Giorgia Moll Movies

In a revealing documentary about one slice of film history, directors Francesco Bortolini and Claudio Masenza interview eight Italian actresses who attained fame in the U.S. through films they made in Hollywood. Most of the eight agree that performers are treated better in Hollywood than in Italy, and that U.S. efficiency and organization impressed them -- but that in Italy, they had more challenging roles than was allowed in the U.S. Virna Lisi was made over to look like another Marilyn Monroe, Gina Lollobrigida was employed like the others for her sex appeal -- and left after a few films --, and Claudia Cardinale, for inscrutable reasons, was meant to be another Doris Day. Unfortunately, even though great stars are included among the eight, the most obvious and inexplicable omission is Sophia Loren, well-known to American audiences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this Cold War comedy, a handsome American rake falls for a communist female athlete in Greece. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An unhappily married man with two children watches a beautiful woman kill herself when she ties herself inside a car and drives off a cliff. Jean (Jean-Louis Trintignant) tries to save the woman but is too late. After hanging out with his bohemian friends, he writes a letter to the local newspaper saying that he killed the woman. Jean is galvanized by the sensationalism of the headlines and becomes intoxicated with thoughts of murder. He does away with the pretty model and girlfriend of his painter friend (Robert Hossein) in a similar manner. Soon the painter grows suspicious of Jean and believes he is the one who has sent the letters to the paper in this story of a little man who gains self importance by murder. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This erotic and violent story begins with a Nazi official celebrating his birthday in a small town. He freely espouses the virtues of the youth of Germany while one such young man seduces his daughter in the next room. Another youth notifies the Nazi, who witnesses the debauchery. Both the young man and the friend who told on him are thrown in jail at the order of the irate father. The two young men escape and go on a crime spree, leaving a hail of bullets and bodies in their wake. Their rendezvous with a girl named Monika proves to be ill-fated as the girl has tipped off their location to the police. William Berger and Helmut Foernbacher star as the gullible gun toters in this bloody but breezy action drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The third film from director Nicolas Gessner, this espionage drama is a filmed adaptation of the novel You Have Yourself a Deal by James Hadley Chase. Mireille Darc stars as Christine, a mysterious blonde suffering from amnesia who becomes the focus of international attention as rival spies compete to discover her identity. Christine carries with her a giant, priceless pearl and could be the lover of a Chinese nuclear scientist and know many important secrets. To learn those secrets, CIA man Douglas (Edward G. Robinson) hires Gandler (Claudio Brook), an out-of-work actor, to pretend he is her husband and attempt to uncover the truth. But along the way, Gandler can't help but fall in love with her, throwing an unexpected wrench in the gears. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

In this James Bond knock-off from the 1960s, a veteran US Secret Service agent must thwart the covert conspiracy's of an enemy spy network that threatens the world's safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this different type of gangster farce with a few flaws here and there, Robert Preston is Steve Blair, a superlative con artist whose sidekick Paul Ferris (Tony Randall) is a boozy writer currently working on a cartoon. Steve gets the idea of producing a movie based on Genesis in the Bible and brings Paul into the scheme as a scripter. He finds financial backing in the form of $2,000,000 from gangster Tony Dallas (Walter Matthau) who is none too happy when the final product flops with a resounding crash. Anxious to find a safe spot to hide out, Steve and Paul make their way to a Greek island where Steve is inspired by another brilliant idea for a scam that just might work, knowing full well that the gangster is sure to show up sooner or later. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This low-budget 16th century set epic follows the exploits of the conqueror Suleiman the Magnificent, the leader of the Ottoman Empire who tried to over take Europe. In this film, his target is the town of Szigetvar, a heavily fortified Christian outpost. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a 13-year old girl gets a crush on her good looking neighbor and soon finds herself entangled in a murder case when a prostitute is found dead in their apartment building. To create an alibi for himself, the handsome neighbor begins encouraging the girl's infatuation with him. In the end, the girl changes her mind about the neighbor and tells all to the police. Unfortunately, they, thinking she is acting out of spite, disbelieve her. A kindly inspector suggests that the girl's mother send her to a convent for protection. He then changes his mind and decides to look into the case; he soon discovers that the girl told the truth. The neighbor is arrested just before he marries an heiress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Quiet American was the first major American-financed film to touch upon the powder-keg situation in Vietnam (still referred to as Indochina in 1958). Audie Murphy plays an enigmatic American who comes to Saigon, ostensibly on an economic mission. He meets an embittered journalist (Michael Redgrave) who is living with an Indochinese girl (Giorgia Moll). The American falls for the girl and promises to marry her. In retaliation, the reporter tells the communists that the American GI's economist stance is a cover, and that he is actually selling munitions to non-communist troops. Graham Greene had intended his novel The Quiet American to be an attack against American influence in Southeast Asia. Producer/director/adapter Joseph L. Mankiewicz would have none of that, so he changed the ending into a pro-Yankee tract -- thereby killing any impact the film might have had. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide