Dementia (1955)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

John Parker

Writer:

John Parker (original screenplay)

Release Date:

22 December 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Horror

Plot:

This film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman's nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Hotel Room | Necklace | Nightclub | Narrator

Cast

Adrienne Barrett	...	The Gamine
Bruno VeSota	...	Rich Man
Ben Roseman	...	Gamine's Father / Plainclothes Cop
Richard Barron	...	Evil One
Ed Hinkle	...	Butler
Lucille Rowland	...	Gamine's Mother
Jebbie VeSota	...	Flower Girl
Faith Parker	...	Nightclub Dancer
Gayne Sullivan	...	Wino
Shorty Rogers	...	Jazz Musician
Ed McMahon	...	Narrator

Also Known As:

Daughter of Horror (USA) (recut version)

Runtime:

56 min | USA:61 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:(Banned) (1957)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

H.K.F. Productions

Trivia:

The New York Board of Censorship had this movie banned from theaters for 3 years, and didn't release until 1958.

Quotes:

Narrator: Come with me into the tormented, haunted, half-lit night of the insane. This is my world. Let me lead you into it. Let me take you into the mind of a woman who is mad. You may not recognize some things in this world, and the faces will look strange to you. For this is a place where there is no love, no hope...in the pulsing, throbbing world of the insane mind, where only nightmares are real, nightmares of the Daughter of Horror!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Creepy Classics (1987) (V)

Great

I orginally saw Dementia in 1972 at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge Mass. It was there in error since Coppola's Dementia 13 was on the bill. What a treat. I requested return engagements after that and could find no reference to Dementia for years. Finally, at the library of arts at Lincoln Center in New York I found the history including the alternate title Daughter of Horror. I finally got a copy of the film about 6 years ago. Still one of my favorites. Particularly because of the music and the fabulous singing of Marnie Nixon (voice of Maria in West Side Story and other films. A brilliant film by John Parker - who may actually be Bruno Vesota. Unknown piece of information. He of course is famous for such classics as The Brain Eaters and Attack of the Giant Leeches. Seriously, Dementia is a great movie and displays a sophistication of production that belies its obvious lack of a substantial budget.