To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which actor, born in 1921 Austria, appeared in films with Jean Servais, Maria Schell, Gert Frobe, Andre Morell, Sophia Loren, Kenneth More, Cameron Mitchell and Alessandra Panaro?
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Carl Möhner.
Which actress, born in 1939 Rome, worked for directors Mino Roli, Dino Risi, Giacomo Gentilomo, Mario Mattoli, Luchino Visconti, Giorgio Ferroni and Tulio Demicheli?
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Alessandra Panaro.
Which American actor worked with directors Sergio Grieco, Carlo Campogalliani, Domenico Paolella, Luigi Capuano, Pino Mercanti and Aldo Florio?
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Guy Madison.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Charles Gilbert asks: "According to academic-accelerator.com re: KING OF KINGS (1961) which of the following five actors was not initially considered by director Nicholas Ray for the role of Jesus that went to Jeff Hunter? - Peter Cushing, Tom Fleming, Alain Delon, Christopher Plummer or Max Von Sydow."
By what name is J.W. Fordson better known?
By what name is Lee W. Beaver better known?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Andrea Giordana in QUELLA SPORCA STORIA NEL WEST, aka THAT DIRTY STORY OF THE WEST, aka JOHNNY HAMLET, aka THE WILD AND THE DIRTY.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem, Charles Gilbert and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Luciana Gilli and Kirk Morris in IL CONQUISTATORE DI ATLANTIDE, aka THE CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Margaret Lee in SANSONE CONTRO I PIRATI, aka SAMSON AND THE SEA BEAST.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Tim Ferrante identified last week's frame grab from COWARD BASTARD.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
**********************************************************************
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:
THE MARVELS (2023)
Enjoyed:
Agent Carter season two (2016)
Did not enjoy:
DESPERADO (1987) - Elmore Leonard wrote an original screenplay called DUELL MCCALL which was sold to NBC-TV as a potential pilot for a series. The network decided to not pick up the show as a weekly, but instead made a deal for four more TV movies. Alex McArthur starred as the hero, but was not very charismatic. On the other hand, female lead Lise Cutter made a strong impression and it is disappointing that her career was not more successful. Using that awful song by the Eagles as its theme (which is at least less annoying that "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers), "Desperado" tells the fairly standard story of a cowboy - and we actually see him herding cows - coming into a town where the evil town boss, David Warner, wants the land of peaceful widower Donald Moffat. Our hero is befriended by Moffat, falls in love with Moffatt's daughter, Cutter, and then is set up on a false murder charge by corrupt sheriff Robert Vaughn. Director Virgil W. Vogel throws in a lot of needless slow motion shots in an attempt to add some visual style to his poorly staged fight scenes. Our good guy hero does not follow Tony Anthony's lead from UN DOLLAR TRA I DENTI and shoot combatants in the back. He does seem to take a cue from Tony Anthony in COMIN' AT YA! by using a lot of dynamite, though. Yaphet Kotto plays Warner's right hand thug, while Gladys Knight runs the brothel while future Hooperman series regular Sydney Walsh plays a friendly prostitute. In the end, Marshal Pernell saves McArthur from death, and then allows him to ride off to find the one surviving member of Warner's gang who could clear him of the false murder charge.
THE RETURN OF DESPERADO (1988) - So European American Alex McArthur splashes through a river in slow motion looking for the man who can testify that he didn't committ murder. Suddenly a shot rings out, but African American Victor Love ends up shooting the bounty hunter dead. Love explains that he had been tracking the bounty hunter since they were heading in the same direction, and then offers to share a camp fire with McArthur. McArthur poo-poos Love's idea that in China the man who saves another man's life owns the saved man. In the morning, McArthur awakens to find that Love traded his poor horse for McArthur's fine steed. Soon, our hero rides into the town of Beauty as the town is burying the local newspaper man. He finds his horse in the town stable, and is told by the worker there that the man who rode the horse into town is now in the jail set to be hanged for the killing of the newspaper man. Of course. Love has been framed for the murder by the town boss Robert Foxworth. McArthur asks around about the man he's seeking, but only Marcy Walker will talk to him. Because Walker shows open disdain for Foxworth, some goons start to hassle her, which leads to McArthur coming to her rescue. After she leaves, more goons show up, clobber our hero in the back of his head and throw in him jail next to Love. Previously, at the campfire, McArthur told Love that he couldn't stand someone playing the harmonica, so waking up in jail to Love playing the harmonica makes things doubly irritating. Eventually, Love tells McArthur that he needed to use his horse inorder to get to Los Cruces to put down the $2,000 for the land that his people from Georgia were going to live. Foxworth lets McArthur out of jail and hopes to recruit him to join his goons, but our hero is only interested in trying to find his possible witness. Even after Love's sister, Vanessa Bell, and Walker ask him for help, McArthur isn't swayed to join the cause until after he finds that Foxworth's goons have murdered a settler and burned his house because he wouldn't sell out. Bell and two others fall into a trap trying to spring Love from jail, but McArthur shows up to save at least two of them. With Walker, McArthur goes to where Bell's people are, and find out that their leader is Billy Dee Williams, a former Union soldier hoping to put combat behind him. Of course, it all comes down to a battle when the good guys try to save Love from being hanged, and Walker gets the newspaper presses working again to expose Foxworth's land fraud scheme. For the climax, Foxworth threatens to shoot Walker if our heroes don't disarm, but McArthur quickly raises his rifle and shoots the villain dead. Even though he previously had a slow motion bed scene with Walker, McArthur leaves town to continue his quest to find his witness. Veteran TV director E.W. Swackhamer has taken over the helming chores with no real difference in the quality of the show.
