To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.
Brain Teasers:
For what movie is Steve Reeves listed on the Italian release poster and on the screen for the U.S. version but doesn't appear in the movie?
John Black knows that it is IL GIORNO PIU CORTO, aka THE SHORTEST DAY.
Which French actress, born in Turkey, played Cleopatra in a 1963 Italian film?
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Magali Noel.
Which Italian director made a movie about Cleopatra's daughter and also a movie about Cleopatra?
George Grimes, Bertrand van Wonterghem and Charles Gilbert knew that it was Fernando Cerchio.
By what name is Fred Ringold better known?
George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Fernando Cerchio.
And now for some new brain teasers:
Can you name two movies featuring Liana Orfei and Bella Cortez?
In what film does George Hilton play a character in love with Klaus Kinski?
In what two films did Gordon Mitchell and Kirk Morris both appear?
Name the movies from which these images came.
George Grimes, Rick Garibaldi and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's photo of Klaus Kinski in OGNUNO PER SE, aka THE RUTHLESS FOUR.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
John Black, George Grimes, Bertrand van Wonterghem and Angel Rivera identified last week's photo of Liana Orfei and Victor Mature in I TARTARI, aka THE TARTARS.
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 Leonora Ruffo in 2+5: MISSIONE HYDRA, aka STAR PILOT.
Above is a new photo.
Can you name from what movie it came?
George Grimes identified last week's photo of Jackie Chan in BLEEDING STEEL.
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:
Miracle Workers: The Oregon Trail (2021)
Marvel's What If...? episode one (2021)
Mildly enjoyed:
TOWER HEIST (2011) - The employees of an upscale apartment complex in New York City discover that the money they entrusted to tenant Alan Alda is now gone once Federal Agent Tea Leoni arrests Alda for financial wrongdoing. When Leoni tells former building manager Ben Stiller that Alda probably has money hidden in his apartment, Stiller enlists Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, Eddie Murphy, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Gabourey Sidibe in a plot to break into Alda's apartment during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Director Brett Ratner keeps the proceedings moving forward quickly and humorously, so that you don't mind that alot of it doesn't make much sense. Also appearing in the film are Zeljko Ivanek, Kate Upton, Judd Hirsch and Robert Downey Sr. in his final role before his death.
Did not enjoy:
BLACK FRIDAY (1940) - After leaving Germany in the 1930s, writer Curt and his brother director Robert Siodmak made it to Hollywood. BLACK FRIDAY was Curt's third American feature was perhaps his first effort at a Science Fiction thriller involving brain experiments. His 1942 novel DONOVAN'S BRAIN would become a classic. Reportedly, the script was originally written by Willis Cooper as FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH. Curt Siodmak and Eric Taylor ended up getting screenplay credit. One would imagine that Siodmak had a more sophisticated approach to the material, and Taylor was responsible for the low-brow gangsterisms. The film opens with Boris Karloff being led to the electric chair. He pauses on the way to hand over his notebook to a reporter what will be witness to his death. As the reporter begins to read the notebook, we flashback to the narrated story. Seeing his friend, Stanley Ridges, hurt in a car crash caused by Bela Lugosi's men shooting up Red Cannon, brain scientist Karloff decides that the only way save Ridges is by "brain transplantation". It is never clearly explained, but the impression I got is that Karloff substituted the parts of Ridges' damaged brain with undamaged parts from Cannon's. At first Ridges seems his old self, but eventually Cannon's personality and memories begin to take over. Hope that Cannon's memory will take him to the half million dollars he could use to set up a laboratory for brain research, Karloff takes Ridges to New York City. Naturally, Cannon's mind comes to the fore and he seeks out revenge on the thugs who bumped him off, including Paul Fix and Edmund MacDonald. He also looks up his girlfriend Anne Nagel, who can't reconcile Cannon's personality coming out of Ridges' body. Much of the publicity for this film revolved around the idea the Bela Lugosi had been hypnotized in order to believably play the panic of being locked in a closet, so the final scene that you see in the movie is rather underwhelming. Ridges seems to be back to his old self, but Cannon rises again and threatens to kill Karloff's daughter Anne Gwynne (who would soon appear in OKLAHOMA FRONTIER with Johnny Mack Brown). Karloff kills him, and Ridges does a close-up dissolve transformation from bad guy to good just like DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and THE WOLF MAN, which would a future project for Siodmak. Veteran director Arthur Lubin would go on to make better films.
OKLAHOMA FRONTIER (1939) - Even though we just saw him take a prisoner alive (in footage from another movie), Johnny Mack Brown resigns from law enforcement because he doesn't want to kill anymore. He forks over money to go to the widow of a friend he had to kill. Sidekick Fuzzy Knight also resigns and the two set off to join the Oklahoma Land Rush. Also joining the Land Rush are the children of a rancher for whom Brown used to work. The rancher tells son Bob Baker and daughter Anne Gwynne to get a particular parcel of land to which he is planning to relocate. Unfortunately, it is the same bit of land that villain James Blaine wants. Blaine hires Bob Kortman to help get that land. Overhearing Brown tell Baker that he knows a shortcut that would ensure that they reach the land parcel first, Kortman murders Baker and frames Brown. Sentenced to be hanged on the morning of the Land Rush, Brown is surprised by Gwynne showing up to marry him in jail. This is to ensure that she can still join the Land Rush. Naturally, Knight figures out how to thwart Brown's hanging and they claim the land before Kortman's henchmen arrive. Back in town, Brown wounds both Blaine and Kortman and proves his innocence to the military authorities. Johnny Mack Brown doesn't sing, but he joins The Texas Rangers band by playing spoons. Knight does a couple of humorous musical bits with Horace Murphy. I don't know from what other movie the footage of the Land Rush came, but writer/director Ford Beebe awkwardly mixes it with shots of the actors riding around the Hollywood Hills.
FINDING YOUR FEET (2017) - You got your older women finding romance later in life movies, like CALENDAR GIRLS, and you got your romance found in dance class movies, of which JE NE SUIS PAS LA POUR ETRE AIME - aka I'M NOT HER TO BE LOVED is my favorite, so it makes sense that Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard would combine the two and Richard Loncraine would direct it. Reportedly, there is a French remake of this movie coming out in 2022. If you've been aching to see Imelda Staunton take a bubble bath, this is the movie for you. If you've been desiring to see Staunton fall in love with Timothy Spall, this is the movie for you. Discovering that her husband of 40 years, John Sessions, has been boffing her best friend, Josie Lawrence, for five years, Staunton leaves and moves in with her estranged sister, Celia Imrie. Reconnecting with her sister, Staunton remembers her old pleasures that she gave up for the marriage, including dancing. Joining Imrie's dance class, Staunton meets new friends - including Joanna Lumley and Spall - and dances in public. This leads to the dancers being invited to perform in Rome. Naturally, someone dies of lung cancer, and there are complications to the romance, but everything you'd expect in a movie like this happens. Aside from being predictable, the movie feels long though everyone performs admirably.
NO-DO, aka THE HAUNTING (2009) - Like many Horror moviemakers, writer/director Elio Quiroga overly complicates his storytelling to obscure a stupid premise. If this house had been the scene of crimes committed by the Catholic Church, why would they decide to rent it to a family with a baby boy? Ana Torrent is the mother, who still sees and talks with her daughter who died while being born ten years ago. Later, we find that Father Hector Colome can also see the dead girl, which some priests can learn to do - to see what most cannot see - while people like Torrent are born with the ability. The title refers to the coloquial name for Noticiario y Documentales, a group that made newsreels for cinemas from 1943 to 1981. The No-Do reports were used by the Fascist Regime under Francisco Franco for propaganda. Quiroga accuses No-Do with doing undercover reportage for the Catholic Church; documenting reported miracles and exorcisms and such. Colome is dealing with the guilt over the suicide of a prostitute whom he denounced as a miracle worker and potential saint. "Prostitutes can't work miracles" is the Church's perspective. Eventually, Torrent and Colome uncover the fact that the Bishop was trying to expel an evil spirit from the house, which many mistook for the Virgin Mary, but instead of miraculous healing, caused the death of the many pilgrims who flocked. To expel the "elemental", the ritual called for the death of martyr. The Bishop had the three girls who had been visited killed, forgetting that a martyr has to be willing to die. For all of Quiroga's complications, his film turns out to be another EXORCIST re-write with the "elemental" expelled by the priest's self-sacrifice.
RELIC (2020) - Ultimately this flim seems to be about coming to terms with aging and dying. portrayed by a grandmother, a mother and a daughter. If that is the theme, why conceal it behind a sort-of haunted house movie? What's the point of 80 some minutes of weird noises and creepy photography without a payoff? What is it about this material that appealed to Jake Gyllenhaal to act as a co-producer, and to Anthony and Joe Russo to executive produce? Director Natalie Erika James co-wrote the screenplay with Christian White and they were able to attract a trio of talented women to the roles. I'll watch just about anything featuring Emily Mortimer. Robyn Nevin is quite effective as an old woman showing signs of dementia, suggesting that she might be possessed by a demon. Bella Heathcote is very appealing no matter what nonsensical business she is given to do.
TAFFIN (1988) - Lyndon Mallet wrote four Taffin novels. This movie is based on the first. Like Jack Reacher, Taffin was originally intended as an unattractive "looming, expressionless, monosyllabic" character. Naturally Mallet objected to the beautiful Pierce Brosnan playing the role. Brosnan is a debt collector in a small Irish coastal village. His brother, Patrick Bergin (in his movie debut), asks him to help prevent a land developer from destroying the sports field for a new project. Brosnan, who has a poster for HIGH NOON on the wall of his apartment, knows that if he gets involved, eventually the village will turn against him. New lover Alison Doody helps to convince Brosnan to get involved which leads to escalating violence which leads the village to turn against Brosnan. In the end, Brosnan kills the two assassins sent to kill him, fakes his own death, and then kills the industrialist behind the whole scheme. As Doody is about to board a plane, Brosnan pokes her from behind and says, "Be cool, Charlotte. Be cool." After this, director Francis Megahy mostly worked in TV on shows like Minder and Lovejoy. This was the first project Brosnan took after losing both the chance to be James Bond and to continue as Remington Steele.
TESIS, aka THESIS (1996) - Ana Torrent plays a cinema student who wants to do a thesis on violent images in the audio/visual arts. As she is not a consumer of such material, she seeks the help of professor Miguel Picazo to check out the school's collection. She also seeks the help of fellow student Fele Martinez, who is known as a collector of such material. While in the archive, Picazo finds a secret door leading to a secret library of videotapes. He takes one. Meanwhile, Martinez takes Torrent to his home which he's decorated like an Halloween spook house. He shows her a videotape that looks like FACES OF DEATH. In the morning, at school, Torrent looks for Picazo and finds him dead in a videoscreening room, probably from a fatal asthma attack. Does she call the authorities? No. She finds the unmarked videotape Picazo was watching and steals it. At home, she can't bring herself to watch the tape, so she changes the contrast on the TV set so that there's no picture before playing it. All she hears is a woman screaming in pain and pleading for her life. At school the next day, Xabier Elorriaga steps in as the new professor. Martinez figures out that Torrent found Picazo's body and stole the tape and he wants to see it. Torrent can barely watch it as it shows a young woman being tortured and murdered. Martinez recognizes the victim as a fellow student who disappeared two years ago, and he becomes obessessed with solving who-dun-it. Elorriaga lectures the class that they are the future of Spanish Cinema and to be in competition with the Americans they must give the audience what they want. Without alot of fancy camerawork and split screens, director/co-writer/music composer Alejandro Amenabar has fashioned something very much like a Brian DePalma flick. It doesn't make much sense, no one acts like a normal person and the film is charged with a perverted erotic tension. This is the first time I've seen the adult Ana Torrent and she's a pleasure to behold. Amenabar seems to feel a sense of superiority by saying that his viewers want to see violence, but then he only teases that he'll show any. Once again, the plot is based on the fantasy that there is a snuff film network, but why would the perpetrators would hide their library in a school basement? Amenabar plays with the idea that another student, Eduardo Noriega, might be the killer. When Torrent shows signs that Noriega excites her, Martinez becomes jealous. So, perhaps Martinez is the killer? Is Elorriaga part of a conspiracy? How does anyone make money from these videotapes? Would Spanish TV actually air portions of a snuff movie as part of a news report? Amenabar ends the film on a cynical note showing every patient in an hospital quietly watching the TV screens as a disclaimer comes on saying they are going to show something brutal. Amenabar's next film was ABRE LOS OJOS, which he sold to Tom Cruise to make VANILLA SKY with director Cameron Crowe. In exchange, Cruise produced THE OTHERS for Amenabar to direct. So, he's yet to make a movie I like.
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David Deal enjoyed:
THE DIAMOND WIZARD (53) - T-Man Dennis O'Keefe (who also directed) is sent to London after another agent is killed by a British team of diamond forgers. O'Keefe gives this procedural a healthy dose of atmosphere and a needed sense of urgency. Originally shot in 3D.
THE COUNTERFEIT PLAN (57) - American Zachary Scott escapes the guillotine in France and heads to England to look up an old friend, an engraver, to start up a counterfeiting operation. Scott is always solid and he carries this procedural with his patented suave evil to its inevitable end. Also features Peggy Castle and Lee Patterson.
TARGET FOR KILLING (66) - See The Eurospy Guide book for a complete review of this Stewart Granger entry.
JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN (69)
THE LEECH WOMAN (59)
PLANET OF THE APES (68)
THE COURIER (20)
DEVILS OF DARKNESS (64)
Mildly Enjoyed
EMBASSY (72) - Soviet Max Von Sydow enters the US embassy in Beirut wishing to defect. KGB assassin Chuck Connors infiltrates the embassy to kill Von Sydow. Action-oriented diplomat Richard Roundtree has to stop him. Gordon Hessler picture has lots of energy and no money. This British thriller also features Ray Milland and Broderick Crawford.
ISABELLA, DUCHESS OF THE DEVILS (69)
DRUMS OF JEOPARDY (31)
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Charles Gilbert watched:
3 Asylum Pictures:
30,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (2007) Updated version with many a faux pas about the modern U. S. Navy. Lorenzo Lamas plays the captain of an underwater "aquanaut" rescue craft who must take orders from Commander Lucille Conciel (Natalie Stone), his ex-wife, in a mission to find a missing sub. En route the crew encounter the requisite giant squid and the fabled Nautilus helmed by the ambitious Captain Nemo (Sean Lawlor). They are captured and subjected to his Calvinistic (total depravity) expostulation about mankind and the resurrection of Atlantis.
KING OF THE LOST WORLD (2005) Bruce Boxleitner gets top billing with college age actors in a take on KING KONG. Survivors of a jetliner crash in the jungle encounter giant crab and scorpion and cave dwelling natives who capture and prep them for sacrifice to flying reptiles and the towering ape. Ghetto language throughout.
THE 7 ADVENTURES OF SINBAD (2010) As earthquakes abound worldwide Simon Magnusson (Bo Svenson) schemes to take over as head of an international oil company while current chief Adrian Sinbad (Patric Muldoon) is away fighting paramilitia and mythical creatures on a mysterious island. He was on a mission to secure one of his sunken tankers that threatened the world. Discursive script, gratuitous CGI, and overlay of grating sound score make watching these flix laborious.
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Angel Rivera Mildly enjoyed:
THE SUICIDE SQUAD.
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Bertrand van Wonterghem Highly enjoyed:
Some mothers do ‘ave ‘em- episode « love they neighbour » (1973, Michael Mills)
Enjoyed:
Au théâtre ce soir – Pour avoir Adrienne (1967, Pierre Sabbagh)
Maeumui sori : reboot / The sound of your heart : reboot – season 2 – episodes 7 & 8
Allo, allo – episode « the execution » (1984, David Croft)
Major Grom : chumnoy doktor / Major Grom : the plague doctor (2020, Oleg Trofim)
Les anges gardiens (1994, Jean-Marie Poiré)
The Shanghai gesture (1941, Josef Von Sternberg)
The avengers – episode « a surfeit of H2O » (1965, Sidney Hayers)
Mildly enjoyed:
Uchu kara no messeji: Ginga taisen / San Ku Kaï (1979) – season 1 – episode 14
The long wait (1954, Victor Saville)
The seventh voyage of Sinbad (1958, Nathan Juran)
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