To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
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 film did John Steiner make that was so popular in Italy that producers started to hire him in Italian movies?
No one answered this question yet.
Which Italian director did John Steiner think really helped him to have a career in Italy?
No one answered this question yet.
In what country did John Steiner do location work for YOR THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE?
Angel Rivera knew that it was Turkey.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Which Spanish actress who made Westerns was born in Almeria?
Which Spanish actress was married to an Italian producer who was born in Rome in 1929?
Which Spanish actress made five movies with Giuliano Gemma?
Name the movies from which these images came.
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Alberto dell'Acqua in LA COLLINA DEGLI STIVALI, aka BOOT HILL.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify from what movie it came?
Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Anna Ranalli, Miss Italy and Miss Europe 1960, in PERSEO L'INVINCIBILE, aka MEDUSA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES.
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.
It shows Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng in director Chang Cheh's CRIPPLED AVENGERS.
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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:
LEGENDS OF THE CANYON (2010) - This is listed on the IMDb as LEGENDS OF THE CANYON: THE ORIGINS OF WEST COAST ROCK. I saw this on a Public Broadcasting Station and the title was CROSBY, STILLS & NASH IN LEGENDS OF THE CANYON. Whatever the title is or was, this is a very entertaining documentary about the late 1960s and early 1970s in Southern California. Photographer Henry Diltz shares a lot of his photographs and memories of the time along with a bevy of other friends, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. Director Jon Brewer can be faulted for the assembladge of some of the material - John Lennon's kotex event at the Troubadour was in 1974, long after the formation of CS&N, but if you are already familiar with these stories, you can rearrange them into a proper chronological order. What this movie does very well is to show how loved Cass Elliot and Joni Mitchell were by the people on the scene, as well as the opportunity for Michelle Phillips to give her side of the story of how she was fired from The Mamas and The Papas. And there is the story about how Neil Young joined CS&N on stage at the Woodstock Festival. No one mentions how Young refused to be documented for the feature film.
LAST HOLIDAY (1950) - Written and co-produced by J.B. Priestley, LAST HOLIDAY is as darkly witty as you'd expect. Alec Guinness is quite compelling as a lowly salesman told by his doctor that he has only a few months to live. The doctor advises that Guinness should take what money he has and enjoy what's left of his life. On his way down the street, Guinness is stopped by a tailor who recently came into possession of the suitcases and clothing belonging to a Lord who recently died and thinks that they would fit Guinness perfectly. They do, so when Guinness checks into an expensive hotel, everyone considers him a mystery man who must be very wealthy. Over time the other residents of the hotel, including Beatrice Campbell, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Sidney James, Jean Colin and Ernest Thesigner, become quite impressed by Guinness, while some of the staff, including Kay Walsh, Heather Wilde and Coco Aslan are quite taken with solving why he seems so glum. Things are going so well that Guinness begins to lament why when he thinks that he has so little time left that life suddenly has such promise. Henry Cass, who eight years later would make the chilling BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, directs a fine cast with a splendid script.
Punk Revolution NYC (2011) - At 192 minutes long, this documentary written and directed by Tom O'Dell does a pretty good job of tracing the underground rock 'n' roll scene in New York City from The Velvet Underground and the influence of Andy Warhol to the New York Dolls and the Mercer Arts Center to unsigned bands convincing CBGBs to give them a place to play.
Mildly enjoyed:
HELEN OF TROY (1956) - I first became aware of the story of the siege of Troy when I saw, as a six year old, LA GUERRA DI TROIA, aka THE TROJAN HORSE. In it, Paris and Helen were presented as a couple of fools drunk on their own fame which the people of Troy celebrated as trophies. I later heard about the Warner Bros.massive production of HELEN OF TROY, but didn't have a chance to see it until it came out on home video. What a disappointment. I decided that I would give it another look-see, and I still don't like it. In a way similar to the 1939 version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Hollywood filmmakers tried to turn the tale into the story of a tragic love. With the cliched script credited to Hugh Gray, N. Richard Nash and John Twist, the film failed to make love story compelling and tossing in lines from Christopher Marlowe's play DOCTOR FAUSTUS didn't help matters. I'm now aware of how LA VENERE DI CHERONEA, aka THE GODDESS OF LOVE, made shortly after HELEN, echoed this film, with Jacques Sernas being found injured on a beach by a woman thought to personify Aphrodite. While VENERE doesn't have the scope and budget of HELEN, it featured a more interesting script and compelling love story. For HELEN, director Robert Wise did provide some spectacular action, probably thanks to Yakima Canutt, and the technical crew at Cinecitta Studios. Janette Scott and Ronald Lewis would reunite in seven years to make one of my favorite films SIEGE OF THE SAXONS.
SANTAMAN (2022) - If after the first fifteen minutes I feel compelled to hit the fast-forward button, that's usually part of my criteria for a "did not enjoy" designation. However, while I am not the intended audience for this movie, I ended up mildly enjoying it partly because of what I perceived as "moxie" from independent writer and director Bret Stern to attempt to make a feature length computer animated movie on such a low budget, but also because of the concept of Santa Claus, growing tired of an ever-growing "naughty" list, becoming a superhero crime fighter to turn things around. True believer little girl Sophie awakens to find Santa delivering presents, but also sees two burglars getting into a fight over Santa's bag. She awakens her brother, Shane, who doesn't believe, and he is able to completely miss what's going on. Later, the two children find Santa's new hyper-drive sleigh on a roof top, hide inside, and get whisked away to the North Pole, which is run like NASA's mission control. Due to global warming, the North Pole is disappearing because of Killdare Industries burning a lot of coal. As a six year old, Max Kildare got coal for a present, so he is determined to melt the North Pole in revenge. A mysterious figure, calling himself "The Supervisor" arrives to help Kildare get revenge by constructing a machine that will suck out the immortal life energy of Santa. Kildare and "The Supervisor" bait a trap for Santa, but Sophie and Shane arrived to save the day. It turns out that Santa did not gift coal to Kildare, but an evil elf did, as part of his long range plan to destroy Santa so that the elves can take over the Earth. The climax of the film is the usual "superhero" style battle in which cookies prove to do for Santa what spinach did for Popeye.
Did not enjoy:
BEDTIME STORIES (2008) - I am not the intended audience for this movie. I am not an Adam Sandler fan, and the attempt to blend his style of comedy with a Disney movie for kids is not something that I enjoyed. Narrated by Jonathan Pryce, who built a small motel that he hoped his son, Sandler, would someday manage, the film jumps ahead to adult Sandler working as a maintenence man while Guy Pearce seems to have all of new owner Richard Griffiths' attention. Tasked by his sister, Courteney Cox, to watch her children, Sandler tries to follow in his father's stead by telling improvised stories at bedtime. The kids embellish Sandler's stories to give them happy endings, which Sandler mistakenly believes influences his reality. Sandler shares responsibility for the children with Cox's friend Keri Russell. who is fighting to keep Griffiths from tearing down the school where her real job is. Eventually, everything works out in Sandler's favor with Pearce and snooty Lucy Lawless working menial jobs for him. Russell Brand, another comedian that I don't find funny, plays Sandler's best friend. Of course there is a small role for Rob Schneider and Aisha Tyler makes a small, but welcomed, appearance.
JELLYFISH (2007) - What is this film about? It seems to be about loneliness, and alienation, and poetic images and how a movie that runs 78 minutes can feel like it is a lot longer. The film begins with Sarah Adler being so stunned that her boyfriend is leaving her, that she can't say "Stay" until after he's already gone. Adler works as a waitress at a wedding party where the bride, Noa Raban, gets stuck in a bathroom stall, and as she climbs out of it, she falls and breaks her leg. Having her leg in a cast really makes her honeymoon a drag at a seaside hotel where they are on a top floor and there is no elevator. Also at the wedding party is a a Filipina nurse, Ma-nenita De Latorre, who doesn't speak Hebrew and who is trying to earn enough money for her little boy back in the Philippines. Adler's life becomes mysterious when a little girl, wearing only a bathing suit bottom and an inner tube seems to walk about of the surf. Even after going to the police, Adler finds herself taking care of the girl until she disappears and can't be found. Smoking on the fire escape, the new husband meets a mysterious woman who agrees to change rooms with the married couple because the bride says their room smells bad. Shira Geffen wrote this screenplay which she co-directed with her husband Etgar Keret. Keret is quoted as saying that the title refers to the fact that Jellyfish drift in the sea without any control over their fate or direction. A viewer is quoted as saying that this film is an accurate portrait of life in Tel Aviv around 2007. Like many films from the MIddle East, this is a French co-production.
RUSSIAN ROULETTE (1975) - If the producers of this film thought that respected film editor Lou Lombardo would bring some of the excitement and invention that he had achieved in cutting THE WILD BUNCH and five films for director Robert Altman, they must have been sorely disappointed. As a director, Lombardo delivered something that looked like the work of a TV director. Reportedly, his on-set behavior necessitated another director, Anthony Squire, coming in to help out. Based on the novel KOSYGIN IS COMING by Tom Ardies, the story involved Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman George Segal being dragged into a plot to use a C.I.A. informant to blow up the Premier of the Soviet Union while he visited Vancouver, Canada. Needless to say, events complicated his romance with Cristina Raines, who got kidnapped to force Segal to stop trying to prevent the assassination plot by some renegade KGB types. The story telling was needlessly complicated and much of the action was unconvincing. A good cast, including Denholm Elliot, Gordon Jackson, Nigel Stock, and Louise Fletcher, was underutilized and, at times, the tone of the film seemed to want to become a comedy.
SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN (1986) - This is the only feature film for director Linda Feferman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Bernstein - who later turned the story into a novel. Made around the same time as LABYRINTH, two years before she became sexy in SOME GIRLS, Jennifer Connelly stars as a serious and ambitious teen girl intent on taking care of her father after her mother died. Naturally, he has to leave town for work, but she convinces him to allow her to be home alone. Connelly's best friend is Maddie Corman, who is extremely interested in losing her virginity, but keeps setting her sights on older men who are unattainable. Their mutual friend is classmate Byron Thames, who runs away from home because of a fight with his step-father, and decides to stay at Connelly's house while her dad is away. This film is a very light-hearted comedy about well-meaning fifteen year olds dealing with misunderstanding well-meaning adults. There are no villains here, just confused people. Spalding Gray appears as a teen counselor who assumes that Thames staying at Connelly's house isn't as innocent as it is. This is the first film credit for Lauren Holly, who is the girlfriend of Alan Boyce, whom Connelly allows to kiss her, causing Corman to think they've been having sex. Produced by Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Studios, the film did not get a wide theatrical release because it felt too inconsequential to Warner Bros. I didn't hear anyone explain to what the title is referring, but none of our main characters experience it in the film. There is a striking moment though when Corman asks Terry Kinney is having an orgasm different when you're with a woman as opposed to when you're by yourself.
STILLWATER (2021) - There is a lot of good stuff in this film, but its mixture of human drama and thriller material is unsatisfying. Unemployed oil worker Matt Damon travels to Marseille to visit his imprisoned daughter, Abigail Breslin. Unable to speak French, Damon befriends single mother Camille Cottin and her little girl Lilou Siauvaud, who offer to help him to try and find Idir Azougli, the man Breslin says actually committed the murder for which she is convicted. The portrait of Damon turning his life around and establishing a new family with Cottin and Siauvaud is the best part of this movie. That the thriller part of the story destroys that relationship is a real drag.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
Merry Little Batman (23)
GUN THE MAN DOWN (56) - James Arness takes part in a bank robbery where he is shot and left behind by his colleagues in crime, including is girl Angie Dickinson. After spending a year in jail for his crime, Arness comes out with revenge on his mind. Nicely done, small western that doesn't take the predictable route and showcases Arness's easy going star quality along the way.. Thumbs up.
