To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which Spanish actor was promised the role of Tuco in THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY if Eli Wallach said no?
No one has answered this question correctly yet.
Which American actor did Gordon Mitchell think was going to be his co-star in BRENNO IL NEMICO DI ROMA before he found out that it would be Tony Kendall?
No one has answered this question correctly yet.
Which American actor thought he would co-star with Steve Reeves in ROMOLO E REMO before Gordon Scott was cast?
No one has answered this question correctly yet.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Angel Rivera asks, "What film has Jose Nieto and Fernando Sancho appear as 'pirates'?"
What Western, directed by a Spaniard, features actors born in Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, Italy and even one born in the United States?
Which Italian actress began in the circus as a clown named Lacrima at the age of two?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes and Rick Garibaldi identified last week's frame grab of Aldo Sambrell in 15 FORCHE PER UN ASSASSINO, aka 15 SCAFFOLDS FOR A MURDERER, aka THE DIRTY FIFTEEN.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Lino Ventura and Angelo Infanti in THE VALACHI PAPERS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Hiroyuki Sanada in SHOGUN'S NINJA.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
**********************************************************************
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:
Sarah Silverman: PostMortem (2025)
LA TULIPE NOIRE, aka THE BLACK TULIP (1964) - The opening narration informs us that there are constant revolutions in the Universe. American had her's in 1776, and now, in 1789, France had her's. Who is the masked crusader for justice? It is not The Lone Ranger. It is The Black Tulip. The head of the local police, Adolfo Marsillach, is convinced that the bandit is the aristocrat Alain Delon, and sets a trap during which he scars Delon's face. Due to appear at a party being given by the Marquis Akim Tamiroff and knowing that the scar will give away his secret identity, Delon sends for his look-a-like younger brother, also Delon, to impersonate him until his face heals. The younger Delon, who is a revolutionary, is thrilled to discover that his brother is The Black Tulip. He's not so thrilled to find out that Delon has been having relations with most of the women in town, including the Marquise Dawn Addams. Soon, the younger Delon meets commoner Virna Lisi when he disrupts her wedding. Later, she goes to see him to thank him for keeping her from marrying a man she did not love. Lisi despises the aristocrats, and it takes a bit of effort for the younger Delon to convince her that he too is for the revolution. In a sword fight with our hero, Lisi convinces him that she is quite adroit in combat, partly because she is the granddaughter of a Musketeer named d'Artagnan. Inspired by the novel by Alexandre Dumas (pere), THE BLACK TULIP uses little of the novel, and mostly came about because Delon wanted to compete with the success Jean-Paul Belmondo had with 1962's CARTOUCHE. Director Christian-Jaque deftly handles the action and comedy while not being shy about piling up the dead bodies. Delon proves quite able to make his two characters quite distinct from each other, even when playing together in the same frame. Needless to say, Lisi is charming and surprisingly impressive physically in her role. Having lived with Delon's ZORRO for decades, it is hard not to make comparisons between the two movies. The fact that TULIP doesn't have an annoying theme song helps to put it ahead of the other film.
Mildly enjoyed:
Elsbeth "Ramen Holiday" (2025) - I am not a fan of this show, nor of most TV police procedurals, but I was curious about the season two finale. I hadn't realized that in addition to series regulars Carrie Preston and Wendell Pierce, this episode featured guest stars Alyssa Milano, Mary-Louise Parker and Gina Gershon, who had played murderers in previous episodes. Also in this episode was Donna Lynne Champlin, who had been a regular on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. After Stephen Moyer, of True Blood, was murdered in prison, our heroine had a dream in which all of the suspects performed "He Had It Coming" from the musical CHICAGO. That was delightful.
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. season ten, episode 2 "Forever Young" w/Valerie Bertinelli and Brendan Fraser - Considering that both guests had Irish ancestors who worked in the Pennsylvanian Coal Mines, I was disappointed that the Molly Macguires was never mentioned.
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage season one (2024-'25)
Ghosts season three (2024-'25)
The Last of Us season one (2023) - I don't play video games, so I don't now about the Naughty Dog original except from what I read on Wikipedia. From that I understand, season one of the HBO series closely followed the plot of the original video game. The material was stretched out by devoting entire episodes to dramatizing the back stories of some of the characters. My chief enjoyment of the season was with the character played by Bella Ramsey. Her mixture of awe at seeing the wider world after being cooped up in a fortified Boston, and her smart alecky humor with a love of bad puns, brought some fun to what is ultimately a downbeat action show. As with most programs made for a streaming service, The Last of Us feels longer than it needs to be. While the end of world because of fungal infection is unique, most of the plot feels similar to The Walking Dead and the other rip-offs which came after THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I find myself aching to have seen what George A. Romero would have done if he had been given the production resources evidenced here. Still, there is no doubt about the production quality given to these filmmakers and it is nice to see Anna Torv, Melanie Lynskey and Graham Greene in supporting roles.
Profilage, aka The Paris Murders season five (2014) - I came to this show fairly late in its history, but I found myself captivated by Odile Vuillemin as Chloe. While many cop shows feature a mentally or physically challenged female character who has surprising insight into criminals, Chloe is truly close to being unhinged many times.
WHITE HEAT (1949) - Come back with me to a time when Los Angeles was inhabited only by White people. And all of the men wore hats - even when hiding inside an empty tanker truck, except when they were in prison. James Cagney made an indelible impression as an insane murderous criminal reliant on his mother to help control his piercing headaches. Edmond O'Brien was the federal agent who went undercover to try and track the money stolen from a train heist. Director Raoul Walsh gave the film an unflinchingly tough attitude while the screenplay, credited to Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts suggested by a story by Virginia Kellogg, provided Crime movie enthusiasts with many classic moments.
THE WICKED DREAMS OF PAULA SCHULTZ (1968) - I saw this film when it first came out, but it turns out that I have little memory of it, aside from knowing that I love looking at Elke Sommer. My memory was that this was early in her Hollywood career, but it turns out that this the sixth Hollywood film I had seen her in, and I much more enjoyed her in DEADLIER THAN THE MALE. I had not seen the TV series Hogan's Heroes before I saw this movie, and now I realize that it was a summer hiatus project in 1967 for Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, John Banner and Leon Askin. With production values akin to a network TV show at the time, PAULA only qualified as a movie because of all of the suggested nudity and the feature length. That's the real problem with this production. While the first 87 minutes is a mildly amusing story of a female East German athletic star who pole vaults over the Berlin Wall only to become a pawn in the custody of an American black marketeer in the West, it eventually becomes tiresome with repetitive situations that weren't all that funny the first time. Still, Sommer exhibits some impressive physicality at times. George Marshall directed.
Did not enjoy:
THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL (1968) - I saw this movie when it first came out and didn't like it much. Two things stuck with me over the decades - the song "The Biggest Bundle of Them All" sung by The Animals, and the idea that platinum was more valuable than gold. So, the re-watch was not enjoyable. I think Robert Wagner's performance here has prevented me from ever finding him likable in anything else he did - though I enjoyed the three books he wrote that I've read. Producer Josef Shaftel provided the rather standard heist story that is supposed to be a comedy, and Ken Annakin directed it all professionally. Raquel Welch as Wagner's girlfriend was the big selling point for movie audiences and she is more annoying than decorative. I always thought that Godfrey Cambridge would be a bigger star. The success of his theme for MONDO CANE made composer Riz Ortolani in demand for both European and Hollywood productions. His work here is tuneful but forgettable. The fun for me with this film was seeing a number of familiar Italian actors like Francesco Mule, Vittorio De Sica, Yvonne Sanson, Femi Benussi and Aldo Bufi Landi. Reportedly, right before filming was to begin, a story reader at MGM discovered that Shaftel's script was virtually the same as producer Sam Spiegel's THE HAPPENING. Shaftel and Spiegel negotiated a deal giving Spiegel some of Shaftel's profits and an agreement that BUNDLE would come out six months after HAPPENING. Co-star Edward G. Robinson appeared as the brains behind the heist, a role similar to what he played the year before in AD OGNI COSTO, aka GRAND SLAM.
CHINESE SISTERS - That's what the title on the video box said. The videotape bore no English title, but the only English names in the credits said the film was produced by Marina Luk and directed by Bong Luk. Were they related? Looking through the IMDb, I'm guessing that the movie is 1980's XIE DOU CHUAN, aka A GAMBLER'S STORY. Or it could be 1979;s WAN ZAI SI TIAO NU, aka THE WORDLY FOURSOME, aka 4 GIRLS FROM WANCHAI. The film tells the story of three hookers who meet when they are all busted by the police on the same night. Together, they relate their hard luck lives being abused by men. There is a lot of soft core sexy stuff here, before the trio is joined by a fourth woman and they are all menanced by a gambler who wants to kill them. Luckily, the women all know how to fight - with one proficient in throwing daggers. There is a climactic fight on a playground, which is stopped before anyone gets killed by the arrival of police. In the end, the four women open up a boutique and swear off gambling and smoking and letting men run their lives. The most interesting things about this movie is the instrumental version of Abba's "Honey Honey" which plays over the opening credits, and the instrumental version of "Shame, Shame, Shame", originally by Shirely & Company, which plays over a scene of one woman taking a shower.
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR (1986) - Chicago born Jean Marie Untinen took on the pen name Jean M. Auel when she published her first novel in 1980. Having studied the Ice Age, Auel made her first book, THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, about the plight of a Cro-Magnon girl being raised by a Neanderthal clan after her mother was killed in an earthquake. The book was so popular that it launched five more books in the Earth's Children series by Auel. It also convinced producer Stan Rogow that it would make a good TV movie. After NBC rejected the project. Rogow took the project to Mark Damon at Producers Sales Organization. who hired John Sayles to script not only CLAN but also the sequel THE VALLEY OF THE HORSES. Eventually only CLAN was made and after it flopped at the box office, the idea of sequels went away. Here, Daryl Hannah, fresh from her success in SPLASH, joined the cinematic line-up of hairless pre-historic females like Raquel Welch and Victoria Vetri. As in 1981's QUEEN FOR FIRE, our heroine was smarter than the men around her, but had to endure being raped. Unlike in QUEST, the heroine didn't teach the man how to have sex so that she could enjoy it as well. QUEST had been a success, so I guess the filmmakers felt that with Daryl Hannah as the star and material from a best-selling novel, they could have
one as well. They were wrong.
CONQUEST OF COCHISE (1953) - Casting John Hodiak as Cochise is indicative of the sense of realism brought to this Sam Katzman production directed by William Castle. Set at the time of the Gadsden Purchaise of Southern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico by the United States from Mexico, which was 1854, does not prevent the filmmakers from using pistols which weren't invented until after the Civil War. The firearms and casting decisions are pretty standard for the time this movie was made, which is also true about the movie itself - it is fairly standard. The Mexicans in that area had been fighting the Apache and Comanches for years, but Major Robert Stack is tasked with making peace with a leader of the Apaches - Cochise. Having experienced failure in fighting the Americans in the past, Hodiak is okay with making a treaty with Stack. Unfortunately, the local Mexican Don, Edward Colmans, lost his wife in an Indian ambush, and his son, Rico Alaniz, wants peace only after every Indian is dead. He still feels this way even after Hodiak leads an attack to save the Mexicans from an attack by the Comanches. Alaniz attempts to assassinate Hodiak, but only succeeds in killing "his woman". A bit of a lady's man, Stack had already shown interest in the Mexican woman Joy Page, so Hodiak kidnaps her in order to get Stack to visit. While the Apaches and the Comanches prepare for a war with the Americans - for Hodiak's woman was killed with a new military issue rifle, Page learns to respect and love Hodiak. Stack brings Alaniz to Hodiak who confesses that the Americans had nothing to do with breaking the treaty. Stack wants to take Alaniz back to face an American court, but Alaniz simplifies things by trying to kill Hodiak again for which he is quickly killed. Hodiak goes to tell the Comanches to stop the war dance, but their chief, Rodd Redwing, calls him a traitor and orders him to be put to the three deaths: Death of the Boiling Spring, Death of Knives and finally Death by Fire. Luckily, Stack figures out that Hodiak is in trouble and leads his cavalry to the rescue. Unfortunately, Hodiak informs Stack that there are too many Comanches for them to win the battle. But, the Apaches got the news and ride to rescue the U.S. cavalry. So, for novelty, this movie has Apaches rescuing Mexicans from Comanches and then has Apaches rescuing Americans from Comanches. This could easily be a for-runner of the German Winnetou Westerns coming in the early 1960s. Made at a time when Mexicans were considered White, it would be okay for Stack to romance Page, but the film ends with Hodiak saying that the Apaches would not accept her as his wife, so it is implied that she is going back to Stack.
DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (1971) - Reportedly this started out as a sequel to SATAN'S SADISTS which starred Russ Tamblyn. That film shot in March 1969. After watching a rough cut, producer Sam Sherman and director Al Adamson decided to turn the film into an Horror film, and hired fundraiser Roger Engel to play Dracula under the name Zandor Vorkov. They also brought in magazine editor Forrest J. Ackerman to ensure some publicity in Famons Monsters of Filmland. Just as low-budget flimaker Fred Olen Ray would do in the future, Sherman and Adamson filled with cast with old-timers like J. Carrol Nash, Lon Chaney (Jr.), Jim Davis (before the TV show Dallas would revive his career) and Angelo Rossitto. Predictably, the result was not only bad, but it was also dull. The most interesting element in the film was documentary footage of the 1966 youith protest over the closing of Pandora's Box which led to the famous riot on sunset strip. This footage was used as a "welcome to L.A." for our heroine, Regina Carrol, a Las Vegas lounge singer come to Southern California looking for her missing sister Maria Lease. The director's wife, Carrol got to perform a song on stage in addition to her duties to the screenplay.
JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME (1965) - I remember seeing this when it first came out. I remember not liking it much, but I was surprised to later find out it was so critically despised. Reportedly, it was the failure of this movie which meant that screenwriter William Peter Blatty could not get any studio to consider doing his screenplay for THE EXORCIST until after he turned it into a novel which became a best seller. It was Blatty's friendship with star Shirley MacLaine which led to ridiculous rumors that THE EXORCIST was based on an incident involving MacLaine and her daughter. Perhaps the biggest mistake the producers of GOLDFARB made was in hiring J. Lee Thompson to direct. While he showed an ability with whimsy with 1955's AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, by the early 1960s he was known for action like THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and CAPE FEAR. However, he got along with MacLaine on WHAT A WAY TO GO! so.... What was probably intended to be a zany satire of U.S. foreign policy became a somewhat offensive and unfunny farce about the insane antics of an oil rich Arab who wants his son to be a quarterback for Notre Dame University. Producer Steve Parker, who was married to MacLaine and had worked on MY GEISHA, assembled quite a cast to support his star, but Peter Ustinov proved to be more irritating than funny as King Fawz. Also in the cast was Jim Backus, Scott Brady, Fred Clark, Harry Morgan, Richard Deacon, Jerome Cowan, Leon Askin, David Lewis, Charles Lane, James Brolin and Kent McCord, who would all become familiar faces on TV. Other actors popping up in brief bits are Telly Savalas, Irene Tsu, Billy Curtis, Barbara Bouchet, Jackie Coogan and Jerry Orbach. While MacLaine was the star of the film, everytime a mass of harem girls appeared, I would be carefully looking for Teri Garr, and I found her a couple of times. Perhaps the highlight of the film was the "specialty dances" by Nai Bonet and Sultanna who seemed quite limber.
NINJA TURF, aka L.A. STREETFIGHTER (1985) - Someone in South Korea got the bright idea of making a film about Korean street gangs in Los Angeles. Under the name Richard Park, Woo-sang Park directed this rather stupid flick which had the oldest Asian high school students you ever saw. Not surprisingly, the distributor in the U.S. decided to call it NINJA TURF, even though there were no ninjas around. Jun Chong, who previously used the name Bruce K.L. Lea in BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE, starred as the new kid in high school who pissed off local Korean gang leader James Lew who "controls" the school. Luckily, Chong's friend Phillip Rhee, who was also in BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE, backed up our hero for the street brawl with Lew's gang. Two spectators of the brawl approached Chong and Rhee and offered them jobs with a Security Group. Unfortunately, one of the security jobs turned out to be a for drug deal, and Chong got the bright idea of stealing the briefcase filled with money. Yakuza hitman Ken Nagayama (who was born on Okinawa) was teamed up with Bill Wallace (not billed as "Superfoot" here) to get back the money and kill those responsible. Rhee wanted nothing to do with the robbery, so Chong had to kill Najayama and Wallace on his own. Luckily, no one thought to bring a gun. However, soon after Lew's gang showed up wanting revenge for their previous defeat, and Lew brought a knife. Rhee raced to the scene of the battle, but was unable to save Chong before killing Lew. There was a lot of location shooting at night, so much of the action was barely visable. However, there was some nice shots of the Hong Kong Cafe in L.A.'s Chinatown.
SPECIAL EFFECTS (1984) - You can count on Larry Cohen to come up with interesting ideas for movies. Unfortunately, he's only been able to make an interesting idea into a successful film once - Q - but I credit the success of that film with the improvisations star Michael Moriarty brought to the project. Unfortunately, when Cohen and Moriarty tried to do it again with IT'S ALIVE III: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE and A RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT, the results were unenjoyable. Anyway, reportedly SPECIAL EFFECTS began with a script Cohen wrote around 1967 called THE CUTTING ROOM with which Cohen had hoped to interest director Alfred Hitchcock. SPECIAL EFFECTS begins with Zoe Tamerlis with blond hair posing nude before amateur photographers on a set that looks like the Oval Office in the White House. At first I thought maybe this was a set left over from Cohen's THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER, but that movie was made in 1977, so that seems unlikely. In any case, Brad Rijn shows up and Tamerlis runs away. It turns out that Rijn is the husband she left behind to raise their child alone. Catching up with her, he forces her to take him to her apartment where he pulls out a 16mm projector and shows her 16mm film of their son. He demands that she come home, but she says that her career is just about to take off. Looking out the apartment window, she sees a marquee for the films of Christopher Neville as the Bleeker Street Cinema. She takes a phony phone call and tells Rijn that she has an appointment to see director Nevilla about a part on his new movie. Rijn doesn't want to hear about it and tells her to pack her things. She goes into the bedroom, supposedly to pack, but steals his car keys and quickly takes off out the window. She finds Neville, played by Eric Bogosian, at home watching the Abraham Zapruder film of the JFK assassination on a movieola. After a discussion about reality and film reality, Tamerlis convinces Bogosian to take her to bed. When she sees that he has a camera set up to film their encounter, she starts to fight him and he strangles her to death. "That's a take." Naturally, police detective Kevin O'Connor suspects Rijn of the murder when her body is found in his car in Coney Island. Bogosian shows up with an attorney for Rijn as well as bail. The filmmaker convinces the husband to help him make a movie about his dead wife, though they are having trouble finding someone that looks like her. In a plot twist right out of VERTIGO, Rijn meets the brunette Zoe Tamerlis while trying to recover his wife's belongs from Salvation Army. Rijn and Bogosian set about transforming the brunette Tamerlis into the blond Tamerlis, whlie O'Connor continues to try and pin the murder on the husband. Eventually, the film climaxes with Rijn and Bogosian fighting it out in Bogosian's apartment. There is an odd moment toward the end in which a written screenplay appears on the screen that suggests that the film would have an entirely different ending. Was this to show that Bogosian had an entirely different plan for how his movie would end? At first I thought it was something like from a film by Jean Luc Godard in which a scene was missing, so an intertitle would pop up to explain what's not there.
