The Devil with Seven Faces (1971)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 9, 2008

Categories | Movie Reviews, Giallo, Italian Cinema, Crime, Thrillers, George Hilton, Carroll Baker

Top: Carroll Baker has just seen the final cut of The Devil with Seven Faces (1971)
Bottom: Even a cheap gorilla mask couldn’t make the movie any better.

Normally I neglect to write anything about movies I dislike. I never have enough time to write about all the films I like so why waste my time writing about films I don’t? But occasionally my disappointment in a film runs so deep that I feel the need to save others from suffering what I’ve just endured. This is one of those times.

I had high expectations for director Osvaldo Civirani’s 1971 thriller The Devil with Seven Faces (aka Il Diavolo a sette facce) when I stuck it into my DVD player. The film stars two of my favorite actors, the lovely American actress Carroll Baker along with the talented George Hilton. Stephen Boyd also has a major role in the film along with the always entertaining Luciano “the Italian Peter Lorre” Pigozzi, genre favorite Daniele Vargas and the cute Lucretia Love. The script for The Devil with Seven Faces was co-written by Tito Carpi who also co-wrote a lot of good spaghetti westerns such as Fistful of Lead (1970), Any Gun Can Play (1967) and Django Shoots First (1968). And last but not least, the film features a score by two of my favorite composers; the amazing Stelvio Cipriani and Nora Orlandi.

Top: George Hilton and Carroll Baker feign interest in one another.
Bottom: Luciano Pigozzi channels Peter Lorre.

The convoluted plot of The Devil with Seven Faces involves a diamond heist that goes wrong, some conniving twin sisters (played unconvincingly by Carroll Baker) and a large batch of bad guys who stumble all over themselves trying to get to Carroll Baker and the million dollar diamond. For some reason a lot of reviewers insist on calling The Devil with Seven Faces a “giallo” film and as far as I can tell, it’s not. Contrary to many critical opinions, I don’t believe that one mysterious corpse and a long irrelevant title with the word “devil” in it suddenly turns any Italian movie into a giallo film. The Devil with Seven Faces seems to simply be an original crime movie written by Tito Carpi and director Osvaldo Civirani without any literary basis. Or to be more exact; it’s a “heist film” in the same tradition as countless other European heist films I’ve seen. I love a good heist film but unfortunately The Devil with Seven Faces is not good.

Osvaldo Civirani’s direction is completely uninspired and hampered by Walter Civirani’s lackluster photography. Mauro Contini’s sloppy editing also doesn’t do the film any favors. The Devil with Seven Faces totally lacks suspense and even the car chases and shoot-outs managed to be uninteresting. The mild sex scenes seemed forced and were extremely ineffective, which is a shame considering they involved Carroll Baker and George Hilton. Unfortunately the terrific cast, wonderful score and a potentially worthwhile script could not save this poorly constructed film. I get no joy from saying that The Devil with Seven Faces is one of the worst films I’ve seen all year. I really wanted to enjoy this movie but it let me down again and again. It’s possible that an uncut version of the film exists that is somehow better than the version I watched, but I have no desire to revisit the movie if a new print does surface. There are only three reasons I watched all 90 minutes of The Devil with Seven Faces so I thought I’d at least make mention of them.

Reason #1: George Hilton’s performance as racecar driver Tony Shane.

Top: George Hilton as racecar driver Tony Shane.
Bottom: George Hilton shoots the director.

George Hilton’s character in The Devil with Seven Faces is underwritten and he doesn’t seem to get as much screen-time as his costars. But unlike Carroll Baker who seems to be sleepwalking through the entire movie, and Stephen Boyd who comes across as rather sleazy and unappealing here; Hilton at least seems to be trying to make the most of his role. He also looks terrific in his ’70s style fashions. Hilton’s wardrobe consists of lots of great looking racing jackets and expensive sunglasses. A sharp dressed man will often keep my attention in a lackluster film, especially if that man happens to be someone like George Hilton. And last but not least, Hilton’s multiple death scenes in The Devil with Seven Faces are the highlights of the movie.

Reason #2: Stelvio Cipriani and Nora Orlandi film score

The soundtrack for The Devil with Seven Faces was so good that it actually managed to elevate the film at times and made me forget how completely dull it was. Stelvio Cipriani composed the music and Nora Orlandi adds lots of lush vocalisms to just about every track. Their work together on The Devil with Seven Faces is truly fantastic and I’d love to get a copy of the entire soundtrack. I’m sure I have bits and pieces of the music on one or two of the library compilations I own but the score really deserves to be heard in its entirety.

Reason #3: Carroll Baker and Lucretia Love’s wigs

Top: Carol Baker modeling her “ill-fitting bright blue fright wig”
Bottom: Lucretia Love modelng her “messy red Ronald McDonald wig”

One of the great things about European thrillers and crime films made during the ’60s and early ’70s is the fashions, hairstyles and modern design that can often make a potentially dull film much more interesting. Unfortunately The Devil with Seven Faces is sorely lacking in all these things. Even when the cast was wearing something that caught my eye, the horrible photography and direction usually made the fashions almost impossible to fully see. Most of the film seemed to be shot from the waist up or the waist down and it was littered with pointless close-ups that didn’t compliment anyone. Thankfully Carroll Baker and Lucretia Love had lots of unnecessary wig changes that managed to keep me entertained. I’ve seen a lot of bad wigs used in films before, but Carroll Baker’s ill-fitting bright blue fright wig and Lucretia Love’s messy red Ronald McDonald wig absolutely floored me. What in the world was hair stylist Iolanda Conti (aka Jolanda Conti) thinking? I do commend Steven Boyd for somehow keeping a straight face during the scenes where he was forced to appear opposite “the wigs.”

Top: Steven Boyd showing off his acting chops.
Bottom: Daniele Vargas was so bored on the set that he started looking at porn to pass the time.

I truly wish I had more positive things to say about The Devil with Seven Faces, but unless you happen to be a George Hilton or Carroll Baker completist like myself, a huge fan of Stelvio Cipriani and Nora Orlandi’s scores or just curious to see some of the worst wigs imaginable, then I can’t encourage you to spend 90 minutes with this movie. If you do decide to watch The Devil with Seven Faces I recommend doing so with a good bottle of wine by your side.

The Devil with Seven Faces is available on DVD from Alpha Home Entertainment and it’s currently selling for the appropriately low price of $7.98 at Amazon.

If you’d like to see more images from the film please see my Flickr Gallery for The Devil with Seven Faces.

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My Top 20 Favorite Films of 1968

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 6, 2008

Categories | Horror, Giallo, Comedies, Crime, Westerns, Hammer Horror, Elizabeth Taylor, Alain Delon, Mario Bava, Steve McQueen, Terence Stamp, Jess Franco, David Hemmings, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Burton, 1968, Klaus Kinski, Brigitte Bardot, Joseph Losey, Girl On a Motorcycle, Julie Christie, Peter Sellers, Marisa Mell, Stanley Kubrick, Terence Fisher, Roman Polanski

At the Britannica blog Raymond Benson has finished listing off his Top 10 Favorite Films of 1968 so if you’re interested in the final results stop by and give them a look. I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions how much I dislike making lists of favorite films myself since they’re limited by what I’ve seen and are subject to change at anytime. Roger Ebert recently asked his blog readers to “. . . agree that all lists of movies are nonsense.” I agreed with him wholeheartedly at the time, but in the process of watching Raymond Benson share his list favorite films from 1968 I naturally began thinking of my own favorite films released the same year.

Compiling a list of favorite films restricted by their release date without implying that they’re “the best” (whatever that means) started to seem like a fun exercise. And while reading the complaints and reservations about Raymond Benson’s own selections I even suggested that it would be interesting if all the participants of the Britannica blog “round-table” supplied their own list of Top 10 Favorite Films for 1968 so we could compare them. I figured that if we were going to scrutinize Raymond Benson’s selections we might as well scrutinize each other. I also thought that it would probably enrich the discussion. No one else seemed willing or able to share a list of there own picks, but for the past two weeks I’ve been quietly compiling a list of my own favorite films from 1968.

I wasn’t planing on sharing my own list with anyone, but over the weekend I listened to an interesting discussion between Greencine’s David Hudson, Film Comment’s Gavin Smith and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum about the current state of film criticism that got me contemplating my list again. During the discussion Jonathan Rosenbaum smartly pointed out that, “People love lists now because they need to. There’s too much to navigate through.” In my own experience I’ve found this to be very true. Since I started blogging my “Favorite DVDs of the year” lists for 2006 and 2007 have become some of my most popular posts and they’ve generated some lively discussions and lots of email. I think other people appreciate them because they offer a brief look at some films I’ve enjoyed and recommend. And in the words of Jonathan Rosenbaum, the lists are easy to navigate through.

So without further explanation, here’s a list of some of my own favorite films from 1968. I couldn’t manage to narrow all my choices down to a mere Top 10 so I just decided to share my Top 20 list instead. I purposefully left off documentaries so you won’t find any listed and four of the films on my list were also on Raymond Benson’s list. The numerical order doesn’t mean much and naturally my list is subject to change at anytime since I’m continually being exposed to new movies. It also should be noted that after looking at various print and online sources I’ve come across different release dates for some films. As far as I know, the following 20 films were originally released in 1968.

My TOP 20 FAVORITE FILMS OF 1968

1. If…. (Lindsay Anderson; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about If…. can be found HERE and HERE.

2. Black Lizard aka Kurotokage (Kinji Fukasaku; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Black Lizard can be found HERE.
I’m currently working on a much longer article about the film and its star that I hope to share here soon.

3. Spirits of the Dead aka Histoires Extraordinaires
(Federico Fellini, Louis Malle & Roger Vadim; 1968)
Some of my thought about Spirits of the Dead can be found HERE.

4. Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Teorema can be found HERE.

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick; 1968)

6. Diabolik aka Danger: Diabolik! (Mario Bava; 1968)
Some of my brief thoughts about Diabolik can be found HERE.

7. Succubus aka Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden (Jesus Franco; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Succubus can be found HERE.

8. The Great Silence aka Il Grande silenzio (Sergio Corbucci; 1968)
Some of my thought about The Great Silence can be found HERE and HERE.

9. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski; 1968)

10. Petulia (Richard Lester; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Petulia can be found HERE.

11. Blackmail Is My Life aka Kyokatsu koso Waga Jinsei ( Kinji Fukasaku; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Blackmail Is My Life can be found HERE

12. Boom! (Joesph Losey; 1968)
My lengthy look at Boom! can be found HERE.

13. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero; 1968)

14. The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about The Thomas Crown Affair can be found HERE.

15. Girl on a Motorcycle aka Naked Under Leather (Jack Cardiff; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Alain Delon and Girl on a Motorcycle can be found HERE.

16. Once Upon a Time in the West aka C’era una volta il West
(Sergio Leone; 1968)
Some of my thoughts about Once Upon a Time in the West can be found HERE.

17. Death Laid an Egg aka La Morte ha fatto l’uovo (Giulio Questi; 1968)
I briefly mentioned my fondness for Death Laid an Egg HERE.

18. The Devil Rides Out aka The Devil’s Bride (Terence Fisher; 1968)

19. The Party (Blake Edwards; 1968)

20. Barbarella (Roger Vadim; 1968)

Honorable mention goes to the wonderful Yokai Monster films that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

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Fashion & Passion in The Thomas Crown Affair

by Kimberly Lindbergs | September 30, 2008

Categories | American Cinema, Actresses, Crime, Costume Design, Steve McQueen, 1968, Norman Jewison, Fashion & Film

Fay Dunaway & Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

A lot has been written about Norman Jewison’s 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. If the reviews available at IMDb.com are any indication critics and audiences are split over it. I love this stylish ’60s crime film. It’s one of my favorite movies from 1968 and one of the best things about it is Fay Dunaway & Steve McQueen’s incredible wardrobes.

The basic plot of the film is rather simple. Steve McQueen plays Thomas Crown, a wealthy conman who masterminds a complicated bank heist. Hot on his trail is an ambitious insurance agent named Vicki Anderson (Fay Dunaway) and when the two meet sparks begin to fly. Will the lovely and flirtatious Vicki Anderson bring the world-weary Thomas Crown to his knees? Or will their steamy affair lead Vicki into lawlessness?

The Thomas Crown Affair is a film full of sensual pleasures. The actual bank heist that takes place makes for some thrilling entertainment but the romantic affair that blossoms between Vicki Anderson and Thomas Crown is really the heart and soul of the movie. The film simply drips sex and decadence. Morals be damned! Neither Vicki or Thomas is particularly likable, but watching these two self-serving individuals succumb to their passions and exploit one another’s desires is what makes The Thomas Crown Affair so damn compelling. It’s also a great looking movie with a terrific score by composer Michel Legrand. Dunaway and McQueen have rarely looked as beautiful and desirable as they do in this film. That’s partially due to Haskell Wexler’s stellar cinematography as well as costume designer Theadora Van Runkle.