THE TRAP SNAPS SHUT AT MIDNIGHT (65) - See The Eurospy Guide book on amazon for a complete review of this George Nader/Jerry Cotton entry.
THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY (59) - Robert Mitchum, raised in Mexico after killing his father's murderer when he was a child, finds himself with a broken leg in a border town on the US side. Turns out he was smuggling money to trade for guns, and many people are interested in both. A movie of unresolved issues, this solid western sports a deep cast with skin in the game including Julie London, her husband Gary Merrill, Charles McGraw, Albert Dekker, and Anthony Caruso. While lacking charismatic villains and a certain amount of focus, Mitchum easily carries this quality, character-driven oater.
DON'T LOOK NOW (73)
THE FOG OF WAR (04) - Yeah I'm late to the party, but in case you haven't seen it, this is a fascinating portrait of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who served under Kennedy and Johnson during the Vietnam War. Highly recommended.
AGENT FOR PANIC (61) - The Eurospy Guide also has a complete review of this Czech entry.
THERE'S GOING TO BE A PARTY (61) - Again, see The Eurospy Guide for a review of this superior Eddie Constantine entry.
FEAR NO EVIL (69) - See the Television Fright Films of the 1970s for a complete review of this Louis Jourdan TV pilot.
Mildly enjoyed:
CRAZY RICH ASIANS (18)
SECRET OF THE BLACK TRUNK (62)
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
What did you do in the war, daddy ? (1966, Blake Edwards)
Sin-ui hansu / The divine move (2014, Beom-gu Cho)
Der Bestatter: der Film (2023, Markus Fischer)
Urutoraman Torigâ Nyû Jenerêshon Tiga / Ultraman trigger: new generation Tiga (2021) – episodes 1 to 3
Mildly enjoyed:
Doctor Who – episode “The church on Ruby road” (2023, Mark Tonderai)
Did not enjoy:
The belgian wave (2023, Jérôme Vandewattyne)
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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:
"DOCTOR WHO" Special 4: "The Church on Ruby Rose"(2023)
The new Doctor Who has his first adventure shown in the U.S.A. on Disney+. For the first time a Black actor is cast as the Doctor. Ncuti Gatwa, a Rwadan-Scottish actor seems to be a cross between Will Smith (even though he is darker) and Shaft, as he is shown wearing a brown leather coat. He saves his blonde Caucasian "companion" Ruby Sunday (portrayed by Millie Gibson) from Goblins.
Mildly enjoyed:
"NEW YORK NINJA" (1984/2021)
I was channel surfing when I came across what I thought was a 2021 film shot in New York City, when I saw the World Trade Center which went down on Sept. 11, 2001. So I googled the film and discovered that actor John Liu had shot and starred and directed the film in 1984 when he ran out of money. Fast forward to 2021, video distributor buys the footage, reedits and hires well known actors; such as Don "the Dragon" Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock, among others to dub the film and then releases it. While obviously low budget, the resulting film is an interesting action film.
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Charles Gilbert watched:
FEAR NO MORE (1961) B&W. Mala Powers plays a beleaguered woman released from a mental institute, immediately subjected to gaslighting by her employer Milo Seymour (John Harding). Jacques Bergerac comes to her rescue. Interesting noir.
UFO (2018) Gillian Anderson in familiar territory plays a math professor at the University of Cincinnati whose brilliant male student tries to solve the signal from a UFO that made a brief appearance at CVG, the international Airport serving Cincinnati, but located across the Ohio River in Erlanger, Kentucky. No special effects but lauded for the intelligent script.
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