To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which film by director Sergio Leone has a film editor listed as one of the screenwriters?
No one has answered this question yet.
Which Italian stunt man and actor became the director of a Western in which he appeared?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and Rick Garibaldi knew that it was Alfio Caltabiano with BALLATA PER UN PISTOLERO.
Which Italian stunt man and actor did Richard Harrison frequently employ but complained that the man never told him "thank you"?
No one has answered this question yet.
What American actor voiced Franco Nero in the English language version of DJANGO?
Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was Tony Russel.
And now for some new brain teasers:
By what name is Luisa Baratto better known?
By what name is Men Fury better known?
By what name is Nat Williams better known?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Rick Garibaldi and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Lawrence Dobkin in JOHNNY YUMA.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and Charles Gilbert identified last week's photo of Illosh Khoshabe, aka Rod Flash, and Bella Cortez in VULCANO, FIGLIO DI GIOVE.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one identified the above photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
No one has identified the above frame grab.
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:
ST. VINCENT (2014) - Even though this film got good reviews, I put it in the machine with a little trepidation. How enjoyable could a movie be that tells the cliched story of a curmudgeon, played by Bill Murray, that becomes a surrogate father to a sensitive boy, played by Jaeden Lieberher, new to the neighborhood and school? Well, director Theodore Melfi's screenplay plays all of the expected bits - the boy's mother, Melissa McCarthy, is in the middle of a divorce, the curmudgeon teaches to boy how to stand up to the school bully and the curmudgeon turns out to have a secret heart of gold. Melfi is able to keep many of the bits hidden, slowly revealing them while not falling into sentimentality. Assembling a good cast helps a lot, with Bill Murray convincingly playing a bad-tempered alcholic. Jaeden Lieberher is quite winning as the boy; never seeming stupid while being naive. Particularly enjoyable is Naomi Watts as a Russian sex worker who services Murray weekly before her obvious pregnancy gets her fired from her job as an exotic dancer and she has to rely on Murray for help. Chris O'Dowd keeps the character of the priest at Lieberher's Catholic school warm while also delivering the film's message about how anybody who helps and cares for others is a saint. The film's title gives away the ending of the film, in which Lieberher presents Murray in the school's "Saints Among Us" presentation, but the scene is so well performed that it succeeds in being quite moving. Also in the cast is Terrence Howard as a loan shark to whom Murray owes money and Ann Dowd as the director of a nursing home to whom Murray owes money.
Did not enjoy:
AGAINST THE LAW (1997) - Richard Grieco does a terrible Clint Eastwood imitation as a serial killer on his way to Hollywood with the plan on becoming famous enough for a movie to be made about how he was the fastest gun in the West. During his travels, he challenges every police officer he sees with "Are you fast?" After killing them, he takes their badges and their guns. Arriving in L.A., he sees cop Nick Mancuso interviewed on TV by reporter Nancy Allen after Mancuso kills some drug guys in a shootout. So, Grieco wants Allen to document his life's story while calling out Mancuso to a gunfight at high noon. Stretching this premise to 90 minutes results in a tedious viewing experience, but throwing in minor roles for Jaime Pressly and Heather Thomas was welcome. CHOPPING MALL author Steve Mitchell got screenplay credit with SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II writer Bob Sheridan for this film directed by Jim Wynorski.
