May 3 - 9, 2025

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which Italian actress retired from the screen at the age of 37 and eventually died at the age of 81?

It was Gianna Maria Canale.

What happened to a film that Richard Harrison and John Steiner were going to make in Mexico?

No one has answered this one yet.

When he was a professional football player, what was Walter Barnes called?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was "Piggy".

How did Walter Barnes acquire his athletic nickname?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it involved Walter stealing a pig in this youth. Walter's stepfather was the town sheriff. He heard that Walter and a friend had stolen the pig and confronted the young man. Walter was pleased that there was no evidence because he and his friend ate the animal. Unable to arrest Walter, the stepfather took to calling him "Piggy" as a punishment. It soon became a term of endearment and it followed Walter throughout his stint in the U.S. Army and then into his career with the Philadelphia Eagles.

How many movies did Walter Barnes make with Clint Eastwood?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was 3.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which Italian actress, born in 1950, appeared in 73 movies including Westerns with Peter Lee Lawrence, Tony Anthony, Michael Forest and Gordon Mitchell, but whose main interest is painting?

By what name is Benito Pacifico better known?

By what name is Luciano Conti better known?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Gordon Mitchell in TRE COLPI DI WINCHESTER PER RINGO, aka THREE BULLETS FOR RINGO.

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 Gordon Mitchell in BRENNO IL NEMICO DI ROMA, aka BRENNUS ENEMY OF ROME, aka BATTLE OF THE SPARTANS, aka BATTLE OF THE VALIANT.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one correctly identified the above photo. It shows Malisa Longo in ELSA FRAULEIN SS, aka CAPTIVE WOMEN 4, aka FRAULEIN DEVIL.

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo from THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, aka TRIPLE IRONS.

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:

Weeds season one (2005)

Mildly enjoyed:

FILM GEEK (2023) - Many might be certain that this would be a movie I'd love, as I, too, was an huge movie fan from a young age and associate much of my movie-going with my parents. However, writer/director Richard Shepard's documentary goes too long and feels so unstructured that it ended up being a slog to get through. While it is impressive how many movie clips he got permission to use, many of them distract from his narration and throw the time frame of his life story out of wack. Another element that keeps this from being similar to my story is that he was born in 1965, and he didn't seem to have been exposed to the movies that I loved as a child. Plus his taste in movies - particularly Brian De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL - is so different from mine.

MERRILL'S MARAUDERS (1962) - Based on Charlton Ogburn Jr.'s memoir THE MARAUDERS, this Warner Bros. production was considered a lower budgeted project filled with actors who were contracted to the studio and mostly used on TV, like Ty Hardin, Will Hutchins, Andrew Dugan and Peter Brown. Made during the Cold War, there is no mention of the Chinese soldiers who were allies with the mission. Emphasizing the hardships of the long-range penetration jungle warfare unit during the Burma campaign, the movie is perhaps one of the most depressing films about American soldiers during World War II. Throughout the movie, the soldiers keep asking when they will be relieved and find their hopes of going home dashed as they are asked to go on to another objective. Jeff Chandler plays General Merrill while John Hoyt plays General Stillwell (a name of which I am very familiar as he was killed during the Battle of Okinawa and was frequently mentioned when I grew up on Okinama). Sam Fuller was brought in to work on the screenplay and direct, and reportedly was very unhappy by a number of studio mandated alterations to his movie. For example, every instance of an American soldier killed by "friendly fire" was removed, and the ending was changed to become something like a commercial for the U.S. Army complete with a dress parade. This ending also leaves the audience with many unanswered questions such as: did Merrill die of his heart attack? Was Ty Hardin's relationship with Chandler ever repaired? Combat footage from BATTLE CRY was used to augment some battle scenes. This was Chandler last movie and he died shortly after filming his final scenes. That probably explains why in a few scenes he was obviously re-voiced by another actor.

12 TO THE MOON (1960) - This movie is really bad with low budget sets and effects and a screenplay so weird that you'd think that Edward D. Wood Jr. had written it. No, the script is credited by Fred Gebhardt and DeWitt Bodeen. An international team of astronauts, led by American Ken Clark, embark on the first mission to land humans on the moon. Inside their spacious multi floor spaceship, they also have two cats, two monkeys and a dog. There is some interpersonal disputes - like when the Israeli astronaut finds out the that German scientist was actually the Nazi  responsible for killing his family in the concentration camps. In any case, after the earthlings land on the Moon, they eventually lose a man and a woman who find a cave filled with oxygen and get cut off from the others when they go off to have sex. Another man dies in moonquicksand. They are constantly threatened by meteorites both in space and on the moon, which they ward off with electromagnets. After they receive a written message, which, thankfully the Japanese female photographer can translate, telling them to get off the Moon of be killed, the astronauts blast off for Earth. As our heroes are traveling, the Moon people, who we never see except for some shadows, bombard the Earth putting North America in a deep freeze. As the Moon people can read people's minds, they are impressed when two astronauts sacrifice their lives to try and save the Earth, so the aliens call off their attack and offer to be more welcoming if the Earthlings decide to visit the Moon again. Director David Bradley made a low-budget version of JULIUS CAESAR back in 1950 with Charlton Heston as Marc Antony and THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN in 1968.

Did not enjoy:

Eroticise (1982) - In 1980, producer Ron Harris launched the TV series Aerobicise featuring various heavily made up models in leotards performing aerobic exercises on a moving turntable while a camera licks their bodies in close up. The common joke was that the viewership for this program were overweight men only performing a one-handed exercise. The show was popular, so it was not surprising that someone would decide to do an R-Rated version of it.  This begins on an outside deck with six women in tight exercise outfits doing the usual exercises with the camera zooming in on parts their anatomy that seemed to be shown in closeup accidentally on Aerobicise. After about twenty minutes, the women shed the coverings of their breasts. Around the forty minute mark, they are completely nude. After almost an hour, all of the women jump naked into an hot tub drinking champagne. I can't find anything on-line about this production except for a posting on Amazon.com, but the only performer that made an impression is Kitten Natividad, whom I recognized from other movies. Also seen is Gigi Anthony, Kit Fargo, Rita Gardner, Ashley St. Jon and Summer Tenaya. Directed by Ed Hansen.

The Secret Cinema (1966) - Writer/director Paul Bartel wanted to direct films, and so spend some time at the Centro Sperimente di Cinematografia in Rome where he made the short Progetti (1962). In New York City, he made The Secret Cinema, which gave him a reputation as a filmmaker to watch in indenpendent cinema circles. Kind of a precursor to THE TRUMAN SHOW, The Secret Cinema tells the story of "Jane" who eventually goes mad when she discovers that her whole life is a fiction by a psychiatrist who is making a movie in which she is the subject and the star. 

Naughty Nurse (1969) - With color film, writer/director Paul Bartel made this short joke about an operating room team that meet in a seedy hotel to play identity games in bondage gear. I suppose, at the time it was made, this film would have been considered naughty. Being part of the NYC scene, Bartel would co-write and star in UTTERLY WITHOUT REDEEMING SOCIAL VALUE before appearing in director Brian De Palma's HI, MOM! In 1972, Bartel finally hit the mainstream with PRIVATE PARTS. In 1975, he directed his best feature, DEATH RACE 2000, for producer Roger Corman.

THE UNDERGROUND (1997) - Jeff Fahey seems to like to work a lot, and doesn't seem to be too discerning about the jobs he takes. This routine cop action flick from PM Entertainment seems to only be concerned with auto chases and stunt work, with writer William Lawlor filling in the scenes between auto stunts with cliched dialog. The bad guys, led by Gregory Scott Cummins, turn out to be members of a former disco act called Las Vegas Disco Express that have become a crew of killers wearing Abraham Lincoln masks. They hate rap, so they shoot up an hip-hop show and a recording session. It turns out that record producer Willie C. Carpenter sampled some of their music and they want ten million dollars or they will kill every friend that Carpenter has. Unfortunately, they also killed Fahey's partner, Kenneth Tigar, so Fahey is going to get them, even if it means the end of his marriage to Debbie James. Meanwhile, Captain Brion James assigns sarcastic Michael McFall as Fahey's new partner, and writer Lawlor gives the odd couple much annoying banter. There is a lot of screeching tires and fender benders before the villain's car blows up in a spectacular firey display. The old "transfer" stunt seen in many Westerns with the hero jumping from an horse to a wagon is given a modern update with our hero jumping from one car to a pick up truck, on to a police car, and then on to the villain's limousine. 

****************************************************************

Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"8 MAN AFTER" (1993)
Nice piece of nostalgia for me. I dug out my copy when my brother told me he had never seen it. This reboot/sequel is great for its time period. It's animated film noir and well done.  

Mildly enjoyed:

"GEORGIE AND MANDIE'S FIRST MARRIAGE" S1 E 19: Snitch vs. Deadbeat" (2025)
That Emily Osment is HOT!!! It was nice to see MeeMaw/Annie Potts again. Still likable.

******************************************************************

Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed: 

Le grand chef (1959, Henri Verneuil)

Walk the proud land (1956, Jesse Hibbs)

The guns of fort Petticoat ( 1957, George Marshall)

The avengers – episode “A touch of Brimstone” (1965, James Hill)

The curse of Frankenstein (1957, Terence Fisher)

The revenge of Frankentesin (1958, Terence Fisher)

The evil of Frankenstein (1964, Freddie Francis)

Mildly enjoyed:

Conclave (2024, Edward Berger)

Xin du bi dao / The new one-armed swordsman (1971, Chang Cheh)

Two flags west (1950, Robert Wise)

Grizzly (1976, William Girdler)

Did not enjoy:

Knock on any door (1949, Nicholas Ray)

Mean streets (1973, Martin Scorsese)

******************************************************************