When you think of classic film stars, all the obvious names arise first… Audrey, Marylin, Elizabeth, Katherine, Rita, Judy, etc…  Yet there were so many brilliant female actors during that time that flew under the radar, oveshadowed by those other names…

I first fell for the incomperable Anne Francis while watching one of the many hours of The Twilight Zone I was glued to as a kid.  She starred in an episode called “The After Hours” about a women who has a creepy experience in a department store and bears a striking resemblance to (bum bum bum) a store mannequin.

She was so pixie-like in her sharp features, but there was a solidness, a strength in her that I admired.  She had the most sparkley blue eyes and coquettish little mole below her lip.  I suspect she never became a huge star because of a lack of strong female roles… she just wasn’t the damsel in distress type.  And every huge female movie star of the silver screen in that era had one major characteristic… an air of need to be rescued.  But Anne… She was so smart and had a wild spark in her eyes, not dissimilar to Jane Fonda, she was ahead of her time.  For those of you unfamiliar with her, please take a minute and fall in love with Anne Francis.