Tandra Quinn as Tarantella in Mesa of Lost Women. If she seems to exhibit arachnoid tendencies, that’s no coincidence. The low-budget 1953 film follows a mad scientist named Arana who is plotting to create a master race of superwomen by injecting his female subjects with spider venom.

Quinn appeared in three other 1953 pictures, including Problem Girls and The Neanderthal Man, but abandoned her acting career the following year after marrying a Beverly Hills real estate developer, Herbert Smithson. In 1944, she had auditioned for the part in National Velvet that Elizabeth Taylor snagged.

Besides arousing the fancy of Mr. Smithson, can anyone doubt that Tandra also elicited positive responses from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino?