SciFiHistory.Net's "Nancy Allen" Appreciation Page
Trust me: Science Fiction has always loved tough women. Granted, SciFi -- back in its infancy -- was quite possibly more concerned how well the tough woman's midriff looked (certainly if Dale Arden and Dejah Thoris are any indication), but it was their toughness that endured. As a result, not every actress can pull off a great role in a Science Fiction property; and only the truly gifted can pull it off on multiple occasions.
Such is the track record for Nancy Allen. She was born on June 24, 1950; and she's given genre fans multiple opportunities to appreciate her strength, courage, and stunning good looks.
Such is the track record for Nancy Allen. She was born on June 24, 1950; and she's given genre fans multiple opportunities to appreciate her strength, courage, and stunning good looks.
1983's Strange Invaders is, indeed, a very strange film (SciFiHistory.Net's review of the flick can be found right here), but that's rarely the fault of the talent. In the kinda/sorta Alien Invasion flick, Paul LeMat plays a man whose daughter is abducted by invaders who've been on Earth a very long time, and Allen played his 'Girl Friday,' crack National Informer reporter Betty Walker; the two slowly peel back the layers on a conspiracy that stretches back a generation, only to find themselves racing against time when the aliens present them with a deadline to recover the abducted young girl. Allen's Walker certainly has some screen moxie for the era -- she makes the first move toward the possibility of deepening the relationship with the man who comes to her for "just the facts" -- but she's given equal parts vulnerability when Betty reveals she finds herself forever mired in the world of tabloid journalism.
1984's The Philadelphia Experiment is a fabulous B-movie. Emerging loosely from a book by William L. Moore and Charles Berlitz that explores the U.S. government's fabled attempt to make their fleet practically invisible, the story revolves around two sailors' attempt to go back in time to undo the experiment that sent them into the future; in the picture, Allen plays Allison Hayes, the woman who befriends the two, and I've always felt this is the picture that best showcases what the actress brings to a role: great looks, convincing performances, and a measure of spunk all-too-often not found in other leading ladies of that era. Very quickly, she becomes someone to root for alongside those she's paired up on the big screen, and audiences were largely thrilled with this rarely remembered SciFi gem.
Finally, Allen went "all in" as it were with her role as Officer Anne Lewis in the Robocop saga -- Robocop (1987), Robocop 2 (1990), and Robocop 3 (1993). It's hard to find all that much to praise here -- Lewis's role was, largely, second fiddle to both the premise and the obvious lead character (namely, Robocop) -- far too much of the time, though the first film clearly gives her vastly more to do with her craft than do Part 2 or 3. Her vulnerability is largely replaced here with some wide-eyed curiosity as she finds herself kinda/sorta smitten with the technology and understanding just how much of her partner remains inside the hulking cybernetic police-thing; and there's very little attempt to build on the chemistry normally present in cop buddy films, perhaps a good thing since the relationship couldn't have been practically consumated in any reasonable fashion. Still, it was great to watch her work, and -- though her character was given a death scene in Part 3 -- she did get to let her hair down as well. Hubba hubba!