To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which Italian Western climaxes with the hero facing his own son for the final showdown?
Tom Betts knew that it was 7 DOLLARI SUL ROSSO, aka SEVEN DOLLARS ON THE RED, aka SEVEN DOLLARS TO KILL.
Charles Gilbert asks, from which Italian Western comes the lyrics:
"You may think he's a sleepy type guy
Always takes his time.
Soon I know you'll be changing your mind,
when you see him use his gun, boy.
When you see him use his gun."
Bertrand van Wonterghem, Tom Betts, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it came from LO CHIAMAVANO TRINITA, aka THEY CALL ME TRINITY.
In what movie starring Charles Bronson can you see Robert Woods on a TV screen?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which American actor who made an Italian Western appeared on screen with Cher?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Harry Carey Jr. in MASK.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Which Italian Western features two male couples: one heterosexual and one homosexual, supposedly working together to get gold?
Who did Woody Strode credit as being the first movie producer to offer him the same kind of money white actors were getting?
Complete the English language line from and Italian Western: "Early to bed, early to rise ____ ____ _____ ______ ___ ____."
Name the movies from which these images came.
Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Tom Betts identified last week's frame grab of Nieves Navarro and Antonio Casas in UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO, aka A PISTOL FOR RINGO.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem, and Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Ed Fury in URSUS NELLA TERRA DI FUOCO, aka URSUS IN THE LAND OF FIRE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one identified that above photo.
It is from RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY.
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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:
L'ARTISTE ET SON MODELE, aka THE ARTIST AND THE MODEL (2012) - Claudia Cardinale is shopping in town one day and finds a young woman, Aida Folch, who had been sleeping in a doorway, washing her leg in the public fountain. It turns out that Cardinale is the wife of elderly sculptor Jean Rochefort, and she feels that Folch has the body which could inspire her husband to work again. German soldiers walk through the town and we now know that the story is set during the Nazi occupation of France. It turns out that Folch is a refugee from Fascist Spain who doesn't know what a model does, but agrees to do the work in order to have a safe place to live. Spanish director Fernando Trueba co-wrote the screenplay with Jean-Claude Carriere and obviously the film will detail how working together will change both the artist and the model. The filmmakers are able to create a sensitive and moving experience without tripping into melodrama - even after Rochefort discovers that Folch has secretly given shelter to Martin Gamet, a wounded French resistance fighter. Complicating things a little, is a visit from German officer Gotz Otto, who was an art historian working on a book about Rochefort before he had to join the Army. As in BELLE EPOQUE, Trueba evidences a love of women, and while Folch spends a good portion of the movie posing nude, it never feels exploitative. Cinematographer Daniel Vilar captures the story in lovely B&W. This was the next to last film actress Chus Lampreave made before passing away at age 85 in 2016 after having made eight films with director Pedro Almodovar. All of her scenes are in Spanish, while most of the film is in French.
Rescue Me season six (2010)
Did not enjoy:
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS (2007) - I loved the David Saville, aka Ross Bagdasarian Sr., records while I was growing up. Hell, I still love them, but I never liked the animated TV series nor any of the animated feature films that followed. I don't think this live-action/computer animated musical comedy film was made with me as the intended audience, but it found an audience and generated three sequels. I'd rather watch JOE'S APARTMENT again. On the plus side, Cameron Richardson is pleasant to look at even when playing an annoying character. The highlights of the movie include brief appearances by Beth Riesgraf and Jane Lynch, and the showing of all of the real Chipmunk albums during the closing credits as an homage to creator Bagdasarian.
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL (2009) - Betty Thomas took over the directing chores from Jon Vitti for the sequel, but as Vitti was one of the screenwriters, things did not improve for someone who didn't like the first film. Actually, they got worse with the conceit that inorder for the three chipmunks to have a "normal childhood" they had to go to school. So all of the usual "new kids in school" tropes are trotted out. Jason Lee, from the first film, gets put into an hospital in Paris, so Zachary Levi is brought in to be sort-of the father figure. Wendie Malick is kind-of fun as the school principal.
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED (2011) - What do you do when you've made two movies that earned over $300 million at the box office? The Bagdasarian Company made a third one, and since Jason Lee was no longer doing My Name Is Earl, he returns to the lead role. This film has a reputation for being worse than the first two, so, of course, I enjoyed it more. Partly this is because I enjoy Jenny Slate, but mostly it is because a comedy based on adventure films like CASTAWAY and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK works better for me than either a backstage music biz tale or an high school hijinks plot. Having Mark Mothersbaugh doing the music doesn't hurt either.
DUST DEVIL (1992) - Filmed in Namibia, this movie had a troubled post-production history. The version I saw was the 87 minute U.S. release from Miramax which had some references to Namibia's recent independence from South Africa, but if you weren't familiar with that history, the film wasn't about to inform you about it. Basically, this was kind of like THE HITCHER with a supernatural explanation and an ending similar to THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY. Robert John Burke, whom I've been recently watching on the Rescue Me TV series, stars as the serial killer on the road. Partly inspired by the story of a serial killer in South Africa known as Nhadiep, DUST DEVIL embraces the notion that the killer is a supernatural creature called a Dust Devil, that needs the ritual of murder in an effort to return to the spirit world. His victims are people who want to die, so when the suicidal wife on the run, Chelsea Field, picks him up on the side of the road, she becomes his next intended victim. However, faced with death, Field runs away only to be pursued across the desert not only by Burke, but by her husband, Rufus Swart, and cop Zakes Mokae who wants to catch the killer with the help of a magic stick given to him by a Sangoma played by John Matshikiza. Simon Boswell provides some tuneful music and Steven Chivers captures the arresting locations on film, but writer/director Richad Stanley delivers a rather standard Horror film that seems to think that it is more than a standard Horror flick.
EFFIE GRAY (2014) - If you need another story about how hard life could be for a woman in the Victorian Age, here's EFFIE GRAY. This vies with BRIMSTONE as the most depressing movie starring Dakota Fanning yet, though it has a much more positive ending than that dreary Western. I didn't know that this was based on a true story, but now I know that the story has been the subject of a variety of films, novels, radio plays, an opera, a stage play, and a TV mini-series. Eventually, Emma Thompson decides to turn the story into a screenplay, which features none of the warmth and humor usually found in her projects. It gives another young popular American actress the chance to do a period English role, and gives Thompson's real life husband, Greg Wise, the chance to play an heartless and self-absorbed man who marries a young woman because he sees her as a work of art. When she comes to him on their wedding night, he finds her disgusting for wanting to consummate the marriage. Spoilers! This finally ends with the scandalous annulment of their marriage after about six years because of non-consummation. So, we get about 50 minutes of Fanning being emotionally abused by her husband and his parents, played by Julie Walters and David Suchet. On a visit to Venice, Italy, Fanning experiences male lust from Riccardo Scamarcio. English doctor Robbie Coltrane orders Wise to take Fanning to visit her home country in Scotland to improve her health, but he brings along painter Tom Sturridge to do a portrait of himself. Seeing the pain Fanning suffers from her husband's indifference, Sturridge offers her warmth and sympathy, however both are very cautious not to do anything to ruin her reputation. Eventually, Lady Emma Thompson, whose husband James Fox is being solicited by Wise and his parents for a possible patronage, learns of Fanning's plight and sends her to lawyer Derek Jacobi. Veteran TV director Richard Laxton fails to make this compelling, but with cinematographer Andrew Dunn captures some lovely scenery. There's no faulting the film's production values, which includes Claudia Cardinale as a Viscountess during the scenes in Venice. The film ends without mentioning that the Fanning character eventually married the painter played by Tom Sturridge and during their 48 year relationship had eight children.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
PORK CHOP HILL (1959) B&W. Nonstop battlefield action as U. S. troops charge a hill against the Chinese army during the Korean Conflict. The desolate parcel of real estate served only as focal point for negotiation. Among the many stressors they incur they're assaulted with loud speaker agitprop from the enemy.
