Saturday Top Ten: Edwige Fenech

Has there ever been a more delightful lady to grace a cinema/tv screen? I think not. Though her numerous appearances in Italian comedies and giallo films Edwige has been a towering presence. Never looking less than an angel fallen from heaven she has provided me (and countless others) of hours of rapt attention. So without further ado, here's my Top Ten of of Ms Fenech:

1. La Pretora - a highly welcome double dose of Edwige here as she plays both a prudish magistrate and her twin, fun loving sister. Directed by Lucio Fulci this has immense charm, actual comedy (sometimes rare in Italian comedies) and copious opportunities for Edwige to lose her clothes. A delight which should have nabbed her an Oscar - and I jest not.
2. Top Sensation - aka The Seducers. A sleazy thriller that is helped enormously by having another Italian goddess on board - Rosalba Neri. If the the film had been those two having a cup of tea for 90 minutes I would still have been happy! Watch out for the unforgettable scene with Edwige and a goat. Really!
3. The Case Of The Bloody Iris - A cracking giallo with her sometimes co-star George Hilton.
4. All the Colours Of The Dark - A deliscious mix of giallo and supernatural thriller./
5. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh - Yet another top notch giallo
6. Ubalda, All Naked and Warm - A period romp set in the times of the crusades. Genuinely funny and has an extended scene of of Edwige running topless through a field. 'nuff said.
7. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key - An excellent title (actually a line from number 5) and reminiscent of Poe's The Black Cat.
8. Grazie Nonna - Comedy with Edwige playing a young man's grandma to whom he loses his virginity. Really.
9. Five Dolls For An August Moon - A film that many see as Bava's worst (including the great man himself), but I like it - even if Edwige isn't featured heavily.
10. Secrets Of A Call Girl - This is the film I would point unbel;ievers to if they say that Edwige coasts throughb her roles without acting.

Viva Fenech!

Barb Wire Dolls (1975)

It seems fitting (if not a legal imperative) to renew this blog with a classic exploitationer from the leading exponent of explotation films - Jess Franco. Uncle Jess has been churning them out an at alarming rate for over 40 years, and though he has slowed down a lot (and to be fair, he's 80) he is still making them.

Barb Wire Dolls is one of the many Women In Prison films that he made and, for me, one of his best. I do have a preference for 99 Women, but that does have Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and especially Rosalba Neri to help it along. Anyhoo, the plot of Barb Wire Dolls is that Lina Romay has been banged up for killing her father, and apart from an 'out of left field' plot twist that's about it. But when has the sparcity of plot held our man back? Never, that's when. So without having to think about the plot too much, Jess gives us the lesbian warden, the lebian trysts, the gynaelogical zoom shots (often), the torture scenes and the ultimate escape. And he manages to make it fun and keep the viewer (me) tuned to the screen. Sleaze can oh so easily become boring after a while and it's to Franco's credit that he manages to keep things rolling along quite nicely. The actors fit there roles competently with a special nod to Monica Swinn as the sadistic, masochistic, hotpants wearing warden who keeps a monocle firmly embedded in her eye, unless she is asking one of her charges to slap her about making it fly off.

As is most usually the case, you kind of need to already be a Franco fan to enjoy this, but luckily I am.

Death Steps In The Dark (1977)

After the electricity is cut, a train enters a tunnel and a women in a compartment is killed, and one of the other five in the compartment must be the killer, but who? And what lengths will the killer go to to remain free?
A late entry in the giallo boom, this is a very workmanlike entry with very little to recommend it. Director Maurizio Pradeaux sleepwalks his way through the proceedings and brings nothing memorable to entice the viewer to recommend it to anyone. If you have ever seen a giallo before there is no need to see this one. There are signs that the director himself knew this as he has added some off the wall humour that comes across as being totally out of place.
It's a shame really as the initial premise could have been put to much better use.

The Comeback (1978)

One of Pete Walker’s last films (only Home Before midnight and House of Long Shadows were to follow) The Comeback follows the tale of a singer (Jack Jones) attempting to record his comebcak album after a period of retirement when he got married. Newly divorced, he rents a large house and sets to work. Someone, however, doesn’t seem to want him to make his comebcak, or is he going insane?
While easily not up to the standard of his best work (which includes Frightmare and The House of Mortal Sin) there is much to be enjoyed in what is basicaly a fairly ludicrous story. The ludicrousness is highlighted to the nth degree by an absolutely farcical twist ending that is, however, delivered in such a convincing way that you are prepared to forgive.
What is notably absent from the film is Walker’s usual demaniacally twisted authority figure that give his earlier films that bit of metaphorical bite and the film is more of a straightforward flick than his usual offerings as a result. If it sounds like I’m giving a bad impression, then I don’t mean to; as I said earlier there is much to enjoy in the film, not least yet another performance of gold from Walker regular, Sheila Keith. No actress has ever chewed the scenery quite like Ms Keith and she remains one of the most under-rated horror icons in Britain in my humble opinion. Another stand out moment is the first murder, which may be the most effective Walker-flmed shock moments ever. Had the rest of the film been as top notch as this then we would be discussing an all-time classic here. It’s not, but it’s still a fun flick and a definite for any Walker fan.

