The _ _ _ from hell; The Woman from Hell (film working title 1940; other cites starting in 1902)

Sat Mar 5 16:55:59 UTC 2011

Fred Shapiro's blog discussed an intriguing query on Thursday:

Marcus Brute asked:
How about "the ___ from Hell" (e.g. "the mother-in-law from Hell")?
Was Richard Lewis really the first to use the expression?

Fred mentioned an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where the comedian
Richard Lewis attempted to obtain credit for originating the
expression "The ___ from hell". YBQ has a 1986 cite with Lewis
describing himself with the phrase "Comedian from hell", and YBQ notes
this is the "Earliest documented example of the expression 'from hell'
referring to a person."

http://www.freakonomicsmedia.com/2011/03/03/quotes-uncovered-giving-richard-lewis-credit/

IMDB has a 1929 film with the following description:

The Woman from Hell (1929)
Dee Renaud is a girl playing the "Devil" in an amusement concession at
a beach resort. Slick Glicks, the barker, promises the yokels that if
they're able to catch the "Lady From Hell," she will reward them with
a kiss. But when Glicks tries to go beyond kissing, Dee is rescued by
Jim Coakley, son of a New England lighthouse keeper. …

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020600/plotsummary

I have not seen this film. Syntactically it fits the template, but the
semantics appear to be different. There may be a quasi-literal
component to the meaning derived from the job at the amusement park.

In 1940 a film was being made about a gangster woman similar to Ma
Barker based on a book by the famous FBI man J. Edgar Hoover. The
working title was "The Woman From Hell" and this may fit the template
syntactically and semantically. The influential gossip columnist Hedda
Hopper was part of the cast, and she discussed it in a newspaper
column.

Cite: 1940 January 18, Los Angeles Times, Hedda Hopper's Hollywood by
Hedda Hopper, Page 9, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest)

That's what I did the other day after working in "The Woman From
Hell," which is a powerful story by J. Edgar Hoover. And I have a
hunch, based on the life of that famous character, Ma Barker. And what
a character, what an acting plum, and Blanche Yurka, who's played
everything from  Shakespeare to Greek tragedy, had to  go out on the
back lot  and learn to shoot it out with the property boys before she
started to act in the picture.

The film is mentioned in other Hollywood news coverage from the New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times e.g.:

Cite: 1940 January 19, Los Angeles Times, Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood
by Jimmie Fidler, Page 8, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest)

Is it true Chief G-Man Hoover banned a sequence in Paramount's "Woman
>From Hell," based on the killing of "Ma" Barker by F.B.I. agents?

Before the production was released the name was changed to "Queen of
the Mob" as indicated in the following article.

Cite: 2005, Mob Culture: Hidden Histories of the American Gangster
Film, edited by Lee Grieveson, Esther Sonnet, and Peter Stanfield,
"Mother Barker: Film Star and Public Enemy No. 1" by Mary Elizabeth
Stunk, Page 149, Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, New Jersey.
(Google Books preview)

Hoover did not always get his way, however, especially with the Ma
Barker script. For instance, the censors would not accept Hoover's
title, "The Woman from Hell," so Paramount released the film as Queen
of the Mob in 1940.

According to IMDB one of the taglines reflected the theme of the original title:

Taglines: Mother of a devil's brood!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032958/

In 1961 the film "Seven Women from Hell" was released according to
IMDB. The plot concerns women prisoners in a Japanese World War II
prison camp. "Hell" probably refers to the prison camp, so I do not
think this fits very well.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055436/

OED (July 2010) has an entry under: hell, n. and int. P4 j. with a
first cite in 1902.

orig. N. Amer. colloq. - - from hell: (with neutral or positive
meaning) a particularly impressive or formidable example or instance
of - - ; (also with negative force) an exceptionally unpleasant or bad
example or instance of - - .

1902 L. McKee Land of Nome 178, I felt that I had received a very high
compliment‥when an old-timer in the party‥told me that I was a ‘musher
from hell’.

This cite does not begin with "the" and refers to a profession or
activity, but perhaps it is close to fitting the template.

Ben Zimmer discussed "from hell" and "musher from hell" in 2007.
http://blog.oup.com/2007/08/patterns/

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