2011:Talking to a fellow IMDb'er,after watching Dario Argento's amazing 1970 film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,I was shocked to learn,that Argento had actually done a partial "unofficial" adaptation of a novel called The Screaming Mimi,which had received an official screen adaptation,with a US film in 1958. After reading the fascinating comments from a fellow IMDb'er,and also hear film reviewers Kim Newman and Alan Jones give thrilling comments about the movie in their audio commentary for Crystal Plumage,I decided to search on Amazon Uk for a DVD or VHS of the title. Sadly,despite being extremely keen on seeing the film,I discovered that the title appeared to be unavailable on DVD or Video…from anywhere!Late 2013:Being cheerful about finally getting hold of the title which would see Dario Argento,Tony Musante and Ennio Morricone team up for the first time (1969's The Love Circle),I decided to search for the original adaptation of their fantastic Giallo,and was happily caught by surprise,when I stumbled upon a DVD of the film,which would at last allow me to hear the Mimi scream.The plot: Going for an outdoor shower with her pet dog Rusty after enjoying a wonderful swim,Virginia Wilson is confronted by an escaped convict,who attempts to stab her with a knife.Hearing his daughter scream for her life,Virginia's step-brother Charlie Weston, (an artist who makes miniature stature's) quickly grabs a gun and shoots the attempted murderer dead.Faced with the knowledge of having been a potential murder victim,and also witnessing a killing,Wilson experience's a nervous breakdown,and finds herself unable to wipe the moments of that day from her memory.Feeling that his step-sister is in desperate need of help,Weston arranges for Virginia to be placed in a mental hospital,where she is closely looked after by Dr.Greenwood. Despite being a doctor who does things "by the book,Greenwood finds himself falling deeply in love with Virginia.Knowing that they both might have to wait years before she's officially "cured",Greenwood decides to fake Wilson's death,so that she can get out of the hospital,and run away with him.Years later:Keeping their relationship under-wraps,Virginia changes her name to Yolanda Lange and becomes the star attraction as a dancer in a popular night club.Catching the eye one night of a local journalist called Bill Sweeney,Wilson/Lange begins to fear that she has also caught the eye of her past,when a stranger begins stabbing women in a similar manner that was used in the attempted murder of Virginia…View on the film:Entering the movie,in what appears to be a rather tight swimsuit,Anita Ekberg gives a shimmering performance as Virginia Wilson and Yolanda Lange.For the two sides of her character,Ekberg gives each of them subtle alterations,with the psychological issues in Virginia's mind,being kept under cover by Youlanda's swagger and powerful eroticism,which along with giving Youlanda complete control of the night club's inhabitants,also leads to her appearing to be on the target list of a revived psychotic killer.Taking a different angle to his excellent adaptation of Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi than the one that Dario Argento would take a decade later,Robert Blees combines a thrilling,proto-Giallo edge with a gritty Film Noir atmosphere,with Blees gradually showing the impact that the new killing spree is having on Virginia/Yolanda,as Youlanda's extravagant shell is melted away,and Virginia's psychological issues are shown in their rawest form.Made just as the "Hays Code" was at last starting to lose its grip on the industry,Blees shows a sharp eye for placing subtle undertones under the films skin,with hints of S&M,lesbianism and drug use bubbling away as a Giallo killer stalks a Film Noir world.Placing Blees undertones at the centre of the movie,director Gerd Oswald shows an unexpected glee in the highly stylised,eye-catching vicious murder scenes which is matched by Oswald giving each of the gorgeous Anita Ekberg's dances a strong whiff of S&M.Along with the daring Giallo elements,Oswald also soaks the title in a striking Film Noir atmosphere,with Yolanda's night club being filled with darken corners where the killer may be hiding,with Oswald also covering the long,empty streets in a doom-laden mist,as Bill Sweeney begins to realise that he must stop the Mimi from screaming,before the killer strikes again.

1958's "Screaming Mimi" is based on a novel by Frederic Brown and stars Anita Ekberg, Philip Carey, Harry Townes and Gypsy Rose Lee. Ekberg is Virginia, aka Yolanda, a drop-dead gorgeous exotic dancer who is institutionalized after nearly being murdered at her stepbrother's house. The kindly psychiatrist (Townes) trying to help her takes the transference a bit too far - he fakes her death and takes off with her. Virginia changes her name to Yolanda and gets a job as an exotic dancer in a club run by Joann Masters (Lee). A reporter named Sweeney (Philip Carey) gets onto a story about a slasher and crosses paths with Virginia/Yolanda and, like every other man, falls for her. In Yolanda's dressing room, Sweeney finds a statue - the same statue was found next to the last murder victim, also an exotic dancer.This is an interesting story for sure with sexual undertones (or shall I say overtones) galore - Ekberg's chained slave dance, the lesbian relationship Joann has with another dancer, the statue fetish, and Ekberg herself, sex on heels. Her first film was "Mississippi Gambler," in which she was uncredited; not surprisingly, she got the attention of the film's star, Tyrone Power, and had an affair with him that lasted into the mid-'50s. She even got to meet his relatives in Cincinnati - and he was still married at the time. Was she good in this? I have no idea; she's so stunning, it doesn't matter. Philip Carey, known today for his portrayal of Asa Buchanan in "One Life to Live" was a hunk in the '50s who was relegated to B films costarring many beautiful women - he's easy on the eyes too and does a decent job as Sweeney. Harry Townes had a huge career in television and underplays the role of Greene, the psychiatrist. He does a good job - if the character appeared sinister, it wouldn't have been believable.A story like this could easily have been given a big budget and big director and been much more effective. As it is, it keeps one's attention with its twists and turns and one of the great va-va-vooms, Ekberg.

