Movie review - "The Wonders of Aladdin" (1961) **

So-so Eastern despite the presence of talented people like Donald O'Connor and Mario Bava doing second unit. Henry Levin can make good movies but his output is variable. This isn't one of his better movie.

There is colour (though my copy was murky), lots of dubbing.  Lacks energy. Story confusing. O'Connor tries and dances once or twice. There's some torture, dancing girls, dungeons, flying carpet. But never comes alive.

During filming there were riots where people died. 

Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1960) aka The Mask of Satan **1/2 (re-watching)

 Few horror films have more of a full on opening - Barbara Steele convicted of being a witch by her brother, a mask of spikes is put on her face, and someone rams it into her. Welcome to Italian horror!

This has two British leads, both starlets from Rank - Barbara Steele and John Richardson.

Beautifully shot in black and white - most Bava movies look stunning. Atmospheric castles and crypts. The dubbing was hard to get used to - not very good.

Steele is compelling. The film didn't come alive for me though. I wish it did. I want to like it, it looks so marvellous. Too slow. Decent story. Maybe it lacks a monster who comes alive, a decent relationship. Maybe that's it.

Movie review - "Planet of the Vampires" (1965) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Fun. Gorgeous. Doesn't sustain tension oddly. Solid script. Luciana Palluzi is in a lot of fun movies. Barry Sullivan is fine.

Movie review - "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976) *** (re-watching)

 Fun, breezy, energetic, especially in the first half. The second half isn't as good. There's two really unpleasant rape sequences - one where Candice Rialson is being filmed, the other where a drive in operator has a go. This is not fun. There's the murder of Tara Strohmeier which feels nasty because she's such a warm person and she's so terrified and dies bloody - it's an effective slasher sequence I admit (Dante's tribute to Mario Bava) it just felt mean spirited.

Candice Rialson is splended, Strohmeier is great too and I also liked Rita George as the third girl. Jeffrey Kramer is an affable romantic lead but the breakouts are Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov. Dick Miller is solid as always and there's fun turns from people like Jonathan Kaplan.

Its love for filmmaking is so endearing that its faults are forgiven.

Movie review - "Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" (1966) **

I used to loathe this film and I'm a fan of the first one. I'm used to it now, in particular I'm prepared for the Italian comic duo who are in it, Franci and Ciccio. It's not a very good movie but it is bright and colourful and Price is always fun.

The plot is serviceable - Goldfoot is making girl who are bombs to kill NATO generals. I missed Susan Hart as the robot but there is Laura Antonelli who is very fetching as the girl who helps and is sexually harassed by Fabian.

Fabian isn't as good a light comedian as Frankie Avalon, who brought a cartoony quality totally appropriate to the genre, but he's a solid straight man. He actually provides a good "normal" centre for the action.

I really missed Dwayne Hickman and Jack Mullaley - not only were they solid comic actors their characters gave the earlier film heart. Avalon and Hickman had a solid relationship - there's none of that here, because Fabian doesn't have much to do with the Italian duo (I'm reviewing the US version - the Italian one has more of the duo, apparently). And instead of the lovely Price-Mullaley by play there's just Price and some random Chinese dude. Why not give Price a decent sidekick? If not a comic a sexy dame?

It's helter skelter, very stupid. Honestly maybe two stars is too many but I like the period and the colour and Price, Fabian and Antonelli.

Movie review - "Black Sabbath" (1964) ***

Mario Bava anthology horror flick for AIP has that beautiful Bava colour with blues and reds, plus some decent stories. The first one involves a maid who pinches a ring off an old dead lady and lives to regret it (it's a little Tell Tale Heart). The second has a girl receiving scary phone calls and seeking help from a presumably lesbian friend. The last is like a minor Roger Corman Poe entry with Mark Damon as a noble visiting a castle led by Boris Karloff. It goes on for far too long and would have worked at half the length.

This was a good, solid film - maybe I would have loved it more had I watched it at a formative age.

Movie review – “Danger Diabolik” (1967) **

Edgar Wright spoke in rhapsodies about this film on the Trailers from Hell website and it has it’s fans. It looks fantastic, like most movies from director Mario Bava – sumptuous photography, wonderful pop sets and costumes. The story and characterisation are a little on the thin side, and it lacks star power. 

Apparently Diabolik is a big time comic character in Europe. He's a master thief, who’s so successful it’s causing the police to crack down on all crime – which annoys the mob. So the cops and the mob go after him. Diabolik (played by a stone faced John Phillip Law) wears a leather outfit (including a face mask), drives a Jaguar and has perhaps the most awesome hero’s lair in cinematic history – it’s an underground cave, with a pool, massive bed, groovy furniture, large showers. 

He’s a one woman guy though – not too hard when that woman is the stunning Marissa Mell, who wears a series of very revealing costumes (clothes hanging on to nipples by the barest tape, little shorts, etc) and is always taking showers and going for swims. (William Goldman talks about Mell’s beauty in his piece on the 1967 flop musical Mata Hari in The Season and he was spot on.) Wright correctly pointed out it’s like watching Austin Powers without the jokes.

The support cast includes Terry Thomas as a politician (I wasn’t sure what country this was set in), Michael Piccoli (who was in Topaz) as Diabolik’s cop nemesis, and Adolfo Celi (from Thunderball) as the mob boss. Ennio Morricone did the music. Despite all the camp fun of it though I did find it wearying after a while. Law is dull, the action repetitive and it lacks humour. But it looks like a dream and I can understand why some people would love it.

Movie review – Planet of the Vampires” (1965) ***

I’m surprised Hollywood has never tried to remake this – maybe they’ve been content to rip it off. You could easily imagine the plot today: two ships are exploring in outer space when they hear a distressed beacon on a planet. They go to investigate and soon find themselves being possessed by weird spirits that make them kill. 

 

Some people have criticised the screenplay but I thought it was reasonably solid and imaginative (co written by some Americans, who were provided at the behest of AIP, including Louis Heyward). There’s a famous sequence where astronauts investigate a crashed ship belonging to aliens that is very similar to the one in Alien (also like that movie, the space crews have several females). But then again this film rips off The Thing, so they can’t get too snotty about plagiarism.

 

Most of the cast is Italian except for the lead, Hollywood C-lister Barry Sullivan. Like most Mario Bava films it looks wonderful, with this stunning colour photography, and imaginative design – someone described it as a pulp magazine coming to life and that’s spot on. Few science fiction films are so uniquely atmospheric. The planet is creepy, exotic, scary – volcanic and fumy. The astronaut costumes – leather with hoods – are kind of laughable in one respect, but work in a groovy 60s way.

Movie review – “Black Sunday” (1960) **1/2

The film that kicked off the Italian horror film cycle comes with a big reputation – I wasn’t wild about it, to be honest. I’m always scared admitting that about classic films, but it was I found it a bit confusing. The black and white photography is stunning and there’s a great opening sequence, with Barbara Steele having a mask nailed to her face (full on!). Steele’s performance is terrific – exciting, sexy and enigmatic. John Richardson is wooden as the male lead.

Movie review – Hercules #2 - “Hercules Unchained” (1959) **

Hercules helped make a star of Steve Reeves and a fortune for Joe Levine, so it was no surprise to see the two of them reunite for this sequel which has Hercules gets involved in a dispute over who should rule Thebes. Sylvia Koscina also returns as his wife, as does director Pietro Francisci. There’s high production values, nice photography and location work, plenty of action and muscle men and curvaceous girls – it’s good entertainment for kids (Mario Bava was director of special effects).

The story has a flaw – most of the running time concerns Hercules losing his memory and living with a hot princess who loves him (the scriptwriters raid liberally from The Odyssey); then he escapes from the land 20 minutes to go and goes off to rescue his wife, which feels like an add-on part.

Reeves isn’t that good to be honest – I mean, he looks the part with the physique and beard, but he doesn’t have much personality (the eyes aren’t very animated). Also it’s laughable when he emotes. This was the last time he played Hercules – other actors took over for the sequels, although Reeves continued making swashbucklers for a number of years.