Martine Beswicke Talks About SEIZURE
Interview by Bill Thomas
Martine Beswicke
Beswick) hardly requires an introduc­ tion to any devotée of fantastic cin­ ema. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she first appeared onscreen as the anony­
mous, female form dancing behind the main titles of Terence Young’s DOCTOR NO (1962); an un­ credited appearance, but Martine brought the film enough good luck to be remembered for the speak­ ing roles of Zora in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) and Paula in THUNDERBALL (1965). She has appeared in more Bond films than any other actress, except for Lois “Moneypenny” Maxwell. But, for many fans, Martine made her first
indelible impression as Nupondi, Raquel Welch’s sultry rival for John Richardson’s affections in Hammer’sONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), which led to her subsequent casting as the indomitable, sexually insatiable Queen Kari in Michael Carreras’ campy PREHISTORIC WOMEN aka SLAVE GIRLS (1967). During the 1960s, she appeared in other tales of terror, including Peter Collinson’s THE PENTHOUSE (1967, as a rather butch menace named Harry), but it was not until 1972 that she won her most memorable role—as the transsexual alter- ego of Roy Ward Baker’s Hammer opus DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE It was her sensitive, alluring and sexually-
charged performance in this film that brought Martine to the attention of Oliver Stone, then 26 years old, who invented the role of SEIZURE’S Queen of Evil with the actress specifically in mind. In the years since making Stone’s debut feature (and enduring its attendant boot camp), Martine has continued to carry a torch for the genre in such films as Curtis Harrington’s DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL ( 1975) , THE OFFSPRING ( 1987), TRANCERS II (1990), EVIL SPIRITS (1991) and CRITTERS 4 (1992). Some of her best acting opportunities have also come from the main­ stream erotic cinema, in such films as Ultimo
Opposite: 4s Kali in SEIZURE, photographed by Hervé Villechaize.
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Tango a Zagarol (1973), I l bacio (1974), THE HAPPY HOOKER GOES HOLLYWOOD ( 1980), and most recently, WIDE SARGASSO SEA (1993). In the days when I was preparing my “Making of
SEIZURE” article for CFQ, I was approached by Bill Thomas, an interested Los Angeles-based reader who offered to interview his favorite actress on my behalf. (Those were the days, 1 fear, when long distance telephone charges were simply out of the question.) The following interview was conducted on April 30, 1977. —TL
With Sean Connery in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE.
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