To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Charles Gilbert asks, "Which composer of Italian cinema married a starlet who had previously dated James Dean?"
Bertrand van Wonterghem and Angel Rivera knew that it was Armando Trovajoli.
Charles Gilbert asks, "Which Italian film composer worked on Sword and Sandal movies and Westerns as well as a British giant monster movie?"
George Grimes, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.
Which Italian film composer worked on every kind of movie including three for Hammer Films of Great Britain?
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Mario Nascimbene.
And now for some new brain teasers:
On what movie did Robert Woods and George Hamilton work together?
On what movie did Robert Woods and Henry Fonda work together?
On what TV production did Robert Woods and Lindsay Wagner work together?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Giuliano Gemma, Fulvio Mingozzi and Tom Felleghi in ARIZONA COLT.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Charles Gilbert and Angel Rivera identified last week's frame grab of in L'IRA DI ACHILLE, aka THE FURY OF ACHILLES.
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?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung in IP MAN.
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:
HECKLER (2007) - Michael Addis and Jamie Kennedy gathered over 100 people to talk about dealing with hecklers and then critics. Quickly paced and frequently funny, this documentary is a fun watch with some information to be gathered. And Jewel looks gorgeous.
NIGHT WILL FALL (2014) - An intriguing documentary about a film about the Nazi concentration camps being produced by Sidney Bernstein with some direction by Alfred Hitchcock that was shelved by the British government at the end of World War II because it was felt it would stir public sympathies in favor of Jewish immigration into Palestine. Plus the British government wanted to uplift the German post war depression in the face of expansionism by the Soviet Union. Some camp survivors who were captured on film when they were liberated talk in recent years about the old footage showing them in 1945.
THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958)
THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)
Marvel's What If...? episode three (2021)
Did not enjoy:
HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) - Art critic Alan Napier talks a buyer out of getting Martin Kosleck's new sculpture, so Kosleck goes to the riverside contemplating suicide. Finding Rondo Hatton face down in the water, Kosleck rescues the fellow. Seeing Hatton's distorted face, Kosleck thinks that he would be the perfect subject for a sculpture showing the Neanderthal man. Kosleck doesn't know that Hatton is a murderer known as "The Creeper", whom the police think is dead because he fell in the river. After Kosleck goes to sleep, Hatton creeps out and murders "Lady of the Streets" Virginia Christine. In the morning, Kosleck complains about being broke due to Napier's interfearance, so Hatton creeps out that night and murders Napier. Unfortunately, Napier was writing a bad review of Robert Lowery's show, so Lowery is cop Bill Goodwin's main suspect. Lowery's newspaper reporter girlfriend Virginia Grey doesn't help much by volunteering a false alibi for Lowery, but the filmmakers play every scene not involving Hatton for humor so we know that no real harm is done. Director Jean Yarbrough delivers a standard Universal B-movie scare film by which it is hard to imagine anyone was ever scared. Rondo Hatton as "The Creeper" was introduced in the Sherlock Holmes flick THE PEARL OF DEATH, and was to continue in a series of films but he died after only making one more: THE BRUTE MAN.
MIDDLE MEN (2009) - Reportedly based on the experiences of producer Christopher Mallick with the companies Paycom and ePassporte, this tale of a business fixer seems almost like a sequel to RISKY BUSINESS. Houston based family man Luke Wilson flies to Los Angeles to help friend Terry Crews get his night club up and running, when James Caan asks him to help Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht get their internet porn business working. Ribisi and Macht borrowed money from Russian gangster Rade Serbedzija and Wilson is asked to straighten things out. Wilson should have known better than to get involved, but things spiral out of control and Wilson faces possibly losing his family and his life. Director George Gallo co-wrote this film which fails to hold the viewer's interest and seems alot of longer than it should be.
THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES (1940) - Sam Hellman gets the blame for this bullshit screenplay, though it is novel that a Western spends so much of its running time on a comedic court room scene. Someone noticed that JESSE JAMES didn't mention the Civil War, so this sequel mentions it alot. Even though our hero, Henry Fonda, gives himself up to the law to prevent the hanging of an innocent "darkie", no one is going to champion this film as racially enlightened. It's portrait of Gene Tierney, in her first feature, it isn't going to be noted as enlightened towards women's issues either. Aside from ignoring the history of Frank James, the film also botches the story of the Bob and Charlie Ford oddly making Bob a suicide which it actually what happened to Charlie - though in completely different circumstances. Director Firtz Lang fans like to say this sequel is better than the 1939 film, but I don't see that.
