To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which American actress who made an Italian Western was reported by Klaus Kinski to be the object of lust from Marlon Brando?
It was Vonetta McGee.
Which Mexican actress appeared in an Italian Epic film alongside an actor born in Spain to a Puerto Rican father?
No one has answered this one yet.
Which actor who appeared in Spanish Westerns, was born to Spanish parents on an ocean liner while on the way to Uruguay?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which Italian actress, who did a Western, appeared in a British spy comedy frequently sipping out of a Coke bottle with a straw?
No on has answered this question yet.
Which son of Anthony Quinn appeared in a TV show with Terence Hill and played Jesus in three TV movies?
George Grimes knew that it was Danny Quinn.
Which American actor married an Italian woman he demanded producer Dino De Laurentiis work for the actor?
No one has answered this question yet.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Which American producer bought Dinocitta after it was abandoned by Dino de Laurentiis?
By what name is actress Jany Guillaume better known?
Which Italian film director was born in Trieste in 1909 and died in Rome in 2001?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes and Bertrand Van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Robert Hundar, Paola Barbara, Luis Induni, Adam West and Giovanni Petti in I QUATTRO INOSARIBILI aka THE RELENTLESS FOUR.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes and Bertrand Van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Livio Lorenzo and Franco Daddi in IL TERRORE DEI BARBARI, aka GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Angel Rivera, Bertrand Van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Virna Lisi, Marisa Mell, Claudine Auger and Ursula Andress in LE DOLCI SIGNORE, aka ANYONE CAN PLAY.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's photo from SANJURO.
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:
The Comedy Store (2020) - Mike Binder's five part documentary on Showtime makes you wish that you had been there.
THE GO-GOS (2020) - Director Alison Ellwood put together this terrific documentary which I saw on Showtime.
FINAL PORTRAIT (2017) - Art lover and travel writer James Lord wrote a book in 1965 about his experience modeling for a portrait by Swiss painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti while in Paris. It turned out to be the last portrait done by the artist who died in 1966. (The painting was sold at auction in 2015 for $20,885,000.00.) Stanley Tucci wrote and directed this movie based on the book with Armie Hammer playing Lord and Geoffrey Rush playing Giacometti. Of particular interest to me was that Clémence Poésy was cast as a young prostitute with whom the artist was obsessed, much to the consternation of his wife played by Sylvie Testud. Tony Shalhoub played Giacometti's brother and, like the entire cast, was delightful.
Mildly enjoyed:
THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET (2002) - British filmmaker Kim Longinotto was able to gain the trust of African women who talked openly about female circumcision. Many of them champion the practice because it is tradition. Some attempt to stop the practice for medical reasons. That many feel that tradition teaches that a woman must be married and once married must completely submit to her husband's dictates colors the discussions. It is odd to see a woman in Kenya talking about getting a new wife for her husband, who already has three wives (well, four, but the third wife left), while wearing a University Arizona sweatshirt. The film features an old fashion circumcision of two girls and the pain they undergo. New Christian churches become havens for girls running away from families who want to circumcize them, and where education for girls is championed. The film concludes with a court case where girls seek legal protection against their parents. They win the case, which rules that if a girl doesn't want to be circumcized the parents can't force her. In an after film discussion, we learn that it wasn't until 2011 that a law was passed in Kenya making forced circumcision illegal.
DUPLICITY (2009) - I don't usually enjoy movies that feature untrustworthy characters that are double and triple crossing each other, but writer/director Tony Gilroy kept me consistently amused, with the help of his able cast: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamati.
Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. "War Stories w/ Kahinde Wiley, Julianna Moore and Bill Hader" (2020)
GROW HOUSE (2017) - Mark "DJ Pooh" Jordan wrote and directed this good natured "stoner" comedy that mixes performers like DeRay Davis, Lil Duval and Snoop Dogg with Malcolm McDowell and Martin Starr. Charlamagne Tha God makes a brief appearance as Jesus when Duval has a near death experience. Lin Shaye also appears looking a lot better than she did in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
Nicolas Le Floch "Le Grand Veneur", aka "The Grand Huntsman" (2010) - Having to come up with an original story, writer/producer Hugues Pagan, at first, seems to have been inspired by The Hound of the Baskervilles. Soon the inspiration seems to have come from the Marquis De Sade, but for the finale it was The Most Dangerous Game. I really miss Vimala Pons as La Satin, but Camille de Pazzis fills the role - even if she doesn't seem to be given as much to do. I'm disappointed that now she's become pregnant, La Satin is no longer part of the show.
RED SPARROW (2018) - Based on a novel by former CIA agent Jason Matthews, this movie doesn't seem any less preposterous than most espionage dramas, but seems to have a stronger dislike for Russia than most post-Cold War stories. Jennifer Lawrence reunites with director Francis Lawrence and they've been surrounded by a strong cast which one wishes had more to do: Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louis Parker, Ciarán Hinds, Joely Richardson and Jeremy Irons. I confess - I wondered if this was a rip-off of the upcoming BLACK WIDOW movie.
Uncnsrd "Hip Hop" (2020) - Faith Evans, Al B. Sure, Jermaine Dupri, Michael Mauldin, Jalil Hutchins/Ecstasy, Tina Mauldin, K. Michelle, La La Anthony, Charlamagne Tha God, Rick Ross, Nick Cannon, Snoop Dog, Chyna Griffin, Carmen Surillo, Da Brat, Stevie J and Donald Cheatum.
Did not enjoy:
SUBURBIA CONFIDENTIAL (1966) - After starting his directing career with a script by Edward D. Wood Jr. called ORGY OF THE DEAD, Stephen C. Apostolof, aka A.C. Stephen, continued making bad sex films without Wood, though Wood reportedly wrote a tie-in paperback book under the name Emil Marceau. This is the kind of movie in which the lecturing psychiatrist takes the time to pour himself a drink to help pad out the running time. This is also the kind of movie in which the guys never take off their boxers - except the one transvestite who doesn't take off his panties - and the gals may take off their undies but only show their backsides. The psychiatrist tells the audience about a variety of cases of wives in the suburbs cheating on their husbands. None of the cases are particularly interesting or erotic - except maybe in 1966.
COLLEGE GIRLS CONFIDENTIAL, aka COLLEGE GIRLS (1968) - Director A.C. Stephen's sex films are why some people think that Joe Sarno is an artist. This is the kind of movie that the makers of COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE thought they might be making so they too hired Marsha Jordan. Luckily, the vampire stuff turned out well enough for them to go for a GP rating. Here's another movie in which the guys never take off their boxers and gals only take off their panties to show their butts. Needless to say this make the bed scenes less than educational. Beware, the older woman who comes into the bedroom to comfort you after your rape might a lesbian planning on taking advantage of your weakened condition.
THE CHALK GARDEN (1964) - Reportedly the 1955 play by Enid Bagnold is rather eccentric, but the Ross Hunter produced movie is a rather ordinary melodrama. Former Alfred Hitchcock collaborator John Michael Hayes is credited with the screenplay which has Hayley Mills as a neurotic child from a broken home. This film could have been called THE RIGHT CONVICTED MURDERER CAN SOLVE ALL OF YOUR FAMILY PROBLEMS AND SAVE YOUR GARDEN. The metaphor of having the proper soil to raise flowers and the proper home to raise children is slammed home pretty hard. Also slamming hard is the music score by Malcolm Arnold. Ronald Neame directed and reportedly also hated the music - "The play is filled with epigrams. Every time one was uttered, that crashing music would swell up." Also in the film are Deborah Kerr, John Mills, Edith Evans, Felix Aylmer and Elizabeth Sellars.
DIE SISTER, DIE! (1978) - Originally filmed in 1972 as THE COMPANION, this was producer/director Randall Hood's final feature film before his death in 1976. Jack Ging races to Edith Atwater's house along with Dr. Kent Smith to foil Atwater's latest suicide attempt. Ging is Atwater's brother who secretly can't wait for her to die and so he hires Antoinette Bower as a live-in nurse with the instruction to not foil Atwater's next suicide attempt. Obviously, Atwater is suffering from a secret, and Bower becomes interested in discovering what that secret is. The answer comes halfway through the movie when Atwater dreams a flashback to her father changing his will to give everything to a third sibling, Peg Shirley. Atwater grabs the changed will from Shirley's hands while Ging strangles Shirley. The father witnesses this and falls over dead. Now fearing that Atwater will reveal the murder, Ging poisons his sister's medication and tells Bower to make certain she takes it. Atwater has written a will and an confession before jumping off the roof of the house to her death. When Ging arrives, Bower tells him that she's informed the police about everything, and that they've found Shirley's body in the cellar. This isn't very exciting material, so the idea that it was remade in 2013 by director Dustin Ferguson starring Brinke Stevens is mystifying.
DRAGONARD (1987) - Those only familiar with Patrick Warburton in his comedic roles such as The Tick may be astonished to know he made this Caribbean version of MANDINGO playing the white hunky slave lusted after by the sister of a villainous plantation owner. Based on a series of novels by Rupert Gilchrist named after the whip used on the slaves, DRAGONARD tells how a Scottish fighter from Culloden ended up being enslaved. Unfortunately, he's also lusted after by the governor's daughter who doesn't want the message of his sentence being commuted and his fortune being restored known, so she suppresses the information. Luckily, brothel owner Eartha Kitt pays to prevent his whipping from being fatal. French director Gérard Kikoïne made this Harry Alan Towers production in South Africa. Unlike MANDINGO, the hero here joins a slave revolt and gets revenge on the evil owners, including Oliver Reed.
EDGE OF SANITY (1989) - Harry Alan Towers and Gérard Kikoïne move their operations from South Africa to Hungary for this odd version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Like DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE, Jekyll becomes a serial killer a la Jack the Ripper. Being a film from the 1980s, Jekyll seems to be experimenting with cocaine. Oddly, some reviewers seem to think that the cheap sets and wacky lighting was an intentional effort at surrealism.
FAST GETAWAY (1990) - Leo Rossi and Corey Haim are a father-son bank robbing team. After they have a falling out with associates Cynthia Rothrock and Ken Lerner, they set out on their own. Haim is the brains behind the outfit, so Rothrock knows they need him. Figuring out where Rossi and Haim are planning their next job, Rothrock and Lerner calls the cops. They hope to claim Haim is a relative and get him out of jail since he's a juvenile. However, this is the town where Haim's mother, Marcia Strassman lives, and she claims him first. Eventually, Haim talks Strassman into helping him bust Rossi out of jail - but then Rothrock and Lerner kidnap Haim. So Rossi and Strassman have to figure out Haim's next job. Their rescue plans get complicated when they find that Rothrock has wired Haim with a dynamite vest. This is basically a car chase/car crash movie and if you like that kind of thing you may enjoy this. Someone obviously did because they made a sequel. For those of us who became Rothrock fans from her Hong Kong films, this is another disappointment.
HERO AND THE TERROR (1988) - Based on former actor Michael Blodgett's 1982 novel, this movie could have been called CHUCK NORRIS VS. JASON VOORHEES, except in this movie Jack O'Halloran snaps people's necks instead of using weapons. It could also have been called THE PHANTOM OF THE WILTERN THEATER, but he only kills women - he doesn't help them to sing. Steve James told me he enjoyed working out with Chuck Norris during the production of THE DELTA FORCE, so the scene here where they are working out together with weights is memorable. Norris obviously wanted to be seen as an actor in this film, so he plays a character dealing with fear and with a pregnant girlfriend. The scene where he's coaching Brynn Thayer to breathe as she goes into labor, and he hyperventilates and faints is a good one. Director William Tannen seems to feel that prolonging the buildup equals suspense, but it only makes the film feel slow. David M. Frank did the music for other Norris and Steven Seagal films, but this is the only one that uses something similar to the "kill-kill-kill" sound from the FRIDAY THE 13th movies
JACK'S BACK (1988) - Cynthia Gibb was lovely. And so was James Spader. I hated watching them in a movie in which everyone acted stupid. This was the debut of writer/director Rowdy Herrington and while it offered some nice views of old Hollywood Blvd. and the Echo Park area, it made my head hurt with the lousy dialogue and dumb characters. Why would the killer be singing "My Way" in the shower when he was copycatting Jack the Ripper? Is it because he had decided to stop the copycatting and go after our non-prostitute heroine?
KINJITE: FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS (1989) - Vice detective Charles Bronson and scumbag pimp Juan Fernández keep harassing each other, including Bronson making Fernández swallow his gold watch and then setting his Cadillac on fire. Fernández retaliates by shooting up a deli trying to kill Bronson. Sexually frustrated Japanese businessman James Pax comes to L.A. and tries to duplicate molesting a girl on a bus, which he saw a man getting away with on a Tokyo train. The girl, Amy Hathaway, is Bronson's daughter so when Pax's daughter is kidnapped by Fernández, our hero is not particularly happy to help. Bronson was 68 years old and this was his last film for producer Pancho Kohner and Cannon Films as well as director J. Lee Thompson, who retired after this. Perry Lopez, who would reprise his role as Escobar from CHINATOWN the year after this in THE TWO JAKES, plays Bronson's long suffering partner. Bronson never seems to be in trouble for violating civil rights and convincing police procedure is never followed. How the hell did Pax's daughter get the drugs with which she commits suicide? The film ends with Bronson not killing Fernández, but instead watching him get locked in a cell with a big prisoner who plans to make the villain his bitch.
LAID IN AMERICA (2016) - KSI is a British YouTube star who was ranked as the "most influential celebrity among US teens" by Variety in 2015. Caspar Lee is a South African YouTuber who was named "one of 12 Web-savy entrepreneurs to watch" by Yahoo! News in 2013 and has over 7 million subscribers. So, The Fun Group LLC and Max Gottlieb decided KSI and Lee should star in a direct to video comedy about two foreign exchange students in the U.S. determined to get laid on the night before they fly back to their countries of origin. Sam Milman and Peter Vass, who worked together on YouTube The Musical for Facebook, took on the writing and directing chores and while they may have been hoping for something like AMERICAN PIE, they came up with this unfunny and irritating flick instead. If you've been waiting for KSI to perform "If you're a hater, then you can suck my balls." then this movie is for you.
LE MIROIR A DEUX FACES, aka THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, aka THE TWO-SIDED MIRROR (1958) - The film begins with Bourvil being questioned by the French police. The film then flashes back to Bourvil taking out a personal ad looking for a wife. He rejects many of the applicants because they are too pretty. He wants a plain woman, and when he meets Michèle Morgan (made to look plain with mousy make-up and dull costuming) he thinks he's found his ideal. She worries that he'll find her beautiful sister, Elizabeth Manet, more attractive, but he assures her that he doesn't. The honeymoon in Venice starts well for her in a nice hotel room overlooking the canal, but he thinks it's too fancy and eventually they end up in an hovel. Their domestic life turns out to be similar, with them living with his mother, Sylvie, and Morgan quickly popping out two kids. Things change when Bourvil has a traffic accident and ends up in the hospital. His doctor, Gérard Oury, notices Morgan's facial bone structure and informs Bourvil that with a little plastic surgery, he could turn her into a beauty. Bourvil doesn't want his wife to be beautiful and says no. Oury's assistant, Sandra Milo, approaches Morgan at home with before and after photos to try and convince her. As Morgan always wanted to be beautiful, she goes ahead with the surgery against her husband's desires. Not only is Morgan's face different, but she changes her hair color and begins wearing more fashionable clothes. Bourvil is miserable about this, feeling that he's lost his mousy wife. She wants to go out on the town, but he doesn't, so she goes alone and becomes very popular with every young man wanting to dance with her - including a young Pierre Brice. Eventually, she meets her brother-in-law, Ivan Desny, in a club where he complains about being unhappily married to Morgan's beautiful sister. As Bourvil pulls away from Morgan, she finds herself getting closer to Desny, to the point where they plan to run away to Montreal together. Furious, Bourvil seeks out and murders Dr. Oury. Their flight delayed, Morgan and Desny spend the night in airport lodging, where they finally consummate their relationship. However, in the morning, Morgan reveals that she's gotten a telegram informing her of her husband's arrest, so she can't runaway with Desny. She must stay to be with her husband and children. As his plane departs, she sadly watches through the airport window. Gérard Oury and Bourvil are known mostly for their comedy films, so to see them in an André Cayatte directed melodrama is a different experience, and not a particularly pleasurable one. Reportedly the 1996 Barbra Streisand film THE MIRRIOR HAS TWO FACES is a very loose remake of this.
