Kidnap Syndicate (1975)

Great Fernando Di Leo movie has Luc Merenda and James Mason as the parents of two children kidnapped and held for ransom.
 Supposedly regarded as one of Di Leo's lesser movies it still has all his usual hallmarks, exciting chases and violent bloody shootouts.
 Luc Merenda is great as the father turned vigilante forced to take the law into his own hands while Vittorio Caprioli is perfect as the harassed police commissioner. Mason is rather cold as the other parent although that may have been down to his role having been dubbed into Italian.
 Has Di Leo ever made a bad movie, i've yet to come across one....

Island Of Fire (1990)

Star studded Hong Kong action movie produced by the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu. Although Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Andy Lau are top billed on the advertising their roles are more like extended
cameo's with Tony Leung Ka-fai the real star of the show.
 Sent undercover into one of Hong Kong's most brutal prisons to expose the corruption and brutality policeman Leung faces the usual for this type of movie, organised fights, vicious guards, a despot warden, etc.
 Chan has a couple of decent fight scenes, Hung provides the sentimentality as the repeat escapee missing his son and Lau plays against type as the local gang boss.
 Tipping it's hat to Cool Hand Luke in a couple of scenes it moves along at a fair pace and is certainly better than many similar movies in this genre. Recommended.

Anima Persa (1977)

aka The Forbidden Room

19 year old Tino (Danilo Mattei) arrives in Venice to stay with his aunt and uncle (Catherine Deneuve & Vittorio Gassman) in their run down mansion while attending art school.
Curious as to what is in the locked room in an abandoned part of the building he starts to hear
strange sounds at night, while ominous cracks in his aunt and uncles relationship start to show.
 Equal parts old dark house mystery and art house movie director Dino Risi slowly creates an air of tension and hidden threat that eventually leads to a completely unexpected ending.
 Fine performances from all the leads and a great score from Francis Lai make this a highly enjoyable if downbeat experience.

Double Face (1969)

aka Liz et Helen

Mildly diverting murder mystery from director Riccardo Freda that is closer in tone to the German krimi film than the Italian giallo.
 Klaus Kinski gives a fairly reserved performance as John Alexander a man accused of murdering his wealthy wife Helen, only problem being she may not really be dead.
 Margaret Lee is the wife and Annabella Incontrerra her lover Liz (hence the films alternate title).
  As with most Freda films it's very stylishly shot but there are a couple of extremely poor effects shots that let the film down big time, a train crash that is honestly laughable and some rear projection tobogganing that doesn't work at all.
 Plus points are a couple of groovy nightclub scenes and an ending i certainly didn't  see coming at all, worth 90 minutes of anybody's time.

Pensione Paura (1977)

Fantasticly moody little film from Francesco Barilli director of the brilliant Perfume Of The Lady In Black.
 Part giallo part drama and set in a rundown hotel during the second world war the film is carried by a fabulous performance from Leonora Fani as the teenage girl waiting for her father to return from the war.
 Left to run the hotel alone after her mother is murdered the increasingly debauched guests make life hell for her, until that is they start turning up dead themselves.
 Luc Merenda is memorable as a sleazy conman and Francisco Rabal great as Fani's mother's
lover hidden away in the hotel.
 The score from Adolfo Waitzmann is quite brilliant, ranging from lightweight dancehall tunes
to ominous guitar driven themes.
 An absolute gem of a movie that just has to be seen by any serious fan of euro cult cinema.

 

Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay (1971)

Very reminiscent in places of a Jean Rollin film this French offering from director Bruno Gantillon is part dark fairytale and part softcore erotica.
 Two young female holidaymakers become trapped in the domain of witch Morgana and held as captives in her saphic harem.
 That's basically the plot and it's a rather thin one at that, not a lot really happens.
Softcore lesbian couplings punctuate the endless dialogue and a little drama is created when one of the girls trys to escape the witches domain but it really is an exercise in tedium.
 There's no doubt the cast all look stunning and some of the shots manage to capture the dreamlike atmosphere of Rollin's work but it's not enough to keep ones interest  and as a result it becomes rather a chore to sit through.

A Man Called Magnum (1977)

aka Napoli Si Ribella

Fast paced if slightly cheap poliziotteschi from director Michele Massimo Tarantini has rival factions of a crime family fighting over a missing shipment of drugs.
 Luc Merenda is the new police inspector transfered from Milan to Naples to combat the ever increasing crime rate.
 Enzo Cannavale is his appointed partner played mainly for laughs that seems at odds with the tone of the movie which is pretty violent at times.
 Franco Campino's excellent score accompanies the endless car chases and shootouts to great effect while the dubbing offers a few unintentionally amusing moments.
 The end result is an average yet enjoyable entry in the Italian crime genre, seen better seen worse.

Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1976)

This has to be one of the worst Bruceploitation movies ever made and an all time low point for the usually reliable Bruce Li.
 A barely coherent plot, clunky editing, neverending chase scenes (in car and on foot), poorly executed fights and laughable dubbing all conspire to make this the epic failure it is.
 There's not even the "so bad it's good" element to this one it's just plain bad, one to
avoid at all costs.



Puzzle (1974)

While not actually a giallo in the truest sense as sometimes listed this stylishly shot thriller still manages to create suspense with its man without a memory plotline.
 Luc Merenda is the amnesiac who reunites with wife Senta Berger after losing his memory in an accident 8 months earlier,but what is the deadly secret in his past that is catching up with him?
 Anita Strindberg and Umberto Orsini are among the supporting cast although Strindberg
is only in a couple of brief scenes :(
 Director Duccio Tessari was responsible for the equally excellent The Bloodstained Butterfly and writer Ernesto Gastaldi has so many great films to his credit it's embarrasing.
 Any film that has Senta Berger wielding a chainsaw can only come highly recommended!!

The Fifth Cord (1971)

Fantastic giallo from director Luigi Bazzoni and star Franco Nero.
 Nero plays an alcoholic reporter and possible suspect in a series of murders where the killer leaves a black glove with a finger cut off at the scene of each crime.
 A great supporting cast that includes Edmund Purdom, Rosella Falk, Silvia Monti and Agostina Belli add real depth to their characters but the real star of the show is Vittorio Storaro's stunning cinematography that is just as stylish here as it was for Argento's Bird With The Crystal Plumage.
  Add to the mix another superb score from Ennio Morricone and the result is one of the greatest Italian thrillers of the 70's that is an absolute must see movie.

The Stud (1978)

Trashy piece of British sleaze from 1978 sees Oliver Tobias as the title character a greeter at a members only nightclub leading a self indulgent hedonistic lifestyle while all the time being no more than a puppet for uber bitch Joan Collins.
 Quite well made this is high gloss trash with both Collins and Tobias well suited to their characters and the pumping disco soundtrack providing a perfect backdrop to the depressingly repetitive nightclub existence of all involved.
  Not half as awful as i expected it to be and has peeked my interest for the sequel The Bitch featuring Collins again as Fontaine Khaled.