Technicolor). She then went to Honolulu to film Hell’s Half Acre (Republic, ‘54) in which she memorably played a slattern. Then she returned to the Old West for Randolph Scott’s Bounty Hunter (Warners, ‘54, WarnerColor) as an engagingly crooked saloon keeper. She recalls Scott as: “An elegant gentleman ... very serious and professional about his work and very pleasant to be around.”

  In August of ‘54, actor Billy Bakewell and his wife persuaded Marie to accept a blind date with realtor Jack Hupp. The foursome went to The Luau in Beverly Hills. Marie liked Hupp immediately, “But I asked Billy, ‘Are you sending me a kid?’ because Jack was so tall and skinny at that time. But I fell for him that very night. We played tennis the next day, and after our third day, just a day later, neither of us went with anyone else.”

  Genial, jovial Jack Hupp, former college basketball star and recently retired Beverly Hills realtor-broker (self-employed), recalls his first date with Marie somewhat differently: “Suddenly there was this girl! She was beautiful and king-size! At The Luau, Billy asked her if she liked me. ‘I like him,’ Marie replied, giving me a great kiss on the side of my face ... she was so natural and easy and pleasant to be with, and not in the least bit coy.”

  Emily Marie Bertelsen Windsor and Jack Rodney Hupp were married on November 30, 1954 (in 1992 a widely read magazine article erroneously gave the year as “1943” and instead of “Hupp,” misspelled Jack’s name as “Hubb”). Hupp was asked if marriage with Marie had been difficult to adjust to: “Not at first. But I’ve always said having had my first marriage (by which Jack has a son, Chris) go haywire, I was gun shy and afraid that might happen again ... finally, one day, Marie told me, ‘Every time we argue, you get uptight. Look! I love you, and you love me, and we’re going to stay married! But that doesn’t mean I’ll agree with every damn-fool idea you ever have!’”

  The Hupps, who are still married and who live quietly in Beverly Hills, became parents for the only time on January 11, 1963, when their son Richard Rodney was born. Mrs. Hupp says motherhood wasn’t difficult for her to adjust to: “I’d been trying for all of the eight years we’d been married to have a child, and finally I did. But wouldn’t you know! Ricky was the kind of kid who wanted up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning, and that did exhaust me! I’d also say having Jack’s son Chris living with us from his 13th year on helped in raising Rick.”

  Jack is the son of silent screen actor Earl Rodney, and his wife says: “He has always been most supportive about my career; also I don’t think my schedules ever presented much of a problem for the boys.” Many of Marie’s starring roles have been in program pictures, which never have long schedules; and her supporting roles in A films usually haven’t taken long either. However, “There was a six month period in the ‘50s when I was on the tv serial, Full Circle. I worked at least three days every week. This meant I was up at 4 AM and not home before 6 PM. (The actress also guest starred in more than 200 other tv shows, including The Rogues, Batman, Perry Mason, Red Skelton Hour, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Stories of the Century (as Belle Starr), The Whistler, Ford Theatre, Cheyenne, Meet McGraw, Pursuit, Markham, The Californians, Rawhide, The Alaskans, Bracken’s World (Marie, playing a script supervisor, made semi-regular appearances), Charlie’s Angels (three guest appearances), Simon and Simon (three guest appearances), Alias Smith and Jones, Fantasy Island, The Lloyd Bridges Show (not to be confused with Bridges’ earlier tv series, Sea Hunt), and three guest slots for Murder, She Wrote.

  Since her marriage, Marie acquired a license to sell real estate (“I had to take a very tough eight-hour exam for it.”) However, Marie had no intention of neglecting her acting career. The latter continued with Silver Star (Lippert, ‘55) in which she was Earle Lyons’ loyally warm-hearted sweetheart. Then Windsor turned comic villainess for Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy (U-I, ‘55): her character’s name, Madame Rontru, seemed as campy as the rest of the film, which has become a cult favorite (other cult favorites of her films are, in a much more serious vein, Narrow Margin and The Killing).

  The actress was next top billed in No Man’s Woman (Republic, ‘55) wherein she played a villainous art critic, who is murdered by one of several likable, and likely, suspects. Two-Gun Lady (Associated Film Releasing Corp., ‘56) wasn’t good, but with pros like Peggie Castle (in the title role), William Talman as a lawman, and Marie as a saloon girl, it wasn’t all bad either!

  Filmed before The Killing, but released later was Swamp Women (Favorite Films, ‘56), a bomb about some tough female convicts searching for diamonds in the Louisiana bayous. Even if it had been a good film, Marie would have been less than thrilled with her top-billed participation: “We found the location work very tough. Not ony was housing under par, but during the shooting, we women had to do a lot of rough stuff such as fighting and wading through swamps. The mud under the water would be as high as our knees. We saw many poisonous snakes swimming around us, and I daresay there were many we didn’t see! On dry land, we had to jump off trucks and perform activities usually done by stunt people, of whom there were none in this company. Roger Corman directed this, and I’ve always admired his integrity and his ability to get the job done. He is an excellent director, as he has proved so many times since we made this film.”

  Yet Marie’s greatest concern at that time was that her agent had committed her to do The Killing. So if Swamp Woman went over schedule (and for a time it looked as if it might), Marie likely would have missed out on The Killing, which many consider to be her best film. This was still another star-making role which, sadly, didn’t have that end result. In this story of a daring race track heist, Windsor played Sherry, a money-hungry hellcat whose treachery upset the entire scheme. Of this girl, Marie observed: “I never believed that Sherry meant to be so cruel, but she felt that life just hadn’t given her a fair shake, and she was determined that it would ... so I tried to approach her from that point of view.”

  A very successful approach it was, too: “I’d say my happiest moment as an actress came when I learned I’d won the Look Magazine Best Supporting Actress Award for 1956 in The Killing. “Then,” she laughed wryly, “ came one of my most disapointing experiences when I learned that would be the first year they wouldn’t have a big movie awards bash here at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel. A magazine representative simply dropped by the house one night to give me my plaque.”

  (On January 19, 1983, Marie was awarded a richly deserved “Star” on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also won The Los Angeles Theatre Critics’ Best Actress Award for a play she starred in called The Bar Off Melrose. Off-screen, further recognition came when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) gave Marie the Ralph Morgan Award for her “25 years of distinguished service on the SAG board of directors.” The SAG also voted her a Lifetime Membership on its board of directors. By 1992, Marie had resigned from the board, but she also was named Honorary Chairperson of the SAG Film Society, which she co-founded with Barbara Barron several years earlier. This citation was presented at the Academy on October 12, 1992, which Marie and her husband Jack attended. Also shown at this occasion were prints of both Narrow Margin and The Killing.)

  “Disappointing” best describes some of Marie’s films following The Killing:; all were bolstered by her professionalism, but several were unworthy of her efforts: The Parson and The Outlaw (Columbia, ‘57, Technicolor), in which Marie sported an amusing Spanish accent in this tiresome “epic” about Billy the Kid; Unholy Wife (RKO/U-I, ‘57, Technicolor), in which Marie had a good if too brief role as a hooker (at the outset); Girl in Black Stockings (U.A., ‘57) was a fair murder mystery, with Windsor very sympathetic in an enigmatic role; The Story of Mankind (Warners, ‘57, Technicolor) a “spectacle” that certainly was and in which Marie played Josephine to Dennis Hopper’s Napoleon; Day of the Bad Man (U.I., ‘58, Technicolor), nothing new but well done with Windsor both spirited and moving in her loyalty to a condemned killer; Island Women (U.A., ‘58), a film about frustrated love which Marie would rather forget even if it does contain her sharply etched portrait of a neurotic, love-starved spinster; Paradise Alley (aka Stars in the Back Yard) (Sutton Pictures Corp. ‘61) filmed in ‘57 and not to be confused with a Sylvester Stallone film of the same name. Marie played a stripper in this (though she certainly didn’t “strip” in the film) and remembers it fondly for the many veteran actors with whom she worked; Critic’s Choice (Warners, ‘63, Technicolor), with Marie on briefly but very glamorously as one of Lucille Ball’s sisters; The Day Mars Invaded Earth (20th-Fox, ‘64), an imaginative, unappreciated sci-fi in which scientist Kent Taylor, his wife Marie Windsor, and their family are “reinhabited” by angry Martians; Bedtime Story (working title: King of the Mountain) (Universal, ‘64, Technicolor), comedy with Windsor all too briefly bewitching as a foolish wealthy woman who falls for con man David Niven; Mail Order Bride (MGM, ‘64, Technicolor), pleasantly offbeat western with Marie warmly wistful as a lonely tavern keeper who fears life is passing her by but who is due for a happy surprise; Chamber of Horrors (Warners, ‘66, Technicolor), suspenser with Windsor charming as a Madam and Tony Curtis in a guest spot as one of her guests; The Good Guys and The Bad Guys (Warner-Seven Arts, ‘69, Technicolor), amusing western with Marie very likable as a wised up tavern keeper; Wild Women (A Movie-For TV, ‘70, color), western satire-drama with Marie and Marilyn Maxwell stealing the show as comic ex-cons; Support Your Local Gunfighter (U.A., ‘71, Technicolor), another comic western with Windsor and Joan Blondell neatly spoofing their Madam roles; One More Train To Rob (working title: Latigo) (Universal, ‘71, Technicolor), a so-so western with Marie as a frontier Madam with eyes for hero George Peppard; Cahill, U.S. Marshal (working title: Wednesday Morning) (Warners, ‘73, Technicolor), Miss Windsor’s best in too long; she was wonderfully warm and winsome as a frontier widow in love with Marshal John Wayne; Manhunter (a Movie-for-TV, ‘74, color), suspense film with Windsor as yet another Madam; The Outfit (MGM ‘74, color), favorably reviewed but quickly withdrawn film about the Mafia had Marie playing a bar keeper in a small country town; Apple Dumpling Gang (Disney, ‘75, color), with Marie incredibly cast as a Madam; the studio was stunned too and cut all of her footage but promised to have her back for another film; Hearts of the West (MGM, ‘75, color), a nostalgia piece with Miss Windsor in character makeup as a ‘20s matron amused but flattered by the aggressive attentions of much younger Jeff Bridges; Freaky Friday (Disney, ‘77, color), with Marie very funny as a freaked out high school typing teacher; Salem’s Lot (a movie-for-tv in two parts, ‘79, color), a good thriller with Miss Windsor at her sympathetic best as a boarding house keeper; and the unreleased Perfect Woman made for cable tv, in which Marie plays “a comic prime minister on another planet”; Lovely But Deadly which cast her as the wealthy aunt of a troubled young girl; and Commando Squad (Trans World Entertainment, color) in which audiences found Marie wonderfully amusing a a gal who operates a Hollywood book-and-poster store as a front for gunrunning. A Variety critic agreed that Marie was “hilarious” in her role.

