To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Complete the lyric: "The _____ ___ ringing. What do they say?"
Angel Rivera knew that the blanks were for "bells are", the English language theme song to 10,000 DOLLARI PER UN MASSACRO, aka $10,000 BLOOD MONEY.
Charles Gilbert asks "Which veteran of sword & sandal films was born in Lausanne in 1933 but took the name Rod Carter later in his career"?
Tom Betts, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Roland Carey.
Which Italian Western features a bounty killer who is a Muslim?
Tom Betts, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it was CAMPA CAROGNA... LA TAGLIA CRESCE, aka THOSE DIRTY DOGS.
Which actor, born in Guyana, made three sword & sandal films and three Italian Westerns?
Tom Betts and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Harry Baird.
And now for some new brain teasers:
By what name is Anthony Daisies better known?
Which Italian actor, born in 1927, made his first Western opposite Mark Damon?
Which Italian actress, born in 1940, made her first film in a movie starring Reg Park and her last film in a movie starring Stefano Fresi?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo from 7 PISTOLE PER I MACGREGOR, aka 7 GUNS FOR THE MACGREGORS.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Nazzareno Zamperla in I SETTE GLADIATORI, aka GLADIATORS SEVEN.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Nello Pazzafini and Bud Spencer in BANANA JOE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one has 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:
Mildly enjoyed:
THE DISH (2000) - The true story of how the Parkes Observatory in Australia helped to transmit the television images of the Apollo 11 astronauts taking the first moonwalk on July 21, 1969 (and fuck you people who think Stanley Kubrick faked it) is made into a folksy and historically inaccurate comedy by writers Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and director Rob Sitch. Sam Neill plays the director of the station who is seen at the beginning of the film in old age makeup visiting the observatory. After a young man who currently works at the site tells him that he should visit the visitor center, Neill begins the flashback which is the main portion of the film, filled with scenes in which Neill does not appear and so should not be able to flashback to them. Patrick Warburton plays a single NASA representative at the station, though there were several in reality. Various problems occur which seem to put the mission of relaying the television signals in jeopardy, and the film introduces a number of romantic subplots that are charming but not history. Still this is a "feel good" movie that succeeds in making the viewer feel good.
Did not enjoy:
BARBARIAN QUEEN (1985) - This is for everyone who thought that the Italian "sword and sandal" movies of the 1960s were cheap looking. Compared to BARBARIAN QUEEN, they were mega-budgeted blockbusters. Reportedly this was the third of ten movies made in Argentina by Roger Corman's Concorde-New Horizons company, but neither Corman or Concorde were credited on the Vestron Video I saw. This is more of a softcore sex film than a sword-and-sorcery action picture. The film starts with Dawn Dunlap picking flowers by a river. Soon, bad guys show up and rape her. Lana Clarkson is supposed to marry King Frank Zagarino of a little village in the jungle, but the bad guys show up to destroy the village and take slaves. Some guys also take the time to rape Susana Traverso. But she recovers and kills them. Clarkson fakes her death, survives and with Traverso and the always hungry Katt Shea set out to rescue their enslaved people. Naturally, when they get to the city, they find a rebel force considering when to take up arms. Luckily, Zagarino and many men are put to train to be gladiators, so they have access to the arms needed for the revolt. Our heroines get captured, get stripped mostly naked and tortured. Clarkson and Shea survive and coordinate the rebels and the gladiators for a final badly staged battle. Director Hector Olivera was regarded as a serious filmmaker who only made the Corman films in order to finance his more serious movies. Unfortunately, he showed no flare for this kind of movie and probably had no interest in them either. The highlight of the movie comes when Clarkson is tied to a standing rack and her torturer is raping her. She uses her vaginal muscles to trap his penis inside her and won't let him go until he unties her. She then pushes him into what appears to be a vat of barbarian acid. Celebrated film music composer James Horner got his start working on Roger Corman productions like BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS. Some of his music from that film was reused in BARBARIAN QUEEN.
THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN (1995) - Made on 16mm for about $25.000, THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN was an early success story for the "Independent Film Movement" of the 1990s. After getting a positive response at the Sundance Film Festival, it was picked up for theatrical distribution and over $200,000 was spent finishing the film. Dealing with the romantic confusion of three 20-something Irish Catholic brothers on Long Island, the film got favorable responses for being a sincere low-budget production. However, it was a very conventional film with not very interesting characters. When Connie Britton, in her feature film debut, announced at a family dinner that she couldn't respect John F. Kennedy because he cheated on his wife, you knew where her relationship with her husband Jack Mulcahly was going. When writer/director Edward Burns explained that he was breaking up with his girlfriend because she mentioned marriage, you knew how the film would end. Because his material dealt with romantic confusion in New York, Burns was dubbed "the new Woody Allen", with everyone ignoring that Burns wasn't very funny.
COME PLAY (2020) - In 2017, writer/director Jacob Chase made a short film called "Larry", but short films don't get much notoriety, so it was decided to turn it into a feature. The transition from something that is 5 minutes long to something that is 95 mins long often means a lot of stretching of the material, and this movie feels very stretched. Azhy Robertson is an autistic boy who mostly communicates through his cell phone, and he watches a lot of Spongebob Squarepants. One night, there is a lot of electrical interference in his house and a mysterious story pops up on his phone - the story of Larry, a misunderstood monster who just wants a friend. Eventually, it is realized that "Larry" is from another dimension and he can use electronic devices in our world to reach out the those feeling lonely. At one point this feels like an elaboration of the fear of television from POLTERGEIST - and it also climaxes with an expression of a mother's love. Does that have anything to do with this coming from Amblin' Partners? Chase piles on the creepy atmosphere, but a painfully slow pace does not equal suspense.
THE GENE GENERATION (2007) - Born in Singapore in 1978, Pearry Teo, aka Pearry Reginald Teo Zhang Pingli, attended school in Australia before coming to America to pursue filmmaking. Supposedly THE GENE GENERATION is based on his comic book "DNA Hacker Chronicles" which was not published until a year after this movie came out. I've only seen evidence of three issues from Bloodfire Studio. Alec Newman and Faye Dunaway are part of a scientific team working on DNA technology to eradicate disease and to make everyone able to heal themselves. However, when Dunaway works to try and make the technology into a sellable weapon, it mutates people into being some kind of tentacled thing. The lab is blown up, but Newman still has a piece of the tech and is trying to perfect it. Meanwhile, as everyone is now being monitored by their DNA, a group of "hackers" appear to steal other people's DNA while also infecting people with that tentacled thing problem. Assassins are tasked with killing the DNA hackers, and Bai Ling is one. Actually, as we only see her, so she may be the only one, but they are talked about as being more than one. Quite possibly writer/director Teo wanted to suggest a more expansive world view, but was limited by his budget. Also, did he envision a longer running time but had to shorten the film and add a narration - making Dunaway's appearance something of a cameo? Or did he have to try, in the editing room, to make this extremely complicated and disjointed plot into something comprehensible? Ling gets big bundles of cash from Robert David Hall to kill the hackers, but her brother, Parry Shen, keeps stealing her money to gamble at Michael Shamus Wiles' club. Naturally he and his buddy, Ethan Cohn, end up deep in debt to Wiles, so they decide to break into their neighbor's apartment. Their neighbor coincidentally is Newman, and they steal the tech on which he has been working. It turns out later that Hall is Dunaway's brother, and he is after Newman and the tech he has inorder to try and cure Dunaway, who has become a tentacled thing. So, Ling has to deal with the gangsters trying to kill her brother, Newman looking for his tech and Hall ordering her to get Newman. All of this takes place in what seems to be a city whose look is inspired by both BLADERUNNER and BRAZIL. The CGI looks awful as does the production design. At least in BLADERUNNER the rich people live somewhere neat, and in BRAZIL the grimy guts of the city didn't come out until the surface was broken. Here, everything everywhere looks awful - except for the two times Bai Ling takes a shower. On the plus side, Jeff Imada is responsible for the fight scenes, and they are pretty good.
LETHAL WEAPON 4 (1998) - I am not a fan of movies directed by Richard Donner, and I didn't like the previous three installments in this series, created by writer Shane Black. Like THE GOONIES, 4 is a very loud and frenetic flick that seems to equate humor with people shouting, followed by scenes of sentimentality. Thanks to the success of the previous Joel Silver productions, 4 has a big effects budget so that things don't just blow up, they explode high into the air only to crash to the earth and blow up really big. Hong Kong action fans were thrilled to see Jet Li in an Hollywood movie, and seeing Eddy Ko and Conan Lee also the cast with action choreography by Huan-Chiu Ku looked promising. However Ko and Lee are only in the film to be killed without fighting, but Li still provides some excitement. There seems to be little attempt to hide that most of the action is done by Mel Gibson's stunt double and not the star. It is fun to see extensive use of Los Angeles' Chinatown location, which Donner fractures its geography just like he did Hollywood Blvd. in the first LETHAL WEAPON.
UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS (2016) - I don't like any of the UNDERWORLD films, but this one gets some points for its brevity. It plays as if during the editing they realized how dull witted the proceedings were and decided to pare down every scene so that the pace would prevent audience members for having the time to think about what was going on. Anna Foerster, who worked as a second unit director on a number of films before directing some TV, made her feature film debut with this, but she pretty much had to follow the style already established in the previous films. Lara Pulver made a positive impression as one of Kate Beckinsale's enemies, and I loved her death scene. It is interesting to note that the male hero fights the female villain while the female hero fights the male villain. Usually, these kind of films are skittish about having male heroes fight female villains to the death.
YAKARI, LE FILM, aka YAKARI, A SPECTACULAR JOURNEY (2020) - When ever I watch a film featuring Native Americans I always wonder how they would react to the film. Would they approve or would they dismiss it as just more White bullshit? This feature film is based on an animated Belgium and French TV series from 2005, which was created by Claude de Ribaupierre and Andre Jobin. Yakari is a little boy of the Sioux tribe who desires to ride Little Thunder, a wild mustang which alludes capture. When his father sees that the buffalo herds are leaving, he informs the tribe that they must leave and follow the herds because the time of tornadoes is coming. Seeing Little Thunder at a distance, Yakari follows the horse and ends up freeing it when his hooves get caught in some falling rocks. Visited by his totem, The Great Eagle, Yakari is gifted with a warrior's feather and the ability to talk and understand all animals. When he and Little Thunder see a different tribe capturing and seeming to mistreat some horses, the boy and horse decide to work together to free the captured animals. The boy from the other tribe is dishonored for losing the horses, and is told that he has to find whomever was responsible. By this time, Yakari realizes that he is far away from his tribe and must try to get back. Little Thunder decides that the boy can't make the journey alone, so he goes with him - and maybe he'll even give the boy permission to ride on his back. Meanwhile, our hero's parents, and his dog, set out to find Yakari. I am not in the target audience for this film, but I could see children might really enjoy this.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
THE WITCH'S CURSE (62)
THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (65) - Still fascinating and the Blu-ray looks great.
A BLACK VEIL FOR LISA (68)
SHADOW OF THE CAT (61)
THE BLACK BOX AFFAIR (66) - Check out The Eurospy Guide book for a complete review of this Craig Hill entry.
Mildly enjoyed:
BLOOD RIVER (09) - A young couple driving thru the Nevada desert pass a hitchhiker on the road but don't stop for him. At a small hotel later, the couple don't notice the hitchhiker at the bar. As they journey on, one of their tires blows out, and they must walk to the nearest town which turns out to be a ghost town. Luckily, or unluckily, here comes the hitchhiker bearing water and hope for their rescue. It is not to be. This small budget thriller has an interesting supernatural angle but fumbles some of the details that are important to a tale of retribution like this. Prepare for brutality and unrelenting misery in this too-long-yet-intriguing terror flick.
ANDROMEDA NEBULA (67) - Russian space saga about discovering dead spaceships, ancient aliens, and other curious phenomena. It doesn't make much sense, at least in the form we're seeing it, but it is fun to look at.
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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:
"THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) - I vaguely remember the TV show based on the movie. But I don't remember seeing the original movie. It is an enchanting little fantasy and any romantic will like it.
'THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS" (1953) - Every time I see this film I am enthralled by Harryhausen's magic.
"THEM! (1954) - This was the first of the giant bug movies and is still the best. Performances by James Arness, Joan Weldon, Edmund Gwenn and especially James Whitmore make this one the classic that is.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
SIGN OF ROME (1959) Also called SIGN OF THE GLADIATOR stars Anita Eckberg and Georges Marchal in a rather forgettable epic with plenty sword fights. Production methods probably forbidden today by animal rights groups who would cringe at horses taking forced spills on collapsible grounds.
SECRET SEVEN (1963) Rather bland story that wants to emulate GLADIATOR SEVEN: even has the same star playing the chief villain (Gerard Tichy). Hero Roman (Tony Russell) selects six condemned "septagenarians" to help him rescue his brother Axel (Massimo Serato spelled Maximo in the film credits)
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
Gauseujeonja / Gaus electronics (2022) season 1
Enjoyed:
Pouic-Pouic (1963, Jean Girault)
Un-myeong-cheol-eom neol sa-rang-hae / Fated to love (2014) - episodes 11 to 20
Surrounded (2021, Anthony Mandler)
Midly enjoyed:
Gallant journey (1946, William A. Wellman)
Wizards and warriors – season 1 – episode 2
The exorcist: believer (David Gordon Green)
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