June 8 - 14, 2024

 

 

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

Brain Teasers:

About which Italian director of Westerns did Tomas Milian complain of having to make unreasonable physical exertions?

Sergio Sollima, who required him to perform actions for CORRI UOMO CORRI, aka RUN MAN RUN, which could have easily have been done by a stunt man.

In which Italian Western did Tomas Milian scoff at having vertigo, while in an interview he revealed that he did suffer from vertigo?

No one answered this question yet.

Which movie, usually considered an Italian Western, does the director insist is not a Western?

No one answered this question yet.

Which Italian body builder and actor was born in 1935 and died in 2015?

Tom Betts, Charles Gilbert, Angel Rivera, George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Alan Steel, aka Sergio Ciani.

Which Italian body builder said that director Pietro Francisci was going to cast him as Hercules before Steve Reeves came to his attention?

Charles Gilbert knew that it was Mimmo Palmara.

Which French model and actress was born in 1933 and died in 1959 from leukemia?

Tom Betts, Angel Rivera, George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Sylvia Lopez.

And now for some new brain teasers:

By what name is Giovanni Goffredo Scarciofolo better known?

By what name is Glen Fortel better known?

Which former Italian boxer, who went on to appear as an actor in both Epics and Westerns starred in and directed a movie in 1946?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes was able to identify last week's frame grab of Tatsuya Nakadai and Jeff Cameron in OGGI A ME... DOMANI A TE!, aka TODAY TO ME TOMORROW TO YOU, aka TODAY WE KILL TOMORROW WE DIE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

 

Bertrand van Wonterghem, Charles Gilbert, George Grimes and Angel Rivera identified last week's frame grab of Alan Steel, Luisella Boni - aka Brigitte Corey - and Brad Harris in SANSONE, aka SAMSON.

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 identified the  above photo.

It shows Lo Meng in ROAR OF THE LION.

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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:

Highly enjoyed:

ENNIO (2021) - Director Giuseppe Tornatore's documentary on Ennio Morricone was marvelous - filled with many clips, even some featuring the music of other composers to contrast and explore Morricone's influences. I was frequently in tears watching this as the music stirred memories and emotions built up over 55 years of being a fan. The idea that Elio Petri originally wanted to re-use the theme music for COMMANDAMENT FOR A GANGSTER for INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION knocked me back. I was disappointed that Morricone dismissed COMMANDMENT as a terrible film. The idea the Gillo Pontecorvo wanted to reuse music from I CANNIBALI for BURN! was a bit of a shock as well. The biggest disapointment in the film is the complete lack of mention of Bruno Nicholai. There was a mention of Bacalov when they both worked as arrangers at RCA, and a mention of Carlo Savina when Savina rejected one of Morricone's arrangements, but no mention of Nicholai. Perhaps someone will do a documentary on Nicholai and clear up the relationship between the two.

Enjoyed:

Midsomer Murders "Talking To the Dead" season 11, episode 7 (2008) - I had forgotten how more witty an episode with John Nettles was. And how much I missed Kirsty Dillon being on the show.

Mildly enjoyed:

Imagine "Mel Brooks: Unwrapped" (2018) - This old BBC documentary is currently running on MAX. Mostly it recaps how many times in the past Alan Yentob has interviewed Brooks, and Brooks mostly gets goofy infront of the camera.

Midsomer Murders "Murder By Magic" season 17 episode 2 (2015) - This is a better role for Joe Absolom of Doc Martin than his part in I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2. And Stephanie Leondias, who did an episode of Doc Martin, is quite the looker.

Did not enjoy:

THE COSSACKS (1928) - According to this film, Cossacks led simple lives: men fought while women did all the work, "and above all GOD". John Gilbert was the son of the village leader, Ernest Torrence, who preferred to look for lillies while wooing Renee Adoree. After returning from another success campaign against the Turks, the warriors decided to humiliate Gilbert by dressing him as a woman and forcing him to stomp grapes to make wine. When Adoree was ridiculed for having a "woman" for a boyfriend, she publicly denounced him. Gilbert escaped to his home, where Torrence began to whip him. Fed up, Gilbert fought back, and after his son knocked him down, Torrence began to see some promise in his son. When their Turkish prisoners escaped, the Cossacks were roused to recapture them, but Gilbert was the quickest and successfully killed them all. Now that he had proved himself, Gilbert was asked by Adoree to forgive her for her denunciation, but he refused. Soon, he was away with his father on another campaign against the Turks. Meanwhile, a Prince from Moscow, Nils Asther, arrived among the Cossacks with the order to marry a Cossack woman in order to improve the blood line. Obviously, he chose Adoree, but she resisted his advances. When Gilbert returned boasting of having killed 10 Turks and acting as if Adoree wasn't good enough for him, Adoree countered by boasting of the Prince wanting to marry her. In response, Gilbert accepted a Gypsy woman's invitation to spend the night in her caravan. So, it was announced that Adoree would marry the Prince. When Gilbert tried to convince her not to go forward with the wedding, she called him a "Gypsy kisser!" After the wedding, the Prince announced that the Czar had ordered the Cossacks to stop fighting the Turks, which the men decried that the Czar wanted them to become women. As the Prince and his bride set off to return to Moscow, Gilbert and his father set out to ambush the coach because Adoree was Gilbert's woman. Thankfully, the coach was attacked by Turks, who killed the Prince. Sending Paul Hurst back to get more men, Gilbert and his father attacked the Turks, but only succeeded in being captured. The other Cossacks finally arrived and destroyed the Turk's village, but not before the father was blinded and died. Gilbert beseeched his dying father, "Am I now a Cossack?" In the end, Gilbert led the victorious Cossacks back home with Adoree sitting behind him on his horse. She promised to be his woman and to work for him, for which he patted her hand in encouragement. Reportedly, screenwriter Frances Marion did not want to try and adapt Leo Tolstoy's novel to the screen, but MGM insisted. The film had little in common with the novel, partly because MGM executives kept demanding re-writes. Stars Gilbert and Adoree complained about the numerous re-writes and director George Hill left the production. Clarence Brown came in and completed the film without credit. In 1926, the Dijigit Troupe of Russian Cossacks began a tour of the U.S. and were hired to provide some authenticity to the film as well as perform horse stunts. Still, even though it was MGM's most expensive film at the time, THE COSSACKS proved to be rather dull with a bland love story making for an irritating viewing experience.

THE FINAL ALLIANCE (1990) - Cinematography Mario DiLeo became a director, mostly on television. He did one episode of Baywatch, which maybe when he and star David Hasselhoff decided to do this modern day Western. As co-producers Harel Goldstein and John T. Eubank wrote the screenplay, I guess no one wanted to point out to them how awful it was. But it seemed that all they were concerned about was ACTION on a low budget. Hasselhoff returned to his old country house seeking revenge on the biker gang that killed  his wife and child. John Saxon, in albino make-up, was the leader of the biker gang, but he was in the employ of Sheriff Bo Hopkins, who was an illegal arms dealer. The suspense in something like this was how many associates of the hero were going to die before all of the bad guys were made dead. While the bad guys did in Hasselhoff's pet puma, they did not do in his new girlfriend, Jeanie Moore - though they tried a lot. There were two impressive stunts on display here. In one, we see a motorcycle pass over a living man's head in close up. In another, we see a motorcycle drive up over a living man's crotch in a medium shot. Why do people insist on knocking out a window pane instead of just opening the window?

JU-ON, aka THE GRUDGE (2002) - The subtitles on the version I watched explained: "Ju-on: the curse of one who dies in the grip of a powerful rage. It gathers and takes effect in the places that person was alive. Those who encounter it die and a new curse is born." So, as the film starts, one wonders whose grudge has become a curse. Is it the father who killed his wife, her son and their cat, or one of the victims? Specifics seem not to be of interest to writer/director Takashi Shimizu, nor do the scary events develop into a logical pattern. But that seems to be what makes these Japanese scare films popular - they don't need to make sense; they just need to be unnerving. The series started with two short films that were part of a TV fim called Gakko no kaidan G: "Katasumi" and "4444444444" (aka 10 4s). Those films inspired the Toei company to back two V-Cinema releases in 2000: JU-ON: THE CURSE and JU:ON THE CURSE 2. Those home video releases led to a feature film for theatrical release, which is what I'm reviewing now. To find out that this all started with two short films as part of a TV ghost story anthology isn't too surprising, as the feature film feels like six short movies tenuously linked together by the haunted house. Someone on Wikipedia took the trouble to put "the events of the film in chronological order: however the original film is presented in a nonlinear narrative" in a way similar to PULP FICTION. What makes most of these "J-Horror" films unnerving is that none of the victims did anything to warrant their fate, and they can do nothing to change it. My problem is that I find watching a movie in which I know everyone is doomed and that the story isn't resolved - like the FINAL DESTINATION movies - uninvolving and dull.

JU-ON THE CURSE (2000) - I now know that I'm watching these programs out of order, but the DVDRs that were given to me were not clearly marked. This is pretty much the same as the feature film; a collection of short programs that have no resolution or explanation. Thanks to the Wikipedia article, I got the reference when someone got a phone call from "4444444444".