  Tragedy struck Marie Windsor Hupp in May of 1996. Of that time, Marie told me: “For many years my inherited arthritis had given me problems. In May of ‘96 I had to take these problems very seriously. I’d had an MRI and had been told at that time that I had a lot of disease in my fourth lumbar. For more than a year the pain continued to worsen, despite physical therapy and medication. I was given shots of cortisone in my spine (this was called ‘an epidermal treatment’).

  “Even then, the pain did not subside. It got so excruciating that I would be in tears. At one point, my husband Jack called our doctor, who quickly consulted my neurologist. Jack was told to have me hospitalized at once; then a back surgeon was called in.

  “I was soon on a gurney being wheeled into an operating room. Jack followed us down the hall. He told me later that I’d called out to him, ‘Don’t forget to feed the dog.’

  “After surgery and my time in intensive care, I was deposited in my room and I realized I was without back pain, but that I couldn’t move my legs. After a few basic questions, several doctors asked me to move my foot, pointing it up toward the ceiling. To their disappointment and my horror, I couldn’t even move my toes.

  “I then had a heavy schedule of physical therapy, trying to teach me how to stand, to wash and dress myself, etc. I was given exercises while in bed to strengthen the muscles in my legs and back - because I didn’t have enough strength to stay in a sitting position.

  “In the midst of all this, I got pneumonia, followed by an infection they couldn’t seem to locate. They kept shuffling me from room to room and floor to floor, depending on what state of health I was in.

  “Somewhere along the way, it was decided that a psychiatrist should come in to talk with me with my growing state of depression. My doctor wanted me to see a Dr. Zoloff, and that did help.

  “I was told that each head of the doctors treating me for various problems would meet to report how I (and other patients) were progessing. It finally became clear to me that they had no hopes of my ever walking again. I kept begging to return home, reasoning I could get therapy there and would heal faster at home.

  “I won’t go into great detail about what followed. I was allowed to go home. Our wonderful son Richard and my wonderful husband Jack arranged for two practical nurses to take care of us!

  “I say ‘us’ because Jack wasn’t in good health either. He had been diagnosed as having ‘an essential tremor’ (or Parkinson’s Disease) and Perifial Neuropathy.

  “From May to September I was hospitalized three times. While at home, [my doctor] would send nurses to take blood samples and to use portable x-ray machines.

  “I not only needed a good therapist; I also needed someone strong to lift me into a wheel chair. Finally, I found John Koegel, who not only could lift me but who was also a fine therapist. He arranged for a piece of equipment that was something like a hammock. The nurses could then put this under me (while in bed) and then hoist me up and swing me over to my wheel chair. After several months, John could help me stand for a few seconds.

  “Eventually, with the help of our nurses, I could stand for a few minutes and take a few steps with a walker and then a cane ... and what a great moment it was when I was able to drive and go to the market! Later, when my doctor and my neurologist examined me, they seemed truly amazed (and they still are!) that I can actually walk.”

  Presently, Marie is at work on her autobiography, tentatively titled “Three Steps Down From Selma” (the title was suggested by Charles Nelson Reilly, but Marie says she is open to other suggestions).

  In looking back on her career, the actress says she finds “it is fun being Marie Windsor,” that being recognized in public is gratifying and that she never resented this.

  “I believe like Burt Reyolds who on a really great tv interview with Barbara Walters said we have to take what goes with the territory ... that this includes signing autographs and being gracious to the fans who’ve made our careers possible.”

  In contemplating other actresses whose careers followed a path similar to Marie’s, such as the late Marilyn Maxwell (“She was real, full of fun, really a regular gal ... absolutely no phoniness!”), Virginia Grey, Angela Greene, and Ann Doran, Marie remarked: “I can’t speak for any of those other ‘girls,’ but I suspect they all had at least one thing in common with me ... that we never had an important industry man in our lives, who could have pushed our careers. For it’s just as true that many more successful actresses knew such men who loved them. That’s not a put-down, and certainly not all successful actresses make it big because of that. People sometimes ask if I’m not bitter because I didn’t go further in my career, and I can truthfully say no. How could I be bitter when I’ve loved every bit of what I’ve been doing in films?!”

  And, speaking as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend: “Happiness is having warm and loving parents, which I did. It’s also having good health (Dear God! How important that is!); peace of mind where family and friends are concerned; good food, and a comfortable but not lavish home to live in; a lack of monetary problems; and having a husband and son who have joie de vivre ...

  “ ... And I’ve got it all - except satisfaction in my work, but that’s only because I don’t work often enough to suit me.”

The Films of Marie Windsor

(The titles of these films are listed according to release date only, as shown in Film Daily and/or Weekly Variety.)

1. All-American Co-Ed. (1941-United Artists, 50 m.) Directed by LeRoy Prinz. Produced by Prinz and Hal Roach. Screenplay by Cortland Fitzsimmons and Kenneth Higgins. With Frances Langford, Johnny Downs, Marjorie Woodworth, Noah Perry, Jr., Esther Dale, Harry Langdon, Allan Lane, Lillian Randolph, Marie Windsor.

2. Weekend For Three. (1941, R.K.O., 65 m.) Directed by Irving Reis. Produced by Tay Garnett. Screenplay by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. With Dennis O’Keefe, Jane Wyatt, Philip Reed, Edward Everett Horton, ZaSu Pitts, Franklin Pangborn, Marion Martin, Hans Conreid, Marie Windsor.

3. Playmates. (1941, R.K.O., 94 m.) Directed by and produced by David Butler. Screenplay by James V. Kern. With Kay Kyser, Lupe Velez, John Barrymore, May Robson, Patsy Kelly, Peter Lind Hayes, Alice Fleming, Ginny Simms, Ish Kabibble, Marie Windsor.

4. Call Out The Marines. (1942, R.K.O., 67 m.) Directed by Frank Ryan and William Hamilton. Produced by Howard Benedict. Screenplay by Frank Ryan. With Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Binnie Barnes, Paul Kelly, Robert Smith, Dorothy Lovett, Franklin Pangborn, Corinna Mura, Marie Windsor, The King’s Men, Six Hits and a Miss.

5. Smart Alecks. (1942, Monogram, 88 m.) Directed by Wallace Fox. Produced by Sam Katzman and Jack Dietz. Screenplay by Harvey Gates. With Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Stone, Stan Clements, Roger Pryor, Gale Storm, Joe Kirk, Marie Windsor.

6. Parachute Nurse. (1942, Coumbia, 65 m.) Directed by Charles Barton. Produced by Wallace MacDonald. Screenplay by Rian James. With Marguerite Chapman, William Wright, Kay Harris, Louise Allbritton, Frank Sully, Marjorie Reardon, Catherine Craig, Forrest Tucker, Marie Windsor.

7. Eyes in the Night. (1942, MGM, 80 m.) Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Produced by Jack Chertak. Screenplay by Gus Trasper and Howard Emmett Rogers. With Edward Arnold, Ann Harding, Donna Reed, Horace (Stephen) McNally, Allen Jenkins, John Emery, Barry Nelson, Marie Windsor, Stanley Ridges, Reginald Denny.

8. The Big Street. (1942, RKO, 88 m.) Directed by Irving Reis. Produced by Damon Runyon. Screenplay by Leonard Spigelglass. With Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane, Agnes Moorehead, Sam Levine, Ray Collins, Louise Beavers, Marie Windsor, Ozzie Nelson & His Orchestra.

9. The Lady or The Tiger. (1942, an MGM Miniature, 9 m.) Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Produced by Dick Goldstein. Screenplay by Herman Boxer.

10. Three Hearts For Julia (1943, MGM, 89 m.) Directed by Richard Thorpe. Produced by John W. Considine, Jr. Screenplay by Lionel Hauser. With Ann Sothern, Melvyn Douglas, Lee Bowman, Richard Ainley, Felix Bressart, Reginald Owen, Mariette Canty, Marie Windsor.

11. Pilot No. 5 (1943, MGM, 70 m.) Directed by George Sidney. Produced by B. P. Fine. Screenplay by David Hertz. With Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Alan Baxter, Marilyn Maxwell, Marie Windsor, Dick Simmons.

12. Let’s Face It. (1943, Paramount, 76 m.) Directed by Sidney Lanfield. Produced by Fred Kohlmar. Screenplay by Harry Tugend. With Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, ZaSu Pitts, Eve Arden, Marjorie Weaver, Dona Drake, Raymond Walburn, Joe Sawyer, Marie Windsor.

13. The Hucksters. (1947, MGM, 115 m.) Directed by Jack Conway. Produced by Arthur Hornblow, Jr. Screenplay by Luther Davis. With Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold, Gloria Holden, Douglas Fowley, Marie Windsor.

14. Romance of Rosy Ridge. (1947, MGM, 105 m.) Directed by Roy Rowland. Produced by Jack Cummings. Screenplay by Lester Cole. With Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Marshall Thompson, Selena Royle, Charles Dingle, Dean Stockwell, Guy Kibbee, Elizabeth Risdon, Jim Davis, James Bell, Paul Langton, Marie Windsor.

