Week of July 2 - 8, 2022

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which American bodybuilder was being considered to play Remus opposite Steve Reeves before the producers got Gordon Scott?

Angel Rivera reported that his information about the producers of ROMOLO E REMO wanting Steve Reeves to play both roles was from an interview with Reeves by Rod Labbe of Films of the Golden Age, not the IMDb. In any case, Richard Harrison told me that he was being considered to play opposite Reeves before the producers were able to get Gordon Scott. It would have been the only time Harrison and Reeves would have worked together.

Which American producer working in Spain claimed that he turned down Sergio Leone's request to help on PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI?

No one has answered this question yet.

Which French actor worked for directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Corbucci, Roger Vadim, Michael Haneke and Costa-Gavras?

Tom Betts and Angel Rivera knew that it was Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Which German actor spent time in a British P.O.W. camp during World War 2 before working with directors Antonio Margheriti, Sergio Leone, David Schmoeller, George Roy Hill and James Glickenhaus?

Tom Betts and George Grimes knew that it was Klaus Kinski.

For what film did Richard Harrison take over a role when the director found that he couldn't work with Klaus Kinski?

No one has answered this one yet.

And now for some new brain teasers:

During the making of what film, did an horse throw Klaus Kinski off, breaking the actor's back?

Why did Reg Lewis make only one film in Italy?

What decision did Mark Forest make that he later felt ruined his movie career?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Madeleine Lebeau in DESAFIO EN RIO BRAVO, aka DUEL A RIO BRAVO, aka GUNMEN OF THE RIO GRANDE.

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 Luciano Marin, Giulia Rubini and Steve Reeves in IL TERRORE DEI BARBARI, aka GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Emmanuelle Riva in KAPO.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Ken Takakura and Ryo Ikebe in SHOWA ZANKYO-DEN: KARAJISHI JINGI, aka BRUTAL TALES OF CHIVALRY: THE MAN WITH THE KARAJISHI TATOO, aka SHOWA ZANKEIDEN: KARASHISHI HITOSH.

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:

Hacks season two (2022) - The first few episodes of this season were almost annoying, but the final stretch was a blast.

Rescue Me season four (2007)

Mildly enjoyed:

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) - This movie uses so much stock footage from NASA and the Department of Defense, that one wonders "Did they write the script to match the stock footage, or did they seek the stock footage to augment the script?" I was about 9 years old when I saw this movie at the Fort Buckner Theater on Okinawa, and it so unnerved me that I hid out in the lobby during the scary parts. My fear was probably caused by the sight of Frank's half melted face, created by John D. Alese. According to the IMDb, R.H.W. Dillard, George Garrett and John Rodenbeck wrote this story as a parody, but the producers wanted a thriller, so only Garrett gets story credit and no one takes the blame for the screenplay. Extra-terrestrial Princess Marilyn Hanold comes to Earth in order to steal women to help repopulate her nuclear ravaged planet. Her second-in-command, Dr. Lou Cutell, sees a rocket being launched from Cape Kennedy and mistakes it for an offensive missile. Hitting the rocket with a power ray, the aliens send it crashing onto Puerto Rico. The sole occupant of the rocket capsule is android astronaut Robert Reilly, who is called Col. Frank Saunders. Landing, the aliens attempt to destroy Reilly, but only damage him - turning "Frank" into "Frankenstein". Reilly's creators, Dr. Jim Karen and Nancy Marshall search Puerto Rico on a scooter to find Reilly, who has already killed two men who attacked him. Meanwhile, the aliens begin kidnapping women, including the luscious, but uncredited, Susan Stephens. Remember when movies featured dance parties that mostly focused on people's shaking backsides? This is one of those movies, and the aliens attack a pool party. Eventually, Karen and Marshall track down Reilly and while Karen tries to repair him, Marshall is sent to get help from General David Kerman. Of course, Marshall gets kidnapped by the aliens. When Dr. Cutell finds an electrical device on Marshall, he demands that she tell him about it. Marshall refuses to speak, so Princess Hanold orders her put in the cage next to their space monster. Why these aliens travel with a space monster is never explained. In any case, while looking for Marshall, Karen and Reilly find the alien space ship. Karen tells Reilly to keep and eye on it while Karen jumps on his scooter to find a telephone. Later on, Reilly is found by an alien patrol, knocked unconsious and taken aboard the space ship. Karen gets a message to Kerman and the military launches an attack on the space ship. Will Reilly and Marshall succeed in freeing the kidnapped women? Will Reilly have to combat the space monster? Will Reilly be able to prevent the villains from escaping Earth? While this movie has no "music by" credit, it does feature two songs produced by Bob Crewe: "To Have And To Hold" by The Distant Cousins and "That's The Way It's Got To Be" by The Poets. Ross Gaffney gets the credit "Music and Effects" which suggests that this has a "needle drop" score. There is some obvious location work near Cape Kennedy and in Puerto Rico - mostly shot from a moving automobile, "Interiors Photographed At Seneca Studios, Hempstead, New York". This is the only feature film credit for director Robert Gaffney, but he would be credited as the director of photography on SUPER FLY T.N.T. in 1973. Bruce Glover gets no credit as one of the aliens wearing a badly applied bald cap and fake pointy ears.

HOW TO STEAL THE WORLD (1968) - The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series was a sensation when it premiered in 1964. It lasted for four seasons and spawned a number of feature films made up from two-part TV episodes. HOW TO STEAL THE WORLD originally aired as "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair"; the two-part series finale. That partly explained why the proceedings felt so tired. Surprisingly, our heroes, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were pretty ineffective throughout the story, though they did end up blowing up the bad guys. U.N.C.L.E. agent Barry Sullivan plotted to create a docile gas that would cover the world making everyone subservient to his will to have world peace. Toward this end, Sullivan recruited General Leslie Nielsen and a bunch of scientists including Albert Paulsen and Daniel O'Herlihy. However, Sullivan didn't realize that the funding his wife, Eleanor Parker, came up with was from TRUSH agent Mark Richman. Like LOST HORIZON, Sullivan's lair was in the Himalayas, and was played by locations in Lone Pine, California, and the new Theme Building at the Los Angeles International Airport. Oddly, Jerry Goldsmith's theme music was missing. Leo G. Carroll and Hugh Marlowe made brief appearances, while future Academy Award winning producer of THE STING Tony Bill joined our heroes in their mission. The script was credited to Norman Hudis and the direction to TV veteran Sutton Roley. 

THE THREE STOOGES (2000) - Paul Ben-Victor took a break from playing gangsters to essay the role of Moe Howard in this TV biographical movie about the famous comedy team. Evan Handler plays Larry Fine, Michael Chiklis plays Curly Howard, John Kassir plays Shemp Howard, Peter Callan plays Joe DeRita and Laurence Coy plays Joe Besser. Being a big fan of the Stooges, Mel Gibson helped to produce this film, which has alot of story so it doesn't go very deep. James Frawley directed this perspective which makes Moe the hero, and Rachel Blake as his wife Helen practically a saint. There's some interesting Hollywood history here, even though the whole thing was shot in Australia. Plus, this has the most sympathetic portrait of Harry Cohn, played by Linal Haft, that you are ever likely to see. Oddly, the film ends with the trio's return to fame with their shorts being shown on TV, but fails to mention the seven feature films they ended up making after that.

Did not enjoy:

SCOOBY-DOO (2002) - I never watched the cartoon series, so I am not the intended audience for this film. I love the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is filled with references to "the Scooby gang", so this stuff isn't completely foreign to me, and I guess that the popularity of Buffy in some way led to the green lighting of this movie. The fact that Buffy star Sarah Michelle Geller is in the cast, along with her future husband, and famous Scobby fan, Freddie Prinze Jr., lends some credence to this theory. However, this film is no fun, even with Rowan Atkinson in it. Ironically, while Geller's character is said to be the sexy one, it is Linda Cardellini as the nerdy one that comes across as luscious, with the new character played by Isla Fisher following closely. Matthew Lillard was praised for bringing Shaggy to life, but I prefer him as a serial killer. Director Raja Gosnell previuosly made the enjoyable NEVER BEEN KISSED, which was aimed at a slightly older audience than this film. Future of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY writer/director James Gunn is credited along with future Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. executive producer Craig Titley with this screenplay. Reportedly, this film was originally intended to be R-rated, but a "family" audience was deemed more suitable, so stuff was cut out.

SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED (2004) - James Gunn got sole writing credit on this, and was reportedly set to write and direct a third installment in the series, but "2" proved to be a box office disappointment, so "3" was scrapped. My guess was that the audience who went to the 2002 film decided that once was enough, but "2" still made over $100 million - just not the $275 million the first one did. Raja Gosnell returned to direct and the film pretty much matches the first in not being any fun. Isla Fisher did not return, and Alicia Silverstone was no fun. Some fun was had seeing Seth Green, Peter Boyle and Tim Blake Nelson.

THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957) - This movie has about the same amount of stock footage as FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER, but is slickly made, and so gets dull before the ending. The first half hour of the film does create a nicely suspenseful air of mystery, but, while the monster effects aren't bad, as soon as the creature is shown, things become ho-hum. The attempts to inject humor, such as the female-deprived service men ogling Alix Talton, are rather inept, as is the sudden romance between Col. Craig Stevens and Talton. Fans of the original Perry Mason TV series may enjoy William Hopper as the scientist, and he certainly comes off better here than in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. The film is educational with its depiction of the Ground Observer Corps, which was created during World War 2, but discontinued in 1958. Ground Observers can't spot ballistic missiles, but they do pretty well with giant flying insects. Since when does a mantis growl?

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Charles Gilbert watched:

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE (1962) B&W. Myron Healy the only American appearing with otherwise all Japanese cast is a U.S. Navy commander conducting experiments in a lake that revives Varan, another scaly lizard-like kaiju.

GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN (1958) B&W. Relic hunters (Ed Kemmer and Morris Ankrum) of Spanish artifacts encounter a resurrected giant conquistador (Buddy Baer) in Northern California. 

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1975) Survivors left adrift from a U-boat attack on a merchant ship manage to surprise the German captain and overtake the sub. Sabotage by the crew of navigating equipment leaves them all headed for a land replete with dinosaurs and prehistoric man. Late Amicus production stars Doug McClure.

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David Deal Enjoyed:

BREAKFAST WITH THE DEAD (64) - From 2018 "When it appears that DA Wolfgang Preiss convicted and had executed the wrong man for murder, he goes undercover to find out the truth.  60's German take on a forties film noir with an unusually robust performance from Preiss."

DESERT WARRIOR (61)

TELL ME SOMETHING (99) - Sketchy Detective Cho is assigned to a case involving multiple murders and dismemberments, with bodies discovered having mismatched limbs or head. Cho discovers a beautiful, mysterious girl is somehow involved but he can't put the pieces together (pun intended). Korean giallo-type crime film is beautifully shot, and interesting. Fulci level gore. I liked it.

GUNFIGHT AT RED SANDS (63)

QUINCY (18) - Good documentary about Mr. Jones.

KOYAANISQATSI (83)

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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:

"Goliath and the Dragon" (1960)

Finally a film starring Mark Forest I can  get behind.

While some say he looks better with out the beard, I thought with it he appeared as a fitting Hercules. (Even though for its American debut he was renamed "Goliath",  any one watching this film could tell he was playing Hercules and not Maciste or "Goliath".) Great entertainment! [Yes there is a whole story behind the name change and footage added, but I won't go into that here.] Just as I said before, "Great Entertainment!"

[Saw this on YouTube where they also feature the original uncut French version in Spanish.]

Mildly enjoyed:

On Netflix, the Jennifer Lopez documentary, "Half-Time".