Fay Dunaway & Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Trend-setting fashionista Theadora Van Runkle created many of the awe-inspiring fashions seen in The Thomas Crown Affair. Van Runkle first began working in Hollywood as a sketch artist for renowned costume designer Dorothy Jeakins. She got her big break in 1967 after Dorothy Jeakins was forced to turn down an opportunity to work on Bonnie and Clyde. Jeakins suggested the 38-year-old Theadora Van Runkle as a replacement and history was made. Bonnie and Clyde was a huge success and garnered Van Runkle an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design. Young people around the world began dressing like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Hemlines dropped and women started sporting berets, while men began wearing double-breasted suits with wide lapels. Theadora Van Runkle’s impact might be hard to measure now, but the costume designer can be credited for bringing a vintage ’30s era look to modern fashion in the late sixties. Suddenly everything old was new again.

Theadora Van Runkle and Fay Dunaway developed a great working relationship on the set of Bonnie and Clyde. After filming ended Dunaway asked Theadora Van Runkle to design a personal wardrobe for her that included the Oscar gown that Dunaway wore in 1968 when she was nominated for her role as Bonnie Parker. When it came time for the actress to star in The Thomas Crown Affair alongside Steve McQueen, Dunaway suggested that Van Runkle should be hired to work on the film.

Theadora Van Runkle ended up creating all of Dunaway’s fabulous fashions for The Thomas Crown Affair and she also worked alongside Ron Postal and Alan Levine to help design Steve McQueen’s wardrobe for the film as well. Although The Thomas Crown Affair didn’t exactly have the same impact on the fashion world that Bonnie and Clyde did, it was a popular hit in 1968 and audiences were mesmerized with the film’s dazzling look.

Fay Dunaway modeling some of Theadora Van Runkle’s costume designs
for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

Like Dunaway before him, Steve McQueen was also extremely impressed with Theadora Van Runkle and decided he wanted to work with her more after completion of The Thomas Crown Affair. Van Runkle would continue working as a costume designer for both actors for the rest of the decade. Her impressive fashion designs can also be seen on Dunaway in Amanti (1968) and The Arrangement (1969) and on Steve McQueen in Bullitt (1968) and The Reivers (1969).

Even though The Thomas Crown Affair didn’t win Theadora Van Runkle any awards, the movie’s impact on the world of fashion is undeniable. Van Runkle can be credited for giving the film’s two stars a distinct look that would help make both of them Hollywood style icons in the sixties. Many women wanted to look like Fay Dunaway and many men wanted to be Steve McQueen, but everyone wanted to be dressed by Theadora Van Runkle.

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Making Movies with Kinji Fukasaku

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 12, 2007

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Crime, Blogathons

One of my favorite Japanese directors is the talented Kinji Fukasaku. When I read about the Close-Up Blog-a-thon being held by Matt Zoller Seitz at The House Next Door today, many scenes from his movies started rushing through my head. Kinji Fukasaku often used close-ups in his films to convey mood and action, so I thought I’d share a fascinating moment from Fukasaku’s terrific crime film Blackmail Is My Life (aka Kyokatsu Koso Waga Jinsei, 1968).

In the following moments represented by the still shots below, a young thug visits an unusual adult club with his lover and pretends to be someone he is not. He is fully aware that any actions he takes while he is at the club will be filmed by some criminals hiding behind a one-way mirror. The criminals think the man is unaware of their cameras and they plan to blackmail him with the film they’re shooting. At first the man is a bit nervous about having a camera film his every move, but he soon starts to enjoy the idea of being watched while it’s happening.

Fukasaku films the entire thing using close-ups that zoom in closer and closer as the scene unfolds, and it adds an uncomfortable intimacy to the action taking place on screen. These moments in the film manage to be erotic, sleazy and even a bit humorous all at once, while showing very little bare skin. It also leaves the audience in the somewhat uncomfortable position of being voyeurs who are unknowingly being observed.

Kinji Fukasaku was a brilliant director and Blackmail is My Life is the work of a man who was fully aware of the power of his camera. Many of his films are filled with creative uses of the “close-up” and this is just one interesting example.

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Lee Marvin: A Sensitive 17-Year-Old Boy

by Kimberly Lindbergs | August 29, 2007

Categories | Actors, American Cinema, Crime, Blogathons, Lee Marvin, TCM

“This film is really in one sense about Lee Marvin. It’s about him as a character. He went out to the war and he was a sensitive 17-year-old boy and you know, he was brutalized and in a way he was expressing himself through violence. He was always trying to recapture his humanity that he felt he had lost and that’s really what the story is about. It’s about a man who comes back from the dead and tries to find his humanity.”
- Director John Boorman on Point Blank (DVD commentary)

After appearing in countless war films, westerns and crime dramas, Lee Marvin won his first Oscar in 1965 for Cat Ballou and followed it up with a starring role in the extremely successful action-packed movie The Dirty Dozen. Hollywood was impressed with Marvin’s success and they offered the actor complete creative control over his next film. That film would be the stylish 1967 Neo-noir crime thriller Point Blank.

The film was directed by the talented British filmmaker John Boorman who Lee Marvin had met in London while filming The Dirty Dozen. Boorman approached Marvin with a poorly adapted script of a pulp novel called The Hunter written by Richard Stark (pen name for Donald E. Westlake) and expressed interest in making a film with him. Marvin hated the original script but he wanted to make the film with Boorman so the two men spent many long evenings in London working out the details and exploring creative concepts before finally plunging ahead with their proposal.

During this process Point Blank became a very personal project for Lee Marvin. He was involved in almost all aspects of the film including the movie’s development, story, staging, sound effects and stunts. Besides just making an entertaining film, Marvin wanted to use various metaphors within the movie to explore his deep-seated feelings about a career spent playing violent killers and a lifetime trying to come to terms with the horrible things he had experienced during WWII where he had served as a sniper for the U.S. Marines.

In Point Blank Lee Marvin plays Walker, a reluctant criminal who stumbles into a bad situation and pays dearly for it. After being convinced to join in a criminal heist with an old friend and his wife that takes place in San Francisco at Alcatraz Prison, Walker is shot “point-blank” by his friend who wants the money and Walker’s wife all for himself. Walker seems to recover quickly and afterward he decides to go after the $93,000 he is still owed from the job. As the film progresses we follow Walker on his quest to confront his would-be killer and recover his money while leaving a trail of dead and beaten bodies behind him. Of course there’s much more to this crime film once you start scratching at its stylish surface.

Lee Marvin has an incredible screen presence that can easily intimidate an audience with its animal intensity. In Point Blank the actor literally jumps off the screen at times but some of the films most poignant moments are its quieter ones, which critics rarely mention. Before Lee Marvin is transformed into the angry gun carrying Walker who dominates most of Point Blank he’s shown as a sweet love struck man. He enjoys romancing his wife and seems willing to do anything to help out a friend. We also see him nervously contemplating his crimes before and after they take place. Walker might be tough and dangerous but he’s also a thoughtful and sensitive guy with a big heart.

I think it’s obvious that John Boorman and Lee Marvin wanted to present Walker as a man who was transformed by violence and disappointment. Much like the innocent 17-year-old Lee Marvin who naively went off to war and was deeply effected by what he experienced there, Marvin’s character in Point Blank is not a naturally violent man. But he has no problem committing acts of violence once he experiences it first hand. Marvin’s Walker seems to rise from the dead as an angry angel of vengeance to pursue the money that’s owed him. But this vengeance is tempered by Walker’s complicated interior-life and throughout the course of Point Blank Lee Marvin’s character never actually kills anyone. Walker beats a few men senseless and threatens them with violence but he often acts more like an angel of mercy who has the ability to kill and chooses to offer people his understanding and a chance for redemption instead. Thanks to Lee Marvin’s powerful screen presence these gentler aspects of his character in Point Blank are continually overlooked by critics in their reviews of the film. They only seem capable of seeing Marvin’s character as a merciless and destructive man, willing to do anything to get back the money that’s owed him.

As we follow Walker on his violent odyssey the film often veers off in abstract directions that follow no clear narrative structure but there are plenty of visual and verbal clues that tell us a lot about the journey Marvin’s character is undertaking and his real goals. And what are these goals? If we take Boorman’s comments about the film at face value it’s clear that the money Walker is hunting for is actually a metaphor for his lost humanity, which seems forever trapped in a sort of prison of his own making. Like Lee Marvin himself, the character of Walker has been transformed by the violence and disappointment that he has suffered in his life. Unfortunately he discovers throughout the course of the film that nothing, including the love of a beautiful woman and the destruction of his enemies, can return his innocence and restore his humanity. Walker can only accept his transformation and imprisonment, and learn to live with it.

Point Blank is an incredible looking film that uses bold color schemes and creative camera work in ways similar to Antonioni’s arthouse dramas Red Desert (1964) and Blowup (1966), as well as Seijun Suzuki’s neo-noir crime thrillers Youth of the Beast (1964), Kanto Wanderer (1964) and Tokyo Drifter (1966). John Boorman has expressed that Antonioni’s films and classic noir inspired the overall look and feel of Point Blank, but I haven’t come across any indication that the director or Lee Marvin were aware of Seijun Suzuki’s early films before making their movie. Much like Suzuki, as well as the French director Jean-Pierre Melville, John Boorman injects his crime film with an overall sense of malaise and turns Lee Marvin’s Walker into one of cinema’s greatest existential anti-heroes alongside Jo Shishido’s Jo Mizuno in Youth of the Beast and Alain Delon’s Frank Costello in Le Samourai.

There is very little dialogue in Point Blank,but what is extremely powerful and often very telling. Even Walker’s one word name tells the audience a lot about his character. One of the films most important moments comes towards the end when Walker finally confronts the man who seems to hold the key to his fortune.

Brewster: You’re a very bad man, Walker, a very destructive man! Why do you run around doing things like this?
Walker: I want my money. I want my $93,000.
Brewster: $93,000? You threaten a financial structure like this for $93,000? No, Walker, I don’t believe you. What do you really want?
Walker: I - I really want my money.
Brewster: Well, I’m not going to give you any money and nobody else is. Don’t you understand that?
Walker: Who runs things?
Brewster: Carter and I run things. I run things.
Walker: What about Fairfax? Will he pay me?
Brewster: Fairfax is a man who signs checks.
Walker: No, cash.
Brewster: Fairfax isn’t going to give you anything. He’s finished. Fairfax is dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.

20 years ago today on August 29, 1987, Lee Marvin left this earth. Unfortunately like many young men who find themselves on bloody foreign battlefields far from home, a part of Lee Marvin had died many years before. Through countless roles as a ruthless killer and movie heavy, Marvin had expressed the violence that had eaten away at him in various creative ways. Point Blank was an accumulation of Marvin’s previous roles held up to a prism and projected back to the audience in a kaleidoscope of colors and action. Underlying that is the echoing silence that permeates Point Blank and seems to cut right to the very core of Lee Marvin’s character.

I personally think Point Blank is one of the greatest American films produced during the sixties but it received a cold critical reception when it was originally released. American critics weren’t ready to see Lee Marvin as an existential anti-hero and the film’s themes and creative ideas were just too complex for many viewers who preferred to see the actor in simpler action films like The Dirty Dozen. The movie has slowly gained a cult following over the years thanks to numerous theatrical re-releases in Europe and its DVD release, which has allowed critics of Point Blank the opportunity to re-examine the film. If you want to see a terrific film and experience one of Lee Marvin’s best and most important performances, do yourself a favor and watch the brilliant Point Blank.

If you’d like to see more screen shots from the film please visit my Point Blank Gallery at Flickr.

You can also read a bit more about Lee Marvin and his film work with John Ford in a previous post I made earlier this year.

Point Blank is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.

Richard Harland Smith is commemorating the 20th anniversary of Lee Marvin’s death over at TCM’s Movie Moorlocks blog today with a Blog-a-thon. Since Lee Marvin is one of my favorite American actors I couldn’t resist contributing to his terrific tribute with some thoughts on Marvin’s pivotal role in Point Blank.

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Let’s Get Sadistik!

by Kimberly Lindbergs | July 24, 2007

Categories | News, Spies & Secret Agents, Crime

I recently discovered Mort Todd’s terrific website Go Sadistik which is devoted to the diabolikal super-kriminal Sadistik (also known as Kriminal, Kilink and Killing). The site is well worth a look if you enjoy sexy sixties era pulp-style crime thrillers as much as I do.

I first read about the Sadistik / Kriminal / Kilink films in Pete Tombs’ great book Mondo Macabro : Weird & Wonderful Cinema Around the World back in 1998 but they seemed impossible to find then. Thankfully that has changed in recent years with companies like Onar Films making the Turkish Kilink movies easily available.

The history of Sadistik is long, complicated and incredibly convoluted, but at the Go Sadistik site Mort Todd does a good job of explaining how the character of Sadistik went from being an Italian comic book anti-hero inspired by Diabolik and created by Max Bunker (pen name for the Italian artist Luciano Secchi) to being the star of his own films in Europe and Turkey. Besides information about the history of Sadistik and the various films, you can find detailed profiles of all the actors involved in the movies there and some eye-popping galleries featuring amazing cover art from the original photo story magazines.

Mort Todd is currently publishing a wonderful bi-lingual Sadistik tribute magazine with co-editor Roberto Barreiro called Killing Time that is filled with lots of great articles and info. The first issue is currently available as a PDF file which you can download for free right from the site and it’s really a must read! You’ll also find free download sample pages from the classic Sadistik photo novels that Mort Todd is translating and publishing in association with Comicfix.

Comicfix and Mort Todd are also helping to promote Italian director SS-Sunda’s documentary about the history of Sadistik called Diabolikal Super-Kriminal which is currently in production. They’ve recently released a nice looking trailer for the upcoming film that you can watch below.

Besides the Go Sadistik website, Mort Todd and director SS-Sunda both have blogs which I also recommend visiting if you’re like me and can’t get enough of Sadistik:

- Mort Todd’s The Mask of Death blog.
- SS-Sunda’s The King of Crime blog.

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Introducing Jason King

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 11, 2007

Categories | Spies & Secret Agents, Crime, Television, Ingrid Pitt, Peter Wyngarde

Many groovy old British television shows have been finding their way onto PAL DVD recently in the UK, but most of them are not available in the US. This is really unfortunate, because there were lots of great television programs produced in Britain during the sixties and seventies, but many of them are almost unheard of outside of the UK. Thanks to Image Entertainment, Americans are finally able to see the popular British crime and espionage series Jason King which ran on British television in 1971-72 and it’s well worth a look if you enjoy other British shows such as The Avengers, Secret Agent Man, The Prisoner, The Saint and The Persuaders.

The Jason King series was a spin-off from another good British series called Department S, which featured a team of detectives who were able to solve the most impossible crimes. For some reason American audiences are getting Jason King on DVD first and I have no idea if we’ll ever see a DVD release of the Department S show in the US, but at least American audiences can now enjoy the exploits of the international man of mystery known as Jason King.

The series features the talented British actor Peter Wyngarde as the suave, witty pulp novelist and detective Jason King, who smoks a pipe and wears tailored suits that would have made Brian Jones envious. He seems to own an endless amount of ascots and beautiful ladies are constantly charmed by him. In the series Jason King wrote crime novels that featured a fictional character called Mark Caine and when he wasn’t writing his trashy novels, he was helping Scotland Yard solve crimes. The “real” world of Jason King often mixed with the fictional world of Mark Caine, which led to some interesting plot twists and laughs.

The show is well written and very entertaining, and it often spoofs the various James Bond type of thrillers that it takes its inspiration from. The humorous elements help keep the show interesting and give Peter Wyngarde plenty of opportunities to have fun with his character Jason King. The series also features lots of beautiful British actresses from the period such as Hammer glamour queens Ingrid Pitt, Yutte Stensgaard and Stephanie Beacham, as well as the lovely Alexandra Bastedo. It might be hard for modern audiences to understand Jason King’s appeal now, but back in the early seventies his big hair, thick mustache and low-cut shirts were considered very sexy.

Peter Wyngarde is a fascinating actor with an interesting background. He was the son of an English diplomat and spent much of his childhood moving around the world. In 1941 he was left in the care of another family living in Shanghai just as the Japanese military took over the city. Following his capture, the young Wyngarde spent four years imprisoned in the Lung-Hai prison camp where he experienced extreme brutality until he was finally rescued by British soldiers.

While Wyngarde was in college he started acting on the stage and finally begun appearing in movies in the early sixties. He was in two of Britain’s best horror films early in his career (The Innocents, 1960 and Night of the Eagle, a.k.a. Burn Witch Burn, 1962), and then went on to have a very successful career in television. He had guest roles in many of the decade’s best television shows including The Avengers, The Saint, I Spy, The Champions and The Prisoner, where he played Number Two in the infamous “Checkmate” episode before he got a starring role as Jason King in Department S. Wyngarde’s popularity on the show led him to star in his own series simply called Jason King.

During this period Peter Wyngarde even recorded an album called When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head which was released in 1970. The album is a strange mix of psychedelic, lounge and folk songs that include Wyngarde’s unusual spoken word lyrics. One of the record’s most memorable tracks is called Rape, where Wyngarde casually explains what rape means in different languages and cultures in 1970. It also includes a song called The Hippie and The Skinhead where Wyngarde reads a letter written by two skinhead girls and then goes on to describe a beating that skinheads give a “queer, pilly, sexy Hippy” named Billy. It’s impossible to take the songs completely seriously, but it seems that many people did. RCA had expected Wyngarde to record some kind of pop record where he crooned sexy songs to his many adoring female fans at the time, but instead they got an extremely odd and experimental album that sounds very campy now, but actually does contain some interesting music. When Sex Leers Its Inquisitive Head caused such a ruckus that it was pulled from record stores after only a few weeks and disappeared into obscurity until it was reissued on CD in 2001.

When Jason King went off the air in 1972 Pete Wyngarde was one of Britain’s most popular actors, but unfortunately his fame was short-lived. In 1975 he was arrested and convicted for an act of “gross indecency” with a truck driver in the bathroom of a British bus station. Sadly his career never really recovered from that and he had a hard time finding work as an actor in Britain. After losing his celebrity status, Wyngarde began acting and directing at the English Theater in Vienna and appeared on German television. In 1980 he had a role in Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon as Klytus and since then Wyngarde has acted in a few worthwhile television programs like Doctor Who (1984) and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1986), but for the past 14 years he hasn’t seemed to have done much.

It’s impossible to measure the influence that Peter Wyngarde’s Jason King has had on popular British culture. Mike Myers has signaled out Jason King as one of the main influences for his popular Austin Powers films and Jason King has been the inspiration behind many interesting comic book characters including Fireball from Beano’s Bullet series, Jason Wyngarde from John Byrne’s hugely popular Uncanny X-Men series and Mr. Six from Grant Morrison’s brilliant, but brief comic book series The Invisibles.

American audiences now have a chance to enjoy the entertaining Jason King series for themselves with the release of the show on DVD last week. The new Image Entertainment DVD set is very bare-bones, but it includes all 26 episodes of the show without any extras. The picture quality is a little rough on some episodes, but considering that this is a British television series from 1971 shot on 16 mm film, I’m just happy to have access to it. Hopefully it will be successful enough to warrant the release of the Department S series in the future.

For more information about Jason King I highly recommend visiting Jason King’s Groovy Pad.

You can also check out some clips from the Jason King series on YouTube:
- The opening credits featuring the show’s great theme music
- A clip from the Jason King episode A Deadly Line in Digits

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Favorite DVD Releases of 2006 - Part III.

by Kimberly Lindbergs | March 10, 2007

Categories | Movie Reviews, Favorite 2006 DVDs, Giallo, Italian Cinema, Crime, Spanish Cinema, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jess Franco, Criterion, Klaus Kinski, John Barry, Michael Caine

This is the final part of my 30 Favorite DVD Releases of 2006 list that I’ve been slowly putting together. You can find Parts I. and II. HERE.

Please keep in mind that these are all official NTSC Region 1 DVDs of films originally released between 1960 and 1979 and the numerical order means absolutely nothing except that I got these brief reviews written up in the order that they appear.

30 FAVORITE DVD RELEASES OF 2006 PART III.

The Fifth Cord
21. The Fifth Cord (Blue Underground)
Luigi Bazzoni’s impressive giallo stars the handsome Italian actor Franco Nero in one of his best roles as a journalist struggling with alcoholism, while trying to solve a series of brutal murders. The cast also includes acclaimed actors and genre favorites Wolfgang Preiss, Edmund Purdom, Renato Romano, Silvia Monti, Ira von Fürstenberg and Rossella Falk, who all give fine performances in the film. The Fifth Cord (1971) also features some truly incredible photography by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and an amazing score by Ennio Morricone, which really compliments Bazzoni’s story. Blue Underground released some terrific gialli titles last year, but The Fifth Cord was easily my favorite of the bunch and I can’t recommend it enough. The DVD is presented in widescreen and looks terrific. It also comes with an extra feature called Giornata Nera (Black Days) which contains some insightful interviews with actor Franco Nero and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, as well as a theatrical trailer. Hopefully Blue Underground will continue to release more hard-to-find gialli titles this year!

The Loved One
22. The Loved One (Warner Home Video)
After the talented British filmmaker Tony Richardson won the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars in 1964 for Tom Jones, Hollywood was at his feet and MGM offered him complete creative control over his next project. No one expected that Richardson would take the opportunity to make “The motion picture with something to offend everyone,” but that’s exactly what he did. The Loved One is a blacker then black comedy that satirizes the Hollywood funeral business and definitely contains something to offend everyone. The script was written by Christopher Isherwood & Terry Southern, and it’s based on the original novel by Evelyn Waugh. Isherwood & Southern manage to retain Waugh’s uncompromising wit while giving the story a completely modern twist. The Loved One has an impressive cast that includes Robert Morse, John Gielgud, Roddy McDowall, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer, Dana Andrews, Milton Berle, James Coburn, Tab Hunter, Paul Williams and Liberace, but the real star of the film is Rod Steiger who gives one of his best performance as the embalmer Mr. Joyboy. The Loved One should appeal to anyone who’s ever imagined what it might be like if John Waters had directed Dr. Strangelove. The DVD is presented in widescreen and features some great extras including the theatrical trailer and a new featurette called Trying to Offend Everyone. The film was universally panned when it was originally released and that’s probably because it was so ahead of its’ time. It’s gained a sort of cult following over the years and I think modern audiences might be able to appreciate it’s humor more so it’s great to see Warner making an impressive effort to release it on DVD.

Spirit of the Beehive
23. Spirit of the Beehive (Criterion)
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) is a beautiful and spellbinding film that will stay with you long after it has ended. It centers around an enchanting six-year-old girl named Ana (a very young Ana Torrent) who attends a traveling movie show of James Whale’s classic Frankenstein and becomes haunted by her memory of the film. This memory begins to shape her world view and effect the way she see’s the harsh world around her. The story takes place in 1940 following the Spanish Civil War and offers a deeply moving look at a troubled nation trapped under Franco’s tyranny. Director Víctor Erice bathes the film in honeycomb colors and recurring metaphors that give the film a timeless and ethereal quality. The sparse score by Luis de Pablo adds to the somber mood of the film and Luis Cuadrado’s breathtaking cinematography beautifully captures the rural landscapes. The impressive 2 Disc Criterion DVD features a restored widescreen print of the movie and contains lots of great extras including a documentary about the making of the film called The Footsteps of a Spirit and an extensive interview with the director conducted by Japanese filmmaker Hideyuki Miyaoka.

The Conformist
24. The Conformist (Paramount Home Video)
Director Bernardo Bertolucci has made a lot of terrific films and The Conformist (1970) is easily one of his best. The story centers around the disturbed and repressed Marcello, who works as an assassin for the Italian Fascist movement in 1938 and is desperately trying to “conform” to societal expectations. In various flashbacks we learn about his troubling past. Jean-Louis Trintignant gives one of his best performances in the demanding role of Marcello and the rest of the cast is also exceptional. Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography (previously mentioned above in my review for The Fifth Cord) is especially impressive here and Georges Delerue score for the film is haunting. Aldo Lado also worked on the project as Assistant Director and I think fans of Lado’s great giallo films and various thrillers will notice his fingerprints on the movie along with Bertolucci’s. Previous prints of the The Conformist that I’ve seen have been very dull in comparison to the beautifully restored widescreen Paramount print featured on this DVD. The DVD also contains important previously cut footage and features some wonderful extras including three new featurettes about the making of the film.

Deadfall
25. Deadfall (20th Century Fox)
In Deadfall (1968), Michael Caine plays a jewel thief who finds himself caught up in a complex romantic relationship. Is he being played, or is he the player? The movie will keep you guessing and offers plenty of unusual twists and turns along the way. The exotic locations, stylish period clothing and shiny sport cars provide a lot of eye-candy in the movie, but British director Bryan Forbes’ real achievement in Deadfall is getting the incredible composer John Barry to score the film and make an appearance as himself. In one of the greatest combinations of music and cinema that I’ve ever come across, John Barry conducts a concert while Michael Caine makes a desperate attempt to steal some jewels in unison with the music. It has to be seen! Deadfall is presented in widescreen and includes a theatrical trailer as well as an interesting new featurette about the life and music of the British composer John Barry, who’s scored many great films. Deadfall is an under appreciated movie that really deserves another look.

Succubus
26. Succubus (Blue Underground)
Succubus (1968) is one of my favorite Jess Franco films so I was thrilled when Blue Underground announced that they were going to remaster the film and re-release it on DVD in widescreen for the first time last year. The film stars Janine Reynaud in one of her best roles as an exotic nightclub performer named Lorna who is plagued with sadistic hallucinations that she doesn’t understand. As her dream world becomes more violent and depraved, Lorna seems to loose her grip on reality and the audience is left wondering if she is a victim of some plot to drive her insane, suffering from demonic possession or are her psychedelic hallucinations just a product of her wild imagination and decadent lifestyle? Franco regular’s Jack Taylor and Howard Vernon both have interesting roles in the film, but Janine Reynaud is especially memorable as the seductive Lorna. Franco’s directing is really impressive in Succubus and he manages to beautifully capture Lorna’s frenzied dream states. Extras on the DVD include an insightful interview with Franco and actor Jack Taylor as well as the original theatrical trailer.

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
27. The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (Blue Underground)
2006 was a great year for fans of the Italian director Luciano Ercoli. It marked the first time that any of his films had been released officially on DVD in the US and we were treated to three impressive gialli films made by the director. I’ve already reviewed the terrific Luciano Ercoli Death Box Set released by NoShame that contained Death Walks on High Heels & Death Walks at Midnight, so I couldn’t resist including this Erocoli thriller released by Blue Underground in my list of Favorite 2006 DVDs as well. In The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970) the beautiful Dagmar Lassander plays a repressed newly married woman named Minou who’s traumatized by a sexual assault as well as obsessed with her attacker. Passions turn deadly and soon Minou finds herself being blackmailed. Genre favorite Nieves Navarro shows up in a memorable supporting role and really spices up the film. Ercoli’s directing is impressive and it’s complimented by Ennio Morriocne’s fantastic score, which is easily one of his best. The film is presented in widescreen and looks fabulous. The DVD also includes the theatrical trailer and a nice featurette called Forbidden Screenplays which contains an interview with co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi. The basic premise of The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion is bound to offend some, but if you enjoy erotic films from the 60s & 70s that are more concerned with eroticism & aesthetics then political correctness, you might enjoy the film as much as I did.

The Passenger
28. The Passenger (Sony Pictures)
In The Passenger (1975), the talented Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni once again explores his favorite themes involving identity and isolation. Antonioni has made many brilliant films and I think The Passenger is one of his best, as well as one of his most accessible due to the presence of Jack Nicholson. Nicholson gives one of his most interesting performances here as a burned out journalist named David Locke who decides to assume a dead man’s identity and start his life again as a new person. Locke doesn’t know about the dead man’s past or what he did for a living, and he soon finds himself in over his head. The beautiful Maria Schneider is memorable in her role as the “Girl” and Luciano Tovoli’s cinematography is really impressive, but Antonioni’s directing is the real reason to watch The Passenger. Antonioni knows how to perfectly capture the isolation that his characters feel as well as the world they occupy, which is filled with detached people who rarely understand one another’s motives. The Sony DVD is presented in widescreen and the print looks terrific. I’ve never seen the movie look or sound better. The DVD also includes some insightful commentary tracks by Jack Nicholson, screenwriter Mark Peploe and journalist Aurora Irvine. It’s a shame that it has taken Sony so long to release the film on DVD, but thankfully this release was well worth the wait.

The Black Belly of the Tarantula
29. The Black Belly of the Tarantula (Blue Underground)
Director Paolo Cavara started his career making “Mondo” movies alongside filmmakers like Gualtiero Jacopetti. In 1970 Cavara decided to try his hand at making a genre thriller and The Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) was the interesting result. This unusual giallo stars the talented Giancarlo Giannini as the suave Inspector Tellini. Tellini finds himself investigating a series of vicious murders involving a killer who injects his victims with the paralyzing poison of a rare wasp and then forces them to witness their own deaths. The rest of the cast includes many beautiful Bond girls as well as actresses who have appeared in other gialli films including Claudine Auger, Barbara Bouchet, Rossella Falk and Barbara Bach. Paolo Cavara’s directing is inspired and complimented by Ennio Morricone’s effective score. One of the most interesting elements of the movie is Cavara’s use of documentary footage showing deadly insects fighting for their lives, which is added throughout the film. It brings to mind the directors previous Mondo films and adds an interesting touch to this entertaining giallo. The Blue Underground DVD is presented in widescreen. It also includes the theatrical trailer and an interview with the scriptwriter’s son Lorenzo Danon. The Black Belly of the Tarantula is not the best giallo Blue Underground has released, but it is one of the most unique and I couldn’t resist adding it to this list.

Two Undercover Angels
30. Red Lips Double Feature: Two Undercover Angels & Kiss Me Monster (Blue Underground)
This great double feature DVD contains two of director Jess Franco’s best spy spoofs. Both films star Franco regulars Janine Reynaud & Rosanna Yanni who seem to be having a lot of fun playing the “red lips” spy team of Diana (Janine Reynaud) & Regina (Rosanna Yanni) while they seduce their enemies, solve crimes and travel to exotic locations wearing stylish late-60s fashions. Two Undercover Angels (1969) is definitely the best of the two films, while Kiss Me Monster (1969) seems a lot less inspired. Both movies are played for laughs and filled with slapstick comedy routines that get a little tired at times, but Janine Reynaud & Rosanna Yanni keep things entertaining. These are not Franco’s best films but they will appeal to anyone who enjoys spy spoofs featuring beautiful female agents like Modesty Blaise (1966) and Fathom (1967) backed by terrific jazzy scores. Previous DVDs of these films were rather bland and the movies were presented in fullscreen so viewers missed a lot of the action. Thankfully Blue Underground remastered them and the DVD features nice widescreen prints of both films as well as the original trailers and interviews with director Jess Franco.

- TV shows released on DVD in 2006 that deserve a mention: Ultraman: Series One, Vol. 1 and The Wild Wild West - The Complete First Season

- Honorable mentions that didn’t make my list: Magic (1978), The Other (1972) , Scorpion - Female Prisoner 701: Grudge Song (1973) and Satan’s Blood (977).

- DVDs that might have made my list if I had the chance to see them: The Witch’s Mirror (1962), Brainiac aka El Baron Del Terror (1963), The Curse of the Crying Woman (1969), , The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Red Angel (1966), Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales (1970-72) and The Anniversary (1968).

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This is a story about greed, love and violence…

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 29, 2006

Categories | Movie Reviews, Crime, Steve McQueen, Claudia Cardinale

“This is a story about greed, love and violence, set in the steaming jungles and tropical cities of Latin America. It was written by a man who spent years of his life in the tropical hell of the worst prison on earth, where he learned the truth about greed and love and violence.”

I’ve been interested in seeing Popsy Pop (a.k.a. The Butterfly Affair) for a long time and I recently got the chance to after I came across a cheap DVD of the movie available from East West DVD. The quality of the East West DVD is awful, which should be obvious from my screen shots below, but I was happy that I finally got a chance to see the movie.

Popsy Pop (1971) is a heist crime/caper film made by the French director Jean Herman. Herman is responsible for one of my favorite heist films of all time (Adieu l’ami a.k.a. Honor Among Thieves) so I knew I’d probably enjoy Popsy Pop and I wasn’t wrong.

This fascinating film was scripted by Henri Charrière who also stars in the film. Popsy Pop is loosely based on his second book called Banco the Further Adventures of Papillon. If that title sounds familiar, it’s because Henri Charriere’s first book was the critically acclaimed Papillon, which was later made into an award winning film. Many people are aware of Henri Charrière thanks to the film version of Papillon that told the story of his long captivity in the penal colony of French Guiana as well as his later imprisonment and eventual escape from the notorious prison, Devil’s island.

The real Henri Charrière and Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière in Papillon
In the film version of Papillon the role of Henri “Papillon” Charrière is played wonderfully by Steve McQueen who was nominated for a Golden Globe thanks to his terrific performance in the movie. Popsy Pop is no Papillon, and no one was nominated for any awards after it was released, but it is a fun movie and fascinating to watch if you happen to be interested in the real Henri Charrière like myself.

Interestingly, Papillon (1973) was made after Popsy Pop (1971) which seems to have been almost completely ignored by most film critics at the time. This isn’t surprising since Popsy Pop will probably only appeal to a small audience of movie lovers like myself who enjoy unusual caper films shot in exotic locations with great soundtracks. If you’re looking for a solid well acted film with a coherent script, you should probably look elsewhere since Popsy Pop has very little to hold it together besides Claudia Cardinale’s fabulous wardrobe and wacky wigs.

Popsy Pop (Claudia Cardinale) meets Inspector Silva (Stanley Baker)
The talented Claudia Cardinale (The Leopard, Cartouche, Once Upon a Time in the West, Fitzcarraldo, etc.) plays the cute and sexy Popsy Pop, a small time celebrity who travels to the jungles of Venezuela to entertain locals at a shabby night spot. She arrives by boat carrying bags of heavy luggage as well as a copy of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice in Wonderland and a large porcelain doll she likes to call Alice. These strange Alice In Wonderland references almost appear meaningless at first but soon unveil themselves. In some ways the book and doll are props to make Popsy seem more innocent than she really is, but as the film develops Popsy’s life begins to resemble a more darker version of Alice’s own adventures in Wonderland.

Tough guy Stanley Baker (The Guns of Navarone, Eva, Zulu, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin , etc.) plays Inspector Silva who is keeping his eye on the local diamond fortune. He greets Popsy when she arrives in the steamy jungle and soon the heat between them both starts to rise. Inspector Silva falls for pretty Popsy fast and hard, which is somewhat understandable since his life in the jungle seems to have very little distractions and Popsy is most certainly an interesting distraction. Soon he is offering himself up as her personal escort and they quickly develop a loosely formed realtionship.

Popsy (Claudia Cardinale) performing her signature song
The blossoming romance between Popsy and Silva is soon overshadowed by the presence of Marco who’s played by Henri Charrière. Marco is planning a diamond heist along with a couple of unsavory thugs and the seemingly innocent Popsy. Henri Charrière’s character Marco is a career criminal who is obviously based on Charrière himself. It quickly becomes clear that Marco is already in a romantic relationship with Popsy and that he has previously come into contact with Inspector Silva. Marco knows the Inspector’s weakness for beautiful women and he has brought Popsy to the island to distract the oblivious Inspector while they steal the diamonds.

Like most good heist films things don’t exactly go as planned and Popsy Pop ends up stealing the diamonds for herself. Soon Inspector Silva and Marco are forced to team up and together they begin a cross country chase through the jungles and cities of Latin America after Popsy and the elusive diamonds.

Marco (Henri Charrière ) and Inspector Silva (Stanley Baker) question a hotel clerk
Claudia Cardinale is always interesting to watch and she seems to be enjoying her role as Popsy. On the other hand Stanley Baker is rather dull as Inspector Silva and looks a bit lost in the movie. And as much as I enjoyed seeing Henri Charrière playing Marco, his action scenes were a bit hard to watch. Charrière had lived a hard life and he was 65 years old at the time that the movie was made. Unfortunately his age and poor health are somewhat obvious in the film, but Charrière also has a sense of humor and that’s on display as well. For a man who spent much of life in prison, you’ve got admire his ambition at age 65 to attempt acting in a film based on his own script.

Jean Herman’s directing is occasionally really impressive in the film, especially after the chase for Popsy and the diamonds begin, but it also seems muddled by the clumsy script and lackluster performances from the three main stars. A lot of the action in the film is unintentionally funny and poorly executed, but I think the unusual plot turns as well as the exotic locations keep the film interesting.

Popsy (Claudia Cardinale) hides out at the home of an unusal priest
Music always plays an integral part in my own enjoyment of any movie and it can often make or break a film in my opinion. The soundtrack for Popsy Pop is without a doubt one of the most unusual ones I’ve ever heard. I really enjoyed the music conjured up by Frédéric Botton for this film, which is a strange combination of primitive drumming and early synthesizer sounds. It gives the movie an almost surreal mood at times and seems to build and build as the film heads toward it’s climax. Claudia Cardinale also sings a musical number in the production, but the only thing really memorable about that is the bizarre costume she wore while singing the song. Unfortunately the soundtrack is not available on CD yet, but you can occasionally find the soundtrack on vinyl selling for rather steep prices.

With all it’s faults I still found a lot to enjoy about Popsy Pop. It’s a shame that the movie hasn’t gotten a better DVD release yet because it would really benefit from a better quality print with good sound. Hopefully a DVD company will take the time to restore the film someday before it’s forgotten about forever.

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