July 19 - 25, 2025

 

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

Brain Teasers:

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?

It was Pamela Tudor during the making of UNO DOLPO L'ALTRO, aka ONE AFTER THE OTHER.

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

No one has answered this question yet.

By what name is Anthony Richmond better known?

George Grimes and Tom Betts knew that it is Tonino Ricci.

Can you name two Italian actors known for their resemblance to Franco Nero?

Angel Rivera, Tom Betts and George Grimes knew that it was Terence Hill and Maurizio Merli.

Which Italian born actor survived the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War 2?

George Grimes and Tom Betts knew that it was Mario Girotti, aka Terence Hill.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which American actress was a celebrated dancer on Broadway before getting into movies, including one directed by Duccio Tessari?

Which Italian actress' career began in 1955, but thought she would retire from acting when she married a film director, only to find that he continued to ask her to appear in front of the camera because he needed her?

How many children did the previously mentioned actress have with her director husband?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes and Tom Betts identified last week's photo of Franco Nero and Eli Wallace in VIVA LA MUERTE... TUA, aka LONG LIVE DEATH... YOUR'S, aka LONG LIVE YOUR DEATH, aka DON'T TURN THE OTHER CHEEK.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's photo of Serge Nubret in ARRIVANO I TITANI, aka SONS OF THUNDER, aka MY SON THE HERO.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Lino Ventura in TOUGH GUYS, aka THREE TOUGH GUYS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of David Chiang in VENGEANCE.

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:

GEORGE A. ROMERO'S RESIDENT EVIL (2025) - There have been a number of documentaries about movies which didn't get made. The earliest of which I am aware was THE EPIC THAT NEVER WAS, the 1965 program about the unfinished 1937 production of I CLAUDIUS. More recently there was JODOROWSKY'S DUNE and THE DEATH OF 'SUPERMAN LIVES' WHAT HAPPENED?. But there was no unrealized project that I wanted to see more than director George A. Romero's RESIDENT EVIL. I followed the stories about what had happened, but Brandon Salisbury's documentary seemed to best explain what happened. It also gave me more information about the video game than I wanted to know, but in an interesting way. The program ended with a moving eulogy for one of America's best moviemakers.

Liza: A Truly Terrific Aboslutely True Story (2024) - This would more appropriately be called "Liza: Her Friends and Mentors" with moving stories about how Kay Thompson, Charles Aznavour, Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse, Halston and others helped mould the daughter of Vincent Minnelli and Judy Garland into the celebrated talent she became. There is less about how her star dimmed in the decades after she won a Tony, an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar. That fact the program doesn't even mention THE STERILE CUCKOO is irksome to me. However, there is much to be much to be savored in writer/director Bruce David Klein's documentary, which also gives a taste of how difficult the subject can get.

SUPERMAN (2025) - Writer/director James Gunn obviously wanted to expand the "D.C. Universe" with this movie and so includes a number of characters from the comic books which hadn't been in movies before - like The Engineer, Mr. Terrific, the Guy Gardner Green Lantern, Metamorpho and Hawkgirl. There's even a bit with Peacemaker from THE SUICIDE SQUAD. Not only does Superman have a dog in this movie, he also has robots that take care of the Fortress of Solitude. And he's living with Lois Lane in her apartment. Unfortunately, the villain is still Lex Luthor. While there are many plot elements which made me cringe, the pace and the humor of the film kept me going. What would have been a nice capper would have been Luthor's wealth being seized to pay for all of the repairs to Metropolis, but that plot would probably be held up in court for decades. Rather than Marvel's Mutants and Immortals, D.C. now has "metahumans", but calling the mystery being "Ultraman" is irritating. Rachel Brosnahan is terrific as Lois Lane and having her be an active participant in the action is most welcome. Another plus for the movie is having two cast members from Firefly present.

