A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Featuring:
Maila Nurmi
Written by:
Mika Ripatti
Directed by:
Mika Ripatti
Release Date:
September 29, 1995
Original Title:
Vampira: About Sex, Death and Taxes
Alternate Titles:
Vampira
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Green Bird Oy
Production Countries:
Finland
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 64
Interviews with Maila Nurmi, who famously played the horror hostess Vampira
I had the distinction of seeing this film in a movie theatre. Well, sort of a movie theatre. It was called the Lighthouse Cinema on Suffolk street in Manhattan. If I remember correctly, it was sometime in 1996. The film was listed in the New York Daily News. I was the only person who showed up for the Saturday afternoon screening. The theatre owner, who was also the projectionist, screened the 35mm print for me anyway. The documentary featured Maila Nurmi, the Finnish-born actress who created the character "Vampira." She had her own show on a local Los Angeles TV station in the 1950's, and is believed to be the first "horror" hostess. Her show was canceled after one season. She tried to sue Elvira for stealing her act, and lost. SEX, DEATH & TAXES reveals Nurmi to be homophobic, paranoid of her "fans" who try to get in touch with her, and living on welfare. No longer in the small apartment she had for years, she now lives in a modest house. At the end of the documentary, the filmmakers create a short, scripted narrative for Nurmi to "star" in. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, as the filmmakers don't seem to be very objective. The film was financed by Finnish television, and features a Finnish-born subject, and doesn't really explore Nurmi or her mystique as deeply as it could have.
Director:
Mika J. Ripatti
Director of Photography:
Timo Peltonen
Editor:
Anne Lakanen
Makeup Artist:
Tanja Savalainen
Music:
Marjaana Rontama
Producer:
Mika J. Ripatti
Production Assistant:
Sussu Laaksonen
Production Design:
Marjaana Rantama
Sound:
Janne Nurmimaa
Writer:
Mika J. Ripatti
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Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.