August 23 - 29, 2025

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

With how many Italian born film directors did Yvonne De Carlo work? 

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew it was two: Mario Zampi and Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia. 

Which American body builder, who played Hercules in Italy, also appeared in a "Beach Party" movie?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was Rock Stevens, aka Peter Lupus.

On how many Italian productions did Alan Ladd work?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew just one: ORAZI E CURIAZI, aka DUEL OF CHAMPIONS.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which French actress worked with directors Georges Lautner, Jean Chapot, Gerard Oury, Damiano Damiani, Bertrand Blier, and Marco Bellocchio?

Which Italian actress worked with directors Claude Pinoteau, Francesco Rosi, Sergio Leone, Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, Henri Verneuil and Michelangelo Antonioni?

Which Italian actor worked with Sergio Leone, Michelangelo Antonioni, Oliver Parker, Peter Hunt, Peter Del Monte  and Edgar G. Ulmer?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Klaus Kinski in QUIEN SABE?, aka WHO KNOWS?, aka A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Kitty Swan in GUNGALA LA VERGINE DELLA GIUNGLA, aka GUNGALA, THE VIRGIN OF THE JUNGLE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab from BATTLE WIZARD.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

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I am interested in knowing what movies you have watched and what you enjoyed or not. So please send me an email at scinema@earthlink.net if you'd like to share. Here's what I watched last week:

Enjoyed:

Forever Ealing (2002) - This 50 minute British TV documentary gives an entertaining history of a British Film Studio that went under in the late 1950s and was taken over by BBC-TV for television films. In the end, all of its nostalgic praise for the films of old is in the service to promote the resurrection of the Studio name, under new owners, and their new film THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST. That's fine by me because I like the 2002 version of EARNEST featuring Reese Witherspoon. Interestingly, while many of the old Ealing stars are interviewed - of particular interest to me is Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe who shot DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES and THE LION IN WINTER, Alec Guiness is not. I wonder if this is because he complained about often he was bothered about working at Ealing while mostly what he remembered was how casually they considered his safety.

HIS WAY (2011) - In 2010, Jerry Weintraub, with Rich Cohen, published WHEN I STOP TALKING YOU'LL KNOW I'M DEAD. Much of what is in that book is also in this HBO documentary, but the film goes into more detail regarding his personal relationship with his second wife, Jane Morgan, and her acceptance when he began living with Susie Ekins. Interestingly, while Ekins is interviewed rather extensively in the documentary, she is not listed either in Wikipedia or the IMDb as participating in the movie. Something that book could not do is provide is video clips of Morgan, Elvis, Sinatra and Denver performing. Also, the book doesn't have George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts talking about all of the pranks pulled on Weintraub during the making of the OCEANS 11 films. Unlike in the book, there is no mention of CRUISING in the film, which Weintraub calls a film before its time. Weintraub died in 2015 at the age of 77.

Mildly enjoyed:

HALLOWEEN IN HELL (2007) - I'm not very fond of Johnny Legend, but I found this DVD for sale at $1.95 and thought I would enjoy Legend's collection of Horror movie trailers. But what I most enjoyed was a clip of the February 15, 1997 special screening at the Vine Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. of CANNIBAL FEROX and THE GATES OF HELL to which Joey O'Brian took me. It was sponsored by Grindhouse Releasing, and in the crowd you can catch a glimpse of Sage Stallone. Between trailers, Legend is seen interviewing people hanging out at the corner of Hollywood and Las Palmas on Halloween night. It reminded me that the Egyptian for a while had a sign for the duplex near the parking lot: "Egyptian I II III". That's gone now that the building has been taken over by the American Cinematheque. Also on the DVD were two films starring Tod Slaughter.

