Barbara Steele
Birth : 1937-12-29, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK
History
Barbara Steele (born December 29, 1937, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England) is an English film actress. She is best known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. Her breakthrough role came in Italian director Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960), now hailed as a classic.
Steele starred in a string of horror films, including The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962); The Ghost, directed by Riccardo Freda and Roger Corman's 1961 adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Pit and the Pendulum. She guested on various British television shows including the spy drama Danger Man starring Patrick McGoohan. In 2010, she was a guest star in the Dark Shadows audio drama The Night Whispers.
In 2010, actor-writer Mark Gatiss interviewed Steele about her role in Black Sunday (1960) for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Barbara Steele, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Self - Actress (archive footage)
Ferruccio Castronuovo was the only authorized eye, between 1976 and 1986, to film the brilliant Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920-1993) in his personal and creative intimacy, to capture the gears of his great circus, his fantastic lies and his crazy inventions.
Self
Revealing the fascinating impact of the ground-breaking Gothic drama Dark Shadows with a compelling blend of rare footage and behind-the-scenes stories exploring the diverse talents of creator-producer-director Dan Curtis.
The Apparition of the Mill (segment 'The Mill At Calder's End')
As midnight falls, all manner of terror invades the Earth. demons, cannibals, killers, ghosts and monsters swarm the world in these tales of the supernatural, the fantastic, and the just plain horrific. Featuring nine stories of horror.
Belladonna
Billy, a single mother of two, is led into a macabre underworld while her teenage son, Bones, discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery if their family is to survive.
Narrator
The Shutterbug Man tells the tale of a very twisted man, whose only passion in life is taking pictures. This passion takes him to terrible and wicked places.
Self
"Parasite Memories" is a brand new retrospective piece on the film produced by High Rising Productions with lively contribution from effects artist Joe Blasco, actresses Lynn Lowry and Barbara Steele, actor Allan Kolman, and Canadian critic Kier La-Janisse.
Self (archive footage)
The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.
Self
Filmed exclusively for Arrow Video in 2013, this documentary looks at the making of The Pit and the Pendulum and features producer and director Roger Corman, star Barbara Steele, Vincent Price's daughter Victoria Price and more.
The Apparition of the Mill
In the remote village of Calder's End stands an old windmill, a repository of dark secrets. Nicholas Grimshaw has returned to this haunted place, his childhood home, intent on breaking a generations old family curse. Grimshaw's journey takes him deep below the decaying mill,into mysterious, forgotten catacombs, where upon he confronts the very source of the evil that has corrupted his family. The Mill at Calder's End is a gothic tale inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and M.R. James and is told with the use of 36 inch tall bunraku rod puppets operated by puppeteers dressed in black.
Self
Documentary on the making and impact of "House of Wax".
Ann
A reclusive and butterfly-obsessed elderly lady suffering from bipolar disorder develops a disturbing relationship with a mysterious but seemingly innocent youngster.
Self
A documentary revolving around an extended interview with Barbara Steele, in which she recounts the many facets of her career.
Vanessa Peabody
Vanessa Peabody (segment "Her Morbid Desires")
A quirky anthology, consisting of four separate short films connected by host segments. The first one, BOOGIE WITH THE UNDEAD, has an all girl rock band booked to play a gig in a town overrun by flesh-eating zombies. In the second one, THE DEVIL'S DUE AT MIDNIGHT, a coven of beautiful witches conjure up Brad Dourif as The Devil, and endures the inept attacks of witch killer Ken Foree. In the first long segment, HER MORBID DESIRES, an actress gets the lead role in a vampire movie, only to discover that starlets are being murdered on the set. The other long segment, CRY OF THE MUMMY, has the reincarnated mummy, formerly the last Pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, looking to sue the movie studios because he can't get work as a mummy. His new lawyer offers to represent him as an agent, but the mummy will only work in film if he can direct.
Agent Oakley
Martial arts star Don "The Dragon" Wilson stars in this action/suspense story. A child is recruited to take part in a secret government experiment which results in him being able to see into the future. Years later, the child is an adult and is working for the government; his latest assignment is to find the other people who were part of the same project. Before long, he discovers the other test subjects usually pop up murdered shortly before he can talk to them, and he realizes he may well be the next target.
Self
A roller-coaster ride through the history of American exploitation films, ranging from Roger Corman's sci-fi and horror monster movies, 1960s beach movies, H.G. Lewis' gore-fests, William Castle's schlocky theatrical gimmicks, to 1970s blaxploitation, pre-"Deep Throat" sex tease films, Russ Meyer's bosom-heavy masterpieces, etc, etc. Over 25 interviews of the greatest purveyors of weird films of all kind from 1940 to 1975. Illustrated with dozens of films clips, trailers, extra footage, etc. This documentary as a shorter companion piece focusing on exploitation king David F. Friedman.
Mrs. Wagner
In the 16th century, young men put themselves in great danger to look for mysterious crystals in a tunnel in the Styrian Erzberg. Some of them never returned from searching for this symbol of perfect love. In the 20th century, the student Barbara tries to pursue this legend of her home town.
Self
A short documentary on the history of the horror film narrated by Christopher Lee.
Self
The film is a series of interviews with various well-known film actresses, including Jenny Agutter, Maria Schneider, and Jane Fonda. The title, which is borrowed from a 1958 film with the same name by Marc Allegret, refers to the sense the actresses have of what is expected of them by the film industry.
Victoria Engels
Scotty moves into Mrs. Engels' seaside mansion where three other college students are boarding. Mrs. Engels prefers to stay in her room in the attic, but her son Mason helps the students get settled. Soon one of the students is killed. The policemen on the case begin uncovering the Engels family secret as the remaining students become endangered
Cathy
Marie (Annie Girardot) teaches high school and has a 16-year-old daughter in her class. Divorced some years previously, she has some vague egalitarian notions about friendship with her students and leaves her door open to them. One of her protégés is found beaten up just outside her door, and an emergency physician comes by to treat her. When her daughter starts seeing someone she doesn't much like, and she begins having a brief affair (her first since the divorce) with the ER doctor, she begins to reconsider her policy.
Dr. Mengers
When flesh-eating piranhas are accidently released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.
Josephine
Hattie, a New Orleans prostitute, meets a photographer named Bellocq at her brothel one night and, after he photographs her, he befriends her 12-year-old daughter, Violet. When Violet is brought on as a working girl by her mother's madam and Hattie skips town to get married, Violet quickly loses her innocence and focuses on reuniting with Bellocq. But a life with Bellocq is compromised for Violet after her mother returns to town.
Idat
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Betts
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.
Supt. McQueen
A young woman is convicted on drug offenses and sent to a women's penitentiary run by a repressed and oppressive female warden. When the prison's sadistic doctor begins conducting illegal "therapeutic" experiments on the inmates, the ladies plot their revenge.
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the filming of the Federico Fellini film, "Satyricon."
Danielle
This lysergically madcap Italian flick largely eschews any traditional plot. The most noticeable thread involves ventriloquist Ricky becoming a TV star, dressed up as a superhero with an “impish robot” dummy.
Carla
While on honeymoon with her husband in Spain, a woman wakes up one morning to find he has disappeared. After reporting it to the police, a man shows up claiming to be her husband. But he's not the man she married and no one will believe her.
Lavinia Morley
When his brother disappears, Robert Manning pays a visit to the remote country house he was last heard from. While his host is outwardly welcoming - and his niece more demonstrably so - Manning detects a feeling of menace in the air with the legend of Lavinia Morley, Black Witch of Greymarsh, hanging over everything.
Self
Short film for the french TV program "Dim Dam Dom". A love letter to Barbara Steele and Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs.
Bozena
At an Austrian boys' boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, doing nothing to help a victimized classmate—until the torture goes too far. Adapted from Robert Musil's acclaimed novel, Young Törless launched the New German Cinema movement and garnered the 1966 Cannes Film Festival International Critics' Prize for first-time director Volker Schlöndorff.
Harriet Montebruno / Belinda
At the end of the 19th century, in a little Italian village by a lake an old statue is recovered. Soon a series of crimes start and the superstitious people of the village believe that the statue carries an ancient malediction.
