March 4 - 10, 2023

 

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?

ARRIVANO I TITANI, which was originally released as SONS OF THUNDER. Brooks worked on a new campaign calling it MY SON THE HERO.

Who was the best man at Aldo Sambrell's wedding?

Tom Betts knew that it was Sergio Leone.

Who replaced Klaus Kinski for the film UN UOMO, UN CAVALLO, UNA PISTOLA, aka THE STRANGER RETURNS?

Tom Betts, George Grimes and Rick Garibaldi knew that it was Dan Vadis.

Who replaced Klaus Kinski for the film ACQUASANTA JOE, aka HOLYWATER JOE?

Tom Betts and George Grimes knew that it was Richard Harrison.

And now for some new brain teasers:

In which Sergio Leone movie did Karl Hirenbach appear?

In what project did Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef first work together?

How was Lee Van Cleef working when Sergio Leone decided to hire him?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, Rick Garibaldi and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Lawrence Dobkin and Mark Damon in JOHNNY YUMA.

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?

George Grimes identified last week's photo from IL PIANETA DEGLI UOMINI SPENTI, aka BATTLE OF THE WORLDS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Wei Hung, Fu Sheng and Chi Kuan-Chun in SHAOLIN TEMPLE (1976).

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:

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP QUANTUMANIA (2023) - Peyton Reed, the director of BRING IT ON! continues his winning streak of Ant-Man movies with this highly enjoyable installment. There are bits reminiscent of the Star Wars movies and bits reminiscent of DUNE, but those projects didn't have the newly dark-haired Kathryn Newton.

Enjoyed:

Astrid et Raphaelle, aka Astrid (2020) "La Mort et Compagnie"

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Angela Davis and Jeh Johnson" (2023) - Angela Davis, the notorious '70s radical, finds out that her 10th great grandfather was one of the 101 passengers who arrived in New England on the Mayflower!  

THE HIGHWAYMEN (2019) - Produced for Netflix, this film, directed by John Lee Hancock, again points out the historical bullshit that is the film BONNIE AND CLYDE.

Mildly enjoyed:

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "David Duchovny and Richard Kind" (2023)

PARADISE CANYON (1935) - Have you noticed that most of the Monogram Pictures/Lone Star Productions feature titles that have nothing to do with the movie? Well, the villain's hideout is on Paradise Range and I guess Canyon sounds better than Range in the title. In 1933, John Wayne made his first feature for Lone Star. 14 movies later, PARADISE CANYON was his last during a two year association. John Wayne is a "federal man", assigned to track down who is passing counterfeit dollars along the Mexican border. The only clue he is given is that Doc Earle Hodgins has just finished his 10 year prison sentence and is back running his medicine show. Wayne has to go thru a number of towns to finally pick up Hodgins' trail, and the last town is putting together a posse to bring back the Doc for not paying the damages for busting up the town drug store. Wayne races ahead to warn Hodgins that he'd better get across the New Mexico border into Arizona, where the posse can't touch him. Doc's daughter, Marion Burns appreciates Wayne's help and soon our hero has been hired to join the medicine show as a marksman. (The surprise that our Western hero is helping a wanted man to escape a posse is notable, as is just how pretty Marion Burns is.) Doc doesn't know that the town for which he is heading is the town where in the man who framed him, Curly Yakima Canutt, is leading a counterfeiting operation. Curly sends out his henchmen to stop Doc, but fail due to Wayne. In town, Curly's henchman Reed Howes, succeeds in framing Wayne for theft, so our hero leaps on his horse (or rather his stuntman does), and escapes. After the filmmakers reuse stock footage of an horse and rider jumping off a cliff into water, we see Wayne make his way to the Rurales' office on the Mexican side of town, where Captain Gino Corrado knew he was coming. Since Curly's saloon is on the Mexican side of the border, Wayne marches over to arrest the villain. Needless to say, Curly puts up a fight, and the officers at the border arrest Wayne, allowing Curly to escape. Captain Corrado releases Wayne who finally tracks down Curly to his hideout where he is about to murder the previously kidnapped Doc and his daughter. Corrado's Rurales take care of Curly's gang during a wild chase during which we see three horse falls all done with pits. Earle Hodgins takes the acting honors as the Doc, who enjoys imbibing his own Dr. Carter's Indian Remedy too much. Also fun are Gordon Clifford and Perry Murdock who perform two songs as part of the medicine show. While most of Wayne's pictures for Lone Star were directed by R.N. Bradbury, this one is done by Lewis Collins, though I think it is the no-nonsense script credited by Lindsley Parsons and Robert Emmett which made this film one of the few B-Westerns that I enjoyed.

Did not enjoy:

AQUARELA (2018) - For a documentary about water, why did director Viktor Kosakovskiy need funding from so many sources? Was it for air travel to locations around the world? He got assistance from Scotland, Germany, Denmark, Greenland, Venezuela, the USA - California and Miami, Portugal for the Transatlantic Crossing, Mexico and his native Russia. After I watched, and kept falling asleep watching, the film I read on-line that the frozen water at the beginning was Lake Baikal in Siberia. We see a team of men checking the ice but there is no narration to explain for what they are looking. Eventually, we see that it is a car that had fallen through the melting ice. We get snippets of conversations among the workers suggesting that everyone felt that the ice wouldn't start melting so early, so that it was safe to drive across it. After they succeed in bringing the car out of the water, using human muscle and pulleys, we see, in the distance, another car racing across the Lake and fallling in. With a camera mounted on a drone, the film focuses on efforts to rescue the passengers in this second car. Two men get out of the icy water with one yelling that a third man is drowning. Rescuers arrive and begin to attack the ice hoping to find the third man, but the film doesn't stay with the drama. Instead it is time for a slow montage about glaciers and icebergs. Then we get footage of a sail boat battling huge waves. Soon, the huge waves lead us to seeing flooding, followed by, from what I read, Miami being battered by Hurricane Irma. We see a dam failing to control huge amounts of raging waters before we see a more peaceful waterfall - possibly the Angel Falls in Venezuela. Much of this film is beautiful and awe inspiring, and could probably be used by some to induce a medative state. Or it could put you to sleep.

IDENTITY THIEF (2013)

ROBOTAPOCALYPSE, aka ROBOT APOCALYPSE (2021) - Someday The Asylum will release something good, but it will probably be an accident, and it certainly won't be from Absurd Hero Productions. If you're going to create an Artificial Intelligence program intended to rescue people, why would you name it Medusa? And why do A.I. programs seem to always decide that the best way to save the Earth is to kill all of the people on it? This low-budget CGI heavy production shows that you don't get realistic results using computer imagery to replicate gunshots or explosions. And you don't hire Lauren Pritchard and Joe Roche to provide speakable dialogue. Hiring Marcus Friendlander as a director may get your low budget production completed, but the result won't get you positives notices.

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Charles Gilbert watched:

A QUEEN FOR CAESAR (1962) Gordon Scott as Caesar doesn't appear until about 1 hour 11 minutes in. For the crux of the movie Cleopatra (Pascal Petit) feuds with her brother Ptolemy over the throne of Egypt, and dallies with.various smitten, albeit rejected males; both serving as humorous plot devices  Seems like the ending was censored based on stills I'd seen before viewing the film that weren't included.

Kung Fu S3E23 'Ambush" Rhonda Fleming guest stars with John Carradine playing a blind man.

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David Deal Enjoyed:

MEET MR. MALCOLM (53) - The murder of a business magnate kicks off this complex and enjoyable mystery. Not much of a notable cast, but this small British thriller has interesting characters and revenge at its core. I liked it.

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (61)

NO GRAVES ON BOOT HILL (68) - Craig Hill, Ken Wood (Giovanni Cianfriglia) and Franco Cobianchi, cellmates for low level crimes, are recruited by the father of a young man scheduled for execution. They must find proof of the boy's innocence before his hanging in order to collect $30,000. Enjoyable spaghetti from Sergio Garonne (Django the Bastard). It's not a mystery for long but the journey to redemption is entertaining. Evelyn Stewart (Ida Galli) knows the truth but is afraid to tell.

FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG (59)

RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (62)

SPEAKING OF MURDER (57) - Gentleman gangster Jean Gabin pulls a heist with his usual crew that includes trigger-happy Lino Ventura. Complications involving Gabin's brother (Marcel Bozzuffi, The French Connection) and his lover Annie Girardot lead to a tragic but not unexpected end. Another solid French crime film with the two charismatic leads.

BACK TO THE WALL (58) - When wealthy industrialist Gerard Oury discovers that his wife of 8 years (Jeanne Moreau) has taken a lover, he determines to exact revenge on both of them. Things do not go as planned. Top notch film noir from director Edouard Molinaro (To Commit a Murder), told with style and Moreau is radiant.

WITNESS IN THE CITY (59) - When Lino Ventura's wife is killed by her lover, Lino kills the man, making it look like suicide. On the way out, he is seen by a taxi driver, so Lino determines to shut him up for good. Thus begins Lino's night-long tumble into hell. Another of Edouard Molinaro's tragedies with a fierce performance from Ventura. Excellent.

WARNING SHOT (67)

THE MOLE PEOPLE (56)

DEVIL'S DOORWAY (50)

MANIAC (62)

THE BLOOD DRINKERS (64)

Mildly enjoyed:

OPERATION WHITE SHARK (66)

SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM (63)

MIDNIGHT KILLER (86) AKA You'll Die at Midnight. Lamberto Bava's giallo is adequate entertainment; sincere, technically proficient, and it has a sharp edge where it counts. But frankly, I'd rather watch one of his dad's movies.

LET THE CORPSES TAN (17)

Did not enjoy:

DAY OF THE NIGHTMARE (69)

REWARD'S YOURS, THE MAN'S MINE (70) - Down and out bounty hunter "El Puro" (Robert Woods) sobers up and goes revenging for the murder of his girl Rosalba Neri. Plodding spaghetti from Edoardo Malargia that takes forever to get to its ironic ending.

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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"The Fabelmans"(2022) The semi-autobiographical story of Spielberg's youth before the fame, is really the opposite of boring; it is interesting and entertaining. 

"The Creation of the Humanoids"(1962) Had not seen this in a long time. Still find the movie fascinating. Especially that surprise, twist ending. Most entertaining.

"The Greem Slime"(1968) When I first saw this in the theater, I thought the monsters (the Green Slime) were silly looking. They are. But now I can appreciate the melodramatics of the movie a little more. Not a big fan of Robert Horton, but I guess he was a dependable leading man. At least in the westerns he was featured in. It is always nice to see Richard Jaeckel, here playing Horton's rival. Luciana Paluzzi is the female caught between (figuratively not literally) the two rugged (or supposed to be) male leads. Silly fun. The sfx are not as bad as I remember, but are real sixties. (Even though the effect is supposed to be futuristic.) Still surprisingly entertaining.

Mildly enjoyed:

"You People"(2023) Netflix movie starring Jonah Hill as a young Jewish male who meets and falls in love with a young black Muslim female.He plans to marry, but he meets resistance in the form of  the girl's parent played by Eddie Murphy. Hill's mother is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Only mildly amusing.

"Your Place or Mine"(2023) Netflix Rom-Com with Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. Reese Witherspoon, now in her forties looks great. The plot is cute and Witherspoon is the only reason to watch this.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:

Fabrice Luchini: des écrivains parlent d’argent (tv play) (2022, Arnaud Emery)

Enjoyed:

Shadows and fog (1991, Woody Allen)

Star Trek – episode “this side of paradise” (1966, Ralph Senensky)

The invaders – episode “condition: red” (1967, Don Medford)

The avengers – episode “Man-eater of Surrey green” (1965, Sidney Hayers)

Django – season 1 (2022) – episodes 2 to 6

Mildly enjoyed

Raven’s hollow (2022, Christopher Hatton)

Young Sheldon – season 6 – episodes 11 & 12

Vous pigez ? (1955, Pierre Chevalier)

Glass onion (2022, Rian Johnson)

Urutoraman : kûsô tokusatsu shirîzu / Ultraman (1966) – episode 3

Not dead yet – season 1 – episodes 1 & 2

Did not enjoy:

Le paltoquet (1986, Michel Deville)

Frogs (1972, George Mc Cowan)

Die Hart (2022, Eric Appel)

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