Christa Makes the List

http://www.ranker.com/list/the-13-most-fascinating-unsolved-hollywood-murders/william-neckard

The murder of Christa Helm made this recent list of the 13 most fascinating unsolved Hollywood murders at number eleven.

Colorized Christa

Was searching for Christa Helm info online when I stumbled across this nifty colorized version of what is arguably her most famous image...on a porn site! It was accompanied by other familiar shots as well as a brief article that was more accurate than many others one can find online.

Jaqueline Mayro, Broke Co-Star

Actress Jacqueline Mayro, seen here onstage with intense actor John Savage in the early seventies, not long before she would co-star as the woman whose kidnapping sparks the plot of LET'S GO FOR BROKE. 

Frank Raiter in Cincinnati

One of the unanswered questions regarding LET'S GO FOR BROKE is "Why was Cincinnati chosen for the premiere?" Producer Duncan told me he didn't remember and there seems no connection between Christa Helm herself and Cincinnati.  Here, though, we see Frank Raiter (l, above), who, along with Chitra Neogy, was the villain of the film. The page below is from the 1972-73 THEATRE WORLD annual by John Willis, and covers The Cincinnati Playhouse season . The Playhouse performed several shows, all with a repertory company that included... Frank Raiter. The season ended in May of '73 according to the page and we know that LET'S GO FOR BROKE was shooting towards that same year's end. When talk came of a premiere engagement at the end of '74, was it Frank perhaps who suggested Cincinnati?

New BROKE Images

Just to show that this is not a dead blog, here are a couple new screencaps of Christa in LET'S GO FOR BROKE.

R.I.P. Christa--35 Years Ago Today...

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the death of Christa Helm. Her murder remains unsolved in spite of major progress just in recent years that I'm proud to say I was able to contribute to with the Cold Case Department.

Today is also the third birthday of Christa's great-grandson. Life goes on.

Illusions of a Lady

This is the film that Christa Helm claimed to have co-written and produced. She was living with director Jonas Middleton at the time and according to one published newspaper report at the time left him when he insisted on adding hardcore footage to what apparently had been meant to be a softcore film. Her name appears nowhere in the credits. There is some question as to whether Christa had been meant to star in it originally but in the end she was replaced by future Disco Diva Andrea True. I finally found a copy of ILLUSIONS OF A LADY recently and it's hard to imagine it as anything but what it is. A few years ago, I exchanged a couple of emails with director Middleton who made only one more film, the haunting hardcore ghost story THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. He sent me his cell phone number and consented to be interviewed but it was almost immediately lost, along with his email, in a computer crash. If anyone knows how to get back in touch with him, I would appreciate any tips. Thanks!