September 28 - October 4, 2024

 

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

Brain Teasers:

In which Italian Western is there an exterior Cashier's window at the Sheriff's office?

It is CHIEDI PERDONO A DIO... NON A ME, aka GOD MAY FORGIVE YOU... BUT I WON'T.

Which Italian actor regrets turning down the role Gian Maria Volonte got for PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI because the money was too little?

No one has answered this question yet.

Which American body builder, who also went to Italy to make movies, used to be a roommate to Steve Reeves in the time of the "Muscle House"?

Charles Gilbert knew that it was Mark Forest.

For what movie did Gordon Mitchell accept 10 acres of land near Cave when the producer couldn't pay him his salary?

Tom Betts knew that it is E MEZZANOTTE... BUTTA GIU IL CADAVERE, aka AND MIDNIGHT... THROW DOWN THE CORPSE.

By what name is Christopher Harton better known?

Tom Betts knew that it is Cris Huerta.

By what name is Steve McCoy better known?

Tom Betts and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it is Ignacio Iquino.

And now for some new brain teasers:

By what name is Terence Hathaway better known?

By what name is Enzo Girolami better known?

By what name is E.G. Rowland better known?

Name the movies from which these images came.

No one identified the above shot of Gordon Mitchell in I SETTE DEL GRUPPO SELVAGGIO, aka  7 DEVILS ON HORSEBACK.

Bertrand van Wonterghem, George Grimes, and Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Rhonda Fleming, Serge Gainsbourg and Van Aikens in LA RIVOLTA DEI SCHIAVI, aka REVOLT OF THE SLAVES.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Ken Clark and Daniela Bianchi in MISSIONE SPECIALE LADY CHAPLIN, aka SPECIAL MISSION LADY CHAPLIN.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo from THE 8 DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER.

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:

FROM RUSSIA WITH LEV (2024) - From MSNBC Films.

Icons Unearthed "Harry Potter" (2024)

Icons Unearthed "Tom Cruise" (2024) - I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, but I am a fan of behind-the-scenes stories on making movies. This six episode program doesn't focus on Cruise's personal life, and there's barely a mention of Scientology. It focuses on his movie career with stories about how his choices and work ethic made him a big star.

Mildly enjoyed:

LE REGINE, aka THE QUEENS, aka QUEENS OF EVIL (1970) - Living on Okinawa, I developed a love for obscure European films which played on the Japanese theaterical circuit. That is how I saw LES JEUNES LOUPS and I became aware of Haydee Politoff. I was very eager of see Politoff in another film when LE REGINE showed up. At the time, Raymond Lovelock, who made  his film debut in one of my all-time favorite films, SE SEI VIVO SPARA, was being touted in Japan, along with Renaud Verley, as the new European cinematic heart throbs. Like SE SEI VIVO SPARA, LE REGINE played theatrically in Italian with Japanese subtitles. Unlike SE SEI, the plot of REGINE was too obscure for me to follow and I didn't realize it was a supernatural tale until the ending. After all this time, I finally watched the English language version, so I have a better idea of what the film is about. When I first saw it, I winced over the opening of Lovelock riding a motorcycle with an erzatz pop song playing on the soundtrack. European portrayals of "the counter culture" always struck me as phony and this sounded particularly bad. But when I found the Seven Seas 45 RPM for sale at the record store, I bought a copy. Over the five decades since, I've come to love "We Love You Underground" with "Swimming" on the b-side. With the English language version, I've come to understand this film. Lovelock plays a good hearted young man seeking to live free of the hypocracy of moden society. In the middle of the night, he stops to help Gianni Santuccio change a flat tire on his expensive car. Santuccio tells the young man that once he meets a beautiful woman: "Pleasure will enchain your entire being - your flesh and your spirit.. You will realize, too late, that you will have renegaded on your revolutionairy ideals and have fallen at last a slave to sex, and therefore to the Devil." So, eventually, Lovelock ends up staying in an house with Politoff, Silvia Monti and Ida Galli (here billed as Ewelyn Staurt instead of her usual Evelyn Stewart). After each of the women bed our hero, he decides that he wants to give up his freedom and stay with them. And so they kill him, feeling that he will suffer the torment of knowing that he betrayed his ideals in the afterlife. As Lovelock's body is buried, Santuccio tells the gathered "people who count, those who decide; society" that they have to work harder against the ideals of the young. "If this continues, I'll be no longer needed." So, writers Benedetto Benedetti, Antonio Troiso, Raoul Katz and director Tonino Cervi feel that the ideals of the "hippies" are a threat to the Devil because they don't believe in sin. I wish I had understood that when I first saw the movie. It would have been a more rewarding experience. Unfortunately, even with the pleasure of looking at the beautiful women decked out in Jean Bouquin's costumes, inside Massimo De Rossi's unique production design, and captured by Sergio D'Offizi's camerawork, the movie isn't very exciting. The sexual encounters are all fairly standard for 1970, with suggested nudity and hands clasping in close up during coitus. I guess Ray Lovelock was once in a band with Tomas Milian and had a serious career as a musician, but he was no Bob Dylan.

L'UMANOIDE, aka THE HUMANOID (1979) - Did director Aldo Lado use the pseudonym of Geroge B. Lewis as an acknowledgement that his film was taking a great deal of inspiration from director George Lucas' STAR WARS? Adriano Bolzoni gets the credit for coming up with the story of this film, which does not take place in a galaxy far far far away, but in the future where Earth is now called Metropolis. The leader of Metropolis is Massimo Serato, whose brother, Ivan Rassimov, has been exiled to an prison satellite. Rassimov has escaped his prison with the help of Lady Barbara Bach of the planet Noxon and the evil scientist Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy developed the powerful Kapitron element, but was thwarted in his plan to use it by good scientist Corinne Clery. With Kapitron, Kennedy can change any human into an unstoppable supersoldier Humanoid. Luckily, little Asian boy Marco Yeh is able to get Clery to escape an effort by Kennedy to have her killed. Kennedy gets his hands on the element he developed and uses it on space pilot Richard Kiel who happens to wander into his view. Kiel's faithful space dog notices a change in his master, when Kiel seems to be re-enacting his role from EEGAH! Using a "narco gas", Kennedy subdues Kiel and implants a device with which to control Kiel and then sends him to Metropolis to kill Serato. Kennedy's ultimate plan is to fire a missle over Metropolis which, after it explodes, will turn the entire population into an Humanoid army, with which Rassimov can conquer the galaxy. While Clery thinks that Yeh is a boy she's teaching, Yeh turns out to be supernaturally powerful. Not only does he have two protectors who suddenly turn up to fire "light arrows" into enemies, but he also has the mental ability to destroy the implant controling Kiel. Eventually, soldier Leonard Mann goes with Clery, Yeh and Kiel to the planet Noxon to foil the bad guys plot. Rassimov's costume obviously was inspired by Darth Vader's gear, but they've cut out the eyes and mouth, so it's not a complete face mask. Still, you can't recognize Rassimov in it. Music composer Ennio Morricone doesn't attempt to replicate what John Williams did for STAR WARS, and instead goes for something more like Ravel's "Bolero" that actually brings a sense of class to this silly film. Old time fans of Italian science fiction directed by Anthony M. Dawson, aka Antonio Margheriti, may hope that this film will answer "What would the fellow who made WAR BETWEEN THE PLANETS do after STAR WARS?" Well, he's listed as the Special Effects Supervisor, but Armando Valcauda is actually in charge of the visual effects, with Ian W. Jacobsen credited for the Process Photography, with Emilio Ruiz in charge of models and Optical Effects by Studio 4, Studio Verzini and Ermanno Biamonte. Not surprising, the effects work isn't even up to the quality of the original Battlestar Galatica. And the filmmakers spend too much time showing the effects, so that they become repititious. One can't help but wonder how it came about that feature film director Enzo Castellari, billed without the usual middle initial "G", became the Second Unit Director for this project. Rather than "The Force", the supernatural element in this film is only used by Marco Yeh, who turns out to be from Tibet, in the distant past.

MISSION SPECIALE A CARACAS, aka MISSION TO CARACAS (1965) - Perhaps tired of having their most famous secret agent, OOS 117, being an American with a French heritage, the makers of this film have their hero a French agent. But nothing in this film will give anyone a sense of national pride. A convoy of military jeeps in Venezuela is hit by nerve gas bombs. French agent Rod Carter, aka Roland Carey, arrives on the scene to have a Venezuelian military attache state that his country won't stand for anymore crimes committed by French agitators. His government plans to protest to the United Nations. Soviet spy Christian Kerville is also on hand to say that his country also plans to complain to the U.N. How anyone connected the attack to the French is never explained, but we soon see that millionaire Saro Urzi is behind the demonstration of how well his new nerve gas works. Angel del Pozo heads a group of investors who believe that this weapon will ensure that their movement can not fail. What exactly is their "movement" is never explained, but they agree to pay Urzi a million dollars in diamonds to give the formula to their "industrial colleagues in Europe" to begin production. Somehow all of this seems to have been material slapped on the the novel TREIZE FEMMES (THIRTEEN WOMEN) by Claude Rank to turn the film into a secret agent romp. The main story is about Urzi traveling to France on an ocean liner with seven, or eight, female golddiggers tagging along. Soviet killer Michel Lemoine is sent to kill Urzi at sea and to get his hands on the briefcase which contains the diamonds as well as the documents which will embarrass the French government. With their "sugar daddy" dead, the golddiggers plot with and against each other to get their hands on the diamonds. Carter gets on board the ocean liner and tries to also get his hands on the briefcase. Needless to say there are also a couple of Soviet agents onboard who show up, from time to time, to beat up on the women. Oddly, since the crew members of the liner are working with Carter, they don't lock up the Soviet agents after our hero clobbers them. Towards the end of the film, as Carter and the French police surround the Soviet bad guys, Kerville threatens to kill the golddiggers who haven't been killed yet. As none of them have really shown any personality to make them stand out of the group, and they've spent most of the film being unhelpful, it is hard for a viewer to not agree to their deaths, but our hero must do what an hero must do. Why Jany Clair is singled out as the female for our hero in the end is a complete mystery. There are seven writers, including KOMMISSAR X director Gianfranco Parolini, credited on this, and none of them should take pride in their work here. Director Raoul Andre, who made a few films with Eddie Constantine, doesn't show any talent with this material, though I did smile at the repeating gag of waitress Manga Tani dropping a tray filled with glasses every time she finds a dead body. Michel Magne's jazzy music score is not a plus for me.

Did not enjoy:

HEXEN GESCHANDET UND ZU TODE GEQUALT, aka WITCHES VIOLATED AND TORTURED TO DEATH, aka MARK OF THE DEVIL PART II (1973) Reportedly, there are two different versions of this movie, each with a different music track. I'm not sure which version I saw, but it certainly was much less graphic than the original MARK OF THE DEVIL. Anton Diffring plays the witchfinder in this film, and his character is rather dull. Reggie Nalder returns as the torturer, but there is no character who begins to question what the witchfinder is doing. As with MARK OF THE DEVIL, this film starts with a narrative title stating that the story is true, but unlike the other film, this story focuses on one noble woman, played by Erika Blanc. Her husband is killed when he tries to stop Nalder from torturing a woman by dunking her in freezing water. Blanc wants justice for her husband's murder, but finds that the corrupt authorities aren't interested. To discredit his accuser, Nalder arrests Blanc' kitchen maid as a witch. A series of other arrests are made until finally Blanc's son is arrested along with a woman who makes herbs and a young nun. Blanc hopes to win her son's freedom by submitting to the governor's sexual advances, but finally can't go through with it. So, she, too gets arrested and tortured. The writers decided to come up with an happy ending, though none of the villains are punished in the end. Was producer/director Adrian Hoven hoping that he could make a follow-up film with Diffring and Nalder? Whether the first MARK was good or bad is open for discussion, but it wasn't dull. With rather static camerawork and many pointless dialogue sections, MARK OF THE DEVILPART II is dull and mostly predictable. What does come as a surprise is the rain storm that happens while Diffring is attempting to burn the nun alive. It may have put out the fire, but it appears that it didn't save the young woman. At times this movie felt like it belonged in the nunsploitation genre.

Snowpiercer season four (2024) - While I enjoyed the first season of the TV series more than the 2013 feature film, the second and third seasons became more irritating than enjoyable. I continued to keep track of the show, mostly because I'm a fan of Jennifer Connelly, and I was curious as to how they would end the show. Well, they ended the show rather nicely, though the last season was very irritating, even with the addition of Clark Gregg as a bad guy. I've grown fond of Rowan Blanchard and I look forward to seeing her in something that I like.

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Bertrand van Wonterghem enjoyed:

Bananas (1971, Woody Allen)

Le jour se lève (1939, Marcel Carné)

Riding shotgun (1954, André de Toth)

Mary, queen of Scots (1971, Charles Jarrott)

Gangmaegang / Seoul busters – season 1 – episodes 1 to 4

Isekai shikkaku / No longer allowed in another world (anime) - season 1 (2023) - episodes 5 to 10

DC’s legends of tomorrow – season 6 – episodes 9 to 13

Son-hae Bo-ji silh-eo-seo / No gain, no love – season 1 – episodes 1 to 6

Mildly enjoyed:

Beast from haunted cave (1959, Monte Hellman)

Time bandits – season 1 (2023) – episodes 5 to 10

Numéro un : Roger Pierre (tv show) (1977, Marion Sarraut)

Borderlands (2023, Eli Roth)

The amazing Spider-man (tv movie) (1977, E.W. Swackhamer)

Did not enjoy:

Gotham – season 5 (12 epis)

The penguin – season 1 – episode 1

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME" (1956/7)
The Victor Hugo novel has been adapted into a movie several times. The first is the famous Lon Chaney Sr. vehicle. Then the first sound version was the version which starred Charles Laughton as the Hunchback and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda. Then there is the first color version which starred Anthony Quinn as the Hunchback and Gina Lollabrigida as Esmeralda. This is the version I watched. Lollabrigida is very sexy as the gypsy beauty Esmeralda and Quinn gives a moving performance as the tragic deformed hunchback. A fitting version of the Hugo tale.

"THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN" (1954)
The cable channel, Movies! TV Network showed three "woman's films" back to back. I watched two last week and caught this one  a few days later. Of the three "Three Coins in the Fountain" was the most enjoyable for me. The plot has three American women in Rome throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain and hoping for romance. All three after some mishaps end up with the loves of their lives. I am a sucker for a happy ending. The movie filmed on location in Rome and other parts of Italy make great use of the scenery. The veteran cast includes: Jean Peters; Dorothy McGuire; Maggie McNamara; Clifton Webb; Rossano Brazzi; and  Louis Jourdan. It also has a great title theme song sung by Frank Sinatra.

"STOPPING THE STEAL (2024)
An HBO documentary about a loser trying to keep his "temp" job after he is fired by the American public. It features as one of the "attempts", an assault on the US Capital building and Congress. 'Nuff said.

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Charles Gilbert watched:

Maydayday Air Disaster:

    "Deadly Display". Sukhoi Superjet 100. In 2012 a commercially driven demonstration flight by the Russian manufacturer in Indonesia ends up crashing into a cliff near Jakarta.

    "Deadly Airspace". Malaysia MH 17 is shot down by Russian-backed militants over Ukraine.

TWO FLAGS WEST (1951) B&W. As the Civil War rages on Confederate POW'S are given the option, by national decree of President Lincoln, to leave an infested prison camp in Illinois and serve at a western settlement called Fort Thorn to defend against Apaches. Gray coat Col. Clay Tucker (Joseph Cotton) casts the deciding vote among his men. They trade their uniforms for Union blue and head to New Mexico. There they are under command of Major Henry Kensington (Jeff Chandler) who nurses a bum leg from combat, and dotes on his deceased brother's widow (Linda Darnell). Resenting his attempt at surrogacy, she warms up to Tucker, and schemes an escape by wagon train of civilians led by the Confederate contingent. The Major expects them to desert, but the Confederate contingent returns to help when Fort Thorn is besieged by vengeful Apaches. The embittered Commandant had executed a young redskin, and is now outnumbered. The only solution to avoid more bloodshed is for him to sacrifice himself by walking out the gates to his execution.

IN A COLT'S SHADOW (1965) Canadian factotum of the arts Stephen Forsyth, in one of his rare appearances, plays pistolero Stephen Baines hankering to settle down and start a family. His elder riding partner Duke (Conrado San Martin) opposes this civil ambition and his designs to marry his daughter Susan (Anna Maria Polanni retaining her beauty mark just below the left eyelid). Searching for land, he runs into shady bankers Jackson and Burns, (Franco Ressel and Franco Lantieri). Helga Line plays  Fabienne. Directed by Giovanni Grimaldi who also was multidisciplined in the media arts.

REVOLT OF THE SLAVES (1960) Claudia (Rhonda Fleming) the imperious daughter of a Roman patrician falls affectionately for a slave (Lang Jeffries) that helps the Christian faction of the populus manage under dominate rule. They are also secretly succored by centurion Sebastion (Ettore Manni) who has also undergone religious conversion. Fine cast includes Van Aiken, Wandisa Guida, and Gino Cervi.

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