October 25 - 31, 2025

 

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

Brain Teasers:

In which Italian Western does a dying man shoot the canteen of the escaping evil woman so that she dies of thirst in the desert?

No one answered this question yet.

Which Mexican actor worked with directors Henri Verneuil, Damiano Damiani and Luis Bunuel?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Jaime Fernandez.

What role did Mark Forest turn down which then went to Gordon Mitchell?

George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was MACISTE NELLA TERRA DEI CICLOPI, aka ATLAS IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS.

Which Spanish actress, who appeared in Westerns, was married to Craig Hill?

George Grimes, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Teresa Gimpara.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which Spanish actress worked with directors Giorgio Ferroni, Marcello Ciorciolini, Francisco Ariza, Jose Ulloa, Victor Erice, Vittorio De Sica and Enzo G. Castellari?

Which Italian screenwriter collaborated on 6 Westerns for director Enzo G. Castellari?

Which Canadian body builder worked with The Three Stooges as well as in Italian productions?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Eli Wallach and Bud Spencer in I QUATTRO DELL'AVE MARIA, aka ACE HIGH.

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 Brad Harris and Alan Steel in LA FURIA DI ERCOLE, aka THE FURY OF HERCULES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Brad Harris in I FANTASTICI 3 SUPERMEN, aka THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one identified the above photo.

Can you name 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:

Highly enjoyed:

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2025) - This episode of American Masters is a fascinating and moving portrait of an actress, who became an advocate after she was thrust into the public spotlight.

Enjoyed:

Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius (2023) - A three part BBC-TV docu-drama featuring actors like Jessie Buckley, Brian Cox, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Martin Freeman and Adrian Lester talking about their experiences with performing Shakespeare, while Daniel Boyarsky plays the author in recreations of his life. 

TENGU-TO, aka BLOOD END (1969) - In the 1860s, there were a number of rebellions against the Shogunate in Japan. Tengu-to was one that swore to expell the newly landed foreigners and the greedy government officials who were selling out the country by trading with them. They also promised to create a new society in which the peasants, merchants and the samurai would be treated as equals. Was this the first film starring Tatsuya Nakadai that I saw, or was it OGGI A ME... DOMANI A TE!,aka TODAY TO ME.... TOMORROW TO YOU? In any case, this was the film that made me a lifelong fan of his. His portrayal of a peasant suffering 100 strokes of a bambo staff, to becoming an expert swordsman after joining the Yakuza, to being seduced into joining the Tengu-to rebellion is a brilliantly intense performance. Unfortunately, he soon finds himself untethered in a world where your obligations soon become contradictory. Director Satsuo Yamamoto matches Nakadai's intensity with strong camerawork and with fight choreographer Kentaro Yuasa, some strong fight sequences. I first saw this as a 13 year old at a Japanese language theater on Okinawa. With no subtitles, I was able to follow most of the story, but was really turned on by the filmmaking. Bits of this film stayed with me ever since.

United States of Tara season three (2011) - Reportedly the makers of this show didn't want to end the series with season three, but luckily the last episode worked out as a fitting conclusion.

Mildly enjoyed:

KARAKKAZE YARO, aka MAN OF THE BITING WIND, aka A MAN BLOWN BY THE WIND, aka AFRAID TO DIE (1960) - Reportedly film director Yasuzo Masumura and novelist Yukio Mishima attended the same law school, but didn't really know each other. Mishima began writing at the age of 12, and by 1960 he was a famous and celebrated novelist. Masumura became an assistant director in 1955, and a director in 1957. Mishima let it be known at he wanted to try to be a movie star, to which the Daiei Film company was happy to assist. Mishima wanted to wear a black leather jacket and play a Yakuza, so a project to be directed by Masumura was tailored for him. With no acting knowledge, Mishima reportedly was difficult with which to work. The result is a fairly standard gangster film with a rather startling opening. Mishima is playing a game of volleyball in prison, when he is told he had a visitor. Not wanting to stop the game because his team is winning, Mishima allows a friend to pretend to be him to meet the visitor. The visitor immediately shoots the friend dead, expecting that he will then take Mishima's place in prison on behalf of his gang. However, when it becomes apparent that he's killed the wrong man, the visitor makes a desperate effort to get away.Out of prison, Mishima goes into hiding, much to the disappointment of Grandfather Takashi Shimura. Mishima went to prison because he maimed gang boss Jun Negami, and it is Negami who wants revenge. Shimura wants Mishima to attack, not hide, but circumstances keep getting in the way. Things get complicated by Mishima breaking up with his old girlfriend, Yaeko Mizutani, and then taking up with Ayako Wakao, whose brother is a labor organizer. Everything comes to a predictable end for Mishima. Masumura delivers a good looking film in the style of Daiei's color dramas, but it is all rather dull.

ORE NI SAWARU TO ABUNAIZE, aka TOUCHING ME IS DANGEROUS, aka THE BLACK-TIGHT KILLERS (1966) - Obviously influenced by GOLDFINGER and THUNDERBALL, the feature directorial debut of former assistant director and writer Yasuharu Hasebe is quite the goofy movie. If you thought WHAT'S UP TIGER LILLY? was wacky, you'll find THE BLACK-TIGHT KILLERS potentially more-so. During the many punch-ups, I kept imagining the silly noises heard in TIGER LILLY, and found that the noises on the Japanese soundtrack not very different. Plot wise, the film is more like NORTH BY NORTHWEST, with combat photographer Akira Kobayashi, on a flight to Japan from Vietnam, getting a date with stewardess Chieko Matsubara. On the date, Matsubara notices a strange man staring at them. Kobayashi goes to talk with the strange man, only to find Matsubara gone when he gets back to the table. As he tries to find her outside, Kobayashi hears her scream as she is being menenced by the strange man. Six women clad in Black Tights appear and kill the strange man and then kidnap Matsubara. Two men in trench coats soon contact the police and finger Kobayashi as the killer. Eventually, Kobayashi goes home to the Momochi Ninja Research Society, run by his father, Bokuzen Hidari of SEVEN SAMURAI. As the Black-Tight Killers blinded our hero with a "ninja chewing gum bullet", Kobayashi quizzes his father, but that's a technique of which the old man was unaware. It soon becomes obvious that a gang of Yakuza and Americans is in competition with the Black Tight Killers to get information out of Matsubara. As Hasebe was an assistant to iconoclastic director Seijun Suzuki, many attribute the nonsensical color schemes and weird dream sequence to Suzuki's influence, but it fits right in with the whimsical plotting. When I was a teenager wandering around Naha City, I never went into the Nikkatsu theater, because all of the advertised movies looked to be sex films. Perhaps they were for 1966, but now I'm think they were "adult" films featuring women in underwear rather than naked. However, this kind of modern day thriller featuring guns - which always looked phony in Japanese movies, was not what I particularly liked. I preferred the period Toei Yakuza films, which often featured splendid blood letting. The action in BLACK-TIGHT KILLERS isn't very good, but there are some novel bits - such as one of the ninja women using 45 rpm records as shuriken.

Wednesday (2022) - I guess the pitch went something like this - "How about a show with Wednesday from The Adams Family going to Hogwarts that turns into a murder mystery?" Jenna Ortega is very appealing in the lead, and Gwendoline Christie, Christina Ricci and Riki Lindhome are all old favorites. However, I found Emma Myers to be my favorite of the cast. As much as I enjoyed this, I found myself missing the style director Barry Sonnenfeld brought to the movies back in 1991.

Did not enjoy:

BRONCO BULLFROG (1970) - Barney Platts-Mills started in films as an assistant film editor, but in 1966 he started to make documentary shorts. For his first feature, he made, what has been described as "a kitchen sink teen drama", but as he used amateur actors and improvised scenes, the film may perhaps be better described as a British Neo-Realist flick. Being a relatively serious, and defiantly non-commercial movie, it received some critical attention, but was considered lost until 2010 when an HD transfer of the film played the East End Film Festival. Del Walker hangs out with a bunch of listless guys, until he meets Ann Gooding. Ann's mother doesn't approve of Del, so the duo run away on a motorbike that Del stole. Eventually, Ann's mother reports that her daughter has been kidnapped. When a cop finds the couple, they knock him down and run away. In the end, they don't have any idea of where to go. They just know that they don't want to go back. Perhaps audience members who can identify with these characters will find this enjoyable. I don't and found it all very irritating - except for the bit when Del pools everyone's money in order to buy a ticket to a movie theater. When he goes to open the exit door to let in his friends, he finds there are about a dozen strangers also waiting to sneak in.

RATS NOTTE DI TERRORE, aka RATS NIGHT OF TERROR (1984) - Unfortunately, this is not a sequel to BEN. On the Anchor Bay DVD, director Bruno Mattei admits that he doesn't like any of his movies. I don't either. In collaboration with writer Claudio Fragazzo, he made quite a few movies. and while it provided him with a living, he never made a good one. Admittedly based on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, RATS is particularly unwatchable because none of the characters in it behave sensibly. I don't know if the film plays better in Italian, but the English version, credited to ARA and directed by John Gayford, is just about unlistenable. No one considers that if you find yourself in a building crawling with mutated rats that want to eat people, then even with your motorcycles immobilized, you could possibly escape by walking (or running) away. And what have these guys been up to all these years, so that when the flame thrower stops working, he yells at it and throws it away? Didn't he ever do matenance on it? When the same thing happens to a man firing what looks like a 50 caliber mounted machine gun - which, by the way, doesn't have a bullet belt - what sense is there to yell at the gun? Supposedly, this takes place 225 years AB (After Bomb), but everyone dresses and acts like characters from a movie made in the 1980s. With no characters worth rooting for, all attempts at suspense are fruitless. Viewers just wait for the next gory death, but then they will be disappointed at how poor the make-up effects are. The attacks by rats are also incredibly badly done. The film does have a minor surprise in the end, so it doesn't follow NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD completely.

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

David Deal Enjoyed:

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (25) - Fans will appreciate and enjoy the interviews with the surviving members and the vintage performances.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (66)

JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME (25) - Excellent documentary featuring lots of the folks Candy worked with. Highly recommended.

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (65)

MON UNCLE (59)

Mildly Enjoyed

MAN TRAILER (34) - On the lam after being unjustly charged with murder, Buck Jones joins a gang of rustlers. He balks when the gang leader wants to up their game. When he thwarts the gang's attempt to rob a stage, the nearest town makes him sheriff thereby setting up a conflict of interest. A bit more complex take on the misunderstood oater hero but this shows flashes of quality not usually found in the era (thank Lambert Hillyer). Jones is compelling whereas his love interest Cecilia Parker is less so.

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

Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS" (1953)
"GODZILLA" (1954)
TCM then showed these two back to back. The first is a Ray Harryhausen classic which is said to have inspired the latter. The latter was the original unaltered version of the film. Made with a certain pacing and timing. Even though the effects are of a different kind (Suitmation, instead of "Dynamation") the original is more an allegory of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan than just your average giant monster movie. A must see film as is the first film. 

Mildly enjoyed:

"HORROR HOTEL" (aka THE CITY OF THE DEAD") (1960)
TCM is going through it's Halloween related films and aired this gem of witchcraft horror film, "Horror Hotel" A young beautiful female student goes to a small New England town historically known to be where witches were burned at the stake. Unfortunately for her the villagers still practice witchcraft and human sacrifice. Enter her brother who goes to the town when his sister has been gone longer than she said she would be. There he meets the daughter of the only priest in town played by Betta St. John (known for having costarred with Gordon Scott in two different Tarzan pictures; one where she meets an unfortunate end as an unfaithful wife.), who try to fight the witches. Christopher Lee turns out to be the chief witch who suggested our young female student where she should go to do her research. Interesting witchcraft horror film.

"THE BLACK SCORPION" (1957)
"THE GIANT BEHEMOTH" (1959)
TCM were showing large monster films back to back and they showed these two which feature special effects by Willis O'Brien, the creator of the special stop motion effects from "The Lost World" (1925) and the original "King Kong" (1933) Here in the first film, giant Black Scorpions attack a Mexican Village. They meet their end when electrodes attached to strong electric generators with voltage strong enough to kill them are shot at them. 
The second feature has a dinosaur who like an eel emits rays; but peculiar to this creature it emits rays that are radioactive.  He meets his end when underwater, he is shot by a torpedo filled with radium into its mouth. The effects are okay, but not what you would expect from the creator of such effects.

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

Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

The virgin queen (1955, Henry Koster)

The tall men (1955, Raoul Walsh)

Alias Smith & Jones – episode « Alias Smith and Jones » (1970, Gene Levitt)

Some mothers do' ave' em – episode « The RAF reunion » (1973, Michael Mills)

Hell bent for leather (1960, George Sherman)

Mildly Enjoyed

Duel on the Mississipi (1955, William Castle)

The black shield of Falworth (1954, Rudolph Maté)

Kaze no na wa amunejia / The wind of amnesia (anime) (1993, Rintaro, Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoshiaki Kawajiri)

The walking hills (1949, John Sturges)

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2003, Maurice Phillips)

The king and four queens (1956, Raoul Walsh)

Did not enjoy:

The night of the following day (1968, Hubert Cornfield)

The ninth gate (1999, Roman Polanski)

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