MovieChat Forums > Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) Discussion > Beverly Washburn

Beverly Washburn

posted 19 years ago by pjwoodall1
4 replies | jump to latest

I met Washburn a few years ago at an antiques and collectibles show, and I told her I had seen SPIDER BABY. "You saw SPIDER BABY?" She then called a friend over and told "He says he saw SPIDER BABY." "Where did you see SPIDER BABY?" I told them I had seen it on video, and they surprisingly weren't aware it had been released.
I tried to watch it again recently and gave up. Mantan Moreland seems wasted in his last role which recalls Birmingham in the Charlie Chan movies.

[–] smerd_70 19 years ago

Spider Baby is an excellent little film. And Mantan wasn't wasted at all. Jack Hill on the commentary said it was Moreland's idea to play his character the way he used to play them back in the 30's and 40's. And this wasn't Moreland's last film, he did a few film after this until 1973.

It's dead. We don't eat dead things. -Elizabeth(Spider Baby)

[–] pjwoodall1 19 years ago

Thank you. I was going by available information. I recently watched Harold Lloyd's FEET FIRST in which Willie Best(Sleep n Eat) has a prominent role, and he was painfully unfunny. Unfortunately, that was the type of role he was given to play in Hollywood although he was funny in GHOST BREAKERS with Bob Hope.

The Lloyd movie is an attempt to duplicate the success of SAFETY FIRST, but the addition of sound and spoken dialogue seems forced.

The last time I saw Mantan Moreland was in the 12-chapter serial MYSTERY OF THE RIVERBOAT where he's the sidekick to Robert Lowery,

[–] smerd_70 19 years ago

I've seen Best pop up in a couple of the old Blondie movies, and your right he played that same character, also Ray Turner(who was in Blondie Has Servant Trouble) where he played the typical wide-eyed nervous in a spooky house.

It's dead. We don't eat dead things. -Elizabeth(Spider Baby)

[–] pjwoodall1 17 years ago

The last time I remember seeing Willie Best was in a Harold Lloyd sound film where Lloyd tries to duplicate his Safety First daredevil comedy. It just isn't funny, and Best does his slow thinking/slow moving "best" to help Lloyd.
I also have a vague memory of him on the old Stu Erwin show years ago.