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?
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.)
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.
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.
"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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