Lovers of buxom, beautiful B-Movie goddesses will no doubt be tuned in tomorrow late night for Zombies of Mora Tau starring the splendid Allison Hayes.  Ms. Hayes, who is probably best known for her turn in The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, was a hard-working and talented veteran actress with a come hither look that just didn’t let you get away.

After some early beauty pageant wins, Allison came to Hollywood and began her career in minor – very minor – roles, but progressed to supporting roles in both movies and on TV.   No doubt her striking dramatic good looks and a demeanor that was both haughty and inviting made her an ideal candidate for the perhaps melodramatic but seldom boring parts she got in a handful of minor horror movies, titles which ensure Allison Hayes’ continued fame today.  The Undead, Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, and The Disembodied from 1957,  Attack of the 50 Foot Woman from  1958,  and The Hypnotic Eye from 1960 were just a small percentage of her credits, but are the titles that cemented her niche in pop culture. 

As a kid I was completely entranced and probably psychologically damaged by repeated viewings of The Hypnotic Eye, and of course Attack of the 50 Foot Woman was another big favorite.  One reason my sisters and I loved it so much was that the main guy in the film, the husband of the giant gal, was named Harry, which was my Dad’s name.  Much merriment always occurred in our house when she goes rampaging over the countryside calling out “Harry!” over and over again.  Allison isn’t bad at all in the movie, and in fact you have to have great sympathy for her.  She’s embroiled in a terrifying alien abduction, really, by that huge outer space giant in a diaper, and I’m sure that fans of the movie can recall every creepy moment when she’s walking around his ship, with that eerie beeping sound and other disorienting effects.  Sure, the movie is probably a piece of crap to some people, but Allison’s tortured portrayal of a woman who finally gets her revenge on the men who have cheated on her and disbelieved her is a genuinely empathetic one, no matter how far out the circumstances.

Even more interesting, perhaps, than Allison’s onscreen adventures is the weird and sad saga of the decline of her health.  She either seems to have had leukemia, or else was gradually poisoned by a health food store vitamin supplement which had been contaminated by lead.  Allison evidently endured years of misdiagnoses, hundreds of medical tests and the condescending skepticism of countless doctors who refused to believe that the actress was really sick.  She ended up her life needing to take regular blood transfusions to keep her alive, and it worked until late February 1977, when Allison succumbed to her mysterious illness at the age of 46.