The Wormwood Star (1956) ** (out of 4) Have you heard of artist Marjorie Cameron? If not then you'd think watching this documentary from Curtis Harrington would help you learn more about her but that's certainly not the case as this nine minute short is quite confused on what it's actually trying to do. The film offers up a very good and captivating music score and there's a little narration but the majority of the running time is dedicated to various images, which I'm going to guess are the work of the subject. The camera slowly pans in and out on these images throughout the running time. Yes, that's pretty much all that happens in this film that manages to be rather boring considering its short running time. There's really nothing bad here but at the same time there's certainly nothing good enough to make you want to recommend this to anyone other than the director's die hard fans who must see everything that he did.

I'm a big fan of director Curtis Harrington, who specialized in weird, stylized, and downbeat films. Knowing virtually nothing about the subject of this short, an obscure artist named Marjorie Cameron, I found myself wondering what the hell Harrington was trying to achieve here. There's no plot, merely a few lingering shots of Cameron, a beatnik/occult poetry recital/score, and endless meandering shots of her soon-to-be-destroyed canvases. What you can see of Cameron's artwork was undeniably beautiful - but the roving camera obfuscated the full view of most of the paintings and the dialogue was merely psychobabble (heavy emphasis on the first syllable).It's wonderful that the film has survived and is in such great shape, so for fans of Cameron who are watching it in the proper context, I'm sure this obscure little avant-garde film is a must-see, but as a fan of Harrington... well, I got infinitely more enjoyment out of his later (reluctant and half-assed) directorial efforts on craptastic '70s & '80s Aaron Spelling TV shows like "Charlie's Angels" and "Dynasty." The rest of his early shorts are awesomely offbeat and visceral but this one was too unstructured and, quite frankly, tedious for my tastes.

This one is even harder to categorize: essentially a documentary revolving around obscure artist Marjorie Cameron, who apparently inhabited the same social circles as notorious mystical figures Aleister Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard. The appealingly-coloured film basically incorporates (and alternates between) casual footage of the evidently eccentric lady, her stylized canvases (many of which she would reportedly destroy herself not long after!), and a few choice (albeit unidentified) poetic ruminations spoken in voice-over by the subject of the piece – all of which is accompanied by a surprisingly (but, under the circumstances, not incongruously) grandiose score! Needless to say, some knowledge of the cultural scene being depicted is required for full appreciation.