LE VOYOU, aka THE CROOK (1970) - My interest in French Crime movies was ignited by two films: MELODIE EN SOUS SOL with Alain Delon and Jean Gabin, and SAFARI DIAMANTS with Jean-Louis Trintignant. My first film by director Claude Lelouch was VIVRE POUR VIVRE, followed by LA VIE, L'AMOUR, LA MORT and UN HOMME QUI ME PLAIT. All five of the previous mentioned films I saw in French with Japanese subtitles, but LE VOYOU was the first to leave me rather confused. Now that I've seen it with English subtitles, I better understand my confusion. Like many films at the time, there were no "signifiers" to alert the audience whether what we were seeing was a flashback or not. Also, no other French Crime movie I've seen started off with a musical number in which a tall Black man, surrounded by costumes and cars like you would have seen in BONNIE AND CLYDE, proclaimed that he was "Le Voyou". When I came across the 45rpm for Francis Lai singing "Le Voyou" I bought it, and was again confused that it was a very different arrangement from the song used in the movie. (I prefer the 45rpm 

version and I wish I could find it on CD.) In any case, with subtitles I now understand the movie. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been THE UTTERLY CHARMING CROOK, but that would have given away some of the surprised in the film. Having had some exposure to films by Lelouch, I wasn't surprised by the rather casual storytelling which suggested quite a bit of improvisation by the cast. I even enjoyed the gags, such as a cop being told that a man and a woman were on the phone and Trintignant whistling the incredibly popular theme music by Francis Lai. Of course Trintigant was the star of that movie, but I hadn't seen it yet when I first saw LE VOYOU. In any case, LE VOYOU was a goof of a film and as charming as the crook at the center of it. There was no mistaking Amidou, Gabriella Giorgelli and Luciano Pigozzi (not billed as Alan Collins) in the film, but I didn't see Mimmo Palmara who was promenent in the cast list. Popular singer and respected jazz musician Sacha Distel appeared in concert in the film singing his hit version, in French, of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head".

Mildly enjoyed:

GEKIJOBAN URUTORAMAN RUBU SEREKTOL KIZUNA NO KURISUTARU, aka ULTRAMAN R/B THE MOVIE: SELECT! THE CRYSTAL OF BOND (2019) - The 2018 TV series Ultraman R/B is quite a bit different from the Ultraman shows I've previously seen. There is no Earth Defense Force in which hides a man who can channel Ultraman. Here we have a family comedy/drama in which two brothers end up with the powers of separte Ultramen. This comes in handy as they live in Ayaka City, which is frequently attacked by giant monsters. Katsumi is Ultraman Rosso and Isami is Ultraman Blu. They live with their father and a younger adopted sister, Asahi. Isami is preparing to move to the U.S. to get a science degree. Katsumi doesn't have plans for the future, which reminds him of his friend  Toi, who once chided our hero because he didn't follow up on his high school baseball success. Toi had planned to become a video game designer, but when Katsumi finds him, he has withdrawn into spending all of his time in his room playing video games and drawing monsters. Toi is visited via his computer by a disembodied creature who calls himself Tregear and promises to make the young man's dreams come true. Meanwhile, Katsumi and Isami are drafted by their father to spy on Asahi, who he fears has developed an interest in boys. The boy to whom she is speaking turns out to be Riku, Ultraman Geed from another dimension. He's in town looking for his friend, Pega, a friendly version of the Pegassa alien from Ultra Seven. Meanwhile, Tregear visits Katsumi and convinces him to be transported across the universe to a planet of Pigmons, introduced way back in Ultra Q, that are facing destruction by a Mecha Gomora. This proves to be a ruse so that he isn't there to help the other Ultramen when Tao is turned into a giant monster and starts destroying the city. Luckily, the mother knows how to find Katsumi and bring him back to Earth. Toi's monster is joined by an Ultraman looking creature called Snake Darkness. Now I thought Snake Darkness was the full body Tregear, but I guess I was wrong. The last part of this movie is very confusing with Rosso and Blu and Geed combining and separating while calling out the various attack forms they are using - like in a cheap Kung Fu movie. Just to confuse matters more, Asahi finds a device that turns her into Ultrawoman Grigio. Will our heroes be able to defeat the evil creatures without killing Tao? Tao's mother really hopes so. The movie has a message - that family bonds are where real strength is found. Much of this movie is visualized with computer animation in addition to the usual model cities and rubber suits.

Did not enjoy:

THE LAST CHALLENGE (1967) - Chad Everett wants to be the best pistolero there is, so he travels to a town where Glenn Ford is the Marshal to test his skills. Ford spends over an hour of the film's running time trying to change Everett's mind to no avail. Ford's lady Angie Dickinson even hires Jack Elam to bushwack Everett, and after that fails, she is even willing to try and to shoot him herself. This finally pushes Ford to face off with Everett. Now I can understand Ford wanting to leave town after all this, but throwing his gun away seems stupid. What if he comes upon more rattlesnakes? John Sherry gets co-screenwriting credits on this adaptation of his novel PISTOLERO'S PROGRESS with Robert Emmett Ginna. It is kind of odd hearing everyone call gunmen pistoleros in an American Western. This is the last credit for Richard Thorpe before he retired. He started his directing career in 1923. In 1954 he directed Steve Reeves in ATHENA. He directed Elvis Presley twice in JAILHOUSE ROCK and FUN IN ACAPULCO. In 1961 he shared directing chores with Ferdinando Baldi for I TARTARI, aka THE TARTARS. He died in 1991.

THE WRATH OF GOD (1972) - Director Ralph Nelson had a curious career. Starting out on Broadway with the play THE WIND IS NINETY with Kirk Douglas, he moved to television where he directed REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT and then helmed the feature film version . He followed that with LILIES OF THE FIELD, which won Sidney Poitier the Academy Award for Best Actor. He would again work with Poitier in the hard hitting Western DUEL AT DIABLO. 1968's CHARLY would win Cliff Robertson his Best Actor Oscar. While 1970's SOLDIER BLUE gained much attention for a rather graphic depiction of the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne women and children by the U.S. Cavalry, most don't remember the proceeding hour of low comedy and weak romance. Now, after making the children's movie FLIGHT OF THE DOVES in Ireland, Nelson seemed to want to make his version of THE WILD BUNCH with an adaptation of the James Graham (aka Jack Higgins) novel. Towards that end, he used many familiar faces from the Sam Peckinpah film like Enrique Lucero, Jorge Russek, Chano Urueta and Aurora Clavel. While the film began just like QUIEN SABE?, aka A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL, with a firing squad followed by a scene in which a Gringo bought a train ticket, Nelson seemed to want this to be a comedic adventure film. Unfortunately, no matter how manic Ken Hutchinson played a scene, it was just not funny. Victor Buono forced Hutchinson to drive a truck toward the U.S. He befriended phony priest Robert Mitchum on the way, but all three were captured and set to be executed by Col. John Colicos. However, Colicos decided to hire the trio to assassinate Frank Langella, who was in control of a part of the country which Colicos had thus far failed to conquer. Also, along the way, Hutchinson rescued native girl Paula Pritchett. While Mitchum arranged some potential murder traps for Langella, something always went wrong. Once Langella's mother, Rita Hayworth inadvertently showed up to screw up the plan. The last half hour felt very drawn out and took too long to get the predictable ending. However, the film ended on a mystery - who was ringing the church bells? Fans of TV's Barney Miller may enjoy seeing Gregory Sierra as a one-eyed bad guy, but I didn't. Director of Photography Alex Phillips Jr. would go on to work for Peckinpah on BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA. Lalo Schifrin's music score wasn't very memorable. The story of a criminal thought to be a priest who leads a village to fight for their freedom was better portrayed in GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN.

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Angel Rivera  Enjoyed:

"HERCULES, SAMSON, & ULYSSES" (1963/5)
TCM is continuing its Wednesday "Mythology" films with some more sword and sandal films. This time with what is meant to have been a sequel to the Steve Reeves films, "Hercules" (1958/9) and "Hercules Unchained" (1959/60), but with Italian body-builder Kirk Morris (aka Adriano Bellini) as Hercules and Iranian body builder Iloosh Khoshabe (here credited as Richard Lloyd) portraying Samson. And as Delilah, the delectable Liana Morfi. Morris and Lloyd go at it as Hercules and Samson and their battle scenes are well worth watching. They then join forces to take down an evil king. Hercules as he leaves to return to his home in Ithaca, tells Samson to "beware of Delilah" and his vessel, which has as one of its occupants, the wife of Hercules, here played by Diletta D'Andrea sails away.

"ULYSSES" (1954/5)
TCM's "Mythology" night also featured the Kirk Douglas film, "Ulysses" in its Italian language version with English subtitles. I don't remember which scenes were not in the English language version as the Italian language version was supposed to have 26 minutes more of footage than the English language version.  Still worthwhile viewing; especially for the scene where Ulysses makes it home and kills all the men who were trying to force themselves on his wife Penelope whom was presumed a widow in need of a husband to be king of Ithaca, Ulysses' kingdom. Featured as the lead "suitor" is Anthony Quinn and in a dual role of Queen Penelope and the sorceress Circe is Silvana Mangano.

Mildly enjoyed:

"LIVE A LITTLE, LOVE A LITTLE" (1968)
Elvis Presley stars in an almost, what some may call a rom-com. Elvis plays a professional photographer who meets a free spirit with a dog on the beach who lives in a house near the beach. The movie then goes on about the ups and down progress of Elvis's romance with the comely actress, Michele Carey, who does a dance sequence in the film to Elvis singing one of his not so bad songs,"the Edge of Reality". The original version of his rebooted posthumous hit, "A Little Less Conversation" also appears in the film. Not a great film, but bearable for the songs he does sing and its antics which includes a drawn out fist fight and some silliness confusions. 

Did not enjoy:

"KANSAS CITY BOMBER" (1972)
A Raquel Welch starring film I tried to like, but it's only worthwhile for the presence of Raquel. Here she plays a Roller Derby Queen with two children to raise; a son and a daughter. Her daughter is played by a very young Jodie Foster. Her love interest, is also her very shady manager played by Kevin McCarthy of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" fame. Raquel skates and knocks down other skaters. There is a subplot about her throwing a match which she in turn double crosses her manager and wins the race, Thus gaining her freedom. Yippee! 

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David Deal Enjoyed:

 THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (63)

MASSACRE TIME (66)

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (65)

I'M STILL HERE (24)

THE KILLING (56)

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (55)

THE GREEN-EYED BLONDE (57) - Susan Oliver is the titular blonde living in a boarding school for troubled girls. In some ways, this is what you would expect from a 1950s juvenile delinquent potboiler. In other ways it was pushing the limits of what could be discussed in those films by being obliquely frank. Not to be dismissed out of hand.

THE GOLDEN BUDDHA (66) - Born of the 1960s spy craze, this creative Hong Kong "bangpian" film features a Bondian hero and a fashion-challenged villain obsessed with learning the secret held by three golden buddha statuettes. Fast-moving and colorful adventure with plenty to enjoy.

THE GREAT TEXAS DYNAMITE CHASE (75)

DANGER: DIABOLIK (68) - The 4K looks very nice.

COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (73)

THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL (71)

Mildly Enjoyed

LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO AMERICA (89) - A (for reals) Finnish band heads to America with their unscrupulous manager (Matti Pellonpaa) where they win the hearts of southern, small town yahoos and border town Mexicans. Early, amusing oddball comedy from famed oddball director Aki Kaurismaki. For fans who want to explore the beginnings of the auteur's career.

THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (32)

THE BLACK COBRA (63)

REVOLT OF THE PRAETORIANS (64)

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