Hazel Court was an iconic cult-film actress best known for her performances in a few early works from Hammer Film Productions, as well as several pictures from Roger Corman. Long before her death in 2008, Hazel retired from the film industry to take care of her children. One of her last great roles was in 1963’s The Raven, during the production of which she was pregnant with her only son. This pregnancy would add to the memorability of Hazel’s appearance in the film in an unusual way! Join Facts Verse as Hazel Court reveals the secret to her bust in The Raven.
Hazel Court’s Early Life
Hazel Court was born in England on February 10, 1926. Unlike many other notable redheads, Hazel was born with the hair color. Besides this, not all that much is known about Hazel’s early life. However, what is known is that she didn’t waste much time in trying to become a star as soon as she came of age. It has been said that she was in the middle of actively soliciting to various movie studios when a bomb raid occurred during the days of World War II. When the bombs began to fall, the future star had found herself at Ealing Studios, which is the production company that would go on to give the actress her first taste of fame.
For her very first appearance on the screen, Hazel Court was given a role in the 1944 film Champagne Charlie. Hazel’s character in the film only had a single line, but the actress would give the appearance her all. Fitting right in with the title of the picture, Hazel’s line in the movie was “I never drank champagne before”. Coincidentally, Hazel Court’s very final appearance on the screen several decades later would see her as a waitress serving champagne in 1981’s The Final Conflict, which is also known as The Omen III. Hazel’s husband at the time, Don Taylor, had directed Damien: The Omen II just a few years previously.
After appearing in Champagne Charlie, Hazel continued climbing up the ranks in the entertainment industry before receiving her more iconic roles. For the most part, Hazel’s early film appearances were relegated to comedies. It wouldn’t be until the actress was cast in 1952’s Ghost Ship that she would get her first taste of the horror genre, which is the genre that she would go on to find the vast majority of her fame in. In 1954, she appeared in the film Devil Girls from Mars. In the film, she played the role of an attractive Martian dominatrix trying to invade Earth. The film brought many more eyes to Hazel than Ghost Ship had, and took better advantage of the actress’s stunning looks!
How Hazel Court Became a B-Movie Sex Symbol
Though Devil Girls from Mars did quite a bit for Hazels’ burgeoning career a sex symbol in horror-centric B movies, it would be Hazel’s appearance in 1957’s Curse of Frankenstein that would solidify her status is a cult icon. The film is notable for being one of the early works from Hammer Film Productions, and is generally considered to be their first majorly successful horror film. Of course, the film starred actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the lead roles, but it was Hazel who provided the eye candy for the audience. Without Hazel, it’s likely that the picture wouldn’t have been nearly as successful with audience members.
Curse of Frankenstein is revered nowadays for far more than turning Hazel Court into a sex symbol, as it also made it’s two lead actors into big-name stars and solidified the viability of Hammer Film Productions. The film is also noted as a turning point in cinema history thanks to it’s excessive violence and sexuality, with the majority of the latter being provided by Hazel herself. While the amount of cleavage that Hazel showcased in the movie may not be notable by today’s standards, it pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in cinemas at the time. Curse of Frankenstein was also a good deal bloodier than the majority of horror films that had come before it, and the works of Hammer Film Productions would go on to become known just as much for their bright-red blood as their cleavage.
Hazel would work with both Christopher Lee and Hammer Film Productions again in The Man Who Could Cheat Death. This film once again took advantage of Hazel’s attractiveness, and it has even been rumored that there was a nude scene filmed for the picture that didn’t make it into the final cut. Sadly, The Man Who Could Cheat Death wasn’t quite as successful as Curse of Frankenstein, especially in terms of it’s cultural legacy. While Curse of Frankenstein is widely available today, the latter picture is harder to find. Hazel would appear in many more works leading up to her appearance in 1963’s The Raven, which saw the sex symbol’s bust looking it’s best! If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Hazel Went from Hammer Films to Roger Corman
The Man Who Could Cheat Death was released in 1959. In 1961, Hazel appeared in another British horror film by the name of Doctor Blood’s Coffin. However, Hammer Film Productions didn’t produce this film. It seems that Hazel had terminated her relationship with the production company that had made her a star, though she would soon develop another professional relationship that would do wonders for her status as a cult icon. That new professional relationship would be with director Roger Corman, and she filmed three iconic pictures with him throughout the 1960s.
In between working with Hammer Film Productions and Roger Corman, Hazel Court was busy working in television and doing stuff with her family. Hazel had married first husband Dermot Walsh in 1949, and the pair had a child together in 1950. That child is Sally Walsh. Though one might’ve assumed that Hazel might’ve kept her young daughter guarded from her work in exploitation cinema, Sally actually had a cameo appearance in Curse of Frankenstein! At the time that Sally appeared in the film, she was only four years old. In 1963, a year after appearing in her first Roger Corman film, Hazel and Dermot got a divorce.
In the late 1950s, Hazel Court made her first appearance on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and she would go on to play four different roles on the program in four different episodes from 1958 to 1961. While Hazel’s work on Alfred Hitchcock Presents undeniably represents her most iconic work on television, the actress also appeared on several other notable programs in a guest-starring capacity. Such other programs include the similar anthology series The Twilight Zone, as well as Mission: Impossible, Bonanza, and Mannix.
Why Was Hazel So Busty in The Raven?
Starting in 1962 with that year’s The Premature Burial, Hazel Court would appear as the female lead in three film adaptations of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, all of which were directed by Roger Corman. Following 1962’s The Premature Burial, Hazel could be seen in 1963’s The Raven and 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death. The latter two pictures remain more notable than the first two, and both are considered minor classics for different reasons. While The Masque of the Red Death is largely considered to be one of the most professional-looking things that schlock-film extraordinaire Roger Corman ever made, The Raven is more notable for the fact that it featured an exceptionally busty-looking Hazel Court. There’s a reason that Hazel looked so busty during the film’s production, and it’s because she was pregnant! Before The Raven was filmed, Hazel had met the man who would go on to become her second husband. Though the two wouldn’t go on to tie the knot until 1964, they had already started getting down to business with making babies. Hazel’s busty appearance in The Raven garnered the actress more notoriety than ever before, though few realized that the actress was actually pregnant.
Besides Hazel, The Raven also featured such notable stars as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Jack Nicholson. She would go on to appear alongside Vincent Price yet again in the aforementioned The Masque of the Red Death. After marrying director Don Taylor in 1964, Hazel Court began to feel that she no longer wanted to act. Instead, she felt that she’d rather stay home and spend time with her family. In addition to son Jonathan, who Hazel was pregnant with during the filming of The Raven, the two also had a daughter around this time period by the name of Courtney. Before deciding to retire completely, Hazel would continue taking small guest-starring roles on television. The actress’s last notable guest-starring role was in 1972, and it came via MacMIllan and Wife. In 1981, Hazel Court took on her very last acting role, performing a small cameo in The Final Conflict. As we’ve already mentioned, that film is also known as The Omen III, and followed Don Taylor’s Damien: The Omen II. Hazel Court and Don Taylor would remain married until 1998, when Don tragically passed away.
A decade after Don Taylor’s death in 1998, Hazel Court would follow in the footsteps of her late husband by passing away herself. In the years leading up to Hazel’s death, she was an active presence at horror conventions, where fans would gather from all around to be in the vicinity of the sex symbol who once graced the screen alongside such luminaries as Christopher Lee and Vincent Price.
The late sex symbol and cult icon Hazel Court retired from the entertainment industry at the peak of her fame so that she could spend more time with her family. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Hazel Court’s bust looked bigger than it normally did on the set of Roger Corman’s 1963 film The Raven, and that the actress was said to have filmed a lost nude scene for Hammer Film Productions? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
