Review by Ralph Schiller

Quell' Amore Particolare (1970), is an Italian-language film produced by Nadimar Productions. It was released in Italy by Compass Film on June 17, 1970. Quell' Amore Particolare was filmed in Eastmancolor and shot in a wide-screen process with a running time of 82 minutes. It was written, produced, and directed by Carlo Martinelli who mysteriously died shortly after filming had begun. The film's star Enrico Maria Salerno unofficially directed and completed the production. Carlo Savino composed a superior musical score for the film. Quell' Amore Particolare (English translation: That Particular Love) is a bizarre and confusing erotic thriller. Beyond the shadow of a doubt it is also the strangest film of Pier Angeli's entire career. In Livorno late at night, beautiful Cecilia (billed with her birth name Anna Maria Pierangeli) enjoys a hot shower. A young man Paolo Santi (Jean Guy Ruff) quietly creeps into the bathroom,Cecilia is terrified and Paolo uses physical force to carry a fighting Cecilia to their bedroom. Cecilia finally gives in to her passion for Paolo for a night of bliss and a relationship begins. Paolo's widower father, Manlio Santi (Enrico Maria Salerno) works many long hours at his successful antique shop.Manlio never stopped grieving for his deceased wife, Paolo's mother. A portrait on the wall reveals that her likeness is identical to Cecilia! One evening Cecilia and Paolo indulge themselves playing violent, sadistic-masochistic sexual games. Manlio wearily returns to the big house he shares with Cecilia and Paolo, only to find his son crying his eyes out. Paolo confesses to accidentally strangling Cecilia while performing the sex act! Instead of reporting the killing to police, Manlio visits a criminal attorney friend (Gustavo D'Arpe) and asks for advice on how to save his sniveling son. The lawyer informs Manlio that, short of his confessing to killing Cecilia himself, there is no legal hope. Manlio then sees his beloved family priest Don Vincenzo (Renato Chiantoni) to ask for guidance. After Don Vicenzo offers him sympathy and nothing else, Manlio goes to a local restaurant where he gets himself drunk. Paolo, wracked with guilt, goes to see a former girlfriend (Sheila Rossin) who offers him sex. Instead he nearly strangles her! Paolo see the owner of a local pool hall (Giuliano Raffaelli) who offers the boy protection if he becomes his lover. Instead Paolo rejects his advances. At the restaurant Manlio is picked-up by a blonde-wigged prostitute (Anna Goel) who takes him home with her. Manlio passes out without touching her but later pays her off when he leaves. Paolo leaves a suicide note for Manlio to prevent him for taking the blame for Cecilia's killing. Before dying, Paolo fantasizes about being reunited with Cecilia in a holy wedding and honeymoon. The film ends. Quell' Amore Particolare is a dark, disturbing, and frequently inexplicable Italian "Giallo" motion picture. Remarkably this curious movie was actually well-produced and shot in beautiful Eastmancolor. It also contains fine performances by the cast especially Enrico Maria Salerno as the sad, tortured father, Manlio. Salerno also capably directed the film when director Carlo Martinelli died early in production. Unfortunately Martinelli's flawed screenplay is so illogical that it confounds the audience. Pier Angeli does very little in Quelle' Amore Particolare except to appear nude or wear scantily-clad lingerie. The still-ravishing Anna Maria (looking ten years younger than her age of 38) is killed off just twenty-eight minutes into the film with only a brief appearance at the conclusion. Quell' Amore Particolare was a major career comedown for a once, big Hollywood movie star. On top of that Enrico Maria Salerno enjoys top billing above the title while Anna Maria Pierangeli is billed second below the title. Remember that actors must eat as well. Thank heavens that Quell' Amore Particolare is not the last Pier Angeli film! Note: Quell' Amore Particolare was never released in the US or overseas. It seems that this obscure film never played in Italian movie theatres. It was telecast only once late-night on an Italian television network.

Review by Ralph Schiller

In the Folds Of The Flesh (original Italian title, Nelle Pieghe Della Carne) is an Italian-Spanish co-production by MGB Cinematografia-Talia Films. It was filmed in widescreen EastmanColor with a running time of 92 minutes. It was produced and directed by Sergio Bergonzelli, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Fabio De Agostini, based on an idea by Mario Cajono and De Agostini. The musical score was composed by Jesus Villa Rojo. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, In The Folds Of The Flesh is by far the most bizarre, and horrifying film starring one-time, top Hollywood movie star Pier Angeli. This "Giallo" epic is plagued with a confusing, convoluted story which confounds the comprehension of movie audiences! The film opens with the title card: "What has been remains imbedded in the brain, nestled in the folds of the flesh, distorted it conditions and subconsciously impels" - Freud After that ambiguous quote this contemporary story is set in a medieval castle on the Italian coast. The housekeeper Lucille (Eleonora Rossi Drago, made-up to look identical to horror/Giallo star Barbara Steele) buries the dead body of her master Andre Gardare on the grounds of the estate. The moonlit burial is witnessed by Pascal (Fernando Sancho) a fugitive on the run from the police. After thirteen years, Pascal is released from prison and returns to blackmail the family. The castle he encounters is an evil house of secrets with pet vultures on the premises. Lucille lives with Andre's daughter Falesse (billed Anna Maria Pierangeli even in the English-language version, and wearing a blonde wig) a violent nymphomaniac who makes passionate love to her own brother Colin (Emilio Gutierrez Caba). At gunpoint Pascal demands a large amount of money or he will show the body to the police. Colin digs for the body and the lecherous Pascal rapes the two women not knowing that Falesse previously had murdered and butchered two men after making love to them because of a traumatic childhood assault. Falesse instead enjoys being violently assaulted by the lusty Pascal and doesn't kill him! When Pascal indulges in a childish bubble bath, Colin kills him by dropping two cyanide pills in the bathtub causing instant death. Lucille and Colin use an elaborate acid bath to dissolve his dead body just like they did all the others. A stranger appears (Alfredo Mayo) at the castle claiming to be Andre, and demanding to see his daughter Falesse. After seeing her he declares that she is not Falesse but an imposter. Andre is a police inspector and says that the real Mr. Gardare died in prison years ago. Lucille admits Falesse is actually her own daughter Ester wearing a blonde wig as a disguise. The real, beautiful, blonde-haired Falesse (Maria Rosa Sclauzero) has been unjustly locked-up in an insane asylum while Lucille and her evil brood spend her inheritance. The police close-in for arrests but Lucille commits suicide by swallowing one of her own cyanide pills. Colin and Ester (without her blonde wig) are taken into custody for a series of gruesome murders. Falesse is now free from the dark evil shadows of her family to enjoy her life of wealth. In The Folds Of The Flesh is for true afficionados of the "Giallo" genre even though the film's many bloody, gruesome, and sadistic killings appalled movies audiences then and now. Three men are slaughtered onscreen, a woman dies in agony from cyanide, an innocent dog and vulture are inexplicably slain for sport, and decapitated human heads are found inside the castle! On top of that In The Folds Of The Flesh also contains shocking black & white flashbacks from World War Two of a young Lucille witnessing the execution of dozens of nude women, including her own mother, in the gas chamber of a Nazi deathcamp! Anna Maria Pierangeli is heartbreaking as the psychotic, nympho Falesse/Ester but her superior performance is wasted in this sick, exploitation film in which she does degrading nude scenes. For nearly the entire film, Pierangeli wears a terrible, ill-fitting, blonde wig that looked better on Harpo Marx! Finally at the end she removes it to show her trademark, lovely, cascading, raven-hair! For the English-language version, the producers were too cheap to pay Anna Maria Pierangeli to return and dub her own voice. Unlike Anna Maria Pierangeli's previous film, the cheaply made Viva America!, In The Folds Of The Flesh, is a major motion picture with a handsome budget distinguished by the first-rate professional direction of Sergio Bergonzelli. The film is enhanced by an eerie, suspenseful film score composed by Jesus Villa Rojo. The cinematography is gorgeous with the interior scenes were shot at the De Paolis Studios in Rome. The screenplay by Bergonzelli and his fellow writers is a disaster, and nothing more than a wretched, incoherent mess used as an excuse for a graphic orgy of violence. This was the last movie for Italian film star Eleonora Rossi Drago. Anna Maria Pierangeli's career hit rock bottom with In The Folds Of The Flesh, her 31st movie. This film was never released to U.S. theaters which spared Anna Maria great humiliation in Hollywood's eyes. Pier Angeli made just two more films before her tragic death. Thankfully both were better than In The Folds Of The Flesh.

Review by Ralph Schiller

The True Story Of Frank Mannata (1969) was an Italian-Spanish co-production shot in Spain by Copercines, Coopertiva Cinematografica and Nike Cinematografica. It was filmed in widescreen Eastmancolor color with a running time of 90 minutes. It was directed by Javier Seto who also co-wrote the film with the producer Luigi Mondello. The musical score was written by Gianfranco Reverberi who also wrote the song Wait and Dream which is sung in English by Pier Angeli during a nightclub sequence. The True Story Of Frank Mannata is a miserable, cheapjack production that was doomed to fail in recreating the colorful, violent and glamorous 1920’s ‘Gangster /The Untouchables era’ of old Chicago. For Pier Angeli this film marks a further comedown in her acting career because she doesn’t even play the female lead! The True Story Of Frank Mannata is also the last film of Hollywood movie great Jeffrey Hunter. In 1929 Frank Mannata (Jeffrey Hunter looking as handsome as ever) leaves his homeland Sicily and immigrates to Chicago where he joins his brother Salvatore (Guglielmo Spoletini) and sister Rosella (Gogo Rojo). The family business is a swanky nightclub and a high-class brothel. Salvatore is in love with Bambi (billed under her real name as Anna Maria Pierangeli) who is the singing star at their nightclub. Frank, ambitious for himself and for his family, sets out to take over the Chicago mob now run by vicious Irish gangsters led by O’Connor (Eduardo Fajardo) and O’Brien (Miguel del Castillo). Frank also covets O’Connor’s stunning-looking mistress Lucia Barrett (British-born Italian film star Margaret Lee) who is bound to the gangster via blackmail. Frank wins Lucia’s heart by killing O’Connor which triggers a violent gang war between the Irish and the Sicilians. O’Brien’s consigliere Dr. MacDonald (Victor Israel) advises his boss to wipe out the Mannata family once and for all. While Frank and Lucia enjoy their honeymoon, Salvatore, his fiancée Bambi and sister Rossella are all violently slain by O’Brien’s men in a series of ambushes. Frank returns to Chicago with vengeance in his heart and murders O’Brien execution-style in the public street. At their loved ones’ funeral, Frank and Lucia are instantly killed by a bomb placed in their car by Dr. MacDonald who had narrowly escaped his boss’ massacre. The True Story Of Frank Mannata is an outright stinker with a poverty-stricken budget, badly-written screenplay and amateurish direction. The film is packed with many scenes of violence and nudity (including Pier Angeli in her death scene). Even so Jeffrey Hunter, Pier Angeli and Margaret Lee do fine dramatic work in a film that was not worthy of their talents. It was cheaply shot in Spain using standing sets that looked nothing like old Chicago. In fact one big shootout scene between the gangsters and FBI agents was filmed on a Western town movie set! The True Story Of Frank Mannata does have stylish, authentic-looking, period costumes with pin-striped suits and fedora hats for the men, and “Roaring 20’s” dresses and wigs for the ladies. The film was never released to US theatres but it was telecast on late-night American television as Cry Chicago. The version I saw was in Italian with English sub-titles. Pier Angeli has only a half-dozen scenes with very little to do. However she does get to sing the lovely song Wait And Dream on the nightclub stage and looks as enchanting as always in her beautiful costumes. Jeffrey Hunter, the one-time star of The Searchers (1956) with John Wayne for director John Ford, and King Of Kings (1961), hits the absolute rock bottom of his career with this film. In fact during the shooting of the film’s exciting car chase, a special effects window that was supposed to be shot out instead exploded giving Hunter a severe concussion. After several days in the hospital and upon learning that the producer ran out of money, a disgusted Jeffrey Hunter left Spain and returned to Hollywood. Plagued with headaches from the concussion, Hunter fell down the stairs at his home and suffered a deadly skull fracture. Jeffrey Hunter never recovered from the emergency surgery and died at age 42. Pier Angeli made only four more films (all of them better than this one) before her tragic death in 1971. Margaret Lee is still with us. Remember that actors have to eat also.

Review by Ralph Schiller

Every Bastard A King (1968) was produced in Israel by Noah Films. It was shot in widescreen color with a running time of 101 minutes. It was directed by Uri Zohar who also who also co-wrote the film with Eli Tavor. Israeli-born International screen and stage star Topol produced and wrote the musical score. Every Bastard A King is an excellent, exciting Israeli film about the 1967 “Six Day War” in the Middle-East. This ambitious production was rapidly shot and released in 1968 in the aftermath of the lightning war between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Thanks to a good friend I was able to see this hard-to-find film. An arrogant, selfish American newspaper reporter Roy Hemmings (William Berger) visits Israel with his beautiful, neglected wife Eileen (billed under her professional name Pier Angeli) to cover the possible outbreak of war in the Middle-East. Hemmings foolishly predicts to his New York editors that there will be no war, but his local tour guide Yoram (Israeli film star Yehoram Gaon) warns him that the entire nation “where every bastard is king” is mobilizing to be ready. Although Eileen was born in Tel Aviv, she wants to return home to America before the war breaks out. Instead the ever-cynical Hemmings abandons her every chance he gets to get drunk and sleep with prostitutes. Fighting for her husband’s attention, Eileen even sleeps with the handsome Yoram to no avail. Yoram is a reservist in the Israeli paratroopers and falls in love with an attractive Israeli Army Lieutenant (Tami Tsifroni) he gave a ride to on his journeys with Hemmings. When the war erupts, Yoram returns to the army and serves with gallantry in the Sinai Desert and valiantly saves a wounded Israeli soldier. Hemmings, shocked at the brutality of war, realizes he was wrong about everything and comes to love Eileen again as the best thing in his life. After less than a week the war ends with the outnumbered Israeli’s destroying an entire Egyptian army with their tanks in the desert. Yoram, along with Hemmings and Eileen, visit a remote farming kibbutz cooperative to find the lovely Lieutenant where they reunite in love. Two children cry when their pet baby kid goat slips past the barbed wire barrier to a mine field. Taking pity on the children, Hemmings jumps over the barrier to retrieve the goat and steps on a landmine killing him instantly. Eileen bitterly returns to America with her husband’s coffin. Every Bastard A King is an outstanding motion picture with a first-rate screenplay and good performances by the entire cast. Pier Angeli adds her natural beauty and grace to the film while giving a heart-breaking performance as Eileen who loves her husband in spite of his many flaws. Eileen is devastated to lose her husband right after winning his love back again. Pier Angeli, a wonderfully, gifted dramatic actress of the top caliber, dominates the film with her performance. Yehoram Gaon is perfect as the boyish and heroic Yoram. Every Bastard A King is highlighted by an authentic-looking, ferocious and thrilling tank battle in the Sinai showing the death and destruction of conventional war. It was shot in Israel’s Negev Desert which substituted for Egypt’s Sinai Desert. Every Bastard A King was not only a big hit in Israel but was submitted as the Israeli entry to the Motion Picture Academy in 1969 for “Best Foreign Film”. Sadly it was not even nominated. The film was released in the US in 1970 by Walter Reade’s Continental Film Distributers who specialized in releasing foreign films.

Review by Ralph Schiller

Por Mil Dolares Diarios (1966) is a Spanish-Italian co-production of Petruka Films and Tirso Film. It was released by United Artists in the US as Renegade Gunfighter. Por Mil Dolares Diarios was filmed in Technicolor and shot in the Techniscope wide-screen process with a running time of 76 minutes. It was produced and directed by Silvio Amadio who co-wrote the film's story and screenplay with Tito Carpi and Luciano Gregoretti. The film score was composed by Gino Peguri, including the Western ballad My Gun Is Fast sung by Bobby Solo. Por Mil Dolares Diarios (In English: One Thousand Dollars Per Day) is a rugged and fast-paced 'spaghetti' Western shot entirely in Spain. Pier Angeli rides tall-in-the-saddle playing a classic Western romantic lead. In 1870 Texas, the Union Pacific Railroad needs a right-of-way to lay track through Sun Valley to bypass the mountains. However the local ranchers are robbed and swindled of their properties by the evil Clark Brothers (based on the real-life Western outlaws the Younger Brothers). When Hud Baker's (Zachary Hatcher) parents refuse to sell their land, they are gunned down in cold blood by Lon Clark (Manuel Gil), while his brothers Jason (Reuben Rojo) and Wayne (Mirko Ellis) laugh. Hud wants revenge and uses his last gold to hire a famous, but now-crippled gunfighter Carranza (Pepe Callo) for his teacher. A year passes and Hud is now the fastest, deadliest gunfighter in the west. When he leaves for Sun Valley, the paternal Carranza gifts Hud with a pair of his finest Colt .45 six-guns! Hud returns to discover that his girlfriend Betty (billed in the Spanish credits with her Hollywood name Pier Angeli for box office) has married his best pal Steve Benson, (Mimmo Palmara, billed as Steve Palmer) who is now the town sheriff. Betty begs Hud to leave town but lawman Steve warns him not to take the law into his own hands or face the gallows. At the Clark ranch a horse-drawn funeral hearse drops off a paid coffin for Lon with a note saying he will be dead in two days! Lon is terrified and the Clark brothers hire Hud as a bodyguard for one thousand dollars per day. Hud plays cat and mouse with the brothers, and one-by-one slays cowardly bullies Lon and Jason! When Wayne realizes that Hud is the phantom killer, who plays a harmonica just before each killing, he turns himself into Sheriff Steve for protection. Steve secretly takes Wayne for trial in Houston and has his wife Betty make love to Hud, who has been watching the jail like a hawk. Hud again falls in love with Betty until he bitterly realizes she distracted him as Steve and Wayne escaped out the back door. Hud pursues them into the desert and is about to draw on Steve when Apache Indians, appearing out of nowhere, ambush them. After a bloody battle, Hud, Steve and Wayne are about to be massacred but suddenly the U.S. Cavalry rides to the rescue! At the Houston trial, Wayne's crooked, shyster lawyer Sullivan (Corrado Annicelli) pays off the Judge (Tom Felleghy), who dismisses the case on a technicality! A gunman and his gang are hired to kill Hud. Steve, disgusted with justice, sees Hud walk into the gunman's trap on main street and warns him. Hud wipes out the gang but a crazed Wayne runs into the street with both guns blazing. Wayne shoots at him point blank and at close range, but miraculously Hud dodges every bullet! Then Hud uses his last shot to kill Wayne Clark! Back in Sun Valley, the land is returned to the ranchers and Sheriff Steve tells the town that Hud is the real hero. When Hud saddles up, Betty pleads with him to take her. Hud shakes his head and rides off into the sunset like Shane! The End. Por Mil Dolares Diarios is a good 'spaghetti' Western film with plenty of six-gun action, Apache Indian attacks, and bugle-sounding cavalry charges, all jam-packed into a 76 minute running time! Producer-director Silvio Amadio keeps the film moving at break-neck speed with nary a dull moment. He also co-wrote the first-rate, revenge screenplay of Por Mil Dolares Diarios which might have been written by the great Western author Louis L'amour. Silvio Amadio had previously directed Pier Angeli in the excellent sea adventure film, White Slave Ship (1961). Por Mil Dolares Diarios was handsomely produced in widescreen and the gorgeous Technicolor cinematography taking full advantage of the picturesque locations in Almeria, Andalucia, Spain. Gino Peguri composed a rousing Western score that highlights the film's exciting action scenes and wrote the sage, Western ballad My Gun Is Fast with English lyrics sung by Bobby Solo over the opening and closing credits. The villainous Clark Brothers are played with great zest by Mirko Ellis, Reuben Rojo, and Manuel Gil. The broad-shoulder Mimmo Palmara is quite good as the righteous Sheriff Steve who should be as happy as the Clark Brothers to see Hud leave town and stay far away from his beautiful wife! Unfortunately the skinny, baby-faced Zachary Hatcher is barely convincing as the good son seeking vengeance in a role perfect for Charles Bronson or Steve McQueen! Pier Angeli is ideally cast as Hud's former love Betty, who had married his best friend on the rebound. With her dark, raven hair pinned-up, and wearing one colorful, costume, period dress after another, Pier Angeli is simply radiant and gives a sincere, heart-breaking performance of a woman torn between two good men. In the 1960's and 1970's many Hollywood movie stars, desperately in need of work, traveled to Spain to shoot 'spaghetti' Westerns including Henry Fonda, Yul Brynner, James Mason, Gina Lollobrigida, Audie Murphy, Robert Taylor, Van Johnson, Broderick Crawford, Jack Palance, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale. Brigitte Bardot, Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, and many others. Minor players like Bronson, Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood actually became movie stars thanks to their 'spaghetti' Western movies. For Pier Angeli, Por Mil Dolares Diarios was released in the U.S. by United Artists as Renegade Gunfighter (1966) on the lower half of a double-feature with little fanfare and no Hollywood comeback. United Artists was too cheap to pay Pier Angeli to dub her own voice in English, and instead used a deep-voiced actress who sounds nothing like her. Sadly, Pier Angeli's next films were not nearly as good. Note: Three years after Por Mil Dolares Diarios, Sergio Leone produced and directed Once Upon A Time In The West (1969) to great acclaim and box office on both sides of the Atlantic with the similar storyline of a young man avenging the death of his parents while haunting their killers by playing a harmonica! Coincidence? That movie made a superstar out of Charles Bronson!

Review by Ralph Schiller

Berlin, Appointment For A Spy (1966, AKA Spy In Your Eye) Berlin, Appointment For A Spy was produced by Italian International Film and Publi Italia di Lucio Marcuzzo in widescreen Pathecolor with a running time of 85 minutes. It was released in the U.S. by American-International Pictures under the title Spy In Your Eye. It was directed by Vittorio Sala with a screenplay written by Adriano Bolzini, Roman Ferrara, Adriano Baracco, and the film’s producer Lucio Marcuzzo. The musical score was by Riz Ortolani. Made during the height of the secret agent fad in the middle 1960’s, Berlin, Appointment For a Spy is an entertaining but silly, poor step cousin of the ‘007 James Bond’ series! What is remarkable is that three Hollywood stars who had seen better days, Pier Angeli, Dana Andrews and Brett Halsey co-star in this low-budget, foreign quickie and still do fine dramatic work. In fact they deserve medals for keeping a straight face throughout filming! In the ‘Cold War’ era an East German Nobel Prize-winning scientist and his lovely daughter Paula Krauss (Pier Angeli) make a dash for freedom at the border, ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ into West Berlin. The Russian border guards foil the escape, kill the scientist and capture Paula. Unfortunately the trigger-happy Russians realize that the prized formula for a secret invention also went to the grave with Paula’s father. The girl is brutally interrogated by the Russian KGB but insists she knows nothing of her father’s formula. Red Chinese agents also try to assassinate her hoping the Russian get blamed for bungling everything! The American CIA Chief, a battle-scarred, one-eyed, patch-wearing Col. Lancaster (Dana Andrews) sends his best agent, the suave Bert Morris (Brett Halsey) to East Berlin to rescue Paula and bring her safely to the West with the secret formula! Col. Lancaster undergoes surgery for the first successful eye-transplant but doesn’t realize that the Russians had slipped a tiny camera inside the eyeball which is the spy in your eye! Before too many secrets fall into Russian hands, Lancaster with Morris’ help identifies the espionage leak and the TV camera is removed. The U.S. Air Force does a parachute drop over the Russian zone for the intrepid Morris who meets his contact, a hunchback in a three-piece suit! After one amazing and unbelievable adventure after another, Bert Morris rescues Paula from a train bound for Moscow and a Siberian prison camp. Sure they get captured again but Morris, like his British counterpart Bond, whips out another gadget (that has yet to be invented) and escapes to West Germany with Paula. Naturally the good-looking couple fall head over heels in love as the bullets fly and Paula shows Morris the coveted secret formula that was cleverly tattooed into her scalp under the hairline! Berlin, Appointment For A Spy is enjoyable if one doesn’t take the ridicules plot too seriously and goes along for the fun. It follows the James Bond formula of “guns, gals, and gadgets” with location filming in Paris, Beirut, Venice and Berlin. The hunchback’s large hump is actually a radio transmitter with a retractable blade that he uses to kill unsuspecting Russian soldiers on the train to Moscow! No he doesn’t have a telephone in his shoe like secret agent 86 Maxwell Smart, but he has one in his umbrella! Bert Morris uses dehydration pills which induce severe thirst that force enemy agents to talk! The producer also made sure to add a gorgeous femme/fatale enemy agent Madeleine (Tania Beryl) to tempt Morris and included a risqué bathtub scene with Pier Angeli who is stunning to look at in this cheapjack production. Both the direction by Vittorio Sala, who made a career out of cheap, Italian action films and Westerns, and the musical score by Riz Ortolanio, who went onto better things, are routine at best. The screenplay by the producer and his three assistants is right out of a bad comic book! Brett Halsey plays Bert Morris completely straight with effortless charm and wit. Halsey was a rising star in Hollywood before spending over 10 years in Europe cranking out dozens of action films and Westerns, few of which enjoyed American release. Like his character Bert Morris, Brett Halsey had an impeccable eye for drop-dead beauties and married four of the including film stars Luciana Paluzzi and Heidi Bruhl! Halsey continues acting and is also a successful novelist (including a book based on his years in European film-making entitled The Magnificent Strangers). Movie great Dana Andrews is also excellent as CIA Chief Col. Lancaster in Spy In Your Eye. Once a top film star for both Twentieth Century Fox and the Samuel Goldwyn studios during the golden era of Hollywood, Andrews made four Italian action films in a row for which he was highly paid. However he always refused to include them in his resume and movie credits! Unfortunately he shares no scenes with Pier Angeli. Pier Angeli is perfect as the beautiful Paula trapped behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ who wins her freedom and romantic love in the arms of a handsome, fearless American agent and she steals every scene she is in with her luminous, photogenic eyes! At the end, Paula finally flashes her million-dollar smile at the man who saved her and we can almost forgive the film’s nonsense. As Spy In Your Eye, this Italian film was picked-up for American release by a studio American-International Pictures,that specialized in movies for ‘Drive-In Theaters’ with Vincent Price horror films, Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon ‘Beach Party’ epics, and motorcycle flicks! After Spy In Your Eye, Pier Angeli returned to Hollywood to co-star in her last major American film, for Warner Bros., The Battle Of the Bulge with Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Robert Shaw and Dana Andrews. Then sadly she returned to foreign film productions.

Review by Ralph Schiller

Review by Ralph Schiller

OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok (1964) OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok is a French-Italian co-production, produced by P.A.C., Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinematographique (CICC), and DaMa. Cinematographica. It was filmed in EastmanColor and shot in a widescreen process with a running time of 118 minutes. It was directed by Andre Hunebelle and the producer was Paul Cadeac. The screenplay was written by Pierre Foucaud, Andre Hunebelle, Michelle Lebrun, Raymond Borel, Patrice Rohmm, and Richard Caron based on the novel Lila In Calcutta by Jean Bruce. The prolific French author Jean Bruce created the character of daring handsome, secret agent Hubert Bath in his 1949 pulp novel OSS 117, four years before Ian Fleming wrote his first 007 James Bond novel. The French public loved OSS 117 and Bruce cranked out another 87 novels. In 1963 Jean Bruce was killed in a car accident and his wife Josette wrote another 143 OSS 117 novels under the name J. Bruce. After she retired her daughter Martine and her husband Francois picked up the pen to write a further 23 novels. Finally French cinema called and the first film in this series, OSS 117 Is Not Dead was filmed in 1957 with Ivan Desny as the OSS agent. With the international success of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), the French studio made OSS 117 Unchained (1963) which was filmed in black & white. They hoped for an American release by casting Hollywood star Kerwin Mathews in the title role. For the next film, OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok the budget was increased to shoot in color with overseas location filming in Bangkok, Thailand and even added American film star Pier Angeli as Mathews’ leading lady. In modern, exotic Bangkok, American OSS agent Christopher Lemmon (Raoul Billerey) is murdered for getting too close to finding the source of cholera vaccines that actually carry bubonic plague. Lemmon discovers that shipments from a legitimate British pharmaceutical company are hijacked and replaced with identical-looking, infected vaccines causing outbreaks all over the globe. Lemmon was betrayed by someone inside the Bangkok OSS branch office. Back at OSS headquarters in Washington D.C., the agency dispatches their best man, OSS 117, Hubert Bath(Kerwin Mathews) to find the source of the plague vaccines and to bring Lemmon’s killer to justice. No sooner does Hubert arrive in Bangkok do assassins try to run his taxi off the highway, break into his fancy hotel room to kill him, and even try kidnapping him. While being briefed at the OSS branch office, Hubert catches the beautiful receptionist Eva Davidson (Dominique Wilms) eavesdropping. OSS 117 learns that agent Lemmon’s primary suspect was the successful hypnotist, magician and mind-reader Dr. Sinn (Robert Hossein) who is also romantic with Eva. Dr. Sinn warns Hubert to return to Washington for his health but the ever-romantic OSS 117 meets the good doctor’s enchanting sister Lila Sinn (our Pier Angeli) and he is instantly smitten. Hubert charms her all over picturesque Bangkok including a romantic dinner on the city’s magical riverfront. Soon Lila falls in love with the American agent. Dr. Sinn is the head of a unilateral, world organization dedicated to wiping out the world’s population with bubonic plague except for a chosen few given his immunizing vaccine. Never the less OSS 117 keeps thwarting all of Dr. Sinn’s plans. A car bomb nearly kills the American agent and a heart-broken Lila thinks her lover is dead. Eva, a traitor to the OSS, murders her station chief with a knife in the back. Lila, who knew nothing of her brother’s grandiose plans for the world, is held prisoner in Dr. Sinn’s secret lair hidden inside an ancient Buddhist monastery outside of Bangkok. The intrepid and courageous OSS 117 breaks into the monastery and is shocked to find a large underground laboratory with hundreds of loyal technicians manufacturing bubonic plague to ship all over the world. Dr. Sinn, wearing Count Dracula’s cape, calls his minions to a meeting and details his plans for world destruction and conquest. In the name of humanity, Eva turns against Dr. Sinn and is quickly executed. Hubert rescues Lila, who is overjoyed to see that he is still alive. OSS 117 detonates incendiary charges that destroy the laboratory and battles Dr. Sinn in a fight to the death. Dr. Sinn dies in the flames while Hubert and Lila depart in a van with fellow OSS agents just as the monastery is wiped off the face of the Earth! OSS 117 stops the van long enough so he and Lila can enjoy a passionate kiss! The End. OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok is exciting, high adventure and is equal to any of the James Bond films of that era with non-stop action and romance! No expense was spared in the making of this lavish production using the French widescreen process Fran Scope. The producers also wisely changed the location of the novel from Calcutta, India to the more colorful intriguing Bangkok, Thailand. Interior scenes were shot at the Studios de Boulogne in Paris but the producers took full advantage of picturesque Bangkok with their gorgeous EastmanColor photography. The film was made with the full cooperation and assistance of the Royal Thailand government which was boosting tourism to their splendid capitol city. It was directed with great skill by Andre Hunbelle who keeps the action, romance and comic touches moving at a fast clip for its nearly two-hour running time. He also directed three films in the series. The music composed by Michel Magne is outstanding and he even composed a short trademark melody for OSS 117 himself, reminiscent of Simon Templar’s melody in The Saint series. Kerwin Mathews is ideally cast as the bold secret agent OSS 117 and seems to be having the time of his life swashbuckling through the film while romancing Pier Angeli. Like his British counterparts James Bond and Simon Templar, OSS 117 goes through rugged action while never wrinkling or staining his impeccable, tailor-made suit! Mathews is best remembered today for starring in three classic fantasy films, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958), The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver (1960), and Jack The Giant Killer (1962). He worked again with Pier Angeli in her last film Octaman (1971). French star Robert Hossein does excellent work as Dr. Sinn under-playing all of his scenes in a quiet tone of voice and thereby making his character that much more frightening. Any other actor would have overacted to the hilt. Pier Angeli co-stars as the beautiful but innocent Lila Sinn, who against her better judgement falls in love with a dangerous American agent, and she does outstanding work. She plays her role with great sincerity and helps make this film a big cut above all the other secret agent movies. In the end OSS 117 wins her heart while saving her life as well as saving the free world! Pier Angeli never looked more stunning than she does in this film while wearing the latest Paris fashion design labels! Incredibly although Pier Angeli and Kerwin Mathews were fluent in French, arcane French film industry union rules at that time, mandated that the voices of all foreign actors be dubbed over by paid French actors! Although OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok was a tremendous box office success in France and Europe, it was virtually unseen in the USA. In 1966 a badly-edited version of the film re-titled Shadow Of Evil (the OSS 117 books were not translated into English and were unknown in the USA) was released by the minor Seven Arts distribution company and sank without a trace. Ironically ten years later the 007 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) was also set in Bangkok, Thailand with many plot elements similar to OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok. Note: OSS stood for the Office Of Strategic Services, America’s first spy agency that was later formed into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947. In the US, OSS 117 Panic In Bangkok is part of a pristine, five film DVD OSS 117 set from Kino Lorber Video.

Review by Ralph Schiller

Review by Ralph Schiller

Review by Ralph Schiller

Review by Ralph Schiller

SOS Pacific (1959) was released by the Rank Organisation in Great Britain. It was filmed in black and white and shot in a widescreen process. It was directed by Guy Green with a running time of 90 minutes. The screenplay was written by Robert Westerby based on an original story by Gilbert Thomas with additional sequences and dialogue written by Bryan Forbes. The producers were Patrick Filmer-Sankey and John Nasht for Sidney Box Associates. The original film score was composed by George Auric. SOS Pacific is an expertly-made, suspenseful, nail-biting, British-produced thriller that was made during the increasing ‘Atomic’ hysteria of the ‘Cold War’ era with to-notch dramatic performances from the entire ensemble cast especially Pier Angeli. On an island in French Polynesia, British sea-plane Captain Jack Bennett (John Gregson) begins his trans-Pacific flight to Australia. Pilot Bennett is a reckless heavy drinker with an airline consisting of one single plane that is badly in need of repairs and maintenance. Captain Bennett frequently abuses his professional co-pilot Willy (Cec Linder) who warns him about the plane’s bad safety conditions. A beautiful-looking flight stewardess Teresa (Pier Angeli) is also Bennett’s lover but she harbors no illusions about his alcoholic temper. The flight has only a motley group of passengers on board. A tough, waterfront prostitute, Maria (Eva Bartok) expelled by the French police) , an American fishing trawler, sea captain Mark Reisner (Eddie Constantine) under arrest for smuggling and in the custody of a British police officer Petersen (Clifford Evans), a German nuclear physicist Krauss (Gunnar Moller), and a British spinster Miss Shaw (Jean Anderson). Also on the flight is scruffy beach bum and petty thief Whitey Mullen (Richard Attenborough) who was forced on the flight by the police as a material court witness since he informed on Mark Reisner! With his plane short on fuel (his shoestring airline didn’t have enough money for a full tank) Captain Bennett takes a shortcut through an area restricted because of a major hurricane. However the actual reason is that the U.S. Navy is conducting a Hydrogen Bomb test on an island atoll! The faulty wiring in the plane’s radio causes a fire in the cockpit with deadly fumes killing the co-pilot Willy and nearly poisoning Bennett. Everyone on the plane does their part to help except for Whitey who is a craven coward. Mark, a World War Two pilot, ventilates the cockpit and keeps the plane steady until Bennett recovers. As the plane’s engines go out one-by-one, Bennett with Mark’s help glides the plane to a crash sea landing in sight of an island. Yes, it is the very same island as the H-Bomb test! The passengers and crew leave the sinking plane in two rubber life-rafts and row to the desert island. With Captain Bennett suffering from a minor head wound caused by the plane crash, Mark takes command of the castaways and Teresa is impressed with his heroic nature. While Petersen is chopping firewood, the lazy Whitey steals the policeman’s revolver. He destroys one life-raft and escapes with the other. Krauss and Mark find man-made, concrete bunkers on the island. One building contains live sheep and goats but the other contains remote-controlled movie cameras trained on an island key two miles away in the reef. The nuclear scientist is horrified when he sees a steel tower on the key because he knows it contains a Hydrogen bomb. He says the cameras will record the blast and that the U.S. Navy will send a radio-controlled airplane to fly over the tower. An electronic signal from the plane will detonate the bomb and destroy both islands. A countdown clock shows they have exactly five hours before detonation. Krauss insists if they can get to the island and sever the main power line they will prevent the detonation of the H-Bomb! Teresa swims to the wreck of the sunken plane to get the needed tools. On her way back she gets weak and nearly drowns until Mark dives in and saves her. Bennett now sees that Teresa loves the American sailor. Miss Shaw comforts Maria who sobs like a frightened child at the thought of death hours away. Mark takes the tools and swims the two miles to the island key with the tower. Half-way through the bay a pack of sharks head towards Mark. Bennett sees this and realizing that he no longer has anything to live for, sacrifices himself by swimming in the water after ripping off the bandage on his head wound. The sharks smell blood in the water and quickly devour Captain Bennett. Teresa is horrified at the sight but Mark makes it to the island key. Mark climbs the tower but suddenly Whitey appears and shoots at him. Although wounded Mark continues to climb while the U.S. Navy sends out the robot plane. Whitey, out of bullets, climbs the tower to kill Mark. Instead, after a battle to the death, Whitey is killed in a fall from the tower. Mark uses an ax to sever the main power line just in time and the plane passes over harmlessly. The American Navy observes everything and sends a rescue ship. On board a grateful Petersen thanks Mark by saying that he is no longer under arrest with Whitey the material witness dead. Mark and Teresa embrace, kiss and look towards their future together just over the horizon. The End. SOS Pacific is a grand adventure film that kept movie audiences on the edge of their seats for the full 90 minutes thanks to Guy Green’s tight direction, a splendid screenplay and wonderful performances by the entire cast. SOS Pacific is also enhanced by George Auric’s outstanding symphonic film score which highlights the story every step of the way. The desert island sequences of SOS Pacific were beautifully photographed on Las Palmas island of Spain’s Canary Islands which would have looked spectacular in color had the budget permitted. The interiors were filmed at the Rank Organisation’s Pinewood Studios outside London. Pier Angeli is truly the heart and soul of SOS Pacific giving a brilliant, natural performance as disillusioned flight stewardess Teresa who finds love under adverse conditions. SOS Pacific (1959) was Ms. Angeli’s first film after being off the silver screen for a year after finishing her seven-year contract at the famed MGM studios with Merry Andrew (1958). Unfortunately her fine dramatic work was noticed only in Britain where the film was a hit. In the USA, Universal studios finally released SOS Pacific in 1960 on the lower-half of a double-feature with a cheapjack, kiddie-monster movie Dinosaurus! According to Jane Allen’s outstanding biography Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life, when Pier Angeli arrived in London to make the film both Richard Attenborough and John Gregson were instantly smitten with her natural beauty (they ignored the gorgeous Eva Bartok who took it all in stride after being romantically involved with Burt Lancaster while making The Crimson Pirate in 1952 which resulted in a love child). Both Attenborough and the screenwriter Bryan Forbes were also astounded by her acting talent, and decided right then and there to offer her the co-starring role in The Angry Silence (1960) easily one of her finest films. John Gregson, a likable British star, plays against type as a washed-up, rummy airline pilot Jack Bennett. Eddie Constantine is the leading man and does good work as the intrepid sea captain Mark Reisner. Later Constantine became a big European film star in action films, often playing private detective/secret agent Lemmy Caution. With a bigger budget his role would have been offered to major Hollywood stars like John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, or even Kirk Douglas! Unlike the British cast, Constantine spent the entire shoot with his beloved wife and children. SOS Pacific is a hard to find DVD outside of Great Britain but it is a lost treasure.

Review by Ralph Schiller

Mam'zelle Nitouche (1954) is a French-Italian co-production of Paris Film Productions, Rizzoli Films, and Panitalia. This French language film has a running time of 90 minutes, and was shot in Eastmancolor. It was directed by Yves Allgret who co-wrote the screenplay with Albert Milaud from an original story by Milaud, Ernest Blum and Henry Meilhac. It was based on composer Herve's comic opera of the same name with the libretto written by Milaud and Meilac. Raymond and Robert Hakim were the producers and Georges Van Parys wrote the fine musical score. Mam'zelle Nitouche is a remake of the French-language film Mamselle Nitouche (1931). Mam'zelle Nitouche is beautifully filmed, charming romantic fluff built around the comic talents of French movie comedian Fernandel with film star Pier Angeli imported from Hollywood as his leading lady. In 1883 Paris with it's gaslight, cobblestone streets, a church organist Celestin (Fernadel) at the convent Sainte-Eustache, leads a double life. After playing religious hymns all day at the convent and its school for proper young girls, the shy browbeaten Celestin changes clothes to become the dashing Floridor, composer and conductor of the Comique Opera at the Lyric Theatre! He even makes passionate love to the opera's beautiful, young star Corine (Michele Courdoue) who is also the mistress of the aging commander of the local regiment Major de Lonueville (Jean Debucourt). The Major's sister is the convent's Mother Superior (Renee Devilers). One girl at the convent, Denise de Flavigny (Pier Angeli billed under her Hollywood stage name) sees through Celestin's charade and joins in on the fun! She quickly memorizes his entire opera/ballet, La Belle De Robinson. The Mother Superior foolishly allows Celestin to escort Denise to meet her betrothed for the first time, a Lieutenant La Vauzelle (Francoise Guerin). Instead Celestin locks her in a hotel room so he can pursue Corine but an angry Major is quick on his heels! By pure happenstance Denise gets into mischief at the hotel and meets the young, handsome Lieutenant. Although it's love at first sight for both, she claims to be the opera star Mam'zelle Nitouche! Then Corine loses patience with her two fools, and leaves the opera mid-performance. Denise steps up and effortlessly performs the star's role to the audience's delight. After further amusing mix-ups Denise admits her charade to the Lieutenant who loves her more than ever! Corine returns to the opera while keeping both the Major and Celestin in her pocket! Mam'zelle Nitouche is pleasant entertainment with no less than six musical numbers and songs shot in beautiful Eastmancolor. This handsome production has lavish sets and the entire cast is dressed in colorful, authentic period costumes . Even so at ninety minutes, the film is simply a shade too long. Beloved French comedian movie Fernadel is a comic delight as Celestin but he doesn't have enough good comedy material to work with. Although he made a few Hollywood films, Fernandel's humor did not translate well into English for American movie audiences. The great Fernandel remained a top star in France and starred in over 140 films until his death in 1971 at age 67. Pier Angeli, now a major Hollywood movie star on loan from the famed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, shines in Mam'zelle Nitouche giving a vivacious, and sparkling performance as the innocent Denise who finds first love, and true love. While speaking perfectly flawless French, Angeli in one gorgeous costume after another sings and dances her way into the hearts of the audience. Her enchanting, lovely voice is showcased in both a solo number and a captivating comic duet with Fernandel. Yves Allgret routinely directs Mam'zelle Nitouche like a pedestrian stage play rather than a vibrant motion picture of a popular French farce. He also co-wrote the overlong screenplay with Albert Milhaud which needed another re-write. Discerning viewers will see rising French movie comedian Louis de Funes making the most of a small role as a cynical, regimental sergeant who catches Fernandel hiding from the Major among the recruits and drags him into the Army! Unfortunately for Pier Angeli, Mam'zelle Nitouche did absolutely nothing for her Hollywood career as this French-language film with an American movie star was never released in the U.S. When she returned to Hollywood, MGM loaned her out to Warner Brothers to make the dull, lackluster bible epic The Silver Chalice (1954) with Paul Newman. Pier Angeli would not make another outstanding motion picture until Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), again with Paul Newman. Note: The original comic opera Mam'zelle Nitouche is actually based on the composer Herve's private life. Like Fernadel's Celestin, during the day Herve worked in a Paris convent as a church organist and by night as a bon vivant composer and conductor of light operas with an amorous interest in beautiful showgirls! As they say, fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong!