She was sometimes referred
to as The Countess of
Cleavage and was known
more through her tabloid visibility and
for looking glamorous while attending
premieres and parties than for her film
work. Nevertheless, British beauty Imogen
Hassell left her indelible mark on
several B-films films of the early 70s.
Imogen Hassall was born on
August 25th 1942 in Woking,
Surrey, England. She was the daughter of
lyricist Christopher Hassall and the
goddaughter of actor/composer Ivor
Novello (one of the characters
immortalized in Robert Altmans film
Gosford Park).
She studied acting with the Royal
Shakespeare Company but was never really
excelled in the field --- however she did
know how to capture the cameras
eye.
She began her film career at
the age of 21 in Position
of Trust (1963). A slew of
other films followed -- The
Long Duel (1967), Bedtime (1967), The Early Bird
(1965), etc. Her first real
racksandrazors part came in 1969 when she
had a supporting role in the terribly
twisted and deliciously perverse Mumsy,
Nanny, Sonny, and Girly
for director Freddie Francis (whose
credits include The Torture
Garden, Dracula
Has Risen from the Grave,
The Creeping Flesh,
Paranoiac,
The Son of Dracula,
Hysteria,
etc.) In Mumsy
Imogen was cast as the
girlfriend and falls to her death
from slide at a playground, Sonny and
Girly (Howard Trevor and Vanessa Howard)
hide the girls body at home and
have endless fun dragging her corpse
about to play pranks and fool with her
boyfriend. Like I said, this flick is
very twisted. This is one of those insane
little inbred family creep-fests that
merits a viewing if you havent seen
it. And Imogen is absolutely gorgeous ---
even as a corpse.
Next came perhaps her
greatest claim to public fame -- she was
Jenny Grubb in the longstanding British
Carry On
film series in Carry On
Loving (1970). After that
she was Dolores (the same year) in the
ultra-violent B-western El
Condor with the great
B-cast -- Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef,
Patrick ONeal, Marianna Hill, Iron
Eyes Cody, and Elisha Cook Jr. The same
year she also managed to find time to
make Tomorrow,
Take a Girl Like You,
and The Virgin and the
Gypsy --- as well as her
Hammer-ific role as Ayak in the
Tyrannosaurus Sex cleavage classic When
Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
which was based on a story by J.G.
Ballard! Imogen plays the mate of
fisherman Tara who grows increasingly
jealous of the saved blonde damsel Sanna
(Victoria Vetri). Its good silly
fun with clay-mation carnivores,
catfights, and heaving bosoms galore.
This is BC (Big Chests) at its best.
In 1971 Imogen made another
horrific classic Bloodsuckers.
In this cult film favorite she stars as
Chirseis, a deliciously seductive vampire
who bewitches a young man on vacation in
Greece and holds him captive in an old
castle. Will he be rescued from her evil
charms and returned to the motherland of
England? Well, if youve ever seen a
film you should be able to answer that
question. This delicious piece of
fang-tastic cinema costars British horror
stalwarts Peter Cushing, Edward Woodward,
and Patrick Macnee. Ms. Hassall has some
nude scenes and once again displays her
breathtaking beauty and form rather than
any arresting acting abilities for the
camera.
Imogene followed this with
only 3 more films -- Images
(1972), White Cargo (1973) and her final film the James Bond
spoof (starring Gareth Hunt) Licensed
to Love and Kill (1979).
In her brief career she was also featured
in episodes of such TV series as The
Saint and The
Avengers.
On the morning of November
16th 1980 the twice married
Imogene Hassall was found dead when she
failed to meet a friend for a planned
holiday. She had committed suicide in
London by overdose of the barbiturate
Tuinal that is in effect a combination of
the 2 barbiturates secobarbital and
amobarbital. Her memorial is in Wimbleton
Cemetery.
There is even a book about
her fast-lane life entitled Tuesdays
Child: The Life and Death of Imogen
Hassall by Dan Leissner. |