October 26 - November 1, 2024

 

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which future American film director worked as an uncredited extra on ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST?

George Grimes knew that it was John Landis.

Which Italian film editor worked on the screenplays for SE SEI VIVO SPARA and C'ERA UNA VOLTA IN AMERICA?

Angel Rivera, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Franco Arcalli.

Charles Gilbert asks "Which Italian actress, born in Turin, played the mother on screen to Cornel Wilde, Richard Harrison and Ken Clark?"

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Elisa Cigani

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which actress was born in Rome on January 16, 1944?

Which actress was said to have been the only woman fashion designer Valentino had ever really loved?

Which Italian actress ended her career with a TV miniseries directed by a British fellow who had been the film editor on the early James Bond movies?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Simon Arriaga and Lucio Rosato in NAVAJO JOE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Roger Browne, Mimmo Palmara and Mario Novelli in I TRE CENTURIONI, aka THE THREE CENTURIONS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Roger Browne, Rosalba Neri and Fabienne Dali in SUPERSEVEN CHIAMA CAIRO, aka SUPERSEVEN CALLING CAIRO.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's photo of  Zhang Ziyi and Chow Yun-fat in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

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:

MERCHANT/IVORY (2023) - Stephen Soucy directed this moving documentary on the private and public lives of moviemakers Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Mildly enjoy:

Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950) - You will believe that a man can turn into a cartoon and fly. This 15 chapter serial was produced by Columbia's Sam Katzman and is more evidence that he can deliver with small budgets. Noel Neill is attractive as Lois Lane, but the character's often stupid actions are really annoying. It is odd that Columbia decided to not give Kirk Alyn a credit and to have Lex Luthor disguise himself as Atom Man. Just as with Spy Smasher, the villain hides his actions behind a television company, and the bad guys use tele-screens to communicate just as in Flash Gordon. Luthor is also behind the rash of flying saucer sightings, and he has a space transporter to zap from place to place. There's even an alternative dimension Luthor calls the "Empty Doom". That's quite a lot of science fiction elements which are still being used in current superhero shows. Did all serials use Lone Pine for locations?

Black Comedy In America season one episode 1 "The Original Kings of Comedy" (2024)

Black Comedy in America season one episode 2 "Def Comedy Jam" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season one episode 2 "The Viper Room: Hollywood's Sanctuary" (2021)

Dark Side of the '90s season one episode 5 "Grunge & the Seattle Sound" (2021)

Dark Side of the '90s season one episode 6 "Baywatch: Sex Sells" (2021)

Dark Side of the '90s season one episode 7 "A Tale of Two Cults" (2021)

Dark Side of the '90s season one episode 9 "Secrets of the Runway" (2021)

Dark Side of the '90s season two episode 1 "Arseniooo Hall! (2022)

Dark Side of the '90s season two episode 6 "Tabloid TV" (2022)

Dark Side of the '90s season two episode 7 "Black Sitcom's Last Laugh" (2022)

Dark Side of the '90s season two episode 10 "Morning Show Wars" (2022)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 2 "Friends: The One About The TV Show" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 3 "NYPD Blue" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 4 "Robert Downey Jr: The Comeback Kid" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 5 "SNL" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 6 "Infomercials: Shams and Scams" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 7 "Spice Girls" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 9 "Scores Strip Club: Girls & Gambinos" (2024)

Dark Side of the '90s season three episode 10 "Rave Culture: Under the Influence" (2024)

Spy Smasher (12 episodes Republic serial 1942) - Alan Armstrong, the Spy Smasher, was introduced in Whiz Comics in 1940, before the U.S. entered World War 2. Fighting Nazi spies, Armstrong couldn't be employed by the U.S. counter-intelligence groups because that would suggest that the U.S. government wanted to be at war with Nazi Germany. So, Armstrong, like Batman, is a vigilante with a secret identity. Why anyone would want to engage in counter-espionage while wearing a cape doesn't make much sense. And neither does Republic Pictures' idea to turn the comic book into a 12 chapter serial. Giving Alan a twin brother, Jack, who is the fiancee of the daughter of the head of U.S. Government Intelligence Admiral Corby seemed odd. As does the Admiral allowing a television crew into his office every day and being surprised to later find out that they were agents of "The Mask". The twin brother element doesn't make much of an impact on the plotting, except that fiance Marguerite Chapman mistakes Alan for Jack in the first episode, and the bad guys mistake Jack for Alan in a couple of the later episodes. Mostly Jack operates as Alan's sidekick and as someone who can actually be employed by the government. Nothing in this production is convincing and the stars are really the stunt men who seem unable to leave any piece of furniture unsmashed.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

My week with Marilyn (2011, Simon Curtis)

Fatal instinct (1993, Carl Reiner)

Doom patrol – season 4 – episodes 2 to 11

What a way to go ! (1964, J. Lee Thompson)

Mildly enjoyed:

Star Trek – episode “Who mourns for Adonais ?” (1967, Marc Daniels)

Et pas une ride (show) (2011, Marie-Pascale Osterrieth)

Wolfs (2023, jon Watts)

Did not enjoy:

Alien: Romulus (2023, Fede Alvarez)

Deadpool & Wolverine (2023, Shawn Levy)

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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED" (1960)
The orignal classic about Midwich, a small village in England where one day, all the women of child-bearing age, suddenly become pregnant whether they have had sex or not. They all give birth on the same day to babies that will age at a fantastic rate and grow to be almost preteen-age. They will all have strange mental powers which will be exhibited with "glowing eyes". This is one I first saw in the theaters and is definitely a must see for me. ( I once met Martin Stephens, the child actor who plays the ipso facto leader of the children with the powers, at a Chiller Theatre convention in Jersey. Nice fellow! He was also featured in "The Innocents"(1961).  Had an active career as a child actor in the late fifties to early sixties before deciding to become an architect; which he became.)

Mildly enjoyed:

"SUPERMAN AND LOIS" (2024) Season 4; Episode 4: "A Perfectly Good Wedding"
Just filler to tie up loose plot threads as this is the final season. Superman returns in this episode.

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Charles Gilbert watched:

THE HANGING TREE (1959) Gary Cooper plays a frontier doctor settling in a gold mining camp. Following a devastating stagecoach crash the residents bring him a young Swiss lady who has been rendered blind from the rollover. He nurses her back to seeing, and then is compelled to ward off her affection for him.

THE CALIFORNIA KID (1974) Television movie with Martin Sheen arriving in Clarksburg driving a fancy roadster that turns heads, especially that of the bully sheriff (Victor Morrow).

WILD WOMEN OF WONGO (1958) Ed Fury appears, but not prominently, as the focus is on a group of fetching women from the island of Wongo who want to mate with virile lads of Goona.

BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (1959) Russian production treated for western audiences by Roger Corman and Frances Ford Coppolla. It depicts a space race between the Soviets and Americans to Mars rather than the moon.

THE RED SHIEK (1962) Master illusionist Channing Pollock stars with Mel Welles, Luciana Gilli, Rosalba Neri, and Ettore Manni in this peplum directed by Fernando Cerchio. Lo sceicco rosso, as it is also titled, is similar to the Zorro tale. Pollock bears a resemblance to Fess Parker, and indeed guest starred on Daniel Boone S2E17 'Seminole Territory' with Leonard Nimoy and Richard Devon. In both appearances his card tricks and dove illusions are featured.

Story Television: Armstrong. Documentary on the first man to step foot on the moon. The Wapakoneta farm boy returned to Ohio after the historic feat, but settled in Lebanon about three miles from my childhood home. Living modestly he took a job as science professor at the University of Cincinnati.

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