December 2 - 8, 2023

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Terence Hill and Alain Delon appear together?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was IL GATTOPARDO, aka THE LEOPARD.

In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Stephen Boyd and Hugh Griffith appear together?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was BEN-HUR.

In what movie does Giuliano Gemma, Penelope Cruz and Alessandro Tiberi appear together?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was TO ROME WITH LOVE.

And now for some new brain teasers:

What film was director Giulio Questi and writer Franco Arcalli planning when they got the offer to make a Western in Spain?

What life experience did director Giulio Questi say inspired his only Western?

Which film by director Sergio Leone has a film editor listed as one of the screenwriters?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Tomas Milian and Marilu Tolo in SE SEI VIVO SPARA, aka IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT!, aka DJANGO KILL!

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 photo of Marilu Tolo and Moira Orfei in IL TRIONFO DI ERCOLE, aka THE TRIUMPH OF HERCULES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Milijana Zirojevic in AENIGMA.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes and Angel Rivera identified last week's frame grab of Ziyi Zhang and Chow Yun-Fat in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

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: 

THE BIG HEIST (2001) - The December 11, 1978 Luftanasa heist at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport had already been dramatized in the 1990 film GOODFELLAS - based on Nicholas Pileggi's book on Henry Hill called WISEGUY, and the 1991 TV movie THE 10 MILLION DOLLAR GETAWAY - based on the book by Doug Feiden, before this version was made in Canada based on the book THE HEIST: HOW A GANG STOLE $8,000,000 AT KENNEDY AIRPORT AND LIVED TO REGRET IT. From what I understand, all three dramatizations take liberties with the facts, but Donald Sutherland makes a more convincing Irish American than Robert DeNiro did. Executive producer Gary Hoffman and writer Jere Cunningham are credited with the script which concisely lays out the robbery and nicely delineates the members, while making the central drama the story of NYPD cop John Heard's determination on putting Sutherland, as Jimmy Burke, back in prison. Veteran TV director Robert Markowitz delivers a compelling crime drama.

YOGA HOSERS (2016) - Circumstances resulted in my watching CLERKS III, and that disappointment convinced me to catch up on the Kevin Smith films I hadn't yet watched. It was reassuring to see that my liking his other films was justified because YOGA HOSERS was a lot of fun - and it even had a Stan Lee cameo. There's no disputing that Smith's films are getting more self-referential, but this story of 14 year old female best friends, Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp, battling the results of a secret Canadian Nazi experiment underneath a convenience store in Winnipeg is a delight -  even if we have to listen to Ralph Garman's impressions of a variety of movie stars. Members of both stars' families turn out to fill in the various characters in the story, as well as most of the cast from TUSK. Oddly, though, there is no credit given for the use of the opening theme from THE SHINING, but there is a credit for the bit from Wagner's Tannhauser Overture.

Professor T (UK) season 2 episode 2 "The Mask Murders"

Mildly enjoyed:

CLERKS III (2022) - Like most guys who make a living being funny, Kevin Smith also wants to make you cry. While he successfully emotionally moved his audience with CHASING AMY, here it feels like he's trying too hard. Plus the deficiencies of his cast are more apparent than ever before. And the laughs are fewer.

LOS AMANTES DEL DESIERTO, aka GLI AMANTI DEL DESERTO, aka DESERT WARRIOR, aka SON OF THE SHEIK (1957) - While the U.S. TV prints for this movie only credit F. Cerchio as director, the Spanish language print on YouTube credits four: G. Alessandrini, F. Cerchio, G. Vernuccio and L. Klimovsky. The IMDb only credits three - minus Vernuccio. Reportedly, this film began production in Egypt, but the 1956 "Suez Crisis" sent everyone packing back to Europe. The opening credits with Egyptian ruins in the background is very close to those seen at the beginning of 1960's MACISTE NELLA VALLE DEI REI, aka SON OF SAMSON, which may have reused the footage shot here. This obvious setting in Egypt confused me as I was unaware of Egypt ever being ruled by Sultans, but it was after 1171. Plot wise, DESERT WARRIOR is standard sword and sand stuff, with the traitor Gino Cervi using the mercenary Jose Guardiola to murder the previous Sultan. However, Prince Riccardo Montalban was not killed, but he wants to keep that a secret, and soon begins to rally his loyal subjects to revolt. But, first, they need weapons and supplies, so they start to raid the caravans heading to the city. On one such caravan is Carmen Sevilla. She sparks interest in Montalban, who asks who she is. She lies and says that she is a performer in Cervi's harem, which Montalban insists that she prove by singing. While Sevilla performs "Prisionera" by Augusto Alguero in Spanish, her lip movements don't quite match the English language version, "Destiny" with lyrics by Jesse Vogel. In any case, she impresses Montalban enough that he sends her on her way scot-free. Of course, she is actually Cervi's daughter, but it is not until later that she learns that her father and Guardiola murdered Montalban's father and that our hero is not a bandit, but a royal prince. By midpoint, the film gets bogged down with the love story. Seeing Montalban disguised as a man selling birds on the street, Sevilla is gifted a dove with which she can send for our hero's help at any time. Meanwhile, Montalban assassinates the fellow who tries to give the scimitar of state to Cervi. The next night, he rescues the ten men who are to be be-headed in response. Montalban tells his followers that they can't attack until after he succeeds in stealing the scimitar of state for himself, which naturally results in his being recognized by Guardiola who throws a dagger into our hero's back. Knowing all of the secret passeges in the Palace, Montalban escapes. Luckily he is found by Franca Bettoia who nurses him back to health. After he has recovered, Montalban gives Bettoia his medallion in gratitude before riding away. Cervi tries to placate Guardiola by granting him permission to marry Sevilla, which she refuses and stomps off. Cervi figures that it is best to send his daughter away, so her caravan is once again captured by Montalban's men. Annouced as Cervi's daughter, Sevilla's real identity is finally known to Montalban, but he decides that he will set her free instead of holding her as hostage. Meanwhile, Guardiola has captured Bettoia and is torturing her. Sevilla rides back to the city to give herself up inorder to save Bettoia. There, Guardiola uses Montalban's medallion to convince Sevilla that our hero is really in love with Bettoia and that she sent her romantic rival back to the man she loves. Sevilla gets upset and reveals that she can use the dove to get Montalban to come whenever she wants. Naturally, Guardiola steals the bird and sets it free to set a trap for Montalban. When the dove appears, Montalban does the bone-head move of riding off to the rescue alone, with only Bettoia riding after him. Naturally, Montalban gets captured and Bettoia gets an arrow in the back. Fortunately, Bettoia lives long enough to convince the princess that Montalban only loves Sevilla, so that Sevilla sets our hero free. When Guardiola gets ready to punish our heroine, Cervi intervines, which convinces the mercenary that now is the time for him to take over. This time, Guardiola's dagger in the back proves fatal to Cervi and Sevilla is imprisoned in the tower. Hearing that Montalban has been captured, the rebel army sets off to attack the Palace. Meeting them halfway, Montalban rides at the head of his men to battle. Interestingly, that archers shooting up at the defenders on the wall are just effective as the archers on the wall are at shooting down at the attackers. In the melee, the tower is set on fire, and Montalban has to fight to the death with Guardiola in order to save our heroine.

LE VICOMTE REGLE SES COMPTES, aka THE VISCOUNT (1967) - French author Jean Bruce not only created French American secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in the OSS 117 novels, he also created Clint de la Roche in LE VICOMTE REGLE SES COMPTES, aka THE VISCOUNT. Belglian producer Nat Wachsberger wanted to create a series of films to rival Andre Hunebelle's OSS 117 movies, so since Hunebelle had hired American actor Kerwin Mathews to inaugurate his series, Wachsberger thought to begin his also with Mathews. Unfortunately, THE VISCOUNT wasn't a success and Wachsberger went on to other ventures. Villainous Fernando Rey waits in a dark car at night for Maria Latour to bring him a key she stole from a bank manager she seduced. Latour's reward is to be blown up by a bomb given to her by Rey as a gift. Rey's minions are already inside the bank's vault room pretending to do maintenance work. After killing the bank guards with poison gas, the minions are joined by another goon carrying the key to disarm the alarm system. Then a special ray gun is used to destroy the vault's locks. Our hero's right hand man, named Bullets and played by Jean Yanne, is regaling a bevy of beautiful women with tales of his boss, the Viscount, when there is a page about an important phone call. Signalling his boss, who is drifting on a speed boat in the bay with a single beautiful woman, Yanne relays the message, so Kerwin Mathews comes ashore. After acknowledging his dates with three or four women on his way to the telephone, Mathews takes the call from his boss at International Insurance. Our hero refuses to take the job investigating the bank robbery, until he hears that Rey may be involved. So after a night fulfilling his social calendar, Mathews is visited by thugs working for Sicilian mobster Folco Lulli. (Were there alternate scenes featuring Edmond O'Brien in Lulli's role for the U.S. version because he's not in the French version I have and he's listed as the same character in the IMDb?) Lulli hears that his old partner, Rey, may be involved in the bank robbery. Inside the vault was a shipment of heroin belonging to Lulli, and he wants Mathews to get it for him. Just to be a nuisance, Rey has a minion drive a speed boat around Lulli's yacht spraying it with machine gun bullets. In Paris, where the bank is, Mathews is met by Chief Inspector Armand Mestral and D.E.A. agent Luis Davila who want our hero to do nothing because they are hoping to catch Lulli with the drugs. However, Mathews learns that the bank manager lost his key to Latour and so goes to visit her roommate, and fellow stripper, Sylvia Sorrente. Sorrente doesn't have much information to give Mathews, but, like every female in this movie, she wants to sleep with him. After a number of rather mundane punch-ups, where at least Sorrente doesn't just cower in fear - she bites a gunman's hand, Mathews and Sorrente are taken prisoner by Rey's minions. Rey wants Mathews to set up a meeting between he and Lulli, and Rey will keep Sorrente as an hostage. With Yanne's help, Mathews comes out on top. When Yanne is regaling another bevy of beautiful women with tales of the Viscount and he is interrupted by another page, our hero ignores the request to respond as he is on another speed boat making out with Sorrente. While it is believable that Sean Connery at least gets the attention of every woman who see him, exaggerating that charisma for Kerwin Mathews is less than convincing. Director Maurice Cloche does an okay job with a script that doesn't have many thrills, as this film is more interested in our hero's romantic life than in solving crime.

Did not enjoy:

BABY ON BOARD (2009) - Due to the manic behavior of best friend Katie Finneran's two children, stressed business woman Heather Graham is not keen on getting pregnant yet. Graham's husband, Jerry O'Connell, is a successful lawyer currently trying to help unfaithful husband Bob Weagant in a divorce case with Heather Prete. Graham is heavily reliant on the help of her gay assistant Brian Sillis, while O'Connell is being hit on by every woman who crosses his path. Finneran's husband, John Corbett, is strongly advising O'Connell to get what he can while he's still young, while Graham worries if she's making a good impression on her stern boss Lara Flynn Boyle. Naturally, when Graham's doctor, Anthony Starke, informs her that she's pregnant, everything becomes chaos. There is nothing in this film, credited to writers Michael Hamilton-White and Russell Scalise, with which I can identify, and director Brian Herzlinger fails to make any of it compelling or funny. Of course, Finneran and Corbett break up leading to Graham suspecting O'Connell of cheating, while O'Connell suspects Graham of cheating with Dr. Starke. As these plots usually resolve, Finneran and Corbett make up and O'Connell reunites with Graham to be there at the birth of their son. It turns out that Sillis is in a relationship with Dr. Starke, and Flynn Boyle makes Graham the Vice President of her company. Early in the film, Graham projectile vomits on a restaurant valet, played by writer/producer Russell Scalise. I agree.

THE BLACK BIRD (1975) - It might be possible to make a successful comedic sequel to THE MALTESE FALCON, but these guys didn't do it. Reportedly, producer Ray Stark hired David Giler, the co-writer of THE PARALLAX VIEW, to do an adaptation of the original Dashiell Hammett novel. When that didn't seem to work out, even with an assist from Giler's friend John Milius, Giler suggested that they made a comedic sequel. Stark okayed the project and even allowed Giler to make his directorial debut. Thankfully, Giler never directed again. If you think it's funny that a White guy named Spade works in a predominately Black neighborhood in San Francisco with every one commenting about how he doesn't look like a "Spade", then you might find this movie funny. Lou Lombardo became a celebrated film editor after two projects with director Sam Peckinpah - THE WILD BUNCH and THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE. He went on to more success with director Robert Altman. In 1975, he made his directorial debut with RUSSIAN ROULETTE and must have gotten along with star George Segal because they shared producer credits on THE BLACK BIRD. I can only wonder how film editor Lombardo reacted to the footage that director Giler was giving him after having dealt with footage from Peckinpah and Altman. Did anyone think this was funny before the critics reported that it wasn't? I usually enjoy watching Stephane Audran, but not in this. Giler would soon partner with writer/director Walter Hill and producer Gordon Carroll to form Brandywine Productions which had an huge hit with ALIEN.

RAVEN (1996) - Producer Stu Segall began his career making hard core adult films including INSATIABLE starring Marilyn Chambers. In 1984, he was hired to produce the TV series Hunter starring former football player Fred Dryer. He opened his San Diego based company Stu Segall Productions in 1991 to make the series Silk Stalkings for CBS. He also started Strategic Operations, or STOPS, which provides police and military training exercises. So how come the action scenes in this "direct to home video" movie are so unconvincing? So far, this is the only film I've seen in which the soldier on point calls out "Move" to those behind him, to which the response is "Moving". Anyway, RAVEN is credited to writer Jacobsen Hart, though Burt Reynolds claims that he rewrote all of his own lines. That isn't hard to believe because he is the only performer in this production to evidence any wit. Matt Battaglia has an impressive list of credits, but has no charisma, or noticeable acting ability, to be the hero of this film. The same can be said about the former star of Emmanuelle In Space, Krista Allen, for whom this project was her first feature after a couple of years in TV. Her next movie project was a memorable bit in LIAR, LIAR starring Jim Carrey. A cabal calling themselves the "four stars" operate out of the C.I.A. headquarters with the idea of stealing a universal soviet decoder machine from Bosnia, to sell to an Iranian Oil Sheik. The Raven Team, led by Reynolds, goes into a military facility, kills everyone and gets the machine. As the two surviving members of the team are about to airlifted away, Matt Battaglia informs Reynolds that he's tired of killing and is quitting the team. Reynolds decides to pull a pistol and kill Battaglia, but only succeeds in killing the helicopter pilot. The machine comes in two parts. Battaglia has one part as he falls out of the chopper and lands in a river. Reynolds has the other part as he, while still in the chopper, crashes into another part of that same river. A year later, Battaglia awakens from a restless sleep next to his girlfriend, Allen. It soon becomes apparent that Reynolds has survived, has assembled another team of mercenaries and wants to reunite his one half of the machine with the other half in order to sell it on the black market. At first Reynolds thinks that the other half in being held by the "four stars" and begins to kill them off. After thinking that Reynolds killed Allen in a bombing, Battaglia sets out to destroy Reynolds and his new team. Eventually, everyone decides that the real villain is the one surviving member of the "four stars", C.I.A. operative David Ackroyd. The makers of this production really seem to like explosions with big fireballs, and stuntmen flying through the air. Everything else is pretty much "by the numbers", including female nudity during sex scenes. Stuntman Russell Solberg counts this as one of his five directing credits.

Rosé All Day (2022) - When I was in High School, the drama class was asked to write original one-act plays to be performed for a final grade. Sue Connors wrote one about the sort-of group therapy sessions the class had. This movie, written by Katie Amanda Keane, reminds me of that play except these are well-to-do women ten years out of college instead of high school kids in the middle of teenage anxiety. Not being part of the mileu depicted in this production, I can't speak to how accurately it portrays these people, but from my perspective they are all stereotypical well-to-do women with the usual variety of upper middle class problems. An huge ice sculpture that serves as a cooling beverage dispenser with the fluid coming out of a very large penis marks this as a production not made for TV, but aside from bad language and explicit sex talk this is a standard "woman's picture" - though no one is made out to be a villain. As the alcohol flows, secrets and resentments are verbalized and everyone agrees that their bond is broken and that they will stop meeting every year to remember how they first came together. However, the penis sculpture falls in the swimming pool and everyone has to band together to save it, which reminds them of how they became friends - so after an on-screen legend of "Five Years Later", we see them all reunited drinking rosé again. After directing a few short films and TV movies, actress Marla Sokoloff made her feature debut with Rosé All Day and then went back to making movies for TV.

ROSE ROSSE PER IL FUHRER, aka RED ROSES FOR THE FUHRER, aka CODE NAME RED ROSES (1968) - I used to dread seeing Fernando Di Leo's name in the credits for Italian Westerns. That usually meant that the film would be filled with action but have a nonsensical plot. ROSE ROSSE PER IL FUHRER was Di Leo's first complete feature film credit as a director and it was as miserable a viewing experience as I feared. The film started with a brief segment showing Major James Daly (Surprise. He didn't only make THE 5 MAN ARMY for Italian producers!) leading a successful commando mission to blow up a bridge. Back in London, he picked up a beautiful blonde at a party, but was interrupted in bed by a phone call. As she left his apartment, two men murdered her. Later on, General Michael Wilding told Daly that the woman was a German spy and that they took care of her. Daly was given the new mission to parachute with three other men into Belgium to retrieve a coded document that the Germans must not be allowed to decipher. When two of the parachutists land in a newly made mine field and blow up, Daly knows that there was an informer. Nazi Colonel Peter van Eyck was angry at the news that S.S. Major Ruggero De Daninos ordered the placement of the mines. Van Eyck knew that the parachutists were coming and planned to manipulate them. Van Eyck was also angry that De Daninos arrested the one man whom Daly knew could connect him with the Partisans. Daly was told to not contact the Soviet agent posing as van Eyck's adjutant, Gianni Garko, unless it was urgent, but he was the only person of whom he could think to get the needed contact information from the arrested man. Garko got the information, but also informed Daly that a code breaker was arriving to work on the document. When the Partisans kill the code breaker, Garko's cover was blown and he killed himself. It turned out that the informer was the leader of the Partisans, who conspired with van Eyck to lure Daly into stealing the document, after van Eyck had it copied and sent to Berlin. Before going into a known trap, Daly was taken to the room of Partisan Anna Maria Pierangeli for a possible final act of love. During the climatic battle, Pierangeli, while dodging bullets, confessed to her Partisan boyfriend Nino Castelnuovo that she went to bed with the American, right before both of them were killed. All of the Partisans were killed while the Germans allowed Daly to escape with the document. In London, Wilding revealed to Daly that the whole mission was a ruse to get the Germans to believe that the document was important as part of a disinformation campaign. Daly left the office disgusted at the waste of life. With a really annoying music score blamed on Gino Peguri, ROSE ROSSE PER IL FUHRER may have intended a message about the horrors of war, but mostly communicated an example of the horror of bad filmaking. Veteran Franco Villa was this film's director of photography while Aristide Massaccesi was Villa's camera operator.

SHADOWS OF TOMBSTONE (1953) - Rex Allen (the Arizona Cowboy with the miracle horse of the movies Koko) stars in this Republic Western directed by William Witney and running about 54 minutes. As usual, the movie's title means nothing - there aren't many shadows and no one names the town as Tombstone. Mexican bandit Ric Roman smiles to himself as Sheriff Emory Parnell leads the posse past his hiding place. Parnell brings the posse to a pause and notices that Rex Allen isn't among them anymore. Slim Pickens comments that Allen thought they were going in the wrong direction and headed off on his own. Roman meets up with Julian Rivero who drives an hay wagon. Delgado takes everything off his horse, including the saddle bags filled with the bank loot he just robbed, and hides it in the hay. He sends the naked horse on its way before he climbs into the hay himself to hide. Allen comes across the naked horse, finds that an effort has been made to hide his brand on the animal, and then spots the hay wagon in the distance. Racing along, Allen catches up with the wagon to ask Rivero if he's seen Roman. Suspicious, Allen pulls open the back end of the wagon, dumping Roman on the ground. Allen and Roman tussle, while Rivero gets away with the saddle bags. Interestingly, the bank loot is never mentioned again in the movie, as Allen takes the captured Roman into town and it soon becomes obvious that Parnell is a crook being bribed by Roman. However, the election is coming, and Parnell can't let Roman escape just yet. Meanwhile, a citizen complains to Parnell that he caught the dealer at Roy Barcroft's saloon cheating, and when he started yelling about it, Barcroft's men beat him up. Parnell tells the citizen to go home while he investigates. Parnell then tells Barcroft that he'd better kill the citizen. While newspaper owner Jeanne Cooper is getting the story of how Allen captured Roman, she hears about the citizen accusing Barcroft of being crooked. Saying this could prove how crooked things are, Cooper and Allen ride off to talk with the citizen. They get there too late as the citizen is dead. Allen chases one of Barcroft's men who shoots back at him. Returning fire, Allen kills the henchman, and then finds a $5 gambling chip in the dead man's pocket. Rushing to the saloon to confront Barcroft, he finds Pickens at the poker table with the villain. When Allen and Pickens catch Barcroft cheating, a fight breaks out. The sheriff arrives and, of course, arrests our heroes for disturbing the peace. Figuring that our heroes need to be dead, Parnell stations sharp shooters outside the jail with orders to shoot to kill everyone who comes out. With the help of phony drunk Rex Lease, Parnell sets up Roman to escape with our heroes. When Roman tries to get Parnell to go out the door first, the sheriff throws open the door, steps aside and lets Roman get shot dead. Allen locks Parnell up and then arranges four shotguns sticking out the jail house window. With Pickens' help, Allen ties strings around the triggers of the shotguns to cause a distraction while he and his sidekick make a run for it. Allen doesn't seen to notice that the fired shotguns kill the sharp shooters, causing two stuntmen to do high falls. Rather than ride out of town, Allen and Pickens go to the newspaper office and convince Cooper to print two different front pages. When Parnell sees the headline that Barcroft has confessed and implicated the sheriff, he sets off to the saloon. When Barcroft reads the headline that Parnell has confessed and implicated the saloon owner, he prepares for the sheriff's visit. Pickens eavesdrops on the two arguing and hears Parnell tell Barcroft that if anything happens to him, papers showing Barcroft's illegal activities will be found in the sheriff's safe. The two villains realize that they've been had, and renew their cooperation. Allen and Pickens are trying to open the sheriff's safe, when the sheriff shows up and opens it. It turns out that there are no papers, but the strong box is filled with bribe money which our heroes plan to show to the "Citizen's Committee". As they leave the sheriff's office with Parnell, our heroes are spotted by Barcroft and his men. Allen and Pickens take off out of town with the bad guys in pursuit. Cooper rings the fire alarm bell rousing the "Citizen's Committee". Eventually, everyone ends up on a rocky hill side. Pickens is wounded, but most of the bad guys give up when the "Citizen's Committre" arrives. Parnell makes  a break for it, and after a speedy chase, Allen returns Parnell's fire and kills the bad guy. In the end, Allen and Pickens have found his stolen horses when Cooper rides up to announce that our heroes are the newly elected sheriff and deputy sheriff. Gerald Geraghty is credited with packing all that story into a 54 minute movie, which hardly ever pauses for the audience to consider the absurdity of it all. While we don't see him singing, Rex Allen performs the song "Toolie Rollum" under the opening credits.

                                                        

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David Deal Enjoyed:

THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (49) - Bill Doolin (Randolph Scott), part of the Dalton gang, finds himself adrift after the Dalton's failed bank robbery at Coffeeville. He puts together another gang that features John Ireland and Noah Beery Jr. and they go on a tear. When the gang splits up their dough and takes a break for three months, Bill falls in love and gets married, but he's pulled back in by the gang. A pretty tough, noirish western, a harbinger of what would be manifest in the next decade. Scott is excellent as the anti-hero.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE (54) - When a wealthy advertising executive's wife dies mysteriously, and her jewels disappear along with a female photographer on the payroll (Rona Anderson), he calls in private detective John Bentley to solve the case. Nice, twisty British mystery that has the lot: romance, action, and comedic touches that don't detract. Will please the casual viewer.

JACK SLADE (53)

DIABOLICALLY YOURS (68)

MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION (62)

INN ON THE RIVER (62)

SNOW DEVILS (65)

THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (64)

Mildly enjoyed:

MASTER SPY (63) - Commie scientist Stephen Murray seeks asylum in the UK, and once it's granted, he begins sending nuclear secrets back to his former country. But is that the whole story? British espionage melodrama is as low-key and matter-of-fact as one would expect - it's the last gasp of this type of small spy story.

DRAGNET (47) - Henry Wilcoxon of Scotland Yard is sent to America because an unidentified dead body discovered on a beach was carrying British pounds. This all has something to do with thievery, smuggling, and murder. Mary Brian is the perky love interest. Wilcoxon holds his own but this feels too long and the unfunny comic relief doesn't help.

THE GLASS SPHINX (67)

ASSIGNMENT TO KILL (67)

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Angel Rivera enjoyed:

"THUNDERBIRDS" episode: "The Perils of Penelope" (1965) 

While I was not a fan of "Thunderbirds". (My favorite Gerry Anderson Supermarionation show was "Stingray"!) Any way for fans of puppet, correction: marionette shows, this episode still holds up, even though it's a document of its time. The episode featured Lady Penelope, the British associate of "International Rescue": "Thunderbirds"! The episode plays like an Agatha Christie mystery. The plot has our Lady Penelope assisting a British colleague find a missing scientist. The other puppets are in it too like Lady Penelope's chauffeur and butler, Parker, the Tracy brothers. (who were all named after the "Project Mercury" astronauts.) An entertaining "puppet" show.

"DOCTOR WHO" Special 1: "The Star Beast" (2023)

For Who fans. The fourteenth Doctor Who is really the return of the tenth Doctor Who, David Tennant in the first of three Doctor Who specials. Also along with Tennant is his "companion", Donna Noble portrayed by the also returning Catherine Tate. Together they save the universe from the "Meep". "Very Interesting!"

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Tokyo Joe (1949, Stuart Heisler)

The cariboo trail (1950, Edwin L. Marin)

Panda – season 1 – episode 1

Lawmen Bass Reeves – season 1 – episode 4

the avengers – episode « Silent dust » (1965, Roy Baker)

Mildly enjoyed:

Zombie town (2022, Peter Lepeniotis)

Tha appaloosa (1966, Sidney J. Furie)

Time & tide (2000, Tsui Hark)

Monarch: legacy of monsters – season 1 – episode 3

Hypnotic (2022, Robert Rodriguez)

San cheung sau / Snipers (2008, Dante Lam)

Down'n dirty (2000, Fred Williamson)

Did not enjoy:

Joyeux compères / L'heptaméron (1973, Claude Pierson)

Revolver (2005, Guy Ritchie)

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Charles Gilbert watched:

EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977) Joan Collins contracts with boat pilot Robert Lansing to transport potential clients for the sale of island property. Toxic waste is being dumped there causing ants to grow enormously. Even more sinister the queen of the colony takes mental control of humans near a sugar factory one by one.

Outer Limits B&W:'It Crawled Out of the Woodwork' (S1E11) At Norco Laboratories a phantom of pure energy is released: by atom fusion? No. It occurs when a cleaning woman vacuums along the baseboard, confining the threat for brief moment in the "Kirby" when suddenly it explodes releasing an animated dust cloud representing the power source. Dr. Block (Kent Smith) manages to trap it in a "pit" behind a closed door at the end of a long hallway.

    'Don't Open Until Doomsday' (S1E17) A young couple has eloped and is honeymooning at a mysterious old mansion inhabited by an alien confined to a box with a viewing port. John Hoyt and Buck Henry guest.

     'O.B.I.T.' (S1E07) Responding to a murder at a scientific defense contractor, a U.S. senator (Peter Breck) conducts hearings on site to learn of an astounding computer that manipulates. With Harry Townes and Jeff Corey.

    "Children of Spider County" (S1E21) An alien (Kent Smith) from planet Eros is now on earth to retrieve his genius son (Lee Kinsolving).

FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964) Laced with wry British humor the story of two men and a woman that made it to the moon in 1899. Scientist Lionel Jeffries invents an anti gravity paint for his spiked sphere that's propels from his house lab to the moon. Accompanied by his neighbors Edward Judd and Martha Hyer they encounter a lunar subsurface city ruled by Selenites and a couple of Harryhausen creatures. 

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) B&W. Saturday night airing on Svengoolie. Five 'strangers' are invited to spend a night in a haunted dwelling where lives a bickering couple: a millionaire (Vincent Price) and his fourth wife (Carol Ohmart 4th runner-up in 1946 Miss America from Utah).

The Wild, Wild West 'Night of the Running Death' (S3E15). James and Artie accompany a wagon train to Denver searching for an international assassin named Enzo, who they believe is targeting the governor of Colorado. Female impersonator T. C. Jones plays Enzo/Miss Tyler. Interesting to peplum fans in that Dante di Paoli has a prominent part in the cast. He also appeared in five 60's era Italian productions, and was married to Rosemary Clooney.

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