Italy

  • Alessandro Blasetti – Palio (1932)

    1931-1940Alessandro BlasettiClassicsDramaItalian Cinema under FascismItaly

    IMDb:
    An anticipation of Blasetti’s style. A great movie about the Siena Palio. Guido Celano (Zarre) is a very good actress and Leda Gloria too. The Tuscany environment is very well depicted. The performing style is influenced by the period, but it is quite good anyway. It is a very uncommon movie and the best representation of Palio, a religious and sporting event in Siena. Blasetti, then, after Il Palio and Terre Sole, start a wonderful career as director and will anticipates the “neorealism” with his 1942’s movie “Quattro passi fra le nuvole”. Very impressive the opening scene with Zarre riding a horse in the Siena countryside.Read More »

  • Ovidio G. Assonitis – Chi sei? aka The Devil Within Her aka Beyond The Door (1974)

    1971-1980CultHorrorItalyOvidio G. Assonitis

    IMDB User wrote:
    I won’t waste time summarizing the plot for this film since the other users have done quite a good job themselves. Basically, you’ve got just one more in a stream of films that cashed in on the success of William Friedkin’s 1973 classic “The Exorcist”. I can only recommend “Beyond the Door” to those who enjoy these types of movies. Director Ovidio G. seems to be the Italian version of William Girdler, who directed his own “exorcist” knock-off that same year with “Abby”, a blaxsploitation version that was actually taken out of theaters after two weeks due to a lawsuit filed by Warner Brothers for plagiarism. If I’m correct, “Beyond the Door” was also attacked by Warner Brothers but I’m not sure what the outcome of that one was. It did manage to stay in the theaters though and actually did good at the box office. “Beyond the Door” copies “The Exorcist” in almost every way and you will either hate it or love it. This time, instead of a young girl, we have Juliet Mills (Nanny and the Professor, Passions) who levitates, vomits, spins her head around, and curses like a sailor, saying things like “lick the whore’s vomit” in a demonic voice.Read More »

  • Alessandro Blasetti – Aldebaran (1936)

    1931-1940Alessandro BlasettiDramaItalian Cinema under FascismItalyRomance

    Quote:
    Aldebaran is in some places erroneously reported as a “lost” film, but here it is! After
    a couple of projects had either been postponed or fallen through for Blasetti, it was
    suggested that he should make a film about the navy in peacetime. The result is this
    strange film, which at the outset plays like a propaganda piece for the might of the Italian
    navy, only to veer off into high melodrama, as it zeroes in on Commander Corrado Valeri
    (Gino Cervi), and his conflict between duty and the jealousy of his wife. There are comedic
    asides, a visit to a North African club, affording Blasetti to contribute the first scenes of
    nudity in Italian film, and there are moments of heroics, including a mission to rescue the
    doomed crew of a wrecked submarine. As if all of that was not more than enough, the film
    features a star studded cast including Evi Maltagliati, Gianfranco Giachetti, Doris Duranti,
    Elisa Cegani (in her debut), and even a brief cameo by Blasetti himself.Read More »

  • Alberto De Martino – L’assassino… è al telefono AKA The Killer… is on the Telephone (1972)

    1971-1980Alberto De MartinoGialloItaly


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    Quote:
    A woman whose husband was murdered five years previously, is stalked by his killer, who wants to eliminate her as a potential witness. What he doesn’t know is that the shock of his murder caused her to have amnesia, and she doesn’t remember anything.Read More »

  • Antonio Margheriti – Con la rabbia agli occhi aka Death Rage (1976)

    1971-1980ActionAntonio MargheritiCrimeItaly


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    Plot / Synopsis
    In the star’s final big screen role, Yul Brynner plays Peter Marciani, a former mob assassin who comes out of retirement to track down the man who killed his brother, but he finds that the murder was only a trap set for him by an underworld kingpin in Italy.
    Enjoy this rare eurocrime co-starring the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet!Read More »

  • Giuliano Biagetti – Interrabang (1969)

    1961-1970GialloGiuliano BiagettiItalyThriller

    A photographer is sailing with his wife, her sister and his nympho-maniacal model. He leaves the three women alone to get a part for his boat. A mysterious man shows up, who might be an escaped criminal the police are searching for. This doesn’t alarm the three women too much, and he rapidly seduces all three of them.Read More »

  • Cesare Canevari – Una Jena in Cassaforte AKA A Hyena in the Safe (1968)

    1961-1970Cesare CanevariCrimeItaly


    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    Several men and women make their way to a large mansion as guests. They relax for a while, then get down to the business that they are there for. A rich man called Boris has died and left a fortune of diamonds in a huge safe. Someone pulls a lever and the steel casket rises from a pool in the garden. Each of the guests has a key, and the safe can only be opened when all keys are used. However, one of the guests for the life of him can’t find his key. The angry guests suspicions are centered towards Janine, but even a strip search reveals nothing. Everyone mopes around until the early hours of the morning, getting more and more stressed. The guy who lost his key is so distraught that he loses control completely, and falls from the building to his death.Read More »

  • Massimo Dallamano – La polizia chiede aiuto AKA What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974)

    1971-1980CrimeGialloItalyMassimo Dallamano


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    Synopsis:
    “Police investigate apparent suicide of teen girl and uncover details of a teenage prostitution racket. They go on the hunt for a motorcycle riding killer.”
    – IMDbRead More »

  • Bernard Favre – La Trace AKA The Trail (1983)

    1981-1990Bernard FavreDramaItaly


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    Synopsis
    1859-60 in the Savoy Alps. Joseph (Richard Berry) is a young Savoyard peasant who has been established in a village with his wife and two children for some time, and like others before him, makes a living by crossing the Alps into Italy in the winter months and selling his wares to the villagers. This story traces a winter’s itinerary as the man encounters various adventures in his always-dangerous journey, but he seems oblivious to all the nuances and reverberations of social change going on around him. When he finally returns to his family after many months away, he discovers to his surprise that his village is now a part of France and it looks like a Savoyard would soon be sitting on the throne of a unified Italy…Read More »

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