‘Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet’ Review: A Loving, Insightful Documentary Tribute to an Underrated Actress

Andrew Stevens pays loving however not hagiographic tribute to his late mom, famed actress Stella Stevens, in his documentary lately showcased on the Fort Lauderdale Worldwide Movie Competition. The movie convincingly makes the case that its topic, finest identified for her performances in such photos as The Poseidon Journey and The Nutty Professor, is severely underrated, each as an actress and social activist. Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet goals to rectify that notion and, thanks to quite a few clips of her work and effusive commentary by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Vivica A. Fox, it succeeds superbly.

The filmmaker (who seems often) admits that his relationship together with his mom was rocky, to say the least, within the early years. Born in Yazoo Metropolis, Mississippi, Stevens bought married at age 16 and had Andrew, her first and solely little one, six months later. The marriage quickly dissolved, and when she moved to Hollywood to pursue an appearing profession, she took Andrew to California together with her illegally. His father and grandfather later confirmed up and spirited him away, leading to an ugly custody battle and Andrew not having an actual relationship together with his mom till he turned 16.

Stevens was quickly signed to twentieth Century Fox, the place she was groomed to be a starlet within the mould of Marilyn Monroe and Mamie Van Doren. Her sexpot picture was additional confirmed when she appeared as a Playboy centerfold, although she had desperately tried to buy the nude photos again from Hugh Hefner, who refused.

Her profession shortly took off thanks to such movies as Li’l Abner, wherein she performed the splendidly named “Appasionata Von Climax,” and the musical Say One for Me with Bing Crosby, for which she acquired a Golden Globe award for New Star of the 12 months.

“Some of the most fun parts I’ve played are nymphomaniacs,” Stevens amusingly factors out in certainly one of many interviews featured right here. A few of them are proven through archival clips from numerous discuss present appearances, whereas others are recreated utilizing a lookalike actress (Lindsie Kongsore). Whereas the system is jarring at first, it admittedly breathes life into Stevens’ phrases. However the filmmaker will get too carried away with it at instances, as when he unnecessarily makes use of an actor to play a movie critic studying an excerpt from a evaluation.

There are many juicy anecdotes and revelations within the documentary, some of the priceless being Stevens’ account of co-star Bobby Darin getting a a lot noticeable erection whereas they shot a kissing scene. She additionally reveals that she had no need to seem with Elvis Presley in Women! Women! Women! and solely agreed to do it after she was promised that she would get to play reverse Montgomery Clift in her subsequent movie. The Clift venture by no means materialized, and she or he may by no means deliver herself to watch the Presley one.

We be taught of her many romances, together with an affair with the infamous and really a lot married Hollywood fixer Sidney Korshak and a prolonged relationship with actor Skip Ward, who took monetary benefit of her and was often untrue.

The documentary makes a powerful case for Stevens’ expertise — significantly her formidable comedian chops, as illustrated in quite a few clips of her work, together with from an episode of Bonanza for which she received acclaim. She held her personal reverse Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor and sparkled within the old style comedy How to Save a Marriage and Break Your Life reverse Dean Martin, with whom she had beforehand appeared within the Matt Helm spy spoof The Silencers. She acquired essential popularity of her exuberant flip in Sam Peckinpah’s 1970 The Ballad of Cable Hogue, although the movie was a flop. When she did seem in hits, such because the vastly common catastrophe pic The Poseidon Journey, it didn’t give her profession a lot traction.  

She later turned an iconic determine for Black audiences, thanks to her groundbreaking interracial love scene with Jim Brown within the blaxploitation hit Slaughter and her campy villainous flip in Cleopatra Jones and the On line casino of Gold. However what she actually needed to do, as they are saying, was direct. She lastly bought her probability in 1989 with an indie function referred to as The Ranch, starring her son Andrew (he later returned the favor, directing her within the 1991 B-movie The Terror Inside II), and a feminist-themed documentary, The American Heroine, which was by no means launched.

In addition to the ample clips from her roles and tv appearances, the documentary contains fascinating dwelling motion pictures, private pictures, and insightful commentary from numerous figures together with movie historians Leonard Maltin and Courtney Joyner. Nevertheless it’s Tarantino who unsurprisingly proves the spotlight, articulately gushing about Stevens’ performances with the fervour of a real fan. (Introducing The Last Starlet on the competition, Andrew admitted that he mainly handed the ball to Tarantino and let him run with it.)

Whereas Stevens’ big-screen profession ultimately fizzled, she by no means stopped working, showing in dozens of direct-to-video motion pictures and TV collection till her last look in one thing referred to as Megaconda in 2010. “If the idea of being an actress is to work, she worked. She worked a lot,” Tarantino factors out.

Her last days had been unhappy ones, as she slowly succumbed to Alzheimer’s illness till her loss of life at 84 in 2023. A lot to the consternation of her son and her many followers, she was not included within the Academy Awards’ annual “In Memoriam” phase and by no means acquired a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame. The latter is a rebuff that needs to be corrected — particularly if Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet will get the publicity it deserves.