Sure, you knew her as Lili Munster. But Yvonne DeCarlo first was a wickedly good film actress.
Like when she starred opposite Burt Lancaster in Criss Cross, one of my newly-favorite noir films. It has the best ever use of Angel’s Flight, LA’s onetime funicular, in a movie. It shows Bunker Hill the way it was, before it was flattened, before filmmakers had to go all the way to South Africa to come up with a facsimile. It’s got everything, from Tony Curtis in an uncredited role as a dancing partner (he’s good!) to Burt Lancaster in a scruffy, rare-for-40s-film sweatshirt. Oh, and it’s a fantastic heist film, a blackhearted love story. A perfect noir.
Adios, Ms. Decarlo.
