Thursday, August 7, 2014 by watchstream
Jeunes filles bien... pour tous rapports (1968)iMDB Rating: 4.7
A young man who disguises himself as a girl in order to gain access to a girl's College.
Sunday, August 3, 2014 by watchstream
Trusting Is Good... Shooting Is Better (1968)iMDB Rating: 5.0too slow, too boring, everything takes too long to happen
I like Hilton and Gordon Mitchell so I gave this one a try. The DVD I saw is an ugly, full-frame transfer, probably from VHS. English dub. It's a "funny" story of a man (Hilton) that runs afoul of a gang of three bank robbers (Mitchell, John Ireland, Piero Vida). The robbers are busy trying to double-cross one another and Hilton joins the party. A pretty blond (Sandra Milo) takes her turn at tricking each of the men also. The story is very reminiscent of double-cross pics like ONE DOLLAR TOO MANY or ANY GUN CAN PLAY. However, this film is a little tedious, a little boring. Some of the comic scenes are pretty well-done but the action sequences are slow-moving, boring, very poorly staged. Generally the pacing of the film is too slow, too boring, everything takes too long to happen. Music is an annoying carnival-style motif which is supposed to sound whimsical but features too much acid rock-style organ and guitar. Mitchell's part FWIW is basically a cameo, he is dead after 15min of the film. Hilton is charming but can't save the film on his own. As of this writing the full film is available on YouTube. 5/10 stars.
Friday, August 1, 2014 by watchstream
Sappho Darling (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.1A pretty young girl named Sappho is, despite her boyfriend's best efforts, determined to remain a virgin until she marries. One day she picks up a beautiful, busty hitchhiker named Brigitte, and finds herself attracted to the sexy young blonde.
A dream girl, in a terrible movie
Yvonne D'Angers, famous Frisco stripper back in the Carol Doda era, was one of my '60s dream girls, having seen her in a fabulous spread in the oddball men's magazine "Broadside" (a sort of "Ramparts" for dirty minded guys). I later saw her briefly in Russ Meyer's ill-fated mainstream movie THE SEVEN MINUTES, but reading about her starring role in SAPPHO DARLING got my hopes up.
This Albert Zugsmith travesty was a big deal at adult theaters back in its initial release, but has fallen into obscurity since, mainly because it no longer had novelty value and is of poor quality. But that never stopped John Waters' movies from achieving cult status!
Carol Young stars as Sappho, a pretty girl who overly identifies with her namesake, the Greek poet Sappho, whose works are heavily quoted in the film's pretentious voice-over. She wants to remain virginal, much to the consternation of her creepy boyfriend Sven (Alyn Darnay).
He's named Sven because writer and uncredited producer Zugsmith ludicrously styles this farrago as taking place in Sweden, replete with poorly-matched occasional stock footage of Svenska locations. This was to ride the '60s porn wave of hot-hot imports, which got underway with the smash hit DEAR JOHN (also now sadly forgotten) and continued with INGA and I A WOMAN.
Sappho picks up a top-heavy hitchhiker Brigitte (the inimitable Yvonne D'Angers) and offers her a place to stay while the new arrival seeks work. Brigitte gets hired at a massage parlor, interviewed by a comely woman who the Something Weird shill (back of video box liner notes) and others have misidentified as Uschi Digard -some folks need new pairs of glasses.
SPOILERS ALERT:
Typical of the hothouse scripts Zugsmith was famous for (his next porn assignment TWO ROSES AND A GOLDEN ROD is even worse), film is plot-heavy and thoroughly unconvincing at every turn. Brigitte reveals she was victimized by five hoods, chanting "Gang...Rape" (film's campiest element) and has been emotionally scarred ever since.
Boy friends try to rape both Sappho and Brigitte in later reels, fended off with handy household implements like a broom or teapot. A massage parlor client (Sally Sanford) is a stereotypical lesbian who makes the moves on Brigitte and later drops by with a tall-tall gal pal (Julia Blackburn) to abortively attempt to party with Brigitte and Sappho. This nonsense is all filler surrounding the picture's key sexploitation content: the two stars taking a shower together and ultimately enjoying the Sapphic lesbian sex in bed we've all been waiting for.
