If its Tuesday this must be Belgium - 1969

A friend who works in travel wanted to re-see this, so I got a copy for him - its passably amusing, dealing with a coach tour of Europe in the Sixties, taking in nine countries in eighteen days. The usual predictable comedy situations take place, ticking off each nation's stereotypes. The American tourists are mainly schlubs married to nagging wives, or rampant lechers .... at least Mildred Natwick, Murray Hamilton, Norman Fell try to create characters, while the leads are tour guide Ian McShane who of course has a girl in every country, and Suzanne Pleshette, looking and sounding marvellous here, as the romantic interest on the trip. The movie is Suzanne's all the way. 

Directed by Mel Stewart, the only point of interest here is the endless walk-ons by assorted European stars who turn up for a minute or less each. There's Anita Ekberg, Elsa Martinelli, Virna Lisi, Senta Berger, Catherine Spaak, Joan Collins (whom I did not even spot so tiny is her appearance), at least Vittorio De Sica gets a few minutes as a wily shoemaker. and Donovan sings the drippy theme song, and Patricia Routledge is the bossy London guide. 

There is one shot at the start of Ben Gazzara and John Cassavetes playing cards - why? it is like they are in a different film, Its hippies and mini skirts all the way, made palatable for the great family audience, 

It catches that late Sixties look and would actually be a good double bill with BUONA SERA, MRS CAMPBELL, that other late 60s look at American tourists in Europe ..... but its hardly essential cinema.

Dolce Vita Confidential

Christmas has come early for me with this terrific read, a new book on that Roman La Dolce Vita era, which really began in 1958 and into the early Sixties, that terrific time when Rome was the centre of the movie universe. Lets quote the blurb:

"Shawn Levy has composed an exuberant portrait of postwar Rome and the film-makers, movie stars, fashion designers, journalists and paparazzi whose supreme hunger, energy and creativity transformed it into the most stylish city in the world. He brings an infectious and free-wheeling enthusiasm to every page as he reintroduces us to the extravagant romanticism of fast cars, reckless hedonism and beautiful people behind the resurrection of the Eternal City.".

From the ashes of World War II, Rome was reborn as the epicenter of film, fashion, creative energy, tabloid media, and bold-faced libertinism that made Italian a global synonym for taste, style, and flair. A confluence of cultural contributions created a bright, burning moment in history: it was the heyday of fashion icons such as Pucci, whose use of color, line, and superb craftsmanship set the standard for womens clothing for decades, and Brioni, whose confident and classy creations for men inspired the contemporary American suit. Rome's huge movie studio, Cinecitta, also known as Hollywood-on-the Tiber, attracted a dizzying array of stars from Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra to that stunning and combustible couple, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who began their extramarital affair during the making of Cleopatra. And behind these stars trailed street photographers Tazio Secchiarioli, Pierluigi Praturlon, and Marcello Gepetti who searched, waited, and pounced on their subjects in pursuit of the most unflattering and dramatic portraits of fame.

Fashionistas, exiles, moguls, and martyrs flocked to Rome hoping for a chance to experience and indulge in the glow of old money, new stars, fast cars, wanton libidos, and brazen news photographers. The scene was captured nowhere better than in Federico Fellini s masterpiece, La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and the Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg. It was condemned for its licentiousness, when in fact Fellini was condemning the very excess, narcissism, and debauchery of Rome s bohemian scene.

Gossipy, colorful, and richly informed, Dolce Vita Confidential re-creates Rome's stunning ascent with vivid and compelling tales of its glitterati and artists, down to every last outrageous detail of the city's magnificent transformation.

Shawn Levy is new to me, but I like his vivid prose and great use of language. He captures it all here, the era of Ponti and De Laurentiis, Loren and Lollo, Fellini and Antonioni ("the anti-Fellini" as Shawn says, but he highly rates the Antonioni films), plus visiting stars like Belinda Lee, the Burtons and all that scandal. Rome is at the centre of it all, with of course all that Italian fashion - those stylish mens' suits, the new scooters and the rise of Italian food.

Eternal Rome: all roads lead to it, it wasn't built in a day, and when in Rome you do as the Romans do. 

As Levy says the Italian movie renaissance began with a destitute man and his son looking for his bicycle, and follows with a newspaperman on a Vespa scooting an errant princess through the picturesque ruins, and ends with another newspaperman, among a throng of hungover aristocrats, staring at the bloated corpse of a sea monster on a wind-swept beach. 

Along the way the producers, directors, hucksters, hanger-ons, playboys and playgirls, pararazzi and others had a whole lot of fun, and a lot of it is captured here. 

So, for lovers of Italian movies, and Italy in general, and the international high life, there is a lot to enjoy here. I am now looking forward to getting Levy's take on London in the Swinging Sixties: READY STEADY GO!  

Summer re-views: favourite cat moments ....

Some favourite cat moments ..... here is Orangey, a famous 1950s cat - here he is terrorising that INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN in 1957. His most famous role of course is as 'Cat' in the 1961 perennial favourite (what other 1961 movie is on television all the time?) BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S .... we have covered that here a few times (Audrey label.). Cat is a leading role really, Audrey hated having to throw him out of the taxi into the rain and we love how he gets squashed between them in the rain at the heavenly climax ... Its of course probably easier to train dogs.

Then of course another leading cat role is that of Pyewacket in the 1958 favourite BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, where Pye gets thrown around and has to run across a busy New York street - before providing that happy ending for Kim and Jimmy (Kim label). 

Our other favourite cat, another marmalade one, is Thomasina in the 1964 Disney treat THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA.  Another orange cat features in the opening credits of our long-runnng soap CORONATION STREET (below right).

We also like that black cat prowling through the opening credits of 1962's Trash Classic WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (really must re-view that again soon); there's also that kitten Anita Ekberg plays with in the Trevi Fountain in LA DOLCE VITA.  

And of course there's CAT PEOPLE where Natassja Kinski gives in to her feline desires .... as per review Horror label.   More on all these cats at Cat label. 

Peplum veterans

Let's praise some of our peplum/epic favourite actors, great dependables who always 'add value' and make their scenes come alive .... (I am only focusing on their peplum/costume roles).

Frank Thring (1926-1994): Australian Frank was deliciously evil with a streak of camp, particularly as Aella in THE VIKINGS chopping off Tony Curtis's hand and ending up in the wolf pit, Pontius Pilate in BEN HUR ("A long life young Arrius, and the good sense to live it"), Ad Kadir in EL CID (when the starving citizens of Valencia revolt he gets thrown off the city walls), and his Herod Antipas in KING OF KINGS.  His published biography should be quite interesting.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke (1983-1964): The distinguished thespian was Sethi the old Pharoah in Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, King Priam in HELEN OF TROY, the Judge in THE STORY OF MANKIND, Tiberius Caesar in SALOME, King Edward in RICHARD III, and the owner of the balloon in the amusing adventure FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON. 

Finlay Currie (1878-1968). 90 year old Finlay clocked up 145 credits, his busy career included lots of epics and costume dramas - in fact any epic had to include Finlay for extra gravitas: David in SOLOMON AND SHEBA, Balthasar in BEN HUR, Magwich in GREAT EXPECTATIONS, the traitor in DANGEROUS EXILE, Peter in QUO VADIS, Cedric in IVANHOE, the Mullah in ZARAK, in TEMPEST, Jacob in JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS, the pope in FRANCIS OF ASSISI, Titus in CLEOPATRA, a senator in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Right: Finlay with George and Yul in SOLOMON AND SHEBA.

Then, theres: Harry Andrews (1911-1989)  - prolific Harry did some great peplum roles too: I like his Baltor, advisor to Gina's Queen in SOLOMON AND SHEBA. He was in blackface too as Darius the deposed king of Persia in ALEXANDER THE GREAT, Peter in BARABBAS, and Hector in HELEN OF TROY, and in 55 DAYS IN PEKING, Lord Lucan in THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1968).. More on Harry at label. 

Stanley Baker (1928-1976). The very prolific Stanley also did sterling duty in peplums:  starting with Olivier's RICHARD III, Achilles in HELEN OF TROY, Attalus in ALEXANDER THE GREAT, and of course being very nasty in SODOM AND GOMORRAH. Ditto more on Stanley at label. 

We cannot forget George Sanders (1906-1972) who did a whole string of costumers and some epics among his 135 credits..... IVANHOE, Adonijah in SOLOMON AND SHEBA, Charles II in THE KING'S THIEF, hilarious in JUPITER'S DARLING, SON OF FURY, raising his goblet to toast Delilah as the temple falls around them in SAMSON & DELILAH, King Richard in RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, the villain in MOONFLEET etc. 

