June 28 - July 4, 2025

 

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

Brain Teasers:

In which Dean Strafford Italian Western can you hear music from BLIND MAN?

No one has answered this question. It is I SETTE DEL GRUPPO SELVAGGIO, aka 7 DEVILS ON HORSEBACK.

In which Luis Davila Spanish Western can you hear music from GUNFIGHT AT RED SANDS?

No one has answered this question yet.

Claudia Cardinale said "hi" to Henry Fonda while Fonda was relaxing off set with Robert Woods on BATTLE OF THE BULGE. What was Fonda's comment about Claudia to Robert?

No one answered this question yet.

With which female co-star did Richard Harrison spend the night while she was having her "period" causing the maid in the morning to think there had been a murder with blood all over the room?

No one answered this question yet.

Which Canadian film actor, born in 1926, appeared in five Italian Westerns as well as two Tarzan movies?

Tom Betts. Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Al Mullock.

Which former American football player, born in 1942, began an acting career with a TV movie about football, but made his first feature appearance in an Italian Western?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem and George Grimes knew that it was Dick Butkus

From what Titanus production was Sergio Leone fired?

Tom Betts, Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it was SODOMA E GOMORRA, aka SODOM AND GOMORRAH.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which Italian actor, born in 1932, who made Sword & Sandal films and Westerns, is listed in the IMDb as "uncredited" for 17 movies?

Which Italian Western, starring Klaus Kinski, reused the music from UN UOMO, UN CAVALLO, UNA PISTOLA, aka THE STRANGER RETURNS?

Which American actress made one Western in Italy as well as a comedy with James Coburn and a wacky movie directed by Jack Hill with Lon Chaney?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Tom Betts, George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Piero Lulli, Gaetano Scala and Richard Harrison in EL ROJO.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Loredana Nusciak and Gerard Tichy in I SETTE GLADIATORI, aka GLADIATORS 7.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Nazzareno Zamperla, Wilbert Bradley, Aldo Sambrell, Ugo Sasso, and three others in I TRE SERGENTI DEL BENGALA, aka THREE SERGEANTS OF BENGAL.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

No one correctly identified the above photo yet.

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:

THE AMBULANCE (1990) - This was a pleasant surprise. I recorded this movie off The Movie Channel over 30 years ago and finally watched the VHS tape by chance. I've found that movies written and directed by Larry Cohen were often disappointing, but this one wasn't. Eric Roberts was delightful as an illustrator at Marvel Comics who decided that he was finally going to talk to a woman he often saw on the street while taking a lunch break. The woman was Janine Turner, and while Roberts was harassing her, she suddenly fell to the ground sick. An ambulance suddenly appeared, Turner told the orderlies that she was diabetic and she was quickly whisked away. Roberts spent most of his time trying to find Turner at the various New York City hospitals, which led to a disciplinary meeting with his boss Stan Lee. Eventually, Roberts sought help from NYPD Lt. James Earl Jones, whose life was being run by Lt. Megan Gallagher. Neither of them put much credence in his story, so Roberts saught out Turner's room mate, who was also a diabetic. Soon the ambulance appeared and she disappeared as well. We finally got an explanation when Dr. Eric Braeden showed up at Turner's bedside to explain that they planned to perform an experimental surgery on her which could possibly cure diabetes, but could also probably kill her. Cohen found a splendid collaborator in Roberts, who easily moved from playing the action thriller scenes to the more humorous bits. James Earl Jones also skillfully mixed his usual gravitas with humor. I became a fan of Megan Gallagher when she was on The Slap Maxwell Show, and she was terrific here as well. The biggest surprise came from Red Buttons, who played an aging New York Post reporter who accidentally over hears Roberts and hoped that the story could be worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. While much of the film seemed unlikely, it didn't fall apart like many of Cohen's films and it came to a satisfying conclusion. Frequent actor for Coppola and Peckinpah Richard Bright appeared as well as Matt Cimber's former "star in the making" Laurene Landon. As with many of Cohen's films, THE AMBULANCE looked to be mostly shot in NYC, but a few shots looked to have been shot in L.A. pretending to be NYC.

Weeds season four (2008)

Mildly enjoyed:

JOE DAKOTA (1957) - Not wearing a gun, Jock Mahoney rides into the small Western town of Arborville which he finds almost completely empty. Finally the young Luana Patten emerges and tells him that everyone in town has gone to work. Riding a little further, Mahoney finds that the work the town is involved with is trying to bring in an oil well. Charles McGraw insists that the property is his and that people in a small town don't take kindly to strangers asking questions. Director Richard Bartlett and writers William Talman and Norman Jolley keep the mystery of who Mahoney is and what he wants enjoyably unknown for about half the running time of the 79 minute movie with a complete absence of gun play. Having some punch-ups with Claude Akins and Lee Van Cleef provides some excitement, but it is the mystery which keeps the viewer's attention. Unfortunately, the ending of the movie isn't completely satisfying, but it is refreshing to see a Western that avoids the standard climactic gunfight. It is also refreshing to see Paul Birch and Anthony Caruso not being villainous. Director Bartlett had previously made ROCK, PRETTY BABY! which also co-starred Luana Patten. He soon moved on to a long career directing for television. Patten was one of the two first contract players for Walt Disney Studios, and appeared in SONG OF THE SOUTH. Co-screenwriter William Talman is best known for playing the D.A. on the long running Perry Mason TV series. Before co-writing JOE DAKOTA, Norman Jolley was best know for writing 77 episodes of Space Patrol. After DAKOTA, he wrote THE MONOLITH MONSTERS before returning to TV where he wrote 36 episodes of Wagon Train. He worked on many other shows, finishing his career as the Executive Story Consultant on Barnaby Jones.

SPARA JOE... E COSI SIA!, aka SHOOT JOE... AND SO BE IT!, aka SHOOT JOE... AND AMEN!, aka SHOOT JOE AND SHOOT AGAIN, aka JOE DAKOTA (1971) - Not surprising, this has nothing to do with the 1957 film JOE DAKOTA. Some like to think that the character played by Richard Harrison is named Joe Dakota, but in the English version I saw, he is only called "Joe" and never "Dakota". This film is really a poor mess, but has good photography, credited to Silvio Fraschetti, on some nice locations that look to be entirely in Italy. Billed as "Maestro Vasco", Vasili Kojucharov - who also scored DJANGO IL BASTARDO, delivered a tuneful score. And the film boasts many familiar faces. Unfortunately, the screenplay, co-credted to Jean Josipovici - who collaborated on the script for one of my favorite films LASCIAPASSARE PER IL MORTO, aka PASSPORT FOR A CORPSE - and director Hal Brady, aka Emilio Miraglia, seems like it was pretty skimpy so the filmmakers had to come up with nonsensical bits to bring the movie to feature length. The film begins with a ten minute sequence in which the bandit gang, led by Jose Torres, gets the town blacksmith to help build what looks like a siege tower. "It's a new contraption to find gold." Actually, it has a battering ram with which to knock down the front door of the bank and gun ports for the gang to shoot back at anyone trying to stop them. After the boss, Roberto Maldera, gets the bag of loot on his horse and takes off, the rest of the gang is captured and put in jail. In the international version, seen on a Greek VHS, this is where the opening credits are played over shots of Maldera making his getaway. This makes much more sense than the version shown on Italian TV which plays the opening credits in front of a black background, then plays out the footage of Maldera riding away with no credits over it. And then has the whole siege tower/bank robbery bit. Richard Harrison isn't even seen until later, when Maldera comes upon him checking on otter traps in a river. This initial meeting comes to nothing, except that it is necessary to explain why after the gang escapes jail, hunts him down and fatally wounds him, Maldera goes to Harrison in order to give him the map to where he's hidden the loot. Harrison escapes the gang with two of their horses, only to run into some men with a herd of horses who recognize the two horses as ones stolen from them. So that they beat up Harrison and take back not only their two horses, but his horse as well. The gang eventually shows up to kill the horse wranglers and get back their lost horses. They then track Harrison, who is on foot. Eventually, the gang catches Harrison in a ghost town, and in an effort to make him give them the map (How they found out about a map is never explained.), they accidentally blind him. Torres, then gets the bright idea of hiring saloon girl Franca Polesello, to "rescue" the blind Harrison and nurse him back to health hoping that he'll give her information on how to find the hidden loot. Harrison falls in love with Polesello and gives her the map. When Torres finds out that she's been keeping it from him, he rips off her dress and flogs her with a piece of rope. (Someone, it seems, had seen BRAND OF SHAME.) Not surprising, Harrison gets back enough of his sight to gun down the entire gang in the end - but why does he have any difficulty doing that when previously he pretended to be an Indian and accurately fired arrows, at night, to prevent Torres from raping Polesello? After killing all of the bad guys, Harrison sees that Polesello has run away with all of the money, but she falls into the river and ends up going over the falls to her death. Before he is killed, Torres gets hysterical and fires his six shooter wildly. Interestingly, he is able to squeeze off 11 shots before Harrison shoots it out of his hand. One of the more interesting names to be found in the credits for SPARA JOE... is assistant director Renzo Genta, who previously is credited as one of the writers of I GIORNI DELL'IRA, aka DAYS OF WRATH. Reportedly, when Richard Harrison produced his next film, JESSE & LESTER - DUE FRATELLI IN UN POSTO CHIAMATO TRINITA, aka JESSE & LESTER - TWO BROTHERS IN A PLACE CALLED TRINITY, he hired Genta to direct it. Harrison told me that Genta was doing a bad job, so Harrison took over directing the film. He then allowed Genta a writer's credit.

