September 20 - 26, 2025

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which American actor was offered to make an Italian Western after bumping into the Italian producer in the hallway at the William Morris Agency?

It was Thomas Hunter who didn't recognize Dino De Laurentiis at the time.

How many times did Reg Lewis play Maciste?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was just once.

In the English version of which Italian movie was the hero renamed "Maxus"?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that the film was MACISTE CONTRO I MOSTRI, which became THE SONS OF HERCULES AGAINST THE FIRE MONSTERS.

Which American body builder who worked in Italian films was also an airplane pilot?

No one answered  this question yet.

And now for some new brain teasers:

How did Dan Van Husen get into the movies?

Which Italian actress played Dejanira for two different actors playing Hercules?

By what name is Bruna Falchi better known?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's photo of John Philip Law in DA UOMO A UOMO, aka DEATH RIDES A HORSE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo from THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Lorenzo Robledo, Margaret Lee and Dan Van Husen in I BASTARDI, aka THE BASTARD, aka THE CATS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Gordon Liu and Wang Lung-Wei in MARTIAL CLUB.

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:

Did not enjoy:

I GIORNI DELLA VIOLENZA, aka DAYS OF VIOLENCE, aka THE DIRTY PISTOLERO (1967) - Rarely do I not hate Italian Westerns which try to set themselves in the "historic" American West. In trying to be "real" these films are so false that it is hard to grant them the "suspension of disbelief" to be able to enjoy them. During the U.S. Civil War, Andrea Bosic runs a big Spanish style horse ranch in Missouri, but he's a pacifist who is trying to stay out of the conflict. Hired hand, Lucio Rosato, feels an uncontrollable urge towards Romano Puppo's wife, Rosalba Neri, but Peter Lee Lawrence arrives before Rosato can rape her. Unfortunately, it turns out that Rosato is in league with Yankee Captain Luigi Vannucchi, so the would-be rapist convinces him to raid Bosic's ranch and steal his horses. Thanks to the timely arrival of Confederate guerrila fighter Nello Pazzafini, Rosato fails to get away with the horses and fails to kill Puppo and Lawrence. After Pazzafini disguises his men in Yankee uniforms and attacks Vannucchi's command, Rosato convinces the Captain that Pazzafini is hiding out at Bosic's ranch. Vannucchi doesn't find Pazzafini at the ranch, but when Puppo gets argumentative, the Captain shoots him dead. As Neri cries over her husband's body, Rosato tells Neri to come away with him. She says "No" and so he murders her. When Lawrence returns from having put Bosic's daughter, Beba Loncar, on a stagecoach heading to safety, he finds the newly dead and decides to join Pazzafini's raiders. Attacking Yankee supply trains is one thing, but Lawrence doesn't want to join in robbing a stagecoach. However, when Gianni Solaro pulls out an hidden gun during the robbery, Lawrence shoots him dead, thus becoming a wanted man with a $5,000 reward on his head. Two years later, the war is over and Vannucchi is out of uniform and the "governor" of that town in Missouri and Rosato is his right hand man. When Loncar returns to town. Vannucchi hatches a plot to get Bosic's ranch by romancing the daughter. So, obviously, Lawrence will have to show up, expose Vannucchi and Rosato as murderers inorder to being justice to the land. Well, screenwriters Gian Luigi Buzzi, Paolo Lombardo, Antonio Boccaci and Mario Amendola can't have things happen so simply. They've got to have more chases, more misunderstandings and more fistfights before things get resolved. Unbelieveable marksmenship has usually been accepted in these movies. This one features unbelievable knife-throwing ability. As expected, everyone uses a Colt .45, which wouldn't be issued until 1872. Someone realized that Winchester rifles would not be "period" correct, so everyone is running around with rifles probably left over from the production of THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY. However, someone didn't inform Franco Groppioni and the sound department, because occasionally there is the sound of a winchester being cocked on the soundtrack. Usually, with a film like this, one could rely upon Bruno Nicholai to provide music to get the viewer over the rough spots, but his score here isn't very memorable. In fact, a few times the music seems to want to reuse the music from 100,000 DOLLARI PER RINGO. Cinematographer Fausto Rossi captures the beautiful locations in Italy on film. If this is supposed to look like Missouri, there must have been a decision to not go to Spain. It is always good to see a veteran like Antoniette Zita doing the film editing. Unfortunately, she didn't have something to do with the script. Plus this movie has one of the lamest final showdowns ever put on film. Under the name Al Bradley, Alfonso Brescia directs. The IMDb lists 13 stunt men as part of the crew, including Bruno Ukmar, Franco Ukmar, Alberto Dell'Acqua, Arnaldo Dell'Acqua, Rinaldo Zamperla and Riccardo Petrazzi. All of them are veterans of Sword & Sandal films, as is supporting actor Harold Bradley. He only made this one Italian Western before returning to the U.S. where he appeared in the CBS TV series The Chisholms. Eventually, he returns to Italy where he died in 2021.