"The Loves of Hercules" (1960)

The parents of Mariska Hargitay star in this sword and sandal epic where her "mom", Jayne Mansfield gets to play a brunette and a redhead and we "hear" why Arnold Schwarzenegger was a good choice to play her father, Mickey Hargitay in the TV biopic, "The Jayne Mansfield Story" (1980) which starred Loni Anderson as Jayne. I had to watch this as part of MST3K on Netflix as this is the best print shown for free. Of course that meant sitting through the attempts at humor by the MST3K cast which were hit and miss amusing and sometimes annoying. The film itself didn't need any help being made fun of, as it was easy to do that by itself. Still it has its moments and is historically significant for the casting of its lead players.

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Week of June 25 - July 1, 2022

 

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

Brain Teasers:

In which Western did our heroine shoot grenades from her handgun?

It was LITTLE RITA NEL WEST.

Which American bodybuilder was being considered to play Remus opposite Steve Reeves before the producers got Gordon Scott?

Both George Grimes and and Angel Rivera repeated the story from the IMDb that the producers had wanted Steve Reeves to play both parts, but I don't believe it. That's like the story that Steve Reeves doubled Gordon Scott in MACISTE CONTRO IL VAMPIRO, and that Steve Reeves never used a stunt double. In any case, I'm looking for an American bodybuilder who was making strong man movies in Italy at the time.

Which American producer working in Spain claimed that he turned down Sergio Leone's request to help on PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI?

No one has answered this question yet.

Prior to PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI, Sergio Leone had a bad reputation because of his association with what very expensive flop?

Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was SODOM AND GOMORRAH, which nearly destroyed Titanus, Italy's largest studio at the time. 

Which Italian actress, known mostly for appearing in serious "artistic" movies, made one Epic film and one Western?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Lea Massari of L'AVVENTURA, IL COLOSSO DI RODI and LO VOGLIO MORTO.

Which American actor stepped in to finish a Western being shot in Spain when the original star, Victor Mature,  proved incapable of doing the job because of alcohol?

Tom Betts and George Grimes knew that it was Rory Calhoun, who stepped in to save the production of FINGER ON THE TRIGGER.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which French actor worked for directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Corbucci, Roger Vadim, Michael Haneke and Costa-Gavras?

Which German actor spent time in a British P.O.W. camp during World War 2 before working with directors Antonio Margheriti, Sergio Leone, David Schmoeller, George Roy Hill and James Glickenhaus?

For what film did Richard Harrison take over a role when the director found that he couldn't work with Klaus Kinski?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, David Deal, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Jean-Louis Trintignant in IL GRANDE SILENZIO, aka GREAT SILENCE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

David Deal, Angel Rivera, George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Ida Galli, John Drew Barrymoore and Suzi Anderson in ROMA CONTRO ROMA, aka WAR OF THE ZOMBIES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

David Deal, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman in IL SORPASSO, aka THE EASY LIFE.

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:

Mildly enjoyed:

SHUTTLECOCK (2020) - Originally, this film was made in 1991, and released in a version that ran 85 minutes. Almost 30 years later, a "director's cut" was released that runs about 104 minutes. I've not seen the earlier release, so I can't comment on the changes, but the "final" release is an unsatisfying but compelling mystery thriller about the fictions some feel compelled to create in order to live with oneself. Reportedly, the material involving the funeral of Alan Bates' character was newly shot for this new version, which created a framing device to tell the story in flashbacks, and then flashbacks within flashbacks. I've not read the original novel by Graham Swift, but I gander that it is far less complicated than the movie and much more satisfying. Reportedly this was a very difficult production and it was Continental financing that compelled the filmmakers to move much of the story from England to Lisbon, Portugal. I was unaware that Portugal was a Fascist country in the 1960s (or until the "Carnation Revolution" in 1974). I knew that Spain was because I saw BEHOLD A PALE HORSE when I was a kid. Much is made in the film about why a British hero of World War II would live in a Fascist country, so I spent most of the movie awaiting an answer to that question, but one never came. Estranged son David Oakes attends the funeral of grandfather Alan Bates and is pulled aside by estranged father Lambert Wilson in an attempt to explain what happened in Portugal to cause the family estrangements. Bates had written a memoir of his time as a spy during World War II, but suddenly he fell into a catatonic state. Wilson obsessively tries to unlock Bates' mind and eventually discovers that much of Bates' memoir was false. In an effort to make this more dramatic, director Andrew Piddington gets Wilson to perform as if he's in a state of hysteria.

THIS IS 40 (2014) - Except for FUNNY PEOPLE, I mostly enjoy Judd Apatow's work as a producer rather than his stuff as a writer/director. (I like the HBO series Girls and the film THE BIG SICK.) I didn't much enjoy KNOCKED-UP, in which the characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann here were first introduced, and I mostly found them annoying in this film. However, I really enjoy watching Leslie Mann, and her daughters Maude and Iris Apatow are equally winning here. There are plenty of fun pop culture references and Graham Parker and the Rumor perform, plus there are appearances by Jason Segel, Charlyne Yi, Lena Dunham, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Tatum O'Neal and Melissa McCarthy. This is easily the most enjoyable film I've seen featuring Megan Fox.

Did not enjoy:

THE BACK-UP PLAN (2010) - The formula for romantic comedies is "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back". So what is the gimmick to make this unique? First of all, it is told from the the "girl's" perspective. Second of all, the "girl" has given up on meeting the right "boy" and has decided to have a baby using artificial insemination. Third of all, it is the "girl" who comes from a broken home and so has difficulty trusting that the "boy" is sincere. This leads to a lot of irritating break-up scenes in which Jennifer Lopez' character behaves stupidly. Alex O'Loughlin's character also behaves stupidly and we never get a clue why he finds Lopez appealing aside from her looks. Alan Poul directed from a script credited to Kate Angelo which throws in Melissa McCarthy as the leader of a group of proud single mothers that celebrate a birth in a kiddie pool in an apartment living room. This was Tom Bosley's last film before his death playing Grandmother Linda Lavin's fiance. Robert Klein plays Lopez'  gynaecologist.

THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES (1955) - Reportedly, Roger Corman had a contract with James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff of American Releasing Company for four films with a budget of $100,000 each. By the time the fourth film was to go into production, there was only about $29,000 left. Nicholson came up with the title and poster which was pre-sold to exhibitors, so Corman, who was not credited on the film in any capacity, came up with the idea that David Kramarsky could make the film as a non-union production in the desert near Palm Springs. With unspeakable dialogue credited to Tom Filer, the film was a text book example of low budget filmmaking. It was set on a minimum of locations with a small number of characters. The title was justified by the alien from outer space narrating the opening explaining that it can see through the eyes of weak minded people and animals, so that he virtually had a million eyes, even though he had no body. For the ending, Paul Blaisdell was called upon to create a monster, which was then explained that the alien needed to inhabit a body to accomplish physical acts. Most of the movie was filled with irritating scenes of an unhappy family - Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer and Dona Cole - arguing, until animals and birds began to attack them. A few scenes eerily prefigure director Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Joined by Dick Sargent - 14 years before he became the second Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, they stop weak minded Leonard Tarver from delivering Cole to the extraterrestrial and eventually defeat the enemy with the power of love. In the film, veteran comedy star Chester Conklin was killed by a milk cow with horns, which sent me to the internet where I found out that milk cows do naturally have horns. Most of the domesticated variety are de-horned after birth.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

D.O.A. (1950, Rudolph Maté)

Anche gli angeli tirano di destro (1974, Enzo Barboni)

Il vangelo secondo Simone e Matteo (1976, Giuliano Carnimeo)

Mildly enjoyed:

Sesso e volentieri (1982, Dino Risi)

Un delitto poco comune (1987, Ruggero Deodato)

McGruber – season 1 – episode 1

The boys – season 3 – episode 1

Did not enjoy:

I leopardi di Churchill (1970, Maurizio Pradeaux)

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Charles Gilbert watched:

PHANTOM SHIP (1935) B&W.  An obscure film with Bela Lugosi between his roles as Dracula and Ygor. Here he is a shanghaied boatswainsmate aboard the Mary Celeste along side a ccrew in the same predicament. One by one the sailors are being murdered at sea. The skipper, who brought along his new bride for the voyage, also become victim.

FORBIDDEN PLANET ,(1956) Monster from the id (Disney animation) is unconvincing, but the rest of the story and effects exceptional.

MOBY DICK (1956) B&W. Gregory Peck as an embittered and callous Captain Ahab is his only role that interests me. 

Wagon Train 'The Roger Bigelow Story" Young Reverend Bigelow (Robert Vaughn) fresh out of seminary strives to reform outlaw Wes Varney (Claude Akins). Audry Dalton plays his wife.

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David Deal Enjoyed:

SON OF SAMSON (60) - From 2007: "Mark Forest kicks Persian ass!  Li'l hottie Chelo Alonso plays the treacherous queen who commits suicide by jumping into a crocodile tank!  A pretty fun example of the peplum."

FEAR IN THE CITY (76)

THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (76)

THE DELPHI BUREAU (72)

OPERATION MINCEMEAT (22)

L'AMOUR FOU (10)

Mildly enjoyed:

THE FRENCH CONSPIRACY (72) - AKA The Assassination. Police informer Jean-Louis Trintignant is manipulated into bringing Leftist leader Gian Maria Volante to Paris to be captured. Serious thriller with many famous actors.

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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959)

Haven't seen this in a long time. I forgot Pat Boone was in this and how much he sings in it; even though most of his songs with one exception are pretty short. The rest of the film is still enjoyable and James Mason and Arlene Dahl make an interesting couple. The rest of the cast is filled out by Diane Baker who has little to do as Pat Boone's love interest and Thayer David as the villain. The special effects are low budget for this type of film, but still watchable. One notable cast member is Peter Ronson, an Icelandic athlete who portrays Hans, a strong Icelandic native who helps Mason and the other travelers.

"Yes, Madam" aka "Police Assassins" (1985)

After watching the martial arts history documentary "Iron Fists & Kung Fu Kicks' (2019) on  Netflix, I became interested in watching the Kung Fu Flick which starred Michelle Yeoh & Cynthia Rothrock. YouTube only featured certain scenes from the film and not the complete film. (For free that is!)

I could only find the complete film for free on Face Book, of all places and then in Spanish. The film is interesting especially as a document of its time as Michelle and Cynthia dress in Miami Vice style clothing and look pretty sexy in their fight scenes and throughout the film. One of the best scenes is when Michelle breaks up a bank robbery with a shot gun catching one of the thugs in what is obviously a "Dirty Harry" inspired scene. The thief is on the ground reaching for his gun, when Michelle catches him with her shot gun. She then explains to him she doesn't  remember if she has used all her bullets, but dares him to take a chance and reach for his gun. (Without using any expletives.) He slowly surrenders. But when he thinks she has loosened her aim on him, he reaches for his gun at which time she shoots him. Unfortunately the film spends too much time on a subplot of some thieves who have stolen a microfilm from a gang boss and not enough time on the two women. Although when the film does focus on Michelle and Cynthia, especially in their final fight scene with the bad guys; it is well worth the wait.

Mildly enjoyed:

"Catalina Caper" (1967)

Here's a weird little film I caught on TCM. The film was actually filmed in 1965, but was not released until 1967. A "Beach Party" style movie with a lot of girls in bikinis dancing at the beach and Little Richard as a musical guest. It stars Tommy Kirk, (a one time star of Disney films until he was arrested for marijuana possession and also after he had been outed) and Peter Duryea, son of actor Dan Duryea and a featured player in the original Star Trek pilot; as well as Micheal Blodgett of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" fame.

The plot deals with some art thieves who have stolen a Chinese scroll from an art museum and then get involved with our cast of heroes and the "Beach Party"style gang of revelers. One of the bad guys is portrayed by Lyle Waggoner as the character, Angelo!

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