Eli Wallach

From Xploited Cinema:
Fabio Testi stars as Floyd, a criminal who on the very day of his parole participates in a jewelry store robbery in downtown Toronto. Of course, the robbery takes a turn for the worse as Testi’s accomplice, Joe (played by Eli Wallach) starts shooting up the place and kills a young man. After a lengthy car chase (a standard in Lucidi’s films), Testi and Wallach split up to meet again across the border.Wallach entrusts Testi with the diamonds and his really nice German car, which Testi wrecks somewhere in the Canadian countryside. Testi finds his way to the Last Chance Motel right out in the middle of nowhere, run by none else than Massimo Girotti and his intoxicating wife Ursula Andress.Read More »

Based on satirical short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a vain, egotistical Etienne Gerard, a French brigadier serving during the Napoleonic Wars. He thinks he’s the best soldier and lover that ever lived and intends to prove it.Read More »

Quote:
A child bride holds her husband at bay while flirting with a sexy Italian farmer.

When the film was released in 1956, it was enormously controversial for its extremely risqué subject matter. The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned the film for its “carnal suggestiveness”. Cardinal Francis J. Spellman condemned the film in a stunning attack from the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral two days before the film opened. He said that the film had been “responsibly judged to be evil in concept” and would “exert an immoral and corrupting influence on those who see it”. He exhorted all Catholics to refrain from patronizing the film “under pain of sin”. Cardinal Spellman’s condemnation of the film led to the Legion of Decency’s first-ever nationwide boycott of an American-made major studio film. All over the country, almost 20 million Catholics protested the film and picketed theaters that showed it. Read More »

Aspiring photographer Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron) and would-be poet Anne Munroe (Anita Skinner) are best friends and roommates in a fivie-flight walk-up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But one day Anne decides to marry and move out. When the best friends go their separate ways, Girlfriends focuses on what happens to the one left behind. It’s about valuable, delicate, and complex ties that bind people–girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, and lovers. Producer/director Claudia Weill captures the offbeat charm and edgy moments of city life, as well as a gem of a performance by Mayron in her first starring role.Read More »

Based on the short story “Venus Rising” by George Bradshaw, How to Steal a Million features a rather contrived plot about a wealthy art forger (Academy Award winner Hugh Griffith, Ben Hur) and his beautiful daughter (Hepburn) who are about to be exposed as frauds after they allow one of their fake statues to be displayed in a major art exhibition. In a desperate attempt to save face, Hepburn solicits help from a dashing society burglar (Peter O’Toole, Lawrence of Arabia) to steal the statue before tests can be made to reveal its true origin. The “burglar” isn’t exactly what he appears to be, however, and as they plot their haphazard heist, the two inevitably begin to fall in love.Read More »

This fascinating and entertaining documentary celebrates the work of Reynold Brown, one of the most acclaimed movie poster artists of all time.

This film illustrates scores of Brown’s compelling posters, interwoven with clips from these B-Movie classics.Read More »

The hero of Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine is easy to identify. Walking down the street unknowingly, he suddenly realizes that he is not only subject to the gruesome moods of several spectators but also at the mercy of the filmmaker. He defends himself heroically, but is condemned to the gallows, where he dies a filmic death through a tearing of the film itself.Read More »