****************************************************************
Angel Rivera Enjoyed:
"NONNAS" (2025)
A Netflix movie with Vince Vaughn as an Italian son and grandson who after his mother dies decides to open a restaurant on Staten Island and hires 4 Italian grandmothers or "nonnas" to cook old style Italian meals for his restaurant like "mama" and" grandma" (or "nonna") used to make. Pleasant little confection of a movie. Co-stars: Susan Sarandon (who looks great); Brenda Vaccaro; Talia Shire; Lorraine Bracco; Linda Cardellini (as Vaughn's potential love interest); Drea de Matteo; Joe Manganiello (as Vaughn's best friend) and Campbell Scott as the food critic. A nice little old fashioned make you feel good comedy.
"NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" (1968)
Caught this one, on one of the cable channels, since it's in the public domain, and it is on a lot. The "original zombie movie". (Although in this one they are known as "ghouls".) Saw this one when it first hit US theaters, although I didn't find it too scary: just gory. Especially after what I call the "barbecue scene."! (Two of the characters are killed when the truck they are in blows up into flames and they are "roasted" inside. The next scene shows the "ghouls/zombies" feasting). Even though I have seen it before. watching it again always brings back memories of items I had forgotten. Especially like after the black guy hero shoots the cowardly white guy who tried to close the door on him and almost let the "ghouls" get him. The film still has a shockingly effective ending.
A Netflix movie with Vince Vaughn as an Italian son and grandson who after his mother dies decides to open a restaurant on Staten Island and hires 4 Italian grandmothers or "nonnas" to cook old style Italian meals for his restaurant like "mama" and" grandma" (or "nonna") used to make. Pleasant little confection of a movie. Co-stars: Susan Sarandon (who looks great); Brenda Vaccaro; Talia Shire; Lorraine Bracco; Linda Cardellini (as Vaughn's potential love interest); Drea de Matteo; Joe Manganiello (as Vaughn's best friend) and Campbell Scott as the food critic. A nice little old fashioned make you feel good comedy.
"NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" (1968)
Caught this one, on one of the cable channels, since it's in the public domain, and it is on a lot. The "original zombie movie". (Although in this one they are known as "ghouls".) Saw this one when it first hit US theaters, although I didn't find it too scary: just gory. Especially after what I call the "barbecue scene."! (Two of the characters are killed when the truck they are in blows up into flames and they are "roasted" inside. The next scene shows the "ghouls/zombies" feasting). Even though I have seen it before. watching it again always brings back memories of items I had forgotten. Especially like after the black guy hero shoots the cowardly white guy who tried to close the door on him and almost let the "ghouls" get him. The film still has a shockingly effective ending.
Mildly enjoyed:
"THE MAN WHO LAUGHS" (1966)
I caught this curious little film directed by Sergio Corbucci, when it showed up the TCM cable channel. A very loose adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. (The first adaptation of the novel was said to have a character who is said to be the inspiration for the comic book character, "The Batman"'s arch-foe, the "Joker"!) The film stars French actor, Jean Sorel a member of the Pierre Brice/Alain Delon school of acting. In this version the disfigured character lives in Italy where the Borgias rule. Cesare Borgia is portrayed by Edmund Purdom and his sister Lucrezia Borgia is played by Lisa Gastoni, here looking better than she does in the two "Gamma One" films which starred Tony Russel in which she appeared. Playing the cured one time blind beauty, Dea is Italian beauty, Ilaria Occhini. Not a great film, but still interesting.
I caught this curious little film directed by Sergio Corbucci, when it showed up the TCM cable channel. A very loose adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. (The first adaptation of the novel was said to have a character who is said to be the inspiration for the comic book character, "The Batman"'s arch-foe, the "Joker"!) The film stars French actor, Jean Sorel a member of the Pierre Brice/Alain Delon school of acting. In this version the disfigured character lives in Italy where the Borgias rule. Cesare Borgia is portrayed by Edmund Purdom and his sister Lucrezia Borgia is played by Lisa Gastoni, here looking better than she does in the two "Gamma One" films which starred Tony Russel in which she appeared. Playing the cured one time blind beauty, Dea is Italian beauty, Ilaria Occhini. Not a great film, but still interesting.
******************************************************************
David Deal enjoyed:
ESPIONAGE IN LISBON (65) - Please refer to The Eurospy Guide.
THE MALTESE FALCON (41)
LA REDADA (72) - AKA The Barcelona Kill. Journalist Simon Andreu and his girlfriend, budding photographer Linda Hayden, witness the murder of a woman. Simon sees the murderer and later, hesitates to identify him to the police so he can do his own investigating. Now the couple try (usually unsuccessfully) to stay ahead of the police and the bad guys who want them dead. An adequate Spanish thriller from director Jose Antonio de la Loma (Blood at Sundown) with a touch of humor and a good score by Stelvio Cipriani.
IL DIAVOLO NEL CERVELLO (72) - AKA Devil in the Brain. Keir Dullea returns to Italy to track down his former love, Stefania Sandrelli (Black Belly of the Tarantula). After being rebuffed by her mother, he discovers that Stefania has regressed to a childlike state due to a terrible shock. Keir teams up with a psychologist to learn what happened. Sergio Sollima's (The Big Gundown) giallo is a clever mystery with the past unveiled in seamless flashbacks. Perhaps with a bit more star power, this intriguing entry would be more highly regarded. As it stands, fans of more intelligent genre examples will find this impressive. Recommended.
THE CARIBOO TRAIL (50)
FEAR IN THE CITY (76)
PORTRAIT IN TERROR (62)
STOP ME BEFORE I KILL (60)
THE THINKING GAME (24) - Interesting documentary on AI developers.
SUNSHINE (07)
THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (44)
THE HORROR OF DRACULA (58)
THE MUMMY'S GHOST (44)
Mildly enjoyed:
SENZA VIA D'USCITA (71) - AKA Devil's Ransom. Philippe Leroy is a courier for a bank in Sweden. He leads a troubled life with a cold wife (Marisa Mell), their son, and he has taken a lover on the side. One day the boy is kidnapped and Philippe must come up with $200,000 ransom. What appears to be a straightforward crime story is anything but in Piero Sciume's dreamy thriller. The production feels a bit off kilter, like many films that miss their mark, but the viewer is meant to be kept back on their heels. While this doesn't have the emotional depth of Devil in the Brain (see above), it would be a good companion piece.
SING A SONG OF SEX (67)
A GAME OF CRIME (64) - AKA A Game of Crime. John Drew Barrymore is the administrator for a wealthy businessman. He lives at the man's house and is having an affair with his wife (Luisa Rivelli). The man also has his disfigured brother living there with full-time nurse Lisa Gastoni. Barrymore has a serious gambling problem and is fending off the collectors with the help of another girlfriend who is a nightclub singer. Barrymore schemes to murder his employer for the wife's inheritance, which he does, but this triggers a series of events which leave all the parties involved in dire straits. A clumsy murder mystery from director Romano Ferrara (Planets Around Us AKA Planets Against Us). There are plenty of twists in the story, none of which seem plausible, nor are they accomplished with any finesse. At once intriguing and dull, this does manage some Gothic atmosphere and the soundtrack by Berto Pisano is a plus.
******************************************************************
