Learning to Speak Marla English

Marla English (1936-2012) only racked up 18 screen credits in a film career lasting just just over two years, but she left an imprint.

The model and beauty pageant winner was still a teenager when she first stepped before the cameras, and a peep at any photo reaffirms her power to dazzle, with a physiognomy which to these eyes combines aspects of Vivien Leigh, Gina Lollobrigida, and (below the neck) Mamie Van Doren. She started out in bit parts: a Harem Girl in Yankee Pasha (1954), an extra at the songwriters party in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). She was in Casanova’s Big Night (1954) with Bob Hope,Living It Up (1954) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and an episode of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1956).

She was elevated to female lead in the noir picture Shield for Murder (1954) opposite Edmond O’Brien, followed by a brief streak of sexpot roles for United Artists, Desert Sands (1955) with Ralph Meeker, Hell’s Horizon (1955) with John Ireland, and as the lead in Three Bad Sisters (1956). Indicative of how young she was at the time though (i.e., lacking in judgment) she backed out of The Mountain (1955) with Spencer Tracy because the studio wouldn’t hire her boyfriend.

Most of her remaining films were for low-budget AIP. Ironically, today these might be her best known pictures (at any rate, they’re the ones that I know best): She-Creature (1956) with Chester Morris, and Voodoo Woman (1957) with Tom Conway and Mike Connors. Also for AIP were the western Flesh and the Spur (1956) with Connors and John Agar, and Runaway Daughters (1956).

At this juncture, English married and moved to Arizona — understandable, given the low salaries and visibility AIP offered. She was only 21 years old at the time!