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| Veronica Lake |
Newspaper man Ed Casey (Phil Philbin) hires a woman named Kristine (Heather Hughes) to play nurse in order to infiltrate a compound run by a mysterious doctor named Elaine Frederick (Veronica Lake). Dr. Frederick plans to use flesh-eating maggots on certain patients in order to give them a highly unusual (and totally improbable) face lift. The first patient is Max Bauer (Chris Martell), who looks like a million bucks after "surgery" but who has unfortunate anti-social tendencies, to say the least. Dr. Frederick has certain unexpected plans for the next patient in the lurid if satisfying finale. Jose (Bill Rogers) is a kind of hit man who falls for a pretty young nurse also working in the compound. Dr. Frederick reports to the leader of a group of revolutionaries who turn out to be Nazis. An interesting early scene has an associate of Casey's being killed by a broom with a knife on the end of it as he sits in a phone booth. Flash Feast is probably not Lake's worst movie; it holds the attention and some of the acting, including Lake's, is perfectly okay. Although not unattractive, Lake [Bring on the Girls] looks older than her 47 years due to heavy drinking and was dead three years later. This was her last movie. Brad F. Grinter also co-directed Blood Freak, which was much, much worse than this.
Verdict: And you thought botox was bad! **1/2 out of 4.
Wow, Bill THAT was Veronica Lake in 1970? A little rough, indeed. She was so flawless back in the day. Just saw her with Joel McCrea in Sullivan's Travels. Also loved her in that WWII picture with Claudette Colbert and was it Paulette Goddard? (So Proudly We Hail).
ReplyDeleteStill looks like a pretty good picture though!
-Chris
'Flesh Feast" is schlocky but entertaining. Lake might have still had male admirers in 1970, but the problem was she'd invariably be compared to the sultry sex bomb of her youth. Nowadays with surgery and the like some movie stars remain glamorous even to the point of putrefaction!
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