To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
In which Italian Western does our hero shoot the crutches our from under an old man who is accusing him of being a criminal?
It is IL SUO NOME GRIDAVA VENDETTA, aka THE MAN WHO CRIED FOR REVENGE.
What reason did Frank Wolff give for accepting the role in UN DOLLARO TRA I DENTI?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which Spanish veteran of Italian Westerns played a priest in a film by Pedro Almodovar?
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Manuel Zarzo in ENTRE TINIEBLAS, aka DIRTY HABITS.
Which American veteran of Italian Westerns appeared on stage with James Dean?
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that James Dean appeared on stage in New York City with Arthur Kennedy in SEE THE JAGUAR. I meant to ask which American veteran of Italian Westerns appeared on stage with James Dean at UCLA? George Grimes knew that it was Frank Wolff, who played MACBETH with Dean as a spear carrier.
Which American veteran of Italian Westerns appeared in an American TV show with Jack Klugman?
George Grimes knew that Frank Wolff did a Twilight Zone with Klugman.
And now for some new brain teasers:
How many Westerns did Jim Brown make in Almeria, Spain?
How many Westerns did Jolly Films make with Clint Eastwood?
How many Westerns had music by Dan Savio?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Rick Garibaldi, Charles Gilbert and Angel Rivera identified last week's frame grab of Catherine Spaak and Jim Kelly in TAKE A HARD RIDE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Loredana Nusciak and Carl Mohner in IL CROLLO DI ROMA, aka THE FALL OF ROME.
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 Corinne Clery and Reb Brown in IL MONDO DI YOR, aka YOR HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Sonny Chiba in SAMURAI RESURRECTION.
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:
Highly enjoyed:
Rome season one (2005)
Enjoyed:
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Mario Lopez and Melissa Villasenor" (2022)
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Terry Crews and Tony Danza" (2022)
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (2020) - Director Lisa Rovner's documentary celebrates the female pioneers in electronic music. Interestingly, while Laurie Anderson narrates the film, she and her work is not mention. I wondered if there would be a mention of Wendy Carlos, who achieved fame as Walter Carlos, and there was because of the success of "Switched On Bach", but Suzanne Ciani is made to quickly denigrate the effort to translate Baroque music into electronic sounds. She, and most of those profiled, were attempting to create a new music. Bebe Barron, and her husband Louis, are celebrated for the score to FORBIDDEN PLANET, which the Musicians Union succeeded it labeling "electronic tonalities" rather than music. Delia Ann Derbyshire is celebrated for her work at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and popularizing electronic sounds with her arrangement of Ron Grainer's theme for the TV series Doctor Who. Also profiled are Maryanne Amacher, Pauline Oliveros, Daphne Oram, Elaine
Radigue, Clara Rockmore and Laurie Spiegel.
Mildly enjoyed:
THUNDERBIRD 6 (1968) - In 1957, producer Gerry Anderson began his TV career with The Adventures of Twizzle, a show intended for children with a puppet hero. It was here that he first worked with puppeteer Christine Glanville, special effects technician Derek Meddings and composer Barry Gray. Reportedly Anderson wasn't happy working with puppets, but it became his career with shows like Torchy the Battery Boy, Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds. The success of the Thunderbirds TV series resulted in a feature film, THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO. Even though that feature was a commercial disappointment, a second film was made. while Anderson continued on TV with Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. I can understand why special effects people might prefer working with puppets instead of live actors, but as a viewer I prefer looking at people. While the original intention may have been to amuse children, this film's screenplay by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson is remarkably lacking in humor and surprisingly dark in tone with characters being callously killed. Since the idea is to replace human actors with puppets, every time an insert shot is shown with an actual human hand - or a real airplane flying in the sky - it seems like a failure of imagination on the filmmakers part. While there are miniature replicas of the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty and the Egyptian pyramids, there are also real shots of Istanbul and other locales. Nothing dates this series more than the heroes using "F.A.B." as their call sign. As with most Anderson productions, everything that happens just seems to be an excuse to put off the big explosions that will be the climax, but I kept wondering about the financial impact on the company to have the new Skyship One and an entire missle base destroyed.
