Even if you?re not big into radioactive monsters, mutants from outer space, and other 1950s sci-fi movie standards, ?The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra? has a lot to offer. Original, witty, and featuring stellar performances by a superb cast, this send up of the worst of the black & white B-movies is absolutely hilarious.

Written and directed by Larry Blamire, ?The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra? starts with a couple of aliens crashing to Earth and accidentally letting loose their pet mutant.

Meanwhile a mad scientist creates a woman out of four forest animals and tries to bring the notorious Lost Skeleton of Cadavra back to life to rule the world. At the same time, Dr. Paul Armstrong and his wife Betty are searching for ?atmospherium,? a substance that will revolutionize science (and coincidentally the same substance the aliens need to fix their spaceship and the skeleton needs to come to life). The mutant devours farmers, the aliens try to blend in as Earthlings, the Skeleton uses mind control to rise from the dead, and everything comes to a head as the strangers sit down for a dinner party.

One of the main stars of the film is Fay Masterson who plays Betty, Dr. Paul Armstrong?s pretty but vacant wife. Masterson?s screen credits include ?Cops and Robbersons? and Stanley Kubrick?s ?Eyes Wide Shut,? and she?ll soon be seen in the romantic comedy, ?Happily Even After.? I had the pleasure of speaking with the British actress about her role in ?The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra? and the difficulty of pulling off a spoof of B-movies.

INTERVIEW WITH FAY MASTERSON (?Betty?):

When you got the script, what was your first reaction?
?Huh?? That was it pretty much. My friend Brian Howe who plays Dr. Roger Fleming had told me about the film. He is very good friends with Larry [Blamire], the director. He said, ?I?m doing this little film with a really good friend of mine. There?s a part that?s pretty cute ? just read it.? I read it and I was like, ?I don?t understand it at all.? I went and met with Larry and he explained to me the kind of tone of it. And I was like, ?Oh, this is going to be really interesting.?

Were you nervous going into this project, knowing it?s a spoof and that it could end up not working?
Yes! We all were saying, ?Oh my God, this could be just the silliest thing ever. And this will be something that no one will ever see and we won?t put it on our resumes. It will just be a good laugh and we?ll just have fun doing it.?

[It may not have worked] if it wasn?t for Larry and the fact that he wrote it, he had such a good knowledge of these kinds of movies. He?s so specific in what he wants and was so helpful to us. I had a really strong feeling it was going to be fine because he had such a good idea of how it was supposed to go. He gave us ? each of us ? really good notes on our characters and how to play them.

I imagine it was very tightly scripted. Were you allowed to put any of yourself into the character?
I didn?t need to. It was very tightly scripted. I don?t think a line was changed ? I really don?t. And only one scene was cut from the film. Pretty much the way it is now is the way it was shot. Betty isn?t really something that I have had any experience playing or being. I watched some movies ? I watched ?Plan 9 from Outer Space? and ?Giant from the Unknown.? There?s a female character in that that really was my biggest influence, I would have to say. And Doris Day ? she was somebody that I really enjoyed watching when I was younger.

You can definitely see the Doris Day influence in your character.
Doris Day ? [the influence was] just her sunniness. She was a little smarter than Betty but she had that sunny disposition in a lot of her movies. That was something I really liked. I thought that was something that would work really well for the character. But she?s kind of a conglomeration of all of those wonderful 50s voluptuous, crazy, funny women, who are just there to be wonderful wives.

Did you grow up watching B-movies? Were you a fan?
No. I didn?t really know [about them]. I wasn?t really knowledgeable at all. I loved the 50s musicals. I grew up watching those. There were a lot of movies from that period that I was really into and still love. I knew the period but I had no concept of the sci-fi movies of that period, of kind of the real cheaper, B, sci-fi horror, schlocky movies. So no, I think I was the person on the film with the least amount of knowledge of that type of era. It was a whole new experience for me so I was really kind of flying blind. But that probably worked for my character because I probably was the dumbest person on the shoot (laughing).

PAGE 2:The Buzz Surrounding "The Lost Skeleton" and a $60,000 Budget

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