Katya Yarno is a window dresser for Horne'sdepartment store who specializes in displays with sexy, slightly kinky themes. Surrounded by the equipment of her trade—mannequins and lingerie—Katya lives in a loft apartment in downtown Pittsburgh. She spends her evenings taking her bath by candlelight and thinking up new and more provocative window displays. Katya soon becomes the obsession of Jack Price, a handsome psychopath. Jack proceeds to stalk Katya and makes her life a living hell. Tired of being harassed, Katya decides to give Jack a taste of his own medicine.
Arthur began working on Lady Beware in the late '70s, shortly after the success of her second feature, The Mafu Cage, which screened at Cannes, landed her a four-picture deal at Universal. Universal, however, ended up rejecting the project, which ended up having "100 homes, 17 drafts, and eight writers," as Arthur told The Los Angeles Times in 1986 ahead of the film's release. "The purse-holders are men, and they attempted to make Lady Beware into a violent picture," Arthur added. "I'm not interested in making a picture where a woman gets beat up. I want to show how a lady deals with this kind of insidious violence. A policeman can't help."
Production
The film was shot on location in Pittsburgh during the summer of 1986 after Scotti Brothers Entertainment agreed to finance and distribute it. The budget was reportedly under $2 million. Lady Beware's 28 days of shooting took place primarily in the city's North Side and downtown neighborhoods.
Controversy
Arthur did not approve of the film's final cut, which she said was re-edited by the producers to appeal to the exploitation crowd. " more sex, so they took outtakes of Diane Lane standing there naked and incorporated them into the film," she told The Los Angeles Times ahead of the film's release. "To me, that's exploitative. They printed up negatives where I never said print. I, as a female director, would never exploit a woman's body and use it as a turn-on." Arthur added that she did not remove her name from the film because she thought it would be unfair to the actors, who can't remove their names from the final product.