15. Song of the Thin Man. (1947, MGM, 86 m.) Directed by Edward Buzzell. Produced by Nat Perrin. Screenplay by Perrin and Steve Fisher. With William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn, Dean Stockwell, Philip Reed, Patricia Morison, Leon Ames, Gloria Graham, Jayne Meadows, Bess Flowers, Don Taylor, Warner Anderson, Bruce Cowling, Connie Gilchrist, William Bishop, Marie Windsor.

16. Unfinished Dance. (1947, MGM, 101 m.) Directed by Henry Koster. Produced by Joe Pasternak. Screenplay by Miles Connolly. With Margaret O’Brien, Cyd Charisse, Karin Booth, Danny Thomas, Esther Dale, Thurston Hall, Harry Hayden, Mary Eleanor Donahue, Marie Windsor.

17. On An Island With You. (1948, MGM, 107 m.) Directed by Richard Thorpe. Produced by Joe Pasternak. Screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley. With Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse, Xavier Cugat, Leon Ames, Marie Windsor.

18. Three Musketeers. (1948, MGM, 125 m.) Directed by George Sidney. Produced by Pandro S. Berman. Screenplay by Robert Ardrey. With Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury, Frank Morgan, Vincent Price, Gig Young, Keenan Wynn, John Sutton, Patricia Medina, Richard Stapley, Byron Foulger, Richard Simmons, Marie Windsor, Robert Warwick.

19. The Kissing Bandit. (1948, MGM, 102 m.) Directed by Laslo Benedek. Produced by Joe Pasternak. Screenplay by Isobel Lennart and John B. Harding. With Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick, Ricardo Montalban, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Marie Windsor.

20. Force of Evil. (1948, Enterprise/MGM, 78 m.) Directed by Abraham Polonsky. Produced by Bob Roberts. Screenplay by Polonsky and Ira Wolfert. With John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts, Marie Windsor, Howland Chamberlain, Paul McVey, Beau Bridges, Paul Fix.

21. Outpost in Morocco. (1949, United Artists, 92 m.) Directed by Robert Florey. Produced by Samuel Bischoff and Joseph N. Ermolieff. Screenplay by Charles Grayson and Paul de Sante-Colombe. With George Raft, Marie Windsor, Akim Tamiroff, John Litel, Eduard Franz, Crane Whitley, Damian O’Flynn.

22. Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend. (1949, 20th Century-Fox, 77 m.) Direction, production, and screenplay by Preston Sturges. With Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Marie Windsor.

23. Hellfire. (1949, Republic, 90 m.) Directed by R. G. Springsteen. Produced by William J. O’Sullivan. Screenplay by Dorrell and Stuart McGowan. With William Elliott, Marie Windsor, Forrest Tucker, Jim Davis, H. B. Warner, Paul Fix, Esther Howard.

24. The Fighting Kentuckian. (1949, Republic, 100 m.) Direction and screenplay by George Waggner. Produced by John Wayne. With John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Philip Dorn, Oliver Hardy, Marie Windsor, John Howard, Hugo Haas, Grant Withers, Odette Myrtle.

25. Dakota Lil. (1950, 20th Century-Fox, 88 m.) Directed by Leslie Selander. Produced by Edward L. Alperso. Screenplay by Maurice Geraghty. With George Montgomery, Rod Cameron, Marie Windsor, John Emery, Wallace Ford, Jack Lambert, Marion Martin.

26. The Showdown. (1950, Republic, 86 m.) Directed by Dorrell and Stuart McGowan. Produced by William J. O’Sullivan. Screenplay by Richard Wormser. With William Elliott, Walter Brennan, Marie Windsor, Henry Morgan, Rhys Williams, Jim Davis, Leif Ericson, William Ching, Nacho Galindo.

27. Frenchie. (1950, Universal-International, 81 m.) Directed by Louis King. Produced by Michel Kraike. Screenplay by Oscar Brodney. With Joel McCrea, Shelley Winters, John Russell, John Emery, Paul Kelly, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor, George Cleveland, Regis Toomey, Frank Ferguson.

28. Double Deal. (1950, RKO, 65 m.) Directed by Abby Berlin. Produced by James T. Vaughn. Screenplay by Lee Berman and Charles S. Belden. With Marie Windsor, Richard Denning, Taylor Holmes, Fay Baker, James Griffith.

29. Little Big Horn. (1951, Lippert Pictures, 86 m.) Direction and screenplay by Charles Marquis Warren. Produced by Carl K. Hittleman. With Lloyd Bridges, John Ireland, Marie Windsor, Reed Hadley, Jim Davis, Wally Cassell, Hugh O’Brien, King Donovan, Barbara Woodall.

30. Hurricane Island. (1951, Columbia, 70 m.) Directed by Lew Landers. Produced by Sam Katzman. Screenplay by David Mathews. With Jon Hall, Marie Windsor, Marc Lawrence, Romo Vincent, Edgar Barrier, Karen Randle, Jo Gilbert, Lyle Talbot.

