Saturday, December 28, 2019

Sue Lyon a "PED-ULTIMATE" star - dies at 73

No, not penultimate. Let's invent a new word: PED-ULTIMATE.

It should refer to that small group of actresses who played to pedophile lust (in SERIOUS movies, let's quickly add) and had almost NO success when they got older.

Here's Sue Lyon, striking a "Baby Doll" pose. Perhaps it's not as overt (thumb sucking) as Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll," made a few years earlier, but ultimately, the Peeker Pan element prevailed: DON'T GROW UP. If you do, we won't be interested.

Carroll Baker, an underrated dramatic actress, startled viewers in "Baby Doll," but didn't progress too far after that. She managed to play "Harlow," but in the duel with the late Carol Lynley, who also starred as Jean Harlow at the same time, neither film was a big hit. Neither film was any good, which didn't help. From there, Baker made a few "sexploitation" films that cultists drool over, but for many, she remained forever "Baby Doll."

As for Sue Lyon, she got a supporting role in "Night of the Iguana," a film dominated by Richard Burton and Ava Gardner. Sue could've been Stella Stevens, Connie Stevens, Yvette Mimieuw or, yes, Baker or Lynley, and people still wouldn't have cared that much. Sue Lyon was forever "Lolita," a role she played at 14. (Marrying age for anyone from Edgar Allan Poe to Jerry Lee Lewis).

Another example of someone who had a ped-ultimate career with a lurid child-sex symbol role? Brooke Shields in "Pretty Baby." Anyone remember her in ANYTHING else? There are pervs on eBay who are STILL buying dupe photos of her from that movie, and not from "Blue Lagoon" or whatever other forgettable stuff she did a few years later.

Fortunately for Lyon, Baker, Shields and a few others, the PC brigade exempts "serious art films" from the taint of prurient pedophile interest. Nobody as yet is planning on banning those movies from DVD sale or Netflix.

The sad fact is that there's PED-ULTIMATE interest outside of the movie theater. Larry Nassar proved that point didn't he? Much worse than Sandusky, or "Jared from Subway," Dr. Nassar "examined" female gymnasts with no professionalism at all, just pedo-lust. What's happened since? Well, young females have lobbied to prevent TV cameras from getting crotch-shots of athletes bending over and about to run a 100 yard dash. Cameras are likewise not as likely to linger on perky backsides or provocative splits on the gymn floor or the uneven parallel bars. 16 year-old tennis stars no longer come to the court in fly-away skirts and panties, but more often, sports shorts instead, or an outfit that stays in place with thigh-high garments underneath. There's a bit more awareness of preserving SOME kind of modest and innocence in young females, even if the age they lose their virginity continue to get lower and lower. The balance is that serious films examining "young lust" are still available and immune from PC witch hunts. And for now, Ringo Starr still can sing "You're 16, you're beautiful, and you're mine."

One nice thing that Sue Lyon recalled about her experiences on the set of "Lolita" was that she was treated kindly, and not lewdly. Peter Sellers was nice to her, and James Mason kept things light: "Come on, kiddo, let's go run the lines." As Lyon recalled, "He wanted to make sure I was comfortable," and I suppose, emphasize that this was JUST a movie being rehearsed, and NOT real life.

Of course, the people who drool and do "screen captures" of scenes from "Baby Doll," "Pretty Baby" or "Lolita" don't refer to character names when they sell them or pass them all over the Internet. It's "Carroll Baker, hot" and "Brooke Shields nearly naked" and "Sue Lyon, JAIL BAIT!" That's human nature for SOME film fans. They just don't take the actresses seriously -- they just love their PED-ULTIMATE movies.

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