Ida Galli Movies
- 1992
Carol Kane plays the wife of a murdered Mafia bookkeeper in Baby on Board. With her baby in tow, Kane tracks the hitman to the airport, intending to shoot the man. A pickpocket causes the gun to discharge prematurely, and now it's Kane who is being pursued. She commandeers a cab driven by Judge Reinhold, and the chase is on. As light as a feather, Baby on Board gets plenty of laughs from the basic situation as well as the fevered rapport between Kane and Reinhold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judge Reinhold, Carol Kane, (more)
In this Italian thriller, a woman is tormented by morbid premonitions heralding the deaths of people she knows. As she tries to understand the terrifying phenomenon, she remembers her childhood when her mother jumped off a cliff and seemingly died. As the visions continue, she not only sees her own upcoming death, she also gains insight into the truth about her mother's demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer O'Neill, Gabriele Ferzetti, (more)
- 1975
- R
This epic drama profiles the life of the 18th-century scientist Cagliostro (Bekim Fehmiu) who founded the mysterious Masons in Europe just prior to the French Revolution. He based the secret fraternal order on a philosophy comprised of his ideas on reincarnation, ESP, and alchemy. It was his defiant answer to the domination of the Catholic church. Unfortunately, the Church was stronger and he was captured and sentenced to death by the Inquisition. A new pope reduced his sentence to life in prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bekim Fehmiu, Curd Jürgens, (more)
- 1975
- R
The Cursed Medallion may not be a household title, but it certainly has received generous airplay on the many UHF television stations throughout the land. The titular medallion is a gift presented to young Nicole Elmi. Once the girl places the gift around her neck, she is possessed by the spirit of a dead child. Actually, it's worse than that: the deceased youngster was a murderess. Richard Johnson and Joanna Cassidy are the "name" stars in this internationally produced chiller-diller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
In this comical Italian murder mystery, family members congregate at a British estate for the reading of a will. As in many mysteries before it, the attendees are murdered off one by one until only a soprano for the Metropolitan opera remains. In the end, Scotland Yard convinces her to confess because they know that she hid the second will she discovered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Based on actual World War II events, La Battaglia d'Inghilterra chronicles the success of a German intelligence group's efforts to infiltrate the British army on the eve of the historic Battle of Britain. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, the film features Ida Galli, Christian Hay, Van Johnson, Renzo Palmer, and Luigi Pistilli. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1970
While Michele Lupo's skillful thriller is certainly Italian, it is more of a traditional mystery than most of its contemporaries. The plot is the standard one involving greedy heirs being killed off in a country house following the reading of a will. Daughter Anna Moffo gets everything, and before too long, the cast starts dropping like flies. Ida Galli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, and sexy maid Orchidea DeSantis are among the suspects and victims, while Lance Percival and Gastone Moschin appear as comic-relief cops from Scotland Yard. The ending is fairly clever, although regular followers of the form may find it a bit obvious. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Craig Hill, whom baby boomers will remember as one of the stars of TV's Whirlybirds, heads the cast of this spaghetti western. Hill, Ken Wood and Peter White play three hardened convicts who are given a second chance. A Mexican youth has been framed for murder. Our "heroes"' mission: find the real killer. No Graves on Boot Hill didn't see much American play until it was released to TV syndication in the late 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
The Unholy Four was originally titled Ciak Mull, L'Uomo Della Vendetta. It's one of those spaghetti westerns in which the heroes and heavies are virtually indistinguishable. Though the outlaw leader (played by George Eastman credited by his birth name Luigi Montefiore) is evil incarnate, he isn't much worse than the four mercenaries hunting him down. Stalwart John Ford-regular Woody Strode is given plenty of screen time, and he makes the most of it. Director Enzo Barboni was billed as "E. B. Clucher" in the American prints. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- R
Romolo Guerrieri directed this well-constructed thriller from a screenplay from genre specialist Ernesto Gastaldi. Returning to Geneva from their honeymoon, newlyweds Deborah (Carroll Baker) and Marcel (Jean Sorel) meet a man named Philip (Luigi Pistilli), who blames Marcel for the suicide of his girlfriend. Spaghetti-western star George Hilton appears as an artist-neighbor with a secret, and Evelyn Stewart (aka Ida Galli) also appears. The plot has many twists and turns, but Guerrieri manages to keep it on track until the intriguing conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll Baker, Jean Sorel, (more)
