To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
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."
Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Alain Delon.
By what name is J.W. Fordson better known?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Mario Costa.
By what name is Lee W. Beaver better known?
Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was Carlo Lizzani.
And now for some new brain teasers:
In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Terence Hill and Alain Delon appear together?
In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Stephen Boyd and Hugh Griffith appear together?
In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Penelope Cruz and Alessandro Tiberi appear together?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Gordon Scott, Ugo Sasso, and Mario Brega in BUFFALO BILL, L'EROE DEL FAR WEST. aka BUFFALO BILL HERO OF THE FAR WEST.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Gordon Scott in MACISTE ALLA CORTE DEL GRAN KHAN, aka SAMSON AND THE SEVEN MIRACLES OF THE WORLD.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Kitty Swan in GUNGALA LA PANTERA NUDA, aka GUNGALA, THE BLACK PANTHER GIRL.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Wang Lung Wai in THE BRAVE ARCHER 2.
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 Raphaëlle, aka Astrid season two (2021)
Professor T (UK) season 2 episode 1 "Ring of Fire"
Mildly enjoyed:
Frontline "20 Days In Mariupol" (2023) - I can't say that I enjoyed this compelling document on the suffering and death in the Ukrainian port city at the beginning of Russia's invasion. The images of dead babies and dying pregnant women are not enjoyable.
Did not enjoy:
BAD MOON (1996) - Eric Red came to most people's attention by writing the screenplays for THE HITCHER and NEAR DARK. He directed two feature films, COHEN AND TATE and BODY PARTS, before the project to turn Wayne Smith's novel THOR into a movie came about. Reportedly, the novel tells the story from the point of view of the a family dog named Thor. Well, the movie opts for the usual objective point of view introducing bits to which the dog wasn't a witness. The film opens with Michael Pare and Johanna Lebovitz celebrating the conclusion of their expedition in the wilds by having sex in their tent at night. A werewolf grabs Lebovitz off of Pare before they finish and begins to tear her to pieces. Pare gets bitten by the monster before he gets his hands on a shotgun and blows its head off. We are then introduced to Pare's sister, Mariel Hemingway, who lives a quiet life in the country with her son, Mason Gamble, and their German Shepherd Thor, played by Primo. A con man Hemingway nicknames "Flopsy", played by Hrothgar Mathews, tries to intimidate the woman by saying that Thor bit him, but Hemingway is a lawyer and threatens to call the sheriff. Pare invites his sister and nephew to have dinner in the mobile home where he now lives. Thor senses something is wrong about Pare, and ends up finding the slaughtered remains of a victim, but, of course, can't tell anyone about it. When the authorities start to investigate the deaths near where Pare has parked, Pare accepts an invitation from his sister to move his home to next to her place. Of course, Thor doesn't approve. Will the dog be able to protect his family from Uncle Werewolf? Will the filmmakers put a clip from WEREWOLF OF LONDON on a TV set? Will Eric Red be able to resist the temptation to pull a CARRIE-like surprise ending? Whle he is unable to generate any suspense with this film, Red does deliver gruesome gore for the kills.
DISASTER MOVIE (2008) - Journey back with me to 2008 when making fun of Amy Winehouse was acceptable. This movie would best be viewed in 2008, because many of the pop culture references don't mean anything in 2023. Parody movies were usually made with a scattergun perspective, but this effort by parody movie specialists Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (DATE MOVIE, EPIC MOVIE, MEET THE SPARTANS) tossed in so many allusions that I gave up trying to keep track before I fell asleep. The only surprise was that the semblance of a plot related to director Steven Spielberg's INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Some would like to put this on the list of the Worst Movies Of All Time, but it is in focus, the color is good, and some of the female performers are attractive.
FALLEN ANGELS (1995) - This is the first film directed by Wong Kar-wai that I've seen and perhaps it is not where I should have started. Very quickly I found its wide angle tilted camerawork irritating and the disembodied voice overs off-putting. Its portrayal of an young hired killer who is lazy and likes living with everything planned out for him so that all he has to do is show up and kill everyone is extremely unconvincing. He's lonely and alienated but he feels that he should have no emotional involvement with his "partner", the woman who comes into his place while he's out and cleans it. She's says she happy being alone because she can take care of herself - which we see as she rubs up against a Wurlitzer juke box followed by her masturbating on a bed with the camera below her feet. She is fully dressed and the wideangle shot emphasizes her black fishnet stockings. Later on, we see her again taking care of herself from just about the same angle, but the stockings have changed. Long scenes of ennui are broken up by ridiculous shoot-em ups that make John Woo films look realistic. (My - my look at how the sparks fly.) An ex-con enters the movie breaking into people's businesses and selling their goods on the street. He takes to videotaping his father and wishing that he wasn't so lonely and alienated. Perhaps I'm too old a viewer for this stuff for I found this visually unappealing, emotionally uninvolving and a real patience tester.
TIMESTALKERS (1987) - A CBS Movie of the Week, TIMESTALKERS was based on an unpublished novel by Ray Brown, with a screenplay by Brian Clemens famous for the TV series The Avengers. The film is so well set up in the beginning, that the last part of the film is predictable, and director Michael Schultz of CAR WASH fame fails to make any of this compelling. William Devane may be a college professor, but he loves practicing his quick draw with the old pistols of the Wild West. A while after his wife and son are killed in a freak car accident, Devane and his Army buddy John Ratzenberger attend an auction of old Wild West memorabilia and they buy two trunks. Inside one of the trunks, Devane finds an old tintype photograph from 1886. During the auction, the film flashes back to the 1860s to see Klaus Kinski riding into town and gunning down three men. These flashbacks are accompanied by loud sizziling sounds and light flashes that look like fireworks. These are not flashbacks being had by any character, they are "third person narrative flashbacks" which no one sees but the viewing audience. Devane sees a tintype of Kinski, and notices that he's carrying a 1980s Magnum 357 handgun. It isn't too long before Devane writes a scientific paper on the tintype considering that Kinski would have to be a time traveler to have a 1980s gun in the 1880s. While his students laugh at him, Devane is visited by Lauren Hutton, who, of course, has come from the future. She's looking for renegade future scientist Kinski, who helped to develop the time travel devices which he has been forbidden to use. Devane's paper has given her a clue as to where Kinski escaped. Eventually, Devane and Hutton figure out that Kinski went into the past in an effort to change the future by killing an ancestor of Hutton's father, John Considine. It is future Considine that forbade Kinski from using time travel. Past Considine was saved from death by a stranger with fancy pistols. Kinski kills the stranger with fancy pistols, so, of course, Devane picks up the fancy pistols and saves Past Considine by killing Kinski. Naturally, in the end, Hutton also allows Devane to be able to save his wife and son from the freak car accident. Someone thought there might be a sequel by having Hutton make Devane promise to help her again if she needs it. Thankfully, a sequel never happened. The film is notable as the last project in which Forrest Tucker and Arnold Roberts appeared before their deaths.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT (52) - After Cameron Mitchell and his boys rob the bank, several "undesirables" are cast out of Poker Flat. Among them are gambler Dale Robertson and Anne Baxter, who, unbeknownst to everyone, happens to be Cameron's girl. The group hole up in a cabin during a blizzard and who should show up but Mitchell. This claustrophobic noir western is pretty dark in mood and subject. Robertson is low-key competence, Baxter is a tough beauty, and Mitchell is a low-down, killing rat. Worth a look. Craig Hill has a smallish part.
GOOD LUCK, CHARLIE (65)
DAKOTA LIL (50) - When the Hole-in-the-Wall gang steals $100,000 in unsigned treasury notes, Secret Service agent Tom Horn (George Montgomery) is dispatched to put a stop to the gang. Marie Windsor is Dakota Lil who has the forgery skills to get the notes signed. Rod Cameron runs the gang and is a cold-blooded killer who strangles several people in the film's most sadistic touch. Montgomery, clad in black from head to foot fits the hero bill and Windsor plays the clever Lil with ease. Fun.
WACO (52) - Wild Bill Elliott shoots a card cheat in self defense in Waco but is headed for a murder charge, so he high-tails it and joins up with I. Stanford Jolley's gang and lives the life of an outlaw. Finally acquitted of the murder charge, he's given the job of sheriff back in Waco. Conflicts of interest arise. For a B oater, this delivers a twisty story with solid characters. Good job.
THE RETURN OF DR. MABUSE (61)
THE LOST WEEKEND: A LOVE STORY (22) - Documentary on May Pang's relationship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. An eye opener.
THE GHOST (63)
HYPNOSIS (63)
Mildly enjoyed:
THE DEPRAVED (57) - By circumstance, Army officer Robert Arden meets abused wife Anne Heywood and sparks fly. Soon the plot to kill her husband is in full swing. Things don't go as planned. This British noir is a by-the-numbers production that manages to ruin several lives in 70 minutes, but the ending is a kicker. Not bad.
GLASS ONION (22)
THE LAST MAN TO KILL (66) - Check out "The Eurospy Guide" book on amazon for a full review of this Umberto Lenzi/Roger Browne entry.
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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:
"THE MARVELS" (2023) Stars the comely Brie Larson. I found it very entertaining. Fitting in under the "it's so bad, it's good" category! Some might find fault with its convoluted plot, but I found its star fetching, especially where in one scene she is dressed like "a princess"! While its plot is a little convoluted, if one thinks of it as "good triumphing over evil" it is easy to swallow. Well worth a viewing if taken as it is; just a popcorn movie. Brie Larson is very easy on the eyes.
"THE WIZARD OF OZ" (1939) The classic film with Judy Garland. Still holds up well. Even after multiple viewings.
Mildly enjoyed:
"PRISCILLA" (2023) Based on Priscilla Presley's book, "Elvis and Me"; tells the story of Priscilla's life with Elvis completely from her point of view. Directed by Sofia Coppola. For instance she apparently didn't have much contact with the colonel, so he is not in it. Well acted but one sided.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
La poison (1951, Sacha Guitry)
Nature in the wrong (short) (1933, Charlie Chase)
4... 3.. 2... 1... morte (1967, Primo Zeglio)
Maciste nella terre dei ciclopi (1961, Antonio Leonviola)
Lawmen Bass Reeves – season 1 – episodes 1 to 3
Pharaoh's curse (1956, Lee Sholem)
Kyôfu kikei ningen : Edogawa Rampo zenshû /
Horrors of malformed men (1969, Teruo Ishii)
Toto – allegro fantasma (1941, Amleto Palermi)
Mildly enjoyed:
Monarch: legacy of monsters – season 1 – episodes 1 & 2
Akgwi / Revenant – season 1 – episodes 11 & 12
6isxtynin9: the series – season 1 – episodes 1 & 2
Mi ni te gong dui / Fantasy mission force (1983, Yen-ping Chu)
Did not enjoy:
The doomsday machine (1967, Lee Sholem & Harry Hope)
Uçan daireler Istanbulda / Flying saucers over Istanbul (1955, Oran Erçin)
Pamela Rose, la série – season 1 – episodes 1 & 2
Queen of Oz – season 1 – episodes 1 & 2
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