Robin Mirthel (actress)

Robin Mirthel (November 4th, 1947 -- ) is an American actress best known for playing the bisexual psycho Squeaky in the infamous 1973 exploitation film The House of Blood.

Meets and Marries Stefano Stefani
It was while making G.I. Bro that Robin first met the Italian thriller director Stefano Stefani. Stefani was in New York City doing location shooting for his seminal giallo One Streak of Crimson On A Silk Topaz Pillow (1976). According to the accounts of both Robin and Stefani, their tumultous romance began on the night they first met with Robin soon discovering that she was pregnant with Stefani's child. Stefani was in the process of divorcing his wife, actress Solange Depressier. The divorce was finalized in Italy on November 19th, 1975. Stefani and Robin were marred in Utica, New York by a justice of the peace the next day. The couple's only son, Giacomo, was born in Naples, Italy on January 20th. 1976.

Giallo Scream Queen
In 1976, Stefani and Robin moved back to Stefani's home of Naples, Italy and Robin began what has been labeled (by Film Thought magazine) as her Giallo Phase. This period lasted from 1977 until 1982 and saw her appearing in eleven films, ten of which were directed by Stefani.

In 1977, she appeared in what has since been called "The Neck Wound Trilogy." These were three increasingly violent and surreal thrillers written and directed by Stefani. In all three of them, Robin played a promiscous American and in all three of them, she ended up getting her throat slashed open. These films were A Glass Eye On The Table At Evening, A Monster That Walks In The Blue Shadow Of the Moonlight, and A Yellow Parrot In The Web Of The Spider. While these three films were greeted with controversy and savage criticism upon their initial release, they have lately been reevaluated in a far more positive light. Noted film historian Harrison Truelake has written that, "In these three films, Stefani uses his own wife as the perfect symbol of Italy's hatred of and dependence upon America and his own hatred of and dependence upon the fairer sex and, one must assume, Ms. Mirthel herself."

Following the Neck Wound Trilogy, Robin gave sexually-charged performances in Stefani's subsequent thrillers: The Serpent Writhes In The Glass Coffin, A Torn Photo in The Hands of the Assassin (both released in 1978), A Hungry Scorpion on a Cold Metal Table (1979), A Killer With Eyes of Ice (1980), and Five Victims For The Maniac That Stands In An Ever-Widening Pool of Red (1981). Notably, Robin suffered an increasingly gruesome and potracted death in all five of these films with the exception of A Torn Photo (a film that Stefani later said was "the most impersonal of all my work.") Five Victims was noted at the time for not only featuring Stefani himself in the role of the film's murderer but featuring a rather long and explicit sex scene between Robin and Stefani that was rumored to actually be unsimulated.

During this time, Robin had a small role in Franco D'Franco's international co-production, Ostaggi (1979).

Another Marriage Collapses
During her time in Italy, Robin's marriage to Stefani was becoming increasingly strained with Stefani objecting to her use of cocaine ("I did it recreationally and so did everyone else in 1982," Robin later stated in an interview with Skingoria Magazine) and Robin becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of pleasure that Stefani seemed to take in finding new ways to kill her onscreen.

Robin would later say that the final straw came when Stefani demanded that she appear in two of his most controversial and explicit films, Cannibal Rapist and ''Zombie Rapist. ''Both films were released in 1982 and both featured Robin as a promiscous, drug-abusing American who is graphically raped and dismembered by a cannibal and a zombie respectively. Already angered by the film's sadism, Robin has said that she was finally forced to leave Stefani when, during a dubbing session for Zombie Rapist, she discovered that her character's name had been changed from Catorina to Robin.

Her 1983 divorce from Stefani received a lot of attention in the Italian press with her accusing Stefani of being physically and mentally abusive and Stefani alleging that she was a mentally unbalanced drug addict. In the end, divorce was granted and Stefani was given custody of the couple's only son, Giacomo.

French Sex Siren
Following her divorce from Stefano Stenfani, Robin left Italy and, in 1983, resettled in an experimental socialist collective located outside of Tourcoing, France. The collective itself ended up collapsing two weeks after her arrival (Robin, in later interviews, would say that she was simply too "cheerfully a member of thebourgeoisie" to be an effective socialist) and Robin ended up resettling in Paris.

Speaking fluent French, Robin continued to pursue her acting career in France. While she appeared mostly in exploitation roles, she did gain some critical recognition (along with a controversial Cesar nomination for supporting actress) for her performance in Alain Malan's epic, five-hour, sex-drenched thriller La Femme Qui Marche Le Champ Dans Juste Ses Sous-Vetements Ne Sera Pas Votre Anime. The film was also a hit at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and Robin was rumored to be one of the front runners for the best actress award that was eventually won (in a tie) by Norma Aleandro for The Official Story and Cher for Mask.

However, Robin would become best known for appearing in fourth and fifth entries in the Une Nuit film series (in 1985 and 1986 respectively). While the Une Nuit sex comedies have long been hated by critics, they have proven very popular with audiences in France, Germany, and Denmark. When Robin's appearance in the fourth film helped that movie to become the most profitable in the series to date, she was given the rare honor of being the first (and, with the exception of the 20th film which featured cameos by every actress ever to appear nude in the series, only) actress to be given a role in the subsequent entry in the series. While her second Une Nuit performance was not quite as popular as her first, both roles brought her legions of new fans in France, Germany, and Denmark. While the films themselves were scathingly dismissed by most cultural commentators, Robin's performances were generally favorably received. Future film director Luc DeBless wrote, "For the first time, I knew that a nude woman could be funny and a funny woman could be nude and for a time, God still lived."

Robin, however, felt that -- approaching 40 -- it would soon be impossible for her to continue appearing in such sexually-themed material. In 1986, she made the decision to retire from acting and return to the United States.

Present Day
Robin returned to the United States in 1987 and resettled in New York City. She married author James Livingstone in 1988.

From 1987 through 1989, she was employerd as a copy editor at the Urbane Gothic Literary Magazine and was promoted to Associate Editor in 1989. In 1991, she left Gothic Urbane for a chance to serve as Editor of ''American Macabre BiMonthly. ''Since 1996, she has been served as Executive Vice President of Beerbrok Publishing, ltd.

Considering her own mixed feelings concerning the film, it's ironic to consider that she was one of the forces behind the eventual 1991 reunion of House of Blood's actresses. Reporter Ciara Conway occasionally worked for Macabre and reportedly, was overheard by Robin making a rather crude joke in connection to Mirthel's previous role in House of Blood. This apparently inspired Robin to assign Conway an article about the film.

Despite retiring from acting, Robin has occasionally still appeared before the camera, most notably in the 1989 movie adaption of husband Livingstone's Generation X novel Lost In The Big City, an episode of Law & Order, and an extended cameo in the 20th Une Nuit film.

Select Filmography
Breakfast (1967) as Robin

Carol and Barbie (1968) as Carol

Midnight Cowboy (1969) as Partygoer (uncredited)

One Step Up From The Gutter And One Step Away From Hell (1969) as Donna

The Mini-skirt Generation (1969) as Kitty Kat

Valley of The Leather Starlets (1969) as Norma

Beyond The Valley of the Dolls (1970) as Dancer At Party

Catholic School Girls (1970) as Mary Margaret

Country Girls (1970) as Ellie

Multiple Nymphets (1970) as Lilly

The Other Side Of Murder (1970) as Sadie Mae

Patty's Dirty Mind (1970) as Patty

She Wore High Heels (1970) as Katy

Deadly Hands of A Swinger (1971) as Jackie

The Revenge of Count Vulva (1971) as Mina

Super Dick (1971) as Velma

An American Hippie In Israel (1972) as Naked Girl (uncredited)

Behind the Velvet Curtains (1972) as the Maid

The Big Bust (1972) as Lois

Bury Me Out Back (1972) as Carrie

Come Back, My Lost Child (1972) as Cynthia

Die, Lover, Die! (1972) as Stephanie

The Freak Out (1972) as Linda

The German Connection (1972) as Mazie

The Greek Hit (1972) as Paulina

Hell Is For Dealers (1972) as Grace

I Am A Courtesan (1972) as Antoinette

Nurses On Call (1972) as Janey

Weed Preacher (1972) as Anne

When The Girls Do It (1972) as Ethel

The Erotic Godfather (1973) as Kay

The House of Blood (1973) as Squeaky

Miss World Virginity (1974) as Miss Iceland

Silent Fugitives (1974) as Tammy

G.I. Bro (1975) as Heather

A Glass Eye On The Table At Evening (1977) as Mimsy

A Monster That Walks In The Blue Shadow of the Moonlight (1977) as Wendy

A Yellow Parrott In The Web Of The Spider (1977) as Joey

The Serpent Writhes in a Glass Coffin (1978) as Dagmar

A Torn Photo In The Hands of the Assassin (1978) as Linda

A Hungy Scorpion On The Cold, Metal Table (1979) as Daria

Ostaggi (1979) as Karen

A Killer With Eyes of Ice (1980) as Trixie

Five Victims For The Maniac That Stands In An Ever Widening Pool of Red (1981) as Amy

Cannibal Rapist (1982) as Nora

Zombie Rapist (1982) as Robin

Chatte du Monde (1984) as Marie

Nuit du Vampire Promiscuex (1984) as Brigitte

La Femme Qui Marche Le Champ Dans Juste Ses Sous-Vetements Ne Sera Pas Votre Amie (1985) as Claudia

Quatre Fois Dans Une Nuit (1985) as Jeanne

Cinq Fois Dans Une Nuit (1986) as Anne-Marie

Lost In The Big City (1989) as Miss Hampton

Law & Order (1997) (ep. "How Red Was My Summer Marxist") as Judge Loew

Vingt Fois Dans Une Nuit (2001) as Jeanne/Anne-Marie