To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
Which American actor went to Italy to make a Western and brought along some authentic Colt .45s which he then rented to various productions?
It was Guy Madison.
In which Western is Sergio Leone often cited as making a guest appearance, but he doesn't?
Tom Betts and Kevin Ross knew that it is UNE CORDE... UN COLT..., aka A ROPE AND A GUN, aka CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES.
In which Italian produced Western does Sam Peckinpah make a guest appearance?
Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Kevin Ross and George Grimes knew that it is AMORE, PIOMBO E FURORE, aka CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37.
By what name is Guido Lollobrigida better known?
Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Kevin Ross, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Lee Burton.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Which Italian actress decided to retire from the screen after she married, but found herself drafted into playing roles in her director husband's movies?
Which Italian actress married a film director and moved to Brasil where they made two movies? They eventually moved back to Italy for most of their careers.
Which Italian actress retired from the screen at the age of 37 and eventually died at the age of 81?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes, Kevin Ross and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho and Nazzareno Zamperla in UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO, aka A PISTOL FOR RINGO.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Nazzareno Zamperla in I SETTE GLADIATORI, aka GLADIATORS SEVEN.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Richard Harrison, Wandisa Guida, Nazzareno Zamperla and Ugo Sasso in I TRE SERGENTI DEL BENGALA, aka THREE SERGEANTS OF BENGAL.
George Grimes identified last week's frame grab from DRAGON INN.
Above is a new photo.
Can you identify 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:
FLAME, aka SLADE IN FLAME (1975) - Slade was a jolly good time band, so the decision to make a downbeat drama with them playing a fictitious combo in the late 1960s was rather odd. Slade manager Chas Chandler felt that after their amazing recording success, the band should do The Beatles thing and make a movie. However, they didn't want to make a slapstick comedy like what The Beatles and Herman's Hermits had done. They also didn't want to make a hybrid drama like what The Dave Clark Five and Sonny & Cher had done. So Andrew Birkin, who had been a production assistant on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and the screenwriter of THE PIED PIPER - and was Jane Birkin's brother, was hired to help craft the simple story of a band that get a professional push from a marketing firm and then fall apart at the height of their success. Richard Loncraine was brought in from television to direct the film which would focus on the dark side of the music business. With Johnny Shannon hired to play the band's first manager, you know he would be up to no good. Stage actor Tom Conti made his feature film debut in the role of the head of the marketing firm, who didn't care about the band, but knew how to market them. Basically a "kitchen sink drama" with songs, FLAME was a dreary film, which wasn't helped by the dreary cinematography by Peter Hannan. While the band members don't embarrass themselves as actors, they also don't engage audience sympathy.
ZOMBIETHON (1986) Someone at Wizard Video figured out that many viewers of Zombie movies were only interested in naked women and outrageous gore effects so Ken Dixon got the job of compiling those scenes from Wizard's releases: ZOMBIE, OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, ZOMBIE LAKE and THE INVISIBLE DEAD, plus scenes from non-Zombie movies like FEAR and THE ASTRO ZOMBIES. To tie the clips together, he shot new stuff showing scantily clad women, like K. Janyl Caudle (aka Karrene Janyl Caudle), being abducted by a zombie and taken to the El Rey theater on Wilshire Blvd., where in an audience of zombies are enjoying the movie clips. Considering that the zombies in the clips seem to only attack naked, or nearly naked, women, they seem to be more interested in sexual assault than in eating.
Did not enjoy:
ALIEN WARRIOR (1985) - Director Ed Hunt, who made the terrible STARSHIP INVASIONS in 1977 with Christopher Lee, makes another awful flick, which mixes elements of TERMINATOR with an L.A. street gang story. On a distant planet, Brett Clark feels that he has to defeat a "Great Evil" before he can become a great leader. Since his brother never returned from his mission on Earth, (what that mission was is never explained), Clark decides to go there. Luckily after he lands in a fiery explosion, a friendly drunk gives him something to wear. He soon witnesses a drug buy and asks the pimp-like Reggie De Morton if he is a "Great Evil". Naturally, De Morton replies, "The greatest." Also luckily, Clark walks past a store front Karate school, so when he finds Pamela Saunders being assaulted by a Latino street gang, he has the skills to stop them. It turns out that Saunders is running a charitable school to give an education to street kids. Clark helps out and soon the Latino gang want to be good guys. This upsets how De Morton wants things to be, so efforts are made to eliminate our hero.
