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aka Die, Beautiful Marianne.
Sebastian (Christopher Sandford), almost runs over Marianne (Susan George), whilst she is on the run in Spain. Two weeks later, back in Britain he springs marriage on her, which she is less than enthusiastic about, but goes through with. But she deliberately gets the marriage certificate to name Eli (Barry Evans), the best man, as her groom then leaves. Eli finds her and invites her to stay with him whilst she works things out. There follows a tale of cat and mouse intrigue, inheritance and a family that will to do anything to stop Marianne receiving it.
A slow moving tale, that shows promise, but due to pacing and a clunky script never catches fire. It's either an understated thriller, or just plain lackluster depending on your boredom threshold.
aka Dead On Course.
When a fellow pilot Nick (Robert Beatty), goes missing presumed dead, due to bad weather, Richard Van Ness (Zachary Scott) decides to investigate. The friends insistence on flying doesn't add up so Van digs further and discovers Nick was involved in smuggling, something that Van cannot believe he would do. Then he finds out that Nick was being blackmailed, and when he is discovers Nick is still alive, the two then determine to bring the criminals to justice.
One of the many quota quickies Britain banged out with an American 'name' as the star, that just about holds the attention. Due in part to it's pacing, and the lack of real jeopardy to the participants. But it picks up for the obligatory action packed ending. Some familiar faces pad out the cast, including Harold Lang, Diane Cilento and a pre-fame Kay Kendall.
aka Egyptian Blood Feast. Feast of Flesh.
A small town is being terrorised by a serial killer, who specialises in young women and taking various body parts. Meanwhile Dorothy Fremont is throwing a party for her daughter Suzette and calls in a local caterer, Fuad Ramses. He promises to prepare her an Egyptian feast not prepared for 5,000 years. Unfortunately for Suzette, Fuad is the killer. For he needs the body parts to help resurrect the Godess Ishtar at a ceremony he will perform at Suzette's party.
The godfather of gore's meisterwork, the one he will be remembered for, that changed the rules of horror cinema forever. Before this films shied away from showing anything too explicit, but Herschell realised that people wanted to see the gore. So gore he gave them. Lashings of over the top gore. If you like extremely low budget films with, trashy, campy acting, bizzare plots, gore and lots of it: all filmed in stunningly bright colours, then this is for you.
Ann (Gene Tierney), is the kleptomaniac wife of a successful psychoanalyst (Richard Conte). She seems to be facing a scandal, when she is arrested for shoplifting, but a stranger David Korvo (Jose Ferrer), comes to her aid. He gains her confidence and being a hypnotist begins treating her for kleptomania, but he's not what he seems to be. A fact that becomes obvious when she finds herself up for murder, when the police find her in a room with a strangled woman, and no idea how she got there. Unsure whether or not she committed the crime, her only chance is her husband, who believes Korvo to be the real murderer.
Gene Tierney gives a great performance as the distant and eternally worried suspect, in this tightly wound, but slightly ridiculous film noir. Whilst Ferrer is suitably creepy, evil and charming in turn.
aka Shura-yuki-hime: Urami Renga. Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance.
Lady Snowblood (Meiko Kaji) having been caught, is sentenced to death for her crimes, but before she reaches the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who recruit her to infiltrate an anarchist group and retrieve an incriminating letter.
The follow-up to Lady Snowblood: Blizzard Of The Netherworld continues Yuki's story. Time has moved on and now she is in the midst of the political turmoil of Japan following the Russo-Japanese war. As politics rather than pure vengeance drives the story, it can at times get a bit convoluted, but saying that, Meiko still has presence and dominates the screen as she hacks her way through another truck load of unfortunate men.
aka Dead Alive.
It's 1957 in Wellington, New Zealand and Mothers boy Lionel (Timothy Balme), still lives at home with his overbearing mother (Elizabeth Moody).Unfortunately for him he falls for a girl (Diana Peñalver), and his mother being the possessive type tries to sabotage their date. This backfires on her as she gets bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey and turns into a puss ridden monster before dying. All while Lionel tries to hide this from her friends and more importantly his girlfriend. But that's not the end of her, as she rises as a zombie determined to keep her child out of temptation. Whilst Lionel tries to stop her and her infected followers.
Wonderfully inventive and vastly over the top gore-fest of slapstick humour and out and out horror.
aka Ehi amico... c'è Sabata, hai chiuso!
Several highly regarded members of a small Texan town, led by Stengel (Franco Ressel), have robbed a bank. But Sabata (Lee Van Cleef), interrupts proceedings, kills the robbers, returns the money and when he finds out who is behind the bank job, tries to blackmail Stengel. Stengel decides that it would be quicker and easier to just kill Sabata. Sabata in turn isn't taken with this plan and decides that Stengel needs to be taught a lesson. All the while Banjo (William Berger), looks on and tries to figure out how to profit from both sides.
This is a fun western as long as you like lots of action, over the top body counts and cartoon like wise cracking characters and if not, why are you watching a spaghetti western, surely that's what they are known for? Oh and a wonderful example of how to do a a spaghetti western soundtrack by Mercello Giombini.
aka Sinbad contro i sette saraceni. Hawk of Bagdad. Sinbad Against the 7 Saracens.
Ali Baba (Bruno Piergentili), is a rebel leader whose king, Omar (Gorden Mitchell), is a tyrant. Omar is determined to take the golden throne and rule the eight tribes, but the Magi tell him he must defeat a champion from each of the tribes in a tournament, in order to do so. And you guessed it Ali Baba becomes one of the champions taking part, but Omar is ahead of the game and throws Ali into a dungeon to weaken him. Meanwhile, he finds himself attracted to one of the palaces princesses, Fatima (Bella Cortez) after she comes to his aid.
Whilst Gordon Mitchell has the physique and presence to give Oman suitable weight and threat, the rest of the cast are underwhelming, and the film as a whole has none of the charm or flare of earlier peplum.
aka Jason and the Golden Fleece.
Jason (Todd Armstrong), is the son of the usurped king of Thessaly and has returned to claim the throne. Jason in pursuit of this goal undertakes to journey to Colchis and return with the legendary Golden Fleece. He assembles a crew of the finest men in Greece, including Hercules (Nigel Green) to crew his ship, the Argo and is told he is under the protection of Hera, queen of the gods (Honor Blackman). The journey brings them into conflict with harpies, Talos: a giant bronze statue, the hydra, and the hydra's children: a skeleton army.
The mangled version of Jason's legendary journey is actually a wonderful adventure. Once seen never forgotten, especially the set piece fight with the skeleton army, all brought to life by the special effects wizardry of Ray Harryhausen. All enhanced by the wonderful music of Bernard Herrmann. A must see for children of all ages.
aka Die, Beautiful Marianne.