Did not enjoy:
TERRA RIBELLE, aka TIERRA INDOMABLE, aka REBEL LAND (2010) - I check out the listings for L.A.'s Spanish language station KWHY-TV because they often play European films. When I saw Lando Buzzanca in the cast list, I knew I had to check this out. A co-production of Albatross Media and RAI Fiction, this series is set in Maremma, in Tuscany, Italy, but mostly filmed in Argentina and Uruguary. Set in the 1870s, this plays like a novella styled as a Western. The story tells of two men who fall in love with the same woman. The evil man, Fabrizio Bucci (Italian), gets the good guy, Rodrigo Guirao (Argentine) sent to prison and then rapes Anna Favella (Italian), even though he is married to her sister Sabrina Garciarena (Argentine). Guirao escapes from the prison - which looks just like the prison in A LONG RIDE FROM HELL and soon joins a band of brigands that resembles Robin Hood's Merry Men, but with six shooters. After about sixteen hours, Garciarena betrays Bucci with his foreman and Guirao rescues Favella. Don't you just hate stories where the good guy doesn't kill the bad guy - after the bad guy has murdered dozens of innocents, raped the heroine and shot the hero twice - because it is discovered that they are brothers? The first season is directed by Cinzia Th. Torrini, who had a great success with an earlier series called Elisa di Rivombrosa in 2005. In the end, Bucci escapes to catch a ship headed for South America, where I believe everyone will end up in season two. And Lando Buzzanca doesn't show up until season two. Italian composer Fabrizio Bondi did the music.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
RADIO ON (79) - A DJ looks for clues about his brother's death. But that's not really what this black and white British art film is all about. Hanging from the wisp of a plot are the angst, alienation, and existential qualities of life. The Zeitgeist of the punk/new wave era is reflected in the popular radio hits spicing the journey of this fascinating time capsule. Recommended.
AGENT FOR H.A.R.M. (66) - Mark Richmond is the agent assigned to protect a defected scientist working on the antidote for a deadly spore from space. TV level spy-jinx with effective and clever direction from Gerd Oswald (The Outer Limits). Martin Kosleck is the villain and Barbara Bouchet the femme fatale.
INCIDENT AT PHANTOM HILL (66) - Following the Civil War, ex-Reb Dan Duryea is offered a pardon if he will show government agent Robert Fuller where he buried a million dollars in gold. Duryea is always great but this is a flat "road trip" western that never rises above adequate entertainment.
THE LAUGHING WOMAN (69) - The Mondo Macabro Blu-ray looks great.
TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN (58)
SCREAM OF FEAR (61)
Mildly Enjoyed
ACCOUNT RENDERED (57) - When a disliked socialite is murdered, suspicion falls on her unlikeblae friends. British programmer is part police procedural and part melodrama. Gains speed in the second half with a tidy climax. An early role for Honor Blackman.
THE TRUE STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA (80) - Supposedly based on true events, Bruno Mattei's naughty nuns entry is okay entertainment once.
SHOOT (64)
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Angel Rivera Watched:
First I saw the new version of "Nightmare Alley" (2021). Unfortunately I could not enjoy it because in my head, I kept comparing it with the original, I know, oh so well.
To begin with the first thing they show is what a "geek" is; at least in its original meaning. They actually show a "geek" chewing off the head of a chicken. (I guess they did that to show to those who only know a "geek" as another name for a nerd.) (This is different from the original, where what a geek does is never shown, only mentioned.),
Each scene played to me as "Oh, this is what is being done different in this version."
Of the new version I was most impressed by Cate Blanchett's performance; even though I am not a big Cate Blanchett fan. The sepia tone coloring they use throughout the film to invoke period, just makes the film look dark. (As this version is a period piece it takes place just before WWII, while the original takes place post-war.) So I can't really say if someone not so familiar with the original would enjoy this version.
Next I discovered on YouTube, the original Italian dub of "Zorro Contro Maciste"(1963) (aka "Samson and the Slave Queen") with English subtitles. It was amazing how the translated subtitles were so close to the English dub in wording. What is also amazing is the scenes that were cut out of the original film when the film was released in the US by AIP. Namely one of the scenes showing Pierre Brice who is Ramon/Zorro making out with Maria Grazia Spina, the blonde "good" princess and the scene showing Moira Orfei (the dark haired "bad" princess) making out with her paramour, Massimo Serato who portrays the evil Captain Garcia. Alan Steel (Maciste) even gets into the act, when at the finale, he gets to make out with the servant girl, Carmencita, (Rosy di Leo) who helped him in his quest to right the wrong. All these make out scenes were cut from the original when the film made the trip across the ocean. We even get to hear the original score, which was replaced in some of the film by AIP, with music by Les Baxter. The rest of the changes you probably know. Any way a most enjoyable film.
After that, I watched the first sound Zorro movie "The Bold Caballero" (1936) which was shot in an early color process. The hero is played by Robert Livingston who also portrayed the Lone Ranger in one of Republic Studio's serials. The villain is played by Sig Ruman, who is probably better known for his comic performances in a few Marx Brothers comedies where he is also the "villain". Livingston even dresses up as a woman to escape capture in one scene and is only in Zorro costume for a short part of the film. Still a mildly entertaining and enjoyable film.
Next I pulled out my copies (that were on VHS) of the Disney films, "The Sign of Zorro"(1960) and "Zorro, the Avenger" (1960) culled from different episodes of Disney's "Zorro" TV series which starred Guy Williams. The first film had theatrical distribution in the US, while the other played mostly in European theaters. They both came to US cable television in the 1990s when the Disney Channel was a premium cable channel and one could only get it by subscription and they aired only old Disney shows with no commercials except after the programs aired. That's when I recorded them. Even though Disney had all 78 episodes of the series colorized, the movies were shown in their original B & W. They are mostly entertaining as nostalgia pieces. An interesting note is that in the first film, Tony Russel (here listed as Tony Russo, his real name) plays a Zorro imposter. In an interview in "Video Watchdog" magazine, Tony Russel stated that he, Brit Lomond and Guy Williams were all up for the role of Zorro. He claims that although he and Lomond were better fencers than Williams; Williams still won the role. Lomond would become Capt. Monasterio, the wicked comandante, while Russo ended up playing the Zorro impersonator meant to discredit Zorro. Tony Russel would later move to Italy were he started an English dubbing studio and starred in several Italian films including "Behind the Mask of Zorro" (1965) where he played the title character, as well as in "Wild, Wild Planet" and "War of the Planets" where he portrayed Commander Mike Halstead.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
Loki – season 1 – epis 1 to 4
Uptown Saturday night (1974, Sidney Poitier)
The man who wasn’t there (1983, Bruce Malmuth)
Murderville – season 1 – epis 1
The invaders – epis « wall of crystal » (1967, Joseph Sargent)
Mildly enjoyed:
Bulgasal, immortal souls – season 1 – episodes 3 & 4
La bourse et la vie (1965, Jean-Pierre Mocky)
Did not enjoy:
Eternals (2021, Chloe Zhao)
Agente X 1-7 operazione oceano (1965, Tano Boccia)
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Charles Gilbert watched:
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1966) B&W. Disjointed political thriller has army soldiers captured by communists during the Korean War, and psychologically conditioned as assassins against the U. S. The method of mind control during a session parallels with 'Aunt Bee's flower guild meeting' (?). Upon release Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) in particular suffers from recurring nightmares and commits despicable acts when triggered by the Queen of diamonds during games of solitare. His war pal Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) moves to help and find the operator for Raymond's big assignment. Ben's confrontation with one commie agent (Henry Silva) results in an amateurish karate match - both using the forearm in a horizontal guard position. It just so happens that Raymond's mom and stepfather (Angela Lansbury and James Gregory) are Washington power brokers scheming against their own presidential candidate. Mom was the one dealing traitorously with the Korean enemy without considering her son to emerge as the manipulated hitman. Leslie Parrish and Janet Leigh respectively, are love interests for the two pals.
Woolworth Fire of 1979. In Manchester England lives were lost at a department store. Six years earlier a fire erupted at another Woolworth in Colchester. Neither place was installed with a sprinkler system.
IT THE TERROR FROM VEYOND SPACE (1958) B&W. A team on a mission to Mars arrests an officer still there from a previous trip for murdering his fellow shipmates. A malicious alien stows aboard on the return trip and proves invulnerable until the astronauts compromise his sensitive lungs in the end.
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