DESPERADO: AVALANCHE AT DEVIL'S RIDGE (1988) - Sometime director Larry Cohen gets the writer's credit for the third DESPERADO TV movie, but Richard Compton of MACON COUNTY LINE directs. Cohen came up with some unusual elements this time, and Lise Cutter came back, so this is a definite improvement over RETURN. With many unnecessary slow motion shots, the film opens with Alex McArthur avoiding capture by a posse. However, crafty deputy Dwier Brown lies in wait and captures McArthur. However, as Brown travels to bring McArthur to town, he comes upon two men sharing one horse. After Brown refuses to give them McArthur's horse, the two bushwack the good guys. Before Brown dies, he gives McArthur the key to the handcuffs and our hero kills the two bad guys. When McArthur and Brown's horses arrive in town riderless, Sheriff Hoyt Axton quickly assembles a posse and heads out. Seeing the posse approach, McArthur puts on Browns badge and tells everyone that the dead man is Duell McCall. In town, McArthur signs a receipt for the reward on McCall, but before he can get away, Axton sees that the signature doesn't match the one on a letter Brown wrote, so our hero ends up in jail. Having heard the false story that McCall was dead, Lise Cutter arrives in town only to ask to spend the night with McArthur in his cell before the hanging. Explosions rock the night and it turns out that Lee Paul has kidnapped the daughter of the mine owner Rod Steiger. Steiger offers McArthur a chance at freedom if he helps bring back Alice Adair. In the mean time, Steiger will make Cutter an unwilling guest at his ranch house. Paul proves very handy with dynamite, so all of the posse that accompanies McArthur are killed, but Axton is able to shoot the kidnapper dead before he dies. It soon becomes apparent that Paul was not holding Adair against her will. In fact, Paul was trying to rescue Adair from Steiger who is not her real father. Her real father sold her to Seiger for $65 when she was 14 years old. McArthur doesn't want to deliver Adair back to Steiger, but he knows he has to inorder to free Cutter. After ensuring that Cutter is free and clear, McArthur attempts to rescue Adair from Steiger's ranch. Luckily, Steiger had his arsenel piled up on a wagon in the field, so McArthur can set it to exploding, occupying Steiger's men so that our hero can get into the house. McArthur and Steiger trade who has the drop on the other, until Adair mortally wounds the villain. Rather than run away with our hero, Adair decides that since everyone thinks that she is Steiger's only living relative, she will inherit his wealth. All she need do is blame Steiger's death on the wanted man McArthur. After McArthur comments that he will now be wanted for another killing he didn't commit, Steiger's men show up necessitating our hero to jump through a closed window to escape. This rather cynical ending seems like something that Larry Cohen would write, but, of course, it also means that another sequel will be coming. Compton proves to be no better at making this kind of thing than the two previous directors, but as this is a series, no probably wanted any noticeable improvements.Reportedly Laura Harring is in this, but I didn't see her.
