February 24 - March 1, 2024

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which Italian director did Dino De Laurentiis blame for his estrangement with his wife Silvana Mangano?

De Laurentiis blamed director Luchino Visconti for casting her in serious movies and filling her head with artistic aspirations.

In how many films did Steve Reeves fight Nello Pazzafini?

No one has answered this question yet.

How many films did Nello Pazzafini make with Giuliano Gemma?

Tom Betts came up with 16.

Which German actor, born in 1929, made seven Westerns for Italian directors and four Westerns for German directors?

Tom Betts and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Horst Frank.

By what name is Antonio Cantafora better known?

Tom Betts, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Michael Coby.

Which actor, born in 1936 Massachusetts, became an Israeli citizen in 2006 and appeared in two Italian Westerns?

Tom Betts knew that it was Paul L. Smith.

And now for some new brain teasers:

In what movie did Antonio Sabato co-star with Lee Van Cleef?

What "black listed" Hollywood actor made Italian Westerns with Lee Van Cleef and Charles Bronson?

Which American screenwriter, who worked for many years in Spain, was known to hire "black listed" writers to work for him without credit?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Antonio Sabato in DUE VOLTA GIUDA, aka TWICE A JUDAS

Above is a new photo.

Can you identify from what movie it came?

No one correctly identified the above frame grab.

It shows Kirk Morris in MACISTE ALLA CORTE DELLO ZAR, aka ATLAS AGAINST THE CZAR.

No one identified the above photo yet.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one identified the above 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:

Mildly enjoyed:

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964) - Reportedly the genesis of this project began with director Anthony Mann finding a condensed version of the  six-volume series of books by Edward Gibbon called THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Having just finished making the successful EL CID for producer Samuel Bronston, Mann suggested a film about Ancient Rome. A film about the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire was perhaps too complex a subject for a single film, and did not lend itself to a traditional dramatic structure. Bronston, having gained a reputation for spending freely to achieve spectacular results, seemed intent on disguising the dramatic weakness of his film by overwhelming visual splendor. Unfortunately this did not convince enough ticket buyers to offset the cost of the production, and the film became known as The Fall of the Bronston Empire. In many ways, FALL tried to duplicate EL CID particularly with the casting of Sophia Loren, who got star billing. However, while CID ended with a sense of triumph, FALL telegraphed a downbeat ending with the title. With no mention of Christians in the film, even though it was set in the year 180 AD, a message of peace and universal brotherhood was made by James Mason as a Greek philosopher. This was echoed by Finley Currie of QUO VADIS as a senator. Needless to say, this sentiment was dashed when wannabe gladiator Christopher Plummer ascended to the throne. In an attempt to make the proceedings feel emotional, Dimitri Tiomkin delivered an overdone music score that made the few dramatic scenes seem overly melodramatic. Still, with Yakima Cannutt and Andrew Morton on hand, the film featured some amazing battle scenes - though, occasionally, one couldn't tell who was battling whom.

A STAR IS BORN (1954) - Like many people, I had renewed curiosity for the previous versions of A STAR IS BORN after the great success of the new version directed by Bradley Cooper. I avoided the 1976 version when it was in theaters like I avoided every movie starring Barbra Streisand at the time, but I saw the original 1937 version on TV and didn't much care for it. I knew of the cult status of the 1954 version, just as I knew of the cult status of Judy Garland, but I didn't much like THE WIZARD OF OZ and had an aversion for MGM musicals. Some believe that the genesis of this story came from the 1932 movie WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? which was directed by George Cukor. Reportedly Cukor was offered the chance to direct the 1937 "partial remake", but passed. However, in 1954 he couldn't turn down a chance to direct Judy Garland's "come back" movie. This was a story about the Hollywood studio system, featuring a drunken Hollywood insider and his effort to make a star out of an unknown. In 1937 and 

1954, the insider was a star actor. What 1954 did was to turn the film into a musical. Perhaps it was Warner Bros. attempt to compete with the successful MGM musicals at the time. There was even a mention of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS in the dialogue. However, because the Warner Bros. marketing department felt the film was too long at 181 mins, 30 minutes were cut out, which, when it became public knowledge, was thought to have created an audience backlash. It wasn't until 1983 and the potential money to be made on home video that Warner Bros. decided to try and re-create the original running time. While they found the uncut soundtrack, still photographs were substituted to replace missing picture. In any case, Jack Carson, as the studio publicist, turned out to be the villain in this version, being the man who humiliated recently sober star James Mason in public which caused him to relapse. If you, like me, were hoping for the character's comeuppance in the end, then you, like me, would be disappointed. Considering how much of the movie spoofed how Hollywood Studios worked (from a script credited to playwrite Moss Hart) in the early 1950s, it's portrayal of a sympathetic studio head, played by Charles Bickford, who would go with his big star to night court to try and keep her husband out of jail was completely unbelievable. Can you imagine Jack Warner doing that? In any case, the 1954 version's portrayal of the recovering drunk's suicide was incredibly better than the 2018 version, which felt like it was tacked on because they couldn't figure out a better ending. As previously stated, I'm not a fan of 1950s musicals, and interrupting the drama for another musical sequence was irritating for me. However, the film was intended as a vehicle for Judy Garland, who after a series of successful concert appearances was attempting to return to movies. Unfortunately, it did not work out for her. Ironically, as James Mason played the actor on the skids whose career was over, it was Garland as the new talent whose career was on the skids. 

A STAR IS BORN (1976) - Well, this was easier to watch than I expected. First Artists was created to be a new United Artists - a production company controlled by actors who wanted control over their movies. Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and Barbra Streisand formed the company in 1970 and were joined in 1971 by Steve McQueen. Dustin Hoffman came aboard in 1972. National General Pictures was their original distributor, but when they went bankrupt in 1973, Warner Bros. took over. Of the 17 features made by First Artists, A STAR IS BORN was the most successful at the box office. It would seem that Warner Bros. came up with the idea of doing a remake and the IMDb rattles off a bunch of names of writers, directors and actors who were approached. Having just won an Oscar for the screenplay of DOG DAY AFTERNOON, Frank Pierson seemed a good choice as director and worked with John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion to transform a story about fame in Hollywood into a story about fame in the music 

business. Eventually Barbra Streisand came aboard as the star along with her hairdresser/boyfriend Jon Peters as producer. Rumor had it that four other writers labored on the script. Kris Kristofferson got the lead role as the self-destructive star and said that the experience of working with Streisand "cured" him of wanting to make movies. However, he soon got over that, and even appeared in a Streisand music video in 1984. Director Pierson also reported to have had a bad experience, which he wrote about in an article called "My Battles with Barbra and Jon". Pierson, too, seemed to get over that in order for him to direct the music video for "Woman In Love" with Streisand in 1981. The 2018 version took many plot elements from the 1976 version, but happily added a family for the new star to help flesh out her story. In addition to drink and drugs, Kristofferson was shown as being reckless and having poor impulse control, so that his death in the end was slightly ambiguous. As Kristofferson's tour manager, Gary Busey might qualify as a villain, but the blame was all on Kristofferson. I didn't recognize Sally Kirkland in her role, but Paul Mazursky was convincing as Kristofferson's agent. Rather than honoring the memory of her dead husband, Streisand expressed her anger at  him, and ended the film with a triumphant on-stage performance showing that she will rise above. The love story aspect of the story worked better in the 2018 version to the point that many thought that Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga must have secretly been a couple.

STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF (1996) - In 1961, a musical by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley premiered in Manchester before transferring to London's Queen's Theatre where it ran for 485 performances. Broadway producer David Merrick brought the show to New York's Shubert Theatre in 1962 before transferring it to the Ambassador where it ran for 555 performances. An altered movie version was made for Warner Bros.in 1966, which flopped. In 1996, A&E cable TV network's "Clarol on Broadway" aired a faithful version of the play credited as "A Muskegon Lake Television Inc. Production Taped at the Cherry County Playhouse In Association with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution copyright Bristol-Myers Squibb Company". Peter Scolari took on the role of Littlechap without the mime make-up which Anthony Newley wore. Known mostly for his work on TV, Scolari showed a wider range of talents in this production than could be imagined in what he usually was given. All of the important female roles in the show was played by one woman. Originally it was Anna Quayle, who is perhaps best remembered for her short scene with John Lennon in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. Here it was Stephanie Zimbalist, best known for her role on TV's Remington Steele. Dressed in a blue velor jumpsuit, Zimbalist, as with Scolari, exhibits a wider range of talents than what was usually asked of her. And she looked incredibly sexy either playing the wife, the Russian official, the German domestic or the American singer. I have loved the title of this show for most of my life, but what I imagined the work to be was not what it was. The life story of a working class lad, who seemed to easily bed every woman he met, until he met an upper class woman, for which he had to work at it. The story of a working class guy marrying the boss' daughter was very popular in the early 1960s as evident in films like SATURDAY NIGHT, SUNDAY MORNING and ROOM AT THE TOP, only in this story he doesn't have to destroy his lower class mistress - as in A PLACE IN THE SUN - to achieve his goal. Littlechap was such a creep that it proved impossible for me to like him. After his wife gives birth to two daughters, Littlechap complained that he wanted a son. This seemed to be his excuse for being unfaithful and inattentive to his wife. Rising up in business, Littlechap was offered a chance to become a politician and eventually a Lord. It wasn't until his old age that he realized how terrific his wife was, just before she died. As he wrote his memoir, his youngest daughter gave birth to a son, and when the specter of death called for the boy, Littlechap sacrificed himself to save the chap. The play ended with the suggestion that Littlechap would be reincarnated into the circus ring of life. Filled with the obvious life lessons which seemed deep in the early 1960s, STOP THE WORLD was blessed with three hit songs: "Once In A Lifetime", "Gonna Build A Mountain" and "What Kind of Fool Am I?" which ensured a lasting legacy. By the way, as many times as Littlechip shouted "Stop the World" inorder to speak a soliloquy, he never said "Stop the World I Want To Get Off". Mostly known for directing live events on TV, David Stern did a credible job capturing this production on camera. 

 

Did not enjoy:

 BLOODLINE (2018) - Seeing the Blumhouse Productions logo at the beginning of a movie has, so far, meant that I was going to have a bummer viewing experience. A nurse walks down a deserted hospital corridor to the locker room. After stripping naked, she takes a shower. Suddenly, an unseen assailant stabs her in the side of her neck, pulling the blade forward to rip out her throat. In quick cuts, we see hands being washed and a body dumped into a make shift grave. Sean William Scott then quietly enters a dark bedroom with Mariela Garriga silently sleeping in the bed. Is she going to be another victim? No. When an offscreen baby starts to cry, Scott tells Garriga that he'll take care of it, gets out of bed, picks up the baby and assures it that everything is okay 'cause daddy's here. The words "Three Months Earlier" flashes on the screen and we see that Scott works as an high school guidance counselor dealing with troubled teens. Garriga is his wife, and Scott's mother, Dale Dickey, comes over to help her during the late stages of her pregnancy. In flashbacks, we learn that Scott was beaten by his father. So, when he hears a teen talking about abuse from a father, Scott takes it upon himself to murder the man and bury the body. Viewers of serial killer movies know that burying a number of bodies in the same place is a bad idea, and eventually a dog walker stumbles upon the graves. But, before that, we learn in flashback that one night in the past, as his father was beating on a younger version of Dickey, a younger version of Scott killed him. He and his mother buried the body. The film eventually catches up with the beginning scene, but it turns out that Dickey killed the nurse - because she had such a bad attitude while dealing with the mother of her grandson. At the same time, Scott was dealing with another bad father. After the bodies have been found, Detective Kevin Carroll comes to interview Scott because all of the dead people were the fathers of Scott's patients. One patient, Raymond Cahm Jr., confronts Scott with a gun demanding to know if Scott killed his father. Garriga witnesses this, and later makes an appointment to meet with Cahm. where the bodies were buried. Garriga uses Cahm's own gun to kill him, stages it to look like suicide and types a suicide note on Cahm's cellphone claiming to be the murderer. The film ends with the family of murderers looking down lovingly on the baby they are raising. Since director Henry Jacobson takes a possessory credit here, let's put all of the blame for the movie on him. Fans of splatter gore may enjoy the kills, but with no sympathetic characters in jeopardy, no suspense is created.

INTIMATE OBSESSION (1992) - Boots Rakely gets the blame for the story while Phoebe Caulfield takes the blame for the screenplay for this "erotic thriller". Jodie Fisher seems to be bored with her husband Richard Abbott, so Kristi Ducati suggests that she have an affair. After spying on James Quarter (aka James Ouattrochi) having sex with a busty woman, Fisher sees him again working as a bartender at a party. Eventually, Fisher and Quarter have sex, but when a videotape of the action turns up, Fisher discovers that her husband, Abbott, hired Quarter to get the evidence he need to divorce Fisher. It turns out that Abbott is having an affair with Ducati, which is also caught on video. After Fisher tells Quarter that Abbott beat her up, Quarter kills Abbott. While Fisher seems to be preparing to leave the country with Quarter, the police find the videotape of Abbott and Ducati in Quarter's apartment, which seems to be enough evidence to arrest Quarter. In the end, Fisher meets Ducati on a tropical beach where they toast 

with champagne the successful conclusion to their nefarious plan. This is the second "erotic thriller" directed by Lawrence Lanoff using the name Lawrence Ungar. After six more similar projects, Lanoff began churning out videos under the Playboy brand. As you may have guessed, I found this movie neither erotic or thrilling or particularly watchable. 

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995) - I've enjoyed silly Westerns and I've enjoyed over stylized Westerns, and I've enjoyed other movies directed by Sam Raimi, but this film didn't work for me at all. Obviously bringing in elements from Italian Westerns, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD completely fails to recreate the atmosphere and the fun of the kinds of movies the Italians made in reaction to the Westerns with which they grew up - or their attempts to duplicate whatever box office success was current. Sharon Stone obviously wanted to make this movie, but her scowling through all of it didn't make her look tough. It just made her look annoyed. Her character is kind of a variation on what Charles Bronson did in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, but completely lacks his "cool" confidence. Her appearance for the finale, trumpted by a series of explosions may have been inspired by A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, but looks more like COMIN' AT YA! Though seeing daylight through a man with bullet holes is more mindful of the American Western THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN. Alan Silvestri did an okay job of composing music that sounded reminiscent of Ennio Morricone, but wasn't something memorable. I saw this close to when it first came out, and it was the first time I laid eyes on Russell Crowe and Leonard DiCaprio and I had a hard time understanding why critics mentioned them so often in their reviews. I later learned it was because of the work they had done in earlier and better films. Bruce Campbell is listed in the credits, but all of his scenes were cut out. Reportedly writer Joss Whedon was brought on to fix the ending of the film, which he did in an afternoon. I didn't notice it being any different from the rest of the movie.

 

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David Deal enjoyed:

2 FACES OF TERROR (72) - From 2016: "Murder and intrigue amongst the doctor set.  I like the milieu and cast.  Euro-ambience when you need it."

HOUSE OF WAX (53)

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (75) - Ages since I'd seen this. It's very, very good.

THE BIG SLEEP (46)

DR. MABUSE VS SCOTLAND YARD (63)

Mildly Enjoyed

THE HUMAN JUNGLE (54) - Police captain Gary Merrill intends to quit the force as he's just passed the bar exam. His boss talks him into delaying his resignation and taking over the toughest precinct in the city for a couple of months, which he does. Hardliner Merrill begins stewing the organized crime pot, riling the locals. When a dance hall girl is killed, Merrill tries to pressure fellow dancer Jan Sterling into revealing the killer. She's the alibi for psycho Chuck Connors who did the dirty deed. This film noir puts the hard in hardboiled, with the grimmest attitude I've seen in a while. And while the ending provides unlikely hope for redemption, it just doesn't ring true. It's fun, however, to see some young actors who had yet to fully bloom, like Connors, Joe Turkel, and Claude Akins.

AGENTE X 1-7 OPERAZIONE OCEANO (65) - Spy guy Lang Jeffries is assigned to guard a professor who has a new invention (doesn't matter) while he's visiting his daughter in Switzerland. No sooner does Lang arrive when he's drugged and the professor is kidnapped by the bad guys. This is the slender thread upon which hangs a mediocre Eurospy movie. Lang Jeffries is a capable hero, generally, but here he's not asked to do much, as opposed to the audience who is expected to get into the shabby goings on. If you do decide to take a chance on this, enjoy the tunes and stay until the non-ending. It's a proverbial hoot.

I'M A STRANGER (52) - A young man treks a long way on foot until reaching a London residence where he is expected. At the same time, Greta Gynt (playing herself) has a broken car and a man stops to help her. On their way to a repair shop they discover a hurt girl in the back of his truck and take her, as she requests, to a a doctor's house. These two strands meet up and a complicated mystery is hitherto resolved in this British thriller. It's ok entertainment but its short running time makes reliance on coincidence a foundational element.

FROSTY (65) - A Russian fairy tale from director Aleksandr Rou. Rou and company suffered from comparison with fellow director Aleksandr Ptushko (Sampo et al). Rou had smaller budgets, less ingenuity, and a cast lacking in talent. The result is a watchable, well-intentioned mediocrity.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:

Kiba Ôkaminosuke / Samurai wolf (1966, Hideo Gosha)

Kiba Ôkaminosuke: jogoku giri / Samurai wolf 2 (1967, Hideo Gosha)

Enjoyed:

Sarinjaui syopingmol / A shop for killers – season 1 (2023) – episode 8

The perfect furlough (1959, Blake Edwards)

The avengers - episodes “Room with a view” (1965, Roy Ward Baker) / “Small game for big hunters” (1965, Gerry O'Hara)

Mildly enjoyed:

Invasion of the saucer men (1957, Edward L. Cahn)

The fall of the house of Usher – season 1 (2023) – episode 2

The champions – episode “A case of lemmings” (1967, Paul Dickson)

Hitori kakurenbo gekijo-ban / Hide and go kill 2 (2009, Yamada Masafumi)

The Hitler gang (1944, John Farrow)

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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:

YOUNG SHELDON" and "SON OF CRITCH"
Two sitcoms worth watching, at least in my opinion.

Mildly enjoy:

"BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE" (2024)
While the story of Bob Marley may be an interesting one; the best thing about this movie is the music. Now I am not a big Reggae fan, but I did enjoy the records this movie played. One I wasn't aware was done by the Wailers. ("Get Up, Stand Up!";. I thought that one was by the rock band, WAR.)
and of course, "One Love"!

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