Deadlier Than The Male/Some Girls Do

I was watching the 1960’s Bulldog Drummond revivals over the weekend and found myself heartily enjoying them which, as I thought while reflecting afterwards, is a bit surprising really as there are a few reasons why I shouldn’t like them whatsoever. First off, they are clearly James Bond rip-offs. Not that I have anything against rip-offs (quite the contrary really) but I’ve never been a fan of James Bond. Secondly, I am a Bulldog Drummond fan – both the books and the early films starring various suave actors in the role like Ray Milland and John Howard – and this version, made flesh by Richard Johnson, is nothing like the famous jut-jawed adventurer and is Hugh Drummond in name only (The word ‘Bulldog’ is not even mentioned) and I tend to dislike anything that travesties anything that I hold dear . Also both films (especially the second, Some Girls Do) are frequently silly, along the making you cringe lines. Silliness can be great, but it’s a fine line that you tread and the silliness on offer in these two flicks should have obvious to everybody involved as being the wrong type of silliness. In effect, these are pretty bad films.

But………….

Films are all about entertainment and these two deliver on that point. I’m not even going to explain the plots, because I probably couldn’t, suffice to say they’re about scientists, secret weapons, world domination etc and so on and so forth.
The music is as what you expect or hope for. A suitably sixties soundtrack with a theme song belted out at the beginning and end.
The films up the girl-ante of the James Bond series with the sheer amount of beautiful ladies that get paraded by the camera lens and in this type of film this must be considered a decided bonus, especially when one of them is Yutte Stensgaard (hooray!!). I will rather shame-facedly admit that both films score rather high on the ‘Exploitation of Women Scale’ and it’s not too difficult to discern some rather callous streaks of misogyny here and there that makes one raise an eyebrow, Roger Moore-style. But, c’mon, it’s the sixties!

Anyway, the locations are great, direction is adequate and production costs seem to be better than most similar romps. At the end of the day they are just two mindless, fun, tongue-in-cheek capers that aren’t meant to be taken seriously whatsoever, so don’t and you might just enjoy them. The first one, Deadlier Than The Male, is easily the better of the two with a particularly notable Carl Peterson as played by Nigel Greene. In the second, Peterson is played by James Villiers and he plays it more camp, which makes the character less effective. Bizarrely the second is not just content to rip-off James Bond, it also seems to be taking the mickey out of DTTM! God knows what third one would have looked like. But I bet it would have been fun.

Paul Naschy 1934 - 2009

I have just heard about the sad passing of the great Spanish horror icon, Paul Naschy. Paul was more than a giant in his particular field, he was the field. He will probably be most remembered for his many films featuring the tortured lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky but he leaves behind a vast legacy which encompasses every single one of the classic film monsters/villains, even Dr Fu Manchu! While it has to be agreed that all of his movies were not of the same calibre, very often they would transcend budgetary constraints and produce something very special.
A few personal Naschy faves are Horror Rises From The Tomb, Curse of the Devil, Werewolf Shadow and Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll, but even his lesser films entertained – Dr Jekyll vs the Werewolf is a prime example – and kept you riveted throughout. Many of his films were penned by himself under his real name Jacinta Molina, and he would sometimes make as many as 8 films in one year. His last film, The Waldemar Inheritance comes out in January.

RIP Paul.

Deadly Strangers (1974)

While browsing through the dvds the other night looking for something to watch we hit on a stalemate not being able to choose something that we both wanted to watch. Then we discovered the dvd for ‘Deadly Strangers’ which I had to admit to not being able to remember a damn thing about it. I knew I hadn’t seen it but couldn’t remember what it was about, who was in it or even what precise genre it was. But given that I must have it for a reason we decided to give it a go and hope for the best. Now, I’m not too sure what benefits this can have when watching a film. Obviously we would have no preconceptions about the flick, no expectations etc so it would be difficult to be disappointed, but also, conversely, if it was good would we over-rate it because it came out of the blue.

Anyway, it was a psychological thriller. Hayley Mills misses her train and is forced to hitch a lift. After a narrow escape from a scumbag trucker she is picked up by Simon Ward. It soon becomes clear that one of them is the escaped psychopath that the police are out in force trying to track down and the rest of the film charts their relationship while we try and work out which of them is the nutter.

Full of red herrings, this cross breed of road movies and psycho thriller is nicely crafted and never once gives an apt opportunity to get the kettle on. Mills is adequate in the role (and evidently still doing her best to shed her Pollyanna image by shedding her clothes) but Ward steals the show and is admirably ambiguous. Special mention must go to Sterling Hayden, whose eccentric character is worthy of a film series of his own and completely overshadows the superfluous-ness of his presence. We did guess the identity of the loony but have to admit at getting sidestepped a couple of times, so respect for that.

Of course, as with many of these type of thrillers, a lot of the fun is accidental. The British locations, the old cars and the basic 70s ‘feel’ to the movie add a great deal to the overall ambience of the flick.

While not an undiscovered masterpiece this was a pleasant surprise and a genuinely enjoyable film thatI would heartily recommend it to anyone.