MARIA CANDELARIA (XOCHIMILCO) (1944) - Hailed as one of the classics of The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and winning the Grand Prix at the 1946 Cannes International Film Festival, this movie is marvelously photographed by Gabriel Figueroa. Reportedly written and directed by Emilio Fernández in lieu of being able to buy Dolores del Rio a birthday present, this is the pitiful story of an outcast woman who is prevented from living a peaceful life because of prejudice and is finally stoned to death by a village of shits who don't get their comeuppance. What's there to enjoy? The film starts with famous painter Alberto Galan being hounded by journalist Beatriz Ramos about a painting he made of a nude indigenous woman. Galan takes Ramos to see the painting (which we don't get to see) showing the true beauty of Mexico. He tells of his shame for the tragic events which followed his making the painting. Dolores del Rio is an outcast woman, whose mother was killed by the local villagers. Rio owes money to store owner Miguel Inclán. Inclán will forgive the debt if she will be his, but she refuses. She wants to marry Pedro Armendáriz, but they can't marry until he can afford to buy her a new dress for the wedding. Inclán prevents Rio and Armendáriz from selling their goods, while our heroes wait for her pig to grow up and have piglets, so that they can sell the pig. Local priest Rafael Icardo wants to help, and invites them to the annual blessing of the animals. Inclán tries to prevent the blessing, and when he's foiled by the priest, he sneaks out at night and murders the pig. Rio becomes deathly ill, so Armendáriz breaks into Inclán's store at night, stealing some medicine and a dress. Inclán shows up at our heroes' wedding with a cop and has Armendáriz arrested. Meanwhile, Galan sees Rio and enlists the priest in convincing her to pose for him. When the townspeople see the nude painting, they chase Rio down and stone her to death.
NEW JACK CITY (1991) - There was alot of hype around this movie when it was first released, but it was just a standard cop movie with a hip-hop veneer. Wesley Snipes played a successful drug dealer who became more successful when crack was introduced. Ice-T played the cop out to get him because of what drugs were doing to his people. Mario Van Peebles was the cop put in charge of "New Jack cops to take down a New Jack criminal". He partnered T with Judd Nelson because Nelson was the only cop crazy enough to be T's partner. Snipes took over an entire apartment complex to be a one-stop shop - where you process, sell and use the drugs. Chris Rock was a former corner dealer who became a crack addict. T forced Rock to detox and then got him to work for Snipes with a video camera hidden in his belt buckle. Rock got back on the crack pipe and then had his cover blown while at work. The cops moved in but failed to stop the villains from destroying the needed evidence and killing Rock. Old time Mafia guys tried to take out Snipes at a wedding, but Snipes later had them all gunned down because they were too dumb to protect themselves. T and Nelson go rogue undercover as drug dealers to set Snipes up - without department sanction and support. Eventually, Snipes was arrested but his smart lawyers got him off on a minor charge. As Snipes made his way out of court, Bill Cobbs, a concerned citizen from the neighborhood, gunned him down. The film ended with an on-screen message that people need to stop the real life Wesley Snipes in their neighborhoods. As a snap shot of the early 1990s scene, this film had historic value, featuring many rappers of that period. Russell Wong played Van Peebles' partner and token Asian dude. Don't confuse the Vanessa Williams in this movie with the former Miss America winner. This actress usually appeared under the name Vanessa A. Williams or Vanessa Estelle Williams. Believably, Snipes was shown watching a video of director Brian De Palma's SCARFACE. NEW JACK CITY reportedly also became a favorite of gangsters and rappers.
