For those hording toilet paper

I realized one morning that Trog (1970) was going to be my last picture. I had to be up early for the shoot and when I looked outside at the beautiful morning sky I felt that it was time to say goodbye. I think that may have been a prophetic thought because when I arrived on the set that morning the director told me that due to budget cuts we would wrap up filming today. The last shot of that film was a one-take and it was a very emotional moment for me. When I was walking up that hill towards the sunset I was flooded with memories of the last 50 years, and when the director yelled cut I just kept on walking. That for me was the perfect way to end my film career, however, the audiences who had to sit through that picture may feel differently.

I hate being asked to discuss those dreadful horror pictures I made the mistake of starring in. They were all just so disappointing to me, I really had high expectations for some of them. I thought thatWilliam Castle and I did our best on Strait-Jacket (1964) but the script was ludicrous and unbelievable and that destroyed that picture. I even thought that Berserk (1967) would be good but that was one of the worst of the lot. The other one William Castle and I did [I Saw What You Did (1965)] was the most wretched of them all and I just wasn't good at playing an over-the-hill nymphomaniac. Ha! Then cameTrog (1970). Now you can understand why I retired from making motion pictures. Incidentally, I think at that point in my career I was doing my best work on television. Della was a good television role for me, and I really liked working on that pilot episode of Night Gallery: Night Gallery (1969) with young Steven Spielberg. He did a great job and I am very satisfied with my performance on that show. Funny, every time a reporter asks me about my horror pictures they never talk about that one, and it's the only one I liked!

While I personally think if anyone was perhaps the right judge of their career after a rather recognized horror film from the great Robert Aldrich, Baby Jane, I personally loved Srait-Jacket, and I thought I Saw What You Did was a nice little thriller, the latter an atypical Castle flick. I'm biased, though: I'm a William Castle fanboy. After watching the horrible piece of shit, Trog (1970), an embarrassment for director Freddie Francis and Crawford, I did like the final anecdote offered by Crawford on the final day of filming on the final film (sad to say) of her storied and long career (with some great gems here and there). And the mention of Trog when talking about the final horror films that bookended her career also interested me as I was researching comments on her career and from the actress herself. There's a scene in Strait-Jacket that is one of my all time favorite Joan Crawford moments---the flirting with her daughter's boyfriend, the striking of a match. Just masterful "I'm a movie star dammit" moment that had me thrilled. Trog, on the other hand, had nothing but the stinch of a rotten stink that was akin to an old hag attached to a career that was rather amazing. I loved movies like Possessed and Humoresque with Crawford, Grand Hotel, and especially The Unknown earlier before Mildred Pierce, but I also loved Strait-Jacket, and while Berserk! was no great shakes, I didn't think it was too bad.