Eddie Constantine Movies

The Paris-based photographer-painter-actor-filmmaker William Klein looks back on five decades of his life and multi-careers in this French documentary. Born in 1926, Klein is a native New Yorker who began living in Paris in 1948, studied painting with Fernand Leger, photographed for Vogue from 1955 to 1965, dropped out of the fashion world for 15 years, and directed hundreds of commercials (from soup to hosiery). He was seen onscreen as an actor (People Will Talk, La Jetee) and worked offscreen as a visual consultant (Louis Malle's 1960 Zazie dans le Metro). Klein made both short and feature documentaries (from fighters to fashion), including and Far From Vietnam (1967) and Muhammed Ali, The Greatest. His dramatic film Who Are You, Polly Magoo? (1966) won the 1967 Prix Jean Vigo. Also excerpted here is Mr. Freedom (1968), a fable about America's intervention in Vietnam. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Germany Year Nine Zero follows an old spy's journey back to France from the east. Since the Cold War has ended the spy is unclear about who his enemies are, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Jean-Luc Godard's film is a series of scenes that present his thoughts on European unification and the fall of Communism. The title harkens back to Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, a film made in the immediate aftermath of World War II that, like Godard's film, considered the fate of the world in changing political conditions. As his use of Rossellini's title suggests, Godard is concerned with the fate of cinema as well as the fate of the world. He is concerned that as borders are erased, and as the world comes more and more under the sway of corporate power, the cinema will become more and more homogenized and commercial. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine). Alex's wife is allergic to the money, so the cabbie endures more than he can handle trying to rid himself of the cash and the corpses. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Herbie Melbourne (Didi Hallervorden) is a poor schlemiel who is inadvertently caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea in this German farce about a cab driver (Hallervorden) assigned to bring a "comrade" back to the East German side of the Berlin wall, a passenger who is dead to the world, permanently, when he arrives. Herbie the cabbie is recruited by the KGB and East German Intelligence to help them discover who murdered the man in his back seat. After arriving on the West German side of the divide, Herbie is then recruited by the CIA and West German Intelligence to become a counterspy, for double what the other side is paying him. As Herbie seems to have no viable way out of this mess, he does what many have done before him, he goes to a therapist (Catherine Alric) for help. Reaching into her bag of tricks, the therapist gives Herbie a small bottle he can sniff when in need of self-confidence, an act guaranteed to put him on top of any situation. Now Herbie is a cabbie, a KGB agent, a CIA agent, and a bottle sniffer -- and he is falling in love with his gorgeous therapist. Although the standard chase routines are a bit lengthy and exaggerated, this spy spoof keeps its sense of humor intact.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this enigmatic thriller, Susannah (Tusse Silberg) is suddenly herded out of an apartment in the middle of the night and brought to a police station for extensive questioning about why she was in a place that belonged to a known criminal. What the police do not know is that Susannah has been somehow involved in the death of a woman and has reunited with her sister Julie (Lisa Kreuzer) in Berlin. Julie herself has some rather unusual friends -- including Eddie Constantine the American-born French actor and singer who plays himself. It is these characters and their dialogue and asides, and even background action and scenery, that form the real body of this specialized film -- not the plot. For these reasons, this type of film is best limited to those who are more interested in avant-garde than in commercial cinema. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this creatively organized story of one "delinquent," director Patrick Chaput has put together a well-paced drama/thriller set in part against the dark by-ways of Paris. Seventeen-year-old Daniel (Philippe Sfez) grew up in foster homes in a rural area and those years contrast with his later youth in Paris. A filmmaker opts to interview Daniel for a documentary on delinquency, and that is how the young man's past and precarious present start coming to light. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Box Office tells the story of the road to success in Hollywood, and how once the destination is achieved, the journey can seem too treacherous to be worth the effort. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

~Tango Durch Deutschland (Mommartz, Lutz) [161477] aka: Tango through Germany An ironic look at the difference between a film image and reality, this drama by Lutz Mommartz features American actor Eddie Constantine as himself. During the 1950s, Constantine starred in several film noir adventures as the nefarious Lemmy Caution. In this story, he walks out of a kind of film museum where he has been enshrined as the typecast character he played so well. Out on the streets, Constantine runs into his screen image as a tough guy over and over again. Men give him a rough time thinking he is Lemmy Caution; no one distinguishes the actor behind the screen persona. Finally he meets a woman (Maya Farber-Jansen) who seems willing to accept him on his own terms. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A sartorially resplendent woman (Tabea Blumenschein) arrives in Berlin with plans to live out the rest of her days as a drunkard in this experimental film. The film provides the viewer with a tour of the city and some of the more colorful characters, but the appeal may be limited to those who are mavens of the experimental style. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Writer-director Larry Cohen followed his ragged but interesting horror hit It's Alive! with this sequel, which surpassed the original in both creativity and technical expertise. The story opens as another expectant couple, Eugene and Jody Scott (Frederic Forrest and Kathleen Lloyd), are paid a surprise visit by a stranger who turns out to be Frank Davies (John P. Ryan), the father of the original monster baby from the previous film. Davies warns the couple that their unborn child may be similarly at risk, and thereby in mortal danger from a nationwide task force dedicated to destroying the monster infants. Despite their initial apprehension, the Scotts eventually place a tenuous trust in the stranger, who explains that the children are not subhuman animals, but may actually represent the next step in human evolution -- a view shared by members of an underground organization devoted to the protection and study of the children. Davies secretes Eugene and Jody in this group's hideout so that they can attend to the birth of the child in safety. Discovering that their newborn is indeed one of the same mutants, the Scotts undergo a traumatic test of familial integrity, much like that of the Davies family in the previous film. Their emotional turmoil is further compounded by an assault on the compound by members of a rival underground dedicated to eradicating the monster babies, which leads to a grim and violent confrontation. This time out, Cohen is far more assured at the helm, stabilizing his vision with a more elaborate script, higher budget, and good performances. On the downside, the monster-baby FX haven't particularly improved since the previous outing, but Cohen has the good sense to keep the little rubber beasties fairly well-hidden. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Raid on Entebbe constitutes one of two all-star made-for-TV reenactments of the Entebbe rescue of July 4, 1976. On June 27, 1976, a jet carrying an international mix of passengers is hijacked by pro-Palestinian revolutionaries. The plane lands in Entebbe, Uganda, where President-for-life Idi Amin (Yaphet Kotto) struts about feigning concern, though his sympathy toward the hijackers is obvious. Many of the passengers are released, but 103 Israelis are kept in custody, and it becomes apparent that the revolutionaries plan to use these unfortunates as a bargaining chip for the release of imprisoned terrorists throughout the world. With virtually no other option, the Israeli government gives the go-ahead for Operation Thunderbolt, a commando raid on the Entebbe airport. The cast includes Charles Bronson as General Shomron, Jack Warden as Mordecai Gur, Sylvia Sidney as ill-fated passenger Dora Bloch, and, as Prime Minister Rabin, Peter Finch, whose performance (his last) won him an Emmy nomination. Raid on Entebbe first aired on January 9, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"It's OK with me...." Applying his deconstructive eye to the "film noir" tradition, Robert Altman updated Raymond Chandler in his 1973 version of Chandler's novel, The Long Goodbye. Smart-aleck, cat-loving private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is certain that his friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) isn't a wife-killer, even after the cops throw Marlowe in jail for not cooperating with their investigation into Lennox's subsequent disappearance. Once he gets out of jail, Marlowe starts to conduct his own search when he discovers that mysterious blonde Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), who hired him to find her alcoholic novelist husband Roger (Sterling Hayden), lives on the same Malibu street as the absent Lennox and his deceased spouse. As numerous variations on the title song play in unexpected places, Marlowe encounters a shady doctor (Henry Gibson), a bottle-wielding gangster (director Mark Rydell), and a guard aping Barbara Stanwyck (among other stars), before heading to Mexico to stumble onto the truth once and for all. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide