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Susan oliver3/5/2023 Pappy and Glickman Brown also include a clip of Susan being lassoed by a male, but the spanking scene is even more appalling and a symbolic illustration not only of how women were regarded at the time but the future humiliations she would later receive as director of a Trapper John M.D. It is a scene as repugnant as John Wayne’s spanking of feisty wife Maureen 0’Hara in Andrew MacLaglen’s hideous McLintock! (1963). Robert Horton puts her over his knee, raises her dress, then spanks to make her no longer a feminist threat but an Eisenhower-era dutiful daughter. One episode I remember with mixed feelings cast her as the spunky girl needing discipline in Wagon Train (“ The Maggie Hamilton Story.” 1960). I always admired her other roles in the prolific world of series TV at the time, most of which managed to gain syndication in England with its two broadcast stations at the time – BBC and ITV. George Pappy first discovered her as the “Green Girl.” But before that role, Susan Oliver had appeared as guest star in many television shows from the late 50s onwards and well into the 80s. ![]() The Green Girl portrays someone who could not only light up the big and small screens with her charismatic presence but also deliver strong performances. Susan Oliver was an accomplished actress and could deliver many quality performances, as the many clips from her film and television work that fill a huge proportion of this 96 minute film show. Michael Caine’s repeating “Not many people know that” in the appalling remake of Get Carter (2000) was probably uttered in response to similar tedious nightclub comedian jokes he hoped to lay to rest in the same way James Cagney corrected the error in his AFI Life Achievement speech. Inaccurately remembered for this role, good as it was, Susan Oliver today suffers from that same stereotyping process that remembers James Cagney for saying “You dirty rat” and Johnny Weissmuller for “Me Tarzan, You Jane” although they never spoke those lines in any film. But she was much more than that, as this documentary shows. Most syndicated episodes end credits with the still shot of her performance as green girl Vina. Susan Oliver is only known today by most people for her guest appearance in the original 1964 Star Trek pilot “The Cage” that later became the two part episode “Menagerie” (1966). ![]() Susan Oliver was a prolific and astounding actress whose directing career was unfairly nipped in the bud an accomplished aviation pilot as well, she was an extraordinarily independent woman. It also sets the record straight about someone who combined many talents. However, steadily growing in respect and sales since its appearance, this documentary reveals not only the value of non-Hollywood independent funding but also informative contributions by many familiar industry people who are finally allowed to deliver their respect for a tragic, yet resilient, colleague. Produced and directed by George Pappy, who also co-wrote the script with editor Amy Glickman Brown, The Green Girl was financed independently and received no industry recognition or support from an institution that never treated the subject of this documentary with the respect she deserved. “What I knew I didn’t want was to just get married and become a housewife and lose my identity.” (Oliver: 81) ![]() “She was so much more than the Green woman in Star Trek” (George Pappy DVD audio-commentary).
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