Showing posts with label 1969. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1969. Show all posts
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| Irene confronts the headmistress about the missing students |
THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (aka La residencia/1969). Director: Narcisco Ibanez Serrador.
"None of these girls are any good!"
In this dubbed Spanish movie, Madame Forneau (Lilli Palmer) is headmistress of a school for "difficult" girls that functions more as a reformatory. Forneau's idea of discipline is to have one of the girls whip another when the latter talks back to her. Her son, Luis (John Moulder Brown) is fascinated by the school girls, and carrying on a light romance with one of them, Teresa (Cristina Galbo). One of the more interesting students is Irene (Mary Maude), who functions as Forneau's right-hand, tracking down girls who try to escape, doing the whipping, and hitting on at least one young lady. [The film seems to have a rather antiquated attitude regarding "evil lesbians."] The big problem, however, as Irene points out to the headmistress, is that several students have gone missing in the past few months, and are never heard from again. What neither woman apparently knows is that someone has been killing these "runaways" and hiding their bodies ... The House That Screamed has atmosphere to spare and seems to have been filmed in a wonderfully creepy and somewhat dilapidated old manor that adds immeasurably to its otherwise limited impact. There's not much flair to the murder sequences, but the ending packs a small wallop. Palmer is fine as the cold headmistress, and the girls are at the very least enthusiastic, with Maude making the most of her vivid portrayal of Irene.
Verdict: So-so thriller with some compelling sequences. **1/2.
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| An Emma Bovary with Something Extra |
In this loose adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary," Emma (Edwige Fenech) is married to a country doctor (Gerhard Riedmann) but has affairs with Rudolf Boulanger (Peter Carsten) and young Leon Dupuis (Gianni Dei) while dodging the admiring creditor Adolphe Lheureus (Franco Ressel). Major changes to the story include Boulanger being willing to pay off Emma's debts [which he never does in any other version, pleading poverty], and Emma having sex with Lheureus in exchange for a batch of IOUs. Fenech seems to have been cast for her body, which is undraped as often as possible, while the male cast members seem not to have been cast for their looks; Fenech's acting seems adequate as does the others'. This is an adaptation of a French novel made by a combined German-Italian production company with a French-born star and dubbed into Italian. Fenech's eye make up is way overdone but her fans won't be looking at her eyes.
Verdict: Watch Jennifer Jones in Madame Bovary instead -- or even Beyond the Forest. **.
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| Casting coup: Leonard Nimoy as Paris |
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Season Four. 1969.
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain went off in a huff and a puff and were replaced by -- in a casting coup -- Leonard Nimoy and a host of rotating females. Nimoy played master of disguise Paris, and the leading ladies included Lee Meriwether (the most frequent), Anne Francis, Sally Ann Howes, Jessica Walter, Antoinette Bower, and others. This was a solid season with many memorable episodes; among the best were: "Double Circle," in which a fake room is employed in order to get at a secret formula; "The Falcon," in which a royal family is in danger from a would-be usurper, and everything that could possible go wrong does; and "Chico" in which a dog helps steal a stamp which conceals an important microdot. As for notable guest-stars, Luther Adler is outstanding in "Phantoms," about a purge of young artists; John Willians scores in "Lover's Knot," which features a Mata Hari-type lady spy; Pernell Roberts and Cicely Tyson are great in "Death Squad," in which a vacationing Barney (Greg Morris) is accused of murder; and a mustache-less Torin Thatcher almost steals the show in "Numbers Game," about attempts to get at a Swiss bank account. Nimoy probably does his best work in "Commandante" and "The Choice." Jason Evers and John Vernon make an impression in, respectively, the aforementioned "Double Circle" and "Falcon."
Verdict: No Cinnamon, but still lots of spice. ***.
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| James Villiers co-stars along with Daliah Lavi's cleavage |
In this sequel to Deadlier Than the Male, insurance man Hugh Drummond (Richard Johnson) is up against more female assassins, this time a bevy of sociopathic beauties whose brains have been programmed to murder. Drummond dallies with a nasty baroness named Helga (Daliah Lavi of The Whip and The Body) and matches wits with a foppish villain named Petersen (James Villiers of The Nanny) who employs a destructive infra-sound device, and whose main goal seems to be to destroy the prototype of a supersonic airliner. Robert Morley is some kind of cooking instructor known as "Miss Mary," Sydne Rome is an annoying would-be agent who follows Drummond around, and Ronnie Stevens is a nerdy agent named Peregrine Carruthers. There's one fairly good scene when Drummond's parachute fails to open, but Some Girls Do is vastly inferior to the first film, hastily slapped together, with a bad script and production values that are far below the James Bond level. Lavi's smoky, sexy voice has been dubbed for inexplicable reasons. When it develops that many of the female killers have been outfitted with robot brains and surely must have been kidnapped and worse, no one registers any dismay, but then that's how mindless this movie is. Camp is one thing, but Some Girls Do is so stupid and ultimately dull that it's pretty much an effort to sit through.
Verdict: Watch a real Bond movie instead. *1/2.
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| Eric Braeden and Rossano Brazzi |
Sandra (Janet Leigh of Night of the Lepus) has just traveled to Spain with her new husband, Ernesto (Joseph Lenzi), where they move into a huge castle that he owns. Unfortunately, the next morning Sandra discovers that her husband has disappeared. Worse, when he finally shows up again, it's a completely different man (Cesare Danova), who insists he was the man that Sandra married, confounding both her and a sympathetic police captain (Rossano Brazzi of Summertime). Ah, but Ernesto has a lawyer, Frederico (Eric Braeden of The Young and the Restless) and a sister, Carla (Barbara Steele of Black Sunday), and when they arrive they'll settle the matter once and for all -- or will they only make matters more confusing? Honeymoon with a Stranger is an intriguing suspense film with a couple of good twists and good acting from all, with Leigh, Braeden, and especially a striking Steele especially notable. As she adds class to this production as she did to many others, one can only muse on the criminal under-utilization of Steele in cinema. The direction of this just covers the action, but the script and performers keep you entertained.
Verdict: A not bad Honeymoon. ***.