I decided to take a break from the gore and violence and watched Elvira: Mistress of the Dark tonight. I had planned on watching this before watching Night of the Living Dead on Elvira's revived TV show and was a little leary given how little I thought of her comments during that movie.
Make no mistake, Cassandra Peterson's film debut as her macabre character is campy, silly, riddled with sexual inuendo and it is a LOT of fun! I found myself laughing a lot more than rolling my eyes. Some of Elvira's one-liners were actually pretty good, even if the delivery was mostly cheesy.
The highlight of the film was Edie McClurg as the purity-driven leader of the town's mob that eventually gets poor Elvira burning at the stake. McClurg is the bubbly actress that I first remember seeing on the 80's show The Hogan Family as the... well... bubbly and often annoying neighbor Mrs. Poole. My favorite moment from that show (well, at least the one I remember with the most fondness) was a little cheer she once did: "Don't be a fool, dial P for Poole! Uh Huh! Uh Huh!" Cheesy, I know, but that's the kinda thing that usually gets me laughing. She was also in my favorite scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles as the Marathon clerk with the priceless line to Steve Martin: "You're fucked!" Let's face it, the woman has done a LOT!
So tonight's movie was a lot of fun and a welcome break from the gore I've been watching lately. There is a sequel called Elvira's Haunted Hills which I hope to get and watch during my run of macabre Halloween movies.
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