The Four Faces of Luciano Catenacci

Luciano Catenacci (a.k.a. Luciano Lorcas or Max Lawrence) is one of my favorite character actors in Italian genre movies of the 60's and 70's. He appeared mostly in poliziotteschi, rarely in gialli, spaghetti westerns or horror movies, I guess his most memorable performances are from the Spencer-Hill comedies, where he often played the main villain. I began to recognize him by seeing him in Odds and Evens, later I found out that in Crime Busters is the gang of the villains completely the same as in the latter Odds and Evens. Bud Spencer beats always the same guys! And it's true. Riccardo Pizzuti is in most of their movies, the same goes for Claudio Ruffini, Sal Borgese or Giancarlo Bastianoni.
Catenacci, still playing bad guys in Italian cinema, has however four different looks, and yet the almost bald with mustache image is the most common one, he looks more menacing without it. Compare:

 I'm an ugly bastard, waiting for the Bud Spencer punch.

Now I'm really a bastard and I don't take any excuses!

You didn't hear me? I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!

Shit, this is REALLY scary!

Giallo Queen: Anita Strindberg

Addition to the giallo special Im'having on my Oik's blog - just a few pictures, that I can't add to the Facebook page.

 

The Spaghetti Western Cliché

I have called this page Sad Hill after the cemetery from my most favourite movie of all time, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (as you all perfectly know, don't ya?), because originally I wanted it to be a blog about spaghetti westerns. But then I changed my mind and continued writing about those on my normal blog (Oik's blog). Recently I discovered the website gialloscore.com, where someone rates gialli according to their content of things, that are present in most of them, that are for them somewhat typical. The black gloves, the Italian location, the razors, blades and so on, not forgetting the J&B whiskey. I have realized, after watching some 180 spaghetti westerns, that in a lot of them there are such repeating motives as well. I'll try to make a list of some of them. Maybe rating at least the most well known spaghettis based on the content of these elements would be interesting too, but now I'm too lazy for that :)

Italian director
Spanish location
Elios western town
Animated opening credits
Colt Peacemaker, even before its invention
Sharp and very loud unreal sounds of weapons
Final showdown
Extreme close-ups
Huge shots of the landscape
Mexican villain
Gang of Mexican bandits
Funny Mexican sidekick
Django / Ringo / Sartana / Sabata in the title
Dollars / Death / Gold / Pistol in the title
Evil bankers
Mexican femme fatale
Prostitutes
Morricone / Nicolai / Ortolani music
Multiple kills during one shootout
Death count > 10
The hero is a Confederate soldier, not Union
Murdered / raped / slapped woman
Corrupted sheriff
Bounty Hunters
Crazy villain
Funny old guy
A stagecoach robbery ending with a massacre
Torture of the hero
Saloon singer
Saloon fistfight
A fistfight in the water

Well, that looks like a much longer list than I expected.  And I could go on and on and on, which wouldn't be good for anything. Just wanted to remind some of the most often clichés used in these movies. Lots of them - and I forgot a lot more I believe.

The Strange Moments in Mrs. Wardh

Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh was my first giallo ever and when I rewatched it, after seeing some 20 other gialli, I realised it is simply the best I saw. Sorry, Argento or Bava, the two best were made by Sergio Martino. Edwige Fenech as the lead is not THE reason, why this one and All the Colors of the Dark are my favourite gialli, but definitely she helps a lot :) Well, I chose some of my favourite moments (not quite strange, I have only paraphrased the original title) in the movie to remind. Sorry, this article is full of SPOILERS:

• The shot with Edwige's eye in the middle of dark screen. Magic cinematography by Emilio Foriscot, if I'm not mistaken.

• Laughing Ivan Rassimov, half of his face covered in dark. Splendid. 

• The rape in the rain scene doesn't appeal to me that much, but the scene with the bottle is really beautifully shot and scary. It must have really hurt, hasn't it?

• I'm 20 minutes in the movie, did I REALLY saw already five nude chicks, and Edwige being nude THREE TIMES so far? Well, I'm not complaining though.

• The ugly truth about this giallo - the murder scenes are the least inspired part of the movie.

• The scene in the park is really scary though.

• Not talking about the scene in the underground garage. A masterpiece.

• While watching it the second time, I realized how clearly De Mendoza just takes Edwige to show her that Rassimov is "dead". 

• Bruno Corazzari is the killer! Unfortunately he says nothing and dies. Not so important murderer - the real menace is somewhere else. I'd love to see a movie about Corazzari killing everyone through the whole footage. That would be funny.I guess it doesn't exist.

• Wasn't she supposed to sleep all night long? Never mind, soon enough she sleeps again. Forever?

 

• So Edwige "dies" and the movie changes from a not so much whodunit into a western. Really! Desert location and a duel between Hilton and Rassimov ending with close-up of eyes (in mirror sunglasses though) and a close-up of a gun.

• Then arrives a train and De Mendoza gets off just like Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. The one and only passenger getting off. 

• And slowly walking Edwige just like an avenging angel.

• The ending is not so good for a giallo, but as a revenge of a mistreated lady it works perfectly. Not mentioning the nod to La salaire de peur, where Yves Montand ends quite the same way.

 

• One last thought - Mrs. Wardh has actually no vice. No evidence of her being actually excited by blood apart from what Hilton and Rassimov tell to the authorities (police comissioner and psychiatrist) to portray her as a psychically unstable person.