Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Theseus (Bob Mathias) saves the life of a banished princess, Ariadne (Rosanna Schiaffino), whose own wicked sister, Princess Fedra (also Schiaffino), wants to kill her, seeing her as a rival and a threat to her power. Fedra is aided in her evil by the nasty Chirone (Alberto Lupo), who tries to manipulate her father, King Minosse (Carlo Tamberlani). Theseus has Demetrios (Rick Battaglia) on his side, as well as others who are secretly working against bitchy Fedra. When Ariadne is sacrificed along with a batch of virgins to the monstrous minotaur in its cavern, Theseus makes his way into the rocky maze to deal once and for all with the horrible creature. While deliberately-paced, The Minotaur is not a bad Italian fantasy film, and the shaggy, fanged minotaur itself is not too shabby. If you're expecting something along the lines of a Ray Harryhausen fantasy film, however, look elsewhere. California-born Mathias won medals in the Olympics, was a former marine, and after his brief acting career wound up became director of Selective Service and a congressman. His performance is okay, and Schiaffino is similarly vivid.
Verdict: Entertaining muscle man-monster movie. ***.
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| John Merivale and Didi Sullivan |
CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (aka Caltiki, Il mostro immortale/1959). Director: Robert Hampton [Riccardo Freda]. NOTE: Cinematographer Mario Bava is said to have finished directing the film.
In Mexico Dr. John Fielding (John Merivale) and Max Gunter (Gerard Herter) are investigating ancient Mayan ruins with associates, when they come across an underground temple with a pool and a strange flesh-eating mass inside of it. This mass eats away Max's arm and drives him insane (although he was already slightly crazy), and breaks out of containment in a laboratory. This "immortal" menace -- an ageless, legendary and uni-cellular being -- reacts to radiation from a passing comet, and threatens to grow to tremendous size. Caltiki is a fairly entertaining picture even if the monster resembles a writhing, glistening carpet, and it has an exciting climax. Undoubtedly influenced by such earlier films as The Creeping Unknown, Enemy from Space/Quatermass 2 and The Blob, Caltiki was influential in its own right. It's hard to judge the performances due to the dubbing, but the actor who does the voice for Max makes him sound like a sneering Snidley Whiplash even before he loses his mind! Didi Sullivan is Fielding's wife, and Daniela Rocca is Linda, who is madly in love with Max, who continually mistreats her. Max's death scene is a grisly stand-out and the opening scenes in the ruins are rather creepy.
Verdict: As Blob movies go this one isn't bad. **1/2.
Perseus (Richard Harrison), an "honorary" son of Hercules, becomes embroiled in a war between two kingdoms, Seriglos and Argos. The ranks of the soldiers from the former kingdom, where Princess Andromeda (Anna Ranalli) holds court, have been depleted by a man-eating dragon that emerges from a lake, and many more have fallen victim to a Medusa in a valley whose gaze turns men into stone statues. Perseus must first manage to conquer the dragon, then decides to free all of the soldiers turned to stone by taking on the nearly impossible task of killing the hideous gorgon. Apparently there were a number of Italian mythological flicks made that, at least in their American versions, featured assorted "Sons of Hercules" and this is one of them. Carlo Rambaldi worked on the monsters: a mechanical dragon with limited movement which nevertheless doesn't look too terrible; and the Medusa, who resembles a tree with one yellow glowing eye and many hair-like stalks. Richard Harrison was an American muscle man hired to star in many Italian epics of this nature; he is still working in films at seventy-nine. The settings and music are effective and the film is modestly entertaining, although not in the league of the original Clash of the Titans, which also features Perseus and Medusa. De Martino also directed Kirk Douglas in The Chosen.
Verdict: Fun Italian spectacle. **1/2.
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| Suzy Kendall and Robert Hoffman |
A young couple see a woman hanging from a tree but it turns out to be a life-size rubber doll. Then Christian (Robert Hoffman) and a lady friend spot what they think is a woman's corpse on the beach, but she turns out to be the very alive Barbara (Suzy Kendall), who agrees to have a drink and then disappears. Christian next spots her at a boat party he crashes, and winds up in her motel room, where a strange man breaks into the bathroom, threatens him with a gun, and gets shot in self-defense; later the body disappears. Barbara takes Christian to a friend's cliffside tower house, where they encounter an older man named Malcolm (Guido Alberti) and his younger companion, Clorinda (Monica Monet), both of whom seem to be keeping secrets. The trouble with Spasmo is that in trying to keep secrets from the audience, it leave us in the dark for too long, making the whole thing seem pretty nonsensical. [In truth, even after the revelations, the movie still doesn't make a lot of sense.] At one point Barbara, who throughout the movie says things like "I don't understand anything" and "I can't take any more" asks Christian "doesn't it seem terribly absurd to you?" at about the same time all the members of the audience are asking each other the very same question. Meanwhile, someone is leaving "murdered" mannikins all over the place. There's a wealthy man named Alex (Mario Erpichini) who seems obsessed with Barbara, and Christian's brother, Fritz (Ivan Rassimov), who may or may not be involved in what ever's going on. The acting isn't bad, with pretty Kendall, who also appeared in Torso, acquitting herself nicely, and Austrian actor Hoffman -- this Italian production has a truly international cast -- making a more than competent and very attractive leading man. The darn thing holds your attention because it's not only unpredictable for the most part, but you keep watching it for no other reason than to find out what the hell is going on; there's at least one good twist as well.
SPOILER ALERT. Spasmo has been classified as an Italian giallo film but it's actually more of a suspense film than a horror movie or shocker. However, it does feature two brothers, one of whom is a serial killer of women, and another who stabs and strangles mannikins instead of real people.
Verdict: One of the weirdest movies ever. **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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| Barbara Steele in satanic mode |
BLACK SUNDAY (aka The Mask of Satan/La maschera del demonio/1960.) Director: Mario Bava.
This is the first film for which Bava was credited as director. The witch Asa (Barbara Steele) has a spiked mask hammered into her face and is entombed, but many years later some blood drips onto the mask and the witch is revived to get revenge on the descendants of those who destroyed her. Asa would also love to possess the mind and body of her lookalike, Katia (Steele, of course). Katia's brother Constantine (Enrico Olivieri) and doctor (John Richardson) do their best to foil the plans of the hateful and vampiric Asa. Although Black Sunday is a famous and influential movie it's still pretty mediocre, but is bolstered by the appearance of Steele with her distinctive, expressive and sensual face [but, who, sadly, is dubbed throughout] and by Bava's excellent cinematography. Like most of Bava's movies, Black Sunday is rich in atmosphere and has excellent settings, especially the castle where most of the action takes place, but it lacks tension and impact. Bava also directed The Whip and the Body/What three years later, but his best film is arguably Blood and Black Lace.
Verdict: Everything Barbara Steele is in is interesting. **1/2.
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| Troubled professor and inquiring cop: Alex Cord and Enzo Tarascio |
THE DEAD ARE ALIVE (aka L'etrusco uccide ancora/1972). Director: Armando Crispino.
Professor Jason Porter (Alex Cord) is an archaeologist exploring Etruscan tombs in Italy. His ex-girlfriend, Myra (Samantha Eggar), is now married to temperamental maestro Nikos Samarakis (John Marley), who hates Jason and vice versa. Jason tries to rekindle things with Myra, and accuses her of having a thing for her stepson, Igor (Carlo De Mejo). Igor's mother, Leni (Nadja Tiller), claims she and Nikos were never divorced. However, the big problem is that some maniac, who plays loud chorale music on a small tape player, is running around bashing and killing people, especially romantic couples, in the ruins; the weapon is a metal tubular probe used in underground photography. Suspects include all of the aforementioned, as well as a blackmailing guard named Otello (Vladan Holec), Nikos' mousy secretary, Irene (Daniela Surina), and Stephen (Horst Frank), the choreographer for the latest production that Nikos is conducting [why some of these people are wandering around the ruins in the first place is a question]. Jason realizes at one point that the murders seem to mirror scenes in ancient Etruscan paintings, but wonders how anyone could have entered the tomb to see them before the official opening. Inspector Giuranna (Enzo Tarascio) tries to discover the truth, but the real truth is that The Dead Are Alive can't make up its mind if it's a mystery, a horror film, or a twisted family melodrama, and doesn't quite work on any level. The movie is much too long and convoluted and I defy anyone to figure out the motives of the killer when he or she is finally unmasked. The mixed-bag international actors are okay, but unable to do much with the material.
Verdict: Initially intriguing but it goes on and on and on ... **.
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| Max von Sydow and Stefano Dionisi |
"I haven't slept for seventeen years."
A maniac called the dwarf killer goes on the rampage in Turin in 1983, then seventeen years later his reign of terror begins again -- even though he's supposed to be dead. Moretti (Max von Sydow), the original detective on the case, although retired, begins an informal investigation with Giacomo (Stefano Dionisi), the now-grown boy whose mother was one of the first victims. Turned off by the demands of one of her clients, a prostitute, Angela (Barbara Lerici), accidentally grabs a folder containing incriminating information regarding the "dwarf" murders, but the killer somehow catches up with her on the train she is fleeing on, and she is only the first of many victims; the deaths seem to be related to nursery rhymes. Like the best of Dario Argento's thrillers, Sleepless mixes together a lot of elements on its convoluted but suspenseful path to revealing the truth about what's going on, and there are many effective sequences, such as the aforementioned train murder. Sydow is excellent, Dionisi credible, and Roberto Zibetti scores as his friend, Lorenzo. Sleepless is almost as good as Trauma and has plenty of gruesome moments; one of his better latter-day movies.
Verdict: If you're an Argento fan, this is macabre fun -- others beware. ***1/2.