Siamo uomini o caporali - Are We Men or Corporals? (1955)

One of Italy's most famous actor's and Italian counterpart to America's Charlie Chaplin, Toto Esposito built his career in the era of physical comedy and repartee.  While the United States had it's share of physical comedic actors during the silent era and into the "talkies", Toto was one of the forerunners for Italy.  His debut in the 1937 film Hand's Off Me! as his self titled character Toto, was the start of a 100+ film career, most of which centered around the same self titled character.
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The Italian Connection (1972)

 

The second film in the Fernando Di Leo Milieu Trilogy, The Italian Connection, said to have been the inspiration behind Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, landed a much more entertaining blow in my eyes compared to the often praised Caliber 9.  Mario Adorf (who in my opinon carried Caliber 9's lackluster cast of characters) returns as a small-time pimp named Luca Canali.  Canali is framed for stealing a shipment of heroin that was in transit between Italy and New York.  To make a example of him the mob brings in two American's (Henry Silva and Woody Strode) to take Canali out.  They enlist in the assistance the local Milano mob to help locate Canali, but Canali proves to be a harder target to bring down than anyone expected, as he fights to stay alive and discover who set him up to take the fall for something he had nothing to do with.

My biggest issue with Caliber 9 was the fact it was dialog and story heavy with a cast that was mainly dull and a story that was mediocre.  Action wise it held a lot back, a lot of threatening, but little action until the conclusion.  The Italian Connection easily rectifies that by two fold.  Once again Mario Adorf takes his role and runs with it, easily becoming the most interesting and entertaining character in the film.  Going in I thought Henry Silva was going to be the show stealer but Silva (and his co-star Woody Strode) were amazingly bland.  The Italian Connection also has a quite stellar backup cast with three lovely cult Italian film actresses Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball), Femi Benussi, and Sylva Koscina.  Throw in Adolfo Celi (Thunderball & Danger Diabolik) as the local mob boss assisting the Americans in tracking down Canali, and you have a pretty nice cast of lovely ladies and cult villains.

Overall The Italian Connection was highly entertaining, rarely a dull moment and as an overall package is a definite improvement on Caliber 9.  The story isn't as in-depth, and definitely has it's share of glaring plot holes compared to Caliber 9, but when you're looking for a good Euro Crime experience is it story or action and women that your looking for?  If it's the latter, The Italian Connection is the film for you.

8/10

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Caliber 9 (1972)

Recently picked up the Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection on Blu-ray.  He's not a director I was previously familiar with, but the fact Barbara Bouchet is featured in one of the films and the price tag for four cult Italian crime films in glorious high definition was an absolute steal at a $24 pre-order I couldn't pass it up.  Di Leo is credited for being the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's early work.  Not being much of a Tarantino fan I wasn't too sure what to expect, but my growing love for Italian films of the 50's, 60's and 70's gave me a little solace in the fact I should find something to enjoy.

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What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

Enrico Rossini (Fabio Testi) is a young professor at London's St. Hilda's Catholic Girls School and has the reputation for having an nontraditional rapport with his students, which knowingly or unknowingly to the rest of the school staff has lead to possibly numerous student/teacher relationships.  His latest one is with senior Elizabeth Seccles (Cristina Galbo) who believes she saw a murder on the riverbank while the two of them are making out in a boat, but Rossini thinks she was making it up to get him to stop.  

The next morning they learn the body of fellow classmate Hilda Ericson was discovered brutally murdered, stupidly Rossini returns to riverbank and goes to the scene of the crime and quickly becomes one of the police's prime suspects.  He could easily exonerate himself if he only explained how he knew where the murder took place, but doing so would reveal he had been there the day before with Elizabeth and that would create a school scandal.  But when the murders continue Rossini's secret affair must be revealed, with his job on the rocks and his freedom at stake he'll stop and nothing to uncover the true murderer.

What Have You Done to Solange? (aka Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) is another giallo that tends to rank high on fan favorite lists.  Like most of it's genre the film does an excellent job of making almost every main character appear to be capable of murder, whether it's Rossini's wife whose relationship with her husband is seeming over and is jealous of his "extra-curricular" relationships or the perverted professor who is constantly peeping into the girls locker room.  Everyone appears to be a possible suspect for the murders.

On top of that the killings themselves open up a mystery.  What's the connection between the murders, aside from the fact almost all the victims attend the same school and are classmates, and what is the reason behind the grizzly deathly final blow where the murder weapon is lodged into their nether regions?  The revelation was unexpected, as was the discovery of who the murderer ultimately is.

The two highlights of the film for me was main actor Fabio Testi who was at times is the spitting image of a young Sean Connery with a full on beard; if Connery was a couple inches taller, skinner and Italian.  And he had a spot on resemblance to Connery's brother (Neil Connery) from that cult James Bond rip-off Operation Kid Brother.  Secondly as mentioned before the film does a pretty good job of keeping up the mystery and suspense, and sticking with the classic giallo format of making everyone out to be the potential villain.  Still aside from the rather bizarre subject matter, What Have You Done to Solange? isn't overly note worthy in any particular aspect for me like Perversion Story or The Girl Who Knew Too Much, but for giallo fans it's definitely a sufficient diversion.

