Belinda

One more fabulous lady before we move on to other things ...... we like Belinda Lee a lot, I first saw her as a kid in the 1957 DANGEROUS EXILE and she had some other Rank Organisation starrers too, like THE SECRET PLACE, MIRACLE IN SOHO, NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT, as per reviews on them at Belinda label. 

She was also a player in European cinema and got caught up in that LA DOLCE VITA era in Rome in the late Fifties, having a scandalous romance with an Italian married prince Filippo Orsini, which caused headlines, with both of them attempting separate suicide attempts. Belinda though was not long for this world, but certainly crammed a lot into her 25 years, before perishing in a car accident in California in March 1961. She now has a headstone in a Rome cemetery. (Above with Gerard Philipe). 

She starred in a lot of Italian peplums like APHRODITE in '57, MESSALINA, THE NIGHTS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA (now on YouTube) and was starting to appear in French New Wave items like LES DRAGUEURS in 1959, and a great Italian drama, Vancini's THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 which showed she could be another Loren or Mangano, she is also fun in a comedy with Mastroianni and Gassman GHOSTS OF ROME in 1960. I have covered her career in more detail in earlier posts. (A starlet had to pose looking busy in the kitchen too...)

Thanks to Jerry, whom I met for drinks and swops on Friday, he gave me a Belinda fridge magnet ! (right). Ta doll. He has been busy tracking down her more obscure items. She began of course as one of THE BELLES OF ST TRINIANS in 1954 (the glamorous one), and was foil for Benny Hill, Ian Carmichael and other comedians - no wonder she went to Italy! She remains England's lost siren, the glamour girl who did not survive, unlike contemporaries Anita Ekberg, Shirley Eaton, Diana Dors, Anne Heywood etc.