Curtis Harrington


Gene Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. He emerged in the experimental film scene of the 1940s and ‘50s, notably as a collaborator of Kenneth Anger, before becoming a director of mainstream horror films and television series. He is considered one of the forerunners to New Queer Cinema. The Harvard Film Archive referred to him as “among the most wholly original directors to work in the Hollywood studio system.”

Early life

Harrington was born on September 17, 1926, in Los Angeles, the son of Isabel and Raymond Stephen Harrington, and grew up in Beaumont, California. His first cinematic endeavors were amateur films he made while still a teenager. At age 16, in 1942, he directed and co-starred in a short version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall [of the House of Usher].
Harrington attended Occidental College and the University of Southern California, then graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a degree in film studies.

Career

Experimental filmmaker

He began his career as a film critic, writing a book on Josef von Sternberg in 1948. He directed several avant-garde short films in the 1940s and 1950s, including Fragment of Seeking, Picnic, and The Wormwood Star. Cameron also co-starred in his subsequent film Night Tide with Dennis Hopper. Harrington worked with Kenneth Anger, serving as a cinematographer on Anger's Puce Moment and acting in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome . Harrington had links to Thelema shared with his close associates Kenneth Anger and Marjorie Cameron who frequently acted in his films.
Harrington was the driving force in rediscovering the original James Whale version of The [Old Dark House (1932 film)|The Old Dark House]. Although the rights to the original story had been sold to Columbia Pictures for a remake, he persuaded George Eastman House to preserve it. On the Kino International DVD, there is a filmed interview of Harrington's explaining why and how this came about. Harrington was an advisor on Bill Condon's Gods and Monsters, about the last days of director James Whale, and Harrington had known Whale at the end of his life. Harrington also has a cameo in the film.

Horror films

assigned Harrington to direct two American films which used footage from Russian science fiction films, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet and Queen of Blood. Harrington directed Games, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? with Shelley Winters, What's the Matter with Helen? with Winters and Debbie Reynolds, and Killer Bees with Gloria Swanson in one of her later roles. Harrington made two television movies based on screenplays by Robert Bloch: The Cat Creature and The [Dead Don't Die (1975 film)|The Dead Don't Die].

Later works

Harrington had a cameo in Orson Welles's long-unfinished The Other Side of the Wind. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Harrington directed episodes of television series such as Baretta, Dynasty, Wonder Woman, The Twilight Zone and Charlie's Angels.
Harrington's final film, the short Usher, is a remake of his earlier Fall of the House of Usher. He cast Nikolas and Zeena Schreck in his updated version of Edgar Allan Poe's story. Financing of the film was partly accomplished through the Shrecks' brokering of the sale of Harrington's signed copy of Crowley's The [Book of Thoth (Crowley)|The Book of Thoth].
The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Curtis Harrington's films, including Night Tide, On the Edge, and Picnic.

Personal life

Harrington was homosexual. He wrote in his autobiography that he had his first sexual experience with another male in high school.

Death

Curtis Harrington died on May 6, 2007, aged 80, of complications from a stroke he suffered two years earlier. His remains are interred in the Cathedral Mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
House of Harrington, a short documentary about the director's life, was released in 2008. It was directed by Jeffrey Schwarz and Tyler Hubby and filmed several years before Harrington's death. It includes footage of his high school film Fall of the House of Usher.
Harrington's memoir Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood was published in 2013 by Drag City.

Filmography

Short films

Rally 'Round the Flag Promotion introduces the Payroll Savings Plan as a patriotic and practical way to save money starring actors Robert Young and Robert Bagley, directed by HarringtonFall of the House of Usher Fragment of Seeking Picnic On the Edge The Assignation Dangerous Houses, unreleasedSt. Tropaz, unfinishedThe Wormwood Star, documentary about Marjorie CameronThe Four Elements, industrial short
  • ''Usher''

Theatrical films

Night Tide Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet Queen of Blood Games starring Simone SignoretWhat's the Matter with Helen? Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? The Killing Kind Ruby

TV movies

How Awful About Allan The Cat Creature Killer Bees The Dead [Don't Die (1975 film)|The Dead Don't Die]

TV series

Acting roles