July 13 - 19, 2024

 

 

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

Brain Teasers:

From what Titanus Production was Sergio Leone reportedly fired?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was SODOMA E GOMORRA, aka THE LAST DAYS OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH.

Which Italian actress was born in Libya and was married to the man who produced many of her films?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was Rossana Podesta, who was married to Marco Vicario.

Which American actor complained that Joseph E. Levine offered him a contract just to ruin his relationship with producer Carlo Ponti?

No one has answered this question yet.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which actress, born in Finland in 1948, made four films with the director of IL MAGNIFICO GLADIATORE?

Which actress, born in Venice in 1950, also made eleven films with the director of IL MAGNIFICO GLADIATORE?

Which American director, who made a film starring Bobby Vinton and Jackie DeShannon, shot a Western in Spain?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in ...CONTINUAVANO A CHIAMARLO TRINITA, aka TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

 

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Terence Hill in CARTAGINE IN FIAMME, aka CARTHAGE IN FLAMES.

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 Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger in LA CADUTA DEGLI DEI, aka THE DAMNED.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo from SHAOLIN VS. LAMA.

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:

Mildly enjoyed:

Raising Fame "Danielle Brooks" (2024)

Uncnsrd "Kandi Burress" (2024)

Did not enjoy:

LA CRUZ DEL DIABLO, aka CROSS OF THE DEVIL, aka THE DEVIL'S CROSS (1975) - Gustavo Adolfo Becquer was a "romantic" writer in the 19th century. Reportedly Spanish Horror star Paul Naschy was inspired to write a screenplay based on three of Becquer's short stories: La cruz del diablo, El monte des las animals and Maese Perez. Naschy turned the script over to producer Juan Jose Porto, who then rewrote it and sold it to producer Quique Herreros Jr. without Naschy's permission. When British director John Gilling was brought onto the project, he decided to not use Naschy as an actor. Naschy ended up suing the filmmakers, winning a small settlement and getting a writing credit, which he didn't want because of all of the changes to his script. Who knows if Naschy's original script would have made a better film, but the version that was made was a drag. Starting off as if it was another of the "Blind Dead" Knights Templar series, the movie introduced us to British writer Ramiro Oliveros who had a vision of Emma Cohen being hunted down by the Knights Templar. Was it a dream or an hallucination due to Oliveros smoking Hash? Carmen Sevilla assured Oliveros that she loved him no matter what. Oliveros then got a letter from his sister, Monica Randall, in Spain saying that she was afraid of her husband, Eduardo Fajardo, who blamed her for the miscarriage of her pregnancy. While Oliveros and Sevilla set off for Spain, Randall got into an argument with her husband's secretary, Adolfo Marsillach. When Oliveros and Sevilla arrived in Spain, it was in time for Randall's funeral. Oliveros wasn't satisfied that the man the Police arrested for Randall's murder was guilty, and his apparent suicide in prison satisfied him even less. Oliveros decided that he wanted to visit where his sister was murdered, even though there were many superstitions surrounding the Cross of the Devil near the Mountain of Souls.One of the legends involved Emma Cohen convincing her suitor, Tony Isbert, to retrieve her lost scarf near the Cross of the Devil around midnight on the Eve of All-Souls Day, which was when the Knights Templar supposedly rise from their graves. Attempting to recount more of the plot would take up more space than I want to spend on this dreary movie, which was never more scary than it was confusing before it finally came to its rather predictable and unsatisfying conclusion. Fernando Sancho also appeared as the owner of a tavern.

HIT TEAM (2001) - Very much in the style of a John Woo film, but without all of that slow motion stuff, HIT TEAM is another pre-"hand over" to the PRC in which the cops swear loyalty to the Queen of England. Undercover cop Kar Lok Chin is shot in the back during a raid on counterfeiters, but as he lost his cell phone and can't prove that he called his superior prior to the gun battle, he is kicked off the force. In the hospital, his cop buddies are told that if he doesn't have an expensive operation in Switzerland within a few months, he may never walk again. Naturally Alex To convincines his team mates that they should steal the needed money from the criminals who shot Chin. Inspector Daniel Wu begins to suspect that cops are responsible for the pile of dead bodies at a criminal warehouse, and even figures out where the cops next plan to attack the bad guys money. Unfortunately, the bad guys had prepared for such an attack and set a trap killing most of the team and capturing one of them. Wu is ordered to take To into custody, but To convinces Wu to help him save the captured man. Not only do they find the captured man dead, but he's also been boobytrapped. Surviving the explosion, Wu and To kill all of the bad guys and take the recovered money to Chin at the airport. At first Chin refuses to take the money, but Wu convinces him that if he doesn't take the money, the sacrifices of his friends would have been in vain. As Chin goes onto the plane, To puts out his hands for Wu to slap on the handcuffs. This was Dante Lam's fifth film as a director, but he is best known for the film he made in 2003. THE TWINS EFFECT, aka VAMPIRE EFFECT, which is better known because of Jackie Chan's involvement. Both films have a lot of action and spectacular stunts, but aren't dramatically engaging and are rather predictable.

UNCHARTED (2022) - While this is based on a video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, it looks like the writers just sat in a room and decided to cobble together their favorite bits from other movies like NATIONAL TREASURE, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and various James Bond films. That is probably from where the video game makers got their ideas, so this is a rehash of a rehash. Director Ruben Fleischer had previously made ZOMBIELAND and VENOM, so he had a handle on mixing comedy and action with alot of CGI. And the casting of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg seemed ripe for what the producers obviously hoped for as a continuing movie franchise, Unfortunately, none of this appealed to me. This was just a lot of noisy scenes of people running around hitting each other until they got guns and began shooting each other. This is the first movie I've seen that begins with a Play Station Productions logo. Columbia/Sony partnered with Marvel and helped to make Holland a star with the Spider-Man movies, and they obviously tried to copy the Marvel style in having extra scenes at two points during the end credits. I didn't contribute to this film becoming the fifth-highest-grossing vido game film of all time - behind #4 RAMPAGE (2018), #3 WARCRAFT (2016), #2 POKEMON DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019) and #1 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023) - so I'm not the intended audience.

Y AURA-T-IL DE LA NEIGE A NOEL?, aka WILL IT SNOW AT CHRISTMAS (1996) - When Dominique Reymond was a young woman she fell in love with Daniel Duval, a married man who owned a farm. Duval had Reymond live on the farm, while he lived in town with his wife and children. At the beginning of the movie, Reymond has had seven children with Duval, one still an infant. The children work the farm along with a couple of hired men. Duval is quite demanding of his mistress and her brood, and she takes great care to try and protect the young from his harshness. One night, Duval sees the eldest daughter being playful with a boy her age, and can't resist making a play for her. Reymond demands that Duval leave them alone from now on. There is a question of whether it will snow on Christmas, which the children want even though it is freezing in their small house. On the night before Christmas, Reymond relates to the children an old dream she had about meeting God who said that she would have seven children. She also talks about surviving being in an orphanage and how lucky they all were living in the country together. In the early hours of Christmas, the mother sees that snow has begun to fall, so she awakens her children so that they can go outside and play in it. Co-writer and director Sandrine Veysset was awarded the Cesar Award for "Best First Feature Film" and showed a great ability at capturing a group of kids being natural on film. Low key and slowly paced, WILL IT SNOW AT CHRISTMAS is remarkable for capturing a sense of reality, but is not a thrilling viewing experience. Was this film based on Veysset's own life?

 

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David Deal Enjoyed:

EVA HESSE (16) - Interesting documentary on the artist.

REMEMBERING GENE WILDER (23) - First rate documentary on the actor.

BEYOND THE VISIBLE: HILMA AF KLINT (19) - Fascinating documentary on this artist years ahead of her time.

JUNE (23) - Revealing documentary on June Carter Cash.

BLIND SPOT (47) - Writer Chester Morris gets drunk and threatens to kill his publisher in a locked room murder. He tells this to a couple of people who have incentive to do so themselves. Next day, the publisher is dead and Chester doesn't remember a thing. Fun little mystery that weaves around its prime suspects until someone comes clean. Constance Dowling is the femme fatale.

FLETCH (85)

NIGHT OF THE DEMON (57)

IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (63)

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (43)

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES" (1962)
TCM is presenting a tribute to Roger Corman and this one was on,e I barely remember seeing. So it was like brand new to me. Ray Milland was a like a revelation. So good as the well meaning scientist who experiments on himself with dire consequences. The finale is exceptional.

"CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND" (The Director's cut) (1977/80/98)
TCM was also showing a double header about space aliens coming to Earth. First was the director's cut of CE3K. I saw the original when it was released in 1977 and the special edition in 1980. This version is the best, I believe and to a fan like me, it was like an old friend.

"THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
Also as part of the TCM double header about space aliens coming to Earth, they showed the granddaddy of them all The original "Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), which happens to be one of my all time favorites. "Klaatu Barada Nikto!"

"UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE" (1967)
TCM happened to be paying tribute to Sandy Dennis with a marathon of her films, and I happen to catch this one. Hadn't seen this one in years, but have gone to New York City high school, there was a lot of familiarity. Especially since it  was filmed on location in an NYC school. There are at least five actresses and one male actor in the cast who would later gain more fame in iconic roles. They are: Jean Stapleton (pre "All in the Family"); Eileen Heckart: Florence Stanley (Bernice Fish on "Barney Miller" and "Fish"); Frances Sternhagen and Sorrell Booke, best known as "Boss Hogg" in "The Dukes of Hazard" (1979-1985)   The film was directed by Robert Mulligan, who also directed "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962). Still worth a viewing . The ending played like a TV series.

"THE BLACK SCORPION" (1957)
I believe this film showcases the last work on film of legendary stop motion animator, Willis O'Brien.
Interesting as it takes place in Mexico where the title creatures, giant black scorpions wreak havoc.

"THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS" (1953)
A Ray Harryhausen classic.

"THEM!" (1954)
Another giant monster classic.

"BABYLON 5" (1993-1998) Season 1; Episode 3--"Born to the Purple"
I liked this series. The episode in question has Ambassador Molari, a prominent character, who is, to all appearances, a middle-aged male falling in love with a young female exotic dancer from his planet who will unwillingly betray him.The romance in the episode reaches its finale in a realistic manner, I feel.  The episode ends with a bitter-sweet ending, which is why this series entertained me.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Cheyenne (1947, Raoul Walsh)

House of the long shadows (1982, Pete Walker)

Such brave girls – season 1 (6 epis)

Did not enjoy:

Agent recon (2023, Derek Ting)

Quintana (1969, Vincenzo Musolino)

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July 6 - 12, 2024

 

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which American actor, who made Italian Westerns, is credited as the co-director of two American films in the 1950s?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was John Ireland.

Which Italian stuntman frequently doubled for Lee Van Cleef?

Tom Betts, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Romano Puppo.

Which Italian director began his career with a Western starring Gianni Garko and Ivan Rassimov?

Tom Betts and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Mario Siciliano with I VIGLIACCHI NON PREGANO, aka THE TASTE OF VENGEANCE.

And now for some new brain teasers:

From what Titanus Production was Sergio Leone reportedly fired?

Which Italian actress was born in Libya and was married to the man who produced many of her films?

Which American actor complained that Joseph E. Levine offered him a contract just to ruin his relationship with producer Carlo Ponti?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, and Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Alex Cord and Robert Ryan in UNO MINUTO PER PREGARE, UN ISTANTE PER MORIRE, aka A MINUTE TO PRAY A SECOND TO DIE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

 

Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Scilla Gabel and Mimmo Palmara in SODOM AND GOMORRAH.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one has identified the above photo yet.

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:

AFI Lifetime Achievement Honoring Nicole Kidman (2024)

INFERNO ROSS: JOE D'AMATO SULLA VIA DELL'ECCESSO, aka INFERNO ROSSO: JOE D'AMATO ON THE ROAD TO EXCESS (2021) - On the Severin Blu-ray, there is an extra called "Two of a Kind: Talking about Joe" in which the co-director and co-writer of the documentary Manilo Gomarasca chats with Giona A. Nazzaro of the Locarno Film Festival. They think back on when they first became aware of Aristide Massaccesi, aka Joe D'Amato. This sends me back to when I first became aware of him. I started Spaghetti Cinema in 1984, and the first film I reviewed after seeing it in a theater was THE BLADE MASTER. Back before the internet, I didn't know that it was a sequel to ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE, which was a film I didn't see when it was in theaters because, at the time, I didn't want to bother seeing movies I was convinced were bad. Thanks to readers who had access to French publications, I soon was made aware the director David HIlls was actually Aristide Massaccesi, who also worked under the name Joe D'Amato. I was soon collecting every Italian movie I could find, and when I had too many featuring Laura Gemser, I decided to do an article on her in 1985 partly so that I could erase all of those videotapes of movies I didn't like. Possibly my favorite of her movies was ENDGAME, which turns out to be Nazzaro's favorite film by Massaccesi. Armed with extensive filmographies provided to me by readers with access to French fanzines, I decided to do a series of articles, starting in 1987, on Massaccesi, partly because he was either the Camera Operator or Director of Photography on some of my favorite films including FIVE GIANTS FROM TEXAS and BEN AND CHARLIE. This would also give me the ability to erase the videotapes of his films I didn't like. Around this same time, I met Richard Harrison who had done two films with Massaccesi (and neither film is mentioned in the documentary).  The first film was a Pirate movie called PUGNI, PIRATI E KARATE, which had gone well. So when Massaccesi invited him to make another film called VOODOO BABY, he accepted, even though he would be required to do more nudity than usual. The film came out theatrically with the title ORGASMO NERO, but Harrison had no qualms about his wife's mother and father going to see it. What Harrison didn't know, was that Massaccesi had added hardcore sex scenes featuring Mark Shannon. This embarrassment caused Harrison to angrily tell Massaccesi that he'd never work with him again. In the "Outtakes" section of the DVD, Annamaria Clementi talks about a similar occurence on the film IL PORNO SHOP DELLA SETTIMA STRADA, except that her main complaint was that the hardcore double used for her didn't look like her at all. It is actually the "Outtakes" section of the Blu-ray that is the most fun as participants talk about the making of films like ARENA (featuring a bit from Roger Corman and Pam Grier), RED COATS, EMANUELLE AROUND THE WORLD, CALIGULA THE UNTOLD STORY, EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE, ENDGAME and TOUGH TO KILL. Plus there is some information about Ajita Wilson. The main documentary by Massimiliano Zanin and Gomarasca is an attempt to correct the perspective in Italy that Joe D'Amato was only the king of Italian pornography, though they do credit him with creating "Spaghetti Porno" with 1980's BLACK SEX. Reportedly, Massaccesi was more ambitious than that, but when his company Filmirage went bankrupt, he found that the only way to pay off his debtors was by making porno films, with which he had become bored. I've not seen everything Massaccesi made, but I think that the best thing he ever did was to produce Michele Soavi's directorial debut STAGEFRIGHT.

Professor T. season one, two and three (2021-24) - I've only had a few opportunties to see the original Belgian TV series from 2015, so I'm referring to the British remake with Ben Miller. I'd been a fan of Juliet Aubrey since I saw her in the Middlemarch TV mini-series of 1994, but couldn't stand the Primeval TV series of 2007. I very much enjoyed her on this show. I'd been a fan of Juliet Stevenson since I saw her in TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY back in 1990, so I was thrilled when she joined Professor T. in its second season. With its combination of deadpan seriousness and flights of whimsical fantasy, this show was a joy.

Yellowjackets season one (2021-22) - I was already a fan of Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci, and now I'm fond of Ella Purnell and Sophie Thatcher. So far the show has kept its perverse mysteries completely unpredictable.

Mildly enjoyed:

TAKE AIM AT THE POLICE VAN (1960) - A police van (or bus) transporting prisoners is waylaid on a country road and two prisoners are murdered by a marksman with a scoped carbine. Prison guard Michitaro Mizushima, whose philosophy is that criminals are people, too, and that there is good in everyone, decides to use his six month suspension to investigate why the incident took place. Naturally Police Captain Tatsuo Matsushita tells him to back off and let the cops handle the case, but Mizushima can't leave it alone, especially since he's worried that newly paroled prisoner Shoichi Ozawa might have been a target. At one point while our hero is questioning Talent Agency owner Misako Watanabe, she asks him if he likes convoluted detective stories, which, obviously the screenwriters of this film do. Events in the film don't really make sense - like why kill a stripper while she's entertaining a room full of men by shooting an arrow through a rice paper screen to hit her in her left breast? Director Seijun Suzuki has become a darling of Western film critics, but his sometime surrealistic style seems fairly standard for the Japanese thrillers that I saw while growing up on Okinawa. Was he such an inspiration for other Japanese filmmakers? Sometimes this film seems like a forerunner for a James Bond movie with the villains deciding to kill off our hero and heroine with an elaborate scheme, which, of course, doesn't work. And why don't the bad guys stick around to see if it works or not? And how do they get past our heroes to get to where the young women about to be sex-trafficked are being held? Cinematographer Shigeyoshi Mine captures everything with the beautiful expressionistic black and white widescreen photography that was standard for Japanese movies in the late 1950s and early 1960s. So, the film is fun if you don't think about it too much.

 

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David Deal Enjoyed:

TARGET FOR KILLING (66) - See The Eurospy Guide for a complete review of this Stewart Granger entry.

SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (73) - See the Television Fright Films book for a complete review of this entertaining entry.

WINNETOU III (65)

OUTLAW: GORO THE ASSASSIN (68)

HOT MONEY GIRL (59) - From 2017 "Eddie Constantine and old flame Dawn Addams team up to retrieve her box of jewels Eddie hid in Hamburg during WWII.  Fun adventure and the cold war Hamburg locations add much to the proceedings.  British film so you get Eddie's real voice."

DEAD MEN WALK (43) - From 2006 "Another revisit to this favorite George Zucco classic vampire flick that deserves a better reputation than it has. The soon-to-expire Dwight Frye adds goulish interest, and you get two Zucco's for the price of one in this atmospheric creaker."

THE LADY IN THE MORGUE (38) - From 2006 "Fun "Crime Club" mystery with Preston Foster, some denigrating humor, a graveyard sequence, and enough sassy patter to satisfy any twist with a rod."

Mildly Enjoyed

BROADWAY'S DEADLY GOLD (68)

THE GHOUL (33) - I remember when the DVD of this rare Boris Karloff entry came out and it was a revelation, but I never really warmed to it just the same.

THE HUNCHBACK OF SOHO (66)

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"COMING 2 AMERICA (aka 'COMING TO AMERICA 2)
As one of the characters in the movie says about the state of the film industry today, "they give you sequels no one wants." The film has some of the charm of the original, but that is the problem. It only has some of the charm of the original. Some of the jokes come off as retreads of jokes from the original. Still some fun for some of us who liked the original.

"VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN" (1962/68)
Roger Corman took a Russian made Sci-Fi film, dubbed it into English. Took the effects scenes and added some scenes of Mamie Van Doren and some sexy girls who say they are on the planet, Venus. Add some narration from the late Peter Bogdanovich and you have an okay flick; especially since the special effects from the Russian film are on a par with effects from some American films of the same period.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

El precio de un hombre (1966, Eugenio Martin)

Voltati... ti uccido (1967, Alfonso Brescia)

L'empire (2023, Bruno Dumont)

Mildly enjoyed:

Perché uccidi ancora (1965, Jose Antonio de la Loma & Eduardo Mulargia)

Open range – season 2 (7 episodes)

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Charles Gilbert watched:

A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE (1968) Famous outlaw gunman Clay McCord (Alex Cord) is tormented with a bum arm he believes to be caused by epilepsy passed down from his father. Governor Lem Carter (Robert Ryan) has granted blanket amnesty to all criminals in New Mexico, but rides by horseback alone to proffer it personally to the suffering McCord.

SODOM AND GOMORRAH (1962) Nomadic Hebrews, led by Abraham's nephew Lot (Stewart Granger) make a pact with the queen of Sodom in battling aggressive Helamites. But their association leads to moral corruption. Lengthy film ironically leaves out much of the brief Bible narrative.

REQUIESCANT aka REQUIEM PARA MATAR (1967) Baby-faced Colombian-born Lou Castel is protagonist to Mark Damon playing George Bellow Ferguson, a baleful aristocratic Dracula figure with greenish pallor lording over a Mexican village. Pietro Ceccarelli and Jacques Stany are a couple of his henchmen. Barbara Frey, who was married to Damon briefly, is also in this film.

GILDA (1946) B&W. According to IMDb William Smith appears uncredited. That would make him 12 years old. There are no youngsters in this overwrought love story. So much for their accuracy.

Dream Wife 1965 B&W. Sitcom television pilot with Shirley Jones as housewife Lisa Michaels who possesses the knack for reading what men are thinking. 

Honey West Unaired Pilot episode. Cesare Danova guest stars as a jewel thief.

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