Personally inscribed photos of Janina are available again
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May 2022: Please note that Janina is not making any personal appearances until further notice. Check with the venue before attending if you see her name listed as a guest (the London Film Fair, for example).

Janina's Recommendations:

DieCast Movie Podcast Interview with Janina

On 27 March 2022 Janina had a long interview with Steven Turek of the DieCast Movie Podcast. The topics ranged from her appearances in Horror of Dracula, Never Take Sweets From A Stranger, and Day of the Triffids to Janina's work in television and the theatre, as well as her reminiscences, life experiences, and convention appearances.

Life after Flash

Written & directed by Lisa Downs, Life after Flash is a feature documentary that explores the life of Sam J Jones since his iconic performance as ‘Flash Gordon’ in the 1980 classic of the same name, and the aftermath of the young star’s clash with one of Hollywood’s biggest legends, producer Dino De Laurentiis. 

Wayne Kinsey - Inside Bray Studios

Wayne Kinsey has published an excellent new book, Inside Bray Studios. This 344-page large-format book is a comprehensive full-colour history of the Hammer Films studios, and is available directly from Wayne at his Peveril Publishing website.

Wayne also has a Facebook page for Peveril Publishing.

Upcoming and Recent Events:
(for past events click here)

The London Film Fair:
Sunday April 19th, 2020

Janina was scheduled to be a special guest at this one-day event on Sunday April 19th at the Royal National Hotel, near Russell Square, but it was cancelled during the pandemic lockdown.

The 30th Festival of Fantastic Films:
October 25th-27th, 2019, Pendulum Hotel, Manchester

Janina was again a guest at this long-running fan-friendly festival.

Other guests included Norman J Warren, Giannetto De Rossi, Deirdre Costello, Pauline Peart, Laurence Gordon Clark, Dana Gillespie.

Janina with Steven Nadler (son of the Festival’s late founder, Harry Nadler) and Norman J Warren. Photo courtesy of Jim Montgomery

Oakley Court Film & Movie Memorabilia Fair:
Sunday February 24th, 2019

Janina was a special guest at this one-day event on Sunday February 24th at the The Oakley Court in Windsor, which was also the site of a successful fair in October 2018. Oakley Court was a filming location for many Hammer and Amacus movies.

Other guests included Caroline Munro, Wayne Kinsey, Graham Humphreys, and Leigh Took.

Full details of Janina's appearance are on the poster for the event, and the Vintage Movie Posters website has information on upcoming shows.

Janina News

• 1960's Never Take Sweets from a Stranger, in which Janina plays the part of Jean Carter, has a new release on Blu-ray from Criterion. Janina notes that this includes an interview with her, and the release is part of a four-disc set with three other classic "Criminal Intent" films from Hammer's 1958-1961 output. The Blu-ray box set is available from Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

• An interview with Janina by Martin Parsons appears in issue #142 of SciFiNow magazine (February 2018). The magazine is also available in digital format.

• On February 18th, 2012, Janina read from Bram Stoker's Dracula to introduce a screening of the Hammer Dracula (1958) in which she played Tania. This was part of the Flicker Club's presentations at the Vault Festival at the Old Vic Tunnels, February 9th through 26th.

• August 2011: The long-lost Anthony Newley TV series from 1960, The Strange World of Gurney Slade, is finally available on DVD. In episode 5 a young Janina played herself, with lots of screen time. See photos in the gallery.

• February 2009: The list of Janina's television roles has been updated and new photos added to the gallery.

• 1962's Don't Talk to Strange Men, in which Janina plays the part of Ann Painter, was released on DVD in the UK on 24 September 2007. Janina notes that this was "an excellent cautionary B-Movie of its time."

The DVD is available from play.com or hmv.co.uk. Here's the synopsis:

A young girl accepts a lift home from a stranger. Moments later she lies dead; another victim of the murderer who is targeting young, impressionable women. Whilst Christina (Jean Painter) is waiting for a bus on a deserted country lane she answers the ringing telephone in the public callbox. She begins to chat with the charming stranger and arranges for the man to call her at the callbox the next night. Fearful for her safety, Christina's parents forbid her to go out alone at night whilst the murderer is still at large. But Christina continues her schoolgirl dalliances with her romantic stranger and arranges to meet him on a dark and lonely night at the callbox.

• UK TV Channel 5 showed Day of the Triffids in its ‘The Best of Disaster’ series, and as part of this episode Janina appeared in an interview about the making of the film.

• Janina was a special guest at an evening dinner with the members of The Horror Show at the George Inn in London, celebrating 25 years of fear, 1981-2006. Janina reports: “A lovely group. I was treated to a great meal, and I spoke briefly to them about Dracula and Never Take Sweets from a Stranger. That was followed by a signing and a showing of Dracula.”

• Janina appeared at the Memorabilia show at the NEC in Birmingham on August 14th and 15th, 2004, where she was available to meet fans and sign autographs. Click here to see photos of Janina at the show.

Janina's memories of Eddie Powell

Interview with Janina in
the Cushing Confidential, November 2001

Illustrated article from Theatre World, May 1961,
on Janina's performance as the young Helen Keller
in "The Miracle Worker" at the Royalty Theatre.

Janina's Recommended Reading: Wayne Kinsey's excellent book, Hammer Studios:The Bray Years, published in November 2002, sold out its first printing and has gone back to press. It's available in the USA from Amazon.com, and can also be ordered from Amazon UK.

Janina Faye - An Introduction
by Harry Nadler
(Late founder of The Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, UK)

I first met Janina Faye in the summer of 1958.

I was just 17 and sitting in the circle of Manchester's Theatre Royal Cinema. But Janina couldn't see me, she wasn't in that audience - she was up on the giant silver screen in a Technicolor Hammer movie entitled DRACULA. Janina played Tanya, the little girl of the Holmwood's housekeeper. She was the centrepoint of that delightful scene with Peter Cushing, who having saved her from the clutches of a vampire, wraps his overcoat around her to keep out the morning cold and gives her his silver crucifix for protection while he re-enters the crypt to put "Aunt Lucy" to rest forever. It's a wonderfully poignant scene.

But I wasn't to know then that almost forty years later, in September 1997 (again in Manchester), I'd meet Janina face to face. The occasion this time was the 9th Festival of Fantastic Films and she came along as our Guest of Honour at the request of our Chairman Gil Lane-Young. So we all owe Gil a great debt of thanks, because the adult Janina Faye is one of the most wonderful people we have ever met in the 11 years of The Festival of Fantastic Films.

Her career as an actress includes theatre and television in addition to the many films she has appeared in and although her main fantasy and horror films were made when she was very young (Dracula, Day of the Triffids, Never Take Sweets From a Stranger etc), her adult work includes a formidable range of roles. There's even a stage version of Dracula with Janina playing the part of Lucy Holmwood... and looking absolutely stunning!

Anyone who has had the good fortune to see Janina act on the large or small screen or even better, at a live stage performance, will know just how talented she is. Her resounding theatre success was undoubtedly in 'The Miracle Worker' (the story of Helen Keller). Laurence Olivier was in the audience, and was so impressed that he brought her flowers backstage and personally asked her to join the National Theatre - which she did.

If you meet her to talk to at a movie convention you cannot fail to come away with memories of a beautiful lady with a wonderful smile and a genuine warmth. I am most privileged to feel that we at the Manchester event have become personal friends of Janina and could not think of a future Festival of Fantastic Films without enjoying the great pleasure of her company.

(With thanks to Stephen Laws)

Never Take Sweets
From A Stranger (1960)

Harry Nadler and Janina Faye at the Festival of Fantastic Films (1997)

With Howard Keel in
The Day of the Triffids (1962)