A Giallo from 1974 with Mimsy Farmer, Barry Primas, Ray Lovelock and Bill Carson himself, Antonio Casas, in a small role of a police inspector. From Vinegar Syndrome’s Volume 3 Forgotten Gialli Blu Ray set.
Very weird opening, in which lots of people kills themselves and there are gory shots of them in the morgue. After that sensationalist opening matters cool down a bit and the basic plot is a typical giallo one about murder for an inheritance disguised by all of these cutaways to the sun every time someone is in danger. Ending rips off The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh. Lots of nudity, of both corpses and Farmer and some very backdated sexual politics even for 1970s Italian films. A little disappointing I thought.
As usual, VS have an excellent print. Both Italian and English language audio options and English subtitles for the Italian version. I’d seen it originally in a poor print about 25 years ago and couldn’t remember much about it and there seemed a lot more violence and nudity than I remembered.
The Tin Star was pretty good but Fuller’s Forty Guns was the stand out of this bunch for me. Distinctively different looking to anything else you are likely to see from this era.
I like Mann a lot and don’t dislike The Tin Star, but imo it’s one of his lesser efforts. I had trouble to accept Perkins in a western setting (he’s too much a psycho maybe ), but there’s more, the film seems to lack this nervous tension that marks Mann’s best efforts.
I don’t mind Perkins in this and Fonda is good. Neville Brand always makes a nice greasy villain too and of course you get Van Cleef for good measure. So lots to like and everything is done to Mann’s usual high standard but I agree that when compared to his other top drawer westerns this one falls into the lesser camp.
Some foreign language (i.e. non english) films from 1957.
The Vampires (Freda / 7/10)
Throne of Blood (Kurasawa / 7/10)
The Singing Ringing Tree (Stefani / 6/10)
Nights of Cabiria (Fellini / 9/10)
The Seventh Seal (Bergman / 9/10)
Wild Strawberries (Bergman / 10/10)
A pretty amazing bunch of films to all of come out in the same year. For Bergman to make two films of that calibre in the same year is astonishing really. Cabiria is one of Fellini’s best for me. Throne of Blood is not one of my favourite Kurasawa’s but still pretty bloody good. The Vampires is obviously not in the same league but a significant film in the history of Italian horror. And The Singing Ringing Tree may seem an odd addition but for any Brit of my age group it has lasting memories of being creeped out and scared as a child. It was shown on TV here pretty much every school holidays throughout the 1960s and beyond and we all still carry the psychological scars. Why we all found it so scary I’m not sure but it does still feel a bit freaky to this day.
Never heard of that one. You make me curious. Could be a good alternative for one of those sleep-inducing World Cup games. Have been watching Portugal - Uzbekistan for half an hour, I’ll be glad when this interminable first round will be over.
Watched that when I was 4. The BBC bought the film, split it into three parts, and showed it as a mini-series with an English voice over.. It’s one of those things that leave you scarred for life and I had to buy a copy as an adult to see if it really was as creepy as I remembered. It was.
Yes, as a child in England we only ever saw with the voice over. Now that I’m a big brave grown up I watched it in German with subtitles.
The voice over is in the pattern of a story teller reading from a book rather than dubbed dialogue which is irritating but for small children and considering it is a fairy tale I suppose it made sense at the time.
I guess this is the film they are talking about. Not sure actually.
I like that German title, even when it sounds stupid. There’s a Belgian comics series, Suske & Wiske (don’t know how well-known it is in Germany) with similar, often rhyming, silly titles. I used to collect titles of this comiscs series when I was a kid and still read them from time to time
Yes that’s the one, apparently it was a big success in East Germany, but despite released here also in 1958 it didn’t leave any impact, at least it is not amongst the 550 films of 1958 with more than 100 000 admissions.
Suske and Wiske is not popular here, but one of the characters was. Jerom comics (renamed Wastl) were successful in the 60s and 70s. I’ve read some as a child, but I preferred the comics by the great Rene Goscinny (Asterix, Lucky Luke), and later the adventure stuff like Blueberry, Comanche, Bernard Prince, Bruno Brazil, Luc Orient (which still are good)
Some of the early titles aren’t bad, mainly thanks to the character of Lambik, Suske & Wiske’s uncle. He’s a buffoon who thinks he’s very intelligent, is very selfish, hates dogs, hates children, neglects aunt Sidonia, a spinster who’s madly in love with him and has only eyes for younger women, in short: he’s a man you love to hate and above all: he’s funny. But in later titles political corectness crept in and Lambiek became a much nicer person, still a buffoon, but one with a heart of gold. And not as funny as he used to be.
In truth I felt kind of funny including The Singing Ringing Tree in my foreign language viewing list. It is after all a film for children. But today I noticed this and don’t feel so bad: Amazon.co.uk
If Eureka think they are worth releasing as a box set I guess I’m not the only one who is interested in them.
Citizen Vigilante:
Revenge and vigilante justice—common themes in spaghetti westerns.
Anyone who does their own research knows that Boll is right:
This film is dedicated to the thousands victims of rape and murder in Europe who were betrayed by our legal system.
Because this movie was banned in Germany, Elon Musk published it on X.
Here is an interview with Uwe Boll but only in German
), but there’s more, the film seems to lack this nervous tension that marks Mann’s best efforts.
over.. It’s one of those things that leave you scarred for life and I had to buy a copy as an adult to see if it really was as creepy as I remembered. It was.
