DailyView: Day 162, Movie 243

Cassandra Peterson was able to parlay a horror host job showing “classic” B movies into an iconic role as Elvira thanks to her huge… charisma.

Elvira was the stage name of Peterson and she became a national hit hosting the weekly LA television program Elvira’s Movie Macabre. She developed into a cult character and wound up with her own film, Elvira: Mistress of the Night.

In order to find money for a Vegas show, Elvira went to the reading of the Last Will and testament of her Aunt, an aunt she did not know she had. The local residents were too conservative (putting the Footloose people to shame) and wanted no part of Elvira and her tight-clothes, cleaving-showing, character. Meanwhile, her aunt’s brother Vincent (W. Morgan Sheppard) was in search of his sister’s “cook” book for all of the power it contained.

This film is a big, really dumb hoot for one reason only…Elvira. She is fantastic in this movie, providing the best sexual innuendos I can ever remember hearing in a movie. She delivers these lines in a perfect, dry tone that hits you with an unexpected blast. My eyes bulged out several times from the brazen dialogue, shocked that they were able to “go there.”

The acting is not good. The story was simplistic and dumb. However, I really loved Elvira’s work in this movie. She totally saved it.