JU-ON THE CURSE 2 (2000) - Starting off with a 30 minute replay of the first (Toshio), fifth (Kayako) and sixth (Kyoko) stories from the previous program, JU-ON 2 inspired me to try and take the story more seriously. The premise is that when someone dies with a powerful rage, where ever that person died is cursed. Anyone who has contact with that curse dies and anyone who had contact with the dead person is cursed as well. So, the story starts with teacher Yurei Yanagi going to check on a student who hasn't been to class - Ryota Koyama. While waiting for Koyama's parents to come home, Yanagi finds a diary in which Koyama's mother - Takako Fuji - writes about her obession with Yanagi. Then the teacher finds the mother's dead body. Yanagi is trying to get Koyama out of the house when his cell phone rings. It is Fuji's husband, Takashi Matsuyama, calling to say that he's ripped the unborn girl from Yanagi's pregnant wife and that he thinks that Koyama is actually Yanagi's son. Yanagi falls to the ground as Fuji's bloody corpse begins to crawl towards him. Later, Matsuyama is stumbling around on the night street, when it seems that Fuji's corpse reaches out for him from inside a plastic garbage bag. Still later on, real estate agent Makoto Ashikawa askes his sister, Yuko Daike, for help. He's trying to sell the house in which the previous events took place. His sister is a bit of a psychic and he hopes that she can make the house safe. She asks for a bottle of sake, takes a swig and then spits it out. The fermented wine is sensitive to evil spirits. Any potential buyer must take a swig of the sake, and if it tastes bad, they can't live in the house. When Daike finds out that Ashikawa has sold the house, she goes to his new apartment to see him. Ashikawa isn't there, but his son, Tomohiro Kaku, is. It turns out that Ashikawa's new apartment is where Yanagi's wife was murdered. They witness the murder as if watching a bad VHS tape. Finding his sister and his son in a kind of somnambulistic trance, Ashikawa takes them to live in the country with his parents. Ashikawa decides to investigate the new residents of the house, not knowing that the new wife has already murdered her husband. Koyama mades an appearance, screaming like a cat, while the new wife turns into Fuji while menacing Ashikawa. Back at the country house, everyone is dead except Kaku. Two police detectives are on the case and seek out the help of the previous detective, who has gone insane with fear. Shortly, thereafter, Fuji appears before the previous detective's wife. The detectives follow Kaku to school but the older detective decides to drop the case and advises the younger detective to do the same. Soon Fuji appears to the older detective. Meanwhile, at school, Kaku is surrounded by multiple Fujis. The film ends with a static shot of the house with voice overs indicating that three school girls are inside on a dare. One finds and tastes the bottle of sake and finds that it tastes bad. As "2" features scenes that actually connect together, it is a less irritating viewing experience than the first V-Cinema release and the following feature film - though the feature film does follow up on some of the bits in "2". Writer/director Takashi Shimizu maintains the same style as the other two shows I've seen.

JU-ON 2, aka THE GRUDGE 2 (2003) - While still seeming like a series of short films stuck together, the sequel to the theatrical film, for the most part, tells one story. Noriko Sakai is a pregnant actress driving at night with her husband Kaoru Mizuki. It seems like they run over the ghost cat, and the ghost boy, Yuya Ozeki - Ryota Koyama had to be replaced because he got older - causes the car to crash. Sakai loses her child and Mizuki is in a coma. While shooting an Horror movie, Sakai is unnerved by the behavior of a teenage girl extra, Yui Ichikawa. It turns out that Ichikawa can see the ghost boy touching Sakai's belly. Later, Sakai finds out that she is pregnant. Maybe she didn't lose the baby in the accident? Sakai agrees to appear in a TV documentary about the events in the haunted house. Eventually, everyone connected to the documentary dies. Sakai is rushed to the hospital to give birth... to what? The entire delivery room crew dies of fright, but Sakai embraces whatever is in the swaddling clothes. Later on, Sakai is walking a little girl across a traffic bridge. A little boy stops to watch them, and sees the little girl push Sakai down the steps to her death. The little girl walks away carrying the ghost mother's diary. Whatever else you might say about these four programs, they are consistent in style and content. It just isn't a style and content that I enjoy. The year after this feature, Takashi Shimizu went to Hollywood and did an English language remake and then a sequel. To promote THE GRUDGE 2, three short films were made for Yahoo! by director Toby Wilkins called Tales From the Grudge. THE GRUDGE 3 was a direct to home entertainment project directed by Toby Wilkins. In 2009, director Ryula Miyake returned the series to Japanese home entertainment with JU-ON: WHITE GHOST, while director Mari Asato brought in JU-ON: BLACK GHOST. In 2014, director Masayuki Ochiai delivered JU-ON: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, followed by JU-ON: THE FINAL CURSE in 2015. In 2016, Kadokawa Productions decided to combine JU-ON with RINGU for SADAKO VS. KAYAKO, directed by Koji Shiraishi. In 2019, a fourth English language film was released directed by Nicholas Pesce. Meanwhile Japanese director Sho Miyake delivered a six episode series to Netflix in 2020. 

 

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David Deal Enjoyed:

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (63)

THE PHANTOM OF SOHO (63)

THE KILLER LIKES CANDY (68) - See The Eurospy Guide for a complete review of this Kerwin Mathews entry.

SLEEPY HOLLOW (99)

NEFERTITI, QUEEN OF THE NILE (64)

DEATH AND DIAMONDS (67) - See the above book.

M.C. ESCHER - JOURNEY TO INFINITY (18) - Interesting and trippy documentary on the artist based on his journals.

THE MAD EXECUTIONERS (63)

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE (61)

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Angel Rivera  Highly enjoyed:

"THE SEARCHERS" (1956)
Possibly one of my favorite classic westerns. The film is considered by many critics to be one of the best American westerns ever made. I wasn't much of a John Wayne fan until I saw this film. Wayne plays a Confederate soldier who turns up at his brother's Texas ranch on the eve of a Comanche murder raid. His brother, sister-in-law and their son are massacred, but his two nieces have been taken captive by the Comanche. Wayne plus the adopted son of his brother played by Jeffrey Hunter go on the search to find the two abducted girls. The film is directed by John Ford and based on a novel by Alan Le May. The film is definitely a product of its time, but still holds up; even with its portrayal of Native Americans.

Mildly enjoyed: 

'MOTHER OF THE BRIDE" (2024).
A cute romantic comedy starring Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt as former college lovers whose children are marrying. (Their college romance ended with their separation and them finding others to have children with.) Shields and Bratt are likeable as the former lovers who meet again after years of never knowing what happened between them. Predictable, but as I said cute.

"THE LONGEST DAY" (1962)
TCM was showing the movie about D-Day on D-Day, so I thought I would catch it. Very" Hollywoodized" version of war, but still having the feeling of authenticity.  All-star cast, even featuring a young Sean Connery who would gain bigger fame with this line, which is featured in his first outing as "Bond, James Bond" in "Dr. No" (1962) which almost premiered at the same time as this movie. Henry Fonda is also there as Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.
Impressive effects. They would be outdone by the effects of "Saving Private Ryan"(1998). But still a worthy film to watch.

"TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY" (1951)
A so-called "Film Noir", but with a fairly happy ending. Stars Steve Cochran, maybe best known for his role in "White Heat" (1949). Here he is a man just getting out of  prison after serving time for killing his extremely abusive father.  Ruth Roman plays the femme fattale floozie who he meets up with. (She is a taxi dancer he falls for. Except she has been going with a cop.) The cop is shot by Roman and she makes Cochran think that he killed the cop.
The couple then takes it on the lam. The performances by the two leads makes the film worthwhile.


'DEATH CURSE OF TARTU" (1966)
A low budget horror film which takes place in the Everglades. An  archeology professor, his wife and four of his students, search for Native American artifacts, but wind up disturbing an ancient witch doctor's tomb.  Low-budget, but still worth a view.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

I wake up screaming (1941, H. Bruce Humberstone)

Bimireun Eopseo / Frankly speaking – season 1 (2023) – episode 9

Mildly enjoyed:

Fiasco – season 1 (7 epis) (2023, Igor Gotesman)

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Charles Gilbert watched:

Walker Texas Ranger 'Sons of Thunder' S5 E24 Country singer Ed Bruce (who also appeared in FIRE DOWN BELOW with Steven Seagal) as Thunder Malloy suddenly dies of a heart condition leaving his sons devastated.

Self Destruction of a Legend Documentary: WWF wrestlers Thomas Billington aka The Dynamite Kid and his cousin Davey Boy Smith both died prematurely from complications with anabolic steroids.

DAWN OF THE MUMMY (1981) A modeling agency is in Cairo to do a shoot at the desert catacombs and tomb of the ancient Egyptian dead. This desecration by occidentals foments the resurrection of a mummy and dozens of plebian corpses to create havoc in the streets. No recognizable actors.

THUNDERING JETS (1958) B&W. Tough USAF flight instructor Rex Reason trains a class that includes Lee Farr, Robert Conrad, and John Douglas (Guisseppe Addobatti, an Italian cinema favorite)

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