The Bloodthirsty Movie Not-So-Much Marathon

I'm not much into movie marathons. It always ends the same way. I never watch everything I have planned. Sometimes I fall off right after the first movie. Now I had a day and a half, so I thought I would take the opportunity to watch some of the poliziotteschi movies. Something with Maurizio Merli, something with Luc Merenda, something with somebody else. But I'm still in my giallo mood, and the truth is, that I usually get tired of the genre clichés pretty soon. How many movies of one genre I would watch in a row? Two, maybe three? With the poliziotteschi being pretty repetitive?
So I decided to change the genres and watch them in this order: a poliziottesco, a giallo and a spaghetti western. So I hoped I would go back to my beloved genre. I hoped to make three rounds, that means nine movies. Well, I watched six, from those only one western, that I have already seen. But actually pretty long time ago.
I had to make some pauses during the movies, so they can appear longer than they are.

WEDNESDAY 2:40 pm
FROM CORLEONE TO BROOKLYN

Maurizio Merli is the cop, Umberto Lenzi directs. This is gonna be a violent ride! Venantino Venantini is the chief policeman? Either he is a traitor, or he dies soon. Well, he survived it and is clean. Weird... The girl was just shot. No rape? No burning? No torture? Is this really a Lenzi movie? Ah, Laura Belli is Merli's ex-wife. She was kidnapped and brutally killed in The Execution Squad. The same in Lenzi's Almost Human. And don't forget the poliziotteschi rule no.1: When the cop has a wife, she dies. Wait, she survived without a scratch? Umberto, is that really you? Well, the rest is entertaining, but far from great. Pity they didn't show us the way back to Italy, with the boss it could have been interesting.

4:50 pm
CAT O'NINE TAILS

Dario Argento's The Bird with Crystal Plumage was great, Deep Red had its flaws but also excellent sequences, Tenebre was kind of  predictable. What about this? Interesting, a science laboratory. Well, I suddenly need a beer. I could use it even for the other movies. Tomorrow is a public holiday and the shop might be closed. Ok, Dario, see you soon. Well, I could be buying me some J&B whiskey, I've seen a lot of them in the previous movie and some also in this one already. But I'll stick with the beer.
After the shopping I made myself a dinner and went back to watch it to the end. It's kind of long. The Morricone theme is overused. Chromosome XYY would make you an ultra-male idiot and not a criminal? I guess there wasn't much knowledge about this in 1971. The contest who says more insults without stopping looks funny, I might try it someday. The thief character is actually my favorite in the movie. Second is of course the blind man. Horst Frank is my suspect number one. Yes, just because he's always the villain. Werner Pochath plays his lover. Of course he is also the villain in each and every of his movies. Are they the murderers?

8:25 pm
BEN AND CHARLIE 

Cold beer, crackers, salted peanuts and here we go with our western. Haven't seen it for some nine years. The card game with eight aces is splendid. Marisa Mell doesn't add only beauty, but also some depth in the movie. I guess this is my favourite Gemma performance. Actually there are just a few movies in that I hate him. But these I have seen first. Day of Anger, Even Angels Eat Beans, A Pistol for Ringo... Then in the others I started to like him. Ok, Nello Pazzafini and Giuliano Gemma in the same movie always mean a fistfight. Wait, in Wanted Pazzafini played a priest! Maybe he was a wrestling priest? I don't know. But the movie is as good as I remembered it.

10:25 pm
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR

Claudio Cassinelli is the man. Even though he looks like John Lennon. Oh, the killer has his face visible! Why not, I don't watch this as a giallo, and it isn't a giallo. And we cannot see all of his face, since he's wearing sunglasses. The girls aren't very pretty in this one. Is that a Sergio Martino movie? Never mind, it's good and entertaining enough. Mel Ferrer is really just a police chief? They cast a Hollywood star in such a flat part? Well, I don't like the music. And the guy who rolls on the top of his head during the car chase. Now the killer tries to kill Claudio on a rollercoaster! That's a great scene. It continues with a chase in the subway. Perfect. The killer with sunglasses is back. What do they watch in a cinema? Yes, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. Good idea for the upcoming giallo. But I'm already pretty tired and also a bit drunk by the beer. Leave it till tomorrow.

THURSDAY
Well, I'm one of the people who get up pretty early (although I consider getting up before 8am a crime) and go to bed also early (usually around 11pm). So I woke up at 8 am, got up at 9 and started to watch the movie at 10.

10:00 am
YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY

So many bottles of J&B! I should have take one for myself in the store. If I would have played a drinking game with spotting the bottles, I would be drunk after the first 30 minutes. That would mean I wouldn't see Edwige Fenech in this one! But I would see all of Daniela Giordano's part. She wasn't a good actress, but she was pretty, so I was sorry she died so soon. Waiting for Edwige is not so long, when you have Anita Strindberg around. She's not hot here, but she shows her acting abilities and she's great! Luigi Pistilli as well. Finally, Edwige! No bra under her shirt, that's my girl. Wait, she has brain this time! She's witty and self-confident, unlike her previous gialli. Maybe it's the hairstyle. Where the hell is Ivan Rassimov? I blinked and missed him. The lesbian scene with Edwige and Anita is not that hot, but it doesn't matter. Interesting, it's over one hour of the movie and we see Edwige's nipples for the very first time. But wait. A close-up of Edwige's breasts! I could watch that shot all my life. Ehm. Well, everyone in this movie is twisted. Even the cat. Maybe more than anybody.

Well I wanted to watch a spaghetti western, but first I made myself a lunch and then I wasn't in the mood to continue watching movies. And when it came, I found out I don't have a western I would like to watch now. So I choose a poliziottesco instead.

3:30 pm (a long break)
KIDNAP SYNDICATE

Luc Merenda is not a good actor but a sympathetic fella, yes, he is. I believe he was sexy for the ladies. Vittorio Caprioli is my favourite thing in Fernando Di Leo's movies. He's always so funny. The boys were kidnapped right in the beginning! Of  course, the rich ones are bitches. In Suspicious Death there were writings on walls like "Let the fascists rule", this one is far left wing. Why always an extreme political view? But we can feel with Merenda. The first half with waiting was actually more powerful than the action packed second half. Kill them all, Luc! Yeah! And especially the bastard in the brown suit!

And that's it. I'm tired of watching movies for a few days now. I will have the mood for movies when I won't have time to watch them. So it goes.

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.