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4 (2023) - I used to frequent the Chinese language movie theaters in Los Angeles. I was particularly knocked out by the double-bill of A BETTER TOMORROW and PEKING OPERA BLUES. Unfortunately, the success of A BETTER TOMORROW led to more outrageous action films that became more irritating than exciting. Directors John Woo and Tsui Hark came out to Hollywood and never made a decent film again. However, the extremely choreographed violence of their films inspired Hollywood filmmakers to make stupid films on big budgets. I like the first JOHN WICK. The idea of a retired hit man destroying a Russian gang because they killed his dog is terrific. Unfortunately, when they decided to make a sequel they created the wacky idea of a world of Assassins, perhaps inspired by the ancient Persian Order of Assassins from 1090 A.D., or the Assassin's Creed video game. In any case, the makers of JOHN WICK duplicated the outrageous action that I found so irritating in films like A BETTER TOMORROW II and A BULLET IN THE HEAD. There is a sequence in CHAPTER 4 which mirrors a sequence in John Woo's A BULLET IN THE HEAD, while another recalls LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and a final gunfight obviously made with director Sergio Leone in mind - complete with an ersatz music score reminiscent of Ennio Morricone. There is a certain amount of fun seeing Hiroyuki Sanada and Donnie Yen in a big budget action film, but with all of the Computer Generated Imagery, it is hard to be impressed by the performers' personal skills. This movie has more bloody gunshots to the head than an episode of The Walking Dead. One gets the impression that director Chad Staheiski is also getting frustrated with the ridiculous amount of action when he shoots so much of it in long takes (aka oners) and at a distance. As with the Hong Kong films of the 1980s, the stunt team deserves much praise, but even remarkable stunt work becomes dull with so much repetition and a film that runs 169 minutes. Shamier Anderson as Mr. Nobody brings some mystery to the proceedings, and his dog that attacks "Nuts" is fun. It is also nice to see a brief clip of Bridget Moynahan.

L'AMANTE DEL VAMPIRO, aka THE LOVER OF THE VAMPIRE, aka THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (1960) - Obviously inspired by the success of Hammer's DRACULA, aka HORROR OF DRACULA, THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA increased the sense of sensuality with lingering shots of women in night dresses and a vampire woman with a very appealing decolletage. At one point, the male vampire chains his female victim to a wall inorder to feed on her standing up. All that is fine and dandy, but in no way makes up for the listless plotting and dull storytelling. I mention Hammer's DRACULA because here is another vampire story in which the heroes decide that making a cross with candle sticks is better than actually getting a sanctified object - and this in a Catholic country! Howcome, if the villagers are so convinced that a vampire is on the loose, do they allow a young woman to go out into the night to fetch water from the waterfall? They bring the wounded woman to Professor Pier Ugo Gragnani's home, which is currently filled with dancers planning their next show. At first the filmmakers pretend that we should worry that the professor is the vampire, as he is similarly dressed. Later, the dancers are having a picnic in the woods, and they are surprised that the wounded woman is now being carted in to the cemetery. If they shared the same house where she died, wouldn't they have known about it prior to the trip to the cemetery. Obviously, filmmakers had seen Carl Th. Dreyer's VAMPYR, because the scene of the woman in the coffin being taken to her grave is done in a very similar manner. Two of the dancers, Helene Remy and Tina Gloriani, wander off into the woods to discuss their love lives, so they don't hear everyone heading home because a storm in coming. Gloriani's fiancee, Isarco Ravaioli, sets off to find the two, and eventually the three get lost in the woods, only to find a supposedly abandoned castle. The three duck into the castle, only to be greeted by Countess Maria Luisa Rolando, who insists on wearing ancient costumes. Her man servant, Walter Brandi shows up to bring them tea. Remy wanders off to explore the Contess' wardrobe, and, of course, is attacked by an hideously aged vampire. Eventually, the aged vampire turns out to be Walter Brandi, who regains a youthful appearance after feeding. He then loses the youthful look when he is fed on by the Countess. The idea that the male vampire goes out to fill up with blood in order for the female to feed off him to maintain her youthful look is an interesting one, but isn't really explored. The filmmakers seem to think that seeing the lovely young dancers rehearsing would be of more interest to the audience. It is interesting how Gino Turini improvising on the piano so that the dancers can respond naturally to the idea of a dance based on vampires would suddenly have a whole jazz band on the soundtrack. Audiences hungry to see young women frolicing in fish net stockings will get a kick out of this. The film ends with an odd question. Ravaioli and Turini find Remy dead and then set out to get rid of the vampires. After that is accomplished, they wonder if this will bring Remy back to life. Were they intending for the audience to worry about Remy becoming a vampire, or leaving us with the hope that she will miraculously recover with the evil destroyed? Flashing "Fine" on the screen leaves these ideas without an answer.

