If
youve seen the incredible
Walter Hill movie Spider
Baby (1964) you
will surely recall Jill Banner as
the twisted title character,
Virginia Merrye. 17-year-old
Banner had never acted before
when she was cast in the
part. Shes
unforgettable with her huge eyes
and creepy childhood innocence
mixed with a gleeful manner of
slaughtering. Virginia loves
playing spider which
means catching people in traps
and killing them, usually by
stinging them with
her carving knives. She and her
siblings Elizabeth
(Beverly Washburn) and Ralph (Sid
Haig) suffer from a rare disorder
Merrye Syndrome
in which the brain erodes and the
sufferer reverts to a
cannibalistic state. They live
alone in a creepy old house and
are cared for by Bruno (Lon
Chaney Jr. in one of his finest
film roles). This movie is so
twisted and delicious. It
reminded me somewhat of House
of 1000 Corpses.
It has that feel. Also in this
you need to see it to
believe it movie are Carol
Ohmart (Vincent Prices wife
in The House on
Haunted Hill),
Mantan Moreland (from all those
Charlie Chan flicks of the 40s),
and Quinn Reddecker. Spider
Baby is also known
by several other titles such as
Cannibal Orgy,
The Liver Eaters,
and The Maddest
Story Ever Told.
The film
was shuffled about and basically
lost in distribution hell only to
be discovered a number of years
later and given the credit and
attention it was due. The movie
wasnt the huge career boost
it should have been for Jill.
Regardless, she managed to land
other parts in movies like Cmon
Lets Live a Little
(1967) with Bobby Vee, Jackie
DeShannon, Patsy Kelly, and Ken
Eddie Haskell Osmond.
She also had a nice role as Snow
White in the James Coburn flick
The
Presidents Analyst.
On TV she appeared on Dragnet
several times. In her showiest
part on the series (as Camille
Gearhardt) her character is so
nasty she causes Joe Friday to
quip, I bet your mother had
a loud bark! In 1972 she
guest-starred on Adam
12 and The
Bold Ones.
Shortly
thereafter Jill left Hollywood
and wound up selling real estate
in New Mexico for several years.
At the start of the 1980s she
returned in LA to make a new go
of things. She was helping Marlon
Brando develop scripts when she
died in an automobile accident in
Malibu on August 7th
1982. She was just 35 years old.
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