To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which director, born in Moravia, made four features for Italian producers?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which character from ancient Greece was played by Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor, Hedy Vessel, Sienna Guillory, Diane Kruger and Irene Papas?
George Grimes, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Helen of Troy.
Which actor, born in Los Angeles in 1932, appeared in 14 "sword and sandal" films before starring in Italian Westerns?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which actor was born in France, but raised in Ireland, and would go on to make 14 Italian Westerns?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Donal O'Brien.
And now for some new brain teasers:
By what name is Calvin Jackson Padget better known?
Which Italian Western credits Ty Hardin as the producer for the U.S. release?
Which Italian Western credits John Ireland as the producer for the U.S. release?
Name the movies from which these images came.
No one identified the above frame grab.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes, Charles Gilbert, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Mimmo Palmara and Steve Reeves in LA GUERRA DI TROIA, aka THE TROJAN HORSE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Franco Citti in PORCILE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one identified the above photo yet.
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:
TROIS HOMMES A ABATTRE, aka THREE MEN TO KILL (1980) - It is a pleasure watching Alain Delon in this movie. That is also true of Dalilia Di Lazzaro. Perhaps in a sense of fair play, he exposes as much flesh as she does, though he doesn't comment about how his breast size is smaller when he gets up in the morning. Based on the novel LE PETIT BLEU DE LA COTE QUEST by Jean-Patrick Manchette, this film credits the screenplay to producer Delon, director Jacques Deray and dialogue writer Christopher Frank. A straightforward thriller, THREE MEN TO KILL benefits from Deray's deft handling of the drama with a good sense of pace. The film begins with a group of men watching film of a test involving a new military missile. After the film, Andre Falcon speeds away into the night passing Delon in his car. Further down the road, Delon finds Falcon's car crashed. He helps the injured man into the back of his car and takes him to the hospital. Delon doesn't see the two thugs lurking the shadows wondering what to do now. A professional poker player, Delon finds that it is taking too long for the hospital to register him for bringing in the injured man, so he leaves for a scheduled game, not knowing that the thugs searched his parked car and found his name and address. He also doesn't know that the injured man died of gunshot wounds. Soon, it becomes apparent that three men who were at the screening of the test film have been murdered, and for fear that Falcon said something to Delon, Delon is also marked for death. Bringing back the team which helped him score big with BORSALINO - though minus Belmondo, Delon had his first hit in France since 1973. The print that I saw didn't have the ending reported on in the Wikipedia synopsis. I prefer the ending that I saw over the ending about which I read, as that other ending seemed like the way most French thrillers ended. Of course there was a car chase executed by the Remy Julienne driving team, but as it was dramatically justified, it was much more exciting that what I saw recently in BLAZING MAGNUM. Claude Bolling provided the effective music score.
Mildly enjoyed:
Elvis '68 Comeback Special (1968) - I guess "Guitar Man" was the new single because much of this hokey TV show revolves around that song, with extended dance routines and even a sort-of storyline that leads into an hokey martial arts battle. However, there are a couple of segments in which Elvis sits in a circle, on a brightly lit stage surrounded by an adoring crowd, where the star seems to get a real kick out of playing some of the original hits with members of his band.One wishes that this special had more of that, and less of the hokey production numbers. In one segment, Elvis, as the "Guitar Man", is led into something like a bordello in which the "ladies" are so overly made-up that I wondered if a TV special in 1968 was actually featuring transvestite dancers. I guess not, but it certainly took the show in a very different direction from the "gospel" segment that preceded it. It would seem that the VHS tape I watched was a 1984 edition featuring segments not part of the original TV broadcast.
IL GIORNO DEL GIUDIZIO, aka DAY OF JUDGMENT, aka DOOMSDAY, aka DRUMMER OF VENGEANCE (1971) - Not only has this movie got four different titles, but there are two distinct versions. The original Italian and French versions run about 90 minutes. The English language version runs about 74 minutes and has a very different structure from the original. It is unknown who is responsible for this shorter version, but it lists Ty Hardin as producer. Written, directed and edited by Mario Gariazzo, behind the name Robert Paget, this film is a straightforward revenge story that becomes befuddled in the telling. Yankee Hardin comes home from the Civil War to find his wife, Rosalba Neri, and his son dead, and his house burned to the ground. Soon, we see Hardin killing various men. How did he know who was responsible? If he is missing the information as to who ordered the tragedy, then why does he kill so many without asking for information. When he finally asks Giovanni Cianfriglia, he is told that it was done because he joined the Union Army and William Major said he had to be punished. However, flashbacks toward the end of the film contradict this information. In the ashes of his home, Hardin finds a wind up toy drummer which he gave to his son. Reportedly, the first mass production of such toys didn't happen until the 1880s, so it is very unlikely that a father could have given his son such a toy during the 1860s. As usual, most of the fire arms seen in this movie weren't made until the 1870s, so if this story took place right after the Civil War then the guns are an anachronism. Gariazzo tries to copy what Sergio Leone did in his Westerns, however there are so many close-ups that it is sometimes hard to follow the action. Hardin uses the wind-up drummer the way that El Indio used the musical watch in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE - "When it stops, begin." Of course, here it becomes pretty obvious that the adversary should not wait for the toy to run down but to shoot before the drumming stops. The "get three coffins ready" bit from FISTFUL OF DOLLARS is echoed here when Hardin gives the coffin maker a wad of cash to keep making coffins no matter how many men he kills. While hiring Ennio Morricone to do the music is also reminiscent of Leone, Gariazzo didn't hire Morricone, but just reuses Morricone's music from director Sergio Corbucci's THE HELLBENDERS. It seems that Gariazzo is trying to make a suspense thriller in Western guise, with the action often slowing down and a mystery waiting to be solved. But the intrusion of a traveling side show makes no sense in the plot structure, and what happens to Edda Di Benedetto in the end? There are many familiar faces here including Rossano Brazzi, Craig Hill, Gordon Mitchell, Raf Baldassarre, Bruno Corazzari, Riccardo Pizzuti, Guido Lollobrigida and Umberto Raho.
UNA MAGNUM SPECIAL PER TONY SAITTA, aka BLAZING MAGNUM, aka STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM, aka SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM (1976) - As a police procedural, this movie is awful. Cop Stuart Whitman clobbers three transvestites and destroys an house before taking out his badge and saying he just wants some information. He tells a suspect to come here while sitting in a car, so that the suspect can initiate a foot chase that becomes a car chase, causing widespread damage througout the city before pulling out his badge and saying he just wants some information. He waits until after his sister, Carole Laure, is buried before asking for an autopsy. Etc. As a psychological "who-dun-it", this movie is awful. All of the important information is only revealed near the end, and, not surprisingly, none of it makes sense. It would appear that writers Vincenzo Mannino and Gianfranco Clerici had the concept of doing a Dario Argento thriller with a DIRTY HARRY type cop dropped in, without the sense of reality that director Don Siegel maintained in DIRTY HARRY. After having an argument on her college campus with Dr. Martin Landau, Laure uses a 10Cent pay phone to call her cop brother Whitman. He can't take the call because he's in the middle of chasing and killing some guys who held up a bank with machine guns. There is never a clue given as to what she wanted to say to her brother. It is just one of a multitude of "red herrings" sprinkled throughout the film to cover up the climactic revelations, if all of the chases and beatings hadn't sufficiently distracted the viewer from thinking that none of this makes any sense. Shooting in English, director Alberto De Martino does a pretty good job of making this all look like a bad American cop movie, but little details keep reminding the viewer that it's not: such as starting a sequence set in a sex toy shop with a large dildo in the foreground. In addition to Whitman, Landau and Laure, the film also features John Saxon, Gayle Hunnicutt and Tisa Farrow as a blind woman who is a lot less competent than Audrey Hepburn was in WAIT UNTIL DARK. Reportedly behind the name Antony Ford is director of photography Aristide Massaccesi. Armando Trovajoli provided a music score seemingly inspired by Lalo Schifrin. I didn't even mention the idea of shooting down a helicoptor flying over a city.
THE WHOLE TRUTH (1958) - From a play by Philip Mackie, THE WHOLE TRUTH has a very tricky scenario that doesn't seem quite plausible, especially with the flashback structure screenwriter Jonathan Latimer has given it. The IMDb reports that a certain Dan Cohen was an uncredited director on this film, though his name appears nowhere in the credits and the IMDb doesn't credit him on anything else before some TV work ten years later. Veteran director John Guillermin is credited, and he delivered a solid thriller, with some stylish black&white camerawork credited to Director of Photography Wilkie Cooper, who also shot director Alfred Hitchcock's STAGE FRIGHT. As usual, Stewart Granger brought a deft touch to his role of a film producer suspected in the murder of an actress, with whom he had an affair (though such a vulgar word is never used). Granger's lite performance, and various bit of humor, work against generating the suspense the film is trying to create, but it helps make everything fun. My only real interest in this film is that Gianna Maria Canale is featured as the temperamental film actress - seemingly modeled on Gina Lollobrigida. But the film starts with Granger making a getaway in the night, being chased by police in a locale that looks like the Casbah. When a tower clock chimes, Granger goes into the flashback which forms the basis of the film. Now happily married to Donna Reed, Granger fears that actress Canale will make good on a threat to tell Reed about their affair. At a party, George Sanders turns up to tell Granger that he is with Scotland Yard investigating the murder of Canale. Stealing away from the party, Granger goes to Canale's villa to make certain that all of his personal items are gone. Back at the party, Granger is startled to find Canale in attendence. When drunken Canale announces that she has an announcement to make to everyone, Granger bundles her up to drive her home. At her villa, Granger goes inside to turn on the lights. When he returns to the car, she is dead, with a knife in her back. And so the mind games begin. Will Donna Reed believe that Granger is innocent? Just what is George Sanders up to? How will they be able to finish the movie with-in-the movie with their female lead dead? Hammer film fans may get a kick out of seeing John Van Eyssen playing an assistant director on the movie within-the-movie, as well as seeing Roy Ashton credited for Make Up. Canale doesn't get much to do here but look like a femme fatale. As usual with Continental actresses, she's been revoiced by another actress on the English language soundtrack.
Did not enjoy:
FRESCOS (2003) - Don't expect a plot in this portrait of life in a small town in Armenia, which was obviously not sponsored by the Armenian Tourist Bureau. Writer/director Aleksandr Gutman centered his film around the town cemetery where 69 year old Garnik works as a grave digger. A young boy hangs around the cemetery doing odd jobs. At one point, the boy tells the local priest that the man who was to be his godfather died in a car crash, so the boy had never been baptized. The film meandered about showing us life in various parts of the town, where people look bored or downtrodden. Eventually, the priest suggested that the boy get Garnik to be his godfather, and the boy was baptized. A stone mason who sculpted the likeness of the deceased on headstones commented on how hard life had been after the fall of the Soviet Union and then the earthquake of 1988, but that was no more than a comment. There was also a comment about how many Armenians have left to live abroad. Toward the end of the movie, there was an onscreen narrative title that said that the people in the film would never leave Armenia where they have found "difficult happiness". Obviously, that was not true of director Gutman who died in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2016. Interestingly, most of the production facilities used in the making of this film were from Russia.
MANCHURIAN AVENGER (1984) - Has it really been over 30 years that I've been avoiding this movie? Well, all good things must come to an end, and I finally put this in the VCR to view. This was made 13 years before South Park took on a special meaning, so when we hear the Westerners in the stagecoach talk about going there, it isn't intended to raise a snicker. In fact, most of the movie was shot in South Park, Colorado, which has a Western museum town in Fairplay. A Colorado Pro Stunt Association was credited with the action seen in this film, but none of what they did resulted in cinematic thrills. I thought IL MIO NOME E SHANGAI JOE, aka THE FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE, was dreadful, but it was obviously made by professionals. MANCHURIAN AVENGER looked like it was made by locals hoping to cash in on the video market. Some progress had been made in the ten years since SHANGHAI JOE though, as our Asian hero got to ride inside the stagecoach this time. Looking even more like an Asian Charles Bronson than Tadashi Yamashita did in BRONSON LEE, CHAMPION, Bobby Kim was the hero. Kim started a film career in South Korea back in 1975, with MANCHURIAN AVENGER being his 11th feature and first in the U.S. He would go on to appear in 9 more after this. Anyway, Timothy Stephenson's screenplay didn't lean on the racism aspect much, as the bad guy in this film was also Asian, and played by Y. Tsuchimoto. As with SHANGHAI JOE, all of the Asians were identified as Chinese, but I don't remember anyone being identified as being from Manchuria. Kim has returned to South Park, where he was raised after his father was murdered. He went away, but has returned when he heard that the man who raised him was in trouble. The "uncle" had found gold, but hid it and did not reveal its location to anyone. The bad guys who killed him didn't know that, so they've been harrassing his children. Of course the town is plagued with two rival gangs - one Mexican, led by Michael Stuart, and one mostly White who work for a Chinese. The Chinese villain also had a martial arts gang called "The Four Winds" who were sent in when the Westerners weren't able to solve problems with their guns. Just what relationship the thug called "Kamikaze", played by Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, had to "The Four Winds" was never explained. Being intended as a "Martial Arts" film, MANCHURIAN AVENGER didn't feature many guys who were good with guns - and no one had the idea to shoot their adversaries from a distance. Any way, it appeared that the film was building to a one-on-one match between Kim and Wallace, but before it reached a climax, Tsuchimoto stepped in to use some mystical power to cause a windstorm to incapacitate our hero. Luckily, Leila Hee showed up with a sword. And then, Wallace disappeared in a cloud of dust. Huh? This was the only feature film directed by Ed Warnick.
MISTER ROCK AND ROLL (1957) - The Rock 'N' Roll Jukebox musicals of the 1950s were only worthwhile if they documented on film the great acts of the times. In that regards, this flick is one of the worst. Ostensibly the story of how Alan Freed spread the gospel of the music, the film actually seems bent on making a star out of Teddy Randazzo, about whom I've never heard - but research tells me he was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2007 for such songs as the hits he wrote for Little Anthony and the Imperials like "Goin' Out of My Head" and "Hurt So Bad". None of the songs he sings in this film are nearly that good, and I've never heard of Lionel Hampton being considered a rock 'n' roll performer. Chuck Berry appears doing "Baby Doll" which is a song that doesn't appear on any of Berry's numerous "Greatest Hits" albums. The only stand out performance is Little Richard doing "Lucille", which looks a little odd with everyone in the band and Richard himself dressed all in white. Some of the other performers are well known, but they don't perform their hits here: Clyde McPhatter doesn't do "A Lover's Question", Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers don't do "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", Ferlin Husky doesn't do "Gone", Brook Benton doesn't do "A Million Miles From Nowhere" and La Vern Baker doesn't do "Jim Dandy". Director Charles S. Dubin and writer James Blumgarten stepped away from their television careers to make this feature, and then went back to TV.
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Charles Gilbert Watched:
THE BUBBLE (1966) Married couple Michael Cole and Deborah Walley are flying in a small plane with his pilot friend when they are forced to land in a strange town inhabited by "windup humans" (they repeat the same motions) except for a doctor that helps her deliver her infant boy. They discover an invisible dome shrouds the community, and surmise an alien force behind the mystery.
TEENAGE CAVEMAN (1958) B&W. Twenty six yeat old Robert Vaughn plays the inquisitive title character in Roger Corman's atavistic take on worldwide devastation from nuclear war; not revealed until the end. In the role of his sagacious father is British actor Leslie Bradley (Baron Gruda in CRIMSON PIRATE). Contrarian cave dweller Frank DeKova foments unrest among the clan over the teens' advenrures. Ed Nelson in a small part at the end.
Music video 'Gwen (Congratulation)' rising the 1971 chart for Johnny Chester in Australia, and Tommy Overstreet In America.
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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:
"THE INVISIBLE MAN"(1933) My favorite Universal Studios monster. Claude Rains' voice booms throughout the picture; especially when he goes on his maniacal rants. A star making role. A classic.
"THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING" (1966) A classic film of the cold war period. Russians in a sub, accidentally run aground on the shore of a New England town. Great performances. Especially by Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner and Brian Keith. Another classic.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
City of bad men (1953, Harmon Jones)
Il maestro di Vigevano (1963, Elio Petri)
Dance in America: San Francisco's ballet: Nutcracker (2008, Matthew Diamond)
Run for cover (1955, Nicholas Ray)
Ok-tab-bang wang-se-ja / Rooftop prince (2012) – episodes 7 to 12
Rictus (2023) season 1 – episodes 1 & 2
The shepherd of the hills (1941, Henry Hathaway)
Lust for gold (1949, S. Sylvan Simon)
The desperadoes (1943, Charles Vidor)
U.F.O. Episode “the Dalotek affair” (1970, Alan Perry)
Mildly enjoyed:
Akazukin, tabi no tochu de shitai to deau / Once upon a crime (2022, Yuichi Fukuda)
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