Dementia

Dementia (1955)

Not ONE WORD is spoken on the screen!

In a shadowy world stitched from nightmares, a young woman's harrowing journey in a seedy hotel unveils her traumatic past. Haunted by violence and stalked through desolate streets, her psyche unravels as she confronts an abusive husband and unsettling memories.

Date of release
1955-12-22
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (88)
Runtime
58m
Genres
Horror, Drama
Director
John Parker

Casting

Interesting facts

Dementia is a 1955 American black-and-white experimental horror film produced, written, and directed by John Parker, and starring Adrienne Barrett and Bruno Ve Sota. The film, which contains no dialogue, follows a young woman's nightmarish experiences during a single night in Los Angeles's skid row. Stylistically, it incorporates elements of horror, film noir, and expressionist film.

Production

Writer-director John Parker (1925–1981) was an aspiring film producer from Portland, Oregon, where his family owned and operated the state's popular J. J. Parker movie theater chain. Parker conceived the idea for Dementia based on a nightmare his secretary, Adrienne Barrett, had relayed to him.

Dementia was shot on Hollywood studio sets and on location in Venice, California. Production, including editing, ended in 1953. Although Parker is solely credited as director, writer, and producer, Ve Sota claimed that he also contributed to the film significantly, serving as a co-writer and co-director, with many of the scenes having been improvised.

The original film had no dialogue, only music and some sound effects, like doors slamming, dubbed laughter, etc. The film's music score is by avant-garde composer George Antheil, vocalized by Marni Nixon. There are no lyrics as such. Jazz musician Shorty Rogers and his band, the Giants, can be seen and heard performing in the nightclub scene.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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