31. Two Dollar Bettor. (1951, Realart, 73 m.) Produced and directed by Edward Levin. Screenplay by Howard Emmett Rogers. With John Litel, Marie Windsor, Steve Brodie, Barbara Logan, Robert Sherwood, Isabel Randolph.

32. Japanese War Bride. (1952, 20th Century-Fox, 91 m.) Directed by King Vidor. Produced by Joseph Bernhard. Screenplay by Catherine Turney. With Shirley Yamaguchi, Don Taylor, Cameron Mitchell, Marie Windsor, James Bell, Louise Lorimer, Philip Ahn, Sybil Merritt, Lane Nakano, Orley Lindgren.

33. The Sniper. (1952, Columbia, 87 m.) Directed by Edward Dmytryk. Produced by Stanley Kramer. Screenplay by Edward and Edna Anhalt. With Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Marie Windsor, Frank Faylen, Richard Kiley, Mabel Paige, Geraldine Carr, Jay Novello.

34. The Narrow Margin. (1952, RKO, 70 m.) Directed by Richard Fleischer. Produced by Stanley Rubin. Screenplay by Earl Felton. With Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Queenie Leonard, David Clark, Peter Virgo, Don Beddoe, Paul Maxey, Henry Hervey, Gordon Gebert.

35. Outlaw Women. (1952, Lippert Pictures, 76 m.) Directed by Samuel Newfield and Ron Ormond. Produced by Ormond. Screenplay by Orville Hampton. With Marie Windsor, Richard Rober, Alan Nixon, Carla Balenda, Jacqueline Fontaine, Jackie Coogan, Maria Hart, Lyle Talbot, Brad Johnson.

36. The Jungle. (1952, Lippert Pictures, 74 m.) Directed by William Berke. Produced by Berke and Ellis Dungan. Screenplay by Carroll Young. With Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero, Marie Windsor, Sulchana, David Abraham.

37. The Tall Texan. (1953, Lippert Pictures, 82 m.) Directed by Elmo Williams. Produced by Frank T. Woods. Screenplay by Samuel Roecca. With Lloyd Bridges, Lee J. Cobb, Marie Windsor, Luther Adler, Samuel R. Herrick, Sid Saylor.

38. Trouble Along The Way. (1953, Warners, 110 m.) Directed by Michael Curtiz. Produced by Melville Shavelson. Screenplay by Shavelson. With John Wayne, Donna Reed, Charles Coburn, Sherry Jackson, Marie Windsor, Tom Helmore, Dabs Greer, Leif Erikson, Chuck Connors.

39. City That Never Sleeps. (1953, Republic, 90 m.) Directed and produced by John H. Auer. Screenplay by Steve Fischer. With Gig Young, Mala Powers, Edward Arnold, William Talman, Chill Wills, Marie Windsor, Paula Raymond, Wally Cassell, Ron Hagerthy.

40. So This Is Love. (1953, Warners, 101 m.) Directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Henry Blanke. Screenplay by John Monk, Jr. With Kathryn Grayson, Merv Griffin, Walter Abel, Rosemary DeCamp, Jeff Donnell, Douglas Dick, Ann Doran, Margaret Field, Mabel Albertson, Fortunio Bonanova, Marie Windsor, Noreen Cochran.

41. Cat Women of the Moon. (1953, Astor Pictures, 64 m.) Directed by Arthur Hilton. Produced by Al Zimbalist and Jack Robin. Screenplay by Roy Hamilton. With Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, Marie Windsor, Bill Phipps, Douglas Fowley, Carol Brewster, Suzanne Alexander, Susan Morrow.

42. The Eddie Cantor Story. (1953, Warners, 116 m.) Directed by Alfred E. Green. Produced by Sidney Skolsky. Screenplay by Jerome Weidman. With Keefe Brasselle, Marilyn Erskine, Aline MacMahon, Arthur Franz, Alex Gerry, Gerald Mohr, William Forrest, Richard Monda, Marie Windsor, Douglas Evans, Ann Doran, Hal March.

43. Hell’s Half Acre. (1954, Republic, 91 m.) Directed and produced by John H. Auer. Screenplay by Steve Fischer. With Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor, Nancy Gates, Leonard Strong, Jesse White, Keye Luke, Philip Ahn.

44. The Bounty Hunter. (1954, Warners, 79 m.) Directed by Andre de Toth. Produced by Sam Bischoff. Screenplay by Winston Miller. With Randolph Scott, Dolores Dorn, Marie Windsor, Howard Petrie, Henry Antrim, Robert Keys, Ernest Borgnine, Dubb Taylor, Paul Picerni.

45. The Silver Star. (1955, Lippert Pictures, 73 m.) Directed by Richard Bartlett. Produced by Earle Lyon. Screenplay by Bartlett and Ian MacDonald. With Edgar Buchanan, Marie Windsor, Earle Lyon, Lon Chaney, Richard Bartlett, Barton MacLane, Morris Ankrum, Steve Rowland.

46. Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy. (1955, Universal-International, 79 m.) Directed by Charles Lamont. Produced by Howard Christie. Screenplay by John Grant. With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Dan Seymour, Kurt Katch, Richard Karlan, Peggy King, The Mazzonne Dancers, The Chandra-Kay Dancers.

47. No Man’s Woman. (1955, Republic, 70 m.) Directed by Franklin Adreon. Produced by Rudy Ralston. Screenplay by John K. Butler.With Marie Windsor, John Archer, Patric Knowles, Nancy Gates, Jil Jarmyn, Richard Crane, Fern Hall, Louis Jean Heydt, Morris Ankrum.

48. Two-Gun Lady. (1956, Associated Film Releasing Corp., 75 m.) Directed and produced by Richard Bartlett. Screenplay by Norman Jolley. With Peggie Castle, William Talman, Marie Windsor, Earle Lyon, Joe Besser, Robert Lowery, Barbara Turner, Ian MacDonald, Norman Jolley.

49. The Killing. (1956, United Artists, 83 m.) Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Produced by James B. Harris. Screenplay by Kubrick and Jim Thompson, With Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Marie Windsor, Ted de Corsia, Elisha Cook, Joe Sawyer, Tim Carey, Jay Adler, Joseph Turkell.

50. Swamp Women. (1956, Favorite Films Release, 70 m.) Directed by Roger Corman. Produced by Bernard Woolner. Screenplay by David Stein. With Marie Windsor, Beverly Garland, Touch (Mike) Connors, Carole Mathews, Susan Cummings.

51. The Parson and The Outlaw. (1957, Columbia, 71 m.) Directed by Oliver Drake. Produced by Robert Gilbert. Screenplay by Drake. With Tony Dexter, Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, Jean Parker, Buddy Rogers, Robert Lowery, Madalyn Trakey, Bob Steel, Bob Duncan, Jack Lowell.

52. Unholy Wife. (1957, RKO/released by Universal-International, 94 m.) Directed and produced by John Farrow. Screenplay by Jonathan Latimer. With Diana Dors, Rod Steiger, Tom Tryon, Beaulah Bondi, Marie Windsor, Arthur Franz, Luis Van Rooten, Joe DeSantis, Argentina Brunetti.

53. Girl in Black Stockings. (1957, United Artists, 73 m.) Directed by Howard W. Koch. Produced by Aubrey Schenek. Screenplay by Richard Landau. With Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, Mamie Van Doren, Ron Randell, Marie Windsor, John Dehner, John Holland, Gerald Frank, Stuart Whitman.

54. The Story of Mankind. (1957, Warners, 100 m.) Direction and screenplay by Irwin Allen. Produced by Allen and George E. Swink. With Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Hedy Lamarr, The Marx Brothers, Virginia Mayo, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Marie Windsor, Dennis Hopper, Helmut Dantine, Reginald Gardner, Marie Wilson.

55. Day of the Bad Man. (1958, Universal-International, 81 m.) Directed by Harry Keller. Produced by Gordon Kay. Screenplay by Lawrence Roman. With Fred MacMurray Joan Weldon, John Ericson, Robert Middleton, Marie Windsor, Edgar Buchanan, Eduard Franz, Sip Homeier, Ann Doran.

56. Island Women. (1958, United Artists, 72 m.) Directed by William Berke. Produced by Berke and Eugene Gutowski. Screenplay by Philip Yordan. With Marie Windsor, Vince Edwards, Marilee Earle, Leslie Scott, Irene Williams, Kay Barnes.

57. Paradise Alley (a.k.a. Stars in the Back Yard) (1961, Sutton Pictures Corp., 80 m.) Direction, production, and screenplay by Hugo Haas. With Carol Morris, Billy Gilbert, Marie Windsor, Hugo Haas, Chester Conklin, Margaret Hamilton, Corinne Griffith.

58. Critic’s Choice. (1963, Warners, 100 m.) Directed by Don Weiss. Produced by Frank P. Rosenber. Screenplay by Jack Sher. With Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell, Rip Torn, Jessie Royce Landis, Marie Windsor, Jim Backus, Ricky Kelman, Joan Shawlee.

59. The Day Mars Invaded Earth. (1964, 20th Century-Fox, 70 m.) Directed and produced by Maury Dexter. Screenplay by Harry Spalding. With Kent Taylor, Marie Windsor, William Mims, Betty Beall, Lowell Brown, Gregg Shank.

60. Bedtime Story. (1964, Universal, 99 m.) Directed by Ralph Levy. Produced by Stanley Shapiro. Screenplay by Shapiro and Paul Henning. With Marlon Brando, David Niven, Shirley Jones, Dodie Goodman, Aram Stephan, Parley Baer, Marie Windsor, Rebecca Sand, Frances Robinson.

61. Mail Order Bride. (1964, MGM, 86 m.) Direction and screenplay by Burt Kennedy. Produced by Richard E. Lyons. With Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, Barbara Luna, Marie Windsor, Bill Smith, Paul Fix, Jimmy Mathers, Denver Pyle.