THE DEAD DON'T HURT (2023) - A brooding melancholic Western written, directed and starring Viggo Mortensen, THE DEAD DON'T HURT seems to be an obviously serious film made with conviction. However, it is very slow moving with a needlessly confusing flashback structure, that still flouts realism by having miraculous marksmanship and knife throwing. After the film ends, it becomes apparent that the plot is a rather cliched revenge tale, though the real villains are never brought to account and our "hero" fails to save the innocent. While both Vicky Krieps and Mortensen give finely detailed performances, neither really engage audience sympathy or interest. A Canadian/Mexican/Danish co-production, the film was shot mostly in Canada with some work in Mexico. Danny Huston and Garret Dillahunt also appear.
THE FLASH (2023) - I ignored the CW TV series so I wasn't invested in liking the movie version. And as I hated most of the DCEU flicks, I wasn't expecting much entertainment in this effort. And I didn't get any.
WAS SCHULMADCHEN VERSCHWEIGEN, aka SECRETS OF SWEET SIXTEEN (1973) - Aside from seeing some attractive women get naked - including an unbilled Christina Lindberg, German sex comedies do nothing for me. This one illustrates a few different stories - including two teen girls preventing a sweaty man from molesting a little girl by getting undressed themselves, a virginal young man who can't act when a beautiful young woman throws herself on him, and a Satanic cult that needs a virgin girl for a ceremony and finds one whose fiance wants to wait until they are married.
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David Deal Enjoyed:
KINDAR THE INVULNERABLE (64)
BARON BRAKOLA (65) - The vampire Baron Brakola (Fernando Oses) returns from the grave to seek revenge on Santo for what his ancestor, the Knight in the Silver Mask, did to the Baron. Flashbacks to 1765 tell the story. Early b&w Santo entry along the lines of The Witches Attack and The Diabolical Axe. Oses was a mover and shaker in the strange world of the masked wrestler horror films; he wrote many of them and appeared in front of the camera as both heavy and hero as well.
SANTO VS THE VICE MAFIA (70) - A series of fires targeting leading industries inspires the police to call in Santo, who investigates. Unfolding events lead to Santo impersonating someone who is impersonating him! A colorful, exuberant Santo crime movie with plenty of bikinis and dance numbers with a minimum of ring wrestling to get in the way.
LA LOBA (65) - AKA She-Wolf. A werewolf kills three people in one night, and escapes thru a tomb in the local cemetery which has a secret chamber leading back to a nearby house. The house is that of an esteemed scientist who is looking for the cure for lycanthropy because one of his daughters is the werewolf. But which one as they are both acting strangely? When the fiance of one of the daughters arrives to ask for her hand in marriage, it turns out he's a werewolf too! What are the chances! Just as there are two lycanthropes, there are also multiple heroes in this Mexican monsterfest that should be better known than it is. This is atmospheric, lean, and bloody for the time. The version I watched online has subtitles.
AUSTIN POWERS (97)
IL CUARTO CHINO (66) - AKA The Chinese Room. A wealthy banker is being driven insane. The fact that his family acquired the bank in a shady deal may provide a clue. Hypnotism and magic mushrooms are involved in the scheme, so there are wild dream sequences and plot trails leading nowhere, along with excellent 60's modern art direction, and an unusual trippy soundtrack. Albert Zugsmith's mad movie didn't see the light of day until 1968 when it promptly fell into obscurity. Shot in English in Mexico, this features several familiar faces from that country's Gothic horror films. An awkward feast for the eyes, this strange mystery isn't "good" in traditional terms but will entertain those in the mood.
