August 3 - 10, 2024

 

 

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

Brain Teasers:

In which movie, based on a DC comic book, is the final gunfight from IL BUONO, IL BRUTTO, CATTIVO, aka THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY seen on a TV screen?

No one has answered this one yet.

How many directors of Spaghetti Westerns were born in Argentina?

Tom Betts and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew of three: Leon Klimovsky, Tulio Demichelli and Hugo Fregonese.

By what name is Manolita Barroso better known?

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

And now for some new brain teasers:

In what movie did Tony Kendall and Vassili Karis play brothers?

What role did Vassili Karis "inherit" from Gianni Garko?

By what name do we better know Cole Kitosch?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, George Grimes, Charles Gilbert and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Eli Wallach and Bud Spencer in I QUATTRO DELL'AVE MARIA, aka THE FOUR OF AVE MARIA, aka ACE  HIGH.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

John Black, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Charles Gilbert, George Grimes and Angel Rivera identified last week's photo of Mylene Demongeot and Roger Moore in IL RATTO DELLE SABINE, aka THE RAPE OF THE SABINES, aka ROMULUS AND THE SABINES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera, Charles Gilbert and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Elke Sommer, Gotz George, Milan Srodoc (aka Paddy Fox), Stewart Granger and Walter Barnes in UNTER GEIERN, aka AMONG VULTURES, aka FRONTIER HELLCAT

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Ti Lung and David Chiang in THE DEADLY DUO.

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:

BRENNO IL NEMICO DI ROMA, aka BRENNUS ENEMY OF ROME, aka BATTLE OF THE VALIANT, aka BATTLE OF THE SPARTANS (1963) - Writers Arpad DeRiso, Giovanni Scolaro and Adriano Bolzoni came up with a screenplay more ambitious than the money producers Augusto Dolfi and Luigi Mondello could raise. Luckily, they hired director Giacomo Gentilomo, who had already proven with MACISTE CONTRO IL VAMPIRO, aka GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES, that he could deliver action and clean storytelling on a low-budget. Here he attempted to tell the story of the Gallic chieftain Brennus, who captured most of the city of Rome around 387 B.C. Much of the story told in this film seems to be accurate historically. Here, Marcus Furius Camillus, played by Massimo Serato, was falsely accused of seeking to become a dictator by the villainous Erno Crisa in the Senate and sent into exile. He leaves his little stepson in Rome to hopefully grow up wise and strong. Meanwhile, Brennus, played by Gordon Mitchell, had taken the city of Clusium. Here, he promised to not completely destroy the city if the priestess of the Temple of Minerva, played by the beautiful Ursula Davis, married him. Meanwhile, Quintus Fabius Ambustus, played by Tony Kendall, was sent by the Senate, with his two brothers, one played by Vassili Karis, to negotiate for peace. Kendall also wanted to save Davis, who was his betrothed, but she refused for fear of Mitchell completely destroying her city. However, a servant girl overheard Mitchell talking with his priestess, Carla Calo, that he only promised to spare the city on his wedding night, and that he would then kill everyone in the morning. So, Kendall must save Davis against her will (by knocking her cold with a karate chop?). Obviously the filmmakers couldn't afford to show more destruction of Clusium, but they used footage from other movies - possibly HANNIBAL and CONSTATINE AND THE CROSS - to portray the Battle of Allia. Mitchell entered Rome, but most of the city escaped to the Capitoline Hill - shown here as a fortress on a cliff. Treacherous Crisa overhears Kendall planning to sneak away to convince Serato to reconstitute his legions against Mitchell, thanks to Serato's stepson knowing a secret passage to the Tiber. Crisa sent the evil Etruscan Andrea Aureli to stop Kendall's effort, while Crisa kidnapped Davis to persuade Mitchell into making a deal to spare him in exchange for one thousand pounds of gold. Carrying the body of the stepson, killed by Aureli's arrow, Kendall convinced Serato to rejoin the battle. Meanwhile, as Mitchell attempted to cheat the Romans by fixing the scales weighing the gold, Serato's legions attacked. Naturally, it all came down to Mitchell facing off with Kendall - after both Aureli and Crisa get their just rewards. How can you  not love an action film that ended with a sex joke? Gentilomo provided plenty of new action stuff to go with the reused battle footage, so the film was still visually exciting. Though not listed in the credits, I am certain that I saw both Alberto and Aldo Dell'Acqua jumping around during some fights. It seemed that composer Carlo Franci was not very prolific because this movie reused music heard before in other movies, and would be heard again when Gentilomo made his last film - MACISTE E LA REGINA DI SAMAR, aka HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN.

Chad Daniels "Empty Nester" on Netflix. (2024)

Kathleen Madigan "Bothering Jesus" on Netflix (2016)

Sam Morill "Same Time Tomorrow" on Netflix (2022)

REMEMBERING GENE WILDER (2023) - Director Ron Frank and writer Glenn Kirschbaum have fashioned a very moving portrait of the late comedy actor which  highlights many of the pubic moments of his life.

Mildly enjoyed:

GODZILLA X KONG THE NEW EMPIRE (2024) - Some one really enjoyed the idea of the giant monsters destroying human cities. I guess we're not supposed to worry about all of the people killed. This reminds me of a FAST AND FURIOUS movie with all of the talk about "family".

SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023) - I am not familiar with the Miles Morales Spider-man comics and I didn't particularly enjoy SPIDER-MAN INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, but as this is part two of a trilogy, I figured that I'd better see it. I don't remember INTO having this much humor, which I enjoyed in ACROSS, but two hours and twenty minutes is too long for me to enjoy animated images. In addition to being too long, I found the story too complicated. The mention of Dr. Strange and America Chavez is a nice touch.

Uncnsrd. "Pooch Hall" (2024)

Uncnsrd "Dapper Dan" (2024)

Raising Fame "Billy Porter" (2024)

Did not enjoy:

EL OTRO LADO DE LA CAMA, aka THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED, aka THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BED (2002) - This cinematic musical comedy was the highest grossing Spanish film in Spain in 2002. It spawned a stage musical in 2004 and then a cinematic sequel in 2005 called LOS 2 LADOS DE LA CAMA, aka THE 2 SIDES OF THE BED. In 2006, there was a French cinematic remake called ON VA S'AIMER, aka CHEATING LOVE. So Natalia Verbeke tells Guillermo Toledo that she's breaking up with him because she's in love with another man. Heartbroken, Toledo spills his guts to his best friend, Ernesto Alterio, and his girlfriend Paz Vega. Naturally, it turns out that Verbeke is in love with Alterio. Toldeo hires a private detective to find out with whom Verbeke is in love. By the way, the private detective has solved the JFK assassination. JFK had himself killed because Marilyn left him to live in Spain with Generalissimo Franco and she is still alive. Soon, Vega feels neglected by Alterio, and has sex with Toledo. Meanwhile, Verbeke thinks she's made a mistake, and returns to Toledo. The private detective's video tape shows that Alterio was screwing Verbeke. This boring sex comedy is interspersed with original songs performed like an old fashioned musical, which made me feel nostalgic for the Spanish musicals of the 1960s featuring Raphael and Marisol. In any case, the film ends with everyone singing and dancing together about the joy of being free to love whomever you want. The director is Emilio Martinez Lazaro and the credited screenwriter is David Serrano.

THE ROUNDERS (1965) - This was a film I saw as a ten year old when it first came out. I have no real memory of the film, except that I didn't much like it. When the 1998 film ROUNDERS came out, I wondered if it was a remake. It wasn't. When the 1965 film popped up on HDNET cable TV, I was curious to see it again. This was partly to do with original novelist Max Evans' friendship with director Sam Peckinpah, so that he was given a small role in THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE about which Evans wrote a small memoir called SAM PECKINPAH MASTER OF VIOLENCE. I wasn't expecting that watching THE ROUNDERS would feel so much like a chore. The story of a pair of modern day bronco busters, Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda, this film, written and directed by Burt Kennedy, was supposed to be funny - you could tell by the "Mickey Mouse" music by Jeff Alexander, but it wasn't for me. I ended up stopping and re-starting the film four times before if finally finished and I didn't enjoy any of it. Originally, Ford and Fonda were hired by Chill Wills to break some wild horses that his cowboys had corralled. Ford found that there was one roan horse which he couldn't break, and, try and he might, he couldn't get rid of. Wills convinced Ford and Fonda to spend the winter in the mountains rounding up stray cows. (I wonder if this might have been the inspiration for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, but our heroes here never express any sense of lust even if Ford did sneak a kiss from Joan Freeman, who was Elvis Presley's love interest in ROUSTABOUT.) After a run-in with Warren Oates, who had the idea of shooting cows in the leg to make them easier to catch, Ford and Fonda faced an attack of Oates and his friends trying to run-off the cows they had already corralled. The suggestion of some action was quickly ended when our heroes caught Oates before he could do any real harm. Most of the film dealt with Ford's frustration with the unbreakable roan horse, which he decided that he would sell to a glue factory, and then decided to sell to a dog food company. In the Spring, Ford and Fonda head to Sedona for the rodeo, where Ford decided that they could make some money betting all of the rodeo cowboys that they had an horse that no one could break. Along the way, our heroes find two dimwitted strippers, Sue Ann Langdon and Hope Holiday, whose car broke down on the highway. We know that Ford took an interest by the camera zooming into Langdon's butt as she bent over to check the car's engine. As our heroes stopped to see if they could help, the camera started in a close up of Langdon's crotch, tilted up past her bare mid-drift to settle on a close up of her covered breasts. Why such interest in Langdon when Ford spent so much time keeping an obviously interested Freeman at arm's length was never explained. In any case, Ford and Fonda raked in the cash as their roan proved to be unbreakable at the rodeo, but the horse ended up falling and seeming to be at death's door. Of course, as Ford got emotional as he was about to kill the horse with a gun, the horse quickly recovered and destroyed the barn where everyone expected him to die. Ford and Fonda forked-over all of their winnings to pay for the damage to the barn, and Chill Wills showed up to cover their short-fall. Wills engaged Ford and Fonda to break another group of wild horses causing Ford to define a bronco buster as "a cowboy who had his brains kicked out". So, still with the roan horse, our heroes set off down the road in the end. The most interesting thing I found in re-watching THE ROUNDERS, was seeing Hope Holiday in her last movie before mostly doing TV and then becoming a producer. She was the widow of Frank Marth, but ended up living with Cameron Mitchell in the early 1980s. I briefly met her when she came to get Mitchell from Fred Olen Ray's house after a day of shooting on a project I don't think was ever finished. You know from what era THE ROUNDERS came when we see a "hoedown" featuring Ford and Fonda dancing "the twist".

THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN (1987) - Travel back with me to 1987, when Danny DeVito was thought to be a new "hot" director. I didn't see MOMMA when it came out, but I caught both THE WAR OF THE ROSES and HOFFA. The latter film seemed to cool the perception of his directing talent. I finally caught MOMMA recently, and I didn't like it much. I knew it was inspired by director Alfred Hitchcock's version of Patricia Highsmith's novel STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, but I didn't realize that the film literally shows DeVito going to see the Hitchcock movie where he gets the idea of swapping murders with Billly Cristal. By the way, the highlight of MOMMA for me is the shot of the Vista Theater on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. with a clear view westward down Sunset Blvd. It is a sight I've seen innumerable times, but haven't for years. The clips shown in the publicity for MOMMA suggested a much zanier film that what it really was. DeVito seemed intent on making a suspense film with comedy, rather than the comedy suspense film I expected. In any case, I didn't find it funny, nor suspenseful. I kind of guessed the ending from the tone of the film, but I wasn't certain until it happened, which I guess was some sort of accomplishment. I wish Kim Greist made more better movies.

 

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David Deal Enjoyed:

GODLAND (22) - A young Danish priest is sent to raise a church in the Icelandic interior around the turn of the last century. The journey is tortuous but stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. This felt like a film festival entry (and it undoubtedly was) but that's not a bad thing. It is amazing to look at and quite involving. Recommended.

THE PURPLE HILLS (61) - Bounty hunter Gene Nelson kills a criminal for the bounty, and takes the dead man's gun belt back to prove it for the reward. Opportunist Kent Taylor saw the whole thing and takes the criminal's belt buckle as proof that he shot him. However, the Apaches want the real killer for their own reasons, which complicates things. Throw in the dead man's younger brother who wants revenge, and his lovely guardian, you have a lot of plot for an hour-long second feature. Half road trip and half gun battle, this brief western sketches its characters out of necessity but manages to entertain nonetheless.

HIGHWAY TO HELL (91) - Chad Lowe and his girlfriend Kristy Swanson are eloping to Vegas. They take an old road through the desert and unfortunately, as Chad nods at the wheel, they slip onto the highway to hell where a Hellcop abducts Kristy. Now Chad must outwit the Devil himself (Patrick Bergin) to get her back. This was much better and more fun than I expected. It is a creative, quality production that hits more than it misses with it abundance of eye candy, monsters, and clever bits of business. This is definitely a horror movie, shot in the Arizona desert (a true hell), but one with an 80s sense of colorful fun. Recommended.

MOONRISE KINGDOM (39)

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (39)

THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE (42)

Mildly enjoyed:

A MAN CALLED DAGGER (67) - Ex-Nazi Jan Murray has plans for world domination; namely to brainwash all the "important" people and use them to control every country in the world. Superspy Richard Dagger (Paul Mantee, fourth-billed star of the show) is assigned to stop him. Richard Rush's "hip" comedy is neither. It is, however, mean-spirited, especially to women, crude, and generally unpleasant. The music, by none other than Steve Allen, is a highlight.

THE MERMAIDS OF TIBURON (62) - Marine biologist George Rowe is hired to travel to the isolated island of Tiburon in the gulf of California to document the unique sea life. What he finds is a bevy of "mermaids", topless ladies of the sea, only a few of which have actual fish tails. At the same time, bad guy Timothy Carey and his reluctant helper Jose Gonzales-Gonzales head to the island to find fabulous pearls. Conflict arises. This is a strange film with a strange history by underwater photographer John Lamb (Sea Hunt, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) who took on the additional roles of producer, writer, and director here. An odd travelogue-type piece with some added suspense and mild violence, The version I found on Youtube is apparently the third iteration of the film. The first version had no nudity and did no business. The second version was all nudity without much of the plot and played under a couple of different titles.  And the third version has both nudity and plot, but frankly, this is dull even with the nudity and Timothy Carey. It's a mere curio with nice photography. The main mermaid is Playboy playmate Diane Webber.

THE MYSTERY OF MR. X (34) - There's a cop killer loose in London they call Mr. X. At the same time, gentlemanly thief Robert Montgomery has stolen a fabulous diamond, and by coincidence one of Mr. X's victims is found near the site of the theft. Scotland Yard believes the two events to be connected. This puts Montgomery at a disadvantage and he must find a way to extricate himself from suspicion. Influential early example of the upper crust criminal that would become a mainstay in the mystery genre. Likable enough with some flourishes of noirish photography and intentional humor.

A NIGHT IN PARADISE (46) - Ancient Greece. The fabled Aesop (Turhan Bey), an ambassador of Samos, arrives in Lydia to tell King Croesus (Thomas Gomez) that Samos cannot pay the expected tribute. Condemned to death, Aesop is saved by the queen (Merle Oberon) and the two fall in love. Complications abound. This is an odd, Technicolor, studio-bound fantasy from Universal that is not uninteresting but is curiously remote. The familiar cast includes Gale Sondergaard as a witch who haunts the king, Jerome Cowan, Paul Cavanagh, and many more.

OBSESSION: A TASTE FOR FEAR (88) - Hot fashion photographer Virginia Hey lives a wild life of inconsequential sex, drink and debauchery but when one of her models is killed, she is determined to get to the bottom of it. As bodies pile up, in one way or another, Hey becomes embroiled in more deaths and more mystery. A post-Argento, color-saturated, sex-heavy giallo that impresses more for the life-as-music-video 80s glitz than anything else.

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Angel Rivera  Mildly enjoyed:

"ARTISTS AND MODELS" (1955)
One of the last Martin and Lewis movies. Features early performance by Shirley  MacLaine. Takes place in the world of Sci-Fi and Comic books as Dino plays a magazine artist and Jerry gets ideas for stories in his dreams that turn out to have some validity. Shirley plays a model who dresses in a sexy "Bat Lady" outfit, Dorothy Malone is also in it.  There is some nonsense about spies and secret formulas, but it's only semi-funny. Dean sings "Innamorata", a big hit for him.

Enjoyed:

"ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION" (1939) (Chapters 1-8)
One of Republic Pictures' better serials. Basic plot: Zorro and his legion prevent the evil Don Oro from becoming emperor of Mexico. So far where I left off, he may get a break in the struggle. Republic serials are good for their stunt work and "ZFL" features a lot of them. There are twelve chapters in all and I am only up to Chapter 8.  I'll let you know if Zorro makes it (wink!) after I watch the last four chapters.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

The private life of Sherlock Holmes (1970, Billy Wilder)

Rio Conchos (1964, Gordon Douglas)

Time bandits – season 1 - episodes 1 & 2

Wasting away (2007, Matthew Kohnen)

Mildly enjoyed:

Pitaneun yeonae / My military Valentine (2023, Park Gwang Choon) (tv serie – 12 epis)

The possessed (1977, Jerry Thorpe)

Harvey (2021, tv play)

The time tunnel – episode « Reign of terror » (1966, Sobey Martin)

Unearthed (2007, Matthew Leutwyler)

Did not enjoy:

Bufflo Bill in Tomahawk territory (1952, Bernard B. Ray)

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Charles Gilbert watched:

WAR OF THE SATELLITES (1958) Colorized. Space agency boss Richard Devon is killed in an automobile accident after the base receives and ignores radio signal threats from aliens. Aboard a subsequent space ship mission the extraterrestrial doppleganger duplicates himself in the form of Devon for sabotage. A Roger Corman film.

THE LOST CONTINENT (1951) B&W. Six men crash land on a strange island searching for a rogue rocket. They encounter a few fearful natives, a brontosaurus, and a couple stegasauri. Only four make it out alive. 

HOUR OF DECISION 1957 B&W. At Mr. Deal's cue from last week's review I took in another of Hazel Court films; pleasantly surprised to see American actor Jeff Morrow playing her husband.

The Fugitive Series:

    I did not see the pilot initially, but it looks like it was combined with S1E01 'Fear in the Desert'. In Tucson fugitive Richard Kimble takes a job as a bartender working with piano player Vera Miles whose abusive husband Brian Keith proves nettlesome to his guise.

    'All the Scared Rabbits' S3E7. Susanne Pleshette guest stars as a mother whose young daughter contracts life-threatening meningitus from a lab rabbit. 

     Finale Part 1 & 2. In color. The one-armed man did murder Kimble's wife (Diane Brewster). But there was a witness (J. D. Cannon) whose war hero reputation was at stake when he froze in fear.

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