OUTRAGE (1950) - I don't dispute that this film has historic significance, but being only the second "Post-Code" studio film to deal with rape, called "Criminal Assault" in this movie, does not excuse the overheated melodrama of this film. Mala Powers feels stigmatized by the assault and so hops a bus to go somewhere no one knows about it. Luckily, she befriends Tod Andrews and she begins to see the possibility of a better life. But, at a dance, a man won't accept "no", so Powers clobbers him with a wrench. Facing attempted murder charges, Powers' secret is revealed, but the charges are dropped if she gets a year of psychological counseling. Powers wants to stay with Andrews, but he councils her to go back and face the life from which she ran away. Director Ida Lupino plays up the bittersweet aspect of Andrews and Powers unrequited love.
RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE (1957) - Writer/producer Norman Retchin aims for something complex in this drama dealing with Whites and Redskins, but just ends up with a confusing mess. After years of killing Indians, Marshal Rory Calhoun has fallen in love with the Cheyenne chief's daughter, Joanne Gilbert. Calhoun tells Gilbert to warn her father, Frank DeKova, and her brother, Vince Edwards, not to come into town to talk with the corrupt cavalry Captain Lloyd Bridges. They do anyway, and DeKova is assassinated. When the Indians raid the town for horses, Calhoun's beloved nephew Michael Winkelman is killed. Calhoun's sister in law, Gloria Grahame, now has another reason to hate the Indians. One, they killed her husband. Two, they killed her son. Three, Calhoun is in love with an Indian girl and Grahame wants him for herself. Calhoun becomes convinced that the only way to stop an all-out war between the Indians and the Whites is to assassinate Edwards. However, when he has Edwards in his gunsite, he decides not to do it. Captain Bridges and his henchman, Richard Shannon, decide to turn both the town against Calhoun, for not killing Edwards, and the Indians against Calhoun, for thinking of killing Edwards. Shannon helps to arrange a meeting between Calhoun and Edwards, which Bridges turns into an ambush. Edwards kills Shannon - who was his father's assassin - and Bridges thinks he has killed both Edwards and Calhoun. Getting orders to move the Cheyennes to Oklahoma, Bridges can now concentrate on his real interest - getting Gilbert to tell him where the gold is. Calhoun is waiting where the gold is and kills Bridges - after Bridges gets off the first shot. From a hilltop, Calhoun and Gilbert watch as the Indians are being marched away. Surprisingly, the fact that Bridges has been killed doesn't seem to have upset the operation. Gilbert asks Calhoun if the Whites wouldn't defend their homes if someone else tried to take their land away, and Calhoun replies that they probably would. Director Bernard Girard also made THE GREEN-EYED BLONDE around this same time. This is the first time I see "Outdated Cultural Depiction" listed under the TV ratings.
TEENAGE ZOMBIES (1959) - Known for mostly buying foreign films and inserting new footage with American actors, writer/producer/director Jerry Warren expressed his reasoning in an interview with Tom Weaver in a 1988, "I'd shoot one day on this stuff and throw it together...I was in the business to make money. I never, ever tried in any way to compete, or to make something worthwhile. I only did enough to get by, so they would buy it, so it would play, and so I'd get a few dollars. It's not very fair to the public, I guess, but that was my attitude...You didn't have to go all out and make a really good picture." TEENAGE ZOMBIES is remarkable because it is one of the few Warren films containing all original material. After arguing whether it would be more fun to go water skiing or horseback riding, two teenage couples decide to investigate a previously unknown island. It turns out that the island is where evil scientist Katherine Victor is conducting experiments on creating a gas that will turn Americans into mindless zombies. She's working for "the East" who would prefer to use the gas and make slaves of Americans rather than drop H-bombs. She is aided in her work by the corrupt Sheriff Mike Concannon and her zombie Ivan played by Chuck Niles. After an experimented upon Gorilla, performed by Mitch Evans, goes berserk, most everybody ends up on a boat captured by the teenagers. The teenagers turn the villains over to Major Don Neeley, and then argue over whether they should go water skiing or horseback riding. Compared to other bad movies, this one was mostly in focus and the sound was in sync.
Women Make Film - 29. Tensions, 30. Stasis, 31 Leave Out.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
THEM (1954) B&W. As a result of ambitious weapons experimentation at White Sands testing grounds in New Mexico, nuclear ionizing radiation causes ants to grow to the size of a car, and wreck havoc in several desert communities. Officials discover they've also taken up habitation in the sewers of Los Angeles. James Arness and James Whitmore star.
COME NEXT SPRING (1956) Strolling down an Arkansas dirt road on a sunny day is Matt Ballot (Steve Cochran) returning to his farm after 9 years of wandering the country on a drunken binge. Wife Bess (Ann Sheridan) has kept the farm operating while raising daughter Annie (Sherry Jackson) and son Abraham (Richard Eyer). Their reunion is tense, but she permits him to stay, only as a hired hand. He has to prove himself to gain reconciliation from her and the townspeople. Interesting to see Cochran in this type of role, since he is generally remembered in cinema as a hood. (e. g. WHITE HEAT, Untouchables episode 'The Purple Gang').
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958) B&W. An Air Force base in Canada is experiencing power dips from a military nuclear reactor that services their radar. Officer Jeff Cummings (Marshal Thompson) discovers mysterious deaths of the locals are being perpetrated by invisible creatures originating from 'thought materialization' of an aging scientist, reluctant to confess his dangerous alchemy. The voracious fiends continue to draw more and more energy from the reactor and prevent interruption by damaging the control rods. Eventually the surfeited state of their energy intake makes them visible. Brain-shaped pumpkin-sized with antennae and a tail for mobility (stop motion animation), they become an easy target for the bullet. They make a mess when they are killed.
BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964) Giallo with Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok. They operate a women's fashion show that becomes plagued with slayings of their classy models. Cinematography is highlighted by a kaleidoscope of colors courtesy of Mario Bava. With Dante De Paolo (Cincinnatian Rosemary Clooney's husband in her twilight years).
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David Deal enjoyed:
WINNETOU III (65) - The white man, in the person of Rik Battaglia, tries a grab of lands being given to the Native Americans. Lex Barker and Pierre Brice team up once again to defeat the forces of evil. Another colorful, expansive Karl May western. These must have been impressive on the big screen.
CQ (02) - Film editor Jeremy Davies is given the directorial reins of a sci-fi flick in the Paris of the late 60s. Second time thru for Roman Coppola's nod to Mario Bava and Euro filmmaking of the 1960s. Fun enough, and a good soundtrack.
THE BIG RACKET (76)
NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LAZLO & VILMOS (08) - Excellent documentary on these two fine cinematographers who escaped Communist Hungary to rise to the pinnacle of their profession.
THE BLACK REPORT (63) - The second of the Japanese "Black" films. This centers on an idealistic prosecutor undone by a cynical world. Not as compelling as Black Test Car, but it's a fine companion piece nonetheless.
KING OF THE ZOMBIES (41)
THE BLACK ARROW (48)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (12)
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (62)
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Bertrand Van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
The goes wrong show – season 1 – episodes 1 to 3
Enjoyed:
Oats studio vol 1 : Firebase (short) (2017, Neill Blomkamp)
Oats studio vol 1 : Zygote (short) (2017, Neill Blomkamp)
White gold – season 1 – episode 4 to 6
Gojira tai Hedora / Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971, Yoshimiba Banno)
Supernatural – season 15 – episode 14
The good lord bird – season 1 – episode 1
Wynona Earp – season 3 – episode 1
You only live twice (1967, Lewis Gilbert)
Les baratineurs (1965, Francis Rigaud)
Inside You only live twice (doc) (2000, John Cork)
Silhouettes : the James Bond titles (doc) (2000, John Cork)
The invaders – episode « The betrayed » (1966, John Meredyth Lucas)
Piccola posta (1955, Steno)
Mildly enjoyed:
Ildan Ddeugeobge Chungsohara / Clean with passion for now (2018) – episode 7
Baywatch (2017, Seth Gordon)
Un merveilleux parfum d’oseille (1969, Rinaldo Bassi)
The bat (1955, Crane Wilbur)
Supercar – episode « The tracking of masterspy » (1961, David Elliott)
Did not enjoy:
Norman (2016, Joseph Cedar)
Pool party massacre (2016, Drew Marvick)
The transfiguration (2016, Michael O’Shea)
The new mutants (2019, Josh Boone)
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