Henry Daniell (1894-1963) too - sardonic Henry had some good peplum/costume moments in a long career: he is good in THE PRODIGAL 1955, and the Sheik in FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON, 1962 - and in the 1930s MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH & ESSEX, Baron De Varville to Garbo's CAMILLE, Mr Brocklehurst in JANE EYRE,  THE SEA HAWK, SIREN OF ATLANTIS, THE EGYPTIAN, etc.   
Then there's Vincent Price ... and of course Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance have also done iconic work in peplums - not to mention Steve Reeves & Co ...
Peter Ustinov too for scene-stealing beyond the call of duty in QUO VADIS, THE EGYPTIAN, SPARTACUS, where he, Olivier and Laughton seemed to be out-acting each other ... 
and the recently departed Douglas Wilmer - see RIP below.

Plus French Jacques Sernas (1925-2015) who died last year. Paris in HELEN OF TROY (right) and Laertes in APHRODITE, GODDESS OF LOVE and in THE NIGHTS OF LUCREZIA BORGIA (both opposite Belinda Lee, below), IMDB lists a lot of his other peplums we do not know here. 

Queen of the peplums has to be our favourite, the tragic Belinda Lee (1935-1961). She also did MESSALINA, MARIE OF THE ISLES, JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS. Ditto, more on Belinda at label .... including her memorial in Rome. Then there's Scilla Gabel, Rossana Podesta (HELEN OF TROY herself), Anita Ekberg and ...

1962: Boccaccio 70

Back to 1962 again for BOCCACCIO 70 that fascinating compendium, then of 3 episodes, marketed as Fellini directs Anita Ekberg, Visconti directs Romy Schneider and De Sica with Sophia Loren once again. There was though a fourth episode, by Monicelli, with no major names (Marisa Solinas and Germano Gilioli, above) which was cut from the release print, to the annoyance of critics at the time who boycotted a party held by producer Carlo Ponti. As I mentioned here before, the dvd now has the full four episodes and the Monicelli proves a perfect summertime treat, as we join our young couple looking for some time to themselves in a crowded city with crowded workplaces, family homes and very crowded swimming pools. Its a perfect early 1960s Italian delight ...

Of course Romy (with Tomas Milian), Anita as the giant billboard that comes to life, and Sophia as the fairground girl who is raffled off every week, also amuse .... 

If you do not know this one, it is worth seeking out. 

London's BFI is holding a Vittoria De Sica retrospective (or really Vittorio's Greatest Hits) in August - including his classics like BICYCLE THIEVES in an extended run, plus UMBERTO D, and early ones like SHOESHINE, GATE OF HEAVEN, MIRACLE IN MILAN, the oddball THE LAST JUDGEMENT as well as GOLD OF NAPLES and his Loren-Mastroianni hits, plus TWO WOMEN and ending with GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINIS - but not BOCCACCIO 70 or CONDEMNED OF ALTONA or his last two as director A BRIEF VACATION or THE VOYAGE. They also incude several of his acting roles: BREAD LOVE & DREAMS with Gina, but not SCANDAL IN SORRENTO where he is very amusing with Sophia - nor several of his others with Loren (TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, THE MILLIONAIRESS, IT STARTED IN NAPLES), or his MONTE CARLO STORY with Dietrich, NERO'S LOST WEEKEND with Gloria Swanson and the young B.B,, but they do include Ophuls' MADAME DE... , and  IL GENERALE DELLA ROVERE for Rossellini, in 1959.  plus his 1954 Selznick opus INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE and his acting role in A FAREWELL TO ARMS.  They could have included his final acting role in Warhol's BLOOD FOR DRACULA! 

Vittorio as I said before, was a larger than life character, like John Huston or Orson Welles, who not only made his own films but also acted in others', no doubt to finance his gambling and other family expenses .... Sophia features him a lot in her latest autobio.
Soon: more Italian glamour with those DOLLS and QUEENS !

Something camp for the weekend 2: glamour photos

Some luridly colorful star photos: (I couldn't figure where else to put them). Bette, Susan, Gina, Anita, Kay Kendall, plus Tab, Guy, Charles Farrell, young Gary Cooper, and Cary and Randy at lunch. ... glamour in spades!

Showpeople: 1956: Royalty, MM, BB, Anita & Joan is not pleased ! + Belinda and the Rank girls.

What a glamorous night, at the 1956 Royal Film Performance, all in 90 seconds (below): this was the one Marilyn Monroe attended - I didn't know Brigitte Bardot and the recently departed Anita Ekberg were there as well, did the girls get to chat?. as - a decade later - Julie Christie, Catherine Deneuve and Ursula Andress did at the 1966 Royal Perf, as per my previous posts on that ... Showpeople label. 