THE DEVIL'S RAIN (1975) Creepy eye makeup for much of the cast centers around Ernest Borgnine playing a satanist reincarnated from the Puritan era. William Shatner and Ida Lupino are included.
BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960) Second of the famous Hammer vampire films this sans the count himself. David Peel is far down the list of opening credits. Martita Hunt and Freda Jackson had appeared together two decades earlier in GREAT EXPECTATIONS. It was curious to me to see Martita in the episode of Route 66 'Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing' with Karloff, Chaney, and Lorre.
The Rise and Fall of Vera Miles. Brief video on the beauty Hitchcock preferred.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (63)
UTAH BLAINE (57) - Gunman Rory Calhoun saves a man from hanging who owns a big ranch coveted by the local bigwig, who will do anything to get it and the ranch next door too. Rory decides to help and all hell breaks loose. Sam Katzman b&w quickie has plenty of energy and Calhoun carries it easily. Solid entry.
MISSION BLOODY MARY (65) - See The Eurospy Guide book for a complete review of this Ken Clark entry.
DEATH HAUNTS MONICA (76)
FEMINISTS WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? (18) - Excellent documentary on the women's rights movement.
SLIGHTLY SCARLET (55)
Mildly enjoyed:
Defeat of the Barbarians (62) - Dashing cavelier Ken Clark (in his first role in Europe) gets mixed up in the wars that resulted in a unified Italy. Unremarkable costume epic from Paolo Lombardo (The Devil's Lover) and Piero Regnoli (The Playgirls and the Vampire).
DRACULA (31) - Spanish version.
THE RETURN OF DR. FU MANCHU (30) - Fu Manchu (Warner Oland) continues his revenge against the Brits who wronged him. A technological and artistic advancement from the first installment of the three-picture series with Oland as the evil doctor (The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (29)). Next and best is Daughter of the Dragon (31) with Anna May Wong.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
Love, death + robots – season 1 – episodes 8 to 16
Slither (1973, Howard Zieff)
Flash Gordon (serial) (1936, Frederick Stephani) – episodes 1 to 4
Mildly enjoyed
My only love song – season 1 – episodes 11 to 13
The avengers –episode « dial a deadly number » (1965, Don Leaver)
Did not enjoy:
Filth (2013, Jon S. Baird)
Ercole contro Moloch (1963, Giorgio Ferroni)
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Angel Rivera Wrote:
I have not watched many movies this week, but one I did watch I had not seen since the sixties when it originally aired.
I am talking about, "Pressure Point" a 1962 drama starring Sidney Poitier and Bobby Darin. Here a young "pre-Columbo" Peter Falk is a young psychiatrist who is having trouble with a patient he has been assigned to who is Black and hates the young white psychiatrist. He goes to his boss, portrayed by Poitier who then in flashback illustrates how when he was also a young doctor starting out and working at a federal penitentiary, was assigned a patient who was a Neo-Nazi and was serving a sentence for sedition. The patient was portrayed by Bobby Darin in what can only be described as a bravura performance. The film's relevancy to what is going on in today's world is striking. Poitier and Darin clash as Darin is subtle in how he tries to gets under Poitier's skin, especially when he says how the Nazis will win the world. When Poitier's character states that the Nazis will lose because all their beliefs are based on a lie, Darin counters with what he calls the big lie that this country is built on; "that all men are created equal." The flashback takes place at the height of World War II. So it seems even more prevalent. Especially when we learn that despite Poitier's characters high qualifications and educational honors as a psychiatrist, the only job he could get was working at a federal penitentiary. The performances are greatly structured as Poitier contains himself while dealing with his patient even though he reviles him as a person. But he still wants to keep his oath to help his patient no matter what he believes. The film also provides history as to how Darin came to be the way he is. The film has many thoughtful issues and is brought to a satisfying conclusion. A must see for any thinking viewer.
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