Ghosts of Rome / Phantoms of Rome, 1961

That's 500 posts done! So, to start the next 500, back to that early '60s Italy for another discovery - FANTASMI A ROMA: PHANTOMS (or GHOSTS) OF ROME, a very amusing comedy which I had never heard of - but there it is on YouTube, all 93 minutes, but I had to have it for myself so have ordered a copy - I can practice my Italian on it as there are no subitles, but that does not stop one's pleasure in watching this great cast at their peaks: Marcello Mastroianni - after LA DOLCE VITA, Vittorio Gassman, the great Edouardo de Filippio, Sandra Milo - and fitting in nicely, Belinda Lee again in one of her last roles.

I think its quite an achievement for Belinda to have become part of the booming Italian movie scene of the late 50s and early 60s - I can't think of any other English actress who did, particularly a glamorous one! not only in the popular peplums (sword and sandal movies) of the time but also comedies likes this and dramas like THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 [reviewed below here...] with the leading Italian actors of the day; and of course she was also in that French LE DRAGUEURS in 1959 (reviewed at Belinda and French labels).

A whimsical fantasy with bite, the story follows Don Annibale (De Filippo), the elderly Prince happily sharing his crumbling palazzo with the ghosts he knows are there of his ancestors. They include Reginaldo (Mastroianni), a two-bit Casanova from the eighteenth century; Flora (Sandra Milo), a doomed romantic from a few generations later who drowned herself after an unfortunate love affair; and Father Bartolomeo (Tino Buazzelli), a greedy monk who died after eating poisoned meatballs intended for rats. The child of 10 ghost is the older brother of De Filippo now in his 70s, who died when De Filippo was 6!



De Filippo soon joins them after an unfortunate accident. His nephew, Federico (Mastroianni again in one of his 3 roles ) turns up with his stroppy girlfriend, Eileen (Belinda Lee), and they intend to sell the palazzo to a developer who wants to build a department store on the site. The ghosts are rather upset with this turn of events, and decide to do their best to stop the developers’ plans. Then they co-opt the ghost of a renaissance artist (Vittorio Gassman) to paint a fresco in the attic, hoping that when it’s discovered the building will be declared a place of historical interest and therefore subject to a conservation order. It is an amusing satire on the booming new Italy of the '60s and the ghosts with their grey pallor and period costumes interact amusingly with the modern cast. Lee is amusing as the brassy girlfriend of the modern Mastroianni while ghostly Marcello, a rather camp Casanova, watches her bathe. . A lot of the comedy comes from the ghosts' attempts to come to grips with the modern life which is increasingly encroaching on their world.

It is nicely photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno (THE LEOPARD, AMARCORD etc. etc.) and has lovely art direction. Director Antonio Pietrangeli’s direction is spot on, and the ghosts are beguiling creatures, for which credit is due to Mastroianni, Gassman, and Milo. This must never have played in London or I would have known about it, but it is a nice discovery now, as I track down more Italian rarities with those players I like. All that's missing here is Vittorio De Sica!

Another Italian discovery: La Lunga Notte del '43

"I was surpised at how much I enjoyed THE LONG NIGHT OF '43 - it was not at all what I was expecting from a "war movie" (which is what I thought it was) let alone a Belinda Lee movie", so says my friend Melvelvit (from IMDB). It is certainly a big re-discovery for me, as I saw it back in 1967 when I was 21 as an older friend then took me to see it at London's National Film Theatre so many thanks to Guy Tremlett for introducing me to the NFT, - I more or less lived there in the '70s; this film though never showed up anywhere since.

Florestano Vancini made his debut with this 1960 drama, a potent mix of illicit romance and politics, set in Ferrara [Antonioni's home town] as the Fascists tighten their grip to maintain control. Belinda Lee is the wife of a crippled pharmacy owner who spends his time looking out the front window in the apartment above the pharmacy where she works at the till - so he sees too much. At the cinema she meets old flame Gabriele Ferzetti, who is hiding with his family, and they embark on a romance. The personal and the political come to a climax one long night in that December 1943. A wartime atrocity occurs [several prominent locals are rounded up and shot including Ferzetti's father], pushing the two lovers in very different directions. A coda, set in present-day 1960, plays out bitterly but beautifully, jettisoning romance in favor of a grim reminder that the murderers are still among us. It's a remarkable finish to a very compelling film. The leads are excellent; Pier Paolo Pasolini is one of the credited screenwriters, its from a story by Giorgio Bassani, author of THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS.



The film brought director Vancini a "Best First Work" award at the Venice Film Festival in 1960, and according to my other IMDB pal Jorge, he is now resident in Brazil. Jorge by the way is looking forward to seeing a copy of this.



Gabriele Ferzetti, the same year as L'AVVENTURA, plays another selfish, hollow man here [and he is still working, playing the patriarch in my 2010 favourite I AM LOVE, 2000s label], while Belinda Lee in one of her last roles (before that fatal car crash in 1961) shows what a loss she was - she is a compelling actress here jettisoning most of her glamour - quite a contrast to her Rank Organisation or sword-and-sandal peplum roles. Deglamorised and playing an ordindary Italian woman she is like a young Magnani or Loren, and shows how her career could have gone if fate had been different. It is a very engrossing film with the central massacre sequence being brilliantly staged. One of my re-discoveries of the year then.

It has been interesting too catching up with 2 of Belinda's peplums: the 1957 APHRODITE GODDESS OF LOVE, and her last film CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS with Cornel Wilde, released in 1962.

My Voyage to Italy - Martin Scorsese

The perfect documentary for me is Martin Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, I missed this whenever it played on television - did it ever play here in the UK? - but at least the dvd is now avalable. Scorsese of course as an Italian-American is the ideal guide through Italian cinema, he grew up watching these films and they have inluenced his work. It is a given that he would have loved Fellini's I VITELLONI (which I raved about here a while back), it is a major influence on his MEAN STREETS.

This four hour documentary charts the landmark films and directors of the post-war era, including Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rosselini and Michelangelo Antonioni, good to see the usually neglected Rossellini given his due here. Given Marty's wealth of knowledge and infectious passion, just watching this DVD is like attending the best film class. He knows what he’s talking about and gives precise, eloquent descriptions of each movie, using his years of experience in front of a screen as well as behind the camera. Most of all this is 246 minutes of one of the great US directors imparting his passion about some of the most important films of the 20th century. It makes one want to go back to the movies and experience them all over again, particularly Visconti's great SENSO, De Sica's UMBERTO D, and those Fellini and Antonioni masterworks. I VITELLONI for instance remains a timeless pleasure and makes me want to see those other early Fellini films.



If you care about the medium, then it is an essential purchase. Scorsese introduces various segments and through judicious use of clips and an informed, eloquent voiceover takes us on a journey of the following films:

• Paisà (1946))
• Rome, Open City (1945)
• Stromboli (1950)
• Europa ’51 (1952)
• Shoeshine (1946)
• Bicycle Thieves (1948)
• Umberto D (1952)
• The Gold of Naples (1954)
• Ossessione (1943)
• La Terra trema (1950)
• Senso (1954)
• I Vitelloni (1953)
• La Dolce Vita (1960)
• Voyage to Italy (1954)
• L’avventura (1960)
• L’eclisse (1962)
• 8½ (1963)

His focus of course is on classic Italian cinema, but a broader view would encompass the sword-and-sandal peplum films popular in the late 50s/early 60s (like GIANT OF MARATHON, Leone's rather good THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII and the Steve Reeves spectaculars, APHRODITE, MESSALINA (see Belinda Lee label), and the giallo thrillers by the likes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento (Jean Sorel label), as well as the popular Loren-Mastroianni films and the delicious comedy films of Monica Vitti, Alberto Sordi et al (BOCCACCIO 70, LE BAMBOLE, LE FATE etc); and those films from the works of Alberto Moravia (TIME OF INDIFFERENCE (Claudia Cardinale label), TWO WOMEN), Georgio Bassani (THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI'S) and those intriguing novels by Natalia Ginzburg (DEAR MICHAEL (CARO MICHELE), FAMIGLIA etc). Other strands of Italian cinema I liked are those Lina Wertmuller films like SEVEN BEAUTIES, the Taviani's PADRE PADRONE and new comedies like LOOSE CANNONS (review at Italian label), and the lesser known films by Alberto Lattuada (THE TEMPEST, DOLCI IGNANNI), Mauro Bolognini (GRAN BOLLITO, METELLO), Monicelli etc; Visconti's 1952 BELLISSIMA and 1965 operatic melodrama SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA) being my recent re-dioscoveries. I will have to comment separately on the polarising works of Bertolucci and Pasolini!

I have written about these in more detail at Italian, De Sica, Antonioni, Fellini labels ....plus at labels for Loren, Vitti, Valli, Cardinale, Magnani, Mangano, Mastroianni. We sure love those Italians!

Showpeople (12) - those glamour shots

It must have been hard work looking so good: Anita Ekberg, Belinda Lee [photographed by her husband Cornel Lucas], Dirk Bogarde, Kay Kendall (on the set of my favourite QUENTIN DURWARD).

Italian peplums 1: spoofs and thrills

TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA - Sort of an Italian CARRY ON CLEO? This Alberto Sordi comedy seems to be a spoof of the sword-and-sandal genre churned out in Italy during the ‘50s and early ‘60s. This one is only of note now because it features the 19 year old Sophia Loren in the dual role of Cleopatra and a slave girl who looks like her. Cleo needs to escape for a night or two and the slave girl Niscia has to impersonate her. Cleo though is in the habit of sleeping with her guards who are then killed the next morning – and Sordi is the latest guard. Alberto though is one of those annoying comedians (like Benny Hill or Frankie Howard or Norman Wisdom or Jerry Lewis – I dare say every country has their own) whom one either likes or dislikes. I am afraid it is the latter for me, but Sophia looks like she is going places here and has that swim in the pool … direction is credited to one Mario Mattoli. Very average but then Italian comedy does not always translate well abroad. It is of course a Ponti-De Laurentiis production.
NERO’S LOST WEEKEND or MY SON NERO – This 1956 one features Sordi again as Nero on holiday at his seaside villa. The cast though is the thing here: Vittorio De Sica as Seneca (one of his take the money and run jobs to finance his gambling no doubt), the pre-Vadim Brigitte Bardot lovely as ever as Poppea – AND Gloria Swanson as Nero’s fearsome mother Agrippina. She makes a fantastic entrance parting the curtains of her carriage as she is all in red with a red veil – quite a contrast to Norma Desmond. She enters into the spirit of all, so it is amusing nonsense. My copy is in Italian though – but with that cast one hardly needs English!. Steno is credited as director but Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci are also involved and it has the usual Titanus production values. Peter Ustinov’s Nero though was a lot funnier in QUO VADIS!



MESSALINA IMPERIAL VENUS – a 1960 routine Italian sword-and-sandal saga I had been meaning to see as it features a fascinating starlet Belinda Lee, who was one of the British Rank Organisation girls and who featured in British moves in the ‘50s before moving to Europe and the popular peplum movies of the era, before being killed in a car accident in 1961 while still in her 20s. Maybe she would have had a better career … Here she is the evil Messalina, wife of Claudius (a minor character here) as she plots to take control using lovers and having people assassinated. There are also some Christians of course, but Messalina the ex-vestal virgin gets her comeuppance eventually. It is a good German issue actually with German and English subtitles and interesting enough, though without a strong male lead. Directed by one Vittorio Cottafavi.

JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHERN – Another interesting biblical, released in 1962 but must have been filmed about 1960 (as star Belinda Lee died in 1961), directed by veteran Irvin Rapper (who lived to be 101!). It has decent production values, and a score by Mario Nascimbene, as it expands on the biblical story of Joseph sold into Egypt and his coat of many colours. Geoffrey Horne from BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (and BONJOUR TRISTESSE and THE TEMPEST, both ’58) is Joseph, biblical veteran Finlay Currie his father and one of the brothers is Terence Hill as Benjamin. Robert Morley has a whale of a time hamming it up as the merchant Potiphar and Belinda Lee, looking sensational in a black wig, is Potiphar’s deceitful wife who puts the make on Joseph. It is all quite watchable as Rapper (a long way from NOW VOYAGER) makes it seem effortless.

and: not a sword-and-sandal but certainly an oddity I finally caught up with:



THE TROJAN WOMEN – Funny how one resists certain movies. Despite my admiration for those leading actresses I just never wanted to see this Michael Cacoyannis 1971 version of the Euripedes Greek tragedy, and despite having the dvd for over a year, I was in no hurry to see it. But as it is a week of exploring female roles I gave it a go, and it certainly lived up (or down) to my expectations. Perhaps Greek tragedies are now unfilmable (though Cacoyannis’ ELECTRA was an exception). Here he is showcasing Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold and Irene Papas who all get their moments but they are Acting, Acting, Acting. It just gets tiresome and is in fact rarther risible as they are dressed in rags, scrabbling around in the dust in a barren desert landscape (rather like out-takes from THE LIFE OF BRIAN) – but these are Trojan noblewomen and Troy has just been captured, it would not be reduced to rubble just yet, so one queries the look of the film. Redgrave produces a weird animal-like shriek as she is told her son has to die, and it is fascinating to see the leonine Hepburn, as the queen Hecuba, at this stage of her career after her late ‘60s successes and before her frailties set in. Papas scores best though as the caged Helen, proud and defiant in her nakedness. Brian Blessed and Patrick Magee are the only males of note. It is certainly an interesting oddity, but hardly one to re-see.

Next lot: Steve Reeves THE GIANT OF MARATHON, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, Jeffrey Hunter GOLD FOR THE CAESARS, Anthony Quinn ATTILA, Kirk Douglas ULYSSES, Jeanne Crain NEFERTIRI PRINCESS OF THE NILE etc

Two French Flicks: Back to Paris 1959 and Moreau as Mata-Hari

What a year! 1959 was one of those key years not only for American and British but also European cinema. The French and Italian new waves were in full flow ... In Paris Truffaut was shooting THE 400 BLOWS and Godard was preparing BREATHLESS while Chabrol after LE BEAU SERGE in '58 was filming LES COUSINS. Malle had also done LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD in '58 - but another lesser known film was also shooting on the nighttime streets of Paris: Jean-Pierre Mocky's LES DRAGUEURS (THE YOUNG HAVE NO MORALS) which is a pleasure to catch 50 years later, it comes across as fresh and spontaneous as it is not as well known as the others of its era.

We are back in the Paris nightlife of the late '50s as two young men - Jacques Charrier (whose main claim to fame would be as Brigitte Bardot's second husband) and Charles Aznavour - drive around trying to pick up girls, so we have lots of episodes of them meeting various girls and it all seems very free-wheeling ... the girls include Dany Robin, a starlet of the era; Anouk Aimee in just one scene and later at a decadent party there is English starlet Belinda Lee who gets a lot of screen time and is as usual fascinating. (She died in a car accident in 1961 when she was a star of the Italian sword and sandal peplum movies). So, in all, a fascinating movie ...



Also, just re-seen is MATA HARI - not Greta Garbo's 1931 classic but a 1963 French version, scripted by Francois Truffaut, directed by Jean-Louis Richard and starring his ex-wife Jeanne Moreau. This and LES DRAGUEURS were earlier posts of mine at the start of this blog over a year ago, but I only saw them in French versions - now, with sub-titles they are just as fascinatng. Moreau is in her element here, whether giving messages in code while doing her exotic dance, or luring men to reveal military secrets as she tries to evade her nemesis until it is too late. This was Moreau's great era of the early '60s when she was THE actress everyone wanted for their films.

The full title is MATA HARI SECRET AGENT H21. Truffaut injects a lot of romance into the spying tale and the period detail of World War I is interesting, a few Hitchcockian touches as well - like when Mata is stealing documents - is she going to get caught? The ending too while brutal is perfectly romantic as Mata and her love Jean-Louis Trintigant are together at last.... the film though is very little known, I don't think it even played in London back then.

1957

1957! What a great year to be 11 and starting to going to movies on one's own or with friends and family. That whole decade 1954 - 1964 was my first decade of moviegoing [which nicely co-incides with that fascinating mid-century era of cinema as the modern movie world began circa 1960, or so it seems to me], which I started aged 8 in Ireland in '54 and then I was 18 in '64 newly arrived in London. As per my post on 1954 (label) JOHNNY GUITAR was the first movie I was taken to, which was so vivid and exciting for me, followed by various westerns and A STAR IS BORN. I was also taken during 55 and 56 by my parents to see those hits like THE KING AND I, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, TRAPEZE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS etc, but 1957 marked the year I was allowed to start going on my own - our small town in Ireland had 2 local cinemas which changed programmes several times a week and had lots of revivals and double features. As we did not have television in Ireland then (it did not arrive until the early 60s) we saw lots of movies on the big screen. Ideal!


