To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
In which Italian/Spanish Western does a natural right handed actor have his gunhand mangled, so that he has to kill the bad guys in the end with his left hand?
No one correctly answered this one yet.
In which Italian/Spanish Western does a natural left handed actor have his gun hand disabled, so that he has to kill the bad guys in the end with this right hand?
No one correctly answered this one yet.
In which Italian/Spanish Western does the hero have both hands mangled so that he has to take off the trigger guard of his pistol in order to access the trigger?
Tom Betts, George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was DJANGO.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Which Spanish actress worked with directors Giorgio Capitani, Mario Caiano, Giorgio Simonelli, Maury Dexter, Fernando Cerchio and Burt Kennedy?
Which Spanish actor worked with directedos Burt Kennedy, Gene Quintano, Richard Lester, Claudio Fragasso, Ferdinando Baldi and Sergio Leone?
Which Spanish actor worked with Abel Gance, Sam Wanamaker, Sergio Corbucci, Edward Dmytryk, Enzo G. Castellari and Burt Kennedy?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Rosemary Dexter and Peter Lee Lawrence in PER QUALCHE DOLLARO IN PIU, aka FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes and Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Elisa Montes and Luciano Marin in ERCOLE, SANSONE, MACISTE E URSUS GLI INVINCIBILI, aka SAMSON AND THE MIGHTY CHALLENGE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Mirko Valentin and Christopher Lee in LA VERGINE DI NORIMBERGA, aka HORROR CASTLE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Sam Hui in SWORDSMAN.
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:
DJANGO & DJANGO (2021) - I resisted watching this for a while because I feared it would be mostly about DJANGO UNCHAINED which I still haven't watched. Thankfully, it isn't. It is a review of Sergio Corbucci's Westerns. As much as I dislike the choice of Quentin Tarantino as the Corbucci expert, he doesn't say much that is irritating - though his recounting of what I think are bits from his novelization of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is a bit bewildering. Franco Nero doesn't mention the fracture of his relationship with Corbucci but Ruggero Deodato doesn't try to take too much credit for the success of DJANGO, so that's a good thing. Overall director Luca Rea put together an interesting program, though I would have liked more about Corbucci's career before and after the Westerns.
Did not enjoy:
CROOKED ARROWS (2012) - As a rule, I don't like sports movies. Produced in association with the Onondaga Nation, this movie is credited to writers Brad Riddell (who is credited with writing SLAP SHOT 3) and Todd Baird who highlight the Native American history behind the game of lacrosse. Brandon Routh returns to the reservation he left long ago to become the new manager of their casino. He wants to expand the business onto land previously set aside for lacrosse, but he has to get the permission of the Trival Council chaired by his father, Gil Birmingham (an actor whose father was Commanche). Birmingham will only agree to the deal if Routh will take on the task of coaching the high school lacrosse team, on which his sister Chelsea Ricketts was a player before a bad leg injury. Of course, Routh takes on the task and only succeeds after he understands his own racial roots, and turns his back on the corporate pressures threatening the reservation. In the end, he also gains the love of the white high school teacher played by the beautiful Crystal Allen. Director Steve Rash had an aupacious beginning to his career with THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, but by 2005 he was directing straight to video sequels to AMERICAN PIE and BRING IT ON. CROOKED ARROWS was a return to a theatrical feature, but after its failure, he seems to have retired.
DESPERATE LIVING (1977) - After the good natured outrageousness of PINK FLAMINGOS and FEMALE TROUBLE, writer/director/producer/cameraman John Waters seems to have decided to go nasty with this film, throwing in a lot of material which one might expect of an X-rated film, though not hardcore sex. There is a lot of male nudity, simulated hetero and lesbian sex as well as bloody violence. While PINK FLAMINGOS was notorious for Divine's "shit eating grin", this film could be notorious for Mink Stole's "blowing it out her ass". Mental patient Stole is home and not recovering from her stay in an institution. When her husband, George Stover, tries to give her an injection to calm her, she violently knocks him down. The very large black maid, Jean Hill, ends up sitting on Stover's face, killing him. Stole and Hill go on the lam, but are stopped by a motorcycle cop, who wants their underwear inorder to let them go. He tells them that he'll let them escape to Mortville, a place where criminals and perverts are beyond the law. Needless to say, Mortville is really disgusting and is ruled by the vicious Queen Edith Massey and her small army of mesh shirted and leather pants wearing men who frequently strip off to sleep with the Queen. Stole ends up joining the Queen in a plan to kill off the other residents of Mortville by infecting them with rabies, which Stole prepares in a boiling cauldron as if she was an evil witch from a Walt Disney cartoon. Eventually, the residents, including Susan Lowe and Liz Renay, overpower Massey and cook her on a spit like a pig. Waters is working with a noticably larger budget here than his previous films, including a castle made of plywood. This is more grotesque than humorous. If you ever wanted to see Liz Renay's large breasts, this is the movie for you.
HERO MODE (2021) - As much as I don't like sports movies, I don't like movies about video games. This is basically a sports movie in disguise. Small time video company owner Mira Sorvino asks her son, Chris Carpenter, to invent a new video game before an upcoming convention. She hopes that this new game will save her company from being taken over by rival CEO Nelson Franklin. When the presentation at the convention hits a snag, Carpenter's romantic interest, Indiana Massara, is able to fill the downtime by singing a song boosting the new game until the presentaton is ready to view. This movie seems a bit of a family affair with the story credited to Chris, Ellie, Jeff and Marcy Carpenter, with Jeff getting screenplay credit. Marcy also gets a producer's credit. This is the only feature film credit for TV director AJ Tesler. In addition to Sorvino, this project also brought in Monte Markham, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Sean Astin.
LOS BANDIDOS, aka THE BANDITS (1967) - I don't know if the idea for this movie was Robert Conrad's or Alfredo Zacarias', but they came together to co-direct, and co-write, with Edward Di Lorenzo, this project in Mexico for Zacarias' production company. This was made during an hiatus for Conrad's The Wild Wild West, and many of the behind the scenes talent also worked on The Wild Wild West. Three Gringos, Robert Conrad, Roy Jenson and Jan-Michael Vincent, are about to be hung by a gang of bounty hunters, when shots ring out. Luckily, the horses the Gringos are on do not spook, but all of the bounty hunters fall dead. The Gringos have been saved by three Mexicans, led by Manuel Lopez Ochoa. In exchange for saving their lives, the Gringos are asked to help the Mexicans ambush a troop of French soldiers who have followed them over the boarder into Texas. The ambush works and none of the Mexicans or Gringos are hurt. Only the leader of the soldiers, Captain Jose Chavez, is still alive. Ochoa decides that putting Chavez out of his misery is too easy, so he is left to die from his wounds. Of course, this is a bad idea, and Chavez is found by some Texas Rangers, who patch him up. The Rangers know that the three Gringos have gone into Mexico, where the Rangers can not go. So, a deal is made that Chavez will go after the Gringos, which he would have done anyway. It turns out that Ochoa had led a group of revolutionaries to steal the gold what was to pay the French soldiers. Seven of his men were killed before Ochoa was able to hide the stolen gold, so he is now hated in his village. Ochoa makes a deal with Conrad to have the Gringos help him retrieve the gold from where it is hidden. Before they leave to get the gold, Conrad and Vincent have the time to romance two women in the village. While our "heroes" are away from the village to massacre a group of soldiers preparing an ambush, Chavez arrives in the village with a new troop of soldiers to brutalize the inhabitants looking for our "heroes". Elizabeth Dupeyron is identified as the woman who spent time with Conrad, and after she refuses to talk, Chavez has her dispatched by a firing squad. In the end, our "heroes" have been betrayed as they try to dig up the gold hidden in a monestary and they are surrounded by soldiers. Will Conrad get his revenge before being gunned down? As co-director, Conrad gives himself a rather spectacular death scene. The "heroes" not shot to pieces are then hung from the bell tower of the monestary. That's a rather downbeat ending to a rather ordinary adventure film. It is no wonder that no U.S. distributor picked up the film until 1979. On the plus side, director of photography Ted Voigtlander provided many attractive shots of the locations. On the minus side, composter Manuel Esperon provided a rather cringe inducing music score.
THE COMMANDO (2022) - Do you like CGI gun bursts and bullet hits? Then you may enjoy this poorly made action flick more than I did. I am not convinced that the DEA tactics for raiding an illegal drug lab are as portrayed here. Suspects are killed by a sniper and guards get their throats slit without any officers yelling out "D.E.A. you're under arrest." That's just as well, as the bad guys start shooting as soon as they see the agents. Captain Michael Jai White shoots back furiously and is shocked to discover that three women, hidden in a side room, were killed by his fire. Suffering from PSD, White is sent home to his house in the middle of nowhere with this wife and two daughters. Meanwhile career criminal Mickey Rourke is released from prison. It turns out that White's house is where Routke used to live and he's hidden millions of dollars under the floor and in the walls of that house. Rourke enlists his old buddy, Sheriff Jeff Fahey, to get White out of the house while his minions go after the money. Since the parents are out of the house, one of the daughters invites her friends over for a party, so there are plenty of victims for the minions to kill. Eventually, White gets home, sees what's going on, and goes on a killing spree himself. It all comes down to a three way standoff between White, Rourke and Fahey. Who will survive? Does anyone really care? Director Asif Akbar shares the blame for the story with Koji Steven Sakai and Al Bravo, while Sakai gets sole blame for the screenplay.
JOHNNY WEST IL MANCINO, aka JOHNNY WEST THE LEFT-HANDED (1965) - For years I thought GOD'S GUN was the worst film directed by Gianfranco Parolini, but now I've seen JOHNNY WEST. I blamed the poor quality of GOD'S GUN on the fact that Parolini made it in Israel without the talents of those that made the Italian Westerns look so good. And the fact that he had become obsessed with the zoom lens. Well, JOHNNY WEST looks terrific, and giving Mimmo Palmara, aka Dick Palmer, the opportunity to play a Western hero seemed a great idea. However, the screenplay, credited to director Parolini, Giovanni Simonelli, Jerez Aloza and Robert De Nesle, is so bad that it is hard to believe the filmmakes actually had a script from which to work and didn't just made up stuff as they went along. It seems to me that this film was quickly put into production because of the huge success of PER QUALCHE DOLLARO IN PIU, aka FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. In that film, Clint Eastwood was called "Il Manco" or "the one-armed" because he did everything with his left hand except shoot. So, these filmmakers decided to have their hero called "Il Mancino" or "the left-handed" to echo the other film. For long stretches of this film, the story seemed to be about two competing peddlers, Roger Delaporte and Andre Bollet, who with their buddy Roberto Camardiel get drunk and knock each other about destroying whatever establishment in which they happen to be. It is hard to believe that this was made before ARIZONA COLT, because Camardiel's character is virtually identical in the other film. After perhaps the most confusing stagecoach robbery in cinema history, Palmara comes upon the scene and kills the guys who murdered a bank employee. He stops short of killing Mike Anthony, aka Adriano Micantoni, and two of his minions - who were obviously part of the murder scheme. Why? Later on, Micantoni traps Palmara when he visits Mara Cruz and her father and smashes Palmara's gunhand - which, unlike in PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI, aka FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, doesn't recover. While Palmara is out cold, Micantoni's twin brother arrives to murder Cruz and her father. They do not kill Palmara? Why? So that they can frame Palmara for the act. Meanwhile, young Bob Felton, aka Roberto Robles, is acting out of control because of the death of his father, inspite of the efforts of his saloon girlfriend to calm him down. Micantoni's minions take him to a secret cave where his father is still alive. After knocking Felton out, Micantoni forces the father to sign over a deed to his secret gold mine. The villain kills the father, but Felton doesn't know that, and they threaten to kill the father if Felton reveals any of what he did see. Eventually, the peddlers and Palmara end up in jail, but Sheriff Barta Barry, aka Barta Barri, has a soft heart, and has been browbeaten by his wife into letting the peddlers go in the past. So, the peddlers aren't too surprised when the keys to the cell are thrown through the window. Needless to say, Palmara insists that they break him out as well. Only Palmara seems surprised to find his horse waiting for him outside along with the peddlers' gear. It turns out that in order to get the newly signed deed into the bank safe, Micantoni has to rob the bank at night. He's stuffed all of the bank money into Palmara's saddle bags to frame him for the deed. After more incidents in which our hero should have killed the villain, and a very confusing resolution to the sheriff being convinced of Palmara's innocence, Palmara finally confronts Micantoni in a saloon. The villain kills Palmara's dog before our hero kills him. The minions threaten that Micantoni's brother will come for revenge in the morning. So, the film finally reaches a climax with Camardiel littering the town with explosive bottles as the villain's small army arrives to deposit a trick coffin before our heroes. Someone decided that an indian maiden should suddenly fall in love with Palmara, so that she can beg him not to go as he rides away at the end. One element of GOD'S GUN that is superior to JOHNNY WEST is the music score by Sante Maria Romitelli, which is more tuneful than what Angelo Francesco Lavagnino delivered to JOHNNY WEST. The irritating theme song, performed by Katyna Ranieri, has English language lyrics credited to director Parolini.
LIGHTYEAR (2022) - The effort of five years resulted in this overblown and irritating animated science fiction action flick that surely wasn't intended for kids.
OSAKA TOUGH GUYS (1995) - Many of director Takashi Miike's early V-Cinema movies are wacky, and since this was inspired by a manga made by Dokuman this one is wackier than usual. It is also a parody of the popular "yanki" movies about juvenile delinquent yakuzas. While some bits are funny, overall the movie felt too long and dull witted. Yoshiyuki Omori and Kentaro Nakakura are two delinquent high schoolers who blackmail their principal for one million yen whlie being kicked out of school. Looking for work, they end up being forced to sign a contract with a yakuza group. Meanwhlie, they end up helping to save a young woman being harassed by bullies on the street and then end up saving her when it turns out that a video for which she got a role is for an underground porno by a rival yakuza group. Thankfully the oversized Rikiya Yashoka often shows up to save them.
EL SABOR DE LA VENGANZA, aka THE TASTE OF THE SAVAGE (1971) - Take the standard plot of many Westerns - a boy sees his father gunned down by three men. What if his quest for revenge drives him insane? That seems to be the concept behind the story by Ricardo Garibay, which was adapted by Toni Sbert, and then finally made into the screenplay by Joe Morhaim, aka Joe Morheim, and director Alberto Mariscal. Perhaps in an attempt to make the film more intense, Mariscal has his cast overplay every emotion, particularly star Jorge Luke, who seems on the verge of hysteria much of the time. Isela Vega has proven to be a good actress in other films, but here she seems to be over doing it. Cameron Mitchell seems to not be going along with that direction, and plays most of his scenes stone cold. After the murder of her husband, Vega hires gunman Mitchell to teach her son, Luke, how to kill. For the most part, Luke is living a quiet life, aside from wanting to romance rich man Arthur Hansel's daughter Helena Rojo. Then, one night, Luke recognizes one of his father's murderers in a saloon. He executes the man, shooting him in the eye, which is shown in graphic detail. Hansel decides to hire Luke as a killer. Soon, Luke is on the run looking for his father's other murderers. Hearing that Luke is out of control, Mitchell comes looking for him. Meanwhile, Luke flies into a rage when Rojo rejects him, so he rapes her. Before long, Luke is killing everyone, including Mitchell, Mario Almada, Hansel (who had paid to have Luke's father murdered) and even his mother. In keeping with other Westerns made at the beginning of the 1970s, THE TASTE OF THE SAVAGE has a lot of graphic bloodletting, but the plotting is rather weak. The film goes for shock value instead of audience identification and as a result is rather dull. You need not look for a soundtrack album for Ruben Fuentes' music score.
SINGLE NOT SEARCHING (2022) - I was not a member of the audience for which this movie was made. As one of their friends is getting married in Ghana, three other African American women leave Atlanta with the hope that they can find more worthwhile men in Africa. Among the obstacles they find are people who still believe in no sex before marriage. LisaRaye is billed as LisaRaye McCoy, alongside Osas Ighodaro, Brely Evans and Erica Pinkett. Korey Hagans co-wrote this with director Michael Akwesi Djaba which was produced by Djaba's company iFactorylive.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
THE LION OF THEBES (64)
SECRET MALL APARTMENT (25)
GHOST TOWN (88) - Spoiled rich girl Catherine Hickland is driving across the desert on the run from her wedding when her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Once out of her car, a mysterious dust storm appears, and she is kidnapped by who knows what. When her car is found abandoned lawman Franc Luz follows her trail to a rundown, empty western town. But it's not empty; it is filled with the ghosts of the townsfolks and the outlaws who used to live there and they intend to keep Catherine. Fun desert terror entry from Charles Band's Empire Pictures. It doesn't always make sense, but it looks good and has plenty of creepy action.
