TOP 25 CAMP FILMS OF ALL TIME - 21

DIE! DIE! MY DARLING

Die! Die! My Darling! was the last movie of the late, great Tallulah Bankhead. It also stars a very young Stefanie Powers, 10 years before she hit it big with Hart To Hart.

These two camp icons make this movie 21st in my countdown of 25. It was originally 20 but there were some movies I just couldn't cut the camp out so I extended my list!

So Tallulah and Stefanie star in our second Grand Guignol entry, right after What's The Matter With Helen? Die Die My Darling was also called Fanatic in the US release but it isn't anywhere near as exciting as the original title. By the late 60s, any faded actress saw this as a way of earning some money starring in a cheapie horror and Tallulah was no slouch.

Tallulah is Mrs Trefoile, an old religious woman who recites from the bible, sometimes taking the passages with literal meaning (if she wanted to, you get the impression that she would throw stones at someone until they died) Stefanie Powers is almost powerless against this old biddy with bible on the brain as Pat. Pat makes the fatal error of visiting Mrs Trefoile who is her ex fiance Stephen's mother. Steven is now dead and rather than spend time with her new lover who works at the BBC (it's so 60s!) she heads into the country to see Mrs Trefoile.

After staying the night and seeing the mental servants around the Gothicesque mansion she finds herself imprisoned.Mrs Trefoile has decided that Pat needs to be cleansed of all evil and she's the one for the job so she imprisons poor Pat and subjects her to all sorts of evilness of her own! Mrs Trefoile is ably assisted by a dumb help played by a young Donald Sutherland and Mildred from George & Mildred aka Yootha Joyce is suitably off her head aswell. Well let's face it, anyway called Yootha would have to be. Eventually, Mrs Trefoile goes stark staring bonkers and also decides that Pat will have to join Stephen in death. She also manages to kill off a servant or two before the end of the movie as her lunacy takes hold.

Die! Die! My Darling! is wild from start to finish. Tallulah is a force of nature in this one, possessed with an unhealthy love for her dead son and an even unhealthier passion for God, Stefanie Powers is pretty vapid, all she does is simper, get bashed by servants and try in vain to escape at set moments throughout the film. Tallulah rasps her sermons from the bible in her makshift church - she doesn't go to Sunday service as she doesn't like the rector so instead she has her own service which lasts for hours. Poor Pat can't be bothered with it but Mrs Trefoile gets mighty pissed when Pat says she doesn't go to church that much. Pat learns quickly of Mrs Trefoile's disdain when asked if she's a virgin, smart girl replies that she is although in the next scene, she laughs it off like the cock hungry slut she may be!!

Tallulah goes all out and chews the scenery in the climactic sacrificial scene where she has Pat captive in front of a portrait of Stephen who quite frankly wouldn't have looked out of place in San Francisco's Castro in the late 60s either.

Some fabulous 2 set scenes here really make it sparkle with real dry British wit coming from these two American actresses...

MRS TREFOILE - Do you attend church regularly?
PAT - Well, not too regularly. Not as often as I'd like.
MRS TREFOILE - Not as often as you'd like? What a strange thing to say! If you like going to church, why do you not attend regularly?
PAT - Well, I mean, often there isn't time.
MRS TREFOILE - Not time for prayer? Not time to sing the praises of the Lord? One's duty to the Lord must take precedence, must it not? Patricia, I'm surprised at you!

MRS TREFOILE - Aren't you hungry, my child?
PAT - Mrs. Trefoile, do you have any salt?
MRS TREFOILE - We use not condiments of any kind in this house, Patricia! God's food should be eaten unadorned. We are vegetarian. For instance, this meat loaf is synthetic, compounded of bread, oatmeal, and wheat germ.
PAT - How nice.

MRS TREFOILE - This is the most DISGRACEFUL situation!

MRS TREFOILE - Come here at once!
ANNA - Yes, Mrs. Trefoile?
MRS TREFOILE - You have not washed up properly! There is a mark on Ms. Carroll's glass.
PAT - Oh, it's just, it's just my lipstick, Mrs. Trefoile. It will come off, even though they guarantee.
MRS TREFOILE - Go upstairs and wash it off immediately!
PAT - Mrs. Trefoile, I'm, I'm sorry, I...
MRS TREFOILE - Go and remove that FILTH at once!

Although at the latter scale of my countdown, I had to include this one - it's a star turn by Tallulah, Stefanie Powers gets bashed a lot by Yootha Joyce before she got her perm in Hart to Hart, it's very 60s Hammer movie style and there's some great escapes that Stefanie Powerless tries and fails miserably at. Other than the gun that Mrs Trefoile has, I'm unsure as to why Pat never just smacked the shit out of the old bird and disappeared but then, it wouldn't be half as much fun to see!