THE COMPLE TE GUIDE FROM CLASSICS TO CULT

HOWARD HUGHES

LONDON · N[W YORK

Published in 2011by I.B .Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright© Howard Hughes, 2011

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ISBN: 978 184885 6o 7 3 (hb)

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 CONTENTS

Art and Artifice: An Introduction to Italian Cinema IX

Acknowledgements XV

Chapter One Hercules Conquers the Box Office:

Mythological Epics 1

Chapter Two Historical Escapades, High Seas and

Low B's: Costume Adventures 29

Chapter Three Fall of the Empire: Sword and

Sandal Spectacles 49

Chapter Four Tales from the Tomb: Gothic Horrors 77

Chapter Five Battle of the Worlds: Science Fact

and Fiction 101

Chapter Six Vita All'Italiana: Love and Death 119

Chapter Seven Shoot, Gringo ... Shoot!: Italian Westerns 143

Chapter Eight Passports to Hell: Euro Crime

and Crimebusters 167

Chapter Nine Anarchy and Allegory:

Political Cinema 191

Chapter Ten Mission Improbable:

World War II Movies 209
Chapter Eleven Knives in the Dark: Gialli Thrillers 223

Chapter Twelve A Funny Thing Happened: Italian Comedy 245

Chapter Thirteen Splats Entertainment: Italian Cinema

Eats Itself 267

Bibliography and Sources 297

Index of Key Directors 301

Index of Film Titles

 ART AND .ARTIFICE
AN INTRODUCTION TO ITALIAN CINEMA

'For what we see', Bazin said, 'the cinema substitutes a world that con­
forms to our desires'. Cinema Italiano is the story of that world.

n its heyday- beginning in the late 1950s and lasting for over 20 years- Italy
I was second only to Hollywood as a popular film factory, exporting cinematic
dreams worldwide. Italian filmmakers, backed by international finance and
fielding multinational casts, crafted dramas, horror films, westerns, spy movies,
sword and sandal epics, costume adventures, war movies, crime films, science
fiction, political thrillers and comedies with equal gusto and in inimitable style.
Many of these films became great international successes, but the cliche of Ital­
ian cinema is that it predominantly fed off other movies, adopting found ideas,
plots and actors, and making whole genres its own. A common criticism of Italian
genre filmmakers is that their films are not as good as the Hollywood films they
imitate, when in many cases they are actually superior to the 'genuine article'.
Cinema Italiano discuses both Italian 'popular' and 'arthouse' cinema.
Mythological sword and sandal epics, gothic horrors, sci-fi, crime films and spa­
ghetti westerns are analysed alongside the best of Luchino Visconti, Federico
Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Some of the films discussed in this book
are internationally famous, even infamous, while others are forgotten gems. I've
sought to demonstrate that the work of world cinema heavyweights - Fellini
et al. - has much in common with popularist filmmakers such as Sergio Leone
and Dario Argento. In this respect, I've tried to treat everyone equally, from Pier
Paolo Pasolini to Gianfranco Parolini, and from The Leopard to Puma Man.
The story of Italian cinema is essentially a series of creative explosions,
interspersed with fallow periods of audience exhaustion. If a film was popular,
literally dozens of imitations would be made to cash-in at the domestic and inter­
national box office. This intense technique often resulted in each fad enjoying
 LA
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La dolce vita (1960). US poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 An Introduction to Italian Cinema x1

rather limited longevity, as the glut quickly satisfied audience interest. Only the
most talented directors, the biggest stars or the most imaginative gimmicks pre­
vailed. Mythological muscleman films starring Steve Reeves as Hercules became
the first Italian popular genre to enjoy widespread international success. This
craze lasted from 1958 to 1964. It was superseded by Italian 'spaghetti' westerns,
which took off in 1965 - with the massive success of Sergio Leone's 'Dollars' films
starring Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name - and lasted until 1970 when
comedy, horror-thrillers [gialli] and crime films [poliziotteschi] coaxed audi­
ences to pastures new. Gothic horror, Hammer-style, was popular in Italy from
1960 to 1965 and the James Bond movies inspired a spy cycle from 1963 to 1967.
Within each of these frantic cycles there were many imaginative hybrid crosso­
vers, which brought out the best in the fevered imaginations of Italian filmmak­
ers. One trend is obvious: Italian genre cinema is obsessed with caped crusading
superheroes. Even the most mercenary of Italian supermen are on the side of
'good', helping the exploited, downtrodden and victimised. It's no coincidence
that everyone - from Hercules to The Man With No Name - wears a cape.
During most of these genre explosions, primary influence came from else­
where. Time and again big international hits, regardless of their country of origin,
were copied by Italian filmmakers - gothic horrors and Bondian espionage are
good examples, both being inspired by already established formulas. Mythological
epics, spaghetti westerns and gialli were reboots of classic Hollywood film gen­
res. The trigger films in each case - Hercules (1958), A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969) - are quite unlike their Hollywood
counterparts. As soon as films and genres became hits, they also became targets
for ridicule. Italian clown Toto parodied La dolce vita (1960) in Sergio Corbucci's
Toto, Peppino and Ia dolce vita (1960), and Franchi and Ingrassia's goofy stock­
in-trade were movie spoofs. Each of the chapters of Cinema Italiano maps out
how various Italian genres rose, prospered and played out and analyses each
cycle's most interesting, influential and financially successful examples, with plot
resumes and cast, location, production and release details.
During the boom years of the 196os and early 1970s, Italian film studios
exceeded even Hollywood's film output. For example, there were 242 Italian films
made in 1962, compared to 174 in the US; 245 Italian films to 168 American in 1966;
and 237 productions to 156 in 1974. The Italian's cinematic assembly line - based
in studios such as Rome's Cinecitta, Titanus, Dinocitta, Incir-De Paolis and Elios
- churned out everything from sumptuous international epics to low-budget pot­
boilers and action movies. In addition to Italy's own output, from 1957 to 1967
US companies spent approximately $35 million per year to finance or buy the
distribution rights to Italian films, or to make their own films, with Italian studios
as their production base. This enabled US filmmakers to take advantage of the
Mediterranean weather and picturesque filming locations in Italy, Spain, North
Africa and the former Yugoslavia. Often European casts and crews adopted angli­
cised pseudonyms to deceive audiences both at home and abroad. Films were
Xll

starring
BARBARA STEELE/JOHN KARLSEN/MEL WELLES
A EUROPIX CONSOLIDATED RELEASE

US double-bill poster for Michael Reeves' The She Beast (1965 starring Barbara Steele) and
-

Dino Tavella's The Embalmer (1965). Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 An Introduction to Italian Cinema xm

sometimes co-directed, with an Italian director working alongside a Hollywood

counterpart. In the Italian versions of the film, the Italian director would be cred­
ited, while the international version would trumpet the Hollywood 'name'.
US companies' investments often took the form of co-productions with
Italian partners, though French, West German, Spanish or Yugoslavian finan­
ciers also participated in such ventures. Stars from these countries were cast, in
an effort to appeal to as broad a market as possible, with poster billing altered
accordingly for different markets. Throughout the 1950s and 196os, Italy had a
rich crop of home-grown stars, with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
pre-eminent among them. Popular Italian stars who broke through internation­
ally- and sometimes appeared in Hollywood films- included Gina Lollobrigida,
Claudia Cardinale, Mario Girotti/'Terence Hill', Silvana Mangano, Alida Valli,
Monica Vitti and Franco Nero.
But with American money came American stars. These included some gen­
uine Hollywood legends- Burt Lancaster (The Leopard, Moses and 1900), Orson
Welles (David and Goliath, The Tartars and Tepepa) and Henry Fonda (Once
Upon a Time in the West, My Name Is Nobody and Tentacles)- but usually meant
supporting players, lesser stars and minor celebrities such as Henry Silva, Charles
Bronson, Steve Reeves, Guy Madison and Jack Palance. Italian cinema afforded
them star billing, fan adoration and lucrative careers as box office draws in Europe.
Cameron Mitchell is a good example: a stage actor and minor Hollywood star, he
travelled to Italy in 1961 to headline in a brace of Viking movies and never looked
back. Several stars forgotten by Hollywood- such as Broderick Crawford, Joseph
Cotton, Stewart Granger and Alan Ladd - enjoyed rejuvenated careers in Italy.
Their Italian films were then truncated and dubbed for US and UK audiences
and often released as ersatz Hollywood productions. There were several British
performers - bodybuilding champion Reg Park, Wirral-born actress Barbara
Steele and thespian Edmund Purdom- who became famous in Italy, and Italian
cinema created a global superstar in Clint Eastwood (an American TV actor who
became an overnight sensation in Italian westerns).
In his Psychotronic Video Guide, a comprehensive roundup of the best in world,
cult and exploitation cinema, Michael J. Weldon compiled a list of the ten most
prolific 'psychotronic movie directors'. It is headed by Spaniard Jesus 'Jess' Franco
and includes such luminaries as Al Adamson, Fred Olen Ray, William 'One Shot'
Beaudine and Jim W ynorski. Weldon notes that the list 'does not include Italians
or serial directors'. Italy has produced more cult genres and movies than any other
country in the world. During the writing of Cinema Italiano I collated a 'Top 20' of
essential Italian films which in my view no collection should be without:

La dolce vita (Fellini, 1960), The Mask of Satan (Bava, 1960), Hercules
Conquers Atlantis (Cottafavi, 1961), The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock
(Freda, 1962), The Leopard (Visconti, 1963), Contempt (Godard, 1963),
The Gospel according to St Matthew (Pasolini, 1964), Castle of Blood
 (Margheriti, 1964), Fists in the Pocket (Bellocchio, 1965), Battle ofAlgiers
(Pontecorvo, 1966), Blowup (Antonioni, 1966), The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly (Leone, 1966), The Big Silence (Corbucci, 1967), Diabolik (Bava,
1968), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Argento, 1970), The Conformist
(Bertolucci, 1970), Violent City (Sollima, 1970), The Marseilles Connection
(Castellari, 1973), Illustrious Corpses (Rosi, 1975), Suspiria (Argento, 1977)

I also compiled a further list of offbeat items. Some of these are perhaps less
known than the previous titles and feature the work of journeymen directors
who ploughed many furrows. The films' subject matter includes four-armed
space mutants, coffin-dragging gunfighters, hardened criminals, Greek myths,
reanimated flesh-eating zombies, secret agents, giant octopi, orgiastic Roman
decadence, World War II action, gothic horror, slapstick comedy, incompetent
superheroes, horror-muscleman epics and the world's first (and last) spaghetti
western hero to be pitted against the Moors and the Vikings:

The Trojan War (Ferroni, 1961), Maciste in Hell (Freda, 1962), Sons of
Thunder (Tessari, 1962), Blood and Black Lace (Bava, 1964), The Castle of
the Living Dead (Kiefer, 1964), The Last Man on Earth (Salkow/Ragona,
1964), The Wild, Wild Planet (Margheriti, 1966), Django (Corbucci, 1966),
Special Mission Lady Chaplin (De Martino, 1966), Django, Kill! (If You
Live Shoot!) (Questi, 1967), Fellini Satyricon (Fellini, 1969), They Call Me
Trinity (Barboni, 1970), Milan Calibre 9 (Di Leo, 1972), Deep Red (Argento,
1975), Get Mean (Baldi, 1976), Tentacles (Assonitis, 1976), The Inglorious
Bastards (Castellari, 1977), Zombie Flesh Eaters (Fulci, 1979), Puma Man
(De Martino, 1980), 1990: The Bronx Warriors (Castellari, 1982).

In my opinion, the archetypal Italian cult film would be directed by Enzo G.

Castellari, Antonio Margheriti or Sergio Corbucci and would star Franco Nero,
Tomas Milian, Klaus Kinski or Jack Palance. It would feature at least one bottle of
J&B (Justerini & Brooks) whisky- the tipple of choice in Italian cinema- would
have a score by Ennio Morricone or the De Angelis brothers and have been shot in
a quarry in Lazio. Today such movies have been reclaimed by the cultists. It was
once possible to encounter these films by accident on TV, often in the late-night
schedule, but if you want to see most of the movies discussed in this book, you
will have to buy or rent them. With the boom in DVD collecting worldwide, the
best of this cinema has never been more accessible and popular. Many of these
films are now available in pristine DVD editions- where were all these flawless,
uncut, widescreen prints in the 198os and 1990s, when collectors often had to
make do with grainy, truncated, jumpy, faded, cropped and 'panned-and-scanned'
releases? There will be films in this book you would have seen. There will be films
you would want to see and even films you may never want to see. My only hope is
that Cinema Italiano ignites or re-ignites your passion for this fantastic cinema.

HOWARD HUGHES
 .ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

'd like to thank Philippa Brewster, my editor at I.B.Tauris, for her efforts and
I ideas in bringing this project to fruition. I'd also like to thank Paul Davighi,
Stuart Weir, Cecile Rault and Alan Bridger at I.B.Tauris, and Rohini Krishnan at
Newgen for their hard work.
For providing most of the fantastic archive of advertising material repro­
duced in Cinema Italiano I'd like to thank archivist Ian Caunce, who has an amaz­
ing collection of film posters and a true passion for and knowledge of Italian
cinema. Andy Hanratty has again done a great job on the restoration of many
of these posters and stills. Further images were provided by Gary Smith and
William Connolly. The remainder of the images are from my own collection.
For the research and sourcing of many of the rare films discussed in this
book, special mention goes to Andy Hanratty, Mike Coppack, William Connolly,
Alex Cox and Rene Hogguer, among many others. Italian soundtrack specialist
Lionel Woodman of Hillside CD has also proved most helpful with his exper­
tise over the years. Thanks to Tom Betts for research help and for his inspir­
ing articles in Westerns All'Italiana! Thanks also to William Connolly and Mike
Eustace (Spaghetti Cinema), Lee Pfeiffer and Dave Worrall (Cinema Retro) and
Tim Lucas (Video Watchdog).
For their help- realised or otherwise- in the writing and researching of this
book, I'd like to thank Belinda and Chris Skinner, Sir Christopher Frayling, Ann
Jackson, Paul Duncan, Alex Cox, Kim Newman, Gareth Jones, Phil Cox, Kevin
Wilkinson, Frankie Holmes, Rhian Coppack, Dave Lewis, Alex and Isabel Coe,
Mark Chester and Vicky Millington, Nicki and John Cosgrove, David Weaver,
Mike Oak, Peter Jones, Paul Moss and Daphne Newton.
Many thanks to mum (for proofing manuscripts) and dad. And as always to
Clara, for her continued help with research, proofing, opinions and ideas.
 Hercules Conquers the Box Office
Mythological Epics

hough they had been making impressive ancient spectacles since the silent
T era, the Italians' craze for mythological epics began in earnest in 1958. Mak­
ing these epics was partly a way of utilising sets and costumes from Hollywood
productions- including Quo Vadis (1951) and Helen ofTroy (1955) - which had
been filmed at Cinecitta Studios in Rome. Christened 'Hollywood on the Tiber:
Cinecitta was a vast studio complex opened by Mussolini in 1937. Italian pro­
ductions capitalised on the vogue for ancient spectacles ('Big Screens Mean Big
Themes' went the publicity for Helen) by taking an already popular genre- the
sword and sandal epic - and making it their own. Such films were christened
'peplum' (plural 'pepla') by French critics after the Greek word 'pep los', the name
of the short skirts worn by the heroes.
The most popular stars were Steve Reeves, Reg Park and Gordon Scott:
muscly outdoor types whose sheer bulk and screen presence compensated for
their thespian shortcomings. Several of these musclemen- including Mickey
Hargitay, Reg Lewis, Gordon Mitchell and Dan Vadis- had been bodybuild­
ers in Mae West's risque touring stage review in the US. There was also a
phalanx of pseudonymous Italian musclemen- for example, stuntman Sergio
Ciani became 'Alan Steel' and ex-gondolier Adriano Bellini was billed as 'Kirk
Morris'. They played heroes named Hercules, Goliath, Ursus, Samson and
Maciste. Ursus and Maciste were unfamiliar to English-speaking audiences,
so many of their adventures were dubbed into Hercules or Goliath vehicles.
Embassy Pictures released several as the 'Sons of Hercules' series, with a
rip-roaring 'Sons of Hercules' title song: 'On land or on the sea, as long as
there is need, they'll be Sons of Hercules!' If the truly 'epic' biblical epics
of Hollywood director Cecil B. De Mille were famous for giving cinemagoers
more than their money's worth, then peplum audiences sometimes felt a little
short-changed.
 The central theme of pepla is man's freedom. Often an oppressive overlord
is misruling with vigour, enslaving the populace. With help from the hero the
slaves cast off the shackles of oppression, an act representing a symbolic image
of freedom that was a genre signature. There is often a wily, morally bankrupt
queen (who desires the hero) and a virtuous heroine (for him to save from dan­
ger). Recurrent elements include torture, tests of strength, a cataclysm (usu­
ally an earthquake) and at least one cabaret spot by a group of dancing girls as
court entertainment, to eat up the running time. Sometimes the hero is lifted
completely out of his mythological context - Hercules against the Sons of the
Sun shipwrecks its hero in South America, Maciste in Hell is set in Scotland -
but to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, it's possible to believe anything provided it is
incredible.

Hercules the Mighty

The trigger film for these 'bicepics' was Pietro Francisci's Hercules (1958), 'freely
adapted' by Francisci from The Argonauts written by Appollonius of Rhodes in
the third century BC. Francisci cast American Mr Universe winner Steve Reeves
as Hercules opposite Yugoslavian starlet Sylva Koscina as Iole, King Pelias' daugh­
ter. Francisci had already had success with Attila the Hun (1954), which paired
Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren. Immortal Hercules is summoned to the city
of Iolcus in Thessaly by Pelias (Ivo Garrani) to teach his braggart heir Iphitus
(Mimmo Palmera) the art of war. Iphitus is savaged to death by a lion while in
Hercules' care and the hero renounces his immortality. Jason (Fabrizio Mioni),
the rightful heir to Pelias's throne, is sent to retrieve the Golden Fleece from
Colchis. On board the Argo, built by Argos (Aldo Fiorelli), Jason gathers the
Argonauts - the musician Orpheus (Gino Mattera), the Dioscuri (twin heroes)
Castor and Pollux (Fulvio Carrara and Willi Columbini), Ulysses (Gabriele
Antonini) the son of Laertes (Andrea Fantasia), Tifi the pilot (Aldo Pini) and
Hercules. Pelias's henchman Eurystheus (Arturo Dominici) tags along to sabo­
tage the trip. The questers are distracted on Lemnos, Island of the Women, where
Jason falls for Antea, alluring Queen of the Amazons (Gianna Maria Canale).
Later the Argonauts are ambushed by ape men in Colchis and Jason fights a
dragon guarding the fleece, before returning to Iolcus to claim his throne.
Hercules was shot in Eastmancolor and French widescreen process
Dyaliscope and is accompanied by a score by Enzo Masetti. Musical highlights
include the lush title theme; the jaunty 'Athletes' theme; a lusty sailors' choir
led by Orpheus; the theramin-led Sirens' theme; and love themes for Hercules
and Iole, and Jason and Antea. Lidia Alfonsi played oracle 'the Sybil' and future
Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi was Iole's handmaiden. Exterior footage was lensed at
the Nature Reserve and beach at Tor Caldara, Anzio Cape, with palace interiors
at Titanus Studios, Rome. Hercules' farewell to Iole was filmed at the arching
fountains in Rome's EUR district; the athletes' games, where Hercules humili­
ates Iphitus, were also staged in EUR. Mario Bava's lighting and special effects
 Mythological Epics 3

are impressive and there are some memorable settings: the volcanic Island of
Lemnos (a tropical paradise of palm trees, parrots and cascading flowers) and
the tiered waterfall at Monte Gelato in the Treja Valley, Lazio. Antea's glittering
grotto is festooned with stalactites, flowers (courtesy of Sgaravatti of Rome) and
what appear to be strips of shimmering clingfilm. The Italian title (Le fatiche di
Ercole) translates as 'The Labours of Hercules', though only two of the Twelve
Labours feature: the strangling of the Nemean lion and the capture of the Cretan
Bull (represented by a North American bison).
Hercules was a colossal success, especially in the US in 1959 where it grossed
$20 million when independent Boston producer Joseph E. Levine bought the US
rights for $12o,ooo and spent $1.2 million on advertising, including the prece­
dent-setting use of TV ads in what William Goldman called 'the most aggressive
campaign any film ever had'. Two different English language dubs of the film
exist: the UK print opens with the titles over a Greek frieze, while the US version
substitutes an animated starfield and a superior dubbing track. Distributed by
Warner Bros, Hercules was one of their biggest hits of the year. Levine formed
Embassy Pictures (later Avco-Embassy) as a result of this success and was later
the producer of the Oscar-winning The Graduate (1967) and The Lion in Winter
(1968).
Francisci's sequel, Hercules Unchained (1959), was based on Oedipus
at Co/onus by Sophocles (a dramatisation of the last hours of King Oedipus),
The Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus (recounting the Theban Wars) and The
Legends ofHercules and Omphale, again 'freely adapted' by Francisci. Hercules
and his wife Iole (Reeves and Koscina), with Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini), land
in Attica, Hercules' home, to find King Oedipus (Cesare Fantoni) at odds with
his sons, Eteocles (Sergio Fantoni) and Polyneices (Mimmo Palmera). Oedipus
has decreed that each will rule Thebes for a year, but Eteocles refuses to cede

Steve Reeves flexes muscle in Pietro Francisci's Hercules Unchained (1959), the first sequel to
the phenomenally successful Hercules (1958).
power. Polyneices has laid siege to the city with his mercenary Argives. Francisci
crowbarred Hercules into the story, casting him as a peace envoy. Hercules and
Ulysses take a truce from Eteocles to Polyneices, but they are kidnapped en route
by Lydian soldiers, who brainwash Hercules with 'the waters of forgetfulness'.
He becomes the love slave of Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), the Queen of Lydia. As
Omphale tires of her lovers they are transformed into human statues by her
Egyptian henchmen, in a steamy vitrification process. One critic noted, 'Such a
fate would have made little difference to Reeves' performance'. Eventually a res­
cue party led by King Laertes frees Hercules, who rushes to Thebes where Iole is
about to become tiger food in Eteocles' arena.
Hercules Unchained is superior to its predecessor, with tighter plotting,
punchier action and superior acting. Carlo D'Angelo appeared as Theban high
priest Creon, Daniele Vargas played an Argive general, Gianni Loti was Sand one
(Captain of Omphale's guard) and future peplum stars Alan Steel and Giuliano
Gemma appeared as officers. Ballerina Colleen Bennet was the Lydian court dance
soloist and Patrizia Della Rovere played Penelope, Ulysses' girl. Iole, plucking
Orpheus's lyre (called a 'lute' in the slapdash dubbing) serenades Hercules by
miming to June Valli's 'Evening Star' (lyrics by Mitchell Parish), the melody of
which was used as the root of the film's title music. En route to Thebes Hercules
fights Antaeus, the son of the earth goddess (played by world champion boxer
and wrestler Primo Carnera, 'The Ambling Alp'). The film's impressive finale
features a pitched battle as the Argives wheel their siege towers to the gates of
Thebes. Hercules leads the Theban counter-attack across the plain in a four­
horse quadriga chariot, lassoing and toppling the Argive towers.
Mario Bava was again in charge of lighting and effects and the Dyaliscope
cinematography in crisp Eastmancolor is a major asset. The sunny Italian exte­
riors - beaches, cliffs, valleys, cities and woodland - are amongst the finest in
pepla. Exteriors were filmed in Lazio (including the coast at Tor Caldara and
the Treja Valley), with interiors at Titanus Appia Studios. It is in the exotic land­
scape of Lydia where the production really scores. When Hercules drinks from
a bewitched woodland spring, there's a gnarly tree root shaped like a grotesque
troll, with water pouring from its eye and the moss glistening magically. The
Monte Gelato waterfall on the River Treja is bedecked with flowers for Hercules
and Omphale's tranquil idyll. During a scene between Hercules and Omphale
in her grotto beneath a waterfall, the flowery backdrop changes colour as the
seductive mood changes. Omphale, as played by French actress Sylvia Lopez, is
a red-haired seductress. She sashays across the screen in a variety of diaphanous
dresses and Ester Williams sequinned bathing suits, gossamer trailing in her
wake, while Bava lushly bathes the sets in her radiated sensuality. Men, even
the sons of gods such as Hercules, are hypnotised by her. Lopez's portrayal of
the doomed queen is movingly effective, particularly in light of her death from
leukaemia at the age of 28 in November 1959. Levine again bought the rights,
distributing the film through Warner Bros in the US and the UK in 1960. It made
 Mythological Epics 5

a fortune, through an intense TV advertising campaign which magnetised huge

audiences into theatres.
Francisci returned to the Hercules saga with Hercules, Samson and
Ulysses (1963). In Ithaca, Hercules (Kirk Morris), Ulysses and crew embark on
an expedition to kill the Great Sea Monster. They are shipwrecked in Judea where
they become embroiled in the rebellion against the evil ruler, the Seran (Aldo
Giuffre), who is battling his enemy Samson (Iloosh Khoshabe, billed as the more
easily pronounceable 'Richard Lloyd'). In one of the most violent scenes in pepla,
the Seran orders the razing of a village which has been sheltering Samson, cru­
cifying many of the locals to the walls of their houses. Such horror is dissipated
by the Seran's soldiers' World War 11-era German helmets. The finale, shot at the
beach and headland at Tor Caldara (decked with fake palm trees), had Hercules
and Samson joining forces to jack up the Temple of Dagon, which collapses and
buries the Seran's army. When Delilah (a deliciously duplicitous Liana Orfei)
attempts to entice Hercules to bathe with her in the Monte Gelato waterfall, he
politely refuses ('Not today Delilah') and Hercules and Samson evidently prefer
each others oiled company. Samson is so lubricated he appears to have been lac­
quered. For their big fight, the pair hurl outsized cardboard boulders, columns
and masonry at each other.

Mighty Feats: In the Footsteps of Hercules

Between the release of Francisci's first and last 'Hercules' movies, Italian pepla
veered off in many directions. Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia's The Loves ofHercules
(1960- Hercules Versus the Hydra) is told without pretension, attention to myth or
logic. Hungarian bodybuilder and ex-Mr Universe Mickey Hargitay and his wife,
busty Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield, were cast as Hercules and Queen
Deianara of Acalia. Hercules' wife Megara and Deianara's father Eurystheus are
murdered by Lico (Massimo Serato) and his henchman Philoctetes (Andrea
Aureli) who plan to usurp the throne of Acalia, while Hercules is falsely accused
of killing Deianara's lover, Achillos (Gil Vidal). Hercules slays the three-headed
Hydra and falls under the spell of Amazon queen Hippolyta (Mansfield again),
who transforms herself into the living image of Deianara. Escaping her domain,
Hercules races back to the fortress of Acalia to lead the people in revolt against
Lico.
Mansfield made the film in Italy when Hollywood studios refused to cast
her opposite Hargitay. She had to diet during its making to conceal the fact
that she was pregnant with her second child, but still looked fabulous in volu­
minous, colourful costumes, her blonde hair hidden beneath a black or pur­
ple hairpiece (for Deianara) and a burnished red wig (for Hippolyta). Giulio
Donnini and Andrea Scotti were Lico's devious high priest and Hercules' faith­
ful shield-bearer Temanthus respectively. Accompanied by a majestic score by
Carlo Innocenzi and shot in the Italian countryside (the impressive gates of
Acalia were built beside the Monte Gelato falls) and amid vastAcalian city sets at
Cinecitta, Loves has several memorable action scenes. Hercules saves Deianara
from a wild bull (which had to be tranquillised for the scene when Hargitay
wrestles it) and also from Halcyone, a snaggletoothed ape. Hercules beheads
the fire-breathing Lernean hydra (a puppet dragon) in a hokey scene which can
be glimpsed in the 1968 mondo documentary The Wild, Wild World ofjayne
Mansfield (released after the actress's death by decapitation in a car accident
in 1967). Loves's surreal surprise is Hippolyta's 'Forest of Death', where men she
has loved live on as wailing tree creatures. Eventually one of the damned exacts
revenge and strangles the evil queen with its branches. This murky Valley of
Tree Men, which contributes some of the movie's least wooden acting, was con­
structed at Tor Caldara.
Like Francisci's Hercules, Riccardo Freda's The Giants of Thessaly (1961)
was inspired by the Golden Fleece saga. Set in 1250 BC, King Jason of Thessaly
(Roland Carey) embarks on a quest to find the fleece - if he fails, the gods will
destroy Iolcus with a volcanic eruption. Ziva Rodann played Jason's wife Queen
Creusa, Massimo Girotti was Orpheus and Luciano Marin was Eurystheus.
Alberto Farnese was pointy-bearded despot Adrastes, who fancies Creusa ('Her
loveliness is ablaze in me like an open furnace') and Raf Baldassarre plays
Adrastes' henchman Antius. The Argonauts land on an island of witches, ruled
by Queen Gaia (Nadine Saunders), an enchantress who turns Jason's crew into
talking sheep. Gaia and Jason traverse a bubbling pool in a grotto on a float­
ing throne, which resembles a peplum pedalo. The Argonauts save a city from a
giant one-eyed gorilla (special effects were by Carlo Rambaldi) and Jason scales
a colossal statue to retrieve the fleece. Shot on interiors at Cinecitta and the
Institute Nazionale Luce, with exteriors on the steps of Palazzo Della Civilta,
EUR, Rome (the storming of Iolcus's palace), Giants builds to a splendid con­
clusion. As Adrastes is about to marry Creusa, the Argonauts burst forth from
statues in great plumes of fire.
Columbia Pictures' version of the Golden Fleece saga, jason and the
Argonauts (1963), was lensed in picturesque locations in Campania, Italy, and
at SAFA Studios in Rome. It featured Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion special
effects in Dynamation 90 and Eastmancolor, with Nigel Green's Hercules oppo­
site Todd Armstrong's Jason.
Goliath was second only to Hercules in popularity in the US and Vittorio
Cottafavi's Goliath and the Dragon (1960) was one of the most successful
examples. The Italian version ('The Vengeance of Hercules') was a sequel to
Francisci's Hercules films. Emilius the Mighty, the 'Goliath of Thebes' (Mark
Forrest), descends into the Cave of Horrors to retrieve the Blood Diamond for
the Goddess of Vengeance, battles Cerberus the three-headed fire-breathing
hell-hound (a puppet) and then wrestles a giant bat (a man in a giant bat suit).
Eurystheus the Tyrant (Broderick Crawford), the scar-faced King of Ocalia,
wants to take over Thebes. He murders Goliath's parents and imprisons Goliath's
brother, Ilus (Sandro Moretti). Eventually, the Sybil (Carla Calo) foretells that
 Mythological Epics 7

Ilus will be King of Ocalia, but it will cost Goliath the life of his wife, Dejanira
(Leonora Ruffo). Crawford is a fine villain, who dies in his own snake pit wrest­
ing a large rubber python. Gaby Andre appeared as evil Ismene, in league with
Eurystheus's advisor Tindar (Giancarlo Sbraglai). Wandisa Guida played slave
Ancinoe, dispatched by Eurystheus to poison Goliath, and Federica Ranchi was
Thea, Eurystheus's daughter. Salvatore Furnari, as Goliath's midget companion,
was a peplum regular, working often with Cottafavi. Goliath wrestles a bear,
prevents Ilus from being crushed by an elephant's foot and tears down his own
house when he realises he can't enjoy a mortal's life: 'Collapse like my shattered
dreams!' he rages. Goliath enters the city's underground caverns, smashing the
stalactite support pillars, causing Ocalia to crumble. Dejanira is kidnapped by
Polymorphus the Centaur (Claudio Undari), a less-than-convincing half man­
half deer, though the spectacular setting for his arrival is the cascading Caseate
Delle Marmore (Marmore Falls) in Umbria. Polymorphus escapes with Dejanira
through billowing clouds of purple smoke. Goliath takes on the dragon, with
stop-motion footage of the beast (animated by Jim Danforth) intercut with
close-ups of Forest battling a puppet in the rock-hewn underground caverns at
Grotte Di Salone, Lazio. The US release replaces Alexandre Derevitsky's original
score with new Les Baxter compositions.
In Cottafavi's Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961) the portents foretell
that Greece is to be destroyed by an unknown menace from across the sea. King
Androcles of Thebes (Ettore Manni) leads an expedition, taking Hercules (British
bodybuilding champion Reg Park) with him. They are shipwrecked on Atlantis,
which is ruled by Queen Antinea (Fay Spain), who has created a race of invin­
cible warriors. Antinea gains her power from the blood of the god Uranus, now
cast as a rock hidden deep in the Mountain of the Dead - Hercules destroys the
rock with a sunbeam, causing the destruction of Atlantis, and saves the known
world.
With lushly saturated cinematography by Carlo Carlini, in Technicolor and
7omm widescreen 'Super Technirama', Hercules Conquers Atlantis is one of the
most visually sumptuous epics of the 196os that holds its own with its Hollywood
contemporaries. It was filmed in Italy at Tor Caldara (here a swirl of sulphur­
ous yellow mist), in the cavernous Grotte Di Salone (used as Prophet Tresias's
underground temple and the bowels of Atlantis) and various limestone quar­
ries and coastal beaches, with interior sets at Cinecitta. Androcles's galley was
constructed at Nettuno Naval Shipyard. The film's settings and decor by Franco
Lolli are at their best in the Atlantean production design. For the temple interior,
a statue of Atlas strains under the weight of the vaulted ceiling, and the tem­
ple's towering entrance doors dwarf even Hercules. Park, in his best role, plays
Hercules as a lazybones, but when he's roused his strength is unsurpassed, as he
battles monsters and men in Thebes' name. Park's Hercules is wily: he spits out
the queen's drugged wine, while Reeves would have downed it. Luciano Marin
played Hercules' son Hylus and Salvatore Furnari was their midget companion
Timotheus. The Theban Council featured Mino Doro as the head of the council,
and guest stars Gian Maria Volonte, lvo Garrani and Enrico Maria Salerno as
Greek kings. Laura Altian played Antinea's daughter Ismene - if she outlives
her mother, Atlantis will be destroyed. Hercules saves Ismene from sacrifice to
the god Proteus (Maurizio Caffarelli), who transforms himself into a snake, a
lion, a vulture and a horned lizard to battle Hercules. Mario Petri played Zenet,
the priest of Uranus, and Mimmo Palmera was the zombified head of Antinea's
black-cloaked guard. Scabby captives, imprisoned in a valley and fed animal
carcasses, are massacred by the Atlantean Invincibles. Hercules dispatches the
Invincibles with a fiery oil slick and destroys the Blood Stone, triggering may­
hem. As the volcano erupts, water swamps the city and crumbling masonry and
ash cascade - the special effects were by Galliano and Ricci, with actual volcano
stock from Haroun Terzieff, whose footage cropped up in many pepla.
For its US release by Woolner Brothers Atlantis was cut and retitled Hercules
and the Captive Women. This version begins with a wobbly Filmation title
sequence (which bills the director as 'Cottafani') and a tacked-on prologue, with
voiceover narration by Leon Selznick. The score was re-edited by Gordon Zahler,
and it partially replaced the original score with stock 'epic' music: Armando
Trovajoli's pastoral themes for the sea voyage are now accompanied by trium­
phant trumpet fanfares.

Dark Worlds: Peplum Horror

Melding disparate genres was Mario Bava's forte, so when he was approached to
direct a Hercules film, it was no surprise that the results were genre-twisting. The
working title was 'Hercules in the Realm of the Dead: but the release title in the
UK was Hercules in the Centre ofthe Earth (1961). Hercules (Reg Park) returns
to Iealia to find Deianara (Eleonora Ruffo) bewitched by King Lico (Christopher
Lee). Warned by chancellor Keros (Mino Dora) that the city is under the curse of
'Forces of Evil', Hercules learns from seer Medea that he must travel to the Island
of the Hesperides to find a golden apple, so he can pass into Hades, the Kingdom
of the Dead. Hercules and his companions Theseus (Giorgio Ardisson) and
Telemachus (Franco Giacobini) retrieve the apple and travel to the Underworld,
where Theseus falls for Pluto's favourite daughter Persephone (Ida Galli) and
Hercules steals Pluto's magic stone. Lico plans to drink Deianara's blood during
an eclipse to become 'King for all Eternity'.
Bava reused the palace interior and exterior sets at Cinecitta from Hercules
Conquers Atlantis. Thefilmopenswitha bandof brigands (led by Raf Baldassarre)
ambushing Hercules at the Monte Gelato waterfalls, while beach exteriors (when
Telemachus is almost torn apart by wild horses) were lensed at Tor Caldara.
Hades was filmed in the Grotte Di Castellana (the Grottoes of Castellana) and
the toxic menace of Hell seeps across the screen. The caverns are festooned with
jagged stalactites and swathed in throbbing, vibrant colours (red, green, purple
and blue) and swirling dry ice, filmed in Technicolor and Super/wo Totalscope.
 Mythological Epics 9

The heroes travel across the sea in Sunis' magic ship, which sails against the wind
under a blood-red sky. In the Garden of the Hesperides, the Land of Endless
Midnight, granite golem Procrustes tortures Theseus and Telemachus on bone­
crunching racks. When the heroes arrive in Hades, a beautiful woman, naked
and chained, attempts to waylay them, but she is an apparition, who laughs
mockingly as she bursts into flames.
Hercules has been told by Arethusa, Queen of the Hesperides (Marisa Belli),
'Do not believe in what you think you see'. Hercules and Theseus hack through a
dense tangle of vines, which scream as they are cut, the branches dripping blood.
The melancholic, haunting music by Armando Trovajoli deploys grating gypsy
violins as spellbound Deianara rises from her tomb and an eerie clarinet bodes
ill. For the macabre finale, as the stone tombs of Lico's corpse army creak open,
Hercules rushes through Lico's dank cave lair to save Deianara. He is attacked by
translucent-shrouded ghouls, which emerge from cobweb draped coffins and fly,
swooping and clawing through the mist. At Lico's mountain-top sacrificial altar,
amid a ring of monoliths, Hercules kills Lico and fights the spectres. As the sun
emerges, Lico's corpse burns. The US release by Woolner Brothers, as Hercules in
the Haunted World, features livelier title music and an animated title sequence
designed by Filmation, its hypnotic swirls and flying ghouls resembling a sch­
locky drive-in poster.
Maciste against the Vampire (1961) was co-directed by Giacomo Gentilomo
and Sergio Corbucci, and co-scripted by Corbucci and Duccio Tessari. Maciste
(Gordon Scott) returns to his village to find it has been razed by pirates led by
slave trader Amahl (Van Aikens). Maciste's mother (Emma Baron) has been slain
and his lover Giulia (Leonora Ruffo) sold into slavery in the faraway Arabian city
of Salmanak. Maciste and Giulia's young brother Ciro (Rocco Vitolazzi) travel
to Salmanak, where Sultan Abdul (Mario Feliciani) and his slave Astra (Gianna
Maria Canale) are oppressed by Kobrak the Vampire, a master of black magic
who lives on human blood. Maciste teams up with Kurtik (Jacques Sernas) and
his clan of subterranean Blue Men. Astra (who is in league with Kobrak) takes
Giulia hostage: Kobrak wants to use Maciste as the model for his race of zombies.
Maciste leads the Blue Men in an attack on Kobrak's lair, but the Blue Men are no
match for the massed ranks of Kobrak's zombie army.
Salmanak (with its minarets, palace and bazaar) was filmed at De Laurentiis
Studios and the Kingdom of the Blue Men's azure grotto is typically Bavaesque.
Kobrak's club-wielding zombies are 'slaves without a human soul', their skeletal
faces a blank mask. Maciste survives sonic torture from a huge clanging bell by
stuffing wax in his ears. The sacking of Maciste's coastal village, as the pirates
slaughter and pillage, was filmed at Tor Caldara. Maciste's numerous acrobatic
brawls with the Salmanak guard feature an imaginative set piece in Salmanak's
bustling town square. Scott's athleticism and acting are way above average for
the genre (he'd played Tarzan in four screen adventures). Angelo Lavagnino's
score was replaced in the retitled US version (Goliath and the Vampires) with
Gordon Scott faces Kobrak the Vampire in Giacomo Gentilomo and Sergio Corbucci's
imaginative peplum-horror. Italian poster for Maciste against the Vampire (1961), which was
also released as Goliath and the Vampires. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
becomes an endurance test for both protagonist and audience - a hellish experi­
ence all-round.
Dan Vadis (real name Constantine Daniel Vafiadis) played Argolese in
Alvaro Mancori's Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (1963). Argolese
liberates a kingdom from the Dragon of the Mountains (which he achieves via
stock footage from Hercules) and then travels to the city of Demios, deep inside
a mountain, to save his lover Telca (Spela Rozin) and her people, enslaved by
Queen Ella (Carla Calo) and henchman Kabal (Ken Clark). Virtually non-stop,
noisy action ensues in this preposterous yarn which deploys stock footage from
Mole Men against the Son of Hercules and sets from Ursus in the Land of Fire.
Usurper Melissa (Maria Fiore) murders Ella and plans to drink Telca's blood,
until Argolese lets fly, destroying the underground city as the creeping lava
bubbles in. The warriors of Demios are flesh-eating cannibals, and tortured
Argolese is chained between four elephants. The city is accessed by a stone
drawbridge, which spans a chasm of lava. Argolese uses an uprooted tree as an
improvised bridge, then for extra thrills he wrestles a bear whilst gingerly cross­
ing the log.
Giuseppe Vari's Rome against Rome (1964- Night Star: Goddess ofElectra
and War of the Zombies) was a unique take on Rome's civil wars. Centurion
Gaius Quintilius (Ettore Manni) is sent to Salmatia, a haunted land cloaked in
tales of human sacrifice, torture and voodoo witchcraft, to track down a miss­
ing treasure. Suspicion falls on Praetor Lutetius (Mino Dora) but the culprit is
Aderbal (John Drew Barrymore), the sorcerer high priest to the Goddess of Gold,
a cult who worship the Daughter of Osiris, a golden cyclops statue which fires a
blinding laser beam from its eye. Aderbal plans to mobilise a reanimated army of
zombie Roman soldiers. Lutetius's wife, Tullia (Susy Andersen), is in league with
Aderbal, but Gaius has an ally in Tullia's handmaiden Rhama (Ida Galli). Roman
Consul Lucilius leads his legions against Aderbal's forces, but the zombie hordes
are indestructible. Gaius confronts Aderbal and Tullia in the sorcerer's lair, stab­
bing the statue's eye with his sword, which blinds Aderbal, causing the zombies
to disperse.
Aberbal's torch-lit cavern lair, a mist-swathed underground set (filmed at
CSC Studios), is dominated by the Goddess of the Night Star's statue. Roberto
Nicolosi's score adds to the unsettling atmosphere. Barrymore (father of actress
Drew Barrymore) was a hellraiser off-screen and his performance as Aderbal, the
zealot with a hypnotic stare, is histrionic. Aderbal's minions are knobbly faced
mutants, who roam the misty battlefields by night, looting the dead, stealing
treasure and carting off corpses. When Aderbal drinks human blood, translucent
corpses rise from their tombs, accompanied by dissonant choral chanting on
the soundtrack. The film is undermined by sluggish scenes of court intrigue (as
Roman senator Andrea Checchi discusses foreign policy) and by the liberal use
of stock footage from Hannibal and Constantine and the Cross. When Aderbal
conjures up wind and snow to slow down the invading legions, we're actually
 Mythological Epics 13

watching Hannibal's army crossing the Alps. The confrontation between Rome
(living) and Rome (dead) is Hannibal's Battle of Cannae, with the ghostly zom­
bie cavalry galloping in slow motion.
Antonio Margheriti's cleverly plotted Hercules Prisoner of Evil (1964) cast
Reg Park (minus his trademark beard) as Hercules (Ursus in the Italian print).
In a vaguely medieval setting, evil Prince Zara (Furio Meniconi) and his Kirghiz
tribe covet the land of Hercules' neighbouring Chircassian tribe. Hercules is in
love with the Kirghiz princess, Amiko (Mireille Granelli), and they enjoy trysts
in the Grotto of the Falcon. The countryside is being terrorised by a caped fiend.
Zara accuses Hercules of the attacks and then sacks Maliba, Hercules' village,
blaming the monster. But Amiko isn't the real princess of the Kirghiz - Hercules'
slave Katia (Maria Teresa Orsini) is the true heir. Amiko is a witch who turns
men into the monster with her potion. At various points Hercules, his brother
Ilo (Ettore Manni) and tribesman Fredo (Claudio Ruffini) are transformed into
the beast without knowing it. The monster, with its scarred face, hairy torso,
muscly arms and a black cape, runs madly through the woods, squawking like a
parrot. The film has a good, nocturnal atmosphere (filmed in Italian woodland
undergrowth and torch-lit grottos) backed by Franco Trinacria's dramatic score.
In the finale, Hercules (transformed into the monster) carries Katia to the top
of a cliff, intending to throw her to her death. Ilo kills Amiko, breaking the spell,
and Hercules (now himself ) extinguishes a forest fire by bursting a dam.

Born from the Rock: Maciste

For Son of Samson (1960 - Maciste the Mighty or Maciste in the Valley of the
Kings) Mark Forest resurrected Maciste, an Italian muscleman hero who had
been popular since silent cinema, when Genovese docker Bartolomeo Pagano
played him in 25 features, beginning with Cabiria (1914). Forest explains that
'Maciste' means 'I was born from the rock'. Son ofSamson was directed by Carlo
Campogalliani in Egypt, at the Sphinx and pyramids at Giza. Just as Samson
smote the Philistines, his son Maciste pummels the Persians, the oppressive
regime who are enslaving the Egyptians in the eleventh century BC. The Persian
queen, Smedes (Chelo Alonso), and her conniving grand vizier (Peter Dorrie)
assassinate Pharaoh Armitee (Carlo Tamberlani) and take over his court at
Tanis. The pharaoh's son Kenamun (Angelo Zanolli), bewitched by the Necklace
of Forgetfulness, marries Smedes - until Maciste arrives and provokes a slave
revolt.
The exquisite costumes and lavish sets appear to have been left over from a
more expensive production. Alonso makes her evil role count and Smedes com­
mits suicide by throwing herself into a crocodile pit. Formerly a dancer in the
Folies Bergere in Paris, Alonso was known as the 'Cuban H-bomb'. Whatever her
shortcomings as an actress, she was a terrific dancer, which she demonstrated
with a hip-notic, sensual showstopper in each of her pepla. Good support is
offered by Federica Randi as Kenamun's lover Nofret and Vira Silenti as her sister,
Maciste's lover Tekaet. Egyptian musical accompaniment was provided by Carlo
Innocenzi and Maciste's feats include boulder hurling, lion and croc wrestling,
ladder carrying and a bit of bar-bending and chain breaking. He escapes from
the Cell of Death (as the walls close in), destroys a bridge as the Persian cavalry
cross it and helps slaves erect a giant stone obelisk. The film also features some
surprisingly gory action: in an arena a group of blindfolded slaves (including
women and old men) are scythed down by a chariot with rotating knives on the
wheels. Only in the final battle, shot in Yugoslavia, with extras poking each other
with axes, pitchforks and spears, does the film falter.
In Tanio Boccia's The Triumph of Maciste (1961 - Triumph of the Son of
Hercules), the hero again defied the gods - and a hernia - with feats of strength.
In Memphis, Queen Teniphus (Ljubja Bodin) holds power with a magic sceptre
and daily sacrifices to the God of Fire in the Temple of the Mountain of Thunder,
the stronghold of the troglodyte Yuri Men. Maciste (Kirk Morris) is recruited to
stop this barbarity - save the sacrificial victims, save the world. Joseph Nathanson
created the matte shots of Memphis, Innocenzi provided a Chinese-sounding
score, and Bodin played Teniphus as a sexy, low-rent Cleopatra. Maciste enters
the Mountain of Fire and battles a lion, the burning gates of the inferno, a rock­
slide and a giant caveman - all stock footage from Morris' Maciste in Hell. Giorgio
Ferroni was similarly thrifty in Hercules against Moloch (1963 - The Conquest of
Mycenae), which pitted Gordon Scott as Prince Glaucus ('a Hercules') against the
Cult of Moloch. Ferroni cobbled together extensive battle and burning city foot­
age from his own The Trojan War and The Last Glory of Troy, while the women
drummers in Moloch's Bavaesque lair were from The Bacchantes (1960). In fact,
there's more stock than new footage.
Antonio Leonviola's Mole Men against the Son of Hercules (1961) cast
Mark Forest as Maciste (here pronounced 'Machestus'), first seen on a beach
reeling in a harpooned whale. He's attacked by the Mole Men - an anaemic sub­
terranean-dwelling race dressed in white robes, masks, horned headdresses and
grass skirts - who die when caught in sunlight. Maciste and black slave Bangor
(Paul Wynter) are put to work as labour in the Mole Men's gold and diamond
mine, driving The Great Wheel. Princess Saliura (Raffaella Carra) is to be sacri­
ficed by Queen Halis Moyab (Moira Orfei) to appease the Moon Goddess.
Despite a second-rate plot and Armando Trovajoli's recycled score from The
Giant of Metropolis (1961), Mole Men features some impressive sets. Location
footage was shot at Tor Caldara and the spectacular Umbrian Marmore Falls
(here wreathed in a rainbow), with interiors at Cinecitta. The Mole Men's cav­
erns are filled with mining paraphernalia: water jets, conveyors, chutes, pulleys
and a heavy stone crusher, as the slave drivers whip hundreds of labourers toiling
at the Great Wheel. Torture and suffering are commonplace: as punishment, one
lax Mole Man guard is chained in the sunshine and reduced to a skeleton, and
Maciste is placed in a cage with an ape man. As the slave uprising is stalled by
the Mole Men's accurate archery, Maciste uses the Great Wheel to demolish the
 Mythological Epics 15

cavern pillars. The film has added cult value for the early performance by future
Euro-star Gianni Garko as villainous Katan the Mole Man.
Gordon Mitchell (billed as 'Mitchell Gordon') starred in Antonio Leonviola's
Atlas in the Land ofthe Cyclops (1961- Monster from the Unknown World). It
opens on the Island of the Cyclops, the lair of the last descendant of Polyphemus.
Queen Capys (Chela Alonso) of Sadok is doomed with a curse which can be
lifted only when the last heirs of Ulysses are dead. Capys' soldiers attack the vil­
lage of King Agrisandro (Germano Longo), killing him and capturing his wife
Penope (Vira Silenti), but their baby son (Ulysses' heir) survives. Efros (Massimo
Righi) takes the boy to Maciste (Mitchell) - despite the title, Atlas is nowhere
to be found, even in the English language dub. Maciste hides the boy on Mount
Ramak and rides to Sadok. The villains include Dante De Paolo as henchman
Ephetus and Paul Winter as brutal slave Mumba (who is eaten by a shark).
Location scenes were shot on Tor Caldara beach. For a chase between two galleys
towards the Cyclops' island, Maciste rows a galley by himself The film remains
a cult favourite for its towering title villain (played by Aldo Padinotti), whom
Maciste blinds with a sword and buries in rubble.

Fury of the Gods: Ursus

Second only in popularity to Reeves' Hercules in Italy was Ed Fury's Ursus. Carlo
Campogalliani's Ursus (1961- The Mighty Ursus or Ursus Son ofHercules) saw
'The Hero of the Euphrates' return from war to Sakara, to find that his fiancee
Attea (Moira Orfei) has been spirited away to the Island of Zais. With blind
shepherdess Doreide (Maria Luisa Merlo), Ursus heads across the desert (Tor
Caldara, Lazio) and then travels to the tropical island, where he battles its evil
queen. A good 'mystery peplum', Ursus was shot on location in Italy and Spain
(including on leftover sets from King of Kings [1961]) and has a score by Roman
Vlad. Roberto Camardiel played innkeeper Cleonte, Luis Prendes was villain­
ous Setas, and Christina Gajoni and Soledad Miranda appeared in support­
ing roles. The incredible arena finale had Doreide regain her sight and Ursus
(or rather Fury's stuntman) convincingly tossed and trampled by an unleashed
wild bull.
In Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia's Ursus in the Valley ofthe Lions (1961), Ursus
(Fury), the infant son of a dethroned king, is abandoned in the desert and raised
by a family of lions. Alberto Lupo played Ayak the usurping barbarian, Moira
Orfei was Queen Theor, Gerard Herter played barbarian General Lothar and
Mariangela Giordano was Ursus' love interest, slave girl Anya. Scenes were filmed
on location at Tor Caldara, Grotte Di Salone and the Monte Gelato Falls, and at
Incir-De Paolis and Olimpia Studios. Anya is lowered into a pool of quicksand by
evil Lothar, who gets his comeuppance when he falls into an animal pit and dies
abruptly of hyenas. Fury makes a great doomed hero, an unfaltering force to be
reckoned with. The scene when Ursus returns to his desert grotto, only to find
his beloved lion family slaughtered, deliberately killed by Lothar with poisoned
meat, is one of the most poignant in pepla - in the climax Ursus' lion companion
Simba takes revenge and mauls Ayak to death.
Fury followed this with his best outing, Giorgio Simonelli's Ursus in the
Land of Fire (1963). Shepherd Ursus (Fury) and his people are oppressed by
a warlike tribe from the Mountain of Fire, who covet the shepherds' land. Evil
General Hamilar (Adriano Micantoni) murders good king Lothar (Giuseppe
Addobatti). Hamilar, with his lover Mila (Claudia Mori) and henchman Lero
(Pietro Ceccarelli), massacres the shepherds' village and leaves Ursus buried in
a rockslide. Vengeful Ursus travels to the land of fire, fights tyranny and saves
Princess Diana (Luciana Gilli).
Ursus in the Land ofFire is successful through its arresting combination of
sets and violence. The region's volcanic atmosphere is evoked through Italian
landscapes swathed in smoke, intercut with eruption stock footage. Location
scenes were lensed at the Grotte Di Salone, Monte Gelato falls, the valley at Tolfa
and at Tor Caldara, with studio work at Elios. The cavernous sets were decorated
with giant gargoyle effigies of the Fire God Ayat and other grotesqueries, and
Carlo Savina provided the lush score. Ursus takes part in Hamilar's grand tour­
nament in a conspicuous disguise: a finned helmet and an outfit with leopard­
skin trim. He takes on all comers in the quarry arena during a muscle-twisting
Trial of the Chariots and battles Lero and five highly trained wrestlers (includ­
ing stuntmen Nello Pazzafini and Giuseppe Mattei) near a spiked pit, before
being put to work driving the city's millstones. When Hamilar murders the Fire
God's High Priest (Nando Tamberlani), the volcano erupts, the cascading flames
staged by Eros Bacciucchi. Fury is a fine hero, especially during the fight scenes
and when he wanders, dazed, into the razed shepherds' village. Epitomising
his indestructibility, colossal, lumbering Ursus, with his quiff, sheepskin jerkin
and boots, emerges dusty but unscathed from beneath the rubble of a volcanic
eruption.
Vengeance ofUrsus (1961) headlined another muscleman contender as the
hero - Canadian wrestler Samson Burke. With help from his little brother Darius
(Robert Chevalier), Ursus escorts Sira (Wandisa Guida), princess of Lycia, to
marry tyrant King Zagro (Livio Lorenzon) of Karia, though it's a ruse by Zagro
to take over both kingdoms. Directed by Luigi Capuano, Vengeance featured
Gianni Rizzo as advisor Lycurgus and fencing master Franco Fantasia as the cap­
tain of Zagro's guard. The film benefits from plenty of action: a bandit attack on a
barge, Darius menaced by a hungry ocelot, a tavern brawl and the final storming
of the city by Zagro's army (filmed at De Paolis Studios). Pugnacious, broken­
nosed Burke for once looked like a man who wrestled lions, fought elephants
and brawled with soldiers. He also played Hercules in The Three Stooges Meet
Hercules (1962).
Alan Steel played Ursus in Gianfranco Parolini's knockabout The Three
Avengers (1964), filmed at Elios Studios with costumes left over from Maciste
against the Vampire. In Arabia Ursus is pitted against an Ursus impostor (Mimmo
 Mythological Epics 17

Palmera), resulting in some Ursus-versus-Ursus action. The real Ursus is blinded

by acid for many of the combat sequences and his companions have to direct
his movements. Ursus also duels with Semur (Nello Pazzafini), the axe-wielding
leader of the desert-dwelling Tanusi. Glamorous set dressing was provided by
Lisa Gastoni (Alina) and Rosalba Neri (Demora), and Gianni Rizzo played vil­
lainous Tiamoco.

Samson Mounts a Mighty Challenge

The last Italian muscleman hero to appear was Samson (1961), the figure from
the Bible. Samson (Brad Harris) arrives in the city of Sulam to visit Queen Mila
(Irena Prosen), but she has been usurped by Queen Romilda (Mara Berni), in
league with Warkalla and his mercenaries, who seek the Treasure of Sulem hid­
den beneath the Temple of Baal. With rebel strongman Hermes, nicknamed
Millstone (Alan Steel), Millstone's sister Jamine (Brigitte Corey) and King Botan
(Carlo Tamberlani), Samson takes on Warkalla, who has secretly imported
his army, the Tribe of Var. With location footage lensed in Yugoslavia and the
Sulam dancing girls played by the Ballet of the Zagreb Opera, Samson thrusts
its muscleman hero into a familiar tale of court intrigue and civil war. What
hoists Samson above standard fare is director Gianfranco Parolini's brisk staging
of the two-fisted action. Samson wrestles Igor, a well-oiled Ural mountainman,
and fights Millstone blindfolded. Warkalla flees on a raft but, weighed down
by treasure, drowns and is eaten by sharks. The best reason for seeing Samson
is nefarious Warkalla, played by Serge Gainsbourg (the French crooner of 'Je
T'aime ... Mais non Plus'), with his rodent-like features and creepy sadism - a
peplum nosferatu.
Parolini and Harris also made The Fury of Hercules (1961) in Yugoslavia
(at Dubrava Film, Zagreb) with Gainsbourg as the villain, Menistus. Hercules
(Harris) returns to Arkad to find Queen Canidia on the throne and the city rife
with rebellion. The film is a remake of Samson and Steel appears as villain Janek,
who with his four Neanderthal brothers challenges Hercules.

Hit and Myth: Peplum Send-ups

As pepla gained popularity in Italy and abroad, overt self-parody crept into the
formula. Vittorio Sala directed a spoof of The Loves of Hercules - Colossus
and the Amazon Queen (1960 - Love Slaves of the Amazons and Queen of the
Amazons) - starring Gianna Maria Canale as the eponymous ruler. All males
who land on the Amazons' island are used for one night of passion and then put
to work in a stone quarry guarded by bears. Amongst the male suitors are Rod
Taylor as twitchy loveboat Pirrus and Ed Fury as Greek muscleman Glaucus.
Shot in Italy and accompanied by a comic musical score that includes ragtime
jazz and mambo, this intended romantic farce is an incoherent mess. Ignazio
Leone appears as comic relief Egyptian Sofo who invents the boomerang. The
plot hinges on the theft of the Amazons' Sacred Girdle and the arrival of some
greedy pirates (led by Alberto Farnese), but the slapstick situations and broad
comedy don't work in a peplum setting.
In Mario Caiano's Ulysses against the Son of Hercules (1962 - Ulysses
against Hercules), following the Trojan War, Ulysses (Georges Marchal) blinds
cyclops Polyphemus on Sicily. Heracles, the Son of Hercules (Michael Lane), is
dispatched to bring Ulysses before the Gods. The two heroes find themselves
shipwrecked and captured by the Bird Queen (Dominique Boschero in a feath­
ered outfit, which resembles an ostrich). Ulysses hides in the caverns of King Lago
(Gianni Santuccio), the head of a troglodyte army, and Heracles agrees to join
King Icano, Lago's enemy, if he can marry the king's daughter Helen (Alessandra
Panaro), an agreement that doesn't please her lover Adrastes (Raf Baldassarre).
The film is self-parodic in its approach to the genre and its most memorable
feature is the queen and her bird army (a flock of extras in feathery loincloths
and beaks) who live in a tropical paradise. They prepare to sacrifice the heroes
to their god, the Mighty Vulture. During the ritual the feathery fiends perform a
frenzied sacrificial dance, which resembles synchronised aerobics. The film ends
with an impressive dust-swathed desert battle scene between King Icano's forces
and Lago's trog minions.
The finest parody peplum was Duccio Tessari's directorial debut Sons of
Thunder (1962), which starred former stuntman Giuliano Gemma as Crios, the
youngest and smartest of the Titans. King Cadmus of Crete (Pedro Armendariz)
kills his wife and declares himself a god. With Queen Hermione (Antonella
Lualdi) he makes himself immortal and will remain so until the day Cadmus'
daughter Antiope (Jacqueline Sassard) falls in love. The gods release Crios from
Hades with instructions to kidnap Cadmus and drag him to the Avernus, the
entrance to Hades. Sons of Thunder was bankrolled by Franco Cristaldi for his
Vides production company. It was shot in Italy and Spain on sets decked with
palm trees from King of Kings. Carlo Rustichelli provided the score, which is
as playful with peplum convention as Tessari is with the form. Gemma (his
hair dyed blond) is brimming with confidence as the acrobatic lead, a trickster
immortal posing as a country boy. Gemma's poetic love scenes with Sassard are
the finest romantic interludes in pepla - 'All you need is love: he tells her in the
fadeout, having sent Cadmus back to Hell with a thunderbolt. Fernando Rey was
Cadmus' conniving high priest, Fernando Sancho was the captain of the Cretan
guard and Antonio Molino Rojo was Cadmus' advisor Idomeneus. Gerard Sety
was mute Achilles (Crios' ally in Cadmus' palace) and muscleman Serge Nubret
played condemned prisoner Rator.
Tessari's bravura set pieces include Cadmus' soldiers chasing Crios through
the marketplace (acrobatic Gemma trampolines on stall awnings), a corrida in
a bullring and a manhunt with Rator the prey. There were 12 Titans in Greek
myth and the youngest was called Kronos - here they are 10, who apart from
Crios are bearded strongmen. The fantasy elements feature special effects by
 Mythological Epics 19

Joseph Nathanson and photographic effects by Galliano and Ricci, deploy­

ing miniature sets, outre designs and matte shots. In Hades, Sisyphus rolls a
stone uphill, Prometheus has his liver pecked out by a vulture and starving
Tantalus is tantalised by fruit he'll never reach. Crios bribes a giant Hades'
guard with a ring in order to enter the Underworld and steal Hades' helm, which
endows invisibility. He rescues Antiope from her island prison by outwitting a
snake-haired Gorgon sorceress, and to attack Cadmus he buys a quiver of light­
ning bolts from a Cyclops. In the white caverns below the city, the Titans face
Cadmus' indestructible soldiers, but Crios breaks the spell by breaching a dam
with a thunderbolt. Sons of Thunder is a masterpiece of Italian cult cinema, its
vitality and imagination making it one of the top pepla. It was titled Arrivano i
titani in Italy and was released as My Son, the Hero in the US, promoted with the
tagline 'My Son ... The Hero! Smarter than a Fox! Braver than a Lion! Cuter than
a Pussy Cat!'
If Sons of Thunder strove to subvert pepla, there were those where the
humour was wholly unintentional. In Vulcan Son ofjupiter (1962), Vulcan, the
God of Fire (Rod Flash Ilush), and Mars, the God of War (Roger Browne), quar­
rel on Mount Olympus over Venus (Annie Gorassini). Jupiter (Furio Meniconi)
decides to punish them, but Mars and Venus flee to earth where they enlist the
help of Thracian general Milos to build a tower up to Olympus to obtain power.
Vulcan foils their plan, falling for earthly Etna (Bella Cortez) in the process.
Directed by Emimmo Salvi, Vulcan has some of the wildest footage in the genre.
Vulcan is discovered by a group of sea nymphs on Tor Caldara beach. They are
imprisoned by Lizard Men, with scaly backs and tails and vampire teeth, and
saved by Neptune's Tritons, undersea fish-men. Gordon Mitchell had a sup­
porting role as Pluto, the God of Darkness, and Salvatore Furnari appeared as
Vulcan's midget sidekick, Jaho, who infiltrates the Thracian camp disguised as a
bush. Vulcan, the Blacksmith of the Gods, tends his workshop (shot in Grotte Di
Salone) where he forges on a giant anvil. Unfortunately, Browne and bombshell
Gorassini's bland love scenes (backed by Marcello Giombini's smoochy sax) lack
chemistry: Vulcan's anvil generates more sparks.
Browne reprised the role in Mars, God ofWar (1962 - The Son ofHercules
Versus Venus) where his 'personification of Jupiter's thunderbolt' saves the city
of Telvia from King Affro (John Kitzmiller) and his African warrior army. When
Mars falls for mortal Daphne (Jocelyn Lane), his request to renounce his immor­
tality is granted by Jupiter - 'Let it be done ... you will remain a mortal man, for­
ever' - and he later saves Daphne from being sacrificed to Perganto, a tentacled
giant cactus.
Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules (1963 - Colossus of the
Stone Age) starred Reg Lewis (ex-Mr America and Mr Universe) as Maciste,
the ancient world's first and last ginger muscleman. In probably the worst dub­
bing job of all time, Lewis delivers his dialogue with a condescending half­
smile. For the English language version, Maciste's name is changed to Maxus.
To avoid redubbing the entire film, each time Maxus' name is mentioned, a
completely different higher-registered voice dubs in the amended name. Set
in prehistoric times, Fire Monsters tells of the peaceful valley-dwelling Tribe
of Dorak (who worship the sun) and their war with the cave-dwelling Droods
(who worship the moon), led by the evil Fuan (Andrea Aureli). The Droods
kidnap Dorak's women, so Maxus, a freelance do-gooder with a ginger quiff,
rescues them. Maxus falls for Moa (Margaret Lee) but when they are buried up
to their necks by Fuan to be eaten by worms, a handy volcanic eruption splits
the earth, freeing them. The Droods team up with the cannibalistic Ulma (led
by Nello Pazzafini, wielding a rubber club) who wear headbands with two cow's
horns attached.
Fire Monsters, directed by Guido Malatesta, is a prehysteric adventure set
1 million years BC ('Before Cinecitta'). It was shot in Incir-De Paolis Studios in
Rome and on location in the lakes, forests and caves of Yugoslavia. After they've
been out clubbing, the Dorak enjoy watching dancing girls twisting in hairy
outfits which resemble a carwash, and romance isn't depicted very well in the
film. Maxus and Moa enjoy romantic walks beside a swamp (accompanied by
Mantovani strings) and during a wedding ceremony the groom is told that if
his wife doesn't obey him, 'Then you have the right to put her to death'. The Fire
Monsters of the title - a dragon in a lake, an underwater hydra and a monitor
lizard that surprises Maxus and Moa in a cave - are puppet beasts, which Maxus
easily dispatches.
Colossus and the Headhunters (1963) deployed the volcanic eruption
from Fire Monsters as its opening apocalypse, when Maciste (Kirk Morris) helps
a tribe flee their island home. Escaping on a raft, the refugees drift to the land of
Urya - a lush, forested country (looking very much like Yugoslavia) which has
been taken over by Kermes (Frank Leroy) in league with a cruel tribe of headhunt­
ers led by Goona (Nello Pazzafini). Kermes plans to marry the deposed queen,
Amoa (Laura Brown), but Maciste leads the Urians to liberty. Headhunters is a
by-the-numbers peplum, again directed by Malatesta, and Queen Amoa wears
the shortest peplum censors would allow.

Delightfully Imaginative: Myths Remixed

Alberto De Martino's Perseus the Invincible (1963 - Perseus against the
Monsters and The Medusa against the Son of Hercules) is an imaginative remix
of Greek myths. According to mythology, Perseus defeated Medusa the Gorgon,
a winged woman-beast with writhing serpents for hair, whose gaze turned her
victims to stone. De Martino and his scriptwriters largely rewrite the story,
with Perseus (Richard Harrison) caught between warring kingdoms, the cit­
ies of Seriphos and Argos. Acrisius, the evil king of Argos (Arturo Dominici),
and his son, whip-lashing Prince Galinor (Leo Anchoriz), stop the merchants of
Seriphus from using a trade route to the sea, which is guarded by a dragon and
Medusa. Perseus, not knowing that he is the rightful ruler of Argos, sides with
 Mythological Epics 21

good king Cepheus of Seriphus (Roberto Camardiel) and woos his daughter,
Princess Andromeda (Anna Ranalli) .
Perseus was shot at Cinecitta (with set design by Franco Lolli), on location
near Madrid and in Italy, notably at an almost unrecognisable Tor Caldara, here
transformed with a matte shot and some mist into a magnificent jagged moun­
tainscape: Medusa's Valley of Petrified Men. Carlo Franci provides a horror movie
score, deploying swirling violins, drums and ominous, resounding chords. Elisa
Cegani played Queen Danae, Perseus' mother, who recognises her son by a birth­
mark, the Sign of Jupiter. The supporting cast includes Antonio Molino Rojo as
Tarpetes (a traitor to Seriphus who is eaten by a dragon) and Lorenzo Robledo
and Frank Brafia as two princes. Legend has it that if the Medusa is killed, her
petrified victims return to life, which will provide Seriphus with an army. Perseus
kills the dragon and confronts Medusa, presented here not as a snake-haired
woman but as a shuffling shrub-like creature with a mass of cascading tentacles
and one glowing golden eye. Perseus hacks at its tendrils and uses his highly
polished shield as a mirror. Eventually Perseus punctures Medusa's bulbous eye,
slitting it like an egg yolk, and the beast dies twitching. The hideous Medusa was
created by Carlo Rambaldi, who went on to work on some of the most disgust­
ingly convincing Italian horror effects and created the lost alien in ET The Extra­
Terrestrial for Steven Spielberg and the creature in Alien (1979).
In Osvaldo Civriani's Hercules against the Sons of the Sun (1964),
Hercules (Mark Forest) is swept off course while crossing the Great Ocean from
Hellas and is shipwrecked in Inca-period South America. He teams with rebel
prince Maytha (Giuliano Gemma) to rid the kingdom of usurper king Atahualpa
(Franco Fantasia), who has imprisoned the prince's father, King Huascar (Jose
Riesgo), and sister, Princess Yamara. Using Hercules' modern know-how
(including the invention of the wheel), Maytha's army attack the fortified city of
Tiwanaka with war machines to restore democracy. The film is lifted by its unu­
sual setting and Lallo Gori's Mexican-flavoured score. The cast look resplend­
ent in their elaborate, colourful Inca costumes, with intricate ornamentation,
gold decoration, beads, cloaks, skull masks and feathered headdresses, but the
overlong dance sequences, choreographed by Gino Landi and Archie Savage,
and showcasing the black dancer Audrey Anderson, slow the film's pace. Giulio
Donnini played Atahualpa's high priest and Angel Rhu his queen. Anna-Maria
Pace was cast as Maytha's sister Yamara, under threat of sacrifice to the great god
Viracocha. By hiring a few llamas for the camp scenes, the Italian countryside
was transformed into the Andes, though Hercules is shipwrecked, as always, at
Tor Caldara, Anzio Cape.
Like Kirk Morris, Forest found that his peplum heroes were well-travelled, as
in Michele Lupo's Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963). In 200 BC, Goliath
(Forest) returns to Nefer on the Persian Gulf to find it under Babylonian rule.
Pergaso (Piero Lulli), the king of Nefer, must pay a yearly gift of 30 virgins to
Babylon, with Babylonian Morakeb (Erno Crisa) ensuring the tribute is paid.
 rSEE THE TH O U SA N D AN o O N E O R G I ESoFTO RTU RE r

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IN COLOR AND TECHN ISCOPE

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STARRING MARK FOREST

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(OSE GRECI and GULIANO GEMMA · MICHELE LUPO · ELIO SCARDAMAGLIA · ROBERTO GIANVITI and FRANCESCO SCARDAMAGLIA
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US artwork for Michele Lupo's Goliath and the Sins ofBabylon (1963), starring Mark Forest as
the imperilled hero. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Mythological Epics 23

Goliath teams up with rebel gladiators led by Evandro (Livio Lorenzon) and wins
the hand of Princess Resya (Jose Greci) in a chariot race. Lupo cast Giuliano
Gemma as acrobatic rebel Sandros and his gladiator compatriots included
Mimmo Palmera as Arcao, Jeff Cameron and Nello Pazzafini, with Paul Muller
as the Babylonian king Kafus. A sea battle and Babylon burning are stock footage
from Carthage in Flames (1960). For the US release by American International
Pictures (AlP), it had new theme music composed by Les Baxter (replacing
Francesco De Masi's), tying it in with other 'Goliath' movies. Siro Marcellini's
The Hero ofBabylon (1963), another Babylonian-set movie, starred Gordon Scott
as Nipur, up against King Balthazar (Piero Lulli) and Queen Ura (Moira Orfei).
A great-looking but pedestrian peplum, shot in Italy at De Paolis, it was mislead­
ingly called The Beast of Babylon against the Son ofHercules in the US.
The all-female Amazon tribe of Greek myth were understandably popular
with peplum audiences. Antonio Leonviola's Thor and the Amazon Women
(1963) starred Newcastle upon Tyne champion wrestler Joe Robinson as Thor.
In Carol Reed's A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) Robinson had wrestled Primo
Carnera, the 'Ambling Alp' from Hercules Unchained. Thor travels to the city of
Babylos in the all-female country of Nalia, to free dethroned queen Tamar (Susy
Andersen). Janine Hendy was the queen of Babylos, which forces its women
captives to fight for their freedom in the Triangle of Death arena: the film was
originally called Le Gladiatrici [The Gladiatrixes] . It was shot in Ceria Studios
(Trieste), on location in Yugoslavia and in the Grottoes of Postumia. Black mus­
cleman Harry Baird appeared as Thor's sidekick Ubaratutu. Clips from Ursus
in the Valley of the Lions and Mole Men against the Son of Hercules crop up in
stock footage, and Tamar's flashback to the death of her father is the attack on
the Viking village from Erik the Conqueror (1961). Thor engages the entire female
population of Nalia in an immense tug of war contest for his life, so that 'The
authority of men will be restored'.
Dan Vadis played Hercules in Alberto De Martino's lively The Triumph of
Hercules (1964), filmed at Incir-De Paolis' arena and city street sets, and on
location at Tor Caldara. In the city of Mycenae, Prince Milo (Pierre Cressoy) has
taken power by assassinating the king, the father of Princess Ate (Marilu Tolo).
With a band of rebels led by Euristeo (Piero Lulli), Hercules plans to win Ate's
hand, but Prince Milo is aided by his sorceress mother, Pasiphae (Moira Orfei).
The witch has given Milo a magic dagger, the golden Dagger of Gaea, which
when unsheathed conjures up seven indestructible muscleman mercenaries
made of gold. The Seven Sons of Gaea - bald, beefy and sprayed gold - resem­
ble towering Oscars. Milo's evil conspirators include Reto (Enzo Fiermonte) and
Gordio (Renato Rossini), Jacques Stany played Erione (Hercules' ally) and Aldo
Cecconi and Nazzareno Zamperla played two cut-purses, the film's comic relief.
The witch lives in a mossy, misty cave and watches the action in a magic pool. For
the finale, Pasiphae transforms herself into Ate - the only indication that she is
an impostor is her orange eyes. For this scene Tolo wore tinted contact lenses.
The End of the Myth
As steamrollering pepla began to run out of puff, they ricocheted in ever more
outlandish directions. Reg Park filmed his outdoor scenes for Piero Regnoli's
Maciste in King Solomon's Mines (1964) in the Republic of South Africa. In
the city of Zimba, evil Riad (Elio Jotta) overthrows the king with the help from
Bedouin warrior queen Fazira (Wandisa Guida). The rightful heir, Vazma (Loris
Loddi), is spirited away by Samara (Eleonora Bianchi) and sheltered in Bambara,
with the Myedonga tribe. Maciste (Park), bewitched by a drugged garland of
flowers and entranced by Fazira's magic ankle band, is put to work in the Zimban
gold mines, a plodding zombie slave. When Samara is about to be gilded in mol­
ten gold, Maciste breaks loose and Riad and Fazira are smothered instead. With
the Myedonga sporting Zulu-like oval shields, assegai spears and knobkerry
clubs, and with liberal stock wildlife footage and a voiceover that resembles the
TV series The World About Us, this Maciste entry is one of the most distinctive -
the African footage is intercut with Italian location shots (Tor Caldara and De
Paolis Studios), thus providing an unusual backdrop. Park is his usual muscular
self - he won Mr Universe the following year for the third time.
Hercules the Avenger (1965) liberally reuses stock footage from previ­
ous Park adventures, cut-and-pasting to ingenious effect. In Syracuse, recently
widowed Queen Lida (Gia Sandri) receives proposals from several suitors, but
Anticleia the oracle dissuades her from a swift union. Hercules (Park) travels
to the Sunerian Marsh, to cure his son Zanthus, who has gone mad following a
mauling by a lion. Hercules' quest is footage from Hercules Conquers Atlantis
and Hercules in the Centre of the Earth. The film also stars Giovanni Cianfriglia
as the New Hercules, an impostor whose exploitation of the city leads to a revolt
(footage from Atlantis). Hercules seeks out this impostor, who is revealed to be
Antaeus, the son of the Earth goddess Gaia. Hercules plugs up a volcano, which
erupts and destroys Syracuse (more footage from Atlantis), and then fights
Antaeus in the Grotte Di Salone. Following Hercules the Avenger Park retired to
South Africa to concentrate on his chain of bodybuilding gyms.
Gordon Scott's final contribution to pepla was the title role in the 47-minute
pilot for a TV series called Hercules, produced by Joseph E. Levine in 1965.
Hercules and the Princess of Troy featured an Anglo-Italian cast: Paul
Stevens (Diogenes), Roger Browne (Ortag), Gordon Mitchell (a pirate captain),
Diana Hyland (Princess Diana) and Giorgio Ardisson (Leanda, Diana's lover).
Photographed by Enzo Barboni on authentic peplum locations (the beach at Tor
Caldara and the Grotte Di Salone), the show's saving grace was its sea monster,
a bug-eyed, stickle-backed, insect-like beast with pincers, which resembled a
giant prawn. The show's weekly format would have served up a different adven­
ture, as Hercules voyages to Thebes on his ship, the Olympia, but the peplum fad
had passed and the series was never commissioned.
Giorgio Capitani's comedic Hercules, Samson, Maciste and Ursus the
Invincibles (1964) was released internationally as Samson and the Mighty
 Mythological Epics 25

Challenge. Alan Steel starred as Hercules, Howard Ross was Maciste, Nadir
Moretti was Samson and Yann L'Arvor played Ursus. Elisa Montes (Omphale)
and Luciano Marin (Inor) were the young lovers, Helene Chanel was the ora­
cle and Livio Lorenzon a whip-cracking brigand. This shot-in-Spain production
welded Greek mythology to the Old Testament.
It was this film that was chosen for spoof dubbing in the Australian send­
up Hercules Returns (1992). In Melbourne, disillusioned Brad McBain (Dave
Argue) resigns from his job at the Kent Cinema Corporation and refurbishes
a rundown cinema, with help from projectionist Sprocket (Bruce Spence) and
maverick publicist Lisa (Mary Coustas). For the gala opening they show the last
film that was screened at the cinema, billed as Hercules but actually Capitani's
movie. Too late they discover that their Italian language print is not subtitled, so
the trio dub the film themselves. Hercules Returns was based on the live show
'Double Take meets Hercules', which was performed by Des Mangan and Sally
Patience, who provide most of the principle voices here. In their story Hercules
('The dumbest man in the world') saves heroine Labia (Elisa Montes) from drown­
ing, on his way to the city of Climidia. Muriel, Labia's mother, owns the Pink
Parthenon nightclub and won't allow her to marry Testiculi (Luciano Marin),
the son of a rival beer garden proprietor (Livio Lorenzon). Samson, with a weedy
voice and pigtails, is now henpecked by Delilah, Ursus is a tavern brawler with
a Glaswegian accent, and Maciste (now Machismo) has an effeminate voice and
a horse named Cyril. The Oracle (Helene Chanel), with her smoking skillet, is
cleverly redubbed as a crepe chef.
It was the unlikely figure of Pier Paolo Pasolini who had the last word on Greek
myths in 196os Italian cinema. Oedipus Rex (1967) was inspired by Sophocles'
plays Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Co/onus (also a source for Hercules Unchained).
Abandoned as a child on Mount Cithaeron by a herdsman (Francesco Leonetti),
Oedipus is found by a shepherd (Giandomenico Davoli) and is adopted by King
Polybus (Ahmed Bellachmi) and Queen Merope (Alida Valli) of Corinth. Adult
Oedipus (Franco Citti) travels to the Oracle at Delphi and learns that he is fated
to murder his father and make love to his mother. En route to Thebes, where
three roads meet, Oedipus murders a rich traveller. In Thebes, Oedipus kills the
city's tormentor, a monster called the Sphinx, and marries Queen Jocasta (Silvana
Mangano), the widow of Laius (Luciano Bartoli), the recently murdered king. But
Thebes is scourged with a plague which won't lift until Laius' murderer is found.
Oedipus is implicated in the killing and suspects that Jocasta's brother Creon
(Carmelo Bene) is trying to take power. Tiresias the blind prophet (Julian Beck)
identifies Oedipus as the culprit - King Laius and Queen Jocasta had tried to dis­
pose of their newborn baby when they heard the evil prophecy, but fate brought
cursed Oedipus back to Thebes. Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus pokes out his
own eyes with a pin from her dress, wandering into exile as a blind beggar.
As one would expect from idiosyncratic Pasolini, this isn't regular peplum
fare. The story is bookended by scenes set in modern Italy (shot in Bologna),
but the majority takes place in the desert lands between Corinth and Thebes,
which Pasolini shot on spectacular locations in Morocco. Oedipus was lensed
by Giuseppe Ruzzolini, the grand cities and crumbling villages of Morocco
more believable than Cinecitta's cardboard palaces. Most of the extras are North
Africans, with desert life etched into their faces. The costumes by Danilo Donati
are stylised, almost to the point of distraction, the chunky woven fabrics, armour,
helmets and crowns looking at once authentic and risibly bogus. Pasolini is a
filmmaker with a fine eye for visuals. The Oracle at Delphi resembles an African
tribal witch doctor, with a gourd-like headdress decorated with sticks and straw,
while the Sphinx is similarly indigenous, not a monster but a man bedecked
in straw, animal hair and necklaces. When we first meet Queen J ocasta, she is
being pushed ahead of her entourage in a wheelbarrow, and victims of the con­
tagion are tossed onto funeral pyres. Laius' servant carries baby Oedipus tied to
a spear over his shoulder - the child's feet are tightly bound, which inspires his
name: 'Little Swollen Feet' (Oedipus). Pasolini favourite Ninetto Davoli appears
as Angelo, a Theban messenger boy who becomes blind Oedipus' companion,
while Pasolini has a cameo as a Theban spokesman. Mangano, one of the great
faces of Italian cinema who shot to stardom in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice
(1949), makes a flawless Jocasta. The musical score is a string 'Quartet in C Major'
by Mozart (used when Oedipus first meets Tiresias), a selection of Romanian folk
songs (for village celebrations and ceremonies) and ancient Japanese music - a
hollow beating drum and whistling flutes - which accompanies Oedipus on his
desert odyssey.
Pasolini followed Oedipus Rex with Medea (1969), loosely based on the play
by Euripides. Jason (Giuseppe Gentile) is raised by a centaur (Laurent Terzieff)
and returns to Iolcus to claim his throne from King Pelias (Paul Jabara) . The king
sends Jason on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. In Colchis, sorceress Medea
(opera diva Maria Callas), the daughter of King Aeetes, helps Jason to steal
the fleece and runs away with him to Iolcus. In Corinth Jason falls in love with
Glauce (Margareth Clementi), the daughter of King Creon (Massimo Girotti),
and Medea uses her magic to take revenge. Partly based on the same source
material as Hercules and The Giants ofThessaly, it is almost unrecognisable as
the same story. The costumes are a mixture of Middle Eastern, African, Japanese
and Medieval, giving the film a distinctive visual style. A chariot used by Medea
looks nothing like its peplum equivalent, but rather a rickety construction of ani­
mal skins and timber, with solid wooden wheels, while the Argo is simply a raft
with a livestock pen and oars. Pasolini filmed in Turkey (cave dwellings represent
Colchis and weird tepee-like rock formations at Goreme) and Syria (the citadel
fortress of Aleppo as Corinth's walls). Pasolini also shot in Italy: the Camposanto
(cemetery) with its distinctive arched wall in the Piazza Dei Miracoli (Square of
Miracles) in Pisa became Corinth and the coast at Grado (in the Friuli-Venezia
Giulia region) was the setting for Jason's upbringing. Pasolini even uses the beach
at Tor Caldara, when Jason and his Argonauts leave Colchis.
 Mythological Epics 27

Pasolini stages some incredible brutality in Medea. In Colchis, a sacrificial

victim is dismembered with an axe - his blood is dabbed on the crops, his vital
organs are rubbed against fruit trees and his body parts are burned on a fire,
to guarantee a good harvest. When King Aeetes leads a posse after the fleece
thieves, Medea hacks up her brother Absyrtus (Sergio Tramonti) and leaves a
trail of body parts through the desert, slowing the pursuers down, as the king
collects the bits of his son for burial. Fearful of the sorceress, King Creon exiles
Medea, who takes revenge on Jason by killing Glauce. Pasolini includes two ver­
sions of this: one as described by Euripides, one his own interpretation. Medea
gives a dress to Glauce, but as the princess puts it on, it catches fire, immolating
her. In Pasolini's variation, Medea gives Glauce a bewitched dress which compels
Glauce to jump to her death from Corinth's walls. For her final vengeance, Medea
murders her three sons by Jason and burns their house: 'You will suffer with me:
she tells Jason. Callas, in her only film, is a powerful screen presence. That face,
with its strong forehead, noble nose and deep eyes, is the living image of classi­
cal Greek vase artwork. Medea is powerful, intellectual filmmaking - Hercules
with subtitles it ain't.
 Historical Escapades, High Seas
and Low B 's
Costume Adventures

uring the boom in Italian popular cinema, Italy, Spain and the former
D Yugoslavia were passed off as many locations, from the plains of Troy to
the Russian steppes. Yugoslavia was an attractive location for international co­
productions in the 196os, due to its wide range of majestic, picturesque land­
scapes (from rolling, lush valleys and woodland to mountains and waterfalls)
and its hoards of cheap extras. Italian cinema produced many disparate costume
adventures, usually inspired by big budget Hollywood productions of the day,
including pirate movies set in the Caribbean, swashbuckling cavalier and mus­
keteer films, Napoleonic and Risorgimento epics, desert-set Arabian adventures
and tales of rampaging Tartar and Mongol hordes.

Comes a Norseman: Viking Adventures

An unexpectedly popular sub-genre of Italian adventure cinema was the Viking
saga. Richard Fleischer's The Vikings (1958) was the trigger film, with Kirk
Douglas' scar-faced Einar (one eye plucked out by a falcon) and Tony Curtis' slave
Eric (who has his left hand chopped off) fighting over Welsh princess Morgana
(Curtis' then-wife Janet Leigh). Mario Nascimbene's fine score and the siege finale
proved particularly influential and the film spawned half a dozen Italian deriva­
tives starring Cameron Mitchell, Gordon Mitchell, Giorgio Ardisson or Giuliano
Gemma, and also Richard Widmark's Hollywood vehicle The Long Ships (1964),
which was shot in Yugoslavia.
Giacomo Gentilomo's Last of the V ikings (1961) cast Hollywood star
Cameron Mitchell as Viking leader Harald. Viken, his village, is destroyed and
his father murdered by Sveno (Edmund Purdom), the king of Norway. Harald
poses as Danish emissary 'Prince Ragmar' to kidnap Sveno's daughter, Princess
Hilda (Isabelle Corey). Aakon (Andrea Aureli, with one eye and a scarred face)
seizes control of Viken, but Harald kills his usurper. The Vikings construct war
machines (a battering ram tower and catapults that fire flaming logs) to attack
Sveno's castle.
Last of the V ikings is the best of the Italian cycle. Instead of the model
trireme often deployed in pepla, it has full-sized Viking ships with dragon
prows 'Furnished by Nettuno Navy Yard'. It also has a percussion-driven Roberto
Nicolosi score and vivid costumes and set design. This is especially apparent
in the Vikings' return to Viken (a crow-pecked, arrow-riddled misty ruin) and
in Sveno's labyrinthine stone castle and torture chamber (interiors were filmed
at Cinecitta and Titanus), where Harold's brother Guntag (Giorgio Ardisson)
is crucified by Sveno on an X-shaped cross. The bloodletting is frequent, with
death by arrow in the eye, hatchet to the head, torch to the face and sword
through the chest, complete with blood spurts. Viking formula ingredients
include boisterous feasts and funeral pyre send-offs to Valhalla. London-born
Edmund Purdom, cast as Sveno, had worked with Laurence Olivier on the
Broadway stage in Caesar and Cleopatra and Anthony and Cleopatra. His his­
trionic shambling transforms Sveno into Richard III; Purdom portrayed several
historical figures in Italian spectacles, including Herod and Rasputin. The sup­
porting cast features Mario Feliciani and Piero Lulli as Sveno's henchmen Simon
and Hardak, and Aldo Buffo Landi as Harald's lieutenant Longborg, while fenc­
ing master Benito Stefanelli appears as Viking Lorik. Mitchell turns in an effec­
tive performance as the dynamic Harald, who in one scene dispatches a bear
about to ravage Hilda.
The success of Last of the V ikings in Italy resulted in Mitchell being
called back to make Erik the Conqueror (1961), directed by Mario Bava. It
was released as Fury of the Vikings in the UK, and has been known variously
as The Invaders, Viking Invaders and Conquest of the Normans. This is not to
be confused with Giuseppe Vari's Attack of the Normans (1962), with Mitchell
as the villain, which was set in the time of the Norman Conquest. Erik the
Conqueror begins in 786 AD with a spectacular action sequence staged
on the beach at Tor Caldara, Anzio Cape (depicting the coast of Northern
Britain), as Sir Ruthford's British army pillage a Viking village. Viking Erik
(Giorgio Ardisson) is captured and raised by British queen Alice (Fran<;oise
Christophe). In adulthood he becomes Duke of Helford, commander of the
British navy, while his brother Eron (Cameron Mitchell) becomes a Viking
chief and leads an expedition against Britain. Eventually Erik and Eron face
each other in a duel.
Filmed from August to October 1961, the film's interiors were at Cinecitta
and Titanus Studios, including a vast Viking great hall (dominated by a gnarly
root from Hercules in the Centre of the Earth). The colour-drenched Bava com­
positions in widescreen Dyaliscope visually enhance the film. Bava staged his
sea battles indoors on studio soundstages - to suggest the forward movement of
 Costume Adventures 31

_ DIRECT��
ALICE AND ELLEN KESSLER MARIO BAVA
A GALATEA - LYR E - C R I T E R I O N P R O D U C T I O N

...,.,· - �·-- lr.tM&l "'� "�-.. ..

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U S poster for AlP's release o f the Viking epic Erik the Conqueror (1961), directed by Mario Bava
and starring Cameron Mitchell and the Kessler twins. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
the ship, he dollied his camera alongside a stationary vessel. Bava created a cas­
tle atop the bluffs of Tor Caldara by simply cutting an image from the National
Geographic and aligning it in the frame. The final battle, as the Vikings storm
Queen Alice's fortress, is a convincing swirl of fire and sword (plus stock footage
from Last ofthe Vikings). The cast included Andrea Checchi as Sir Ruthford, Raf
Baldassarre as his trusty bowman assassin, Falco Lulli as Erik and Eron's father,
Joe Robinson as Viking warrior Garion and Franco Ressel as King Lothar (Queen
Alice's murdered husband). Lothar is king of the Britons in the English language
print, but of Scotland in the Italian version. A casting coup was the beautiful
East German Kessler twins, Alice and Ellen, as white-robed Vestal Virgins. Erik
falls for Rama (Alice) and Eron loves Daya (Ellen). The Kesslers were cabaret
stars (they perform a synchronised dance routine in Erik) and later appeared
briefly in The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah. AlP trailers for Erik billed
them as 'Life's Cover Girls'.
In Mario Caiano's Erik the V iking (1965 - Vengeance of the Vikings),
Erik (Giuliano Gemma) leads an expedition across the Sea of Darkness and
discovers America. Lucio De Santis, Gordon Mitchell and Eduardo Fajardo
covet the Indians' gold and Elisa Montes is Erik's Indian princess love interest.
Photographed by Enzo Barboni and scored by Carlo Franci, the film is notable
for its tropical greenery, shot in the botanical gardens of Finca (country house)
La Concepcion, north of Malaga.
Bava's Knives of the Avenger (1966) is a western in Viking garb. Although
his penchant for gore, mist and shadow is more than evident in the film, it was
yet another Bava hybrid, coining 'Viking horror'. Karin (Elissa Pichelli, billed as
'Lisa Wagner' or 'Lissa') and her little son Moki (Luciano Polletin) are warned
by seer Shula to go into hiding. Aghen (Fausto Tozzi) is trying to kill them, so
Karin and Moki relocate to a hut in the mountains. They are visited by a wander­
ing stranger (Cameron Mitchell), an expert crossbowman and knifethrower. He
is vengeance-seeking Rurig (some sources call him Rurik) - Aghen beheaded
Rurig's wife and son years before. Filmed in a week in February 1966 for $75,000,
Knives ofthe Avenger is another visually sumptuous Technicolor adventure from
Bava, shot in 2-35:1 Techniscope on period interiors at Titanus Studios, Rome,
and at the Tor Caldara Nature Reserve and the lush grassland of Manziana,
Lazio. The Viking village set is a disguised US cavalry fort and a village tavern is
a wild west Mexican cantina set. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart played Karin's husband,
King Arald; stuntmen Bruno Arie, Goffredo Unger and Osiride Pevarello played
Aghen's henchmen. Viking favourite Mitchell - his hair was red or blond in these
adventures, depending on the quality of the print viewed - is dubbed in the
English language version by Paul Frees. Rurig is essentially a revenge-seeking
stranger in town who's quick on the draw: he can throw three daggers simultane­
ously. As the trailers stated, 'The Knives of the Avenger - They Hit Dead Centre'.
Marcello Giombini's score even resembles a western, with strident horn 'riding
themes' and a harmonica melody.
 Costume Adventures 33

Wind from the East: The Hordes Is Coming

Muscleman Steve Reeves starred as Hadji Murad in The White Warrior (1959),
which was based on a Leo Tolstoy novel. Murad was a rebel who in 1850 led the
mountain peoples of the Caucuses in the steppes against the tyrannical rule of
Tsar Nicholas I (Milivoje Zivanovic). Though it deploys great costumes and set­
tings (in Yugoslavia), a score by Roberto Nicolosi and photography by Mario
Bava, this is a formula Reeves vehicle. The familiar story trapped Reeves between
a good woman - lowly peasant Sultanet (Giorgia Moll) - and a bad one, Russian
Princess Maria (Scilla Gabel). Villainy was supplied by Gerard Herter as Prince
Sergei (Maria's husband), who captures Murad, submitting Reeves to his obliga­
tory onscreen flogging. Director Riccardo Freda occasionally manages some
rousing scenes: the Russian attack on a peasant village; Murad's massed cav­
alry attack on Fort Tabarasan (a stronghold that controls the Black Mountains);
Murad's escape from the Russian HQ (when he rides his horse through a packed
ballroom); and the final duel between Murad and traitorous rebel Akmet Khan
(Renato Baldini). For this scene, Reeves was doubled by Alan Steel. Reeves' acting
isn't up to much - any emotional turmoil is conveyed by clenched fists, gritted
teeth and frowning - but the film was successful in the US in 1961 when released
by Warner Bros. As publicity stated, 'Make Way For Steve "Hercules" Reeves!'
For Carlo Campogalliani's Goliath and the Barbarians (1959 - Colossus
and the Golden Horde), Reeves was in muscles mode in 568 AD, as Lombard
hordes led by Alboin (guest star Bruce Cabot) invaded Italy. Emilius (Reeves),
'a Goliath', sees his father murdered by the Lombards and swears revenge on
culprit Igor (Livio Lorenzon). Emilius disguises himself as a growling monster ­
in a lion mask with pointed teeth, a cloak and clawed 'paws' - and attacks the
Lombards. A love story subplot sees Emilius involved with barbarian Landa,
played by Chelo Alonso, who performs a snaky dance routine. Giulia Rubini and
Luciano Marin were the peasant lovers Sabina (Emilius' sister) and Marco. The
Lombards, sporting animal skin outfits, featured Furio Meniconi as Dencerico,
Arturo Dominici as Svevo and Andrea Checchi as Delfo (Landa's father).
Stuntmen Pietro Ceccarelli and Nello Pazzafini appeared as barbarians and busy
stunt-coordinator Remo De Angelis can be spotted in three supporting roles (as
Igor's sidekick, a blond barbarian and a peasant archer). Goliath was filmed in
Yugoslavia and at Incir-De Paolis Studios. Much of the woodland footage was
filmed indoors. In costume Reeves resembles a hulking Robin Hood and his
stunt double was Giovanni Cianfriglia/'Ken Wood'. The opening caption called
568 AD 'A time when if you didn't love or fight ... life was a very short and dull
affair'. In the US Carlo Innocenzi's score was replaced by Les Baxter themes and
it was a great success when it was released by AlP in 1960, cut from 100 minutes
to a barely coherent 85.
The Tartars (1961 - co-directed by Richard Thorpe and Ferdinando Baldi)
offers a once-in-a-lifetime pairing of Orson Welles and Victor Mature. Set on
the banks of the Volga in Russia, the film tells of battles between Vikings, led
by Oleg the Brave (Mature) and the Tartar hordes, commanded by their khan,
Burundai (Welles). Oleg kills Burundai's brother Tobro (Folco Lulli) and takes
Tobro's daughter Samya (Bella Cortez) hostage. Burundai kidnaps Oleg's wife
Helga (Liana Orfei), while Oleg's brother Erik (Luciano Marin) falls in love
with Samya. Eventually the Tartars attack the Viking stockade: both Oleg and
Burundai are killed and Samya and Erik float away together in a longboat. Shot
in collaboration with Dabrava Film, in Zagreb, amid sweeping Yugoslavian land­
scapes (with interiors at Titanus Studios), The Tartars is backed by a flavour­
ful Russian-sounding score by Renzo Rossellini. What sinks the film as credible
entertainment are the leads. With his oil slick hair and Mediterranean complex­
ion, Mature makes an unconvincing Viking. It is a prime example of Mature's tal­
ent for reducing historical figures to grinning idiots, and when he's not smiling,
he wears a slightly troubled expression, as though something unpleasant is waft­
ing across the Volga. It's wonderful to hear the rich tones of Welles enunciate: 'So
the Viking wolf has ventured into the den of the Tartar bear'.
The Tartars shouldn't be confused with The Tartars (1963 - Plains of Battle
and Taras Bulba, the Cossack) starring Vladimir Medar as Taras Bulba, which in
turn shouldn't be confused with Taras Bulba (1962), Hollywood's Argentinian­
shot version of the same story, featuring Yul Brynner as Taras. Ursus muscled
in on the act with Remigio Del Grosso's Ursus and the Tartar Princess (1963),
a displaced western set on the Crimean frontier in the seventeenth century. A
patrol of red-jacketed Polish knights led by Prince Stefan (Ettore Manni) take
on roving bands of Tartars. Stefan, captured by the Tartars, falls for Princess
Ila (Yoko Tani), the daughter of the Great Khan (Akim Tamiroff). Tom Felleghi
and Andrea Aureli appeared as the Tartar villains. Axe-wielding woodcutter
Ursus (Joe Robinson) is almost an afterthought in his own movie, as the accent
is placed on a religious conflict between Christian Poles and Pagan Tartars. Atlas
Versus the Czar (1964) cast Kirk Morris as Atlas and Massimo Serato as the czar,
while Sergio Grieco's Queen of the Tartars (1961 - The Huns) saw Chelo Alonso
in the title role as Tanya. Both these films used the hokey Welles-Mature model
as their Tartar source.
Samson and the 7 Miracles ofthe World (1961- originally 'Maciste in the
Court of the Great Khan') was set in thirteenth-century China, when the Mongols
invaded and the Mighty Garak (Leonardo Severini) ruled with tyranny. When
Garak attempts to murder the rightful heirs to the throne - Prince Tsai-sung and
his sister, Princess Lai-ling (Yoko Tani) - Samson (Gordon Scott) intervenes,
despite looking completely out of place in his Tarzan loincloth amongst the opu­
lent Far Eastern decor. 7 Miracles is one of Riccardo Freda's better pepla. It was
greatly aided by the leftover sets, costumes and a multitude of Asian extras from
Marco Polo (1961), which starred Tani opposite Rory Calhoun as the Venetian
explorer. During a punch-up Samson destroys a tavern like a human-wrecking
ball and wrestles with a bladed chariot about to behead five unlucky rebels (in
footage so impressive that it reappeared in Maciste in Hell). For the film's US
 Costume Adventures 35

release several musical cues were replaced by Les Baxter 'Goliath' themes; fortu­
nately Carlo Innocenzi's tinkling Chinese-flavoured main theme was retained.
The cast included Helene Chanel as Garak's villainous lover Kiutai, Valery
Inkijinoff as the high priest and Gabriele Antonini as rebel leader Cho. Samson
performs only two miracles: first, he finds and tolls the Great Bell of Freedom,
calling the oppressed to arms against Garak. Unfortunately the Great Bell's Great
Clapper knocks Samson out. Garak buries Samson alive deep in the foundation
bowls of the city in a tiny stone chamber. But ancient mystic the Wise One calls
on Samson to perform the 'Seventh Miracle'. Mighty Samson musters all his
strength and ruptures the earth, causing a mighty earthquake which destroys
the city, enabling Lai-ling and Cho to found a new dynasty.
Domenico Paolella's Hercules against the Mongols (1963) cast Mark Forest
as Hercules, a dislocated BC Greek muscleman hero transported to 1227 AD.
Genghis Khan is dead and his three sons stir up trouble, fomenting war between
the Mongols and the Christian west. The trio are Sayan, a peerless archer (Ken
Clark), Susdal, an expert with a whip (Renato Rossini) and Kihan, meaning 'The
Hurricane: a strongman (Nadir Moretti), all of whom wear drooping Fu Manchu
moustaches. They launch a stock footage attack on the Christian city of Tudela,
killing the king and capturing his daughter Bianca (Jose Greci), but her little
brother Alexander (Loris Loddi), the heir to the throne, is taken to safety by
his nurse (Bianca Doria). Enter Hercules, who resolves to restore Alexander to
his throne and kick the Mongols out of Tudela, as foretold by a Chinese seer in
the film's pretitle sequence. A subplot details the villains' search for the treasure
of Tudela, which is hidden in a grist mill. Maria Grazia Spina appeared as the
evil Mongol warrior Li-Wan and Tullio Altamura was Adolphus, a spy. Hercules'
feats of strength are average stuff, except for a lively scene when he defends him­
self with an iron bar against a lion. Christian Bratislavan knights led by their
king (Giuseppe Addobbati) storm Tudela and Hercules bursts a dam, routing
the Mongols. It was filmed on sunny Yugoslavian exteriors and at Incir-De Paolis
Studios interiors: the Mongol torture chamber is the familiar peplum arched
stone wall set.
One of many great things about Italian cinema is that even the most innoc­
uous looking film can deliver the unexpected. Paolella's Hercules against the
Barbarians (1964) would be expected to be a 'muscleman-Mongol' hybrid,
with the Greek hero adrift in Poland. It opens in the twelfth century with the
Mongols under Genghis Khan (Roldano Lupi) storming Krakow and being
repulsed by 'Hercules the Hurricane' (Mark Forest). Soon Paolella's film drifts
further from logic and history, with a subplot detailing a witch hunt in a peas­
ant village, complete with torch-bearing locals. Hercules' lover Armina (Jose
Greci) is kidnapped by the Mongols (she is the heir to the Polish throne), so
Hercules is dispatched with Arias (the accused witch, played by Gloria Milland,
a regular in Paolella productions) to save Armina from the Mongol fortress at
Tarnopol.
 As in Hercules against the Mongols, Paolella makes much use of stock
footage and recasts many of the earlier film's actors. Ken Clark played Kublai
the Mongol villain (eventually crushed beneath a descending portcullis) and
Renato Rossini was Mongol Gasan, while Mirko Ellis appeared as the Polish king
Vladimir, Tullio Altamura was a priest and Ugo Sasso was the leader of a band of
roving acrobats, who entertain the Mongol court with gymnastics, lance duels
and plate spinning. Obviously a budget production filmed at Incir-De Paolis
Studios, the film had music that was lifted from Maciste in Hell. Hercules wres­
tles a rubber crocodile and crosses a fiery chasm on a log (filmed at Tor Caldara)
in this cross-genera movie that doesn't quite gel. Hollywood also shot its own
Mongol epic in Yugoslavia. Genghis Khan (1964) boasted spectacular settings
and costumes, and some spectacular miscasting, with Egyptian Omar Sharif in
the title role and James Mason and Robert Morley as caricatured Chinese.

A Thousand and One Fights: Arabian Adventures

A minor cycle of Arabian adventures fused themes found in muscleman epics
with '1001 Nights' settings and stories. The Conqueror of the Orient (1960), a
mercifully brief, overly chatty adventure from Tanio Boccia, is set in an unspeci­
fied eastern Orient created at De Laurentiis Studios. In the City of the Golden
Dome, evil Dakar (Paul Muller) and his lover Dynazeze (Gianna Maria Canale)
rule. Nadir (Rik Battaglia), a lowly fisherman, saves the life of a fugitive princess,
Fatima (Irene Tunc), and discovers that he is the throne's rightful heir. The film is
noteworthy for its insufficient sound effects: as dozens of rebel horsemen hurtle
through lush green countryside, two coconuts clatter on the soundtrack.
Mario Bava provided the imaginative special effects for Henry Levin's col­
ourful children's film The Wonders ofAladdin (1961), photographed by Tonino
Delli Colli at Kairouan, Tunisia and Titanus Studios, Rome. Donald O'Connor
starred as Aladdin, heading a cast which included Michele Mercier as Princess
Zaina, Vittorio De Sica as the genie and young Mario Girotti (later 'Terence Hill')
as Prince Moluk.
Steve Reeves' contribution to the cycle was The Thief of Baghdad (1961),
directed by Arthur Lubin. Cutpurse Karim (Reeves) embarks on a quest to pass
through the Seven Doors to find where a magical Blue Rose grows - it is the only
cure for the bedevilled princess, Amina (Giorgia Moll). The film is essentially
Hercules in the Centre ofthe Earth in turbans. Arturo Dominici guested as the evil
prince, Osman, Edy Vessel was a sexy distraction for Karim and George Chama rat
was a friendly magician who helps Karim. Colourfully shot in the Tunisian desert
by Tonino Delli Colli and scored by Angelo Lavagnino, Thief is one of Reeves'
finest vehicles, featuring an array of mythological creations, including tentacled
trees which come to life, a cloak of invisibility, a Pegasus, blank-faced egg-headed
swordsmen, fiery caverns, earthquakes, petrified stone men, a duel between
Karim and a bald, gummy wrestler on a clifftop bridge, and Karim's magical army,
which takes on Osman's forces in the final attack on Baghdad.
 Costume Adventures 37

Perhaps the sub-genre's greatest moment was Antonio Margheriti's The

Golden Arrow (1962), with teen idol Tab Hunter as robber Hassan. In Damascus,
Princess Jamilia (Rosanna Podesta) must choose her suitor from among three
princes. Hassan poses as Prince Hassan of the Islands of Flame and kidnaps
Jamilia, but instead of ransoming her, he falls in love. He is the son of Karim
the Just and with help from three genies he embarks on a quest to retrieve the
Golden Arrow, which once fired magically returns to its owner's hand. The Prince
of Bassora takes over Damascus with his army, forcing Jamilia to marry him. The
colourful cinematography, detailed interiors and exotic costumes make this a
visual delight. Desert and mountain location footage was shot in Egypt, with
interiors filmed at Titanus Studios. Jose Jaspe and Claudio Scarchilli played
Hassan's robber cohorts, Sabrath and Abdul; Franco Pesce was an elderly flying
carpet merchant, Dominique Boschero played the queen of a realm frozen in
stone and Mario Feliciani was Baktiar, the wily grand vizier. Renato Baldini was
excellent as the power-hungry prince of Bassora, with Calisto Calisti as his side­
kick. When a hermit refuses to hand over his elixir of life, the villains stab him,
though not mortally, waiting to see where the vial is hidden and then testing it on
the dying man. The trio of comical genies in outsized turbans (Giustino Durano,
Umberto Filiciani and Franco Scandurra) provide the daftest moments, as they
conjure Hassan out of various scrapes - like The Wonders ofAladdin, Arrow was
aimed squarely at the children's market. Hassan navigates the cave realm of the
Fire Queen (Gloria Milland) who is protected by the Flaming Monsters - flailing
stuntmen in blazing fireproof suits. In the pitched battle finale Hassan and the
genies (on flying carpets) launch an aerial assault, flattening Bassoran soldiers
by dropping enormous clay jars on them.
Anthar the Invincible (1964 - The Devil of the Desert against the Son of
Hercules) was also directed by Margheriti. Anthar (Kirk Morris) of the Bathaya
tribe saves Princess Soraya (Michele Girardon) from Akrim (Jose Jaspe). Soraya's
father, the king of Baral, has been killed and her brother, Prince Daikor (Manuel
Gallardo), imprisoned by wicked Ganor and his henchman Rabek (Goffredo
Unger). Renato Baldini appeared as Kamal, who buys Soraya from Akrim in a
slave market, Mario Feliciani played slaver Ganor and young Roberto Dell'Acqua
played Anthar's mute sidekickAimu 'The Mosquito'. The straightforward story is
enhanced by the Arabian setting - the city of Baral (with interiors and exteriors
filmed at Incir-De Paolis Studios) and desert location footage shot in Algeria ­
but Morris is given little opportunity to flex muscle until the climax. Anthar
wrestles a wild Indian rhino and incites the populace to revolt and then duels
with Ganor in the villain's Chamber of Death hall of mirrors.
In Kindar the Invulnerable (1964), Kindar is born in the city of Uthor. His
mother dies in childbirth when she is struck by lighting, but Kindar survives,
imbued with super strength and invulnerability. Little Kindar is stolen by rebel
nomads and raised by Chief Seymuth (Mimmo Palmera), never knowing that
he is really the king of Uthor's son. After 20 years pass, Kindar (Mark Forrest) is
to lead the attack on besieged Uthor, but on discovering his real parentage he
switches sides. Seymuth discovers that the hero's weakness is fire (he's 'Kindar
the Inflammable') and tries to kill him in the Temple of Horus. Osvaldo Civriani's
Kindar was shot at De Paolis Studios and amidst real pyramids in Egypt. The film
features a Russian-sounding chanted score by Lallo Gori; Rosalba Neri appears
as Seymuth's lover Kira, Renato Rossini played Kindar's brother Siro and Mimmo
Palmera's overplayed wicked laugh grates on the nerves: 'Kindar Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Your opponent challenges you! Ha Ha! To the death!'
Emimmo Salvi's Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens (1964) starred Gordon
Mitchell as Omar, who rules the city of Kufar. For Omar to accede to the Gold
Throne he must defeat seven tribal challengers. Omar's enemy is Ali Baba (Bruno
Piergentili/'Dan Harrison') from the Mahariti tribe. Ali falls for Princess Fatima
(Bella Cortez) and faces Omar in the grand tournament: thus Ali Baba faces
the Seven Saracens. Franco Doria played Omar's chief adviser Sherif, Carla Calo
appeared as Omar's lover Farinda, while Ali's jailbreaks are masterminded by a
eunuch with a nervous twitch (Attilio Severini) and dwarf Jookie (Tony Di Mitri,
who resembles a miniature Frank Sinatra). Ali Baba doesn't hang around: look
out for the torture scene where Mahariti tribesmen are throttled with chains,
repeated shots of the same quarry (used for all the film's exteriors) and the cli­
mactic tournament (an eight-man 'It's a Knockout') with contestants deploying
anything that comes to hand - including swords, forks, lances, chains, knives,
maces and bows - until only Omar and Ali are left standing. Mitchell is in fine
evil form as Omar, his rock-faced grimace fixed, until he's run over by a chariot.
Salvi later directed Mitchell and Mickey Hargitay in the lively western-gothic
horror peplum hybrid 3 Bullets for Ringo (1966).

All For One: Pirates and Swashbucklers

The successful Hollywood production The Crimson Pirate (1952), starring
Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo, the acrobatic gunrunner, was filmed around
the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples (subbing for the Caribbean). Italian
adventure filmmakers capitalised on its lively formula with a short-lived cycle
of derivatives, with titles such as Guns of the Black Witch (1961) and Cold Steel
for Tortuga (1965). In Mario Costa's Gordon the Black Pirate (1961) Ricardo
Montalban played the title role, a buccaneer who battles slave traders led by gov­
ernor's aide Romero (Vincent Price) from the Caribbean island of Novesperanza.
Thinking he has put the trafficker, Captain Tortuga (Jose Jaspe), out of business,
Gordon discovers otherwise when a slave's corpse is washed ashore. The trader's
base, 'a vulture's nest', is the island of San Salvador and the Black Pirate sets sail
on his galleon The Indomitable. Gordon impersonates 'Don Carlos Bastia', a rich
Cuban plantation owner with 'labour problems', and attempts to woo the gover­
nor's daughter, Manuela Cortez de Castilla (Giuliana Rubini).
Gordon the Black Pirate is flamboyant costume adventure at its best.
Montalban cuts a dash, while Price does his usual crafty scene-stealing. Liana
 Costume Adventures 39

Orfei played Novesperanza villager Luana, who loves scallywag Gordon. Jaspe,
a regular in buccaneering fare, played Tortuga with an eye patch and a prodigious
beard and girth. The pirates include stuntmen BrunoArie, Riccardo Pizzuti (as The
Indomitable's helmsman) and Gino Marturano (as Gordon'ssecond-in-command).
In one unpleasant scene, an English slaver throws its live cargo overboard, still
bound, rather than let them go free. Filmed on Mediterranean locations, Gordon
the Black Pirate includes all the expected buccaneering ingredients, accompanied
by a jaunty pirate score by Angelo Lavagnino. There are elegant balls; a Caribbean
'Fiesta of the Dragon'; chained, downtrodden plantation slaves; pirate raids on
peasant villages; and an array of authentic weapons including flintlock pistols,
halberds (a spear-battleaxe combo), rapiers, daggers and cannon. The sea battles
never involve more than two ships, which look as though they were the only ones
available to the production. The storming of Don Pedro's castle is a picturesque
sequence - as Gordon's vessels bombard the fortress, his men scale the castle walls
with grappling hooks and the Spanish defenders shell the galleons.
Many peplum stars tried their hand at swashbucklers. Steve Reeves starred
as Captain Morgan in Andre De Toth and Primo Zeglio's Morgan the Pirate
(1960), with Valerie Lagrange, lvo Garrani, Giorgio Ardisson, Lydia Alfonsi and
Chelo Alonso. He also portrayed turbaned rebel pirate Sandokan fighting British
imperialism in the South China Sea and the jungles of Borneo in Umberto
Lenzi's Sandokan the Great (1963) and The Pirates ofMalaysia (1964) . Sandokan
the Great, based on Emilio Salgari's novel The Tigers of Mompracem, saw the
hero kidnap Mary Anne (Genevieve Grad), the niece of Sandokan's arch enemy,
Lord Guillonk (Leo Anchoriz) . Sandokan's band trek across the island, brav­
ing rivers, poisoned arrows, wild animals, swamps and a tribe of headhunters,
but are captured on a beach as they attempt to escape by fishing boat. Antonio
Molino Rojo, Enzo Fiermonte and Mario Valdemarin played Queen Victoria's
finest, and Sandokan's pirates featured action stars and stuntmen: Rik Battaglia,
Nazzareno Zamperla, Dakar, Maurice Poli, Gino Marturano and Giovanni
Cianfriglia (Reeves' acrobatic stunt double). Yugoslavian actor Andrea Bosic
played Sandokan's sidekick, Portuguese adventurer Yanez De Gomera.
Released internationally by MGM, this excellent adventure had a good score
by Giovanni Fusco, a sense of exoticism and scale in its Malaysian locations, col­
ourful costumes and Techniscope location photography which featured much
jungle wildlife footage. The colonial milieu of pith helmets and turbans makes
a pleasant change for Reeves, who wrestles a tiger, avoids an elephant stampede
and wields a mean machine-gun in the all-action finale, as Sandokan's pirates
and the headhunters storm to the rescue at Fort Victoria to defeat Guillonk's
sepoys. Ray Danton took over as Sandokan in Sandokan Fights Back and Sandokan
against the Leopard ofSarawak (both 1964), with Guy Madison as Yanez. Kabir
Bedi played the lead in Sergio Sollima's six-part TV miniseries Sandokan (1976),
with Philippe Leroy as Yanez, Carole Andre as Marianne and a catchy theme tune
by the De Angelis brothers.
 Gordon Scott and Gianna Maria Canale appeared in Luigi Capuano's impres­
sive, Venetian-set The Lion ofSaint Mark (1963- The Marauder). Canale starred as
Sandra in Queen ofthe Pirates (1960- with Massimo Serato, Scilla Gabel and Livio
Lorenzon) and its sequel Tiger ofthe Seven Seas (1963). Richard Harrison was the
Avenger ofthe Seven Seas (1961) and Alan Steel starred in Hercules and the Black
Pirate (1964). Lisa Gastoni was female buccaneer Mary Read in Hell Below Deck
(1961- Queen ofthe Seas), Mijanou Bardot (Brigitte's sister) starred in Pirate ofthe
Black Hawk (1958) and RobertAlda tortured Pier Angeli in Musketeers ofthe Seas
(1960). Singer Johnny Desmond was the Hawk ofthe Caribbean (1963) and George
Hilton starred in The Masked Man against the Pirates (1962 - The Black Pirate).
Lex Barker carved an elegant niche for himself in Italy in such fare, starring in
Captain Falcon (1958), Son ofthe Red Corsair (1959), The Pirate and the Slave Girl
(1960) and Secret ofthe Black Falcon and Pirates ofthe Coast (both 1961).
One of the most widely seen Italian swashbucklers is Seven Seas to Calais
(1962), co-directed by Rudolph Mate and Primo Zeglio. An entertaining skip
through Tudor history, the film is a biopic of Francis Drake: mariner, explorer
and queen's privateer. In 1577 Drake embarks on a three-year expedition in the
Golden Hind to loot Spanish gold from their Pacific ports, with the blessing of
Protestant queen Elizabeth I (Irene Worth). Drake returns with a mountain of
Spanish gold, which earns him a knighthood. In 1587, Spanish plotters led by
Lord Babbington (Terence Hill) attempt to assassinate the queen and free Mary
Queen of Scots (Esmeralda Ruspoli), a Catholic, from jail in Tutbury Castle. But
Mary, Babbington and the conspirators are beheaded. In 1588 King Philip II of
Spain (Umberto Raho) attacks England with an armada, but en route to Calais to
pick up the Duke of Parma's army, Drake defeats them.
Seven Seas was shot in Rome at Titanus Appia Studios, with a few well­
placed establishing shots of key English locations (including the exterior of
Saint James's Palace). The nautical scenes were shot in the Bay of Naples. The
film benefits from fine Eastmancolor and CinemaScope photography, some good
sets and ships, and authentic Tudor costumes (designed by Filippo Sanjust) with
doublets, hose and ruffs de rigueur. Two athletic Australian-born actors played
the main roles: Rod Taylor made an excellent Drake and Keith Michell (later of
'Captain Beaky and his Band' fame) was his roisterous sidekick, Malcolm Marsh.
Edy Vessel was French exile Arabella who is involved in a love triangle between
Marsh and snivelling Babbington. Anthony Dawson and Basil Dignam were cast
as the queen's trusted advisors Lord High Treasurer William Burghley and spy­
master Sir Francis Walsingham. Drake's crew featured Gianni Cajafa as bosun
Tom Moon and Marco Guglielmi as Parson Fletcher. During Drake's three-year
voyage they land in America (New Albion) and bring back potatoes and tobacco.
This sequence includes Marsh's humorous relationship with an Indian chief 's
daughter, 'Potato' (Rosella D'Aquino). Only in the armada finale does the film
fall flat, with an unconvincing sea battle staged by burning model ships in a
choppy water tank.
 Costume Adventures 41

In 1935 Errol Flynn sprang acrobatically onto the scene as the lead in Captain
Blood, based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini; 27 years later Tullio Demichelli's
The Son of Captain Blood cast Errol's 21-year-old son Sean as Robert Blood, the
dead buccaneer's son. In Port Royal, Jamaica, Lady Arabella (Ann Todd) wants her
son Robert to study medicine in Edinburgh, but he goes to sea. During his event­
ful voyage, Robert falls for Abigail McBride (Alessandra Panaro) and encounters
his father's old pirate crew, including Oglethorpe (Roberto Camardiel), Kirby
(Barta Barry), Lynch (Angel Ortiz) and Timothy Thomas (Fernando Sancho,
dubbed with an Irish accent). They battle Robert's father's arch enemies Capitan
De Malagon (Jose Niento) and henchman Bruno (Raf Baldassarre). In Port Royal,
Governor Townsend has enslaved Arabella's black plantation labourers and the
pirates attack as an earthquake strikes. Robert saves his mother and her servants,
including Moses (John Kitzmiller), and heads for high ground, as Port Royal is
engulfed in a tidal wave. Handsome blond Flynn makes a fine swashbuckling lead
(he also appeared in The Sign ofZorro [1964]). Antonio Casas appeared as the cap­
tain of a British slave ship and Riccardo Pizzuti and Alvaro De Luna loitered as
pirates. Port Royal was filmed on the seafront of Denia harbour (Pais Valenciano,
Spain), on the Gulf of Valencia. This location was also used for Cervantes (1967),
a dull biopic of poet Miguel De Cervantes (Horst Buchholz), which features a
re-enactment of the sea battle at Lepanto (1571) in the Gulf of Corinth, between
Turks and the Holy League. Cervantes thanked the general staff of the Spanish
naval base at Cartagena for their assistance in staging the engagement.
Sergio Corbucci's The Man Who Laughs (1966) was an adaptation of Victor
Hugo's novel. In Renaissance Italy, Cesare Borgia (Edmund Purdom) and his
sister Lucrezia (Lisa Gastoni) spread terror across the land. Astore Manfredi, the
Duke of Faenza and an enemy of the Borgias', hides out with a group of travelling
players, including blind Dea (Haria Occhini) and tightrope walker Angelo, who
wears a leather mask to conceal his disfigured, grotesquely grinning face. Most
of the players are killed during an attack on the Borgias' stronghold and Angelo
swears revenge on Astore: the duke steals Dea from him when she regains her
sight. Corbucci cast French actor Jean Sorel as both handsome aristocrat Astore
and red-haired acrobat 'freak' Angelo. This dual casting is explained. Cesare's
physician experiments on human physiognomies, using lepers as guinea pigs,
and alters Angelo's features with cosmetic surgery, transforming him into Astore.
At Astore and Dea's wedding ceremony in Faenza, the Borgias swap Angelo for
Astore, who will reign as their puppet. It was filmed at Tor Caldara beach and at
Cinecitta and Titanus Appia Studios. Corbucci regular Gino Pernice appeared
as Borgia henchman Galliaco. There is plenty of action from Corbucci and
some macabre touches: a sadistic Borgia torture chamber and lepers dragging
their death cart through the countryside. Purdom is excellent as cultured sad­
ist Cesare, who notes, 'As painting is an art, so is killing'. Cameron Mitchell also
played Cesare in Pino Mercati's The Black Duke (1963), with Gloria Milland as his
adversary, Caterina Sforza.
 Terence Hill starred in Vincent Thomas' The Black Pirate (1971 - Blackie
the Pirate), an oddly listless swashbuckler, with fleeting swash and scant buckle.
Hill played Captain Blackie, an English corsair fighting on the Spanish Main,
who tries to steal a shipment of gold from the viceroy (Edmond Purdom). Bud
Spencer played rival pirate Captain Skull, who sides with Blackie. Hill's side­
kicks are his burly bearded bosun (Fernando Bilbao) and scallywag Don Pedro
(George Martin). Silvia Monti was Hill's love interest, viceroy's wife Isabel De
Mendoza y Laguna and Diana Lorys was posada owner Manuela. The hornpipe
score (including a terrible title song, 'Ship Ahoy!') was provided by Gino Peguri
and any excitement generated during the sea battles is dissipated by the obvious
use of grainy stock footage from previous pirate adventures.
Musketeers and cavaliers were also popular subject matter in Italy, in
such films as The Devil's Cavaliers (1959), starring Anthony Steffen, Gianna
Maria Canale and Frank Latimore (later the star of Spanish 'Zorro' westerns),
The Cavaliers of Devil's Castle (1959), Revenge of the Musketeers (1963 - with
Fernando Lamas as D'Artagnan), The Secret Mark of D'Artagnan (1962) and
The Four Musketeers (1963). Pierre Brice starred as Zorro in Terror of the Black
Mask (1963) and Lex Barker appeared in Terror of the Red Mask (1960) and
The Executioner of Venice (1963 - Blood of the Executioner). Brice and Barker
later teamed up in the German 'Winnetou' westerns. Gordon Scott appeared in
Mask of the Musketeers (1960 - Zorro and the Three Musketeers) with Giacomo
Rossi-Stuart, Livio Lorenzon and Nazzareno Zamperla as Athos, Porthos and
D'Artagnan. The Devils of Spartivento (1963) was sumptuously photographed
and costumed entertainment, starring Scilla Gabel and John Drew Barrymore,
who sports distracting black and white striped 'humbug' tights.
Hollywood legend Stewart Granger starred in Etienne Perier's Swordsman
ofSienna (1962). Granger was English mercenary freebooter Thomas Stanwood
in sixteenth-century Tuscany, though the film was shot at Titanus Studios and
in the Lazio countryside. It has a sweeping score by Mario Nascimbene and was
photographed in CinemaScope and Metrocolor by Tonino Delli Colli. Stanwood
arrives in Siena, then under Spanish occupation, to act as bodyguard to Lady
Orietta Arconti (Sylva Koscina), who is to marry the tyrannical Spanish gover­
nor, Don Carlos (Riccardo Garrone). Realising that the populace oppose the mar­
riage, Stanwood joins a group of Italian rebel patriots, The Ten, led by Councillor
Andrea Paresi (Alberto Lupo). Riddled with court intrigue and subterfuge,
Swordsman is one of the best of its type, with Granger excellent as the wise­
cracking mercenary. His duel with Lupo in a stable demonstrates his expertise
with a rapier. Claudio Gora appeared as Councillor Leoni, who is murdered by
the Ten, his corpse hung from the town's bell tower. Fausto Tozzi played Carlos'
villainous henchman Captain Hugo and Christine Kaufman played Orietta'a
sister, Serenella (Stanwood's love interest). The film's best sequence is Siena's
Palio horserace, a pageant of colour and movement. This dangerous steeple­
chase through the city streets and across the countryside is excitingly staged,
 Costume Adventures 43

as the stunt riders (including arch enemies Hugo and Stanwood) negotiate the
obstacle-strewn course - speared fences, spiked logs, crossbow marksmen and a
booby-trapped bridge at Monte Gelato Falls.
From pirate and musketeer films to pepla and horror films, Italian audi­
ences loved masked heroes and villains. Sometimes these genres collided, in
such unlikely pairings as Umberto Lenzi's Zorro against Maciste (1963 - Samson
and the Slave Queen), which cast Pierre Brice as Zorro and Alan Steel as Maciste,
and Samson and the Treasure ofthe Incas (1965), a peplum-western, also starring
Steel. In Piero Pierotti's Hercules and the Masked Rider (1964), Hercules (Alan
Steel) is a member of a rebel gypsy band. Set in Spain during the war in Flanders,
the film details conflicts between greedy Don Romero (Arturo Dominici), the
Duke of Medina, and Don Francisco, the Prince of Valverde. Romero murders
Francisco; thus Francisco's nephew Don Juan (Mimmo Palmera) seeks revenge.
Juan strikes as the Masked Rider, in scarlet Zorro mask, cape and gauntlets, to
win back the hand of his lover, Dofia Blanca (Jose Greci). Ettore Manni appeared
as Captain Blasco, Romero's henchman, who has a change of heart when he falls
in love with gypsy witch Estella (Pilar Cansino), and Nello Pazzafini and Sal
Borgese appeared as rebels in this action-filled, cheap, shot-in-Italy production,
which was backed by a flamenco score by Lavagnino. As to be expected, Hercules
looks lost when hauled out of historical context.

Rebellion and Risorgimento: Leopards and Lions

There were several mammoth international productions - involving Italian
finance, studios or stars - set during the Napoleonic Wars. They were defined
by impressive star casts, resplendent costumes and sets, and plodding histori­
cal plots leavened periodically by epic battle scenes. King Vidor's mammoth
War and Peace (1956) was filmed at De Laurentiis Studios and headlined Audrey
Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Gassman, John Mills and Anita
Ekberg. The romance was set against Napoleon's (Herbert Lorn) 1812 invasion
of Russia. Abel Gance's French-Italian-Yugoslavian-Liechtenstein The Battle of
Austerlitz (1960) was a stagy, studio-bound affair which reduced Napoleon's 1805
victory over Austro-Russian forces to the level of pantomime. Claudia Cardinale,
Ettore Manni, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Leslie Caron and Jack Palance were wasted
in fleeting, badly dubbed cameos. Pierre Mondy played Napoleon, Orson Welles
appeared as an American inventor and Vittorio De Sica was the pope.
Stanley Kramer's 1810 Peninsular War epic The Pride and the Passion
(1957) cast Italian star Sophia Loren, who provided the 'passion'. It was a $5
million US production shot on spectacular locations near Madrid - including
Toledo, the cathedral in Santiago De Campostela, the mountains at Manzanares
El Real and the mushroom rocks at Cuidad Encantada - with a cast of thou­
sands. Spanish guerrilleros haul a massive seven-ton, 42-foot-long cannon 1,ooo
km across a landscape of dust, rivers, rocks and windmills, to breach the walls
of fortified Avila, the French headquarters in Spain. A British admiralty agent,
Captain Anthony Trumbull, 'a cold piece of English mutton' (Cary Grant) and
'son of a shoemaker' guerilla Miguel (Frank Sinatra) fight the French and quar­
rel over spicy gypsy girl Juana (Loren). The film influenced later Italian political
adventure films, such as A Professional Gun and Burn!, which teamed a foreign
mercenary or weapons expert with a peasant rebel. Trumbull is indispensable to
the guerrilleros as the only man who knows how to fire the cannon.
Sergei Bondarchuk's Italian-Russian co-production Waterloo (1970) was
produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Mosfilm. It was made on a $25 million
budget at De Laurentiis Studios and on location in Ukraine. Nino Rota provided
the dramatic score. The Soviet army in period costume re-enacted the famous
battle, where Napoleon (Rod Steiger) faced the Duke ofWellington (Christopher
Plummer) on 18 June 1815. The eclectic cast featured Virginia McKenna, Michael
Wilding, Jack Hawkins, Gianni Garko, lvo Garrani, Andrea Checchi and Ian
Ogilvy, with Orson Welles as a corpulent King Louis XVIII.
After a slow first section, the second half of the film is virtually non-stop
action, as the encounter unfolds in colourful, knockout battle scenes. Cannons
thunder, rank upon rank of infantry advance and galloping cavalry sweep across
the smoky landscape; 2o,ooo men and 3,ooo horses were deployed in these
crunching re-enactments. The film's stunt coordinator was Franco Fantasia. The
two cavalry charges - a frontal assault by the Scots Greys and the French cavalry
assault under Marshal Ney (Dan O'Herlihy) which engulfs the British redcoat
infantry squares (filmed in an impressive helicopter shot) - have been shorn of
their dangerous horse stunts on UK DVD releases, diminishing their power. As
Napoleon prepares to deliver the coup de grace, the Prussians under Marshal
Blucher (Serghej Zakhariadze) arrive to save the day. Having refused to surren­
der, the French Old Guard are mown down at point-blank range by British can­
nons. In the aftermath of the battle, Napoleon escapes, while looters and crows
scavenge the dead. Photographed in Panavision and Technicolor by Armando
Nannuzzi, Waterloo resembles period paintings brought to life by the rich cin­
ematography and is a perfect marriage of Italian style and Russian scale.
Luchino Visconti's operatic Senso (1954 - Wanton Contessa and The
Wanton Countess) was set in 1866, during the Austrian occupation of Venice.
Countess Livia Serpieri (Alida Valli) becomes the lover of an Austrian artillery
officer, Leutnant Franz Mahler (Farley Granger), initially to save her cousin,
Marquis Ussoni (Massimo Girotti), who is a rebel fighting against Austrian rule.
Livia loans Franz thousands of florins which were supposed to help the rebels'
cause, so he can bribe a doctor to exempt him from service. When she visits him
in Verona, she discovers he's nothing more than a drunken, unfaithful wastrel,
who has frittered the money away on women, booze and gambling. As revenge
she reports his desertion to his superiors and he is summarily shot. The film is
notable for great central performances by Valli and Granger, for its Technicolor
photography of the Italian locations and for the convincing albeit brief battle
scenes, which Visconti seamlessly interweaves into his melodrama.
 Costume Adventures 45

Uilrl/1/tj

Don Fabrizio (Burt Lancaster) waltzes with Angelica Sedara (Claudia Cardinale) in this Italian
poster for Luchino Visconti's sumptuous Sicilian epic The Leopard (1963).
 An earlier episode in the Risorgimento (Resurgence), the political upheaval
which resulted in the unification of Italy, was the backdrop to Visconti's meticu­
lous The Leopard (1963), which was touted in pre-production as Europe's Gone
with the Wind. Adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa's 1958 novel II
Gattopardo, it tells the story of the Prince of Salina, Sicilian Don Fabrizio (Burt
Lancaster), 'The Leopard'. It begins in May 186o as Giuseppe Garibaldi invades
Sicily with his red-shirted Garibaldini. Don Fabrizio is a member of the old
ruling class caught between two worlds and finds that his credo - 'Things will
have to change in order that they remain the same' - now has added resonance.
Don Fabrizio's nephew Count Tancredi (Alain Delon) joins the Garibaldini
and rejects his lover Concetta (Lucilla Morlacchi), Don Fabrizio's daughter, to
become engaged to 'new-rich' Angelica Sedara (Claudia Cardinale), the heiress
daughter of wealthy Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa) . Emissary Cavalier
Chevally (Leslie French) asks Fabrizio to join the Italian senate, but he refuses,
suggesting Don Calogero for the post. 'We were the leopards, the lions', says the
prince, 'Those who take our place will be jackals and sheep'.
Goffredo Lombardo ofTitanus Films acquired the book rights and Twentieth
Century-Fox co-produced. Milanese aristocrat Count Don Luchino Visconti di
Modrone ('The Red Duke') told Lampedusa's story with vivid imagery and peer­
less attention to period detail. It was shot over five months from May 1962 on
location in Sicily, at Donnafugata and the village of Ciminna. The exterior of
Villa Salina with its tree-lined avenues was Villa Bosco grande, near Palermo. The
Battle of Palermo was staged with hundreds of extras, while the Ponteleone ball
sequence was shot amidst the golden chandeliered opulence of Palazzo Gangi
in Palermo. For this scene Visconti's attention to lavish mise-en-scene went into
overload, with the exquisite ball gowns by Oscar-nominated Pietro Tosi. Nino
Rota's music swirls as Visconti orchestrates a sea of bobbing, waltzing couples.
Rota's majestic, swelling score showcases the composer at his most epic. The cin­
ematography in Technicolor and Super Technirama-70 by Giuseppe Rotunno - of
sun-scorched ochre countryside, swathes of blue sky and dusty, grand architec­
ture - captured 'the violence of the landscape' and the luxury of aristocracy.
The Leopard has one of the finest casts assembled for an Italian production.
Delon's dashing Tancredi is ambitious, loveable, but 'a sieve with money', while
Cardinale's soft-eyed Angelica, with her raucous laugh, is displaced among the
effete diners at Don Fabrizio's table. Rina Morelli played Princess Maria Stella
(Fabrizio's wife), Serge Reggiani was Fabrizio's shooting partner Don Ciccio
Tumeo, Ida Galli and Pierre Clementi were two of the prince's seven children,
Marino Mase played their tutor and Romolo Valli was the House of Salina's priest,
Father Pirrone. lvo Garrani played Colonel Pallavicino, the hero of Aspromonte,
who hates Red Shirts. When Tancredi returns from the Battle of Palermo, he is
accompanied by General Bardi (Giuliano Gemma) and Count Cavriaghi (Terence
Hill), who unsuccessfully courts Concetta. The Leopard is notable for the noble
performance by Lancaster as a man of contradictions, based partly on Visconti
 Costume Adventures 47

himself. As melancholy Don Fabrizio contemplates Greuze's Death of a just

Man, a deathbed painting, and waltzes with Angelica, the old and new worlds
meet. In the novel the prince dies, but Visconti's film ends with the tired prince
wandering Palermo and fading into a darkened street.
The film was cut by 40 minutes to 165 minutes and dubbed for its English
language release, with the inferior print processed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe
colour. In 1987 The Film Club on BBC2 screened a unique 165-minute print, in
Technirama and Technicolor, dubbed into English - this is the definitive English
language cut, with Lancaster and Cardinale dubbing themselves. The Italian
print, running 205 minutes, won the 1963 Palme d'Or at Cannes for Best Film
but the English dub was an international flop, almost bankrupting Titanus, and
was critically panned. It wasn't until its reissue at 185 minutes in 1983 that it
enjoyed the praise it deserved as one of the towering achievements of Italian,
indeed world, cinema.
 Fall of the Empire
Sword and Sandal Spectacles

I
n addition to mythological pepla, Italian filmmakers also made admirable
'sword and sandal' epics which depicted ancient history. These films, inspired
by the Hollywood model of Quo Vadis and Helen ofTroy (both shot in Rome), were
often dramas based on historical fact. Helen of Troy was particularly influential. It
featured great sets (at Cinecitta), costumes and battle scenes staged in Lazio - the
soldiers' flapping rubber shields excepted - though the plodding romance con­
centrates on Prince Paris (Jacques Sernas) and his lover Helen, queen of Sparta
(Rosanna Podesta) . Italian sword and sandal spectacles sometimes recreated
actual military campaigns (the Invasion of Gaul, the Punic Wars) or staged half­
myths (the Trojan War). There was also a trend for biblical epics and after Cleo­
patra, for Egyptian-set court intrigues. As important as the subject matter and
cast were the visuals - there was always prominent billing for the productions'
suppliers of weapons, costumes, wigs and footwear, even chariots and flowers -
the visual pomp that defined the Italian filmmakers' over-attention to detail.

Greek Myths and History

Following Steve Reeves' Herculean success as the archetypal peplum hero, he
appeared in The Giant of Marathon (1959), which was started by Jacques
Tourneur but was completed by Mario Bava. It was filmed in Dyaliscope and
Eastmancolor at Titanus Studios, with a score by Roberto Nicolosi. Giant was
set in 490 BC and Reeves starred as Philippides the Athenian 'Hero of Olympia',
whose feats inspired the Marathon race. Philippides courts two women -
Andromeda (Mylene Demongeot) and Karis (Daniela Rocca), who is working
for turncoat Greek Theocrates (Sergio Fantoni). The Persians invade Greece, led
by King Darius (Daniele Vargas) and Greek traitor Hypias (Gerard Herter). Ten
days before the film's Rome premiere, their climactic showdown at Marathon
was still being ineptly shot in Yugoslavia. Bava maintains the footage was awful,
with charioteers smoking cigarettes. Bava reshot the sequence in a quarry at
Gottarossa in Italy, using only 100 extras. He filmed the sequence at five frames
per second instead of 24, speeding up the action into a frenzy of hacking swords
and raining arrows. The combat begins with the Persians firing a human skull
from a catapult and beating their mighty war drum. When the Persians charge,
their chariot horses fall into defensive pits. This action sequence and the final sea
battle are the equal of many a Hollywood epic, at a fraction of the cost - Sparta's
city is a simple matte shot of the Tor Caldara headland. Alberto Lupo played
Athenian general Miltiades, Ivo Garrani appeared as Andromeda's father Cruces,
muscleman Alan Steel played Spartan hero Iolas and Reeves was doubled in his
fight scenes by Giovanni Cianfriglia (alias 'Ken Wood'). Philippides' heroic act
sees him run from Marathon to warn Athens of an impending Persian surprise
attack and then Philippides and the hundred-strong Sacred Guard attack the
Persian fleet. As Philippides duels with Theocrates, imperilled Andromeda is
bound to a ship's prow and Theocrates dies spectacularly when he falls onto the
spiked jaws of his galley's crocodile-toothed ram.
The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), Sergio Leone's directorial debut, was
filmed on location in Spain, with interiors at Cinecitta in Rome. The title refers
to the massive bronze statue of the sun god Apollo erected overlooking Rhodes,
bestriding the harbour. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and was
destroyed by an earthquake, circa 224 BC. Rory Calhoun played Dario, a Greek
visiting his uncle Lissipus (Jorge Rigaud) in Rhodes in 280 BC. Thar (Conrado
Sanmartin) plans to overthrow King Xerses of Rhodes (Roberto Camardiel) with
help from the Phoenician army, who have been smuggled into the Temple of
Baal disguised as slaves. Dario becomes involved with rebels led by Peliocles
(Georges Marchal). Eventually Thar assassinates Xerses and Dario helps the
rebels to free the slave population, as an earthquake destroys the city and top­
ples the Colossus.
The film's greatest asset is its visuals. As Leone commented, 'The accumula­
tion of such bad taste enhanced its fascination: a film made of stucco and fake
jewellery'. Leone filmed in Supertotalscope and Eastmancolor at the picturesque
Laredo harbour, Cantabria, the Bay of Biscay. Further location scenes were shot at
the rock formations at Manzanares El Real, north of Madrid (with the Santillana
Reservoir standing in for the Med), while the rebels' hideout in the Caves of the
Stone Desert was the mushroom rocks at Ciudad Encantada at Cuenca, west
of Madrid. Leone includes some arena action featuring a chariot with blades
on the wheels. There are numerous swordfights, punch-ups and torture scenes
(involving a giant bell and molten lead) and the rebels storm the Colossus with
a battering ram. Angelo Francesco Lavagnino composed the magisterial title
music, orchestrating thudding drums and brass. During a swordfight, Dario
climbs out of the Colossus's ear and runs down his right arm, pursued by Thar's
soldiers, and makes his escape by diving into the harbour. Antonio Casas played
the Phoenician ambassador and Angel Aranda, Mimmo Palmera and Alfio
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 51

Caltabiano (Charlton Heston's stunt double in Ben-Hur's chariot race) played

rebels. Mabel Karr was rebel Mirte, Dario's love interest. Felix Fernandez played
Carete, the designer of the Colossus, who thought he was creating art, when it
is actually a prison and harbour defence. Carete's daughter Diala (Lea Massari)
appears sympathetic, but she betrays Dario to Thar. The Italian version runs for
142 minutes - the English language print is 14 minutes shorter but is still long­
winded and only vaguely hints at Leone's directorial prowess.
Giorgio Ferroni's The Trojan War (1961 - The Trojan Horse and The Wooden
Horse of Troy) was based on Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. It told of
how Helen, King Menelaus's wife, was kidnapped from Sparta by Prince Paris
(Warner Bentivegna). Menelaus (Carlo Tamberlani) sailed for Troy and besieged
the city for 10 years. The story begins in the tenth year of the siege, as Greek hero
Achilles (Arturo Dominici) has slain Hector (Paris' brother) for killing his friend
Patroclus. Ferroni narrates from the perspective of Trojan hero Aeneas (Steve
Reeves), who is sent to recruit help from Phrygia. When Aeneas returns with the
Dardanian cavalry, the Trojans rout the Greeks, but crafty Ulysses (John Drew
Barrymore) concocts a plan: they construct a huge wooden horse. The Trojans
believe it is sacred to the sea god Poseidon, so they take it inside Troy as booty.
That night soldiers hidden inside the horse open the gates, allowing the Greek
army to ransack the city, kill Paris and reclaim Helen.

THE TROJAN HORSE

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The Wooden Horse is hauled inside the walls of Troy on set at Cinecitta Studios. US lobby card
for Giorgio Ferroni's The Trojan War (1961) under the alternative international title The Trojan
Horse. Image courtesy Gary Smith Archive.
 Reeves is reduced to a guest-starring role amongst an eye-catching cast.
Nerio Bernardi played Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and 'weapons consultant'
Benito Stefanelli played Greek officer Diomedes. Hedy Vessel was the screen's
most beautiful Helen; Lidia Alfonsi appeared as the Trojan prophetess Cassandra
and Juliette Mayniel was Aeneas's pregnant wife Creusa. Both the Greeks and the
Trojans are the villains: Aeneas is the film's sole sympathetic protagonist and
there are several trademark Reeves moments, as when Aeneas takes on Greek
hero Ajax (Mimmo Palmera) in a wrestling match. Right from its bleak opening,
with Achilles dragging Hector's corpse in the dust around Troy, Trojan War ben­
efits from a poetic script. Helen of Sparta is described by Aeneas as 'our gravedig­
ger: while the Trojan king, Priam (Nando Tamberlani), visits the Greeks to claim
his son's body, 'Armed only with my tears'. The Trojan walls (with its impressive
Scaean Gate), the Greeks' stockaded camps and the battle scenes were shot on
Yugoslavian plains. Interiors and the Troy exteriors were shot at Cinecitta. The
six-wheeled Trojan Horse is dragged into Troy and Giovanni Fusco's triumphal
marches, punctuated by choral blasts and bursts of brass and timpani, invoke
epic traditions. The middle section of the film is a series of immense confron­
tations, as Aeneas leads his Dardanians into battle against the Greeks. The
massed extras (the Greeks in red cloaks, the Trojans in white) are impressive, the
Dardanians' Smurf-like helmets notwithstanding. By 'The End: Troy is sacked
and Aeneas, his infant son in his arms, leads the survivors away. This climactic
imagery of the city in flames recalls convoys of refugees during World War II. Is
Paris burning? - Yes he probably is.
Marino Girolami's Fury ofAchilles (1962) was told from the Greek hero's
perspective. Achilles, the king of Phthea in Thessaly, fought in the Trojan War
knowing that he wouldn't survive. When the Greeks attack the town of Lirnesso,
Achilles (Gordon Mitchell) takes Trojan Briseis (Gloria Milland) as his slave and
King Agamemnon (Mario Petri) takes Chryseis, the daughter of the Trojan priest
Chryses. Apollo inflicts a plague on the Greeks, so Agamemnon returns Chryseis
to her father, taking Briseis from Achilles instead. Achilles refuses to fight, so
Patroclus (Enio Girolami, the director's son) impersonates Achilles, leading the
Myrmidon warriors into battle. Hector (Jacques Bergerac) kills Patroclus and
Achilles vows revenge, killing Hector in a duel and allowing King Priam (Fosco
Giachetti) to retrieve his son's body.
In Ultrascoped Eastmancolor, Fury ofAchilles' production design, costumes
and weapons look authentic, even if the Trojan army's shields are inaccurately
adorned with horses' heads. The mythological element is kept to a minimum,
making the crunching battle scenes more effective: the sacking of Lirnesso; the
Trojan attack on the Greek's beached fleet (filmed at Tor Caldara); the Trojans
assaulting the Greek stockades; and the twin duels between Hector and Patroclus
(filmed at Caldara Di Manziana) and Achilles and Hector. Achilles looks par­
ticularly awesome in this scene - 'a servant of the avenging furies' - arriving
by chariot hollering 'Phthea! Phthea!' Joseph Nathanson created matte shots
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 53

of Troy, with studio work filmed at Incir-De Paolis. Piero Lulli played Ulysses,
Remo De Angelis was Trojan hero Sarpedon, Edith Peters played a Nubian slave,
and Cristina Gajoni was Xenia, who commits suicide on Patroclus' funeral pyre.
Director Girolami chose to miss out Achilles' brutal treatment of Hector's corpse
(which he dragged around Troy) and ends the film before Achilles' death. The
US release of Fury ofAchilles is superior to the UK print retitled Achilles, which
is 20 minutes shorter. The UK version omits the Greeks' attack on the town of
Lirnesso (battle footage from Trojan War), the sacking of the town (outtakes
from Trojan War), the introduction of the Trojan protagonists and the Trojans'
assault on Ulysses' camp (more Trojan War stock) .
Set in 400 BC, Curtis Bernhardt's Damon and Pythias (1962) told the story
of Athenian Pythias (Don Burnett) who journeys to Syracuse. Pythias must find
Arcanos (Andrea Basic), a teacher of the outlawed Philosophy of Pythagoras
so that Arcanos can return to Athens to become ruler. Pythias is befriended
by thief Damon (Guy Williams) and when Pythias is captured as a result of
Damon's betrayal, guilty Damon offers himself as hostage, enabling Pythias to
return home to see his ailing wife Nerissa (Haria Occhini) and newborn son.
Pythias promises to return two months later to face his execution. Liana Orfei
was Damon's lover Adriana. The film's best asset was its photography (with city
matte shots by Nathanson). The city sets were at Cinecitta, with location footage
filmed in the Grotte Di Salone, on a bridge spanning the Monte Gelato water­
fall, the valley at Tolfa, the towering cliffs at Gaeta and the seaside at Terracina.
Damon and Pythias was presented internationally by MGM, though the lion at
the film's opening should have winced rather than roared.

Duelling Titans: The Founding of Rome

By far the most popular subject matter for Italian-made sword and sandal epics
was the Roman Empire. Albert Band's The Last Glory of Troy (1962 - War of
the Trojans), the sequel to The Trojan War, depicted Aeneas' founding of Rome
and was based on Virgil's poem The Aeneid. A cheap effort shot in Yugoslavia
and at Incir-De Paolis in Rome, Last Glory had Steve Reeves reprise his role as
Aeneas, now leading the Trojan survivors through the marshes of Latium in
Italy. The wanderers camp on arable land at the fork of the River Tiber. King
Latino (Mario Ferrari) is happy to allow the foreigners to settle. His wife, Queen
Amata (Lulla Selli), doesn't want their daughter Lavinia (Carla Marlier) marry­
ing Aeneas, preferring King Turno of the Rutili (Gianni Garko ). Aeneas defeats
Turno in single combat, allowing him to marry Lavinia and found Rome. A slap­
dash Reeves vehicle crowbarred into a classical narrative, Last Glory focuses on
its colourless hero. Aeneas again embarks on a mission to get help - here from
the neighbouring Etruscans. Benito Stefanelli appeared as Trojan Nisio, Enzo
Fiermonte and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart played Trojans Agathon and Eurialo, and
Maurice Poli played Turno's henchman Mezensio. In a chariot battle between
Aeneas and Turno, the real competition is to decide who has the most ridiculous
helmet: Aeneas' giant metal quiff or Turno's spiky stickleback. The film's high­
point occurs during this duel, when Aeneas knocks the wheels off Turno's char­
iot and the villain attempts to make his escape through a wood on what now
resembles a sledge. It was also known as The Avenger, which is a cut version
in black and white. A fresco triggers Aeneas' flashbacks to Troy, cuing stock
footage from Ferroni's Trojan War: the Wooden Horse and Aeneas' duel with
Achilles.
Sergio Leone and Duccio Tessari contributed to the script for Sergio
Corbucci's Duel of the Titans (1961 - Romulus and Remus). It was photo­
graphed in CinemaScope by Enzo Barboni, with the moving score composed
by Piero Piccioni. Filmed in Lazio and at Titanus Studios, Duel told an alterna­
tive legend of the founding of Rome, 'The greatest city in the world'. Romulus
(Steve Reeves) and Remus (Gordon Scott) are abandoned by their mother Rhea
Silvia (Laura Solari) and are raised by a she-wolf. Later they are fostered by shep­
herd Faustalus (Andrea Bosic). In 753 BC they rebel against tyrannical Amulius
(Franco Volpi), the king of Albalonga, and incur the wrath of Sabine king Tacius
(Massimo Serato); his daughter Julia (Virna Lisi) sides with the brothers, anger­
ing her betrothed, Curtius (Jacques Sernas). Romulus and Remus lead their
caravan through the Great Marsh (a swampy Tor Caldara), across the Mountain
of Fire and towards the fertile Valley of the Seven Hills. The brothers quarrel
and part, but Remus' caravan is destroyed when the volcano erupts - bodies fall
down chasms and cartwheeling boulders flatten extras, intercut with stock foot­
age of spitting lava and black smoke. In the Valley of the Seven Hills, Romulus
makes peace with the Sabines, ploughs the first furrow and kills his brother in
single combat.
Corbucci's movie was a great success in Italy. Reeves and Scott, in their only
film together, acquit themselves well as the mythical heroes. Authentic sets
designed by Carlo Simi include a log stockade arena, where Romulus wrestles
a bear. There's much talk of 'destiny' and 'fate': 'It's fate, not the horses, that
move the wheels of the cart', says Julia, while cautious Curtius observes, 'But
to the cruelty of fate the wise surrender'. The supporting cast includes Piero
Lulli, Franco Balducci, Germano Longo and Enzo Cerusico as rebels Sulpicius,
Acilius, Servius and Numa. Jose Greci appeared as Hestia (Julia's handmaiden)
and Ornella Vanini was memorable as Tarpeia (Remus's warrior lover) . Giovanni
Cianfriglia doubled Reeves in the stunt scenes. Diverting action includes the
Burning Hurdles steeplechase, a frenzied pagan rite of Lupercalia (filmed in the
caverns at Salone), a rebel attack on Albalonga, a bridge demolition and the bat­
tle in the Valley of the Seven Hills, where the Sabine cavalry attack Romulus's
entrenched camp and fall victim to spiked defences, nets and water-filled pits.
Richard Pottier's Romulus and the Sabines (1961), starring Roger Moore
as Romulus, was a misguided light romantic comedy version of the Rape of the
Sabine Women. The all-male Roman community face extinction if they don't
acquire some females, so during the Sabine harvest festival to the god Consus,
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 55

the Romans steal their women. The Sabines attack Rome, but the Sabine women
mediate and a truce is reached. The good cast - Mylene Demongeot as Sabine
princess Rhea, the daughter of King Titus Tacius (Folco Lulli), Scilla Gabel as
Romulus' Phoenician lover Dujya and Giorgia Moll as Sabine Lavinia - can't save
the film. Moore, who sports a quiff and dubbed himself in the English print,
is completely miscast, though there is early evidence of the acting technique
known as 'Moore's Eyebrow'.
The story of the early conflict between Rome and Alba was filmed as Duel
of Champions (1961). Following an ambush by Albans on the Fourth Legion,
Roman hero Horatio (Alan Ladd) is missing, presumed dead. The oracle pro­
claims that the Horatii and the Curiatii (two trios of brothers) will settle the con­
flict between Rome and Alba in a duel. Horatio, the eldest of the Horatii, returns
from the mountains where he has been convalescing and, with his brothers
Marcus (Jacques Sernas) and Elio (Luciano Marin), takes on the Curiatii. Franca
Bettoja appeared as Roman princess Marcia, Franco Fabrizi played Curazio, with
Osvaldo Ruggieri and Piero Palmeri as his fellow Alban champions. Jacqueline
Derval played the Horatiis' sister, Horatia, who is in love with Curazio. King
Tullius Hostilius ofRome was played by Robert KeithandAndreaAureli appeared
as Nezio, king of Alba. It was co-directed by Terence Young (immediately before
he helmed Dr No) and Ferdinanda Baldi. The Albans are presented as barbarians
who throw their prisoners into a wolf pit. Ladd was hired by Tiberia Films, but
they couldn't pay him his full salary. Financier Lux Films stepped in, so filming
could be completed in Italy, Yugoslavia and at Cinecitta Studios.
Arm ofFire (1964 - The Colossus ofRome) was set in soo BC, when banished
Tarquin the Proud (Massimo Serato) besieged Rome with aid from Etruscan King
Porsena. Gordon Scott starred as Roman hero Caius Mucius - their 'last minute
savior: according to the opening blurb. When his attempted assassination of
Porsena fails, Mucius plunges his right hand into a brazier. Thereafter he wears
an iron gauntlet on his disfigured hand and is known as Scaevola ('left-handed').
Directed by Giorgio Ferroni, this by-the-numbers peplum is particularly difficult
to follow in some video prints, as the reels are in the wrong order.

Hannibal and Carthage

The Rome-versus-Carthage Punic Wars provided spectacular fodder for Italian
epics. Hannibal (1959) was co-directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and Carlo Ludovico
Bragaglia. In 218 BC, Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca (Victor Mature) leads
his forces out of Spain into the Rhone valley and across the Alps to invade Italy,
his motto - 'Conquer or Die!' As they campaign through Italy, enjoying victory
at the Battle of Lake Trasimene (217 BC), Hannibal falls in love with Sylvia (Rita
Gam), the niece of Fabius Maximus (Gabriele Ferzetti), a powerful Roman sen­
ator. Hannibal's forces face the Romans, under the joint command of consuls
Varro (Andrea Aureli) and Aemilius (Andrea Fantasia), on the plains of Cannae
(216 BC).
 Hanni ba I is the story of the Second Punic War, peplurn-style, with little atten­
tion to historical accuracy. Victor Mature made a formidable eye-patched hero,
his brylcreamed quiff and kiss curl notwithstanding. Filmed in SuperCinescope
and Eastmancolor, Hannibal's set pieces were staged on location in Italy and
Yugoslavia. The mountain crossing begins Hannibal's campaign in style, as the
Carthaginian army coax their elephants over the Alps and long lines of frostbit­
ten troops snake their way through a snowbound landscape. Those who fall by
the wayside become wolf food. The elephants' scenes were filmed in an impres­
sive studio interior Alp set (at Incir-De Paolis Studios), with fake snow. Shots
of Hannibal's army on campaign are accompanied by Carlo Rustichelli's jaunty
march, with elephant-like trumpets and brass. The battle scenes are a mixture of
large-scale location scenes, intercut with studio-bound re-enactments. Cannae
is particularly impressive, with the Roman legions advancing across a yellowing
grass valley when the Carthaginians spring their ambush, leading to a melee
involving hundreds of extras.
The plot strikes a balance between politicised debate in the Roman senate,
the romantic Hannibal-Sylvia subplot (their trysts were filmed at Tor Caldara,
Anzio) and Hannibal's invasion. Milly Vitale appeared as Danila (the mother
of Hannibal's son) whose arrival causes Sylvia to flee to Rome, where she is
imprisoned for treason and buried alive. Rik Battaglia played Hannibal's brother
Hasdrubal, Mirko Ellis was General Mago and Franco Silva was Numidian general
Maharbal. Several stuntmen appear in acting roles, including Gino Marturano (a
Roman general), Remo De Angelis (a Carthaginian general), Pietro Ceccarelli (a
Carthaginian officer) and Benito Stefanelli and Nello Pazzafini (as wrestlers at
Capua). The film also featured Terence Hill as Fabius' son, Quintilius Maximus,
and Bud Spencer as barbarian chief Lutarius (in a red beard and horned helmet),
years before their success together.
Also set during the Punic Wars, Pietro Francisci's The Siege of Syracuse
(1960) takes us to Sicily, a vital objective for the Romans and Carthaginians. It
was filmed on location on the Anzio coast and at Cinecitta and NIS Studios, with
the accent on romance, as inventor Archimedes (heartthrob Rossano Brazzi)
forsakes his betrothed Clio (Sylva Koscina), the daughter of King Hieron, for
spicy dancer Diana (Tina Louise). Enrico Maria Salerno was Diana's treacherous
brother Gorgia, a spy in Syracuse. Angelo Francesco Lavagnino provided the lush
score. Only in the climax, when Archimedes' inventions (mirrored contraptions
that look like satellite dishes, which harness the suns rays into blinding laser
beams) burn the Roman fleet, does the film come alive, though the tragedy of
the story marks this out as a more mature work from Francisci. Clio's first child
is stillborn and she is killed in a chariot accident when her cloak tangles around
the wheel and the vehicle plunges off a cliff.
Directed by Carmine Gallone, who had made Scipio Africa nus (1937 - histor­
ical propaganda which boasted Mussolini among its fans), Carthage in Flames
(1960) was one of the most expensive Italian epics of the 196os. Despite the film's
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 57

pomp and grandeur, Gallone was from an earlier generation of filmmakers and
his static camera style labours through the 107-minute story. An international
cast headed by Anne Heywood enact the talky melodrama, which is set in 146
BC at the end of the Third Punic War. Besieged by the Romans under Scipio
Emilianus for three years, Carthage is doomed. The central love story is between
Carthaginian Hiram (Jose Suarez) and Roman Fulvia (Heywood), but Hiram
also loves Carthaginian Ophir (Haria Occhini), who is betrothed to Carthaginian
Tsour (Terence Hill, sporting one dangly earring and a costume that resembles
a genie's). Paolo Stoppa was Hiram's cohort Astarito and Pierre Brasseur was
good as pessimistic Sidone. The production design - especially the Temple of
Baal Moloch - and costumes are resplendent and the sea battle between Hiram's
ship, the Hemiolia, and a Carthaginian war vessel (with a battering ram and for­
tified turret) is one of the most impressive scenes in sword and sandal cinema.
The sacking of Carthage was staged at Cinecitta, with the set torched and extras
scrambling for safety through the blazing streets.

The Empire Strikes Back: Roman Conquests

Cameron Mitchell played Julius Caesar in Amerigo Anton's Caesar the
Conqueror (1962), based on De Bella Gallico, Caesar's recollections of the
Gaulish Invasion. The film benefits from plush visuals and large-scale battle
scenes, shot on location in Yugoslavia. Conqueror begins in 54 BC with Caesar
vanquishing the Gauls. Caesar pardons Chief Vercingetorix, who then leads
his people in revolt. With interiors filmed at De Laurentiis Studios, Conqueror
includes recreations of two key engagements: the Battles of Gergovia and Alesia,
in 52 BC. Alesia is one of the most studied sieges in tactical military history and
the sequence includes impressive matte shots by Joseph Nathanson of fortress
Alesia on the horizon. Caesar besieges the city with an earthwork stockade and
the Gauls emerge from their defences to face the Romans in open country. Rik
Battaglia (Vercingetorix) and Dominique Wilms (warrior queen Astrid) were
charismatic villains. The film is most notable for some fair moments of brutal­
ity: a blinded Roman soldier is discovered wandering a corpse-strewn battlefield
and Vercingetorix puts captured Roman soldiers to the sword and tortures oth­
ers with hot irons and floggings.
In Antonio Margheriti's The Giants of Rome (1964), Chief Vercingetorix
has holed up in the hill fortress of Alesia. Julius Caesar (Alessandro Sperli) plans
to send his legions through the Mountains of Alesia, but the pass is guarded by
Gaul's secret weapon. Caesar sends a crack squad of soldiers into the domain
of the mystical Druids to destroy it. The film is a derivative of The Magnificent
Seven and The Guns of Navarone. Caesar's 'special squad' consists of knife­
thrower Verus ('Only Jove is faster') played by Goffredo Unger, acrobat Valerius
(Alberto Dell 'Aqua), Castor (Ettore Manni), muscled, pony-tailed Goth axe-man
Germanicus (Rulph Hudson) and their leader, Claudius Marcellus (Harrison).
Margheriti shot most of the action in the Nature Reserve at Tor Caldara and the
caves of Grotte Di Salone, with interiors at Olimpia Studios and NC Studios,
Rome. The secret weapon is an immense catapult hidden in a cliffside cave,
which is capable of firing bags of rocks and two pitch balls which explode on
impact. There's almost non-stop action (as the squad negotiate Gaul-infested
territory) and moments of pathos (young Valerius is discovered crucified to a
tree). Germanicus takes on a bunch of Gallic cavalry with his axe in a scene nota­
ble for its violent horsefalls. Wandisa Guida played Livia and Philippe Hersent
was Drusus (two Roman hostages freed from the Gauls during the squad's mis­
sion), Piero Lulli appeared briefly as Caesar's opponent Pompey, and Renato
Baldini played the grand druid. As Caesar's legions arrive, Marcellus manages to
destroy the catapult by rolling it off a cliff.
Giacomo Gentilomo's Brennus Enemy of Rome (1963 - Battle of the
Spartans) was shot in Ultrascope at Olimpia Studios. It's a dose of 'history as
adventure', Italian-style, with muscleman Gordon Mitchell cast as Gaulish chief­
tain Brennus. The film begins in 391 BC, with Brennus taking the Roman town
of Clusium. The Roman populace huddles on the Capitoline Hill (one of the
Seven Hills of Rome), prepared for the worst. The film also details the mission
of Quintus Fabius (Tony Kendall) to rescue Nissia (Ursula Davis), a Roman kid­
napped to be Brennus' wife. The battles are bolstered with stock footage and the
destruction left in the Gauls' wake - fields of massacred dead, smouldering towns
and scavenging survivors - is convincing. Carlo Franci 's score is based partly on
themes from his earlier work, particularly Maciste in Hell. Mitchell (real name
Charles Allen Pendleton) in his imposing barbarian regalia dominates when­
ever he appears, his hewn-from-rock screen persona tailor-made for snarling
Brennus - the Ruler of the Dark Lands. Carla Calo appears as Gaulish priest­
ess Ahmed, Erno Crisa played disingenuous senator Lutinius, Andrea Aureli was
traitorous Turam the Etruscan and Lucio De Santis and Goffredo Unger were
Gallic raiders. Massimo Serato played General Marcus Furius Camillus, who
becomes a farmer, only to return to lead the army when all seems lost. As the
besieged Romans pay off Brennus with a thousand pounds of gold, weighed on
a giant set of scales, they complain the Gauls are cheating them. Brennus tosses
his sword onto the pile, shouting his famous line: 'Woe to the vanquished!'
Richard Harrison starred in Mario Caiano's The Two Gladiators ( 1964 - Fight
or Die) as Centurion Lucius Crassus, the twin brother of Commodus (Mimmo
Palmera), the violent emperor. Rome is in the grip of a famine. Crassus, with his
officers Horatius Devaticus (Giuliano Gemma) and Marcus Panuncius (Alvaro
De Luna), returns from battling the Gauls and foments rebellion. The film was
cheaply shot on location in the greenery of Lazio (including Tor Caldara, where
Crassus leads the Praetorian cavalry into quicksand) and on familiar streets and
palaces at De Paolis Studios. Piero Lulli played Cleander (the Praetorian com­
mander) and the love interest (Moira Orfei as evil Marcia; Ivy Holzer as virginal
Emilia) hardly feature. Palmera hams it up as Commodus and spouts some awful
lines ('By the precious girdle of Venus!') . Harrison and Palmera don't look like
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 59

twins, but their arena combat is effective, as both wear identical face-conceal­
ing Thracian helmets and are left-handed, generating a fair amount of tension.
The film's political message is simple: Crassus refuses to become emperor and
appoints experienced senator Pertinax (Mirko Ellis), reasoning, 'Power is a dan­
gerous potion and I might get drunk on it'.
Roman history was garbled by virtually the same cast in Alfonso Brescia's
The Revolt of the Pretorians (1964) . Valerius Rufus (Harrison), centurion
of the Praetorian Guard, leads a revolt against Domitian (Lulli), the despotic
emperor. Orfei played Domitian's consort Artomne. Gemma played Senator
Nerva, Ivy Holzer was handmaiden Zuza and Paola Pitti was Lucilla (Valerius'
lover), who Domitian plans to execute in a cauldron of boiling lead. The main
plot details a furry-masked Valerius terrorising the palace as his alter ego the Red
Wolf. Domitian is overthrown by the Praetorian Guard and a troupe of circus
entertainers (jugglers, strongmen and acrobats) who attack the Imperial Palace
(an Incir-De Paolis set). Midget Salvatore Furnari played Caesar's court jester
Elpidion, while Orfei's costume designs surreally colour-coordinated with her
vivid hairstyles.
Fellini Satyricon (1969) is a more stylised depiction of life in the Roman
Empire than its low-budget Cinecitta cousins. Fellini's narrative is episodic, sham­
bolic, almost nonexistent, which is fitting as only fragments of Petronius' source
text remain. Encolpio (Martin Potter) and Ascilto (Hiram Keller), and their lover
Gitone (Max Born), drift through a strange Roman landscape. Encolpio meets
poet Eumolpo (Salvo Randone) and attends a gluttonous feast hosted by Gaius
Pompeius Trimalcione (Mario Romagnoli). Encolpio, Gitone and Ascilto are cap­
tured by slave trader Lichas of Taranto (Alain Cuny) aboard his merchant ship.
Usurped Caesar (Tanya Lopert) commits suicide on the island of Taunia, his
corpse held aloft on spear points by treacherous soldiers. Encolpio and Ascilto
arrive at a villa where a husband and wife (Joseph Wheeler and Lucia Bose) have
committed suicide. Gordon Mitchell appears as a brigand who helps Encolpio
and Ascilto steal an anaemic hermaphrodite oracle, who dies of sunstroke in
the desert. Luigi Montefiori played the Minotaur - Encolpio is forced to fight
the beast in the labyrinth for the honour of Ariadne. To cure his impotence,
Encolpio visits Enotea, a powerful good witch (Vogue model Donyale Luna) who
transforms herself into an earth goddess, played by Maria Antonietta Beluzzi
(later the tobacconist in Amarcord). The cast is filled with Fellini grotesques -
dwarves, musclemen, hunchbacks, harlots, varlets and monsters. The aquiline
beauty of Capucine, as priestess Trifena, is a rare example of Fellini using an
established international name, as he often cast actors for their faces, not their
acting ability. Famed variety performer 'Fanfulla' (Luigi Visconti) played rau­
cous, farting actor Vernacchio. Mario Romagnoli (Trimalcione) was a Roman
restaurateur known as 'The Moor' and rather than recite his lines, he read out a
menu (his correct lines were dubbed in post-production). The script was a mix­
ture of profanity ('Wretched fate has me by the balls again, swinging on them'
complains Encolpio) and poetry ('Life passes like a shadow', observes a bard),
with Vulgar Latin and theatrical gesture conveying the dialogue's meaning.
Fellini filmed from November 1968 to late May 1969. Bankrolled by Italian
producer Alberto Grimaldi, it was the biggest production at Cinecitta since Ben­
Hur (1959), with 89 interior and exterior sets. The fantastical costumes and set­
tings, designed by Danilo Donati, were photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno,
with optical effects by Joseph Nathanson. The sets included the wide streets of
Rome and the tiered tenements of the 'Suburra' (red-light district) which is lev­
elled by that peplum staple, an earthquake. Fellini created windblown deserts,
burnished horizons and opulent villas - his aim was to make 'a sci-fi movie about
the past'. A giant statue's head is towed through the streets of Rome by horses;
a whale is landed on the deck of Lichas' galley; the new Caesar's army arrive in
Rome in a triumphant, cacophonous parade; and Encolpio fights the Minotaur
in a vast, dusty desert arena cheered on by a clattering, chanting crowd. Fellini
shot the slave ship sequences and Caesar's murder on and around the island of
Ponza (including the beach and cliffs at Chiaia Di Luna) . For the scene when poet
Eumolpo dies (to be cannibalistically devoured by his own benefactors), Fellini
filmed on the flat beach and dunes of Focene in Fiumicino. The film closes with
the protagonists depicted as frescos on ruined walls, as 'Roman Life' becomes
'Roman History'.
Satyricon's atonal musical score was by Nino Rota, in collaboration with
Ihlan Mimaroglu, Tod Dockstader and Andrew Rudin. 'The Drums of the
Niegpadouda Dance: which accompanied a frenzied dance by Fortunata (Magali
Noel) at Trimalcione's orgy, was from 'Anthology ofMusic ofBlackAfrica'. Natural
sounds - the wind, bird trills and squawks - proliferate on the soundtrack. The
film's title doesn't arise from its director's vanity, but because the rights to the
title Satyricon were owned by producer Alfredo Bini, who mounted his own
version directed by Gian Luigi Polidoro. Fellini Satyricon was released interna­
tionally in 1970, promoted by the tagline 'Rome. Before Christ. After Fellini'. It
remains one of the most financially successful Italian films and is the epitome of
Fellini's carnivalesque, unique cinema.

Circus Maximus: Gladiators

Perhaps the liveliest Italian historical epics were gladiator movies. Hollywood's
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) starring Victor Mature was a key influ­
ence on the Italian sub-genre, as was Riccardo Freda's Sins of Rome (1953), star­
ring Massimo Girotti. But it was the international success of Stanley Kubrick's
Spartacus (1960), depicting the slave revolt in 73 BC (the Third Servile War)
led by Thracian Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), that prompted many derivatives.
A familiar tale of armour and amore, Alberto De Martino's Gladiators Seven
(1962 - or Gladiators 7) starred Richard Harrison as gladiator hero Darius, who is
granted his freedom and returns to Sparta. Darius learns that his father has been
murdered and Hiarba (Gerard Tichy) has taken power as first emperor. Hiarba
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 61

plans to marry Aglaia (Loredana Nusciak), Darius' girl, with help from her
father Milon (Edoardo Toniolo), henchman Macrobius (Antonio Molino Rojo)
and an army of mercenaries. Darius and Livius (Enrique Avila) recruit gladia­
tors: drunkard knifethrower Flaccus (Barta Barri), strongman Mados (Antonio
Rubio), archer Xeno (Jose Marco), slingshot-wielding blacksmith Panurgus of
Thrace (Livio Lorenzon) and acrobatic Vargas (Nazzareno Zamperla) . They are
aided by Panurgus' daughter Licia (Franca Badeschi) and hide out in the moun­
tains at Fezda.
Though set in the first century AD, Gladiators Seven closely resembles The
Magnificent Seven, while the dusty Madrid exteriors at Manzanares El Real and
La Pedriza would be reused for spaghetti westerns. Marcello Giombini's score
resembles a western, with its horn-led 'love theme' for Aglaia and a galloping
'riding theme'. Interiors were filmed at Rome's De Paolis Studios and Madrid's
Sevilla Films Studios. The arena combat scenes, with Darius and his men taking
on Hiraba's mercenaries, are inventively staged: bowman Xeno fires four arrows
simultaneously and Vargas gymnastically avoids the attention of a wild bull.
Gladiators Seven benefits from clever perspectival special effects by 'Emilio Ruiz'
(full name Emilio Ruiz Del Rio) - he later worked on the 'Conan the Barbarian'
movies, Dune, The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth. His work is especially
noteworthy in the panorama dominated by Hiarba's jagged eagle's nest fortress
perched on a mountain. Darius fights bullwhipping Hiarba atop the fortress's
tower and Hiarba plunges to his death. Rather than it being a film about gladia­
tors fighting for freedom and democracy, this is a tale of revenge - any righting­
of-wrongs is a by-product of the hero's vendetta.
Anthony Momplet and Alberto De Martino's The Invincible Gladiator
(1962) was also filmed in Spain. Set in the Roman city of Acastus in the third
century AD, the film starred Harrison as gladiator Restius, who saves the life of
ruler Rabirius (Leo Anchoriz). Prime minister Rabirius is ruling until the dead
king's children, Princess Sira (Isabelle Corey) and 12-year-old Darius, come of
age. Rabirius plans to marry Sira and become regent. Restius is appointed head
of a campaign to flush out mountain brigand opponents of Rabirius but discov­
ers that Sira is their leader. Restius joins Sira in her fight to dethrone Rabirius,
releasing from servitude his gladiator friends. The supporting cast includes
Jose Marco as Restius' companion Vibius, Livio Lorenzon as gladiator trainer
ltus, George Martin as a gladiator and Antonio Molino Rojo as Rabirius' advisor,
Euphante. It was shot at Sevilla Film Studios for Acastus's exterior sets, with De
Paolis for interiors. Restius' convoy surprises the ambushing rebels with archer­
filled carts (filmed at La Pedriza, Manzanares El Real) and there's a cross-country
chariot race which ends with Restius' vehicle plummeting off a cliff. The gladiator
sequences, set in an impressive arena and deploying some eye-catching helmets,
were choreographed by Giorgio Ubaldi and pitted swordsmen against 'Retiarri'
(armed with nets and tridents). Vibius is attacked by a squad of gladiator midg­
ets, which is an accurate depiction of ancient Rome's perverse entertainment.
 Harrison's action-packed Messalina against the Son of Hercules (1963) cast
Lisa Gastoni as the wanton empress and Harrison as gladiator Glaucus, while
Dan Vadis and Alan Steel starred in Domenico Paolella's The Rebel Gladiators
(1962). Mario Caiano's lively Maciste, Gladiator of Sparta (1964 - The Terror of
Rome against the Son of Hercules) featured Mark Forest and Marilu Tolo, who
also co-starred in Alfonso Brescia's The Magnificent Gladiator (1964). The cheap
Gladiator of Rome (1962 - Battles of the Gladiators) cast Gordon Scott as
slave Marcus, who attempts to protect Princess Nisa (Wandisa Guida) from a
Phoenician assassin, General Astade (Piero Lulli), at the time of Christian-pagan
conflicts during Emperor Caracalla's reign. Marcus is sent to gladiator school
(a sort of 'Maim Academy') and sides with the mocked, persecuted Christian
'fanatics'. A low-rent gladiator revolt saves Marcus and Nisa from crucifixion.
A key addition to the cycle was the 'Ten Gladiators' trilogy, which began with
Gianfranco Parolini's The Ten Gladiators (1963) . Roccia (Dan Vadis) and his
Thracian gladiators - en route from Herculaneum to perform in Rome - become
embroiled in a plot to assassinate Emperor Claudius Nero (Gianni Rizzo) .
Glaucus Valerius (Roger Browne) is the head of the conspiracy to install Servius
Galba (Mirko Ellis) on the throne. With help from the gladiators, Glaucus' plan
succeeds, but at the cost of Roccia's life. The familiar cast included Jose Greci as
Livia (Glaucus' love interest), Ugo Sasso as Restius (the gladiators' trainer) and
Sal Borgese as mute gladiator Minos, with stuntmen Aldo Canti, Pietro Torrisi,
Emilio Messina and Giuseppe Mattei as gladiators. Vassili Karis appeared as
Epaphoritos, Nero's food taster who eventually stabs his master. Nero's death was
filmed on the steps of the Palazzo Della Civilta, EUR in Rome, part ofMussolini's
monument to fascism. Tigelinus (Mimmo Palmera), centurion of the Praetorian
Guard, is stabbed by the gladiators, his chest porcupined with swords. Parolini
appears as Senator Lucius Verus, a Christian who is thrown to the lions. The
murder of Nero's wife, Poppea (Margaret Taylor), is noteworthy. Tigelinus, who
loves Poppea and is being tested by Nero, arrives at her picturesque island pal­
ace by boat (filmed on the lake at Villa Borghese, Rome). Poppea, in a white
dress, greets him, they embrace, he stabs her and she falls bleeding into a beau­
tiful arching fountain (at EUR). Parolini uses stock footage from The Colossus
of Rhodes and The Last Days of Pompeii and his eye for picturesque settings
and action - Nero's mountaintop palace garden at Capua bursting with floral
colour; Restius' rain-drenched funeral; and the final battle amid burning cruci­
fied Christians - raises the scenes visually, but the film is too dependent on stock
footage to be successful in its own right.
Ten Gladiators was followed by two sequels. Both starred Vadis as Roccia,
were directed by Nick Nostro and had stirring scores by Carlo Savina. In
Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators (1964 - Day ofVengeance), Roccia and his
gladiators save Lydia (Ursula Davis), the daughter of villainous senator Julius
Varro (Gianni Rizzo), who is using slave labour to build the Great Aqueduct
(stock footage from Pontius Pilate). The gladiators are dispatched by Varro to
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 63

capture bandit Spartacus (John Heston), but they side with him. Varro mobi­
lises the Roman army (footage from Hannibal) and in a pitched battle (foot­
age from Sign of the Gladiator), the rebel slaves defeat the legions and Varro is
killed. Filmed in the familiar Lazio landscape - Tor Caldara for Spartacus' camp
and Caldara Di Manziana for Varro's aqueduct work camp - the film is littered
with punch ups, staged con brio. Enzo Fiermonte played gladiator Restius (res­
urrected from the first film) with Sal Borgese, Emilio Messina, Aldo Canti and
Pietro Torrisi as Roccia's bunch. Pietro Ceccarelli played gladiatorial impresario
Terapsis, Helga Line was slave Daria (Roccia's lover) and British wrestler Milton
Reid was memorable as Varro's bulldog henchman Cimbro, who kidnaps Daria
in a quadriga and is chased along a picturesque lakeside by the heroes.
Triumph of the Ten Gladiators (1964) thriftily reuses stock footage - a
cave battle (from The Colossus of Rhodes); Steve Reeves riding into Pompeii
and the arena crowd (both from The Last Days of Pompeii) - in the best of the
trilogy. Roccia and his gladiators are sent on tour by Publius Quintilius Rufus
(Carlo Tamberlani), pro consul of Syria, to Arbela - ostensibly to entertain the
court, but really to kidnap the queen, Moluya (Helga Line) . They are accom­
panied by centurion Glaucus (Stelio Candelli) and must combat the evil prime
minister, Prince Aramandro (John Heston), and his Parthian mercenaries.
Moluya is the masked rebel leader who is attempting to overthrow Aramandro.
Action sequences were again staged in EUR (including the arched fountain),
with interiors at ATC Studios. Triumph features a well-mounted scene when the
rebel army appear from behind the rubbled architecture in a ruined city, sur­
prising the gladiators. Gianni Rizzo played the queen's advisor Sextus Vittorius,
Enzo Fiermonte was Restius, Halina Zalewska played Myrta (Restius' niece,
who falls for Glaucus), Pietro Ceccarelli played Antioch impresario Navatao,
Leontine May was evil Parthian princess Salima, with Canti, Borgese, Messina
and Torrisi as the gladiators. The 'Ten Gladiators' films feature exciting scenes
of gladiatorial combat and are powered along by their own dumb, illogical
momentum.
In The Spartan Gladiators (1964 - The Secret Seven) Spartan Keros (Tony
Russel) searches for a statuette containing a treaty which incriminates Sar (Nando
Gazzolo). Keros is joined by several freedom fighters - rebels Baxo (Massimo
Serato), Silone (Piero Lulli) and Renato Rossini (Croto), ex-gladiator Mardok
(Pietro Capanna), and travelling actor Nemete (Livio Lorenzon) and fire-eater
Jagul (Dakar). Filmed at Incir-De Paolis Studios and in the Lazio countryside,
the meandering narrative consisted of Kero's band hiding out with Nemete's
travelling players. There are comedy moments (Keros and company appear in
drag), a herd of longhorn cattle is stampeded at Sar's cavalry (though a row of
telegraph poles can be seen in the background) and the rebels deploy a flameth­
rower. The finale has Keros and Sar duelling in a swampy Caldara Di Manziana.
Paola Pitti was Elea (Keros' lover) and Helga Line was bigamous Aspasia, Sar's
lover who is also married to Baxo.
 M·G·M PRESENTS

WITH

JACQUES GIANNA MARIA CLAUDIO

SERNAS CANALE GORA
DIRECTED BY

_L -

Steve Reeves as Centurion Randus duels with an Iscian warrior in Sergio Corbucci's The Son of
Spartacus (1963). UK poster courtesy William Connolly Archive.
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 65

Sergio Corbucci's The Son of Spartacus (1963) was retitled The Slave in
the US. It is 20 years since Spartacus's uprising and his vanquisher - slave trader
Marcus Licinius Crassus (Claudio Gora) - is now consul of the African province
of Iscia. Crassus is preparing to strike against Rome, so Caesar sends Centurion
Randus (Steve Reeves) and his Germanicscout Barros (Franco Balducci) to Zudma
to investigate. When he meets ex-gladiator Gular (Enzo Fiermonte), Randus is
identified as Spartacus's son by the Thracian amulet around his neck.
Corbucci's best peplum, Son ofSpartacus is also one of Reeves' finest vehicles.
It's a big-budget production photographed on location in Egypt in Eastmancolor
and CinemaScope by Enzo Barboni. Interiors were filmed at Titanus Studios in
Rome and at Studi MISR Guizeh Le Caire, in Cairo. Piero Piccioni composed the
edifying score, which is recycled from Romulus and Remus. Memorable settings
include Caesar's camp beside the pyramids and Sphinx; bustling Alexandria; sail
boats on the Nile; and the sun-crumbled, dune-buried ruins of the City of the
Sun - a refuge for escaped slaves, wherein lies Spartacus's tomb. Jacques Sernas
played Crassus' greedy henchman Vertius and Gianna Maria Canale was Vertius'
easily flattered sister Claudia (Crassus' consort). Ombretta Colli played slave
Saida with whom Randus falls in love and Benito Stefanelli played Zorak, the
leader of Crassus' leopardskin-clad, black-cloaked Iscian warriors. Rand us dons
his father's famous armour - including a huge, visored helmet - to raid Crassus'
property. Spartacus leaves a large red 'S' as his calling card (like Zarro), while his
quick-change act owes much to Superman. Crassus drowns slaves in the rising
tide and asphyxiates them in a giant bubble with a red-hued deadly vapour as
court entertainment. In revenge, the revolting slaves melt down Crassus' gold
and force him to swallow his molten wealth. Randus is sentenced by Caesar to
be crucified as 'an example' to other insurgents, but in an ending that echoes
Kubrick's Spartacus, the populace curtail the execution, stating that they must
all be crucified - 'We are Spartacus!'

One God: Romans versus Christians

One of the great early Italian epics was Fa biola (1948), Alessandro Blasetti's tale of
persecuted Christians in fourth-century Rome. In the wake of Hollywood epics
such as Ben-Hur, Italian filmmakers made several variations on the pagan Romans
versus devout Christians discord - The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) being the
most famous example. When director Mario Bannard fell ill, it was completed by
Sergio Leone, who also collaborated on the screenplay (based on the 1834 Bulwer­
Lytton novel of the same name) with Duccio Tessari and Sergio Corbucci. In 79
AD Centurion Glaucus Lito (Steve Reeves), the conqueror of Palestine and Syria,
returns to Pompeii, under the shadow of rumbling Vesuvius. Murderous hooded
fanatics are attacking Roman villas and Glaucus' father has fallen victim to them.
Consul Ascanius (Guillermo Marin) suspects the Christians and persecutes the
sect, but Glaucus, with the help of street thiefAntoninus Marcus (Angel Aranda),
discovers that the culprits operate from the sacred Temple of Isis, presided over
by Arbaces (Fernando Rey), the Egyptian high priest. Ascanius' Egyptian con­
cubine Julia Lavinia (Annemarie Baumann) is the ringleader - with Arbaces she
plans to return to Egypt and oust the Roman invaders. Glaucus falls for Ascanius'
daughter, lone (Christine Kauffman), a Christian, but as Glaucus, lone and the
Christians are about to be fed to the lions in the arena, Vesuvius goes bang.
Filmed at CEA Studios (Madrid) and Cinecitta (Rome), Pompeii is a slow
97 minutes. Reeves was again pitted against Mimmo Palmera (as Gallinus,
a Praetorian Guard) and Carlo Tamberlani was dignified as the leader of the
Christians. In a typically Reeves-ian resolution, Glaucus saves the Christians in
the arena by wrestling a lion. Barbara Carroll garnered sympathy as lone's blind
servant, Nydia, who inadvertently discloses the Christians' catacomb hideout.
The Supertotalscope Eastmancolor cinematography showcased the great sets,
notably the authentic-looking streets of Pompeii, with cobbles and flagged pav­
iors, market stalls and hefty curb stones. Pompeii had already been destroyed
by an earthquake in 62 AD and was a half-built city in rejuvenation when it was
levelled in 79 AD. Its destruction redeems the film, the street sets demolished en
masse. The Temple of Isis collapses and the town is showered with cascading hot
coals and cinders and is torn asunder by yawning fissures, intercut with spew­
ing lava stock footage (courtesy of Haroun Terzieff), resulting in an impressive
Acropolis Now.
A great success in Italy, Pompeii was much imitated, with Gianfranco
Parolini's 79 AD (1962 - The Destruction of Herculaneum) the most obvious
example. Starring Brad Harris and featuring raft-bourn gladiatorial combat on
a fiery, crocodile-infested lake, it was retitled The Last Days of Herculaneum in
France. Herculaneum was a small township also engulfed by the famous erup­
tion. Last Days ofPompeii remains the best-known version of the story, despite
the appearance in 1984 of a seven-hour UK-Italian TV series of the same story
starring Anthony Quayle, Ned Beatty, Lesley-Anne Down, Laurence Olivier,
Marilu Tolo, Brian Blessed, Ernest Borgnine and Franco Nero.
The title of Sign of the Gladiator (1959) is somewhat misleading, as there
is no sign of a gladiator in Guido Brignone's tale of Rome's battles with Zenobia
(Anita Ekberg), queen of Palmyra: 'The City of Palms'. Marcus Valerius (Georges
Marchal), the vanquished commander of Rome's forces, is put to work in the
Syrian mines. As part of a plan to dethrone Zenobia he embarks on 'a love cam­
paign: seducing her. Zenobia is betrayed by her counsellor Semantius (Folco
Lulli), who plans to seize power with the aid of King Shapur of neighbouring
Persia. The Romans defeat the Palmyrans in a pitched battle at Jaffa Gorge, leaving
Zenobia the Romans' prisoner. A subplot had Roman Decurion Julian (Jacques
Sernas) fall in love with Vestal Virgin Bathsheba (Lorella De Luca), a believer in
Christianity. Lator, the leader of the Christians, was a rare sympathetic role for
Mimmo Palmera. Chelo Alonso was Erika, Semantius' lover, who twirls her waist­
length hair through an explosive belly dance. Gino Cervi played Emperor Aurelian
and Arturo Dominici appeared as the mine's overseer. When Brignone fell ill,
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 67

Sign was completed by Michelangelo Antonioni, a director who cut his teeth in
popular cinema but went on to gain international 'arthouse' success. Riccardo
Freda directed the big battle sequence, staged in a valley in Yugoslavia, which
with the addition of a few palm trees passed for the Syrian desert. The Palmyran
mine exterior was the entrance to Grotte Di Salone in Italy and the palace scenes
were shot at Incir-De Paolis. The Battle of Jaffa Gorge was pilfered by cheaper
pepla as stock footage. The outnumbered Romans ambush the Palmyrans in a
valley and bombard them with catapults which shoot fireballs and flaming jave­
lins, while a huge booby-trapped pit swallows the Palmyran cavalry charge.
Lionella De Felice's Constantine and the Cross (1962 - Constantine the
Great) cast Hollywood star Cornel Wilde as the first Christian emperor of the
Roman Empire. Filmed in Lazio and Yugoslavia, this is the film Last Days of
Pompeii should have been. Set 'Three Centuries after the birth of Christ: the
Roman Empire is on the verge of implosion, with Diocletian ruling the eastern
domain and Maximanus ruling the west. Infighting in Rome has resulted in civil
war, with prefect of the Praetorians Maxentius (Massimo Sera to) seizing power.
Constantine is in love with Fausta (Belinda Lee), Maxentius' sister. Christine
Kaufman played persecuted Christian Livia. Kaufman's performance and the
drama that unfolds as the Romans seek to exterminate the threat to their pagan
gods make the film superior to all other peplum treatments of the subject. The
Christians are thrown to the lions and tortured in scenes which are still power­
ful - there's no Steve Reeves to wrestle the lions here. Their unshakable faith
('I believe in one God') impresses Constantine, a wise man torn between pagan
Rome and what he feels is morally right. It is revealed that he is the son of a
Christian, Elena (Elisa Cegani), and his friend Centurion Hadrian (Fausto Tozzi)
falls in love with Livia, drawing Constantine closer to the Christian faith.
Constantine's forces are trapped between Maxentius and his ally Licinius
(Nando Gazzolo). On the eve of the battle at Milvian Bridge, Constantine wit­
nesses a vision of a bright cross in the sky during a storm and hears the voice of
God telling him, 'Heed this sign - ye shall conquer' (the actual quote, attributed
to Constantine's biographer Eusebius, was 'Hoc signo vince' - 'By this sign, win
your victory') . Constantine's forces fight under standards based on the Christian
cross and are victorious. Made with considerable resources, the film opens in
Treviri, Southern Germany, with Constantine's legions sacking a barbarian set­
tlement - this isn't the usual three barbarian extras running past the camera 10
times but is staged on a rather grand scale. The final re-enactment of the Battle
of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD) deploys multitudes of well-drilled extras. Much
of this stirring footage, of marching legions in square formation and columns of
cavalry, reappeared as stock in lesser pepla.

Tales of the Nile

The publicity surrounding the making of Cleopatra (1963) resulted in a minor
Italian fad for Egyptian-set epics. The Liz Taylor-Richard Burton film, financed
by Twentieth Century-Fox, had begun shooting in Pinewood Studios, London, in
September 1960 and was completed, after relocating to Cinecitta, in March 1963,
at a cost of $44 million. Taylor donned 65 costumes in the title role - enough
outfits to clothe the casts of three low-budget pepla. Cleopatra boasted two tre­
mendous set-pieces: Cleopatra's entrance into Rome on a sphinx drawn by hun­
dreds of slaves (filmed at Cinecitta) and the sea battle of Actium, filmed near the
island of Ischia.
Vittorio Cottafavi's Legions of the Nile (1960), starring Argentinian Linda
Cristal as Cleopatra and Georges Marchal as Mark Anthony, was suppressed by
Fox for ssoo,ooo, to avoid having two Cleos at the box office. Pascale Petit played
Cleo in A Queen for Caesar (1962) with Gordon Scott as her beefy Caesar and
Italian filmmakers ensured that all Cleopatra's relatives were catered for. Mark
Damon starred as rebel El Kebir fighting the Romans in Ferdinanda Baldi's Son
of Cleopatra (1964), which also starred Scilla Gabel; Fernando Cerchio directed
Cleopatra's Daughter (1960) and Nefertite - Queen of the Nile (1961).
Debra Paget was cast as Shila, the regent's daughter, in Cleopatra's
Daughter. Shila is forced to marry hypochondriac pharaoh Nemorat (Corrado
Pani) by his pushy mother Tegi (Yvette Lebon), but pharaoh's right-hand-man
Kefron has other ideas, framing Shila for pharaoh's murder and seizing power.
Pietro Ceccarelli had a cameo as Tutek, the royal mummifier, and Ettore Manni
was the hero, physician Razi. Shila is given a potion by Razi which induces a tem­
porary coma and is buried in a sarcophagus in the pharaoh's tomb. To save Shila,
Razi kidnaps architect Inuni (Robert Alda) and negotiates the network of booby
traps designed to kill tomb raiders.
Cerchio's Nefertite - Queen of the Nile cast former 'Miss Long Beach'
Jeanne Crain as Tanit, who is anointed high priestess Nefertite in Thebes. She
is torn between sculptor Tumos (Edmond Purdon, here resembling footballer
George Best) and a forced marriage to Pharaoh Amenophis (Amedeo Nazzari) .
Shot at Incir-De Paolis Studios, it epitomises the Italian 'Cleopatra' movies,
with great sets, lighting, costumes and eyeliner disguising a paper-thin plot.
Lovestruck Tumos is commissioned to produce a bust of his beloved, while inter­
religion rivalry foments rebellion. Liana Orfei performed an exotic dance at an
oasis as Tumos' admirer Merith; Carlo D'Angelo played Saper (heretic to the sun
god Aten) and Umberto Raho was a priest to Amon. Nefertite's trump card is
the presence of Vincent Price as the villain, Benakon, the high priest of Amon.
Kitted out in a black braided wig, eyeliner, dramatic eyebrows, a leopardskin
cloak and a spangly swimming cap, Price struggles to play it straight.
Fernando Cerchio'sAncient Egyptian set Toto Versus Maciste (1962) starred
Samson Burke as Maciste, the lover of Nefertite (Gabriella Andreini) . Pharaoh's
wife Faraona (Nadine Saunders) aims to topple her husband Ramses (Nerio
Bernardi). Weedy strongman Totokamen (Toto) and his manager Tarantakamen
(Nino Taranto) arrive in Thebes and Toto is appointed commander of the Theban
army. Toto Versus Maciste is a passable genre pastiche, with great costumes and
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 69

hieroglyphic-etched sets (filmed in Totalscope at De Paolis) augmented with

stock footage. A highlight is Toto's act - in a stripy strongman leotard, he dem­
onstrates his inflatable bicep, bends an iron bar, spits fire, spouts steam from
his ears and escapes from binding chains. Toto and Cerchio also made Toto and
Cleopatra (1963), with Magali Noel as Cleo.
In Giorgio Ferroni's The Lion of Thebes (1964), Mark Forest played Arion
(who possesses the 'Strength of Hercules'), who is escorting Helen (Yvonne
Furneaux) to safety following the sacking of Troy. Shipwrecked on the shores of
Egypt (Tor Caldara beach), they are taken to Pharaoh Ramses (Pierre Cressoy).
The pharaoh is knocked out by Helen's beauty, while his fiancee, Nais (Rosalba
Neri), is less impressed by the interloper. Arion becomes the Lion ofThebes when
the Mighty Gaor (Nello Pazzafini) is killed by a poisonous snake. A power strug­
gle between the pharaoh and Tutmes (Massimo Serato) results in Ramses' mur­
der. Thebes is attacked by rival Menophis (Carlo Tamberlani), who arrives with
Helen's vengeful husband, Menelaus (Alberto Lupo). The film becomes bogged
down in labyrinthine court intrigue, though the Egyptian army's outsized pickle
fork spears leaven the monotony. Unconvincing 'exterior' desert scenes were
filmed in De Paolis Studios and the civil war consists entirely of stock footage.
The UK print begins with a printed scrawl explaining Helen and Arion's plight.
When Helen experiences a traumatic flashback, she (and the audience) endures
another reuse of footage from Ferroni's The Trojan War.

Thus It Was Written: The Old Testament

There were several Italian Old and New Testament biblical epics patterned on
the American model, with impressive spectacle and much dialogue, but little
action. Esther and the King (1960) cast Joan Collins as Esther and Richard
Egan as Ahasuerus, the Persian king. Returning to Shushan from his war with
the Egyptians, Ahasuerus discovers that his wife, Queen Vashti (Daniela Rocca),
has been unfaithful with Prince Haman (Sergio Fantoni). Haman and General
Klidrates (Rena to Baldini) convince the good king to persecute the Judean set­
tlements in Persia, until Esther exposes Haman's duplicity. Esther deployed
Mario Bava as cinematographer; his signature lighting effects are apparent,
particularly in a dancing girls' routine (accompanied by a Lavagnino-Nicolosi
composition sung by Gianna Spagnolo) . Rik Battaglia appeared as Esther's hus­
band-to-be, Simon, and Rosalba Neri was memorable as sultry Karesh, Haman's
seductive pawn.
Gianfranco De Bosio's violent, six-hour, Italian-UK TV series Moses the
Lawgiver (1975) is best remembered for its excellent locations (photographed by
Marcello Gatti in the Israeli desert, at Tor Caldara and at Cinecitta) and for Ennio
Morricone's hymnal score featuring haunting vocal solos by Gianna Spagnolo.
Burt Lancaster starred as Moses and also dubbed the Voice of God (via the burn­
ing bush). The series depicted Moses leading the Israelites' exodus out of Egypt
to the Promised Land of Canaan and includes recreations of the parting of the
Red Sea and Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Mario
Bava directed the special effects. The literate script had Moses observing, 'A mir­
acle, I suppose, is something you need, happening when you need it'. Lancaster's
son William played young Moses and the cast included Anthony Quayle, Irene
Papas, Ingrid Thulin, Jacques Hedin and Umberto Raho. It was also released as a
choppy 136-minute feature, Moses.
joseph and his Brethren (1960 - Sold into Egypt) told the story of Joseph
and his 'coat of many colours', with Geoffrey Horne as Joseph, Robert Morley
as Potifar, and Belinda Lee, Vira Silenti, Arturo Dominici and Terence Hill.
David and Goliath (1961), co-directed by Richard Pottier and Ferdinanda
Baldi, and presented by Beaver-Champion Attractions Inc., was shot on loca­
tion in Jerusalem and Yugoslavia, with interiors at Amato Studio and De Paolis.
Yugoslav actor Ivo Payer starred as 'David, Son of Jesse', a shepherd who stands
up for the Israelites against the Philistines, led by King Asrod (Furio Meniconi)
and his champion Goliath (Kronos). Massimo Serato played duplicitous Abner
and Edward Hilton was a worthy Prophet Samuel. With dialogue bristling with
thee's and thou's, the film manages an authentic biblical flavour and is worth
seeing for David's final slingshot-versus-spear shootout with Goliath. The film is
best remembered today for Orson Welles, wearing a false nose and what appears
to be a tent, as King Saul, in one of his first Italian acting jobs to raise funds for
his pet directorial projects.
Robert Aldrich's The Last Days ofSodom and Gomorrah (1962 - Sodom
and Gomorrah and Sodom and Gomorrah: Twin Cities ofSin) was the last word in
Italian biblical spectacles and one that proved costly to the Italian film industry.
Due to a difficult shoot in Morocco and financial wrangles between producer
Goffredo Lombardo (for Titanus), Joseph E. Levine (the US distributor) and
Aldrich, the cost escalated from $2 million to $5 million. Second-unit director
Sergio Leone was fired for taking extended lunch breaks and Oscar Rudolph
took over. Lot (Stewart Granger) leads the Hebrews into the Jordan Valley, in
the shadow of iniquitous Sod om and Gomorrah, which is ruled by Queen Bera
(Anouk Aimee) and her brother, Prince Astaroth (Stanley Baker). Following an
attack by nomadic Helamite raiders led by Segur (Daniele Vargas), the Hebrews
shelter in Sodom and Gomorrah. They become wealthy salt sellers when vast
mineral deposits are discovered on their land and soon the corrupted Hebrews
are indistinguishable from the Sodomites. Lot kills Astaroth when he discovers
that his virtuous daughters Shuah (Rosanna Podesta) and Maleb (Claudia Mori)
have been dishonoured by the prince. In prison Lot is visited by celestial envoys
of Jehovah. Lot leads his people to safety, as vengeful Jehovah destroys Sodom
and Gomorrah and its people in a cataclysm. Though the Hebrews have been
warned not to look back at Sodom, Lot's wife, ex-slave Ildith (Pier Angeli), can't
help herself and is transformed into a pillar of salt.
Sodom and Gomorrah was filmed at the impressive fortified desert town
at Ait Ben Haddou, on the Ouarzazate River (with interiors at Titanus) . The
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 71

production design was by Ken Adam and the music was composed by Miklos
Rozsa. Antonio De Teffe/'Anthony Steffen' played a Sodomite captain, Giacomo
Rossi-Stuart was Ishmael and Rik Battaglia was Melchior. The film highlights
some grim torture chamber scenes. Sodomite slave girl Tamar (Scilla Gabel) is
hugged to death by Arno (Mimmo Palmera) - a blind man wearing a spiked
leather jerkin - and slaves are burned to death on a huge revolving wheel. During
Lot and Ildith's wedding, the Helamite cavalry attack the Hebrew settlement as
Segur yells, 'The word of the day is kill!' This impressive sequence was filmed in
Marrakech, Morocco, by Leone's second unit. The Helamites burn the Hebrews'
camp and charge across a plain, and the Hebrews halt them with slingshots,
arrows and a fiery oil-filled trench. Having built the Great Dam to irrigate the
valley using water from the Jordan, Lot destroys it, sluicing away the Helamites.
The uncut print of this opulent, overblown classic runs 143 minutes, while a more
widely seen truncated print, some 30 minutes shorter, plays like a 'highlights-of­
the-action' trailer. On its release in Italy in October 1962, the film was a costly
flop, marking the 'Last Days of Hollywood on the Tiber', as US producers and
directors pulled out of Rome en masse. Leone later reused the plot of worthless
desert land which becomes valuable in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Dino De Laurentiis, who styled himself the Italian Cecil B. De Mille, par­
tially stemmed this exodus with The Bible ... in the Beginning (1966). John
Huston directed this mammoth $18 million production on location in Rome (at
De Laurentiis Studios, 'Dinocitta'), Sicily (Mount Etna), Egypt and Tunisia. The
film depicted the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, including the Creation,
the Garden of Eden, the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. The all-star cast included George C. Scott (Abraham), Ava
Gardner (Sarah), Peter O'Toole (the Angel of the Lord), Stephen Boyd (Nimrod),
Gabriele Ferzetti (Lot), Eleanora Rossi Drago (Lot's wife), Richard Harris (Cain)
and Franco Nero (Abel) . Huston played Noah, whose segment featured a rep­
lica ark costing $3oo,ooo and animals imported from a zoo in Germany. It was
released to critical ridicule but remains one of the most financially successful
Italian films.

Tales of the Christ: The New Testament

The New Testament also provided plenty of material for Italian epics. Edmund
Purdom starred as Herod the Great (1959), the King of Judea. The film begins
with the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony at Actium - Herod was allied
to them and must now suffer reprisals from Octavian (Massimo Girotti) . Most
of the story is talky court intrigue, staged on vast Jerusalem palace interior sets
at Cinecitta (with some good exteriors of the city created in matte by Joseph
Nathanson) . Sylvia Lopez made a luscious Miriam (Herod's wife) and Fellini
favourite Sandra Milo played Sarah, the lover of Herod's commander of the
guard, Aaron (Alberto Lupo). Jealous Herod suspects Aaron and Miriam of
having an affair, so he tortures Aaron and has his wife stoned to death, whilst
also drowning Miriam's brother Daniel. The film ends with Herod, now insane,
receiving news from a shepherd (Carlo D'Angelo) of the birth of the King of
the Jews in Bethlehem. The despot orders all newborns to be killed, before col­
lapsing and dying during a storm signifying the wrath of God. Irving Rapper's
Pontius Pilate (1961) focussed on the Roman prefect of Judea (played by Jean
Marais) who quells an uprising by Barabbas (Livio Lorenzon).
Telling the story of the robber who was freed so that Christ would die wasn't
going to be easy, but director Richard Fleischer pulled it off, with an all-star cast
and an excellent script by Christopher Fry. Barabbas (1961), produced by Dino
De Laurentiis and filmed at Dinocitta, was based on the novel by Nobel Prize
winner Par Lagerkvist. The story follows Barabbas (Anthony Quinn) in the first
century AD, commencing with his pardon by Pilate (Arthur Kennedy). He wit­
nesses Christ's crucifixion (filmed during an actual eclipse on 15 February 1961)
but returns to a life of outlawry, until he's sentenced to life imprisonment in
the Sicilian sulphur mines (filmed on barren Mount Etna, Sicily). Having spent
20 years choking below ground, Barabbas and his companion Sahak (Vittorio
Gassman) survive a mine disaster and are taken by Senator Rufio (Norman
Woodland) and his wife, Julia (Valentina Cortese), to Rome, where they are
trained by Torvald (a manic Jack Palance) to become gladiators. Granted his
freedom, Barabbas is arrested during the Great Fire of Rome and executed as a
persecuted Christian.
Fleischer's film concerns Barabbas' struggle with faith - through his asso­
ciation with Christian Sahak, he learns about Christianity. When Sahak is exe­
cuted by Torvald for sedition and treason, Barabbas avengers his friend's death
in the arena. The gladiatorial scenes - filmed in the Arena Di Verona, Piazza
Bra - are spectacular, with gladiators, mocking clowns, wild animals, dwarves
and elephants presented as carnivalesque entertainment. The requisite pep­
lum finale (with Dinocitta's sets burning) was undercut by Barabbas' execution
on a hillside, amid a sea of crucifixions. Katy Jurado appeared as tavern keeper
Sara (Barabbas' lover), Ernest Borgnine played Christian servant Luke, Paolo
Pitagora was Mary Magdalene and Harry Andrews was fisherman/apostle Peter.
Silvana Mangano (De Laurentiis' wife) was Rachel, Barabbas' friend who con­
verts to Christianity and is stoned for blasphemy. The film is accompanied by
what the soundtrack LP sleeve-notes describe as 'The most innovative movie
score ever recorded' by Mario Nascimbene. With the booming gong and eerie
whine of 'Eclipse', the searing sonic lashes and wails of 'The Whipping of Christ',
the booming, clanking 'The Mines' and the majestic main theme, it remains
Nascimbene's masterpiece.
Marxist director Pier Paolo Pasolini made two films which depicted Christ's
crucifixion. The first was 'La Ricotta' [Curd Cheese], his contribution to the
four-story RoGoPaG (1962 - directed by Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard,
Pasolini, and Ugo Gregoretti). In 'La Ricotta', film director Orson Welles is shoot­
ing a version of the crucifixion on the outskirts of Rome, on a ridge near Acqua
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 73

Santa spring, between the Via Appia Nuova and the Via Appia Antica. Stracci, a
local who is playing the Good Thief (crucified beside Christ), gorges himself on
curd cheese during a break in filming; when the time comes to shoot the scene,
he dies on the cross. The crucifixion scenes are in colour, the scenes of the crew
at work are monochrome. The satire features speeded-up footage and a talk­
ing dog. The actors and extras have no reverence for their subject, giggling and
breaking up, looking at the camera and picking their noses. The crucifixion is
supposed to be scored by Scarlatti, but the sound man keeps playing the wrong
record, a twist. Welles sits reading Pasolini's script for Mamma Roma between
takes. As a result of the film's ridiculing tone, Pasolini was tried for blasphemy in
March 1963 and was sentenced to four months in prison, though the verdict was
overturned in May.
Atheist Pasolini then decided to make a biblical feature film. He adapted
the first book of the New Testament, The Gospel according to St Matthew
(1964) - the 'Saint' was added by the producers against Pasolini's wishes - and
dedicated it 'To the dear, joyous, familiar memory of Pope John XXIII'. A faith­
ful telling of the gospel, the film begins with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to
the Virgin Mary (Margherita Caruso) and carpenter Joseph (Marcello Morante).
Fearing reprisals from King Herod the Great (Herod I, played by Amerigo
Belivacque) when Jesus is proclaimed King of the Jews, the family flee to Egypt,
returning to Israel years later. Jesus is recognised by John the Baptist (Mario

Via Dolorosa: Jesus Christ (Enrique Irazoqui) in Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to
St Matthew (1964).
Socrate) as the Messiah, the Son of God. Following his ordeal in the wilderness,
where he is tempted by Satan, Jesus begins spreading the Word of the Lord.
He gathers 12 disciples, but his popularity and views bring him into conflict
with Caiphas (Rodolfo Wilcock) and the Pharisees in Jerusalem. Betrayed by
Judas Iscariot (Otello Sestili), one of his followers, for thirty pieces of silver,
Jesus is tried for blasphemy and crucified by Pontius Pilate (Alessandro Clerici)
at Golgotha.
Pasolini planned to film in Africa, then Palestine, but eventually settled on
Italy. He commenced shooting in spring 1964 with Jesus' baptism - the River
Jordan was a gorge and waterfall between Orte and Viterbo. The Mount of Olives
was in Lazio, near Tivoli, and Christ's temptations were filmed on volcanic Mount
Etna, Sicily. When Joseph and his family flee to Egypt, Pasolini used Tor Caldara,
so familiar from 'Hercules' movies. Other locations include the ruins at Canale
Monterano in Lazio and Catania in Sicily (for some Jerusalem scenes) . He also
filmed at Crotone in Calabria and at Barile, Potenza and Matera in Basilicata,
with its distinctive rock-hewn hovels, the Sassi Di Matera (Pasolini's Bethlehem).
Pasolini depicted some magnificent, empty landscapes - sandy wastes of sparse
rolling desert country, swept by whistling winds. The film was photographed in
monochrome by Tonino Delli Colli and edited by Nino Baragli, both of whom
worked on another great 'desert' film - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Pasolini
cast many rural Italians as the Judean people, their costumes designed by Danilo
Donati. Convincing locales and locals gave the film a documentary-like, neo­
realist quality absent from all other versions of Christ's life on film, as Pasolini
trained his camera on these portraits of poverty.
Gospel portrays a Human Christ, a Jesus of the People, almost a revolution­
ary. The Sermon on the Mount is presented as a dramatic montage of Christ's
message, the Beatitudes becoming slogans. During Jesus' ride into Jerusalem on
an ass, the cheering, smiling throng waving palms see him as hero. His actions -
casting out those who have made his house of prayer 'a den of thieves' - place
him in opposition to the lawgivers and the government and constitutes a revo­
lutionary act. Pasolini underplays Christ's miracles - Jesus cures the possessed,
lepers and the lame with none of the showmanship of his Hollywood equiva­
lents. Even Pasolini's earthquake is low-key, while the first communion during
the Last Supper is similarly understated. The feeding of the s,ooo with five loaves
and two fishes and Christ's walk on the Sea of Galilee are more moving for their
simplicity. Pasolini's depiction of the attack by Herod's soldiers on Bethlehem,
slaughtering the village's firstborn, is one of the most horrific scenes in cinema.
Christ's harrowing walk to Calvary along the Via Dolorosa - wearing a crown
of thorns and burdened by a cross mockingly inscribed 'INRI' (King) - and his
crucifixion at Golgotha are leavened by his climatic Resurrection.
Pasolini used only quotations from Matthew's 28-chapter text. There are
no time or place captions ('Jerusalem' or 'Three Day's Later') and few charac­
ter names are mentioned. Pasolini cast Enrique Irazoqui, a Spanish economics
 Sword and Sandal Spectacles 75

student from Barcelona, as Christ. In addition to Irazoqui - his hallowed, cowled

countenance a living El Greco and his voice dubbed by Enrico Maria Salerno -
Natalia Ginzburg played Mary of Bethany (Mary Magdalene), Rosanna Di Rocco
was the Angel of the Lord (with dark curly hair and no wings) and Eliseo Boschi
played Joseph of Arimathea (who inters Jesus in the tomb). Francesco Leonetti
was Herod Antipas (Herod II), Franca Cupane his wife, Herodiade, and Paola
Tedesco played Salome, who danced for Herod and asked for John the Baptist's
head on a dish. The Apostles were played by Settimo Di Porto (Peter), Ferrucio
Nuzzo (Matthew), Giacomo Morante (John) and Alfonso Gatto (Andrew) . Enzo
Siciliano, later Pasolini's biographer, played Simon. Pasolini's mother Susanna
played the aged Madonna, Mary, at the time of Jesus' death.
Some incidental themes were written by Luis Enriquez Bacalov, but the
bulk of the score was stirring pieces from Bach ('Matthew's Passion'), Mozart,
Prokofiev and Anton Webern. 'Gloria' (Missa Luba) was an African interpretation
of the Latin Mass and the emotionally wracked spiritual 'Sometimes I Feel Like
a Motherless Child' (used for Jesus' Nativity and baptism) was sung by Odetta.
Gospel premiered in September 1964 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won
a Special Jury Prize. The OCIC (the Catholic International Film Office) noted
that Pasolini 'has made a fine film, a Christian film that produces a profound
impression'. Originally 135 minutes long, it has since been released on DVD in a
90-minute colourised version dubbed in English. Pasolini made violent, ques­
tioning, unsettling cinema, but he was also a poet. Together with The Leopard,
The Gospel according to St Matthew is the finest film discussed in this book and
one of cinema's few works of art.
 Tales from the Tomb
G othic Horrors

T
he golden age of Italian gothic horror was 1960-65. Though they were influ­
enced by the Technicolor horror of Hammer Studios and Roger Corman's Cin­
emaScoped Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, many 196os Italian horror films opted
for monochrome. As director Mario Bava noted, 'In a horror film, lighting is 70%
of the effectiveness; it's essential in creating the atmosphere'. Bava conjured his
exquisite effects with 'smoke and mirrors' camera trickery, but crucial to his suc­
cess were atmospheric scores by Roberto Nicolosi and Carlo Rustichelli. Their
contributions were at least as important as those of Ennio Morricone and Luis
Bacalov to Italian westerns and Carlo Innocenzi and Enzo Masetti to pepla.

The Master of Horror: Mario Bava

The son of special effects master Eugenio Bava, Mario Bava had worked in Italian
cinema as a photographer since 1939. Bava made his directorial debut with The
Mask of Satan (1960 ), a grim fairytale of folklore and gore. In seventeenth­
century Moldavia, vampires Asa the Witch (Barbara Steele) and her lover Igor
Javutich (Arturo Dominici) are executed by the High Court of the Inquisition
of Moldavia led by her brother, Grayarve. Two centuries later, on 'The Day of
the Damned: the pair wreak revenge on the House of Vadja's descendants, with
Asa possessing Princess Katja (Steele again) . On their way to Moscow, Professor
Choma Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi) and his assistant Dr Andre Gorovek (John
Richardson) stay in an inn at Mirgorod. The professor is called to Castle Vajda to
treat Prince Vajda (Ivo Garrani) for shock but is vampirised. As Asa transforms
into Katja, Andre arrives to save her - Katja is wearing a crucifix, the only way he
can tell which witch is which.
Mask ofSatan was based on The Vij by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol. Bava wanted
the villains to wear vampire fangs (they appeared in cast publicity photos), but
the film's vampirism is implied: victims have colon puncture holes in their necks.
Scream Queen: Asa the Witch (Barbara Steele) is put to death by the Inquisition of Moldavia.
French poster for Mario Bava's trendsetting Italian gothic horror The Mask ofSatan (1960).

Bava created impressive special effects, as when Steele's cloak falls open to reveal
a fleshless ribcage and guts, and when Asa is burned at the stake by torch-bear­
ing villagers. In the film's now infamous opening, the hooded inquisitors brand
Asa with a sizzling 'S' (the Mark of Satan) and hammer a spiked devil mask onto
her face with a huge mallet. The 'Mask of Satan' was designed by Eugenio Bava in
bronze. When Asa is resurrected, she explosively blasts out of the coffin. Steele
is excellent as the witch, her face grotesquely punctured by the mask's spikes. As
 Gothic Horrors 79

Katja she's dubbed with a rather flat vocal, but Steele's beauty and spellbinding
stare were primal forces to be reckoned with, her marble eyes and aquiline face
equally suited to soulful beauty and soulless horror. Antonio Pierfederici played
the Rasputin-like parish priest who helps Andre dispatch the vampires: he
pokes out the professor's eye with a stick. Enrico Olivieri played Katja's brother,
Constantine. Renato Terra played Vadja's coachmen Boris, who is drowned in a
stream, and Tino Bianchi was manservant Ivan, who's found hanged.
Mask was shot on interiors at Titanus Studios. Atmospheric scenes depicted
coachman Nikita (Mario Passante) driving nervously through the misty, tangled
forest, amid howling wolves and moaning winds, and Javutich's ghostly coach
gliding silently through the mist. The ruined chapel has crumbling arches, cob­
webs, tombs and a crypt, and the castle interior, with its great hall dominated
by an ornate fireplace and portraits of Asa and Javutich, conceals a network of
secret passages and trapdoors. Mirgorod's graveyard is the setting for Javutich's
resurrection: the earth cleaves and the coffin lid yawns open, as the cadaver's
clammy hands reach from beyond the grave, in the first of many undead rebirths
in Bava's cinema.
Released in Italy in August 1960, Mask ofSatan announced Bava as a talented
director. In the United States it was retitled Black Sunday by AlP, who replaced
Roberto Nicolosi's score with an inferior one by Les Baxter and recorded a differ­
ent dubbing track to the UK print. Steele is misspelt 'Steel' in the title sequence
of some versions. It was rejected a UK certificate in February 1961 and was retitled
Revenge of the Vampire for its belated X-rated UK release, cut, in June 1968.
Bava's next gothic was part of his three-part 'demonthology': Black Sabbath
(1963), which exists in two very different versions - one tailored to the Italian mar­
ket, one to the US audience. Both were shot at Titanus Studios and the US print
replaces Nicolosi's score with lesser compositions by Baxter. All three tales deal
with ghosts and the supernatural. In the order they appear in the US version, the
episodes were 'The Drop of Water', 'The Telephone' and 'The Wurdulak'. In the
Italian print the running order is 'The Telephone: 'The Wurdulak' and 'The Drop
of Water'. In 'A Drop of Water', nurse Helen Corey (Jacqueline Pierreaux) is sum­
moned to the mansion of Madame Zena, a medium who has died of a heart attack
during a seance. While she dresses the corpse for burial, Helen steals Zena's ring.
In her apartment, Helen hears dripping water and is eventually scared to death
by an apparition of Madame Zena. When the police arrive, Helen has throttled
herself and a shifty neighbour (Harriet White Medin) has stolen the ring. Zena's
grotesque, rigid face was created in wax by Bava's father.
In the US version of 'The Telephone: prostitute Rosy (Michele Mercier) is
menaced in her apartment by threatening phone calls from Frank, her ex-lover
who has been dead for three months. Rosy phones Mary (LydiaAlfonsi) and asks
her to come over. Ghostly Frank (Milo Quesada) breaks in and kills Mary by mis­
take, so Rosy stabs him to death. In the fadeout, the mysterious calls continue.
The Italian print of this story is quite different. Now it is Rosy's ex-lover Mary
 THIS IS THE NIGHT OF THE NIGHTMARE o o o THE DAY OF THE UNDEAD !

'The Most Gruesome Day in the Calendar of the Undead': A headless horseman and a misty
castle adorn this US poster for AlP's release of Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (1963) starring
horror icon Boris Karloff. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.

who makes the threatening phone calls, in an effort to renew their relationship.
Frank Rainer (Quesada) is a criminal who seeks revenge on Rosy for his betrayal
to the police. In the US print, Rosy receives a mysterious note under her door
('It won't be long now!'), while in the Italian print she receives a newspaper cut­
ting detailing Frank's prison escape. The most telling difference is the omission
of any lesbian subtext to Mary and Rosy's relationship, which in the US version
plays as a ghost story.
In the Russian tale 'The Wurdulak: Count Vladimir D'Urfe (Mark Damon)
discovers the headless corpse of Turkish bandit Alibek on the road to Yessey.
Vladimir finds a peasant family living in fear of their father, Gorka (Boris Karloff),
who is hunting the bandit. The family are Gorka's grown-up children Peter
(Massimo Righi), Sdenka (Susy Andersen) and Gregor (Glauco Onorato), and
Gregor's wife Maria (Rica Dialina) and their little son Ivan. Alibek is a vampire,
a 'Wurdulak', and when Gorka returns, clomping across the bridge on the stroke
of ten, he too has joined the walking dead. Gorka roams the house, vampirising
the family, including Ivan who rises from the dead, calling out 'Mama, I'm cold,
let me in'. Vladimir and Sdenka flee, but Gorka and the Wurdulaks follow, taking
Sdenka back with them - in a final kiss, Sdenka sinks her teeth into Vladimir's
neck. Bava sets the story in frozen wastes, replete with howling dogs, whistling
 Gothic Horrors 81

wind and gliding fog. Damon is excellent as the young nobleman and Karloff is
ideally cast as the caped cadaver.
With their threatening roving camerawork, urban settings, thunderstorms
and throbbing neon lights, 'A Drop of Water' and 'The Telephone' anticipate
giallo thrillers, while 'The Wurdulak' harks back to Mask of Satan (Bava reused
the ruined chapel set). Karloff introduces each of the stories in jokily macabre
fashion: 'Come closer, I have something to tell you - this is Black Sabbath'. For
the Italian print, Karloff reappears at the end in a visual gag. He's seen being
filmed on a dummy horse in Titanus Studios, in costume as Gorka, in front of a
wind machine, while the crew run around him brandishing fir branches, mak­
ing it appear as though Gorka is galloping through a wood. The US version was
a great success when released by AlP with a poster campaign featuring Karloff's
severed head. It was Bava's favourite film, no doubt due to the presence of horror
icon Karloff. In 1969 Ozzy Osbourne's British heavy metal band Black Sabbath
took their name from a poster for Bava's film.
The Whip and the Body (1963) was Bava's most controversial film of the
196os. Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns to his family castle. He's not wel­
come, having caused the suicide of housekeeper Georgia's daughter, Tanya.
In Kurt's absence, his brother Christian (Tony Kendall) has married Nevenka
(Daliah Lavi), Kurt's one-time paramour, while cousin Katia (Ida Galli) still
loves Christian. Count Menliff (Gustavo De Nardo) decides that Christian will
inherit the estate. Vengeful Kurt assaults Nevenka on a beach and is murdered
with Tanya's suicide dagger. But Kurt isn't dead, returning to torment Nevenka
and knife the count. Whip is Bava's most poetic period film, which is enhanced
by Carlo Rustichelli's score. Billed as 'Jim Murphy', Rustichelli composed 'The
Windsor Concerto', a dramatic, richly romantic piano composition. Israeli
actress Lavi vaguely resembles Barbara Steele and Bava plays up their similari­
ties. With the castle's interiors saturated with colour, Bava expanded the style
he'd deployed in Black Sabbath. Through intense compositions, vibrantly match­
ing the tale's passion, this is Bava's best-photographed film. Its style influenced
Dario Argento's shifting floods of colour (for example, in Jessica Harper's stormy
taxi ride at the beginning of Suspiria).
Whip was shot on the beach and coast at Tor Caldara, Lazio, for approxi­
mately $66,ooo, with a matte shot creating cliff top Castle Menliff; its interi­
ors were in Rome. Harriet White Medin appeared as housekeeper Georgia and
Luciano Pigozzi was servant Losat. The English language version is cursed with
a facile script and flat dubbing. Even Lee is voiced by someone else, as he drives
a nail through the heart of his rigid Dracula impersonations. In the dead of
night, Kurt visits Nevenka in her bedchamber. His hand reaches out of the dark­
ness like a claw, tearing her nightgown. Those familiar with Lee only via the
'Star Wars' and 'Lord of the Rings' series will be surprised to see him whipping
Nevenka with such demonic relish. Nevenka enjoys these sadomasochistic activ­
ities and is revealed to be the unbalanced murderer of both Kurt and the count.
The horror here is monstrous Kurt's fetish and Nevenka's fevered imagination,
willing Kurt back to life. The film was released as Night Is the Phantom in the UK
in 1964 (shorn of the whipping scenes and rated X) and as What in the US.
In Bava's Kill, Baby Kill! (1966 - Curse of the Dead), Kernigan is a vil­
...

lage cursed, living and dying in fear. Following the apparent suicide of Irena
Hollander (Mirella Panfili), who is found impaled on spiked railings, coroner Dr
Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) arrives to conduct an autopsy and discovers a
coin embedded in her heart to ward off evil spirits. Eswai joins Inspector Kruger
(Piero Lulli) and burgomaster Karl (Luciano Catenacci) in their investigation.
The village is haunted by Melissa Graps, a seven-year-old girl who, during a vil­
lage festival 20 years ago, was trampled by drunken locals as she tried to retrieve
her bouncing ball and bled to death. Ghostly Melissa's revenge is orchestrated
by her mother, Baroness Graps (Giana Vivaldi), a medium. Death is heralded by
Melissa's stuttering laughter, a tolling bell and a ghostly white bouncing ball,
and whoever sees Melissa dies of self-inflicted wounds - Kruger shoots himself
and Karl slits his own throat with a sickle.
Several of Bava's early films were tailored to the American market, but Kill
is an Italian horror movie that plays best in Italian with English subtitles. Rossi­
Stuart, stiff and awkward when dubbed into English, gives a better performance
in Italian. Hawk-faced Lulli and bald-headed Catenacci are more charismatic
and survive the English dubbing. Erika Blanc played Monica Schuftan who is
revealed to be Melissa's sister. The cast also includes Giuseppe Addobatti and
Franca Dominici as Hans and Martha (the local innkeepers) and Micaela Esdra
as their daughter Nadine, who kills herself on a spiked candle stand. Fabienne
Dali was witch Ruth (Karl's lover) on whom Kernigan relies for magic spell cure­
alls - their substitute for religion in the face of superstition, ignorance and pov­
erty. Raven-haired sorceress Ruth is a good witch, while Melissa (who resembles
an undead Alice in Wonderland) is the killer. In a bizarre piece of casting Melissa
was played by a boy, Valerio Valeri in a flowing blonde wig.
Bava filmed Kernigan on location in Calcata, a medieval fortress town
perched atop a rocky promontory (overlooking the Treja Valley in Viterbo,
Lazio ), a higgledy-piggledy warren of narrow streets, mossy steps and decaying
walls. Nearby village Faleria is equally distinctive, with its old town, gate portals,
arches, crumbling walls and steep winding streets. Bava bathed these locations
in bold colours and wafting mist. He also created an atmospheric graveyard in
Titanus Studios (where he lensed the interiors). The coffin-strewn undertaker's,
the inn, Ruth's house (decorated with stuffed birds) and Villa Graps (its faded
grandeur filmed at Villa Frascati, Rome, with its spiral staircase, corridors, webby
crypt and Melissa's doll-filled room) are littered with ephemera and authentic­
looking artefacts. Nobody does clutter like Bava. The score by Carlo Rustichelli
includes an excerpt of 'The Windsor Concerto' and a tinkling music box melody,
supported by odd, sliding bass, which accompanies Melissa's ghostly appear­
ances. The US release was marred by a shoddy advertising campaign: 'KILL BABY
 Gothic Horrors 83

I
II
PIERO LULU · FIBIENNE DILl · Mil LAWRENCE · MICIELI ESDRI ... GIINI VIVALDI
IEGII: MA Rl 0 BAVI EASTMANCOlOR·SCHERMO PANORAMICO
UNA ,IOOUliONt
F.U.L. FILM

'Operation Fear': Italian poster for Mario Bava's Kill, Baby Kill! (1966). Monica Schuftan
...

(Erika Blanc) is stalked by her sister, Melissa (Valerio Valeri). Poster courtesy Ian Caunce
Collection.
KILL - Makes You Shiver & Quiver!' The English language print is a picturesque
ghost story, but in Italian it is Bava's supernatural masterpiece.

Strange Love: The Horror of Riccardo Freda

Director Riccardo Freda cast Barbara Steele in two Technicolor gothics: The
Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock (1962) and its sequel, The Ghost (1963 - The
Spectre) . Freda and Bava had worked together as director and photographer on
the early Italian horror movie I vampiri (1956 - The Devil's Commandment or
Lust of the Vampire), which was set in contemporary Paris. In The Horrible
Secret of Dr Hichcock, set in London in 1885, surgeon Dr Bernard Hichcock
(Robert Flemyng) indulges his necrophiliac urges. He administers his patented
serum, which slows the heart rate, to his willing wife, Margaretha (Maria Teresa
Vianello), so that she replicates death during their lovemaking. But he ups the
dose and she dies, so he entombs her in the family crypt. Arriving back at his
London mansion after 12 years with his new wife, Cynthia (Steele), Hichcock
finds the spirit of Margaretha abroad once more. With Jezebel, her black cat, the
wraith cometh, seeking revenge.
Also called The Horrible Dr Hichcock, The Terror of Dr Hichcock and
Raptus - The Secret of Dr Hichcock, Freda's Victorian 'necromance' is a unique
Italian gothic. The Italian cast and crew hid behind English pseudonyms to make
Dr Hichcock appear a Hammer horror movie: Freda became 'Robert Hampton',
screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi was 'Julyan Perry', and the crew included assist­
ant director 'John M. Farquhar' and decorator 'Frank Smokecocks'. British actor
Flemyng gives an artfully menacing performance, while young Dr Kurt Langer
(Silvano Tranquilli) is Cynthia's cardboard love interest. Hichcock's sinister
housekeeper Martha (Harriet White Medin) cares for her insane sister in the
mansion's cottage, but her patient is actually Margaretha. Elegantly dressed
and sumptuously photographed - in her only Italian gothic in which she didn't
play a tormentor, murderess or ghost, but simply the victim - Steele has never
looked better. Cynthia's wide-eyed horror is accentuated by Steele's catlike eyes,
as when she's trapped in a coffin, her silent terror visible through a glass window
in the lid.
Freda's meticulous Victoriana evokes the period convincingly. The bright
white interiors at Hichcock's University College Hospital contrast with the fune­
real decor of his necrophiliac lair. With the memorable set pieces - Margaretha's
rain drenched funeral, Hichcock's grave robbing, Cynthia's explorations of
long corridors and crypts by flickering candlelight, and Margaretha's terrifying
appearances wearing a white dress and veil - Freda out-Bava's Bava. Hichcock's
ritualised sex games, with the chamber decorated with drapes and candles, are
elevated to religious rites. Roman Vlad's romantic score, laced with dark under­
tones, lurks menacingly, ebbing like Hichcock's perverse urges. Freda floods the
screen with bleeding, lustful reds, a visualisation of the doctor's fetish, as in the
scene where Hichcock steals into the hospital morgue. This aspect of the film,
 Gothic Horrors 85

in particular Hichcock's corpse-fondling activities, were toned down in US and

UK prints, which ran 76 minutes - the full version is 8 minutes longer. In the
fiery finale, Hichcock and Margaretha are revealed to be in league - he plans
to restore her beauty with Cynthia's young blood. Kurt saves Cynthia from the
burning mansion and pushes Hichcock off a balcony while Margaretha perishes
in the flames: Poe-etic justice indeed.
The Ghost is set in Scotland in 1910 at the Hichcocks' coastal mansion
near Dowbridge. Dr John Hichcock (Elio Jotta) is paralysed, a condition that
is slowly killing him. Dr Charles Livingstone (Peter Baldwin), his live-in physi­
cian, treats him with a serum - a poison and then an antidote - which seems
to be stimulating his limbs back to life. Hichcock's wife Margaret (Steele) and
Charles are having an affair and dispose of John. They discover he has left most
of his £15o,ooo fortune to the local orphanage, run by Canon Owens (Umberto
Raho). Margaret becomes convinced that her husband is still alive, communi­
cating through their housekeeper, Catherine Wood (Harriet White Medin), a
medium. Driven to dementia by apparitions, greedy Margaret becomes suspi­
cious of Charles and kills him, before John reappears and has the last laugh.
The film provides a logical explanation for John's 'ghostly' appearances - John
and Catherine engineer the scheme - and Steele's descent into wild-haired mad­
ness is convincing. Franco Mannino's score features an arching, romantic title
theme. Freda's gothic touches include swivelling bookcases, exhumed corpses,
crypts, a funeral and the expected nocturnal shenanigans: John's empty wheel­
chair careers downstairs, blood drips from the ceiling and oozes from a snuffbox.
Eventually Margaret, paralysed with curare, watches John accidentally drink a
dose of poison. The Ghost was a success for Steele in the US, swelling her cult of
fans, but like most of her films, it wasn't released in the UK.

Castles of Terror: Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti directed three horrors in the mid-196os as 'Anthony Dawson':
The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963), Castle of Blood and The Long Hair of Death
(both 1964) . In The Virgin ofNuremberg (The Castle ofTerror or Horror Castle)
Max and Mary Hunter (Georges Riviere and Rossana Podesta) move into Max's
ancestral castle on the Rhine. Mary witnesses shadows in the night and discov­
ers a woman's corpse, her eyes poked out by the Virgin, a sarcophagus-like tor­
ture device. The castle houses a museum to a seventeenth-century torturer, The
Punisher (dressed in a red cape, black hood and gauntlets), who seems to have
been resurrected. Mary suspects Max is responsible, but the murderer is Max's
father, the general (Mirko Valentin), a Nazi officer who took part in an assas­
sination attempt on Hitler. His conspirators were shot, hanged or gassed, but
the general was subjected to horrific experiments. He had facial tissue removed,
leaving him resembling 'a living skull', with sunken eyes, no ears, nose or hair.
Filmed in three weeks on interiors at Incir-De Paolis Studios and at Villa
Sciarra, Rome, Virgin is the most violent 196os Italian horror. The Punisher ties
a woman to a chair and notes that this method of torture has been forbidden
since the fifteenth century, 'But the old ways are still the best'. He straps a caged
rat to her face, which gnaws off half her nose. Amy Degli Uberti played house­
keeper Frau Martha and Luciana Milone was housemaid Trudy. Christopher
Lee played Erich, the general's once-time aide, now working as the custodian
of the museum. Although Erich was also badly scarred in the war and is a likely
candidate for the Punisher's alter ego, he is a sympathetic character, bringing
the police to Max and Mary's rescue and dying whilst attempting to save his
old comrade from the fire that engulfs the castle. The presence of FBI investi­
gator John Selby (Jim Dolen) is a superfluous addition tacked on for interna­
tional audiences, and Riz Ortolani's intrusive jazz score seems from another
film entirely.
Castle of Blood (1964 - La danza maca bra or The Castle of Terror) is set
in nineteenth-century London. A tavern wager results in Times journalist Alan
Foster (Georges Riviere) spending the Night of the Dead, the first midnight of
November, in haunted Blackwood Castle. Foster's bet is made with Sir Thomas
Blackwood (Umberto Raho) and author Edgar Allan Poe (Silvano Tranquilli) .
Foster encounters all manner of ghosts, who re-enact horrific murders from the
castle's past. Dr Carmus (Arturo Dominici), the scientist author of Elements of
Metaphysics Medicine, helps Foster make sense of the carnage, until he too is
revealed to be a ghost. Foster falls in love with Elisabeth Blackwood (Barbara
Steele) who seems to be in peril, but as the vengeful ghosts close in to kill Foster
('Your blood will be our life'), Elisabeth betrays him. With the ghosts' mad laugh­
ter ringing in his ears, Foster escapes through the graveyard and sees the trees
festooned with lynched corpses - the first Lord Blackwood was a hangman. At
dawn Sir Thomas and Poe find Foster impaled on the castle's iron gate and col­
lect their winnings, 10 pounds Sterling, from his wallet.
Co-written by Margheriti, Gianni Grimaldi and Sergio Corbucci, Castle of
Blood is scarily effective. Riz (billed as 'Ritz') Ortolani's score is suitably hair­
raising and Riccardo Pallottini's monochrome cinematography lenses the castle
in its gothic glory: the rising mist and ivy covered tombstones, the cobwebby
parlour, hypnotic portraits, bedchambers and family crypt lit by candlelight. The
ghostly supporting cast includes Benito Stefanelli as William (Elisabeth's hus­
band), Giovanni Cianfriglia as the hulking gardener Herman (Elisabeth's lover)
and Margarete Robsahn as Julia (also Elisabeth's lover) . These spooks enact jeal­
ousy, adultery and gruesome murder before Foster's disbelieving eyes, but it's
Steele you'll remember, making a spectre of herself in her finest role: a lost soul
with no heartbeat and to whom life is a distant memory, haunting a decaying,
long-abandoned castle. Steele's English language dubbing is better than usual
and her strange beauty is lit to accentuate her long black hair, strong eyebrows,
prominent cheekbones and big eyes. 'Kiss me, warm me', she lures Foster, until
she returns to her corpse-like state. In the US the film was tenuously touted as
another Poe adaptation.
and a display case of severed hands (the 'plague spreaders', who deliberately dif­
fused the pestilence) twitch to life, until purifying rain saves Kovac and Corrine.
Reputedly 'inspired by Edgar Allan Poe: it was retitled Terror-Creatures from the
Grave and presented internationally by the aptly named 'Pacemaker Pictures'.
With its 1911 setting, the film's monochrome film stock resembles grainy pho­
tographs come to life. Jeronimus' exhumation near a mausoleum in the drift­
ing mist has Steele in black hat, veil and funeral attire, as skeletal, leafless trees
clutch desperately towards the grey dawn sky.
Steele had a small but pivotal role in the low-budget The She Beast (1965 -
Revenge of the Blood Beast), written and directed by Michael Reeves, one of the
great horror talents of the 196os. Steele was hired for one day's work for $1,ooo;
the producer didn't mention how long the day would be and made her work for
18 hours. Newlyweds Philip (Ian Ogilvy) and Veronica (Steele) are on their hon­
eymoon in Transylvania, but their black VW Beetle plummets into a lake and
Veronica is drowned. Her spirit passes into the body of witch Vardalla, who was
put to death in 1765 in 'the seat of chastisement: a ducking stool. Steele sends
up her horror image - when she hears the name Van Helsing, she can't place
the name. Though padded with humour - bumbling Count Van Helsing (John
Karlsen) pursues Vardalla - the film is most memorable for its violence. The
flashback to Vardalla's execution is the most excessive scene. A child with a blood
smeared forehead interrupts a funeral and tells the congregation that he has
found Vardalla hiding in a cave. The torch-bearing peasants trap the screeching
witch, a 'Sister of Satan: tie her to the ducking stool, drive a spike through her and
drown her. The witch herself (played by a man) is a hideous creature, boasting a
long robe, chopped liver complexion, straggly hair and tombstone teeth. Between
takes, the actor would terrify drivers by hitchhiking on the road in costume.
In 'Alan Grunewald' /Mario Caiano's Night of the Doomed (1965) Steele
played Muriel Arrowsmith, the wife of Dr Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller),
who lives in Hampton Castle. The doctor, an archetypal 'mad scientist', is experi­
menting in blood rejuvenation and discovers that Muriel is having an affair
with servant David (Rik Battaglia) . The doctor tortures them with firebrands,
electrocutes and cremates them. Dr Arrowsmith cuts Muriel's heart out, keep­
ing it in a glass case, and uses her blood to rejuvenate his elderly lover, Solange
(Helga Line). Muriel has willed her castle to her mentally fragile stepsister, Jenny
Hampton (Steele in a blonde wig), so the doctor marries her and later adminis­
ters hallucinogens which cause Jenny nightmarish apparitions. Her doctor, Joyse
Derek ('Laurence Clift' /Marino Mase), realises that Jenny is possessed by Muriel.
He removes a scalpel from Muriel's suspended heart, unleashing the vengeful
spirits of Muriel and David. During a botched blood transfusion, Solange dis­
integrates to instant old age and beyond, while Dr Arrowsmith is strapped to a
chair and immolated.
Steele really suffers as Muriel in this sadistic movie, while as Jenny she
used her own voice in the English language dub. Dr Arrowsmith wires Derek's
 Gothic Horrors 89

cast-iron bath to the mains, but butler Jonathan (Giuseppe Addobatti) drops the
soap into the water and is electrocuted instead. It is as resurrected Muriel that
Steele appears in one of her most famous guises, her long cascade of black hair
brushed over the right hand side of her face, concealing gruesome facial dis­
figurement. Night of the Doomed benefits from fine monochrome photography
by Enzo Barboni, effective makeup, special effects (which include a pot plant
fertilized with Muriel's ashes that drips blood) and a torturous organ fugue from
Ennio Morricone. Night ofthe Doomed (wo minutes long) was released as The
Faceless Monster in the UK in 1969 (cut by 25 minutes) . Nightmare Castle was
the 81-minute US print.
Steele's final Italian gothic, Camillo Mastrocinque's An Angel for Satan
(1966) again saw her in two roles, as heiress Harriet and her violent, seductive
alter ego Belinda. Claudio Gora played Count Montebruno (Harriet's uncle, an
evil hypnotist) and Anthony Steffen (who in his hat, scarf and long coat resembles
Django) was artist Roberto Merigi, who arrives by boat to restore a naked statue
of Steele which has been retrieved from a lake. The film's dreamlike mood is
enhanced by Francesco De Masi's forlorn score and the monochrome cinematog­
raphy. Steele is at her most sensuous as Belinda, who takes pleasure in splitting up
her maid Rita (Ursula Davis) and Rita's beau, schoolteacher Daria (Vassili Karis),
driving the latter to suicide. She also compels tavern ruffian Carlos (Mario Brega)
to burn his own house down with his children inside and turns gardener Victor
(Aldo Berti) into a mad axe man. Falling in love with Steele does that to you.

Visions and Nightmares, Italian style

With the template of Italian gothic horror established by Bava, Freda and
Margheriti, many filmmakers ghosted in their wake. In Giorgio Ferroni's Mill
of the Stone Women (1960) student Hans Von Arnim (Pierre Brice) arrives at a
windmill in the Dutch canal system. His assignment is to write a monograph on
the history of the mill's famous carousel, a macabre revolving display oflife-sized
waxworks. Professor Wahl (Herbert Boehme), a sculptor, lives with his beau­
tiful daughter Elfie (Scilla Gabel) and a mysterious doctor, Bohlem (Wolfgang
Preiss) . The statuary that litter the mill are, in fact, preserved corpses. Elfie is ter­
minally ill and needs regular blood transfusions, and their next victim is Hans'
girl Liselotte (Dany Carrel).
The opening - depicting Hans' journey to the mill by barge, accompanied
by Carlo Innocenzi's eerie score (subtle percussion, repetitive piano and ghostly
vocals) - begins the film in style. It was based on a short story in Flemish Tales
by Pieter Van Weigen. The film adaptation is a little slow and confusing in the
first half (what's it all about, Elfie?) but gathers momentum in the second. Gabel
makes one of the most beautiful heroines in Italian gothic horror, her black hair
and pale skin contrasting vividly with her red dress. Marco Guglielmi played
Hans' friend, art student Ralf, Liana Orfei was tavern singer and dancer Annelore
(who winds up on display on the professor's carousel) and Olga Solbelli was
Angel of Death: Camillo Mastrocinque's An Angelfor Satan (1966), the last of Barbara Steele's
Italian gothics. Italian poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Gothic Horrors 91

sinister housekeeper Thelma. The 1912 mise-en-scene of crosses, frozen clutch­

ing hands and severed anatomy in jars provides a suitably twisted backdrop to
the action. The star of the show is the sinister carousel - Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I
and Cleopatra mix with a beheading, a hanging, and other grotesqueries enacted
by mummified cadavers wearing wax masks. The revolving carousel catches fire
and springs to life, the figures waltzing in a slow, fiery dance of death as their
faces bubble, melt and drip from their human skulls. Mill of the Stone Women
was released internationally in 1963 with the tagline 'See a beautiful girl changed
into a petrified monster before your very eyes!'
Camillo Mastrocinque's Crypt ofHorror (1964) is an adaptation of Sheridan
LeFanu's Carmilla. It depicts the Karnstein family: Count Ludwig (Christopher
Lee), his loverAnnette (Vera Valmont) and his daughter Countess Laura (Adriana
Ambesi), at Castle Karnstein (filmed at Piccolomini Castle at Balsorano, L'Aquila,
Abruzzo). Ludwig is convinced that Laura will be possessed by her ancestor,
witch Seera Karnstein, and employs historian Friedrich Klaus (Jose Campos) to
research the family archives. Following a coach crash, beautiful Lyuba (Ursula
Davis) stays at the castle. She is revealed to be the reincarnation of Seera, who
tries to kidnap Laura in a sinister black coach. The film mixes witchcraft, posses­
sion, vampirism and mystery. Lee uses his own voice in the English dub, which
adds to his performance. Jose Villasante played a hunchback beggar who is dis­
covered hanged from the ruined church's bell rope, his hands severed. The scenes
of Laura and Lyuba running through ruins, their white dresses billowing in the
wind, recall Bava and Margheriti's imagery, and a flashback to witch Seera's cru­
cifixion replays Mask of Satan. Housekeeper Rowena (Nela Conjiu) dabbles in
black magic: she wanders the corridors of Castle Karnstein brandishing the beg­
gar's severed hand, lit with candles, a satanic 'Hand of Glory'; having been killed,
she later jerks bolt upright at her own funeral, pointing out her murderer in the
lightning-strobed chapel.
Lee also appeared in The Castle of the Living Dead (1964), set in post­
Napoleonic War Europe. A band of travelling gypsy players are invited to perform
their fake hanging act at the castle of Count Drago (Lee), until they discover they
are to be immortalised in the count's 'Eternal Theatre'. The count experiments
with a new embalming fluid, extracted from a tropical plant, which induces
instant suspension of life at the moment of death. Credits indicate that the film
was directed by 'Warren Kiefer' /Lorenzo Sabatini, though he had uncredited help
from his assistant Michael Reeves. The gypsies were Bruno (Jacques Stany), his
sister Laura (Gaia Germani), fire-breathing strongman Gianni (EnnioAntonelli),
harlequin Dart (Luciano Pigozzi) and dwarf Neep (Antonio De Martino). When
Dart is fired from the troupe, wandering hussar captain Eric (Philippe Leroy)
takes his harlequin role. Their act consists of condemned harlequin duping a
hooded executioner into hanging himself.
Angelo Francisco Lavagnino supplied the score, which deployed a melan­
choly gypsy violin to unsettling effect. Castle Drago's grounds are represented
by the Parco Di Mostri ('Park of the Monsters') in Bomarzo, Viterbo, an unusual
collection of giant statuary, including elephants, dragons, a tortoise and a mon­
strous face with a cave as its mouth. As the players' wagon passes through a wood,
they discover a rigid, petrified raven on a branch and Castle Drago ( Odelscalchi
Castle, near Lake Bracciano, Lazio) is decorated with all manner of embalmed
wildlife. Mirko Valentin played Sandra, the count's leering, cloaked coachman
who wields a mean scythe. Sandra fires a dart dipped in the embalming serum
from a miniature catapult into Gianni's eye and the coachman throws Neep off
the castle's tower, only for the fortunate dwarf to land in a haystack. Drago's
embalmed wife lies in bed, staring forever into a looking glass, while spiders
crawl across her pillow and rats gnaw at her fingers. Lee is on good form as the
gaunt, sunken-eyed count. The strange goings-on at the castle are investigated
by three policemen, played by Renato Terra, Luigi Bonos and Donald Sutherland
(in his film debut). A heavily disguised Sutherland also plays an old witch who
talks in rhymes and warns the troupe to steer clear of Drago: 'Some will live and
some will die before tomorrow's sun is high'. Later the hag tells Dart, 'The harle­
quin who eats my bread will soon be dead'. Sutherland was reputedly so pleased
to be given his first film roles that when his son was born in December 1966, he
named him Kiefer in honour of this film's director.
If Barbara Steele's vehicles were the classier face of Italian horror, then
Massimo Pupilla's Bloody Pit of Horror (1965 A Tale of Torture and The
-

Crimson Executioner) was their trashy antithesis. Publisher Max Parks (Alfredo
Rizzo) and his entourage arrive at a castle for a photo shoot promoting lurid hor­
ror novels. Author Rick (Walter Brandi) is accompanied by Edith (Luisa Baratta),
photographers and several scantily clad models, the Lover Girls: Annie (Femi
Benussi), Kanujo (Moa Tahi), Nancy (Rita Klein) and Suzy (Barbara Nelli). The
castle is occupied by Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay), an ex-actor who had
been famous as a muscleman in costume films. The Crimson Executioner, a tor­
turer put to death in a sword-lined Iron Maiden in 1648, possesses Travis, who
runs amok, sadistically torturing to death most of the cast. Travis is obsessed
with his 'perfect body' and takes sadistic pleasure from defiling others. One
model has boiling tar poured on her, another is stretched on a rack, while other
members of the party are hacked, slashed and speared to death. Edith is tied to
a metal furnace, Max is roasted in an iron cage and Kanujo, trapped in a giant
web, is menaced by a mechanical spider. The Crimson Executioner is a mem­
orably berserk creation: oiled and bare-chested, Hargitay dons red leggings, a
hefty belt, a gold medallion, a tight-fitting red hood and a Zarro mask to ter­
rorise his victims. Exterior location scenes were filmed in PSYCHOVISION at
Piccolomini Castle at Balsorano in Abruzzo, with interiors at Palazzo Borghese,
Artena (Rome). The film is so cheap that at one point the music soundtrack
sticks, like a scratched record.
In Dino Tavella's The Embalmer (1965 The Monster of Venice) a killer
-

is stalking the canals of Venice, murdering women and embalming them in

 Gothic Horrors 93

his subterranean laboratory, to be preserved as white-robed statues. Journalist

Andrea (Luigi Martocci) discovers that the 'monster' is a deranged hotel man­
ager, Mr Torre. The killer wears a frogman suit and flippers to snatch women
and drag them underwater. In his catacomb lair he wears a hooded monk's habit
and a skull mask, and a cabaret spot features an Elvis impersonator emerging
from a coffin. A group of female students staying at Torre's hotel are taken sight­
seeing by Andrea, via travelogue shots of the city. The killer frogman shadows
the students' gondola and upends their boat, slipping away with another victim.
The film ends on a surreal note, as Andrea (dressed as a frogman) chases the
monk through the streets of Venice. Financed by Gondola Film and shot at Ceria
Studios, Trieste, The Embalmer played on double bills in the US with The She
Beast.
Histoires Extraordinaires (1968 - Force of Evil and Tales of Mystery and
Imagination) was a three-part horror anthology based on Edgar Allan Poe's
work. 'Metzengerstein' was a medieval Barbarella from Roger Vadim and Jane
Fonda. Frederica (Fonda), countess of Metzengerstein and a 'Lady Caligula', falls
in love with her cousin, Count Wilhelm (played by Fonda's brother, Peter). She
causes his death when she orders the torching of his stables. Out of the inferno
emerges a wild-eyed ebony stallion, which becomes the melancholy countess'
companion, eventually carrying her to her death in a heath fire. Despite an apt
score by Jean Prodrimides (echoing flutes and harpsichord), autumnal French
coastal locations (including Kerouzere Castle, Brittany) and a memorable final
shot (as fire bleeds into the setting sun), this is a half-hearted Roger Corman
imitation. The second story - Louis Malle's 'William Wilson', filmed in Bergamo,
Lombardia, Italy - starred Alain Delon as Lieutenant Wilson, a bully who has
been haunted throughout his life by a mysterious doppelganger (also Delon).
His double causes William to commit suicide, throwing himself from a bell tower
after he has publicly humiliated Josephina (Brigitte Bardot) and been exposed by
his double as a cheat.
'Liberally adapted' from Poe's 'Don't Wager Your Head to the Devil', the third
episode, Federico Fellini's 'Toby Dammit' was shot over the winter of 1967-68,
on location in Rome and at Elios Studios, with interiors at CSC. In a role written
for Peter O'Toole and offered to Richard Burton and James Fox, Terence Stamp
starred as burnt-out English actor Toby Dammit. He arrives in Rome to star in
the first Catholic western: 'The return of Christ to earth in a desolate frontier
land', shot in the style of Carl Dreyer and Pasolini, 'with a touch of John Ford'.
It is Toby's drug-addled vision of Rome that we see at Fiumicino Airport. His
car journey through orange-tinted Rome is a hallucination: a butcher's truck
hung with carcases, traffic jams, builders, fashion shoots, accidents, a Sergeant
Pepp er-era John Lennon look-alike, and two blind nuns driving a car. A gypsy
fortune teller refuses to read Toby's palm. Toby hates the lights of the TV studio
where he's interviewed ('I only live during the night') and reveals that he believes
in the Devil: 'I'm English, not Catholic. To me the Devil is cheerful, agile - he
looks like a little girl'. The troubled actor is haunted by this devil, a blonde girl in
a white dress playing with a ball, an apparition only he can see.
At the self-congratulatory Golden Wolf Awards, awash with beautiful
women, dinner-jacketed producers, handshakers and yes men, fazed Toby is
hailed as a great Shakespearian actor, but while reciting a speech from Macbeth,
he forgets his lines. From his producer, Toby receives a red Ferrari convertible and
he speeds off into the night through the foggy streets of Roma and into the coun­
tryside. Lost, Toby lets out a tormented scream, gunning the engine as though
possessed by the devil, and tries to find his way back to the city. His journey to
the end of the night terminates at a collapsed bridge. He sees the little girl on the
other side of the chasm and attempts to leap the Ferrari across the gap. He makes
the jump, but a wire suspended across the road decapitates him and the little
devil retrieves a new ball from the tarmac. With Nino Rota's carnivalesque organ
score, 'Toby Dammit' is Fellini in excelsis - the costumes and sets were by Piero
Tosi (anaemic Toby resembles a Byronic vampire), the visual effects (including a
ruined bridge) were staged by Joseph Nathanson and the cinematographer was
Giuseppe Rotunno. A scene depicting Toby's western being shot at Elios Studios
was cut from the finished version of the film (a snippet can be seen in the trailer) .
Histoires Extraordinaires was released by AlP as Spirits of the Dead in the US,
narrated by Vincent Price.

The Dead Exhumed: The 1 970s

As censorship relaxed in the late 196os, allowing more grue and gore, Italian
gothic horror lived again, revived by Jean Rollin's sexy French vampire movies
(Le Frisson Des Vampires and Requiem pour un Vampire), feudal British horror
(Matthew Hopkins - Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan's Claw) and the
Spanish-Portuguese 'Knights Templar' series (notably Tombs ofthe Blind Dead
and Return of the Evil Dead) .
Directed by schlock-horror maestro Jesus Franco, The Bloodyjudge (1969 -
Night of the Bloody Monster) emulated the witch hunts of Michael Reeves'
Matthew Hopkins - Witchfinder General (1968). Infamous judge George Jeffreys
(Christopher Lee), Lord Chief Justice, presides over the 'Bloody Assizes', the tri­
als of rebels during the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685. It was led by the Duke
of Monmouth, who landed at Lyme Regis and was defeated by James II at the
Battle of Sedgemoor, an engagement which Franco frugally recreates with a bat­
tery of cannon, some extras and swathes of smoke. This is one of Franco's better
productions, thanks to its costumes, Techniscope photography and a romantic
score by Bruno Nicolai. The love affair between Monmouth plotter Harry Sefton
(Hans Hass) and Mary Gray (Maria Rohm) is torn asunder by despotic Jeffreys.
Lee is excellent as the judge, who spends his time 'smelling out witches' and sen­
tencing his victims: 'To dangle until you are dead'. Jeffreys' sadistic cronies are
Satchel (Milo Quesada) and spidery chief torturer Jack Ketch (Howard Vernon),
dressed menacingly in a tight black leotard, gauntlets and hood. Mary's sister,
 Gothic Horrors 95

Alicia (Margaret Lee), is stretched on a rack, flogged and branded with a 'W:
before being burned atop a ladder, while other victims are whipped, branded,
poked, prodded, slapped and shredded, irrespective of 'whether witch or wench'.
Leo Genn played Lord Wessex and Diana Lorys was victim Sally Downs. The
89-minute English language release, shorn of 10 minutes, is still strong stuff.
Bram Stoker's Count Dracula (1970) feebly claims to be 'exactly as
[Stoker] wrote it'. London lawyer Jonathan Harker (Frederick Williams) travels
to the Carpathian Mountains to visit Count Dracula (Christopher Lee). Weeks
later Harker is found, mad and with a bite on his neck. At an asylum, Harker
and madman Renfield (Klaus Kinski), another victim of the count, recover,
while Professor Van Helsing (Herbert Lorn) resolves to discover the secret of
Castle Dracula. Jesus Franco's film was produced by Harry Alan Towers ('A
Towers of London Production') and is tortoise-paced, with the mid-section
consisting mainly of people lying in bed recuperating and Renfield eating flies.
Franco regulars include Maria Rohm (as Mina Harker), Soledad Miranda as
Lucy Westenra (who is vampirised and becomes a soulless killer of children)
and Jack Taylor as Quincey Morris (Lucy's fiance). Franco strives for Bavaesque
imagery during Jonathan's misty coach journey in the Borgo Pass. All the loca­
tions, including Carpathian Bistritz and London, have suspiciously Spanish­
looking architecture. The scene where a roomful of stuffed mammals, fish and
birds (including an emu) 'come to life' and attack the heroes has to be seen to be
believed, and the enticing unholy trinity of Lee, Lorn and Kinski fails to deliver.
Lee's incarnation of the count adopts a Hungarian Magyar look, with a droop­
ing moustache. Lorn (concealed behind a Lenin beard) is nondescript as Van
Helsing, but untamed Kinski's periodic appearances as Renfield are the film's
saving grace. The count travels from London to Transylvania, via Varna on the
Black Sea, in a cart guarded by gypsies. The heroes ambush the convoy at Castle
Dracula, setting fire to the count and pushing his burning crate off a high wall.
Antonio Margheriti remade his own Castle of Blood as Web of the Spider
(1971), this time in colour. Anthony Franciosa played American reporter Alan
Foster who makes a wager with Lord Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman) to
spend the night in his castle. The murderous re-enactments unfold exactly as in
Castle, with the ghosts seeking Foster's blood, which will resurrect them for one
night ayear hence. Michele Mercier played ghostly Elisabeth Dollister Blackwood
(now a blonde) and Karin Field was Julia. Raf Baldassarre played Elisabeth's lover
Herbert, Peter Carsten was Dr Carmus and Silvano Tranquilli (Poe in Castle of
Blood) was Elisabeth's husband, William. The film has a good gothic atmosphere
and a menacing score, again by Ortolani. Its real plus is Klaus Kinski as Edgar
Allan Poe, who in the opening sequence is depicted as the unhinged protago­
nist in one of his own tales, frantically searching a graveyard by torchlight, then
exhuming the coffin of Berenice Morris.
Margheriti also supervised Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for
Dracula (1974), both 'presented' by Andy Warhol and credited to director-writer
Paul Morrissey. Flesh for Frankenstein stars Udo Kier as the Baron, Arno
Juerging as his snivelling assistant Otto, Monique Van Vooren as Frankenstein's
sex-maniac sister, and Joe Dallesandro as her manservant stud. Shot in Serbia
and at Cinecitta with set design by Enrico Job, this is a blood-drenched send-up
with nudity, spurting blood and dangling entrails (by Carlo Rambaldi), photo­
graphed in a garish 3D process called Spacevision. Once a Video Nasty in the
UK, this tongue-in-cheek bloodbath should be taken with a pinch of snuff.
Bloodfor Dracula is equally disgusting, its humorous central premise notwith­
standing: Count Dracula (Kier) leaves his native Romania in a car with his coffin
strapped to the roof and heads off to Italy with his secretary (Juerging) in search
of 'Wirgins' blood. He stays at the villa of Marquis Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sica),
who has four beautiful daughters though none of them are virgins, thanks to
hunky handyman Joe Dallesandro. Look out for Roman Polanski, in flat cap and
moustache, in a cameo as a peasant playing a mimicry game in a tavern.
Mel Welles' Lady Frankenstein (1971) had Baron Frankenstein (Joseph
Cotten) and Dr Charles Marshall (Paul Muller) transplanting brains and hearts
into reanimated cadavers. They create a monster (Paul Whiteman) but use a
damaged brain and the creature crushes the baron to death. Frankenstein's
daughter, Tania (Rosalba Neri), continues her father's experiments, jolting the
dead to life with primitive jump leads. She sets about creating her perfect man,
putting Charles' brain and heart into the body of brawny stable boy Thomas
Stack (Marino Mase). Her creation eventually strangles her during their love­
making, as angry villagers (led by Romano Puppo) torch the castle. Although
it manages an occasional visual flourish (an atmospheric graveyard and snowy
Castle Frankenstein), Lady Frankenstein adopts a sexploitative approach. The
hideous bald creature, with one eye popping out of its socket, is eventually killed
by cutting off its arm, stabbing it with a sword and putting an axe through its
skull. Muscleman Mickey Hargitay played Captain Harris, investigating the
graverobbing activities of Tom Lynch (Herbert Fux), the baron's supplier of stiffs.
Esteemed actor Cotten looks bemused to be among such cheap special effects
as bats on strings, shoddily staged on castle interiors at Incir-De Paolis and
accompanied by a dramatic score by Alessandro Alessandroni. Further Italian
versions of the Frankenstein story include Frankenstein 'So (1973 - with Gordon
Mitchell as Dr Albrechtstein) and Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1973) which
saw Rossano Brazzi's Count Frankenstein cast alongside dwarf Genz (Michael
Nunn), cavemen Ook (Boris Lugosi) and hunchback Igor (Gordon Mitchell).
The Devil's Nightmare (1971 - The Devil's Longest Night) was a cheap but
effective modern gothic, directed by Jean Brismee and scored by Alessandroni.
Seven bus travellers, including a trainee priest, find themselves stranded in the
bedevilled castle of Baron Von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais). Mysterious beauty Lisa
Muller (Erika Blanc) transforms herself into a ghastly, green-faced succubus,
with black lipstick and a variety of revealing black outfits, and each of the guests
succumbs to her tantalising. Each victim represents one of the Seven Deadly
 Gothic Horrors 97

Sins - for example, a fat glutton gorges on a banquet and chokes to death. The
murders are revealed to have been a horrible dream - the Devil's nightmare ­
endured by the priest, who decides to stay with Lisa. His fellow passengers
board the bus and are killed. Their vehicle plummets off a mountain road when
it swerves to avoid a hearse driven by the spindly, bald, rodent-toothed Devil
(Daniel Emilfork) .
Guido Zurli's The Strangler of Vienna (1971) was a stab at jet-black canni­
bal comedy. In 1930, corpulent butcher Otto Lehman (Victor Buono) is released
from an asylum. Soon afterwards he strangles his wife Hannah (Karin Field).
Inflation is high and supplies of meat low, so Otto hatches a plan involving his
wife's corpse and a sausage-making machine. His tasty sausages are the talk of
Vienna, but women begin vanishing. Bertha (Franca Polesello ), Otto's latest pro­
spective sausage-filling, manages to warn the police by sneaking buttons and a
ring into the sausages served in the police mess hall. It was shot at I CET De Paolis
Studios in Milan and on location in Vienna itself, including the Ferris wheel and
roller coaster (in the Prater Amusement Park) and the gardens of Schonbrunn
Palace. Brad Harris played investigating reporter Mike Loring. Most interesting
is Alessandroni's score, which includes a pastiche of Anton Karas' Third Man
zither theme and a barrel organ ragtime that resembles 'Mack the Knife'.

Bava Rises Again

Following a series of westerns, comedies and sci-fi movies, Bava returned to
the genre with which he'd made his name for Baron Blood (1972). Arriving in
Vienna, Peter Kleist (Antonio Cantafora) visits his ancestral home, the 'Castle
of the Devil', where 300 years ago Baron Otto Von Kleist tortured victims. The
castle is being converted into a hotel, but Peter, with help from history student
Eva Arnold (Elke Sommer), resurrects the Baron by reciting an ancient incan­
tation. The Baron begins to claim fresh victims, including the hotel developer,
Herr Dortmund (Dieter Tressler), and the caretaker, Fritz (Luciano Pigozzi). The
castle is bought at auction by wheelchair-bound Alfred Becker (Joseph Cotten),
who plans to renovate it. With his uncle, Professor Karl Hummel (Massimo
Girotti), and an occultist, Christina Hoffman (Rada Rassimov), Peter and Eva
break the curse. During a bonfire ritual, Christine invokes the spirit of witch
Elizabeth Holly (also played by Rassimov) . Eva reanimates the Baron's victims
with an amulet - only by their hands can he die.
The Bloody Baron's castle was filmed on location from September to
November 1971 in Austria at Burg Kreuzenstein, a fairytale fortification in the
Lower Danube Valley, with turrets, slate roofs, crenellations and arches. It was
this film that established Sommer as a scream queen. No one can react like
Sommer - a frightened look, a rigid twitch, followed by a glass-shattering shriek.
The dubbing studio must have shuddered. Sommer has to endure a garish selec­
tion of miniskirts, tight sweaters, smocks, headscarves and some bizarrely pat­
terned knitwear. The baron is also the stuff of nightmares, in his broad -brimmed
hat and cape, with burned, weeping hands and a blood-oozing face. The makeup
was designed by Carlo Rambaldi and was applied to special effects man Franco
Tocci (in costume as the baron). Professor Karl's daughter, Gretchen (Nicoletta
Elmi), appears clutching a ball, recalling Kill, Baby ... Kill! and the Baron's pursuit
of Eva through fog-wreathed streets is Bava at his best. The Italian print took
place in 'Nuremberg Castle' in Germany. For the US release, Baron Blood lost 8
minutes of footage and was re-scored by Les Baxter in place of Stelvio Cipriani's
jaunty Euro-pop title music (which resembles Tom Jones's 'It's Not Unusual').
Posters denied any responsibility for patrons who suffered 'Apoplectic Strokes,
Cerebral Hemorrhages, Cardiac Seizures, or Fainting Spells'.
With the success of Baron Blood, producer Alfredo Leone financed Lisa and
the Devil (1972), which many count as Bava's masterpiece. In Toledo, tourist Lisa
Reiner (Sommer) is separated from her friend Kathy (played by Leone's daughter,
Kathy). Lost in the backstreets, Lisa hitches a lift with a wealthy couple: Francis
Lehar (Eduardo Fajardo) and his wife, Sophie (Sylva Koscina), and their chauf­
feur, George (Gabriele Tinti). Their Packard breaks down and they take refuge in
the villa of a blind countess (Alida Valli), her son, Maximilian (Alessio Orano),
and their butler, Leandro (Telly Savalas), who closely resembles the Devil in a
fresco in Toledo's square. Max is convinced that Lisa is Elena, lover of his dead
step-father, Carlos, who himself appears to be alive, despite preparations being
made for his funeral.
Lisa was photographed by Cecilio Paniagua and filmed from September to
November 1972 on location in Toledo, at a villa outside Madrid (for the mansion's
exterior shots), at Barcelona Airport, Villa Frascati and Faleria. Carlo Savina com­
posed the loping, dreamy theme music (with piano, strings and Edda Dell'Orso's
wilting soprano) heard over the animated title sequence of a tarot dealer. Lisa is
a strange viewing experience, at once nightmarish, disjointed and illogical, but
equally engrossing, horrific and perverse. To prevent Lisa from leaving the villa
there are several gory deaths. George is stabbed in the neck with scissors, Francis
is run over by the Packard, Sophie has her skull caved in, and Max stabs his
own mother. Lisa encounters Leandro, who is carrying a wax dummy of Carlos
(which is replaced in some shots by actor Espartaco Santoni) and Bava arranges
the corpses of the Lehars, George, Carlos and Elena like Da Vinci's 'The Last
Supper'. Impotent Max attempts to make love to sedated Lisa on a four-poster
bed, beside the skeletal corpse of Elena, a scene which is choreographed to the
second movement of 'Concierto De Aranjuez' by Joaquin Rodrigo. When Lisa
awakens, she is alone in the ruined mansion, overgrown with tangled vegetation
and seemingly long-abandoned. As she boards a TWA 747 home, the passen­
gers are corpses from the villa and the pilot is Leandro. The film's oddest aspect,
even among matricide and necrophilia, is Telly Savalas' butler, Leandro. Savalas,
at Bava's suggestion, sucked lollipops throughout the film, and shortly after­
wards he starred in TV cop show Kojak (1973-78), where the lollipop became his
trademark.
 Gothic Horrors 99

In 1973 most distributors wouldn't release Lisa, despite a premiere at Cannes,

and the only theatrical run it received was in Spain. Leone looked to capitalise
on the current success of The Exorcist ( 1973) and reused Bava's footage in The
House of Exorcism ( 1975 ) . Leone shot for three and a half weeks with Bava
and Sommer in Rome at a disused hospital. In Leone's mutation, while visiting
Toledo, Lisa is possessed by the Devil (a Savalas stand-in ) and taken to hospital,
where a priest, Father Michael ( RobertAlda) , attempts to exorcise her. Lisa foot­
age is spliced throughout the story, as Lisa's experiences in a haunted mansion.
Father Michael goes to the villa ( shot by Bava at Villa Frascati ) for an impressive,
whirlwind exorcism, featuring burning Bibles and flying snakes.
The new scenes in the hospital are of the gross-out variety, with Sommer
convulsing on a bed, attacking the staff, vomiting luminous green bile and toads,
and spitting some very strong language. Exorcism also features copious nudity,
most notably in a gratuitous scene when Lisa is transformed into naked Anna
( Carmen Silva) , Father Michael's dead lover. When Leone assembled Exorcism,
he used the full-length cut of Lisa, which has since been lost and several scenes
play longer in this rehash. House ofExorcism is a schlockyvomitorium of a movie,
typical of 1970s and 198os Italian exploitation horror. There's no accounting for
taste, but Leone certainly knew his business: it took $5 million when released
in the US by distributor Peppercorn-Wormser in 1976. La casa dell'esorcismo,
directed by 'Mickey Lion' ( Bava had his name removed ) , opened in Italy in April
1975. There was something grimly ironic in Bava's dreamlike masterpiece being
filleted into a gory bile-fest which brutally exorcised the ghosts of Barbara Steele
and Elke Sommer.
The Italians brought style and elegance to gothic cinema. Some of the films
aren't particularly frightening, but they look tremendous - straight from the cob­
webbed pages of Poe. Steele noted in interviews that she couldn't fathom why,
in the optimistic climate of Rome in the early 196os, they ended up producing
horror movies. Italy is a sunny country, with a turbulent history - perhaps it was
this underlying history, lurking in the shadows, which informed these macabre
movies. As Bava himself said, 'We have the Mediterranean sun to chase away all
the shadows'. But sometimes the sun casts long, menacing shadows too.
 Battle of the Worlds
Science Fact and Fiction

I
n contrast to post-nuclear US or Japanese science-fiction films, which often
deployed unconvincing rubber monsters, or bleak, low-key UK sci-fi, such as
the 'Quatermass' films and The Damned (1961), Italian science-fiction presented
a colourful, fantastic kaleidoscope of flashing lights, star fields and bizarre
spacecraft. Filmmakers used a variety of tricks to create these cosmic worlds, but
the most important feature of Italian sci-fi was the omnipresent space fog which
wreathed sets, creating demonic, threatening atmospheres whilst shrouding
budgetary shortcomings.

Blast-off: Early Italian Sci-fi

Paolo Heusch's The Day the Sky Exploded (1958) was the first significant
Italian sci-fi movie, filmed in black and white by Mario Bava. John McLaren
(Paul Hubschmid) pilots the atomic powered XZ rocket on a six-day mission
from Cape Shark in Australia. But McLaren loses control of the craft to mys­
terious forces and abandons ship (his escape pod lands on Tor Caldara beach,
masquerading as Australia) . The rocket is now a drifting, pilot-less atomic mis­
sile. Cape Shark picks up an explosion in the 'Delta Asteroid Zone' and ani­
mals migrate inland, suggesting imminent tidal waves and floods. Professor
Weisse (Ivo Garrani) ascertains that meteorites are heading for Earth. Heusch's
film resembles a 1950s American B-movie, with its penny arcade control room,
overexcited reporters and no-name cast. Subplots detail McLaren's strained
relationship with his wife, Mary (Fiorella Mari), and son, Dennis (Massimo
Zeppieri), and a love story between two technicians: smarmy Peter (Dario
Michaelis) and shy Katy (Madeleine Fischer) . Almost the entire film was made
on one set: the Cape Shark control room and labs. Various natural disasters
(stampeding livestock, burning cities and forest fires) are stock footage, as are
the missile launch scenes. For the state of emergency, newsreel footage depicts
 UNDING ! AWESOME ! FANTASTIC

stamng

ClAUDE RAINS BILL CARTER MAYA BRENT 0

tirecled by ANIHONY DAWSON · A IDPAZ ntM CORP. RflfAS£

A Prophetic Motion Picture wo Years Ahead oflts Time: US advertising for Antonio Margheriti's
Italian sci-fi Battle of the Worlds (1961), where Earth is menaced by 'The Outsider'.
 Science Fact and Fiction 1 03

panicking crowds and convoys of refugees, which appears to be of WWII

vintage.
'BasedonanancientMexicanlegend', Caltiki- ThelmmortalMonster (1959)
was a rare Italian creature feature, with an oozing, blob-like central performance
from Caltiki - a 'crawling crushing colossus' of 'man-eating protoplasm', as the
trailer put it. In Mexico archaeologists desecrate a deserted, misty Mayan sacred
pyramid. One of the archaeologists, Max Gunther (Gerard Herter), is attacked by
monstrous Caltiki. Contact with the blob eats away the skin on his arm. Back in
Mexico City, as a radioactive comet approaches Earth, a globular sample of Caltiki
regenerates itself and grows to massive proportions, while deranged Max escapes
from hospital. Caltiki devours Max and is dispatched by Mexican army flameth­
rowers and tanks. Although Riccardo Freda was billed as the director, this was
cinematographer Mario Bava's directorial debut. The cast included John Merivale,
Daniela Rocca, Arturo Dominici and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, and the score was co­
written by Roberto Nicolosi and Roman Vlad. Caltiki itself was made from tripe.
Anton Giulio Majano's Atom Age Vampire (1960) was a mad scientist sce­
nario that depicted reparatory facial surgery. When stripper Jeanette Moreneau
(Susanne Loret) is facially disfigured in a car accident, she is treated by Professor
Albert Levin (Alberto Lupo) and his assistant, Monique (Franca Parisi), with his
untested rejuvenation serum. It works only over short periods and he needs fresh
female genes to make more. Another serum has the side-effect of tuning him into
Seddok, a ferocious, werewolf-like creature. In this guise Levin roams the foggy
streets, killing women, prolonging Jeanette's beauty, until her lover, Pierre (Sergio
Fantoni), and Commissioner Bruchard (Ivo Garrani) corner him. Cheaply made,
but with an effectively eerie Armando Trovajoli score and a fine turn by Roberto
Bertea as Levin's mute henchman, Sacha, Atom is a mixture of gothic horror
and sci-fi. Having studied post-atomic skin treatment at Hiroshima, Levin cures
Jeanette and transforms himself back from Seddok with radiation. The police
suspect that Seddok is a Hiroshima victim, 'a vampire of the atom age'. Levin's
stop-motion transformation, with layers of hair and makeup applied between
shots, is an effective technique that was used in many classic horror films.

Wild Planets: Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti was the leading Italian sci-fi director, often working under the
pseudonyms 'Anthony Dawson' or 'Anthony M. Dawson'. The formula for Italian
sci-fi was established by Margheriti's Technicolor Assignment: Outer Space
(1960 - Space Men), made in four weeks for 24 million lira. Dateline: 17 December
2116. Reporter Ray Peterson (Rick Van Nutter) of New York's Interplanetary News
is on spaceship Bravo Zulu 88 to cover a 10-day mission, a routine check of infra­
radiation flux in Galaxy M-12. On a manned satellite, Peterson meets Lucy, the
navigator, and clashes with her commander, George (David Montresor). The crew
embark on a top-secret expedition - drifting spaceship Alpha Two isn't responding
to radio contact. The mission diverts to Venus and discovers Alpha Two, its pilot
dead, floating toward Earth. Its photonic generators have created a high-temper­
ature force field, which will turn the Earth into 'a mass of boiling mud'. Pilot Al
(Archie Savage) flies an atomic rocket at Alpha Two but perishes, and Peterson
manages to board the errant ship and destroy its electronic brain. The acting is
awful and the choppy plot difficult to follow. The special effects include a refuel­
ling scene, an asteroid shower, Peterson's space walk through a star field towards
the satellite, and a stricken ship's demise on satellite Phobos. Bravo Zulu 88's land­
ing on Phobos, a misty, bubbling volcanic planet, hints at what the genre held in
store, while the impressive interplanetary base on Venus (created in miniature),
with its elliptical glass dome, missile launch sites and rockets, was reused in later
Margheriti movies. Spaceship Alpha Two resembles a giant hypodermic needle
with balloons attached. Astronauts utter typically B-movie curses ('By all the rings
around Saturn'), though at least their bulbous space helmets facilitated dubbing.
In Margheriti's Battle of the Worlds (1961) scientists detect a planet head­
ing towards Earth. Professor Benson (Claude Rains) is convinced it will miss
Earth and is proved right when it begins to orbit. Benson terms it the Outsider,
a planet from another solar system, and tells the United Commission they must
destroy the interloper. Earth sends out an exploratory party, but flying saucers
emerge from the Outsider and destroy them. The Outsider causes worldwide
panic, volcanic eruptions, fires, whirlwinds and storms (all stock footage) and
Benson destroys the Outsider's saucers with oscillating sound waves. Boarding
the Outsider, Benson finds a grotto of insect-like corpses, 'fugitives from a dying
world' - their Noah's Ark has 'become their tomb'. When Benson locates the
planet's electronic brain he realises that he can divert the planet, but it's too late ­
the planet collapses around his ears and earth's missiles obliterate the Outsider.
Battle of the Worlds is impressively plotted and staged, with Margheriti's
camera trickery noticeably evolving. The revolving flying saucers are rather poor,
as are the animated white laser beams during aerial combat, but the general mise­
en-scene, from the professor's flower-filled laboratory, to the monitors in the
conference room and the cavernous, red-bathed arterial bowels of the Outsider,
enhances the drama. The film's opening scenes at Earth's island observatory are
eerie, as scientist Eve Barnett (Maya Brent) runs down the limestone steps to the
beach where fellow scientist Fred Steele (Umberto Orsini) is swimming (their
on-off love story subplot is the film's main weakness). This scene is accompa­
nied by extraordinary avant-garde oscillations composed by Mario Migliardi,
over which a female vocalist wails distorted lyrics, including, 'The Outsider
is coming!' The cast features Bill Carter as Mars commander Bob Cole, Carol
Danell as his wife, Cathy, Jacqueline Derval as the mysterious 'Black Widow'
Mrs Collins, Carlo D'Angelo as impatient general Varreck and Massimo Righi
as pilot Lewis Boyd, while future star Giuliano Gemma tried to get noticed as bit­
part technician Moran. Feisty 72-year-old Rains was appearing in one of his last
films before his death in 1967. As the old professor, himself a perpetual 'outsider',
wearing thick glasses and smoking a cigar, Rains spends the film railing against
 Science Fact and Fiction 1 05

the 'bigwigs' of government and thriving on his lifelong thirst for knowledge:
'What importance does life have: he asks, 'if to live means not to know?'
Antonio Margheriti continued to produce imaginative, colourful sci-fi mov­
ies: War ofthe Planets (1966 - The Deadly Diaphanoids), its sequel The Wild, Wild
Planet (1966), War between the Planets (1966 - Planet on the Prowl) and The Snow
Devils ( 1967 - Space Devils). The first two films starred Tony Russel as Commander
Mike Halstead, while Giacomo Rossi-Stuart took over as the hero of War between
the Planets and Snow Devils. These four films were made for US television (the
first two were produced by MGM) using the same casts and sets, in 12 weeks.
The Wild, Wild Planet is a combination of futuristic crime film, horror
and fantasy. On space station Gamma One, Commander Halstead is suspi­
cious of the macabre experiments in organ miniaturisation by Professor Nurmi
(Massimo Serato), who works for Chem-Bio-Med (CBM). On Earth, people are
disappearing with no explanation, including General Fowler (Enzo Fiermonte).
Mike's girlfriend, Lieutenant Connie Gomez (Lisa Gastoni), accepts Nurmi's offer
to take a vacation on Delphos at Nurmi's research facility. At United Democratic
Space Command (UDSCO), Mike realises that the kidnap victims are shipped to
Delphos for Nurmi's experiments.
Wild, Wild Planet is a wild, wild film. The space stations, spacecraft and
the metropolis of Earth's capital are the expected none-too-convincing mini­
atures present in all Margheriti's work. But the futuristic costumes (by Bernice
Sparrow), makeup (by Euclid Santolis) and Eastmancolor cinematography are
a feast for the eyes, from the sleek, domed space cars that glide along Earth's
highways, to the interior sets (designed at De Paolis Studios by Piero Poletti) and
outlandish props (such as the flamethrower laser guns). Angelo Lavagnino pro­
vided atmosphere with a mixture of lush space symphonies and atonal clangs.
Carlo Giustini and Franco Nero played Mike's sidekicks, lieutenants Ken and
Jake. Franco Ressel was Gamma One's Lieutenant Jeffries, stuntman Goffredo
Unger helped out with the investigations on Earth and Umberto Raho was Paul
Maitland, the UDSCO general who refuses to believe Nurmi's culpability.
The film's most imaginative features are allied to Nurmi's nefarious activities
to create a race of perfect beings: the climax is the fusing of his own body with
that of Connie's. To carry out the kidnappings, Nurmi dispatches squads of kara­
te-kicking, robotic inflatable women to Earth, accompanied by equally inflatable
henchmen - mysterious, anaemic, bald zombies wearing caps, shades and long
grey macs. The police discover that these henchmen have four arms concealed
beneath their coats, the result of Nurmi's fusion grafts. Their modus operandi
has the deadly duos miniaturising earthlings to Barbie-doll size and transporting
them to Delphos. Mike and his crew relax in a groovy space canteen-cum-disco
and attend productions at the Proteo Theatre, where the dancers flit around the
stage in capes. Mike and his squad infiltrate Delphos and are captured. They see
lab assistants wheeling around trolleys carrying leftover 'scraps' (spare hands,
arms and other anatomy) and Nurmi has a cell ('My private Hell') filled with
the mutant results of earlier experiments. Nurmi resolves to destroy the master
computer - he opens sluice gates and releases a vast swimming pool of blood,
which swamps the entire facility in a plasma tidal wave. As rescue crafts arrive
from Earth, Mike utters the most incredible line in Italian sci-fi: 'Just leave it to
Maitland - he's sure to bollocks it up'.

Chariots and the G ods: Sci-fi Pepla

Another trend in Italian sci-fi was a series of sword and sandal epics that trans­
ported their heroes into futuristic subterranea or else pitted them against visi­
tors from other worlds - as though Erich Von Daniken's Chariot of the Gods had
been rewritten with real chariots. Umberto Scarpelli's The Giant ofMetropolis
(1961) starred Gordon Mitchell as Obro, who travels to Atlantis in 2o,ooo BC.
King Yotar (Roldano Lupi), the ruler of the futuristic city of Metropolis, is experi­
menting with human brain transplants on his son, Elmos (Marietto) . Yo tar res­
urrects his elderly father, Egon (Furio Meniconi), but Yotar's wife, Queen Texen
(Liana Orfei), and daughter, Princess Mercede (Bella Cortez), oppose him. Yotar
tests Obro's endurance - Obro battles a club-wielding Neanderthal giant (mas­
sive actor Kronos), five wild pygmy men (who attempt to rip off his skin with
their teeth) and Yotar's Black Guard (led by Ugo Sasso) with their cutlasses and
crab-claw spears. Egon releases Obro, who manages to escape with Mercede and
Elmos, as Atlantis is apocalyptically destroyed by flood and earthquake (partly
footage from Hercules Conquers Atlantis).
The volcanic desert landscape of the outside world (shot on Mount Etna,
Sicily) is as unnatural as the devilish depths ofMetropolis, achieved with Bavaesque
imagery and Armando Trovajoli's staccato piano, brass and woodwind score: the
interiors were recreated at De Paolis Studios, with the palace's exterior fa�ade at
Olimpia Studios. Fantastical interior sets and matte shots (by Joseph Nathanson)
include Yotar's impressive observatory (with its colossal telescope), the Hall of
Arts and Sciences laboratory, stalactite strewn caverns and the Quartz Grotto.
The dry-ice machines worked overtime, the Metropolis sets wreathed knee-deep
in fog. Obro is 'tested' by being held in a tractor beam of blinding, scalding light
and Obro's brothers are zapped by Yotar's 'Whirlwind of Death' ray. Obro battles
these futuristic wonders with pure muscle and an array of spiky weaponry.
Alfonso Brescia's The Conqueror ofAtlantis (1965 - Kingdom in the Sand)
told a similar story, with Kirk Morris (in his final peplum) as Greek hero Heracles,
who is shipwrecked in Egypt and becomes involved in inter-tribal rivalry. The plot
veers off when nomad princess Virna (Luciana Gilli) is abducted to the Mountain
of the Dead Ones, beyond which is the City of the Phantoms. Hercules and Prince
Karr (Andrea Scotti) find themselves in a futuristic city populated by the survivors
of Atlantis, ruled by Ramir (Piero Lulli), who has brainwashed Virna and crowned
her queen. With impressive footage shot in Egypt (the film was an Italian-Egyptian
co-production) and belly dancers adding local colour, Conqueror's strength lies
in the imaginative Flash Gordon-style production design of Ramir's royal palace,
 Science Fact and Fiction 1 07

perched atop a smoking volcano and suspended on a 'cushion of gas'. The interiors
feature a high-vaulted throne room, a turbine wheel, gas chambers and TV moni­
tors, while Ramir and his evil queen Aming (Helene Chanel) brandish ray guns.
Ramir wears black robes, a Mohican helmet headdress, spiky collar, arched eye­
brows, eyeliner and a foot-long green pointy beard. His guards are Amazonian arch­
ers and Ramir's experiments change mortal men into immortal Golden Phantoms.
Dressed in blue leotards and loincloths, these henchmen, with gold faces, hands
and boots, are the most ridiculous creations in pepla. A pitched battle in a desert
ravine between the Golden Phantoms and the nomads (armed with heavy balls
and chains which they use like bolas) ends the film on a hilarious note.
Hercules against the Moon Men (1964), directed Giacomo Gentilomo,
detailed the possible encounter between ancient civilisations and visitors from
outer space. Hercules (Maciste in the Italian print, played by Alan Steel) is sum­
moned to the Kingdom of Samar, where tyrant queen Samara (]any Clair) rules
with her household guard, commanded by Mogol (Goffredo Unger). A mysteri­
ous meteor has crashed into the Mountain of Samar. Strange Luna creatures have
ensconced themselves in the bowels of the mountain and Samara's people sacri­
fice their children to the Mountain of Death to appease the Moon Men. Samara is
about to sacrifice her sister, Princess Bilis (Delia D'Alberti) . The Moon Men need
her blood to resurrect their queen, Selena, whereupon they will become masters
of the Earth. With the help ofAgar (Hercules' lover, played by Anna Maria Polani),
Bilis' fiance, Prince Darix (played by Jean-Pierre Honore), and a band of rebels
operating from a tavern, Hercules foils Samara's plan and takes on Moon Man
giant Redolphis (Roberto Ceccacci) and his army of ten-foot-high stone men.
Steel is a fine hero, with Clair his nefarious match as the red-haired queen
Samara (recalling Sylvia Lopez in Hercules Unchained) . Hercules fights a giant
tusked ape, Queen Samara tries to squash Hercules between the jaws of a
spiked mantrap and attempts to drug him with a 'love filter'. Sets were created
at Cinecitta, with location footage shot in the Lazio caves and at Tor Caldara
(where Samara's men herd the chained condemned towards the Mountain of
Death) . Tor Caldara is shown to best advantage in Moon Men, which shot the
muddy inlet, the beach and headland, the low bluffs and surrounding woodland
from every imaginable angle. The epic theme by Carlo Franci (with brass and
strings accompanying a full-throttle Valkyrie choir) is an edit of his music for
Maciste in Hell. A cataclysm sees the oceans rise, volcanoes erupt and lava gush
forth (stock footage) coupled with a multicoloured sandstorm (recreated on stu­
dio sets). As Bilis's dripping blood begins to revive Selena, the stone men crush
Samara, the throbbing emerald brain (the fulcrum of the Moon Men's power) is
toppled, Redolphis is destroyed and the caverns collapse on the stone men.

Future Fiction
If pepla looked to science past, then The Last Man on Earth (1964) peered
nihilistically towards the future. An Italian-US co-production co-directed by
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'I Am Legend': Dr Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) battles the virus-infected undead in The
Last Man on Earth (1964), a US-Italian co-production released in the US by AlP.
 Science Fact and Fiction 1 09

Ubaldo B. Ragona and Sidney Salkow, Last Man starred Vincent Price as Dr
Robert Morgan, the lone survivor of a worldwide plague. Apparently immune,
he lives in his barricaded house by night, as hordes of vampirised undead attack
his stronghold. During the day Morgan travels the city in his hearse-like station
wagon, staking the vampires and throwing their bodies in a perpetually burning
mass grave, the Pit. Set in 1968, flashbacks reveal how the windblown plague
arrived in 1965 and how Morgan's daughter, Kathy (Christi Courtland), wife,
Virginia (Emma Danieli), and Ben Cortman (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) - his work
colleague at the Mercer Chemical Research Institute - became victims. Ben now
leads the nightly attack against Morgan's house. Through Ruth Collins (Franca
Bettoia), Morgan finds that others have survived and are intent on forming a
New Society. They see Morgan as a monster: 'You are a legend in the city', Ruth
tells him, 'Living by day instead of night'. The New Society has become infected
but keeps the virus in check with injections of 'defibrillated blood' plus a vac­
cine. Morgan gives Ruth a blood transfusion to save her, but the New Society
hunts him, cornering him in a church. 'Freaks: shouts Morgan, 'I'm a man, the
last man', as they stake him with an iron spike. Now immune, Ruth tells a weep­
ing babe-in-arms, 'There's nothing to cry about. We're all safe now'.
The Last Man on Earth was based on I Am Legend, Richard Matheson's
1954 novel. The film opens with shots of deserted streets, littered with wrecked,
abandoned cars and strewn with dead bodies. It was shot on location in Rome,
including the steps of the grand Palazzo Della Civilta and the distinctive mush­
room tower of 11 Fungo in the EUR district. Price is excellent as Robert Morgan
(Robert Neville in the novel), an insane avenger travelling the ruined city with his
mallet and stakes for his repetitive daily routine. Society no longer exists, though
Morgan still observes certain rituals. He visits the local supermarket jammed
with abandoned trolleys (to collect more garlic) and a car showroom (to pick out
a new car). Garlic, a wooden cross and mirrors are attached to his front door to
ward off vampires. The explanation for Morgan's immunity is that when he was
working in Panama he was bitten by a vampire bat and that 'the vampire germ'
is already in his blood. The shambling vampires resemble zombies and some
scenes look like rushes for George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).
Moodily photographed in 2.35:1 widescreen by Franco Delli Colli, Last Man
takes 'bleak' to another level. When a scraggy black dog offers Morgan compan­
ionship, it is infected and he has to stake it. The first symptom of the plague is
blindness and Morgan's own daughter becomes afflicted and is tossed into the
Pit. Morgan drives his wife's shrouded corpse to the suburbs to bury her. But that
night, a voice calls to him from outside: 'Let me in Robert'. He opens the door
and his resurrected wife attacks him. Last Man has aged well and its nihilistic
ending is still powerful.
Elio Petri's The wth Victim (1965), a satire on commercialism, TV and soul­
less living based on Robert Sheckley's short story The Seventh Victim, remains
a highpoint in Italian futurism. In the twenty-first century, murder is legal
as contestants in 'The Big Hunt' shoot it out in the streets. Contestants must
undertake 10 hunts - five as hunter, five as prey - with a prize of $1 million and
the title 'Decathon' for the first to claim 10 victims. Their opponents are ran­
domly generated by a computer in Geneva. American Caroline Meredith (Ursula
Andress) has one round to go before she becomes champion and her tenth vic­
tim is Italian contestant Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni, with his hair
bleached blond). She travels to Rome but in the course of the chase they fall in
love. She eventually manages to lure him to the Temple of Venus, where their
duel is televised as part of an advert for her sponsor 'Ming Tea'. They can't kill
each other and flee on an airliner, where Caroline forces Marcello to marry her
at gunpoint.
The wth Victim was filmed at TitanusAppia Studios and on location in Rome,
including St Peter's Square, the Piazza Navona, the Colosseum and Fiumicino
Airport. Marcello joins a cult of 'Sunset Worshippers' on Ostia beach and out­
wits his sixth victim, Baron Von Aschenberg (Wolfgang Hillinger), whom he dis­
patches with exploding riding boots at an equestrian event staged at the Villa
Borghese's Piazza Di Sienna. The TV extravaganza, which features showgirls
and dancing teacups, ends with a shootout in the ruins of the Temple of Venus,
where Caroline and Marcello face Marcello's ex-wife, Lydia (Luce Bonifassy), and
his mistress Olga (Elsa Martinelli). Massimo Serato played Marcello's lawyer,
Milo Quesada was Rudy (Caroline's beau) and Jacques Hedin was the Big Hunt's
adjudicator. The film opens with Caroline being pursued through the streets
of New York by her ninth victim (George Wang). He tracks her to the Masoch
Club, where Andress performs a striptease in a silver metallic bikini, before
killing him with guns which protrude from her brassiere. Produced by Carlo
Ponti and Joseph E. Levine, The wth Victim is imaginatively Pop Art, with sets
by Piero Poletti (who usually worked with Michelangelo Antonioni) and stylish,
bold futuristic costumes by Coltellacci. Piero Piccioni provided the jaunty score,
including the stuttering 'Spiral Waltz' title song performed by pop singer Mina.

Dark Star: Bava in Space

Much in the spirit of Margheriti's futuristic style, Mario Bava blended sci-fi and
horror in Planet of the Vampires (1965 - The Demon Planet). The Argos and
the Galliot investigate a strange signal emanating from the fog-shrouded planet
of Aura. Both craft are dragged down by the gravitational pull. The crew of the
Argos attack each other and only the quick thinking of Captain Mark Markary
(Barry Sullivan) saves them. The Galliot isn't so lucky - Markary and his crew find
their cohorts dead. Stranded on the supernatural planet, the astronauts find a
gigantic wrecked spaceship. Meanwhile, the crew of the Galliot rise from the dead
as zornhies, possessed by the parasitic spirits ofAura, and attack the Argos, stealing
its valuable Meteor Rejecter. The Aurean's sun is dying and they have been trying
to lure a ship to transport them away. Argos's crew assault the Galliot, destroying
the ship and its undead crew with plutonium, before making their escape.
 Science Fact and Fiction 111

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poster for Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965).
 Bava's zombie space flick was based on Renato Pestiniero's 'One Night of
21 Hours: published in Interplanet #3 Science Fiction Magazine. Bava filmed
entirely on Cinecitta soundstages, creating Aura's eerie world through swirling
coloured fogs, jagged rock formations, bubbling lava beds and unsettling sound
effects, as hovering lights flash and voices moan from the creeping fog. The film's
sound design is suffused with humming generators, sonar blips, whooshing
meteors and Aura's moaning wind; the electronic effects were created by Paolo
Ketoff. Some international prints of Planet replaced Gino Marinuzzi's original
score with electronic compositions by Kendall Schmidt. His astral title music
consists of darting synthesizer arpeggios (imitating stuttering computer data)
overlaid with piercing electronic feedback. The vast rusty space cruiser, with its
throbbing red-lit interior and the giant skeletal remains of its crew slumped at
the craft's controls, is one of Bava's most memorable creations and influenced
Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).
Norma Bengell played crew member Sanya, Angel Aranda appeared as engi­
neer Wes, with Ivan Rassimov (Carter), Evi Mirandi (Tiona), Mario Morales
(Eldon), Stelio Candelli (Brad), Franco Andrei (Bert) and Fernando Villena (Dr
Karan) filling out the Argos's crew. The Galliot team included Federico Boido
(Keir), Massimo Righi (Captain Sallas) and Alberto Cevenini (as Markary's
brother, Toby) . Their gory undead face makeup was by Amato Garbibi, while the
futuristic space suits, tight-fitting black leather with orange trim, were designed
by Gabriele Mayer. Although identified as 'space vampires', these cadavers are
zombies. Markary, Sanya and Wes escape on the Argos, but Markary and Sanya
have been possessed and detour to the nearest planet, 'a puny civilisation': Earth.
Even in outer space, Bava managed to recreate one of his beloved slow motion
resurrection scenes. Markary and his crew bury the Galliot astronauts, but their
monolith grave markers topple and the space fog swirls, as metal coffin lids creak
open and the astronauts emerge, tearing apart their plastic body bag shrouds,
before stumbling off into Aura's perpetual night.

Comic Book Heroes

Bava's comic strip adaptation Diabolik marked the moment when Italian cinema
went psychedelic, as though Fellini had made a James Bond movie. It was the first
and best of three European comic strip adaptations released in 1968, the other
two being Satanik and Barbarella. Diabolik and Barbarella were made concur­
rently by the same production companies: De Laurentiis (Rome) and Marianne
(Paris). John Phillip Law (who also played the blind angel, Pygar, in Barbarella)
starred as Diabolik, a master thief always one step ahead of Inspector Jinko
(Michel Piccoli). The authorities try everything to apprehend him, including
restoring the death penalty and putting up a $1 million bounty. Crime lord Ralph
Valmont's mob kidnap Diabolik's girl, Eva Kant (Marisa Mell), but Diabolik foils
their scheme and kills Valmont. Eventually Diabolik steals a 20-ton gold ingot
being transported by train in Operation Goldvan. The bullion is radioactive and
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US poster for Mario Bava's pop-art cult classic Diabolik (1968), starring John Phillip Law as the
cunning masterthief and Marisa Mell as his bombshell lover Eva. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce
Collection.
the police trace it to Diabolik's underground lair, where he is defeated when the
molten ingot explodes, incarcerating him forever as a gold statue.
Offered a budget of $3 million by Dino De Laurentiis, Bava made Diabolik
for $4oo,ooo. The film was shot from April to June 1967 at the Fiat plant in
Turin, on location in Rome and in the Blue Grotto on Capri. Tor Caldara was
used for clifftop St Just castle (a matte shot) and for the scene when Diabolik
parachutes to save kidnapped Eva and is trapped by the police. Interiors were
lensed at De Laurentiis Studios, Rome. Thunderball actor Adolfo Celi appeared
as Valmont. The underwater heist (staged by Nicola Balini), when Diabolik tows
away the gold ingot using inflatable balloons and a submersible jet sled, resem­
bles Thunderball's underwater scenes. Though the police use helicopters, cars
and motorbikes and the costumery sets the film firmly in the pop-art 196os,
Diabolik's technology is futuristic. When Diabolik breaks into St Just castle to
steal the famous Aksand emerald necklace, he scales the tower, Spiderman­
style, using suction cups. To steal a $10 million cash shipment, he lifts the Rolls
Royce carrying it with a dock crane and escapes by motor boat and E-Type Jag;
he also demolishes the Lawrence Bridge to derail a train carrying the ingot. Bava
and his scriptwriters concocted a witty, parodic script: 'With this suit I could
swim through the centre of the sun', Diabolik tells Eva of his heatproof outfit.
Bava stages a succession of memorable set pieces, lensed in vivid Technicolor
by Antonio Rinaldi, in a style defined by Bava's zooming, whip-panning, comic
book verve and invention. Law is ideal as Diabolik, dressed in a variety of strik­
ing bodysuits and masks designed by Carlo Rambaldi. Mell (who replaced
Catherine Deneuve, once the latter was fired from the role) is equally good as
Eva. Terry-Thomas had a cameo as the incompetent minister of the interior.
Claudio Gora played the chief of police, Andrea Bosic was the manager of the
First International Bank Trust Company, Giulio Donnini was Dr Vernier, Annie
Gorassini played Rose (Valmont's moll) and Federico Boido, Tiberio Mitri and
Wolfgang Hillinger appeared as Valmont's gangsters.
Diabolik's unique score by Ennio Morricone is one of his finest. When Diabolik
drives into his subterranean lair, Morricone's sinuous cue - mixing sitars, tabla,
flutes and violins - sounds like Ravi Shankar-meets-The Velvet Underground. In
Valmont's psychedelic nightclub, hippy patrons groove to a pounding acid-pop
trumpet Deguello. Jarring electric guitars announce Diabolik's appearances and
a frantic guitar riff scores speeding chases. The title song, the lilting 'Deep Down',
was sung by Christy. The underwater heist features Edda Dell'Orso's soprano,
which springs to life with vocal 'wah-wah-wahs', electric guitars and chunky
drums, in the film's best musical moment: an 'ecstasy of gold' which sounds like
the Good, the Bad and the Ugly doing the twist. For Diabolik's English language
release two different dubs were prepared. One version, entitled Diabolik, dubs
the cast with American accents, while in the other, Danger: Diabolik, the accents
sound British. In Diabolik, for instance, the thief's name is pronounced Dee­
abolik, in Danger: Diabolik it's Die-abolik.
 Science Fact and Fiction 1 15

Glenn Saxson starred as a skull-faced super criminal in Umberto Lenzi's

comic book adaptation Kriminal (1966) and Bava's film was parodied by Arriva
Dorellik (1967), starring Johnny Dorelli as assassin Dorellik. Terry-Thomas was
again the caped villain's nemesis. Also titled How to Kill 400 Duponts, this Kind
Hearts and Coronets-inspired comedy featured the grooviest cabaret spot in
Italian cult cinema, with shimmying Baby Eva (Margaret Lee) performing the
onomatopoeic 'Crash-sci-sci-patapum !'
In Piero Vivarelli's Satanik (1968), an elderly, facially scarred doctor, Marnie
Banister (Magda Konopka), concocts a regeneration serum ('the key to immor­
tality') in Madrid. The potion transforms her into a beautiful young woman but
unleashes her 'primordial instincts', turning her into a seductive, murderous
killer. She leaves a trail of dead bodies, killing a rich diamond dealer (Umberto
Raho) and stealing the identity of Stella Dexter, a gangster's moll. She flees to
Lake Geneva, staying at the lakeside casino owned by crook Dodo La Roche (Luigi
Montini), where she's eventually caught by Scotland Yard's Inspector Trent.
Backed by a groovy bossa nova score by Manuel Parada, Satanik melds sci-fi
with jewel thievery, espionage, sexploitation and murder mystery. Armando
Calvo was good as Madrid police chief Gonzales, Julio Pefia equally so as the vaca­
tioning inspector, Trent, while sexy Konopka (known off-screen as The Magnetic
Pole) was excellent as the lady killer, donning a variety of colourful, exotic fash­
ion creations to stay one step ahead of the law. The ending is well handled, when
Marnie reveals her true identity (and more besides) to Trent when she performs
a striptease in the Casino 'Chez Moi' in a sultry Diabolik-styled outfit and mask,
to the smoochy piano and sax of 'Strip-Blues' by Gepy and Gepy. She escapes
on a paddle steamer but runs out of serum. Marnie changes into her older alter
ego, which enables her to evade the police. Stealing a car with no brakes from a
garage, she crashes while on a winding mountain road. In the wreckage, Marnie
transforms into her younger self.

Star and No-Star Vehicles: The 1 9 70s

For almost a decade no Italian sci-fi movies surfaced, but the global success of Star
Wars (1977) relaunched the genre. Luigi Cozzi's Starcrash (1978) had smugglers
Stella Star (Caroline Munro) and Akton (Marjoe Gortner) and their police android
companion Elle (Judd Hamilton in a robot suit) dispatched by the Star Emperor
(Christopher Plummer) to the heart of the Haunted Stars to investigate Count
Zartharn (Joe Spinell), who has developed a Doom Machine. Stella locates Simon
(David Hasselhoff), the Star Emperor's son, and together they take on Zartharn's
axis of evil, destroying his planet, Demondia, and employing a tactic known as
'Starcrash: Fourth Dimensional Attack' to assault his space station headquarters.
Filmed at Cinecitta Studios, Starcrash's special effects are way above average for
Italian sci-fi. Spaceships gracefully glide, rather than stutter, across vibrant star
fields swathed in colour. Some effects still look as though the spacecraft are stuck
inside a lava lamp, but the explosive ray gun finale exceeds expectations. John
Barry's score lifts the film and provides a suitably Bondian sweep to the interga­
lactic adventure, with voluminous orchestrations of strings and horns.
Starcrash opens with a spaceship passing overhead (identical to Star Wars)
and an introductory scroll: 'In a time before time, life existed in the outer galaxies'.
Akton uses a light sabre and Zartharn's minions are aU-in-black stormtroopers.
The heroes encounter beautiful Amazons led by Queen Corelia (Nadia Cassini),
a giant robotic Amazon, two sword-wielding robotic 'golems: and grunting trog­
lodytes. When Stella is caught smuggling by the Imperial Police, she is sentenced
to hard labour in a radium mine. Starcrash's cult popularity is due to ex-Bond
girl and Hammer glamour queen Munro, here modelling a bikini and thigh-high
boots. Robert Tessier played turncoat Imperial policeman Thor in green face
makeup. Curly-haired Gortner and pre-Baywatch Hasselhoff are Stella's supposed
love interest, though she prefers the company of Ell e. Voiced by Hamilton Camp,
Elle is the simple plot's narrator, explaining the blatantly obvious in a Midwestern
drawl. Plummer's dignified imperial performance as the emperor of the First
Circle of the Universe added moral gravity to an otherwise weightless scenario.
Special effects had improved immensely in the decade since Alfonso
Brescia's Conqueror ofAtlantis, but you'd never know from his 1970s work. His
most notorious space opera is Cosmos: War of the Planets (1977), a remake
of Planet ofthe Vampires. A spaceship commanded by Captain Fred Hamilton
(John Richardson) on a mission in the Vega Sector picks up a strange signal from
a strange planet. The planet's population is oppressed by a robot (The Immortal
Monster) of the Texas Instruments variety. The green, bald, pointy-eared inhab­
itants are led by Amok (a disembodied voice) and their chief, Etor ('Nick Jordan' I
Aldo Canti), a six-foot goblin in a loincloth. The astronauts destroy the robot,
the planet explodes and only Etor and the crew escape. Two astronauts have
been possessed by the planet's ruler. Hamilton and his crew exterminate the
zombies, but the robot takes control of their on-board computer as they return
to Earth. Cosmos headlines a less-than-stellar cast, with everyone bar the leads
wisely adopting pseudonyms. Mila, one of Hamilton's crew, was played by Yanti
Somer, sporting an awful crew-cut. Although the film deploys some good star­
field backdrops, it's what happens in the foreground that is the problem. The
blipping score by Marcello Giombini consists of snatches of Bach toccatas played
interminably on a synthesizer. The astronauts are kitted out in skin-tight white
jumpsuits, coupled with red helmets (making them resemble human cannon­
balls) ; they enjoy non-interactive Cosmic Love on those lonely space nights; and
their all-knowing computer at Base Orion is called WIZ. Cosmos is the most
consistent Italian sci-fi movie: script, special effects, costumes, music and act­
ing are all terrible. As Amok says of his planet's demise, 'I am talking about an
atomic catastrophe'. Brescia certainly captured that on film.
Brescia followed this with another anti-classic, The War of the Robots
(1978), starring Somer as space cadet Julie serving under Captain John Boyd
(Antonio Sabato) on the spaceship Trissi. She has a crush on the captain, who
 Science Fact and Fiction 117

loves Lois (Melissa Longo). Professor Carr (Jacques Hedin) and Lois are kid­
napped from Earth by Gold Men from the planet Anthor. Carr has developed
a secret formula for immortality. The Trissi sets off in pursuit, as a terrestrial
reactor which only Carr can diffuse threatens to explode. Traitorous Lois, now
the power-hungry empress of Anthor, attacks the Trissi, and Boyd, Julie and Lois
resolve their love triangle with aerial combat.
Robots boasts some half-decent sets (at De Paolis Studios), Space Invader spe­
cial effects and passable costumes. The PVC 'anti-radiation spacesuits' courtesy
of Trissi Sport prominently bear the Trissi name on the front, which is probably
why Brescia chose the name for his spacecraft. The Gold Men are androids in gold
suits and blond wigs, a shiny, glam rock Abba tribute. The film's pumping synth
score, again Giombini's responsibility, abandons Bach for more conventional
orchestrations. Italian cult film regulars Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Massimo Righi,
Venantino Venantini and Roger Browne have been here before. Rossi-Stuart, by
now 47, doesn't seem to care for the material at all, his mind visibly wandering.
Aldo Canti tops his previous portrayal as Etor with a barnstorming, athletic turn
as Kuba the Alien. An old enemy of the Gold Men, he's liberated from the planet
Azar and is even entrusted with a few lines, in contrast to Etor who communi­
cated telepathically. In one scene the Gold Men use light sabres (called Inderian
swords) clearly modelled on Star Wars. And what were the English language
dubbers thinking when they had the air assault by the Gold Men led by General
Gonad? Perhaps Julie's comment best sums up the experience of sitting through
Brescia's sci-fi movies: 'It's wonderful to be alive after being so near to death'.
The Humanoid (1979) was directed by Aldo Lado as George B. 'Lewis'
(rather than Lucas). The second unit was helmed by Enzo G. Castellari, with
special effects by Antonio Margheriti and models by Emilio Ruiz Del Rio. Both
the model work and special effects - of spaceships and the Metropolis colony
on planet Earth - are above average for Italian features. Interiors were shot at
Cinecitta and DEAR Studios, with desert exteriors deploying matte shots as
Metropolis. Inspired equally by Star Wars and Frankenstein, Humanoid had Dr
Kraspin (Arthur Kennedy) working with a Darth Vader look-alike, Lord Graal
(Ivan Rassimov), who aims to take over Earth. Having stolen the vital component
Kavatron from the Groven Institute, the doctor can create an invincible race of
humanoids. Kraspin begins by transforming Inspector Golob of the Metropolis
Colony into a humanoid. Golob runs amok in Metropolis, tearing through the
wobbly sets, but eventually sides with Earth's defenders against the invaders.
Golob was played by Richard Kiel (wearing a WWI flying helmet), who also
played Jaws in the James Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
He'd appeared earlier in his career in the US-Italian sci-fi movie The Human
Duplicators (1965), as the giant alien Kolos. Mystical Tibetan child Tom Tom
(Marco Yeh) and Earth leader the Great Brother (Massimo Serato) are key good
guys. Graal's cohort, Lady Agatha (Bond girl Barbara Bach, looking like a startled
Siamese cat), is kept eternally youthful with serum injections from Dr Kraspin.
In Humanoid no Star Wars cliche is left unexploited, from the scrolling, star­
field titles, to the laser beam shootout finale. Heroic Nick (Leonard Mann) is
Luke Skywalker, imperilled Barbara Gibson (Corrine Clery) subs for Princess
Leia Organa and cute robots are represented by Golob's sidekick Kip the robot
space dog, who resembles a paper shredder on wheels. Morricone's score is partly
a synthesiser rehash of his theme from Burn! (1969). When Golob is transformed
into a humanoid the process also strangely zaps off his beard; Nick is lumbered
with exclamations such as 'Well I'll be disintegrated!' and Kennedy appears to
be taking the enterprise seriously. The Humanoid is a little-seen classic that
deserves its place in sci-fi cult history.
Michele Lupo's The Sheriffand the Satellite Kid (1979) cleverly casts Cary
Guffey, who had played the child abducted by aliens in Steven Spielberg's Close
Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) . Bud Spencer starred as Hall, the ambling
sheriff of Newnan City, Georgia, which is in the grip of UFO-fever. The sheriff
saves stranded H7-25 (Guffey) - an extraterrestrial child with incredible powers ­
from capture by the National Guard, led by Captain Briggs (Raimund Harmstorf) .
The film was shot on location in Georgia, in Newnan itself, at the Warner Robins
and Dobbins Air Force Bases, and at the Confederate Civil War monument which
is carved into Stone Mountain. Gigi Bonos appeared as Deputy Allen, Joe Bugner
was resourceful jailbird Brennan and stuntmen Riccardo Pizzuti, Claudio Ruffini
and Giovanni Cianfriglia appeared as National Guardsmen. The special effects
depicting H7-25's feats included talking animals, and much footage sped-up,
slowed-down and played backwards. 'Sheriff', the pounding disco pop theme by
G & M De Angelis, will drive you right up the wall but the film is a well-made,
charming comedy-fantasy that cleverly exploited the children's market during
the 1970s sci-fi vogue.
Lupo's sequel, Why Did You Pick on Me? (1980 ), was a sorry addition to the
saga, with Spencer and Guffey reprising their roles. The sheriff and his young
companion (who calls himself 'Charlie Warren') are on the run. Hall becomes
sheriff of Monroe, Georgia, and battles local hoodlums and a squad of extra­
terrestrial robots (led by Robert Hundar) who seek H7-25. Eventually the local
ruffians (including stuntmen Riccardo Pizzuti and Lorenzo Fineschi) take on
the police force (who have been brainwashed by the aliens) during a massed
punch-up at the town's Eldorado Day festivities, which was filmed in the Six Flags
amusement park in Atlanta. G & M De Angelis provided a less-than-memorable
score, the troublemaking biker gang is straight out of Clint Eastwood's Every
Which Way But Loose (1978) and the whole venture smacks of opportunism by
producer Elio Scardamaglia, who did such a fine job on the first film. This poor
sequel barely features Guffey and his special powers and ends with a homage to
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Hall and H7-25 fly into space in a yellow vintage car,
providing reason enough to keep watching the skies.
 Vita .All ' ltaliana
Love and Death

I
n addition to muscle man epics and science fiction, Italian cinema occasionally
wandered into the realms of reality. Rome has provided the setting for many
great Hollywood films, including romances such as Roman Holiday (1953), Three
Coins in the Fountain (1954) and Seven Hills of Rome (1958). When depicting
their own country on screen, Italian filmmakers have often surprised interna­
tional audiences with their dramas of life and love, which are swelled with opti­
mism but riven with pessimism. In the 196os, directors such as Federico Fellini,
Vittorio De Sica and Michelangelo Antonioni created a new cinema, one which
met with great international success. Italian cinema found its voice with stories
ranging from filmmaking, celebrity and war atrocities, to slum life, murder and
mental breakdowns. Drama All'Italiana never delivered the expected and was
rarely mellow-drama.

Roma Therapy: Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960 - The Adventure) begins with
a yachting party cruising the volcanic Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea,
north of Sicily: on board are Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), his fiancee Anna (Lea
Massari), her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), husband and wife Giulia (Dominique
Blanchar) and Corrado (James Addams), and Raimondo (Lelio Luttazi) and
Patrizia (Esmeralda Ruspoli) . On Lisca Bianca, Anna vanishes and following an
extensive search of the island she remains missing. Sandro and Claudia continue
their investigation on Sicily, but they begin an affair, with Sandro eventually ask­
ing Claudia to marry him. In a hotel near Messina, Claudia discovers Sandro
sleeping with a prostitute and Anna is never found.
L'awentura made Monica Vitti a star and gained Antonioni international
recognition. The tension of the early scenes, particularly ofAnna's sudden disap­
pearance after she has told Sandro that she needs a break from their relationship,
gradually fades from the story. Claudia's search for Anna becomes her affair with
Sandra, though neither seems capable of emotional involvement. Sandra is an
architect struggling with the artless boredom of life, while Claudia 'becomes'
Anna, his lost fiancee. Their relationship is a strange menage a trois, between
Sandra, Claudia and the constant, ghostly presence of Anna. Through exem­
plary use of monochrome photography (by Aldo Scavarda), Antonioni depicts
the gulf between Sandra and Claudia, emotionally distant and alienated, even if
spatially close. One of Claudia's comments to Sandra, 'Say you want to kiss my
shadow on the wall', is typical of Antonioni's abstract vision. Antonioni filmed
on location in Sicily, including Lisca Bianca. This part of the shoot was danger­
ous, with the crew ferried from the island of Panarea to the remote location by
fishing boat. Sandro and Claudia's search takes them around Sicily: Milazzo
(the train station), Messina, Palermo, Noto and finally to a hotel near Messina.
Now Claudia alone searches for Sandra in the vast, deserted luxury hotel and
worries that Anna has returned. After spending so much time searching for her
friend, Claudia now wonders: 'I fear she may be alive'. Initially greeted with boos
and yawns at Cannes, the film went on to international success, heralding a
new style of cinematic language. The director's style, with long dialogue-free
passages and meaningful stares into the distance by the actors, was dubbed
'Antonioniennui'. At 143 minutes, the mystery unfolds very slowly and Antonioni
offers no conventional resolution, leaving the question without an answer.
Antonioni continued in a similar vein with his next films, La notte (1961 -
starring Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau and Monica Vitti) and The Eclipse
(1962), confounding audiences with narrative titbits and resolutions. The latter
starred Alain Delon as stockbroker Piero, who has a relationship with Vittoria
(Vitti), and the film concludes depressingly with an appointment that neither of
them keeps. In Red Desert (1964), Antonioni's first colour feature, Vitti played
mentally fragile Giuliana. While recovering from a car accident she falls in love
with Corrado Zeller (a miscast and dubbed-in-Italian Richard Harris). The film is
notable for its Eastmancolor photography (the images appear hand-tinted), the
avant-gar de soundtrack mix of musical score and whining, screeching electronica,
and Antonioni's impressive deployment of the concrete and steel industrial land­
scape of foggy Ravenna in northern Italy - pylons, belching chimneys, a radio
telescope, cargo freighters - as a barren backdrop to Giuliana's disintegration.
If Red Desert introduced colour to Antonioni's world, Blowup (1966) intro­
duced commercial success - it remains the director's only box-office hit. Blowup was
based on 'Las Babas Del Diablo' [The Devil's Drool], a short story by Argentinian
Julio Cortazar, and starred David Hemmings as Thomas, an impatient, selfishly
cold London fashion photographer. When taking shots in Maryon Park, Charlton,
Thomassnapsacoupleembracing. Thewoman (Vanessa Redgrave) angrily demands
that Thomas hands over the film, but he refuses. Thomas develops the pictures and
realises that he has prevented a murder: when he blows the images up, he discovers
a gunman lurking in the bushes behind a fence, about to shoot the woman's lover.
 Love and Death 121

A FILM BY MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI

YANlSSA HlDGHAVl DAVID HlMMINGS SARAH MILlS

METROCILOR

Mystery and Murder: Thomas (David Hemmings) snaps model Veruschka in an international
poster for Michelangelo Antonioni's abstract Blowup (1966).
Only later does Thomas realise, through further 'blowups', that her lover was, in
fact, killed - his corpse can be seen in one of the enlargements. Thomas revisits
the park at night and finds the man's body, but when he returns to his studio all
evidence pertaining to the murder has been stolen. Now the crime exists only in
Thomas' mind. The film ends with Thomas, back at Maryon Park, watching two
people mime a game of tennis. When the ball 'lands' near him, Thomas 'throws' it
back, before vanishing into thin air, a figment of the audiences' imagination.
Blowup is a desolate, cold film, as Antonioni looks at London with the same
inscrutable gaze he cast over his Italian urban landscapes. He depicts a tense
London that's barely moving, let alone 'swinging'. Even a rock gig (when Thomas
sees the Jimmy Page-era Yardbirds) ends edgily with a guitarist having amp
problems and smashing up his guitar. Antonioni digresses, stalling the mys­
tery - Thomas rattily snaps hung-over 'dolly birds', purchases a propeller from
an antiques shop, discusses a book he's putting together with his business part­
ner Ron (Peter Bowles), visits his lover Patricia (Sarah Miles) and her artist hus­
band (John Castle) and romps with two perky teenage models (Gillian Hills and
Jane Birkin). There's also a photo shoot with German fashion model Veruschka.
Blowup's mystery survives such ramblings. The eerie park murder, the trees in
full leaf rustling in the blustery wind, is one of Antonioni's finest sequences.
When Thomas reconstructs the sequence of murder in a series of monochrome
stills, hung throughout his studio, the scene is Godardian in its imagery of cin­
ema taken back to its simplest form. The couple embrace; a man lurks in the
bushes; a corpse lies in the undergrowth. Thomas shoots a picture and the assas­
sin shoots his victim, while Antonioni shoots them both. Hemmings later puz­
zled his way through Dario Argento's murder mystery Deep Red (1975).
Blowup was produced by Carlo Ponti and MGM and shot in MGM's
Borehamwood Studio and on location in London. It was the first film to feature
full-frontal female nudity, which no doubt helped its box office but garnered
an X certificate. Herbie Hancock provided the jazzy score, including the clas­
sic instrumental theme tune, which was covered to great success by the James
Taylor Quartet in 1985 (as 'Blow Up') and provided the distinctive bouncing
bassline for the 1990 pop hit 'Groove is the Heart' by Deee-Lite. Blowup won the
Palme d'Or at Cannes, Antonioni won a Silver Ribbon in Italy and was nomi­
nated for Best Director and Screenplay at the Oscars. Antonioni's first American
film, the counterculture disaster Zabriskie Point (1970 ), bombed spectacularly.
His best 1970s work was The Passenger (1974), which starred Jack Nicholson in
what many believe to be his finest role, as reporter David Locke. He exchanges
identities with a dead man, whom he later discovers to be an endangered gun­
runner. It was shot on location in Africa and Almeria by Luciano Tovoli.

Two Women: Loren, Bardot and Art Cinema

Federico Fellini won the first ever Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for La
strada (1954 - starring Anthony Quinn as a travelling strongman) in 1956 and
 Love and Death 123

won again the following year for Nights of Cabiria (which became the musi­
cal Sweet Charity). Anna Magnani won a Best Actress Academy Award for her
performance in the US film The Rose Tattoo (1955) and Italian actors Rossano
Brazzi and Gina Lollobrigida were becoming international stars in such films as
South Pacific (1958) and Solomon and Sheba (1959). Director Vittorio De Sica was
well-known internationally for his neorealist treatment of sentimental, primal
drama. In The Bicycle Thieves (1947 - The Bicycle Thiefin the US) Antonio Ricci
(Lamberto Maggiorani) takes a job pasting billposters of Rita Hayworth's Gilda
around Rome, to feed his poverty-stricken family. When his 'Fides' bike is stolen,
he and his little son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) vainly search the city until, driven to
despair, Antonio stoops to steal one himself.
Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot, two of the biggest stars of European cin­
ema, were often better known for frothy fare - light comedy and romance - than
for visceral drama. But at the start of the 196os, both made films in Italy that
would demonstrate their formidable acting credentials. De Sica's Two Women
(1960), based on a 1957 novel by Alberto Moravia, was produced by Carlo Ponti
and starred Ponti's wife, Loren. The wartime story details the relationship
between a widowed mother and her daughter, who become refugees when they
flee Rome to avoid the Allied bombing. Loren, then aged 26, was originally to play
the daughter, with 52-year-old Anna Magnani as her mother. Magnani, who once
called Loren 'a Neapolitan giraffe: balked: 'I'm too young to play Loren's mother.
Let her play the part herself'. De Sica then cast Eleanora Brown as Rosetta, the
daughter, and lowered her age to 12, so Loren could play Cesira, her mother.
They leave their grocery shop in Rome in the care of Cesira's lover, Giovanni
(Raf Vallone), and head to the mountains to live with relatives. They settle into
country life and meet political intellectual Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo ). News
arrives that Mussolini is in jail and the Americans have invaded. With liberation
at hand, Cesira and Rosetta head for home, but while they shelter in a ruined
church, Moroccan auxiliaries (who are fighting alongside the Allies) savagely
assault both women.
Gabor Pagany's monochrome cinematography makes Two Women one of the
most strikingly shot Italian films, a neorealist document of rural Italy. Interiors
were filmed at Titanus Studios, with location scenes at Saracinesco, to the east
of Rome, and Itri, to the south. Andrea Checchi played a fascist official, Renato
Salvatori was a peasant boy who takes Rosetta dancing (angering her mother)
and Luciano Pigozzi was an Italian soldier forcing peasant lads to enlist. Two
Women is a one-woman show - it is Loren's greatest film and her most convincing
performance. Loren could play street girls or princesses - here she's working class
and strong, a refugee striving to give her daughter the best. The scenes of Loren
carrying a suitcase balanced on her head along dusty country tracks or lying
slumped, tearfully destroyed, in the road following her assault are iconic images.
Two Women is concerned with the horrific human cost of war. A US soldier
snapping photos with his camera wants starving Cesira to show some leg, when
all she wants is food, and marker flares for the bombing raids are watched by
the peasants like a firework display. It is the allies of the Americans, not the
enemy, who assault Cesira and Rosetta, leaving their lives changed in an instant;
Rosetta's youth is torn from her and she is left catatonic, while Cesira is unable
to protect her daughter, something she has somehow managed for the entire
war. The film's dark side is exemplified by the fate of Michele. He is taken away
by a retreating German patrol (led by Franco Balducci) to guide them to safety
through the mountains. Cesira later discovers that his murdered body has been
found in the hills. Up against Audrey Hepburn (for Breakfast at Tiffany's), Piper
Laurie, Geraldine Page and Natalie Wood, Loren won Best Actress at the 1961
Oscars - the first time a foreign language film actress had won for a foreign lan­
guage film, although an English-dubbed version was also prepared, with Loren
voicing herself. 'Before I made Two Women I had been a performer', Loren
remembered, 'Afterward, I was an actress'.
Produced by Carlo Ponti and inspired by a book by Moravia (II disprezzo or
'A Ghost at Noon'), Jean-Luc Godard directed Contempt (1963 - Le Mepris) at
Cinecitta. In Rome, following the success of his script for Toto against Hercules,
playwright Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is commissioned by US producer Jerry
Prokosh (Jack Palance) to rewrite a script based on Homer's The Odyssey which
is about to shoot on Capri. Paul deliberates about taking the assignment but
the $10,ooo fee will pay off his Rome apartment. Paul's wife, Camille (Brigitte
Bardot), suspects that Paul is having an affair with Prokosh's secretary and trans­
lator, Francesca Vanini (Georgia Moll), and Paul suspects that Camille no longer
loves him and has been unfaithful with Prokosh.
Contempt is one of the great works of international cinema. For its title
sequence, a camera slowly dollies forward, while the credits are spoken aloud.
As the camera swivels down to face the audience, the voiceover continues, 'For
what we see, Bazin said, the cinema substitutes a world that conforms to our
desires - Le Mepris is the story of that world'. Contempt is a send-up of itself:
an international co-production with a multinational cast which parodies such
co-productions. The Odyssey is being directed by Austrian emigre Fritz Lang
(playing himself), Godard plays Lang's assistant (screening rushes at Cinecitta)
and Lang's cinematographer is Raoul Coutard (Contempt's director of photog­
raphy). Godard wanted Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak in the leads, while Ponti
envisioned Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren. 'C'est formidable!' enthused
Bardot when she was cast, 'I've joined the new wave now!' She received her high­
est fee to date - $510,000. Too often wasted in second-rate vehicles, Bardot gave
her best performance as Camille. She has never looked better, her tousled blonde
hair held in place with a headband, her eyes and pout reproachful and contemp­
tuous of her sell-out husband.
Prokosh is based on Contempt's producers: Joseph E. Levine (of Hercules
fame) and Carlo Ponti. Levine released Contempt internationally. Prokosh sells
off part of his studio to become a shopping precinct. He needs a commercial film
 Love and Death 1 25

LE
d'apres le roman MORA:
d' ALBERTO
·-
f
\

I
JACK pALANCE
•
TECHNICOLOR FRAHSCOPE )

Ghost at Noon: Brigitte Bardot as adulterous Camille in French artwork for Jean-Luc Godard's
Contempt (1963), a tragic story filmed in fabulous settings at Cinecitta Studios and on the
island of Capri.
and encourages Lang to include more nudity. Godard draws parallels between
the heroes of The Odyssey and his characters, with Camille subbing for Penelope.
'I like gods, I like them very much: says Prokosh, 'I know exactly how they feel'.
During footage of a naked siren (Linda Veras) swimming in the water, Prokosh vis­
ibly livens up. He lends Paul a book of Roman paintings to inspire his writing, even
though The Odyssey is Greek. 'Whenever I hear the word culture', says the pro­
ducer, 'I bring out my chequebook'. He has a little book of idioms which he quotes,
making himself feel more intelligent. Lang and Paul casually quote philosophy,
poetry and literature classics by heart. The 'B.B.' here is Bertolt Brecht, whom
Lang memorably cites to describe Hollywood: 'Each morning to earn my bread I
go the market where they buy lies and hopefully line up with the vendors'.
Godard shot on location on Capri, the azure ocean, white cliffs and ver­
dant vegetation captured by Raoul Coutard in widescreen Franscope. Prokosh's
island villa perched on a rock outcrop (with its huge ramped staircase ascending
to a rooftop sundeck) was Curzio Mala parte's villa (now called Villa Malaparte).
Georges Delerue composed the moving score - one of cinema's greatest. The
rolling, dramatic strings of 'Camille', 'Generique' and 'Capri: tugging and lan­
guorous, complement the haunting story. The finale is worthy of Greek tragedy.
Camille departs with Prokosh, leaving Paul a note. En route to Rome they stop
for petrol, but as they pull off, Prokosh's red Alfa Romeo convertible collides
with a tanker truck, killing them both. The words of Camille's letter fill the wide­
screen: 'I kiss you, goodbye . . . Camille'.
The film was released as Le Mepris in France, with the actors speaking their
own languages (Piccoli and Bardot French, Lang German and French, Palance
English) and with Prokosh's translator Francesca translating for us. It was
released as II disprezzo in Italy (cut to 84 minutes and with a new score by Piero
Piccioni) and as Contempt in the US (at 103 minutes). The producers wanted
more nudity from Bardot, so a scene was added with Paul and Camille lying on
a bed - her nude - where they discusses the finer points of Bardot's anatomy
(Bardot received an extra $20.300 to film this scene). Contempt wasn't released in
the UK until 1970, dubbed entirely into English, which renders Francesca's role
obsolete. The misleading tagline ran: 'Bardot at her Bold, Bare and Brazen Best!
Revelling in Rome . . . Cavorting in Capri . . . Jolting even the jaded international
jet-set in her pursuit of love!' The film's French language trailer is a work of art:
'The woman . . . the man . . . Italy . . . the cinema . . . a tragic story in a fabulous setting,
a fabulous story in a tragic setting'. Contempt is visually beautiful, thematically
rich and powerfully tragic. It is the greatest film about film, and also one of the
greatest about trust and love, and the betrayal and disintegration of both.
Sophia Loren went on to further Oscar success with De Sica's three-part
sex comedy Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963), which won the 1964 Best
Foreign Film Oscar. Loren played 'Adelina of Naples: a black market cigarette
girl who avoids a prison sentence when she discovers a loophole in the law.
She can't be imprisoned when she's pregnant, so she has seven children, until
 Love and Death 127

her husband, Carmine (Marcello Mastroianni), has a nervous breakdown and

she goes to jail. In 'Anna of Milan', Loren was at her most beautiful, dressed
by Christian Dior, as rich, shallow socialite Anna, who falls out with her lover
Renzo (Mastroianni) when he prangs her Rolls Royce on a tractor. In 'Mara of
Rome', Loren played a prostitute who is the obsession of trainee priest Umberto
(Giovanni Ridolfi). It is here that Loren performed her famous striptease, while
her client, Augusto Rusconi (Mastroianni), howls like a wolf. The lush score was
by Armando Trovajoli; the film was shot at Titanus Appia Studios and on loca­
tion in Naples, and Mara's apartment overlooks the Piazza Navona in Rome. The
English dubbed version presented by Joseph Levine is inferior to the original
Italian language version.
Mastroianni also starred in Divorce - Italian Style (1962), which won the
Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Ennio De Concini, Alfredo Gianetti and Pietro
Germi. Carlo Rustichelli provided the music and Germi directed. Mastroianni
was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Baron Ferdinanda Cefalu who
decides to murder, rather than divorce, his sex-crazed wife, Rosalia (Daniela
Rocca), so that he can marry his young lover, Angela (Stefania Sandrelli). Set in
Agromonte in Sicily, the baron times his deed with a showing of La dolce vita at
the local cinema. Mastroianni followed Divorce with De Sica's Marriage, Italian
Style (1964), for which Loren was again nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
She starred as Filumena who tries to cajole, convince and hoodwink her lover
Domenico Soriano (Mastroianni) into marriage.

Fellini 's Roma

The spirit of the eternal city during the early 196os was captured in Federico
Fellini's La dolce vita (1960 ). Journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni)
and his photographer sidekick, Paparazzo (Walter Santesso), lurk in the Via
Veneto and its nightspots, snapping celebs and unearthing lurid gossip. Fellini
depicts the indulgent world of high-flyers in Rome's playground and also
Marcello's life refracted through his relationships with his jealous fiancee Emma
(Yvonne Furneaux), Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), his lover with whom he shares
a shallow, indulgent nature, and Sylvia Rank (Anita Ekberg), an American movie
star visiting Rome with her drunken fiance, Robert (Lex Barker), to star in a
Cinecitta spectacular for producer Toto Scalise (Carlo Di Maggio).
Marcello and Maddalena make love in a prostitute's flooded apartment (its
exteriors were Tor Di Schiavi) and Marcello's fiancee attempts suicide. Marcello
covers the arrival of Sylvia at Ciampino Airport and attends her press conference
at the Excelsior Hotel. She visits St Peter's and the Quirinal Palace, climbing the
spiral stairs to the dome. Sylvia and Marcello slip away from a party at a nightclub
(the ruined baths at Terme Di Caracalla) and wander the silent streets. Sylvia
finds a stray kitten and sends Marcello to find some milk. While he searches, she
bathes in the Trevi Fountain, in her scoop-necked black gown, a moment which
was used extensively in the film's advertising. This was based on an incident
 Uietato ai minori di 16 anni

Life is a Party: Sylvia dances and Marcello smokes in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita (1960).
Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in an Italian poster, courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Love and Death 129

in Ekberg's life, though she took the dip in August and Fellini filmed in freez­
ing March. Marcello wades in after her - Mastroianni wore a wetsuit under his
clothes and was 'insulated' with vodka. Marcello covers a 'field of miracles' in the
provinces (filmed at Bagni Di Tivoli) where two children (Massimo and Giovanni
Busetti) claim to have seen the Madonna. The press converge and the infirm are
stretchered out to be cured. Marcello and Emma attend a soiree at the house of
Steiner, a depressive intellectual (Alain Cuny) who tries to convince Marcello to
leave tabloid journalism and become a proper writer. When Marcello's father
(Annibale Ninchi) visits from the provinces and hooks up with showgirl Fanny
(Magali Noel), his taste of the hectic 'sweet life' almost kills him.
Marcello's life spirals ever downwards. He attends an aristocrats' party in a
castle at Sassano Di Sutri (filmed at Livio Odescalchi's sixteenth-century villa at
Sassano Romano, Viterbo) . Their decadence is contrasted with the grand sur­
roundings and the guests, gothic in their attire and manner, resemble the cast
of a horror movie. The hosts are Don Giulio (Giulio Questi, later the director of
Django, Kill!) and his fiancee, Nicolina (model and future Velvet Underground
singer Nico ). Ida Galli appeared as Irene, debutant of the year, and Audrey
McDonald played Jane, an English painter. Steiner then shoots his two children
and himself, and the press hyenas wait for the return of Steiner's unsuspecting
wife (Renee Longarini), to snap her reaction. At a party at the beachside pad
of Riccardo (Riccardo Garrone) to celebrate Nadia's divorce (in Fellini's cynical
world, something to be celebrated), Nadia (Nadia Gray) performs a striptease
as the gathering descends into bacchanalia, with Marcello riding drunken Cara
(Franca Pasut), then covering her in feathers. Jacques Sernas appeared as a mati­
nee idol and Laura Betti was a partygoer. Riccardo throws them out and they
walk into the cold dawn. Fishermen are landing the rotting corpse of a giant ray
on the beach (filmed at Passo Oscura) and the revellers gather around. Marcello
encounters Umbrian girl Paula (Valeria Ciangottini), whom he met earlier in a
cafe. She tries to call to him across the beach, but he can't hear her, wandering
away to his aimless 'sweet life'.
Fellini lensed the film (with the working title Via veneto) on location and
in Cinecitta from March to May 1959. A stretch of the Via Veneto outside Cafe
De Paris was built in the studio. It was shot in monochrome 2.35:1 Totalscope
by Otello Martelli, who had lensed Fellini's La stra da (1954), The Swindle (1955)
and Nights of Ca biria (1957). La dolce vita features one of Nino Rota's most
beautiful scores. A delicate harp shimmers as Sylvia bathes in the Trevi. The
producers couldn't clear the rights to use 'Mack the Knife', so Rota copied the
melody into his own composition for the castle party. The rousing, burping
organ of 'Patricia' by Perez Prado accompanies Nadia's strip and wafts from
Paola's beachside cafe jukebox. Rock 'n' roll at Caracalla's features pop singer
Adriano Celentano and Fellini's beloved circus is represented by Polidor, the
sad old clown trumpeter, and his performing balloons in the old-fashioned
Cha-Cha Club.
 THE FIRST 3-ACT MOTION PICTURE EVER PRESENTED!
JOSEPH E. LEVINE

Produced by

CARLO PONTI
An Embassy-International P1ctures Release 1n

US poster for the three-part portmanteau film Boccaccio 70 (1962), starring Sophia Loren,
Anita Ekberg and Romy Schneider. Vittorio De Sica directed 'The Raffle', Federico Fellini
'The Temptation of Dr Antonio' and Luchino Visconti 'The Job'. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce
Collection.
 Love and Death 1 31

Fellini's producers wanted Paul Newman as Marcello, but Fellini refused;

Mastroianni is excellent in the role. We first meet Marcello flying over Rome in
a helicopter pursuing a statue of Christ (suspended from another chopper) that
is being airlifted into the Vatican. Suave, chain-smoking Marcello wears shades
at night and drives a Triumph Spider convertible. He's shallow, a creep who lives
only for his own indulgence. He winds up working as a publicity agent, but in
reality he's like the big fish on the beach: washed up and rotten on the inside,
despite appearances.
Sylvia was originally to have been named 'Anita: but Ekberg found the
role too autobiographical. Sylvia's fiance was modelled on Ekberg's husband of
the time, Anthony Steel. The former Miss Malmoe based her character on Ava
Gardner (the 'Barefoot Contessa') and Rita Hayworth as Gilda. Fellini cast Ekberg
again in The Temptation ofDoctor Antonio, his episode of the portmanteau film
Boccaccio 70 (1962) . Anita played 'Anita', the voluptuous image on a giant bill­
board provocatively advertising milk. Prudish Antonio Mazzuolo (Peppino De
Filippo) fantasises that colossal Anita comes to life.
La dolce vita was released into a storm of scandal in Italy - one patron
spat at the director - but it made a fortune and was awarded the Palme d'Or at
Cannes. Fellini was nominated as Best Director at the Oscars and it was the film
that cemented his international popularity. A dubbed version of the film was
released in the US in 1966. Fellini's tale of idlers and idolaters is still powerful
and remains his finest work.
Fellini's 81h (1963) was his most autobiographical film. Marcello Mastroianni
played Fellini's alter ego, director Guido Anselmi. At a health spa Guido is under
pressure to begin his next project, a sci-fi film. The expensive sets are already
under construction - a towering rocket and launch pad - for a sequence involv­
ing thousands of extras. Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war and the sur­
vivors board the rocket to escape an atomic plague. Guido's financiers and the
cast are causing him problems, so he escapes into flights of fancy and nostalgic
reveries. Matters are further complicated when Guido's mistress Carla (Sandra
Milo) and his wife, Louisa (Anouk Aimee), arrive at the spa. This juxtaposition
of Guido's real life and his fantasy world becomes Fellini's film.
Fellini egotistically wallows in his role as 'artist' and in the creative proc­
ess. Guido is selfish and a liar - his every action is self-serving. He can't make
sense of the 'shambles in my head' and Fellini depicts this shambles on film -
Guido imagines he's floating like a balloon on a string, remembers his parents
and moments from his childhood, and fantasises about women. He can't decide
whether to start the film or shoot himself. The climax of 8!12 is a parade around
a circus ring by the entire cast, orchestrated by Guido. 'Life is a party: he tells
Louisa, 'Let's live it together'. The musical accompaniment is a four-man clown
band, with 'Guido as a child' on flute. This was originally shot as a trailer for the
film, but it replaced Fellini's planned ending. A scene of Guido and Louisa travel­
ling on a train back to Rome with the cast was shot but later axed.
 8� was photographed in monochrome by Gianni Di Venanzo on location at
the beach at Ostia (where the 'rocket' was constructed), Tivoli, Filacciano, Viterbo
and a wood in EUR was the spa. The film's dreamlike visual style recalled Alain
Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad (1960), his haunting story of a half-imagined

Italian poster for Fellini's Oscar-winning 8� (1963) depicting film director Guido Anselmi
(Marcello Mastroianni) and the women in his fantasy life : Sandra Milo, Anouk Aimee, Claudia
Cardinale, Rosella Falk and Barbara Steele. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Love and Death 1 33

affair. Nino Rota wrote 8�'s bittersweet score. The famous Cordovox organ
theme was used when busty, raven-haired La Saraghina (Edra Gale) dances on
the beach for schoolboy Guido and his friends. The spa sequences are populated
by Fellini's living portraits of those in need of recuperation. Rosella Falk played
Rosella, Louisa's spiritualist sister, Guido Alberti played producer Pace and Jean
Rougeul was critic Fabrizio Carini. Producer Mario Mezzabotta (Mario Pisu) and
his young fiancee, budding actress Gloria Morin (Barbara Steele), imitated Carlo
Ponti and Sophia Loren. Aimee lost 15 pounds to play long-suffering Louisa and
Milo gained 15 to play Carla. When Guido and the film's producers watch screen
tests to decide who will play who, we see alternative choices for the cast. Each
woman Guido meets becomes part of his imagined 'harem'. In the film's most
famous sequence Guido - 'The Emir' - 'lays down the law' to his harem with a
whip, like a circus ringmaster, to Wagner's Ride ofthe Valkyries. The only women
who aren't treated in this manner are Guido's mother and Claudia (Claudia
Cardinale), Guido's ideal. He imagines casting Claudia in his film (she appears as
a nurse at the spa) until he realises there's 'no part' as there's 'no film'. But what is
8�? Are we viewing 'the film' or is the entire movie Guido's daydream while he's
bored, trapped in a traffic jam? The title refers to the number of films Fellini had
made up to 1963 - seven features (including 8�), plus a co-directed film (Lights
ofVariety [1950]) and two shorts, each of which count 'half'. 8� was a great suc­
cess, both in Italy and abroad, and won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1963.
Mastroianni parodied his performance as Guido in Mario Monicelli's glossy
Casanova '70 (1965), an episodic farce set throughout Europe, including Paris,
Sicily and Naples. Mastroianni played Major Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, an amo­
rous NATO liaison officer who becomes sexually aroused only when there's an
element of danger to the encounter. Andrea romances the cream of European
female beauty: Virna Lisi, Michele Mercer, Rosemary Dexter, Margaret Lee,
Marisa Mell, Moira and Liana Orfei, Senya Seyn and Jolanda Modio. Enrico
Maria Salerno played a psychiatrist who attempts to cure Andrea and Memmo
Carotenuto had a humorous cameo as an art forger, who announces, 'A pair of
Baroque-style Angels. Late eighteenth century. Just out the kiln. Hot as pizza'.
Armando Travajoli and the Cantori Moderni contributed the up-tempo score.
Casanova '70 ends with a trial where Andrea's 'harem' turn up in court as con­
demning character witnesses. Mastroianni noted that the film was 'built around
the attempt - close to my heart - to destroy the image of the Italian Latin-lover
stud, a label which is far from flattering'.
Fellini's juliet of the Spirits (1965) was his first full-length colour film.
Giulietta Masina (Fellini's wife) starred as Juliet (Giulietta in the Italian print),
who suspects her vain husband Giorgio (Mario Pisu) is having an affair. She
hires the Eagle Eye private detective agency and discovers that Giorgio is seeing
a 24-year-old model, Gabriella Olson. Eventually the man whom Juliet sees as
'husband, lover, father, friend . . . my home' leaves her for his mistress. This rela­
tionship breakdown is offset by Fellini's extravagant style. Her fragile mental
state fractured by her husband's indiscretions - mysterious phone calls, late
nights at the office - emotional Juliet experiences surreal visions. She remem­
bers the time when her grandfather (Lou Gilbert) eloped with a circus dancer,
Iris (Sandra Milo), flying away in a contraption which appears to have been con­
structed by the Wright Brothers. Juliet visits a seer, a guru man-woman named
Bishma (Valeska Gert), who promotes the Universal Spirit of 'Love is a religion'.
Juliet remembers that as a child she was cast as a Christian martyr in a thea­
tre production staged by nuns, which ended with Juliet being executed by the
Romans, 'burning' on a griddle. This martyrdom is recreated, with leaping flames
and a hideous, staring victim clad in white dress and bonnet.
Fellini had visited several mediums and had experimented with LSD, both
of which infused his work on juliet of the Spirits. It is most memorable for its
Technicolor cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo, for the colour-coded sets,
stylised costumes and huge hats, and for Fellini's depiction of Juliet's flights
of fantasy. Fellini filmed on location at his coastal villa in Fregene, north of
Fiumicino, with interiors shot at Safa-Palatino and Cinecitta. Next door to
Juliet lives exotic, erotic Susy (Sandra Milo), whose orgies are attended by way­
out guests who resemble Juliet's apparitions. Nino Rota's jazzy, carnivalesque
music provides the ideal complement to these rich, often perversely sacrilegious
images - a party at Susy's deploys a percussive, Eastern arrangement, with a sinu­
ous vocal by Gianna Spagnolo.
Sylva Koscina played Juliet's sister, flowery model Sylva; Luisa Della Noce was
Juliet's practical sister, Adele; and Caterina Boratto was their patrician mother.
Fellini had Susy's entourage arrive on the beach by barge, like Cleopatra, while
Juliet imagines emaciated horses drifting on a raft and a primitive ramped galley,
which anticipates Fellini Satyricon. Juliet's visions include talking flowers, Iris
dressed as a bride on a swing, and rows of bowed and shrouded nuns - visions
which become her waking nightmares. At a garden party, Juliet sees a burning
martyr, Botticelli's Birth of Venus, a naked woman sitting beside a tree (envel­
oped in the slithery coils of an immense snake) and a hearse carrying Juliet's
childhood friend Laura, a suicide. When Giorgio departs, so do the spirits - they
pack up and leave en masse on a rickety cart. Fellini's imagery here resembles
Mario Bava at his most outre, but Fellini tends to be more psychoanalytical of his
subjects, while Bava strives for the supernatural.
Fellini's fragmented narratives became ever more distorted in Roma (1972),
which contrasted ancient and modern Rome. The trailer, a barrage of powerful,
memorable images, promised, 'Fellini examines the Fall of the Roman Empire:
1931-1972'. The film follows Fellini (Peter Gonzales) - a young journalist who
arrives from the northern provinces at Termini station in Rome - and his impres­
sions of the fascist city in wartime. These depictions of boisterous Italian family
life, variety shows, brothels and air raid shelters are interspersed with vignettes
of modern Rome, a city overrun with hippies. Fellini constructed an entire
Roman street, Via Albalonga, in Cinecitta's Studio 5, complete with trams. There
 Love and Death 1 35

are numerous scenes filmed at the city's monuments (the Colosseum, the Trevi
Fountain, Sant'Angelo Bridge and Castel Sant'Angelo) but the Spanish Steps are
covered with lounging longhairs and the police move student demonstrators
on from a fountain in Piazza Santa Maria. Fellini himself appears onscreen at
various moments, directing the action. Cameos from Marcello Mastroianni and
Alberto Sordi were omitted from the final cut, though Anna Magnani - from
Rome, Open City - makes her last film appearance here. In the climax, massed
bikers speed through the city at night, in scenes which wouldn't be out of place
in 1990: The Bronx Warriors or other 198os Italian exploitation.
Roma is wildly incoherent Fellini, episodic and exuberant. The surreal jour­
ney along Rome's traffic-jammed ring road (Raccordo Anulare) in the pelting
rain, which climaxes with a horrific accident involving a toppled cattle truck,
recalls Toby Dammit's arrival in Histoires Extraordinaire. A family visit the cin­
ema to see a stagy gladiator movie, which is followed by fascist newsreels. In a
vast subterranean construction tunnel moling beneath the city, the engineers
discover a fabulous Roman house, but almost immediately the colourful, per­
fectly preserved ancient frescos fade to grey. A theatre patron describes vaude­
ville as a combination of'circus and brothel', which also sums up Fellini's cinema.
At the 'Festa De Noantri', Gore Vidal chats with journalist John Francis Lane.
Vidal comments that Rome is 'a city after all of the church, of government, of
the movies . . . they're all makers of illusion'. The film's most famous and elaborate
sequence is an ecclesiastic fashion show, with models strutting the catwalk in
outlandish outfits designed by Danilo Donati - flapping gull-like nuns' cowls,
roller-skating and bicycling priests, neon 'stained glass' designs, and Vegas
cardinals in flashing mitres, glittering capes and surpluses. Roma didn't travel
well in Italy and it was popular only in Milan and Rome. The film's distinctive
poster featured a naked woman with three breasts, bent on all fours, resembling
Romulus and Remus' suckling she-wolf.
Set in the Adriatic coastal resort of Rimini in north-eastern Italy (Fellini's
birthplace), Amarcord (1973 - Italian dialect for 'I Remember') wistfully exca­
vates Fellini's past. His depiction of Italy, in what many believe to be his best film,
is a rose-tinted regression to his adolescence in the mid-193os. A lawyer (Luigi
Rossi) is our onscreen guide, providing historical context to events. Amarcord
depicts one year, beginning in the spring with the arrival of the 'Fairy Fluff, drift­
ing windblown white spores. The end of winter is marked by the burning of
an effigy of the Old Witch of Winter. The central protagonists are young Titta
Biondi (Bruno Zanin) and his extended family - including his mother, Miranda
(Pupella Maggio), and father, Aurelio (Armando Brancia), a building foreman ­
plus Ninola (Magali Noel), a glamorous local hairdresser known as 'Gradisca:
whose movie star good looks are a focal point for the town's men.
Amarcord is Fellini's most coherent, accessible work. It boasts a bittersweet
romantic score from Nino Rota and rich cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.
There are episodes ofTitta and his classmates at school and play - chubby Ciccio
Marconi (Fernando De Felice) attempts to date uninterested Aldina Cordini
(Donatella Gambini), while Titta watches westerns at the Fulgor Cinema and
pisses off the balcony on his father's friend's hat. Gradisca enjoys a tryst at the
Grand Hotel (the exterior of which was filmed in Anzio) with a visiting prince
and dreams of meeting the right man. The 'VII Mille Miglia' car rally speeds
through town and a fascist rally is held to welcome the provincial party secretary.
The entire populace take to the sea in a flotilla of small boats to see the ocean
liner Rex ('The government's greatest achievement') return from a transatlantic
voyage. There's an immense, flower-decorated talking Mussolini and when win­
ter arrives the town suffers a blizzard, with the metre-deep snow transforming
the streets into a picturesque labyrinth.
Fellini's female characters are bawdily cliched. Slavering blonde nympho­
maniac Volpina (Josiane Tanzili) appears to have strayed in from Satyricon and
Luccia (Maria Antonietta Beluzzi), the town's busty, lusty tobacconist, demands
that awestruck Titta suck her enormous breasts. Adolescent sexual fantasies per­
meate the film - a Victory Monument is admired only because of its shapely rear
and a lowly street vendor tells tall tales of having been invited into the Grand
Hotel suite of a visiting emir's 30 concubines. Ciccio Ingrassia played Teo, Titta's
mad uncle, who on a family outing climbs a tree and demands, 'I want a woman',
until he's coxed down by a midget nun. Such grotesque comedy is undercut by
the death of Titta's mother during the winter and the undercurrent of fascist
oppression. Most of the town are party members, but Aurelio is a Socialist and
is tortured by being forced to drink castor oil. The film ends with Gradisca find­
ing love and marrying Matteo, a policeman ('her Gary Cooper'). The Fairy Fluff
blows in and life goes on in the sunny seaside town. Amarcord deservedly won
Best Foreign Language Film at the 1974 Oscars.
Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema paradiso (1988) - another Best Foreign Film
Oscar winner - nostalgically harked back to the cinema of youth, in much the
same way that Fellini distilled his Rimini past, through the relationship between
Sicilian projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) and young Salvatore Di Vita
called 'Toto' (Salvatore Cascio) and their shared love of cinema. They watch John
Wayne in Stagecoach (1939), Kirk Douglas in Mario Camerini's early peplum
Ulysses (1954), Silvana Mangano, Vittorio Gassman, and comedian Toto on the
flickering silver screen. This sentimental story, with its wonderful, bittersweet
Morricone score, is essentially 'Fellini-Lite' aimed squarely at an international
audience.

The Outsiders: Visconti, Delon, Bellocchio and Pasolini

In contrast to Fellini's Rimini reminiscences, filmmakers such as Luchino
Visconti, Marco Bellocchio and Pier Paolo Pasolini depicted a different Italy, an
Italy riven with alienation, poverty and violence. Visconti first made his mark
with a neorealist portrait of Sicilian fishermen, La terra trema (1948 - The Earth
Trembles). Visconti's Rocco and his Brothers (1960) was based on Giovanni
 Love and Death 1 37

Testori's novel The Bridge of Ghisolfa. It depicts the five Parondi brothers and
their widowed mother Rosaria (Katina Paxinou), who move from Sicily to Milan.
Two of the brothers, Rocco (Alain Delon) and Simone (Renato Salvatori), share
a lover, prostitute Nadia (Annie Girardot), who Simone brutally stabs to death.
The supporting cast included Paolo Stoppa, Roger Hanin and Claudia Cardinale.
Nino Rota supplied the score to this controversial epic drama, which was photo­
graphed in monochrome by Giuseppe Rotunno.
Often seen by critics as a pretty boy pin-up rather than an actor, Alain Delon
was cast in some of the finest European films of the 196os, including Rocco, The
Eclipse, The Leopard and Le Samourai'. In Rene Clement's Purple Noon (1960 -
Plein Solei/, Lustfor Evil and Blazing Sun) - an Italian-shot adaptation of Patricia
Highsmith's 1955 murder mystery The Talented Mr Ripley - Delon played Tom
Ripley. In Rome, Tom befriends Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) and his
fiancee, Marge (Marie Laforet). As they cruise around the Tyrrhenian Sea, Tom
causes friction and Marge disembarks on Taormina, Sicily. Tom knifes Philippe,
trusses him up with cable, weighs him down with an anchor and throws him over­
board. Tom impersonates Philippe and sends letters to Marge, making it appear
their affair is over. Philippe's American friend Freddy Miles (Bill Kearns) arrives
in Rome and finds Tom impersonating Philippe: when a landlady addresses Tom
as 'Greenleaf, Tom kills Freddy. Inspector Riccordi (Erno Crisa) suspects missing
Philippe of the murder. In Mongibello, Sicily, Tom engineers Philippe's suicide:
Philippe has conveniently 'bequeathed' his entire fortune to Marge, whom Tom
now plans to seduce.
Clement's film is a Hitchcockian blend of suspense, romance and murder.
The animated title sequence - with tinted travelogue shots of Rome and a dra­
matic score by Nino Rota (billed as 'Rotta') - establishes an intensity in imitation
of Hitchcock. The Italian locations were photographed in Eastmancolor by Henri
Decae. Purple Noon was filmed in Rome (the Colosseum, the Piazza Del Popolo
and Piazza Navona), with footage lensed in the Bay of Naples, in the 'old town'
of Naples itself, on Ischia and the waterfront of Procida, with its quaint harbour
and pastel buildings. Much of the action was set in Sicily, at Mongibello (the
Italian name for Mount Etna) and Taormina. The azure blue of the Tyrrhenian
Sea contrasts with the sleek yacht, also called Marge. As the yacht is dry-docked
in the harbour, Marge tows in one final secret. Dapper Delon is convincing as
the cold-hearted, calculating double-murderer. Tom's a weakling, both physi­
cally and mentally, and a fantasist, living a lie and thriving on deception and for­
gery. Philippe picks on Tom during the cruise and maroons him in a dinghy for
several hours in the hot sun, causing Tom's back to become badly burnt. When
Tom impersonates Philippe, Clement peels away the blistered layers of Tom's
'sunburn: until the impostor and murderer is revealed.
Writer-director Marco Bellocchio's debut, Fists in the Pocket (1965 - Fist
in His Pocket in the US), depicted a dysfunctional family in a secluded provincial
villa in the mountains: brothers Augusto (Marino Mase), Alessandro ('Sandro:
played by Lou Castel) and Leone (Pier Luigi Troglio ), their sister Giulia (Paola
Pitagora) and their blind mother (Liliana Gerace). Alessandro, Leone and Giulia
are epileptic, and Giulia incestuously loves Alessandro and Augusto, the family's
sole breadwinner. Alessandro, an indolent, childlike misfit, plots to free Augusto
of his hideous relatives. He resolves to kill the rest of the family, so that Augusto
can move into town with his lover, Lucia (Jennie MacNeil) .
The film is filled with beautiful, disturbing imagery- funerals, snowfall, bon­
fires and familial quarrelling - creating a strange mix of drama, horror and even
black humour. Alessandro lies that he has passed his driving test - he plans to
drive the entire family off a cliff on their way to the cemetery to visit their father's
grave but becomes distracted and forgets to. When Alessandro attempts to start
a chinchilla-breeding business, he needs 3 million lire to bankroll the project ­
exactly the amount they spend each year to care for their mother. Alessandro
pushes his mother off a cliff and then drowns Leone in the bath, which results
in Giulia falling down the stairs, leaving her injured but alive. When Alessandro
suffers an epileptic seizure, thrashing like a speared fish, recuperating Giulia
doesn't rise to help him even though she is able. Castel is excellent as Sandro,
an angry young man, his fists clenched in his pocket. Giulia has a postcard of
Marlon Brando on her bedstead and intense Castel resembles Brando's petulant
little brother. It's a mesmerising performance by the 23-year-old. In an unsettling
scene, Alessandro reads the newspaper to his mother, eventually abandoning
the real headlines and concocting his own: 'Premeditated matricide', he intones,
'Son kills mother. She forced him to take a bath'. 'That sounds good: his mother
enthuses. Alessandro continues, 'Husband and wife pensioners gas themselves.
He was 68, she was 53'. 'My age', notes mother, 'Isn't there any cheerful news?'
Shot in bleak monochrome by Alberto Marrama, Fists in the Pocket anticipates
the giallo cycle of psycho thrillers. This resemblance is accentuated by Ennio
Morricone's avant-garde score, a dissonant music box of tolling bells, wailing
soprano and eerily beautiful strings.
In 'The Witch Burned Alive', Luchino Visconti's segment of the five-part
film The Witches (1966), superstar actress Gloria (Silvana Mangano), who is
apparently on the brink of a nervous breakdown, arrives at an alpine chalet in
Kitzbiihel, to stay with her friend Valeria (Annie Girardot). Gloria is the centre
of attention with the chalet's male guests, but when she faints jealous women
guests unmask her - removing her false eyelashes, her gold, Cleopatra-like head­
dress and her taped eye-slanters - revealing Gloria's beauty to be false. Gloria
discovers that she is pregnant but Antonio, her producer husband, on the phone
from New York, suggests an abortion. The photograph of 'Antonio' beside Gloria's
bed is Mangano's husband, producer Dino De Laurentiis. Paparazzi gather and
Gloria appears on the verge of collapse, until a mysterious helicopter arrives with
stylists on board. They prepare Gloria to face the press's flash bulbs, cloaking her
in a hooded leopardskin coat and shades, before whisking her away. 'The Witch
Burned Alive' deals with the fragility of stardom and its psychological pressures.
 Love and Death 1 39

Accattone (1961), novelist and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini's directorial debut,
starred Franco Citti as Vittorio Accattone, a petty criminal and pimp in Rome's
slums. Silvia Corsini played his prostitute earner, Maddalena. It was based on
Pasolini's novel of the same name and shocked audiences in Italy with its real­
ism. In one scene, Vittorio steals from his own son to buy shoes for his lover
Stella (Franca Pasut). Citti was excellent as the hard-faced 'accattone' [beg­
gar or scrounger] . Bernardo Bertolucci was the assistant director, Tonino Delli
Colli photographed the film in grimy sunlit monochrome and the music was
the serene 'Matthew's Passion' by Bach (as orchestrated by Carlo Rustichelli).
Pasolini remained in this slum netherworld for Mamma Roma (1962), which cast
Anna Magnani in the title role, another prostitute, and Ettore Garofalo as her
son, Ettore. Delli Colli again provided the gritty monochrome cinematography
and Rustichelli penned the score.
Theorem (1968) - a hybrid of Pasolini's slum fairytales and the religious
and mythical themes he'd explored in The Gospel according to St Matthew and
Oedipus Rex - depicts the empty lives of a bourgeois Milanese family: Paolo
(Massimo Girotti), a factory owner, his wife, Lucia (Silvana Mangano), their chil­
dren Odetta (Anne Wiazemsky) and Pietro (Andres Jose Cruz Soublette) and
maid Emilia (Laura Betti) . They are visited by a mysterious houseguest (Terence
Stamp), who seduces each of them, beginning with Emilia. On his departure,
the family is destroyed. Odetta become catatonic, baffling doctors, and is taken
away to an institution. Pietro, an artist, hates his work and urinates over his
canvasses. Lucia drives the city streets in her Mini, searching for her lost lover
through casual sex. Paolo strips himself of his assets (including his factory) and
disrobes on the platform of Milan station. He wanders, morally and financially
bankrupt, naked and screaming, through a smoking desert wilderness. Only
Emilia benefits from her contact with their visitor. She returns to her village
where she becomes a nettle-eating rural saint, performing healing miracles for
the locals. She levitates above the village and is buried alive on a building site,
her tears forming a puddle which becomes a holy water spring.
Theorem was lensed in spring 1968 on location in Lombardia, in Milan, and
at Elios Studios by Giuseppe Ruzzolini. Pasolini deployed Mozart - the 'Requiem'
performed by the Russian Academy Chorus and the Moscow Philharmonic -
and cues by Ennio Morricone. Pasolini published a novelisation of the film
prior to its release. When Theorem premiered at the 29th Venice Film Festival in
September 1968, Betti won Best Actress for her role. As Pasolini's angelic visitor,
Stamp appeared naked in the first instance of full-frontal male nudity in main­
stream cinema. Theorem was confiscated and Pasolini was tried for obscenity in
November 1968 in Venice but was acquitted.
Pasolini enjoyed his greatest commercial successes in Italy with his medi­
eval 'Trilogy of Life'. All were produced by Alberto Grimaldi's PEA, featured cos­
tumes designed by Danilo Donati and were scored by Pasolini and Morricone.
The Decameron (1970) was adapted from Giovanni Boccaccio's stories. Pasolini
appeared as the artist Giotto, who is seen on a scaffolding painting a church
fresco. The most effective tale is one which also inspired poet John Keats's
'Isabella: or The Pot of Basil'. Isabella discovers her dead lover concealed in a
shallow woodland grave (buried by her murderous brothers) and beheads the
corpse, planting the head in a basil pot. Pasolini's other episodes feature over­
sexed nuns, clandestine sex, serenades and weddings. Tonino Delli Colli lensed
the film on beautiful locations across Italy. Copious onscreen nudity (and the
scandal it caused) plus the great production design ensured its colossal success
in Italy, inspiring many bogus sequels including Decameroticus (1972). As Enzo
Siciliano put it, 'Art triumphed over pornography'. In the finale - a depiction of
Heaven and Hell in a quarry - Silvana Mangano appeared briefly as the giant
Madonna presiding over the anarchic scene, as the naked damned are thrown
into Hell.
Based on the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (1971)
was shot in England with an Italo-British cast. Pasolini, his cinematographer
Delli Colli and costumier Donati created a memorable 'Olde Englande' (of half­
timbered buildings, shacks, gothic churches and taverns) filmed in authentic
settings - Cambridge, Bath, Canterbury, Chipping Campden, Warwick, Rye,
Maidstone, Rolvenden, Laverham, Wells and Hastings (the ruins of Battle
Abbey). There were featured roles for Laura Betti and Franco Citti, and Hugh
Griffith, Josephine Chaplin, Michael Balfour and Jenny Runacre also appeared.
Ninetto Davoli played a Chaplinesque rogue in a comedy segment. The film also
features future Doctor Who Tom Baker in the nude and Robin Asquith (later
of the UK 'Confessions' sex comedies) urinating on ale house patrons from a
balcony. Pasolini played Chaucer, working at his ornate writing desk. Characters
are executed and blinded; one has a red hot poker shoved up his backside. In
the film's most controversial scene, Pasolini staged a visit to Hell, filmed on
grey, misty Mount Etna, among gibbets and other torturous ephemera. Hideous
winged demons torture the naked souls, as Morricone's tolling bells and church
organ mingle with the screams of purgatory. There was copious nudity and the
film's massive success in Italy inspired several rip-offs, including More Sexy Tales
from Canterbury, The Other Canterbury Tales and The Lusty Wives ofCanterbury
(all 1972).
Pasolini's Arabian Nights (1973) was more exotically erotic than its pred­
ecessors. It was photographed by Giuseppe Ruzzolini in Ethiopia, Yemen, Iran
and Nepal. The loose story features Ines Pelligrini as a slave girl who imperson­
ates a man and is crowned 'king'. Davoli and Citti both appeared, the latter as a
red-haired flying wizard who turns a man into a chimpanzee. The chimp is then
made king when people see that the animal can write. There's a beautiful harp
and strings theme from Morricone which accompanies Pasolini's tales of love,
magical illusion, shipwrecks, desert caravans, betrayal and sex. Arabian Nights
is easily the most sexually explicit of the trilogy and most of the 'One Thousand
and One Nights' seem to have been spent fornicating. Pasolini made only one
 Love and Death 141

more film, the outrageous, repulsive Salo, or the 120 Days ofSodom (1975), before
his untimely death, aged 53· He was battered to death by a male prostitute in
November 1975 near the seaside at Ostia.

Morto All 'ltaliana

Often a pessimistic, visionary director, Luchino Visconti surpassed himself
with Death in Venice (1971), his adaptation of Thomas Mann's 1912 German
novella, which recounted the death of an artist (in the book a novelist, in the
film a composer). Professor Gustav Von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogard e), a composer
and conductor based on Austrian Gustav Mahler, arrives in Venice to convalesce
following a breakdown. He stays at the Grand Hotel De Bains on the Lido and
spends his days on the beach, observing life. He becomes distracted and then
transfixed and obsessed by one of the young guests, Tadzio (Bjorn Andresen),
a handsome blond Polish teenager on vacation with his mother, Mrs Mause
(Silvana Mangano), his three sisters and their governess (Nora Ricci). Tadzio
seems to reciprocate Gustav's interest, with lingering glances and provocative
behaviour, but they are destined to remain apart. Venice isn't the haven Gustav
had hoped it to be, as the city is wracked by a cholera epidemic.
Death in Venice is the kind of movie Visconti excels at - a slow-paced 'art
film' with sumptuous, authentic period production design and a great score.
Piero Tosi designed the film's costumes and Ferdinanda Scarfiotti was the art
director. Visconti used Mahler's Third and Fifth Symphonies, played by the
National Academy Orchestra of Santa Cecilia conducted by Franco Mannino
and featuring alto soloist Lucrezia West. These looming compositions, epically
mournful, aptly complement Pasqualino De Santis' Panavision cinematogra­
phy. Interiors were filmed at Cinecitta, with the steamer wharf, the lagoon, the
beach and the street scenes lensed in Venice. As the plague spreads, the streets
are sluiced with reeking white disinfectant, decontamination fires burn and
the once-beautiful city resembles a slum - Visconti also depicts the 'Death of
Venice'.
Visconti intercuts flashbacks to Gustav's life in Munich - intellectual theo­
rising and arguments with his colleague Alfred (Mark Burns); the death of his
daughter; the disastrous booing and catcalling reception to his latest work;
Gustav's relationship with his wife (Marisa Berensen); and his clandestine visits
to prostitute Esmeralda (Carole Andre). Death in Venice is a stately work of art,
rather like one of Mahler's compositions. Bogarde is brilliantly cast as Gustav.
Bogarde's finely observed details of the frustrated composer, which were shaped
by Visconti, add to his interpretation. Gustav arrives in Venice confronted by his
own mortality and feels displaced among the bourgeois hotel patrons. He's never
satisfied, which aggravates the polite hotel manager (Romolo Valli) . Gustav vis­
its a barber, who transforms him - he dyes Gustav's hair and eyebrows black,
trims his moustache, and applies thick white foundation and red lipstick. This
fa<;ade becomes Gustav's death mask. Perhaps the loneliest protagonist in Italian
cinema, Gustav sits on the beach in a deckchair in the burnished evening sun
and watches Tadzio - his unattainable love - at the dappled water's edge. Hair
dye begins to trickle down Gustav's cheek, a black tear. He slips away and slumps
in his seat, as Mahler's music movingly underscores the scene. Art remains but
death comes to us all.
 Shoot, Gringo . . . Shoot!
Italian Westerns

O
f all the Italian film crazes, 'spaghetti' westerns are the most famous, influ­
ential and continually popular in cult circles. During each Italian genre
cycle, sets and locations were redressed and reused from film to film - this is in
addition to the recycling of plots, costumes and actors. Spaghetti westerns dem­
onstrate this endless mix-and-match more than any other Italian genre and also
created their own roster of heroes, with Django, Ringo, Sartana, Sabata and Trin­
ity the most popular. The genre's production design is one of its major advan­
tages and spaghetti westerns were predominantly shot in Italy and Spain. The
Italian locations are often betrayed by the distinctive, spear-like Italian Cypress
trees - fine for pepla, not so good for westerns - and the green pastures of Lazio
often looked more like Wales than the American southwest, but the arid Spanish
landscapes around Madrid and in Almeria convincingly resembled the Tex-Mex
borderlands.

The Far West, Italian Style

Ricardo Blasco's Duello nel Texas (1963) was a popular early entry, with Richard
Harrison avenging his father's death at the hands of three gold-hungry killers
(Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Barta Barry and Aldo Sambrell). It was released as Gringo
in Spain, Gunfight at Red Sands in the US and Gunfight in the Red Sands in the
UK. The UK and US versions have different dubbing tracks and scripts, and the
music was by a young composer named 'Dan Savio' (Ennio Morricone) .
Most of the early Italian westerns were 'Cowboy and Indian' adventures.
Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West (1964) is an archetypal example, lumber­
ing under the twin influences of pepla and Hollywood westerns. Mario Costa
directed as 'John W. Fordson'. Gordon Scott starred as Colonel Bill Cody, 'The
Paleface Buffalo Hunter: who is sent to Fort Adams in Indian Creek Territory
to quell a Sioux uprising. Cody discovers that Gold Dust Saloon proprietor Jack
Monroe (Jan Hendriks), his sidekick Red (Piero Lulli) and emporium owner Big
Sam (Mario Brega) are selling renegade Yellow Hand (Mirko Ellis) Winchester
repeaters and hard liquor. Love story subplots involve Cody's affair with Sioux
maiden Silver Moon Ray (Catherine Ribeiro), and Captain George Hunter (Hans
Von Borsody) courts the colonel's daughter Mary (Ingeborg Schoner). Ugo Sasso
played Cody's scout, Snack, and Carlo Rustichelli's score trotted out traditional
western cues. As telegraphed by the casting of muscleman Scott, Cody often
indulges in wrestling and fisticuffs, shredding his costume. The film was shot
in Italy and Spain. The Monte Gelato waterfalls was Yellow Hand's camp, Cody
plummets off the Marmore Falls in Umbria, the gorge at Tolfa was used for an
ambush, the Grotte Di Salone became a disused mine, and US Fort Adams was
a set in Lazio. The town of Indian Creek was a western set at Elios Film Studios,
Rome. There are also several scenes filmed in the vicinity of Manzanares El Real,
near Madrid, including the mountainous rock formations at La Pedriza (as the
Sioux's Sacred Mountain) and the picturesque Santillana Reservoir.
Joaquin Romero Marchent's Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965) cast Rik Van
Nutter as Buffalo Bill. Nutter appeared under the pseudonym 'Clyde Rogers'.
Adrian Hoven played drunken brawler Wild Bill Hickok who works for the
'Poney Express', Gloria Milland was feisty Calamity Jane and Elga Sommerfeld
was Ethel - the daughter of missionary Padre Norman (Paco Sanz) - who falls
for Cody. The plot tells of how Cody and Hickok, with help from Frank North
(Mariano Vidal Molina), the white chief of the Pawnee, foils a band of gun traf­
fickers trading with Red Cloud's on-the-warpath Sioux. Seven Hours opens
with a patriotic march from Angelo Francesco Lavagnino and an introductory
scrawl praises the heroes: 'To them and all those who, like them, made the young
American Nation great, this film is dedicated'. This is comic strip American his­
tory, with real events and characters blended into a largely fictitious 'greatest hits'
biopic in the manner of Cecil B. De Mille's The Plainsman (1936). The film was
shot in the vicinity of Madrid, including a western town set at Colmenar Viejo,
a US Cavalry stockade (Fort Fletcher), La Pedriza (the half-built settlement of
Leavensworth) and Golden City, a wild west town at Hojo De Manzanares (as the
town of Custer). The arms peddlers were played by Lorenzo Robledo (Charlie),
Alvaro De Luna (Utter) and Antonio Molino Rojo (their boss, Mr Deedle), while
Alfonso Rojas played the commander of Fort Fletcher and Raf Baldassarre was
the padre's Sioux companion, William. The film's colourful western outfits
resemble a children's dressing up box: Buffalo Bill wears fringed buckskins, a red
neckerchief, black hat and knee-high buckled boots, which is complete histori­
cal fiction but looks great.

Pistols and Fistfuls: Eastwood and Leone

In 1964, two westerns were shot back-to-back in Spain, on many of the same
locations, using some of the same crew - Pistols Don't Argue and A Fistful of
Dollars. Jolly Film (Italy) and Constantin (West Germany) co-produced both
 Italian Westerns 1 45

films - with Ocean Film as the Spanish backers of Fistful and Trio Film owning
the Spanish interest in Pistols. Both films cast six-feet four-inch stars as their
heroes, though their heights were where any similarity ended, as the stars were
at opposite ends of their careers. Pistols headlined 54-year-old Canadian cowboy
star Rod Cameron, famous in 1960 for divorcing his wife to marry her mother,
while Fistful cast 33-year-old Californian Clint Eastwood, then a co-star in US
western TV series Rawhide.
Mario Caiano's Pistols Don't Argue (or Bullets Don't Argue) cast Cameron
as Sheriff Pat Garrett of Rivertown. On Garrett's wedding day the Clanton broth­
ers - Bible-reading Billy (Horst Frank) and easily-led George (Angel Aranda) -
clean out the Rivertown bank of $3o,ooo and head for Mexico, so Garrett spends
his honeymoon tracking them down. He apprehends them in the town of
Corona and brings them back across Devil's Valley. They are tracked by a band of
Mexican bandits led by Santero (Mimmo Palmera) - there may be no Indians in
this movie, but the US Cavalry still arrive to save the day. Caiano filmed his west­
ern north of Madrid: Rivertown was the Golden City set. The Colmenar Viejo set
appeared as a ghost town and the Rio Grande was the river Alberche at Aldea
Del Fresno. Further scenes were filmed in Almeria, southern Spain - Lucainena
De La Torres played the Mexican pueblo of Corona. The mountainous Sierra
Alhamilla (with its Aztec-like 'Balneario' structure) appeared, as did the sand
dunes at Cabo De Gata as Devil's Valley. Jose Manuel Martin played Santero's
lieutenant Miguel. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this rather ordinary
western was the score by 'Savio' /Morricone. The film begins with 'Lonesome
Billy' (a loping traditional ballad crooned by Peter Tevis) and includes a riding
theme, with a French horn carrying the simple melody backed by incessant syn­
copated strings. This piece enjoyed particular longevity, reappearing uncred­
ited in many westerns including Seven Women for the MacGregors and Viva
Django!
Morricone also worked on Sergio Leone's A Fistful ofDollars, but their col­
laboration was a major departure for western film music. Leone and Morricone
had attended school together and their rapport led to one of the most significant
director-composer collaborations in cinema. For Fistful, Morricone composed
a distinctive whistled theme tune (performed by Alessandro Alessandroni)
which became as renowned as the film itself. Fistful was Leone's remake of Akira
Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). In Fistful Clint Eastwood played gringo 'The Man
With No Name' who drifts into the Mexican border town of San Miguel. The
town is home to two squabbling gangs: the gringo Baxters and Mexican Rojos,
who run guns and liquor to Indians across the frontier. The stranger sets the two
gangs at each other's throats - working as a hired gun for the Rojos, then the
Baxters - until both clans reside in Boot Hill and San Miguel is peaceful once
more.
Leone used Golden City as San Miguel and staged a massacre beside the
river at Aldea Del Fresno. Fistful's desert and pueblo scenes were filmed in
 He's going to trigger a whole new style in adventure.

Original US poster artwork for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) introduced Clint
Eastwood's Man With No Name and a new style of western to filmgoers. Poster courtesy Ian
Caunce Collection.
 Italian Westerns 1 47

Almeria, at El Sotillo near San Jose, and in the village of Los Albaricoques. The
Techniscope cinematography by Massimo Dallamano captured these locations
in vivid Technicolor and the film resembled a comic book western, with the beat­
ings and gunplay heavily stylised. Eastwood, cloaked in mystique, swathed in a
Mexican poncho and scowling over a cheroot, was ideal as the brutal anti-hero.
In the finale he goads bandit chief Ramon Rojo (Gian Maria Volonte) to 'aim for
the heart' but wins the duel by cheating - he's wearing an improvised bullet­
proof vest under his poncho. In the Italian print, Eastwood's voice was dubbed
by Enrico Maria Salerno, who had also dubbed Enrique Irazoqui in Pasolini's The
Gospel According to St Matthew. In Italy the avenging 'Man With No Name' had
the same voice as Jesus.
In 1964 Fistful was the highest-grossing film ever released in Italy, making
Eastwood a star. Leone's sequel For a Few Dollars More (1965) again teamed
him with Morricone and Dallamano. Eastwood returned as the hero, now named
Manco, who joins forces with Colonel Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), a
heavily armed bounty hunter. They are on the trail of El Indio (Volonte) and his
bank-robbing bandits, who steal the El Paso safe which is disguised as a drinks
cabinet. For a Few was an Italian-Spanish-West German co-production, shot in
Almeria and Madrid, with interiors at Cinecitta. El Paso was a set built for the
film near Tabernas in Almeria - it's still open to tourists as 'Mini Hollywood'.
For a Few provides an interesting demonstration of how these multinational
westerns were shot. Lensed between April and July 1965, For a Few was filmed
with no sound, so that the international cast could speak their lines with ease
in their own language. In addition to English-speaking Eastwood and Van Cleef,
there were Austrian Josef Egger, Germans Klaus Kinski, Werner Abrolat, Mara
Krup and Kurt Zipps, Italians Mario Brega, Roberto Camardiel, Luigi Pistilli and
Benito Stefanelli, Spaniards Aldo Sambrell, Jesus Guzman, Riccardo Palacios
and Antonio Ruiz, and Greek Panos Papadopoulos - playing everything from
put-upon hoteliers and carpetbaggers, to corrupt sheriffs and quick-tempered
hunchbacks. This way of filming allowed five different prints of the film to be
prepared in the dubbing studio - English, French, Spanish, German and Italian ­
with the film's title sequence and publicity showcasing different actors for dif­
ferent markets. Morricone began to expand on his style, mixing usual sound
effects (twangs and whistles) with direct melodic 'quotes' from classical pieces
by Beethoven, Bach and Wagner.
For a Few wasn't particularly well received by international critics. 'From
the first whining bullet to the last this film is a prodigious, straight-faced hoax:
wrote Penelope Mortimer in the Observer, which was typical of the film's recep­
tion. It was the highest-grossing film in Italy in 1965 and propelled Van Cleef to
stardom. United Artists were so impressed with Leone's two westerns that they
bought the rights to distribute them internationally and both were substantial
hits. Two of Van Cleef's subsequent successes - Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a
Horse and Tonino Valerii's Day ofAnger (both 1967) - cast him opposite young
gunmen (John Phillip Law and Giuliano Gemma respectively), who learn from
old master Van Cleef.
By the time Leone directed The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), he
attracted a co-production deal with United Artists and Alberto Grimaldi's PEA,
who each provided half the $1.2 million budget. It would be easily spent, as Leone
planned an epic story of the American Civil War, with the three title characters
seeking a cashbox of stolen gold as Union and Confederate forces wrestle for
control of New Mexico. Eastwood played The Good, a bounty hunter named
Blondy, Van Cleef was The Bad, an icy-eyed hired killer called Angel Eyes, and Eli
Wallach was The Ugly, raucous Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. Leone filmed their
adventures in locations scattered across Italy and Spain, including the Almerian
desert, at Manzanares El Real near Madrid, and in the lush greenery and impres­
sive rolling hill country in Castilla-Leon, between Madrid and Burgos. Town sets
at Elios Studios, Colmenar Viejo and Tabernas played Leone's desolate, clapboard
settlements, ravaged by war and deprivation. The sand dunes at Cabo De Gata in
desiccated Almeria were the baking Jornada Del Muerto (the 'Day's Journey of
the Dead Man'); the Union railroad was the Almeria-Guadix line; and a mission
hospital run by monks at San Antonio was filmed at Cortijo De Los Frailes in
Almeria and inside the Monastery of San Pedro de Arlanza, north of Madrid.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an imaginative, comic book histori­
cal adventure which has become one of the world's most popular westerns.
Morricone's one-off theme tune - a howling, panicked coyote caught in a cav­
alry charge - would have assured the film cult status, but the unholy trinity of
Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach are formidable antagonists. In addition to
Morricone's trademark whistles, he also composed elegiac cues for the Civil War
scenes. In a Union prison camp, Confederate inmates are beaten and robbed -
there's no honour in defeat, but an unequivocal, Romanesque to the victor the
spoils. The final three-way shootout, in the centre of a sprawling circular cem­
etery at Sad Hill ringed by hundreds of war graves, is gladiatorial spectacle relo­
cated to the Civil War west. Leone studied archives of war photographs and his
anarchic adventurers' escapades unfold in an authentic representation of the
period, with the Spanish army dressed as Yankees and Johnny Rebs. Leone's
attention to detail in his depiction of historical period has much in common
with meticulous Italian filmmakers such as Visconti (The Leopard) and Pasolini
(The Gospel According to St Matthew). Carlo Simi designed The Good's sets and
costumes, as he had on the previous 'Dollars' films.
The supporting cast included Luigi Pistilli (Tuco's brother, friar Pablo),
Mario Brega (Unionist corporal Wallace), Chelo Alonso (a Mexican peasant)
and Rada Rassimov (prostitute Maria), with stuntmen Romano Puppo, Benito
Stefanelli, Lorenzo Robledo, Frank Brafia and Aldo Sambrell as heavies. Leone's
visual style - the huge close-ups, the long duels, the milieu of dust and sun -
reached its apogee here, as his iconic gunslingers fought to the last man in an
unforgiving land -without-hope. To nino Delli Colli's Technicolor cinematography
 Italian Westerns 1 49

(in widescreen Techniscope) reduced figures to tiny flyspecks in these vast

desert vistas, as the long and level sands stretched far away. '11 deserto', the echo­
ing, bone-dry landscape of Leone's westerns - where even the trees seem to be
clinging onto life - has never looked more magnificent and fills the screen with
its emptiness. It was the most successful film in Italy in 1966, outgrossing De
Laurentiis' megahit The Bible ... in the Beginning and was also a smash interna­
tionally when released in 1968.

Stranger and Stranger

Eastwood's 'Man With No Name' stranger spawned many imitators. Enterprising
Italian companies attempted to release old episodes of Rawhide on an unsuspect­
ing public as new Eastwood vehicles titled II magnifico straniero, El maladetto
gringo and El gringhero. Mickey Hargitay starred as Mike Jordan in Sergio
Bergonzelli's A Stranger in Sacramento (1965). Jordan's father and brothers
are murdered and their cattle rustled by Barnett (Mario Lanfranchi). The film
resembles a Hollywood western, even down to its chequered-shirt costuming
for the cowboys. Sacramento was the Elios western set and the Lazio landscape
around Manziana stood in for California. Muscleman Hargitay predictably loses
his shirt (he makes it into hoof-mufflers for his horse), villain Barnett has an arti­
ficial, leather-gloved hand and the film features some genuinely disconcerting
moments, as when Jordan and a posse search for the buried bodies of his siblings
and unearth the corpse of a cow.
The 'Stranger' films starring Tony Anthony demonstrate how a western for­
mula could mutate from something reasonably close to its inspiration, to some­
thing outlandishly dislocated. Luigi Vanzi's A Stranger in Town (1967 - For a
Dollar in the Teeth) was an Italian-US remake of Fistful. A poncho-clad Stranger
(Anthony) arrives in the Mexican border town of Cerro Gordo (Cinecitta's west­
ern set) and helps Mexican bandit Aguila (Frank Wolff) to steal a shipment of
US army gold. Aguila refuses to pay the Stranger his share, so he steals it all. Brief
sojourns into the Mexican desert were filmed in a Lazio quarry and the film's
stumbling block is its interminable noodling guitar score by Benedetto Ghiglia.
It was a big hit in US drive-ins and made Anthony a minor star.
The Stranger Returns (1967 - A Man, A Horse, A Gun and Shoot First,
Laugh Last) had outlaw gang 'The Treasure of the Border' led by En Plein (Dan
Vadis) steal a solid gold stagecoach worth $2oo,ooo and hide out in Santo Spirito
(Elios Studio's Mexican set). The Stranger, with help from the Prophet (Marco
Gugliemi), wipes out the bandits with his four-barrelled sawn-off shotgun at
can't-miss, point-blank range. Ettore Manni played US army lieutenant Stafford.
Stelvio Cipriani's score (much recycled in later westerns) drives the film along
with bells, flutes, electric guitar licks, trumpet flourishes and agonising screams.
Anthony's Eastwood homage is acknowledged onscreen: having passed himself
of as 'Postal Inspector Ross' to the US army, the Stranger notes, 'In this day and
age, everybody's walking around trying to be somebody else'.
 Vanzi's The Silent Stranger (1968 - The Stranger in japan) was a west-goes­
eastern, which transported the Stranger to Japan into a Yoji m bo -style scenario.
In Ferdinando Baldi's Get Mean (1976) the Stranger is hired to escort Princess
Elizabeth Maria De Burgos (Diana Lorys) to her homeland of Spain. The film was
shot amid the beautiful castles of Granada, the rock formations at La Pedriza and
Cuidad Encantada, and the dunes and beach at Cabo Da Gata. An impressive set
in the Almerian desert (Fortress El Condor) was used as the Fortress of Rodrigo
and Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera provided the catchy score. Get Mean is another rework­
ing of Fistful, with Spain engulfed in a civil war between Princess Maria's tur­
baned Moors and the Barbarian invaders (whose horned helmets, crazy beards,
moustaches and pigtails resemble Vikings) . Who cares if Granada, the Moors'
last refuge in Spain, fell in 1492? The Stranger's nemeses are barbarian chief
Diego (Raf Baldassarre) - who the Stranger kills by dropping scorpions down his
armour - and hunchbacked, Richard 111-lookalike Sombra (Lloyd Battista, who
co-scripted the movie). The Stranger arrives for the final showdown at Fortress
Rodrigo armed to the teeth, draped in dynamite and packing bow and arrow, a
six-shooter and a four-barrelled shotgun, to face Sombra, who deploys a revolv­
ing cannon. Get Mean is the epitome of Italian cult cinema, a wildly imaginative
blend of unrelated genres which curdle onscreen to entertaining effect.

They Called Him Ringo

Competing with Eastwood and Van Cleef at the Italian box office as top draw was
Giuliano Gemma. In his western breakthrough, Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for
Ringo (1965), Gemma (billed as 'Montgomery Wood') played mercenary gun­
man Ringo, known as 'Angel Face'. Following a hold-up of the Quemado bank
during Christmas 1894, Mexican bandit Sancho (Fernando Sancho) and his gang
hide out at the ranch of Major Clyde (Antonio Casas), a Texan aristocrat, and
his daughter, Ruby (Tessari's wife, Lorella De Luca) . Ruby's fiance, Sheriff Ben
(George Martin), lays siege to the ranch and sends in Ringo to free the captives.
Gemma gives his best western performance as the cocky gunfighter and the sup­
porting cast includes Jose Manuel Martin as Sancho's lieutenant Pedro, Nieves
Navarro as Sancho's lover, bandida Dolores, and Pajarito as deputy Tim. Major
Clyde's ranch was filmed at a f mca (country house) nestled in the valley at El
Romeral in Almeria. The pueblo of San Jose, where Ringo guns down the Benson
brothers was filmed in the Almerian town of San Jose. Quemado was 'Esplugas
City: the PC Balcazar Studios' western set called Esplugas De Llobregat, near
Barcelona. Morricone's scoring is traditional, with the lilting title song, 'Angel
Face', sung in wholesome fashion by Maurizio Graf. Incidental cues incorpo­
rated the carol 'Silent Night' and the galloping 'Messico Eroica' recalled the horn
theme from Pistols Don't Argue. A Pistol for Ringo was a smash in Italy and the
song 'Angel Face' went to number one in the Italian charts.
It didn't take long for the Ringo imitations to surface, with Alberto De
Martino's $loo,ooo for Ringo quickest on the draw, though Richard Harrison's
 Italian Westerns 151

Italian poster artwork for Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for Ringo (1965) starring Giuliano Gemma
as the wisecracking gunslinger 'Angel Face'. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.

hero wasn't actually called Ringo. Returning from the Civil War to the town of
Rainbow Valley, Lee Burton (Harrison) is mistaken for Ward Kluster. Kluster's
wife, Rose (Monica Randall), has been killed by landgrabberTom Cherry (Gerard
Tichy) and Kluster's son, Sean (Loris Loddi), has been raised by Apaches. Cherry
is smuggling guns to the Mexican army for $2oo,ooo. At a rendezvous at the
church of Todo Santos, Ringo, with help from bounty hunter Chuck (Fernando
Sancho), routs the soldiers and discovers the money concealed in a bell tower.
$10o, ooo for Ringo, like The Texican, A Dollar ofFire and Five Dollars for Ringo
(all 1966), is an archetypal Barcelona-shot 'Buttifarra' (Catalan sausage) west­
ern. Rainbow Valley was the Esplugas City western set and desert location foot­
age was shot at Fraga and Candasnos, Huesca (in Aragon) and Castelldefels (in
Catalonia) near Barcelona, amid the ziggurat-type hills. The film benefits from
a Bruno Nicolai score and the title song, 'Ringo Came to Fight', is sung in an
Elvis quiver by Bobby Solo. Rafael Albacin played Apache chief Grey Bear, Luis
Induni portrayed Rainbow Valley's ineffectual sheriff, Massimo Serato (under
the dynamic pseudonym 'John Barracuda') played Ives, a redeemed drunk, and
Eleonora Bianchi was his tolerant lover, Deborah. The film opens with a violent
surprise: Rose, her baby son in a papoose, is cornered by a band of Apaches.
Cherry guns down her assailants and then skewers her with a war lance. $100, ooo
for Ringo throws everything at the audience, but its combination of Ringo,
Indians, bounty hunting, robbery, gunrunners and revenge proved to be a win­
ning one - it was the seventh most popular film in Italy in 1965.
The real Ringo star returned in Tessari's The Return of Ringo, which was
released in Italy in time for Christmas 1965. Italian posters warned, 'Beware of
fake guns - this is the one and only true Ringo !' Two months after the end of the
Civil War, Captain Montgomery Brown (Giuliano Gemma) returns to his home
town of Mimbres to find his father dead and his wife, Hally (Lorella De Luca),
and daughter, Elizabeth (Monica Sugranes), held hostage in their villa. The vil­
lains are two Mexican brothers, Paco and Esteban Fuentes (George Martin and
Fernando Sancho). Antonio Casas played Carson, the powerless alcoholic sher­
iff of Mimbres. Pajarito was florist Morning Glory and Nieves Navarro played
gypsy fortune-teller Rosita. The film was shot at Esplugas City (as straw-blown
Mimbres) and in the desert of Fraga, Huesca. Return is a well-plotted retelling
of Homer's The Odyssey as a western and demonstrates the different trail Tessari
took to Leone - this feels more like a Hollywood western in the classic tradi­
tion. Morricone contributed a moody score, with the title song again crooned
by Graf, and the film was the third biggest grosser in Italy in 1965. Gemma also
enjoyed great box office with One Silver Dollar (1965), Adios Gringo (1965), Fort
Yuma Gold (1966), The Long Days ofVengeance (1966), Day ofAnger (1967) and
Wanted (1967), which made him a superstar in Italy, but his popularity didn't
transfer to the US or UK. Giorgio Ferroni's Fort Yuma Gold was a 'sword and
sandal' Civil War western which pitted Gemma against fellow peplum stars Dan
Vadis and Jacques Sernas.
Shot in 1965 but released in Italy in 1966, Sergio Corbucci's johnny Oro
was retitled Ringo and his Golden Pistol for international release. Mark
Damon starred as Jonathan Gonzales, called 'Johnny Ringo', a Mexican bounty
hunter with a solid gold pistol. Mexican bandit Juan ito Perez (Franco De Rosa)
swears revenge on Ringo when his brothers are killed and teams up with Apache
 Italian Westerns 153

war chief Sebastian (Giovanni Cianfriglia) . The Apaches attack the town of
Coldstone (the Elios set), where Ringo has been jailed by Sheriff Bill Norton
(Ettore Manni). Sebastian kills gunrunning saloon owner Gilmore (Andrea
Aureli) with a tomahawk through the skull and Juanito shoots Ringo's girl
Margie (Valeria Fabrizi), before the hero blows the Apaches and Coldstone to
smithereens with dynamite. With some second unit riding scenes shot at the
reservoir at La Pedriza, Manzanares El Real in Spain, most of the location foot­
age was filmed at Tor Caldara. Carlo Savina provided the flavourful trumpet and
whistling score.

Mud and Blood: Corbucci's West

Like Leone, Sergio Corbucci remade Yojimbo, as Minnesota Clay (1964) on
location near Madrid. Cameron Mitchell starred as gunfighter Clay Mullighan,
who escapes from Drunner forced labour camp and resolves a gang war in Mesa
Encantada (the Fistful western set) between self-appointed sheriff 'Five Aces'
Fox (Georges Riviere) and Mexican general Domingo Ortiz (Fernando Sancho),
even though Clay is losing his eyesight.
Also using Yojimbo as inspiration, Corbucci's Django (1966) was as influen­
tial in Italy as Leone's 'Dollars' films. Franco Nero played gravedigger Django, the
mud-splattered hero of this blood-splattered cult classic. He's a Union soldier
who returns from the war to take revenge for the death of his wife. The ghost
town is run by red-hooded Confederate fanatics led by Major Jackson (Eduardo
Fajardo) and a band of Mexican cutthroats headed by General Hugo Rodriguez
(Jose Bodalo). Corbucci filmed on location in Italy and Spain in the winter of
1965. The disintegrating, quagmired town was filmed at Elios Studios' weathered
set, redressed as a pigsty. The town's Tombstone Cemetery, the mud flats and a
rope bridge were at Tor Caldara, Lazio, which is unrecognisable from peplum
days. 'Riding' exteriors were filmed at La Pedriza, Spain.
Django's grisly highlights include a fanatic sucked into a quicksand pit, pros­
titutes mud wrestling, Brother Jonathan (Gino Pernice), a Confederate priest,
eating his own ear, and Django having his gun hand pulped with a Winchester
butt and the Mexicans riding their horses over his hands. Django mows down
the fanatics with a machine-gun fired from the hip, when in reality the immense
recoil would have driven him into the mud. Virtually the entire cast is killed,
including the ghost town's genial bartender Nathaniel (Angel Alvarez). Stuntman
Remo De Angelis played Hugo's lieutenant Riccardo, with Simon Arriaga, Lucio
De Santis, Jose Canalejas and Raphael Albacin as the cackling Mexican rene­
gades. The major's Ku Klux Klansmen deployed Ivan Scratuglia, Luciano Rossi
and Jose Terron, the latter as a scar-faced, snaggletoothed backshooter named
Ringo. Loredana Nusciak played Django's battered love interest, Maria, who in
the film's opening sequence is savagely flogged. Luis Enriquez Bacalov provided
the doom-laden score, with the title song, 'Django', crooned lustily by 'Rocky
Roberts' (Roberto Fia) . Argentine Bacalov later won an Oscar for his score to
Mud and Blood: Franco Nero as avenging gunrunner Django, on set at Elios Studios, Rome, for
Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966). Lobby card courtesy William Connolly Archive.

Michael Radford's II Postino (1994). Nero was voiced in the English language
version by Tony Russel, but the Italian dub is far superior. The English language
Django cult has grown via home video, as it was never exhibited theatrically
in the US or UK. Forget about pristine DVD releases - Django is best viewed
in the grimiest, most scratched print possible, preferably on battered VHS
(Inter-Ocean Video released it in the UK), which accentuates Enzo Barboni's
gritty Eastmancolor cinematography. The rotten town swimming in mud, the
desolate crosses of the Tombstone bone yard and Django's tatty rags contribute
to the film's atmospheric decrepitude.
Corbucci didn't make another 'Django' film, but he did rehash the plot for
The Big Silence (1967 - The Great Silence). Corbucci filmed in snowbound
Cortina D'Ampezzo in the Dolomites. The town of Snow Hill was the Elios set,
given an alpine makeover with shaving foam and swirling fog. French star Jean­
Louis Trintignant played mute avenger Silence and Vonetta McGee was Pauline
Middleton, who hires Silence to kill her husband's murderer, Loco (Klaus Kinski) .
Frank Wolff played Gideon Burnett, the Snow Hill sheriff, and Luigi Pistilli, Bruno
Corazzari, Raf Baldassarre, Remo De Angelis and Mario Brega were the bad guys.
Kinski's cowled villain was called Tigrero [The Tiger] in the Italian version and is
described by Burnett as the 'Clever one with a priest's hat and a woman's fur coat'.
With spectacular whiteout photography by Silvano Ippoliti and a moving, poetic
 Italian Westerns 1 55

score by Morricone (notably the aching, shimmering 'E L'Amore Verra'), Silence
is Euro action-drama of the highest order, though it failed to find a distributor in
the US and UK. If Corbucci were a cocktail maker, he'd serve them with an ironic
twist. The nihilistic finale of The Big Silence boasts the cruellest twist of all: Loco
pitilessly shoots incapacitant Silence through the head.

A Bastard Called Django

Django was the most resilient and popular of all the Italian western heroes, sur­
viving from 1966 into the 198os. In Leon Klimovsky's A Few Dollarsfor Django
(1966) bounty hunter Regan (Anthony Steffen) is hired by the Denver Mining
Company to track down the perpetrators of a robbery. In Miles City, Montana,
Regan poses as 'Sheriff Coleman'. Montana is divided by a range war between
the ranchers, led by Amos Brandsbury (Alfonso Rojas), and the farmers, led
by Trevor Norton (Frank Wolff), who is the outlaw Regan seeks. Enio Girolami
(billed as 'Thomas Moore') and Jose Luis Lluch played Sam Lister and Buck Dago,
Brandsbury's hired guns. Gloria Osufia played Norton's niece, Sally, Joe Kamel
was farmer's spokesman, Graham, and Angel Ter was jumpy deputy Smitty. The
film's interiors were shot at Incir-De Paolis Studios, with location footage lensed
north of Madrid: Miles City was the Colmenar Viejo western set and Rancho
Galicia-Cubero appeared as Norton's farm. Carlo Savina's score included the title
song 'There Will Come a Morning' sung by Don Powell. Action footage from this
film was reused in Enzo Castellari's Seven Winchesters for a Massacre (1967 ), as
the Confederate guerrilla exploits of Colonel Blake (Guy Madison).
Negotiating a labyrinth of pseudonyms, audiences discovered that it was
Dutch actor Roel Bos (billed as 'Glenn Saxson' or 'Glenn Saxon') who played
Glenn Garvin (known in Mexico as Django) in Alberto De Martino's jokey
Django Shoots First (1966 - He Who Shoots First) . Django arrives in Silver
Creek (the Elias set) to find that his father, Thomas Garvin, now deceased,
shares half-ownership of the town with crooked banker Ken Kluster (Nando
Gazzola). Kluster framed Thomas, but Django, with help from layabout Gordon
(Fernando Sancho) and mysterious stranger Doc (Alberto Lupo ), clears Thomas'
name. Django kills Kluster in a cemetery duel, but Kluster's son Jesse (Luigi
Montefiori) shows up to claim his father's wealth. Bruno Nicolai provided the
memorable title song, 'Dance of Danger (Bolero)', sung by Dino. Location scenes
were shot in Italy and Spain - Django is ambushed by Kluster's men in a ceme­
tery (at Tor Caldara, Lazio) and is chased on horseback to Embalse De Santillana
(Santillana Reservoir) at Manzanares El Real, near Madrid. Saxson rides a horse
like a sack of potatoes and Lupo's Doc is dressed like Lee Van Cleef: he carries
a switchblade in his cane and is in town to take revenge on his bigamous wife,
Jessica ('Evelyn Stewart' /Ida Galli), now married to Kluster. Erika Blanc played
Django's love interest (saloon owner Miss Lucy), Valentino Macchi was Hicks,
Silver Creek's bumbling sheriff, and Guido Lollobrigida played Kluster's black­
clad henchman, Ward. The film's best moments are its pretitle sequence, filmed
in the high sierras of Almeria. Django encounters bounty hunter Ringo (Jose
Manuel Martin) and the mercenary hero kills Ringo and carts his own father's
body into town to collect the reward.
The next instalment of the Django saga was Romolo Guerrieri's $w,ooo
Blood Money (1967). Mexican outlaw Manuel Vasquez (Claudio Camaso, Gian
Maria Volante's brother) is released after four years in prison and kidnaps Dolores
(Adriana Ambesi), rich landowner Mendoza's daughter. Mendoza approaches
bounty hunter Django (Gianni Garko billed as 'Gary Hudson') to get her back,
but Django refuses until Manuel's reward reaches $10,ooo. He infiltrates the kid­
nappers and helps them attack a stagecoach carrying gold (filmed in the valley
at Tolfa, Italy). Django tracks Manuel to the pueblo of Tampa (Elios Studios'
Mexican village) and gets his man. From its lyrical seaside opening scene (filmed
on the sunny Mediterranean coast of Almeria) with Django sunbathing on a
beach, Blood Money is a surprisingly powerful western. Nora Orlandi's emotive
score deploys descending strings, tolling bells and a virtuoso trumpet solo by
Athos Martin, mixed with Spanish guitar themes and an eerie theramin. The film
was largely shot on location in Lazio, Italy, with occasional shots of the grand
sierras of Almeria adding an epic backdrop. Fernando Sancho had a cameo as
Manuel's father, Stardust. When Django is bushwhacked by Manuel's men, he's
badly wounded. Saloon owner Mijanou (Loredana Nusciak) helps him recuper­
ate and tries to convince him to give up bounty hunting. When she leaves on the
stagecoach to Frisco, she is killed in Manuel's ambush. Nusciak and Garko's love
scenes are believably moving, making her futile death more effective.
Made under the shooting title Oro Hondo, Giulio Questi's Se Sei Vivo, Spara!
(1967 - 'IfYou Live, Shoot!') was retitled Django, Kill! (IfYou Live Shoot!) for
international release and has since blurred into the 'Django' series by reputation.
Tomas Milian starred as a nameless stranger in Questi'svigorous Fistful ofDollars
remake, with the hero sandwiched between a band of sadistic rancheros ram­
rodded by landowner Zorro (Roberto Camardiel) and the lynch-simple yokels,
led by zealot Hagerman (Paco Sanz) and saloonkeeper Tembler (Milo Quesada) .
Questi reused Leone's set at Hojo De Manzanares as his clapboard town where
he staged hangings, tortures and scalpings. Glowering Milian made an excellent
hero, Frank Brafia was Tembler's henchman and Ray Lovelock played Tembler's
son, Evan. Marilu Tolo appeared as Flory, the worst-dubbed saloon singer in
the genre. Patrizia Valturri played Elizabeth, Hagerman's pyromaniac wife, who
causes the fiery 'Fall of the House of Hagerman' finale - her husband is scalded
by a death mask of molten gold.
Artful Techniscope cinematography by Franco Delli Colli makes Django,
Kill! one of the best-looking Italian westerns. A sun-bleached desert massacre
by outlaw Oaks (Piero Lulli) was filmed on a building site near Madrid and the
stranger ropes wild horses at Caldara Di Manziana in Lazio. A graveyard was
filmed near Hojo De Manzanares and Zorro's rancho - where Zorro chats with
his psychic parrot - was the walled house and stables of Villa Mussolini, Lazio.
 Italian Westerns 1 57

The fully restored version of Django, Kill! (rated 15 in the UK) runs 112 minutes
and includes a scalping, a disembowelling and additional dialogues between
the stranger and two Indian medicine men, which slows the film down. The cut
94-minute print is the finest version, never losing its nightmarish, comic-strip
momentum. It was this frantic version that was released in the UK by Golden
Era in 1969 (rated X, the same year that Corbucci's Django was rejected) and by
Fletcher Video in the 198os. UK pressbooks identified Milian as Barney and Lulli
as Hoaks. Django, Kill! is a cult classic tale of blackmail, deviance and murder,
drenched in sweaty Latin machismo.
Django next appeared in Ferdinando Baldi's Rita of the West (1967 - Little
Rita of the West and Rita the Kid), starring 22-year-old Italian pop singer Rita
Pavone as Little Rita, 'the famousest gunfighter of the west'. Rita, with her German
sidekick, Fritz Frankfurter (Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla), shoots it out
with 'super bounty hunter' Ringo (Kirk Morris, dressed as 'The Man With No
Name') in the main street at Elios Studios. Ringo opens his saddle-cloth to reveal
a long-range pistol with detachable shoulder stock, but Rita dispatches him with
a golden grenade. She then faces Django (Lucio Rosato, with broken hands and a
coffin in tow) in Boot Hill at Tor Caldara, the shooting location from Corbucci's
original. Rita also faces a Mexican bandit gang led by Fernando Sancho and falls
for charming outlaw Black Stan (Terence Hill). Gordon Mitchell clearly enjoys
himself as Big Chief Silly Bull ('How! Big Little Rita!') . The 41-year-old singer
Teddy Reno appeared as a cowardly sheriff - Pavone married him the following
year, causing a scandal in Italy due to their age difference.
During the western boom in Italy, there were comedy westerns (Seven Guns
for the MacGregors), murder mystery westerns (Death at Owell Rock), convo­
luted spy movie westerns (Gatling Gun) and gothic horror-westerns (And God
Said to Cain). Rita of the West is that deadliest of hybrids: a musical spaghetti
western. Having dispatched outlaw Cassidy (Remo De Angelis), Rita and Fritz
launch into the up-tempo 'Piruliruli'. In Silly Bull's camp Rita rattles through the
thumping 'Ma Che Te Ne Fai' (as the Indians join the hoedown). In town Rita
sings 'Rita sei tutti noi', a lively duet with Teddy Reno, and having fallen for Black
Stan, she performs 'Tu Sei Come', a delicate love song. For 'Ma Che Te Ne Fai'
(and its reprise in the finale), dancing girls and prancing cowboys are deployed,
choreographed by Gino Landi. Not since Django massacred Major Jackson's Klan
had the Elios western set seen such carnage.

Hollywood Romes the Range

During the spaghetti western boom, many Hollywood stars roamed the Italian
west. Joseph Cotten starred as Colonel Jonas, a Confederate renegade who tries
to restart the Civil War with a coffin full of stolen cash hidden in a hearse, in
Corbucci's The Hellbenders (1967). Burt Reynolds played tomahawk-hurling
Native American hero Navajo joe (1966), also for Corbucci. Dan Duryea and
Henry Silva appeared in Carlo Lizzani's The Hills Run Red (1966) - leathery
Duryea had been a stalwart of 1950s Hollywood westerns and Hills was one of
his last films. Prolific Morricone scored all three films as 'Leo Nichols'.
Sergio Leone assembled the most prestigious Italian western cast for Once
Upon a Time in the West (1968), his epic railroad western shot on location
in Almeria, Utah and Arizona. Leone filmed some sequences amidst the cathe­
dral rocks of Monument Valley, Utah. Frank (Henry Fonda), a hired regulator,
is working for crippled railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), who is try­
ing to run widow Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale) off her Sweetwater ranch.
The railroad needs water to continue its progress across the desert towards the
Pacific. The Almeria-Guadix railway line stood in for the A & PH Morton rail
line (modelled on the Union Pacific company) and boomtown Flagstone City
was constructed in Almeria at La Calahorra station. Charles Bronson played
Harmonica, a gunman seeking revenge on Frank for the lynching of his brother.
Jason Robards was wanted outlaw Cheyenne Gutierrez, who is framed for Jill's
husband's murder. Cardinale, a cascade of copper hair framing her beautiful face
and dressed in authentic frontier apparel, has never been better. Frank is one of
the western genre's great sadists, whether gunning down children or leaving his
former employer Morton to die alone in the waterless desert. Frank Wolff played
Jill's husband, Brett, and Lionel Stander, Keenan Wynne and Paolo Stoppa con­
tributed cameos. Frank's gang included Italian western heavies Benito Stefanelli,
Antonio Molino Rojo, Frank Brafia, Fabio Testi and Spartaco Conversi, and
Cheyenne's henchmen featured Aldo Sambrell and Lorenzo Robledo.
By now Leone deemed himself an oater auteur and Once Upon a Time is
a beautifully shot, meticulously designed period drama: as though Visconti
had directed a western epic. Ennio Morricone's score, incorporating sweeping
orchestrations, lacerating electric guitars, wailing harmonicas and soprano Edda
Dell'Orso, is one of his most popular. The burnished Italian print accentuates
the ochre deserts and brown costuming (resembling sepia photographs), a pal­
ette which is lost in remastered English language DVD releases. This Italian print
runs 170 minutes, while the English language version is 12 minutes shorter. The
opening sequence at Cattle Corner railway station, where three of Frank's hired
regulators (Jack Elam, Woody Strode and Al Mulock) lurk in wait for Harmonica,
lasts 14 languorous minutes in the Italian print, but 12-and-a-half in the English
version. The Italian version's pacing is slower, delivering 'Leone Deluxe'. Once
Upon a Time was a great success in Europe but failed in the US when cut to an
almost incomprehensible 148 minutes. Since its restoration on video and DVD,
it is now regarded as one of the great westerns.
The mere presence of William Shatner (Star Trek's Captain Kirk) in White
Comanche (1968) would have assured its notoriety. The fact that he plays half­
breed twins doubles the 'Shatner' value of this shot-in-Spain cult item. 'White
Eyes' gunman Johnny Moon (Shatner) is trying to track down his twin brother
Notah Moon (Shatner again), the renegade 'White Comanche'. Johnny is mis­
taken for his murderous brother and wants to settle accounts with Notah. The
 Italian Westerns 1 59

action is set around Rio Hondo (the Colmenar Viejo western set) and Notah's
camp. The location scenes were filmed near Madrid, mostly beneath the moun­
tain at La Pedriza, Manzanares El Real. A subplot has a range war brewing
between saloon owner Jed Grimes (Luis Prendes) and a landowner, General
Garcia (Mariano Vidal Molina), that culminates in a massed shootout in a sand­
storm. Rosanna Yanni played Kelly, a woman raped by Notah during a stage
hold-up, who blames Johnny for the crime. Aged Joseph Cotten played Logan,
the Rio Hondo sheriff, though he appears to be struggling with the Spanish heat.
Perla Cristal was Notah's squaw White Fawn and Luis Rivera played traitorous
Comanche Kah To.
As Johnny Moon, Shatner delivers lines such as, 'Eat your Peyote, drug of
the devil, dream your dreams of hate!' and 'It's between the two of us . . . Me and
myself, you might say'. But it's his hammy turn as Notah that gives the film its cult
status. His booming voice apparently relayed through a tannoy, Notah delivers
his rousing 'sermon on the mount' to his followers prior to attacking Rio Hondo:
'I have seen in the dream that does not lie that White Fawn and Kah To have
warned the whitefaces !' He tells his people that after years of reservation life, the
Comanche will be great once more: 'Greater than the Pawneeeeeee ! Greater than
the Apacheeeeeeee!' Shatner clearly enjoys himself in this larger-than-life role.
White Comanche also features an inappropriate jazz-fusion score with high hat,
brushed snare, bass and brass, by Jean Ledrut. This cult classic is a must-see - it's
cinema, but not as we know it.

The Specialists: Sartana and Sabata

Gianfranco Parolini's If You Meet Sartana ... Pray for Your Death (1968)
launched a series of 'Sartana' films which rivalled the popularity of Ringo and
Django. Sartana is a conjurer, dressed in a black suit, and the red lining in his
cape recalls Mandrake the Magician. Gianni Garko, cast in the heroic title role,
is spectrally invincible. 'I am your pallbearer' is his ominous catchphrase and his
presence is heralded by a ghostly whistling wind and the tinkling carillon of a
pocket watch. As Garko said of the character, 'Sartana is like a bat flying through
the night sky. He shifts shape like Dracula. His cultural roots lie in the comic
strips'.
A stagecoach gold shipment from Gold Spring to Green Hill is stolen by
Mexican bandit Miguel El Moreno (Sal Borgese), who has the gold taken from
him by Lasky (William Berger). The shipment is a ruse by Gold Spring bankers
Jeff Stewell (Sydney Chaplin, Charlie's son) and Al Holman (Gianni Rizzo) to
claim the insurance money. Sartana discovers that the gold is to be shipped to
Tucson, Arizona, in a judge's coffin. Others after the cache include knife-throw­
ing outlaw Morgan (Klaus Kinski, with bells on his spurs) and a Mexican ban­
dito, General El Tampico (Fernando Sancho). Snowy-haired Franco Pesce played
elderly undertaker Dusty and Piero Piccioni's score was more akin to hanky­
tonk saloon music, though moments of tension were eerily scored, horror movie
style, as in the final duel between Lasky and Sartana in coffin maker Dusty's
'vestibule of the beyond'. Gold Spring and Green Hill were the Elios and SCO
(Studi Cinematografica Ostia) western sets; Green Wells (where Lasky massa­
cres his own men with a Gatling gun) was a Magliana quarry sump near Rome;
and Tampico's ranch was Villa Mussolini. The distinctive white road and rocky
outcrops of Monti Simbruini were used for the gold robbery and the opening
stagecoach ambush at White Canyon was a quarry at Magliana.
Parolini then cast Lee Van Cleef as Sabata (1969). Gadgets featured heavily
in the film (including a Winchester hidden in a banjo), but Parolini also added a
liberal dose of acrobatics, as three nefarious businessmen hatch a plan to clean
out the bank of Daugherty City (the Elios Studios set). With William Berger as
deadly minstrel Banjo, Linda Veras as Banjo's lover Jane and Franco Ressel as
Hardy Stengel, the chief bad die, Sabata was a big hit. Parolini filmed on location
in Lazio and Almeria, and Marcello Giombini's bouncy score has become a clas­
sic. Parolini helmed a sequel with Van Cleef, Return ofSabata (1971), which was
wackier but less successful. He also directed Adios Sabata (1970 - The Bounty
Hunters), with Yul Brynner. Gianni Rizzo appeared as a villain in all three 'Sabata'
films, and Pedro Sanchez was thrice the heroes' sidekick - a blustering Mexican
rogue, always out for gain and self-preservation.
Though Sabata sired few unofficial sequels - for example, Tullio Demichelli's
Sabata the Killer (1970 - Viva Sabata!), starring Anthony Steffen, who had a go at
impersonating everyone - Sartana was more imitated. George Hilton starred in
the lively I Am Sartana ... Trade Your Pistolfor a Coffin (1970 - Fistful ofLead) and
William Berger donned the hero's mantle in the shoddily incoherent Sartana in
the Valley of Death (1970 ). Garko reprised the hero in Sartana the Gravedigger
(1969 - I Am Sartana ... Your Angel of Death, again with Kinski), Have a Good
Funeral, Amigo ... Sartana Will Pay (1970 - Parolini's Sabata in all but name) and
Light the Fuse ... Sartana's Coming (1970 - Run Man Run ... Sartana's in Town!), all
of which were directed by 'Anthony Ascott' /Giuliano Carnimeo. Garko also played
Sartana-like gunman Silver in the western whodunit Price of Death (1971) .
In Light the Fuse... Sartana's Coming, the best of the series, Sartana
frees outlaw Grand Full (Piero Lulli) from arid Everglades Jail, to locate $2 mil­
lion in counterfeit cash and half a million dollars in real cash. Sartana arrives
in Mansfield (Elios' western set) and finds himself up against crooked sheriff
Manassas Jim (Massimo Serato), widow Belle (Nieves Navarro), federal agent
Sam Puttnam (Frank Brafia) and General Monk (Jose Jaspe) and his renegade
army. Carnimeo filmed on location near Madrid, which gives the film more
grandeur than its Italian-shot predecessors. Jose Pesce played Sartana's friend,
Pom-pom and the spectral gunman deploys 'Alfie', a clockwork toy Indian which
appears to be a cigar lighter but is actually a bomb. The finale sees Sartana facing
Monk's army in the main street of Mansfield. Sartana mows down the villains
with a church organ which conceals cannons and machine guns. Bruno Nicolai
composed the score, which were re-orchestrations of Adios Sabata.
 Italian Westerns 1 61

Ill Pllll!llll flORI filM . N. C. HOMA IUII!IIll ll lfO CfVfNINI l VITTORIO MARTINO TELECOLOR

'I Am Your Pallbearer': Gianni Garko as spectral shootist Sartana in Giuliano Carnimeo's
Have a Good Funeral, Amigo ... Sartana Will Pay (1970). Italian poster courtesy Ian Caunce
Collection.
Django Rides Again
In 1968 the 'Django' series got back on track with Ferdinando Baldi's Viva
Django!, which was photographed by Enzo Barboni in the gritty style of
Corbucci's original. Terence Hill was cast as cider-drinking Django, the body­
guard of ambitious politician David Barry (Horst Frank). Django is wounded by
Barry and his henchman Lucas (George Eastman) during a gold shipment rob­
bery that leaves Django's wife dead. Five years later Django is back, posing as the
local hangman. Django frees condemned convicts he's supposed to have hanged,
using them to steal Barry's gold bound for Santa Fe. Jose Torres was Mexican
knifethrower Garcia, Barbara Simon was his wife, Mercedes, and Lee Burton,
Luciano Rossi, Spartaco Conversi, Ivan Scratuglia and Lucio De Santis played
Django's 'phantom' gang. Pinuccio Ardia appeared as telegrapher Horace, who
owns a talking parrot (recalling Django, Kill!) .
The muddy town of Altus was the Elios western set, the setting for a virtuoso
shootout: having received a rib-kicking he won't forget from Barry's men, Django
sets fire to Barry's saloon. Django's hideout at Mendez Ford was filmed on the
River Treja near Monte Gelato falls and much location footage was lensed at
Camposecco, near Camerata Nuovo, in the Parco Naturale Dei Monti Simbruini,
Lazio - grassy valleys and woods littered with jutting outcrops - where Django
faces Barry and his gang in the Altus cemetery. Viva Django!'s alternative title is
Django Get a Coffin Ready and here we discover why. Django is forced to unearth
what Barry thinks is a gold cache. Django shovels until he exhumes a casket
which he buried earlier with his machine gun hidden inside and trademark may­
hem ensues. Gianfranco Riverberi's punchy 'You'd Better Smile' is sung by Nicola
Di Bari and the film's downbeat 'Deguello' (with plodding guitar, mournful cho­
rus and trumpet) became famous in 2006 when it was sampled by duo Gnarls
Barkley as the looped backing track for their global pop hit 'Crazy'.
Sergio Garrone's violent No Room to Die (1969) was retitled A Noose
for Django for some markets and became a Django-versus-Sartana movie in
Germany. It's a wintry reworking of For a Few Dollars More shot in Italy, with an
atmospheric score by Vasco and Mancuso. Anthony Steffen and William Berger
played two bounty hunters, Johnny Brandon and Avert Murdock, who team up to
track down slave trafficker Fargo (director Garrone's brother Riccardo). Murdock
is a fine creation, a bible-reading preacherman with an arsenal that includes a
seven-barrelled shotgun.
Garrone and Steffen reunited on Django the Bastard (1969 - The Stranger's
Gundown) which Steffen co-wrote with Garrone under his real name Antonio
De Teffe. In 1881, Django (Steffen) tracks down the three Confederate offic­
ers who betrayed his regiment during the Civil War. Django kills Lieutenant
Sam Hawkins (Fred Robsahn), then Captain Ross Howard (Jean Louis), before
going after Major Rod Murdok (Paolo Gozlino). In Desert City, Murdok sur­
rounds himself with a gang of mercenaries. Django seems to be supernaturally
indestructible and with the help of Alida (Rada Rassimov), Murdok's traitorous
 Italian Westerns 1 63

sister-in-law, the avenger prevails. Bastard showcases Steffen's best work, as he

stalks the streets of Desert City, a spindly, spectral killer: 'a devil from Hell'. He
sports a bat-like black poncho and announces the death of each villain with
crosses marked with the day's date. Luciano Rossi (billed as 'Lu Kamante') was
cast as Murdok's brother, epileptic albino Luke. Teodoro Corra played Murdok's
accountant, William, and Furio Meniconi was Desert City's sheriff. Carlo Gaddi
played Murdok's hollow-eyed henchman, Brett, Tomas Rudi appeared as hired
gun Roland and Osiride and Renzo Pevarello, Bruno Ukmar, Angelo Susani,
Mimmo Maggio, Alberto Dell 'Aqua, Remo Capitani and Claudio Ruffini cropped
up amongst the bad guys. The deserts were filmed in a Magliana quarry, south­
west of Rome. Desert City was the Cinecitta western set and Murdok's ranch
was Villa Mussolini. The gothic, nocturnal action was enhanced by Vasco and
Mancuso's dissonant score, deploying flutes and a ghostly soprano soloist. The
supernatural element is ambiguously played by Garrone - when shot, Django
bleeds, but he can materialise at will. After Django has killed Murdok, Alida says,
'We'll be rich forever'. 'We won't live forever', answers the spectre, and when she
looks again, he's gone. The action-packed finale of Steffen's jokier A Man Called
Apocalypse joe (1970) parodies its equivalent in Bastard.
Django the Bastard was the last hurrah of the solo Django outings, as most
subsequent entries yoked the hero to Sartana, as in 'William Redford' /Pasquale
Squitieri's Django against Sartana (1970) and Demofilio Fidani's One Damn Day
at Dawn ... Django Meets Sartana! (1970). As the titles became longer, the audi­
ences got smaller. In Django against Sartana, the bank at Tombstone is robbed,
its manager Philip Singer (Bernard Faber) murdered and his niece kidnapped.
Django's brother Steve (John Alvar) and gunman Sartana (George Ardisson) are
blamed and Steve is lynched. Django (Tony Kendall) catches up with Sartana
but discovers that the culprit is Singer, now living in Vera Cruz as rancher 'Don
Felipe'. Set in 1871 (though the fashions and haircuts look like 1971) and shot
entirely in Italy (in the Magliana quarry and at Tiburtina), Django against
Sartana's shoestring budget is readily apparent. The Elios set (as Tombstone)
is falling to pieces and few townsfolk roam its streets. Rick Boyd and Salvatore
Billa had cameos as Singer's gunmen, Teodoro Corra played bandit Juan Corvo,
Fulvio Mingozzi appeared as the Tombstone sheriff, and Jose Torres played mute
Mexican knife-throwing peon Loco. Singer's memorable demise, with a set of
trophy antlers attached to his head, is a first for the genre. The film deploys
Piero Umiliani's score from Son of Django (1967 - which starred Gabriele Tinti
as Clint, Django's son) despite an incongruous lyrical reference to Django as 'He
was my father'.
Demofilio Fidani directed One Damn Day at Dawn ... Django Meets
Sartana! as 'Miles Deem'. He helmed other efforts as 'Slim Alone', 'Sean O'Neal'
and 'Dick Spitfire' and looking at his work it's easy to see why. This film is a
plotless meander made on the cheap in familiar Lazio quarries. Jack Ronson,
the new sheriff of Black City (Fabio Testi, in coat, hat and a ten-foot-long scarf)
finds that his star is a nice big shiny target for smugglers Bud Wheeler (Dean
Stratford) and Sanchez (Dennis Colt). Django (Hunt Powers) helps Ronson, who
is actually famed gunman Sartana. Fidani's style - from casting to set furnish­
ing - is minimalist and he deploys a supporting cast even the most seasoned
Italian western fans won't recognise. Fidani's westerns, particularly this one, are
notable for their stunt performers' twitching deaths, which more closely resem­
ble electrocution or gymnastics. Noteworthy aspects of this wintry western are
the windy Elios set as dank Black City, and a Lallo Gori score that's superior to
the film it accompanies. The same year that Testi played Sartana he also appeared
in Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, the 1971 Best Foreign Film
Oscar winner.
Fidani has been compared to an Italian western Ed Wood and you can't fault
him on titles, which are always more imaginative than the bargain basement
films they publicise. He directed The Django Story (1971 - Reach You Bastard!) as
'Lucky Dickerson: with Django (Hunt Powers) reminiscing with Wild Bill Hickok
(Dean Stratford) in a saloon about Django's most famous adventures, which are
illustrated via stock footage from Fidani's ropy back catalogue, including The
Stranger that Kneels Beside the Shadow ofa Corpse and Sartana, IfYour Left Arm
Offends, Cut It Off - also known as Django and Sartana Are Coming ... It's the
End. After this travesty, it soon was.
It was 21 years after Corbucci's original that Franco Nero resurrected Django
in an official sequel, Django Strikes Again (1987 - Django 2:Il Grande Ritorno),
directed by 'Ted Archer' /Nello Rossati. Exasperated Nero once observed that
nearly all his westerns were retitled in Germany as 'Django' movies, so he might
as well make one himself. Django is now a monk, Brother Ignatius, ensconced in
the Santo Domingo monastery. When his daughter, Marisol, is taken prisoner by
a slaver, Django comes out of retirement. Django's adversary is Prince Orlowsky
(Christopher Connelly), a lepidopterist, and his white-uniformed Hungarian
mercenaries. They traverse the river in their armoured steamboat - Mariposa
Negra, named after a mythical black butterfly which the prince seeks - attack­
ing villages and dooming the locals to forced labour. Django is captured and
put to work in a silver mine but breaks out. In a fitting sequence, he digs up his
machine gun from a grave marked 'Django': 'You could use a little oil', he tells his
old companion, 'You've got more to do'.
Django Strikes Again is a brutal, pretentious film that has its moments,
mostly of action. Django impersonates an undertaker, travelling incognito in
a hearse, and kills the bad guys with bolas, throwing axe, dynamite, pistol and
his trusty machine gun in a series of well-staged shootouts. Sandro Mancori's
Eastmancolor cinematography is a plus and the biblical score by Giovanni
Plenizio evokes Morricone, with a soprano, plush orchestration, percussion
and hollow tolling bells. The mine sequence - involving hundreds of extras -
resembles outtakes from Barabbas. It was filmed in Colombia and the atmos­
phere resembles a jungle adventure (a bank Orlowsky plans to rob is the 'Banco
 Italian Westerns 1 65

Tropical'). Donald Pleasence played Gunn, a Scottish butterfly expert impris­

oned by Orlowsky, Consuela Reina was Django's lover, Dona Gabriela, and tall
actress Licinia Lentini played Orlowsky's lover, the Contessa. She is eventually
stab bed by her love rival, a statuesque black slave trader dressed in a leopardskin
bikini and draped in gold chains. As Django rides away, he assures, 'I'll be back:
though Nero hasn't surfaced since.

A Pair of Aces: Hill and Spencer

Before they became an internationally successful comedy double act, Terence
Hill and Bud Spencer rocketed to stardom in a trio of action westerns directed by
Leone's friend Giuseppe Colizzi: God Forgives I Don't (1967), Ace High (1968)
...

and Boot Hill (1969). God Forgives I Don't was prepared under the working
...

title 'The Dog, the Cat and the Fox'. The Dog was Hutch Bessy (Spencer), an
insurance agent working for the Harold Bank in El Paso, who is on the trail of
a missing $10o,ooo gold shipment. The Fox was outlaw Bill San Antonio (Frank
Wolff), who has faked his own death and is in cahoots with the bank's president,
Mr Harold. The Cat was gunman Cat Stevens (Hill) who teams with Hutch to
track down the haul. Bill is hiding out in Mexico near Puntal, so Cat and Hutch
steal the strongbox and bury it in the desert. A duel between Bill and Cat ends
with Bill being blown to smithereens with dynamite.
God Forgives I Don't was shot on location in Almeria, with interiors at Elias
...

Studios, Rome. The Almeria-Guadix railway line stood in for the El Paso-Canyon
City route: the film opens with the driverless MK&T train arriving in Canyon
City with all on board dead. Hammy Wolff grandstands as Bill San Antonio,
his sickly charm giving way to explosive, needless violence. Perennial sidekick
Jose Manuel Martin played Bill's chump henchman, Bud. The contrast between
graceful, acrobatic Hill and hulk Spencer subtly undercuts the serious story: Hill
is obviously 'doing' Clint Eastwood while bearded Spencer is more original, in
his huge shaggy goatskin jacket. The violent action sees Cat and Hutch beaten
and tortured at regular intervals, with Cat being repeatedly tossed down a well
(cats hate water) and Hutch branded with hot irons. Hill is really put through
the mill in this one, either dangling upside down in a mantrap or led at rope's
length through the scorching Almerian desert. Cat and Hutch are called Cat
'Doc' Stevens and Hutch Earp in the Italian print and Django and Dan in the
German version (which was retitled 'God Forgives . . . Django Doesn't') . The gran­
diose, operatic score was by Carlo Rustichelli, with his choir chanting a 'Dies
Irae' pastiche at full volume. God Forgives I Don't (released in the UK as Blood
...

River) was the most successful film in Italy in 1967.

In Ace High (1968) Cat and Hutch return the stolen treasure to El Paso
(the Mini Hollywood set in Almeria) and claim the reward for Bill. The bank
president, Mr Harold (Steffan Zacharias), hires condemned killer Cacopoulos
(Eli Wallach) to steal Cat and Hutch's reward money. Caco wants revenge on the
three men who double-crossed him 15 years ago: Mexican regulare Paco Rosa
(Livio Lorenzon), proprietor Drake (Kevin McCarthy) and Harold, so Cat and
Hutch agree to help Caco. He kills Harold and tracks Paco to his fortress strong­
hold near the Mexican village of Tula. With the help of revolutionaries led by
Canganciero (Remo Capitani), Paco is killed. Caco and company head for Fair
City, near Memphis, where Drake runs a crooked casino and plan a heist on his
establishment.
Sluggishly paced, Ace High isn't up to the standard of God Forgives, as Colizzi
introduces more comedy into the violent mix, including the first of Hill and
Spencer's many knockout fistfights. Carlo Rustichelli again provided the score
and the desert action was filmed in Almeria, with interiors at Elios. Wallach, fresh
from his success in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, played Caco, a 'lice-infected
jailbird' of Greek descent. Brock Peters was black trapeze artist and tightrope
walker Thomas, who joins the heroes for the heist. The final duel in Drake's posh
casino is well staged: Cat, Hutch, Thomas and Caco face Drake and four hench­
men, as the well-heeled punters hit the floor. Caco orders the casino's orchestra
to play 'a slow, sweet waltz' as a roulette ball whizzes around the wheel. When
the wheel stops, the shooting starts. The film was partly financed by production
company San Marco, one of the backers of Once Upon a Time in the West, and
the hefty budget ensured that the film was a success at the Italian box office: it
was the second most successful western of 1968 in Italy, after Once Upon a Time.
Ace High was retitled Revenge at El Paso in the UK, though the final revenge
takes place in Fair City and revolves around a roulette wheel, not poker.
Boot Hill has Cat and Hutch team up once more to help Sharp (Enzo
Fiermonte), an old acquaintance in Libertyville. Corpulent town tyrant Honey
Fisher (Victor Buono) is exploiting the miners. Wounded by Fisher's gunmen, Cat
convalesces in a travelling circus and, with Hutch and his deaf-mute partner Baby
Doll (George Eastman), sets about defeating Fisher. BootHill has the shortest run­
ning time of the trilogy (92 minutes), though it feels like the longest, with Hill and
Spencer hardly onscreen. The travelling circus is a novel idea, but Colizzi dwells on
its performances, with trapeze artists, can-can girls and a dwarf orchestra. Woody
Strode (or 'Stroode' as he's billed) played gunfighter-turned-trapeze artist Thomas
(recreating Brock Peters' role) and Lionel Stander played ringmaster and fortune­
teller Mami. Rustichelli again supplied the score, which redeploys themes from
the earlier movies, and the film contrasts sweaty frontier faces and dusty range
clothes with the grease-painted circus folk. Exteriors were again filmed in Almeria
(the Libertyville shootout occurs at night on the Mini Hollywood set) and the
interiors were lensed at De Laurentiis Studios and Elios. The actual English title
according to the film's credit sequence is Boots Hill, a mistranslation of the origi­
nal Italian title La Collina Degli Stivali: 'The Hill of Boots'. Boot Hill was the least
successful of the trilogy, but Hill and Spencer were still immensely popular and it
was the highest earning western in Italy in 1969. Colizzi's trilogy was the catalyst
for the transition in Italian westerns in the early 1970s from violence to slapstick
humour, via the forging of the Hill-Spencer partnership.
 Passports to Hell
Euro Crime and Crimebusters

I
talian crime cinema has taken many forms, from imitations of James Bondian
global supercrime to caped superheroes and elaborate, meticulous heist mov­
ies. Crime became the singularly most popular subject in world cinema in the
late 196os and early 1970s. This was assured by the popularity of Mafia mov­
ies (following the hefty box office and Oscar triumphs of the 'Godfather' films),
rogue cops in the person of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry (1971), drug trafficking
and car chase action in The French Connection (1971) and vigilantism inspired
by Death Wish (1974). As to be expected, Italian filmmakers approached these
genres in their own distinctive manner, which led to some big box office hits and
the creation of the ultraviolent 'poliziotteschi' police films.

Unlicensed to Kill: Spy Movies

The James Bond films were the most successful film series of the 196os and were
massively influential on worldwide popular cinema. The codename 007 was out­
of-bounds for Italian copyists. United Artists grew tired of filmmakers alluding
to 007 and cautioned, 'Only James Bond . . . can be agent 007. Warning is given to
all Italian companies which, exploiting the success achieved by agent 007, have
distinguished the leading figures by the same numerals'. This didn't deter enter­
prising Italian productions and many coded agents interpreted thinly veiled
variations on Ian Fleming's hero.
Ken Clark played Dick Malloy - CIA Agent 077 - in Mission Bloody Mary
(1965), From the Orient with Fury (1965 - rather than From Russia with Love)
and Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966). Directed by Alberto De Martino, with
action sequences staged by Giorgio Ubaldi and future director Enzo G. Castellari,
Special Mission Lady Chaplin is the finest example of Italian 'Bondage'. Malloy
is on the trail of 16 Polaris nuclear missiles which have been stolen from the
wreck of USS Thresher, an atomic submarine. In Spain Malloy investigates
wealthy salvager Ken 'Kobre' Zoltan (Jacques Bergerac) and encounters a sexy
French assassin, Lady Arabella Chaplin (Daniela Bianchi). Arabella, ostensibly
a high fashion designer, is a master of disguise. She's introduced as a machine
gun-toting nun, shooting it out with two industrial spies (posing as monks), and
later appears as an elderly countess who assassinates a witness with guns con­
cealed in her wheelchair. Arabella's partner-in-crime is Constance Day ('Evelyn
Stewart' /Ida Galli). Zoltan uses a newly developed expanding rubber to steal the
missiles, which he plans to sell to enemy agent Hilde (Helga Line) for $5 million
in diamonds. Eventually Arabella falls for Malloy and works as a double agent,
scuppering Zoltan's scheme.
All three Malloy films were produced by Edmondo Amati for his Fida
Cinematografica. Special Mission's globetrotting story was filmed on location in
Spain, the UK, the US and France. Malloy is dispatched from New York by his boss
at the Secret Service, Commander Heston (Philippe Hersent). Much of the action
was shot in Madrid (including the Hotel Luz Palacio) and in southern Spain: the
port at Escombreras, a power station at Cartagena, San Pedro De Pinatar, Cabo
De Palos, plus locations in Murcia, Malaga and Marbella. On London locations
(including Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben) Lady Chaplin steals the
missile propellant from a military train en route to Dover. A diversion to Paris
climaxes with Malloy electrocuting Ivan (Peter Blades), Zoltan's metal-clawed
henchman, following a fight at the funicular railway at Sacre-Coeur. When
Malloy trails Zoltan and Arabella to the missiles' hiding place it's supposed to
be Morocco, but is more of Spain's Mediterranean coast. Tomas Blanco played
Spanish policeman Soler and Alfred Mayo played Sir Hillary, the traitorous head
of British missile research. Goffredo Unger, Joaquin Parra and Enzo Castellari
crop up as Zoltan's henchmen in a shootout with Malloy in a bullring.
Lady Chaplin benefits from great production design, with outre costumes
for Bianchi, Galli and Line. Bruno Nicolai's score is brassy spy fodder and the
dramatic title song, 'Lady Chaplin', is sung by Bobby Solo (presumably UNCLE
agent Napoleon's brother). Throughout the trilogy, 077 is a good agent but
'woman crazy' though this third instalment concentrates on plot and action.
Two helicopters attack a ship, while Malloy examines the Thresher in a bathy­
scaphe submersible. Other action highlights include Malloy's escape from his
car when a digger bucket crushes its roof (an ejector seat fires Malloy through
the boot); Lady Chaplin's escape from a plane in a parachuting dress; a shoot­
out on a beach where Malloy deploys an explosive harpoon; and the final fight
between Zoltan and Malloy in a burning missile storeroom, which ends with
Zoltan stung to death by his own fighting scorpions. Arabella chemically con­
verts the volatile propellant into red material and weaves it into a collection of
dresses and when undercover CIA agent Jacqueline (Mabel Karr) is shot whilst
wearing one of them, she explodes.
Greg Tallas's Italian-Spanish Espionage in Tangiers (1965) starred Luis
Davila as smarmy Mike Murphy, Agent S.077, who seductively topples women
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 69

with unconvincing ease and whose deadpan wisecracks thud to earth, thanks
to the inept English dubbing. He's dispatched on the trail of a ray gun invented
by Professor Greff (Tomas Blanco) which atomises its targets, resulting in cliff­
hanging shenanigans. Set in Tangiers and Nice (but looking like Spain), this fast­
moving film benefits from a whistled theme (composed by Benedetto Ghiglia)
and the glamorous presence of Jose Greci and Perla Cristal, though the mediocre
cinematography makes it resemble a made-for-TV movie.
Silvio Amadio's Assassination in Rome (1967) had journalist Dick
Sherman (Hugh O'Brien), the editor of Rome's American Daily, investigate the
disappearance of William North, the husband of his old flame, Shelley (Cyd
Charisse). When it's revealed that William was involved with heroine smug­
glers, Dick questions the 'narcotics crowd' of Rome's sleazy underbelly, includ­
ing an artist (Antonio Casas), a jazz trumpeter and a peplum actor at Cinecitta,
which offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at moviemaking, with a grand exterior
set littered with peplum extras for a Cleopatra epic. 'Where's Richard Burton?'
asks Dick when he passes Cleo and her entourage. The best reasons for view­
ing Assassination are the magnificent location shots of Rome and Venice, in
Eastmancolor and Totalscope. The story opens with the discovery of a corpse
near the Trevi Fountain. The film's exteriors include the Arch of Constantine,
the Colosseum and Fiumicino Airport. The film is an old-style Hollywood
melodrama crossbred with a gialli thriller, essentially 'Three Corpses in the
Fountain'.
In Antonio Margheriti's Lightning Bolt (1965 - Operation Goldman),
Professor Rooney (Paco Sanz) discovers excessive radioactivity off Cape Kennedy
but goes missing. Captain Pat Flanagan (Diana Lorys) and Lieutenant Harry
Sennett (Anthony Eisley) of Section S investigate. The culprit is smiling beer
baron Rehte (Folco Lulli), the head of REHTE BEER - 'The long life beer'
claims its tagline - who is using laser beams fired from beer delivery trucks to
destroy NASA rockets. His long-term plan is to site a laser beam on the moon.
Margheriti blends sci-fi with Bondian espionage: Rehte operates from an under­
water city (interiors constructed at De Paolis Studios) and Harry and Pat are
almost drowned in a giant beer vat. Lulli is nondescript as the German-accented,
beer-swigging villain, though the female characters - Pat, enemy agent Ursula
(Luisa Rivelli) and Rehte's hostage Carrie (Wandisa Guida) - are more promi­
nent than in usual spy fare. Though the film is supposedly set in Florida, Harry
speeds towards the rocket launch site and passes ANZIO painted in large white
letters on the tarmac at a road junction. Rehte's underwater complex is 'fully
automated' - Margheriti's excuse for Rehte's few henchmen, who in their black
bodysuits and masks resemble Diabolik. Margheriti makes good use of stock
footage, including that of a NASA control room and rockets taking off from Cape
Kennedy. When Rehte's base floods with lava, Margheriti reuses the climax from
his own Wild, Wild Planet. The villain's 'hibernation chamber: with imprisoned
victims suspended in limbo, is also inspired by Wild Planet. While Harry Sennett
is no James Bond, Lighting Bolt was cheekily advertised as 'Strikes Like a Ball of
Thunder'.
Sergio Sollima directed two secret agent movies under the pseudonym
'Simon Sterling': Passport to Hell (1965) and Hunter ofthe Unknown (1966), both
starring George Ardisson as karate-chopping Walter Ross, Agent 3S3 - agent
number three of the US Third Special Division. Passport to Hell sent Ross after
Mr A, a master criminal. Following the murder of agent Elisa Van Sloot (Beatrice
Altariba) in Holland, Ross contacts Mr N.s daughter, Jasmine Von Wittheim
(Barbara Simons), in snowbound Vienna and then travels with her to Lebanon
to locate her father, whom they discover long dead in his villa on Rapid Island.
The real villain is Mr B, Professor Steve Dickson (Georges Riviere), who plans to
kill both Ross and Jasmine. Ardisson's agent deploys a combination of panache
and ruthlessness and carries a golden bullet inscribed with an 'A: as his good
luck charm. His opponents include henchman Gutierrez (wrestler Dakar), Bel
Ami (Frank Andrews), Arabian temptress Fawzia (Leontine May) and nefari­
ous Jackie Yen (Senya Seyn). Two of Mr N.s hitmen, bespectacled Nobel (Paco
Sanz) and mute Salkoff (Calisto Calisti), discuss their mission on the Vienna
Ferris wheel from The Third Man. Ahmed, Ross' ally in Beirut, was played by
Jose Marco, the Russian ambassador Doliukin was Fernando Sancho, and Major
Taylor and Captain Moran, Ross's superiors, were Tom Felleghy and Anthony
Gradwell. With stock footage inserts evoking foreign locations, Passport to Hell
is an archetypal Italian spy movie. In a memorable scene, Ross fights a gang
of leather-jacketed thugs (including Federico Boido, Sal Borgese, Pietro Torrisi
and Gino Barbicane) in a bar, while a jukebox blasts out The Kinks' 'Everybody's
Going to be Happy' and 'Tired of Waiting'. Piero Umiliani provided the jazzy
score and the Shirley Bassey-ish title song, 'Let Me Free: was sung by Edith
Peters.
In Hunter of the Unknown (also released as Agent 3S3: Massacre in the
Sun), Ross is sent to the Caribbean island of San Felipe - the dictatorship of
General Siqueiros (Fernando Sancho), who is working with uranium expert
Karleston (Eduardo Fajardo). Ross infiltrates the island posing as a gunrunner
to search for Agent 3S4 (Luis Induni), who has gone missing. Frank Wolff (with
dyed blond hair) played Russian agent Ivan Terenczhov, dispatched to the island
by his Kremlin boss (John Karlsen). Umiliani again supplied the score and the
apt title song, 'Trouble Galore', was performed by Orietta Berti.
The UK-financed Deadlier than the Male (1966) exhibited a strong Italo­
spy influence, due to its cast and scenery. Elke Somer and Sylva Koscina played
Irma and Penelope, two sexy female assassins in the mould of Lady Chaplin. They
emerge from the sea wearing skimpy bikinis to spear investigator Wyngarde with
harpoons at Villa Erix on the Italian coast. Their deadly arsenal features bullet­
loaded cigars, bombs, dart guns and poison, and they are eventually blown to
pieces by an exploding hairpiece. The megalomaniac villain (Nigel Green) lives
in a castle above the picturesque village harbour of Castelmare (filmed at Lerici
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 71

on the Gulf of Poets in north-western Italy) and Chang, his bulldog henchman,
was played by peplum wrestler Milton Reid, who also appeared in Dr No (1962)
and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) .
A less outlandish Italian stab at espionage was Sergio Corbucci's convoluted
Moving Target (1967 - Death on the Run). US actor Ty Hardin starred as Jason,
a 'Houdini' thief on the run in Athens. Of all the actors who used pseudonyms,
Hardin had the best justification: his real name was Orson Whipple Hungerford
II. Jason finds himself blackmailed into stealing a valuable microfilm from the
corpse of an agent who has recently died in prison; the microfilm, containing a
list of important agents working in the East and West, is concealed in the cadav­
er's tooth filling which Jason must extract from the corpse's jaw. Jason is pursued
throughAthens by two rival mobster gangs and the Greek police, led by Inspector
Starkis (Nando Poggi). With help from his old friend Pizza (Vittorio Caprioli),
the Italian owner of the Gold Star striptease club, and Greta (Paola Pitagora), a
tour guide who works at the Acropolis, he evades capture, eventually delivering
the microfilm to the authorities in exchange for Greta's sister's child, held hos­
tage by the Communist villains. Moving Target was shot on location in Greece,
with the famous hilltop ruins of the Acropolis and numerous backstreet scenes
adding local colour. Ivan Vandor's jazzy score reinforces the spy movie milieu.
The complicated plot is saved by several shootouts and punch ups, lensed with
Corbucci's customary elan: Greta is killed and both her eyes are shot out, fit­
ting 'eye for an eye' vengeance for the missing tooth. Gordon Mitchell was cold
mobster the Albanian, while Vassili Karis and Corbucci's stunt supervisor Remo
De Angelis appeared as henchmen to rival mobster Dimitrios. Graziella Granata
played stripper Rumba and Michael Rennie was Major Worthington Clark, an
agent working on Her Majesty's Secret Service who is a double agent.

Laugh Laugh . . . Bang Bang: Spy Spoofs

Following their 'Ringo' westerns, Duccio Tessari cast Giuliano Gemma as
Englishman Kirk Warren in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1966). Having been accused
of high treason and theft, Warren is spared from the gallows by the British Secret
Service. They recruit him to steal the secret formula for a new alloy with a high
melting point for use in jets and spacecraft. Mr X is also after the formula, which
is contained in a Swiss safe 'only Ali Baba can open'. Kirk assembles a crack team:
circus acrobat Chico Perez (George Martin), safecracker Dupont (Pajarito) and
electronics expert Padereski, a professor known as 'Radar the Blip' (Antonio
Casas). They are successful and teach talking circus parrot Socrates the formula,
but unfortunately the bird gets shot.
Tessari's film is often too clever for its own good. There are numerous refer­
ences to the 'double-o' designation, and when Kirk watches film footage of the
Swiss installation they have to break into, he comments that it's 'better than
James Bond'. Gemma is dubbed with a cut-glass English accent, which doesn't
suit his screen persona and wears glasses in the style of Harry Palmer. He's great
in the action scenes, but the story rambles from London and Switzerland, to
Italy (Cortina D'Ampezzo and Venice) and Spain. The heist is well staged, with
the incompetent crooks negotiating electric fences, armed guards, TV monitors
and a death ray. There are plenty of sight gags (there's a running joke about spies
hidden in dustbins) and gadgets, including laughing gas pills, an amphibicar
on the canals of Venice and a talking pigeon in St Mark's Square. The ending, a
fistfight in a fairground and a castle, degenerates into the kind of self-indulgent
silliness that blighted so much of 196os cinema - or perhaps Tessari is parodying
that too, you can never tell.
Lorella De Luca (Tessari's wife) played Kirk's love interest, ditzy Fanny.
Antonio Molino Rojo was her oil baron fiance, Nieves Navarro was Hilary
Shakespeare (a double-agent), Daniele Vargas played a Chinese judo expert vil­
lain, Nazzareno Zamperla was his chauffeur and Jose Manuel Martin was prisoner
Jamaica. George Rigaud played Sir Sebastian Wilcox (aka Mr X), an agent work­
ing on counter-espionage in the armaments industry. Bruno Nicolai composed
the Bondesque score and 'Love Love . . . Bang Bang: the memorably swinging title
song, was sung by Nancy Cuomo. Following this novel diversion, Gemma mostly
made westerns for the remainder of the 196os.
In the Bond film Thunderball (1965 - Agente OOT Thunderball in Italy),
Adolfo Celi enjoyed great success playing SPECTRE No2 Emilio Largo, who lives
on his Palmyra estate in Nassau and aboard a luxury hydrofoil yacht, the Disco
Volante. Celi then played Beta, the second-in-command of the powerful global
crime organisation Thanatos (the Greek god of Death), in Alberto De Martino's
OK Connery (1967), the most blatant of the Italian Bond rip-offs. It was also
known as Operation Double 007 and Operation Kid Brother. All titles refer to
the presence of Neil Connery (Sean's younger brother) as plastic surgeon Neil
Connery, the brother of 'Allied Counter-espionage's top agent'. Producer Dario
Sabatello hired several Bond regulars: Lois Maxwell (Bond's Miss Moneypenny),
Bernard Lee (Bond's boss 'M'), Daniela Bianchi (Corporal Tatiana Romanov in
From Russia With Love) and Anthony Dawson (Professor Dent, a villain in Dr
No) . Dawson played Thanatos' top man, Alpha, and Bianchi was Maya, an enemy
agent who helps Connery. At Malaga Airport, Ward Jones (Nando Angelini) is
killed when a remote-controlled car crashes into his plane. Ward's lover Yashuko
(Yachuko Yama) is being treated in Monte Carlo by a world-famous plastic sur­
geon, Dr Connery, who is also expert at karate, hypnotism and lip reading. Ward
has used Yashuko as a 'human electronic brain: hypnotising her with secret
information about Thanatos' scheme. Via Operation Blackmail, Alpha and Beta
plan to control the world's gold reserves by stealing an atomic nucleus, generat­
ing an ultra-high-frequency magnetic wave which will fuse metal. The Allied
Counter-espionage boss, Commander Cunningham (Bernard Lee), and his sec­
retary, Miss Maxwell (Lois Maxwell), employ Connery to track down Yashuko.
The assignment flies him from Monte Carlo and Malaga, to Tetouan, Morocco,
and finally to Thanatos' HQ a cave lair beneath a castle near Munich. The surreal
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 173

finale has Maya leading a party of archers on horseback into the H Q and the
adversaries shooting it out with bows and arrows, and harpoons.
OK Connery is tangentially way-out, a splendidly offbeat pastiche packed
with invention and cinematic theft. A subplot has Thanatos employing blind
Moroccan weavers to craft radioactive rugs, and Connery plays mind control
games with his adversaries with his hypnotic stare. The supporting cast includes
Guido Lollobrigida (as Beta's henchman Kurt), Antonio Gradoli (as Monte
Carlo's police inspector) and Agata Flori (as Thanatos assassin Mildred) . Anna
Maria Noe's torturer Lotte Krayendorf closely resembles Lotte Lenya's Rosa
Klebb in From Russia with Love. The film's title song, 'Man for Me: is voiced in
ear-piercing style by Christy (billed as 'Khristy') to music co-composed by Ennio
Morricone and Bruno Nicolai. Bianchi, Flori and Celi wear some colourful 196os
attire, ranging from black and red leather fetish gear, to impractical pink feath­
ered creations and gold kaftans, and Beta has a yacht moored in Monte Carlo
harbour with an all-woman crew. Disguised as can-can girls, Maya's female gang
steal the atomic nucleus by waylaying an army convoy and escape dressed as 'cat
women' hostesses of 'The Wild Pussy Club', a mobile casino. When Connery sus­
pects that Beta is planning to blow up Maya's crew on the yacht, she smiles, 'You
read too many novels by Fleming'. Having defeated the villains and saved the
world, Cunningham tells Dr Connery, 'You should have seen your brother's face
when he heard of it'. Neil Connery was working as a plasterer before he was cast
and as a screen superspy he achieved a smooth finish when he coolly obliterated
Thanatos' HQ with a time bomb, in trademark Bondian fashion.

Caped Crusaders and Masked Avengers, Italian Style

Just as America had its crime-fighting heroes - Batman, Superman and
Spiderman - so did Italy. In The Witches (1966) a fantasy sequence featuring
Clint Eastwood depicts the Italian comic book icons Diabolik, Mandrake the
Magician, Flash Gordon, Batman, Sadik and Nembo Kid (the Italian name for
Superman), while elsewhere several caped crusaders careered across the screen
in the best tradition of Italian exploitation movies and 'fumetti' comic strips.
The most famous of the Italian crime-fighters was Superargo, a wrestler in
the mould of Mexican film institutions' Santo and Blue Demon. In Nick Nostro's
pacy Superago against Diabolicus (1966), champion wrestler Superago was
played by rock-jawed stuntman Giovanni Cianfriglia (alias 'Ken Wood'), his
hulking frame constrained by a bright-red bullet-proof bodysuit. When he acci­
dentally kills opponent El Tigre in a world championship bout, Superargo retires
from the ring and is employed by Colonel Kenton (Francisco Castillo Escalo ),
the head of the Secret Service, to investigate cargo ship hijacks in which uranium
and mercury have been stolen. Superargo tracks the culprits to an island, using
cocktail olives containing tiny Geiger counters. There he faces villain Diabolicus
(Gerard Tichy) - 'The Future Ruler of the Universe' - and his sadistic partner
(Loredana Nusciak) in their subterranean hideout. Alchemist Diabolicus has
discovered the secret of turning base metals into gold using nuclear power and
he plans to flood the world's gold supply. Monica Randall played Superargo's
lover, Lydia, who is kidnapped by Conrad (Geoffrey Copplestone), Diabolicus'
ally in the Secret Service.
Superargo was a key influence on Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik.
Indestructible Superargo drives a white E-type Jaguar, which is bullet-proof and
loaded with gadgets. The scenes in the island grottos and Diabolicus' lair as
well as Franco Pisano's trumpet score and atmospheric flute cues also pre-empt
Diabolik. Superargo was stylishly filmed in Eastmancolor and Cromoscope, with
interiors at Estudios Balcazar (Barcelona) and De Paolis (Rome). Superargo
deploys numerous ridiculous gadgets and takes on Diabolicus' goons armed
with a machine gun, a flamethrower, a fire extinguisher and dynamite. He wears
a wrestling mask (concealing his identity) and is able to withstand extremes of
temperature and breathe underwater. As Diabolicus tries to escape in a one­
man rocket, Superargo closes the launch pad doors so the rocket can't take off,
destroying the island.
It the sequel, Paolo Bianchini's Superargo (1968 - Superargo and the
Faceless Giants and The King of Criminals), Superargo (Wood) is now teamed
with Kamir (Aldo Sambrell) a guru-like Hindu who has trained Superargo in psy­
chic mind manipulation and mysticism. Superargo attempts to solve 'The Case of
the Missing Champions' - 16 top athletes have gone missing in the last two years.
The last abductee is wrestler Joe Brand. Superargo guards Brand's sister, Claire
(Luisa Baratto), but she is kidnapped by tall, blank-faced robots wearing metal
helmets, shoulder pads and gauntlets. Eventually the trail leads to the castle
lair of mad professor Wond (Guy Madison) and his lover, Gloria Devon (Diana
Lorys), the daughter of an eminent scientist who is creating human organs.
Wond has created an army of remote-controlled androids. Superargo is enjoy­
able hokum. Franco Pisano again wrote the saxy theme tune, which resembles
Henry Mancini's 'Pink Panther' theme. Wood acquits himself well in the fight
sequences and, even though he's retired from the ring, still wears his conspicu­
ous red bodysuit, black pants, gloves and eye mask - it brings him good luck. In
addition to his Jag he drives a station wagon with blades on the bonnet. When
trapped in a cell filling with poisonous gas, Superargo and Kamir levitate above
the noxious cloud. They zap the robot army with ray guns and callous Superargo
throws Wond into a pool of quicksand and lets him sink - 'It's all he deserves'.
Patterned on the Superargo movies, Gianfranco Parolini's The Fantastic
Three (1967 - Three Fantastic Supermen) initiated an acrobatic series. The
heroes, Tony, Brad and Nick, were played by Tony Kendall, Brad Harris and Nick
Jordan, dressed in red bullet-proof suits, masks and capes. Sequels included Three
Supermen in Tokyo (1968) and Three Supermen in the West (1973) . Alfonso Brescia's
surreal Super Stooges Versus the Wonder Women (1973) reuses sets, costumes and
actors from Brescia's own The Beauty of the Barbarian, with three superheroes (a
warrior, a kung fu expert and a black strongman) up against the Amazons.
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 75

The Fantastic Argoman (1966), directed by 'Terence Hathaway'/Sergio

Grieco, was a spoof, with Roger Browne playing both Sir Reginald Hoover and
his alter ego, Argoman, a yellow-suited, red-cloaked, black-masked crime buster
who is able to move objects and control pliant minds with 'telekenetics' thought
control. He's called in by Inspector Lawrence (Dario De Grassi) of Scotland Yard
to battle sexy superthief Jenabell (Dominique Boschero), the self-proclaimed
Queen of the World, who steals the Muradoff A-4, a massive diamond. She aims
to take over the world with the aid of her army of black-suited henchmen and a
robot. Filmed on location in London and Paris, Fantastic Argoman never quite
fulfils the promise of its surreal opening sequence, when the hero is put before a
Chinese firing squad. He utters his snappy catchphrase in a Dalek-like monotone
('Kill each other, kill each other') and his captors do just that. Eduardo Fajardo
played Sir Reginald's Indian butler, Chandra, Nadia Marlowa was Reginald's
girlfriend Samantha, and Mimmo Palmera played Jenabell's beefy henchman
Kurt. The interior of her headquarters, a space-age maze of steel corridors
and chambers, was created at Cinecitta. Jenabell travels by hovercraft (a credit
thanks 'Hovercraft England' on the Isle of Wight) and fools Argoman with a
series of doppelgangers. 'She tricked me with these doubles', says Argoman, like
a drunk in an expensive nightclub. Piero Umiliani provided the jazz score. For
a somewhat patchy superhero, it seems appropriate that the less-than-fantastic
Argoman's symbol is a turd-like red spiral on his forehead.
Alberto De Martino's Puma Man (1980 - The Pumaman) is notorious as
one of the worst superhero movies of all - it's right down there with Rat Pfink
a Boo Boo (1966) and Condorman (1981). The opening scrawl informs us, 'An
ancient Aztec legend tells of a God who descends to Earth from the stars at the
dawn of time and became the father of the first Puma Man'. In London, Professor
Tony Farms (Walter George Alton), an American dinosaur expert, meets Aztec
Vadinho (Miguelangel Fuentes) who has the wordy job title 'High Priest of the
Temple of the God who Came from Other Worlds'. Vadinho knows that Tony
is Puma Man, the possessor of a multitude of Puma-inspired special abilities.
Once Tony dons a magic belt he can sense impending danger, land safely when
dropped from a great height, claw through metal, see in the dark and, bizarrely,
even fly. Puma Man later discovers that he can walk through walls, teleport to
any location and stop his heartbeat to appear dead. At this last skill, Alton is
most convincing.
Garbed in tan slacks and a brown cape, Puma Man doesn't exactly look the
part, but fortunately his adversaries are even more ridiculously dressed. Puma
Man searches for an Aztec mask that has special mind -controlling powers. Sydne
Rome is Jane Dobson (an Aztec expert and Tony's love interest) and Silvano
Tranquilli is her ambassador father. The mask has been stolen by Kobras (Donald
Pleasence, his name misspelt 'Pleasance' in the titles) and his henchman Rankor
(Benito Stefanelli), both of whom model shiny PVC outfits. Nello Pazzafini,
Giovanni Cianfriglia and Guido Lollobrigida are among Kobras' toughs. The bad
guys control Jane's mind, hypnotise a summit of international generals and steal
Puma Man's powers. Everyone except Pleasence pronounces the hero's name as
'Poo-ma Man', which enlivens the awful script. De Martino shot on location in
London, with interiors at Incir-De Paolis, Rome. The music by Renato Serio is
mostly inappropriately jovial synthesiser cues and funky disco. Bland Alton is no
actor, nor is he particularly proficient at the action scenes - he's certainly not the
epitome of someone who has 'the powers of a man-god, the powers of a Poo-ma
Man'. The film is amateurish in all departments, but the flying sequences stand
out, as becaped Puma Man is suspended, flailing, by the seat of his pants from
wires. This humiliation is performed in front of rear-projected aerial shots of
London apparently shot on wobbly Super-8. There's little pretence of an effect,
special or otherwise. Needless to say, Poo-ma Man continues to find a cult audi­
ence among those who are also mystically protected and immune to poor dub­
bing and special effects.

Crime Does Pay: Heists

During the 196os, international heist films allowed enterprising producers to
blend big-name international casts, glamour, sex and exotic locales, in a vari­
ation on the Bond cocktail, with the thieving villains now the heroes. The best
Italian caper movie was Giuliano Montaldo's Grand Slam (1967), originally
titled Ad Ogni Costo [At All Costs] . In the third Bond film, Goldfinger's plan to
destroy Fort Knox's gold reserve was 'Operation Grand Slam'. Professor James
Anders (Little Caesar himself, Edward G. Robinson), a retired schoolteacher,
hatches a plan to steal $10 million in diamonds during the February carnival in
Rio De Janeiro. With help from New York crime lord Mark Milford (Adolfo Celi),
Anders recruits electronic technician Agostino Rossi (Riccardo Cucciolla), dap­
per French gigolo Robert Brissac alias 'Jean Paul Audry' (Robert Hoffman), aris­
tocratic English safecracker Gregg (George Rigaud) and syndicate killer Erich
Weiss (Klaus Kinski) . Brissac befriends Mary Ann Davis (Janet Leigh), the dia­
mond company's secretary, who holds the vault key. Though the safe, a Royal
1964, has been installed with a state-of-the-art sonic security system, the Grand
Slam 70, the gang pull the job off. Only Weiss escapes and he is killed by Milford,
who discovers the diamond case is empty. The plan has been an elaborate, intri­
cately engineered ruse by the professor and his real partner, Mary Ann.
Made on a big budget, Grand Slam blends the international aspects of heist
films with the meticulous robbery of Rififi (1955) and the tragic denouement of
The Asphalt jungle (1950 ). Montaldo shot on location at Westminster Bridge, Big
Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London, the Spanish Steps and Colosseum
in Rome, and the Statue of Liberty and the Pan Am Building in New York. Most
of the action is set in Rio during the 1967 carnival and many of the city's land­
marks appear, including the beaches at Copacabana, Ipanema and Botafofo,
Sugar Loaf mountain in Guanabara Bay and the statue of Christ the Redeemer
atop Corcovado mountain. The robbers prepare for their heist on a yacht in the
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 77

harbour and the Rio backdrop gives the film an added visual dimension. Interiors
were shot at DEAR Cinestudi in Rome, with additional footage lensed in Madrid.
Montaldo pays minute detail to the heist's planning and execution: Weiss climbs
into the sewers under the bank, Rossi and Gregg access the vault by abseiling
across a street packed with Rio revellers, while Brissac seduces Mary Ann and
steals the vault key. The vault is criss-crossed with laser beams and rigged with
sound-sensitive alarms. Ennio Morricone supplied the inventive score, which
features a jaunty Euro-pop trumpet theme and an angelic children's choir. The
samba music used for the carnival scenes was the LP 'Bafo Da Onca: released by
Rozenblit Mocambo records. Setuaca (played by Jussara), a girl living on a boat
in Rio harbour, sings 'Go Away Melancholy' and 'He and I' (actually voiced by
Brazilian bossa nova singer Maysa Matarazzo). Produced by Jolly Film, Grand
Slam was touted as a possible Sergio Leone film and enjoyed great success on its
international release.
Montaldo assembled another international cast for the explosive Machine
Gun McCain (1969), based on Ovid Demaris' novel Candyleg. Hank McCain
(John Cassavetes) is pardoned having served 12 years of a life sentence for armed
robbery, but his release from San Quentin has been engineered by New York
mobster Charlie Adamo (Peter Falk). McCain is to rob the Royal Hotel in Las
Vegas, a prestigious new casino owned by the Family, headed by Don Francesco
DeMarco (Gabriele Ferzetti) and Don Salvatore (Salvo Randone). With help
from Irene Tucker (Britt Ekland), McCain plants bombs in the hotel and poses as
a fire-fighter to lift $2 million. The Mafia discover Adamo's involvement - execut­
ing the traitor and his lieutenant Duke Mazzanga (Luigi Pistilli) - and mobilise
hitman Pete (Tony Kendall) to track the fugitives down.
McCain is a slow-burner, which builds to a frantic last half-hour as Hank
and Irene - the Bonnie and Clyde of Italian crime films - have nowhere to hide.
Cassavetes makes a fine stroppy hero and Falk's gravelly delivery is perfect for
tough mob movies. The film's highpoint is Hank's incredible, random act of
selfish terrorism, when a series of bombs devastate the hotel. The strong sup­
porting cast includes Pierluigi Apra as McCain's traitorous son, Jack (a small­
time hood), Florinda Bolkan as Adamo's wife, Joni (who is having an affair with
Don Francesco) and Steffen Zacharias as casino manager Abe Stilberman. Gena
Rowlands (Cassavetes' wife) contributed a fine cameo as McCain's ex-partner in
crime, Rosemary Scott - they were once known as 'The Machine Gun Lovers'.
When captured by mobster Pete, Rosemary shoots herself rather than disclos­
ing McCain's hiding place. McCain was photographed in Techniscope by Enrico
Menczer at De Paolis and DEAR Studios, and on location in San Francisco Bay
and Las Vegas, including neon-lit Sunset Strip. Morricone provided the theme
music, a frantic, dissonant jazz cue. Hank's languorous theme is played on trum­
pet, a 'love theme' for Hank and Irene is familiarly lush, and Morricone's song
'Belinda May' can be heard on the car radio as Hank leaves San Quentin. Fans
of Morricone's 'Ballad of Hank McCain' (sung by Jackie Lynton), which features
prominently on the soundtrack album, needn't get excited. In the 96-minute
English language print this cue is reduced to a fragment played over the end
titles. The full version of the song is used more extensively in the us-minute
Italian print, Gli intoccabili (The Untouchables).

The Hit Parade: Mob sters and Killers

If they weren't knocking off banks and casinos, Italian crime villains were mob­
sters, hitmen and small-time crooks. Sergio Sollima's Violent City (1970) was
typical of Charles Bronson's international stardom. It was an outright smash in
Europe at 105 minutes; however, the US print, cut to 92 minutes, fared badly.
Bronson had to wait until Death Wish (1974) to have a blockbusting hit in the
US, whereupon Violent City was re-released, retitled The Family. Jeff Heston
(Bronson), a professional hitman, is commissioned to assassinate Coogan's rich
uncle in the US Virgin Islands. Having gained his inheritance, Coogan ambushes
Jeff, leaving him for dead. Jeff goes after Coogan and Coogan's lover - also once
Jeff's girl - Vanessa Sheldon (Jill Ireland). With old friend Killain (Michel
Constantin), a heroin addict, Jeff tracks Coogan to the Michigan International
Speedway and kills him. Jeff then locates Vanessa in New Orleans, where he dis­
covers she is - and always has been - married to crime kingpin Al Weber (Telly
Savalas), head of the billion-dollar 'Organisation'. Weber, Killain, Coogan and
even Jeff are pawns in Vanessa's game. Jeff is duped into killing Killain and Weber
and is later framed by crooked attorney Steve (Umberto Orsini) and Vanessa.
They learn that Jeff has fled Louisiana and is fighting as a mercenary in Africa,
but on the day the couple arrive at the Organisation's skyscraper for Vanessa to
take her place as majority shareholder, Jeff lies in wait.

Hit Man: Jeff Heston takes aim at the Michigan International Speedway track in Sergio
Sollima's Violent City (1970). Charles Bronson pictured on the sleeve of Ennio Morricone's
original soundtrack.
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 79

Violent City sees athletic, muscle-bound Bronson at his Euro peak. It is cer­
tainly the best of the films in which he appeared with his wife, Ireland, though
their many costume changes seem excessive - incognito Jeff apparently travels
light, when in reality he would need a trailer-sized suitcase. Violent City was co­
scripted by future director Lina Wertmi.iller, to whom it probably owes Vanessa's
prominence in the narrative, charting her rise from fashion model to godmother.
With the working title Final Shot, Violent City was to have starred Tony Musante
and Florinda Bolkan, but Universal became involved and upped the budget.
Sollima filmed interiors at Cinecitta and exteriors on the island of St Thomas in
the US Virgin Islands; in New Orleans (the International Airport, the Louisiana
bayous and plantations hung with Spanish Moss and the French Quarter where
Jeffstays at the Cornstalk Fence Hotel) ; and the Michigan International Speedway
track at Irish Hills. Jeff poses as a picnicker, with his precision rifle hidden in a
wicker hamper. He lies in wait for Coogan's racing car, to make Coogan's death
appear to be a tyre blow-out. The Can-Am racing was filmed during an actual
meet - Sterling Moss and other drivers make cameo appearances.
The film's opening scenes in the Virgin Islands are devoid of dialogue, as Jeff
and Vanessa are snapped by an unseen photographer, freeze-framing the images.
Not simply a stylistic device by Sollima, this is one of Weber's cronies keeping
track of Vanessa. On St George, the couple are chased by thugs - this frantic,
dusty car chase was staged by stunt driver Remy Julienne, from The Italian job
(1969). Jeff drives a white Mustang and Sollima deploys many classic American
cars throughout the film, the boxy, shiny autos' shape and elegance empha­
sised by the letterbox Techniscope frame. Aldo Tonti's glossy cinematography
is completely lost in panned-and-scanned prints of the movie. In the finale, the
'Widow Weber' and Steve take the external glass elevator up to the board meet­
ing. Halfway up, bullets shatter the glass and Steve falls dead. Jeff, hidden on the
flat roof of I.L. Lyons & Co. across the street, takes aim at Vanessa. The whole
scene is played out in silence and Vanessa mouths, 'Please don't make me suffer:
as Jeff puts a well-aimed bullet though her head. Violent City also benefits from
a powerful Morricone theme, a popular choice with soundtrack buyers, which
is re-orchestrated throughout the action to menacing effect. The title theme
begins with doom-laden chords and feedback, then the melody is picked up by
jagged guitars and syncopated strings, driven by a drum kit and pulsing bass. A
pop version of his giallo themes, this is maestro Morricone at his best.
Sollima then made Revolver (1973) . Vito Cipriani (Oliver Reed), the vice­
governor of Monza Prison, is forced to release small-time thief Milo Ruiz (Fabio
Testi) when Vito's wife, Anna (Agostino Belli), is kidnapped by mobsters. Ruiz
agrees to help Cipriani and the trail leads to Paris to drug-addled hippy pop star
Al Niko (Daniel Beretta) . Cipriani realises that the mobsters want to kill Ruiz: he
can prove the innocence of a man accused of murdering a rich capitalist. In order
to save his wife, Cipriani guns down Ruiz and then deliberately fails to iden­
tify the corpse of the chief kidnapper. Rather like Reed's foul-mouthed Cipriani,
Revolver is one mean bastard of a film, its dark subject matter accentuated by
the miserable grey, wintry atmosphere. Sollima filmed in Milan, with interiors
at ICET De Paolis Studios. Parisian-shot footage includes the narrow streets of
Montmartre, Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de la Cite (where Niko films a pop
video) and Niko's apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower. In a snowbound inter­
lude, Cipriani and Ruiz sneak into France across the Alps. Morricone provides
one of his least-heard scores, featuring the sweeping, stately main theme which
is a re-orchestration of the song 'Un Amico' as performed by Beretta (as Christ­
like pin-up boy Niko). The supporting cast features Frederic De Pasquale as
kidnapper and heroin trafficker Michel Granier, Steffen Zacharias as Joe Lacour
(Granier's associate), Paola Pitagora as Ruiz's love interest, Carlotta, Marc Mazza
as a duplicitous French police inspector, and Calista Calisti as Monza Prison
guard Maresciallo Fantuzzi, who is run over by Granier's Sicilian henchmen.
Rene Kolldehoff played the lawyer who tells Cipriani that society has many ways
of defending itself: 'Red tape, prison bars and the revolver'. It is this reasoning
that convinces Cipriani that there is no moral contest between saving his inno­
cent wife and executing crook Ruiz. Largely ignored outside Europe at the time
of its release, it was exhibited in the US as Blood in the Streets with the tagline
'Makes Death Wish look like wishful thinking'.
Lee Van Cleef's contribution to Italian crime movies was Michele Lupo's
Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (1973) . Ageing, pipe-smoking Chicago crime
kingpin Frank Diomedes, known as 'Frankie Dio' (Van Cleef), arrives in Italy to
kill Giuseppe 'Joe' Sciti (Mario Erpichini). Rival crime boss Louis Annunziata
(Jean Rochefort), a Marseille heroin smuggler, is determined to put Frankie away
for good and has his hoods kill Frankie's associate Massara (Fausto Tozzi) and
Frankie's brother, Sylvester (Silvana Tranquilli), a doctor who has nothing to do
with organised crime. Frankie and young hood Tony Breda (Tony LoBianco) steal
an ESSO oil truck and drive to Marseille where they attack Annunziata's heroin
operation in a fortified frozen fish factory. Mean Frank and Crazy Tony was also
released in a severely truncated 79-minute version as Escape from Death Row,
which lost 18 minutes of footage, toning down the violence but reducing the plot
to incomprehensibility.
The film's powerful score was penned by Riz Ortolani and many cult movie
regulars propped up the supporting cast: Edwige Fenech played Tony's long­
suffering girlfriend, Orchid, Steffen Zacharias was Tony's lawyer, Jess Hahn was
Frankie's contact Jeannot, and Claudio Ruffini and Gilberta Galimberti were
ESSO drivers. Romano Puppo played an assassin who attempts to shoot Frankie
while he's relaxing in the prison yard and also doubled Van Cleef in the action
sequences (Puppo dons a flesh-coloured swimming cap to appear bald). Stuntmen
Nella Pazzafini and Osiride Pevarello played bullying jailbirds and Annunziata's
gang features Adolfo Lastretti, Goffredo Unger, Giovanni Cianfriglia and Robert
Hundar. The latter stabs Frankie's brother to death in a photo booth and then
sneers when the developed photos emerge. Frankie kills Hundar with an electric
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 181

drill and electrocutes Lastretti in a bath with a hairdryer. Frankie speeds the
truck along the Marseille waterfront pursued by French border police and the
fish factory shootout ends with Annunziata locked in an industrial refrigerator,
which Frankie turns down to -6o2 to deep freeze the villain.
Many Italian crime films of the period capitalised on the newfound box
office popularity of the Mafia. In Alberto De Martino's Crime Boss (1972) Sicilian
Antonio Mancuso (Antonio Sabato) arrives in Milan to take revenge for his
father's death on godfather Don Vincenzo (Telly Savalas). Nardo Bonomi's The
Long Arm of the Godfather (1972) cast Peter Lee Lawrence as Vincenzo, a cow­
ardly little thug who purloins a truckload of stolen armaments from his boss,
Don Carmelo (Adolfo Celi). Vincenzo flees to North Africa with his lover Sabina
(Erika Blanc), but when he tries to sell the guns to an Arab prince, the god­
father and his hoods show up. The ending sees Vincenzo and Sabina, who is
mortally wounded, attempting to escape with their money in a rapidly sinking
motorboat.
Duccio Tessari's international gangster hit Tony Arzenta (1973 - Big Guns)
cast Alain Delon in one of his finest vehicles as Tony, a hitman who plans to
retire. Tony is a distant cousin of Delon's iconic Jef Costello in Le Samourai· (1967).
When his four Mafia bosses (including Richard Conte and Anton Diffring) try to
rub Tony out, they accidentally blow up his wife, Anna (Nicoletta Machiavelli),
and little son, Carlo, with a car bomb, which catapults Tony on a brutal ven­
detta. Excellently shot across Europe by Silvano Ippoliti and with a fine Gianni
Ferrio score, Tony Arzenta deployed Carla Gravina, Marc Porel, Roger Hanin,
Erika Blanc, Rosalba Neri, Umberto Orsini, Claudio Ruffini, Ettore Manni and
Loredana Nusciak in supporting roles. Silvano Tranquilli played an Interpol
agent who allows Tony his revenge - as he's doing the law a favour - but during a
Mafia wedding in Sicily, Tony finds that it is he who has become the target.
Fernando Di Leo's Milan Calibre 9 (1972) saw Ugo Piazza, known as
'Potatohead' (Gastone Moschin in a stoic performance), released from prison
after three years. Money-laundering godfather 'The Mikado' (Lionel Stander)
wants to know where Ugo's hidden the $3oo,ooo he has stolen from the mob, but
despite beatings and torture Ugo remains silent. The hoods on his trail include
Mario Adorf as greasy, sadistic blabbermouth Rocco Musco, with Angelo Infanti
and Giuseppe Castellano as his henchmen. Philippe Leroy played Ugo's ally,
Kino, Ivo Garrani was blind ex-mob boss Don Vincenzo and Barbara Bouchet
was Ugo's lover, go-go dancer Nelly. Frank Wolf and Luigi Pistilli played the cops
out to get the Mikado, who bicker about the north-south/rich-poor divide in
Italy. Based on the novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco, Milan Calibre 9 was photo­
graphed by Franco Villa and boasts a powerful score by Luis Enriquez Bacalov
and prog-rock band Osanna. The gripping, labyrinthine plot builds to one ter­
rible, violent final act worthy of Jacobean tragedy.
In Di Leo's Manhunt (1972) two New York hitmen (Henry Silva and Woody
Strode) arrive in Milan to rub out a small-time pimp, Luca Canali (Adorf). In a
horrific scene, Canali's wife (Sylva Koscina) and daughter are deliberately run
down in the street and during the incredible ensuing chase, Canali head-butts
the windscreen of the speeding van, smashing through the glass and attacking
the driver. The manhunt for Luca is actually a diversionary ploy by sadistic mob­
ster boss Adolfo Celi, which leads to a confrontation between the hitmen and
Canali in a junk yard.
Set in Sicily, Di Leo's The Boss (1973) cast Henry Silva as Lanzetta, a Mafia
hitman who in the film's opening scene obliterates a rival don and his crew in
a cinema with a grenade launcher. In retribution, Lanzetta's boss's daughter is
kidnapped by hoods disguised as student radicals, which escalates the gang war.
Gianni Garko was the bemused police commissioner caught in the crossfire and
Marino Mase played Lanzetta's cohort. Di Leo's high-calibre trilogy is defined
by car chases, explosions, sleazy nightclubs, parcel bombings, groovy fashions,
murders, very cruel beatings, excessive violence, excellent production values
and unpredictable, engrossing stories - as to be expected from the proficient
screenwriter-turned-director.
There was a host ofloony psychopaths in Italian crime movies - conscience­
less thrill-killers who perpetrated kidnappings involving strong violence and
sadistic sexual humiliation. Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs (1974 - Kidnapped) had
bystanders Maria (Lea Lander), Riccardo (Riccardo Cucciolla) and his gravely
ailing infant son (who Riccardo is speeding to hospital) taken hostage by three
payroll thieves: Blade (Aldo Caponi), Doc (Maurice Poli) and Thirty-two (Luigi
Montefiori). After a horrific roadtrip, Riccardo finally rids himself of his captors,
but the twist is that he is also a kidnapper and the child is his victim. In Redneck
(1973), Telly Savalas and Franco Nero played Memphis and Dino 'Mosquito'
Bianco, two hoods on the run following a jewellery robbery, who inadvertently
kidnap 13-year-old Lennox Duncan (Mark Lester), a UN diplomat's son. Memphis
is a madcap villain, a sadistic, dope-smoking, hymn-singing fanatic, with Savalas
shouting most of his dialogue in a thick Alabaman accent. This nasty little film is
notable for the horrific scene when Memphis pushes a family of German camp­
ers locked inside their caravan into a river.
In Pasquale Festa Campanile's Hitch-hike (1976) alcoholic reporter Walter
Mancini (Nero) and his wife, Eve (Corrine Clery), are returning to Los Angeles
from a hunting vacation, when they are taken hostage by lunatic Adam Collins
(David Hess), who is on the run following a $2 million robbery. Based on Peter
Kane's book The Violence and the Fury, Hitch-hike is grim entertainment. The
sexual humiliation of Eve by Adam is voyeuristic and only Morricone's creepy,
twanging score and the magnificent mountain scenery are of note. Though set
in the US, the film was shot in the Abruzzo National Park and the falls at Monte
Gelato, Lazio.
Umberto Lenzi's Almost Human (1974) headlined Tomas Milian as trigger­
happy psychopath Giulio Sacchi, who kidnaps a rich heiress. Raymond Lovelock
played Giulio's sidekick, Carmine, and Henry Silva was Inspector Walter Grandi.
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 183

The film, supported by a strident Morricone score, features some particularly

unpleasant violence - at one point Giulio machine-guns a house-full of hostages
and kills his lover lola (Anita Strindberg) by driving her Mini off a cliff. When
it appears that Giulio, having killed the heiress, has got away with the money,
Grandi executes Giulio himself.
When Michele Placido directed Romanzo criminale [Crime Novel] in 2005,
he welded Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese's brand of movie gangsterism
to its Italian crime movie equivalent. Placido depicted the rise of underworld
kidnappers Dandy (Claudio Santamaria), Lebanese (Pier Francesco Favino) and
Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart) against a backdrop of Rome's drug trade from the 1970s
through to the 1990s. The visuals, kinetic action and costumery are clearly based
on films such as Lenzi's. Romanzo criminale has since spawned a miniseries of
the same title, directed by Sergio Sollima's son, Stefano.

Top of the Cops: Italian Poliziotteschi

The shift in audience preference from Italian westerns to crime movies in the
early 1970s was a reflection of the times. Westerns were now laughing at their
heroes in spoofs and parodies, so crime film 'poliziotteschi' moved spaghetti
western-style violence onto the streets of Italy, where the fantasy violence of the
far west was replaced by convincing mean street brutality. Poliziotteschi were
often set in northern Italy - within the industrial triangle of Milan, Genoa and
Turin - and were Italian political films reinvented as reactionary action cinema.
The most influential of the 'poliziotteschi' was Enzo G. Castellari's The
Marseilles Connection (1973 - High Crime) . The Italian title translates as 'The
Police Indicts, The Law Acquits'. A new gang have muscled in on the Marseilles­
Genoa drug trade and their calling card is castration. Trafficker 'The Lebanese' is
killed by a car bomb, so Vice-Commissioner Belli (Franco Nero) of the Squadra
Volante (Flying Squad) asks for help from gangster Cafiero (Fernando Rey, from
The French Connection). Belli's boss, Chief Commissioner Aldo Scavino (James
Whitmore, from The Asphalt jungle), has compiled a dossier on those he thinks
responsible but is murdered in the street when he tries to deliver it to the DA.
Belli reconstructs the missing dossier, but as he inches closer to severing the
Marseille Connection, his loved ones stray into the firing line.
This is the best Nero-Castellari collaboration. Amid the colourful 1970s
decor and fashions, Castellari isn't concerned with the story's political agenda
(strikers demonstrate briefly outside a factory) and concentrates instead on
the corrupting social issues, with heroin smuggled from Beirut in children's
toy cement mixers and crates of oranges. Commissioner Scavino's patience is
contrasted with cop Nero's overzealous behaviour, though the latter needs and
finally learns to be patient. To Scavino there are 'no heroes, no crusaders . . . we are
only policemen'. On-location filming in Genoa and Marseille added authenticity
to what was already a gritty story, and Castellari revelled in the gleeful depic­
tion of stylised slow-motion slaughter. Industrialist Rivalta (Mario Erpichini) is
High Crime: Vice-Commissioner Belli (Franco Nero) takes on a ruthless gang of drug
traffickers in Enzo G. Castellari's 1973 cop classic The Marseilles Connection. Artwork for the
film's UK home video release.
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 85

run over while playing golf by motorcyclist Rico (Daniel Martin), who is himself
murdered in the docks, torn apart by meat-hook wielding thugs. Umberto Griva
(Duilio Del Prete), a gadabout playboy - the embarrassing brother of wealthy
DUNANCO industrialist Franco Griva (Silvano Tranquilli) - is machine-gunned
through a glass door. This violence is matched by tough-talking dialogue: 'There's
someone spitting in our soup', notes Cafiero of their rival traffickers. A foot pur­
suit through the backstreets of Genoa and a screeching car chase opens the film
with a blast. Guido and Maurizio De Angelis' funky car chase music was enti­
tled 'Gangster Story'. Their urban score, with rattling percussion, electric piano,
echoing voices and flute blasts, is one of the film's main attractions. The street
killing of Scavino, shot down at point-blank range by a hood (Bruno Corazzari),
wouldn't have such impact without the De Angelis' searing accompaniment.
Eventually Belli's closest relationships are endangered. Belli's lover, Mirella
(Delia Boccardo), receives threatening phone calls and is beaten up by two of
Griva's thugs (Nello Pazzafini and Giovanni Cianfriglia). Belli's young daughter,
Annie (Stefania Castellari, the director's daughter), arrives in Genoa and nervous
Belli sends her to the countryside into hiding. The traffickers trace her, fatally
running her over. When the case appears cracked and the drug dealers have been
defeated in a wild west gun battle in a Marseilles boatyard, Belli is felled by an
assassin in the pay of untouchable industrialist Franco Griva. Director Castellari
had one of his many 'Hitchcock moments' in Marseilles Connection (a cameo
as a TV reporter) and Natasha Richardson appeared as a little girl playing hop­
scotch - Richardson was the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, Nero's offscreen
lover and later wife. Nero was in top athletic form as Belli in this massive box
office hit - even the film's trailer is more entertaining than most cop thrillers. A
typical Castellari electrocardio-drama, it kick-started poliziotteschi in style.
Steno's Flatfoot (1973) headlined Bud Spencer as Inspector Rizzo, aka
'Flatfoot' (slang for detective), an unorthodox cop in Spencer's hometown of
Naples, who has a reputation for using his fists to solve cases. He finds himself
up against the Baron (Angelo Infanti), who is smuggling drugs from Marseilles.
With the death of Flatfoot's hunchback informant, Peppino, Flatfoot's investiga­
tion becomes a personal matter, bringing him into conflict with his new supe­
rior, Commissioner Tabassi (Adalberto Maria Merli). Flatfoot unites the crime
factions in Naples against the Marseilles interlopers.
As in Spencer's comedies, there's a massed fistfight (here in a fish freighter's
refrigeration room) but Flatfoot is mainly a well-plotted, violent cop movie. Spencer
gives one of his best performances as the moseying cop who always gets his man
and the blows that rain on him during the fight scenes actually seem to hurt him,
rather than bouncing off his ursine frame. It was shot on location in sunny Naples,
in the backstreets and dock waterfront of this beautiful city, including the port
and the Hotel Excelsior (where the Baron meets his drug cartel superiors). Juliette
Mayniel played Flatfoot's landlady, Maria, Jho Jekins was a US sailor involved in
the trafficking, Enzo Cannavale was Deputy Inspector Caputo (Flatfoot's sidekick)
and Dominic Barto was drug dealer Tom Ferramenti. Mario Pilar played digit­
ally challenged 'Two-fingered Tony' (called Manomozza in the Italian print), the
mobster behind Peppino's death and the drug operation. A funky score by G & M
De Angelis livened up the action, and the jaunty 'Piedone Lo Sbirro' [Flatfoot's
Theme] was played on Hank Marvin-style guitar by 'Santo and Johnny'. Three
more 'Flatfoots' followed, seeing the hero . . . in Hong Kong (1975), ... in Africa (1978)
and . . . in Egypt (1980), all directed by Steno and starring Spencer.
In Franco Prosperi's Risking (1976), imprisoned jewel thief Massimo
Salvatore (Raymond Lovelock) befriends mob boss Giulianelli (Martin Balsam)
and with Giulianelli's henchman Piero (Heinz Domez) they break out. Salvatore
is actually an undercover cop, Sergeant Massimo Turlani, who plans to destroy
the drug rings running dope from France into San Remo and Genoa. He also
has a personal score to settle with the traffickers - three years ago, two of mob­
ster Marti's men paralysed Massimo's mother with a shotgun blast. Working for
drugs baron Perrone (Ettore Manni), Massimo drives a Fiat lorry across the bor­
der. Gangly Lovelock was on top form as Massimo, Elke Sommer played Perrone's
secretary (who knows he's a cop) and Riccardo Cucciolla was Commissioner
Sacchi. Interiors were filmed at DEAR Studios, with location footage in Rome,
San Remo and Genoa. Ubaldo Continiello's bouncy theme song jars with the
film's violence. In jail, new arrival Massimo is subjected to arena combat in the
Colosseum-like prison yard, a football match erupts into violence, and numer­
ous shootings deploy the expected slo-mo blood splatters.
Bruno Corbucci, a journeyman writer-director and younger brother of
Sergio, hit pay dirt with The Cop in Blue jeans, the third most popular film in
Italy in 1976. Tomas Milian played rampant special agent Nico Giraldi, battling
purse snatchers in Roma. A gang of thieves led by the Baron (Guido Mannari)
get more than they bargain for when they steal a briefcase containing $5 mil­
lion in mob money from American businessman Norman Shelley (Jack Palance) .
This was the first time that Tomas Milian played unconventional cop Giraldi, a
terrific creation based in part on Al Pacino's shaggy Serpico (1973). In Milian's
high-octane interpretation, Giraldi rides a motorbike like Evel Knievel and
apprehends criminals by kicking them in the groin. Nico wears shades, a woolly
hat, extra-long scarf, sneakers, a bomber jacket and denims. Giraldi used to be
a thief himself (The Pirate) and uses his connections to his advantage. He has a
pet bird called Lieutenant Callahan (after 'Dirty' Harry) and a pet mouse named
Serpico. Roberto Messina appeared as Giraldi's boss, Commissioner Tozzi, Raf
Luca and Marcello Martana were cops Gargiulo and Trentini, and Maria Rosario
Omaggio was Milian's love interest, literary agent Signorina Cattanio.
Cop in Blue jeans was shot on location in Rome, at Fiumicino Airport, the
football stadium (fora match between Lazio and Roma) and at Elios Studios. The
film depicts the seedy underbelly of Rome - a murder occurs in the 'Carambola'
pool hall, Giraldi impersonates a pimp in the 'Crocodile Club' disco, and Shelley's
mobsters (headed by Benito Stefanelli) handcuff an enemy operative inside a car
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 87

and feed the exhaust pipe through the window. The stunts are excitingly staged -
Giraldi rides his bike up the staircase of a tenement block and destroys a fruit
market. G & M DeAngelis' catchy theme tune sounds more appropriate for a com­
edy, but the incidental cues hark back to their work on Marseilles Connection.
Shelley poses as embassy official Richard J. Russo to smuggle laundered money
back to the US and Palance steals the film with his croc-eyed villainy. He also
played Manzari, a drug trafficker who clashes with rival Edmond Purdom, in
Fernando Di Leo's revenger Rulers of the City (1976 - Mister Scarface).
Such was Milian's popularity as Nico Giraldi that a 10-film series followed.
Each episode was directed by Corbucci and the last movie was released in 1984.
Milian always displayed extravagant dress sense and Nico gained an expectant
wife, Angela (Olimpia Di Nardo), and later a son, as ever more convoluted sce­
narios whisked him from Rome and Milan, to San Francisco, New York's 'Little
Italy' and Miami. Milian also starred as vengeful cop Ravelli in Stelvio Massi's
Emergency Squad (1974), who is on the trail of murderous criminals Marseillaise
(Gaston Moschin) and Rino (Raymond Lovelock). The soundtrack foregrounds
funky 'wacka-chacka' guitar, courtesy of Stelvio Cipriani.
Italian cinema didn't just reinvent film genres. If an actor became popular,
then look-alikes would be employed in similar vehicles. Such was the case with
Maurizio Merli, a dead-ringer for Franco Nero, who rose to stardom in a series of
cop movies, Klondike adventures and westerns, though he was an excellent actor
in his own right. Merli's finest film remains the massively popular Violent Rome
(1976 - Forced Impact), directed by Enzo Castellari's father, Marino Girolami (as
'Franco Martinelli'), and scored by the De Angelis brothers. Inspector Bettini
(Merli) and Rome's Special Squad take on the violent street scum who snatch
bags and rob supermarkets. Cockney mobster Frank 'English' Spadoni (John
Steiner) is behind the crime spree. During a bank hold-up Bettini's partner,
undercover agent Biondi (Raymond Lovelock), is paralysed, leaving him con­
fined to a wheelchair. Merli kills Spadoni but is prosecuted. He resigns from the
force and joins the private 'vigilante committee' law enforcers of lawyer Giorgio
Sartori (Richard Conte).
Violent Rome lives up to its title. When two hoods break into Sartori's villa
and savagely assault his daughter, Sartori's retribution has the culprits thrashed
to a pulp by his vigilantes. Even convalescing Biondi is beaten up in his wheel­
chair. Stunt coordinator Benito Stefanelli played one of Spadoni's balaclava-clad
henchmen, Giovanni Cianfriglia was a hoodlum and Luciano Rossi played a
rapist. Silvano Tranquilli was the police chief who lives by the credo 'Freedom
through Law: Mimmo Palmera played Bettini's superior and Daniela Giordano
was Bettini's hotellier lover, Erika. The film was shot on interiors at Incir-De
Paolis with exteriors at many tourist spots in Rome and was a worldwide hit. Its
highlight is an extended, tyre-screeching car chase cut to the De Angelis broth­
ers' 'Gangster Story' cue, as Bettini pursues Frank Spadoni following a bungled
hold-up. This is the most exciting, violent car chase in poliziotteschi, as Bettini
kicks out his shattered windscreen and zooms after Spadoni, who machine-guns
three innocent children in an effort to waylay his pursuer. If Eastwood's Dirty
Harry Callahan was accused in the US of being fascist, then Bettini is 11 Duce.
Bettini's brother was killed during a robbery two years before and Merli's hard­
line cop - and borderline vigilante - uses unorthodox methods. Biondi gleans
information by bribing informants with drugs, while Bettini beats up suspects
during interrogations and tells criminals the names of those who grassed on
them. Merli is a fine hero in the Nero mould (he even runs like Nero) and Violent
Rome closely resembles Marseilles Connection, down to its downbeat ending, as
Bettini is machine-gunned as part of the ongoing vendetta between criminals
and vigilantes.
In a spurt of prolificacy, Merli capitalised on his popularity with vehicles
such as A Special Cop in Action (1976), Tough Ones (1976 - Rome Armed to the
Teeth), Violent Naples (1976), Magnum Cop (1977 - with Joan Collins), The Cynic,
the Rat and the Fist (1977) and Convoy Busters (1978). Giuseppe Rosati's Fear in
the City (1976) is typical of such fare. Retired inspector Mario Murri (Merli) is
happily trout fishing in the mountains until he's reinstated on the force by the
commissioner (James Mason) to recapture Alberto Lettieri (Raymond Pellegrin) .
Cyril Cusack played Lettieri's cohort, Giacomo Masoni. Murri reassembles his old
squad, Sergeants Esposito (Fausto Tozzi) and Neri (Giovanni Elsner), and begins
to investigate in his own inimitable way, which involves gunfights, car chases
and black eyes - the assistant prosecutor (Franco Ressel) tells Murri, 'This is not
the far west, inspector'. Murri befriends Masoni's niece Laura (Silvia Dionisio),
a vice girl, and eventually discovers that the hoods plan to steal a million-lira
shipment of out-of-circulation cash being shipped from Milan to Rome. Shot
on location in Rome (including Fiumicino Airport and Luna Park fairground),
Fear is memorable for its action. Murri pursues two robbers in a tense motorbike
chase and foils a robbery of the Agricultural Bank. Merli was excellent as the
cool, Marlboro-smoking hero, cursed with a death wish since the murder of his
wife and daughter in a car bomb explosion planned by Lettieri. Murri buys flow­
ers and visits their grave, where he is set upon in a machine gun ambush by two
of Lettieri's thugs, resulting in a cemetery shootout.
For a period in the mid-1970s it was tight as to who was top of the cops:
Maurizio Merli, Franco Nero, Tomas Milian or Fabio Testi. Luc Merenda joined
the fray with The Violent Professionals (1973), in which Merenda's police lieu­
tenant is suspended from the force for callously shooting two escaped convicts
(Antonio Casale and Luciano Rossi). Richard Conte was Merenda's adversary,
crime boss Billion. Castellari and Nero reteamed on Street Law (1974), which
was Death Wish, Italian style. Fabio Testi starred in Castellari's The Big Racket
(1976), one of the fastest-paced and most excessively violent poliziotteschi.
Rome storekeepers, merchants, club owners and restaurateurs are being made
to pay protection to racketeers led by Rudy (Gianni Loffredo), who is also traf­
ficking heroin. When Inspector Nicola 'Nico' Palmieri (Testi) uses unauthorised
 Euro Crime and Crimebusters 1 89

police procedural methods to combat these preying thugs he's thrown off the
force. To take revenge he assembles a group of specialist killers to attack Rudy's
warehouse stronghold.
Big Racket was shot on location in Rome (Piazza Navona, the Colosseum,
the Arch of Constantine and the ruins of the Roman Forum) but is certainly not a
tourist guide image of the city. Castellari depicts a Rome of discos, flared fashion
disasters and fast cars, where 'pure snow' heroin mingles with the blood of the
innocent. There are car chases and some impressive explosions - no other direc­
tor orchestrates violent mayhem quite like Castellari. It is easily his most brutal,
frightening film, mixing action with extremist politics, and was condemned by
many in Italy as too reactionary. It was banned in the UK for many years, not only
for its bloody thuggery but also for two rape scenes. Restaurateur Luigi Giulti
(Renzo Palmer) agrees to help the police, but the mobsters kidnap his teenage
daughter, Stefania (Stefania Girolami), and savagely assault her. Giulti guns the
culprits down and is imprisoned, thus the innocent and law-abiding are dragged
down to the level of scum.
Castellari stages a succession of violent set pieces in comic-book manner.
The opening scenes depict the racketeer thugs, including Giovanni Cianfriglia,
Roberto Dell'Aqua, Massimo Vanni and Marcella Michelangeli (as the sadistic
Marcy), smashing up stores and restaurants in slow motion, cut to G & M De
Angelis' deafening, frantic score. These neon-lit images of the motorcycle gang
anticipate Castellari's post-apocalypse films, such as 1990: The Bronx Warriors.
Nico's car is rolled downhill by the mobsters, with the camera providing a view
from inside the vehicle as it tumbles down the slope, a cascade of broken glass
exploding across the screen. When the police think they are about to ambush the
hoods at a deposit box robbery in Tiburtina, they are ambushed - Rudy's crew
attack the cops' rearguard and massacre them. Nico's partner, Sergeant Salvatore
Valesci (Sal Borgese), is killed and Giovanni Rossetti (Orso Maria Guerrini), a pro­
fessional hunter who has just returned from a skiing holiday, helps the police rout
the mobsters. Rossetti's apartment is later torched and his wife raped and killed.
Nico's vengeful 'Magnificent Five' comprises Rossetti; wronged nightclub
owner Piero Mazzarelli (Glauco Onorato), now wearing a neck brace following
a beating; jailbird hitman Doringo (Romano Puppo ); pickpocket Pepe (Vincent
Gardenia); and restaurateur Giulti, now a psychopath. They wait in ambush at an
agricultural tools plant for a summit meeting of top mobsters: Rudy, his attorney
Giovanni Giuni (Antonio Marsina), and crime bosses Fabrizi (Salvatore Billa),
Cuomo (Giovanni Bonadonna), Arresti Siccla (Franco Borelli) and Luigi Mayer
(Pietro Ceccarelli) . This bushwhack results in a pitched battle of slow-motion
violence. Nico ends the film captured in freeze-frame - smashing his shotgun
in a raging fit - having incinerated Rudy's car. Castellari followed this with the
lesser The Heroin Busters (1978), with Testi and David Hemmings, but Racket
remains his cop masterpiece - its raw energy and unleashed savagery still power­
ful. Let's hear it for vigilantism!
 Anarchy and Allegory
Political Cinema

I
taly was at the forefront of political cinema in the 196os, though its preoc­
cupation with matters Italian - Fascism, Communism, 'strategies of tension:
student revolts and terrorism - often proved too parochial for international audi­
ences. The internal politics of Italy held little interest for audiences with scant
understanding of the political system and few reference points. But some Italian
political films - directed by Francesco Rosi, Damiano Damiani, Elio Petri, Gillo
Pontecorvo and Bernardo Bertolucci - did find international success, disguised
as historical adventures, westerns and thrillers, or as biographies of rebel ban­
dit Salvatore Giuliano, mercenary William Walker and gangster Charles 'Lucky'
Luciano.

M oral Victories: Gille Pontecorvo

Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers (1966), written by Franco Solinas from a
story by Solinas and Pontecorvo, was based on historical fact. It recounts the
Algerian peoples' struggle to rid themselves of French occupation, through revolt
and terrorism: Pontecorvo and Solinas drew on 10,ooo eyewitness accounts.
In 1954, criminal Omar Ali, alias 'Ali La Pointe' (Brahim Haggiag) joins the
National Liberation Front (FNL), a Muslim movement which plans its revolu­
tion from the Casbah district, an impenetrable warren of narrow streets and
alleys. In 1956 the FNL clean up the Casbah, cracking down on drug traffickers
and banning alcohol, prostitution and other iniquities blamed on colonialism.
They begin 'direct action', shooting police officers in the streets, which leads
the French to seal off the Casbah with checkpoints. The attacks continue and
French extremists detonate bombs in the Casbah while the inhabitants sleep.
In revenge, women of the FNL dress in western garb to blow up the offices of
Air France, a mambo milk bar on Rue D'Isly, a cafe on Rue Michelot, and later
a racetrack, causing many civilian casualties. On 10 January 1957, the French
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UK poster for Gillo Pontecorvo's revolutionary docu-drama Battle of Algiers (1966), which
depicted the Algerian National Liberation Front's (FNL) insurgence against French colonial
rule.

Tenth Paratroop Division led by Colonel Philippe Mathieu (Jean Martin) arrive
and resolve to break up the FNL.
Battle ofAlgiers opens with Ali La Pointe trapped in hiding by Mathieu's
paratroops and then flashes back to tell his story, in grainy monochrome foot­
age which resembles newsreels. The docu-realism is apparent in the aftermath
of the FNL's bombing campaign, as Pontecorvo films the dead and walking
wounded. Pontecorvo and his nine-man Italian crew (including cinematogra­
pher Marcello Gatti) filmed in Algiers, using actual locations. The film was a
co-production between Igor Films (Rome) and Casbah Films (Algeria) . It was
the country's first film since its independence and almost the entire cast were
non-actors. Mohamed Ben Kassen played FNL boy soldier Little Omar and Yacef
Saadi (an actual leader of the FNL and the producer of the film) played himself,
renamed 'Jaffar'. Pontecorvo doesn't take sides and with the arrival of the French
paratroopers, the colonel is given his voice, notably in a press conference where
he explains their swift, ruthless stratagem in dismantling the FNL cell structure.
They torture FNL suspects, administering blowtorches, beatings, drownings and
electrodes. Ennio Morricone, in collaboration with Pontecorvo, wrote an edify­
ing theme which intensifies the film's power. The simple four-note flute cue,
backed by swelling, ominous strings, scores the aftermath of bomb blasts, or
Pontecorvo's sweeping pans across Algiers from the rich European City to the
 Political Cinema 193

labyrinthine Casbah. This theme becomes the revolution's anthem. Morricone

also deploys an organ fugue (for the harrowing torture scenes); throbbing, chug­
ging percussion (for the rebels' bomb preparations and during demonstrations);
and the brisk snare drum, staccato piano and brass of 'Algeri: 1 Novembre 1954'
for the paratroops' storming the Casbah.
Mark Robson's Lost Command (1966) was a Hollywood treatment of the
same subject. Anthony Quinn starred as a French Paratroop commander, Lt.
Col. Raspeguy, and Alain Delon was his subordinate, Captain Esclavier. Footage
of the Algerian War was filmed in Almeria and at La Pedriza, Madrid. A mis­
cast George Segal played Algerian freedom fighter Mahidi, with Aldo Sambrell
as his sidekick. Claudia Cardinale played Aicha, a glamorous freedom fighter,
who sneaks detonators through checkpoints into the Casbah and dates Esclavier.
The action scenes are re-enacted on a grand scale by the Spanish army, but in
Lost Command the heroic paratroopers win the final confrontation. In Battle
ofAlgiers, Ali is killed by Mathieu in late 1957, having been given the chance to
surrender. The rebellion is smashed, but the film ends on an optimistic note. In
December 1960, the Muslim populace of Algiers rises up in mass demonstrations
which descend into riots and in July 1962 the country is granted independence.
Battle ofAlgiers won the 1966 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and a
glance at the news will confirm that its subject matter is equally relevant even
today. In 2003, after the US occupied Iraq, Battle ofAlgiers was screened in the
Pentagon. The scene where three women FNL bombers plant charges at their
crowded targets and watch the customers (who are blissfully unaware of the hor­
ror in their midst) is not easily forgotten.
Pontecorvo then made Burn! (1968), written by Solinas and GiorgioArlorio.
In 1838, mercenary Sir William Walker, a British Admiralty agent, travels to the
island of Queimada, a Portuguese colony in the Lesser Antilles. The island's
chief export is sugar cane, grown on slave plantations, and Santiago, the rebel­
lious slaves' leader, is beheaded. Walker convinces dock porter Jose Dolores to
rob the Bank of the Holy Spirit in Queimada of 100 million gold Reales. The
troops dispatched to apprehend Jose are massacred and he is soon a revolu­
tionary hero. Walker convinces politician Teddy Sanchez (Renato Salvatori) to
assassinate the Portuguese governor, during a coup d'etat led by rich landown­
ers Prada (Thomas Lyons) and Shelton (Norman Hill). The new government
can't agree on a constitution with rebel general Jose: the slave army lays down its
arms and Walker leaves for Indochina. In 1848 Walker returns to Queimada, as
the British government's military advisor to the Antilles Royal Sugar Company.
He must help President Sanchez and General Prada put down a wildfire revolt.
As captured rebel Masina (Joseph Persaud) informs Walker, 'Jose Dolores says
that we must cut heads instead of cane'. The guerrillas are in the Sierra Nevada.
Walker's scorched earth policy destroys the network of rebel villages deep in
the jungle and smokes Jose out. Sanchez tries to sack Walker, but Prada seizes
power and has the president executed. Walker doesn't want Jose to be hanged,
reasoning the hero will become a martyr, then a myth, with songs praising his
memory. 'Better songs than armies', says Shelton; 'Better silence than songs',
replies Walker.
With the casting of Marlon Brando as Walker, Pontecorvo's cinema verite
style is dissipated and Burn! resembles a Hollywood colonial adventure. With
United Artists bankrolling two-thirds of the $3 million budget, Pontecorvo
stages some impressive scenes, accompanied by one of Morricone's finest scores.
The swelling, anthemic 'Titoli: with religious chanting by I Cantori Moderni, is
powered along by percussion and a throbbing, sinuous Thomas 900 organ. This
theme is also used when Walker meets the vast rebel army (armed to the teeth
with looted Portuguese hardware) on a beach, en route to Queimada City. The
lush organ and strings of 'Jose Dolores - Revolutionary' and 'William and Jose'
score the pair's relationship; the jarring discords, chorus and pounding percus­
sion of 'The Battle of Queimada' accompanies Walker's regulars mowing down
guerrillas as they emerge from the burning cane; and the harsh, choral requiem
'Dies Irae' underscores Walker's murder. After Jose's execution, a dock porter
stabs Walker on the quayside as he's about to depart.
Burn! was made in Cartagena, Colombia, but the soaring temperatures and
noisy sets irritated Brando, who wore wax earplugs to concentrate. The ram­
shackle settings suit the story and most of the cast were non-professionals,
including Evaristo Marquez as Jose Dolores, in a role originally slated for Sydney
Poitier. When Pontecorvo took 40 takes to shoot a scene in a burning cane field,
Brando left and producer Alberto Grimaldi sued Brando for $750,000. The film
was eventually completed at Cinecitta and in Marrakech, Morocco. Despite the
troubled production, Brando is excellent as the manipulative, dandyish fop -
Brando maintained that Walker was the best performance of his career. Burn!
was a financial flop in the US in 1970. The English language print ran 106 minutes
(20 minutes less than the Italian cut) and was released on UK video as Battle of
the Antilles.

Viva La Revolucion!: Political Westerns

If political dramas had trouble finding an international audience, then westerns
didn't. Set in Mexico, circa 1915, Damiano Damiani's A Bullet for the General
(1966) featured El Chuncho (Gian Maria Volonte), a Mexican gunrunner who
works for General Elias (Jaime Fernandez), a rebel. Yankee Bill Tate (Lou Castel)
joins their band and is revealed to be a government-sponsored assassin. His hit
is to kill the general, an intention which he conceals from Chuncho until they
reach Elias' HQ in the Grande Sierras. A Bullet for the General (originally titled
El Chuncho: quien sabe?) is a highly politicised 'western' (though Damiani hated
the term) which conveys its message succinctly. Franco Solinas contributed to
the script. The revolution is justified, the poor shouldn't be exploited, all land
shouldn't be owned by a few rich men and in times of rebellion bread is some­
times worth more than dynamite.
 Political Cinema 1 95

Bullet is an arid film - few movies have captured the bone-dry atmosphere of
Almeria so convincingly. Damiani planned to film in Mexico, but dusty Almeria
is a convincing substitute. The monastery at Cortijo De Los Frailes appeared
as an army outpost and the whitewashed country house at El Romeral (from A
Pistolfor Ringo) was rich landowner Don Filipe's hacienda. Cuidad Juarez station
was actually Guadix station, with the Guadix-Almeria railway line transformed
into the Nacionale De Mexico. Luis Bacalov's Mexican-flavoured score is one
of his best. Klaus Kinski played shaggy zealot El Santo [The Saint], Chuncho's
half-brother, a revolutionary priest who is 'On the side of God and the people:
using the Devil's money to do God's work. Castel gives a good performance as
the smartly suited Yankee who carries a high-precision rifle and a golden bullet.
Bond girl Martine Beswick played bandita Adelita, with Guy Heroni as her lover,
Pedrito. Joaquin Parra, Spartaco Conversi and Santiago Santos played Chuncho's
gunrunners. Jose Manuel Martin was cast against type as Raimundo, the one­
armed spokesman for the dirt-farming peons of San Miguel. Andrea Checchi
played their oppressor, Don Filipe, with Carla Gravina (Volonte's wife) playing
Filipe's wife, Rosario. Aldo Sambrell had a cameo as a Mexican lieutenant whose
armaments train is ransacked by Chuncho.
The first half of the film is an adventure movie, with train hold-ups and
fort attacks, as the gunrunners gather stock to sell to Elias. The second half, as
Chuncho discovers his conscience, is more interesting - his band liberates the
town of San Miguel and Chuncho becomes a rebel hero to the populace. For his
golden shot, Tate receives 1oo,ooo pesos in blood money, which he splits with
his unwitting accomplice, Chuncho, but Tate is murdered by the Mexican as he's
boarding a train back to 'Los Estados Unidos'. Yankees who stick their noses into
Latin American country's affairs are not welcome: the general may have caught a
bullet, but courtesy of Chuncho, the government assassin gets one too.
Director Sergio Sollima made two politically flavoured westerns detailing
the adventures of persecuted peon Manuel 'Cuchillo' Sanchez (Tomas Milian):
the cat-and-rat manhunt western The Big Gundown (1967), co-starring Lee Van
Cleef, and its Mexican Revolution sequel, Run, Man, Run (1968). Between the
'Cuchillo' films, Sollima also made Face to Face in 1967, which dissected the
relationship between a hunted outlaw (Milian again) and Boston professor Brad
Fletcher (Gian Maria Volonte). Tonino Valerii's The Price of Power (1969) was
an allegory of the Civil Rights movement and a comment on the assassination
of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, through the murder of President James Garfield
(Van Johnson) in 1881. Sergio Leone made Duck You Sucker (1971 - A Fistful of
Dynamite), which teamed IRA demolition expert James Coburn and Mexican
highway robber Rod Steiger. Sergio Corbucci directed a trilogy of Mexican
Revolution-set political westerns, all of which were scored by Ennio Morricone ­
A Professional Gun (1968 - The Mercenary) starred Franco Nero, Tony Musante
and Jack Palance, Compafieros (1970) headlined Nero, Palance and Tomas Milian,
and What Am I Doing in the Middle of a Revolution? (1972), starred Vittorio
Gassman and Paolo Villagio. Their violent action-comedy resembled a hybrid of
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Burn!
Giulio Petroni's Tepepa (1969) is set in the aftermath of Francisco Madero's
Mexican rebellion which installed him as El Presidente. One-man guerrilla army
Tepepa (Tomas Milian) feels betrayed by Madero (Paco Sanz) and sees the whip­
lash brutality of Cascorro, a Rurale colonel, as indicative of the new regime -
promised land reforms haven't materialised and the political process is moving
at a snail's pace. Meanwhile English doctor Henry Price (John Steiner) seeks
revenge on Tepepa for the rape of his fiancee Consuela De Corufia (Paloma Cela) .
Tepepa is beautifully photographed by Francisco Marin on location in Almeria
(including the hacienda at El Romeral) and the city of Guadix. Jose Torres played
El Piojo [The Louse], a Mexican peon who has had his hands chopped off by the
Rurales for thievery. Piojo's son Paquito (Luciano Casamonica) joins Tepepa's
revolutionary band after Piojo betrays Tepepa to Cascorro; in an ambush on the
road to Toluca, Tepepa is almost riddled by a machine gun. One set-piece illus­
trates the ingenuity typical of a peasant revolt. Tepepa's army ambush Cascorro's
column in a valley, halting the troops with exploding goats rigged with dyna­
mite. Orson Welles, the film's lumbering, sweaty guest star, is ideal as Cascorro.
Tepepa's full name is 'Jesus Maria Moran Tepepa Tierra e Libertad' - 'Quite a
name, Chico', sneers Cascorro. Morricone wisely avoids the fiesta cliches of the
sub-genre: the theme tune, 'Viva Ia revolucion: builds to a majestic national
anthem, while the gloomy piano and flamenco guitar of 'Tradimento primo' is
Cascorro's theme. The song 'Al Messico che vorrei' by Christy doesn't appear in
the truncated English language print, Blood and Guns, but is present in the uncut
Italian version. Solinas again worked on the screenplay. In the downbeat ending,
Price murders wounded Tepepa with a scalpel. Price is then shot dead by Paquito
with Price's Mauser automatic pistol - again the anglo interloper has been slain
by a peasant who is on the road to revolutionary self-awareness.

Non-conformist Cinema: Damiani and Bertolucci

Damiano Damiani followed Quien sabe? with The Day ofthe Owl (1968 - Mafia),
an adaptation of Leonardo Sciascia's 1961 novel. Franco Nero played Captain
Bellodi, who in his investigation of a shotgun murder in Sicily encounters a
conspiracy of silence. Claudia Cardinale played the presumed culprit's wife and
Lee J. Cobb was a Mafia boss. Damiani then directed Confessions of a Police
Captain (1970 ), a lucrative box office hit in Italy, with Nero cast as incorrupt­
ible district attorney Traini in Palermo, Sicily. He investigates the attempted
murder of Ferdinando Dobrosio (Luciano Catenacci), a building magnet and
known mobster. The trail leads back to Captain Giacomo Bonavia (Martin
Balsam), who released deranged crook LiPuma (Adolfo Lastretti) from a mental
hospital. LiPuma wanted to settle a score with Dobrosio over LiPuma's sister,
Serena (Marilu Tolo), who is also Dobrosio's mistress. Crazed LiPuma arrives at
Dobrosio's office disguised as a policeman and opens fire with a machine gun.
 Political Cinema 1 97

Bonavia has been trying to nail Do brosio for years, but the wily crook always
evades capture. Traini discovers widespread corruption in the construction busi­
ness and shady civic figures in league with the mob. Eventually Bonavia loses
patience with the law, shooting Dobrosio dead, and is arrested. In prison he's
stabbed to death by two prisoners at the very moment Traini has enough evi­
dence to expose those in power.
Beginning with the disclaimer 'The events of this film are imaginary', Police
Captain is heavily political but retains a thriller's pace and drama. With the cast­
ing of American Balsam, it travelled well internationally when it was released
in 1971. Dobrosio is protected from the law by his lawyer Cannestallo (Arturo
Dominici) and is in league with key public figures, including the Palermo
mayor, councillors and the building commission. Attorney General Malta
(Claudio Gora), Traini's superior, is involved. Captain Bonavia, an idealist, has
sought Dobrosio since the murder of union organiser Rizzo (Franco De Rosa)
ten years ago. Rizzo's corpse was buried under rocks and had to be excavated
by diggers, while a shepherd boy who witnessed the crime was thrown off a
cliff. In Damiani's world no one can be trusted, with bribery, backhanders and
phone taps rife - even Traini is approached with the keys to a luxury penthouse
apartment to keep him sweet - and the attorney general instructs Traini to dig
to 'the bottom', not the top. But Traini doesn't dance to his masters' tune, so
Dobrosio dispatches his henchmen (led by Calisto Calisti) to dispose of key wit­
ness Serena - they kill her, hiding her body in a crate and cast her corpse in the
reinforced concrete stanchion of a construction project. Riz Ortolani's jarring
electric guitar theme adds intensity to proceedings, with Damiani shooting on
location in Palermo (including the Basile Rooms of the Grand-Hotel Villa Igiea)
and at Incir-De Paolis Studios. Damiani also directed the highly rated Mafia TV
mini-series La piovra (The Octopus) in 1984, which to date has spawned seven
sequels. Confessions of a Police Captain is his best political thriller and one of
the most resonant films detailing Italian corruption and the power of land and
lira over life itself.
Having worked as the assistant director of Pasolini'sAccattone (1961) and on
the story treatment of Once Upon a Time in the West - in addition to directing
Before the Revolution (1964) and Partner (1968) - Bernardo Bertolucci made The
Conformist (1970), a cerebral, multi-layered film masquerading on the simplest
level as a 'hitman' thriller. Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a fascist
who works for OVRA, tracking down anti-fascist subversives. In 1938, Clerici
marries middle-class Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli) and uses their honeymoon
in Paris to spy on his old philosophy professor, Luca Quadri (Enzo Tarascio ),
an anti-fascist living in exile. Clerici falls in love with Quadri's beautiful wife,
Anna, who also has a liaison with Giulia. With fascist special agent Manganiello
(Gastone Moschin), Clerici is assigned to liquidate Quadri. Clerici discovers that
Quadri is driving alone to his country villa in Savoy and arranges an ambush, but
Anna unexpectedly accompanies her husband on the fateful trip.
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French poster for Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-nominated The Conformist (1970), which
starred Jean-Louis Trintignant as fascist agent Marcello Clerici.

Told via flashback fragments in archaic style by editor Franco Arcalli, The
Conformist is Bertolucci's masterpiece. Trintignant is ideal as the rigid, formal
Clerici, dressed in a long black coat and Borsalino. He strives to blend into 'nor­
mal life' - this is his main reason for marrying airy Giulia, with whom he has
little in common. His behaviour is traced to a childhood trauma in 1917. When
he was thirteen, Clerici (played by Pasquale Fortunato) had shot the family's
chauffeur, Pasqualino 'Lino' Semirama (Pierre Clementi), who tried to sexually
 Political Cinema 1 99

assault him. After the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943, Clerici spots Lino - who
has miraculously survived - picking up a male street hustler. Clerici brands him
'a pederast, a fascist' and accuses him of the murders of Quadri and Anna on
15 October 1938. Clerici and Giulia now have their normal life with a daughter
(Marta Lado), but Giulia worries of fascist reprisals for Clerici's OVRA past.
Conformist was sumptuously photographed in Technicolor by Vittorio
Storaro on location in Rome - the Sant'Angelo Bridge and Castel Sant'Angelo -
and a wintry Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, the Palais de Chaillot plaza and
Gare D'Orsay (as the honeymooners' 'Hotel Palais D'Orsay'). Storaro's cinema­
tography bathes the film in a surreal colour scheme - for example, in the lumi­
nous blue Parisian night scenes. Its rich visual design is complemented by elegant
costuming (by Gitt Magrini and Tirelli) and period art direction and sets (by
Nedo Azzini and Fernando Scarfiatti), seen to best advantage in the Hotel Palais
D'Orsay interiors and during Anna and Giulia's sexy tango in Joinville. French
actress Dominique Sanda burst onto the international scene as cool Anna, the
bisexual ballet teacher, and Sandrelli, Moschin and Tarascio are excellent in com­
plex roles. Sanda and Sandrelli went on to appear in Bertolucci's lengthy pastoral
period epic 1900 (1976), co-starring Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Donald
Sutherland, Alida Valli, Sterling Hayden and Burt Lancaster. In Conformist,
Milly Monti played Clerici's morphine addict mother, Giuseppe Addobatti was
his insane father, Yvonne Sanson was Giulia's mother and Jose Quaglio played
Clerici's blind fascist friend, Italo. Rustling autumn leaves fluttering in the wind
take on an added, threatening dimension when cut to Georges Delerue's haunt­
ing score - the romantic cues recall the composer's work on Godard's Contempt,
and Conformist shares its pervading sense of doomed love. Conformist was
also based on an Alberto Moravia novel. Quadri's address in Paris (17 rue Saint­
Jacques) and telephone number were actually Godard's and Bertolucci has said
that The Conformist 'is a story about me and Godard . . . I'm Marcello and I make
fascist movies and I want to kill Godard (who) makes revolutionary movies and
is my teacher'.
Throughout the film Bertolucci cuts back to Manganiello and Clerici in a car
speeding through a frozen landscape, as they pursue Quadri and Anna. A faked
car accident waylays Quadri, as a fascist hit squad in long coats (Carlo Gaddi,
Umberto Silvestri, Furio Pellerani and Claudio Cappeli) emerge from the mist.
This set piece is chillingly staged in a silent pine forest wreathed in snow. The hit­
men stab Quadri to death and Anna runs to Clerici's car, screaming for her lover
to save her. Clerici is emotionless as she's chased into the woods and shot dead,
her blood-smeared death throes cut to Delerue's 'love theme'. The Conformist is
available in both Italian and English language dubs and was Bertolucci's inter­
national breakthrough in 1970, even garnering an Oscar nomination for Best
Adapted Screenplay.
Before moving away from political cinema to make Last Tango in Paris (1972),
which concentrated on erotic themes he'd explored in Conformist, Bertolucci
directed The Spider's Stratagem (1970) for Italian television. Athos Magnani
(Giulio Brogi) arrives in the town of Tara to investigate the murder of his father
(also called Athos Magnani) but is treated with hostility by the locals, despite
their mantra 'We're all friends here'. His father, a heroic anti-fascist, was shot
in the back on 15 June 1936 during a theatre performance of Rigoletto. Athos
interviews his father's mistress, Draifa (Alida Valli), and his father's three trusted
anti-fascist compatriots: Costa (Tino Scotti), the cinema owner; Rasori (Franco
Giovanelli), a teacher; and Gaibazzi (Pippo Campanini), a salami taster. They
tell Athos that they planned to blow up Mussolini during the theatre's inaugura­
tion, but the plot was discovered. Shortly afterwardsAthos' father had received a
warning letter not to go to the theatre and a fortune teller had read death in his
palm. He was killed as part of a political vendetta and a motorcyclist, an outsider,
was seen in the area. As the mystery deepens, Athos begins to doubt the trio's
story.
Spider's Stratagem has little of Conformist's scope and international appeal,
but the mystery is still engaging. It was based on a short story by Jorge Luis
Borges and the colour photography was by Storaro. Dusty Tara and its environs,
draped in exotic foliage and trailing creepers, were filmed at Sabbioneta, Mantua
in Lombardia. The film is set in the early 196os - the local cinema advertises The
Last Sunset (1961) and Mina sings '11 conformista' on the soundtrack - though
there are frequent flashbacks to Athos' father and his companions in 1936. Both
Athos's were played by Brogi, who gives fine performances as the resolute oppo­
nent of the Black Shirts and his mystified son. Athos' father wasn't a hero and
his 'murder' was a myth concocted by his three comrades. Athos had betrayed
the anti-fascist cause and was executed in 'a hero's legendary death . . . a theatrical
spectacle: which the populace of Tara unknowingly participated in. He should
have been exposed as a traitor, but sometimes 'a hero is more useful'.

Political Icons: Rosi and Volonte

Francesco Rosi has worked almost exclusively in political cinema throughout
his career. Salvatore Giuliano (1962), co-written by Franco Solinas, established
his name internationally. Filmed on interiors at Incir-De Paolis and on loca­
tion, Rosi told the life and death of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano (Pietro
Cammarata). The film opens with the discovery of Giuliano's bullet-riddled
corpse face down in a sunlit courtyard in Castelvetrano in July 1950. Rosi then
rewinds to show Giuliano's rise to prominence in the early 1940s as the leader of
a band of separatist freedom fighters. They hide in the hills around the town of
Montelepre, Giuliano's birthplace, and ambush the army. This leads to govern­
ment reprisals, including a garrison occupation of Montelepre, curfews, water
rationing and the confiscation of supplies being smuggled to Giuliano. Rosi also
depicts events after Giuliano's death - this non-linear structure was a signa­
ture of Solinas' work. Giuliano is eventually betrayed by his lieutenant Gaspare
Pisciotta (Frank Wolff) and shot dead in bed, but the authorities arrange the
 Political Cinema 201

scene in Castelvetrano to imply Giuliano was killed in a shootout. The film

ends in 1960 with the murder of Benedetto Minasola, the collaborator who sold
Pisciotta to the authorities.
Salvatore Giuliano questioned cinema's depiction of heroic rebels - were
they freedom fighters or terrorists? The narrative veers from documentary-style
newsreel footage and war movie action, to courtroom drama and biopic. The film
depicts the trial held in the Viterbo Assizes Court (presided over by judge Salvo
Randone) of Pisciotta and Giuliano's gang for the infamous massacre at Portella
Della Ginestra on 1 May 1947, when they opened fire on a Communist parade.
Other scenes depict the media harassing Giuliano's mother when she arrives to
identify her son's body (which is packed in ice) and the freedom fighters' guer­
rilla raids. Rosi filmed on location in Sicily, in the actual towns of Montelepre
and Castelvetrano, and cast locals as extras. Gianni Di Venanzo's monochrome
cinematography captures the Sicilian landscapes' grandeur - sunlight floods the
rolling hill country and whitewashed streets - which contrasts with dark fig­
ures (usually the bandits) picked out in the topography by the roving camera.
Rosi's documentarist approach is underscored by his sparing use of music. Piero
Piccioni's ominous title music bodes ill and his later themes are similarly atmos­
pheric: a twanging maranzano (a Sicilian folk instrument) is augmented with
deathly strings and drums, as in the aftermath of the Portella Della Ginestra
massacre.
Rosi uses Giuliano as a symbol of revolt, to depict how post-war Sicilian
banditry became infused with gangsterism: the Onorata Societa (the Mafia).
The film doesn't feature any close-ups of Pietro Cammarata's face as Giuliano
(though we see a photograph of the actual Giuliano) and the hero is depicted
at distance in his distinctive long white coat, directing his men in the moun­
tains. Stuntman Bruno Ukmar played a spy who infiltrates Giuliano's band
and identifies its members to the authorities and the film's nominal star is San
Francisco-born Frank Wolff who worked with Roger Corman prior to moving
to Italy, where he achieved stardom in spaghetti westerns. Wolff's Italian career
started on a high working with Rosi and ended on a nadir: by the time his cave­
man comedy When Women Lost Their Tails was released, Wolff had committed
suicide in 1971. In Salvatore Giuliano traitorous Pisciotta dies in jail, screaming
and dribbling. He's poisoned by Antonino Terranova, one of Giuliano's cohorts,
with strychnine-laced tea - such is the price of betrayal in Sicily.
Rosi followed Salvatore Giuliano with Hands over the City (1963), casting
Rod Steiger as a corrupt politician involved in Neapolitan corruption in the
building industry. In Rosi's The Mattei Affair (1972), Gian Maria Volante played
global magnet Enrico Mattei, the head of oil company AGIP, who died in a plane
'accident' in 1962 - some say at the hands of the Mafia, though Mattei's list of
enemies was long. Volante became the most prominent actor in Italian political
cinema - he was a fervent left-winger - through his work for Rosi and others,
who used Volante's powerful screen image to convey their political agenda to
an international audience. Volonte also played anti-fascist novelist Carlo Levi
in Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979), factory worker Lulu in Elio Petri's The
Working Class Go to Heaven (1971 - Lulu the Tool) and fishmonger Bartolomeo
Vanzetti in Giuliano Montaldo's well-received Sacco and Vanzetti (1971), the
true story of the trial and execution of two men accused of a payroll robbery
in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Riccardo Cucciolla played his co-accused, shoe­
maker Nicola Sacco. The film is best remembered for Joan Baez's powerful rendi­
tion of Morricone's 'The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti'.
In Elio Petri's Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion (1970 ), Volonte
gave the performance of his career - he won Best Actor and the film Best Picture
at the David Di Donatello Awards, Italy's Oscars. A nameless police inspector
(Volonte), the head of Rome's Sezione Omicidi (Murder Squad), is promoted
to chief of political intelligence. On the inspector's last day on homicide, he
murders his lover Augusta Terzi (Florinda Bolkan) in her apartment on Via Del
Tempio. During intercourse he slits her throat with a razor blade. The fascist
inspector knows that he's above suspicion, above the law. Despite copious evi­
dence suggesting that he is the murderer, his former colleagues won't arrest him,
instead focussing on Augusta's ex-husband. The inspector uses his position to

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A Man to Respect: Poster for the English language release of Elio Petri's Oscar-winning
Investigation ofa Citizen above Suspicion (1970 ) . Gian Maria Volonte plays the head of Rome's
Sezione Omicidi, who tries to get away with murder.
 Political Cinema 203

implicate anarchist revolutionary Antonio Pace (Sergio Tramonti), with whom

Augusta had begun an affair. Eventually the inspector confesses and waits at his
home for the police commissioner (Gianni Santuccio) and his entourage.
Set against the backdrop of political unrest in late-196os Rome - with dem­
onstrations and bombings by student radicals - Investigation also resembles a
giallo thriller. The paranoid atmosphere reflects the fantasist inspector's mental
disintegration and Petri's treatment of time resembles gialli's dreamlike imagery.
Flashbacks depict the inspector and Augusta's strange relationship, via their
'murder games'. He photographs her in a series of lurid poses, re-creations of
sex murder slayings which he has investigated. She mocks the inspector's sexual
immaturity and begins a relationship with Antonio. When the inspector threat­
ens Augusta ('I could murder you') she muses, 'Who would catch you? You'd have
the investigation'. The inspector's sexual frustration manifests itself in political
anger; thus his arrest of Antonio and his fellow radicals appears politically moti­
vated. The inspector believes that there's no distinction between criminal and
political acts - his scheme backfires when Pace refuses to identify the inspector
as the murderer. It is useful to have a blackmailed ally 'in their pocket' as the
chief of political intelligence. The premise of the inspector's aims ('To prove the
case that I am completely beyond suspicion') is a better idea on paper than on
film. Investigation works perfectly as a labyrinthine thriller, but as a polemic, it's
a political struggle.
The inspector fantasises that his superiors won't accept the overwhelming
evidence against him. He 'arranges' obvious clues around Augusta's apartment for
the homicide squad to find, including a thread from his blue silk tie snagged on
her fingernail, footprints in blood and dozens of his fingerprints. Only Inspector
Biglia (Orazio Orlando) suspects that his ex-chief may be the culprit. Arturo
Dominici played Mangani, the new head of homicide, and Fulvio Grimaldi was
a journalist on Paese sera to whom the inspector feeds leads. Investigation was
released in both Italian and English language versions. In its original version, it
won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. 'When you're a big man in the big
city', ran the tagline, 'can you get away with murder?' Ennio Morricone's wheez­
ing, clockwork score - augmented by twangs, boings and quirks from his Italian
western music - with avant-garde gialli stylings creates a memorably eccentric
backdrop to Volante's equally eccentric performance.
At one point in Investigation, Volante's inspector convinces a janitor (Salvo
Randone) to buy two dozen blue ties and take them to homicide, but when
the janitor discovers the inspector's position, he denies knowing the police­
man. Thus an innocent 'man in the street' becomes an accessory to murder. The
Russo-Italian thriller Betrayed (1979) developed this theme. Through his love
for waitress Maria (Ornella Muti), taxi driver Antonio Morio (Giancarlo Gianni)
becomes involved in a terrorist cell plotting to assassinate the president. Here
the secret police are the villains and Antonio is imprisoned and tortured, before
engineering a breakout in an armoured-plated bullet-proof car. Well-plotted
and acted, with some genuine surprises, Betrayed features an effective score by
Armando Travajoli. The terrorist organisation's credo is 'Life is beautiful' and the
original Italian title was La vita e bella.
Francesco Rosi's gangster biopic Lucky Luciano (1973) starred Volonte as
Sicilian mobster Salvatore Lucania, alias Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, who in 1931
became the 'Boss of Bosses' when 40 old-line Mafia heads were murdered on
the Night of the Sicilian Vespers. Rosi's film is not particularly well constructed
and mainly depicts Luciano's enforced exile from the US in Naples through to
his death, when he keels over from a heart attack as he meets a screenwriter at
Naples airport who is to script his life story. The film also charts the attempts
by US Bureau of Narcotics agent in Rome, Charles Siracusa (Siracusa himself),
to nail Luciano for his involvement in the international heroin trade. Edmond
O'Brien appeared as Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger, present at the UN
International Conference on Drug Traffic and a fervent anti-Mafia investigator.
Magda Konopka had a brief role as a contessa who beds Luciano. Rod Steiger
played foul-mouthed gangster Eugenio Giannini alias 'Gene Pellegrino: who
attempts to use his relationship with Luciano as a bargaining chip when he's
imprisoned - Giannini is later shot dead, clattering into trash cans outside a New
York gambling joint. The film has a good period atmosphere and was shot on
location in Naples, the ruins at Pompeii, in New York, Rome and Sicily - a reun­
ion banquet of US- and Italian-based Mafiosi was filmed in the sumptuous Hotel
Delle Palme in Palermo (from Visconti's The Leopard) . The Night of the Sicilian
Vespers (a montage of very brutal machine gun killings) and other bloody mob
hits pepper the film like buckshot. Most interesting is Rosi's depiction of how
the Mafia aided the US occupying forces in the immediate aftermath of Italy's
liberation: in particular the easily bribed Charles Poletti (Vincent Gardenia), the
US colonel who filters goods into the Italian black market in return for a flashy
yellow Packard automobile.
The Valachi Papers (1972), which exposed the workingsofthe CosaNostra in
simpler terms, enjoyed greater international success. Helmed by Terence Young,
the film starred Charles Bronson as New York informer Joseph M. Valachi, one of
few gangsters to break their 'omerta' code of silence. In 1963, incarcerated Valachi
agrees to testify to the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, which is
televised. He seeks to bring down his former employer, Don Vito Genovese, who
in turn puts a $10o,ooo contract on Valachi's head. Valachi died naturally in jail
in 1971, outliving Genovese by six months.
The film, produced by Dino De Laurentiis and based on Peter Maas' best­
seller of the same name, takes place in flashback, as Valachi recounts his life of
crime to an FBI special agent, Ryan (Gerald S. O'Loughlin). He began as a small­
time hood in 1929 working as a driver for 'Boss of Bosses' Salvatore Maranzano
(Joseph Wiseman) . Lino Ventura played Genovese, Fausto Tozzi was volatile
assassin Albert Anastasia ('Double A'), the chief executioner of 'Murder Inc.',
Alessandro Sperli was Giuseppe Masseria ('Joe the Boss') and Angelo Infanti
 Political Cinema 205

played Lucky Luciano ('Charlie Luck'). Anthony Dawson appeared as an FBI

narc, Franco Borelli was hitman 'Buster from Chicago', and Guido Leontini and
Walter Chiari were mobsters Tony Bender and Dominick 'The Gap' Petrilli. Jill
Ireland (Bronson's wife) played Valachi's wife, Maria, and Jason McCallum,
Ireland's son with David McCallum, played the Valachis' son, Donald. Young
laced the biopic with sadistic violence to please Bronson fans - there are shoot­
outs, drive-bys, garrottings, stabbings and a castration (the film is still an 18 on
UK video) . Valachi Papers was shot on location in New York (though modern
cars can be seen in the background of many period street scenes) and at De
Laurentiis Studios, Rome. Though Bronson was the biggest box office draw in
the world, this was his first big hit in the US, where it was released in the wake
of The Godfather.
Francesco Rosi followed Lucky Luciano with Illustrious Corpses (1975), his
masterpiece. Inspector Amerigo Rogas (Lino Ventura) investigates the murders
of prominent judges, all of whom have been shot by the same .22 rifle. District
Attorney Varga is shot in the street after visiting the catacombs; Judge Sanza
(Francesco Callari) is discovered lying on the side of the freeway and Chief Judge
Calamo is assassinated in the Banca Nazionale. Rogas suspects this is a vendetta
following a miscarriage of justice. He interviews a vagrant (Marcel Buzzuffi)
and a gay mechanic (Mario Meniconi), both of whom were wrongly sentenced,
but can't locate Cres, a chemist, who is thus deemed responsible. Judge Rasto
(Alain Cuny) is shot dead in his home and Judge Perro is killed in the street ­
a prostitute (Tina Aumont) reports that she saw a white Mercedes with Swiss
plates at the scene. Rogas is encouraged by his bosses to find a political angle
for the crimes - Communist Party demonstrations blight the city. Rogas doubts
his 'sniper' theory when he finds that his chief of police (Tino Carraro) is lying
to him and that General De Sarmiento (Claudio Nicastro) has been appointed
supreme commander of the armed forces. Chief Magistrate Riches (Max Von
Sydow) is killed and Rogas' phone is tapped, so he sleeps in his car. Rogas real­
ises that the government is planning a coup d'etat, or at least military retaliation
against demonstrating Communists, to relieve the political situation (a 'strategy
of tension') using the judges' murders as the catalyst.
Illustrious Corpses is based on Leonardo Sciascia's 1971 novel II contesto
(Equal Danger in its English language translation). The film version is part who­
dunit giallo, part political polemic. It begins as a Dirty Harry procedural - a hunt
for a rogue sniper - but having engaged his audience with Rogas' investigation,
Rosi hits them with his political message, as stealthily as a sniper's bullet. Rosi
claimed the film is a 'philosophical and political thriller which could be set in
England, but is perhaps more like Italy'. Rosi shot on location in Agrigento and
Palermo in Sicily, in Naples and Rome, with interiors at Cinecitta. Piero Piccioni
contributed the atmospheric score, which mixed discords of a gathering storm
with traditional arrangements (the tango 'Jeanne y Paul' by Astor Piazzolla and
a dirge-like funeral march) . Few political films look as beautiful as Illustrious
UK poster for Francesco Rosi's Illustrious Corpses (1975). Lino Ventura stars as Inspector
Amerigo Rogas who is on the trail of a vengeful sniper targeting prominent members of the
judiciary.

Corpses, from the dusty streets of Sicily, to the grand architecture of Rome. The
art direction was by Andrea Crisanti, costumes were by Enrico Sabbatini and the
cinematography was by Pasquale De Santis. Renato Salvatori played a surveil­
lance specialist who helps Rogas and Fernando Rey was the duplicitous minis­
ter of justice, who carouses at a Leftist party with rich shipping magnate Pattos
(Alexandre Mnouchkine) and party representative Galano (Paolo Graziosi).
Rosi cleverly cast Ventura, the anti-hero of many a French policier, as Rogas. As
Rogas, Ventura wears the same style of tan mac he donned as wily inspector Le
Goff in The Sicilian Clan (1969), a highly commercial depiction of Mafia politics
co-starring Alain Delon and Jean Gabin. Ventura's presence brings with it the
iconography of such films, making Illustrious Corpses internationally accessi­
ble: audiences who cared little for Italian politics could identify with Ventura's
dogged screen persona.
Corpses was a massive success in Italy, though its topical, reactionary poli­
tics provoked much debate. It is filled with strange moments - the state funeral
of Judge Varga, his hearse pulled by eight coal black horses; paranoid, chain­
smoking Rogas hearing the ominous rumble of tanks trundling through the city
in the middle of the night; and a blind man's guide dog fitted with a bug to eaves­
drop on Rogas' conversation in a park. Most effective is the opening sequence,
with wrinkled Charles Vanel (as Varga) staring at rows of skeletal, decomposing
mummifications in the catacombs of the Convento Dei Cap puccini in Palermo.
 Political Cinema 207

'He'd make the dead reveal the secrets of the living', notes a Capuchin monk
(Enrico Ragusa) of Varga. Varga emerges into the sunlit street and dies clutching
a jasmine blossom he has just plucked.
Luigi Pistilli played Rogas' friend Cusani, a Communist journalist who
tells Rogas, 'One judge is a police matter, but kill four and it's political'. Cusani
arranges a meeting between Rogas and Communist Party leader Amar (Giorgio
Zampa) in the National Gallery, but Rogas and Amar are both shot. Rosi pro­
vides us with an assassin's-eye-view of the proceedings, in slow motion, as bullets
punch two holes through a window. A pistol is planted in Rogas' hand and it is
announced that Rogas, in a fragile mental state following the lengthy investiga­
tion, shot Amar and then himself. Cusani and Amar's successor (played by film
director Florestano Vancini) decide that 'truth is not always revolutionary' and
don't reveal what really happened, as tanks are poised on the streets to attack
the demonstrators. Cres may have begun the murders of the judiciary, but the
government escalated them to their own political advantage. It doesn't matter
who pulls the trigger, as long as the 'right people' - for the governing party at
least - get shot.
 Mission Improbable
World War II Movies

I
nspired by the success of Hollywood movies The Dirty Dozen (the high­
est-grossing film of 1967) and Tobruk (1967), all-action Italian war cinema
(dubbed 'macaroni combat' films) enjoyed a spurt of popularity from 1967
to 1971. Dirty Dozen featured Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown and
John Cassavetes as condemned prisoners offered pardons if they'll undertake
a mission to assassinate Nazi officers in a chateau in Brittany. Tobruk (starring
Rock Hudson and George Peppard) sent its Allies on a mission to destroy a fuel
dump and fortifications in North Africa. The Secret Invasion (1964), colourfully
shot in Yugoslavia, was also a key influence. British major Stewart Granger led a
group of ex-convicts on an operation to free Italian general Quadri (Enzo Fier­
monte) from the Nazi fortress in Dubrovnik, with the aid of Balkan partisans.
The all-star Von Ryan's Express (1965) was shot in Italy on the Capranica and
Viterbo railroad. Frank Sinatra and Trevor Howard were among 400 British and
America POWs careering through occupied Italy in a stolen train. Sergio Fan­
toni played a sympathetic Italian officer, William Berger was a delving Gestapo
agent, Adolfo Celi was the prison camp's commandant, and stuntman Remo De
Angelis was the train's fireman.

Desert Rats: North Africa

The Italian 'mission' film's main variables were the objective, the theatre of war
and the specialists who made up the group: all three were highly dependant on
budget. In Umberto Lenzi's Desert Commandos (1967), Captain Fritz Schoeller
(Ken Clark) leads four German commandos to assassinate 'The Big Three' -
Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt - amid tight security in Casablanca in January
1943. Parachuted into the desert disguised as allied commandos, the unit -
Lieutenant Wolf (Horst Frank), Sergeant Huber (Carlo Hinterman), Willy Mainz
(Howard Ross) and Corporal Ludwig (Hardy Reichelt) - rendezvous at an oasis
War Games: GI Lieutenant Clem Hoffman (John Garko) attempts to steal 'Plan K' from SS
Colonel Hans Muller (Klaus Kinski) in Gianfranco Parolini's lively Dirty Dozen derivative Five
for Hell (1969). Original UK video box artwork.
 World War II Movies 211

with their Moroccan contact, Faddja Hassan (Jeanne Valerie) and take French
bar owner Simone (Fabienne Dali) hostage. When they reach Casablanca they
discover Faddja is a double-agent. Schoeller and Huber overhear Churchill and
burst into his hotel room, only to find a gramophone playing one of the prime
minister's speeches and a military police reception committee. Co-produced by
Alberto Grimaldi's PEA, Desert Commandos was filmed in North Africa and the
sidewinding plot makes this one of Lenzi's superior efforts. Gianni Rizzo was
the commandos' kasbah contact Perrier and spy star Clark was at home in such
exotic action fare. Frank was good as Wolf, the German forced to fight for some­
thing he doesn't believe in, for a dictator he doesn't care about. The African­
flavoured score was by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. Lenzi includes the expected
desert drama cliches: the squad negotiate a minefield and the desert offers only
dust storms, rotting sun-bleached carcasses, windblown ruins, dry wells, scorpi­
ons and the Tuareg: fearsome camel-mounted nomads.
Armando Crispino's Commandos (1968) wasoneoffew ltalian war movies to
depict Italian combatants. Lee Van Cleef headlined as Sergeant Sullivan, a crack
US commando. His unit are assigned an inexperienced commander, Captain Valli
(Jack Kelly), and dispatched on 'Operation Torch' in October 1942, on the eve of
the US landings in North Africa, to take an Italian-held oasis equipped with a
water-pumping station. Parachuting into the desert disguised as Italians, they
take over the depot and imprison the garrison. The raiders are informed that
Operation Torch has been aborted and Italian commander Tomassini (Marino
Mase) alerts a nearby Panzer unit of German Afrika Korps.
Shot from July to August 1968, the film was made on location in Sardinia,
with interiors at Incir-De Paolis Studios. Van Cleef makes a fine commando,
embittered and unbalanced. Sullivan suffers nerve-shredding flashbacks to
his time in Bataan, when his unit was massacred by the Japanese. Giampiero
Albertini and Van Cleef's stunt double Romano Puppo played commandos Aldo
and Dino - Italian actors playing US soldiers playing Italian soldiers. A strong
German contingent, including Gotz George and Joachim Fuchsberger, played the
Afrika Korps. Mario Nascimbene's epic score - an oscillating haze of feedback
and a slow, anti-heroic dirge - gave the film added edge. In the actionful climax,
the Italian prisoners escape in a truck but are obliterated by a minefield. The US
commandos fight it out in an explosive pitched battle with the German armour,
as Sullivan wields a mean bazooka and his unit is annihilated. The engagement's
only survivors, an American and a German, decide to call a truce, as blood and
oil mingle amid the smoking ruins.
Further North African-set movies included Mino Loy's Desert Battle (1969 -
Desert Assault or Battle in the Desert), with Robert Hossein, George Hilton and
Frank Wolff. Heroes without Glory (1971) saw martinet Britisher major Briggs
(Isarco Ravaioli) clash with US lieutenant Billings (Jeff Cameron) during a mis­
sion to blow up an Axis fuel dump - they are sidetracked by a treasure map
and hunt for the ancient tombs of the pharaohs. Desert Tigers (1977) wheeled
musclemen Gordon Mitchell and Richard Harrison into action for a raid on an
oil depot in North Africa.

What a Guy! : Madison's War

If the sub-genre had a signature star it was Guy Madison, who made a series of
Italian war movies in rapid succession - as though he was petrified the craze
would peter out. They took him to almost every theatre of combat, with mixed
results. Hell in Normandy (1968) was made on a shoestring by Alfonso Brescia,
a journeyman director whose talent is hard to estimate. On Omaha beach,
Normandy, in late May 1944, Lieutenant Strobel (Peter Lee Lawrence), an ex­
actor, impersonates a German officer to infiltrate See Herr (Sea Lord), a German
bunker. Part of the Western Wall defences, the beach is heavily mined and a
sophisticated defence system pumps gasoline into the sea which creates a wall
of fire. Captain Jack Murphy (Guy Madison) leads a squad of US commandos
on Operation Gambit to knock out the bunker. Although the commandos are
under-equipped and their mission is aborted due to bad weather, they decide
to go ahead, rendezvousing with Strobel and attacking on the eve of D-Day. The
Omaha bunker was filmed on Tor Caldara beach, Anzio Cape, while Murphy's
commandos train by attacking an 'exact replica' of the bunker - so exact that it
was also filmed at Tor Caldara. French Resistance contact Denise (Erika Blanc)
wearing a beret and scarf and toting a machine gun appears to have stepped out
of Bonn ie a nd Clyde .
Jose Merino shot two war movies starring Madison and 'Stan Cooper' I
Stelvio Rosi on interiors at YSA Film, Milan and exteriors near Madrid. In The
Battle of the Last Panzer (1968), US officer Lofty (Madison) hunts for rogue
Panzer 71 commanded by German lieutenant Hunter (Cooper) through a highly
unconvincing post D-Day 'France'. Location footage was shot in the rolling hills
of Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha and at the River Alberche. In the battered
French town of'Villebois' (the wild west town set at Colmenar Viejo) the Germans
take three French locals prisoner and try to evade a squad of Spanish-looking
partisans led by 'Rene' (spaghetti western bandido Riccardo Palacios). The film
opens with a well-staged ambush by US troops on the squad of Panzers and the
finale is also effective. The US soldiers disguise a look-alike Panzer 71 and infil­
trate the German frontline as the real Panzer 71 attempts the same manoeuvre:
Lieutenant Hunter is shot by his own troops mistaking him for a US impostor.
Hell Commandos (1969) has Major Carter (Madison) leading US marines
disguised as Germans to free Professor Van Kolstrom (Alfredo Mayo) and his
daughter, Sara (Raffaella Carra), from the clutches of the SS - commanded by
Colonel Krautzfeld (Piero Lulli) - in a fortified villa at Truniger, Germany, in
1945. Hitler has ordered the professor to develop germ warfare which causes
blindness. Carter's squad are killed in error by US marines led by Sergeant
Arthur Nolan (Stan Cooper) and Carter convinces them to carry out the dead
soldiers' mission. To explain the budget-pared lack of SS guards around the villa,
 World War II Movies 213

the building is protected by automatic machine guns and dogs and has gates and
fences with 10,ooo volts running through them. Nolan's squad includes a knife­
throwing Cheyenne warrior named Geronimo Lightcloud. The nihilistic finale
(in which virtually no one survives) has the US soldiers drop the toxin into the
villa's water supply and the Germans die horribly. Colonel Krautzfeld releases
the SS Alsatians, so Carter throws a stick of dynamite and the dogs, ever obedi­
ent, retrieve it and take it back to the colonel, who is blown to smithereens.
Bitto Albertini's The War Devils (1969) opened in Tunisia 1943, as US par­
atroopers led by Captain George Vincent (Madison) carry out Operation Red
Devil, blowing up an Axis gun emplacement (M Battery) with help from Sheik
Faisal (Raf Baldassarre). During the subsequent engagement, Vincent and his
men are captured by Captain Heintich Meinike (Venantino Venantini, billed as
'Van Tenney'). Vincent escapes and a year later in France he and Meinike find
themselves face to face. When Colonel James Steel (Anthony Steel), a British
secret weapon's expert, is captured by Meinike, Vincent and his US Rangers are
sent to rescue him. War Devils stages some convincing tank battles and contrasts
combat in sweltering North Africa with that in snowbound France. The sup­
porting cast included diminutive French actress Pascale Petit as French resist­
ance contact Jeanine Raush. John Ireland guest starred as Captain Jennings, a US
commander, and stuntmen Frank Brafia, Giuseppe Castellano, Federico Boido,
Massimo Righi and Julio Perez Taberno played assorted US and German troops.
A Place in Hell (1969 - Commando Attack) directed by Giuseppe Vari was a
sweaty jungle adventure set in the Philippines. Major Mac Graves (Madison), an
alcoholic Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, escapes from Manila with jazz club
hostess Betsy and Italian-American marine Mario Petrella (Maurice Poli). They
arrive at the US marine base on Lubang, but the garrison has been massacred.
They encounter six US marine survivors, two Filipino freedom fighters and a
British naval officer, who aim to blow up the captured US experimental radio sta­
tion transmitters at Surigao. Its Manila interiors were filmed at Tirrenia Studios
and the film relies almost totally on ambushes to create its tension, punctuated
by much jungle trudging. Fabio Testi played a marine and Lilia Neyung was
Filipino rebel Esperanza. Helene Chanel - as peroxide blonde pin-up Betsy, in
an eye-catching backless, almost frontless, dress - looks too contemporary for
the period by 20 years. Concealing a lack of Japanese extras, much of the action
takes place at night or in dense undergrowth. Roberto Pregadio's intrusive score
is a blend of marches and sentimentality, and the jingoistic title song was per­
formed by the Folkstudio Singers.

Frederick the Great: Stafford's War Efforts

Madison's main competition in the war movie stakes was Austrian actor Frederick
Stafford (real name Freidrich Strobel Von Stein), who appeared in spy films as
agents OSS 117 and Agent 505 and was the lead in Hitchcock's Topaz (1969). The
Edmonda Amati-produced, Alberto De Martino-directed The Dirty Heroes
(1967) is the most overlooked war movie of the 196os. Set in Holland during
the last days of the war, it told the story of a gang of Chicago crooks who team
up with the Dutch underground to steal diamonds from the Wehrmacht HQ in
Amsterdam. The robbers include safecracker Joe Mortimer, known as Sesame
(Stafford); US air force captain O'Connor, known as Lawyer (John Ireland) ;
Sesame's fellow escapee from a POW camp, Randall (Renato Rossini) ; German
sergeant Rudolph Petrowsky, another gangster (Michel Constantin); and
Dutch partisans Marta Van Staten (Faida Nichols) and Luc Rollman, the 'Fox of
Amsterdam' (Adolfo Celi). They blackmail Kristina Von Keist (Daniela Bianchi),
the wife of a German commander, General Edwin Von Keist (Curd Jurgens), into
helping them. She is a Jew, Hanna Goldschmidt, who has concealed her iden­
tity from her husband to avoid the concentration camps. Sesame and his crew
plan to keep the diamonds for themselves, but conscienceless SS general Hassler
(Helmut Schneider) is determined to track them down.
The elaborate story - shot on location in Italy and Holland amid canals,
dykes and windmills - rockets along at breakneck pace. De Martino handled the
set pieces with aplomb and the film is given extra power by an Ennio Morricone­
Bruno Nicolai score, which contrasts a menacing choral march title cue with sub­
tler love themes for Kristina and Sesame. The elaborate heist on Von Keist ends
with the robbers escaping in a tugboat and being pursued by Hassler and his men
in a heavily armed river cruiser. There's a pitched battle between German tanks
and US paratroopers (filmed at Caldara Di Manziana, Lazio) amid sandbagged
bunkers, trenches, barbed wire and plane wreckage. The diamond heist includes
a scene where Sesame, Rollman and Randall drive their car at the Germans like
Chicago gangsters and then steer into the canal, enabling them to gain access to
the basement in diving suits. The film's ending, as the gang try to smuggle the
diamonds out of Holland in a war hero's coffin, seems tacked-on. The film pre­
dates Clint Eastwood's Kelly's Heroes by two years and is its obvious inspiration,
with seemingly selfless heroic acts masking selfish personal gain.
The Battle ofEl Alamein (1968) was directed by Giorgio Ferroni as 'Calvin
Jackson Padget', with interiors at Cinecitta and a score by Carlo Rustichelli. The
film concentrates on the Italian contribution to the two battles of El Alamein
in Egypt during 1942, via a company of Folgore paratroopers commanded by
Lieutenant Giorgio Bori (Stafford) and his infantryman brother, Sergeant-Major
Fabio Bori (Enrico Maria Salerno) . The Germans and Italians are allies - though
it's made clear that Hitler's orders are morally abhorrent to the Italian troops -
and the 'limeys' are the villains. Michael Rennie played General Montgomery
as the bad guy and British troops mercilessly execute unarmed German prison­
ers with grenades. Robert Hossein played Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, and
Argentinian George Hilton appeared as English lieutenant Graham. Massimo
Righi, Nello Pazzafini, Riccardo Pizzuti, Giuseppe Castellano, Ettore Manni and
Sal Borgese played Italian troops, Marco Guglielmi, Gerard Herter, Tom Felleghi,
Andrea Fantasia and Giuseppe Addobatti played Germans and Max Lawrence
 World War II Movies 215

and Renato Romano appeared as Brits. The depiction o f these nationalities

is sometimes cliched - 'Mamma Mia! A million tanks!' exclaims Pazzafini as
British armour appears on the horizon - but the dusty, explosive action scenes,
convincingly staged with the co-operation of the Italian army, lift the film and
transform it into above-average fare. The Italian rearguard, hidden in foxholes,
attempt to slow the British offensive with mines, dynamite, homemade Molotov
cocktails and individual heroics, allowing Rommel's main forces to retreat safely
to Tobruk. The Axis defeat is thus depicted as Rommel's 'real victory', with Hitler
to blame for sacrificing their Italian rearguard.
Stafford's best war movie was Enzo G. Castellari's Eagles over London
(1969), also produced by Amati. During Operation Dynamo (the Allied retreat
from France at Dunkirk), a squad of German SS commandos disguise themselves
as British soldiers and arrive in Dover in rescue boats. Led by Major Krueger
(Luigi Pistilli), the commandos assemble in London, rendezvousing with Sheila
(Teresa Gimpera), a German agent who works in a forces pub. Their objective is
to knock out key radar installations, enabling the Luftwaffe to cross the English
Channel undetected, but British captain Paul Stevens (Frederick Stafford) is on
to them. Stevens organises Operation Valiant to track down the commandos,
while in the skies above, the Battle of Britain rages between the RAF and the
Luftwaffe. The original Italian title translated as 'The Battle of England' to cash
in on the UK production Battle ofBritain (1969).
Eagles slickly combines the mission combat movie with elements of espio­
nage, RAF aerial combat dramas and even murder mysteries. To conceal their
identities, Krueger's commandos murder Allied soldiers, stealing their identi­
ties, so bodies stripped of their uniforms turn up around London. A shootout
between a trapped German commando and British troops through bombed-out
houses resembles a spaghetti western gunfight. The twist-riddled plot is the
epitome of 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' and Castellari cross-cuts several subplots,
including a love story between Stevens and RAF lieutenant Meg Jones ('Evelyn
Stewart' /Ida Galli). Shot in Italy, Spain and on location in London (Tower Bridge,
the Houses of Parliament and London Transport buses appear), the film uses
split-screen images which are lost in cropped TV prints. Renzo Palmer played
Sergeant Donald Mulligan (dubbed in the English language version with an abra­
sive cockney accent), Luis Davila and Christian Hay were two womanising Free
French pilots enrolled in the RAF, Van Johnson played the RAF's Air Marshal
George Taylor, and Eduardo Fajardo was the German commander overseeing
Operation Marine Lion, the invasion of Britain. The film hits the mark with its
trademark 'war movie' score from Francesco De Masi and the action sequences,
including German fighters attacking convoys of Allied troops, the evacuation of
Dunkirk, the evacuees' arrival in Dover, the German commandos' attempts to
blow up radar installations (they become human bombs, with knapsacks packed
with dynamite), and several impressive aerial dogfights staged by Emilio Ruiz
Del Rio.
D-Daze: The Battle for Europe
The most internationally successful Italian war movie was Anzio (1968 - origi­
nally Lo sbarco di Anzio: 'The Anzio Landing'), a US-Italian co-production
between Columbia Pictures and Dino De Laurentiis. It was co-directed by
Edward Dmytryk and Duilio Coletti and was scored by Riz Ortolani. Robert
Mitchum starred as philosophical US war correspondent Dick Ennis. His assign­
ment is to cover the Allied landings at Anzio ( codenamed Operation Shingle) on
22 January 1944. Having witnessed the Germans building concrete pillboxes and
artillery emplacements with forced Italian labour, Mitchum and seven US rang­
ers have to fight their way back to enemy lines after their battalion is massacred.
Peter Falk, Earl Holliman, Mark Damon, Reni Santoni, Thomas Hunter and
Giancarlo Gianni played US rangers, Anthony Steel, Wayde Preston, Venantino
Venantini, Arthur Kennedy and Robert Ryan were the Allied top brass, and
Wolfgang Preiss was their opponent, Field Marshal Kesselring. Anzio resem­
bles a big budget B-movie, with hundreds of extras and some impressive battle
scenes. Riddled with 'war is hell' cliches, an overly wordy script and an awful
title song ('This World Is Yours' belted out by Jack Jones), Anzio recreates the
Italian campaign. Location footage was filmed in Naples harbour (the embarka­
tion scenes), on Anzio Cape and in the Eternal City, for the Allies' triumphant
arrival at the Colosseum as conquering heroes.
1969 was the peak year for Italian war movies, with Gianfranco Parolini's
Five for Hell an archetypal example of an Italianate Dirty Dozen. In Occupied
Italy, 1944, Lieutenant Clem Hoffman (John Garko) assembles a crack team of
Gl's to attack Villa Verdi, a heavily fortified chateau near the village of Corigliano,
to steal 'Plan K', the Germans' stratagem to destroy the Allies. Hoffman recruits
acrobat Nick Amadori (Nick Jordan), safecracker Al Siracusa (Sal Borgese), mus­
cular knifethrower Sergeant Sam McCarthy (Samson Burke) and sharpshooting
explosives expert Johnny 'Chicken' White (Luciano Rossi) . Athlete Hoffman's
strength lies in his accuracy at pitching baseballs to silently knock out guards.
Parolini mixed elements of war movies with a crime story heist and Klaus Kinski
played SS colonel Hans Muller at Villa Verdi. Parolini staged the action - which
is outlandish even by his own implausible standards - on location in north-west
Italy and at Elios Studios. Acrobat Amadori bounces over Villa Verdi's electric
fence using a portable trampoline and the machine-gun shootouts and motor­
bike chases propel the film along at breakneck pace, accompanied by Vasco and
Mancuso's jaunty score. The film ends with Muller's twitching death throes,
when he is electrocuted on his own electric fence, as Amadori escapes with the
microfilm of 'Plan K' concealed in a base ball.
In Tonino Ricci's Salt in the Wound (1969 - The Liberators, War Fever and
The Dirty Two) during the battle for Italy, Corporal Brian Haskins (Klaus Kinski)
and Private John Grayson (Ray Saunders) are sentenced to death for looting and
murder. Rookie lieutenant Michael Sheppard (George Hilton) is assigned their
execution, but a German ambush kills the firing squad. Haskins and Grayson
 World War II Movies 217

escape, with Sheppard in tow. They encounter a massacred U S patrol - Haskins

and Grayson steal dog tags from two of the dead and become 'Norman Carr'
and 'Calvin Malloy'. Hiding out in the hilltop town of San Michele, the trio are
greeted as liberators and the two convicts learn a little humility: Haskins falls
for refugee Daniela (Betsy Bell) and Grayson befriends a young orphan, Michele
(Roberto Pagano). Haskins discovers that the church contains valuable relics
and attempts to steal them.
Salt in the Wound is a rain-drenched, grimy war movie - even the daylight
scenes have a watery, bleak sunlight - made even gloomier by Riz Ortolani's
atonal score. San Michele was the Tuscan medieval hilltop town of Montecarlo,
Lucca (with its distinctive church bell tower and narrow streets), with interiors
at Tirrenia Studios. As German armour attacks San Michele, ploughing through
woodland and interrupting a celebration of the town's patron saint, Haskins,
Grayson and Sheppard defend the town. Michele is wounded and Daniela is
mown down in the crossfire. Grayson is killed and Haskins runs amok, scream­
ing Daniela's name and suicidally charging headlong at a tank. The film's Dirty
Two re-titling presented Haskins and Grayson as redeemed convicts. At 'The
End', Sheppard salutes their graves in a vast military cemetery, highlighting the
film's message of bad men made good.
Jack Palance shot two combat films in 1969: The Battle Giants (The Fall of
the Giants and Attack Force Normandy) and The Battle of the Commandos (The
Legion of the Damned). In 'Henry Manckiewicz'/Leon Klimovsky's The Battle
Giants, Major John Heston (Palance) is assigned by General Moore (Giuseppe
Addobatti) to assemble a team of US officers to contact Field Marshall Rommel
(Manuel Collardo). Rommel is under house arrest in a villa on the Rhine. Heston's
hand-picked group comprises a pilot, Lieutenant Steve Bloom (John Gramack);
a civil engineer, Captain Stuart Latimore (Carlos Estrada); a professional base­
ball player, Lieutenant Thomas Mulligan (Antonio Pica), and an improbably
named medical officer, Captain Agamemnon Geeves (Andrea Bosic). 'They're
tops', assures Heston. The squad are accompanied by Herman Truniger (Alberto
De Mendoza), a turncoat SS major. Each member of the party has a microfilm
embedded in his shoulder and has his own individual instructions. The party's
real objective is the Kesselberg Emplacement, a fortified bridge with concrete
defence works. Their task is to distract as many German troops as possible, ena­
bling the US army to launch an offensive through the Zelia Pass.
Battle Giants was filmed near Madrid, including the railway line through
the pinewooded Guardarrama Mountains. The German assault on the concrete
sandbagged bunker at the Kesselberg Emplacement ends the film with a bang:
the Second Panzer Division, with assault troop support, advance up the valley
into a firestorm unleashed by Heston and his men. Palance fires a variety of
German hardware, including a Panzerschreck, the German anti-tank bazooka.
Good performances by Jesus Puente as Colonel Wolf and Gerard Tichy as General
Von Gruber gave the Axis fans something to cheer, while the budget provided
much army surplus hardware, including staff cars, half-tracks and the column
of Panzers. Despite the mission's risible call-sign ('Kangaroo Calling Swordfish')
and German paratrooper helmets for the US commandos that are a size too
small, chain-smoking Palance adds gravitas as driven Heston. The film is a slick,
successful star vehicle which benefited from a suspenseful Armando Travajoli
score.
In Umberto Lenzi's similarly styled The Battle of the Commandos, co­
starring Curd Jurgens, Thomas Hunter, Robert Hundar, Aldo Sambrell, Antonio
Molino Rojo, Wolfgang Preiss and Diana Lorys, Palance played Colonel Charlie
MacPherson, who must destroy a railway-mounted long-range Nazi cannon in
France (though it was again filmed in Spain).
Giuliano Montaldo's The Fifth Day ofPeace (1969) was a departure for the
Italian war genre - an antiwar movie set in dank Emmen prisoner of war camp
in Holland. In the last days of the war, Canadian captain John Miller (Richard
Johnson) and his assistant, Lieutenant Romney (Relja Basic), are instructed to
set up a POW camp in an abandoned stockade to house over 2,ooo German
inmates. Colonel Von Bleicher (Helmut Schneider) and the prisoners rigidly
stick to their military discipline, sentencing to death two deserters: Ensign
Bruno Grauber (Franco Nero) and Corporal Reiner Schultz (Larry Aubrey). The
battle of wills between Miller and Von Bleicher comes to a head when Miller
refuses to arm Von Bleicher's firing squad. The prisoners demonstrate and
Miller calls out the guard to disperse the prisoners. When Miller asks his supe­
rior, General Snow (Michael Goodliffe), what the relationship with his German
prisoners should be, Snow is blunt ('They've lost the war - don't let 'em forget
it') and advises Miller to pass the buck. Canadian troops escort Grauber and
Schultz outside the camp and supervise a German firing squad, which execute
the deserters. The camp's equilibrium restored, Miller, now promoted to major,
has a clear conscience. Fifth Day is superior drama, well acted by an interesting
cast, including British actors Johnson and Goodliffe. Renato Romano played
Miller's batman, Sergeant O'Mally, and Bud Spencer was Corporal Jelenek,
a supplies officer who shelters the German deserters. The film benefits from
muddy Eastmancolor cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti, the eerie camp tow­
ers and the gate sign 'Arbeit Mein Frei' chillingly silhouetted. The film was
known by various titles, including Crime of Defeat and Gott Mit Uns: the slo­
gan that appears on German military belt buckles. The sinister score by Ennio
Morricone includes 'Gott Mit Uns' [God With Us], a haunting echo of Once
Upon a Time in the West's theme.
Many big Hollywood stars gravitated towards Italian war movies. Rock
Hudson led a party of street urchins to blow up an Italian dam in Hornets' Nest
(1970), which featured Sylva Koscina, Sergio Fantoni, Jacques Sernasand Giacomo
Rossi-Stuart. The Battle of Neretva (1969) was a $12 million Yugoslavian­
Italian-US-German co-production which detailed the German offensive against
Yugoslav partisans in 1943. The film was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar
 World War II Movies 219

but was later cut and dubbed for US distribution, from 175 minutes to 102. Even
this cut version boasted international talent: Yul Brynner, Sylva Koscina, Franco
Nero, Hardy Kruger, Curd Jurgens and Orson Welles. The UK print, titled The
Battle on the River Neretva, is a 126-minute compromise.

Battle Fatigue: The 1 970s

The 1970s saw the Italian combat craze quickly die out, as gialli and comedy
caught audience attention. Carlo Lizzani's Mussolini: The Last Days (1974 - The
Last Four Days) starred Rod Steiger as 11 Duce. George Pan Cosmatos's Massacre
in Rome (1973 - Rappressaglia) starred an international cast - Richard Burton,
Marcello Mastroianni, Leo McKern, Anthony Steel and John Steiner - and
deployed a dissonant Morricone score. Based on Robert Katz's novel Death in
Rome, it told the true story of the Ardeatine Caves massacre, an atrocity per­
petrated by the Nazis beneath Rome on 24 March 1944. In retaliation for the
ambush of an SS patrol by partisans (who detonated a roadside bomb hidden
in a dust cart in Via Rasella), 10 Italians were executed for every German soldier
killed. Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Kappler of the Gestapo (Burton) is assigned
the grisly task of rounding up the victims and overseeing their executions: 330
Italian men are trucked over to the grotto, which becomes their death chamber.
In an administrative error, 335 are killed - each is shot in the head with a pis­
tol - then the caves are sealed with explosives. Filmed on location in the capital,
Massacre in Rome is a powerful, suspenseful film. It features one of Burton's best
performances, with Mastroianni equally good as Father Pietro Antonelli, who
opposes Kappler and the Gestapo and finds himself in the caves in the film's hor­
rible shock ending. At the time of the film's release, Kappler was still in an Italian
prison serving his life sentence.
The Biggest Battle (1978 - The Greatest Battle, The Great Battle, Battle Force
and Battle ofMereth) was directed by 'Humphrey Longan' (Umberto Lenzi). It
starred Henry Fonda, Samantha Egger, Helmut Berger, Stacy Keach, John Huston
and Giuliano Gemma, intercut with newsreel footage narrated by Orson Welles.
Directed, or rather assembled, by 'Hank Milestone' (Lenzi again), From Hell to
Victory (1979) was passable war fare. This was a soap opera war movie, telling of
multinational friends, whose relationships are redefined and destroyed by war.
The friends agree to rendezvous annually on 24 August at a cafe by the Seine,
but few of them appear for the final reunion. George Peppard played American
OSS agent Brett, Raymond Lovelock was his estranged son Jim, Horst Buchholz
was cast as Nazi tank commander Ji.irgen, Sam Wanamaker played US war corre­
spondent Ray and Anny Duperey was French Resistance fighter Fabienne. French
actor Jean-Pierre Cassel played English Spitfire pilot Dick and suntanned George
Hamilton appeared, unconvincingly, as French Resistance fighter Maurice (sam­
ple line, while on a nighttime raid: 'Do not wake ze Bosch'). Peppard is sent to
Holland to destroy a facility making V-2 rocket propellant. The film is a whistle­
stop tour of the Battle for France - from the German invasion, Dunkirk and
Battle of Britain, to D-Day and the liberation of Paris - mostly via stock footage
from The Dirty Heroes and Eagles over London.
Tinto Brass' fleshy Salon Kitty (1976) depicted the depravity of the Third
Reich. Helmut Wallenberg (Helmut Berger) sets up a brothel for German offic­
ers run by Madame Kitty Kellermann (Ingrid Thulin) but falls for Margherita
(Teresa Ann Savoy), one of the prostitutes. Brass equated the Third Reich with
the Roman Empire (his next film was the infamous Caligula) and deployed deca­
dent sets (created at DEAR Studios by Ken Adam) and risque musical numbers in
the style of Cabaret. The supporting cast included cult movie stalwarts Luciano
Rossi, John Ireland, John Steiner and Dan Van Husen. It resulted in a short-lived
craze for unpleasant Nazi-ploitation potboilers, which depicted forced prostitu­
tion to serve the German army (the so-called Joy Division), or else vile tortures
inflicted in Nazi experimental camps. They boasted bleak titles - SS Experiment
Love Camp (1976), SS Girls (1977), Red Nights of the Gestapo, SS Extermination
Love Camp and Gestapo's Last Orgy (all 1977) - and were helmed by schlock
directors such as Sergio Garrone and Bruno Mattei.
A belated addition to the Italian combat cycle was Enzo G. Castellari's The
Inglorious Bastards (1977 - The Counterfeit Commandos), which thrashed the
Dirty Dozen formula to its ridiculous conclusion. In France 1944, five misfit US
army convicts, deserters, murderers and thieves are being transported by MPs to
a stockade when a German air attack allows them to escape. The escapees - Tony
(Peter Hooten), Fred Canfield (Fred Williamson), Nick (Michael Perglani), Berle
(Jackie Constantin) and Lieutenant Robert Yeager (Bo Svenson), a pilot - decide
to head for neutral Switzerland. They accidentally massacre a squad of American
soldiers who are disguised as Germans - as in Hell Commandos, Yeager and com­
pany undertake the deceased commandos' special mission. Briefed by Colonel
Buckner (Ian Bannen), they waylay an armoured train carrying a V-2 rocket
warhead prototype and steal the device's gyroscope guidance system. The train
is halted when the French Resistance demolish the Saint Dru Bridge and force
the locomotive to detour to Pont Mosson station, but a German military train
arrives. Buckner removes the gyroscope and escapes, Nick and Berle are killed,
and Yeager, with the warhead's self-destruct mechanism set to blow, drives the
train straight into the station.
Bastards was filmed in Italy and at Cinecitta and Vides Studios. One scene
depicts a group of female German soldiers skinny dipping in Monte Gelato Falls
and the railway sequences were filmed between Capranica and Viterbo. Raimund
Harmstorf appeared as German prisoner Adolf and Debra Berger, as French
Resistance nurse Nicole, is lumbered with lines such as, 'Age is not important
when you fight for something in which you believe, n'est pas?' With his chiselled
granite features and broken nose, towering Svenson plays the tongue-in-cheek
action straight. Scrounging 'Mr Fix-it' Perglani (sporting long hippy hair and a
bushy moustache) and blaxpoitation star Williamson (with cigar and Superjly
'tache) lend excellent support. Perglani rides a mean motorbike, Steve McQueen
 World War II Movies 221

style - when a bullet punctures his gas tank, he seals the hole with chewing gum.
Hooten's flaky portrayal of needling 'white trash' Tony is memorable and it is he
who survives, embracing fellow survivor Nicole on the railroad tracks.
The most macho, daft and cynically un-PC war movie, Inglorious Bastards
is never dull and from its colourful title sequence (accompanied by Francesco
De Masi's rip-roaring march) to its explosive conclusion, it doesn't hang around.
Castellari's gleeful mayhem, choreographed by stunt coordinator Rocco Lerro,
features the same German extras being repeatedly killed and the same vehicles
being blown up, often in Castellari's trademark slow motion. Castellari, who
would have made a fine action hero himself, appears as various German soldiers
(he dies at least half a dozen times) and as the commander of a German mortar
detachment. Optical effects and miniatures are deployed - for example, the US
army depot and a bombed-out town - which increases the film's sense of scale.
It is a mark of the continued popularity of films such as The Inglorious
Bastards on DVD that cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino misspelt Castellari's
title for his 2009 war movie Inglourious Basterds, which depicted a mission by
commandos to blow up Hitler at a film premiere in Paris. Tarantino name­
checked Antonio Margheriti and Edwige Fenech, thanked in his acknowledge­
ments Castellari, Bo Svenson and Sergio Sollima, and deployed Ennio Morricone
cues from Battle ofAlgiers, The Return ofRingo, The Big Gundown, Death Rides a
Horse, A Professional Gun and, most effectively, 'Un Amico' from Revolver.
 Knives in the Dark
Gialli Thrillers

I
talian 'gialli' psycho-thrillers were named after a series of crime thrillers pub­
lished in Italy with yellow covers ('giallo' in Italian). Their protagonists were
often American nationals working or vacationing in Italy, who become sleuths to
solve a murder which they have inadvertently witnessed - this enables the cast­
ing of an American or British star in the principal role. The investigating police
officers often have quirks - for example, they're trying to quit smoking or have a
passion for ornithology or philately - and their specialist knowledge helps them
to solve the case. The films' stylised visuals are defined by roving point-of-view
camerawork and the killers are often dressed in brimmed hats, long coats and
leather gloves. Gialli have been accused of misogyny in their presentation of the
bloody murders of often naked, always beautiful, women, though the killer is
often revealed to be a disturbed woman, when all clues infer a male aggressor.
The musical scores are a key ingredient in the films' effectiveness. Gialli deployed
the breathy orgasms of Edda Dell'Orso, the whining feedback of Ennio Morri­
cone or the thumping heavy metal of Goblin, though their ear-splitting rock left
some audiences with 'metal fatigue'.

Black Lace, Blood and Bava

The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) was Mario Bava's homage to Hitchcock's
thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). New Yorker Nora Davis (Leticia
Roman), an impressionable reader of murder mystery novels, arrives in Rome
to visit her ailing aunt, Ethel Widnell Batocci (Chana Coubert). Ethel suffers
a fatal heart attack soon afterwards. On her way to fetch Dr Marcello Bassi
(John Saxon), her aunt's physician, Nora witnesses a woman being stabbed.
With no evidence to prove her story, Nora turns amateur sleuth to identify the
perpetrator of the 'Alphabet Murders', which after three victims are up to the
letter D.
 A mediocre murder mystery, Girl is of note mainly for its monochrome cin­
ematography. This is the Rome of La dolce vita, a tourist book version of the
city. Nora visits the Colosseum, the Garden of Venus, the Sant'Angelo Bridge
and Castel Sant'Angelo, and the Stadio Dei Marmi at the Foro Italico (a run­
ning track ringed by 6o statues). Nora's aunt lives in a house in the Piazza Di
Spagna and Nora witnesses the murder on the Spanish Steps, the cascade of
three flights of stairs which is dominated by the Trinita Dei Monti Church. Bava
shot on location in Rome, with interiors at Titanus. The theme song, 'Furore',
was sung by Adriano Celentano. For the US release by AlP, Girl was rescored by
Les Baxter (replacing Roberto Nicolosi's jazzy cues) and retitled Evil Eye. The
US version accentuated the film's comedic aspects, with jokier scenes inserted
(Bava appears at one point in a portrait), and all reference to marijuana-laced
Kent cigarettes was removed - it's hinted in the Italian version that the Spanish
Steps murder could have been Nora's hallucination. John Saxon described Evil
Eye as a giallo brillante, a spoof thriller, but it is the more serious Italian print
that influenced later gialli.
Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964) was his most violent film of the 196os
and the proto-giallo. Model Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) is murdered in the
Christian Haute Couture fashion house run by manager Max Morlan (Cameron
Mitchell) and the recently widowed owner, Countess Christina Como (Eva
Bartok). Inspector Sylvester (Thomas Reiner) discovers that the world of high
fashion conceals a tangled web of narcotics, infidelity, murder and blackmail.
The list of suspects includes Morlan himself, his employees - nervous epileptic
Marco (Massimo Righi) and creepy dress designer Cesar Lazar ('Alan Collins' I
Luciano Pigozzi) - antiques dealer Frank Scalo (Dante Di Paolo) and Marquis
Richard Morell (Franco Ressel), both of whom are dating models. With the
discovery of Isabella's diary, everyone is edgy. The killer slays Scalo's girlfriend
Nicole (Arianni Gorrini) with a taloned gauntlet in Scalo's antiques shop. Model
Peggy (Mary Arden) is tortured by the killer - her hand and face pressed against
a hot stove - and the marquis' lover, Greta (Lea Kruger), is suffocated with a
cushion. It is revealed that Max is the culprit, and Christina his accomplice: they
are having an affair and her husband didn't die in an accident. Max convinces
Christina to kill one last time - she drowns model Tao-Lin (Claude Dantes) in
her bath, but Max double-crosses Christina, hoping to implicate his lover.
Bava filmed during the winter of 1963-64 in six weeks. The fashion house's
exterior was filmed at Villa Pamphili, Rome (with its fountain and squeaky sign),
with interiors at ATC Studios. The scenes at Scalo's antiques shop were filmed
courtesy of La Societa DEDALO. The nocturnal exteriors, with foggy streets and
windblown leaves, create a milieu worthy of Jack the Ripper. While the English
language title is darkly poetic - the victim's blood spilled on the fashion house's
garments - the original Italian title, 6 donne per l'assassino [Six Women for the
Murderer] , is more representative: Max and his six victims. The incriminat­
ing red leather diary links the killings with the flimsiest of pretexts. Bava's film
 Gialli Thrillers 225

Fashion Victims: Lurid Italian poster for Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964) depicting
the blank-masked killer and four slain models.

closely resembles the 'krimi' thrillers made in West Germany, which were based
on the works of Edgar Wallace. Black Lace boasts Carlo Rustichelli's finest score,
with its percussive bossa nova trumpet theme and threatening, descending cues.
The killer's outfit, a long black-belted mac, black gloves and brimmed hat, was
highly influential on gialli, as was the faceless white mask which shields the kill­
er's identity. The killer (as played by stunt double Goffredo Unger) goes berserk
in the murder scenes. Lifeless, bloodied women's corpses, their clothes torn,
their faces disfigured, are manhandled, shoved in car boots and dragged around,
as bodies begin literally to stack up. The camera takes perverse pleasure stalking
its victims in gliding movements - gaudily lit and elegantly shot - as befits a film
set in a chic fashion house. Bartok's classy black mourning attire was designed
by Eleanora Garnett.
In the UK Black Lace was X-rated in 1965, following a plethora of cuts. The
US version released in 1966 by Woolner Brothers used a slower Rustichelli cue
as the title music and replaced Bava's original title sequence (with the cast pho­
tographed as though they were wax dummies amid garishly lit mannequins)
with wicker tailor's dummies, skulls, and bloody gunshot wounds, designed
by Filmation Associates. Lurid posters promised 'Guaranteed! The 8 Greatest
Shocks Ever Filmed!' starring '30 of the most Glamorous Girls in the world!' - six
of whom don't survive the movie.
Bava's next giallo was a warning to all newlyweds. Stephen Forsyth starred
as bride-killer John Harrington in Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1969 - Blood
Brides), which was set in Paris but mostly filmed in Barcelona and Villa Frascati
outside Rome (with interiors at Frascati and Balcazar Studios, Barcelona) . John
is the head of a bridalwear fashion house where he lures his victims. He butchers
them with a gleaming meat cleaver, buries their remains in his plant hothouse
and disposes of the bodies in an incinerator. When John falls for model Helen
Woolett (Dagmar Lassander), he kills his wife Mildred (Laura Betti) whilst wear­
ing lipstick and a veil and then burns her. Mildred returns and haunts her hus­
band - everyone can see her spectre except John. Betti's ghostly countenance is
effective in these scenes. The murders are investigated by Inspector Russell (Jesus
Puente), Femi Benussi played victim Alice Norton and 'Alan Collins'/Luciano
Pigozzi was designer Vences. With its romantic score by Sante Romitelli, Hatchet
is an insipid psycho thriller, with few Bava flourishes in evidence, though the
opening train-bound murder (as John kills two newlyweds) and Mildred's mani­
festations are well handled. In an in-joke, John watches Bava's Black Sabbath on
late-night TV. John's flashbacks reveal that when he was a child (Guido Barlocci),
he murdered his own mother and her lover.
Bava's next thriller, Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), stranded its
cast on a secluded island. Seven guests are invited to the luxury pad of business­
man George Stark (Teodoro Corra) and his wife, Jill (Edith Meloni): Professor
Jerry Farrell (William Berger), his wife, Trudy (Ira Furstenberg), mysterious
Isabel (Justine Gall), and businessmen Jack Davidson (Renato Rossini) and Nick
Chaney (Maurice Poli) and their wives, Peggy (Helena Ronee) and Marie (Edwige
Fenech). The businessmen want to buy Farrell's invention - a formula for indus­
trial resin - but he refuses to sell. In the boozed-up, decadent atmosphere of
Stark's retreat, murder games, marital infidelity and jealousy thrive - Marie
 Gialli Thrillers 227

begins an affair with the Starks' houseboy Charles (Mauro Bosco), who is soon
found murdered. The islanders begin to die one by one, until by the film's twist
denouement, the killers are revealed in the formulaic plot's saving grace.
Five Dolls resembles Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians and the black
humour of the piece surfaces in a macabre running gag: each corpse is put on
ice and hung in polythene body bags in Stark's walk-in deepfreeze. Bava shot the
film in 19 days in October 1969. The beach footage of the island was Tor Caldara,
Anzio. The female cast of Euro stars - the 'five dolls' of the title - add glamour,
though for the most part they are mannequin set dressing. The film's best feature
is the interior production design shot at DEAR Studios, Rome, its chintz worthy
of Diabolik - in fact, Diabolik's revolving bed reappears here. The cast are decked
out in campy outfits at the outre end of 1970s style. The film is an exercise in
groovy stylistics, highlighted by Bava's always-interesting camerawork and com­
plemented by a trademark lounge score by Piero Umiliani and hazy prog-rock
tracks - including 'Neve calda' [Hot Snow] - performed by Italian experimental
band 11 Balletto Di Bronzo (The Ballet of Bronze).
If Hatchet for the Honeymoon and Five Dolls for an August Moon had been
relatively bloodless in their carnage, Bava made amends with A Bay of Blood
(1971). Filmed during January and February 1971 at Sabaudia on the Lazio coast,
with interiors at Villa Frascati and Elios Studios, the film has architect Frank
Ventura (Chris Avram) attempting to develop a quiet seaside bay into a tourist
resort. The present owners, Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda) and her hus­
band, Count Filipo (Giovanni Nuvoletti), are murdered. Their daughter, Renata
(Claudine Auger), and her husband, Albert (Luigi Pistilli), arrive to claim their
inheritance and discover that the countess had an illegitimate son, Simon (Claudio
Volonte ), who lives in a shack on the bay. Ventura and his lover, Laura (Anna Maria
Rosati), have a villa on the bay, as does ecologically minded insect collector Paul
Foscari (Leopold Trieste) and his wife, Anna (Laura Betti), who is a medium. Four
giggling, idiot teenagers - Brunhilde (Brigitte Skay), Bobby (Roberto Bonanni),
Denise (Paola Rubens) and Duke (Guido Boccaccini) - arrive in a yellow beach
buggy and are caught in the crossfire, their bloody bodies dumped in a bath. As
the film progresses, a murderous chain of events dispatches the entire cast. The
film was released in Italy as Reazione a catena [Chain Reaction].
Bay ofBlood is notable for its 13 brutal murders, convincingly staged by Carlo
Rambaldi. The countess is hanged when someone nooses her and kicks away her
wheelchair; her husband is stabbed; Brunhilde goes skinny dipping and has her
throat slashed with a machete; Bobby (Roberto Bonanni) has his face split with
the machete and Denise (Paola Rubens) and Duke (Guido Boccaccini) are skew­
ered on a spear as they make love; Renata stabs Ventura with scissors; Albert
strangles Paul with a telephone cord and Renata beheads Anna with an axe;
Simon strangles Laura and is then killed himself, when he's speared by Albert.
Now the sole owners of the real estate, Renata and Albert return to their bay­
side caravan, where they've been camping with their children (Renato Cestie and
Nicoletta Elmi). In a shock payoff, the children find a shotgun and accidentally
blast their parents: 'Gee, they're good at playing dead, aren't they?'
Backed by a suspensefully groovy percussive bossa nova by Stelvio Cipriani,
Bay delivers shocks and style in equal measure. Bava is in fine form with this
gruesome effort - he was also the cinematographer and the prowling camer­
awork on the eerie wooded bay, an ominous twilight perpetually dispersing the
light, is the director at his best. In a memorably unpleasant scene, the body of
the count is discovered on Simon's fishing boat with a squid hideously squirm­
ing on the corpse's decomposing face. The bloody killings are highly convincing
and have been cut or abridged in all UK releases of the film. Bay of Blood was
refused a certificate by the BBFC in 1972, then released in truncated form in 1980
as Blood Bath (rated X) and banned on home video as a 'Video Nasty'. In the US
it initially appeared in 1972 as Carnage, then as Twitch ofthe Death Nerve and as
Last House - Part II. Bay ofBlood is now available uncut on DVD. It was hugely
influential on US horror movies such as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th
(1980) and remains Bava's most controversial film.

Murder All' Argento

Though Bava was a giallo pioneer, Dario Argento remains the genre's maestro.
The son of producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian photographer Elda Luxardo,
Argento began as a film critic on Paese sera. He collaborated with Sergio Leone
on the original treatment of Once Upon a Time in the West and co-scripted sev­
eral war movies (Commandos, Probability Zero, The Battle ofthe Commandos)
and spaghetti westerns (Today It's Me ... Tomorrow You!, The Five Man Army) .
His directorial debut, the murder mystery The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
(1970), welded the shock 'slash and hack' of the shower murder in Hitchcock's
Psycho (1960) to the prowling menace of Bava.
American writer Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) witnesses the attempted mur­
der of Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi) in a Rome art gallery. Her husband, Alberto
(Umberto Raho), is the chief suspect. Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno)
is investigating a series of murders that have already claimed three female vic­
tims. Grounded by Morosini as the gallery murder's chief witness, Sam begins to
delve, until the killer threatens his girlfriend, Julia. Two more women are killed
and the police go to Alberto's apartment, where he's about to kill Monica. Alberto
falls from a high window and confesses to the crimes before he dies, but when
Julia goes missing, the trail leads Sam back to the gallery.
Crystal Plumage was shot on location in Rome and at Incir-De Paolis Studios
from August to October 1969, with Argento's father, Salvatore, producing. Fulvio
Mingozzi played a police inspector, Werner Peters was an effeminate antiques
dealer and Gildo Di Marco was the stuttering pimp 'So Long' Garullo. Reggie
Nalder (the assassin from Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much) played
yellow-jacketed marksman Needles (named Siringa in the Italian print) hired
by the killer to liquidate Sam. Suzy Kendall played Julia and went on to appear
 Gialli Thrillers 229

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Original Italian 'locandina' poster for Dario Argento's trendsetting giallo thriller The Bird with
the Crystal Plumage (1970).

in several gialli, including Sergio Martino's Torso (1973), where she was one of
several art students stalked by a killer. A voyeuristic blend of titillation and muti­
lation backed by a wilted giallo score by G & M De Angelis, Torso was made
interesting by its locations: the rural villa of Castello Di Corcolle; the Monte
Gelato Falls, the ancient town ofTagliacozzo, L'Aquila, and the splendid Fontana
Maggiore in Piazza IV November in Perugia, Umbria.
Argento's cinematographer was Vittorio Storaro, who went on to win
Oscars for his work on Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor. Storaro's
Eastmancolor Cromoscoped images bathe the screen in colour-coded symbol­
ism, usually involving lurid reds or bright whites. A pursuit through the foggy
streets of Rome resembles Bava's approach, but Storaro's command of light and
shade and his manipulation of angles, juxtapositions and unexpected camera
movements updated Bava's gothic style to a neon-lit modern world of concrete
and glass. Storaro's style is best demonstrated when Julia is trapped: the killer
plunges her apartment into darkness, then chisels a hole in her wooden front
door with a knife and peers through it.
The archetypal giallo killer - dressed in a black leather mac, black gloves,
scarf and hat - stalks and photographs potential victims before lacerating them
with knifes or cut-throat razors. Sam is walking home one night when he sees
Monica's attempted murder. When he tries to help her, he is trapped between
the sliding automatic glass doors - like a fly twixt double-glazing - as she claws
towards him, crying for help. When he returns to the darkened gallery, search­
ing for Julia at the film's climax, he is again trapped, this time deliberately by the
killer, and pinned to the ground beneath a heavy spiked frieze. Such moments
of terror are scored by Ennio Morricone's jangling cues. It was with gialli that his
avant-garde style broke into mainstream film scoring. In this period Morricone
collaborated with experimental group Nuova Consananza. Together they con­
structed an atonal, clattering score for Elio Petri's psychosexual ghost story A
Quiet Place in the Country (1968) starring Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave,
which was abstract filmmaking at its most interesting and incomprehensible.
Crystal Plumage's main theme is a lilting lullaby, with a folksy acoustic gui­
tar, twinkling music box and a 'la la' vocal line sung by Edda Dell'Orso and the
Cantori. Her breathy vocals are used to menacing effect (in 'Silenzio nel caos'),
while the score fractures with the tolling bells, whining strings and stuttering
cornet of 'La citta si risveglia' [The City Wakes Up] .
The killer's motivation is explained via a Naif painting that depicts a gro­
tesque stabbing of a little girl in a snowy meadow. When Sam visits its artist,
Berto Consalvi (MarioAdorf), a cat-eating rural hermit who lurks in a bricked-up
house, he discovers that the painting is based on an attempted murder in the
village of Aviano 10 years ago. The riddle's resolution hinges on a threatening
phone call from the killer, which features a screeching noise in the background.
Professor Carlo Dover (Renato Romano), Sam's ornithologist friend, recognises
it as the cry of the Hornitus Nevalis, an exotic bird with white, glass-like plum­
age and native only to Northern Siberia; there's one in Rome's zoo which is near
Ranieri's apartment. The film was released in the US as The Bird with the Crystal
Plumage and The Phantom ofTerror. In the UK it was retitled The Gallery Murders
and rated X. Crystal Plumage remains Argento's most suspenseful, artful giallo
and it was a massive, unexpected hit in Italy on its release in February 1970.
With his horror-thriller formula firmly established, Argento directed The
Cat O'Nine Tails (1971) . Blind ex-journalist and enigmatographer (puzzle fanatic)
Franco 'Cookie' Arno (Karl Malden) and his niece Lori ( Cinzia De Carolis) team up
 Gialli Thrillers 231

with reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) to solve a mystery linked to the
Terzi Institute of Genetic Research. Dr Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero) falls in front
of a train and Righetto (Vittorio Congia), a photographer who snaps his death, is
garrotted when his negatives reveal a hand pushing the doctor. Calabresi's lover,
Bianca Merusi (Rada Rassimov), is also garrotted and the killer is interested in
the institute's programme which researches criminal tendencies via their 'xyy'
genetic formula. Suspects include Dr Braun (Horst Frank), his lover Manuel
(Werner Pochath), Professor Fulvio Terzi (Tino Carraro) and his daughter, Anna
(Catherine Spaak, modelling voluminously coiffured hair). The killer tries to poi­
son Carlo's milk delivery and gas Arno and then stabs Braun and kidnaps Lori.
Drawing on Henry Hathaway's 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), where blind
playwright Van Johnson investigates a kidnap plot, Cat demonstrates Argento's
style already overtaking content. The set piece murders are violent, but only
Calabresi's decapitation under a train shows any imagination. Cat is predomi­
nantly an industrial espionage thriller - the 'cat o'nine tails' are Carlo and Arno's
nine leads, rather than an implement of torture. Pier Paolo Capponi played
investigating officer Spimi and Ugo Fangareggi was hopeless criminal Gigi the
Loser, whom Carlo recruits to break into Terzi's villa. Morricone's score ranges
from the melancholic main theme, 'Ninna nanna in blu' [Lullaby in Blue] - with
strummed guitar, flute, strings, chimes and Edda Dell'Orso's soothing vocal - to
the jazz percussion, animal cries and strangled cornet for 'Placcaggio'. Filmed
from September to October 1970 on city locations in Rome, Turin and West
Berlin (with interiors at Cinecitta), Cat was the ninth most successful film in
Italy in 1971.
Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971), the third of Argento's Animal Trilogy,
was an opportunity for Morricone to foreground his jazz-rock jams. The story
focuses on rock band drummer Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon, pre-Dempsey
and Makepeace) and his wife, Nina (Mimsy Farmer). Morricone's title music,
when Roberto rehearses with his band in the studio, is a fuzzy Hammond organ
groove, with strangled wordless vocals. The film's most famous composition ­
the ghostly 'Come un madrigale' [Like a Madrigal] - resembles Morricone's hit
'Chi mai'. The score's best cue is the twinkling theme (deploying acoustic guitar
and Edda Dell'Orso's vocal) used in the bath-time love scene between Roberto
and Nina's cousin, Dalia (Francine Racette).
Four Flies finds Roberto falsely accused of stabbing to death Carlo Marosi
(Calisto Calisti) . Someone wearing a doll-faced mask snaps the murder, a set-up,
in an empty theatre. Carlo isn't actually dead, but a web of blackmail and murder
envelopes the Tobias household. Their maid Maria (Costanza Spada) is stabbed
in a park; Carlo himself is bludgeoned and garrotted; Gianni Arrosio (Jean-Pierre
Marielle), a private investigator working for Roberto, is killed by lethal syringe
injection in a subway lavatory cubicle; and Dalia is stabbed to death. These mur­
ders are presented by Argento as lengthy set-pieces, with the build-up to each
crime reaching a crescendo at the moment of death. They resemble ritualised
spaghetti western gunfights, or the cymbal crash at the climax of a drum solo.
Noteworthy features include Roberto's recurring nightmare of a Middle Eastern
beheading, an odd cameo by Bud Spencer as Roberto's friend Godfrey and a
slow-motion special effect of a bullet flying through the air.
Argento commenced filming in July 1971, on location in Turin, Rome and
Milan, with interiors at Incir-De Paolis. As expected in gialli, light switches never
work when characters are home alone and the twist denouement is especially
well handled. The poetic title refers to the human retina retaining the last image
it sees at the moment of death - here a victim's eyeball reveals that the last thing
she saw was four flies. Roberto realises that Nina's necklace features a fly in
amber, which has been 'photographed' swinging four times by the retina. Nina
jumps into her car to escape, but in an impressive, slow-motion windscreen­
shattering set piece (cut to the hymnal 'Come un madrigale'), she crashes into
the back of a truck and is decapitated.

Flashing Blades: Gialli Fever

In the wake of Argento's success, gialli fleetingly became the most popular genre
at the Italian box office. Franco Nero played investigative reporter Andrea Bild in
Luigi Bazzoni's The Fifth Cord (1971), which benefited from another Morricone
score, including the Hammond organ lounge groove theme tune 'Giocoso, gio­
coso' and the quivering love theme 'Voce secondo'. John Lubbock survives an
attack on his way home from a New Year's Eve party. Four subsequent killings
claim people who were present at the party: Sophia Bini (Rossella Falk), the
invalid wife of Dr Richard Bini (Renato Romano), is strangled and thrown down
a stairwell; newspaper editor Traversi (Guido Alberti) suffers a heart attack as
he walks home through a park; Isabel Lancia (Ira Von Furstenberg), the fiancee
of Eduardo Vermont (Edmund Purdom), is found drowned in a hotel bath; and
hooker Giulia Suave (Agostina Belli) is murdered in a motorway underpass. A
black glove is found at each murder scene - firstly with one finger missing, then
another, suggesting there will be five victims. Reporter Andrea is a suspect, but
the killer attacks his little son, Toni, at home. Andrea deduces that the culprit is
Lubbock, a native of Aries - the Italian title was Gionata nera per l'Ariete [Black
Day for Aries] - for reasons that are only partially explained, involving perver­
sion, blackmail and Lubbock's love for Vermont. Alcoholic Andrea's relationship
with his estranged wife, Helene (Silvia Monti), is well handled. Interiors were
lensed at Incir-De Paolis, with location work in Rome. Wolfgang Preiss played
the investigating police inspector and Pamela Tiffin was Andrea's mistress, Lu.
What sets Fifth Cord apart from other gialli is Vittorio Storaro's consummate
cinematography, with shards of light slicing through the darkness. He also pho­
tographed Bazzoni's unfathomable mystery Footprints (1975), starring Florinda
Bolkan.
Giuliano Carnimeo's The Case of the Bloody Iris (1971) was as convoluted
as its alternative title - What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood on the Body of
 Gialli Thrillers 233

jennifer? Someone is killing glamorous women in a Genovese apartment block

and Commissioner Enci and his homicide team are on the case. High-class
prostitute Lola (Evi Farinelli) has had her throat slit in the elevator and exotic
nightclub performer Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait) is trussed up and drowned
in her bath. Two glamour models, Marilyn Ricci (Paola Quattrini) and Jennifer
Landsbury (Edwige Fenech), move into Mizar's apartment, which is loaned to
them by smoothy architect Andrea Barto (George Hilton). When Marilyn is
stabbed in broad daylight in a crowded street, suspicion falls on Andrea, who
is pathologically scared of the sight of blood and has knowledge of the apart­
ment block's layout. As in all gialli, the roster of suspects lengthens to include
Jennifer's unhinged ex-husband, Adam (Ben Carra), a weird old neighbour, Mrs
Moss (Maria Tedeschi), who appears to live alone (she shelters her deformed son,
who has a passion for horror comics) and Sheila Isaacs (Annabella Incontrera)
and her violin-playing father, Professor Isaacs (George Rigaud). Giampiero
Albertini's Commissioner Enci is a philatelist, enthusing over rare stamps, and
Luciano Pigozzi appeared as Fanelli, a seedy nightclub owner. The killer mod­
els a black facemask, hat, overcoat and surgical gloves and packs chloroform
and a scalpel. Carnimeo is aided by Bruno Nicolai's trademark Euro score, some
colourfully 1970s fashions, hip interiors (filmed at Elios Studios), kaleidoscopic
flashbacks and plenty of roving, handheld camerawork. The main clue to the
killer's identity, a white iris flower found near the victims, was the symbol of a
'free love' cult to which Jennifer belonged with Adam, though he is wiped from
the suspect list when he falls out of cupboard with a flick-knife in his guts.
Following Argento's lead, many gialli filmmakers incorporated numbers,
animals or flowers in their titles. Sergio Martino's The Case of the Scorpion's
Tail (1971) was a good example of the genre, shot on location in London (Trafalgar
Square, Buckingham Palace and Westminster), Athens (the Parthenon) and at
Elios Studios. Lisa Baumer (Ida Galli) collects the $1 million life insurance policy
on her pilot husband, Kurt (Fulvio Mingozzi), when he's killed in a plane crash.
Insurance investigator Peter Lynch (George Hilton) is assigned to track her to
Greece, but shortly afterwards Lisa is murdered and the money vanishes. More
victims die - slain by a maniac dressed in a Diabolik-style bodysuit - and Greek
police inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli) and Interpol agent John Stanley (Alberto
De Mendoza) investigate. Anita Strindberg played photographer Cleo Dupont
(Peter's love interest), Janine Reynaud was Kurt's Greek lover, Lara Florakis, and
Luis Barboo was her henchman, Sharif. Martino can certainly stage gory action -
in one scene, a victim has his eye gouged out - and deploys some Bavaesque
lighting effects. There's also a jagged trademark giallo score courtesy of Bruno
Nicolai. The key lead is a blown-up photograph depicting Kurt wearing distinc­
tive golden scorpion cufflinks, which are found at a crime scene, implying he's
still alive and collected his own life insurance.
Maurizio Lucidi's The Designated Victim (1971) was a giallo remake of
Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951). Milan advertising executive Stefano
Argenti (Tomas Milian) has an affair with Fabienne Beronge (Katia Kristine) and
plans to take her to Venezuela, but his wife, Louisa (Marisa Bartoli), refuses to sell
him her share of their ad company. In Venice, Stefano encounters Count Matteo
Tiepolo (Pierre Clementi) and their idle chat soon turns to murder. Matteo wants
to rid himself of his abusive brother and proposes that Stefano kill him, while
Matteo will kill Louisa. Stefano doesn't take Matteo seriously but Louisa is found
strangled in her apartment. Police commissioner Finzi (Luigi Casellato) inves­
tigates, with Stefano the chief suspect. Matteo continues to contact Stefano,
blackmailing him with incriminating evidence, so Stefano travels to Venice to
carry out his part of their 'pact'. As instructed by Matteo, Stefano climbs the roof
of the Basilica Di Santa Maria Della Salute: when the clock strikes 12, he takes
aim at a window across the canal with a precision rifle and shoots.
Lucidi makes the most of his locations in foggy Venice and Milan and filmed
the Argentis' holiday villa at Moltrasio, on Lake Como. Luis Bacalov wrote the
romantic score, with fuzz guitar cues from prog-rock band New Trolls. Milian
himself crooned the melancholic title ballad, 'My Shadow in the Dark'. Sandra
Cardini played Kristina Muller, the count's mysterious accomplice. Confezioni
San Remo provided Milian's stylish wardrobe and Mayer of Rome furnished
Clementi's. Clean-shaven Milian looks rather tidier than he does in his west­
erns and cop movies. He's upstaged by Clementi as Matteo, whose gaunt, pale
face is framed by long, black hair. Modelling hippy regalia and a cape or long
coat, Matteo is a prowling Dracula, haunting Vienna's foggy byways and stalking
Stefano's every move as his new best friend.
Lucio Fulci contributed some interesting additions to the gialli trend. One
on Top ofthe Other (1969) starred Marisa Mell and Jean Sorel in a San Francisco­
set tale of doppelgangers influenced by Vertigo. A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
(1971) was a hallucinogenic London-set murder mystery which featured Florinda
Bolkan, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel and Leo Genn, grotesque special effects by
Carlo Rambaldi and a beautiful soundtrack by Morricone-Dell'Orso. Fulci also
made an effective adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat (1981 - with
Patrick Magee, Mimsy Farmer and David Warbeck) and the repellent, infamous
slasher film The New York Ripper (1982), which was banned in the UK.
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) is a strong candidate for Fulci's best film,
due to its sustained tension, ultra-weird atmosphere and troubling subject mat­
ter. It was set in the fictional southern Italian village of Accendura but was filmed
on location in Monte Sant'Angelo in the National Park of Gargano (on the 'spur' of
Puglia) and in Matera, Basilicata (from The Gospel According to St Matthew). The
local police are hunting a child killer. Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian), a journalist
for Milan's The Standard, investigates with help from Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet),
a city woman who has moved to the countryside, only to be ostracised by the
insular locals. Giuseppe Borra (Vito Passeri), the village idiot, is initially blamed
for the crimes, but his innocence is soon established, leaving the police commis­
sioner (Virginio Gazzolo) and the chief-of-police (John Bartho) stumped.
 Gialli Thrillers 2 35

Fulci's giallo killer is no longer a shadowy, caped phantom stalking city

streets, but a lunatic roaming a rural landscape. One of the murders occurs
beside the Monte Gelato falls and the finale - when Andrea wrestles with the
culprit atop a cliff - ends with the murderer plunging down a spectacular gorge.
The rock promontories, mountains, pastures and woodland are handsomely
photographed in widescreen Techniscope by Sergio D'Offizi. Fulci mixes refer­
ences to voodoo with superstition, shallow graves and the dark arts. At the centre
of the community is its young priest, Don Alberto Avallone (Marc Porel) - who
encourages the local boys to stay on the straight and narrow via his soccer school
- his mother Dona Aurelia (Irene Papas) and Malvina his deaf-mute sister. Little
Malvina witnesses the crimes and imitates the killings by pulling the heads off
her dolls, which provides Andrea and Patrizia with a clue to the killer's identity.
Whitewashed Accendura resembles Kernigan in Kill, Baby ... Kill!, a place
where the community's minds are as narrow as its streets. The contrasts between
city life and provincial prejudice and superstition are delineated unsubtly by
Fulci. Patrizia drives a bright red dune buggy, smokes marijuana, lives in an
ultramodern pad on the outskirts of town and dresses less-than-conservatively,
which incites the locals. The community tensions caused by the killings erupt
when the young victims' fathers brutally beat local woman Maciara (Florinda
Bolkan) to death with chains. Maciara practiced black magic with her men­
tor, Old Francesco (George Wilson) . When the killings continue even after her
death, the stony-faced locals show no remorse. Her horribly drawn-out murder
(cut to a blaring car radio) is one of the most sickeningly brutal in Fulci's oeuvre.
This scene apart, Duckling is eerily disturbing rather than graphically violent
and is enhanced by Riz Ortolani's subdued, Morriconesque string and flute cues.
Fulci's condemnation of small-town mentalities, the pious church and the inept
police ensured it was a massive success in Italy. It failed to gain cinema release in
the US or UK and remains a controversial film.
The killer in Paolo Cavara's The Black Belly ofthe Tarantula (1971) deploys
gialli's most sadistic modus operandi. Someone is killing the female staff and
clients of a Rome beauty salon, injecting them in the back of the neck with an
acupuncture needle dosed with a paralysing serum, so they remain conscious as
the killer disembowels them with a knife, which are depicted in grisly, unflinch­
ingly filmed eviscerations. This method is derived from the manner in which a
wasp kills a tarantula and then lays its eggs in the spider's belly, so the larvae
can feast on the still-living host. Victims include nymphomaniac Maria Zani
(Barbara Bouchet), cocaine dealer Mirta Ricci (Annabella Incontrera), black­
mail victim Franca Valentino (Rosella Falk), receptionist Jenny (future Bond girl
Barbara Bach) and Laura (ex-Bond girl Claudine Auger), the blackmailing owner
of the spa. Tellini (Giancarlo Gianni), a young officer on the Flying Squad, inves­
tigates. Maria's husband, Paolo (Silvano Tranquilli), is the chief suspect, until
he falls from a building while chasing photographer Mario (Giancarlo Prete).
Mario is working with Laura to blackmail her clients with compromising photos.
Mario is run over by his own sports car and the killer targets Tellini's wife, Anna
(Stefania Sandrelli). In the denouement, scientific and psychological flimflam
explains how the salon's blind masseur (Ezio Marano) became a maniac. Filmed
on location in Rome in kaleidoscopic 1970s style by Marcello Gatti, Black Belly is
an effective, by-the-numbers giallo, which benefits from a Morricone-Dell'Orso
soundtrack.
Cold Eyes ofFear (1971 - Desperate Moments) was Enzo G. Castellari's con­
tribution to the gialli cycle, shot on location in a seedy, neon-lit 'London by Night'
of strip clubs, cabarets and amusement arcades. Pistol-packing ruffian Quill
(Julian Matteos) and Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff - disguised as a policeman) take
solicitor Peter Badel (Gianni Garko) and his Italian lover, Anna ( Giavanna Ralli,
sporting a bubble perm), hostage in 336 Kensington Road, the house of Peter's
uncle, Judge Horatio Badel (Fernando Rey). Robber Welt, imprisoned by Badel
15 years before, searches for the evidence that put him away. The judge is working
late at court and Welt has rigged his office door with a bomb. Cold Eyes is a bad
film - badly acted (by a cast of usually reliable performers), badly photographed
(on familiar interior sets at Cinecitta), badly written (with a dearth of tension
and menace, essentials for any giallo) and very badly dubbed. The film's saving
grace is Morricone's score, especially the title sequence's jazzy jam session (with
wailing cornet, pumping double bass and growling feedback), which accompa­
nies Welt driving through night-time London. The opening scene depicts Karin
Schubert menaced in her boudoir by a flick-knife-wielding assailant, whom she
stabs (accompanied by Morricone's whirs and whines on the soundtrack) . An
archetypal giallo tableau, this murder is revealed to be a nightclub act in the The
Carousel - Ooh La La!, which is watched lasciviously by Anna and Peter.
Fernando Di Leo's Asylum Erotica (1972) was an updated gothic 'old dark
house' scenario set in a secluded women's 'loony bin' run by Professor Osterman
(John Karlsen) . Amongst the inmates are sex addict Ann Palmieri (Rosalba
Neri), suicidal Cheryl Hume (Margaret Lee), psychotic Ruth (Gioia Desideri)
and Mara (Jane Garret), who is having a clandestine affair with a nurse (Monica
Strebel) . All except the nurse are brutally killed by a black-caped murderer who
uses medieval weapons (axe, dagger, crossbow and Iron Maiden) to dispatch his
victims. The police chase the killer, who breaks into the nurses' quarters and in
a frenzy bludgeons them with a mace. Only the presence of Klaus Kinski as Dr
Francis Clay and the score (by Silvano Spadaccino) add gravitas, while the copi­
ous nudity defines the film as the worst in trashy sexploitation. It was released in
the US as Slaughter Hotel, with a tasteless tagline: 'Carved out of today's head­
lines - see the slashing massacre of 8 innocent nurses!'

What Have They Done?: Lado and Dallamano

Aldo Lado's Who Saw Her Die? (1971) was highly influential on Nicolas Roeg's
Don't Look Now (1973 -A Venezia un Dicembre rosso in italy) . Botharesetin Venice,
deal with parents coming to terms with their child's death and include flashback
 Gialli Thrillers 2 37

inserts which juggle the narrative. In Who Saw Her Die? sculptor Franco Serpieri
(George Lazenby) lives in Venice. His little daughter, Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi),
arrives from London but is kidnapped and found by market traders floating in a
canal. Franco and his wife, Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg), blame themselves for
her death - Franco was seeing his mistress, Gabriella (Rosemarie Lindt), when
Roberta was abducted. A journalist (Piero Vida) establishes a link with another
disappearance a year previously. An array of suspects confuse the audience -
Bonaiuti (Jose Quaglia), a rich lawyer and child molester; his employees Philip
Vernon (Peter Chatel) and blackmailing Ginevra Storelli (Dominique Boschero );
art dealer Serafian (Adolfo Celi); and Father James (Alessandro Haber) - and
predictably the suspect list is whittled down via killings.
Lado, who had worked as Bertolucci's assistant director on The Conformist,
shot the film on location in wintry Venice, with interiors at De Paolis. The film
is red-haired Elmi's finest film - she also appeared to menacing effect in Baron
Blood, A Bay ofBlood, Footprints and Deep Red. Moustachioed one-time James
Bond Lazenby is excellent too. What makes Who Saw Her Die? work is the creepy
Venetian atmosphere - it may be one of the most romantic cities in the world,
but on a foggy night it is also one of the most menacing. This is accentuated by
Ennio Morricone's score. A children's choir (conducted by Bruno Samale) chant
jagged, syncopated 'la-la-la's', the volume and intensity of which ebb like the
psycho's killing urges. The opening scene, accompanied by Morricone's intimi­
dating choristers, is one of the most disturbing in gialli. A little red-haired girl
and her nurse are playing in the snow. They are stalked by a weird woman - a
black widow in veil and hat - who snatches the little girl, kills her with a rock and
buries her in the snow.
Massimo Dallamano directed two of the finest gialli, What Have You Done
to Solange? (1972) and What Have They Done to Your Daughters ? (1974) . What
Have You Done to Solange? begins with the discovery beside the River Thames
of schoolgirl Hilda Erikson, who has been savagely stabbed. She was a pupil at St
Mary's School for Girls, where married Italian PE teacher Enrico Rossini (Fabio
Testi) is having an affair with one of his pupils, Elizabeth Seckles (Cristina Galbo) .
Elizabeth thinks she glimpsed the killing and that the murderer was dressed as
a priest. Enrico is implicated when his silver pen is found at the crime scene and
his wife, Herta (Karin Baal), begins to suspect him. Inspector Bart (Joachim
Fuchsberger) of Scotland Yard interviews the school staff, including two tutors:
Professor Bascombe (Gunther Stoll) and peeping tom pervert Newton (Antonio
Casale). More schoolgirls are killed: Janet Bryant is abducted and found dead
in a field and Elizabeth is drowned in her bath. The key to the murders is Ruth
Holden, an ex-nanny, but when Enrico arrives at her cottage he finds her dog
bludgeoned and Ruth killed with a sickle. The schoolgirls were part of a secret
society. When one of the girls, Solange Beauregard (Camille Keaton), became
pregnant, Ruth and the others performed a harrowing abortion, which has left
Solange in a state of infantile regression. Waiflike Solange's first appearance in
the film - during Enrico and Herta's parkland picnic, as she's pursued by her
carer - is particularly unsettling.
What Have You Done to Solange? is a disturbing experience. Dallamano
filmed on location in London, including Kensington, Buckingham Palace and
Westminster Bridge, during autumn 1971. The burnished cinematography was
by Aristide Massaccesi in short-lived 2.35:1 Reversalscope. Ennio Morricone's
famous romantic title music, 'Cosa avete fatto a Solange?' gives no indication of
the film's dark subject matter. Its delicate descending piano motif, flute, meas­
ured strings and Edda Dell'Orso's floating vocal suggest a love story. Solange
doesn't pull its punches in its depiction of distressing, violent murder. It was
severely cut in the UK, with good reason, and was also abridged in the US for its
1976 release by AlP /Newport as Terror in the Woods.
What Have They Done to Your Daughters? is no less lurid than its pred­
ecessor. In Brescia, pregnant schoolgirl Sylvia Polvesi (Cheryl Lee Buchanan)
is discovered hanged - a murder made to appear a suicide. On her first case,
the assistant DA, Dr Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli), investigates with inspectors
Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) and Valentini (Mario Adorf) . They uncover teenage
prostitution rackets, corruption of minors, and drugs. The vital clue is a sex tape
recording of the prostitutes' encounters. Meanwhile, a cleaver-wielding psycho­
path is stalking Brescia by motorbike. A private investigator is found dismem­
bered in his car boot and the killer takes a swing at Vittoria in her apartment's
underground car park.
Daughters was shot on location in Brescia in Techniscope by Franco Delli
Colli, with interiors at DEAR Studios. Ralli is well cast as the female investi­
gator, negotiating a particularly nasty case, and Adorf is good as the cop who
finds his daughter, Patricia, has been corrupted too. Steffen Zacharias played Dr
Beltrami, the prostitution racket's ringleader, Franco Fabrizi was sleazy photog­
rapher Bruno Paglia, and Farley Granger and Maria Berti were Sylvia's distraught
parents. After a promising opening, Dallamano becomes less concerned with the
film's horror and concentrates on the police investigation; the film closely resem­
bles a cop thriller: Dallamano even stages a street chase, when the Polizia pursue
the cleaver-wielding killer. Stelvio Cipriani's pulsating score is one of his best.
The title music is mediocre Euro-pop (with its 'la la' refrain mimicking Argento's
movies), but the incidental themes - especially a rolling, purposeful cue with
brass and syncopated drums (later reused in the regatta scene of Tentacles) -
power along the investigation with style. Dallamano manages a couple of good
shocks, but Daughters is a bloody, unsavoury film, in the mould of Solange, and
like its predecessor, it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

The City Runs Red

After birds, cats and flies, Dario Argento signalled a bold new direction with the
garishly titled Deep Red (1975), the longest, most convoluted and most bru­
tally violent Italian giallo. Jazz pianist Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) witnesses
 Gialli Thrillers 2 39

the murder of mind reader Helga Ulmann (Macha Meril). Investigating officer
Calcabrini (Eros Pagni) presses Marc for evidence, but the musician can't recall
one vital detail. In contrast to the tenuous links and scant, implausible explana­
tions of most gialli, Deep Red is very well constructed. To solve the mystery, Marc
teams up with reporter Gianna Brezzi (Daria Nicolodi, Argento's partner).
Argento filmed Deep Red on location in Turin and Rome, with interiors at
De Paolis Studios, in autumn 1974. The supporting cast features Gabriele Lavia
as Carlo, a drunken, self-destructive pianist in the Blue Bar. Clara Calamai played
his mother, ex-actress Martha. Calamai had been the most popular Italian
actress during World War II, most famously starring opposite Massimo Girotti in
Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1942 - Obsession), his lustful adaptation of The
Postman Always Rings Twice. Furio Meniconi played the caretaker of a decrepit
villa at 24 Via Susa which conceals a hideous fresco and a long-dead cadaver
and Nicoletta Elmi was his creepy daughter, Olga, a 'little witch' who tortures
writhing lizards with pins (a shot missing from most prints of the film) . At a
public appearance, psychic Helga senses a murderous presence in the audience
and soon afterwards is attacked with a meat cleaver and has her throat slit as she
crashes through a window (a signature Argento demise). Amanda Righetti, the
author of Ghosts and Black ofModern Times, is scalded to death in her bathtub.
Her story 'La Villa Del Bambino Urlante' [The House of the Screaming Child]
holds a vital clue. Professor of psychiatry Giordani (Glauco Mauri) has his teeth
bashed out on a mantelpiece and the corner of a table and is knifed in the neck.
Other deaths include a man being dragged behind a refuse cart by a hook in his
leg (he's dashed against a pavement and has his head squashed by a car) and a
decapitation involving an entangled necklace and an elevator. These convincing
special effects were staged by Germano Natali and Carlo Rambaldi. The killer's
gloved hands are those of Argento himself.
Luigi Kuveiller's widescreen cinematography was among the most innova­
tive of the 1970s and the film's visual code is black, white and red. The funk­
rock of Four Flies on Grey Velvet is replaced here by a score written by Giorgio
Gaslini and performed by rock trio Goblin. The score's recurrent theme is a syn­
copated bassline, glacial arpeggios, synthesizer flourishes and discordant blasts
of church organ. During the title sequence this is displaced by a child's lullaby,
for a jarring scene depicting a stabbing in a dining room beside a Christmas tree
(the trigger for the killer's psychosis). Later murders are accompanied by a puls­
ing bassline, synthesizer squeals and pops, and funky drumming - the adrenalin
rush of blood pumping through the killer's veins.
Profondo rosso, the Italian version of the film released in 1975, is 126 minutes
long. It includes many extra scenes of Mark and Gianna's bickering investigation
and the unexpurgated murders. The US cut, entitled Deep Red, ran a tighter
98 minutes for release in 1976. It was also re-released in 1980 as The Hatchet
Murders. The shorter version's narrative benefits from truncation, but the mur­
ders are abridged and a shot of two dogs fighting is missing from many prints
of the film. Deep Red's climax springs a surprise which is superior to anything
Hitchcock concocted - it's a killer twist.
Argento's Tenebrae (1982) had New York horror fiction writer Peter Neal
(Anthony Franciosa) arrive in Rome on a promotional tour for his new bestseller,
Tenebrae. Captain Germani (Giuliano Gemma) is investigating the murder of
shoplifter Elsa Manni (Ania Pieroni), who was killed with a cutthroat razor and
had her mouth stuffed with pages from Neal's novel. Tilde, a journalist critical
of Neal's 'sexist bullshit' horror stories, and her lover, Marion (Mirella Banti), are
butchered in their apartment block with a razor, a modus operandi inspired by
Neal's book. Eventually the culprit is identified as Neal's superfan, daytime TV
talk show host Cristiano Berti (John Steiner), but the murders continue, even
after Berti has an axe planted in his skull.
Argento made Tenebrae on location in Rome, at Elios Studios and at Kennedy
Airport in New York. With its over-the-top bloodletting and stylised choreogra­
phy, this is comic-book Argento. John Saxon played Neal's agent Bulmer, Daria
Nicolodi was Neal's PA Anne, Enio Girolami played a store detective, Fulvio
Mingozzi was a hotel porter and Veronica Lario was Neal's estranged wife, Jane
McKarrow, who's having an affair with Bulmer. In the preamble to Tilde and
Marion's murders, the camera glides up the outside of the apartment building,
peeping through windows, then sweeps up over the roof and swoops down to
the block's landing, in an impressively intricate take that was inspired by Sergio
Leone's gliding Chapman crane shot at the railway station in Once Upon a Time in
the West. Maria (Lara Wendel) is chased through a park in a terrifying sequence,
which ends with her stumbling on the killer's basement lair. Bulmer is stabbed
in broad daylight in a busy municipal square - a most un-giallo setting for a
murder. The killings, involving razors, knives and axes, were staged by Giovanni
Corridori, and Lamberto Bava, Mario's son was the film's first assistant director.
Flashbacks from the killer's perspective depict the traumatic beach murder of a
beautiful woman (played by transsexual 'Evan Robins' /Roberto Coatti) wearing
a white dress and red high heels. The film's punchy rock-style synthesizer fugues
were provided by Claudio Simonetti, Massimo Mornate and Fabio Pignatelli,
the members of Goblin. Tenebrae was released cut in the US as Unsane in 1987,
but the bloody, uncut print now available on DVD is Italian axe-ploitation at its
best.

Magic and Murder: The Three Mothers

Between Deep Red and Tenebrae, Argento made two horror films that interwove
gialli with the supernatural. In Suspiria (1977), American student Susy Banyon
(Jessica Harper) attends the Tanz (Dance) Academy near Freiburg in southern
Germany's Black Forest; the academy is run by Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and
her tutors, including strict Miss Tanner (Alida Valli). Two students are killed in
hideous fashion the night of Susy's arrival. Susy realises that the staff of the school
are a coven ruled by the Black Queen, Helena Markos, an age-old sorceress.
 Gialli Thrillers 241

Iconic artwork by 'Almos' (Antonio Mos) for Dario Argento's supernatural tale of witchery in
the Freiburg Tanz Academy: Suspiria (1977).

Suspiria was written by Daria Nicolodi and was based on occult literature
and recollections of her grandmother, who when she was 15 years old discov­
ered that the music school she was attending was a coven. The title is taken
from Thomas De Quincey's 'Suspiria De Profundis' in Confessions of an English
Opium-Eater. Nicolodi planned to play Susy, but Argento cast Jessica Harper in
the lead. Nicolodi was offered the supporting role of Susy's friend Sara but dis­
located her ankle during rehearsals for the ballet scenes and left the produc­
tion. Stefania Casini was cast as Sara instead. Hollywood star Joan Bennett had
recently appeared in US TV's Dark Shadows (1966-71) and the movie spin-off
House of Dark Shadows (1970). Susy's fellow students included Olga (Barbara
Magnolfi) and Mark (Miguel Bose). Udo Kier played psychiatrist Frank Mandel,
Fulvio Mingozzi appeared as a cabbie and Giuseppe Transocchi was Pavlo, the
school's Lurch-like handyman. Flavio Bucci played Daniel, the school's blind
pianist, who has his throat ripped out by his wolfhound guide dog.
Suspiria is the ultimate Argento horror movie and the film for which he
will be remembered. In its updating of Bava and Freda's fantasy horror, it is an
inferno of swirling, vibrant imagery. Argento filmed the stylised interiors of his
Black Forest chateau at De Paolis Studios, from July 1976 for 16 weeks, and in
Munich, Bavaria and Rome. The school exterior was in Freiburg and the swim­
ming pool, where Argento's camera seemingly glides across the surface of the
water, was Munich's public baths. Argento used intricate camera movements,
wire-guided cameras and complicated lighting rigs to achieve extraordinary
effects. Luciano Tovoli shot Suspiria in garish widescreen Technovision. Blocks
of colour - predominantly red, black and white, occasionally icy blue or green -
dominate the screen, suggesting the malingering witchery lurking in the school.
When the practice hall is hastily converted into a dormitory with suspended
sheets (following an attic infestation of maggots) the room is bathed in throb­
bing reds and dark shadows. For a film set in a ballet school attended by young,
attractive women, Argento resists the usual sexploitation angle of Italian horror
and shuns voyeuristic nudity.
The killings are staged for maximum shock effect by Germano Natali. The
opening double murder of Pat Hingle (Eva Axen) and her friend Sonia (Susanna
Javicoli) may be the most elaborately choreographed murder in cinema history.
Pat is pulled though a glass window by a hairy arm, is stabbed in her still-beating
heart (shown in close-up) and left lying on a stained glass ceiling decoration.
Pat's weight eventually causes her to plunge through the pane - as she drops,
a noose around her neck pulls tight, hanging her. Down below Sonia has been
skewered by part of the window frame and her face bisected by a huge shard of
glass. Sara later suffers a lacerated, barbed wire death when she falls into a room
full of iron coils and has her throat slit (actually a close-up of a razor slitting a
fish). The murderer's gloved hand in this scene is again Argento's. When Susy
infiltrates the witches' lair, Sara, now reanimated, attacks her with a butcher's
knife. Susy stabs Helena, a hag, through the throat with a sculptured peacock's
tail made of ornate, crystalline pins. Helena's death destroys the coven's power
and causes the kinetic whirlwind destruction of the school. Susy had arrived
during a storm and escapes into one in the finale, as Poe's burning mansions are
eviscerated by Argento's pyrotechnic paroxysm.
 Gialli Thrillers 243

Suspiria's deafening score is again by Goblin (here billed as 'The Goblins'), in

collaboration with Argento. It is one of the great horror scores, a web of sound ­
at one moment delicate folk music, the next a clattering dustbin lid din. It is
used not only as the trigger to a shock effect, but as the shock effect itself, its sud­
den presence intensifying Argento's images. The glistening, twinkling music box
of 'Suspiria' is gradually permeated with atonal washes of sound effects. Synths
glide and echo, and spiteful voices spit 'Witch!', as Susy arrives at the airport
and steps into a maelstrom of black magic. Thudding heartbeat drums back
the screaming damned (as on the track 'Witch'), hisses and moans suggest dark
malevolence and scenes of tension are abruptly sliced by jangling steel wires of
sound (as on 'Sighs'). It is a kaleidoscopic, cacophonous sound collage, resem­
bling the depths of a torture chamber set to music.
Suspiria was the seventh most successful film in Italy in 1977. Its iconic
poster, depicting a bloodstained pirouetting ballerina with her throat slit, was
designed by Antonio Mos ('Almos'). Suspiria was also a hit in the US (rated R)
for Twentieth Century-Fox and in the UK (rated X) in 1977, when advertised with
the wholly truthful tagline 'The Most Frightening Film You'll Ever See!'
Argento's Inferno (1980) continued the story of 'The Three Mothers: a fic­
tional book by architect E. Varelli, who designed houses for each of the witches.
In New York, Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle) buys the book from Mr Kazanian (Sacha
Pitoeff) in an antique shop and discovers that the Three Mothers reside in
Freiburg ('Mater Suspirorum: the Mother of Sighs from Suspiria), Rome ('Mater
Lachrymarum', the Mother of Tears) and New York ('Mater Tenebrarum', the
Mother of Darkness) - the latter is in Rose's apartment building. She writes to
her brother, Mark (Leigh McCloskey, in a role originally slated for James Woods),
an American music student in Rome, but when he arrives in New York, Rose has
gone m1ssmg.
With a budget of $3 million, Argento filmed Inferno over 14 weeks from April
1979, beginning in New York and Central Park (for one week), then in Rome, and
in Elios and De Paolis Studios. The score by Keith Emerson, formerly of The Nice
and the showman keyboardist in Emerson, Lake and Palmer, is a mix of conven­
tional orchestrations (by Godfrey Salmon) and operatic, Goblinesque composi­
tions. Verdi's 'Va Pensiero' from Nabucco plays fitfully on a turntable during a
power cut. Fulvio Mingozzi again appeared as a taxi driver and Feodor Chaliapin
played the wheelchair-bound architect Varelli, who lives in the bowels of the
Manhattan apartment building. Asia Pieroni appeared briefly as the beautiful,
cat-stroking Mother of Tears, who materialises in Mark's lecture theatre.
Considering the large budget and its predecessor's success, Inferno was a
disappointment. Argento's series of florid murders only occasionally equal his
own high standard and the plot is a maze, like Rose's labyrinthine apartment
building. The photography by Romano Albini is Bavaesque in style, with glow­
ing blues and reds. An underwater scene, when Rose dives into an ornate sunken
ballroom and is surprised by a floating corpse, is effective. Mark's friend Sara
(Eleonora Giorgi) and her companion Carlo (Gabriele Lavia from Deep Red) are
stabbed during a power failure in her apartment; Rose is guillotined by a sheet
of glass which repeatedly descends on the back of her neck; Rose's neighbour,
Contessa Elise Delon Van Adler (Daria Nicolodi), dies in a frenzied attack by
a dozen cats and the apartment's caretaker, Carol (Alida Valli), is incinerated.
Kazanian tries to rid himself of the bothersome cats and drowns them in a sack
in Central Park, but sewer rats devour him alive and a manic hotdog vendor
stabs him. The final confrontation between Mark and the Mother of Darkness
(Veronica Lazar), as fire licks through the apartment building, falls flat thanks to
the ghoul resembling a fancy dress shop Grim Reaper, in cape and skeleton mask.
Special effects man Germano Natali was aided by Mario Bava, and Bava's son
Lamberto worked as Argento's assistant director. Lamberto went on to direct his
own horror movies, Macabre (1980) and A Blade in the Dark (1983). Lamberto's
grisly Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1987) were produced by Argento.
Inferno was distributed internationally with the tagline 'Terror that's
Hotter than Hell!' It was released in truncated form at 83 minutes in the US
in 1986, and was cut in the UK to 106 minutes in 1980 to gain an X. The uncut
107-minute version is now available on US DVD and includes a cat eating a live
mouse. Surprisingly in the early 198os it was Tenebrae and Inferno that made
it onto the UK's 'Video Nasty' list and not the more violent Suspiria and Deep
Red. Fans had to wait for the final instalment of the 'Three Mothers' until 2007,
when Argento finally released Mother of Tears. It starred Asia Argento (Dario
and Daria Nicolodi's daughter), Udo Kier, Philippe Leroy and Moran Atias (as
Mater Lachrymarum) and fiercely divided Argento's fans and critics. Argento's
style has permeated mainstream Hollywood - the blockbusting The Da Vinci
Code (2003) is simply a Dario Argento movie staged by the Muppets. Apart from
partial returns to form, with Phenomena (1985 - Creepers) and Opera (1987),
none of Argento's post-Suspiria films has equalled its international impact. His
fans won't let him get away with murder forever.
 A Funny Thing Happened
Italian C omedy

C
ommedia all'Italiana - 'Comedy Italian-Style' - has enjoyed huge domestic
success, but the popularity of screen comedians such as Toto and Franchi
and Ingrassia barely radiated beyond Italy's borders, and certainly not beyond
mainland Europe. Their style of slapstick humour was often further hampered
by ineptly voiced English language dubbing. It wasn't until the breakthrough
by Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in the 1970s - working in popular forms such
as westerns and cop movies - that Italian comedy cinema enjoyed its greatest
global success. Italian cinema has always loved great comics - the last film star­
ring Laurel and Hardy ('Stanlio e Olio' in Italy) was Italian-French co-production
Atol K (1950 - Robinson Crusoe/and and Utopia) and one of Buster Keaton's final
screen appearances was in War, Italian Style (1965 - Two Marines and a General)
opposite Franchi and Ingrassia.

Toto the Clown

The most popular Italian cinema comedian is Toto (real name Antonio De
Curtis), who was born in Naples in 1898. Even today you can't move in the city
without seeing images of their most famous son. He began in variety and his
physical style of comedy was a carryover from the Italian theatrical comedy
tradition. Toto's role in 'The Racketeer' episode of Vittorio De Sica's The Gold
of Naples (1954) is one of his best remembered performances for international
audiences, where he co-starred with Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano. His
career spanned the 1930s to the 196os and in later vehicles he was often teamed
with Peppino (actor Peppino De Filippo) . Many of Toto's films were parodies of
popular movies - Toto ofArabia (1965), Toto against the Black Pirate (1964) and
Toto against Maciste (1961) . A good example of his style is Sergio Corbucci's Toto,
Peppi no and Ia dolce vita (1960) which captures the authentic Rome of Fellini,
the snap of the paparazzi and the hum of vespas. In one scene Toto and Peppino
pick up two young English starlets, Patricia and Alice, on the Via Veneto, and
take them to an exotic nightclub. The party descends into a drug-fuelled baccha­
nalia, with Patricia (who resembles a young Sophia Loren) performing a strip­
tease and Toto pulling funny faces and dancing like a robot.
Toto appeared in Mario Monicelli's spoof heist movie Big Deal on Madonna
Street (1958 - Persons Unknown) as master safebreaker Dante Cruciani, who is
hired by a quintet of cretinous crooks for a 'big job': the emptying of a jewel safe
in a pawnbrokers on Madonna Street. The gang consists of beefcake boxer Peppe
(Vittorio Gassman), photographer Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni), small-time
crook Mario Angelitti (Renato Salvatori), Sicilian Michele Ferribotte (Tiberio
Murgia) and aged car thief Capannelle (Carlo Pisacane). They discover from con­
vict Cosimo (Memmo Carotenuto) that the partition wall between the pawn­
brokers and a neighbouring apartment is poorly constructed. Film noir send-up
Big Deal is one of the most consistently amusing Italian comedies and Piero
Umiliani's strutting jazz score could easily have scored a true noir. Tiberio steals
a camera from a market by distracting the stallholder with his fake splinted bro­
ken arm. Later the stallholder breaks his arm for real, so Tiberio shows up for the
robbery with his arm in a cast. On viewing Tiberio's jumpy footage of the safe
being opened, Toto comments, 'As a movie, it's lousy'.
Photographed by Gianni Di Venanzo on location in Rome (with interiors at
Cinecitta), Big Deal's monochrome cinematography and vignettes of street life
recall neorealism, but the humour is international. It enjoyed great notices in
the New York press and was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. Rosanna
Rory played Norma ( Cosimo's moll), Gina Rovere was Teresa, Tiberio's cigarette­
smuggling wife, and Carla Gravina was Nicoletta, maid to the owners of the
neighbouring apartment. Claudia Cardinale played Michele's cosseted sister,
Carmela, who falls for Mario, creating tension within the gang. During the hilar­
ious heist, the bumbling crooks drill through a water pipe, flood the apartment
and demolish the wrong wall. Foiled, they sit down and eat a meal of pasta and
beans which they find on the stove. Newspapers the following morning report
that the police are looking for 'persons unknown' who perpetrated a strange bur­
glary - they bored a hole through a wall to steal pasta and beans. As the master
thief, Toto steals the show and the film is his best-known outside Italy.
In Pier Paolo Pasolini's Hawks and Sparrows (1965), Toto and Ninetto
Davoli played father and son, two wanderers who encounter a chatty, Marxist
crow, which joins them on their meandering odyssey. The crow recounts the
story of St Francis of Assisi, who dispatched two monks, Brothers Ciccillo and
Ninetto (Toto and Davoli again), to convert the birds to Christianity - they preach
the Word of the Lord to the hawks (via whistles) and the sparrows (by hop­
ping around). Pasolini's irreverent parable is one of his lesser works. He includes
parody miracles ('You saved me from the wasps', says a local to the monks) and
Ninetto recounts Ciccillo's exploits: 'At Zagarolo, [he changed] water to wine,
because they liked it . . . at Sgurgola he changed nothing, everything was fine'. For
 Italian Comedy 247

COH

NINETTO DAVOLI . FEMI BENUSSI· UMBERTO BEVILACQUA

RENATO M O NTALBA N O · FLAM I N IA S I C I LIANO
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Italian poster for Pier Paolo Pasolini's Hawks and Sparrows (1965), starring Toto, Ninetta
Davoli and Femi Benussi. Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
Ennio Morricone's imaginative title track, which blends medieval music, opera,
classical strings and rock 'n' roll, Domenico Modugno sings the cast and crew
credits and notes: 'In producing it, Alfredo Bini risked his position . . . in directing
it, Pier Paolo Pasolini risked his reputation'.
Toto also starred in Pasolini's contribution to The Witches (1966), a five­
episode showcase for Silvana Mangano produced by her husband, Dino De
Laurentiis. 'The Earth Seen from the Moon' was typical Pasolini surrealism,
with Toto (sporting two tufts of fluffy clown's hair) and Ninetto Davoli (with a
giant orange quiff) again cast as father and son, in search of an ideal woman for
Toto following the death of his wife, Grisantema. In Pasolini's beloved Roman
suburbs they encounter Absurdity (Mangano), a green-haired mute woman in a
green dress, who marries Toto. TotO's third appearance for Pasolini, in the 'Che
cosa sono le nuvole' episode of Capriccio all'Italiana (1967), failed to gain wide­
spread international distribution and later that year Toto died, aged 68.

Franco and Ciccio: Two Cine-Idiots

Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia were a Sicilian variety double act who shot
to fame in the early 196os in a seemingly endless series of slapstick parodies,
laughing at the popular film stars and genres of the day. They were heirs appar­
ent to Toto, fusing silent film humour to Italian popular cinema. Franchi was the
short, uncouth one, given to pulling faces, gesticulating and falling over, while
moustachioed Ingrassia was tall and rather refined. Between 1960 and 1983 they
made over 100 films together - as they said, they were united 'first by hunger,
then by success'.
Most of Franchi and Ingrassia's films weren't distributed internationally,
nor even dubbed into English, though their brand of parody had good produc­
tion values. They lampooned Visconti with Sergio Corbucci's Son of the Leopard
(1965) and Fellini with Satiricosissimo (1969) . They spoofed war movies with The
Shortest Day (1963), Zorro movies in The Nephews ofZorro (1968), sci-fi in 002
Operation Moon (1965), prison dramas with Two Escapees from Sing-Sing (1964)
and heist movies in How We Robbed the Bank ofItaly (1966) . They co-starred in
Primitive Love (1964) with Jayne Mansfield - her striptease from this film can be
seen in The Wild, Wild World of]ayne Mansfield (1968). They made 'In the Army'
parodies such as The Two Parachutists (1965) and How We Got into Trouble with
theArmy (1965), gangster spoofs with Two Public Enemies (1964) and The Clan of
Two Borsalini (1971) and spy parodies with oo-2 Most Secret Agents (1964). How
to Steal an Atomic Bomb (1967) had the duo up against 'Doctor Yes' and agents
Modesty Bluff, Derek Flit and James Bomb.
They also made westerns, n in all, including Two Sergeants of General
Custer (1965), Two Sons of Ringo (1966) Two R-R-Ringos from Texas (1967),
Ciccio Forgives ... I Don't (1968) and Two Sons of Trinity (1972). Two Mafiosi in
the Far West (1965) is a fine example of their work, a comedy western co-starring
Fernando Sancho. The costumes were designed by Carlo Simi (who worked on
 Italian Comedy 249

Leone's 'Dollars' trilogy) and the Elios Studios western set was deployed, which
gives the film an authentically 'spaghetti western' visual style. The title song,
'Fuoco nel cielo' [Fire in the Sky], sung by Giancarlo Guardabassi, could have
been written for a real western. For a Fist in the Eye (1966) was a Fistful ofDollars
parody, while their finest western pastiche was Il bello, il brutto, il cretino (1967 -
'The Handsome, the Ugly, the Cretinous'), the duo's homage to The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly.
With the success of Franchi and Ingrassia's Bond parody The Amazing Dr G
(1965 - featuring Fernando Rey as villain Goldginger) and Vincent Price's US
comedy Dr Coldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), the stars combined for Mario
Bava's Dr Coldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966). Price played Dr Goldfoot ('That
tongue-in-cheek terrorist' as the trailers put it), so-called because of his gold,
curly-toed slippers. Goldfoot, with his Chinese assistants Hardjob (Moa Tahi)
and Fong (George Wang), assassinates seven prominent NATO generals using
seductive robot women who explode when they kiss their target. Franchi and
Ingrassia, plus Bill Dexter (pop singer Fabian), are the SIC (Security Intelligence
Command) agents on Goldfoot's trail investigating 'The Case of the Exploding
Generals'.
Set somewhere between cold war sci-fi, Bondian espionage and slapstick
comedy, Girl Bombs is a shambles. Price hams it up and Dexter's love interest,
Rosanna, was played by Laura Antonelli. Franchi and Ingrassia were let loose in
one of their few English language outings. The production's shoddiness is epito­
mised by a chase sequence filmed in Luna Park, Rome. As the agents pursue
Goldfoot and his henchmen through a fairground, the action is speeded up and
narrated by silent movie intertitles - this was necessitated because the sound
recordist lost the dubbing track. The film ends with a Dr Strange/ave parody,
as Franchi and Ingrassia attempt to diffuse Goldfoot's Super Hydrogen Bomb
aboard a B-52 but are launched from the bomb bay, straddling the device. The
original Italian version - titled Le spie vengono dal semi freda [The Spies who
Came in from the Semi-cold] or I due mafiosi dell-FBI - had a James Bond-style
title sequence with Franchi performing the wailing title song, 'Bang Bang Kissene'
(by Lallo Gori). The English language release had a groovy new theme song per­
formed by The Sloopys. The film's enduring image is of Goldfoot's arsenal of
beautiful pin-ups, clad in gold bikinis and swimsuits, in Goldfoot's underground
lair. They were called 'Love Bombs' in the original script but were redubbed 'Girl
Bombs'. Bava had a cameo as an angel on a cloud. Girl Bombs is infantile sexploi­
tation, but what were audiences expecting from the tagline 'Meet the Girls with
the Thermo-Nuclear Navels!'
Franchi and Ingrassia's domestic popularity waned in the early 1970s, as sex
comedies took over at the box office. One of their late triumphs was playing the
Cat and the Fox in Luigi Comencini's Finocchio (1972). Ingrassia appeared in
Fellini's Amarcord (1973) as tree-climbing Uncle Teo and they made their final
appearance in 'The Jar' episode of the Taviani brothers Kaos (1983) - like Toto
these two 'cine-idiots' finally made the transformation from 'fleapit' attractions
to 'arthouse' respectability.

Two Rode Together: Trinity and Bambino

By far the most internationally successful of Italy's cinema comedians is the
17-film double act of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Their success took them
from Italy to the US to make comedies in the tradition of a latter-day Laurel
and Hardy. The duo made three popular westerns with Giuseppe Colizzi - God
Forgives I Don't (1967), Ace High (1968) and Boot Hill (1969) - before their
...

first comedy, They Call Me Trinity (1970). It was concocted by writer-director

Enzo Barboni/'E.B. Clucher'. Hill played bean-eating drifter Trinity, a fast-draw­
ing layabout who travels on a travois and Spencer was his half-wit half-brother,
Bambino, an ursine outlaw who impersonates a sheriff.
The plot, a parody of Rio Bravo and The Magnificent Seven, had the duo
helping a community of pacifist Mormons led by Brother Tobias (Dan Sturkie)
against a land-grabbing horse rancher, Major Harrison (Farley Granger). Trinity
was shot on location in the Parco Naturale Dei Monti Simbruini, at the waterfalls
at Monte Gelato and on the western town at Incir-De Paolis. Barboni fills his film
with a rogue's gallery of western cliches - bandido Mescal (Remo Capitani), a
madly laughing parody villain; Jonathan Swift (Steffen Zacharias), the sheriff's
fastidious housekeeper; Sarah (Gisela Hahn) and Judith (Elena Pedemonte), two
pretty Mormon women; Bambino's sneaky henchmen, Weasel (Ezio Marano)
and Timid (Luciano Rossi); and a drunken Mexican jailbird (Michele Cimarosa).
The major's gang includes stuntman Riccardo Pizzuti, who went on to appear in
almost all Hill and Spencer's subsequent teamings. Barboni speeds up Trinity's
quick-draw prowess and the fistfights are well integrated into the story, evolving
from the narrative like a song in a good musical. In later Hill and Spencer entries,
such pugilism was crowbarred into the story. Even Franco Micalizzi's laid-back
whistled score and the title song (crooned by David King) are in tune with the
send-up's atmosphere. They Call Me Trinity was a hit in Italy over Christmas 1970
and was popular in the US when released by Joseph E. Levine in 1971.
Barboni and producer Italo Zingarelli struck again with Trinity Is Still My
Name (1971). Horse rustler Bambino and turkey rustler Trinity are mistaken for
outlaws, then federal agents, by gunrunners Parker (Emilio Delle Piane) and
Lopert (Gerard Landry) . Parker's gang are in league with a gang of Mexican ban­
dits who are trafficking arms from the San Jose monastery. Barboni filmed entirely
in Italy, including the western towns at De Paolis and De Laurentiis Studios. The
slim plot is little more than a series of vignettes: a poker game where Trinity
demonstrates some nifty shuffling; his slapping game with gunslinger Wildcard
Hendricks; Trinity and Bambino's gluttonous meal in a posh French restaurant;
and the finale with the heroes dressed as monks in a game of American football
against Parker's gang at the monastery. Stunt arranger Giorgio Ubaldi was billed
as assistant director, as he was on the first 'Trinity'.
 Italian Comedy 251

TERENCE
HILL
BUD
SPENCE

FARLEY GRANGER
STEFFEN ZACHARIAS · DAN STURKIE · GISELA HAHN
ELENA PEDEMONTE
DIIIIGIIIA POll E. B. CWCHER I'IIODUCIDo\ POll ITALO ZINGARELLI I'IUIA lA WEST FILM

Go West: Bambino and Trinity trample hallowed western myths in Enzo Barboni's They Call
Me Trinity (1970). Spanish poster artwork depicting Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Poster
courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Guido and Maurizio De Angelis provided the folksy score, with the memo­
rable theme song, 'Trinity Stand Tall', sung by Gene Roman (backed by Nora
'
Orlandi's 'Coro 4+4 vocal group). For most of the film Hill and Spencer are
dressed in pinstriped suits and bowler hats, which makes them resemble Laurel
and Hardy. Yanti Somer, as settler Wendy, was the most memorable of Hill's
many onscreen romantic partners. Wendy's baby brother, Ebenezer, farts his way
through the film with a bad case of 'aerodogy' (he's christened 'Little Windy' by
Bambino) . These windy comedies and their progeny were termedfagioli (beans)
westerns in Italy. When Trinity visits his parents, Harry Carey Jnr and Jessica
Dublin, they berate him for not keeping in touch, but he reasons: 'I don't know
how to write . . . and you don't know how to read'. It was particularly satirical of
Barboni to cast Carey Jnr, the veteran of so many Hollywood John Ford mov­
ies, as Trinity's dad. Less structured and more irreverent than the first film, it
became the most successful Italian western ever made when it was released in
Italy in 1971.

Big Hitters: Solo Comedy Success

Capitalising on the success of the 'Trinities: Hill starred in two westerns pro­
duced by Sergio Leone: Tonino Valerii's My Name Is Nobody (1973) and Damiano
Damiani's Nobody's the Greatest (1975). Hill's 'Nobody' persona was contrasted
with Hollywood western archetypes such as living legend gunfighter Jack
Beauregard (Henry Fonda), crooked mine owner Sullivan (Jean Martin) and
embezzling 'Injun-hating' major Cabot (Patrick McGoohan). My Name Is Nobody
is the last truly great Italian western. It is filled with in-jokes (at one point Hill
name-checks Sam Peckinpah) and cast many US western actors - Neil Summers,
Leo Gordon, R.G. Armstrong, Steve Kanaly and Geoffrey Lewis - alongside their
spaghetti western counterparts: Benito Stefanelli, Antonio Molino Rojo, Piero
Lulli, Mario Brega and Marc Mazza. Both 'Nobody' films were partly shot in the
US - in the latter's case Monument Valley - and on Leone's Flagstone City set
in Almeria. And both featured bubblegum theme tunes from Morricone. In My
Name Beauregard shoots it out with the 150-strong 'Wild Bunch' to Wagner's
'Ride of the Valkyries' and in Greatest, Nobody leads the Fifth Cavalry a merry
dance at Fort Cristobel, to Rossini's 'William Tell Overture'.
Spencer's performance as horse thief Hiram Coburn in Maurizio Lucidi's It
Can Be Done, Amigo (1972 - The Big and the Bad) owed much to his mosey­
ing Bambino persona. Coburn becomes the guardian of little Chip Anderson
(Renato Cestie), who has inherited ramshackle Welldigger's Roost, a seemingly
worthless ranch near Westland. Franciscus (Francisco Rahal), the town's judge,
preacher and sheriff, covets the ranch for himself. The ranch is perched on oil­
rich land and the film ends with a fistfight between Coburn and Franciscus' men,
as oil geysers from the well. Coburn is being pursued by gunslinging pimp Sonny
Bronston (Jack Palance), who drives a rickety mobile brothel. He wants Coburn
to marry his sister, Mary (Dany Saval), who is expecting Coburn's child. Spencer
 Italian Comedy 253

is in fine form in this gentle western send-up. Luis Enriquez Bacalov provided the
parodic score and the bouncy sing-along 'Can Be Done' was performed by Rocky
Roberts (from Django ) . Most of the action was shot on location in the Almerian
desert. Mini Hollywood was Silvertown and De Laurentiis Studios' western set
was Westland. As the film is a spoof of Once Upon a Time in the West, it is fitting
that Leone's Sweetwater homestead is reused here as Welldigger's Roost. In the
German print, entitled Der Dicke in Mexiko, Coburn's horse, Rufus, is dubbed
with a voice so that it can talk.
Spencer returned to Almeria for Michele Lupo's rumbustious comedy west­
ern Buddy Goes West (1980), a virtual remake of Can Be Done. Buddy (Spencer)
and his Native American sidekick, Cocoa (Amidou), find themselves in Yucca
City (Mini Hollywood), where Buddy hides from the law, posing as a doctor. They
also help the local settlers at Leone's Sweetwater ranch against crooked sheriff
Braintree (Joe Bugner), who's in cahoots with outlaw Colorado Slim (Riccardo
Pizzuti) and his gang (Romano Puppo, Lorenzo Fineschi, Giovanni Cianfriglia,
Fortunato Arena and Benito Stefanelli). Morricone provided the score, which
references and parodies his own compositions for Once Upon a Time in the West,
Death Rides a Horse and the 'Nobody' films.
Barboni directed Hill in Man of the East (1972) and Spencer in Even Angels
Eat Beans (1973). Both films were massively popular in Italy. The Yugoslav-shot
Man of the East reteamed Hill with Yanti Somer, as his lover Candida. Hill
played Sir Thomas Moore, a naive Englishman-out-west, who is schooled in
frontier ways by three itinerant outlaws, Bull, Holy Joe and Monkey (Gregory
Walcott, Harry Carey J nr and Dominic Barto). He then confronts Morton Clayton
(Riccardo Pizzuti), his rival for Candida's affections. G & M De Angelis supplied
the sentimental score.
Even Angels Eat Beans was a Depression-era gangster comedy, set
(and partly shot) in New York. Spencer played Charlie Smith, who wrestles
in a black leotard and Santo mask under the pseudonym The Mystery Man.
Giuliano Gemma played budding gangster Sonny. Gemma had proved popular
in the caveman comedy When Women Had Tails (1970, opposite Senta Berger
as a cavegirl with a tail), which spawned When Women Lost Their Tails and
When Women Played Ding Dong (both 1971). Charlie and Sonny fall afoul of
Godfather Angelo (Robert Middleton) - having joined Angelo's 'Family' and
been dispatched to collect protection money, the duo end up helping their
poverty-stricken victims, including grocer Gerace (Steffen Zacharias). Among
the gangsters were Riccardo Pizzuti (henchman Cobra), Pietro Ceccarelli
(Stonehead), Giovanni Cianfriglia (Mack the Knife) and Mario Brega (Angelo's
armourer) . Fortunato Arena played a cop, Victor Israel was informer Judah,
George Wang was Japanese martial artist Naka Taka and Claudio Ruffini played
Jim Baxter, a frantic wrestling referee. The jazzy ragtime score was by G & M De
Angelis, with the title song, 'Angels and Beans' (co-written by Spencer) sung by
'Kathy and Gulliver'.
 The success of Even Angels Eat Beans and the popularity of Paul Newman
and Robert Redford's The Sting (1973) resulted in Sergio Corbucci's The Con
Artists (1976 - High Rollers and The Switch), one of the highest grossing com­
edies of the 1970s in Italy and Corbucci's greatest commercial success. Anthony
Quinn starred as con maestro Philip Bang. His protege Felix was played by dopey,
rubber-faced Italian singer-turned-comedian Adriano Celentano. Bang buys
a swamp and creates a bogus archaeological dig for the mythical Nibelungen
Treasure (the 'find of the century'), including Siegfried's tomb, to con casino
owner Belle Duke (Capucine). Corrine Clery appeared as Bang's wily daughter,
Charlotte. Corbucci shot some of the film in Monte Carlo and the original Italian
title was Bluff - storie di truffe a di imbroglioni [Bluff - Story of Swindles and
Cheats].
Bud Spencer capitalised on his newfound fame with Flatfoot (1973), a vio­
lent cop movie, and played the conman title role in Marcello Fondato's gang­
ster movie Charleston (1978). He appeared as Ettore Fieramosca, a mercenary,
in Soldier of Fortune (1976), a knockabout costume adventure set during the
siege of Barletta in 1503, which was influenced by the medieval comedy L'armata
Brancaleone (1966 - For Love and Gold) starring Vittorio Gassman, Gian Maria
Volonte, Enrico Maria Salerno and Barbara Steele. Spencer also had hits with
films aimed at a juvenile audience, including Michele Lupo's sci-fi comedy The
Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (1979), and he later portrayed the genie in Bruno
Corbucci's modern-day reworking of Aladdin (1986).
Spencer played the title role in Lupo's They Called Him Bulldozer (1978),
which was filmed at Marina Di Pisa, a seaside resort to the west of Pisa. Retired
American football star Bulldozer coaches a bunch of skinny, pasty teenage
thieves and ne'er-do-wells who hang around 'Papa Galeone's Tavern' in the har­
bour, to take on the hulking US Rangers' football team at nearby Camp Durban.
Raimund Harmstorf played Sergeant Kempfer, a bullying Ranger - as Sergeant
Milton he'd tormented Terence Hill in Nobody's the Greatest. Gigi Bonos
appeared as Bulldozer's boat mechanic, Rene Kolldehoff was the camp's colonel,
Nello Pazzafini was a casino bouncer and stuntmen Romano Puppo, Riccardo
Pizzuti, Giovanni Cianfriglia and Claudio Ruffini played Gls. Bulldozer is essen­
tially The Mean Machine-Italian style. Bulldozer retired unexpectedly in 1973
when he discovered match-fixing but joins the fray in the finale, to galvanise his
battered team. The irritating theme song, 'Bulldozer: was performed by 'Oliver
Onions' (G & M De Angelis) and Spencer plays acoustic guitar and sings 'Como
Se Llama'. UK boxer Joe Bugner made his film debut as the Bear, a street thug and
lifeguard who is recruited into Bulldozer's team as a blocker. Although no actor,
Bugner is great at this type of action film and enjoyed a mini career collaborating
with Spencer on several movies.
Meanwhile Terence Hill made a brief break into the international main­
stream in Dick Richards's French Foreign Legion epic March or Die (1977), oppo­
site Gene Hackman, Max Von Sydow, Catherine Deneuve, Ian Holm and Richard
 Italian Comedy 255

Kiel. This led to his first American starring role, Mr. Billion (1977), co-starring
Jackie Gleason, Valerie Perrine, Slim Pickens and Chill Wills, where he played
Guido Falcone, an Italian mechanic who attempts to claim an inheritance.
In Sergio Corbucci's US-shot Supersnooper (1981 - Super Fuzz), rookie
Miami motorcycle cop Dave Speed (Hill) is exposed to red plutonium during a
NASA test blast near Creektown. The explosion endows him with various super­
powers - he can move objects telepathically, run faster than a car, anticipate
future events, fly, catch bullets with his teeth and is indestructible. He makes
Puma Man look pretty paltry. Dave also discovers that his powers are neutralised
by the colour red. Dave and his partner, Officer Willy Dunlop (Ernest Borgnine),
investigate a counterfeiting ring run by gangster Tony Torpedo (Marc Lawrence)
from a fishing vessel, the Barracuda. In the finale, Dave and Willy float to safety
on a giant yellow bubblegum bubble. Corbucci shot on location in Miami,
including the Orange Bowl football ground. The Oceans performed the irksome
disco theme song, 'Supersnooper', composed by Carmelo and Michelangelo La
Bionda. When he isn't in uniform, Hill wears a cowboy hat and chequered shirt
for much of the action, like a western hero. Sal Borgese appeared as Torpedo's
henchman Paradise, Joanne Dru played ageing film star Rosy La Bouche, who is
in cahoots with Torpedo, and Julie Gordon played Willy's niece Evelyn, Dave's
love interest.

Double Trouble
It was as a team that Hill and Spencer had most success. They followed the
'Trinity' films with the disappointing swashbuckler The Black Pirate (1971) and
then reunited with Giuseppe Colizzi for All the Way, Boys! (1972 - Plane Crazy).
Plata (Hill) and Salud (Spencer), two freewheeling pilots, fly freight over the
Amazon jungle. Their scamming boss tells them to crash the plane deliber­
ately, so that he can collect the insurance money, but they really crash and are
marooned in the piranha-infested jungle. They meet miners who scrape a living
digging emeralds for exploitative Mr Ears (Rene Kolldehoff) and decide to start
up their own business. They fix up an old biplane and begin shipping supplies to
the miners, which leads to a clash of interests with Mr Ears.
Since All the Way involves Hill, Spencer, producer Zingarelli and director
Colizzi, the mediocrity is staggering. Shot on location in Colombia, All the Way,
Boys! was butchered for its English language release, from 120 minutes to barely
90, but the resultant incoherence doesn't help the sluggish narrative. Hill and
Spencer are both good - basically as Trinity and Bambino in a plane - but the
material simply puts them through their paces. The irritatingly catchy oom-pah,
oom-pah title song, 'Flying Through the Air', was composed by S. Duncan Smith,
Spencer and the De Angelis brothers. Respected actor Cyril Cusack played Loco,
a lonely old Irish prospector who teams up with the duo and provides the film's
most thoughtful moments. Riccardo Pizzuti played a bar owner and Antoine
Saint-John a German-accented baddie - both are beaten up by the heroes in
Trinityesque fistfights. The exciting opening sequence introduces the heroes fly­
ing their stricken plane - on fire and without brakes - towards a busy airport.
Spencer reads a Popeye comic while Hill dozes, unperturbed. As they career
towards the runway, they leap an oncoming plane and then crash into a hangar,
before emerging unscathed. Unfortunately, this provides the film's last moment
of genuine excitement.
Marcello Fondato's Watch Out, We're Mad! (1973) cast Hill and Spencer
as rival rally drivers Kid and Ben. In a rallycross race, they share first prize: a
bright red Puma dune buggy. Gangster 'The Boss' (John Sharp) and his advisor
the Doctor (Donald Pleasence) plan to take over an amusement park adjacent
to Ben's garage and build a skyscraper. The hoods' gang destroy the duo's dune
buggy. To help the people who work in the park and to get their buggy replaced,
Kid and Ben take on the gangsters. Billed as 'A film ideated by Marcello Fondato'
and filmed on location in Madrid and at De Paolis Studios, Watch Out, We're
Mad! is one of the duo's finest post-Trinity comedies. The plot is an update of
their western plots, with the threatened amusement park staff - including love­
interest tightrope walker Liza (Patty Shepard) - subbing for distressed farmers.
The crime boss sends for Paganini (Manuel De Blas), a virtuoso hitman from
Chicago. He wears a long black coat, carries a violin case concealing a rifle and
resembles a spaghetti western gunman. The duo also joust with a 10-man black­
clad motorcycle hit-squad, which is scored with a Mexican trumpet Deguello.
The film's theme song is the popular pop hit 'Dune Buggy' performed by
'Oliver Onions' (G & M De Angelis), a flatulent, lively footstomper. The heroes'
penchant for beans in the Trinity films becomes a beer and hotdogs-eating con­
test and the finale is a punch up in the gangster's club amid a sea of balloons.
Though the fistfights and bizarre sight gags are equal to their western equivalents
- including a scene where the duo takes on a gym full of boxers - the film really
scores in the car and motorbike chases, which were staged by stunt ace Remy
Julienne. Speedy highlights include the opening cross-country stockcar rally and
a scene when Hill and Spencer drive their red Ford rally car, on fire, through the
city streets into a carwash to extinguish the flames. The heroes plough their car
through the gangster's club, destroying the venue, in the film's most impressively
destructive scene. This was another hit for the duo and continued their winning
streak at the Italian box office.
Franco Rossi's Two Missionaries (1974 - the original Italian title translated
as 'Turn the Other Cheek') didn't receive widespread international release, despite
being produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Filmed in Colombia, it told the story of
two missionaries in the Antilles jungle in 1890 - Father Pedro De Leon (Spencer)
and Father J (Hill) - who come into conflict with an exploitative coffee planta­
tion magnet's henchmen, led by Menendez (Mario Pilar), and the bourgeois
marquis and marquise Gonzaga (Robert Loggia and Maria Cumani Quasimodo).
Eventually the missionaries incite the populace to rebel during a festival cel­
ebrating the oppressive colonial regime, the Fiesta of Conquistadores.
 Italian Comedy 257

TERENCE BUD
HILL SPENCER

Terence Hill and Bud Spencer play rival rally racers Kid and Ben in Marcello Fondato's hit
comedy Watch Out, We're Mad! (1973).

The standard Latin American 'rich-versus-poor' revolution scenario is

lifted by the beautiful location work (some of the action looks like outtakes
from Burn!), by Hill and Spencer's fine performances in atypical roles and by
the period costumes and production design: notably the missionaries' battered
river steamer and the gangways between the jungle villagers' treetop commu­
nity. It is one of the duo's best-looking films, thanks to the widescreen cin­
ematography by Gabor Pogany. Jean-Pierre Aumont was baddie Delgado and
Riccardo Pizzuti was again beaten up as one of Menendez's henchmen. There
is no love interest for Hill or Spencer, which helps the pace, and even the fight
scenes are used sparingly, rather than as the film's raison d'etre: in one scene, a
hammock is used as a catapult. G & M De Angelis provided the upbeat, samba­
flavoured score, with the songs 'Manana' and 'El Barca de San Jose' performed
by Barqueros.
 Mythological Epics 11

one by Les Baxter, and an alternative English language dub. Lavagnino's weird
atonal violins scrape eerily on the soundtrack whenever Kobrak materialises
in a cloud of red smoke. Annabella Incontrera plays Giulia's friend Magda and
Kobrak transforms himself into Maciste's twin. The Macistes fight, with stunt­
man Giovanni Cianfriglia doubling for Scott. Maciste reveals Kobrak's true iden­
tity (a skull-like face) and the vampire is dispatched with an exploding vial of
deadly vapour.
Riccardo Freda's Maciste in Hell (1962 - The Witch's Curse) remains the
wackiest peplum horror. On 1 November 1550 in the Scottish village of Loch
Laird, witch Martha Gaunt is put to the stake by Justice Edgard Parrish (Andrea
Bosic) for having 'Communion with the Devil'. A hundred years hence the locals
are again witch-hunting - women are possessed by madness, while others try to
hang themselves from a cursed tree, which flowers each time Martha Gaunt's
hex claims another victim. Newlyweds Martha and Charles Law (Vira Silenti and
Angelo Zanolli) arrive to take up residence in Martha's ancestral home, until
the locals find out that her maiden name was Gaunt and sentence her to burn.
So unravels the first 18 minutes of Maciste in Hell, made on atmospheric sets at
Incir-De Paolis Studios and at Caldara Di Manziana. Then Maciste (Kirk Morris)
rides in wearing a loincloth and the film swerves abruptly off-track, as he travels
to Hell to convince witch Martha to remove her curse.
The Hell scenes were staged in the caves of Castellana, an underground net­
work of dramatic caverns and corridors with concretions of stalactites and sta­
lagmites. It is still open as a tourist attraction today. Freda bathes these caverns
in red tints, sets fires billowing smoke through them and pits Maciste against a
roster of obstacles: a lion; a troglodyte Goliath (Pietro Ceccarelli) ; a giant stone
being rolled uphill for eternity by Sisyphus (Bosic again) ; laughing, mocking
voices; and a giant eagle which is pecking the entrails of tortured Prometheus
(Remo De Angelis). Further extraordinary sights served up in Freda's Tartarus
are a great fiery iron door (The Gate of Death) and a cattle stampede, in which
Maciste drives a herd off a cliff in a scene animal lovers will shudder at.
Maciste falls in love with beautiful Fania, but she's actually sorceress
Martha, who bewitches him. He forgets his quest and is reminded by replays
of his previous exploits which appear in a pool of water (via clips from Atlas in
the Land of the Cyclops and Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World). Helene
Chanel appeared as both youthful Fania and old hag Martha, and John Karlson
played Loch Laird's mayor. English film critic John Francis Lane, disguised in a
hat and long scarf, appears briefly as the coachman driving the honeymooners.
The hero's name is pronounced Mash-ee-stay, though in view of the Scottish set­
ting perhaps it should have been Mac-Sheest. Carlo Franci's score is a booming
brass arrangement, augmented by an operatic choir who unleash a shrill salvo.
Maciste picks his way through the writhing condemned, tormented by devils,
who seem to have been influenced by Rodin's 'Gates to Hell'. Indestructible
Maciste forges a path of fire through the caves and the whole violent exercise
Globetrotting Adventures
Crime Busters (1977 - Two Supercops) was the team's first attempt to crack the
US market, by setting the action in Miami and filming on location in Florida
(with interiors at Incir-De Paolis, Rome). It reunited Hill and Spencer with direc­
tor Barboni. In Port Everglades, two unemployed drifters - acrobatic Matt Kirby
(Hill) and '18-wheeler' Wilbur Walsh (Spencer) - decide to rob the Grand Union
supermarket but inadvertently enlist in the Miami police force. Zipping through
police training, they are soon star cops and favourites of their superior, Captain
McBride (David Huddleston), when they break up a drug-trafficking ring oper­
ating from the docks and a bowling alley. Luciano Catenacci was the gang's
leader, Fred 'Curly' Cline, and the presence of henchmen Scarface (Riccardo
Pizzuti) and stuntmen Giovanni Cianfriglia, Rocco Lerro, Claudio Ruffini and
Fortunato Arena gives the film a familiar ring. The film's plot strongly resem­
bles Trinity Is Still My Name and once the duo are in uniform, as traffic cops on
Harley Davidsons, the gags flow. The De Angelis brothers provided the score and
the main theme is a countryish honkytonk.
The film's depiction of America offers interesting clues to Italian film­
makers' views on the US, where seemingly everyone's out to make a buck. It's a
country of big shiny cars (most of which get trashed), hotdogs, fries in polysty­
rene cups, American football and bowling alleys. The heroes live on hamburg­
ers, but with all the fight scenes they also take plenty of exercise. The mayhem
escalated in the duo's films throughout the 1970s and the destruction became
more grandiose, but they never lost sight of their Laurel and Hardy inspira­
tion: 'A fine mess you made !' Hill tells Spencer when they accidentally smash
the doors off their squad car. In a cafe scrape they take on toughs led by whip­
wielding Ezio Marano (from They Call Me Trinity) and in the Miami Orange
Bowl stadium they beat up a gang of cowboys led by hippy Geronimo (Luciano
Rossi, also from Trinity) in a Grid Iron football parody. The big finale is a free­
for-all in the Bird Bowl bowling alley, with Spencer sending the baddies skid­
ding down the bowling lanes. Hill and Spencer are on top form here, and there
are several in-jokes - Matt explains that he was born in Venice (as Hill was in
real life) and six-feet-five-inch Spencer asks for an XXXXL uniform - Spencer
starred as 'Detective Extralarge' on TV. Hill's love interest is Chinese Susy Lee
(Laura Gemser, the star of countless Emmanuelle rip-offs) and her Chinese fam­
ily christen the heroes 'The Great Dragon and the Tiger Cub'. The partnership
'cast one big shadow' and the film proved popular, even in the US on its release
in 1980.
In Sergio Corbucci's Odds and Evens (1978), Lieutenant Johnny Firpo (Hill),
a naval intelligence officer, investigates organised crime's control of gambling in
Miami. He enlists the help of his half-brother, Charlie Firpo (Spencer), a card
sharp and gambler. They take on the mob in a series of gambling challenges
until Johnny faces chief villain The Greek (Luciano Catenacci) in a game of high­
stakes poker aboard the villain's yacht.
 Italian Comedy 259

Odds and Evens is where the rot began to set in. Hill is allowed to over­
act as hyperactive buffoon Johnny, with mugging and face-pulling, especially
in an embarrassing scene where he talks 'Dolphinese'. The duo's meal of choice
is beans and onions and the protracted fight scenes have become a hindrance
to the overlong plot, which takes over half of its 112-minute running time to get
going. When Hill sits down to play poker with four Italian stuntmen, you just
know someone's going to end up bruised. The funky, synthesiser disco score by
G & M De Angelis doesn't help. Spencer at one point appears dressed as a baby,
complete with bonnet and dummy. Not to be outdone, Hill hitchhikes disguised
as a nun.
Odds was filmed on sunny locales in Miami, Florida (including the Orange
Bowl and the Seaquarium) and at De Paolis, Rome. The duo take on the Greek's
gang and wreck a floating casino. There's a demolition derby, powerboat rac­
ing and even some speeded-up slapping. Woody Woodbury played Admiral
O'Connor, Johnny's father, and TV comic Jerry Lester played Mike Firpo, Charlie's
dad, who in a running 'gag' pretends to be blind. In a schmaltzy ending, the
heroes' winnings save Sister Susanna's (Marisa Laurito) orphanage from closure.
A success in Italy, the film was also a massive hit in Germany where the duo had
a sizeable following, but there's no concealing the fact that, eight years after the
Trinity films, they were still reusing the same plot.
I'm for the Hippopotamus (1979) was directed by 'Trinity' producer
Italo Zingarelli and was filmed in Africa, which provided a welcome change
of locale for the duo. This may have been inspired by Michele Lupo's popular
Africa Express (1975) which saw John Baxter (Giuliano Gemma), nun Madeline
(Ursula Andress) and Biba the Chimp up against ivory trader Robert Preston
(Jack Palance), a Nazi war criminal. In Hippopotamus, Slim (Hill) and his cousin
Tom (Spencer) tackle game hunters and ivory traffickers, led by ex-boxer Jack
'Hammer' Ormond (ex-boxer Joe Bugner), who is shipping animals to collectors
in Ontario. The duo take on Ormond's pugnacious, idiot henchmen in set-piece
after thumping set-piece. Remy Julienne performed the vehicle stunts, which
include a jeep leaping into a river and a chase between a lorry and Tom's mul­
ticoloured, antique tourist bus. Tom runs safaris for big game hunters (but he
substitutes their bullets for blanks) and is in league with local native Senghor
(Sandy Nkomo ), who sells fake 'tribal artefacts' to unsuspecting tourists. Dawn
Jurgens played Senghor's daughter, Stella (Slim's love interest), and Ben Masinga
was Dr Jason, a butterfly collector. Walter Rizzati composed the buoyant score ­
especially memorable is the ecological theme song, 'Grau Grau Grau', which is
also performed by Spencer during the film.
Hippopotamus has some trademark Hill and Spencer moments: Slim and
Tom enjoy a posh meal at Ormond's estate (Slim devours a lobster, shell, claws
and all); in a casino Slim demonstrates some dextrous card shuffling; and a jail­
break has Slim spring Tom with a bulldozer. The finale features Ormond herd­
ing dozens of animals aboard a river steamer and Slim and Tom releasing them
back into the wild, which results in a memorable stampede of ostrich, zebra and
impala. Ormond's men jump into the crocodile-infested river rather than face
the heroes. Cut by 10 minutes on some DVD releases, the UK video is uncut at
104 minutes.
The title of Sergio Corbucci's Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981)
was inspired by a line uttered by Hill to Spencer in Crime Busters. The excruciat­
ing reggae theme song, 'Movin' Cruisin', composed by Carmelo and Michelangelo
La Bionda and sung by The Oceans prepares the audience for what follows. This
is possibly the duo's career nadir and a sorry entry in Corbucci's filmography.
Alan (Hill) is on the run from mobster Frisco Joe (Salvatore Basile) and his gang
(including Riccardo Pizzuti and Giovanni Cianfriglia) . Alan stows away on Charlie
O'Brien's sailboat, the Puffin - Charlie (Spencer) is single-handedly attempting
to circumnavigate the globe, but Alan has a map from his uncle Brady (Herbie
Goldstein), which indicates a treasure buried on a South Pacific island.
Alan and Charlie end up marooned on the island, named Bongo Bongo.
Before you can say 'embarrassingly offensive racial stereotypes', Alan and Charlie
encounter a tribe of natives, including Queen Mama (Luise Bennett) and Chief
Anulu (stuntman Sal Borgese, in an afro wig, grass necklace and loincloth) . The
duo find that the treasure is buried in a stockade defended by Kamasuka (John
Fujoka), a Japanese hold-out who thinks World War II is still raging. Alan and
Charlie, dressed in US army surplus kit, drive a vintage Type 95 KE-GO Japanese
tank at the stockade. The film's lowlights include a band of slaver pirates from
Barracuda dressed in leather bondage gear, caps and chaps. Alan and Charlie
find over $300 million but hand it over to the US army when they are told it's
counterfeit: it isn't. The film was retitled Keep Your Hands off the Island in the US
and the best gag is the spoof ending which thanks the people and authorities of
'The Island' for their 'courteous and generous collaboration' and states that the
filmmakers have promised never to reveal the location of this unspoiled para­
dise. The film was made at Key Biscayne, Florida, south of Miami.
Back with Barboni for Go for It (1983), Hill and Spencer were also reunited
with David Huddleston from Crime Busters. In a replay of Trinity Is Still My
Name, 'roller-bum' Roscoe Fraser (Hill), a roller-skating hitchhiker, and recently
released convict Doug O'Riordan (Spencer) are mistaken for truck hijackers,
then for CIA operatives 'Steinberg' and 'Mason'. Huddleston plays their CIA
chief, the Tiger. The twosome are assigned to break up a ring of crooks who are
fleecing rich tourists on Miami Beach. Posing as Texan millionaires, Roscoe and
Doug arrive in town driving a gold Lincoln Continental, with longhorns on the
hood and towing a cow ('Calamity Jane') in a trailer. The crooks, led by Dr Spider
(Riccardo Pizzuti) and his vampish moll (stuntwoman Faith Minton), are work­
ing with crime overlord K1 (Buffy Dee), who plans to blow up the Space Shuttle
with the K-bomb and release a cloud of radiation.
Go for It is proof that the Hill-Spencer comedy team worked best with
Barboni. With an above-average script and a coherent plot, the duo are visibly
 Italian Comedy 261

reinvigorated by this spy spoof. There are several good gags involving Roscoe's
skills as a ventriloquist. The score was provided by Franco Micalizzi and the title
song, 'In the Middle of That Trouble Again', is an up-tempo country twang sung
by A. Douglas Meakin. Barboni shot on location in Miami - the heroes check
into the luxury Fontainbleau Hilton Resort at Miami Beach. During a scene at
Miami's Seaquarium, Hill and Spencer take on a gang of Chinese assassins led
by Charlie Chan (Jeff Moldovan) and black-suited Mafia hitmen. The pratfalls
and face-pulling are kept to the minimum and superior sight gags prevail. The
agents are kitted out with a gadget-laden bullet-proof car, a spray that makes
even Spencer irresistible to women and super-strength toilet paper. The villains'
henchmen wear t-shirts emblazoned 'I L¥ VE K1' and in the film's most Bondian
moment, a beautiful barmaid (Susan Teesdale) attempts to kill Roscoe with an
exploding cocktail and escapes by paragliding behind a speedboat, with Roscoe
in hot pursuit on a jet ski.
Each Hill and Spencer teaming had an angle - there's the one where they
play stockcar drivers, the one where they play priests, or crooks-turned-cops, or
pilots, or pirates. In Barboni's Double Trouble (1984) they play themselves. In
Rio De Janeiro, two of the richest men in the world, the Coimbra cousins Bastiano
and Antonio (Hill and Spencer), are being targeted by mobsters led by hitman
Tango (Nello Pazzafini), who don't want them to sign an important business
contract. Two look-alikes - stuntman Elliot Vance (Hill) and sax-playing New
Orleans ex-con Greg Wonder (Spencer) - are hired as diversionary bait. They
must impersonate the millionaires for seven days, for $1.5 million each. Elliot
and Greg's public brawling makes the papers and the millionaires decide that
their reputations are being sullied ('I'll never be able to show my face at the yacht
club again', moans Antonio), so they fly from hiding in New York to Rio, as a gang
of heavily armed mercenaries are employed to kill the cousins. The climax is a
massed fight, with the two cousins and their doubles against Commander Van
Der Bosch (Dary Reis) and his camouflaged dogs of war mercenaries, who have
parodic names like Apocalypse, Sulphurhead, Cobra, Mamba and Rattler. The
setting for this fight is the stables of the millionaires' country villa in San Jose.
The villain behind the assassination attempts is revealed to be Bastiano's lover,
Dofia Olympia Chavez (April Clough from Crime Busters), because Antonio has
financially ruined her father.
Double Trouble was shot on location in Rio, including Christ the Redeemer's
statue and Sugar Loaf Mountain in Guanabara Bay. Carnivalesque local colour
is established via smoky clubs, booty-shaking extras and a Samba-flavoured
score courtesy of Franco Micalizzi, including the song 'Samba e Alegria'. Hill
and Spencer enjoy themselves as the two slovenly impersonators, dressed in top
hats and evening suits, driving luxury limousines and living in the lap of luxury.
Split-screen effects enable all four protagonists to appear together. In one of Hill
and Spencer's most famous moments, they emerge from their white limo in wet
suits (as Elliot and Greg) and waddle across the beach to a dinghy, to travel to a
mobster's island hideout. Double Trouble is the only Hill and Spencer vehicle to
reference British PM Margaret Thatcher - their look-alike agency have provided
doubles for many politicians, including Roosevelt, Churchill, Reagan, Thatcher
and Stalin. UK home video prints slightly tone down the violence (according to
the BBFC, 'ear claps' were removed from the fight scenes) to gain a PG rating.

The End of the Partnership

The title sequence of Miami Supercops (1985) suggests a knockabout comedy.
Accompanied by frenetic, punchy synthesiser disco (courtesy of Carmelo and
Michelangelo La Bionda), it depicts the sights of Miami: dolphins, speedboats,
horse and greyhound races, baseball, beach babes, jet skis and performing par­
rots riding miniature bicycles and roller-skating. But this is no juvenile comedy ­
the duo are older, wiser and tougher and are much more likely to settle disputes
with guns rather than fists. New York cop Doug Bennett (Hill) is contacted by

In Bruno Corbucci's Miami Supercops (1985), Doug Bennett (Terence Hill) and Steve Forest
(Bud Spencer) cause havoc when they go undercover as 'Jess Donnell' and 'L.A. Ray' in the
Hialeah Police Force.
 Italian Comedy 263

his old boss Chief Tanney (C.B. Seay) in the Hialeah Police Department, near
Miami. Felon Joe Garret (Richard Liberty) has been released from prison. He
perpetrated the only case Bennett didn't crack during his time with Tanney: the
$2o million robbery of the Detroit First National Bank. Bennett travels to Miami
to recruit his old partner Steve Forest (Spencer), now a helicopter instructor in
Tampa. Bennett and Forest go undercover on the Hialeah Police Force as uni­
formed cops - Officers Jess Donnell (Hill) and L.A. Ray (Spencer) - and investi­
gate a trail of dead bodies. Garrett is killed and Garret's partner-in-crime, Ralph
Duran, thought to have died in a fire in 1978, is still very much alive. He's had
cosmetic surgery and is now Cuban ex-pat businessman Robert Delmann (Ken
Ceresne), a wealthy Miami construction magnate.
Miami Supercops is more violent than any other Hill and Spencer comedy,
courtesy of director Bruno Corbucci, who made his name with Tomas Milian's
poliziotteschi. Spencer and Milian had co-starred in Corbucci's Florida-set com­
edy Cats and Dogs (1983), which is notable for Milian's hilarious turn as rock 'n'
roll lothario and jewellery thief Tony Roma. Supercops was a 15 certificate in the
UK, rather than Hill and Spencer's usual PG or U rating. The duo's mismatched
buddy cop routine works well, though admittedly by now they've had enough
practice. Spencer calls Hill 'Blue Eyes' (a signature of their films together) with
reference to Hill's baby blues. Bennett foils a gunsmith hold-up by posing as a
mannequin and the duo effortlessly apprehend bus hijackers. The film was shot
on location in Florida, with a trip to the Orange Bowl (for a subplot detailing
the kidnapping of a star quarterback) and the football squad stay at the Seville
Beach Hotel, Miami. Miami Supercops makes you wonder why Hill and Spencer
didn't make more crime films like this, with the comedy taking a back seat to
the action. The car stunt pyrotechnics were co-ordinated by Mike Warren. Hill's
love interest was informant Irene (Jackie Castellano), who turns out to be FBI
special agent Irene Allen, while Spencer courts muscly trucker Annabel (Rhonda
S. Lundstead) ; they bond over arm wrestling. William 'Bo' Jim played Native
America muscleman Charro, a former cellmate of Garret's in San Quentin, whose
Indian saying may be the credo for Hill and Spencer's screen partnership: 'All the
money in the world ain't worth a friend'.
By the early 198os, Hill was also running his production company, Paloma
Films. He starred for Barboni in the contemporary western road movie Renegade
(1987 - They Call Me Renegade) as drifter Luke and produced and directed
Lucky Luke (1991), a live-action version of Goscinny and Morris's cartoon strip,
which was scripted by his wife, Lori Hill. Sheriff Lucky Luke (Hill, wearing a
long duster, like 'Nobody') and his smart-aleck white horse Jolly Jumper (voiced
by Roger Miller, from Disney's Robin Hood) save Daisy Town from the four vil­
lainous Dalton brothers. Nancy Morgan played saloon gal Lotta Legs and Neil
Summers (from My Name Is Nobody) was Luke's deputy, Virgil. It was filmed
on location in New Mexico and Arizona (including Santa Fe, White Sands and
Monument Valley) . Luke is quicker on the draw than his own shadow and much
of the action resembles the Trinity films. David Grover and Aaron Schroder's
countryish score reinforces this, though the soundtrack also uses uncredited
cues from Morricone's The Big Gundown and My Name Is Nobody. The film's
best gag involves a spaghetti western gunfight between Luke and the Daltons,
which features a parody of the persistent fly in Once Upon a Time in the West. An
ambling, silly film, Lucky Luke spawned an eight-episode TV series in 1992, also
called Lucky Luke and starring Hill.
Hill and Spencer reunited for The Troublemakers (1994), the last roundup
for the duo, scripted by Hill's son, Jess, and produced by Spencer's son, Giuseppe
Pedersoli. It was filmed under the working title The Fight before Christmas. Hill
(who also directed) played conman Travis. Spencer was his bounty-hunting
brother, Moses, who has a wife and ten children to provide for. The two war­
ring brothers unite for Christmas at the ranch of their 'Maw' (Ruth Buzzi). Neil
Summers played bad guy Dodge and Anne Kasprik was Travis' love interest,
German veterinarian Bridget. The film was shot on location in New Mexico,
including White Sands, the Bonanza Creek Ranch and the Eaves Movie Ranch
(as the town of Cross Roads) . Pino Donaggio provided the heroic score and Terry
Nunn from band Berlin belted out the end title's rock song, 'I'm Coming Home'.
The film depicts the duo's manhunt for outlaw Sam Stone (Boots Southerland)
but Travis and Moses are Trinity and Bambino in all but name - they even devour
pans of beans.
The Christmas Eve climax at Maw's ranch features one final punch-up for
the duo, stunt co-ordinated by Giorgio Ubaldi. The unconscious, beaten villains'
bodies decorate a giant prairie Christmas tree topped with a Catherine Wheel
star. This belated spaghetti western has its moments, especially during a parody
of the hangings from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Moses is about to be exe­
cuted. As Travis levels his Winchester to shoot the rope, a dog ravages his leg and
distracts him. When Moses plunges through the trap door, his weight demol­
ishes the scaffold. Spencer wore a huge shaggy sheepskin jerkin and bowler hat
(as in the Colizzi westerns) and Hill donned a long duster coat (from the Nobody
films), in homage to their western teamings all those years ago. Troublemakers
isn't vintage Hill and Spencer, but it's not bad either, though it has proved to be
their last foray as a duo.
Hill and Spencer's comedic style is not to everyone's taste but there is no
denying their onscreen chemistry. The partnership has entertained audiences for
over 40 years and continues to do so even today. In the early 198os, home video
brought Hill and Spencer's humour to a new audience. In the UK, Warner Home
Video released Gofor It and Crime Busters in big-box editions and Embassy Home
Entertainment put the Trinities on rental shelves. Medusa Home Video released
I'm for the Hippopotamus (plus Hill's 'Nobody' films) and RCA/Columbia com­
piled 'The Hollywood Spencer-Hill Collection', which featured Watch Out, We're
Mad!, Odds and Evens, Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure, Double Trouble and
Miami Supercops. These knockout comedies were staples of any self-respecting
 Italian Comedy 2 65

video rental store. Even today Hill and Spencer's entire oeuvre is available on
DVD and videocassette - it'll take more than fashion and good taste to keep this
duo down. In May 2010 they received lifetime achievement David Di Donatello
Awards, to celebrate their long and successful careers. Like Toto and Franchi and
Ingrassia before them, Hill and Spencer have finally seen their accomplishments
acknowledged by Italian cinema's 'establishment'.
 Splats Entertainment
Italian Cinema Eats Itself

T
he 1970s saw a gradual decline in Italian film production. Adriano Celen­
tano had several huge-grossing comedy hits, but they weren't distributed
internationally - most weren't even dubbed into English, as the big hitters in
Hollywood began to dictate what was seen in the global entertainment market.
Sex comedies became popular in Italy, with Edwige Fenech the most admired
star, but they too failed to garner international success. After an initial surge of
interest, demand for gialli and poliziotteschi wilted off domestically, and spa­
ghetti westerns also fell out of favour. But the 1970s and the early 198os produced
its fair share of interesting genres. There was a sword and sandal revival in the
wake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Conan' films, post-apocalyptic films aping the
Mel Gibson vehicle Mad Max 2, street gang warfare inspired by Walter Hill's The
Warriors and mercenary jungle warfare movies derived from The Wild Geese
and Apocalypse Now. The 'zombie' sub-genre traded on the success of George
A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1979) and
'mondo' movies graphically depicted cultures around the world. And Italian cin­
ema created its own infamous addition to horror, with sickening cannibal mov­
ies - a moment when Italian cinema quite literally ate itself.

Western Adios
In an effort to revamp Italian westerns in the early 1970s, martial arts action
was added, creating 'east-meets-westerns' such as Terence Young's Red Sun
(1971 - with Charles Bronson and Toshir6 Mifune) and Antonio Margheriti's The
Stranger and the Gunfighter (1974 - Blood Money, starring Lee Van Cleef and Lo
Lieh). Mario Caiano's The Fighting Fist ofShangai joe (1973 - To Kill or to Die),
a kung fu movie set in the American south-west, is essentially 'Enter the Lizard'.
In 1882, Chinese martial arts expert Chin Ho (Chen Lee) dreams of becoming
a cowboy and heads east from San Francisco. 'Shangai Joe' is a pejorative term
 I I I

The Season's Most Argued About Film: US poster for Gualtiero Jacopetti's controversial Mondo
cane (1962). Poster courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 269

used for Chin by the racist cowpokes he encounters. Chin works for powerful
Texan rancher Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli) but discovers Spencer's smuggling
Mexican peons across the border as slave labour. Spencer puts a ss,ooo bounty
on Chin's head and hires four notorious killers: Pedro the Cannibal (Robert
Hundar), undertaker Burying Sam (Gordon Mitchell), Tricky the Gambler
(Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and Scalping Jack (Klaus Kinski, wearing a knife-lined
jacket). Chin dispatches them in turn with boiling rice, a spiked mantrap, eye­
socket tearing martial arts and disembowelling knives. Spencer contacts Chin's
old nemesis Mijuka (Katsutoshi Mikuriya), who faces Chin in a Yojimbo/Fistful of
Dollars-style showdown on De Paolis Studio's western town set. Shangai joe has
a great score by Bruno Nicolai, which recycles cues from Have a Good Funeral,
Amigo ... Sartana Will Pay (1970). With plenty of gory kung fu action, the film
stays close to its Chinese martial arts movie roots and is Caiano's best western.
A gloomier strain of Italian westerns also emerged, dubbed 'crepuscolo'
(twilight) westerns, which took the mud, rain and fog of Sergio Corbucci's anti­
westerns and added a feudal atmosphere of medieval primitivism and ever more
excessive violence. Lucio Fulci's Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse (1975) was the
most extreme example, with Tomas Milian's outlaw Chaco torturing and raping
his way through a party of travellers, including Fabio Testi, Lynne Frederick and
Michael J. Pollard. Michele Lupo's pensive California (1977) was a death rattle from
the genre set in a ruined, post-Civil War west (filmed in Manziana and Almeria).
California (Giuliano Gemma) finds himself up against bounty hunter Whittaker
(Raimund Harmstorf) and his cohorts (Romano Puppo and Robert Hundar)
Enzo G. Castellari's Keoma (1976 - The Violent Breed, Django Rides Again
and Django's Great Return) starred Franco Nero as Keoma, a 'half-breed' Native
American who is raised by rancher Shannon (William Berger). Following the
Civil War, Keoma returns to his plague-wracked hometown of Skidoo City (the
Elios Studios set), which is now ruled by Caldwell (Donal O'Brien). Keoma con­
fronts his three stepbrothers - Butch (Orso Maria Guerrini), Lenny (Antonio
Marsina) and Sam ('Joshua Sinclair' /Gianni Loffredo) - and when Caldwell mur­
ders Shannon, the trio blame Keoma. They kill Caldwell and take over the town,
triggering a confrontation with Keoma.
Keoma was originally envisioned as a sequel to Corbucci's Django and was
based on a story by actor Luigi Montefiori. There was no need to redress the
Elios Studios western town set, as Corbucci had in 1966. As the western fad died,
so did Elios and the set was in ruinous disrepair. Castellari filmed his location
scenes at Camposecco, near Camerata Nuovo, Lazio and in the misty high coun­
try of Campo Imperatore, near L'Aquila in the Abruzzo National Park. Woody
Strode played bowman George (Keoma's mentor) who is driven to alcoholism in
Skidoo City's troubled times. Olga Karlatos played expectant mother Lisa, whom
Keoma protects from Caldwell and who dies in childbirth. Throughout the film a
witch (Gabrielle Giacobbe) makes a series of unnerving appearances, as though
controlling Keoma's fate.
 Nero gives a very different performance to his other western portrayals and
Keoma's primary motivation is to help others. Castellari said, 'I think that to have
an actor like Franco Nero is one of the best things that can happen to a direc­
tor . . . if it had been possible, I would have made all my films with him'. If Keoma
has a failing it is its weird score by G & M De Angelis, which deploys haunting
songs to narrate the action. 'Keoma' and 'In Front of My Desperation' are per­
formed by Sybil and Guy - her voice quiveringly shrill, his a froggy croak. For
the stylised action scenes, Castellari imitated Sam Peckinpah's style, distending
death throws into a blood-spurting ballet. The bad guys spin and twist from bul­
let impacts in slow motion - there are more pirouettes in Keoma than in Swan
Lake. A moderate success in Italy at the time, Keoma has since seen its reputa­
tion grow considerably, though its gloomy style fiercely divides aficionados.
In Sergio Martino's superior A Man Called Blade (1977 - Mannaja ), Maurizio
Merli played the tomahawk-throwing Blade (Mannaja in the Italian print), who
arrives in the decrepit town of Suttonville (the Elias set) to take revenge on the
man who caused the death of his father, Gerald Merton (Rik Battaglia) . The culprit
is wheelchair-bound mine owner McGowan (Philippe Leroy). McGowan's hench­
man Voller (John Steiner) covets McGowan's empire and arranges for McGowan's
daughter, Deborah (Sonia Jeanine), to be kidnapped by outlaw Allman (Antonio
Casale). Blade is recruited by McGowan to get her back.
G & M De Angelis provided another doom-laden wailing harmonica and
twanging guitar score, including the song 'Snake' by Dandylion. Merli's Blade,
a solitary man, looks the part and Martino's deliberate pacing is right for this
fatalistic morality tale. The murky, muddy cinematography also helps. Blade was
shot on location in wintry Lazio, at Camposecco, in a valley at Tolfa, at Caldara
Di Manziana and the quarries of Magliana. A subplot has Blade buried in a rock
fall and being nursed back to health by a party of travelling prostitutes and their
pimp, Johnny Johnny (Salvatore Puntillo ). Steiner, dressed in a black cape and
leading two snarling Dobermans, is a fine villain. As with Keoma, the violence
is strong: the prostitutes are flogged in the main street of Suttonville by Voller's
men and outlaw Burt Craven (Donal O'Brien) is apprehended in a swamp when
Blade severs his gun hand with a throwing axe. Blade is buried up to his neck
and has his eyelids pinned open in the hot sun. This leaves him temporarily
blind, but he recovers for the final showdown, where he dispatches Voller with a
hatchet to the chest.
The title of Monte Hellman's China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) refers to a signpost
between two towns. In China, condemned gunfighter Clayton Drumm (Fabio
Testi) is released from jail. He's offered an amnesty and bounty reward by rail­
road boss Williams (Luis Prendes) if he kills farmer Matthew Sebanek (Warren
Oates), whose land stalls the progress of the Great Texas Railroad. When Clayton
arrives to kill the farmer, he falls in love with Matthew's wife, Catherine (Jenny
Agutter) . She stabs her husband and the two lovers head toward the town of
Liberty. But Matthew survives and with his brothers, he sets out after Clayton,
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 271

who is also now the target of Williams' railroad hired guns - their boss doesn't
want to pay up for Matthew's murder.
Photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno in a twilit Almeria, China 9 is a mel­
ancholic, low-key anti-western. Hellman movingly dedicated the film to his
father and it shares themes and settings with Leone's Once Upon a Time in the
West (the railroad regulators, the picnic tables at Sebanek's farm, the Almerian
desert) and the westerns of Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah himself appears, dressed
in a long duster coat, as ageing dime novelist Wilbur Olsen, who offers to buy
Clayton's story. China and Liberty are played by the Texas-Hollywood town,
while a Mexican settlement is the pueblo district of the same set (with interiors
at DEAR Studios, Rome). In the final ambush of Matthew and Catherine at their
farm by Williams' regulators, Clayton intervenes with some accurate Sharps
rifle marksmanship and then departs. Matthew and Catherine torch their ranch
and move on, a symbolic new beginning - the opposite of most westerns, which
see the creation of a home. The film was also released as Clayton Drumm and
Clayton and Catherine. Most prints cut Agutter's nude scenes, some violence and
a sex scene. The score was by Pino Donaggio, who incorporated a lazy harmonica
cue, romantic orchestrations and the aching 'China 9 Love Ballad' performed by
singer Ronee Blakley (from Robert Altman's Nashville) .

Klondike Gold Fever: Towers and London

Italy also produced a popular series of snowbound Klondike pseudo-westerns
based on Jack London's novels Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).
The Call of the Wild (1973) was the cinematographic equivalent of spread bet­
ting. It was a UK-Italian-West German-Spanish-French co-production - pro­
duced by Harry Alan Towers and directed by Ken Annakin - shot on location
in Norway and Spain. The film told the story of Alsatian Buck, a Californian
house dog who finds himself in the Yukon Gold Rush pulling Charlton Heston's
sled. Heston starred as John Thornton, who with his partner Pete (Raimund
Harmstorf) transports the mail on an arduous 6oo-mile trek from Skagway
port to boomtown Dawson City. Thornton falls for saloon proprietor Calliope
Laurent (Michele Mercier) and falls foul ofliquor importer Black Burton ('George
Eastman' /Luigi Montefiori). Buck survives various adventures and owners and
eventually settles down with a she-wolf for the fadeout, after Thornton and Pete
are killed by Indians. Maria Rohm played a spoilt heiress, Rik Battaglia played
dog trader Dutch Harry and Sancho Gracia was Pete's gold-prospecting partner,
Taglish Charlie, who tells tales of Yellow Moon (a mythical gold deposit). The
dog fights and general barbarity towards Buck make the film a little strong for
its UK 'PG' rating. The spectacular scenery, good pace and intelligent script lift
it above other Yukon entries. Carlo Rustichelli's romantic score adds to the film's
epic feel and Call of the Wild was a great success in Italy. During this period,
successful producer Towers also bankrolled a boisterous adaptation of the buc­
caneering tale Treasure Island (1972) starring Orson Welles as peg-legged Long
John Silver, alongside Lionel Stander, Rik Battaglia, Aldo Sambrell and Angel
Del Pozo. Welles also co-scripted as 'O.W. Jeeves'.
Towers returned to the Yukon for Lucio Fulci's White Fang (1973). The story
begins where Call of the Wild left off, with old Buck dying and his son - half-dog,
half-wolf - being adopted by Indian Charlie (Daniel Martin) and his son, Mitsah
(Missaela Chiappetta). They christen him White Fang. When Mitsah falls into a
lake, Charlie takes him to Dawson City for treatment at a hospital run by Sister
Evangelina (Virna Lisi). Charlie is stabbed to death by Chester (Daniele Dublino),
a henchman of town tyrant Beauty Smith (John Steiner), and Mitsah and White
Fang are adopted by journalist Jason Scott (Franco Nero) and Evangelina. Smith
has been buying the miners' gold with worthless promissory notes. When gold is
discovered in Nome, Smith's deception is discovered and he's killed in an explo­
sion as he blows up a dam.
Nero is teamed with mining representative Kurt Jansen (Raimund
Harmstorf). Fernando Rey played Dawson's alcoholic parson, Oatley, Carole
Andre was his daughter, saloon singer Krista, Rik Battaglia was Hall (Smith's
henchman) and Maurice Poli and John Bartho were Mounties. With spectacu­
lar snowbound locations in Norway, Spain and Italy, and interiors at Cinecitta,
White Fang is the best of the Klondike crop. Rustichelli again provided a rousing,
traditional score. Fulci, a director better known for his bloody horror movies,
crafted an 'adult' family adventure film. The bloody dog fights, particularly in
scenes where Fang is pitted against Satan (Smith's vicious black hound) and a
bear, are realistically staged and are not suitable for children. White Fang was
a smash in Italy (it took almost 2 . 5 billion lira) and spawned The Challenge to
White Fang (1974), again directed by Fulci, which reused many of the same cast
and resurrected villain Beauty Smith (Steiner again) .
Tonino Ricci, Fulci's second unit director on the 'White Fang' movies, took
the helm for White Fang to the Rescue (1974) . Exteriors were filmed in the
snowscape of Cortina D'Ampezzo (from The Big Silence). Interiors were filmed
at De Paolis and the mining town of Shelby was the ATC Studios western set,
dressed with fake snow. Burt Holloway (Maurizio Merli), a miner, lives in the
wilderness with his partner, Ben Dover, and their dog, White Fang. When Ben
is murdered by ruffians (Donal O'Brien and Luciano Rossi), Burt assumes Ben's
identity as he searches for his friend's killers. Ben's son, Kim, arrives to live with
his father and Burt adopts the boy. Burt also becomes involved with saloon pro­
prietor Katie (Gisela Hahn) and is falsely accused of Ben's murder. The villains
steal a treasure map, kidnap Kim and set off to locate Ben's gold strike. The film's
heavies were Nelson (Henry Silva) and his sidekick Jackson (Benito Stefanelli) .
Riccardo Pizzuti and Pietro Torrisi featured in Nelson's gang and Renzo Palmer
played an Irish Mountie sergeant. The music was composed by Rustichelli and
stunt dog Saccha played Fang, who in one brutal scene convincingly fights a bear
(Canadian performing bear Bobo). Fang also crashes through a glass window, a
stunt trademark of the Italian Klondike films. The film's opening scene, when
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 273

Ben is ambushed, resembles The Big Silence re-imagined as a Lassie film. Fang
saves Kim in the cliffhanging finale but falls into a raging torrent. Kim is now the
rich owner of a gold mine, but like all boys all he really cares about is his missing
dog, which makes Fang's reappearance (limping into town in the denouement)
more effective.
Gianfranco Baldanello's The Great Adventure (1975 - Cry of the Wolf)
starred Joan Collins as Last Chance saloon singer Sonia Kendall and Jack Palance
as Dawson City town tyrant William Bates. Palance is the best Klondike villain
in these Italian adventures. The climax has Bates employ three specialists from
Circle City (a gunman, a dynamiter and a safecracker) to clean out the Dawson
bank on Christmas Day. The film was shot in Spain, with the Madrid 70 western
set at Alcobendas deployed as Dawson. Manuel De Blas and Remo De Angelis
were the heroic brothers John and Hank McKenzie, who help young orphans
Jim and Mary Chambers (freckle-faced Fred Romer and forthright Elisabeth
Virgil) set up a newspaper, The Nugget. Jose Canalejas was Bates' henchman and
Riccardo Palacios played Irish bartender Charlie. Wolf-dog Buck contributed
his usual doggy heroics - some of the shots of him running with a wolf pack
harassing caribou are stock footage from Call of the Wild. The beautiful snows­
capes, howling wolves and Stelvio Cipriani's score (which recycles cues from
The Stranger Returns) create a fine atmosphere for this undemanding, event­
ful 'north-western'. Only the saccharin ballad 'The Sound of the Wild' sung by
Joseph Allegro marks the film out as juvenile fare.

Apocalypse Now: Before and After the Bomb

Following in the tyre tracks of the futuristic Mad Max 2 (1981 - The Road Warrior)
and also influenced by The Warriors (1979) and Escape from New York (1981),
came the last gasp of Italian sci-fi. Enzo G. Castellari made three anarchic mov­
ies with producer Fabrizio De Angelis: 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982 - Bronx
Warriors), its sequel Escape from the Bronx (1983 - Bronx Warriors 2 and Escape
2000) and The New Barbarians (1983 - Warriors of the Wasteland).
1990: The Bronx Warriors begins with Ann Fisher (Stefania Girolami,
Castellari's daughter), a wealthy heiress, fleeing Manhattan to the Bronx. By 1990,
the borough has been declared a 'no man's land' and is ruled by biker gang the
Riders, led by Trash (Mark Gregory). Ann falls in love with Trash, which angers
his lieutenant Ice (Gianni Loffredo). Ann is approaching her eighteenth birthday
and is about to inherit the Manhattan Corporation, a global arms manufacturer.
Her father, Samuel Fisher (Castellari's brother, Enio Girolami), and Farley, the
company's vice-president (Castellari himself), send in rogue cop Hammer (Vic
Morrow) to get her back. Things are complicated when Ann is kidnapped by the
Zombies, led by Golan (George Eastman), so Trash and Ogre (black action icon
Fred Williamson) join forces to save her.
Bronx Warriors, Castellari's most sustained piece of insanity, is backed by
an atmospheric urban synth score by Walter Rizzati. Though its graffiti-sprayed
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US poster for Enzo G. Castellari's 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982), depicting (right) Ogre
(Fred Williamson) and Witch (Betty Dessy). Mark Gregory takes centre stage as biker leader
Trash.

interiors were shot at De Paolis, much of the films' location footage was shot in
New York, in Brooklyn and the Bronx - the Brooklyn Bridge and other New York
landmarks appear on the skyline. The crumbling tenement blocks and general
decay look convincingly apocalyptic, though in the background - as police vans
and bikers cruise the streets - locals can be seen going about their daily business
and driving cars in the supposedly 'no go' zone.
Gregory's Trash invokes the beefy street hustler chic of Joe Dallesandro in
Andy Warhol's Flesh, Trash and Heat. Producer De Angelis discovered Gregory
(real name Marco De Gregorio) exercising in a gym. Barely constrained by his
waistcoat and tight jeans, long-haired, pouting Gregory resembles the front man
of a 1970s rock band. His men are a rugged bunch of hairy, tattooed bikers, who
ride machines decorated with glowing skulls. Scenes of gladiatorial combat deploy
knives, swords, spears and spiked elbow pads, and a motorcycle beheads victims
with its scythed wheels. The stunts were performed by 'Rocky's Stuntmen Team'
and 'The Hell's Angels'. Williamson's gang, the Tigers, drive customised vintage
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 275

jalopies (inspired by Escapefrom New York). Christopher Connelly played trucker

Hot Dog, who sides with Hammer and power-hungry Ice. Morrow, as tough cop
Hammer (who is described as 'just an asshole who thinks he's God'), has quality
dialogue such as, 'I believe in nothing - I'm Hammer, the exterminator'. Rocco
Lerro and Massimo Vanni played Rider bikers Hawk and Blade, Angelo Ragusa
was Ogre's Dracula-like chauffeur, Leech, and Betty Dessy was Ogre's blonde
whip-wielding sidekick Witch, wearing fishnets and a cape. The Zombies are
roller-skating hockey players in white World War II German helmets and the
Scavengers are rag-clothed, grunting subhumans. Carla Brait led the Iron Men,
tap dancers with canes and metal bowler hats, who seem to have pranced off the
set of All That jazz. In Bronx Warriors' extraordinary finale, Hammer leads New
York's Special Vigilante Force in Operation Burnt Earth: an attack on Ogre's lair.
The cops arrive in helicopters and vans, and mounted police in crash helmets use
flamethrowers to flush out the thugs. Ogre, Ann and Witch are shot and Trash
skewers Hammer with a grappling hook, before dragging the cop's corpse in tri­
umph behind his bike - as Achilles dragged Hector at Troy.
Bronx Warriors runs uncut at 92 minutes. Beware the tamer 79-minute ver­
sion, which also misses a conversation between Trash and Ann on a beach, the
Viking-like cremation of Riders Sandy and Speedy and the scattering of their
ashes on the Hudson River. Bronx Warriors was advertised with the tagline 'The
first to die were the lucky ones!' Many film critics wholeheartedly agreed.
The film's huge success - even in the US - spawned an immediate sequel:
Escape from the Bronx which followed the further adventures of Trash. The
General Construction Corporation ( GCC) is redeveloping the Bronx. The media
are informed that the Bronx gangs are being relocated to New Mexico, but in real­
ity the silver-suited, flamethrower-brandishing Disinfestation Annihilation Force
(DAS) are killing as many of the population as possible. Eventually Trash and ren­
egade Strike (Timothy Brent) kidnap the GCC president, Henry G. Clark (Enio
Girolami), for ransom, so the DAS launch an attack to wipe out the gangs. Henry
Silva played ruthless DAS leader Floyd Wangler, Antonio Sabato was piratical Bronx
gang leader Doubloon, Carla Brait reappeared as the leader of the Iron Men and
Castellari himself can be seen as a moustachioed radio operator in the DAS com­
mand centre. Francesco De Masi provided the synth score and the film was again
shot on location in New York and at De Paolis Studios, Rome. Romano Puppo has
a brief cameo as Trash's father, who with his wife is torched by DAS flamethrowers,
giving Trash more than enough excuse to blow Wangler to smithereens.
The New Barbarians (1983) is Castellari's carmageddon Mad Max rip-off,
with lone warrior Scorpion (Timothy Brent) closely resembling Mel Gibson's
Max. In 2019, a nuclear war has destroyed the Earth. Roving bands of Templars
headed by One (George Eastman) ravage the land, seeking out pockets of survi­
vors. Scorpion saves Alma (Anna Kanakis) from the Templars and teams up with
Nadir (Fred Williamson) to vanquish the raiders when they threaten a caravan of
Christians led by Father Moses (Venantino Venantini) .
 Castellari created his futuristic world in the quarry pits and building sites
of Lazio. Especially effective are the night time scenes (a blur of neon and
throbbing colour) and interiors were lensed at De Paolis Studios. Williamson's
Nadir - packed into black leather and toting a lethal bow with exploding arrow
points - completely overshadows Scorpion. Castellari's brother Enio played One's
sidekick Shadow, Massimo Vanni was Mako (a Templar with a Mohawk hair­
style) and Iris Peynado was Nadir's love interest, Vinya. Castellari had a cameo
as a mortally wounded scavenger. The pumping synthesizer score was composed
by Giorgio Simonetti of Goblin fame and that's Simonetti's wife, Kanakis, a 'Miss
Italy', playing Alma. The film's futuristic costumes are suitably preposterous.
Leather, rubber and PVC predominate, with codpieces seemingly the essential
post-apocalyptic fashion accessory. The film's finest achievement is the futur­
istic, customised jalopies and motorcycles. In imitation of Max's Interceptor,
Scorpion drives a souped-up Mustang with a domed roof and a skull on the bon­
net (recycled from Bronx Warriors). Castellari had only six cars (built on VW
chassis) which are cleverly deployed to appear more numerous. The stunts are
impressive and extremely dangerous, resembling the cartoon show Wacky Races.
The survivors of the apocalypse don't last long, with death by grenades, rockets,
limpet mines, machine guns, flamethrowers and laser guns (actually children's
guns bought by Castellari from a toy shop) . When Scorpion's car isn't running
properly, his young mechanic (Giovanni Frezza) discovers a human ear jammed
in the engine. Rotating knives decapitate victims, corkscrews and lances skewer
bodies and exploding arrow points erupt in slow-motion explosions of freefall­
ing stuntmen, rolling heads and flying liver.
Other Italian sci-fi rip-offs include Exterminators of the Year 3000
(1983), The Final Executioner (1983 - a cross between The 10 th Victim and Mad
Max), Raiders of Atlantis (1983 - Atlantis Interceptors) and Rome 2033 - The
Fighter Centurions (1984 -The New Gladiators). Set in the 'Year 23 - After the
Cancellation: She (1983) welded 'Conan'-style swordsmanship to Bronx Warriors
nihilism, via Amazons-versus-chainsaws combat, medieval knights, gladiators,
fanatical monks, werewolves and pounding rock music from Rick Wakeman,
Justin Hayward and Motorhead. Amazon warrior She (Sandahl Bergman) faced
The Norks, a renegade street gang led by Hector (Gordon Mitchell), a face-off
which made this a 'sword and Sandahl' epic.
In Sergio Martino's 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983), 20 years after
the European Afro-Asian Confederation (EURAC) has destroyed the world, the
president of the Pan-American Confederacy (Edmund Purdom) sends chisel­
jawed Mad Max impersonator Parsifal (Michael Sopkiw) on a mission of mercy
to New York to save Melissa, civilisation's only fertile woman. Since World War
III there has been zero population growth. Parsifal is accompanied by Bronx
(Vincent Scalondro) - who has a claw for a hand - and Ratchet (Romano Puppo),
a cyborg wearing an eye patch. Most of the film is set amid desolate smoulder­
ing streets and rat-infested subterranea (interiors were lensed as RPA Elios and
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 277

De Paolis studios). The trio encounter the EURAC forces: mounted police in
Roman-style helmets and cloaks, armed with crossbow laser guns. They must
also do battle with roving gangs: the Harlem Hunters, the Needle People (who
feast on rats) and Big Ape (George Eastman, in a buccaneer costume and hairy
face make-up) and his simian gang (which recall Planet ofthe Apes). Aided by Big
Ape and one of the Tiny People, a dwarf named Shorty (Louis Ecclesia), Parsifal
finds Melissa in hibernation and they escape through the Lincoln Tunnel.
2019 seems assembled from leftovers of all the Italian genres that preceded
it. The mounted police and flamethrowers are from Bronx Warriors. There are
guns from Barbarella, the Lazio quarry from sword and sandal epics, spaceship
interiors from sci-fi movies, and costumes from genres including westerns and
swashbucklers. Parsifal wears boots, a headband and a chain mail vest, and some
of the action footage looks like the front-row scramble at a Duran Duran gig.
Valentine Monnier was Parsifal's love interest Giara, Anna Kanakis was Anya (a
vicious EURAC operative) and Ray Saunders was a lonely trumpeter, husking a
requiem for New York. G & M De Angelis provided the effective, doom-laden
synthesiser score and mournful harmonica theme. A Lazio gravel pit was the
setting for a scene at the Nevada Race Track (when Parsifal takes on Giovanni
Cianfriglia in a no-holds-barred stock car race) and Parsifal rides his chopper
through Monument Valley. John Ford would have been proud. By combining
blood, guts, plucked out eyes, bleeding ears, decapitations and a plot that deliv­
ers some surprises, Martino made a decent film. The scene when the heroes
run the gauntlet of the mined Lincoln Tunnel in an estate car with sheet steel
chained to the roof is impressive. The survivors - Parsifal and Melissa - are fired
into space to colonise a planet in Alpha Centauri, unaware that Big Ape has
impregnated her.

Plagiarism Inc.: Hollywood Blockbusters, Italian-style

Whenever there was a big international success from Hollywood, there would
be at least one - but usually a dozen - Italian copies. When Raiders of the Lost
Ark (1981) was a hit, the Italian derivatives included Antonio Margheriti's jungle
Raiders (1984 - Captain Yankee) starring Christopher Connelly and Lee Van
Cleef, Ark of the Sun God (1983) with David Warbeck and John Steiner, Massacre
in Dinosaur Valley (1985) with Michael Sopkiw and the Tony Anthony vehicle
The Treasure of the Four Crowns (1982). David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986)
metamorphosed into George Eastman's Metamorphosis (1989). Alien (1979) was
reworked as Luigi Cozzi's Alien Contamination (1981), starring Ian McCulloch,
Louise Monroe and Martin Mase, with music by Goblin. Perhaps the most imag­
inatively titled Italian sci-fi cash-in was Mario Garriazzo's sexploitative Very
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind (1979). The Terminator (1984) was recreated
in Giannetto De Rossi's Cyborg (1989). Fabrizio De Angelis' Thunder Warrior
(1983) pitted Native American Thunder (Mark Gregory) against a racist sheriff
(Bo Svenson) in an explosive, Arizona-set remake of First Blood (1982).
 The Omen (1976) spawned Alberto De Martino's big-budget Holocaust
2000 (1977 - The Chosen or Rain of Fire), an Italian-UK co-production. Kirk
Douglas starred as an industrialist, Robert Caine, who plans to build a thermo­
nuclear plant in the Middle East (actually filmed in Tunisia) . He discovers that
his son, Angel (Simon Ward), is the Antichrist - 'From your seed comes evil' - and
the plant's seven turbine towers represent a seven-headed dragon, the harbinger
of the coming apocalypse. Morricone provided a suitably nerve-jangling score
for this entertaining 1970s potboiler which featured Anthony Quayle, Romolo
Valli, Adolfo Celi, lvo Garrani, Virginia McKenna (as Angel's mother, Eva) and
Agostina Belli (Richard's lover, Sara Golan). As Nobel Prize-winning professor
Ernst Meyer (Alexander Knox) warns, moments before he drowns in the incom­
ing tide off Burgh Island, Devon, 'The cup of catastrophe is filled to the brim!'
When The Exorcist (1973) made a fortune, Mario Gariazzo made The
Devil's Obsession (1974 - The Sexorcist and Obsessed) . 'Oliver Hellman' /Ovidio
Assonitis' Chi sei? (1974 - The Devil Within Her and Who ?) - starring Juliet Mills
as possessed Jessica - ripped-off The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby (1968). It was
a huge success in the US retitled Beyond the Door. Shock (1977), Mario Bava's
last film, was released in the US as Beyond the Door II, though it more closely
resembles The Omen, Repulsion (1965) and Poe's 'The Black Cat'. Dora (Daria
Nicolodi) and her son, Marco (David Colin Jnr, from Chi sei?), return to their
coastal villa after an absence of seven years. Dora's first husband, Carlo (Nicola
Salerno), who is Marco's drug-addicted father, vanished during a boat trip; his
disappearance was presumed suicide. Dora has suffered a mental breakdown
and spent six months in a sanatorium but has now recovered. She's married
to airline pilot Bruno Baldini (John Steiner). When he's away she experiences
strange apparitions and occurrences, seemingly orchestrated by seven-year-old
Marco. It is revealed that Dora murdered Carlo. To save his wife from prosecu­
tion, Bruno bricked up Carlo's corpse in the basement, but Carlo has possessed
Marco, who now wants to kill his mother.
Though Shock appears to be yet another grainy, low-budget 1970s horror
rip-off, it is made with some style. It was directed by Bava, who emerged from
retirement to work with his son, Lamberto. The house exteriors were filmed at
actor Enrico Maria Salerno's villa in Rome, with interiors at Vides S.p.A (Rome).
The beach and headland exteriors were filmed, as always, at Tor Caldara. The
point-of-view camera prowls the villa and its sunny grounds malevolently.
Marco's garden swing recalls Melissa's in Kill, Baby ... Kill! (which depicts another
vengeful child-aggressor). Though Alberto Spagnoli's cinematography lacks the
vivid colour schemes of Bava's earlier films, the nightmarish imagery provokes
some jump-out-of-your-seat shocks. Dora discovers her bedroom window walled
up, is sent flowers from beyond the grave and trips on a garden rake as a hand
clutches her ankle from beneath the lawn. Blood seeps through a wall and across
a piano keyboard, a Stanley knife strikes through the darkness, a 'Slinky spring'
toy descends a staircase, a razorblade is discovered between piano keys and a
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 279

porcelain sculptured hand reaches from the sofa. In the finest special effect,
Nicolodi's hair swirls, medusa-like, as she lies on a bed during a visitation from
Carlo.
I Libra's score veers from Goblinesque pounding to poetic piano cues, unit­
ing Argento's 1970s horrors with Bava's 196os work. Nicolodi gives her best per­
formance as demented Dora, while Steiner, Colin Jnr and Ivan Rassimov (as Dr
Aldo Spidini, a psychologist) do well. When Bruno smashes down the wall in the
basement to dispose of Carlo's body, Dora kills Bruno with a pickaxe and then
slashes her own throat. Marco sits at a table in the garden making a cup of tea for
his father, whom we presume occupies the empty chair opposite him.

Watery Graves: Terrors from the Deep

The success of Steven Spielberg's jaws (1975) and Joe Dante's Piranha (1978)
spawned several fishy imitators. Antonio Margheriti's Killer Fish (1978 - Deadly
Treasure ofthe Piranha) starred Lee Majors, Karen Black, Margaux Hemmingway
and James Franciscus, in a shot-in-Brazil production which featured stolen jew­
els hidden in a piranha-infested lake. Monster Shark (1984 - Devil Fish) starred
Michael Sopkiw, William Berger, Gianni Garko and Dagmar Lassander. Lamberto
Bava directed it as 'John Old Jnr' in homage to his father. Sergio Martino's Island
of the Fish Men (1978) deployed webbed, scaly monsters that were reminiscent
of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Island starred Joseph Cotten as
the biologist who creates the 'fish men' and Barbara Bach played his daughter.
Bach was back in Martino's lively Big Alligator River (1979 - The Great Alligator),
a displaced jaws rip-off shot in Sri Lanka, where Mel Ferrer's jungle tourist resort
is threatened by a giant crocodile.
Unofficial Piranha sequel Piranha II Flying Killers (1981 - Piranha Part
Two: The Spawning), an Italian-US co-production produced by Ovidio G.
Assonitis, was directed by James Cameron (The Terminator, Titanic and Avatar)
on location in Jamaica. At the hotel resort Club Elysium (shot at the Mallard
Beach Hyatt Hotel), flying piranhas cause havoc at the 'Annual Fish Fry Beach
Festival'. They are escaped genetic experiments which were to have been deployed
in the rivers of Vietnam by the US army. The film's love triangle is between div­
ing instructor Anne Kimbrow (Tricia O'Neil), her estranged husband, police
officer Steve (Lance Henriksen), and Tyler Sherman (Steve Marachuck), who
was involved in the army's project. Ted Richert was Raoul, the resort's camp
manager who refuses to suspend the events calendar. Carole Davis and Connie
Lynn Hadden were two of the piranhas' shapely snacks, Jai and Loretta. The
piranhas can fly and breathe out of water and their attack on the Caribbean
beach festival is not to be missed: a percussive reggae band 'call to the fish' and
the crowd chant 'We want fish!' as the predators fly in. Stelvio Cipriani com­
posed the music behind a pseudonym ('Steve Powder') but it's not that bad.
Often slated by critics as a bomb, Piranha II has some good scares and Giannetto
De Rossi's gory special effects, including prosthetics of nibbled victims, stifle
any laughs. The ridiculous flapping piranha swing into shot on strings and still
fly more convincingly than Puma Man.
One Italian jaws imitation stands out for its audacity. Enzo G. Castellari's
The Last Shark (1981) sailed so close to the wind in its plagiarism of Spielberg's
movie and its sequel jaws 2 (1979) that it was withdrawn shortly after its US
release (as Great White) at the behest of Universal Pictures. Like many Italian
imitations of Hollywood movies, Last Shark is like watching the original film in
a parallel dimension. In the run-up to their Centennial Week celebrations, which
will include a windsurfing competition, the US resort of South Bay is menaced
by a great white shark. Mayor Bill Wells (Joshua Sinclair), who harbours ambi­
tions to become governor, is determined that the event will go ahead. This is
against the advice of bookish marine writer Peter Benton (James Franciscus) and
grizzled Scottish shark hunter Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow), a characterisation so
close to Irishman Robert Shaw's Quint in jaws as to defy belief.
Castellari builds the tension well. The monster takes a bite out of a wind­
surfer's board and a listing fishing boat is found with a severed arm on deck.
Despite the installation in the harbour of submerged shark-proof nets, the beast
has a field day at the all-you-can-eat teen buffet regatta. The mayor attempts to
reel the monster in with a joint of meat and a helicopter winch, but the shark
downs the helicopter and chews off Wells' legs. A local surveys an abandoned
boat towed into the harbour and notes, 'There's something fishy here', while
slow-motion throngs of beach party extras provide bikinied meals. The film was
partially shot on Malta (with interiors at Elios Studios), but you'd never know,
as Castellari's depiction of his US setting is convincing. G & M De Angelis com­
posed the ominous John Williams-style soundtrack, plus three pop songs -
'Hollywood Big Time', 'The Melody Plays' and 'You've Changed the World for Me'
(sung by Yvonne Wilkins). Micky Pignatelli, sporting a Farrah Fawcett hairdo,
played Gloria Benton, Peter's wife. Castellari's daughter Stefania was Benton's
daughter Jenny, who loses her leg to the predator. Castellari's brother Enio was
regatta organiser Matt Rosen, who suffers a spectacular demise when he and his
boat are devoured. Timothy Brent was opportunistic news reporter Bob Martin
and Massimo Vanni played Jimmy, his cameraman. Romano Puppo, sporting a
cowboy hat, showed up for the finale as ace marksman Brierly. A harbour jetty
packed with locals is towed out to sea by the shark, in an imaginatively scary
sequence. Both Jimmy and Brierly are gorily chomped. The giant-sized model
shark was constructed and operated by Giorgio Ferrari and Giorgio Pozzi and
was intercut with stock marine footage of a real shark. Only in the finale, when
Benton blows up the beast with Hamer's dynamite-loaded corpse as bait, does
the film flounder, as the expected spectacular explosion is little more than a fart
in a fishtank.
The most entertaining Italian 'Jaws' imitator was Tentacles (1976), directed
by 'Hellman'/Assonitis. On the Californian coastline, a baby is snatched from
the seafront and a fisherman is stripped to the bone. Further disappearances
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 281

cause Sheriff Robards (Claude Akins) to investigate with help from journalist
Ned Turner. Marine expert Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) and his wife, Vicky (Delia
Boccardo ), from the oceanographic institute are called in. With considerable
understatement Will surmises, 'Something set this one off'. They eventually
deduce that the culprit is a giant octopus, which is provoked by radio waves. The
Trojan Tunnel Company are working in the bay, using sound levels beyond the
legal limit which kill marine life - divers find the ocean floor littered with dead
fish.
Tentacles was filmed in widescreen on location in California, at Oceanside,
Pismo Beach and the oceanarium Marineland of the Pacific (which has since
closed down). The spectacular underwater sequences staged by Nestore Ungaro
depict a picturesque azure netherworld. Stelvio Cipriani's score introduces
a harpsichord trill leitmotif for the octopus and the pounding, rolling theme
heard in the action scenes is from What Have they Done to Your Daughters ? For
a film about a giant octopus, Tentacles assembled an impressive cast. Ned Turner
is played by film director John Huston and his sister Tillie is Shelley Winters,
modelling a bizarre array of headgear, including a sailor's hat and a giant straw
sombrero. Trojan foreman Corey (Cesare Danova) is brought to task by his boss,
Mr Whitehead, played by Henry Fonda. Fonda once recounted why Sergio Leone
cast him as hired killer Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West. When Fonda first
appeared, having massacred a family of settlers, Leone intended his audience to
gasp, 'Jesus Christ, it's Henry Fonda!' Fonda's first appearance in Tentacles elicits
the same reaction.
The action - as the octopus squirts clouds of black ink, smashes boats and
devours the cast - was staged with model craft, a real octopus and fake rubber
tentacles. When the octopus eats Vicky, Will takes it personally. Will and two
killer whale companions (with which he can communicate) take on the octopus
in its cave lair in a bout that ends Whales 1, Octopus o. The film's highlight is
Solana Beach's Annual August Junior Yacht Race, which Tillie's little son, Jaime,
and his friend Tommy have entered. Their big mistake is to use their walkie-talk­
ies. Coastguards belatedly try to warn the contestants that attack is imminent.
Assonitis intercuts the parents - watching a children's entertainer and enjoying
a picnic, blissfully unaware of the impending disaster - with the massacre that
unfolds out in the open sea, as the octopus (its two eyes speeding through the
water like a motorboat) wreaks havoc, scattering and toppling the sailboats. This
visceral scene and its aftermath is undeniably powerful. Tentacles was presented
by Samuel Z. Arkoff in the US with the tagline 'It's turning the beach into a buf­
fet'. It was distributed via AlP, which had made its name in the 1950s with Roger
Corman's creature features, to which Tentacles is a true heir.
The bizarre seafaring/sci-fi hybrid Encounters in the Deep (1979) high­
lighted another popular 1970s plotline - disappearances of ships in the Bermuda
Triangle. When Mary (Carole Andre) vanishes during a cruise, her father, Mr
Miles (Gabriele Ferzetti), employs oceanographers Peters (Manuel Zarzo), Mike
(Gianni Garko) and Scott (Andres Garcia), plus oldster Pops (Alfredo Mayo), to
investigate. Peters theorises that extraterrestrials are living beneath the ocean
and eventually his drivel is proved right, as the divers discover a mysterious race
of bulbous-headed aliens in an underwater cavern. In the finale a spaceship takes
off with the entire cast on board, except Pops who is left wondering what he has
witnessed, as are we. Encounters boasts a Cipriani score far superior to the film
it accompanies. Hunky James Caan look-alike Andres Garcia - the nominal hero
who is apparently sponsored by Adidas - became a pin-up of these adventures,
appearing in the sharksploitation movie Tintorera! (1977), Tonino Ricci's Cave
of the Sharks (1978) and in The Bermuda Triangle (1978), with John Huston and
Claudine Auger.

Green Hell: Jungle Mercenaries and Revolutionaries

Deriving from The Deer Hunter, The Wild Geese and Apocalypse Now, Italian
exploitation filmmakers mounted a series of action movies which sent their 'dogs
of war' mercenaries on missions of mercy to exotic, revolution-wracked locales.
Master of this sub-genre was journeyman director Antonio Margheriti/'Anthony
M. Dawson: who made The Last Hunter, Codename Wildgeese, Commando
Leopard and The Commander.
Set in Vietnam in 1973, The Last Hunter (1980 - Hunter of the Apocalypse)
starred David Warbeck as Captain Harry Morris, who is assigned a top-priority
secret mission to blow up a radio installation which is transmitting Vietcong
propaganda. Morris's journey resembles Apocalypse Now's odyssey, without the
protracted Marlon Brando epilogue. Margheriti also aped The Deer Hunter: at
one point, Morris is imprisoned in a fetid bamboo cage partially submerged in a
river, where he endures rat attacks. Morris suffers nightmarish flashbacks depict­
ing his best friend Steve's suicide. They shared a lover, Carol (Margi Eveline
Newton), who in a ridiculous twist is revealed to be the voice of the propaganda
broadcasts.
The Last Hunter was filmed in the Philippines, where long-serving Italian
cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini was killed in a plane crash on location. Last
Hunter is one of Margheriti's most relentlessly violent films, with the Vietcong
waiting in ambush at every turn. War correspondent Jane Foster (Tisa Farrow)
is almost assaulted by doped-out Gis, the rotting corpse of a parachutist dan­
gles from a tree and bamboo booby traps and spiked pits pick off US soldiers in
'Nam's green hell. These grisly effects feature blood-spurting eyes, severed limbs
and flamethrower-scorched bodies. Margheriti's son Edoardo played soldier
Stinker Smith, who is disembowelled on a bamboo rig, Luciano Pigozzi was an
army doctor and Tony King and Bobby Rhodes were Morris's black squad mem­
bers, George Washington and Carlos. John Steiner cameoed as Colonel William
Cash, the insane commanding officer of a US emplacement in a cave, who is
clearly modelled on Lieutenant-Colonel Killgore (Robert Duvall) in Apocalypse
Now. The score is inappropriate funkadelic cues from Franco Micalizzi.
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 283

British actor Lewis Collins was well-suited to these tough jungle adven­
tures. He'd previously appeared in the UK TV cop show The Professionals and
the SAS movie Who Dares Wins (1982 - The Final Option). The success of all­
star Hollywood mercenary movie The Wild Geese (1979) inspired Margheriti's
Codename Wildgeese (1984) . Along the way it was forgotten that 'Wild Geese'
were Irish historical mercenaries. Captain Robin Wesley (Collins) is recruited
by rich Hong Kong businessman Charlton (Klaus Kinski) to lead a raid into the
Golden Triangle to 'burn a little opium'. Their opponents are General Khan, a war­
lord, and his fanatical army. Wesley's party includes mercenaries Klein (Manfred
Lehmann) and Stone (Frank Glaubrecht), and ace helicopter pilot 'China' Travers
(Lee Van Cleef). They destroy the general's opium refinery, but their helicopter is
destroyed and they head cross-country on foot. They travel with Kathy Robson
(Mimsy Farmer), who has been held captive in the refinery and is now a junkie.
They discover that there is another depot and computer disk data reveals that
Charlton is its owner - he plans to inflate the price of heroin. The ever-dwindling
group of mercenaries find themselves caught between the general's army and
Charlton - a crossfire from which only Wesley, China and Kathy survive.
Codename Wildgeese was shot on location in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Margheriti's convincing special effects include a train blown off a bridge and
a helicopter fitted with a flamethrower. Ernest Borgnine played drugs enforce­
ment agent Fletcher and Harmut Neugebauer was Wesley's boss, William
Brenner, who is also involved in the trafficking. Wesley's son died as a result of
heroin abuse and Wesley aims to root out the culprits. Jan Nemec's synthesizer
score was played by German prog-rock band Eloy (H. Arcona, H.L. Folbert and
K.P. Matatzoil) on Yamaha equipment. The Far-Eastern-flavoured cues (resem­
bling 198os pop band Japan) deployed hollow, fretless bass, pan flutes and synth
strings. Codename also displays influences from Apocalypse Now (Wesley's men
travel the river on an armoured gunboat) and anticipates Rambo: First Blood Part
II (1985), with the sweaty, heavily armed mercenaries swathed in coils of ammo
bandoliers. Van Cleef, who wears a cowboy hat and is referred to as 'Wyatt Earp',
is obviously pleased to be back in action, in a familiar paternal role. Kinski is
typically unhinged as Charlton, who dies engulfed in flames as his opium empire
goes up in smoke, though he is dubbed with an inappropriate English accent in
the international print. 'Alan Collins' /Luciano Pigozzi had a memorable cameo
as a Swiss missionary who helps the mercenaries and is crucified alive by the
general. A worldwide success, Codename Wildgeese was a mainstay of video
stores in the 198os - it seemed that every rental shop in the UK had a copy - and
has worn surprisingly well.
Kinski and Collins were reunited on Margheriti's Commando Leopard
(1985). This has superior special effects to its predecessor, staged in miniature
by Margheriti and his son, Edoardo (now working as his father's assistant direc­
tor). The opening sequence depicts a guerrilla raid on a dam, accompanied by
Goran Kuzminac's atmospheric score: pan pipes, strings and jungle echoes.
The raiders blow up the dam as they shoot it out with a helicopter gunship
and the torrent of water washes away a government refuelling convoy crossing
a bridge. The locale is an unspecified, revolution-torn Latin American coun­
try - Margheriti shot on location in the Philippines and Venezuela. Collins is
excellent as the idealistic freedom fighter Carrasco. His dogged band of rebels,
including Maria (Cristina Donadio) and Scottish mercenary Smithy (John
Steiner), battle the government troops who comb the jungle for opposition to
dictator, President Ramon Homoza (Subas Herrera). The president's anti-guer­
rilla militia is headed by a fanatical colonel, Silveira (Kinski). Luciano Pigozzi
played an old comrade of Carrasco's father, Hans Leutenegger was Silveira's
moustachioed right-hand-man and Manfred Lehmann played Father Julio, who
runs a hospital in San Juan.
According to producer Erwin C. Dietrich, Codename Wildgeese and
Commando Leopard had considerable budgets: 15 million Swiss francs each.
In Leopard's case, half of this was spent on special effects. In addition to the
dam-busting opening, there's the militia's helicopter flamethrower attack on a
defenceless village; a raid on the Marbella oil depot (which Carrasco blows up
with a train); and a shootout in an abandoned monastery, with berserk Kinski
running amok. The film's radical politics are startling within this action scenario.
The government villains burn down a hospital and gun down defenceless refugees
when their bus is trapped in a minefield. At an airport Carrasco plans to down
a passenger jet carrying President Homoza. He is foiled, but one of Silveira's
militia blasts it out of the sky with a missile launcher. It is later revealed that the
plane was carrying 185 children, not the president, and Carrasco is branded a ter­
rorist by Silveira for this atrocity. The score adds depth to the drama: in addition
to Kuzminac's original music, the film uses uncredited cues from Morricone's
Battle ofAlgiers, and the end titles play out over a duet between Bob Dylan and
Joan Baez.
Margheriti's The Commander (1988) co-starred Collins and Van Cleef as
adversaries. Like Codename Wildgeese, it was an Italian-German co-production
shot in the Philippines. Colonel Mazzarini (Van Cleef), a gunrunner, dispatches
mercenaries led by Major Jack Colby (Collins) into Cambodia to attack the opium
depots of General Dong, though the plan is a ruse by Mazzarini, who is in league
with Dong. Colby and his men, including Wild Bill Hickok (Manfred Lehmann),
succeed in their mission, before killing Mazzarini. The supporting cast features
Donald Pleasance, Brett Halsey, John Steiner, Paul Muller and Romano Puppo
(Van Cleef's stunt double from spaghetti western days) and some of the explo­
sions are stock footage from Codename Wildgeese.
Margheriti also made Indio (1988) and Indio II: The Revolt (1990) -
Ramboesque adventures set in South America. Francesco Quinn (Anthony's
son) played the title role, an ex-marine. Boxer 'Marvellous' Marvin Hagler
appeared as Sergeant Iron. Brian Dennehy was the villainous developer in Indio
and Charles Napier was a road builder in the sequel. The films were noted for
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 285

their 'ecological' themes: Indio is seen to be protecting the rainforests from

destruction by rapacious corporate exploiters, who tear through the forests with
bulldozers and chainsaws. A signature of this 'Rambo' sub-genre was heroes
dressed in camouflaged gear, their sweaty torsos draped in ammunition belts.
These 'Camo and Ammo' adventures were popular worldwide and inevitably
came in for the Italian treatment, with such fare as Ferdinanda Baldi's Warbus
(1985) where mercenaries and refugees embark on a cross-country escape
through rebel territory in a yellow school bus.

Hercules Unchanged: The Muscleman Revival

Throughout the 1970s and early 198os, Italian filmmakers attempted to revive
pepla. A good example of a sub-genre bereft of ideas was 'Al Bradley'/Alfonso
Brescia's The Beauty of the Barbarian (1973 Battle of the Amazons), yet
-

another remake of The Magnificent Seven in period costume. Here the period is
an undefined blend of Ancient Greece and the Dark Ages. Zeno (Lincoln Tate),
with a trio of brigands led by Medontis (Riccardo Pizzuti), is enlisted to protect
a village from rampaging Amazons. The supporting cast included Frank Brafia,
Alberto Dell 'Aqua, Benito Stefanelli and his son Marco. This is the kind of film
that gives exploitation a bad name. Not only is it badly made and acted, it com­
mits the cardinal sin of being dull. Only in the finale when the Amazons attack
the village does the film liven up. The Amazons wear facemasks, enabling an
army of stuntmen to perform their fight scenes in the actresses' place, which
would have worked if it weren't for the stuntmen's hairy muscled legs, lack of
breasts and bulging scrota.
The success of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian (1982) and
Conan the Destroyer (1984) gave Italian producers the opportunity to revisit
pepla from a new angle. Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding heroes had been Steve
Reeves and Mickey Hargitay, and Barbarian had been filmed on location in
Spain (including the Cuidad Encantada near Cuenca) . Schwarzenegger's film
debut in Hercules in New York (1970) billed him as 'Arnold Strong'. Dino De
Laurentiis' production Red Sonja (1985) starred Brigitte Nielsen as the title her­
oine and Schwarzenegger as swordsman Kalidor. It was filmed in the hills of
L'Aquila and Lazio, had costumes by Danilo Donati and a trumpet and choral
score by Morricone.
The closest in tone to the 'Conan' films were the Italian 'Ator' series, star­
ring Miles O'Keefe, who had swung to fame as Bo Derek's Tarzan in Tarzan the
Ape Man (1981) . 'David Mills'/Aristide Massaccesi's Ator the Fighting Eagle
(1982) was the first and best of the four-film series. It was shot in Italy, includ­
ing at the Monte Gelato falls and the Grotte Di Salone. In the Age of Darkness,
Ator (O'Keefe) embarks on a trail of revenge when his village is destroyed and
his newlywed bride, Sanya (Ritza Brown), is abducted by Dakar, the high priest
of the Spider (played by peplum actor Dakar). Impressively photographed by
former cinematographer Massaccesi, Ator the Fighting Eagle benefits from
imaginative costuming and special effects, and a good-looking cast. Hunky,
rock-jawed O'Keefe may have the charisma and easy grace of a zombified catwalk
model, but with his lion's mane of hair, armour and broadsword, he looks the
part. Ritza Brown is his shapely, mini-skirted love interest and Edmund Purdom
played Ator's mentor, Griba. Ator's travelling companion, blonde Amazon Roon,
was played by statuesque Sabrina Siani, while Laura Gemser appeared as seduc­
tive, bejewelled sorceress Indun, who waylays Ator. The best aspect of the film is
Ator's sidekick, a baby bear called Kiop, who trundles along in the background
and steals every scene simply by being cute.
Ator fights Amazons, brigands, the Spider King's Black Knights and a Shadow
Warrior (who is literally just a shadow on the wall) . Ator ventures into the Land
of the Walking Dead (where he faces zombies), to the Volcano of Shadows, to
take possession of the Shield of Mordor (which bestows invincibility), and to
the Caverns of the Blind Warriors, who toil in their forge. In the finale the giant
Tarantula King puppet wiggles its legs menacingly when Sanya is caught in its
web and then Ator takes on the beast in the ruined amphitheatre of the Temple
of the Ancient Ones. The epic score was composed by Carlo Maria Cordio and the
slushy ballad 'Now that I've Found You' plays over the end titles. Three sequels fol­
lowed: The Blade Master (1982 - Ator the Invincible), Iron Warrior (1985 - Echoes
ofWizardry) and Questfor the Mighty Sword (1989 - Ator III: The Hobgoblin).
On initial inspection, Antonio Margheriti's Yor - The Hunter from the
Future (1983) appears to be a caveman drama. It opens with loinclothed, medal­
lion-wearing Yor (blond ex-football player and boxer Reb Brown) trapped in a
One Million Years BC scenario and saving cavegirl heroine Kala (Corrine Clery)
from becoming a triceratops' lunch. Yor, plus Kala and her guardian, Pag (Alan
Collins), trek across the wasteland - by foot, raft and boat - on a quest to dis­
cover Yor's ancestry, which leads them into the desert of the Land of the Diseased
and to an island ruled by the Overlord (] ohn Steiner) and his army of androids
(who resemble Darth Vader). It is eventually revealed that this isn't a prehistoric
world, but a post-nuclear one following the Great Destruction. The cave and
desert people are the survivors, existing in the fall-out. The Overlord plans to
invade the mainland with his androids and repopulate the world with progeny
sired by Yor and Kala. 'When you have inseminated this woman, you will die!'
Overlord cheerfully informs Yor.
In a surprisingly well-constructed narrative, Yor unites Italian filmmakers'
twin preoccupations with peplum heroes and post-nuclear sci-fi. Margheriti
filmed on location in Turkey, at Cappadocia and Goreme (from Pasolini's Medea).
From the Duran Duran-meets-David Bowie title song, you know Yor in trouble.
The song - 'Yor's World' - is by G & M De Angelis. II mondo di Yor was origi­
nally a four-part TV series for Italian TV, which was whittled down to an hour­
and-a-half English language feature. This abridged version partially replaces the
original score with new cues by John Scott. He-man Yor deploys a stunned giant
bat as a hang-glider and performs a trapeze act with Pag to cross a chasm. The
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 287

climax has the survivors of another explosion flying back to the mainland in a jet
fighter. Carole Andre played Ena, a rebel planning to overthrow Overlord, and
Ayshe Gul was desert princess Rea, Yor's love interest when he's not dating Kala.
Like many of these 198os Italian films, it now has a sizeable cult following as a
guilty pleasure.
Bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno was Mr Universe 1973 and 1974 and gained fame
playing The Incredible Hulk on US TV. In Italy he appeared in a Magnificent
Seven remake, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1983), which deployed several
peplum stalwarts (Brad Harris, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Sal Borgese and Dan Vadis)
and Mandy Rice-Davis (of Profumo Scandal fame). Ferrigno was also cast as
Hercules in two Golan-Globus reworkings of Steve Reeves' classics. Luigi Cozzi's
Hercules (1983) is a garish comic book sci-fi/peplum which owes little to mythol­
ogy and plenty to Cozzi's penchant for disco-light special effects. In 'Thebes in
the Bronze Age, 4000 years ago: Hercules is called to rescue Cassiopea (Ingrid
Anderson) and the Sacred Sword of Thebes from the Island ofThera, where King
Minos (William Berger) rules the city of Atlantis with his evil sidekick Adriana
(ubiquitous, amazonian Sybil Danning, familiar from many such outings).
Hercules is a surreal cinema experience, with all logic suspended, as though
the scriptwriters placed elements from twenty unrelated films in a hat and drew
them out at random. There are references to Conan, the legend of Excalibur,
Genesis and Moses in The Bible, Star Wars, pepla, westerns and reams of garbled
mythology (including Pandora's Jar). In Hercules, gods Zeus (Claudio Cassinelli),
Hera (Rosanna Podesta) and Athena (Delia Boccardo) live on the moon, not
Olympus.
Hercules was filmed at De Paolis Studios, RPA Elios and Laboratory
Valcauda, and in Lazio peplum locations: the gorge at Tolfa and the Grotte Di
Salone. The colourful production design and garish cinematography resemble
Dino De Laurentiis' Flash Gordon (1980). Pino Donaggio's blaring score closely
resembles Star Wars's music and the star fields, planets and meteorites are lefto­
vers from Starcrash, Cozzi's Barbarella rip-off. The Technicolor visuals are awash
with candy colours, depicting rainbow bridges, misty caverns and the green­
hued harbour ofAtlantis with its Colossus of Rhodes-style statue. A solemn nar­
ration repeats every plot point with grim regularity. On his intergalactic travels
Hercules battles a giant robotic fly, a three-headed robot hydra, a volcanic phoe­
nix and a mechanical centaur. He visits Hell's Skull Mountain, throws bears into
outer space, flies through the cosmos in Prometheus' Winged Chariot and insti­
gates continental drift when he parts Europe and Africa.
Ferrigno's cult popularity, the dinky special effects and several revealing cos­
tumes (Cassiopea's miniscule sacrificial outfit and Danning's low-cut numbers)
have assured continued interest in Hercules. Ferrigno certainly possesses screen
presence and Hercules remains the best of these latter-day pepla. Whenever
Hercules performs feats of strength, Cozzi switches to slow-motion for added
emphasis. The strong supporting cast included Brad Harris (King Augeias),
Mirella D'Angelo (sorceress Circe), Gianni Garko (evil Valcheus), Raf Baldassarre
(henchman Sostratos) and Eva Robbins (Minos' minion, Dedalos). The presence
of peplum actors Garko, Baldassarre, Harris and Podesta (Helen in the 1955 ver­
sion of Helen ofTroy) adds to the fun.
Having perished in a fiery, multicoloured swordfight, King Minos was resur­
rected for Cozzi's The Adventures of Hercules (1984 - Hercules II). Hercules
(Ferrigno) must recover Zeus' seven thunderbolts, which have been stolen by
renegade gods Flora (Laura Lenzi), Hera (Maria Rosaria Omaggio), Aphrodite
(Margi Newton) and Poseidon (Nando Poggi). The quartet revive Minos, a pro­
genitor of Evil Science, who teams up with Dedalos (Eva Robbins) and sets the
Moon on a collision course with Earth. Though it shares much stock footage
with its predecessor, this sequel isn't as entertaining. The spangly disco visuals
induce migraines, as does Donaggio's fanfare score (reused in its entirety from
the first film). Hercules battles an array of monsters including the electrified fire
god Antius, the slime people, an ape, gorgon Euryale (Serena Grandi), knight
Tartarus in the Forest of Dangling Souls (a scene which resembles Monty Python),
phosphorescent cave dwellers and Amazons led by spider queen Aracne (Pamela
Prati) . Hercules is accompanied by Urania (Milly Carlucci) and Glaucia (Sonia
Viviani), the last of the Maidens of Phagesta, neither of whom compensates for
the absence of Danning. Cassinelli returned as Zeus, Raf Baldassarre played war­
rior Gorus, Venantino Venantini was the high priest of Anti us and Carla Ferrigno
(billed as 'Carlotta Green'), Ferrigno's wife and manager, played goddess Athena.
End credits inform us that 'Lou's training was done at the American Health Club,
Rome: which is presumably where they mislaid the script.
Another strand of these reinvented pepla aped Tinto Brass's Penthouse­
financed epic Caligula (1979), a 'sex and sandals' rip-off of Fellini Satyricon,
which starred Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud, Helen Mirren
and Teresa Ann Savoy. This sired the expected sequels - Bruno Corbucci reused
Ken Adam's sets at DEAR Studios and Danilo Donati's costumes from Brass's
film for his sex comedy hit Messalina, Messalina! (1977 - Caligula: Sins of Rome
and Caligula II). Typical of these films was Warrior Queen (1986) starring Sybil
Danning as Berenice, an ambassador visiting Pompeii on 22 August 79 AD.
Donald Pleasence played ruler Clodius, Richard Hill was muscular hero Marcus,
Marco Tulio Cau was his adversary Goliath, and the scantily clad cast were
Playboy centrefolds and oiled male models. The plot is essentially the same as
that of 196os pepla - involving slaves, orgies and gladiatorial combat - but these
sex and sandals movies were more explicit in their nudity and gore. The volcanic
eruption climax in Warrior Queen is lifted in its entirety from The Last Days of
Pompeii (1959), complete with shots of Steve Reeves.

Pleased to Eat You: Mondo and Cannibal Movies

Cannibal movies are the most controversial cycle of films to emerge from Italian
exploitation cinema. Several were rightly labelled Video Nasties in the UK and
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 289

continue to provoke, enrage and divide audiences. Set in uncharted jungles,

these films pitted their interloping white 'heroes' against indigenous 'lost tribes'.
The intrusive foreigners exploit and brutalise the local natives, who take horrific
revenge on their oppressors, often by cooking and eating them.
Italian cannibal movies grew out of the 196os taste for 'shockumentaries'
depicting human and animal behaviour throughout the world - so-called
mondo cinema. These docu-features with voice-over narrations depicted every­
thing from wildlife footage, tribal rituals and culinary grotesquery, to headhunt­
ers, slave markets, strippers and transvestism. Gualtiero Jacopetti's Mondo cane
(1962) was the trigger film. Its hit theme song 'More' by Riz Ortolani - which has
been covered by Frank Sinatra, Alma Cogan, Roy Or bison and Doris Day, among
many others - was nominated for a Best Song Oscar. Jacopetti followed this with
Mondo cane No.2 (1963 - Mondo pazzo). The two movies were shown as a double
bill in the US presented by Jerry Gross as 'The Most Sensational Expose of the
Freak Side of Life'. Mondo cane boasts 'Naked Witchcraft Murders' and 'See The
Chicken That Smokes: while No. 2 promised 'See Priests on Fire!' and 'Today's
Cannibalism!'
Mondo filmmakers trawled their cameras around the world, searching for
ever more extreme footage. Jacopetti's Africa addio (1966) was retitled Africa
Blood and Guts for the US exploitation market. Other mondos include Taboos
of the World (1963 - narrated by Vincent Price) and Mondo balardo (1963 - nar­
rated by Boris Karloff). Extravagant ads for Kwaheri (1965) claimed the film was
'Better than a $10,ooo Vacation!' and promised audiences that they would 'See
the unseen' in 'The land of thatched huts and hatched nuts'. Slave Trade in the
World Today (1964) depicted skeletons of escaped slaves washed up onshore
being dragged off by giant crabs. Paolo Cavara, co-director of Mondo Cane,
blurred the lines between real and faked footage, controversy that would dog
later cannibal movies. His Wild Eye (1967) starred Philippe Leroy as a filmmaker
faking mondo scenes in Africa, Asia and Vietnam.
Emerging alongside these shockumentaries was a series of 'exposes' of the
World by Night, again purporting to comprise real footage. Jacopetti contrib­
uted to Europe by Night (1959) and then wrote The World by Night (1960), which
featured the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris and the Queen Bee Cabaret in Tokyo.
The World by Night No.2 and No.3 were edited together in the US as Ecco (1965).
Women ofthe World (1963), Mondo nuda (1963), Sexy probitissimo (1963), Go! Go!
Go! World (1964), Malamondo (1964), Mondo erotica (1977) and the celebrated
'biopic' The Wild, Wild World ofjane Mansfield (1968) were more of the same.
The cannibal sub-genre stirred together disparate mondo ingredients - nudity,
jungles, animal footage, gore and rituals - into one abhorrent jungle brew.
The first significant cannibal movie was Umberto Lenzi's Deep River
Savages (1972 - The Man from Deep River and Sacrifice). British wildlife pho­
tographer John Bradley (Ivan Rassimov) flees Bangkok when he stabs a man in a
barroom fight and heads into the jungle where he's captured by a primitive river
tribe. Due to his wetsuit and flippers, they think he's an aquatic monster and
truss him up in a net. Through his relationship with native girl Maraya (Mi Mi
Lai), he gains respect, eventually marrying her and becoming tribal chief.
Deep River is essentially a remake of the endurance western A Man Called
Horse (it could have been called 'A Man Called Croc') with Bradley suffering var­
ious trials. He is crucified in a revolving bamboo structure with a head restraint
which resembles death-by-birdbox, while warriors shoot at him with blowpipes.
There are several scenes of animal mistreatment and death (which are removed
from UK prints of the film) and much nudity, particularly from former TV pre­
senter Lai, whose Eurasian prettiness stands out amongst the river people. The
cannibalistic aspect of the film is small but crucial, as a neighbouring tribe of
flesh-eating 'savages' burn the village, leaving Bradley to rebuild the community
after the death of Maraya. The lush Europop score by Daniele Patucchi is more
appropriate for a groovy lounge cabaret spot and Riccardo Pallottini's widescreen
cinematography captures Thailand in sun-drenched travelogues.
Cannibalistic journeys into 'lost worlds' soon found their feet - and other
bits of anatomy - with the appearance of Ruggero Deodato's Last Cannibal
World (1977 - The Last Survivor, Cannibal! and jungle Holocaust). An oil com­
pany searching for missing prospectors on a Filipino island find more than they
bargained for, encountering and then being tortured and eaten by primitive
tribesmen. Lai again played a native girl and Massimo Foschi and Ivan Rassimov
were the heroes - not so much star and second lead, but rather starter and main
course.
Deodato followed this with Cannibal Holocaust (1979), the sub-genre's
most infamous entry. A documentary film crew - Alan Yates (Gabriel Yorke),
Faye Daniels (Francesca Ciardi), Mark Tamaso (Luca Barbarschi) and Jack Anders
(Perry Pirkanen) - have vanished in the Amazon jungle. When the search party
find the remains of the journalists, they also find the footage they have shot; it
chronicles in graphic detail the party's horrific demise at the hands of canni­
bals - the journalists provoked the natives into violence and the natives turned
on their exploiters. This is true exploitation filmmaking and the extreme vio­
lence and cruelty were shocking in 1979 and remain so today. The 'film-within-a­
film' shaky-cam verite style was reused to lesser effect by The Blair Witch Project
(1999), though the discovery of a filmed document of an expedition dates back
to Mario Bava's Caltiki (1959). Deodato's film caused outrage on its release and
it was one of the key Video Nasties, a distinction which cemented its reputation
as the strongest and most controversial of gore films. It is often cited as a scath­
ing indictment of the media, but Deodato claimed that he just wanted to make
a film about cannibals.
Cannibal films' recurrent motifs include jungle hazards and wildlife, shock
editing, strong violence, zooming camerawork and blood and guts. The violence,
assault and torture of the white protagonists by the cannibals are the 'entertain­
ment highlights' of each entry - a messy combination of amputation, mutilation,
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 291

"SLAVE OF
THE CANNIBAL GOD" FILMED IN THE SAVACiE
AND UNEXPLORED JUNGLES
STARRING STACY KEACH OF NEW CiUINEA!
CLAUDIO CASSINELLI
Produced by DANIA FILM-MEDUSA DISTRIBUTION · Directed by SERGIO MARTINO · EASTMAN COLOR'
From NEW LINE CINEMA

Sergio Martino's The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978), under one of its alternative titles,
stars Ursula Andress on a search in the snake-infested jungles of New Guinea. US poster
courtesy Ian Caunce Collection.
copulation, evisceration and several other '-ations'. Lenzi returned to the genre
with Eaten Alive! (1980 - also with Rassimov and Lai), which featured a search
by Sheila Morris (Janet Agren) and mercenary Mark Butler (Robert Kerman) for
Sheila's sister, who has gone missing in New Guinea. Lenzi also made Cannibal
Ferox (1981) which is more like 'Cannibal Xerox' - a carbon copy of earlier films
strung around the flimsiest of narratives. It was also known as Make Them Die
Slowly. Antonio Margheriti jumped on the bandwagon with Cannibal Apocalypse
(1980), which fused cannibal horror to Vietnam War action. Jesus Franco couldn't
let this genre pass him by - no other had - and contributed Mondo Cannibale
(1979) and The Man Hunter (1980). Laura Gemser played journalist Emanuelle
in Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977 - Emanuelle's Amazon Adventure),
co-starring her husband, Gabriele Tinti, Donal O'Brien and 'Susan Scott' /Nieves
Navarro, in a search for a lost tribe of cannibals in the Amazon jungle.
Sergio Martino's The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978 - Prisoner of
the Cannibal God and Slave of the Cannibal God) is a relatively up-market can­
nibal movie, with Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) and her brother, Arthur
(Antonio Marsina), searching for her husband on an island in New Guinea. Dr
Edward Foster (Stacy Keach) is their guide. The score was by G & M De Angelis
and a credit attributes 'Miss Andress's Leatherwear' to Albanese. It is in this film
that Andress is proclaimed a cannibal god by the muddy, straggly haired locals
and her naked body is smeared in brown paint. In its cut version the film is a
mainstream jungle adventure - all that's missing is Tarzan. The cannibal sub­
genre was short-lived but shocking and the censors stamped on them quickly. In
cannibal movies, violence is frequent and strong, and the animal cruelty is real
and upsetting. Other Italian horror fads - such as zombies or gialli - are violently
gory, but you can always tell yourself, 'It's only a movie. No zombies were hurt in
the making of this picture'.

Industrious Corpses: Morto Viventi

Less prolific than the Italian-style cannibal movies, though no less visually
repulsive, were Italian zombie films featuring morto viventi: the living dead.
The Hammer Horror Plague of the Zombies (1966) had voodoo zombies work­
ing a Cornish tin mine, but it was George A. Romero's US-made Night of the
Living Dead (1968) that really proved that there was life after death, as decom­
posed, flaky cadavers reanimated to feast on the living. The Spanish-Italian The
Living Dead in the Manchester Morgue (1974) pitted cop Arthur Kennedy
against Ray Lovelock in the Lake District. The zombies here are resurrected by
an untried insecticide. To Italian producer Edmondo Amati, Manchester was 'a
distant, mysterious place', though director Jorge Grau wanted to film in Glasgow.
Most of the eerie Lake District scenes were actually shot in the Peak District.
Romero's sequel to Night of the Living Dead, entitled Dawn of the Dead (1978),
was an Italian-US co-production, part-financed by Claudio Argento and Alfredo
Cuomo. Dario Argento was script consultant and Italian posters proclaimed
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 293

Italian poster for Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (1979) - also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters - highlights
the wormy-eyed special effects work of maestro Giannetto De Rossi.
'Dario Argento Presenta'. Goblin provided the score and their music featured
more prominently in the Italian print, entitled Zombi.
Variety Film producers Ugo Tucci and Fabrizio De Angelis approached Enzo
Castellari to direct a sequel to Romero's movie, but he refused. Lucio Fulci, a
director already known for unsettling horror films such as Don't Torture a
Duckling, took the helm. The film was originally titled 'Island of the Living Dead',
but it premiered in Italy in 1979 as Zombi 2, in Germany as Woodoo, in the US as
Zombie and in the UK by its most provocative title, Zombie Flesh Eaters.
A mysterious sailboat drifts into New York harbour. When the coastguard
investigates, they are attacked by a fat zombie (Captain Arthur Haggerty), who
kills one man and disappears. Journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch) is dis­
patched by his editor (Fulci himself) to investigate. West meets Anne Bowles
(Tisa Farrow, Mia's sister), whose father owns the boat and has vanished in
the Caribbean Antilles Islands. Her father had visited the uncharted island of
Mantul, so Peter and Anne hitch a lift with marine photographers Brian Hull ('Al
Cliver'/Pier Luigi Conti) and his wife, Susan ('Auretta Gay'/Auretta Giannone) .
On Mantul, Dr David Menard (Richard Johnson) is struggling to cope with an
epidemic which the local population blames on voodoo - the dead are rising and
eating the living. Menard's wife, Paola (Olga Karlatos), is killed and devoured in
her home (in savage scenes that are truncated in many prints of the film). With
the arrival of Peter and company, the dead besiege Menard's hospital.
Zombie Flesh Eaters is Fulci's masterpiece: a sustained, visceral horror movie,
with exceptional special effects and convincing mise-en-scene. Fulci 'exoticised'
Dawn of the Dead - there's no shopping mall here, but a palm tree-littered tropi­
cal paradise. The sunny Antilles locations - the wooden hospital and ramshackle
village - add much to the film. Flesh Eaters was photographed from June to July
1979 in 2-35:1 widescreen by Sergio Salvati on location in New York and Santo
Domingo in the Antilles. Interiors were recreated at Elios Studios, Rome. A flash­
back depicts Menard's hospital before the epidemic - hygienic, bright and white.
Now it is fetid squalor filled with shrouded corpses. Fabio Frizzi and Giorgio
Tucci's score ranges from haunting, ebbing percussive voodoo, to the creeping
title music. Subdued, almost hymnal in tone, it builds to relentless, Goblinesque
electronica. The supporting cast included Dakar as Menard's assistant Lucas,
Stefania D'Amario as a nurse, and Franco Fantasia as Father Mattias; many of the
zombies were played by the Dell 'Aqua brothers - Alberto, Arnaldo, Roberto and
Ottaviano - who were stuntmen.
The zombies' grotesque flaky makeup was created by Giannetto De Rossi,
who worked on Cleopatra, The Leopard, Once upon a Time in the West and 1900.
The morto viventi in Fulci's film are more repulsive than any cinema zombie
before or since. Their excessive violence is convincing: if you should ever happen
to witness someone bitten and eaten by a zombie in real life, this is what it would
look like. There are some eye-popping special effects - quite literally in the film's
most infamous moment, when Olga Karlatos has her eye poked out in close-up
 Italian Cinema Eats Itself 295

by a long, sharp wooden splinter. Diver Susan witnesses a sub-aqua zombie rip
a chunk out of a shark, during an encounter which is photographed in rippling
azure hues. When the 'earth spits out the dead', Fulci and crew staged a mem­
orable set piece. From an ancient graveyard, serenely dappled in sunlight and
shadow, long-dead Spanish conquistadors, their eyes wormy, their disintegrat­
ing bodies putrid, cleave and rise from the mouldering earth. Unleashed, they
roam the village's deserted streets and attack the hospital, which catches fire.
The hospital's deceased patients rise too and only Peter, Anne and Brian escape.
Brian has been bitten. As the survivors head seaward, breaking news reports that
zombies have overrun New York and the final image is of the Brooklyn Bridge
engulfed by a shambling undead attack.
Not so much released as escaped, Zombie stumbled into US cinemas in 1980,
presented by Jerry Gross. Taglines included, 'The Dead Are Among Us!' and 'We
Are Going to Eat You !' It took $30 million worldwide - outgrossing even Dawn
of the Dead - but ran into censorship difficulties, especially on the home video
market in the UK, which dumped it on the banned Video Nasties list. It has since
been released uncut at 91 minutes on DVD and remains the most repulsive - that
is to say the best - zombie movie ever made.
The expected imitators ensued, but none equalled Fulci's tour de gore.
Andrea Bianchi's Nights of Terror (1980) was released as Zombi 3 in some territo­
ries, though it failed to equal either of its predecessors, despite De Rossi provid­
ing the graphic makeup effects. Fulci himself made an inferior sequel, also called
Zombi 3 (1988). Umberto Lenzi's City ofthe Walking Dead (1980) saw a planeload
of zombies flooding into an American city; Marino Girolami's Zombi Holocaust
(1980 ), starring Ian McCulloch and Alexandra Delli Colli, mixed zombies, can­
nibals and experimental transplants; and Bruno Mattei's Zombie Creeping Flesh
(1981) located its action in the jungle. Fulci's grisly City of the Living Dead (1980)
and The House by the Cemetery (1981) melded living dead themes to contempo­
rary, supernatural gothic narratives. Here the wormy living dead roam modern
America, clawing out brains and disgorging guts.
Italian horror's influence on US cinema can be seen in the films of George
A. Romero and John Carpenter. For example, Carpenter's The Thing (1982) owes
much to Italian cult cinema: the snowy whiteouts of The Big Silence, swathes of
vivid red and blue colour from Bava and Argento, and the ultra-gore of Fulci's
movies. Kurt Russell's monosyllabic hero even drinks J&B Whisky.
Fulci also made The Beyond (1981), the Italian splatter film par excellence.
In a Louisiana hotel being renovated by Liza Merill ( Catriona MacColl), a painter
falls from a scaffold and a plumber vanishes in the flooded basement. With help
from Dr John McCabe (David Warbeck), Liza unravels the flimsily constructed
plot - which involves a book entitled Eibon and mysterious 'Room 36' - and
discovers that the basement is one of the Seven Gateways into Hell: the Beyond.
The hotel and McCabe's hospital become the site of several visceral set pieces, as
the forces of evil burst forth - as do blood, heads, eyeballs and a sea of spiders.
A library is the setting for the film's most revolting scene, when architect Martin
Avery (Michele Mirabella) is devoured by tarantulas in close-up; Fulci has a
cameo here as the librarian. Fulci's orchestration of his shocks (of which there
are many) is skilful and he stages some memorably nightmarish imagery, such as
the sudden appearance of blind woman Emily ('Sarah Keller' /Cinzia Monreale)
and her Alsatian in the middle of a desolate causeway.
Fulci shot on location in Louisiana (interiors at Incir-De Paolis Studios),
which provided a convincing milieu for the fantastical action. The Beyond is a
virtually plotless splatterfest, with the violence depicted in gruesome detail by
Giannetto De Rossi's horribly well-done special effects. Fulci goes 'beyond' good
taste, lingering on the stomach-churning violence. Set in the 'present day' of
1981, the story begins with a sepia-tinted 1927 prologue, when an accused warlock
(Antoine Saint-John) is crucified and sizzled with quicklime by torch-bearing
locals in the bedevilled hotel's basement. He is the author of a strange painting
which depicts a corpse-strewn landscape - the 'Sea of Darkness' - which is key to
unlocking the hotel's secrets. In the nonsensical finale, while battling the risen
dead in the hospital, Liza and John suddenly find themselves back in the hotel
basement. Through mist, they wander into the landscape which is depicted in
the painting - an empty wasteland from which there is no escape. It's a genius
ending to a crazy film. Their entry into 'the beyond' of Hell is delicately scored
by Fabio Frizzi's flute and piano theme, while the title music features monastic
chanting over a funky bassline. The film was released in the US as Seven Doors of
Death in 1983, abridged and with a different soundtrack by Mitch and Ira Tuspeh.
The fully uncut version with Frizzi's original score is now available on DVD.
'Joe D'Amato'/Aristide Massaccesi put an emphatic full-stop to Italian hor­
ror exploitation cinema with his Anthropophagus (1980 - Anthropophagous The
Beast, Man Eater and The Grim Reaper), another Video Nasty. It featured 'George
Eastman' /Luigi Montefiori as a marooned cannibal who roams a Greek island
seeking out prey. For the climax, having been disembowelled with a pickaxe, the
beast eats his own guts, indulging in a blood feast which bizarrely visualises the
fashion in which Italian cinema consumed itself.
Italian cinema had enjoyed a 1950s heyday of almost 820 million patrons in
1955 (the peak year). This fell gradually throughout the 196os and plummeted
in the late 1970s to around 200 million patrons per year. TV and video also ate
away at Italian cinemagoing figures. Video was initially a boon, with Italian films
being specifically tailored to the foreign videotape market, but this was short­
lived. As their audiences continued to dwindle - and faced with rising produc­
tion costs and the global downturn in film production in the 198os - Italian
studios shut down. With every film genre appropriated and every star imper­
sonation exploited, Italian cinema finally ran out of steam. The banquet, which
had endured for almost a quarter of the twentieth century, was over, but it had
been an amazing feast.
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Kezich, Tullio, Federico Fellini - His Life and Work (I.B.Tauris, 2007)
Kinski, Klaus, Kinski Uncut (Bloomsbury, 1996)
Lampedusa, Giuseppe Di The Leopard (Wm. Collins Sons and Co., 1960)
Levy, Alan, Forever Sophia - An Imitate Portrait (Magnum, 1979)
Lloyd, Ann, Good Guys & Bad Guys (Orbis, 1982)
Lloyd, Ann, Movies of the Fifties (Orbis, 1982)
Lloyd, Ann, Movies of the Sixties (Orbis, 1983)
Lloyd, Ann, Movies of the Seventies (Orbis, 1984)
Lloyd, Ann and Graham Fuller, The Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema (Orbis, 1983)
Luck, Steve, Philip's Compact Encyclopedia (Chancellor Press, 1999)
Madsen, Axel, john Huston - A Biography (Robson Books, 1979)
Malloy, Mike, Lee Van Cleef - A Biographical, Film and Television Reference (McFarland,
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McCarty, Nick, Troy - The Myth and Reality behind the Epic Legend (Carlton, 2004)
McGilligan, Patrick, Clint - The Life and Legend (HarperCollins, 1999)
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(Bloomsbury, 1988)
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Nourmand, Tony & Graham Marsh, Film Posters - Science Fiction (Evergreen, 2006)
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 INDEX OF KEY DIRECTORS

Antonioni, Michelangelo ix, xiv, 67, no, De Martino, Alberto xiv, 20, 23, 6o-61, 150,
n9-122 155, 167, 172, 175-176, 181, 213-214, 278
Argento, Dario ix, xiv, 81, 122, 228-233, De Sica, Vittorio 36, 43, 96, 119, 123, 126-127,
238-244, 279, 292, 294, 295 130, 164, 245
Assonitis, Ovidio G./Oliver Hellman xiv,
278-281 Fellini, Federico ix, X, Xlll, xiv, sg-6o, 71,
93-94. 112, 119, 122, 127-136, 245 · 248-249.
Baldi, Ferdinanda xiv, 33, 55, 68, 70, 150, 288
157· 162, 285 Ferroni, Giorgio xiv, 14, 51, 54-55, 69, 89,
Barboni, Enzo (E.B. Clucher) xiv, 24, 32, 54, 152, 214
65, 89, 154, 162, 25o-253, 258, 260-261, Francisci, Pietro 2-6, 56
263 Freda, Riccardo xiii, xiv, 6, n , 33-34, 6o, 67,
Bava, Mario xiii, xiv, 2, 4, 8-9, 14, 30-33, 84-85, 89, 103, 242
36, 49-50, 69-70, 77-84, 89, 91, 95· Fulci, Lucio xiv, 234-235, 269, 272, 293-296
97-99, 101, 103, 106, n o-ns, 134, 174, 182,
223-228, 230, 233 · 240, 242-244 . 249 . Leone, Sergio ix, xi, xiv, 50-51, 54, 65, 70-71,
278, 279, 290, 295 144-149. 152-153 · 156, 158, 165, 177. 195 .
Bertolucci, Bernardo xiv, 139, 191, 196-199, 228, 240, 249, 252, 253 . 271, 281
237 Lizzani, Carlo 157, 219
Lupo, Michele 21-23, n8, 180, 253-254, 259,
Caiano, Mario 18, 32, 58, 62, 88, 145, 267, 269 269
Castellari, Enzo G./Enzo Girolami xiv,
n7, 155 · 167-168, 183-185, 187-189, 215, Margheriti, Antonio/Anthony Dawson xiii,
220-221, 236, 269-270, 273-276, 280, 294 xiv, 13, 37, 57, 85-86, 89, 91, 95, 102-105,
Colizzi, Giuseppe 165-166, 250, 255, 264 no, 117, 169, 221, 267, 277. 279. 282-284,
Corbucci, Sergio xi, xiv, 9-10, 41, 54, 64-65, 286, 292
86, 152-155 · 157· 162, 164, 171, 195 · 245 · 248, Martino, Sergio 229, 233, 270, 276-277,
254-255, 258, 260, 269 279. 291-292
Cottafavi, Vittorio xiii, 6-7, 68 Monicelli, Mario 133, 246
Cozzi, Luigi 115, 277, 287-288
Paolella, Domenico 35-36, 62
Dallamano, Massimo 147, 236-238 Parolini, Gianfranco ix, 16-17, 62, 66,
Damiani, Damiano 191, 194-197, 252 159-160, 174. 210, 216
Pasolini, Pier Paolo ix, xiii, 25-27, 72-75, 93, Sollima, Sergio xiv, 39, 170, 178-180, 183,
136, 139-140, 147-148, 197, 246-248, 286 195, 221
Petri, Elio 109, 191, 202-203, 230
Pontecorvo, Gillo xiv, 191-194 Tessari, Duccio xiv, 9, 18, 54, 65, 150-152,
171-172, 181
Questi, Giulio xiv, 129, 156
Visconti, Luchino ix, xiii, 44-47, 130, 136,
Rosi, Francesco xiv, 191, 200-202, 204-207 138, 141, 148, 158, 204, 239, 248
 INDEX OF FILM TITLES

Films are listed by their best-known English language title, unless they were not released
internationally, or there is no English title available. Alternative titles are listed in paren­
thesis. Page numbers in bold denote an illustration. TV television series, miniseries or
=

episode.

Accattone 139, 197 Asylum Erotica 236

Ace High (Revenge at El Paso) I65-166, 250 Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (Monster
Adios Gringo 152 from the Unknown World) n, 15
Adios Sabata (The Bounty Hunters) 160 Atlas versus the Czar 34
Adventures of Hercules, The (Hercules II) Atol K (Robinson Crusoeland/Utopia) 245
288 Atom Age Vampire 103
Africa addio (Africa Blood and Guts) 289 Ator the Fighting Eagle 285-286
Africa Express 259 Attack of the Normans 30
Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens 38 Attila the Hun 2
Alien Contamination 277 Avenger of the Seven Seas 40
All the Way, Boys! (Plane Crazy) 255-266
Almost Human 182-183 Bacchantes, The 14
Amarcord 59, 135-136, 249 Barabbas 72, 164
Amazing Dr G, The 249 Barbarella 93, n2, 277, 287
And God Said to Cain 157 Baron Blood 97-98, 237
Angelfor Satan, An 89, 90 Battle Giants, The (The Fall of the Giants/
Anthar the Invincible (The Devil ofthe Desert Attack Force Normandy) 217-218
Against the Son ofHercules) 37 Battle ofAlgiers xiii, I91-193, 192, 221, 284
Anthropophagus (The Anthropophagous Battle ofAusterlitz, The 43
Beast/Man Eater/The Grim Reaper) 296 Battle ofEl Alamein, The 214-215
Anzio 216 Battle of Neretva, The (The Battle on the
Arabian Nights 140 River Neretva) 218-219
Ark ofthe Sun God 277 Battle ofthe Commandos, The (The Legion of
Arm ofFire (The Colossus ofRome) 55 the Damned) 217-218, 228
Arriva Dorellik (How to Kill 400 Duponts) Battle of the Last Panzer, The 212
ns Battle of the Worlds 102, 104-105
Assassination in Rome 169 Bay ofBlood, A (Blood Bath/ Carnage/ Twitch
Assignment: Outer Space (Space Men) of the Death Nerve/Last House - Part II)
103-104 227-228, 237
Beauty of the Barbarian, The (Battle of the Cabiria 13
Amazons) 174, 285 Caesar the Conqueror 57
Before the Revolution 197 California 269
Bello, il brutto, il cretino, II (The Handsome, Caligula 288
the Ugly, the Cretinous) 249 Call of the Wild, The 271-272, 273
Ben-Hur 51, 6o, 65 Caltiki - The Immortal Monster 103, 290
Bermuda Triangle, The 282 Cannibal Apocalypse 292
Betrayed 203-204 Cannibal Ferox (Make Them Die Slowly)
Beyond, The 295-296 292
Beyond the Door (Chi sei?/The Devil Within Cannibal Holocaust 290
Her/ Who?) 278 Canterbury Tales, The 140
Bible in the Beginning, The 71, 149, 287
000 Capriccio all'Italiana 248
Bicycle Thieves, The (The Bicycle Thief) 123 Captain Falcon 40
Big Alligator River (The Great Alligator) 279 Carthage in Flames 23, 56-57
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Persons Casanova '70 133
Unknown) 246 Case of the Bloody Iris, The (What are Those
Big Gundown, The 195, 221, 264 Strange Drops of Blood on the Body of
Big Racket, The 188-189 Jennifer?) 232-233
Big Silence, The (The Great Silence) XIV, Case of the Scorpion's Tail, The 233
154-155 · 272, 273 . 295 Castle of Blood (La Danza Macabra/The
Biggest Battle, The (The Greatest Battle! Castle ofTerror) xiii, 85, 86, 95
The Great Battle/Battle Force/Battle of Castle ofthe Living Dead, The xiv, 91-92
Mereth) 219 Cat O'Nine Tails, The 230-231
Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The (The Cavaliers ofDevil's Castle, The 42
Phantom of Terror/The Gallery Murders) Cave of the Sharks 282
xi, xiv, 228-230, 229 Challenge to White Fang, The 272
Bitter Rice 26 Charleston 254
Black Belly ofthe Tarantula, The 235-236 China 9, Liberty 37 (Clayton Drumm/
Black Cat, The 234 Clayton and Catherine) 270-271
Black Duke, The 41 Christ Stopped at Eboli 202
Black Pirate, The (Blackie the Pirate) 42, Ciccio Forgives I Don't 248
.. 0

255 Cinema Paradiso 136

Black Sabbath 79-81, So, 226 City of the Living Dead 295
Blade in the Dark, A 244 City of the Walking Dead 295
Blade Master, The (Ator the Invincible) 286 Clan ofTwo Borsalini, The 248
Blood and Black Lace xiv, 87, 224-226, 225 Cleopatra 49, 67-68, 294
Blood for Dracula 95-96 Cleopatra's Daughter 68
Bloody Judge, The (Night of the Bloody Codename Wildgeese 282-284
Monster) 94-95 Cold Eyes of Fear (Desperate Moments)
Bloody Pit of Horror (A Tale of Torture/The 236
Crimson Executioner) 92 Cold Steelfor Tortuga 38
Blowup (Blow-up) xiv, 120-122, 121 Colossus and the Amazon Queen (Love
Boccaccio 70 130, 131 Slaves of the Amazons/Queen of the
Boot Hill (Boots Hill) 165, 166, 250 Amazons) 17-18
Boss, The 182 Colossus and the Headhunters 20
Bram Stoker's Count Dracula 95 Colossus ofRhodes, The 50-51, 62, 63
Brennus Enemy of Rome (Battle of the Commander, The 282, 284
Spartans) 58 Commando Leopard 282, 283-284
Buddy Goes West 253 Commandos 211, 228
Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West 143-144 Compaf'ieros 195
Bullet for the General, A (El Chuncho: Quien Con Artists, The (High Rollers/The
sabe?) 194-195 Switch) 254
Burn! (Battle ofthe Antilles) 44, n8, 193-194, Confessions ofa Police Captain 196-197
196, 257 Conformist, The xiv, 197-200, 198, 237
 Index of Film Titles 305

Conqueror ofAtlantis, The (Kingdom in the Django, Kill! If You Live Shoot! xiv, 129,
Sand) 106-107, 116 156-157, 162
Conqueror of the Orient, The 36 Django Shoots First (He Who Shoots
Constantine and the Cross (Constantine the First) 155-156
Great) 12, 67 Django Story, The (Reach You Bastard!)
Contempt (Le Mepris) xiii, 124-126, 125, 199 164
Convoy Busters 188 Django Strikes Again (Django 2:Il Grande
Cop in Blue jeans, The 186-187 Ritorno) 164-165
Cosmos: War of the Planets n6 Django the Bastard (The Stranger's Gundown)
Crime Boss 181 162-163
Crime Busters (Two Supercops) 258, 260, Dr Coldfoot and the Girl Bombs 249
261, 264 Dolce vita, La x, xi, xiii, 127-131, 128, 224
Crimson Pirate, The 38 Dollar ofFire, A 152
Crypt ofHorror 91 Don't Torture a Duckling 234-235, 294
Cyborg 277 oo-2 Most Secret Agents 248
Cynic, the Rat and the Fist, The 188 002 Operation Moon 248
Double Trouble 261-262, 264
Damon and Pythias 53 Duck You Sucker (A Fistful ofDynamite) 195
David and Goliath xiii, 70 Duel of Champions 55
Dawn of the Dead (Zombi) 267, 292, 294, Duel ofthe Titans (Romulus and Remus) 54
295
Day ofAnger 147, 152 Eagles Over London 215, 220
Day of the Owl, The 196 Eaten Alive! 292
Day the Sky Exploded, The 101-103 Ecco 289
Deadlier than the Male 170-171 Eclipse, The 120, 137
Death at Owell Rock 157 8� 131-133, 132
Death in Venice 141-142 Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
Death Rides a Horse 147, 221, 253 (Emanuelle's Amazon Adventure) 292
Decameron, The 139 Embalmer, The (The Monster ofVenice) xii,
Decameroticus 140 92-93
Deep Red (Profondo Rosso/The Hatchet Emergency Squad 187
Murders) xiv, 122, 237, 238-240, 244 Encounters in the Deep 281-282
Deep River Savages (The Man from Deep Erik the Conqueror (Fury of the Vikings/The
River/Sacrifice) 289-290 Invaders/Viking Invaders/Conquest of the
Demons 244 Normans) 23, 30-32, 31
Demons 2 244 Erik the Viking (Vengeance of the Vikings)
Desert Battle (Desert Assault/Battle in the 32
Desert) 211 Escape from the Bronx (Bronx Warriors 2/
Desert Commandos 209-211 Escape 2000) 273, 275
Desert Tigers 2n-212 Espionage in Tangiers 168-169
Designated Victim, The 233-234 Esther and the King 69
Devil's Cavaliers, The 42 Europe by Night 289
Devil's Nightmare, The (The Devil's Longest Even Angels Eat Beans 253-254
Night) 96-97 Executioner of Venice, The (Blood of the
Devil's Obsession, The (The Sexorcist/ Executioner) 42
Obsessed) 278 Exterminators of the Year 3000 276
Devils ofSpartivento, The 42
Diabolik (Danger: Diabolik) xiv, 112-115, u3, Fabiola 65
169, 174, 227 Face to Face 195
Dirty Heroes, The 213-214, 220 Fantastic Argoman, The 175
Divorce - Italian Style 127 Fantastic Three, The (Three Fantastic
Django xiv, 153-154, 154, 157, 162, 164, 253, Supermen) 174
269 Fear in the City 188
Django against Sartana 163 Fellini Satyricon xiv, 59-60, 134, 288
Few Dollars for Django, A 155 Go! Go! Go! World 289
Fifth Cord, The 232 God Forgives ... I Don't (Blood River) 165-166,
Fifth Day of Peace, The (Crime of Defeat/ 250
Gott Mit Uns) 218 Gold ofNaples, The 245
Fighting Fist of Shangai joe, The (To Kill or Golden Arrow, The 37
To Die) 267-269 Goliath and the Barbarians (Colossus and
Final Executioner, The 276 the Golden Horde) 33
Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules Goliath and the Dragon 6-7
(Colossus of the Stone Age) 19-20 Goliath and the Sins ofBabylon 21-23, 22
Fistful of Dollars, A xi, 144-147, 146, 149, Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The xiv, 74, 114,
150, 153 . 156, 249, 269 148-149, 166, 196, 249, 264
Fists in the Pocket (Fist in His Pocket) xiii, Gordon the Black Pirate 38-39
137-138 Gospel According to St Matthew, The xiii,
Five Dollars for Ringo 152 73-75. 73
Five Dolls for an August Moon 226-227 Grand Slam 176-177
Five for Hell 210, 216 Great Adventure, The (Cry of the Wolf)
Five Graves for a Medium (Terror-Creatures 273
from the Grave) 87-88 Gunfight in the Red Sands (Gringo/Gunfight
Five Man Army, The 228 at Red Sands/Duello nel Texas) 143
Flatfoot 185-186, 254 Guns of the Black Witch 38
Flatfoot in Africa 186
Flatfoot in Egypt 186 Hands over the City 201
Flatfoot in Hong Kong 186 Hannibal 12, 13, 55-56, 63
Flesh for Frankenstein 95-96 Hatchet for the Honeymoon (Blood Brides)
Footprints 232, 237 226-227
For a Few Dollars More 147-148, 162 Have a Good Funeral, Amigo ... Sartana Will
For a Fist in the Eye 249 Pay 160, 161, 269
Fort Yuma Gold 152 Hawk of the Caribbean 40
Four Flies on Grey Velvet 231-232, 239 Hawks and Sparrows 246-248, 247
Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse 269 Helen ofTroy 1, 49, 288
Four Musketeers, The 42 Hell Below Deck (Queen ofthe Seas) 40
Frankenstein '8o 96 Hell Commandos 212-213, 220
Frankenstein's Castle ofFreaks 96 Hell in Normandy 212
From Hell to Victory 219-220 Hellbenders, The 157
From the Orient With Fury 167 Hercules (1958) xi, 2-3, 5, 6, 26, 27, 74, 124,
Fury ofAchilles (Achilles) 52-53 287
Fury ofHercules, The 17 Hercules (1983) 287-288
Hercules against Moloch (The Conquest of
Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The 164 Mycenae/Hercules' Challenge) 14
Gatling Gun 157 Hercules against the Barbarians 35-36
Genghis Khan 36 Hercules against the Mongols 35, 36
Gestapo's Last Orgy 220 Hercules against the Moon Men 107
Get Mean xiv, 150 Hercules against the Sons of the Sun 2, 21
Ghost, The (The Spectre) 84, 85 Hercules and the Black Pirate 40
Giant ofMarathon, The 49-50 Hercules and the Masked Rider 43
Giant ofMetropolis, The 14, 106 Hercules and the Princess ofTroy (TV episode)
Giants ofRome, The 57-58 24
Giants ofThessaly, The 6, 26 Hercules Conquers Atlantis (Hercules and
Girl Who Knew Too Much, The (Evil Eye) the Captive Women) xiii, 7-8, 24, 106
223-224 Hercules in New York 285
Gladiator ofRome (Battles of the Gladiators) Hercules in the Centre ofthe Earth (Hercules
62 in the Haunted World) 8-9, 24, 30, 36
Gladiators Seven (Gladiators 7) 6o-61 Hercules Prisoner ofEvil 13
Go For It 260-261, 264 Hercules Returns 25
 Index of Film Titles 307

Hercules, Samson and Ulysses 5 Kaos 249

Hercules, Samson, Maciste and Ursus the Keoma (The Violent Breed!Django Rides
Invincibles (Samson and the Mighty Again/Django's Great Return) 269-270
Challenge) 24-25 Kill, Baby ... Kill! (Curse of the Dead) 82-84,
Hercules the Avenger 24 83 . 98, 235, 278
Hercules Unchained 3-5, 3, 23, 25, 107 Killer Fish (Deadly Treasure of the Piranha)
Hero of Babylon, The (The Beast of Babylon 279
Against the Son ofHercules) 23 Kindar the Invulnerable 37-38
Herod the Great 71-72 King ofKings 15, 18
Heroes Without Glory 211 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 171-172
Heroin Busters, The 189 Knives of the Avenger 32
Hills Run Red, The 157-158 Kriminal 115
Histoires Extraordinaires (Force of Evil/
Tales of Mystery and Imagination/Spirits Lady Frankenstein 96
of the Dead) 93-94, 135 Last Cannibal World (The Last Survivor/
Hitch-hike 182 Cannibal! /jungle Holocaust) 290
Holocaust 2000 (The Chosen/Rain ofFire) 278 Last Days ofPompeii, The 62, 63, 6 s-66, 67,
Hornets' Nest 218 288
Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock, The (The Last Days of Pompeii, The (TV miniseries)
Horrible Dr Hichcock/ The Terror of 66
Dr Hichcock/Raptus - The Secret of Dr Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah, The
Hichcock) xiii, 84-85 (Sodom and Gomorrah/Sodom and
House by the Cemetery, The 295 Gomorrah: Twin Cities ofSin) 32, 70-71
House ofExorcism, The 99 Last Glory of Troy, The (War of the Trojans/
How to Steal an Atomic Bomb 248 The Avenger) 14, 53-54
How We got into Trouble with the Army 248 Last Hunter, The (Hunter of the Apocalypse)
How We Robbed the Bank ofItaly 248 282
Human Duplicators, The 117 Last Man on Earth, The xiv, 107-109, 108
Humanoid, The 117-118 Last of the Vikings 29-30, 32
Hunter ofthe Unknown (Agent ]Sj: Massacre Last Shark, The (Great White) 280
in the Sun) 170 Last Tango in Paris 199
L'avventura (The Adventure) 119-120
I Am Sartana ... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin Legions ofthe Nile 68
(Fistful ofLead) 160 Leopard, The ix, xiii, 45 , 46-47, 75, 137, 148,
I'm for the Hippopotamus 259-260, 264 204, 294
If You Meet Sartana ... Pray for Your Death Light the Fuse ... Sartana's Coming (Run Man
159-160 Run ... Sartana's in Town!) 160
Illustrious Corpses xiv, 205-207, 206 Lightning Bolt (Operation Goldman) 169-170
Indio 284-285 Lights ofVariety 133
Indio II: The Revolt 284-285 Lion of Saint Mark, The (The Marauder) 40
Inferno 243-244 Lion ofThebes, The 69
Inglorious Bastards, The (The Counterfeit Lisa and the Devil 98-99
Commandos) xiv, 220-221 Living Dead in the Manchester Morgue,
Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion The 292
202-203, 202 Lizard in a Woman's Skin, A 234
Invincible Gladiator, The 61 Long Arm of the Godfather, The 181
Iron Warrior (Echoes ofWizardry) 286 Long Days ofVengeance, The 152
Island of the Fish Men 279 Long Hair ofDeath, The 85, 87
It Can Be Done, Amigo (The Big and the Bad) Lost Command 193
252-253 Loves of Hercules, The (Hercules Versus the
Hydra) s-6, 17
jason and the Argonauts 6 Lucky Luciano 204, 205
juliet of the Spirits 133-134 Lucky Luke 263-264
jungle Raiders (Captain Yankee) 277 Lusty Wives of Canterbury, The 140
Macabre 244 Monster Shark (Devil Fish) 279
Machine Gun McCain 177-178 More Sexy Tales from Canterbury 140
Maciste against the Vampire (Goliath and Morgan the Pirate 39
the Vampires) 9-n, 10 Moses xiii, 70
Maciste, Gladiator of Sparta (The Terror of Moses the Lawgiver (TV miniseries) 69-70
Rome against the Son ofHercules) 62 Mother ofTears 244
Maciste in Hell (The Witch 's Curse) xiv, 2, Mountain ofthe Cannibal God, The (Prisoner
n-12, 14, 34, 36, 58, 107 of the Cannibal God/ Slave of the Cannibal
Maciste in King Solomon's Mines 24 God) 291, 292
Magnificent Gladiator, The 62 Moving Target (Death on the Run) 171
Magnum Cop 188 Musketeers of the Seas 40
Malamondo 289 Mussolini: The Last Days (The Last Four
Man called Apocalypsejoe, A 163 Days) 219
Man Called Blade, A (Mannaja) 270 My Name is Nobody xiii, 252, 263, 264
Man Hunter, The 292
Man of the East 253 Navajo joe 157
Man Who Laughs, The 41 Nefertite - Queen of the Nile 68
Manhunt 181-182 Nephews ofZorro, The 248
Marco Polo 34 New Barbarians, The (Warriors of the
Marriage, Italian Style 127 Wasteland) 273, 275-276
Marseilles Connection, The (High Crime) xiv, New York Ripper, The 234
183-185, 184, 187, 188 Night of the Doomed (The Faceless Monster/
Mars, God of War (The Son of Hercules Nightmare Castle) 88-89
versus Venus) 19 Night ofthe Living Dead 109, 267, 292
Mask of Satan, The (Black Sunday/Revenge Nights ofCabiria 123, 129
of the Vampire) xiii, 77-79, 78, 81, 91 Nights ofTerror 295
Mask ofthe Musketeers (Zorro and the Three 1900 xiii, 199, 294
Musketeers) 42 1990: The Bronx Warriors (Bronx Warriors)
Masked Man Against the Pirates, The (The xiv, 135, 189, 273-274, 274
Black Pirate) 40 No Room to Die (A Noose for Django) 162
Massacre in Dinosaur Valley 277 Nobody's the Greatest 252, 254
Massacre in Rome (Rappressaglia) 219 Notte, La 120
Mattei Affair, The 201
Mean Frank and Crazy Tony (Escape from Odds and Evens 258-259, 264
Death Row) 180-181 Oedipus Rex 25-26, 139
Medea 26-27, 286 OK Connery (Operation Double 007/
Messalina against the Son ofHercules 62 Operation Kid Brother) 172-173
Messalina, Messalina! (Caligula: Sins of Once Upon a Time in the West xiii, 71, 158, 166,
Rome/Caligula II) 288 197. 218, 228, 240, 253· 264, 271, 281, 294
Metamorphosis 277 One Damn Day at Dawn ... Django Meets
Miami Supercops 262-263, 262, 264 Sartana! 163-164
Milan Calibre 9 xiv, 181-182 $10o,ooo for Ringo 150, 152
Mill of the Stone Women 89-91 One on Top of the Other 234
Minnesota Clay 153 One Silver Dollar 152
Mission Bloody Mary 167 Opera 244
Mr. Billion 255 Ossessione (Obsession) 239
Mole Men against the Son of Hercules 12, Other Canterbury Tales, The 140
14-15, 23
Mondo balardo 289 Partner 197
Mondo cane 268, 289 PassengeG The 122
Mondo cane No.2 (Mondo pazzo) 289 Passport to Hell 170
Mondo Cannibale 292 Perseus the Invincible (Perseus against the
Mondo erotica 289 Monsters/The Medusa against the Son of
Mondo nudo 289 Hercules) 20-21
 Index of Film Titles 309

Phenomena (Creepers) 224 Rita of the West (Little Rita of the West/Rita
Finocchio 249 the Kid) 157
Piovra, La (The Octopus - TV series) 197 Rocco and his Brothers 136
Piranha II Flying Killers (Piranha Part Two: RoGoPaG 72-73
The Spawning) 279-280 Roma 134-135
Pirate and the Slave Girl, The 40 Romanzo Criminale 183
Pirate of the Black Hawk 40 Rome 2033 - The Fighter Centurions (The
Pirates ofMalaysia, The 39 New Gladiators) 276
Pirates of the Coast 40 Rome, Open City 134
Pistolfor Ringo, A 150, 151, 195 Rome Against Rome (Night Star: Goddess of
Pistols Don't Argue (Bullets Don't Argue) Electra/War of the Zombies) 12-13
144-145, 150 Romulus and the Sabines 54-55
Place in Hell, A (Commando Attack) 213 Rose Tattoo, The 123
Planet of the Vampires (The Demon Planet) Rulers of the City (Mister Scarface) 187
110-112, 111 Run, Man, Run 195
Pontius Pilate 72
Postino, II 154 Sabata 160
Price ofDeath 160 Sabata the Killer (Viva Sabata!) 160
Price ofPower, The 195 Sacco and Vanzetti 202
Pride and the Passion, The 43-44 Salon Kitty 220
Primitive Love 248 Salt in the Wound (The Liberators/War
Probability Zero 228 Fever/The Dirty Two) 216-217
Professional Gun, A (The Mercenary) 44, Salvatore Giuliano 200-202
195. 221 Samourai: Le 137, 181
Puma Man ix, xiv, 175-176, 255, 280 Samson 17
Purple Noon (Plein Soleil/Lust for Evil/ Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World 11,
Blazing Sun) 137 34-35
Samson and the Treasure of the Incas 43
Queen for Caesar, A 68 Sandokan (TV miniseries) 39
Queen ofthe Pirates 40 Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak
Queen of the Tartars (The Huns) 34 39
Quest for the Mighty Sword (Ator Ill: The Sandokan Fights Back 39
Hobgoblin) 286 Sandokan the Great 39
Quiet Place in the Country, A 230 Sartana, IfYour Left Arm Offends, Cut it Off
Quo Vadis 1, 49 (Django and Sartana are Coming ... It's the
End) 164
Rabid Dogs (Kidnapped) 182 Sartana in the Valley ofDeath 160
Raiders of Atlantis (Atlantis Interceptors) Sartana the Gravedigger (I Am Sartana ...
276 Your Angel ofDeath) 160
Rebel Gladiators, The 62 Satanik 112, 115
Red Desert 120 Satiricosissimo 248
Red Nights ofthe Gestapo 220 Scipio African us 56
Red Sonja 285 Secret Mark ofD'Artagnan, The 42
Red Sun 267 Secret of the Black Falcon 40
Redneck 182 Senso (Wanton Contessa/The Wanton
Renegade (They Call Me Renegade) 263 Countess) 44
Return ofRingo, The 152, 221 Seven Guns for the MacGregors 157
Return ofSabata 160 Seven Hours ofGunfire 144
Revenge of the Musketeers 42 Seven Magnificent Gladiators, The 287
Revolt of the Pretorians 59 Seven Seas to Calais 40
Revolver (Blood in the Streets) 179-180, 221 Seven Winchesters for a Massacre 155
Ringo and his Golden Pistol (johnny Oro) Seven Women for the MacGregors 145
152-153 79 AD (The Destruction of Herculaneum/
Risking 186 The Last Days ofHerculaneum) 66
Sexy Probitissimo 289 Supersnooper (Super Fuzz) 255
She 276 Suspiria xiv, 81, 240-243, 241, 244
She Beast, The (Revenge of the Blood Swindle, The 129
Beast) xii, 88, 93 Swordsman ofSienna 42-43
Sheriff and the Satellite Kid, The n8, 254
Shock (Beyond the Door II) 278-279 Taboos of the World 289
Shortest Day, The 248 Tartars, The xiii, 33-34
Sicilian Clan, The 206 Tartars, The (Plains of Battle/Taras Bulba,
Siege ofSyracuse, The 56 the Cossack) 34
Sign ofthe Gladiator 63, 66-67 Ten Gladiators, The 62
Silent Stranger, The (The Stranger in japan) $10,ooo Blood Money 267
150 Tenebrae (Unsane) 240, 244
Sins ofRome 6o Tentacles xiii, xiv, 238, 280-281
Slave Trade in the World Today 289 I01h Victim, The 109-no, 276
Snow Devils, The (Space Devils) 105 Tepepa (Blood and Guns) xiii, 196
Solomon and Sheba 123 Terra Trema, La (The Earth Trembles) 136
Son ofCaptain Blood, The 41 Terror of the Black Mask 42
Son ofCleopatra 68 Terror of the Red Mask 42
Son ofDjango 163 Texican, The 152
Son ofHercules in the Land of Darkness 12 Theorem 139
Son ofSamson (Maciste the Mighty/Maciste They Call Me Trinity xiv, 250, 251, 258, 264
in the Valley of the Kings) 13-14 They Called Him Bulldozer 254
Son ofSpartacus, The (The Slave) 64, 65 Thief ofBaghdad, The 36
Son of the Leopard 248 Thing, The 295
Son ofthe Red Corsair 40 Third Man, The 97, 170
Sons of Thunder (My Son, the Hero) XIV, Thor and the Amazon Women 23
18-19 Three Avengers, The 16-17
Spartacus 6o, 65 3 Bullets for Ringo 38
Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators (Day of Three Stooges Meet Hercules, The 16
Vengeance) 62-63 Three Supermen in the West 174
Spartan Gladiators, The (The Secret Seven) Three Supermen in Tokyo 174
63 Thunder Warrior 277
Special Cop in Action, A 188 Tiger of the Seven Seas 40
Special Mission Lady Chaplin xiv, 167-168 Tintorera! 282
Spider's Stratagem, The (TV movie) 200 Today It's Me ... Tomorrow You! 228
SS Experiment Love Camp 220 Tony Arzenta (Big Guns) 181
SS Extermination Love Camp 220 Torso 229
SS Girls 220 Toto against Hercules 124
Starcrash n5-n6, 287 Toto against Maciste 245
Strada, La 122, 129 Toto against the Black Pirate 245
Stranger and the Gunfighter (Blood Money) Toto and Cleopatra 69
267 Toto ofArabia 245
Stranger in Sacramento, A 149 Toto, Peppino and Ia dolce vita xi, 245
Stranger in Town, A (For a Dollar in the Toto Versus Maciste 68-69
Teeth) 149 Tough Ones (Rome Armed to the Teeth)
Stranger Returns, The (A Man, A Horse, A 188
Gun/ Shoot First, Laugh Last) 149 Treasure Island 271-272
Stranger that Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Treasure of the Four Crowns, The 277
Corpse, The 164 Trinity is Still My Name 250-252, 258, 260,
Strangler of Vienna, The 97 264
Super Stooges versus the Wonder Women 174 Triumph ofHercules, The 23
Superago against Diabolicus 173-174 Triumph ofMaciste, The (Triumph ofthe Son
Superargo (Superargo and the Faceless ofHercules) 14
Giants/The King of Criminals) 174 Triumph of the Ten Gladiators 63
 Index of Film Titles 311

Trojan War, The (The Trojan Horse/The War ofthe Planets (The Deadly Diaphanoids)
Wooden Horse of Troy) xiv, 14, 51-52, 51, 105
53, 54, 69 War ofthe Robots, The n6-n7
Troublemakers, The 264 Warbus 285
Two Escapees from Sing-Sing 248 Warrior Queen 288
Two Gladiators, The (Fight or Die) 58-59 Watch Out, We're Mad! 256, 257, 264
Two Mafiosi in the Far West 248-249 Waterloo 44
Two Missionaries 256-257 Web of the Spider 95
Two Parachutists, The 248 What Am I Doing in the Middle of a
Two Public Enemies 248 Revolution? 195-196
Two R-R-Ringosfrom Texas 248 What Have They Done to Your Daughters?
Two Sergeants ofGeneral Custer 248 237-238, 281
Two Sons ofRingo 248 What Have You Done to Solange? (Terror in
Two Sons ofTrinity 248 the Woods) 237-238
2019: After the Fall ofNew York 276-277 When Women Had Tails 253
Two Women 122-124 When Women Lost their Tails 201, 253
When Women Played Ding Dong 253
Ulysses against the Son ofHercules (Ulysses Whip and the Body, The (Night is the
against Hercules) 18 Phantom/What) 81-82
Ursus (The Mighty Ursus/Ursus Son of White Comanche 158-159
Hercules) 15 White Fang 272
Ursus and the Tartar Princess 34 White Fang to the Rescue 272-273
Ursus in the Land ofFire 12, 16 White Warrior, The 33
Ursus in the Valley of the Lions 16-17, 23 Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure 260, 264
Who Saw Her Die? 236-237
Valachi Papers, The 204-205 Why Did You Pick on Me? n8
Vampiri, I (The Devil's Commandment/Lust Wild Eye 289
ofthe Vampire) 84 Wild, Wild Planet, The xiv, 105-106, 169
Vengeance of Ursus 16 Wild, Wild World ofjayne Mansfield, The 6,
Very Close Encounters of the Fourth 248, 289
Kind 277 Witches, The 138, 173, 248
Vikings, The 29 Women of the World 289
Violent City (The Family) xiv, 178-179, 178 Wonders ofAladdin, The 36, 37
Violent Naples 188 Working Class Go to Heaven, The (Lulu the
Violent Professionals, The 188 Tool) 202
Violent Rome (Forced Impact) 187-188 World by Night, The 289
Virgin of Nuremberg, The (The Castle of
Terror/Horror Castle) 85-86 Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 126
Viva Django! (Django Get a Coffin Ready) Yojimbo 145, 150, 153, 269
145, 162 Yor - The Hunter from the Future 286-287
Vulcan Son of]upiter 19
Zabriskie Point 122
Wanted 152 Zombi ] 295
War and Peace 43 Zombi Holocaust 295
War Between the Planets (Planet on the Zombie Creeping Flesh 295
Prowl) 105 Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2/Woodoo/
War Devils, The 213 Zombie) xiv, 293, 294-295
War, Italian Style (Two Marines and a Zorro against Maciste (Samson and the Slave
General) 245 Queen) 43