Veronica
A young woman is driving alongside a lake. She has an accident and the car plunges into the water. Her body is then possessed by the spirit of an 18th-century witch who was killed by local villagers, and is bent on avenging herself on them.
Teodora
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.
Episodic comedy about the corrupting influence of money.
Lady Clerk
Short film directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson.
Muriel Arrowsmith / Jenny Arrowsmith
A sadistic count tortures and murders his unfaithful wife and her lover, then removes their hearts from their bodies. Years later, the count remarries and the new wife experiences nightmares and hauntings. The ghosts of the slain return to exact their bloody revenge, until their hearts are destroyed.
Cleo Hauff
An attorney arrives at a castle to settle the estate of its recently deceased owner. The owner's wife and daughter reveal that he was someone who was able to summon the souls of ancient plague victims and, in fact, his spirit was roaming the castle at that very moment. Soon occupants of the castle begin to die off in gruesome, violent ways.
Helen Rochefort / Mary
In a 15th century village, a woman is accused of witchcraft and put to death. Her beautiful older daughter knows the real reason for the execution lies in the lord's sexual desire for her mother.
Contessa Bardi-Stucchi (segment "Divorzio italo-americano")
Valérie Gasparelli
A French agent goes after a gang of Asian terrorists who plan to blow up an American nuclear aircraft carrier.
Guilia
In 17th-century Rome, a young man in a choir of castrati falls for the beautiful wife of a powerful aristocrat.
Barbara Sims
Gerhard is a young technical in Düsseldorf who works in a factory of security devices for banks. In agreement with Nicola, Mario and Hans, they prepare and carry out a robbery which, however, will have consequences for all of them.
Barbara (segment "l'hobby") / Brugnoli's Wife (segment "la cambiale")
An anthology of brief comic sketches based on manias, mainly sexual, featuring several figures of Italian society.
Elisabeth Blackwood
A writer accepts a wager that he cannot spend the night alone in a haunted castle on All Soul's Eve. Once night falls at the castle, several who had been murdered therein return to life, reliving their deaths and seeking to kill the writer for his blood in a vain attempt to stay alive beyond that one night.
Silvia
Margaret Hichcock
A woman and her lover murder her husband, a doctor. Soon, however, strange things start happening, and they wonder if they really killed him, or if he is coming back from the dead to haunt them.
Leila
Gianni and Marietta get along wonderfully as lovers, but not as a couple. Despite being married, they agree to become lovers again.
Gloria Morin
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
Floriana
After his village is burned down, Captain Furio sets out for revenge.
Cynthia Hichcock
The year is 1885, and necrophiliac Dr. Hitchcock likes to drug his wife for sexual funeral games. One day he accidentally administers an overdose and kills her. Several years later he remarries, with the intention of using the blood of his new bride to bring his first wife's rotting corpse back to life.
Elizabeth Barnard Medina
Francis Barnard goes to Spain, when he hears his sister Elizabeth has died. Her husband Nicholas Medina, the son of the most brutal torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, tells him she has died of a blood disease, but Francis finds this hard to believe. After some investigating he finds out that it was extreme fear that was fatal to his sister and that she may have been buried alive!
Princess Asa Vajda / Katia Vajda
A vengeful witch and her fiendish servant return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant. Only the girl's brother and a handsome doctor stand in her way.
Juliet Frost
A domestic comedy about a couple who take in boarders to pay the rent on their large house.
Mary
On marrying the boss's daughter, Richard takes his father-in-law's advice to hire a live-in domestic. He soon finds good help is hard to come by. Run-ins follow with dipsomaniacs, bank robbers, a Welsh lass who takes one look at London and runs, and an Italian charmer who turns the place into a bawdy house. Then when Ingrid arrives from Sweden things actually start to get complicated.
Student
Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the investigators wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.
Extra
In London, a diplomat accidentally becomes involved in the death of a British agent who's after a spy ring that covets British military secrets.
Fiona
A German scholar has girl troubles while studying at Cambridge.