GERONIMO (1962) - Loosely based on events leading up to the 1886 final surrender of the shaman of the Bedonkohe band of the Central Apache - after his third breakout from a reservation in 1885, GERONIMO has the usual plot of a movie intended to be sympathetic to Native Americans. For the welfare of his people, our hero surrenders to the U.S. Army and agrees to live on a reservation run by Minister John Anderson. Of course, a greedy White businessman comes along and makes a deal to buy the reservation land out from under the Apache. Apache farmer Ross Martin, who just wants to live in peace with his wife and son, is incensed because his crop of corn hasn't come in yet. After punishing Anderson's hand which signed the traitorous deal, Geronimo leads his people off the reservation, and finds a suitable place to live atop a mountain in Mexico. (Was this part of the inspiration for the German filmmakers to put Winnteou's camp on a cliff overlooking a river valley in THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE?) At first school teacher Kamala Devi doesn't want to leave the reservation, but later our hero decides that he needs a woman and steals her away in the night. She doesn't really mind at all, and soon she is pregnant just at the U.S. Army, led by General Lawrence Dobkin locates the Apache camp. Racist Captain Pat Conway intends to use a cannon against the camp, against the advice of sympathetic Lieutenant Adam West. Conway is killed when our hero fires a flaming arrow into the munitions next to the cannon. With a son born to him, Geronimo is ready to talk peace when Senator Denver Pyle arrives with an offer. The film ends with the surrender, and makes no mention of the fact that Geronimo spent the remaining years of his life, 1886-1909, as a prisoner of war, often being put on display as a tourist attraction. There is also no mention in the film of the numerous atrocities reported to have been committed by Geronimo and his followers. Producers Laven-Gardner-Levy didn't have to look far for a star for their movie: Chuck Connors had been making The Rifleman TV show for them since 1958. On GERONIMO, Connors took a liking to his Bombay born co-star, Kamala Devi. They were married for almost nine years. Location work for this film was mostly done in the Sierra de Organos National Park near the town of Sombrerete, Mexico, which was used frequently for movies including THE TALL MEN, THE WAR WAGON, THE SCALPHUNTERS, GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN and CAVEMAN. Many of the locations look similar to what director Sam Peckinpah would later use in MAJOR DUNDEE, which had a completely different attitude to the Apache. Among the Mexican actors in the film is Claudio Brook around the same time he appeared in director Luis Bunuerl's EL ANGEL EXTERMINADOR. Brook also appears in the Laven-Gardner-Levy production of THE GLORY GUYS.
PASSA SARTANA... E L'OMBRA DELLA TUA MORTE, aka SHADOW OF SARTANA, SHADOW OF YOUR DEATH (1969) - This would appear to be the third film that former art director Demofilo Fidani made as a director, and the only time he used the name Sean O'Neil. His usual pseudonym of Miles Deem appeared in the credit for "Original idea and screenplay by". Did he happen to know of footage shot for other movies that hadn't been used, or did he have some stuff left over from this previous two films? Or did he just improvise shots without really having a plan for how to use them? In any case, the feature that resulted was a mind numbing exercise in how 80 minutes of action can be sleep-inducing without a plot to create some interest. Composer Coriolano Cori was credited with a nice tune that was used throughout the movie, possibly to wake up viewers but rarely seemed to have been written to match the on-screen action. The beginning of this movie underlined the near impossibility of a guy getting hanged in Italian Westerns after THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Three Mexican men labor to hang a fourth man on the orders of Don Alfonso, but, of course, our hero, Jeff Cameron, shows up to cut the noose with a bullet. Neither the rescued man or Don Alfonso was ever mentioned again in the movie, except that one Mexican was stationed near a sign marking the border between Texas and Mexico. Our hero was identified with the very North American name of Sartana, and the Mexican was ordered to stop Sartana from crossing the border. At a ridiculously far distance, the Mexican used a Winchester to ambush our hero, but left before it became obvious that he only succeeded in killing Cameron's horse. So. there were four very long shots of Cameron walking through the wilderness carrying his saddle. Suddenly, there was a shot of a gang of men riding down a hill towards the camera. It appeared, from a close up of Cameron, that they were not riding towards him. Next was a shot of a stagecoach, and then a shot of Cameron seeming to move - possibly towards the stagecoach. Then there was a shot of the gang riding away from the camera. Cut to the interior of a gambling hall into which came an outlaw gang that robbed the joint. Then we see a gang riding out of town with townspeople shooting guns after them. And now there was another shot of the stagecoach. Suddenly, we cut to a long sequence in which a group of masked thugs were beating up a guy in front of what looked like a ranch house. Suddenly, the film goes black and white to show three unmasked guys gunning down two men in an unidentified interior. Then we see a gang of men riding quickly away. Then we get another shot of the stagecoach, followed by another shot of a gang riding past the camera. Suddenly, the film cut to a Western town, where a man, in an upstairs