Murder and madness hound an exotic dancer (Anita Ekberg), her dog Devil, and a macabre statuette she fetishizes...I love this sordid little Columbia "B" which plays a key role in the evolution of the American Film Noir into the Italian Giallo cycle and helped (along with 1957's THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS) pave the way for Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO a few years later. The Hitchcock also has a surprise ending concerning the star and a shower stabbing isn't so new, after all. Like Gerd Oswald, Dario Argento used the same lurid Fredric Brown pulp novel as source for his THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and was actually more faithful (in spirit) to the novel: MIMI grabs the viewer by the throat in the opening scene but the movie would have been more shocking if it hadn't been told in linear fashion. The fact Yolanda was attacked by a maniac years before was one of many surprises and revealed half-way through the novel (as it is in the Argento). Here's how Brown's novel opens: "The protagonist of Brown's novel, William Sweeney, is also a writer, a newspaperman. Walking the streets of nighttime Chicago in the grip of an alcoholic binge, Sweeney sees an amazing thing. Trapped by a giant dog between the double glass doors of her apartment building, a beautiful woman writhes; she has been stabbed by an unknown assailant. She appears to be the fourth victim of a ripper (as Sweeney's paper has dubbed the killer), and she is the only one to have survived. Bewitched by the beautiful victim Yolanda Lang -a stripper who's act includes the dog, Devil -Sweeney begins his own investigation of the crimes. His first lead is a mass-market statuette of a terrified woman, the screaming mimi, sold by the first victim the day she was murdered... Argento changed many details in the process of turning "The Screaming Mimi" into The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, but the most important is this: flawed and weak though he may be, Brown's protagonist is afraid of the universe of madness glimpsed when he gets close to Yolanda Lang. Argento's is drawn to it like a moth to the flame. The American pulp novel "The Screaming Mimi" was passed along to Argento for an opinion by Bertolucci, who intended to buy the rights for himself. Captivated by the novel's central idea, Argento resolved to borrow it and spin off a new story. In fact, he borrowed quite a bit more..." I saw SCREAMING MIMI as a kid on daytime TV and it reely scared the pants off me! I was very upset over the way Ekberg's dog got killed and found the crime scene photos of the other murdered strippers frightening. There was a lot of "adult content" that didn't get by my young mind, either: fetishes, an intense relationship between Yolanda and her dog ...along with lesbianism and dope! When Phil Carey tries to barge in on nightclub owner Gypsy Rose Lee and a young chick, their repartee ("Sorry, I didn't know it was tea for two") leaves no doubt that Gypsy is a dyke and marijuana, in the 50's, was called "tea". I love the "El Madhouse" nightclub -if the Red Norvo Trio's xylophone doesn't drive you nuts, nothing will and sex goddess Anita Ekberg's somnambulistic acting style perfectly suits a stripper with a couple of mental screws loose. Fetish-driven Yolanda Lang, writhing around in rags on ropes (in chains!), caters to the S&M in all of us and I wish there were more films like SCREAMING MIMI and THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS from the schizophrenic 1950's. I didn't have long to wait, tho: PSYCHO (and later the giallo) were just around the corner! In between were THE NAKED KISS, WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?, and...

It starts off with Anita Ekberg being attacked by an escaped lunatic. She survives but is institutionalized. A Dr. Greene (Harry Townes) becomes obsessed with her. Next thing we know she's playing a "stripper" called Yolanda. Crime reporter Bill Sweeney (Philip Carey) falls for her and Greene doesn't like that. Also there's a murderer around and it seems Yolanda may be his next victim...If that sounds disjointed you should see the movie! Hopelessly confusing and extremely dull piece of work. Ekberg is certainly gorgeous but no actress. Also her "stripping" has her not taking off anything! Then there's Gypsy Rose Lee as the owner of the "strip" club. At one point she gets on stage and sings (and "dances") to "Put the Blame on Mame"! Rita Hayworth has nothing to fear. There's also a hint of lesbianism (very daring for 1958) and a constantly barking dog named Devil! I'm probably making this sound more fun than it is. It's slow, confusing and dull with bad acting (except for Carey) and pointless musical numbers in the club to pad out the movie. This might be worth watching if you're an Ekberg fan or you want to see Gypsy Rose Lee--but it's rough going. A 1 all the way.