TARZAN EN LA GRUTA DEL ORO, aka TARZAN'S GREATEST CHALLENGE, aka ZAN, RE DELLA GIUNGLA, aka KING OF THE JUNGLE (1969) - Normally a movie likes this shows a "co-production" credit. The English credits for this flick report "Corruption" Pan Latina Films Madrid, Tritone Filmindustrial Rome and Coqui Productions Inc Miami. The IMDb lists the running time as 68 minutes. The copy I saw ran 77 mintes. Stuff is obviously missing. There's a build-up to the all-male (except for one female dancer) black village forced by the two evil white guys with carbine rifles to attack the all-white female Amazons (who mostly live underground and have identical black wigs), but we don't see it on the copy I have. Luckily, that scene is available on YouTube, and explains how the bad guys learn the location of the secret gold mine. Tarzan movies are always problematical because of the racial issue, even if he's called "Zan" on the English soundtrack. He calls himself "King of the Jungle" but no one specifies if this takes place in Africa. Filmed partly in the former Dutch Guiana, now called Suriname, in South America, this story could just as well be set in South America. The editing of the movie is so choppy, I wonder if the filmmakers ran out of money to shoot what they wanted, of if they were just lousy storytellers. Steve Hawkes plays Zan, who is informed by his talking parrot that Amazon Princess Kitty Swan (credited as Ketty Swan on the viewed copy) is in trouble. She's been captured by the black tribe who want 20 rifles in payment from the evil white guys Jesus Puente and Luis Marin. (Do these guys think they are American Indians?) Puente says that they will only get the rifles if Swan devulges the location of the treasure. The villains proceed to torture Swan by tying her to a pillar and having the lone black female dance at her. (Good torture.) Hawkes arrives and does a Maciste impersonation by flipping over huts and tossing villagers around, while dodging the white guys' bullets. (Maciste movies often resemble Tarzan movies so that MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES was retitled in some countries as TARZAN IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES.) Hawkes takes Swan to the Amazon habitude, where the aging Queen Joan Koplan informs Hawkes of the location of the treasure in case she dies before telling Swan. The evil white guys give a black villager a rifle and tell him to go kill Hawkes, which he thinks he's accomplished by shooting our hero out of a tree. Luckily, Hawkes floats down the river to where the parrot tells gold prospector Antoino Casas to rescue him. Meanwhile, Casas' daughter, Kristsa Nell, arrives from Philadelphia to be greeted in town by Fernando Sancho, who is the mayor, hotel owner and police chief. She wants to find her long missing father, and tries to convince Carlos Badias to act as her guide. Recovering his strength, Hawkes listens as Casas' rants about needing to find gold before he can leave the jungle. Thinking he's doing a good deed, Hawkes takes some of the gold from the Amazon's treasure to give to Casas - after killing the ape creature hidden there. Needless-to-say, Casas shows up in town to get drunk and to tell everyone about his gold. This catches the attention of the two evil white guys who decide to enlist Badias in their plan. Nell is happy to be reunited with her father, but he says he can't leave just yet and heads back into the jungle. The two evil white guys kill Casas (in another missing scene) and then force the black villagers to attack the Amazons. Nell convinced Badias to help her find her father's place in the jungle. Badias is attack by a leopard, but Hawkes shows up to shoo the cat away. He informs Nell of the death of her father. Meanwhile Puente and Marin are looting the Amazon's treasure, but Hawkes' jungle cry scares the blacks away - fearing that he will get revenge for their massacring the Amazons. Carrying the heavy gold back on their own, the two evil white guys are having a hard time, especially Marin who sinks into quicksand. Coming upon Nell and Badias, Puente convinces Badias to help him carry the gold to a canoe, but then double-crosses him to take off on the river alone. Hawkes has been watching all this from the trees, but won't allow Puente to get away. Diving into the river, Hawkes knocks Puente into the water and kills him. Our hero makes another present of Amazon gold to Nell and Badias, so they're happy. The film ends with Hawkes and Swan swimming together underwater, perhaps as an homage to Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in TARZAN THE APE MAN. Even at 77 minutes, this movie is a boring mess. Scenes do not logically flow from one to another, but how much of this was intentional? The copy I have says Screenplay Santiago Moncada and J.R. Hernandez. The IMDb says "Screenplay Umberto Lenzi, Story Santiago Moncada and Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent (as Joaquin Romero Hernandez)." Did Lenzi rewrite the film for the Italian dub? The credits say that Raf Baldassarre is in the film, but I couldn't find him. The music for the film is quite enjoyable, but there is no composer credit on the print. The IMDb says that it is Marcello Giombini, which I can believe - unless that is a credit for the Italian version and not the version I saw.
VIVARIUM (2019) - As much as I enjoy watching Imogen Potts, sitting through this 98 minute movie, which might have made an effective half hour episode of The Twilight Zone, is a chore. Starting out with footage of a newly hatched bird pushing two other newly hatched chicks out of the nest to their deaths so that his is the only mouth for the mother bird to feed doesn't seem an apt metaphor for the events to follow. It only seems to have been shown so that someone would comment on nature sometimes being cruel. However, what happens in the story doesn't seem natural at all. Oh, wait. Perhaps the film intended a Science Fiction premise about an unknown species that forced an human couple to raise its young? What may have been intended as a surreal metaphor of the hell of living in the suburbs, this film has what would seem to be a simple premise, so why did it take the combined efforts of Irish, Belgium and Danish film companies and governments to produce it? The title is latin for "place of life".