2001 (68) - For me, this movie gets better with every viewing. The 4k presentation is worth seeing.
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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:
"THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN" (1960)
Cinema Retro magazine has published a special edition all about the making of the classic western and its legacy. With that in mind I decided to re-watch my special edition DVD. The film is one of my all time favorite Westerns. Each time I watch it, I enjoy a different aspect. For ex., this time I enjoyed the scene "going up to Boot Hill" and the scenes with the Mexican villagers. (Many of the actors is these scenes were actual Hispanic actors, some born in the US and not non-Hispanic actors with but one exception.)
"SEVEN SAMURAI" (1954)
After watching "The Magnificent Seven", I decided I had to watch its inspiration. Still a masterpiece. One of Kurosawa's best. (Aside from his samurai or chambara films, one of my favorite Kurosawa films is "Stray Dog" (1949). The American remake while entertaining misses a lot in what is not transferred to the American West. Both make for an entertaining double bill.
Cinema Retro magazine has published a special edition all about the making of the classic western and its legacy. With that in mind I decided to re-watch my special edition DVD. The film is one of my all time favorite Westerns. Each time I watch it, I enjoy a different aspect. For ex., this time I enjoyed the scene "going up to Boot Hill" and the scenes with the Mexican villagers. (Many of the actors is these scenes were actual Hispanic actors, some born in the US and not non-Hispanic actors with but one exception.)
"SEVEN SAMURAI" (1954)
After watching "The Magnificent Seven", I decided I had to watch its inspiration. Still a masterpiece. One of Kurosawa's best. (Aside from his samurai or chambara films, one of my favorite Kurosawa films is "Stray Dog" (1949). The American remake while entertaining misses a lot in what is not transferred to the American West. Both make for an entertaining double bill.
Mildly enjoyed:
"THE LAST GUN" (1964)
Cameron Mitchell plays the gunfighter who wants to settle down and lay down his gun only to find he is needed for one last fight against some very bad men. As "Jim Hart" he wears a mask to hid his identity as he battles the bad guys. He gets assist from a character simply named "Guitar." Entertaining enough.
"SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA" aka "EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO" (1969)
I first knew of "Santo", the silver-masked one from comic books imported to my old neighborhood, in the "scenic South Bronx" where I grew up, from Mexico. Anyway "Santo" wore a silver colored hood as a wrestler and was also a kind of super hero. He was popular in a slew of movies where he fights the forces of evil; some supernatural. In this one he fights Dracula himself. One day his producers asked if he would allow sex and nudity to be infused in his movies as a version for adults only; to which he said a resounding "No"! His movies are for the whole family. His director and producers filmed some nude and sex scenes without his knowledge and that version of this movie was shown on the now defunct Robert Rodriguez's "El Rey" network. The story goes Santo has invented a time machine which lets a person go back in time to the time of a previous life. But it can only work on women. The daughter of one of Santos' scientist friends volunteers to be a test subject for Santos' machine. Before she gets into the time machine, (which bears a slight resemblance to the time tunnel of the American TV show, "The Time Tunnel") she is wearing a silver jumpsuit. But as she goes into the past she is seen wearing a nightie. She has landed in a village where Count Alucard is suspected of being a vampire. He turns out to be none other than Dracula. (Alucard spelt backwards is, well you can see.) The scientist's daughter, Luisa (played by beautiful redheaded Argentinian actress, Noelia Noel) comes under Dracula's spell. Her initiation is shown with Dracula first performing what appears to be sexual foreplay on her by first exposing her breasts, presumably to get a better a better shot at her neck. He also appears to go down on her; although that is not shown. She moans in ecstasy and then after kissing her ample bosoms, he bites her on the neck. This is one of the scenes Santo did not know about and did not take part in. (Santo is not seen in any of the scenes involving nudity or sex.) A few other scenes involve Dracula "initiating" about seven completely nude buxom women. (By "buxom" I mean all the women were natural looking with not one having breasts, smaller than a D cup, if they wore bras.) He does the same thing with all of them, exposing their breasts before he bites them on the neck. Luisa is then returned to the present before a stake is placed in her heart. She then helps Santo find Dracula's treasure and stop a revived Dracula. (Dracula had been "staked" back in the past, but the stake was removed by some bad treasure hunters out to get Dracula's treasure.) Dracula picks up where her left off before being exposed to sunlight and meeting his end. (This version is known as, "El Vampiro, y el Sexo") ("The Vampire and Sex") and had a limited release before being withdrawn from theaters. It was not shown again until the film was rediscovered in 2011.