DESPERADO: THE OUTLAW WARS (1989) - Executive producer Andrew Mirisch is credited with coming up with the story for this installment, and the pitch was probably something like "let's have McCall do a Hopalong Cassidy bit involving a WAR WAGON scenario". E.W. Swackhamer is back as director so you know there will be plenty of unnecessary slow motion shots. In fact, the film starts with Alex McArthur riding away from Whip Hubley following on horseback. Concentrating on getting away from his pursuer, McArthur rides into a trap which knocks him off his horse. The other guy gets the drop on McArthur when Hubley catches up and confirms that they caught the wanted man. The other guy thinks it would be easier to take our hero in dead, but Hubley disagrees and shoots the other guy dead. This allows McArthur to get the drop on Hubley, disarm him and make a getaway. Hubley continues to pursue our hero, until, inexplicably, McArthur's horse bucks our hero and his saddle over a cliff into a river. From above, Hubley gives up the chase, and soon McArthur is walking down the road when a young African American boy comes alongside him on a buckboard and offers to help him to get a new horse at the town up ahead. In town, McArthur is recognized as a famous outlaw and finds that many killings and robberies have been attributed to him, of which he is unaware. "Journalist" Brad Dourif wants to make a deal with our hero to record his exploits, and witnesses two gunmen attempt to kill McArthur as he's trying to buy some new boots. McArthur kills one gunman, but the other, Brion James, gets away with a wounded arm. McArthur is in town to find Lisa Cutter, but meets Richard Farnsworth - who seems to have been Pernell Roberts in a previous film. It has been a year since McArthur last saw Cutter, and Farnsworth says that she doesn't want to see him anymore. McArthur finds Cutter, and discovers that she's given birth to their baby since they last met. McArthur hopes to settle down with her and give up trying to find the witness he needs to prove his innocence. But, Farnsworth shows up with the proposition that if our hero helps to bring in outlaw James Remar, Farnsworth will help to get him a pardon from the governor. So, McArthur agrees to go "undercover", and luckily goes into a barroom in which Hubley gets into a standoff with card players who accuse him of cheating. Hubley spent some time in Remar's gang, so by helping the guy out of a dangerous spot, our hero gets to visit Remar's hideout. Soon Remar plans to rob a gold shipment being transported in a solid iron wagon that would withstand dynamite. McArthur knows Geoffrey Lewis, an undertaker who is also an explosives expert. Lewis concocts some kind of "super nitro", and the robbery is a go. Our hero gets the little African American boy to alert Farnsworth of the raid, but the law doesn't arrive until after the wagon has been blow to pieces - without harming the little bags of gold inside of course. After a mostly slow motion gun battle, McArthur gets the drop on Remar, but then Remar reveals that he knows about Cutter and sent James to kidnap her. He will exchange Cutter, and baby, for his freedom and the gold. Farnsworth goes along with this plan, but then Remar kills Farnsworth - McArthur kills James - and Remar is about to kill McArthur when Hubley arrives and kills Remar. Back in town, McArthur calls Hubley an hero and prevents him from getting away with the gold. Dourif offers to make Hubley famous while the town considers electing him to Farnsworth's old job as sheriff. With Farmsworth dead, McArthur decides he must continue his search for the man who can clear his name and he leaves Cutter and child behind.
DESPERADO: BADLANDS JUSTICE (1989) - E.W. Swackhamer returns to direct the final installment in the Universal TV series, which doesn't resolve the hero's efforts to clear his name. It appears that five TV movies is as far as the money men were interested in making. Alex McArthur comes upon a building in the middle of nowhere with three horses tied up outside. He enters the building, sees two men at a table and asks for the man he needs as a witness. He says that he heard the man worked there. Edward Wiley explains that they had set a trap for McArthur and that an hidden third man had his gun aimed at our hero. Of course, McArthur turns the tables, kills two of the villains, wounds Wiley in the arm and escapes. Later, as he moseys along, McArthur hears an explosion and races to help. He comes upon a mother and daughter Deborah Slaboda trying to dig out the husband/father buried alive in their mine. Using a stick of dynamite, our hero clears the entrance to the mine and the man is rescued. The husband/father explains that he's going to sell the mine which will get him enough money to move back east and bulid his dream house. McArthur then go to the nearby town, where he is quickly mistaken for an hired gunman named Henry Boothe. Businessman James Sikking sent for Boothe to kill his rival John Rhys-Davies. Sikking wants to make McArthur sheriff, while Rhys-Davies wants our hero to join his gang of thugs. McArthur wants none of this, and so returns to see the family he helped earlier. The mother and father are lying dead outside their home, and our hero becomes frantic to find their little girl. Eventually, he is joined in that quest by Patricia Charbonneau, the little girl's guardian. Complicating the usual "two gangs one town" scenario is a band of Mexican revolutionaries led by Gregory Sierra, who is owed a gun shipment from Rhys-Davies. In the end, it becomes clear that Sikking killed the mother and father inorder to stop the sale of the mine to Rhys-Davies. Rhys-Davies kidnapped the little girl to force Charbonneau to sign ownership of the mine to him. Sierra rescues the little girl and then kills Rhys-Davies before taking possession of the arms shipment. Sikking shows up with the real Henry Boothe, who is Edward Wiley, whom McArthur left wounded at the beginning of the movie. Of course, McArthur and Charbonneau defeat their enemies, so that our hero can leave town to continue his quest to find his needed witness. The highlight of this flick is Patricia Charbonneau, who first came to my attention in the cast of director William Friedkin's TV movie C.A.T. Squad, and then in DESERT HEARTS. It is a shame that she never got the role to make her a popular star because she is terrific.
FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1974) - When did these anthology films start being called portmaneau movies? This was the seventh and last of these kinds of entertainments produced by Amicus Productions, before they discovered science fiction action films based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Based on four short stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE became a dreary exercise in tedium under the direction of Kevin Connor, who obviously pleased producers Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky because he continued to work for them until the demise of the Amicus company. The film boasted an impressive cast, who weren't really given much to do with the dull material. Peter Cushing is the host of the show as he runs an antique store called Temptations. Three of the four customers try to cheat the eccentric old man, and only the fourth survives. The cast includes David Warner, Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence, Angela Pleasence, Diana Dors, Ian Carmichael, Nyree Dawn Porter, Margaret Leighton, Ian Oglivy and Leslie-Anne Down.
******************************************************************
David Deal Enjoyed:
MOONFLEET (55)
LITTLE BIG HORN (51) - Capt. Lloyd Bridges is assigned to lead a patrol to warn Custer about the Sioux amassing at Little Bighorn. Lloyd also orders Lt. John Ireland along because Ireland has been messing around with his wife, Marie Blanchard. Based on a true story, this low-budget western doesn't shy away from character arcs nor from the inevitable violence and loss of the doomed patrol. Plenty of film noir sensibilities here. Recommended.
THE SECRET OF CONVICT LAKE (51) - Glenn Ford and Zachary Scott are two of the 29 convicts who escape from a Nevada prison, and they are two of the five who make it over a mountain pass into the town of Monte Diablo in the dead of winter. Ford has led them there because he aims to kill the man who sent him up for robbery and murder. They are met by Gene Tierney and the women folk of the place as the men have gone prospecting. Good noir western set in snow and fraught with bad personal trajectories. Recommended.
DANGEROUS EXILE (57) - When the king of France and Marie Antoinette are overthrown and executed, their son is smuggled to pro-monarchy England by Louis Jourdan, who leaves his own son in the young king's place. In Wales, the boy is taken in by Belinda Lee and her wealthy family but the French will not let the boy escape. The machinations of the factions involved take up the running time in this well-mounted British feature. Fanciful as it is, this unusual adventure is a cut above.
THE 1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE (60)
THE PALE BLUE EYE (22) - In 1830, unorthodox detective Christian Bale is summoned to West Point to investigate the death of a cadet. He enlists the aid of another young cadet, Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), in finding the culprit. A reimagining of Poe's short time at West Point, this curious mystery goes places I didn't expect, but I found the film's urge to be Poe-esque in the telling to be true. It also looks great.
THE DARK CORNER (46)
THE BRAINIAC (61)
HIGH CRIME (73) - Great to have this classic on disc finally, and a spanking new Blu-ray to boot!
THE AMAZING MR. X (48) - This "Special Edition" Blu-ray from Film Detective is made from Turhan Bey's personal print. It looks great.
Mildly enjoyed:
THE SPY WITH THE PERFECT COVER (66) - Secret agent Robert Lansing is a doppelganger for an international criminal. When the bad guy is killed, Lansing takes his place with the help of the bad guy's wife, Dana Wynter. All this in order to take down the syndicate which has political implications. This the second movie made up from episodes of The Man Who Never Was television show from the mid-sixties after Danger Has Two Faces. It is, needless to say, episodic. It does have the advantage of actually being shot in exotic European locations (William Berger, Gabriele Tinti and Beba Loncar show up) and the lovely Wynter is always an asset but it can't escape the slapdash, gobbled together feel of a cash in.
DANGEROUS CARGO (53) - Jack Watling works as an airport security guard where gold bullion is flown in on a regular basis. Karel Stepanek is a Mabusa-like mob boss who concocts a plan to blackmail Jack for the delivery schedule in order to pull off a major heist. Okay British programmer that shies away from anything to dastardly before the happy ending.
DARK STREETS OF CAIRO (41) - When the Seven Jewels of the Seven Pharaohs are unearthed by archeologists, villain George Zucco means to have them, no matter what or who gets in the way. Ralph Byrd (he of Dick Tracy fame) is the hero who gets involved along with his annoying sidekick Eddie Quillan. Sort of a riff on The Mummy's Hand but no monster is here to save the viewer's day. Okay exotic crime flick from Universal.
BLACK COBRA WOMAN (76)
******************************************************************
Charles Gilbert watched:
INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957) B&W. Nicholson/Arkoff farce with Steve Terrell and Gloria Castillo. The alien midgets attack their prey, which includes a bovine, with needle claws that infuse alcohol, thus rendering victims inebriated.. Frank Gorshin has a bit part. Stuntman Whitey Hughes (uncredited), who appeared in many TV westerns, is one of the 'teens' occupying convertibles at lovers' lane.
VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET (1965) American International Pictures courtesy Roger Corman adapted this Russian film to include Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue in scenes spliced for English audiences. From a lunar base three ships are dispatched for a mission to Venus where astronauts find evidence of prior human activity.
IKARIA XB 2 better known as VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (1963) B&W. Brooding Czech film with no recognizable actors employs fairly impressive sets and effects. Marketed by American International. They travel across the universe to find the Statue of Liberty on the Green Earth?
MUNSTER GO HOME (1966) A British inheritance lures the Munster clan to England, where Herman (Fred Gwynne) enters a roadster race. His makeup is indeed a nod to Jack Pierce except he's missing the left side ear-to-chin scar.
THE LONG SHIPS (1964) Viking Rolfe (Richard Widmark) returns home after a failed voyage requesting from his father (Oscar Homolka) another ship and crew to seek out the "Mother of Voices" golden bell. Moor ruler Sidney Poitier wants it, too, and, after capturing them, employs his 'Mare of Steel' execution device to persuade the lusty Norsemen for help. I was interested in seeing Jeanne Moody, who plays Yiva, and was a beauty contestant from Alabama. She'd moved to England to appear in The Saint with Roger Moore and married Scott Forbes (Adventures of Jim Bowie).
Have Gun, Will Travel (S1E32) 'The Five Books of Owen Deaver' Walter Barnes plays Mason Enfield, a drifter who defies apprentice sheriff James Olson , who demands all guns be turned in while in town.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (S3E20) 'The Mummy' The super sub is transporting a sarcophagus containing a mummy to be returned to Egypt. The wrapped man mobilizes under way in the manner attributable to Tom Tyler and Lon Chaney Jr., but the wrappings are more like a burlap sack.
Outer Limits 'Specimen:Unknown' (S1E22) . A USA space crew returns to earth with lily-like plants that spew "popcorn" and poisonous gas, and proliferate wildly. But a sudden rain becomes their demise. Stephen McNally and Gail Kobe star.
Digging the Dancing Queens. Documentary on the British dancing beauties called Pan's People who appeared on the BBC show Top of the Pops. The one named Babs married actor Robert Powell.
****************************************************************
Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
Himssenyeoja Kangnamsoon / Strong girl Nam-Soon (2022) - episodes 9 & 10
Enjoyed:
The retirement plan (2022, Tim J. Brown)
Lan tou he / Dirty Ho (1979, Liu Chia-liang)
Pink angels (1971, Larry J. Brown)
Killer's kiss (1955, Stanley Kubrick)
Tian di xuan men / Eternal combat (1991, Thomas Yip)
Go chase yourself (1938, Edward F. Cline)
Yellow Hair and the fortress of gold (1984, Matt Cimber)
Esupai (1974, Jun Fukuda)
Voyage to the bottom of the sea – episode « the phantom strikes » (1966, Sutton Roley)
The invaders – episode « the enemy » (1967, Robert Butler)
Fort du fou (1963, Léo Joannon)
Mildly enjoyed:
Captain Celluloid vs the film pirates (1966, Louis McMahon)
Bodies – season 1 – episode 3
Polar Park – season 1 - episode 1
Haunted mansion (2022, Justin Simien)
57 seconds (2022, Rusty Cundieff)
The monster maker (1944, Sam Newfield)
Ballerina (2022, Chung-hyun Lee)
Did not enjoy:
Loki – season 2 – episode 6
Gangnam zombie (2022, Soo Sung Lee)
Five nights at Feddy's (2022, Emma Tammi)
****************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment