The ever-changing faces of Victoria Vetri

Or should I call this: The ever-changing hairstyles of Victoria Vetri?

Either way, I just happened to come across two of Vetri’s TV appearances this weekend:

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.’s The Indian Affairs Affair still features her under her alternative nom-de-plume Angela Dorian.

The episode is the series’ Season Two finale and with its exaggerated “Cowboys’n’Inchuns”-imagery already gives a taster for the campy madness that was to follow in the subsequent season.

All of the Native Americans on display may be American but they’re hardly native. Even Illya Kuryakin joins in and dons a dark wig and a fake accent.

Dorian/Vetri plays Charisma Highcloud, the daughter of an Indian Chief (played by familiar in face if not in name, Ted de Corsia) held captive by Indian hating L.C. Carson who intends to drop a hydrogen bomb and apparently needs the Indian’s reservation for his schemes. (Don’t ask.)

Seriously, whatever happened to the hydrogen bomb? Isn’t it time we get a decent hydrogen threat again? Atomic warfare is so lame in comparison!

Much to her father’s annoyance, Vetri’s character sustains her student’s lifestyle by becoming a Native go-go dancer in New York.

For MISSION IMPOSSIBLE’s Squeeze Play she is back again to her more paler real self. This Season 5 episode is one of the shows with Leonard Nimoy and Leslie Warren in its line-up, both of which also have prominent roles infiltrating the hide-out of a dying Mafia don (Albert Paulsen, who had previously also appeared in a variety of other roles for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE) with the intention of obtaining his secret list of heroin distributors and causing an internal struggle in its ranks.

Vetri again plays a “Chief’s” younger family member, this time the grand-daughter who is pretty much innocent but has inklings of the nefarious activities of all those sharp-suited men in sunglasses around her.

Truth be told if the mention of “Angela Dorian” hadn’t triggered something in my memory I may never have connected her with the blonde-haired bewigged cavegirl of Hammer’s WHEN DINOAURS RULED THE EARTH. Strange that someone who has become something of an iconic figure in Hammer Fandom, should ultimately be so unrecognizable in most of her other performances but such is the fate of Brunettes who briefly become famous as Blonde Bombshells.

The MISSION IMPOSSIBLE episode is currently available on YouTube or Netflix US. THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. may be on YouTube for some…. but not for my region. I watched this courtesy of my fab U.N.C.L.E. box set.

Now I better be off trying to come across some more of Vetri’s TV work. It seems that due to her looks she was often hired for more “ethnic” roles and therefore featured in a number of Western series as well, not just 1960s Spy shows.

Victoria Vetri (* September 26, 1944)

Though born Victoria Cecilia Vetry to an Italian-American family in San Francisco, for the first couple of years of her career the actress/model worked under the pseudonym Angela Dorian, reminiscent of the famous ill fated schooner “SS. Andrea Doria” until she changed her name back to her original native version following the advice of Roman Polanski with whom she had filmed Rosemary’s Baby (1968). In that movie there is a famous scene in which Mia Farrow’s character asks Angela Dorian as to whether she was the actress Victoria Vetri which she denies. That scene came straight from the book though in there the character was asked whether she was Piper Laurie. Some sources also indicate that at some stage she used the surname Rathgeb.

Prior to her supporting role in the Polanski thriller she had parts in a large number of popular TV shows of the time. He biggest career jump was when she was nominated as Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in September 1967 and subsequently became Playmate of the Year 1968. At the time she was such a popular Playmate that some practical joker in NASA even went so far as to secretly place her photo into Apollo 12’s check list. Years later Vetri reappeared for a couple of new topless photos for Playboy’s April 1984 edition.

Hammer hired her for their prehistoric romp, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). Some of the versions of the film show her in the nude. She also displayed a lot of flesh for Group Marriage (1973) and Invasion of the Bee Girls/Graveyard Tramps (1973). For most genre fans the the image of a blonde cave girl in the Hammer production is the way Vetri would most of all be remembered, however, she is a natural brunette who had point blank refused to get her hair dyed and instead insisted on wearing a blonde wig.

For a while it appeared as if she was going to start a promising B-movie career, however, nothing much was heard off her afterwards other than that she was reportedly suffering from a broken nose and ribs following a brutal attack in her house in 1980.

Some sources claim that she also attempted a rock music career, however, I have yet to come across any reference to recorded singles or albums under any of her pseudonyms.

She still seems to raise quite a few male hart beats: Bestseller author Dan Brown sounds like a fan given the fact that the female lead character in his Angels and Demons was called... Vittoria Vetra. Unfortunately, since October 2010 she will likely be remembered as much for her movies as for the fact that she was arrested following the alleged attempted murder of her boyfriend and is now facing possible jail time.

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) is one of those Hammer movies that have still not received a proper DVD release yet. It was previously released on VHS, though those prints did not contain the original nude scenes with Victoria Vetri that were part of the UK print of the movie. That print was shown a few years ago on UK television and kudos do those of you that were lucky to catch it then and possibly even record it.

YouTube now has a series of videos from a Spanish source that show the entire movie. The few bits of narration are in Spanish, but you get over that. If you would like to skip to the chase: The infamous nude shots appear after the 7th minute of the 7 clip.

Enjoy for as long as this will be available on YouTube.

Victoria Vetri

I just finished a new Hammer Glamour site update with a small Victoria Vetri Biography. Check it out and also feel free to follow the links to her Filmography and a little Bibliography about her as well as some links to other Vetri related pages of interest online.

Rosemary's Baby

I re-watched Rosemary’s Baby (1968) again right in time for Halloween and always get a kick out of the Hammer film connection of sorts:

What I mean is when Mia Farrow’s character meets Terry Gionoffrio (played by Angela Dorian) in the launderette and tells her that she looks just like actress Victoria Vetri… who we of course all know as the blonde bomb shell from Hammer’s pre-historic epic When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970, i.e. produced two years after Polanski’s master piece).

The joke is of course that Angela Dorian (who was that year’s Playmate of the Year after being the September 1967 Playmate of the Month) is none other than Vetri herself!

The actress/model was born Victoria Vetri, though for the first part of her career had decided to choose a pseudonym based on the ill fated liner, until she gradually moved over to her birth name.

As for other cameos: Also watch out for producer William Castle who turns around in the telephone scene where Mia Farrow believes him to be Dr Sapirstein (played by Ralph Bellamy).

As for the film itself: What’s there to say? It’s just one of the great and influential horror movies that just have to be checked out.