To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
For what Italian movie was Mel Brooks hired to do a comedic ad campaign?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which American born actress worked with directors Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari, Claude Lelouch, Costa-Gavras, Antonio Margheriti and Clive Donner?
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Tanya Lopert.
Which French actress worked with directors Robert Aldrich, Yves Simoneau, Claude Lelouch, Henry Jaglom, Federico Fellini and Sergio Corbucci?
Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Anouk Aimee.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Who was the best man at Aldo Sambrell's wedding?
Who replaced Klaus Kinski for the film UN UOMO, UN CAVALLO, UNA PISTOLA, aka THE STRANGER RETURNS?
Who replaced Klaus Kinski for the film ACQUASANTA JOE, aka HOLYWATER JOE?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Giuliano Gemma in UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO, aka A PISTOL FOR RINGO.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one has identified the above picture yet.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Jean Sorel and Ilari Occhini in L'UOMO CHE RIDE, aka THE MAN WHO LAUGHS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes and Angel Rivera identified last week's photo of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan from ENTER THE DRAGON.
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:
Astrid et Raphaelle, aka Astrid (2020) L'Homme qui n'existait pas, aka The Man Who Didn't Exist
Moon Knight (2022)
SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME (2021)
The 12th Victim (2023) - In 1958, Charles Starkweather murdered 11 people. In researching the story, Linda M. Battisti came to see that the 14 year old Caril Ann Fugate, who had been Starkweather's hostage, had become Starkwearther's 12th victim when she repudiated him and he accused her of complicity. With the assistance of John Stevens Berry, Battisti wrote a book showing how legal authorities determined to find the 14 year old girl guilty of murder. Using a wealth of archival material, director Nicola Marsh delivers a compelling look at the case, though I couldn't help but think that it could have been shorter than the four one-hour episodes that Showtime presented.
Did not enjoy:
DEPECHE MODE 101 (1989) - I am unfamiliar with this band, so when this documentary popped up on Flix I decided to have a look-see. Shot in his usual Cinéma vérité style by D.A. Pennebaker with his wife Chris Hegedus and associate David Dawkins, the film is mostly a "fly on the wall" record of the band on tour with a final concert at the Rose Bowl, while a bus load of contest winning fans travel from New York to Pasadena for the show. The band's music does nothing for me, and I still don't know much about them.
DRACULA'S WIDOW (1988) - It is bad enough that director Christopher Coppola (nephew of Francis Coppola) can't decide if he is making a spoof of a film noir detective film or a half-assed vampire thriller, but the overbearing music provided by James B. Campbell makes everything worse. Sylvia Kristel provides the film with a star name, but doesn't bring anything to the role. The screenplay credited to Kathryn Ann Thomas and director Coppola, was actually written by Tom Blomquist, and I wonder if he took his name off the film before or after he saw it. Director Coppola indulges in many weird color effects, perhaps in an attempt to emulate Mario Bava. However, the effect is more like CREEPSHOW. There are references to HOUSE OF WAX and our "hero" Lenny von Dohlen projects a 16mm print of NOSFERATU in his home before being attacked. If Kristel didn't intend to be shipped to Hollywood, how did her crated casket end up as part of the shipment to von Dohlen's museum?