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David Deal enjoyed:
THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (59)
ARABIAN NIGHTS (42) - The Kino Lorber bBlu-ray looks great.
CHARIOTS OF THE GODS (70) - From 2006: Chariots of the Gods is intelligent and very competently made. It covers lots of ground, many of its mysteries are still debated (rather than debunked) and it has cool tunes to go along with it. I recommend this granddaddy of the speculative documentary. It still holds up as entertaining and thought-provoking even today.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (00)
PROSPECT (18) - A father and daughter prospecting team discover a mother lode on a forest planet but run into a couple of undesirables which changes everything. Low-budget SF has loads of natural and devised atmosphere, and an interesting story filled with curious characters.
FROZEN ALIVE (64)
THE EVIL (78)
BROADWAY'S DEADLY GOLD (68) - See The Eurospy Guide book for a complete review of this final film in the Jerry Cotton series.
THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE (42)
PASSWORD: KILL AGENT GORDON (66) - See The Eurospy Guide for a complete review of this Roger Browne actioner.
MURDER ON THE CAMPUS (34)
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Charles Gilbert watched:
HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) B&W. Rondo Hatton, a one-time Tampa journalist, was a jock in high school, but he contracted acromegaly from mustard gas poison exposure as a GI in WWI and became known in Hollywood as the 'monster without makeup'.
HANNIBAL (1959) Victor Mature as the Carthaginian general famous for crossing the Alps with a vast army and elephants. Rita Gam plays niece to a Roman senator whom Hannibal 'sparks' until the end when she finds out about his wife and young son.Terence Hill and Bud Spencer appear.
Holmes vs. Cooney June 11 1982. Larry Holmes retained his title against challenger Gerry Cooney amidst searing Las Vegas heat. The three judges scored in favor of Cooney most of the 12 rounds, and were labelled racist by the Holmes camp. A relentless pounding by Holmes induced Cooney's manager to stop the fight that had been plagued with controversy due to nine illegal blows below the belt from Cooney's vicious left hooks.
A RETURN TO GRACE (2017) The life and legacy of Martin Luther is told in documentary form with lively acting. The founder of the Protestant Reformation was impelled to contravene the Church of the Holy Roman Empire when Pope Leo confrere Johan Tetzel initiated the practice of indulgences...extortion from the lay on the order of modern Word of Faith practice. His 95 theses addressing these abuses were posted on his German church door challenging papal authority. Were it not for the newly invented printing press, awareness of his protest would have been minimal. But publishers with these new contraptions capitalized on the controversy and his compositions
sold wildly. All the while he struggled to know what it meant to please God, with a breakthrough, yet countervailing understanding that 'faith alone' and not 'works' saved him. For these heresies he was excommunicated. With overwhelming popular support he appealed to the emperor King Charles, but was condemned upon refusal to recant, leading to exile as the masses revolted. He eventually married and raised a family despite living the rest of his life as an outlaw. The narration in summation notes the many contributions of Martin Luther to Western democracy.
MARTIN LUTHER (1953) B&W. Irving Pichel directs and appears but Nial MacGinnis essays the title role. Peter Ustinov also appears. The film ends with the song Luther wrote "A Mighty Fortress'.
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Angel Rivera watched:
I have watched and enjoyed: "Titans" "Love Life", "Bill Maher", "NYC Epicenters 9/11 -2021 1/2".
I watched and mildly enjoyed "The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz" a 1968 film which starred one of the most beautiful of the international beauties of the 1960s, Elke Sommer as an East German athlete who" pole vaults" over the Berlin wall to defect to the West after she is propositioned by an East German official played by Werner Klemperer. She meets Black Marketeer Bob Crane who unbeknownst to her is making a deal with the East German officials who want her back. Through its running time, Elke is seen in several stages of dress and undress, but never anything more than a lot of cheesecake style images.
We even get to see Bob Crane, as well as other "Hogan's Heroes" cast mates; Klemperer and John Banner (of "I see nothing!" fame) in drag. Actress Maureen Arthur steals the show as the agitated wife of Bob's CIA buddy. The wickedest dream I could see that Elke/Paula has in this film is that she wants to marry Bob. Spoiler Alert: Everything works out between Elke and Bob.
I also saw "Only Angels Have Wings" a 1939 Cary Grant and Jean Arthur classic whose theme is similar to "Wages of Fear"(1953).
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
Ramses II (play) (2018, Dominique Thiel)
Enjoyed:
Makyō Densetsu Akurobanchi / Askadis (1981) (anime) episodes 1 to 5
Terug naar morgen (2015, Lukas Bossuyt)
The final girls / Scream girl (2014, Todd Strauss-Schulson)
Gojira tai Mekagojira / Godzilla vs the cosmic monster (1974, Jun Fukuda)
Mekagojira no gyakushu / Terror of Mekagodzilla (1975, Inoshiro Honda)
Winchester (2018, the Spierig brothers)
Did not enjoyed:
Black Easter (2020, Jim Carroll)
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