Actually, the shower scene demonstrates effective casting: D'Angers' fabulous silicone breasts and dark, wide nipples, pressed against slight Young's tiny breasts with their perky nipples. This is quality porn.
Unfortunately a few minutes of arousal material is encased in an indigestible Zugsmith package. The purple prose reaches one of its many nadir moments when the gals discuss "inner beauty" and "Does size matter?" from strictly a girly point-of-view as written in insulting fashion by a hasn't-got-a-clue man. His poster advertising at the time accused himself of being an Academy Award winner -talk about fraudulent wishful thinking! Fictitious director is credited as "Gunnar Steele", most likely a pseudonym for Zugsmith.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 by watchstream
Three Crosses Not to Die (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.1Jerry, Reno and Paco are in prison, where they meet a young Mexican man who claims he has been convicted for a crime he hasn't committed. Mysteriously, the three men are released of prison and proceed to prove the Mexican man's innocence.
Friday, July 25, 2014 by watchstream
Un tranquillo posto di campagna (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.9A popular painter, plagued by nightmares that he and his lover/sales agent are engaging in bizarre, ritualistic, sadistic sexual acts, seeks to escape the city and rent a house in the country.
You can't say it isn't interesting
A talented, imaginative painter(Franco Nero)is having trouble finishing any of his paintings (painter's block?). His matron and lover (Vanessa Redgrave) arranges for him to stay at a quiet villa out in the country. Instead of getting any work done there, however, he becomes obsessed with the story of a beautiful and promiscuous 17-year-old girl who was mysteriously killed at the villa during WWII. The older locals (especially the men)are equally obsessed with the girl,and they all end up holding a bizarre séance. But it is only the painter who starts seeing her ghost and eventually solves the mystery. Or does he?
This movie is kind of a combination of a ghost story like "The Sixth Sense" and an artist-as-unreliable-narrator movie like the recent French film "Swimming Pool". It's not really clear whether the ghost exists or whether Nero's character is going crazy (although the latter seems more likely). It is difficult to really compare this movie to a Hollywood-style movie, however. Whereas a Hollywood-style movie would have ratcheted up the suspense and eventually resolved the mystery. This movie starts and ends with pure over-the-top 60's pop psychedelia and only the middle seems to be a really coherent narrative. And this is really more like the more famous 60's Italian film "Blow Up" in that the mystery eventually becomes almost completely irrelevant.
The "Blow Up" comparison is tempting in that both films star Vanessa Redgrave in one of her more sex kitten-ish roles as opposed to one of her later, more serious roles (she did both, kind of like a British Jane Fonda). However,this film has a much more frenetic pacing than "Blow Up" and is really of a piece with talented director Elio Petri's other films like "The Tenth Victim" and "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion". Besides, this is much more Franco Nero's show than Redgrave's. This is an unusual role for Nero. He looks physically different--thinner and with much less muscle tone (especially compared to his earlier appearances in "Django" and "Texas Addio"). His character is very manic and seems half-crazed from the outset, and he has a lot of blackly humorous scenes like when he visits the dead girl's lonely, invalid old mother and just kind of helps himself to all her photographs. The supporting cast is good too including the very pretty Gabrielle Grimaldi as the "ghost" and Rita Calderoni (who later worked a lot with equally crazed if less talented Italian directors Renato Poselli and Paolo Solvay) as the maid at the villa, who always seems to be in bed with her "brother" and at one point gets painted-- literally--by her crazed employer. You may or not like this, but you certainly can't say it isn't interesting.
Saturday, July 19, 2014 by watchstream
Suicide Commandos (1968)iMDB Rating: 3.5World War 2 - a British commando squad is tasked with attacking the "secret" German airfield from which German fighters have been attacking bombers which are trying to stop German tanks from reinforcing the D Day defences.
Run-of-the-mill
Here we have yet another Italian/Spanish World War II film, concerning an "impossible mission" taken on by misfit soldiers. How many times did the Italians make this type of WW2 movie in the 1960s and 1970s? There's DIRTY HEROES, BATTLE OF THE COMMANDOS, FIVE FOR HELL, COMMANDOS, LAST DAY OF THE WAR . . . this one of the better ones, although it's in no way a classic.
The plot: The Germans have built a secret airfield which threatens the D-Day invasion. Flak in the area is so heavy that Allied planes can't get through the bomb the airfield. So High Command calls in French commando Sgt. Cloadec (Aldo Ray!!!, in the same type of role he had in GREEN BERETS) to take on the impossible task of leading 4 misfit commandos behind enemy lines to destroy the airfield. The mission takes on various twists and turns until the climax.
Unfortunately we never get to see too many enemy soldiers pursuing the good guys. The lack of extras is only one piece of evidence which suggests the low budget. Besides Aldo Ray, the producers couldn't hire any other easily recognizable actors for the movie. The special effects are the worst I have ever seen. They usually involve burning model plastic aircraft. And I am not kidding; the closeups are just as bad as the awful effects in BRIDGE TO HELL. The heroic "Colonel Bogey-esqe" musical score is rousing at first but soon goes into monotony. But we do finally get to see some action and a little bit (a very little bit) of originality and some good acting. The cinematography is quite decent; the movie was filmed out in the woods some place, for the most part, but resembles France pretty accurately for once. Most Italian war movies are set in France or Germanty, but look like they were filmed in -- well -- Italy or Spain.
Overall, the movie is entertaining but really lacks originality and is also undeniably cheap. But, it's well paced, solidly directed and contains some good characters.
5 out of 10 stars.
Friday, July 18, 2014 by watchstream
To kanoni kai t' aidoni (1968)iMDB Rating: 8.1Four Tales Of The Occupation Of Greece
I first saw this little film some years ago on the old VHS video format at a video rental place that had an impressive selection of foreign films. 'The Cannon & The Nightengale' as it was indicated in the subtitle is a quartet of short stories about Greece during the various occupations during World War 2. Two of the stories are comedies, and two are dramas. My personal favourite is one where a German officer takes over the house of an average Greek citizen,who is obviously not happy about the arrangement,but can do little about it, except make his uninvited guest feel as unwelcome as possible. The other three stories tell tales of the English,Italian & American occupations. The film's black & white photography is a treat for the eye, and the rest of the film is well written & directed (by two directors,no less). No rating, but serves up a bit of rude humour.
Monday, July 7, 2014 by watchstream
Fireball Jungle (1968)iMDB Rating: 5.2Ambitious driver, wanting to get to the top of the stock-car circuit, gets mixed up with gangsters.
Fireball Jungle (1969) BOMB
I recently went to a friend's house with a group to see a rare copy of this atrocity, which he managed to dig up on DVD-R and screened on his DVD projector. I'm not really much of a drinker, but during the course of this evening I knew what to expect with Chaney Jr. and therefore decided to get toasted for a change, drinking four bottles of beer. Not much, really, but for me it had the desired effect! This was supposedly Lon Chaney Jr.'s truly last film, and it's a really horrid piece of garbage. But was it truly Chaney's LAST? I've heard at varying times that either THE FEMALE BUNCH or perhaps Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN were Lon's Swan Song(s). Oh well....
Anyway ---- FIREBALL JUNGLE had us rolling, and I was so buzzed by the time it started that it was like some sort of bizarre acid trip, with a sick and bloated Chaney popping up every now and then guzzling beer (what else?) which was fetched by his faithful dog. It was supposedly a race car flick, but only mere moments into it none of us could make head nor tail out of just WHAT THE HELL it actually was! Was it a race car movie? A psychedelic relic? I must tell you it was quite surreal sitting there laughing at the ineptitude of the film, all the while drinking beer myself while watching the seldom-on screen Chaney doing the same thing, flipping open his flip-top cans and guzzling away! At one point someone in the audience commented on how "sad" Chaney was, and I suppose had I not been bombed I might have felt the same; as it was, I was just eating (or rather, drinking) this up! One other guy in our group had a worse buzz on, as he wound up in the bathroom tossing his cookies a couple of times. This was much more entertaining than the movie. 0 out of ****
by watchstream
Massacre Harbor (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.6Rommel's last open port is maintained by POW labor against Allied bombing, a commando operation is undertaken to liberate the prisoners.
Slow at times but some good action scenes
Massacre Harbour was the theatrical release of some episodes of the Rat Patrol TV series; the TV episodes were edited together to create the film (on television, the story was called The Last Harbor Raid). Anyone who likes the TV series would definitely like this movie, and even those who never saw the Rat Patrol on the small screen will find it enjoyable. The four-member Rat Patrol is sent in to initiate a mass escape of Allied prisoners from a German POW camp on the North African coast, using the local fishing boats to transport the prisoners to safety. All the cast does well here; Lawrence Casey (Pvt Hitchcock) has a much bigger role than he normally would in the TV series and he gives a memorable performance. Claudine Longet portrays a local singer who assists the Patrol; her acting is fine but her singing gets irritating very quickly. There are some slow parts in the story, particularly about midway through the plot, but the mass escape at the end is exciting and well filmed. Definitely worth watching for any Rat Patrol fan, and non-fans should enjoy it as well.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014 by watchstream
Mission Batangas (1968)iMDB Rating: 4.6Dennis Weaver is a mercenary pilot in the Pacific during WW2. He agrees to help Vera Miles steal the Phillipine treasury of gold away from the conquering Japanese forces.
Forgettable film, notable only for the opening sequence
I saw this movie a long time ago and most of what I remember is that it is your standard, man starts off a heel and turns out to be a hero even if he doesn't think he is capable, plot. Dennis Weaver is a pilot during WWII, that flies anyone anywhere as long as they have money. Of course he finds out that during war, money can only go so far and he finds himself fighting a noble cause - that is, helping some Filipinos and Vera Miles, escape the Japanese. There is a scene in the beginning that has stuck with me all these years. Weaver is going to fly some rich (most likely corrupt) businessman out of the Philippines. The businessman is heading to the plane holding a briefcase full of cash, when somebody shoots him with a machine gun. As the camera does a tight close-up of his face, his eyes bulge and a small drop of blood trickles from his mouth, money from his briefcase flutters all around. This had a huge impression on me and I always think this scene best illustrates the cheapness of life. The rest of the movie doesn't even come close to being an average movie.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014 by watchstream
The Ghastly Ones (1968)iMDB Rating: 3.9A gruesome tale of revenge and bloodshed, from the Shock King of Staten Island, cult director, Andy Milligan. This super-cheap horror film story is set in an eerie Victorian mansion where a family has gathered for a will-reading. Three couples must spend the night there to inherit a fortune according to the will. Then they start dying one by one, as people are impaled with pitchforks, decapitated, dismembered, and have their throats hacked open with knives. There is a lot of disgusting gore including a scene where a hunchbacked cretin eats live rabbits.
For deviants with an interest in a well-fitted jacket or a tidy hem.
In order to qualify for their inheritance, three sisters and their husbands must spend three nights of married bliss in their creepy ancestral home on Crenshaw Island, which is staffed by two old-maids and a mentally challenged (and dentally-challenged) hunchback; in time-honoured tradition, this cheesy set-up results in several gruesome murders.
Staten Island splatter-movie pioneer Andy Milligan threw this hackneyed 16mm mess together in 1968 for a budget of around $10,000 and unsurprisingly the result is amateurish in the extreme, with dreadful hand-held camera-work, lousy acting, enthusiastic but rudimentary gore on a par with the worst work of fellow gore legend H.G. Lewis, and a thoroughly unconvincing Victorian setting (it might take place around the early 1900s, but the dialogue and hairstyles suggest otherwise).
The period setting of the piece does however allow Milligan to fully indulge in his passion for dressmaking, and a lot more time and attention was clearly spent on his costumes than on either the script or effects. During the film's many drawn out scenes of dull conversation, viewers get plenty of opportunity to admire Andy's prowess with needle and thread, but unless you're a seamstress into splatter, or a tailor who digs trash, then I doubt that this particular aspect of the film will be of much interest.
In fact, save for the enjoyably bad death scenes, a spot of dead rabbit munching, and three pairs of boobies, there is virtually nothing to recommend The Ghastly Ones (unless, like me, you're determined to watch all of the official UK video nasties no matter how bad they are).
Friday, June 20, 2014 by watchstream
Bloody Che Contra (1968)iMDB Rating: 5.6The story of Che Guevara's desperate attempt to escape the mountains of Bolivia. Pursued by an elite ranger unit of the army led by a determined CIA agent, Che is eventually trapped and his men are killed.
Nice, but dreadfully inaccurate
The film was made right after Che was executed in Bolivia and his corpse was still fresh when they started writing it. The names and events were largely unknown to the world and Che's own Bolivian diary wasn't published yet. All the screenwriter had to go one were sanitized newspaper clippings.
Francisco Rabal's depiction of Che also suffers from lack of knowledge. While he does a pretty decent job as Che, he's still just a cardboard cut-out of the real thing. His demeanor as Che isn't as schizhophrenic and inconsistent as Omar Sharif's rendition in CHE! (1969), and Rabal radiates with the romanticized version of Che that derives from his mythos and empire of kitcshy posters and t-shirts; not reality.
His troupe is mostly made up of archtypes of guerillas and not the real ones. For instance, a black guerilla COULD be Che's trusty assistant/bodyguard Harry 'Pombo' Villegas. However there are no known ones like Inti, Dario, Moises, Tania, or the like, they don't even name Regis Debray, instead they just call him the 'French Reporter.' One time a guerilla even claims that he served with Che in Guatemala. Che didn't know ANY Cuban Guerillas when he was there during Arbenz's ouster and Che never sent any missions to Guatemala when he was in the service of Cuba. Rather, Che only fought in Zaire (which this movie makes no reference of since it wasn't known at the time) and Bolivia.
Notwithstanding, the Barrientos regime is vilified, as should all Latin American dictatorships, but not in the manner of making them a 2-D pack of wolves. The white rangers are seen as just soldiers but the regime itself is just plain bad and Bolivian regulars are just dumb and incompetent.
Thus far, no satisfactory roles of Che have made it to the screen (with the possible exception of Bernal in Motorcycle Diaries) and sadly no decent biopic has come out about the 20th century's most (in)famous guerilla and in any case just a good old fashioned story about the Third-World's attempt to rip off their colonial shackles.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 by watchstream
Uno straniero a Paso Bravo (1968)iMDB Rating: 7.2A drifter returns to a small town to avenge the murder of his wife and daughter.
a very good revenge tale
This is a solid spaghetti western that has a great cast and lots of cool Euro-western style.
The music is very good. Some parts of the score are very minimalist, using only a single guitar. A couple of other parts sound kind of creepy, almost like they are using a theremin. All of it sounds very appropriate for a spaghetti western. It also has a great typical spaghetti-style opening theme.
Anthony Steffen does a fine job as the revenge seeking stranger Gary Hamilton. Anyone who thinks his unemotional performance in "Django the Bastard" (aka "Stranger's Gundown") was unintentional should see this movie, because here he proves that he can show feelings if the part requires it. Eduardo Fajardo is great as the scumbag town boss Acombar. Here he plays a character that is more over-the-top than his usually more refined villainous roles. I love the part where he tells his men to bring him Gary Hamilton's head because he wants to see it on a pole.
What is it with these names? In Antonio Margheriti's "And God Said to Cain," there is also a man named Gary Hamilton seeking revenge against a man named Acombar, though the story and characters are completely different. I'd love to know the story behind this. It doesn't seem like something that would be mere coincidence.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it makes no bones about being an Italian western. Pepe Calvo (as the water salesman) speaks with an obvious accent, as does the beautiful Adriana Ambesi (as Rosy). Ambesi also sings a song in Italian in the saloon. This adds a nice touch to the film. It's also refreshing to see a Euro-western that doesn't make a vain attempt to hide its origins.
This is a cool movie for people whose interest in spaghetti westerns goes beyond just liking the Leone/Eastwood movies.
by watchstream
One More to Hell (1968)iMDB Rating: 5.5Spaghetti western that's below average
I had hopes for this movie, given my love of spaghetti westerns and the fact that George Hilton was the star. But at the end, I kind of felt let down. There are some good things here and there - for example, the opening sequence is kind of original, and the climax has some cool touches. But in between that opening and ending, I found the movie kind of boring at times. The basic plot has a number of familiar characters and plot turns, but I could have lived with that had they been treated with energy and displayed in an original manner. But the treatment is kind of strange, with some broad comic touches that don't really fit with the rougher sections, and the story turning to a major detour for a long time after things have been set up. Other problems include that the main villain isn't given enough screen time, not enough action to liven things up, and poor photography. Not the worst spaghetti western I've seen, but even genre fans would be better off not seeking it out.
Monday, June 16, 2014 by watchstream
Subterfuge (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.1A young wife is becoming very distraught over the fact that her husband, a secret service "spy" for England, has changed his mind about transferring away so that he can spend more time with her and their young son. He has grown cold and distant towards her; she thinks it 's because of the secretiveness of his work. Meanwhile, an American spy comes to England and is induced to help the British "team" with an undercover spy ring. When this spy ring is over turned the "bugs" that crawl out from under its rock shocks everyone!
Old-fashioned spy entry to be avoided
Here's one that tries to be cynical and hip but fails on both accounts. Director Peter Graham Scott was involved with both the Danger Man and The Avengers television series' but drops the ball here, churning out a staid but not altogether lifeless espionage non-thriller.
Saturday, June 14, 2014 by watchstream
Marry Me! Marry Me! (1968)iMDB Rating: 5.6Claude and Isabella met on a beach one summer and got easily involved. But while he has dreams of settling down with a family, she just wants to have fun. When Isabelle becomes pregnant, Claude is advised by both families to marry but things get more complicated when he meets an English woman.
Vive la difference
Berri has a keen eye for the subtleties of flirting and baiting at a Jewish wedding. It is wryly amusing throughout with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that captivates me. However, given that the tone is amusing and the events understated to begin with, the pacing is much too leisurely at times. And, there is one poorly-placed misfire of a gag about 20 minutes before the end that nearly robs the film of all its good will. Fortunately, it bounces back spritely after that with a delightful and fitting ending.
Those Berri afficienados looking for ascerbic wit and unforgettable characters will be disappointed. However, if your taste run toward the subtly droll comedy of the human condition, you will enjoy this genuinely observed slice-of-life.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 by watchstream
Kenner (1968)iMDB Rating: 6.3An American travels to India to avenge the murder of his business partner. But on the path to vengeance he discovers both love and responsibility. Stars Jim Brown.
Just plain awful
I see that from the lack of comments that this film does not make the rounds on TV that often. It is not on video nor DVD. I saw this film recently. It was on a tape that I had that was taped from TV many years ago. Now I know why I did not remember this picture. Jim Brown plays an American Sailor who goes to Bombay India, to search for a guy that cheated him out of some money. He gets tangled up with a young boy that is searching for his American father. The acting is horrible and the story makes nearly no sense at all. The photography is so so, but should have been much better. This film was made in 1969 when MGM had changed hands, and the film quality started to lack. This film should remain in the vaults. See it if you are a Jim Brown fan, otherwise beware. * star
