Yvonne Romain (* February 17, 1938)

Also known as Yvonne Romaine and Yvonne Warren.

Despite her exotic looks and French name, Yvonne Romain is a born and bred Londoner. Her parents are of Maltese and British decent and her maiden name was Yvonne Warren. She took the stage name Romain after the family name of her grandmother and great-grandmother.

Educated in St Mary’s Abbey, her mother sent her to the Italia Conti acting school at an early age and from the age of 12 on she appeared in children’s television shows and repertory. Unfortunately nothing more in depth is currently known about any of these childhood performances.

Her measures at the height of her success were a stunning 38-22-36. Just what Hammer generally looked for in their female stars: She first played Oliver Reed’s mother in Curse of the Werewolf, then became his fiancée in Captain Clegg, before sharing her third and final screen appearance with him in his (and her!) last Hammer outing The Brigand of Kandahar.

Other memorable roles include: Action of the Tiger with a young Sean Connery. She also starred with him again in The Frightened City, the year before he made it big as 007. Corridors of Blood unites her with screen legend Boris Karloff. She gets fed to the lions in the excellent Circus of Horrors. One of her final British roles was in Lindsay Shonteff’s shlock classic and ventriloquist horror movie Devil Doll.

She fell in love with and married composer Leslie Bricusse (Goldfinger, You Only Twice as well as the excellent Sherlock Holmes – The Musical) and subsequently moved to L.A. At that time she had to turn down a seven year contract with Fellini as that would have meant spending all the time in Rome away from her Hollywood based husband and little son. Once based in the US, she gradually moved away from the film business. Her last two roles in the 60s were in the groovy The Swinger opposite Ann Margret and she became one of Elvis’ film gals for Double Trouble. She then practically retired and only returned to the screen briefly for the excellent murder mystery The Last of Sheila: She’s Sheila, which means she is dead and an all star cast of familiar 1970s faces is attempting to solve the Whodunnit as to who killed her off.

Still stunning looking at over 70 she occasionally shows up at Fan Get-Togethers like Wayne Kinsey’s first book launch.

Sexy and sultry, she may not have made a huge number of screen appearances, but is fondly remembered by male Hammer Fans the world over.

If you're interested in reading more about her, check out Yvonne Romain's by far lengthiest interview (to my knowledge) in The House That Hammer Built #18, p. 99-102. This is Wayne Kinsey’s special Captain Clegg issue, so it is only fitting that he manages to extract a lot of valuable info from her for this one. 90% of the biographical info I have published for this blog post came courtesy of this single interview!

New Yvonne Romain DVD release

I just spotted a blog post from MySpace's Yvonne Romain Fans highlighting a UK Region 2 DVD release of Yvonne Romain's The Frightened City featuring a young Sean Connery. The blog post reads:

Yep, it seems the fine folk at Optimum Releasing have seen fit to provide us with a Region 2 release of Yvonne's 1961 gangster pic, 'The Frightened City', at last!!

Here's a link to their website's promotion:

http://www.optimumreleasing.com/dvd.php?id=689

For those who haven't seen it, it's a tale of corruption amid a setting of smoky London nightclubs.

Star of the show is boxer Sean Connery, who's pressured into becoming an enforcer in crooked accountant Herbert Lom's new crime syndicate. Yvonne plays the love interest, and looks great doing it, as gangster's moll and nightclub singer Anya.

'The Frightened City' is a decent, if not classic, Brit gangster pic, and is well worth a watch, especially at the reduced price available on Amazon, and similar sites

BUY ITTT!!

The Curse of the Werewolf

The Curse of the Werewolf was one of the first Hammer movies I ever saw at a tender age and that got me hooked on Hammer. I had watched it repeatedly over a couple of years, though admittedly this was a good while ago and it was more than time for a re-evaluation. Lately I had read about it being overrated and lacking in action, so when I finally put the disc into my player I was somewhat reluctant. Would I still feel the same about the film as in my youth? Or would it be yet another one of those memories that were better left untouched and simply kept as nostalgia.

I shouldn’t have worried. Curse still satisfied my lycanthropic cravings and remains an excellent film.

What is quite obvious is its very distinct three act structure. Act 1: The scenes at Count Siniestro’s (Anthony Dawson) court, the incarceration of the beggar (Richard Wordsworth), the rape of Yvonne Romain’s character and birth of Leon, the character doomed to become a Werewolf. Act 2: Leon’s childhood, the discovery that he is indeed a werewolf. Act 3: Leon as an adult played by Oliver Reed, his involuntary killing spree and final death.

Of those three acts the first and the last are by far the most memorable and horrific. The scenes of debauchery at the court, the humiliation and animalisation of the beggar and the rape of the mute servant girl still don't pull any punches. And the werewolf transformations and killings are classic iconic scenes. True, some may think that the second act may be dragging a bit, yet the scenes in it are ultimately essential in making us getting to like Leon and his family and thereby creating a more tragic climax.

Though it takes nearly an hour until Oliver Reed appears in his first proper starring role, he does give his all and it is a tremendous, haunting performance by the young actor that clearly put him on the map.

Interestingly enough we are not given the more traditional reasons for why the transformations occur. There is no other werewolf in the picture who may have bitten Leon or anyone else in his family. Instead any one of a number of possible reasons for his affliction are indicated: Was it the rape by someone who deteriorated to sub-human levels? Or the fact that the mother survived for months alone in the forest by living a quasi-animal life? Or because he was born out of wedlock on Christmas Day? Or maybe because he had to battle strong inner demons? This untraditional approach leaves a very satisfying mystique about the character.

The film was based on a novel by Guy Endore, The Werewolf of Paris, in which the action takes place in France whereas the Hammer adaptation transferred it to Spain.