UOMINI FORTI - DVD REVIEW

Following the enormous worldwide success of Pietro Francisci’s HERCULES (1958) and its star, ex-bodybuilder and Mr. Universe Steve Reeves, Italian film screens were suddenly flooded with characters like Maciste, Hercules and Ursus.  Steve Della Casa’s short but informative documentary charts the sudden popularity of these films, its stars and the Italian film industry, which at the time, became known as “Hollywood on the Tiber”.  

Through the use of rare archival footage and contemporary interviews, this nostalgic look at the once burgeoning Italian film industry focuses much of its attention – at least in the beginning – on Steve Reeves and his extraordinary success.  In a particularly lively bit of archive footage, our enthusiastic narrator remarks, “even the nobility opened castles and gateways for Mr. Muscles” and, in an interesting revelation, it was in fact actor Mimmo Palmara who suggested to Mr. Francisci to hire “American bodybuilders”.   Of course, this led to other ex-bodybuilders such as Gordon Mitchell, Gordon Scott, Mark Forest and many others anxiously following in the footsteps of Mr. Reeves.  In one of the many interview segments, director Carlo Verdone recounts, rather fondly, about the popularity of these films and their stars when his Aunt Lina would take him to the movies “twice a week” to see many of them. 

While much of the doc’s attention is primarily focused on these “uomini forti”, many of the film’s starlets (“brunettes were wicked and the blondes were handmaidens”) are also given their due through the use of even more fascinating archival footage.  Sylva Koscina, Moira Orfei, the “fiery” Cuban-born Chelo Alonso are all highlighted while the once elusive Rosalba Neri grants another terrific interview, which includes some funny anecdotes related to Tanio Boccia’s HERCULES OF THE DESERT (1964).

Steve Reeves arriving in Rome.

Director Steve Della Casa also touches on the many American productions that took full advantage of the cheaper production costs in Italy to help produce their “historical epics”, one of the catalysts that also spawned the “sword-and-sandal” genre throughout Italy.  Footage of Richard Fleischer on the set of BARRABAS (1961) and Victor Mature filming Edgar G. Ulmer’s HANNIBAL (1959) are some of the highlights.

Not as thorough as it could have been, the short running time – just over 45 minutes – suggests this was originally made for Italian television, but UOMINI FORTI is still well worth seeking out and a terrific look at the once prosperous Italian film industry, which is sadly, a thing of the past. 

Released in 2006 by UniVideo with the participation of Rome's Istituto Luce, this English subtitled, all region DVD is still available here.

The "fiery" Chelo Alonso.

Gordon Mitchell 

EUROCINÉ 33 CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES - DVD REVIEW

Yes, you guessed it, that’s the Paris street address to Eurociné, a lovably awful, but equally daring French film studio which is usually the scorn of snobbish cineastes that, let’s be honest, probably haven’t seen more than two of their films.  While many of their productions were undoubtedly made on the cheap, Eurociné were responsible for a treasure trove of trashy exploitation films mostly in the ’70s and ’80s, but they even managed to put together a few honest-to-goodness gems like THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962) directed by the iconoclastic Jess Franco, easily the most respectable name associated with Eurociné. Subtitled a "A French Exploitation Cinema", Christopher Bier's (directing under the suitably apt "Christopher M. Beer" in keeping with the pseudonymous nature of most Eurociné films) documentary is a highly entertaining look at this modest studio that, to this very day, still operate out of that very same address.

Mr. Bier serves as our host who proudly proclaims the films of Eurociné “are no less exotic to us than BREATHLESS and CHILDREN OF PARADISE.”  He goes on to provide a fairly thorough background history of Marius Lesoeur, the founder of Eurociné, which is nicely cut together with contemporary interviews featuring a number of directors, actors and writers that all worked for Mr. Lesoeur at one time or another.  Some of the interviews include Monica Swinn (her anecdotes regarding the various Nazi-themed films they churned out in the ’70s are quite priceless), Roger Darton, Alain Deruelle (also known as Allan W. Steeve – the director behind such cut-and-paste non-classics as CANNIBAL TERROR [1980] and JAILHOUSE WARDRESS [1979]), Patrice Rhomm, Gilbert Roussel, writer and film historian Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and of course, Daniel Lesoeur, the current head honcho of this once prolific production house.

Christopher Bier, our host and director of EUROCINE 33 CHAMPS ELYSEES

Some of the highlights include a visit to their “studio” outside of Paris, which actually turns out to be nothing more than the Lesoeur’s holiday villa turned into a mini production house.  Anyone even remotely familiar with Eurociné’s output will instantly recognize many rooms within this house, which have turned up in the likes of Jean Rollin’s guilty pleasure ZOMBIE LAKE (1980) and Jess Franco’s appropriately dark and nasty EUGENIE DE SADE (1970).  In a surprise revelation and, to the astonishment of our host Mr. Bier, Mr. Lesoeur even unboxes Soledad Miranda’s knee high leather boots from that very same Franco film!

Of course, much of the fun also comes from the various clips utilized throughout the doc and, while there is no shortage of scenes from such Eurociné staples like Alain Payet’s HELLTRAIN (1976), Patrice Rhomm’s FRAULEIN DEVIL (1976), the aforementioned ZOMBIE LAKE (1980) and Jess Franco’s revamped and re-edited OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1981), Mr. Bier has also included many tantalizing scenes from a variety of rarely seen titles such as Jess Franco’s early MARIQUITA, QUEEN OF THE TABARIN CLUB (1960), Gilbert Roussel’s RED HOT ZORRO (1972) and The GIRLS OF THE GOLDEN SALOON (1973), Pierre Chevalier’s The HOUSE OF LOST DOLLS (1973), Alain Payet’s HELGA, The SHE-WOLF OF SPILBERG (1977) and many others. 

This hour long documentary is unfortunately rather low on extras but the fact that it contains English subtitles more than makes up for it.  Although a very welcome extra is a rather extravagant poster gallery highlighting many works by poster artist Belinsky whose trashy “anything goes” artwork suited the Eurociné aesthetic to a tee.  By all means, order your copy here and check this out!  Vive la Eurociné!

Robert Foster (aka Antonio Mayans) in Eurocine's most financially successful and widely-seen film.

Christopher Bier (left) enters through the same door as Pierre Escourrou in ZOMBIE LAKE. 

Daniel Lesoeur (left) and Christopher Bier. 

HATE THY NEIGHBOR - DVD REVIEW

Review by Steve Fenton.

Dramatic voiceover to the Anglo export trailer: “You’re alone now… alone with your fear and your secrets… Then… TERROR possesses you! [gunshots] And this is your fate… Spilled blood calls for more spilled blood… Brutality and violence lead to crime! And in the heart of Man, brutality and violence breed hate! HATE… HATE… ‘HATE THY NEIGHBOR’! – A film in which men abandon their moral principles and become slaves of uncontrollable passions – This is a film which poses the anguishing question: Should a wild and primitive society take the commandment which all religions have rejected? NO! NO! NO! …(COMING SOON).”

Translated French vid blurb: “Gold Attracts Lowlifes… A fabulous goldmine provokes desire, jealously, murder, kidnapping of a child, blackmail, vengeance and hatred…”

Hence, most of the necessary ingredients for one hearty dish of spaghetti – just like Mamma used to make!  Credits are accompanied by yet another virtually unintelligible – not to mention irrelevant – Anglo theme song (sample lyrics” “Two friends / Who together have spent most of life…”).  On Wild East’s unfortunately full-frame DVD, window-boxed action highlights rendered in sepiatone and slow-motion afford the viewer a fine foretaste of the top-notch actioner to follow.  Baldi made some way decent actioners, and this one ranks right up there close to the top of his canon.