JEU DE MASSACRE, aka THE KILLING GAME (1967) - With publicity photos of Claudine Auger nearly nude and the title MASSACRE GAME, I was eager to see this movie in 1967, but it never played where I lived. As with THE TOUCHABLES, after I got a copy on video I sat on it for a few decades for fear that I wouldn't like it. Well, I felt I should get around to watching it before I die, and ultimately found it disappointing. It is hard to believe that writer/director Alain Jessua got the Best Screenplay honor at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. Jean-Pierre Cassel is a writer of novels and comic strips while his wife, Claudine Auger, acts as his secretary as well as his illustrator. Michel Duchaussoy suddenly visits them to say that he is a fan and that he was inspired to actually live the adventures Cassel wrote about - including travels around the world and experiences in war. Facing a pile of unpaid bills, Cassel decides to cultivate a friendship with Duchaussoy - at first to borrow money. Duchaussoy is the son of Eleonore Hirt, who inherited a factory in Switzerland when her husband died. The rich young man decides to invite the artistic couple to live with him at his mother's villa where Cassel seems to have developed writer's block. Feeding off of Duchaussoy's unbalanced imagination, Cassel and Auger create a series of comic strips about a serial murderer and bank robber. Not surprising, Duchaussoy becomes obsessed with Auger and kidnaps her, which she later admits she found flattering. This movie is the French version of the mid-1960s cinematic flurtation with "Pop Art" and ultimately seems a bit square. The very annoying music performed by The Alan Bown Set (Alan Bown was the former trumpet player for The John Barry Seven.), doesn't help matters. Did Jacques Loussier actually write their music? 

Did not enjoy:

CHESTNUT HERO OF CENTRAL PARK (2004) - If you are looking for an heartwarming movie about two cute girls and a dog, then this might be what you want. Makenzie Vega (sister of Alexa Vega) and Abigail Breslin (the year after she made SIGNS) are living in a Catholic orphange. One day they are playing beside the road, and they hear the sound of a tire blowing out. The tire is on a truck used by burglars Ethan Phillips and Fred Ewanuick, who are targeting high rise buildings in NYC owned by Barry Bostwick. As one is fixing the tire, the other checks the loot in the back of the truck and is surprised to find a puppy there. With the tire fixed, the burglars dump the puppy and the two girls decide to keep the dog and sneak it into the orphanage. Hijinks ensue. Successful archetect Justin Louis and wife Christine Tucci, who live in the same building as Bostwick, decide that they want to adopt. Of course they being home Vega and Breslin, and the two girls sneak their puppy into the "No Dogs Allowed" building. Hijinks ensue. The puppy becomes a very large Great Dane which Bostwick wants out of the building. The dog ends up in Central Park for a bit, but when he sees Phillips and Ewanuick sneaking into the building, he follows. The burglars are in Bostwick's apartment when the dog strikes. When one of the burglars grabs a letter opener to fight the dog, Bostwick enters the room, so the burglar turns on him. The dog jumps the burglar and gets stabbed. As the police arrive, Bostwick realizes that the dog saved his life. The film does a "Peter Pan", with the doctor saying that the dog might not survive, so the two girls get on their kness and beg him not to die. He doesn't and Bostwick not only drops the "No Dogs Allowed" rule, he also delivers a truck load of presents for all of the orphans that still haven't been adopted. I am uncertain about the relationship writer Anne Vince has with director Robert Vince, but they collaborated on seven animal movies, including MVP: MOST VALUABLE PRIMATE and three AIR BUD flicks, before this one. Along the way they were joined by writer Anna McRoberts. The trio seem to still be working together.

THE FACE AT THE WINDOW (1939) - Tod Slaughter starred in the third cinematic version of F. Brooke Warren's 1897 stage melodrama. The 1919 and 1920 versions were silent films, while the 1932 was the first with recorded sound. The 1939 ended up being the definitive version with no one attempting another. A.R. Rawlinson and Randall Faye were credited with the screenplay and perhaps they were the ones who decided to not have Detective Paul Gouffet be the hero. Instead the hero was John Warwick as Lucien Cortier, who was a bank clerk on the scene of a bank robbery in the night during which another worker was murdered. While the play was written by an Englishman, the story was set in Paris, where the master criminal The Wolf had the city in a panic. Before each murder a deformed face would appear at a window and the howl of a wolf could be heard. Each murder victim got a knife in the back. The banker Aubrey Mallalieu faced ruin after the robbery, but Chevalier Tod Slaughter offered to save the bank by becoming his partner. It soon became apparent that Slaughter was less interested in the banking business, but in getting his hands on Mallalieu's daughtter, Marjorie Taylor. Taylor, however, had pledged her love to Warwick, so Slaughter set out to frame our hero as The Wolf. It just so happened that Warwick was a friend of Professor Wallace Evennett, who was experimenting with electricity to bring the dead back to life - in a laboratory that bore resemblence to what Colin Clive had in the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN. To bring the latest victim to Evennett to solve the murder would have left the filmmakers with forty or so minutes to fill, so that plot element wasn't introduced until about ten minutes before the end. Thus the characters must do any number of stupid things before then to fill out the running time of 65 minutes. For the climax, the hideous "face at the window" was revealed to be someone like "Jake" in THE DARK EYES OF LONDON, aka THE HUMAN MONSTER, which was a 1939 movie version of Edgar Wallace's 1924 novel. If Harry Terry, as the Face At the Window, was kept in a cage in a secret room at Slaughter's house, how was he able to be the face at the window shortly before Slaughter was revealed to be The Wolf? It would seem that this was only one of a number of things which director George King didn't worry about.

MARIA MARTEN, or THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN, aka MURDER IN THE RED BARN (1935) - Based on the true story of the RED BARN MURDER of 1827, this movie was produced by George King, with Randall Faye credited with the screenplay and the direction credited to Milton Rosmer. Those who enjoyed seeing star Tod Slaughter play hysterical had to wait about 50 minutes until he was unmasked as the murderer. The victim was played by Sophie Stewart, who would appear in 1936's THINGS TO COME and with Laurence Olivier in AS YOU LIKE IT. As the Gypsy Slaughter tried to frame for the murder was Eric Portman, who was perhaps best known for three films he made with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. In 1945 and 1946 he was voted the 10th most popular film star by U.K. exhibitors. Slaughter's murder of Stewart was seemed particularly chilling for a movie made in 1935.

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Angel Rivera  Highly enjoyed:

"ROOM 222" (1969-1974) Various Episodes
Nostalgic look at an ideal world, (My High School wasn't anything like that) with some topics that still resonate. It is also fun to watch the stars in their early roles. Like 24 year old Richard Dreyfuss playing a high school senior. Or Anthony Geary playing a HS student waiting to be disciplined by the vice principal. There is the cute Karen Valentine, and the comely Denise Nicholas. And Lloyd Haynes makes  a great lead. But mostly entertaining as Nostalgia.

"SUNDAY BEST: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ED SULLIVAN" (2023/5)
An interesting Netflix documentary about Ed Sullivan; his show and how he gave a national spotlight to black performers when the country was segregated and there was a lot of opposition to presenting black performers to a white audience.

'JAMES CAGNEY: TOP OF THE WORLD" (1992)
Interesting documentary about James Cagney and his rise to fame. He was also a very interesting man with lots of accomplishments. Hosted by Michael J. Fox (before Parkinson's disease took its toll on his health. He is still a survivor.)

Enjoyed:

"AIRPORT" (1970)
While browsing thru Netflix I noticed that "Airport"(1970) would not be shown on this streaming service after the end of this month, So  I decided to watch the movie which I hadn't seen in several years. It still holds well if you accept it for what is. The daddy of all disaster films. (I guess John Wayne's (1954) film "The High and the Mighty" is the  granddaddy of all disaster movies.) Stars Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster as in-laws connected to an airport. (Martin is a pilot married to Lancaster's sister, played by Barbara Hale, and Lancaster is the manager of the Airport when disaster strikes.) It shows the need for experienced air traffic controllers. The female stars are: Jacqueline Bisset, (who is carrying pilot Martin's child, of course not showing yet): Jean Seberg and in an academy winning performance, Helen Hayes. Also the first James Bond, Barry Nelson as a pilot. A well rounded cast for the time period. Still entertaining with not bad effects for the time period.

Mildly enjoyed:

"INJUSTICE" (2021)
Based on a graphic novel and video game, it tells the story of Superman losing Lois and their unborn child when Lois and child are murdered by the Joker. Superman then kills the Joker. Then Superman aided by Wonder Woman decides to control all efforts of violence around the world. Only Batman is there to help Superman see the error of his ways. Along the way other heroes fight and die. Interesting ElseWorld story.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Yellow sky (1948, William A. Wellman)

Fort massacre (1958, Joseph M. Newman)

Jigen Daisuke (2022, Hajime Hashimoto)

Uchu kara no messeji: Ginga taisen / San Ku Kaï (1979) – episode 27 (final episode)

Mildly Enjoyed

Mosquito squadron (1968, Boris Sagal)

The last wave (1977, Peter Weir)

The twilight zone – episodes « The lateness of the house » (1960, Jack Smight), « The trouble with Templeton » (1960, Buzz Kulik)

Man without a star (1955, King Vidor)

Did not enjoy:

Bigard bourre Bercy (show) (2001, Gilbert Namiand)

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 David Deal Enjoyed: 

THE EXECUTIONER OF VENICE (63)

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (65)

THE THING (51)

THE GREAT SILENCE (68)

PASSPORT FOR A CORPSE (62) - From 2015: "Really liked this bleak little crime film with Alberto Lupo and Helene Chanel.  Overlooked film noir worthy of recognition."

THE BAD SLEEP WELL (60) - Toshiro Mifune takes elaborate revenge on his boss who he blames for his father's death. Akira Kurosawa's high finance, low character noir is based on an Ed McBain novel. The tale of corporate corruption may fit a bit uneasily into Japanese culture but this is a fascinating, visually interesting journey into a hell made for every character involved. Highly recommended.

MANHATTAN NIGHT OF MURDER (65) - Refer to the Eurospy Guide.

THE STRANGE COUNTESS (61)

THE GAY FALCON (41)

DOCTOR X (32)

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August 16 - 22, 2025

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

Which Italian film director worked with Boris Karloff, Ugo Tognazzi, Jerome Courtland, Horst Frank, Yoko Tani, Richard Harrison, George Martin and Brad Harris?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Roberto Bianchi Montero.

Which actor, born in Venezuela in 1925, appeared in at least 20 Italian Westerns?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes, Tom Betts and Angel Rivera knew that it was Jose Torres.

Which Italian actor reportedly attended the Actors Studio in New York before returning to Italy to make his first movie in 1953?

Tom Betts knew that it was Giacomo Rossi Stuart.

And now for some new brain teasers:

With how many Italian born film directors did Yvonne De Carlo work? 

Which American body builder, who played Hercules in Italy, also appeared in a "Beach Party" movie?

On how many Italian productions did Alan Ladd work?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Alex Cord in UN MINUTO PER PREGARE, UN ISTANTE PER MORIRE, aka  A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one identified the above photo.

It shows Yvonne De Carlo and Jorge Mistral in LA SPADA E LA CROCE, aka THE SWORD AND THE CROSS, aka MARY MAGDALENE.

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Adriana Ambesi and Cesar Benet in MALENKA, aka FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Raizo Ichikawa in SATAN'S SWORD.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

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I am interested in knowing what movies you have watched and what you enjoyed or not. So please send me an email at scinema@earthlink.net if you'd like to share. Here's what I watched last week:

Enjoyed:

AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Francis Ford Coppola (2025)

Leanne Morgan "I'm Every Woman" (2023)

EDVARD MUNCH (1974) - In 1968, English writer/director Peter Watkins visited the Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, and was inspired to make a biographical film about the artist in Watkins' own unique style. Beginning with Culloden in 1964 for BBC-TV, Watkins explored historical events as if a modern TV crew was documenting it with spot interviews with participants. Watkins also chose to use non-professional actors. Reportedly, it took three years for Watkins to convince Norweigen Broadcasting Corporation to fund the project, and that only happened because Swedish Public Broadcasting - Sveriges Television AB, agreed to co-produce. This resulted in a two-part TV movie, filmed mostly in Oslo, where most of the non-professional cast spoke Norweigen which was subtitled for the English speaking audience. Watkins provided the narration, and edited the production into a non-linear narrative suggesting that immense impact of the many deaths Munch witnessed in his childhood and the scars of an bad affair with a married woman, had on him throughout his adult life. With access to Munch's original art, thanks to the Munch Museum, Watkins carefully detailed the creation of many works, using quotations from Munch's diaries to suggest the artist's state of mind. The narration also set Munch into the important events in the world of his time, while there was a convincing recreation of where and with whom he moved. At 211 minutes, the show had a lot of content, but Watkins' editing always kept the viewer's attention.

THE TOUCHABLES (1968) - In 1970, I saw SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN about five times and wanted to see more of Judy Huxtable. At the library, I pour over their copies of SCREEN WORLD, edited by John Willis, and the only other credit I could find for her was THE TOUCHABLES. Publicity for that film showed up in the Japanese movie magazine SCREEN, but the movie never played on Okinawa. About 20 years later, the film played on FXM - Movies from Fox (another cable channel that I miss terribly like the old American Movie Classics which didn't run commercials) and I videotaped it. For some reason, I put off watching it for almost 30 years - probably because I was afraid that a movie I had wanted to see for so long would be one that I didn't like. Now at the age of 69, I figured I should see it before I suddenly die. Well, I did enjoy it - though there wasn't as much of Judy Huxtable in it as I wanted. Now, thanks to the IMDb, I know of other roles she's had that I can watch - and I could try to find her autobiography LOVING PETER: MY LIFE WITH PETER COOK AND DUDLEY MOORE, written under her married name of Judy Cook. In any case, Judy never got a role which really focused on her. Here she was part of a gang of young women - probably all from wealthy families though there was no backstory given - who spend their time coming up with pointless pranks. The film began with a close up of a dummy (wax work) made to look like Alfred Hitchcock. The young women decided to steal the dummy that looked like Michael Caine, but Judy took off with the dummy leaving the others behind. One of the group, Esther Anderson, was dating prancing wrestling star Ricky Starr, so David Anthony was spotted in the audience. Starr's opponent in the ring was gangster Harry Baird, who wore a mask. He also spotted Anthony and with his associate James Villiers decided to extort Anthony's agent for protection. However, the four young women kidnapped Anthony and whisked him away to a giant bubble in the country, They tied him to a four posted bed to "have their way with him", but he didn't seem to mind and soon had the run of the place - except that he couldn't leave. When Anthony was a  no-show for his professional engagements, his manager tells Baird that he won't pay protection money if no one can find Anthony. Eventually, everyone ended up at the giant bubble which deflated while everyone was having a big punch-up. Reportedly, the story came from director Robert Freeman, who had been the official photographer for The Beatles from 1963 until 1966. Brothers David and Donald Cammell came aboard to write the script, which was probably why it didn't make much sense. Professional writer Ian La Frenais was credited with the screenplay, without his usual collaborator Dick Clement, whom might have asked "What's it supposed to be about?" For a comedy made in 1968, it was amazing that it didn't end with a long and dull final chase, but I'm thankful no character ended up dead. Anthony getting shot in the head while trying to make an escape came to nothing and seemed as pointless as most everything else in this movie. I recognized a snippet from Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" during one scene, while someone on the IMDb recognized a song by a 1960's British band called Nirvana. At one point, Anderson did a sexy dance infront of a flashing movie screen while Aretha Franklin's version of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" played.

Mildly enjoyed:

ALIEN ROMULUS (2024) - After two irritating prequels, the owners of the ALIEN franchise seem to understand that the audience wanted something more like the original films, so they took elements from 1-4 and blended them together into something like a remake of the first film. A fellow on YouTube pointed out elements taken from the Alien video games, as well as elements from the The Last Of Us video game.