CHINESE ODYSSEY 2002 (2002) - Reportedly a remake and parody of the 1959 film THE KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY, which was a well-known Huangmei opera, CHINESE ODYSSEY 2002 is proof that too much inventiveness can prove to be exhausting rather then exhilarating. But the fault may be in me rather than the movie as I have only a limited knowledge of the culture on view and the language being spoken. (No, I do not want to view an English dubbed version.) There is no faulting the production values in this movie and writer/director Jeffrey Lau gets spirited performances from his wonderful cast. Basically the story is about two sets of brothers and sisters. Faye Wong and Chang Chen are royal heirs who have never been out of the palace. Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Vicki Zhao are common people shunned by their neighbors because they are angry bullies. Humorous circumstances result in the four people meeting in the small village and falling in love. Who is in love with whom becomes confused because both women often dress as men, and the royals hide their true identities. It all works out in the end after all of the songs have been sung.

Did not enjoy:

BLACK EYE (1974) - Calling a movie based on Jeff Jacks' novel MURDER ON THE WILD SIDE - BLACK EYE seems to be begging for critical ridicule. "This movie was so bad it gave Fred Williamson a BLACK EYE." As this was Williamson's ninth film before he went on to make over 100, that obviously wasn't true. And it didn't seem to do veteran film and TV director Jack Arnold any harm either. In fact, he and Williamson would re-team to make BOSS NIGGER, though in recent years the NIGGER was dropped from the title to become BOSS. But unless you enjoy seeing how Venice and Santa Monica looked in 1974, there isn't much to recommend in this rather limp private dick flick. However it is always nice to see Teresa Graves and Rosemary Forsyth looks pretty good, too. Now who thought it was a good idea to hide heroin in a walking stick and then lay it on the casket of a dead silent film star? Most everything that follows that dopey idea is just about as dumb. 

BRAND OF SHAME (1968) - For some cockeyed reason the IMDb lists this movie as NUDE DJANGO, which is, supposedly, the title slapped on this when it was released in West Germany. There is no evidence of any European fingerprints on this flick. It is just another of producer David F. Friedman's softcore sex movies made in the U.S. The concept seems to have been to make a really low budget Western and spice it up with mostly keep-your-pants-on sex scenes. None of this material is competently made, with the Director of Photography taking the credit of "I.C. Freely" and the Camera Operator billed as "I.M. Blind". The sync-sound was recorded by "Speek Lauder", while Gary Graver is reported to have worked here as a Key Grip under the name "Maury Moovit". The opening credits would have been the most enjoyable part of this thing if it wasn't intercut with the dreadful introduction of the main characters speaking the awful dialogue blamed on "Gene Radford" and producer Friedman. Billy Allen's music doesn't help either. Reportedly, the German version has a completely different music track. Brothel owner Marsha Jordan, using the name Vanessa Van Dyke, takes time off from seducing the new girls (who don't have to keep their pants on for the sex scenes, but avoid showing any pubis) to plot with the outlaw Steve Vincent, aka Bart Black) to steal the map to a gold mine Samantha Scott inherited. Vincent has sent two thugs to rob Scott as she arrives by stagecoach, but our hero, Steve Stunning, is another passenger on the stage and he chases the thugs away. Eventually, Black and his thugs kidnap Scott, while Stunning is being distracted by Black's girlfriend Paula Pleasure, aka Cara Peters. The villains hang Scott by her arms topless from a tree and hit her with a bullwhip trying to get her to tell where the map is hidden. As mentioned previously, none of this is competently made, with many shots 

out-of-focus or captured by a very shakey hand-held camera. Eventually, our hero rides to the rescue and in a very unexciting climax kills all of the bad guys - though we never see Jordan or Peters brought to justice. 

CUSTER OF THE WEST (1968) - Even before he moved to Europe, writer/producer Philip Yordan would employ "blacklisted" writers to work on screenplays. Around 1961, he hooked up with producer Samuel Bronston, who, with the backing of a member of the Dupont family, created a cinematic empire in Spain. After a number of expensive flops, the Dupont family stopped funding Bronston, but Yordan felt that Bronston's business could continue if new backing could be found. He found it with Cinerama Productions Corp. and made BATTLE OF THE BULGE. Even though BULGE was historically inaccurate, it was a success, so Yordan set about to find another famous history to turn into big screen rubbish. Reportedly, 20th Century Fox had turned down THE DAY CUSTER FELL because of the projected cost, but the idea of Robert Shaw, who had just done BULGE, in the role of Custer seemed good. Yordan put two blacklisted writers, Bernard Gordon and Julian Zimet (the latter under the name Julian Halevy) on the project, supposedly with the idea of turning out another "Hero of the West" script. When Shaw came on, being a prize winning playwright, he began reshaping the script turning the character into some one like the character played by Jean Martin in LA BATTAGLIA DI ALGERI, aka THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. He made the character someone who knew that his war against the Native Americans was wrong, but that he had his duty as a soldier. Whomever was responsible for the final script, their film became a series of sort-of philosophical discussions, the most egregious being one between Shaw and Robert Ryan on the night before Ryan's execution for desertion. Ryan expressed his humanity in leaving his command in the hope of beginning a better life while panning for gold contrasted with Shaw's devotion to duty. This scene is egregious not only because it stops the movie's plot momentum, but also because it suggested that the moviemakers felt that they had something important to say. (Reportedly Robert Ryan agreed to do this non-paying cameo as a favor to producer Yordan for hiring him, and paying him well, to appear in BULGE.) There was a story that Shaw ended up staging the climactic Battle of Little Big Horn, because director Robert Siodmak wasn't comfortable with battle scenes. If true, then who staged the grand battle scenes in KAMPF UM ROM Parts one and two. The way the Native Americans kept lining up before a conflict is certainly similar to how the battles in Ancient Rome were seen in the later film. In attempting to continue the "immersive" experience promised by THIS IS CINERAMA, there were a number of nonsensical scenes attempting to give the audience a "thrill" ride. First there was the scene of two miners tied to a buckboard which was sent careening down a cliffside road. Then there was a sergeant trying to escape an Indian ambush by riding a log down a water chute. This was followed by an uncoupled rail road car sliding backwards down the track towards a bridge on fire. Seeing these scenes now made me wonder if this was the inspiration for the Disaster Film craze, though Yordan's next film, KRAKATOA: EAST OF JAVA, was probably an even better example. Of course, by this time the three camera Cinerama process had been dropped, and these films were shot in 70mm with an eye toward using the curved Cinerama screen. This, of course, was what director Stanley Kubrick had in mind when he made 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. In any case, if you are interested in the story of Custer at Little Big Horn, I recommend the 1991 TV mini-series Son of the Morning Star, which remains the only convincing dramatization I've seen of this history. Plus it didn't cast a tall Irish actor like Kieron Moore to play a fictional Cheyenne Chief with no mention of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse or Red Cloud.

A FINE ROMANCE, aka CIN CIN (1991) - As director Gene Saks made a career out of turning successful plays into successful movies - like BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, THE ODD COUPLE, CACTUS FLOWER and THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS, he seemed the right choice to turn Francois Billetdoux's play TCHIN-TCHIN into a movie for French and Italian co-producers. Unfortunately, the material proved to be rather unfunny, though the film provides a wonderful tour of Paris. Marcello Mastroianni comes home baring gifts for his wife, only to find that she has left him. He finds a photograph of the "other man". Julie Andrews comes home to get the message that her husband has left her. She finds a roll of undeveloped film, which provides her with a photograph of the "other woman". Soon Andrews and Mastroianni figure out that their spouses have run off together. Prim and proper English woman Andrews wants Mastroianni to help come up with a plan to get their spouses back, though Mastroianni wonders if they are being selfish. Since his wife and her husband are wonderful people, maybe they should be left alone to possibly find true happiness. Meanwhile Mastroianni takes to drinking heavily. As she does quite a bit of charity work, Andrews sees Mastroianni as needing help, so she takes him off to a spa which doesn't allow alcohol. Not surprising, this doesn't work as Mastroianni is able to convince a nurse to bring him a bottle with the hope of getting him into bed. Obviously, the filmmakers expect us to desire that the two stars fall into bed together, though neither star exhibits the charm they've shown in other films to arouse audience sympathy. Suddenly, toward the end of the movie, the film begins to turn into a farce, with Andrews' adult son throwing a tantrum because his mother won't allow him to sell her apartment as part of a million dollar real estate deal. Having heard about his wife showing up at the spa with another man, Andrews' husband wants to come home to save his professional reputation. So after not having a sexual fling while their spouses were off having one, Andrews and Mastroianni decide to finally do the deed now that their husband and wife have finally come back. Veteran cinematographer Franco Di Giacomo helped to make Paris look lovely while Pino Donaggio provided the music.