Cameron Mitchell plays the gunfighter who wants to settle down and lay down his gun only to find he is needed for one last fight against some very bad men. As "Jim Hart" he wears a mask to hid his identity as he battles the bad guys. He gets assist from a character simply named "Guitar." Entertaining enough.
"SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA" aka "EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO" (1969)
I first knew of "Santo", the silver-masked one from comic books imported to my old neighborhood, in the "scenic South Bronx" where I grew up, from Mexico. Anyway "Santo" wore a silver colored hood as a wrestler and was also a kind of super hero. He was popular in a slew of movies where he fights the forces of evil; some supernatural. In this one he fights Dracula himself. One day his producers asked if he would allow sex and nudity to be infused in his movies as a version for adults only; to which he said a resounding "No"! His movies are for the whole family. His director and producers filmed some nude and sex scenes without his knowledge and that version of this movie was shown on the now defunct Robert Rodriguez's "El Rey" network. The story goes Santo has invented a time machine which lets a person go back in time to the time of a previous life. But it can only work on women. The daughter of one of Santos' scientist friends volunteers to be a test subject for Santos' machine. Before she gets into the time machine, (which bears a slight resemblance to the time tunnel of the American TV show, "The Time Tunnel") she is wearing a silver jumpsuit. But as she goes into the past she is seen wearing a nightie. She has landed in a village where Count Alucard is suspected of being a vampire. He turns out to be none other than Dracula. (Alucard spelt backwards is, well you can see.) The scientist's daughter, Luisa (played by beautiful redheaded Argentinian actress, Noelia Noel) comes under Dracula's spell. Her initiation is shown with Dracula first performing what appears to be sexual foreplay on her by first exposing her breasts, presumably to get a better a better shot at her neck. He also appears to go down on her; although that is not shown. She moans in ecstasy and then after kissing her ample bosoms, he bites her on the neck. This is one of the scenes Santo did not know about and did not take part in. (Santo is not seen in any of the scenes involving nudity or sex.) A few other scenes involve Dracula "initiating" about seven completely nude buxom women. (By "buxom" I mean all the women were natural looking with not one having breasts, smaller than a D cup, if they wore bras.) He does the same thing with all of them, exposing their breasts before he bites them on the neck. Luisa is then returned to the present before a stake is placed in her heart. She then helps Santo find Dracula's treasure and stop a revived Dracula. (Dracula had been "staked" back in the past, but the stake was removed by some bad treasure hunters out to get Dracula's treasure.) Dracula picks up where her left off before being exposed to sunlight and meeting his end. (This version is known as, "El Vampiro, y el Sexo") ("The Vampire and Sex") and had a limited release before being withdrawn from theaters. It was not shown again until the film was rediscovered in 2011.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:
Le tombeur (1958, René Delacroix)
Urutoraman : kûsô tokusatsu shirîzu / Ultraman (1966) – episodes 8 to 10
The invaders – episodes “Summit meeting, part one & part two” (1967, Don Medford) & “The prophet” (1967, Robert Douglas)
Billy two hats (1973, Ted Kotcheff)
Canyon passage (1946, Jacques Tourneur)
Mildly enjoyed:
Trois jours de bringue à Paris (1953, Emile Couzinet)
Le bagnard (1950, Willy Rozier)
La femme à l'orchidée (1952, Raymond Leboursier)
Backtrack / Catchfire (1990, Dennis Hopper)
Capone (1975, Steve Carver)
Billy the kid trapped (1942, Sam Newfield)
A streetcar named desire (1951, Elia Kazan)
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