Ekberg (next to Joan Crawford, below) was with her husband, the attractive British actor Anthony Steele. Bardot had not yet exploded on the scene with AND GOD CREATED WOMAN, this would have been about the time she appeared in Dirk's DOCTOR AT SEA. Sylvia Syms (in her MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER phase!) and Vic Mature were there and er, Norman Wisdom and John Gregson. The line-up is in alphabetical order, that should sort out any diva tantrums - so its Bardot, Ian Carmichael, Crawford, Ekberg,  Gregson - with Mature and Monroe further down the line ...

Joan Crawford was less than complimentary on the girls for being late and not attending rehearsals:
"If you want my opinion, far too many actresses today are little more than tramps and tarts. The Queen is a lady and expects to meet other ladies. Most of today's actresses can't even act politely. Arlene Dahl, Marilyn Monroe, and Anita Ekberg didn't even show up for rehearsals. And Monroe's hairdresser was still doing her hair while Her Majesty was on her way up the staircase. And when Monroe finally got there, she still didn't know how to curtsey. I felt so ashamed."
Below: more '50s glamour: some of the Rank Organisation girls at maybe another 1956 Royal Film event: Belinda Lee, Maureen Swanson, Shirley Eaton, Mary Ure and June Thorburn.
The James Bond golden girl Shirley Eaton is the only one still here, in her late 70s. Belinda was killed in a car accident in 1961 aged 25, and June Thorburn (tom thumb) in a airplane crash, aged 36 in 1967, Swanson married into the English nobility and died in 2011, Ure died in mysterious circumstances after the opening night of a play she was appearing in, in 1975, aged 42. Thanks to that fabulous site Poseidon's Underworld for the photograph. 

Pity these newsreels were not in colour, see the 1957 and 1966 Royal Film Performances and the London 1955 A STAR IS BORN premiere at Showpeople label.

Yet more RIPs

Anita Ekberg (1931-2015), aged 83, the former Miss Sweden was born in Malmo and was in Hollywood by the 1950s. I grew to like Anita a lot (as per posts on her here, Anita label), for me she was the most sensational of the 50s glamazons, no wonder she had beaus like Ty Power and Gary Cooper and Sinatra ..... 

I have a Bob Hope comedy she did, still to watch: PARIS HOLIDAY, and I love her late 50s period when she was totally stunning, as in ZARAK, INTERPOL, BACK FROM ETERNITY and SCREAMING MIMI, and that oddball western VALERIE, in 1957 with her husband Anthony Steele.
Then of course the two Fellini's and lesser films .... and sizzlers like that KILLER NUN!

For me, she is up there with Loren, La Lollo, Silvana Mangano, Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale. They just don't make them like that any more. Watching her with Martin & Lewis you see her sense of humour, she is bemused by her own voluptiousness and how it affects men.

Expect lots of that Trevi fountain scene on the news bulletins. 

Anita wows them in ZARAK: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxpTYwHOt48

In a 1980 interview she is quoted: "I have no regrets. I have loved, cried, been mad with happiness. I have won and I have lost".

Francosco Rosi. (1922-2015), aged 92. Veteran Italian director and writer of political films like SALVATORE GIULIANO (1962), HANDS OVER THE CITY, 1963. THE MATTEI AFFAIR, THE MOMENT OF TRUTH about bull-fighting, LUCKY LUCIANO, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI, ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, the 1984 CARMEN, CHRONICE OF A DEATH FORETOLD  and the charming, oddball fairy tale C'ERA UNA VOLTA (MORE THAN A MIRACLE) in 1967, with Loren at her zenith. He also scripted Visconti's BELLISSIMA for Magnani. His films dealt with power , poverty, corruption - his commitment to social issues made him heir to the Italian neo-realists of the postwar years, and perhaps with Fellini, Antonioni and Visconti he was one of the last of the giants of the Italian cinema, while not been as internationally famous. 

Princess of the Nile, and other exotic treats ...

A fun post today, as we go back to those heady Fifties sword-and-sandal costume movies, often referred to as Peplums, if set in the ancient world, but these I have selected are all Arabian fantasies -  not westerns then, but "easterns": bring on the harem pants and those scantily-clad dancing girls ..... how we loved the in those '50s sunday afternoon duible-bills ... a lot of them could be Trash Classics now.

Few dancing girls were as delectable as Debra Paget - best known now for her sensational numbers in Fritz Lang's 1959 German opus THE INDIAN TOMB (right) - but she also dances up a storm in PRINCESS OF THE NILE, in 1954 with Jeff Hunter - topless and wearing a turban.