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"BILLY JACK" (1971/3)
One of my favorite movies from the seventies, still enjoyable, but it's beginning to show its age. I have two different versions. The 35th anniversary pack which features a wide screen version and a regular single DVD with a scene slightly different from what is shown on the DVD from the anniversary pack. The scene where Bernard (David Roya) forces Miss False Eye Lashes (Cisse Cameron aka Cissie Colpitts)  to take her blouse off. On the single DVD version one can see her ample bosoms. Whereas on the 35th Anniversary DVD copy, one cannot.) While watching the film noticing there is a lot of time taken to show off the "students" of the Freedom School, Billy protects, which include members of the comedy troupe, "The Committee, which featured a young Howard Hesseman. Also now knowing that Tom Laughlin's wife plays Billy Jack's lady is interesting because other members of his family like his daughter, Theresa Kelly who plays Carol and sings an anti-war protest song she wrote is also featured. (She will also be seen in the Billy Jack sequels.) What gets me most; is given the attitude of today, I don't think Billy would have survived in the end. He would have been shot down like a dog. But then of course that would have been a different movie. Parts of the film are still crowd-pleasers, such as when Billy takes down Mr. Posner, (who IMO resembles a sawed off version of a certain orange haired felon, except for Posner having grey hair.) Billy Jack still stands up for the down trodden.

Did not enjoy:

"SOME GIRLS DO" (1969)
I tried to like this one. Unfortunately it is a poor followup to the superlative, "Deadlier Than the Male" (1967). The film still has Richard Johnson in the role of Hugh Drummond, but he seems to  not have much  panache than he had in the other film. While the villain is still a Carl Peterson, this time played by James Villiers. (Nigel Green may have been busy playing the villain in the Matt Helm adventure, "The Wrecking Crew"(1968) along with his "Deadlier Than the Male" costar, Elke Sommer.), who seems second rate to Green. The plot revolves around female robots carrying out a silly plot for Peterson.The girls are almost indistinguishable from one another. The main female lead is portrayed by the ever present, Daliah Lavi who performed in the Matt Helm film, "The Silencers" (1966) and the James Bond spoof, "Casino Royale" (1967) While somewhat lovely to look at she doesn't have the presence to make up for the lack of the previous two actresses from the first Drummond film.  All in all a real letdown. I kept watching my clock to see how much film was still left before the end. 

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Dai-bosatsu tôge / Sword of doom (1966, Kihachi Okamoto)

Tennessee's partner (1955, Allan Dwan)

Corridors of blood (1958, Robert Day)

Robin and the seven hoods (1964, Gordon Douglas)

Mr Brain (2009) – episode 2

Mildly Enjoyed

The outcasts of Poker Flat (1952, Joseph M. Newman)

The avengers – episode « How to succeed... at murder » (1966, Don Leaver)

Did not enjoy:

The green slime (1968, Kinji Fukasaku)

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 David Deal Enjoyed: 

PRINCESS OF THE NILE (54)

THE VENETIAN AFFAIR (66)

ASSIGNMENT TO KILL (67)

THE FALCON STRIKES BACK (43)

SUCH A PRETTY LITTLE BEACH (49) - To the only open hotel in a dreary little off-season resort, arrives a mysterious young man who claims to need a quiet rest. We learn that he worked there as a child, and was mistreated to the point where he ran away. Why he decided to come back will be slowly revealed. Meanwhile, it never stops raining. A dark and bleak French noir with as much unrelenting dread and there is water falling on the just and unjust. I liked it.

WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH (74) - The lives of three Italian friends who were partisan fighters in WWII. Over the course of the 30 years since the end of the war, their lives interweave, and they even each fall in love with the same woman at some point. Friendships are tested in this bittersweet, nostalgic classic, and director Ettore Scola handles the threads masterfully. Italian cinema of the time also plays a part in the lives of the friends and several famous names have cameos as themselves, including Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni. The sterling cast includes Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, and Stefania Sandrelli. Recommended.

SESSION MAN (23) - Very interesting documentary on the extraordinary Nicky Hopkins who played keyboards on many famous albums of the top bands of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

THE 1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE (60) - This series is finally getting some respect with the release of the new Blu-ray set from Eureka!

LES BICHES (68) - Wealthy Stephane Audran picks up street artist Jacqueline Sassard and whisks her off to her estate in St. Tropez. Both women fall for each other and architect Jean-Louis Trintignant but only one survives. Claude Chabrol's psychodrama feels somewhat drawn out but the leads are enchanting and the sense of impending doom is palpable.

THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (62)

THE FALCON IN DANGER (43)

Mildly Enjoyed

THE OUTSIDER (83)

MIDNIGHT MANHUNT (45)

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