RIP to Kim McGuire, who played Hatchet-Face in the John
Waters movie Cry-Baby, passed on at 60.
By all accounts, beneath the grotesque
makeup she was lovely, inside and out.
I had the honor to play one of the prison guards in that
film, who chased Hatchet-Face and Milton (Darren Burrows) through the movie
screen showing Creature from the Black Lagoon to a bunch of prisoners in 3-D glasses.
So, in remembrance of McGuire…
Monster-of-the-Week: …this week the nod goes to that old
fave the Creech, just as he appears before Hatchet-Face bursts through the
screen.
I’ll never forget standing for hours behind the movie screen in the
Cry-Baby prison location in Jessup, Maryland, watching the clip of the Creature climbing
aboard the boat to grab Julie Adams played over and over again, while they
worked out the timing of the precise moment when McGuire was to leap through
the screen—only three takes were possible, as they only had three screens that
had been dried out to burst outward with the proper “starring” effect when jumped
through. Something about the repetition of the scene filled me with a weird
compassion for the poor Creature and his hopelessly unrequited infatuation.
