Who's the New Girl? Episode 113: The Black Scorpion

Having both an unhealthy obsession with classic pin-up style, which is coming back, and Mystery Science Theater 3000, which lives on forever, I've decided to combine my two lusts and create yet another series, this one based around pin-ups of the lovely ladies that starred in the b-movies MST3K skewered so hilariously. I will be taking on every single one of the relevant episodes, in order, because I have problems. Enjoy!

The series begins here. 

Episode 113: The Black Scorpion (1957)

Not quite "the worst we can find," The Black Scorpion is actually somewhat above average for '50s giant monster movies. Meaning that the acting is fair, the script is decent, and the special effects range from awful to inspired (helped along by King Kong stop-motion legend Willis O'Brien). This time it's not atomic super rays but a good old volcano that awakens the giant scorpions -- that's right, there's more than one, and also some giant earthworms and spiders -- and they're attacking Mexico City, not, say, the Midwest. The script's main flaw is its delay in pulling the trigger on the budding romance between our hero, geologist Hank Scott (Richard Denning), and fiesty, impossibly beautiful ranch owner Teresa Alvarez, a character filled out quite nicely by...

Mara Corday

"...I study interesting volcanoes." 

"...and you're one of them."

Santa Monica native Marilyn Joan Watts began her road to stardom on the beach at fifteen, but not because of anyone in the business; it was a kid in need of a subject for a photo contest who first discovered Mara. She eventually made her way into Earl Carroll's famous cadre of showgirls, which naturally led to Vegas; Mara could act, however, and it was on the stage that she finally found an agent. Becoming part of the Universal Studio system of developing young talent, she first entered the horror genre in 1955's Tarantula, which made her a literally hot property overnight.

Once a unused Esquire shoot of Mara was bought out by Playboy, leading to a unusual "double Playmate" month in October 1958, her place in babedom was secure. By that time, however, the studio system had been dismantled, leaving Corday adrift and stuck in genre flicks like, well, like The Black Scorpion, inexplicably dressed down and suffering from a wandering accent. She soon married actor Richard Long and left the business, but when he died in 1974, she had a brief acting renaissance thanks to being included in pics starring one of her closest friends from the contract days... Clint Eastwood.