THE OUTFIT (73) - For Robert Duval.
HOT MONEY GIRL (59)
Mildly Enjoyed:
THE LIPSTICK (60) - 14-year-old Laura Vivaldi falls for 30-year-old neighbor Pierre Brice. When he's accused of murder, all sorts of truths emerge throughout the investigation. An interesting mystery very much of its time. This was director Damiano Damiani's (The Witch, A Bullet for the General) first feature, and it shows some of the polish of his later, more intricate pictures.
HIPNOS FOLLIA DI MASSACRO (67) - AKA Massacre Mania. A series of unrelated, seemingly unmotivated murders is happening on Thursday nights in Rome. When psychiatrist Robert Woods is attacked by his girlfriend Rada Rassimov, he discovers the television show she was watching contains subliminal frames of a masked man. Both of them decide to investigate. Rada interviews a scientist-turned-sculptor (Fernando Sancho) who had created a method of hypnotizing people via television, and it turns out a masked super villain is using it to create havoc. Or something. Director Paolo Bianchini's similar Eurospy entry The Devil's Man also featured a masked villain and much nonsense interspersed with bouts of boredom. The two leads are good and it's fun to see Sancho in a different type of role (albeit only a cameo) but for the most part this was unimpressive. A minor point of interest is a short scene of Maurizio Merli as an early suspect.
I WAS A SATELLITE OF THE SUN (59)
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
La strada (1954, Federico Fellini)
Enjoyed:
Captain Kidd (1945, Rowland V. Lee)
Seiren / Siren's kiss (2025, Kim Cheol-kyu) – episodes 1 to 7
Mildly enjoyed:
The legend of Tom Dooley (1959, Ted Post)
Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951, Ray Nazzaro)
Le passager de la pluie (1970, René Clément)
Did not enjoy:
Los bandidos (1967, Alfredo Zacarias)
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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:
"GIFTED" (2017)
Stars Chris Pine of "Captain America'/Fantastic Four" fame as the uncle of a math prodigy played by McKenna Grace (before she started playing the similar role of child prodigy, Paige on "Young Sheldon"); whose mother, also a math genius, committed suicide and left her daughter to her brother because she didn't want her mother to get her hands on Grace. So Pine's mother played by Lindsay Duncan sues for custody. Octavia Spencer is also in it as Pine's landlady.
'SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO" (1977/95)
Wanting to see if my VCR still worked, I pulled out this "anime" film I had on VHS that I hadn't watched. This apparently was an edited feature version of a TV show using film from the TV series, which aired on TV in the seventies under the title, "Stablazers". The plot is the Earth has been decimated by radioactive fallout and the crew of the Battleship Yamito. (combination spaceship; battleship and submarine; something like "Atragon" (1963/5) are our last hope. They fight the aliens from the planet, Gamilus, who want to take over the Earth. There are friendly aliens from the planet Iscandar who want to help us, so the Yamato heads for Iscandar for their help. Even though I never watched the series and knew nothing about it, this was a nice little to enjoy it.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
Movin' On tv episode S1E7 "The Good Life". Upon rescuing him during an oil rig mishap, the supervisor (George Maharis) offers Sonny and Will a lucrative job. Their first assignment is to wine and dine a venture capitalist who happens to be a female (Loraine Stephens). Their humble roots prevent them from enjoying the good life for very long.
McCloud Meets Dracula S7E06. The final episode of the series with Dennis Weaver features John Carradine playing either a disturbed resident of the Big Apple while a sniper is on the loose, or the real vampire. A tribute to his earlier roles in the 40's comes with Diana Muldaur watching Universal's HOUSE OF DRACULA and HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN on television. Ironically a shot of the twin towers is back drop to McCloud's comments that there was very little happening to shake up the city.
THE WHITE ORCHID (1954) Adventurer William Lundigan acquires a photographer for his trip in Mexico searching for a lost temple. It turns out, to his chauvenist dismay, to be a feisty golden haired woman (Peggy Castle). A romantic triangle forms with guide Armando Silvestre.
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