Martine
Beswicke
One of Great Britain's foremost pin-up
girls, the delightful Martine Beswicke has managed the neat trick
of being kinky and classy all in one. Billed as "Martin Beswick,"
Beswicke made her first film appearance as one of the fighting gypsy
girls in the 1963 James Bond flick From Russia With Love; she returned
to Bondland with a more substantial role in Thunderball (1965). After
drawing attention away from a near-naked Raquel Welch in One Million
Years B.C. (1966), Beswicke was awarded with the leading role in the
similar Prehistoric Women (1967). She attracted the notice of the
intelligentsia with her performance as a leather-clad lesbian in 1967's
Penthouse, then went on to play half the title role in Dr. Jekyll
and Sister Hyde (1971). By contrast, her portrayal of Xaviera Hollander
in The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood was a model of restraint. American
TV viewers were given ample opportunity to drink in the charms of
Martine Beswicke in the 1979 miniseries The Innocent and the Damned
-- not to mention her brief but impressive (and fully clothed) appearance
in a well-circulated beer commercial of the early '80s. |