REMEMBERING A HORROR QUEEN

It was with no small sadness that I heard of the death of the actress Hazel Court. While many might be unfamiliar with her name, all fans of vintage Gothic cinema should be familiar with her work, acting opposite such legends as Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff and Peter Cushing, in classics like The Curse of Frankenstein, The Raven and The Premature Burial. More than a mere Scream Queen, the English-born beauty appeared in a host of American TV shows in the 70s, but it was her horror roles that brought her an enduring following. Ms Court, with her distinctive flame-red hair and bewitching emerald eyes, gave as good as she got in her Gothic roles, playing feisty femme fatales rather than swooning victims. I remember when I first sawThe Masque of the Red Death as an impressionable teenager, when Vincent Price’s Satanic Prince Prospero picked the virginal Jane Asher over Hazel’s delectable, demonic temptress in , I thought he’d clearly lost his senses!

As is so often the case with horror performers, who are frequently cultured and erudite individuals when they are not being menaced or menacing in front of the camera, there was a great deal more to Hazel Court than met the eye. In addition to her prodigious talents as an actress, she was an internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor, a career she pursued after she abandoned acting in the 80s. With her passing, we have lost a true icon of horror cinema, another of a generation it sometimes seems we can never replace. On the positive side, she had reportedly finished her autobiography, Hazel Court: Horror Queen, shortly before she passed away, and I shall be purchasing a copy as soon as it hits the shelves later this year. In the mean time I plan on watching The Masque of the Red Death again tonight to lose myself once more in those bewitching feline eyes…