It was a great year for muscials and sophisticated entertainments. For me particularly those gems like Cukor's LES GIRLS, Donen's FUNNY FACE, Minnelli's DESIGNING WOMAN [Peck and Bacall above in that perfect 50s interior], and musicals like THE PYJAMA GAME (Doris at her peak and that sizzling "Steam Heat"), WHAT LOLA WANTS, PAL JOEY and Fred and Cyd in SILK STOCKINGS. I discovered Sophia Loren in BOY ON A DOLPHIN and LEGEND OF THE LOST where she and John Wayne were super in this sahara western, Gina in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, Lee Remick made a terrific debut in A FACE IN THE CROWD. Deborah Kerr as Sister Angela and Robert Mitchum as the marine were terrific in Huston's HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON and of course Kerr and Grant in AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER.

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI was the big hit, and that western GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL with Burt and Kirk at their peak, Disney's OLD YELLER, Elvis in LOVING YOU and JAILHOUSE ROCK. I remember a particular Hollywood magazine I had with stories of the hit films RAINTREE COUNTY, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, TAMMY, FUNNY FACE, LOVING YOU and rushing to see those movies. It was that great era for stars like Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, Burt, Kirk, Rock, Tony Curtis, Peck, Clift, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, Susan Hayward, Kay Kendall, Jeffrey and Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Sandra Dee, Joanne Woodward, Shirley McLaine, Anita Ekberg, Jayne Mansfield in WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER, James Stewart in a western I liked NIGHT PASSAGE with Audie Murphy and Brandon De Wilde, and of course anything with Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn.



It was also the year of those great dramas like 12 ANGRY MEN, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, THE WRONG MAN and PATHS OF GLORY. I later discovered Anna Magnani's great performance in Cukor's WILD IS THE WIND and caught up with Antonioni's IL GRIDO, Fellini's CABIRIA and those two essential Bergmans: THE SEVENTH SEAL (bottom) and WILD STRAWBERRIES as well as finding out about films like KANAL or THE CRANES ARE FLYING with the arrival of magazines like "Films and Filming", more serious than the usual "Picture Show" or "Photoplay" or the Hollywood fan magazines (usually with Marilyn on the cover or the latest on Liz or Debbie).



The more rubbish movies of the year which we liked included the hilariously awful THE STORY OF MANKIND and Hedy Lamarr as THE FEMALE ANIMAL. Stanwyck had 2 good westerns TROOPER HOOK and 40 GUNS. (I have reviewed several of these on here already, 50s label). Jeff Hunter and Robert Wagner were the James Brothers for Nick Ray in THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES. Pat Boone starred in APRIL LOVE. Preminger offered SAINT JOAN which became a resounding failure. SOMETHING OF VALUE was a good Hudson drama set in Africa with Sidney Poitier, Dana Wyner and Wendy Hiller.



There was another SISSI film with Romy Schneider and English cinema came up trumps with dramas like WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN (that was Yvonne Mitchell, left above), Stanley Baker in the tough HELL DRIVERS with young Sean Connery and Patrick McGoohan on their way up, Peter Sellers scored in THE NAKED TRUTH, and the Rank Organisation came up with some hits: Dirk Bogarde and Baker again in CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM a Hammond Innes adventure set in Canada (but filmed in the Italian dolomites), Belinda Lee heading the cast of the period drama DANGEROUS EXILE, Stephen Boyd and Tony Wright in the wartime drama SEVEN THUNDERS, and Tyrone Power and that great cast (including Boyd again) in the Shepperton tank all at sea for SEVEN WAVES AWAY (or ABANDON SHIP!).


Fox also came up with some heavyweights from some best-sellers: Power, Ava and Flynn heading THE SUN ALSO RISES, Lana leading PEYTON PLACE and yes Boyd again, with Joan Collins in ISLAND IN THE SUN - Harry Belafonte's theme song was one of the hits of that great year!, and their great ensemble of contract players, led by Joanne Woodward, Jeff Hunter and Patricia Owens in NO DOWN PAYMENT. Fox also gave us the film of Steinbeck's THE WAYWARD BUS with Joan (Collins) and Jayne which is a very rare movie now, but I caught it a while ago. (1957 label)
It is probably heresy but one '57 movie that just does not do it for me is LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON which I finally saw a while ago; liking Audrey, Cooper and Wilder as I do I was looking forward to this but for me it was like a failed souffle, though I see Wilder's intention of re-creating 'the Lubitsch touch', and far too long too!

Soon: 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964 (I have already done 1954, 1960, 1962.