- 1966
Cowboy Saxon vows to seek revenge, with the assistance of Sancho, on the killer, Gazzolo, who murdered his father. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1965
In this horror movie, a brave Roman soldier and a slave girl must battle an insane man and his zombie army in order to bring back the treasure they stole. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1965
In this early Italian western, Gary O'Hara (Montgomery Wood, aka Giuliano Gemma) is a former captain of the Confederate Army. He is beset by trials and tribulations of all kinds, including the killing of his beloved brother. Frustrated by the injustice of it all, he begins a personal campaign to bring some justice to the plentiful miscreants of the West. Before he died, Gary's brother gave him a silver dollar; among its many roles, it saves Gary's life and also helps him solve a crucial mystery. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1965
After being falsely accused of cattle rustling and murder, rancher Brent Landers (played here by Giuliano Gemma) follows the trail of the man who set him up. Landers happens upon the young Lucy (Evelyn Stewart), stripped naked, tied spread eagle to the ground, and left to bake in the hot desert sun after being sexually assaulted by three men who robbed her stagecoach. Tex Slaughter, the local sheriff, is more interested in handing Brent over for the reward on his head, so Landers has his hands full protecting the recuperating Lucy and bringing the men who raped her to justice, while also trying to stay alive long enough to clear his own name. ~ Cub Koda, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giuliano Gemma, Evelyn Stewart, (more)
- 1963
In this horrifying and exciting sword-and-sandal epic, a courageous Roman centurion sallies forth to retrieve a fabulous stolen treasure from the leader of a zombie cult who uses the reanimated bodies of dead soldiers to enable him to conquer the world. The warrior discovers that the demented despot's power lies in an enigmatic and powerful idol. He engages in many battles with the corps of corpses before he finally triumphs, saves the world, and recovers the treasure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Drew Barrymore, Susy Andersen, (more)
Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published posthumously in 1958 and subsequently translated into all European languages, the picture opens as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi's troops have embarked in Sicily. While the Prince sees the event as an obvious threat to his current social status, his opportunistic nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) becomes an officer in Garibaldi's army and returns home a war hero. Tancredi starts courting the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), a daughter of the town's newly appointed Mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa). Though the Prince despises Don Calogero as an upstart who made a fortune on land speculation during the recent social upheaval, he reluctantly agrees to his nephew's marriage, understanding how much this alliance would mean for the impecunious Tancredi. Painfully realizing the aristocracy's obsolescence in the wake of the new class of bourgeoisie, the Prince later declines an offer from a governmental emissary to become a senator in the new Parliament in Turin. The closing section, an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history. Burt Lancaster is magnificent in the first of his patriarchal roles, and the rest of the cast, especially Delon and Cardinale, become almost perfect incarnations of the novel's characters. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments. The version that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival ran 205 minutes. Inexplicably, the picture was subsequently distributed by 20th Century Fox in a poorly dubbed, 165-min. English-language version, using inferior color process. The restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared in 1990, though the longest print still ran only 187 minutes. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, (more)
- 1963
In this epic costumer, a christianized Roman centurion fights back against those who would slaughter his fellow believers. His odyssey begins when Emperor Constantine dies and is replaced by a new Christian-hating Emperor. The centurion takes refuge in a barbarian camp. Later he returns to Rome as a gladiator and wins freedom for the Christians by beating three foes in the arena. Following a devastating earthquake, he is again sent to fight. The new emperor and most of Rome is destroyed. The brave Christian soldier is then free to preach the gospel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual prostitute. The next day, Marcello juggles a personal tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux)) with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque" in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Yvonne Furneaux, (more)
