Dementia (1955 film)

Dementia
DVD cover
Directed by	John Parker
Produced by	John Parker Ben Roseman Bruno VeSota (as Bruno Ve Sota)
Written by	John Parker
Starring	Adrienne Barrett Bruno VeSota (as Bruno Ve Sota) Ben Roseman Angelo Rossitto
Music by	George Antheil Shorty Rogers
Cinematography	William C. Thompson
Edited by	Joseph Gluck
Release dates	December 22, 1955 (1955-12-22) (U.S.)
Running time	58 min[1]
Country	United States
Language	English

Dementia (also known in a slightly altered version as Daughter of Horror) is an American film by John Parker, incorporating elements of the horror film, film noir and expressionist film.^[2][3]

Synopsis

A young woman awakens from a nightmare in a run down hotel. She leaves the building and wanders through the night, passing a newspaper man. The news headline "Mysterious stabbing" catches her eye, and she quickly leaves. In a dark alley, a wino approaches and grabs her. A policeman rescues her and beats up the drunken man. Shortly later, another man approaches her and talks her into escorting a rich man in a limousine. While they cruise the night, she remembers her unhappy youth with an abusive father, whom she stabbed to death with a switchblade after he had killed her unfaithful mother. The rich man takes her to various clubs and then to his noble apartment. As he ignores her while having an extensive meal, she tries to tempt him. When he advances her, she stabs him with her knife and pushes the dying man out of the window. Before his fall, he grabs her pendant. The woman runs down onto the street and, as the dead man's hand won't relieve her pendant, cuts off the hand while being watched by faceless passersby. Again, the patrol policeman shows up and follows her. She flees and hides the hand in a flower girl's basket. The pimp shows up again and drags her into a night club, where an excited audience watches a jazz band playing. The policeman enters the club, while the rich man, lying at the window, points out his murderess with his bloody stump. The crowd encircles the woman, laughing frantically. The woman wakes up in her hotel room, her encounters have supposedly been a nightmare. In one of her drawers, she discovers her pendant, clutched by the fingers of a severed hand. The camera leaves the hotel room and moves out into the streets, while a desperate cry can be heard.

Production

Dementia was shot in the studio in Hollywood and on location in Venice, California. Production, including editing, ended in 1953.^[3]

The original film had no dialogue, only music and some sound effects, such as doors slamming, dubbed laughter etc. The film's musical score is by avant-garde composer George Antheil, vocalized by Marni Nixon–there are no lyrics as such. Jazz musician Shorty Rogers and his band, the Giants, can be seen and heard performing in a night club scene.

Producer–writer–director John Parker is only credited as producer in the titles. In later years, actor and associate producer Bruno VeSota claimed to have co-written and co-directed the film with Parker.^[4]

Release

In the US, Dementia premiered in New York City in 1955 with four cuts demanded by the censors. This version was picked up by Jack H. Harris and released as Daughter of Horror. Harris' version also has music without dialogue, but with an added narration read by actor Ed McMahon.^[3]

In the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Classification denied Dementia (in the alternate Daughter of Horror version) a classification in 1957. In 1970, Dementia was finally passed without cuts.^[5][6]

Reception

"May be the strangest film ever offered for theatrical release." – Variety^[7]

"A piece of film juvenilia […] despite its good intentions […] An understanding of Mr. Parker's desire to say something new cannot reconcile one to the lack of poetic sense, analytical skill and cinematic experience exhibited here." – The New York Times^[8]

"To what degree this film is a work of art, we are not certain but, in any case, it is strong stuff." – Cahiers du cinéma^[7]

"The movie spends an hour exploring a lonely woman’s sexual paranoia through a torrent of expressionistic distortions which would look avant-garde if the vulgar Freudian ‘message’ weren’t so reminiscent of ’50s B features." – Time Out Film Guide^[9]

Legacy

Dementia is perhaps most famous for its appearance in The Blob (1958), where it is the movie playing in the movie theater when the Blob strikes.

The film has been compared to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) as being a portrait of an insane mind from the "inside out".

In 2015 the rock band Faith No More used edited footage from Dementia to create a video for their song "Separation Anxiety." ^[10]

See also

• List of American films of 1955

References

Further reading

• Re/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films. Re/Search Publications, San Francisco 1986, ISBN 0-940642-09-3, p. 179–180

External links

• Dementia at the Internet Movie Database
• Dementia at the TCM Movie Database
• Dementia is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• Dementia at AllMovie
• Dementia at Rotten Tomatoes