62. Chamber of Horrors. (1966, Warners, 99 m.) Directed and produced by Hy Averback. Screenplay by Stephen Kandel. With Cesare Danova, Patrick O’Neal, Wilfred Hyde-White, Laura Devon, Marie Windsor, Suzy Parker, Tun Tun, Philip Bourneuf, Tony Curtis.

63. The Good Guys and The Bad Guys. (1969, Warner-Seven Arts, 90 m.) Directed by Burt Kennedy. Produced by Ronald M. Cohen. Screenplay by Cohen and Dennis Shryack. With Robert Mitchum, George Kennedy, Martin Balsam, David Carradine, Lois Nettleton, Marie Windsor, Tina Louise, John Carradine, Douglas V. Fowley.

64. Wild Women. (1970, A Movie-For-TV, 90 m.) Directed by Don Taylor. Produced by Aaron Spelling and Lou Macheim. Screenplay by Macheim and Richard Carr. With Hugh O’Brian, Anne Francis, Marilyn Maxwell, Marie Windsor, Sherry Jackson, Robert F. Simon, Richard Kelton, Cynthia Hull, Pepe Callahan.

65. Support Your Local Gunfighter. (1971, United Artists, 92 m.) Directed by Burt Kennedy. Produced by Bill Finnegan. Screenplay by James Edward Grant. With James Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Elam, Joan Blondell, Harry Morgan, Marie Windsor, Henry Jones, John Dehner, Chuck Connors, Dub Taylor.

66. One More Train to Rob. (1971, Universal, 108 m.) Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Produced by Robert Arthur. Screenplay by Don Tait and Dick Nelson. With George Peppard, Diana Muldaur, John Vernon, France Nuyen, Marie Windsor, Steve Sandor, Soon-Taik Oh, Richard Loo.

67. Cahill - U.S. Marshall. (1973, Warners, 102 m.) Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Produced by Michael Wayne. Screenplay by Harry Julian Frank and Rita M. Fink. With John Wayne, George Kennedy, Gary Grimes, Neville Brand, Clay O’Brien, Marie Windsor, Morgan Paul, Don Vadis, Royal Dano.

68. Manhunter. (1974, A Movie-for-TV, 90 m.) Directed by Walter Grauman. Produced by Quinn Martin and Adrian Samish. Screenplay by Samuel H. Rolfe. With Ken Howard, Gary Lockwood, Tim O’Connor, James Olson, Stefanie Powers, John Anderson, L.Q. Jones, Ford Raney, R. G. Armstrong, Marie Windsor, Lew Askew, Ben Frank, Robert Patton, Mary Cross.

69. The Outfit. (1974, MGM, 103 m.) Direction and screenplay by John Flynn. Produced by Carter De Haven. With Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan, Timothy Carey, Marie Windsor, Jane Greer, Richard Jaeckel, Sheree North, Felix Orlandi, Elisha Cook, Anita O’Day.

70. Hearts of the West. (1975, MGM, 103 m.) Directed by Howard Zeiff. produced by Tony Bill. Screenplay by Rob Thompson. With Jeff Bridges Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasance, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin, Alex Rocco, Marie Windsor, Richard B. Shull, Herbert Edelman.

71. Freaky Friday. (1977, Disney-Buena Vista, 95 m.) Directed by Gary Nelson. Produced by Ron Miller. Screenplay by Mary Rodgers. With Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, John Astin, Patsy Kelly, Marie Windsor, Iris Adrian.

72. Salem’s Lot. (1979, Made-for TV in two segments, 180 m.) Directed by Tobe Hooper. Produced by Sterling Silliphant. Screenplay by Paul Monash. With James Mason, David Soul, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedellia, Lew Ayres, Marie Windsor, Julie Cobb, Elisha Cook, Clarissa Kaye, Ed Flanders.

73. The Perfect Woman. (1980, A Movie-for-Cable TV, 90 m.) Direction and screenplay by Allan Sandler and Robert Emenegger. Produced by Ann Spielberg. With Fred Willard, Joanne Nail, Rudy Vallee, Marie Windsor, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Minkus, Peter Kastner, Barry Gordon.

74. Lovely But Deadly. (1981, Elm Productions, Ltd., 104 m.) Directed by David Sheldon. Produced by Sheldon, Doro Vlado Hreljanovic, and Michael O’Donnell. Screenplay by Sheldon and Patricia Joyce. With Lucinda Dooling, John Randolph, Mel Novak, Richard Herd, Marie Windsor, Mark Holden, Michael O’Leary, Susan Mechsner.

75. Commando Squad. (1987, Transworld Entertainment, 89 m.) Directed by Fred Olen Ray and co-produced by Ray and Alan Amiel. Screenplay by Michael D. Sonye. With Brian Thompson, Kathy Shower, William Smith, Sid Haig, Robert Quarry, Marie Windsor, Russ Tamblyn, Ross Hagen.