Friday, February 6, 2026

February 7 - 13, 2026

 


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

Brain Teasers:

By what name is Lucien Ginsburg better known?
Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Serge Gainsbourg.

By what name is Philippe Marie Paul Leroy-Beaulieu better known?
Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Philippe Leroy.

By what name is Pasquale Ferzetti better known?
Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Gabriele Ferzetti.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which Spanish actor was a soccer player in Mexico and a singer before he became an actor?
Which Spanish actor decided that he would not work for director Sergio Corbucci again because he felt the Italian wasn't as serious as Sergio Leone?
Which Spanish actor was told by Sergio Leone that he would play Tuco if Eli Wallach turned down the role?

Name the movies from which these images came.


No one identified the above photo.
It is from NAVAJO JOE


Angel Rivera, George Grmes and Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Liana Orfei and Orson Welles in I TARTARI, aka THE TARTARS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?


Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Woody Strode, Luciana Paluzzi and Henry Silva in LA MALA ORDINA, aka HIRED TO KILL, aka THE ITALIAN CONNECTION, aka MANHUNT, aka MANHUNT IN MILAN, aka MANHUNT IN THE CITY.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?


George Grimes identified last week's photo of Lo Lieh in 14 AMAZONS.
Above is a new 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:

Dying For Sex (2025) - 8 half-hourish episodes on Hulu featuring Michelle Williams facing death by cancer with her best friend, Jenny Slate, and her mother, Sissy Spacek, trying to help her. Therapist Esco Jouley suggests that she set goals for the time she has left. Williams says that she's never had an orgasm with another person, so she begins a sexual odyssey that is as funny as it is moving.

Mildly enjoyed:

Midsomer Murders season 24 episode 3 "Claws Out"

Midsomer Murders season 24 episode 4 "A Climate of Death"

Did not enjoy:

THE ARIZONIAN (1935) - Stage performer Margot Grahame is the toast of Silver City, Arizona. However, local sheriff Louis Calhern is a villain and has a bullying gang to back him up. After one of his thugs smashes Grahame's boyfriend, James Bush, over the head, Grahame is on the next stagecoach out of town. Calhern sends a group of his minions to stop the Yuma stage and bring Grahame back. Richard Dix happens along and orders the minions to drop their guns. Dix asks Grahame if she wants to take the stage to Yuma, and she responds by asking if Dix plans to go to Silver City. He does, so she decides to return with him. The stage has the mail to deliver, so it continues to Yuma. It turns out that Bush is Dix's brother, and that is why he came to Silver City. Dix identifies the men who held up the stage, but Calhern refuses to arrest them. So, Mayor Francis Ford tells the Marshal to arrest Ray Mayer. Mayer shoots the Marshal dead and then flees. Knowing that Dix has a reputation as a "town tamer", the Mayor offers the job to Dix. Dix ends up arresting many of Calhern's minions for firing their guns in town. Calhern agrees to put the men in jail, knowing full well that corrupt Judge Edward Van Sloan will let them go with a small fine. Calhern hires gunman Preston Foster with the idea that Foster can scare Dix out of town. But Dix doesn't rise to the bait and befriends Foster. Soon Foster becomes Dix's Deputy Marshal while Dix brings in Mayer and tells Calhern to be sure and keep him in jail. Bush becomes jealous of Dix when he sees Grahame getting sweet on him and is convinced to help set a trap for his brother. Calhern sets Mayer free to kill Dix with a sheriff's deputy backing him up. Dix is wounded but the assassins are killed by Foster. So, Dix tries to arrest Calhern while Calhern tries to arrest Dix, Foster and Bush for the killing of his deputy. The Mayor agrees to have Dix and friends locked up in the jail, but they get to keep their guns. Grahame's maid, Hattie McDaniel, and her boyfriend Willie Best (aka Sleep 'n' Eat) decide to help Dix by bringing him a shotgun. By this time, Calhern has set fire to the jail and then shoots Best in the back. The town's citizens rally to pull the bars off the jail so that our trio of heroes can face the villains in the street. Interestingly, director Charles Vidor and screenwriter Dudley Nichols decide to stage this showdown at night with everyone obscured by the smoke from the jailhouse fire. When the smoke clears, we find out who lives and who dies. Not surprising, Calhern has escaped the smoke covered massacre, but before he can shoot Dix in the back. McDaniel is able to get her revenge. This is one of those early Westerns during which we never see the hero shoot a man dead. He even shoots the gun out of a villain's hand early on. But the staging of the final gunfight in the smoke and having the main villain killed by a Black woman makes this movie memorable. 

BEHIND THE HEADLINES (1937) - Lee Tracy and Diana Gibson used to work together on a newspaper. Tracy decided to switch to radio, and Gibson has felt betrayed ever since. The scenes of her trying to thwart his reporting are rather irritating, especially after he is able to discover the Martin gang is planning to rob a gold shipment in an armored car. Gibson thinks that she can "scoop" Tracy, and ends up being kidnapped by the brains of the heist, Donald Meek. It isn't until the end of the movie that mobster Paul Guilfoyle mentions that they should have "gotten rid" of Gibson before she was able to use the radio kit she stole from Tracy to help the police pinpoint their hideout. This effort to find Gibson and the gold utilizes a dirigable, played by a model, flying over the countryside, played by a miniature, which is fun. Russell Metty is the director of photography, while Thomas Ahearn, Edmund L. Hartmann and J. Robert Bren get writing credits. Director Richard Rosson reportedly had something to do with directing the 1932 SCARFACE.

