To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which London born actress started her film career with director Sergio Corbucci and later made three comedy Westerns?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which Spanish actress, who made a movie with the director of EL PRECIO DE UN HOMBRE, that later became known as "Reina de las Rancheras"?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which French born actress worked for directors Sergio Sollima, Giuseppe Vari, Marco Ferreri, Adriano Bolzoni, Luchino Visconti and Lucio Fulci?
No one has answered this question yet.
And now for some new brain teasers:
For what movie is Steve Reeves listed on the Italian release poster and on the screen for the U.S. version but doesn't appear in the movie?
Which Italian actor, born in 1908, was a professional boxer before appearing in Sword and Sandal movies and Westerns?
Which actress born in Switzerland appeared in four Westerns before dying in a fire at the age of 36?
Name the movies from which these images came.
No one identified the above photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one identified the above photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Enzo Fiermonte, Umberto Raho, Tony Russel, Linda Sini and Lisa Gastoni seated. Michel Lemoine is standing in I DIAFANOIDI VENGONO DA MARTE, aka WAR OF THE PLANETS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one identified the above 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 Nevers episode one and two (2021)
EL PRECIO DE UN HOMBRE, aka THE BOUNTY KILLER, aka THE UGLY ONES (1966) - This is still one of my favorite movies, but I wish someone would put it out with the original Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles.
VIVA LA MUERTE...TUA!, aka LONG LIVE DEATH... YOUR'S (1971) - The version on YouTube has been shortened by about 20 minutes. Get the Wild East DVD.
VISIONS OF EIGHT (1973) - Eight different directors make eight different impressionistic short films about the 1972 Munich Olympics. The 8th segment, directed by John Schlesinger, focuses on a marathon runner who works on ignoring the terrorist event because his concentration is only on running. Director Claude Lelouch's segment on losers does a tremendous job in humanizing the athletes. Finally seeing this enlightened me that my assumption that the runner that begins director Schlesinger's MARATHON MAN was the runner profiled in VISIONS OF EIGHT was wrong.
The Wire season two (2003)
Mildly enjoyed:
88 (2015) - Actors/writers/producers April Mullen and Tim Doiron perhaps took too much inspiration from Quentin Tarantino for their first action/thriller, but their solid cast, including Katharine Isabelle, Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside, keep it interesting. This film has been called "MEMENTO as directed by Tarantino", but I've not seen MEMENTO yet. After an on-screen title explaining what the fugue state is, we see Isabelle seeming to come out of a daze in a diner. There's a bag next to her, so she opens it and gumballs and a gun fall out. People freak out, Isabelle inadvertently shoots a waitress, and things get crazy. The film cuts back and forth between possible past events and confused present events with some obvious fantasy bits thrown in for good measure. Director April Mullen gets good imagery with mostly hand held camerawork and the cast performs well.
Did not enjoy:
L'ANNE DES MEDUSES, aka THE YEAR OF THE JELLYFISH, aka MEDUSA (1984) - So, writer/director Christopher Frank saw young women as evil. It is summer at Saint-Tropez, and 18 year old Valerie Kaprisky is going topless on the beach with her mother Caroline Cellier, who is also topless - and they have incredibly similar bodies. They visit friends, including married man Jacques Perrin, who has a flashback remembering his seduction of Kaprisky when she was 16. Kaprisky broke off the relationship and then Perrin found out that Kaprisky got pregnant. He felt responsible, but she ordered him to stay away. So, two years later she flirts with him, just to see if he's learned his lesson. He professes his love of her, so she humiliates him and sends him away again. It turns out that when she was 16, Kaprisky was actually carrying on with Bernard Giraudeau, a fellow who makes a living by finding young girls for rich men. This year at Saint-Tropez, Kaprisky tries to re-connect with Giraudeau, but he won't have anything to do with her - even after she gets stung by a jellyfish while rescuing a little boy in the surf. Giraudeau finds Cellier much more interesting, but when he tells her that he's allergic to wasp and jellyfish stings, we can pretty much figure out that some one is going to die. This is also forshadowed by Giraudeau calling Kaprisky "Salome". To end Giraudeau's affair with Cellier, Kaprisky telephones her father and gets him to leave work in Paris to visit them. She then blackmails Giraudeau to meet her alone at night - after taking the time to sleep with a German couple in order to give the man an excuse to leave his wife in disgust. Cellier won a Cesar Award for her role in this film. I didn't recognize her, but reportedly Emmanuelle Seigner appears.
DONDE EL CIRCULO TERMINA, aka WHERE THE CIRCLE ENDS (1956) - Nadia Haro Oliva uses her husband's pistol to murder an old lover who is blackmailing her. The husband, Raul Ramirez, is having an affair with Sara Montiel, and they eventually decide to hire a man to murder Oliva. Having a change of heart, Ramirez stops the hired killer by shooting him. To complicate matters, Oliva has already killed herself. Inspector Jorge Martinez de Hoyos ends up arresting Ramirez because both the old lover and the hired killer were shot with the same pistol. Captured on beautiful black and white film by cinematographer Rosalio Solano, Montiel looks gorgeous on the unusual sets designed by Edward Fitzgerald and decorated by Manuel L. Guevara. Alfredo B. Crevenna provided the expressionistic direction. De Hoyos would go on to appear in THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN, GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN and the Lonesome Dove TV mini-series.