window, throws a knife into the neck of a man walking on the street. As townspeople huddled around the dead man, no one noticed the three thugs who mounted their horses and left town. Meanwhile, Cameron put down his saddle as he watched a gang prepare to attack the stagecoach. Suddenly, we see four horsemen, possibly at night, ride up to a bank and yank out the bars from a window. Two men entered through the open window and set dynamite to blow open the safe. A bank guard suddenly appeared and was shot dead. As the dynamite exploded, an old man struck a match to light his pipe. It was fourteen minutes into the movie and suddenly someone thought we should get a plot. The old man was talking with law men about how to deal with the Randall gang. One fellow suggested that they use a wanted murderer, named Sartana, who could "shoot his way out of hell". Cut to Cameron loading his pistol. He was still posted over looking the guys planning to rob the stagecoach. Does he stop the bad guys before they rob the stagecoach? No. He waited until they were in the midst of their robbery before killing them all by firing his six gun seven times. Does he get on the stagecoach, or take over one of the dead men's horses? No. All that stagecoach stuff must have come from another movie, because the next we see of Cameron he walked into a deserted looking town to respond to a woman crying over her dead father. This nonsensical assemblage of scenes made up the first 19 minutes of this flick. At the 25 minute mark, Cameron was captured as he slept by lawmen who explained the plot to him about going after the Randall gang. Not surprisingly, our hero did not follow any kind of logical strategy to get the bad guys, though now he was supposed to have a motivation. Usually, low-budget movies fill their running times to get to a feature length with a lot of yammering dialogue. SHADOW OF SARTANA had very little dialogue, just a lot of unexplained action. As just about every stuntman did an "high fall" when they get shot, I wondered what their pay scale was and how it impacted the production. The director's daughter, Simone Blondell, didn't appear until 34 minutes into the movie, at which time she was kidnapped by three thugs. Taking her to a desolate area, they tied her up and proceeded to laugh about it so hard, that Cameron heard them. Naturally, he killed the three and set Blondell free, never to see or mention her again. Franco Villa was credited as the director of photography with Aristide Massaccesi as his cameraman. Massaccessi must have learned from this experience how little planning was needed to produce a movie that could be sold.
SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (1956) - After deciding that as a writer he could work without someone else hiring him, Burt Kennedy left acting and soon began writing for radio. From there, he was hired by John Wayne's Batjac Company to write episodes of a TV series which didn't get made. However, Wayne was interested in a screenplay Kennedy wrote called SEVEN MEN FROM NOW. Wayne decided to pass the project on to Randolph Scott at Warner Bros., who insisted on using Budd Boetticher as the director. Kennedy, Scott and Boetticher would go on to make four more films together which have achieved cult status. While not without interesting elements, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW failed to generate much excitement. When our hero, Scott, sought shelter on a rainy night in a cave where two nervous men sat around a campfire, it soon became apparent that this was a revenge Western, though a rather timid one with the gunfight not shown but implied. Continuing on his way south, Scott was soon distracted by a wagon stuck in the mud. While he intended to only help out for a brief moment, Scott was prevailed upon by married couple Walter Reed and Gail Russell to travel together because of the threat of marauding Chiricahua Apaches mentioned by a passing Army patrol led by Lt. Stuart Whitman. The trio were soon joined by Lee Marvin and Don "Red" Barry. Marvin informed Russell and Reed that Scott was a former sheriff who wanted revenge on the seven men who robbed a Wells Fargo office and killed his wife who worked there. Marvin told Scott that he figured to get the stolen gold after Scott got his revenge. Eventually, it was revealed that that the robbers hired Reed to transport the gold in his wagon, and when Scott found out, he ordered the strong box dumped in the middle of the trail as bait for the robbers. Villain John Larch kills Reed before heading out to get Scott. Naturally, our hero triumphed over all the bad guys before returning the strong box to Wells Fargo and deciding to return to being a lawman. He said goodbye to Russell, but in the end she ambiguously decided to not take the stagecoach to California just yet. Because of her reputation as an alcoholic, Gail Russell hadn't worked for almost five years before this film. Unfortunately, alcoholism continued to impede her hirability. She died at the age of 36 in 1961 from liver failure and malnutrition.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (54)
THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST (58) - Out of desperation, farmer Hugh O'Brian takes part in a bank robbery only to be caught and sentenced to 10 years hard labor. His cellmate is psycho Robert Evans who, upon his release, goes after the money that O'Brian's partners in crime have kept. The remorseless Evans kills at will and the law gives O'Brian a pardon if he can get evidence against Evans. A dark and edgy western with solid work by the leads. Linda Cristal is O'Brian's long-suffering wife and the ever-dependable Stephen McNally is the sheriff with belief in hard luck O'Brian.
THE PIANO (93)
THE SEVEN-UPS (73)
FOOTPRINTS (74) - Finally a proper high def release of this unheralded classic.
BANDIDOS (68)
TARGET: HARRY (69)
SPASMO (74)
DARK INTRUDER (65)
PLANETA BUR (62)
LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (66)
BACKFIRE (64)
THE SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN (62)
THE IRISHMAN (19)
AMUCK (72)
FANTASTIC PLANET (73)
Mildly enjoyed:
AT GUNPOINT (55) - When the local bank is robbed, storekeeper Fred MacMurray gets off a lucky shot taking down one of the gang. When the gang vows revenge, the townsfolk turn on Fred, afraid for their own lives. Consider this a High Noon riff, another story of cowardice and heroism in the old west. Dorothy Malone is Fred's worried wife, and the deep cast of supporters makes this an easy watch.
FOUR JUST MEN (39) - Four highly-positioned men work together outside the law to thwart Nazi spies in England. Based on an Edgar Wallace story, this war time adventure satisfies on the level of a Mission Impossible ancestor. Alan Napier is a villain.
VOODOO MAN (44)
SCHOOL OF FEAR (69) - Joachim Fuchsberger is a teacher at an all boys school. When one of the rebellious students disappears, Joachim determines to find out what happened. The boy eventually returns, but murder soon rears its ugly head, and the mysteries deepen. An Edgar Wallace knockoff that suffers in comparison, even to the less-than-stellar late cycle German entries. As a fan of Joachim, it was disappointing but still worth seeing.
SHOWDOWN (63) - Audie Murphy and Charles Drake are saddle pals whose bad luck is generally followed by worse, usually due to the foolish behavior of Drake. They get caught up in Harold J Stone's gang and pay the price for it. A harsh, b&w western with unlikeable characters, this is still worth a watch for a deep cast of supporters and interesting locations.
COFFIN FROM HONG KONG (64) - Private investigator Heinz Drache discovers a dead woman in his office apartment, and soon he is off to Hong Kong looking for the corpse's husband, who, it turns out, is running a cocaine smuggling racket. This colorful German exotic mystery adventure benefits from location shooting and a jazzy score but it is not built to last. Enjoy and move on.
BEFORE DAWN (33)
TREASURE OF RUBY HILLS (55) - Zachary Scott finds himself in the middle of a range war when he files a claim for water rights that affects the feuding ranchers. Throwback oater is muddled, has too many villains, and too little of Lee Van Cleef. Scott is always worth a watch. Features Barton MacLane, Dick Foran, and Lola Albright.
KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE (66) - See The Eurospy Guide book on amazon for a complete review of this Mike Connors entry.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
Fumeria d'oppio (1947, Raffaello Matarazzo)
Roma citta libera (1946, Marcello Pagliero)
Gone baby gone (2007, Ben Affleck)
Crypt of dark secrets (1976, Jack Weis)
Live by night (2016, Ben Affleck)
Himssenyeoja Kangnamsoon / Strong girl Nam-Soon (2022) – episodes 11 & 12
Mildly enjoyed:
The rat catcher (short) (2022, Wes Anderson)
Big trouble in little China (1986, John Carpenter)
Un stupéfiant Noël (2023, Arthur Sanigou)
Westward ho (1935, Robert N. Bradbury)
Bodies – season 1 – episode 4
Monarch: legacy of monsters – season 1 – episode 5
Did not enjoy:
Shin Ultraman (2022, Shinji Higuchi)
Adventures of captain Fabian (1950, William Marshall)
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Charles Gilbert watched:
INVASION USA (1952) B&W. A bar room scene with Gerald Mohr, Peggy Castle, et.al is ground zero for wild imagination when psychic Dan O'Herlihy thrusts participants in a live scenario where America is attacked by the 'enemy' with atomic weapons. Interesting to see both Lois Lanes (Noel Neill and Phyllis Coates) in bit parts.
Outer Limits:
'The Brain of Colonel Barham' (S2E15) Anthony Eisley plays an army officer important for his intellect to the space agency, but diseased and confined to a wheelchair. A wild experiment isolates his brain, but he becomes dangerously megalomaniacal.
'Keeper of the Purple Twilight' (S3E12). Warren Stevens plays a scientist frustrated about completing his project to develop a super weapon until an alien (Robert Webber) renders assistance in exchange for his emotions. Gail Kobe tempers their relationship.
'Duplicate Man' (S2E13) An alien labelled Megazoid (Mike Lane) escapes from an alien zoo, and is pursued by Henderson James (Ron Randall).
'Wolf 359' (S2E8) Scientist Patric O'Neal and assistant Peter Haskell incubate behind glass in the lab a miniature planet from the chunk of intragalactic debri. Some ghostly evil rapidly develops and menaces them.
Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices (2018)
You Bet Your Life . Groucho has on early bodybuilding pioneer Joe Gold after mentioning at the beginning of the show they'd had 1957 Mr. Universe Reginald Lewis on previously. I had not known Lewis placed 3rd in 1970 Mr. Olympia behind Arnold and Sergio Oliva.
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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:
"GODZILLA MINUS ONE" (2023) "Toho" which first released the original "Godzilla" to the screen back in Japan in 1954 has not released a "Godzilla" film since 2016. Reviews are calling this one of the best "Godzilla" movie ever. It's like a reboot of the original except set at least 8 or 9 years before the original appeared. In other words in or around 1945, 1946, or 1947 in Japan during the American occupation. and instead of starring Godzilla; it centers around the humans, like in the original. Unlike the original which featured a love triangle, the film features a "Kamikaze" pilot who survived. In other words he did not sacrifice himself as was his "duty", but lived. He then meets a girl who is carrying around an infant who has been orphaned by the war. Godzilla is presented as a force of nature like in the original 1954 Japanese original. In other words it can be considered as one of the best "Godzilla" movies ever, if not the best after the original.
Mildly enjoyed:
"DOCTOR WHO"--Special #2-"WILD BLUE YONDER" (2023) The second of three Doctor Who specials made to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of "Doctor Who" being streamed on Disney+. In this one David Tennant and Catherine Tate reprise their roles as the tenth doctor (now the fourteenth doctor) and featured "companion", Donna Noble. In this one they fight aliens who take the forms of imperfect copies of the Doctor and Donna.
"DOCTOR WHO"--Special #3-"THE GIGGLE" (2023) Features what I believe is the first American actor to be featured in a Doctor Who story since Eric Roberts portrayed the Master back in the 1996 American made Doctor Who television movie. That actor is Neil Patrick Harris who here plays the Toymaker, a character originally known as the Celestial Toymaker. (And originally played by Michael Gough back in 1966.) and who is set to be the antagonist of this film. Spoiler alert: the film features the introduction of the fifteenth doctor portrayed by actor, Ncuti Gatwa, the first actor of color to portray the Doctor. Introduced in this film the new Doctor appears thru a process known as "bi-generation' and not as a product of the Doctor's "regeneration." The end result is slightly interesting, to say the least. [The new Doctor Who is set to return for the annual Christmas episode,]
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