TERREUR CANNIBALE, aka CANNIBAL TERROR (1980) - Eurocine is a low-budget French company that is not known for making quality movies. This maybe their most inept production ever. Perhaps the most inept child kidnapping movie ever. Easily one of the most inept portrayal of cannibals that like to eat their human guts raw. One of the most inept jungle adventure films ever. Silvia Solar is given star billing, and looks to have only been able to work one, or maybe two, days. Reportedly, this was rushed into production so that the sets and extras for director Jesus Franco's MONDO CANNIBALE, aka WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN, could be reused. I've not watched the Franco film yet, but these extras are unconvincing as jungle dwellers. They look like French men with graffitti on their faces. Oddly, there are children in the village, but only one woman is seen. Considering that they kill two women that they come across, you would think they would take them as slaves rather than food. But we get no indication that they have anything else but human bodies for food. Two inept bozos team up with a low-life woman to kidnap a rich man's daughter. How they did it we never see. In any case, they decide to hide out "across the border" near cannibal territory. Boredom has already set in for the viewer before the first human is ripped open for eating, and it only increases while we wait for the parents of the little girl to arrive and rescue her. In the end, the cannibals say they only delivered the pain the bad guys deserved and hand the little girl over unharmed. If that is so, then why did they send so many warriors out to be killed by the parents as they made their way through the jungle? Behind the name Allen W. Steeve is director Alain Deruelle, who went back to making pornography after this experience. While there are a few sex and nude scenes in CANNIBAL TERROR, they seem to lack any enthusiasm from either the performers or the filmmakers. They are just inept, as is the film editing by Roland Grillon, which features non-sensical fade outs and even an iris in and out for no effect. At least the camerawork, credited to Emilio Foriscot, delivers clean images. This appears to have been his final film before he retired.

GILDERSLEEVE'S GHOST (1944) - The Great Gildersleeve was a very popular situation comedy on radio from 1941 until 1958. It was a spin-off from the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly which introduced the character of Throckmorton P. Gilbersleeve on an episode that aired on October 3, 1939. Harold Peary played the role on radio, and then in four feature films beginning in 1942. GILDERSLEEVE'S GHOST was the fourth, and last, of the movie series. All of the movies were directed by Gordon Douglas, who would become Frank Sinatra's favorite director in the 1960s. In this film, Peary is running for the office of police commissioner. Two of Peary's ancestral ghosts rise from their graves and plan how to make certain that Peary wins the election. They decide that they need to arrange for Peary to break a sensation criminal case. They know that Dr. Frank Reicher is working on a pill to make people invisible, but is having trouble getting test subject Marlon Martin to stay consistently visible. They have succeeded making their gorilla test subject (played by Charles Gemora) both invisible and visible. The ghosts decide to free the gorilla and then use mental suggestion to get the beast to go to Peary's home. Once Peary sees the beast, they will then have it lead Peary to the spooky mansion where Reicher is performing his experiments. Naturally, when Peary sees the gorilla, he contacts his political rival, Police Commissioner Emory Parnell, with the news. Of course, at this point the gorilla is no where to be found, so everyone doubts Peary's sanity. When everyone is lured over to the spooky mansion, and Peary reports a woman who becomes visible and then invisible, his sanity is thought to be ever more questionable. As expected, this film has a Black couple, Nick Stewart and Lillian Rangolph, to do the usual schtick. Blossom Rock, aka Marie Blake, would go on to play Grandmama on The Addams Family TV show in the 1960s.

Hollywood Nights (198?) - This almost an hour long "documentary" maybe dedicated to those who came to Hollywood with a dream and didn't realize it, but it seems that director Anthony Christopher  only uses that as a premise to do a review of female sex workers. We see strippers. We see a woman work a telephone sex line. We see a woman doing pornography. The stuff shot on Hollywood Boulevard was done when PRETTY IN PINK was playing at the Hollywood movie theater. That theater closed in 1992 and became the Guinness World of Records Museum in 1994. There are also many shots of the old Tower Records on Sunset. And POLICE ACADEMY 3 was playing at the Chinese Theater.

MORTUARY (1982) - Someone clobbered Dr. Danny Rogers over the head and dumped him into the swimming pool to drown. Daughter Mary McDonough is convinced that it was murder, but mother Lynda Day George thinks it was an accident. Later, McDonough's boyfriend, David Wallace, goes with his friend Denis Mandel to steal some tires from the Mortuary Warehouse. In the warehouse, the young men see the mortician, Christopher George, leading a group of women in an Occult ceremony. While Wallace stays behind to watch the ceremony, Mandel leaves to get the tires into his vehicle. Someone leaps out and stabs Mandel to death using a trocar (normally used to drain fluids from a corpse). Unable to find Mandel, Wallace thinks that his friend abandoned him. The next night, McDonough sleepwalks into the swimming pool, only to awaken to find someone trying to stab her with a trocar. At first McDonough and Wallace suspect that George and George may have murdered Rogers, until they sneak into the warehouse and witness George and George having a seance to contact Rogers on the other side. With table thumping, Rogers tells his wife that he was murdered, so our heroes understand that they were wrong to suspect them. Eventually, we are introduced to Mr. George's son, Bill Paxton, who has never looked so clean cut in any other movie. About half way through the movie, it is revealed that the creeping camera with a very loud heart beat is actually Paxton, who is out to kill everyone who stands in the way of his marrying McDonough, though he wants to embalm her alive first. While Wallace saves McDonough from a marriage worse than death, Paxton's mother, Donna Garrett, suddenly comes out of her coma (!) with a carving knife in her hand. At the time this film came out in theaters, some critics gave writer/director Howard Avedis for coming out with something different from the "slasher" movies flooding the market. I guess they didn't mind the poor plotting and limp pacing. Here is evidence that cameraman Gary Graver did work for other filmmakers than Orson Welles and Fred Olen Ray, and various unknown pornographic directors.

RUNNING OUT OF LUCK (1985) - If director Julien Temple is going to Brazil to make a music video with Mick Jagger as a solo artist, why not turn it into a feature length project? So we see Mick Jagger, as himself, exchange nasty words with his girlfriend Jerry Hall while arriving in Rio on a yacht. He gets down to work shooting a video with director Dennis Hopper, and everyone goes to a party at night. Mick thinks that she's invited three women back to his trailer, but they turn out to be female impersonators who mug and rob him. They throw Mick into the back of a tractor trailer and watch as it pulls away. The three robbers get into a tiff, and one is killed. They stick that guy in a car and push it into the sea. When the police pull that car out of the water, they find a dead man who has Mick Jagger's passport, so the news goes out that Jagger is dead. Meanwhile, Jagger gets out of the tractor trailer, which turns out is carrying large cattle carcasses, and finds himself lost in Brazil. Eventually, he is found by Norma Bengell, who runs a banana plantation. She makes Jagger a slave. When prostitutes are brought in to keep the male slaves happy, Jagger befriends Rae Dawn Chong, who helps him escape by dressing him as one of the prostitutes. When Jagger finally gets to a phone, his manager thinks it is a crank call because Jagger has been declared dead. Jagger and Chong try to cheat at a casino to raise money for him to get back to England, but Jagger is caught and sent to prison. Luckily, Chong is able to break him out of jail. At the airport, Jagger sees a phony Jagger arriving to work with Hopper, who doesn't recognize the real Jagger after bumping into him. We don't see how Jagger is able to get back to London without a passport and with everyone still thinking that he is dead, but once there journalist Jim Broadbent gets word that he is hiding out working with a new band. This would seem to be someone's idea of a Video LP, with Jagger performing songs from his solo album "She's The Boss" under ridiculous circumstances. At least Rae Dawn Chong looks great in her bed scene with Jagger.

SECONDS (1966) - I think I was ten years old when I saw the trailer for this movie in a theater. It was quite unnerving and the film has had a special place in my mind ever since. Well, it has taken me quite a while to get around to watching it, by which time I've heard enough about it for it to have lost any possible impact on me. From distorted opening credits designed by Saul Bass, to distorting lenses used by Director of Photography James Wong Howe and strident music by Jerry Goldsmith, director John Frankenheimer is able to create a disturbing atmosphere. The idea of a secret organization providing "re-birth" has been done many times since this movie, which is based on a novel by David Ely, but those other films don't present the process as plausibly as SECONDS does. Of course after John Randolph is turned into Rock Hudson and given a new life, he finds it equally as empty as his old life - though he finds himself missing his wife and daughter. He demands that "the Company" give him a new face and body so that he can have a "re-birth" without the controls he's been living under. He wants the freedom to start all over again. Naturally, "the Company" can't have that and he realizes, as he is being brought into surgery, that he will become the dead body needed for someone else to get a "re-birth". 

THE STEEL-FISTED DRAGON, aka A FISTUL OF DRAGON (1977) - Indonesian martial artist Vita Fatimah does an impressive job of acting like Bruce Lee in this dim-witted modern day tale of Kung Fu revenge. Fatimah's mother runs a small shop seemingly made of bamboo, which catches fire very easily. After she dies, Fatimah vows vengeance. It turns out that the bad guys are also kidnapping women to traffic as sex slaves. The highlight of the film occurs pretty close to the beginning, when our hero smacks a guy in the face, and then we see the guy's eyeballs in our hero's hand. As the script is nothing more than fight after fight for close to an hour, the filmmakers are soon having trouble differentiating one battle from another. As plot gets thrown in when the villain's sister falls in love with hero and tries to convince him to stop the killing. He seems willing to run away with her, but the villain, and his small army of thugs, show up to stop them. The villain tries to kill the hero, but ends up killing the sister, so our hero is even more motivated for revenge. Unfortunately, nothing really changes in the fighting before the bad guy dies and our hero walks away with the body of the sister. One interesting element of the U.S. version is that for stretches of the movie we see characters talking, but we don't hear the awful English dubbing we expect. It would seem that someone decided that what they were saying was so obvious that we didn't need to hear it.

WARLOCK (1959) - You can tell this is one of those "adult" Westerns because everyone has a back story and they sure as hell will tell it. Tom Drake  was there for the founding of the town of Warlock, and he means to let everyone know that he still runs it. After his Cowboys, from San Pedro, commit wanton murder after running the town sheriff away, the villains force the Citizen's Committee to seek outside help. Henry Fonda is a famous gunman who also hires as a town marshal, who also runs an gambling hall in order to generate enough money to make his efforts worthwhile. Anthony Quinn is his friend of dubious character, who has a slight limp, though synopsis reports he has a club foot. Quinn worships Fonda because he feels Fonda is the only person who doesn't think of him as a cripple. Quinn is not above doing wrong if he thinks it is in Fonda's favor. When L.Q. Jones arrives in town, he informs Quinn that old flame Dorothy Malone is coming soon on a stagecoach, with Sol Gorss, the brother of a man Fonda killed in the past. Coincidentally, the stage will also be carrying a money shipment, so Quinn rides out to see that the Cowboys will rob the stage. As Frank Gorshin has a gun on Gorss, Quinn murders Gorss from a distance with a winchester. Not surprising, Gorshin is arrested for the murder. Richard Widmark has quit Drake's Cowboys, and is worried about the fate of Gorshin,  his brother. Gorshin and two others are sent to be tried in a town with law. Meanwhile, Widmark volunteers to be Warlock's official deputy. After he is aquitted, Gorshin and his co-conspirators return to Warlock even though Fonda has barred them from coming to town. As usual, the Cowboys plan to back shoot Fonda and Quinn when Gorshin and his friends call them out. Quinn is good at spotting the ambushers and Widmark mourns his dead brother. Cowboy De Forest Kelley announces that the Cowboys have formed their own committee and plan to arrest Fonda. Quinn doesn't like the idea of Widmark becoming the law in town, so when the Cowboys arrive, Quinn holds Fonda at gunpoint so that he doesn't help Widmark. It turns out that almost the entire town turns out to help Widmark and he is the hero. Fonda begins to understand that Quinn's dubious reputation may be true, so Quinn gets drunk and decides to provoke his old friend to face him. Quinn succeeds in getting Fonda to kill him, and Fonda is so distrout that he sets fire to the gambling hall in which Quinn was his partner. Widmark orders Fonda to leave town before dawn, so when Fonda doesn't, Widmark expects to face him in the street. Instead of shooting, Fonda throws away his guns before climbing on his horse and riding away. I hate movies in which a main character throws away his guns to signal that he plans to change his life. A gun is a tool that might be useful even if you plan to stop being a gunman. Plus these pistols have gold handles which might come in handy since you allowed your business to burn down. Reportedly, Joe Turkel, Gary Lockwood, Wally Campo and Don "Red" Barry are also in the movie, but I didn't recognize them. It is hard to miss James Philbrook, who soon moved to Europe to make Westerns like SON OF A GUNFIGHTER and FINGER ON THE TRIGGER. Robert Alan Aurthur is credited with the screenplay based on the novel by Oakley Hall. Particularly after seeing 1993's 
TOMBSTONE, it is obvious that this plot was inspired by stories about Wyatt Earp.
                                                       
******************************************************************

David Deal Enjoyed:

BANG, BANG, YOU'RE DEAD (66) - You can find this in the Eurospy Guide under the title Our Man In Marrakesh.
SHE WAITS (72) - And this fun TV movie can be found in the Television Fright Films of the 1970s book.
FROZEN ALIVE (64)
THE MURDERER'S CLUB OF BROOKLYN (66) - Another one from the Eurospy Guide.
NIGHT CREATURES (62) - Not really a horror movie, this Hammer adventure is still plenty fun.
THE BEAST IS LOOSE (59) - Ex-gangster Lino Ventura runs a little bistro in Paris. One day his old boss asks a favor, and when Lino declines, he is set up as a counterfeiter, and his only recourse is to comply. This, of course, opens up a whole new set of complications which will take a while for Lino to unravel. This film noir centers around a secret formula - a case of industrial espionage - unusual for a crime story but the machinations remain largely the same; someone will get hurt. A fun watch as Lino sweats but never loses sight of the goal.
THE MAN FROM PLANET X (51)
SINNERS (25)

Mildly Enjoyed:

SPASMO (74) - One of Umberto Lenzi's lesser efforts, in my opinion.
CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE (64)

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

Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT" (1970)
Recently watched a behind the scenes video about the movie and in the video was informed that the most complete version of the film was on Blue-ray so I ordered a copy as my own copy was a poor pan and scan version. The movie still holds me in suspense. The main plot if you have never seen this film is about a scientist, Forbin played by Eric Braeden,  who creates a computer system that will take over the defense of the US. Trouble starts when the computer system known under the name Colossus determines that in order to defend the US, it must take over the world; to protect mankind from itself. A main point is when Colossus creates is own voice and is first heard. A must see.

"KING KONG" (1933)
TCM was showing late night one of my all-time favorite films that I can't resist re-watching. It still amazes me how the technicians under the leadership of Willis O'Brien were able to give that puppet of King Kong such personality. Something none of its remakes or other versions have been able to do. And two of its stars have never been topped in IMO; Robert Armstrong and the lovely Fay Wray.

"GHOST WORLD" (2001)
Another favorite. Two recent female high school graduates and best friends try to navigate life after school. The two girls are a then 19 year old Thora Birch and a then 17 year old Scarlett Johansson. Things get complicated when one of them (Thora Birch) befriends an older man who is a bit of an oddball loner played by Steve Buscemi. Based on a comic book of the same name. "Ghost World" is one of those avant garde films that one either likes or doesn't. I liked it alot.


Enjoyed: 

"VOLUNTEERS" (1985)
Stars Tom Hanks as a spoiled rich kid who just graduated from Yale in 1962 and owes a lot of money to a bookie. So he decides to join the Peace Corps and heads to Thailand to hide out. There he joins future wife Rita Wilson and is re-teamed  with John Candy, whom Hanks worked with on his first starring role in the movie, "Splash!" (1964). Lots of droll hi-jinks and an okay comedy from Hanks.
 
68th GRAMMY AWARDS (2026)
Watched it mostly for the performances of Bruno Mars of whom I'm a big fan. Not much of a rap/hip-hop fan as most of  the acts that were there I am unfamiliar with. Host Trevor Noah was pretty funny and did a great routine with Puerto Rican super star Bad Bunny. Even though I myself am of Puerto Rican heritage, can't say I am that much familiar with his music. Although what little I did hear of his music I found catchy. Noted that the only country star that performed that night was Reba McEntire, Her first time performing at the Grammy's and she was there to pay tribute to her late stepson, Brandon Blackstock, who had also been married to Kelly Clarkson and who was a well known talent manager. Cher was there to receive a lifetime achievement award and made a faux pas when she had been called originally to announce record of the year and appeared to be thrown off when she received her lifetime achievement award as well. Another highlight for me was the tribute to the late Roberta Flack led by Lauren Hill. All in all a fun evening.

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

Charles Gilbert watched: 

WHY GO ON KILLING aka BLOOD AT SUNDOWN (1965) Union soldier Stephen McDougal (Anthony Steffen) is AWOL from his post looking for killers of his family. He discovers wheelchair bound, gun running Senor Lopez (Jose Calvo) is behind the chaos. With Gemma Cuervo and Elaine Stewart.

KILL JOHNNY RINGO (1966) Brett Halsey plays a Texas Ranger investigating a counterfeit operation. 

Wagon Train S01E12 "The Riley Gratton Story" B&W. Guy Madison in the title role plays a silver tongued old army friend of the wagon master (Ward Bond) that employs his urbanity to bilk $850 from citizens in the train with the sale of inarable Nebraska property. Upon gambling it away he has a change of heart towards honesty, due to some coercion from the major, resulting in return of the cash using even more unscrupulous methods. 

Walker, Texas Ranger S08E09 "Fight or Die" Probably my favorite episode; not that I've seen that many. Copperhead prison is venue to illegal cage fights that leads to the death of an undercover cop. Guest stars include MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Marshal Teague, Charles Napier, and Richard Norton.

JOAN OF ARC (1948) Ingid Bergman assays the role of the French peasant maiden that rallied the army against the English during the Middle Ages. The movie is almost two and half hours long and costars a host of B actors like Richard Derr, Ray Teal, George Zucco, J. Carroll Naish, and Leif Erickson.

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

Friday, January 30, 2026

January 31 - February 5, 2026

 


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

Brain Teasers:

By what name is Albert Waterman better known?
George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it is Alberto Dell'Acqua.

By what name is Frank Grafield better known?
Angel Rivera knew that it was Franco Giraldi.

By what name is Nick Anderson better known?
George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was Nazzareno Zamperla.

And now for some new brain teasers:

By what name is Lucien Ginsburg better known?
By what name is Philippe Marie Paul Leroy-Beaulieu better known?
By what name is Pasquale Ferzetti better known?

Name the movies from which these images came.


No one identified the above photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?


George Grmes and Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Rhonda Fleming and Serge Gainsbourg in LA RIVOLTA DEGLI SCHIAVI, aka REVOLT OF THE SLAVES.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?


George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde in IL PORTIERE DI NOTTE, aka THE NIGHT PORTER.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?


George Grimes identified last week's photo of Sheng Fu, Lung Ti, Kuan-Chun Chi, David Chiang and  Fei Meng in FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS.
Above is a new phot.
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:

SANDAKAN 8, aka SANDAKAN No. 8 (1974) - In 1972, Yamazaki Tomoko published SANDAKAN BROTHEL NO. 8: AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF LOWER-CLASS. The book created a sensation as "karayuki-san" - the trafficking of young lower class Japanese women into Japanese colonial brothels around the Pacific Rim - was not discussed in Japanese history. Yamazaki quickly followed  up her success with a second book, THE GRAVES OF SANDAKAN. Both books formed the basis for director Kei Kumai's film. When this movie came out in the L.A. area, it was sold as a sex film, which could not have been further from the truth. Tokyo journalist Komaki Kurihara is researching the "karayuki-san", but after World War 2 few remember them. And those that remember them don't want to admit to the memory. In a small village, Kurihara accidentally meets Kinuyo Tanaka, who lets slip that she spent time in Borneo. Kurihara shows kindness to the old woman, so Tanaka invites her to visit her in the decaying old house in which she lives. When visitors arrive at the house, Tanaka introduces Kurihara to them as her son's wife, who has finally come to visit her. Gently, Kurihara takes advantage of Tanaka's lonliness to move in with her. The journalist waits patiently until Tanaka asks if Kurihara wants to hear her story. As a young woman, played by Yoko Takahashi, she lives with a farming family. After the father dies, the mother ends up marrying another man. Her brother is ashamed to be in the new man's household, so he is told that he can live idependently if he goes to work for another man. It is decided that the girl should also find work in Borneo. It isn't until she is in this foreign country, which was a British colony at the time, that she finds that it is a Sandakan or brothel. Stylistically, the film is divided into two parts. The scenes with Kurihara are played like quiet drama, with great feelings kept under the surface. For the flashbacks, the scenes are played with the usual Japanese expressionistic power. Ultimately, the film as a whole is not only compelling, but emotionally moving. This film was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1975 Oscars. It lost to director Akira Kurosawa's DERSU UZALA, which was the entry from the Soviet Union that year. Kurosawa expressed great admiration for SANDAKAN 8 and one of his last screenplays was ultimately made by director Kumai - THE SEA IS WATCHING.

Enjoyed: 

A Dark Adapted Eye (1994) - I video taped this off PBS back in 1994, but as I recorded it at the SLP mode, it would not playback very well on my newer VCR. Luckily, there is an excellent copy of this on YouTube and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am unfamiliar with the novels of Ruth Rendell, aka Barbara Vine, but I understand that screenwriter Sandy Welch made some changes to the material while turning it into a two-part TV movie. I have no qualms about that, though it bothered me that the character of "Andrew" just disappeared from the film. The story is presented in a very fractured manner, jumping from various time frames, but it is always comprehensible and compelling. And the idea of Honeysuckle Weeks in flashbacks growing up to be Helena Bonham Carter is delicious. In the midst of her over 180 movie and tv credits, this may well be Celia Imrie's best role, and she's excellent in it. As this is a story about women dealing with suppression and keeping secrets, the male cast doesn't get to do much, but when you get to look at Sophie Ward, who cares about the men. Director Tim Fywell is mostly known for British TV including 2003's Cambridge Spies.

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. "Great Migrations: Wiz Khalifa & Sanaa Lathan" (2026)

Glenn Gould - Off the Record & Glenn Gould - On the Record (1959) - The Canadian documentary TV show The Candid Eye did a two part episode on acclaimed piantist Glenn Gould. Part One showed the musician preparing for a recording session at Columbia Records. Part Two showed him at work in the studio. These two 30 minute programs told me more about Gould than the more celebrated THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD.

Mildly enjoyed:

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. "Caribbean Roots: Liza Maria Colon & Delroy G. Lindo" (2026)

Nurse Jackie season seven (2015) - No happy ending for this story of drug addiction.

SKY DRAGON, aka MURDER IN THE AIR (1949) - I know this is a mediocore movie, and not just because it was made by Monogram Pictures. But I found the mystery intriguing and the pacing attractive, so I didn't fast-forward through it. The screenplay was credited to Earl Derr Biggers and Oliver Drake, while Lesley Selander got a break from making Westerns to direct what became the last of the Charlie Chan series. Roland Winters was no more credible as the Chinese/American detective as anyone else in the series, but the comedy bits here with Mantan Moreland and Louise Franklin are amusing. Keye Luke was his usual self as Chan's "number one son", with Milburn Stone (of Gunsmoke) and Lyle Talbot helping to fill out the cast. The plot involved everyone on a airline flight drinking drugged coffee and passing out while a murder occurred and a cash shipment being stolen. Iris Adrian played a showgirl, so a scene occurs backstage at what seems to be a burlesque house. As a suspect runs away during a performance, Lt. Tim Ryan thinks nothing of shooting after the escaping man. Luckily he missed because the man was innocent. The film ended with everyone being assembled, Agatha Christie like, at the original scene of the crime - the airplane.

Did not enjoy:

THE CROWD (1928) - The title of this film would suggest that the filmmakers intended to pick a person out of the crowd and show their singular humanity. That is not what the film does. It starts off with title proclaiming that the events of the 1900 Fourth of July celebrations were matched by the birth of the baby who would grow up to be played by James Murray. The baby's timid father proclaims that he will give his son every needed advantage to become someone "big" in the world. But the father dies when the boy is 12, but how that impacts the boy is not commented upon. Murray moves to New York City where he gets a job and is single minded on getting ahead. However, his work buddy convinces him to take a night off, and he, of course, meets Eleanor Boardman. Soon they have two children, and as making do gets harder, one chlid dies in an auto accident. Unable to deal with life, Murray soon becomes unemployed, and then unemployable. Boardman leaves him at the insistence of her two brothers. This may be where director King Vidor intended to end the film, but reportedly MGM head Louis B. Mayer insisted on an happy ending. There is some confusion over whether that the ending the film now has was Vidor's original ending or a new one, but it all seems inconsequential. Reportedly, director Vidor conceived THE CROWD as an experimental project, where he could try out various new techniques. Seeing it now, it just plays like a conventional family melodrama.