Time: A.D. 1249. Shalimar, an Egyptian princess, striving to rid her country of its Bedouin conquerors, forms an alliance with Prince Haidi, son of the Caliph of Bagdad. She practices her intrigues both at the court and, disguised as a dancing girl, in the market place. Here she is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJY0Lr5L8gw

This is delicious fun as Debra's princess also plays the dancing girl, as Jeff Hunter and evil Michael Rennie fight over her. It is all more Ali Baba and Baghdad than Egyptian.  Jeff and Debra are such a good-looking couple too. 

As an IMDB reviewer puts it: A pretty film with lead actors so beautiful, it almost hurts to look at them. Young Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget dazzle in this fun faux- Egyptian adventure/romance. Whether you are straight or gay, male or female, you should appreciate looking at them both.It has adventure, romance, a quick-moving plot, and some comic relief. Dancing girls! Evil henchmen! Scimitar fights! What's not to like?  Debra and Jeff were also in that good western from 1955: WHITE FEATHER, pictured here with Robert Wagner. 

SERPENT OF THE NILE falls into the just Trash or B-Movie category - not even amusing enough to be camp. This William Castle clunker from 1953 may be the cheapest, tattiest costumer ever, as Rhonda Fleming essays Cleo, and burly Raymond Burr walks through the role of Mark Anthony, William Lundigan looks so 50s with his brylcreemed hair!. There are few extras and crowd scenes and it all looks like it was shot over a weekend - or maybe I am being too cruel .... It does though have the stunning Julie Newmar (below) as a dancing girl, covered in gold - a decade before Shirley Eaton in GOLDFINGER! - in a terrific number.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG8JcOxBZZc

Another early Cleopatra was the 19-year old Sophia Loren in TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA (below) and she was also in ATTILA. Over at Universal, young Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie toiled more varied Arabian Nights fantasies like THE PRINCE WHO WAS A THIEF.

Dale Robertson , a western star (we liked him in SITTING BULL and THE GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ) took to harem pants quite well too as SON OF SINBAD in 1956, where Vincent Price has a camp time as the poet Omar Khayyam. This one - from Howard Hughes - is full of dancing girls, in fact almost every burlesque queen in L.A. must have worked on it - as per:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jd8Jzan-8

which makes one wonder who the intended audience for these movies were: kids and adolescents or 'dirty old men' to leer at the lovelies ... 

For real dancing girls try out Anita Ekberg in Terence Young's ZARAK in 1956 - 

 cheesecake does not get much better - Anita of course has the obligatory jewel in her navel - as did Joan Collins, Gina Lollobrigida and others then. 

Anita was sensational then in films like INTERPOL and SCREAMING MIMI - as per other posts on her - Anita label, before heading to Italy and Fellini - LA DOLCE VITA and her giant billboard which comes to life in Federico's episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (where De Sica had Loren, and Visconti Romy Schneider in their episodes) in 1962. I have a Bob Hope comedy she did as well, PARIS HOLIDAY from '57, to see sometime soon. Over 80 now (like her fellow sirens Bardot and Loren) one hopes Anita is doing ok.

John Wayne's THE CONQUEROR in 1956, another Howard Hughes production, is often dismissed as being terrible - and it was certainly a mistake to shoot it near those atomic testing sites in Utah - but Wayne is fun as Genghis Khan with Susan Hayward as his Tartar love - Susie dances up a storm too and there's a terrific exotic dance scene - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHbJkb9OKI

(We also like the 1965 GENGHIS KHAN, a rather tatty late epic, with a super cast including Stephen Boyd and Francoise Dorleac as the very '60s Bortai.) 

OMAR KHAYYAM was a treat in 1957 - more harem scenes and Debra Paget again. Debra wa also in Elvis's first film LOVE ME TENDER then and it seems Elvis was smitten..... and of course she was in Cecil's daddy-of-them-all, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and also in DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. She should have had a longer career, but she married well, and she too is over 80 now. Jeff Hunter of course died in 1969 - see label for more. 

Minnelli got into the act with his stagebound film of KISMET, another Arabian Nights fantasy musical, where Dolores Gray shines. 

Other costumers of the time which we like (see Epics/Peplums labels) include the hiliarious THE PRODIGAL, LAND OF THE PHAROAHS, THE EGYPTIAN, THE SILVER CHALICE, PRINCE VALIANT, BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, SIGN OF THE PAGAN, and the stupendous THE VIKINGS, and of course those Steve Reeves movies, before the big epics like BEN HUR, SPARTACUS and EL CID took over. Then we got CLEOPATRA and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE as the epic genre ran out of favour as the Swinging Sixties took off .... but they provided (and still do) lots of pleasure. Below: KISMET, 1955.

And we couldn't leave out Gina's torrid orgy scene in SOLOMON & SHEBA: