Very interesting and entertaining documentary on the life and career of Maila Nurmi who achieved cult fame as the very first and most famous female TV horror film host, Vampira in the mid 1950's as well as her famous brief appearance as the Ghoul Woman in Edward D, Wood Jr.'s infamous cult movie, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Ms Nurmi appears in a very rare appearance in person talking about her life and career and her associations with acquaintances such as Edward D. Wood Jr., James Dean and Marlon Brando.There is also interviews with Forest Ackerman, TV horror hosts Zacherly, Penny Dreadful and Svenghoulie, horror icons, Debbie Rochon, Sid Haig, Bill Mosely and Julie Strain as well as a rare interview with Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira talking about the Vampira-Elvira lawsuit. But despite the interesting material about Vampira in the film, this film has serious flaws especially in the editing and it lacks a strong narrative structure( a narrator like Zacherly himself(as being a TV Horror film host himself) would have done wonders for this documentary although the director in the audio commentary on the DVD of Vampira The Movie disagrees) and there is precious little footage of Vampira doing has her TV 50's show on the documentary( there is one existing kinetescope of one episode of Vampira's show, that could have been used more on this documentary for greater effect, instead of the few seconds that appear in this documentary which the director states that was the only original Vampira material he could get his hands on. But there are video clips on YouTube of Vampira with Liberace on her show that's not on his documentary as well as other Vampira clips.) But the documentary has a satire reenactment of Plan 9 that is hilarious and all in all, this documentary is a good but not great homage that gives much deserved recognition of Vampira, her career and influence on popular culture.