DANGEROUS WHEN WET (1953) - I was born in 1956, but I never knew about Esther Williams until THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT in 1974. It is striking to think about a woman being a big star before I was born to become virtually unknown to a my newer generation. Williams was a competative swimmer who didn't get to go to the 1940 Summer Olympics because of World War 2. So, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade where she swam alongside Olympic gold medal-winner Johnny Weissmuller. As Weissmuller was already starring in the Tarzan movies for MGM, it was not surprising that MGM signed Williams to make movies. Imagine having to come up with script ideas for a star whose main talent was swimming. Dorothy Kingsley had an idea about an healthy young woman who lived on a milk farm where father William Demarest got up every morning leading the family in the song "I Got Out of Bed on the Right Side" as they march to the edge of the river for exercises. One morning, Liquapep promoter Jack Carson was unable to continue down the road because cows from the milk farm were blocking the way. Williams climbs out of the river to get the animals to move, and Carson immediately became interested. After the meets the entire family, he decided that having the family swim together would be great publicity for Liquapep. Swim what? Why the English Channel of course. Demarest agreed without realizing how treacherous the currents in the channel were. Williams was training in the channel when she lost direction in an heavy fog. Luckily, rich Frenchman Fernando Lamas (who was actually Argentinan) happened along to get her out of the water. Meanwhile Williams' coach, Carson, picks up French swimmer Denis Darcel who was also training for the channel crossing as a promotion for a competitive elixer. At one point, Williams had a cartoon nightmare featuring Tom & Jerry, who were working together to keep Williams focused on swimming the channel. The stakes for the swimming competition were raised when Demarest confessed that he borrowed against the prize money for improvements for the dairy farm. Of course, Williams won the swim, but not until Lamas jumped into the water to coax her to not quit. The film ended with Demarest and his family leaving their hotel rooms singing "I Got Out of Bed on the Right Side" along with Lamas, sporting a new wedding ring, and Carson taking Darcel by the hand with her now wearing a promotional jacket for Liquapep. The highlight of the film came during a pre-swim party in which Charlotte Greenwood, as Williams' mother, did a dance which proved that she was "the only woman in the world who could kick a giraffe in the eye". 

THE MARRYING KIND (1952) - I didn't know that Aldo Ray was "introduced" by Columbia Pictures in this marital melodrama, that they tried to sell as a comedy. After the end credits, Columbia added a tag "You have just seen our New Personality ALDO RAY. Please watch for his next picture." The fact that he had appeared in four prior features didn't matter, but if you liked THE MARRYING KIND, his next picture, PAT AND MIKE, would have suited you well. I became aware of Ray as a gruff G.I. in 1966's WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY?, so the idea of him playing husband to Judy Holliday is a bit of a head spinner. With a screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, directed by George Cukor, I expected this to be a comedy. However, it begins with Ray and Holliday bickering in divorce court. As it is the end of the day, Judge Madge Kennedy puts off ruling on the divorce until the next day, but then asks Holliday and Ray to stay later so that they could clear up some details. Rather than a judge, Kennedy acts as a marriage counselor and gets the two to talk about their marriage. After a series of flashbacks, the film goes into melodrama with the accidental death of the couple's first born. Eventually, the two talk about how they helped each other through that trauma and they admit that they still love each other. As they are leaving the courthouse, they see a clerk removing their case from the listing for the next day. 

SUMMER RENTAL (1985) - Over worked air traffic controller John Candy is ordered to take a vacation in Florida with his family. Nothing goes well, but then he makes friends with would-be pirate Rip Torn and decides that the only way for him to get back at rich asshole Richard Crenna is to beat him in a sail boat regatta. What is the name of the actress who keeps showing her new tits and asking everyone if they are alright? The audience never gets a chance to see them so we don't get an opinion. Candy has three children in this film, including Joey Lawrence, who became better known on the TV show Gimme A Break!, and Kerri Green, from THE GOONIES, but I liked her better in LUCAS which was the film she made after this one. The IMDb seems to think that this film underwent various changes in the post production phase, but for me it just isn't funny. It is quite a disappointment from director Carl Reiner.

VALLEY GIRL (1983) - I remember seeing this when it was new, and kind of liking it. Seeing it again, I found it incredibly unconvincing, particularly in its portrayal of Hollywood Punks. A plus in seeing it again was seeing Hollywood Boulevard as it looked in 1983, and it was another film that fractured the geography. After driving past the Chinese Theater, you don't suddenly pass The Roxy. Filmmakers really did like showing the Pussycat Theater as a way of suggesting that Hollywood was sleazy. Director Martha Coolidge did assemble a good cast including reuniting Colleen Camp and Frederic Forrest after APOCALYPSE NOW. I wished that Deborah Foreman and Elizabeth Daily went on to have as good a career as Nicholas Cage and Lee Purcell did. The Plimsouls were seen performing, but you couldn't hear them very well. You could hear Josie Cotton, but would "Johnny Are You Queer?" be heard at an high school prom?
                                                       
******************************************************************

David Deal Enjoyed:

HERCULES VS THE MOLOCH (63)
RING AROUND THE WORLD (66) - Check the Eurospy Guide.
THE MAD EXECUTIONERS (63)
AS IF IT WERE RAINING (63)
WINNETOU I (63)
L.A. STORY (91)
NAKED AMBITION (23) - Very interesting documentary on "cheesecake" photographer Bunny Yeager.
WILD, WILD PLANET (65)
THE BLOODY VAMPIRE (61) - This, and its companion piece, Invasion of the Vampires (61), deserve a proper release.

Mildly Enjoyed:

LADY MORGAN'S VENGEANCE (65)

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

Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"THE APARTMENT" (1960)
An office worker loans out his apartment to some of his married "higher ups", so they can have a place to bring women for some extra-marital hanky panky.  He receives a promotion when he lets the married big boss bring his "girl friend" to the apartment. Played by Jack Lemmon, the office worker is shocked when he finds out the girl he likes is the big boss's (played by Fred MacMurray) "girl friend" (played by Shirley MacLaine) and has tried to commit suicide in his apartment. Lemmon finds her just in the nick of time and saves her.. A classic and Oscar winner for best picture for 1960. Great performances from every one  involved and a great soundtrack.  

"THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL" (2011)
Elderly British retirees on fixed incomes move to what they are told is a luxurious retirement home within their means in India but discover the hotel is a bit run down. An ensemble cast of Britain's finest led by Maggie Smith try to make the best of the situation in heartwarming fashion. A real crowd pleaser.

Enjoyed: 

"SHIELD FOR MURDER" (1954)
Edmond O'Brien who I mostly knew as the undercover agent who befriends James Cagney in the classic "White Heat" (1949) and as an old friend of William Holden in the classic western, "The Wild Bunch" (1969). Here O'Brien plays a seasoned cop with a young girl friend played by a 19 year old (at the time of filming) Marla English. O'Brien shoots and kills a bookie for the money he is carrying and states that he had to kill the bookie in self-defense who was resisting arrest. It was interesting to see O'Brien as a "romantic lead", (and a little disgusting as he makes out with English especially as he was 39 at the time of filming.) Also in the cast is John Agar as a cop who had once been a protege of O'Brien, and who now has to go after O'Brien when it is discovered O'Brien deliberately killed the bookie to rob him. Another interesting cast member is a young (24 at the time of filming) Carolyn Jones as a floozy who meets O'Brien when he is on the run. An interesting little film noir.

Mildly enjoyed:

CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS" (1965)
Kirk Morris (who was born Adriano Bellini, an Italian body builder who had also been a gondolier before starring in films) as "Herakles" in this sword and sandal potboiler about a shipwrecked Greek who ends up in the remains of a lost city of Atlantis and has to rescue a princess and end the reign of an evil "scientist" who is bringing back to life dead soldiers. Kirk Morris with his almost  American teen Idol looks and the princess played by Italian actress, Luciana Gilli, one of the most beautiful of these actresses to be found in these sword and sandal films, make an interesting couple. The film has almost nonstop action and is well made for this type of film.

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

Charles Gilbert watched: 

HIS COLT, HIMSELF, HIS REVENGE (1972) Bland SW with Dino Strano exacting revenge for the kidnapping and slaying of his sister. Gordon Mitchell's gang is responsible. One of them has a disgusting habit of probing his nostril.

ASSASSIN.1986) Former U.S government agent Robert Conrad is coaxed out of retirement to track down a rogue cyborg killing off the current crop.of federal operatives. 

WARLOCK (1959) I had thought the title was the name of the main character, but it turns out to be the town where everything takes place. Abe McQuown's (Tom Drake) bilious gang terrorizes the unincorporated western town of Warlock including riding the temporary impotent deputy sheriff Ray Thomson (Walter Coy) out of town in humiliation. The town council sends for famed and capable lawman Clay Blaisedell (Henry Fonda) for the job, but he shows up with a club-footed friend Tom Morgan (Anthony Quinn) and a big wooden marquee sign that says "French Palace". The two set up a gambling hall to draw in the scurrilous residents, among others. Doesn't take long for the duly noted McQuown gang to show up and challenge the new sheriff. One of them, a reluctant Johnny Gannon (Richard Widmark) is so repulsed with his past with the gang he accepts a post as deputy sheriff, meaning opposing his own troublesome brother Billy (Frank Gorshin). A gunfight in the street with Blaisedell leaves little brother dead.  Lily Dollar  (Dorothy Malone) arrives by diligence (stage coach) looking for her husband's killer, knowing it was Blaisedell. Gannon develops a relationship with her causing jealousy in Morgan who knew her from the past. This leads to another conflict that the new sheriff must resolve. Blaisdell winds up shooting Morgan to keep the peace, then resigns as sheriff. But before he leaves town he must prove he is faster on the draw than the one he defended...Gannon. I found the Fonda performance more interesting than his villain in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. In that film I could not understand why the heroine (Claudia Cardinale) would dally with the bad guy.
 

TERROR IS A MAN aka BLOOD CREATURE (1959) B&W. Francis Lederer, Greta Thyssen, Richard Derr. 
A man shipwrecked on an island discovers that it is inhabited only by a doctor (Lederer), his ravishing wife, and a few natives. The doctor is more interested in his experiments with changing a panther into a man than the philandering going on between his wife and the new arrival.

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