THE EYE CREATURES (1967) - The best element of 1957's INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN was the costumes for the alien creatures. This cheapo TV remake by director Larry Buchanan doesn't have anything approaching that in quality. This production may have been what convinced John Ashley to move to the Philippines.
STOCKHOLM (2018) - The August 1973 bank robbery and hostage crisis at Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm, Sweden was not only the first criminal event to be covered live on Swedish TV, but became the subject of numerous academic studies because of the emotional bonding that occurred between the hostages and the hostage takers - "the Stockholm Syndrome". The film written and directed by Robert Budreau is loosely based on the event, but is rather flat in its presentation and fails to generate must interest in the main character played by Ethan Hawke. A majority Canadian production, the film also features Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong and Christopher Heyerdahl.
VERTIGINE BIANCA, aka WHITE VERTIGO (1956) - After a 10 minute prelude showing how winter came to Cortina d'Ampezzo, a small Italian village near the Alps, a fairly standard Olympic documentary unfolded. This was made by director Giorgio Ferroni in the time between making the 1949 MARECHIARO with Silvana Pampanini and 1960's MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN with Scilla Gabel. During the 1950s, Ferroni made some documentaries and short films, of which this is one. The music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino gave some boost to the proceedings, with some of it sounding like it would fit on I CRIMINALI DELLA GALASSIA and his other Science Fiction films. Sophia Loren and Raf Vallone made cameo appearances as spectators.
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David Deal enjoyed:
THE NIGHT MY NUMBER CAME UP (55) - A man recounts a dream from the night before about an airplane crash to a group of friends, some of whom end up on a flight the next day that takes on the same characteristics of the dream. Very suspenseful British thriller featuring Michael Redgrave, Alexander Knox, and Denholm Elliot.
TEN LITTLE INDIANS (65) - This is the first British-produced version of Agatha Christie's famous story, and it is set in a castle in the Austrian Alps. Quite entertaining with all involved in top form, except Fabian. Others include Dahlia Lavi, Shirley Eaton, Hugh O'Brian, Dennis Price, and Wilfred Hyde-White. Features Christopher Lee's voice on a tape accusing all of their various crimes, and none other than Mario Adorf as one of the Swiss servants.
MEET MR. CALLAGHAN (53) - Down-and-nearly-out private eye Derrick De Marney is set up for an alibi in a murder case. His only chance is to play the suspects against themselves to reveal the motive and killer. Hard-boiled British crime is convoluted but interesting, and De Marney is a force of nature, always one step ahead of the bad guys and good guys. Harriette Johns is the client.
THE HAND (60) - From Burma in 1946 where POWs have their hands chopped off for not talking, to London in 1960 where the twisted road to revenge comes to an end. This tale of a hand for a hand is a fun British thriller with no superstars but lots of vigor. Recommended.
THE HOUSE OF THE ARROW (53) - The will states that lovely Yvonne Furneaux inherits everything but there comes a claim of poison and murder that Surete detective Oscar Homolka proves. There is no doubt this British mystery is of great visual interest (and deserves a quality release) but this also features a clever plot and a top notch performance from Homolka. Recommended.
Mildly enjoyed:
THE FRIGHTENED MAN (51) - Antique dealer's son (Dermot Walsh) drops out of Oxford and embarks on a life of crime, eventually ensnaring or ruining everyone around him, including his father. British noir is a familiar story but told with some warmth. Luckily, it has a downbeat ending.
THE MAN WHO WATCHED TRAINS GO BY (52) - Circumstances put mild clerk Claude Rains on the lam with a murder rap and a box full of hot cash, heading toward a femme fatale and his destiny. Interesting color British thriller straddles a fine line between genteel manners and debased criminality, with Rains caught between the two. Features (not enough of) Herbert Lom and Ferdy Mayne.
IMPULSE (54) - Married and bored, real estate agent Arthur Kennedy finds himself in an existential pickle when he falls for femme fatale Constance Smith who's mixed up with stolen diamonds. Kennedy is always good but this Brit thriller misses the mark, and then caps it all off with a happy ending. Please.
NIGHT WATCH (73) - Mentally fragile Elizabeth Taylor sees dead bodies in the abandoned house next door much to the chagrin of her husband Laurence Harvey and best friend Billie Whitelaw. Is she going bonkers or is there something else going on? British thriller is rather melodramatic but it's also quite atmospheric and has a couple of shockingly brutal murders. A curio.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974) American Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) and several other passengers take to a lifeboat when a U boat torpedoes their British liner during WWII. As soon as the German sub surfaces to admire their work, the scrappy survivors board and rush the enemy. Tyler knows a thing or two about naval vessels since his father was such a designer. But the captured captain pulls a fast one by attaching a magnet to the compass. Thus they are all headed who-knows-where and end up in a prehistoric region near Antarctica. Dinosaurs and Greg Martell-like cavemen.
MASSACRE AT THE GRAND CANYON (1964) Albert Band film with director Stanley Corbett (Sergio Corbucci). Wes Evans (James Mitchum) is back from his mission of revenge for the murder of his father. His love Nancy (Milla Sonnaner who resembles Gabriella Pallotta) gave up.on his return and has since married unscrupulous rancher Tully Dancer (George Ardisson). Tully and his bedridden father Eric (Eduardo Cianelli) are in a range war that takes place primarily in a canyon and commands all the attention of the sheriff (Giancommi Rossi Stuart) who wants Wes to assume his job. In the end he does become sheriff as the current one is gunned down.
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