Spikeopath Screaming Mimi is directed by Gerd Oswald and adapted to screenplay by Robert Bless from the novel written by Fredric Brown. It stars Anita Ekberg, Phillip Carey, Gypsy Rose Lee and Harry Townes. Music is by Mischa Bakaleinikoff and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.A woman becomes mentally unbalanced after a failed knife attack by a psychotic and has to spend time in a sanatorium. Whilst there she becomes the object of her psychiatrist obsessions.Great Dame With A Great Dane!A curio psychological film noir with horror leanings, Screaming Mimi is just a tad too nutty for its own good. It's also weighed down by a non performance from Ekberg, who you find is purely in the piece to tantalise via her voluptuous body, and also by a colourless performance by Carey. Yet it's a fascinating movie, a sort of car crash piece of cinema that you can't take your eyes away from!Psycho Schematic.It's all very lurid, sexy and bonkers, the sort of picture where alcoholic accompaniments would most likely improve the viewing experience tenfold. The characters inhabiting this world are a strange bunch, which is fun, whilst when you got entertainment establishments called Gay "N" Frisky and El Madhouse, you just know we are trawling through an off kilter city of sin and carnal desires. Unfortunately Oswald and Bless seem confused about what to do with all the provocative possibilities, rendering the narrative as confused and at times lifeless.Rose Lee is great though as she flits between manipulator and sultry proprietor, as is Townes, who underpins the whiff of mania running through the pics veins. Guffey and Bakaleinikoff offer up solid tech work, and the jazzy strains provided by Red Norvo are most welcome. It really should have been a great movie though, such promise in story and set-ups, but sadly it ends up as a faux Freudian potboiler. 5/10

boblinds A fascinating mess, but still fascinating.The other reviews already point out the oddball merits of this low-budget potboiler quite effectively, save one.The musical score recycles Leonard Bernstein's score for the great Elia Kazan film, "On the Waterfront.""!! It's quite disturbing to hear the unique music of a cinematic masterpiece underscoring a lurid little thriller that never "could have been a contender."Unfortunately, they use the Red Norvo combo to backup Ekberg's pseudo-bump-and-grind routines. It would have rocketed this flick to lunatic genius if she had been jugg-ling to Bernstein's pounding tympani. Too bad they missed that one.

blanche-2 1958's "Screaming Mimi" is based on a novel by Frederic Brown and stars Anita Ekberg, Philip Carey, Harry Townes and Gypsy Rose Lee. Ekberg is Virginia, aka Yolanda, a drop-dead gorgeous exotic dancer who is institutionalized after nearly being murdered at her stepbrother's house. The kindly psychiatrist (Townes) trying to help her takes the transference a bit too far - he fakes her death and takes off with her. Virginia changes her name to Yolanda and gets a job as an exotic dancer in a club run by Joann Masters (Lee). A reporter named Sweeney (Philip Carey) gets onto a story about a slasher and crosses paths with Virginia/Yolanda and, like every other man, falls for her. In Yolanda's dressing room, Sweeney finds a statue - the same statue was found next to the last murder victim, also an exotic dancer.This is an interesting story for sure with sexual undertones (or shall I say overtones) galore - Ekberg's chained slave dance, the lesbian relationship Joann has with another dancer, the statue fetish, and Ekberg herself, sex on heels. Her first film was "Mississippi Gambler," in which she was uncredited; not surprisingly, she got the attention of the film's star, Tyrone Power, and had an affair with him that lasted into the mid-'50s. She even got to meet his relatives in Cincinnati - and he was still married at the time. Was she good in this? I have no idea; she's so stunning, it doesn't matter. Philip Carey, known today for his portrayal of Asa Buchanan in "One Life to Live" was a hunk in the '50s who was relegated to B films costarring many beautiful women - he's easy on the eyes too and does a decent job as Sweeney. Harry Townes had a huge career in television and underplays the role of Greene, the psychiatrist. He does a good job - if the character appeared sinister, it wouldn't have been believable.A story like this could easily have been given a big budget and big director and been much more effective. As it is, it keeps one's attention with its twists and turns and one of the great va-va-vooms, Ekberg.

Neil Doyle ANITA EKBERG almost sleepwalks through her role of a disturbed woman who somehow finds herself in the midst of murder and mayhem in SCREAMING MIMI ('58), the title referring to a statue that is some sort of fetish that turns up at every killing. Miss Ekberg is also a statue here, towering above most of the cast except for PHILIP CAREY, the handsome male lead who shares one thing in common with Anita--he's a lifeless presence.It's hard to get involved with these characters, especially since the story itself is a murky enough affair with some psycho-babble underpinnings in the convoluted storyline. On the plus side, the B&W photography of rainswept streets and dark shadows is impressive and the production aspects aren't too shabby.GYPSY ROSE LEE manages to be lively enough as a nightclub proprietress, but her shimmy to "Put the Blame On Mame" is a pretty sorry attempt at the song made famous by Rita Hayworth.The story starts out on a promising note, but quickly becomes an inept psychological thriller under Gerd Oswald's routine direction and moves toward a conclusion that lacks whatever punch it might have had because much of the disclosed information was already revealed.This is an easily forgotten item that capitalizes solely on ANITA EKBERG's physical charms which are an eyeful for male fans but her acting is sub-par for a story that requires much more from an actress than mere physical presence and an overly generous bosom. She was much more fortunate a few years later to find herself in "La Dolce Vita". As for PHILIP CAREY, his stone-faced approach to acting doesn't help matters here.Summing up: Hopelessly confusing and dull, when it should have been tight and suspenseful.