Films I Watched From May to August 2020

* = first time watched

Crime Busters (1977)
Paranoia (1969)*
So Sweet, So Perverse (1969)*
A Quiet Place to Kill (1970)*
Oasis of Fear (1971)*
Seven Samurai (1954)*
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Django Unchained (2012)
Return of Godzilla (1984)*
Kill (1968)*
The Magnificent Dare Devil (1973)*
Alive or Preferably Dead (1969)*
Django (1966)
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
Go For It (1983)
Ace High (1968)
Flatfoot in Hong Kong (1975)
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)
Who Finds a Friend, Finds a Treasure (1981)
The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1993)
Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)
All the Colors of the Dark (1972)
Deep Red (1975)
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970)
And Now For Something Completely Different (1971)
Let the Corpses Tan (2017)*
The Hidden Fortress (1958)*
The Mercenary (1968)
Death Race 2000 (1975)*
Red Lion (1969)*
Outlaw of Red River (1965)*
Execution (1968)*
Dinner for Adele (1977)
A Dragonfly for Each Corpse (1975)*
The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry (2010)*
Frankenstein and the Wolfman (1943)*
Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968)*
Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)*
Samurai Cop (1991)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Magnum Force (1973)
Partie krásného dragouna (1970)
Pěnička a Paraplíčko (1970)
The Death of Black King (1971)
Vražda v hotelu Excelsior (1971)
Gunfight at High Noon (1963)*
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

 

Top 5 of the new ones:

Seven Samurai

Kill 

Red Lion

Horror Rises from the Tomb

So Sweet So Perverse

Top 5 of all of them:

Inglourious Basterds

Dirty Harry

Reservoir Dogs

Dinner for Adele

Ace High

Fernando di Leo and his movies

Fernando di Leo was an interesting filmmaker. As a screenwriter, he left his traces in any possible genre, including many spaghetti westerns, even many famous spaghettis, like Navajo Joe, The Return of Ringo, Massacre Time or Long Days of Vengeance. But when he became a director, he never made a western and made a lot of mafia movies instead. His heroes were mostly gangsters or vigilantes, when he made a movie about a cop, he was usually a corrupted one.

Naked Violence (1969)

All I know is this one is more of a social drama perhaps? Co-starring Nieves Navarro under her Susan Scott alias.

Slaughter Hotel (1971)

At the beginning of his career, he tried to make a giallo, and... didn't succeed. This movie is mostly boring and pornographic. Rosalba Neri is hot as hell in this, but we didn't need to see her body double touching herself. Klaus Kinski is useless in it.

Caliber 9 (1972)

This is where the real Fernando di Leo begins. A mafia movie with a great cast (Gastone Moschin, Barbara Bouchet, Mario Adorf, Lionel Stander, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli etc.), good story and unexpected twists. Perfect score by Luis Bacalov and Osanna, amazing opening sequence.

The Manhunt (1972)

Second film of his sort of trilogy, this time starring Mario Adorf as a falsely accused pimp, who has to hide from mafia killers. And those killers are Henry Silva and Woody Strode. Bad times for Mario... bad times for almost everybody, mostly the women - and what women! Luciana Paluzzi, Femi Benussi, Sylva Koscina... Great funky score, this time by Armando Trovaioli, great action sequences. The chase in the middle of the movie is insane.

Boss (1973)

Final film of the trilogy, but not as good as the previous two in my opinion. Henry Silva stars as a cold-blooded killer, who kills everyone in his way to the top. Richard Conte is the mafia boss, Gianni Garko is a corrupt policeman.

Shoot First, Die Later (1974)

Again a weaker one, first of Di Leo's collaborations with Luc Merenda. Merenda plays a cop here, but a cop working for the mafia. Richard Conte is here again, as a lawyer this time, and we also get Di Leo's favourite actor, Vittorio Caprioli, playing a deaf old guy, who becomes a witness of a crime, and therefore dangerous for the mafia. Delia Boccardo is Merenda's girlfriend, so we know she won't meet a good end here.

Kidnap Syndicate (1975)

Merenda again as a father, whose son is kidnapped together with a son of a rich businessman played by James Mason. When Mason refuses to pay the ransom, the poor child is killed in order to force Mason to pay. Merenda gets in a rage, but... the second half is not such a riot as we would expect from the director of Manhunt. Vittorio Caprioli is back as the policeman.

Loaded Guns (1975)

Poliziesco / sex comedy starring Ursula Andress! Not a bad one though. Yes, it becomes really silly and there are moments when Andress' body plays the lead, and the final fistfight is really silly and feels out of place. But a fun movie.

Nick the Sting (1976)

To be honest, I stopped with Di Leo in 1975 so far, so just quickly to the rest. This one stars Merenda again, paired with Lee J. Cobb. All I know about it.

Mr. Scarface (1976)

Jack Palance as a mafia boss in a eurocrime comedy. Seems so.

Blood and Diamonds (1977)

Claudio Cassinelli takes the lead here, Barbara Bouchet returns as a gogo dancer once again. Martin Balsam is in it as well I think. And Vittorio Caprioli again.

To Be Twenty (1978)

A sex comedy that turns into a horror in the end.. Sex comedy starlets Gloria Guida and Lilli Carati starring. Caprioli again co-starring.

Madness (1980)

Joe Dallesandro as a criminal on the run in this movie. I think so.

Killer vs. Killers (1985)

I think this is di Leo's last movie and he didn't end with anything else than a gangster movie with Henry Silva. He made an action flick with him the previous year as well I think.

Well, seems like apart from crime movies and sex comedies and one sex drama Di Leo really didn't do any other genres. But that kind of compares him with Sergio Leone, as the master of the poliziotteschi genre. Not that his movies were as great as the Sergio Leone westerns,but he really concerned to one genre, like Leone with westerns or Dario Argento and Mario Bava with gialli and horror. Other directors made most of the genres. These did their stuff.

Films I Watched From January to April 2020

*= first time watched

The Treasure of Aztecs (1965)
The Pyramid of the Sun God (1965)
Legacy of the Incas (1966)*
The Meanest Men in the West (1967)*
Superargo and the Faceless Giants (1968)*
Clash of the Titans (1981)

Our Man Flint (1966)*

The Last of Sheila (1973)*
Asterix and Cleopatra (1968)
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1992)*
Planet of the Apes (1968)*
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Strike Commando (1987)
Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1990)*

El Dorado (1966)
The Comancheros (1961)*
Soylent Green (1973)*
4 for Texas (1963)*

Chapagua's Gold (1970)*

The Big Lebowski (1998)
Loaded Guns (1975)*
Yankee (1966)*
Machine Gun Killers (1968)*
Gunfight at Red Sands (1963)*
The Maltese Falcon (1941)*
The 25th Hour (1967)*
Julián odpadlík (1970)*

Batman (1989)
Iron Man (2008)*

Top 5 of the new ones:
The Last of Sheila (1973)
The 25th Hour (1967)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Machine Gun Killers (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)

Top 5 of them all:
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
El Dorado (1966)
The Last of Sheila (1973)
The 25th Hour (1967)

Pulp Covers

Robert McGinnis and his artwork, probably the most valuable thing about these books.

Rosalba Neri and her spaghetti westerns

Now this could be even more interesting. Women had only occassionally a big part in spaghs, mostly they played just a second fiddle. Still there are some actressesconnected tightly with the genre and Rosalba Neri was one of them. She actually starred in many SWs, but mostly she just appeared somewhere in one scene or so. Let's see her resume.

Arizona Colt (1966)
She didn't appear in the western genre till 1966 but that year she made three of them. In this one she has just a small part of a prostitute that gets killed. Bad luck. Even for us, because the unsympathetic Corinne Marchand lives till the end of the movie.

Johnny Yuma (1966)
Now that's a good part - the villain of the movie! I don't remember much but her stripping sequence, that is too hot even for the parrot.

Dynamite Jim (1966)
A comedy, that I haven't seen. Just the awful title sequence.

Wanted Johnny Texas (1967)
Rosalba gets murdered in the first 30 minutes. That's all I know. Oh, and Fernando Sancho is blonde in this one.

Days of Violence (1967)
And again, dead at the beginning. I still have to watch that one.

This Man Can't Die (1968)
A really crappy movie with Rosalba in a tiny part with an ugly red curly wig.

Killer Adios (1968)
And she has the wig again! I don't know much about the size of her part here.

A Long Ride from Hell (1968)
Another of her typical small prostitute parts. The star of this one is Steve Reeves in his only western.

Sonora (1968)
George Martin, Jack Elam and Gilbert Roland are the stars and Rosalba probably plays again the same part.

El Puro (1969)
Another I haven't seen. Rosalba gets beaten to death in a long sequence, as far as I know.

Arizona Colt Returns (1970)
Rosalba plays a slightly bigger part in the sequel with Anthony Steffen, but most of the time she pretends being kidnapped and doesn't really have a lot to do.

The Day of the Judgment (1971)
She is even in the flashback only! As a long dead wife!

Watch out, Gringo! Sabata Will Return (1972)
She is now a hostage from a coach robbery. Not a big part, but more interesting one than the previous movies. At the same time she was starring mostly in horror pictures and in medieval erotic comedies...

The Great Treasure Hunt (1972)
And finally a movie where she plays a really big and good part. She really shines in this one and overshadows everyone in the cast. You really want more Rosalba as you watch it, and you get a lot. She's not nude in this, but that really doesn't matter. If you want her nude, watch Slaughter Hotel. Or rather Amuck instead.

In the West There Was a Man Named Invincible (1973)
A really lousy idea, letting one of the prettiest actresses play a widow with a moustache! A silly western comedy, too silly for me to try to watch it.

Charity and the Strange Smell of Money (1973)
I have even never heard of this comedy, so i don't have anything to write.

Blood River (1974)
And the last one... I still have to see this. It stars Fabio Testi and John Ireland, yet it can be really bad.

So altogether it's 17 westerns. I've seen 6. I believe the only bigger part of Rosalba's in a western is in Dynamite Jim and Blood River, otherwise she wouldn't be the reason to watch the movie. She did probably better in gialli, maybe worse in horrors - she had big parts, but the movies are all crappy.