7/10 

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Danger: Diabolik (1968)

I can't think of a better way to kick off the new year than a review of one of the greatest cult films I have ever seen.  Danger: Diabolik a film that combines the brilliant feats of low budget director/cinematographer Mario Bava, the beauty and stage presence of Marisa Mell and the bizarre yet engrossing Italian comic book character protrayed by John Phillip Law of the anti-hero Diabolik!

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Casanova '70 (1965)

Comedy is one of the more difficult genres to grasp internationally as every country has their own brand of humor.  British comedy is usually pretty dry and heavily laced with sarcasm, Spanish comedy seems to find adults dressing up a children highly amusing, and Italians seem to be heavily involved in comedies centered around sexual escapades; at least such was the case in the 60's and 70's.  Casanova '70 is easily one of the tamer Italian comedies of this era and undoubtedly one of the better written ones as well.

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Briganti – Amore e libertà (1990)

Briganti – Amore e libertà (Bandits – Love and Liberty) is probably another made for TV film as some sources actually refer to La riffa as her first major film role.  I also happens to be another film I was only able to locate in Italian without subtitles.  The story takes place in 1838 Naples where a bandit named Caruso is shot and killed by one of Baron San Germano's trusted men who finds Caruso in the middle of love making in one of the Baron's barns.  The woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy named Giovanni, she becomes the nurse of the the Baron's orphaned niece Costanza.  Thirteen years later Giovanni and Costanza are discovered making out in the courtyard in the middle of the night, enraged the Baron sends Costanza to a convent and Giovanni to his death.

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Vita coi figli (1990)

As someone who has never been fond of foreign films that force the viewer to read subtitles, this was one of those occasions where subtitles would have been fondly welcome.  As I delve into the filmography of Monica Bellucci I'm learning to prepare myself for an onslaught of foreign films, many (such as this two part TV mini-series) not available with English dubbing or subtitles.  It's an interesting experience watching a film without knowing exactly what any of the characters are saying, having to decipher the film's plot through the characters facial expressions, tones and mannerisms.  It also forces you to pay close attention to what's going on, because every detail can lend some information as to exactly what's going on.  Obviously the level of possible enjoyment is slightly diminished in such a situation, but oddly enough sitting through about a three hour mini-series in Italian, without translation, turned out to be not as bad as I imagined it would be.

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1001 Nights of Pleasure (1972)

There's nothing more I hate when it comes to movies than false advertising, and the cream of the crop has always been plastering some big actor or actresses face on a DVD cover with their name in big letters making it appear as if they were the star of the film.  Then it turns out they make a five minute cameo sixty minutes in.  While I'd probably watch the film anyways it would still be considerate to know ahead of time that I shouldn't be expecting the certain actor or actress to have much of a part in the inevitable pile of crap I'm about to watch.  And honestly if the marketing of a film is focused on a person who is barely in it, it's almost certainly going to be crap.

1001 Nights of Pleasure aka (Finalmente... le mille e una notte or Les mille et une nuits érotiques) is a film that not only advertises Barbara Bouchet as the lead star on posters and DVD covers but also gives her top billing in the opening credits; shockingly she doesn't make an appearance until about 3/4th's of the way through.  To describe this film quickly and bluntly it's simply pure sleaze, an Italian sex comedy with a lot of implied sex and not a whole lot of comedy, at least nothing I found very amusing.  The basic plot of the film is an Arabia sultan receives a new beautiful slave (played by the second and only other good looking woman in the film Femi Benussi) only to discover he's got a serious case of erectile dysfunction (wonder how many Google hits I'll get off of that!?!).  In an attempt to regain the use of his manhood he issues a proclamation for people in the city to tell him an erotic story, if they fail to arouse him they will be beheaded.

Unfortunatley for them their stories are far from erotic, I'd simply call them extremely stupid with a sexual bent.  Plus the only one I really gave a flying flip about was the second story featuring a brief appearance by Barbara Bouchet as Aladdin's mistress Mariam.  Mariam had been Aladdin's girl but somehow got mixed up with an old rich guy and married him, so Aladdin goes to the genie and procures an invisibility potion and a flying carpet.  Being invisible he's able to sneak into Mariam's room and tell her of his plan for them to be together on a nightly basis, which basically involves them doing it on the flying carpet and never getting caught by her cranky old husband.  The catch is the flying carpet will not land until the two people on it have made love three times in a row, which is fine with Aladdin concerning Mariam, but that catch soon leads to a rather awkward encounter at the end of the story.

Overall this story and other two were simply quite lame, most of the women were average looking (considering looks played a huge role in the stories), and the sole reason I bothered watching this in the first place ended up amounting to five minutes of Barbara Bouchet in a mediocre role.  Still considering the fact that Bouchet is blatantly marketed as the star of the film and wasn't anywhere close to it, 1001 Nights of Pleasure didn't end up being as horrible as I would have expected it to be had I known before hand that she was barely in it.  The set designs and costumes were quite good, and while pretty cheesy and lame the overall product wasn't sleep inducing.  Still that's no glowing endorsement, I doubt I'd ever revisit it again and certainly not the type of film I'd recommend.

Available on DVD

4/10 

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