The Punisher season two (2019) - In season one of this show, I likened Frank Castle's ability to withstand incredible brutality to the character of Painkiller Jane. In season two, Billy Russo and John Pilgrim join the Painkiller Jane corps, though, eventually one of the dies. This incredible ability becomes even more apparent because most of the many minor characters perish after only one bullet hit. As with the first season, there is no dramatic justification for this story to be spread over 13 episodes. If you shorten the yammering dialog, it might make an enjoyable two hour movie, but it would not get a rating from the MPA because of the extreme bloodletting.

Your Friend, Nate Bargatze (2024)

Peacemaker season one (2022) - I guess it is time to consider James Gunn as an auteur, as there is something obviously his in everything he does. I prefer his stuff when it isn't as vulgar as he can make it. So I like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and SUPERMAN more than TROMEO AND JULIET, THE SUICIDE SQUAD and the Peacemaker series. 

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Angel Rivera  Highly enjoyed:

"STINGRAY" S1, E25: Stand by for Action" (1965)
Of the "Supermarionation" shows, "Stingray" is my favorite. This particular episode is more for adults than for children. It is a satire of the entertainment industry. The plot revolves around a film crew that is making a movie about Stingray and its crew and their actions. Unbeknownst  to the crew, the making of the movie is really part pf a plot to kill Captain Troy Tempest, skipper of the Stingray. The funny part comes when it is decided that Troy can't play himself in the movie. An actor named Johnny Swoonara is hired to play Stingray's captain. (Part of the joke here is that every time his name is mentioned the girl characters faint or "swoon".) The best part of the episode is when Stingray is in trouble, with Johnny at the helm. He falls apart. "I don't have to put up with this", he exclaims!  "It's not in my contract!" he cries. Troy comes to the  rescue and all the girls swoon when his name is mentioned. The puppets created for this series are based on real people. Troy's features were patterned after James Garner. The villain Titan is based on Sir Laurence Olivier. The female puppet, Marina is based on Brigitte Bardot. The Johnny Swoonara puppet is actually a redressed "Steve Zodiac" puppet from "Fireball XL5", another one of the other "Supermarionation" shows. Great fun.

"THE WOLF MAN" (1941)
Because I had to use a cane for awhile, it got me thinking of the cane Larry Talbot has in the original Universal Pictures 1941 film, "The Wolf Man". I hadn't seen the film in a long time so I was surprised at how well it was made and with a great supporting cast. Lon Chaney, Jr. plays his character as confident of his attraction around women as he tries to romance a local village girl, played by Evelyn Ankers.[Talbot almost steals a kiss from Ankers when before he gets the kiss, he feels his transformation happening. and he runs off and starts to change into a wolf man.] Prior to that scene Ankers is shown as a little weary of Lon's advances as she is engaged to Patric Knowles, the groundskeeper for the Talbot estate. Bela Lugosi is the gypsy who is a werewolf and who attacks Chaney who kills Bela, but not before the werewolf has bitten him. Maria Ouspenskaya is Bela's mother, the gypsy woman Maleeva. Ralph Bellamy plays the chief of police and Claude Rains is Lon's father. Chaney gives a great performance as the man bitten by a werewolf and survives, only to become a beast himself. The film moves at a great pace and has a great ending. Glad I watched it again, after all this time,

"THE INVISIBLE MAN" (1933)
My favorite of all the "Universal' monsters. Claude Rains plays a man who has experimented with what man should leave alone. Great music.( Later reused for the "Flash Gordon" serials.)  Rains performance is fantastic as he presents Jack Griffin, the invisible man as he goes mad due to using some ingredient in his invisible making formula. A great film classic.

Enjoyed:

"PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW" (1971)
I saw a video on YouTube which called this film an unsung gem. Rock Hudson stars as a football coach who doubles as a guidance counselor who is sleeping with his female students. Since this movie was made in the seventies there is an ample amount of nudity. When some of the girls wound dead police detective Telly Savalas is on the case. Angie Dickinson is also featured as a teacher who at Hudson's behest helps cure a male student of his ED performance problems. While it has some merits I don't agree that the film is an unsung gem. Still has some interesting moments to watch.

Mildly enjoyed:

"FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN" (1943)
A direct sequel to "The Wolf Man", it also has a rather unique distinction of being a sequel to another film, "The Ghost of Frankenstein". The Monster this time is  Bela Lugosi behind the Monster's makeup. and the two creatures do physically fight each other. 

"THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN" (1942)
A sequel to 1939 "Son of Frankenstein" The other son of Frankenstein played by  Sir  Cedric Hardwicke who takes over his family's business when he puts a new brain in the Monster's body. Unbeknownst to Sir Cedric Hardwicke.his collaborator played by Lionel Atwill has replaced the brain he was going to use. He has placed the brain of Ygor the gypsie into the Monster's head. But because Ygor and the Monster do not have the same blood type Lugosi/Monster goes blind. The local peasantry then storm the castle with the usual result. The monster is thought to be killed and believed to be   dead. (of course until he returns in the next sequel.)

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Western union (1941, Fritz Lang)

Above suspicion (1945, Richard Thorpe)

Uchu kara no messeji: Ginga taisen / San Ku Kaï (1979) – episodes 22 to 26

Mildly Enjoyed

La rentrée des sketches (tv show) (2006, Frédéric Playoust)

Young Billy Young (1969, Burt Kenned)

Blue steel (1989, Kathryn Bigelow)

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 David Deal Enjoyed: 

CAESAR THE CONQUEROR (63)

GOLDFINGER (64)

IKARIE XB 1 (63) - From 2010: "Very cool Czech sci-fi based on a Stanislaw Lem story has long term community of astronauts encountering ancient, abandoned spacecraft, and fending off mass hypnosis and other socio-political themes.  Great sets and noir-ish photography.  Recommended for those with a taste for this stuff."

RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (62)

ALIAS NICK BEAL (49) - Ray Milland is slick Nick Beal alias Lucifer, who uses subtle means to bargain for the soul of ambitious politician Thomas Mitchell. Audrey Totter is the floozy Beal recruits to further corrupt the man. A supernatural story told in a film noir style. Milland and Totter are excellent.

AND GOD SAID TO CAIN (70)

WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS (74) - From 2006: "Fair riff on SOLANGE by Massimo Dallamano features Claudio Cassinelli as the cop after a schoolgirl prostitution ring.  Also features the ever-lovable Farley Granger as an out-of-touch father and Mario Adorf in a small but excellent role as another cop with a daughter involved in the shenanigans."

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (60)

THE H-MAN (59)

SO DARLING, SO DEADLY (66)

THE MAGNETIC MONSTER (53)

SECRET OF THE RED ORCHID (61)

WHO SAW HER DIE? (72) - From 2018: "My opinion of this Aldo Lado giallo has changed over the years.  Yes, it was made to echo the style of Argento but it is quality entertainment in its own right.  Worth another look."

THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (58)

MISS O'DELL (25) - Interesting documentary on a woman who worked for the Beatles, Stones, etc. in the heyday of the 1960's and 1970's.

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (54)

WAR OF THE PLANETS (65)

MAESTRA (23) - Compelling documentary about the female conductor competition in Paris. Recommended.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (57)

Mildly enjoyed:

LA CASA DE LAS PALOMAS (72) - AKA The House of the Pigeons. Lucia Bose cheats on husband Luis Davila with young hunk Glen Lee. When she breaks it off with Glen, he takes up with her daughter Ornella Muti. As you can imagine, relations sour with all affected. This dark romantic psychodrama was primarily a Spanish production directed by the ill-fated Claudio Guerin (Bell from Hell).

NIGHT OF THE DAMNED (71)

ALPHAVILLE (65)

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