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Angel Rivera  Highly enjoyed:

"THE OUTER LIMITS" S1, E5-"The Sixth Finger" (1963)
Streaming on the Roku channel, I decided to go to it, & watch my favorite sci-fi program and one of my favorite episodes. David McCallum, pre--"Man from U.N.C.L.E." wants to improve himself and not breath in dust from the neighborhood mine for the rest of his life. Here is where Edward Mulhare, pre--TV's "Ghost & Mrs. Muir" and "Knight Rider" comes in. He is a scientist with an evolution machine to turn David into the "Man of Tomorrow"!" With the help of  make-up artist, Fred B. Phillips, (the same make-up artist whose  prostethic ears and big head were like the ones used on "Star Trek"'s Mr. Spock and on the Talosians), McCallum turns into an evolved mutant and nearly destroys the mining town until he evolves beyond; "hatred, or revenge or even the need for power!"  With the help of his love interest played by Jill Haworth, (the original "Sally Bowles" from the original cast of "Cabaret" (1966) on Broadway), McCallum tries to evolve even further. The ending is one of those endings that is similar to episode endings from "The Twilight Zone".(1959-1964); in that there is a slight twist in the ending. 

Mildly enjoyed:

"TITANS" S4, E9--"Dude, Where's My Gar?"
While looking up info and details on "Stargirl" and the JSA, I came across the fact that "Stargirl" played by Brec Bassinger (who starred as the lead character in the short-lived series, "Stargirl" (2020-2022)  appears in this episode. The episode is about the Titans character, Gar Logan alias "Beast Boy" and details info on his background. Bassinger has a brief appearance as Stargirl who encounters Gar as he "travels" through "the Red"(where Gar got his powers). As I read the original comic books this character appears in the episode was of slight interest to me. 

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David Deal enjoyed:

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (54)

DISTANT (02) - A young Italian man with no prospects leaves his small village in Turkiye and heads to Istanbul where he stays with a fellow who came from the same town. The result is a not uninteresting tableau of those who are distant from meaningful lives for one reason or another, unable or not wanting to connect. Not exactly a sad film but a sorrowful one nonetheless.

HAMAN: THE TURKISH BATH (98) - A young man in a troubled marriage inherits a Turkish bath in Istanbul from his aunt. He travels there to sell the run down bath but is seduced by the culture and vows to remain. Quite accomplished, engrossing effort that comes recommended.

DATE FOR A MURDER (66)

GODZILLA (54) - The original Japanese version.

STALKER (79) - Tarkovsky's hypnotic feature never fails to impress.

THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD (52)

MATANGO (63) - I love this trippy flick and the Tokyo Shock DVD is really nice. 

Mildly Enjoyed

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (61)

THE SCARLET WEB (53)

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed: 

Amos & Sterling (1993, E. Max Frye)

Lady in cement (1968, Gordon Douglas)

Armageddon (anime) (1996, Hyunse Lee)

Tutti i figli di Mammasantissima (1973, Alfio Caltabiano)

Tumbleweed (1953, Nathan Juran)

Ringo, il volto della vendetta (1966, Mario Caiano)

Fair wind to Java (1953, Joseph Kane)

More dead than alive (1968, Robert Sparr)

Un maledetto imbroglio (1959, Pietro Germi)

Bram Stoker's Van helsing (2020, Steve Lawson)

Cimarron strip – episode - « The battle of Bloody Stone » (1967, Richard C. Sarafian)

Mildly enjoyed:

Die monster die (1965, Daniel Haller)

The manitou (1977, William Girdler)

Appointment in London (1952, Philip Leacock)

The snake woman (1960, Sidney J. Furie)

The beautiful blonde from Bashful Bend (1949, Preston Foster)

Permission to kill (1975, Cyril Frankel)

Sleepaway camp 2 (1988, Michael A. Simpson)

L'oeuf (1972, Jean Herman)

The glory brigade (1953, Robert D. Webb)

The St Louis bank robbery (1958, John Stix & Charles Guggenheim)

Where the sidewalk ends (1950, Otto Preminger)

Voyage to the bottom of the sea – episode «Graveyard of fear » (1966, Justus Addiss)

Did not enjoy:

The unseen (1945, Lewis Seiler)

One minute to zero (1952, Tay Garnett)

Kyuketsuki Gokemirodo / Goke, body snatcher from hell (1968, Hajime Saito)

The eye creatures (1965, Larry Buchanan)

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