L'EAU FROIDE, aka COLD WATER (1994) - There's a old dramatic rule: "If you introduce a gun, then the gun must go off before the final curtain." This film breaks that rule by having our "hero", Cyprien Fouquet, buy several sticks of dynamite and never use them. Writer/director Olivier Assayas says that this film is autobiographical, an impulse with which I can completely identify - as I've written three (unproduced) feature film scripts based on my teenage years. However, getting an audience to sit through 90-some minutes of good-looking but irritating teenagers being unreasonable and self-destructive is not attractive. Virginie Ledoyen is very attractive, but her character is not, and she doesn't take her clothes off until right before the end of the movie. Originally this was a commission from French TV, which perhaps explains why there are few camera set-ups that aren't close or medium close shots. Perhaps Assayas wanted to create a claustrophobic atmosphere suggesting the desperation the characters feel. It certainly helped me to want to escape watching this movie - even with the wealth of early 1970s music including "Me & Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin, "Up Around the Bend" by CCR, "Janitor of Lunacy" by Nico, "Virginia Plain" by Roxy Music, "Avalanche" by Leonard Cohen, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, "Easy Livin'" by Uriah Heep and "Cosmic Wheels" by Donovan. I did appreciate the opening scene in which our "hero's" mother talks about the horror of surviving under the Nazis and then the terror of being liberated by the Soviets. I didn't appreciate the film's non-ending.
PRAIRIE BADMEN (1946) - For PRC, Buster Crabbe was the "King of the Wild West", but Al (Fuzzy) St. John got more screen time as the comic side kick. This film starts with Fuzzy trying to sell Kickapoo Elixir from the back of a medicine wagon wearing an Indian war bonnet. Three cowboy hooligans, John Cason, Charles King and Kermit Maynard, decide to have fun by lassoing the horseless wagon and dragging it out of town, not knowing that the actual medicine show proprietor, Ed Cassidy, and his daughter, Patricia Knox, are inside. Luckily, Crabbe comes upon them on the road and puts a stop to the shenanigans. When Cassidy comes out of the wagon, King recognizes him as the doctor who treated a man who robbed an express office five years ago and is said to have made a map as to where he hid four bars of gold. The law didn't find the map on the dead robber, so King figures that Cassidy has it. Unfortunately, Cassidy's son, John L. Buster, rummages around the wagon for the map - after he sings two songs, and then takes off with the intention of keeping the gold for himself. The hooligans follow him, but Crabbe and Fuzzy show up to teach everyone that bad intentions always fail. Fred Myton is credited with the script and Sam Newfield with directing - just one of the 17 features in 1946 with his name on it. Whle Crabbe pulls his pistol a few times, he never shoots it and everything is settled with fisticuffs. Newfield would eventually have his name on two features from Hammer Films: SCOTLAND YARD INSPECTOR and THE GAMBLER AND THE LADY in 1952.
WHY CAN'T MY LIFE BE A ROM-COM? (2023) - Remember when E! used to be Entertainment Television and it was mostly concerned with show business news and history? Now they are adding a made-for-TV movie to their line-up of "reality" shows and old TV re-runs. Em Haine is an attractive and engaging actress, but not enough to prevent me from fast-forwarding through this utterly predictable romantic comedy. Fans of '80s romantic comedies may enjoy the references made by the characters here - "I feel like Molly Ringwald at the end of every movie.", but writer Rob Lotterstein and director Rich Newey don't bring anything refreshing to the proceedings. After losing her dream job and her boyfriend on the same day, Haine goes to Ceclili Deacon for some cheering-up. Deacon just found a 50 year old guide to marrying a rich man, so she suggests that they both get a room in the Hamptons and snag a wealthy husband since they are now 26 years old, and already past their prime of 25. Of course, they fall in love with two guys who they don't think are wealthy while pursuing rich guys. Naturally, they bump into the woman who wrote the book that they are trying to follow, who informs them that her book was wrong. Love is more important. Haine tries to recreate the "holding a boom box over her head" from SAY ANYTHING to win back Wern Lee.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
THE WEAPON (1956) B&W. English noir directed by Val Guest. In London a boy playing with his friends finds a concealed hand gun in the ruins of a bombed out building, and accidentally shoots another lad. U.S. Army iweapons expert stationed there (Steve Cochran) is summoned by the police to aid in the investigation. Turns out the gun was stashed there after a murder gone unsolved, and now the assailant is attempting to retrieve the pistol from the boy who is running the streets afraid. Lizabeth Scott plays his mother. Look for Fred Johnson who later appears in BRIDES OF DRACULA
S2E03 The Wild, Wild West "The Night of the Big Blast" Ida Lupino guest stars as a Frankenstein-like mad scientist snubbed by the federal government for resesrch grants she has repratedly requested. In retaluation she creates automatons that look like West and Gordon armed with explosives to sabotage high level meetings being held during Mardi Gras. Interesting episode in that Ross Martin and Mala Powers mirror their real life relationship on screen.
S2E29 Twilight Zone 'The Obsolete Man' Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver Tables are turned on the chancellor of a totalitarian milieu when he condemns a librarian to death.
GAMERA: WAR OF THE MONSTERS (1968) A subplot about retrieving a hidden opal (it's an egg) results in the battle between Gamera, the flying/spinning turtle kaju, and Baragon, whose lengthy tubular tongue sprays a cryogenic mist.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
THE VAMPIRE (57)
THE MARCUS-NELSON MURDERS (73) - Detective Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) is on a high-profile murder case when a young man accused of attempted rape appears to be involved in the murders. This pilot for the long-running Kojak series is based on actual cases that resulted in the Miranda reforms. It's long and pretty darn gritty for television. Features Jose Ferrer and Ned Beatty.
15 SCAFFOLDS FOR A MURDERER (68) - Craig Hill and George Martin are the partner bad guys in this murder mystery spaghetti. Hill is a bit less bad than Martin here, trying to bring sense to the situation that he and his men find themselves: trapped in an abandoned fort, accused of the murder of three women, but innocent of the crime. But whodunit? Engaging western from Nunzio Malasomma invokes the charisma that Hill was capable of displaying. Suzy Anderson is the parson's wife who falls for Hill. Features Aldo Sambrell.
THE DESIGNATED VICTIM (71)
MARK OF THE RENEGADE (51) - Ricardo Montalban - he wears the mark of the renegade - is dispatched from Mexico to aid Gilbert Roland in his mad scheme to rule California, But there is more to this plot than meets the eye. Set at the time California was becoming a republic, this enjoyable adventure also features Cyd Charisse, who does a Mexican dance number.
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (85)
HOCKNEY (14) - Excellent documentary on the modern artist.
THE VAULT OF HORROR (73)
TARANTULA (55)
OUT OF THE PAST (47)
Mildly enjoyed:
MANBEAST! MYTH OR MONSTER (78) - Speculative documentary on the existence of Bigfoot focuses on the efforts of Peter Byrne to prove the manbeasts are still running around. Byrne made a career out of appearing in this prolific line of films.
MASSACRE IN THE BLACK FOREST (67) - Rome-occupied Germany, 1st century CE. Arminius (Hans Von Borsody) aims to unite the Germanic tribes against the Romans. Cameron Mitchell is one of the Roman commanders who who disagrees. Well-mounted adventure with unusual, wintery German locations. Director Fernando Baldi keeps things moving but this is only involving in spurts.
THE MENU (22)
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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:
"Hercules and the Captive Women"(1961/1963)
Reg Park's first outing as Hercules. I don't know how I missed this one, but this is the first time I have seen Reg Park as Hercules. The movie has a lot of entertaining parts and is definitely worth a look see. This is the original English dubbed version.
"Ercole alla Conquista di Atlantide" (1961)
The original Italian print of "Hercules and the Captive Women"(1961) with English subtitles. The original is so much better than the English dub as it has more scenes that were cut out of the English dub and it makes the movie easier to understand.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
Gold rush Maisie (1940, Edwin L. Marin)
Los platillos voladores (1955, Julian Soler)
Maisie was a lady (1941, Edwin L. Marin)
Ringside Maisie (1941, Edwin L. Marin)
Some mothers do’ ave’ em – episodes « Have a break tale a husband » & « The hospital visit »
Mildly enjoyed
I bastardi (1968, Duccio Tessari)
Bastardo, vamos a matar (1971, Luigi Mangini)
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