Apart from his broader nose, which makes him resemble spaghetti character actor Paolo Gozlino (from “Nick Howard”/Nick Nostro’s ONE AFTER THE OTHER [1968], among others), Greek leading man Spyros Focás – would later play Zorro and was here billed under the Anglo alias of “Clyde Garner” – somehow also possesses a recognizable Terence Hill quality (circa Giuseppe Colizzi’s GOD FORGIVES – I DON’T [1967]).  This resemblance was undoubtedly no coincidence, as director Ferdinando Baldi had recently triple-barrelled Hill, Horst Frank and “George Eastman”/Luigi Montefiori in the highly profitable VIVA DJANGO! (1967), the first official sequel to Sergio Corbucci’s and Franco Nero’s seminal DJANGO (1966).  Frank and Montefiori share similar billing and onscreen relationship here (main difference is that Frank abstains from all dirty work…until things get personal, that is).  Both actors smile a lot with their mouths but never their eyes, oozing verminous hidden agendas from their every pore, and Frank owns more customized recreational torture devices than a Vatican-appointed Grand Inquisitor.  For example, (as per the film’s snazzy original locandina poster illustration, reproduced nearby) his henchmen hang Montefiori by his feet from a gibbet above a roiling snake-pit, while caged rats gnaw at the honey-glazed rope which suspends him.  Montefiori plays such a vile pig of a man that his by no means upstanding ‘colleague’ – played by Paolo Magalotti – seems like a comparative nice guy; who rescues heroine Nicoletta Machiavelli from imminent sexual molestation under Montefiori’s sweaty palms.  Overshadowing Focás as the antihero, the vilely villainous Montefiori (himself simply anti) is given a much more prominent part, amounting to one of the actor’s meatiest, meanest and most memorable.  Even though – and quite possibly because – it takes Horst Frank a full .45 cylinder to drop him, Montefiori still goes down laughing.

As Focás’s string-pulling nemesis, megalomaniacal master puppeteer Frank plays his patented decadent, filthy-rich dirtbag (“I don’t like jokes, if the jokes’s on me”); a cold, calculating prick who gets his kicks from watching corralled Mexican peons fight to the death using huge steel claws and tiny wicker shields (not much protection there!).  A definite triple-zero dressed up as a 13, femme fatale Ivy Holzer becomes openly turned-on at the mere sight of blood.  When the vanquished have fallen, Frank forces the victor to mercy-kill his opponent, prolonging the psychological anguish by only placing one bullet in the cylinder.  In this way both the ‘victor’ and the vanquished are forced to endure the suspenseful click-click-click of empty chambers counting down until finally the gun goes off, ending both their suspense and very existence simultaneously.  Hence, the film’s title carries double relevance, jointly standing for Focás’s animosity towards his cowardly hometowners and Frank’s forced pitting of peon against peon for his personal entertainment.

Eccentric crapulent coffinmaker Roberto Rizzo – who plays the accordion at funerals – sneaks sips from a whiskey bottle, which he stashes inside a miniature casket.  Although self-described as “a peaceful man,” Rizzo lugs a big hunting rifle and is not averse to the occasional vendetta to fill both his coffers…and his coffins.

Focás, his lovely leading lady Nicoletta Machiavelli and onscreen nemesis Frank all read their lines in English, though all were evidently redubbed for the occasion by different mouths.  Action sequences are both dynamic and well-edited, with fight scenes (arranged by old gun and sword-hand Franco Fantasia) staged with relish and conviction.  And for all its gutsy violence, the film is unafraid to end on an upbeat note (“You’ve finally met a man who doesn’t know how to hate!”).  HATE THY NEIGHBOR is memorable “B”-grade spaghetti all the way, ranking right up there with Romolo Guerrieri’s 10,000 DOLLARS BLOOD MONEY (1967), “Edward G. Muller”/Edoardo Mulargia’s SAY YOUR PRAYERS AND DIG YOUR GRAVE (1968), and Sergio Garrone’s NO ROOM TO DIE (1969), top-notch ‘no-frills’ titles all.  You’ll be back for seconds, neighbour!

Note: Assistanr director was Mario Bianchi.  The serpentine “Eastman”/Montefiori takes a pitchfork to Focás herein at the same farmhouse set seen in Alfonso Balcázar’s FOUR DOLLARS OF REVENGE (1966), Roberto Mauri’s SHOTGUN (1968), and many others.  On Wild East’s Region 1 DVD, the title presently under discussion is paired with a nice widescreen print of “Joseph Warren”/Giuseppe Vari’s DJANGO, THE LAST KILLER (1967), also co-starring Eastman, albeit playing a far less reptilian character than he does here.