Jean Valerie Movies

Based on the Alberto Moravia novel, Husbands and Lovers examines a modern couple's untraditional open marriage. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, an assassin is lured out of retirement with an offer to kill a former gangster who is hiding out in Europe. With the help of an assistant, the killer travels to Paris and begins stalking his victim. He is further helped by a lovely drug addict who shows him the mark. He fulfils his mission, but then learns that he has killed the wrong man. Not long afterwards, both the gangster and the drug addict are killed. It is then that the hit man realizes that his assistant is behind the deaths and that he is next on the list. Much of the movie was shot on location in Europe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of aspiring young thugs from Marseilles move in on established gangsters. They spend the time torturing, killing and intimidating the gangsters until they either pay up or die. One punk with a sexual attraction for his sister is turned in by the girl after a degrading sex scene. The newcomers shake down bars and bistros in their efforts to become part of the violent and brutal criminal underworld. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

U.S. Secret agent Nick Carter (Eddie Constantine) travels to Belgium to stop international terrorists from using a stolen radioactive invention in this plodding spy story. Constantine forgoes the hard-drinking and romance in this one and sticks to business, as Nick goes through a series of routine fights and adventures involving enemy agents. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Vittorio Gassman stars as different characters in each of the nine episodes of this unusual Italian comedy. Playing everything from a practical joker to a prisoner, he comments upon romance, love and women in general, as referred to by the title. Prior to this feature, Gassman had worked with both screenwriter Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola (who also co-wrote rather than directed) in the 1962 feature Il Sorpasso from director Dino Risi. It was Risi and Maccari's teamwork which helped Gassman win a "Best Actor" award at Cannes Film Festival in 1974 for Profumo di Donna/Scent of a Woman. Gassman would later work with Maccari and Ettore again in episodic fashion with Signore e Signori Buonanotte/Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (1976) and yet again in the drama Famiglia (1987). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this drama, the daughter of the leader of Carthage falls in love with the mercenary leader of an angered band of soldiers who are out to get the pay they were cheated out of after they valiantly fought to save the city. The woman promises to give him her jewels to repay them, but then a dishonest local politician intervenes and exchanges the gems for rocks and keeps the valuables for himself. The mercenaries begin to attack the city in earnest until the dishonest fellow's actions are revealed and he is executed. After that the soldiers are paid, and the lovers reunited,. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An uneven mix of right-on situations and two-dimensional characters or worse, La Giornata Balorda is all the more interesting because it was banned in Italy -- not because of sexual or anti-religious content, but because of its depiction of Italian society. David (Jean Sorel) is a poverty-stricken young man who has impregnated the woman he loves and now wants to marry her. The baby has already been born when David sets out to "buy" a job. His uncle, not a model of propriety, gets him introduced to a slick operator who really does not want to hire David at all. But the future employer's mistress takes one look at David and lets her lover know he just has to give him a job. Meanwhile, David is still stuck with the problem of getting the money together to "buy" his job, and he solves that in a rather creative manner. This story of networking among the non-yuppy population did not sit well with the Italian censors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

L'Improvisto is a suspenseful, effective drama by Alberto Lattuada about the careful planning and execution of a kidnapping. The "ringleader" and instigator of the clever plan is Tomas, a professor from a provincial town. His two cohorts are Claire (Anouk Aimée), his wife, and Juliette (Jeanne Valerie), his mistress. The trio make a rather different ménage à trois with objectives ranging far afield from the romantic. The circumstances of the preparation and carrying out of the deed keep tension coiled throughout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In spite of its title, this sex comedy by director Luciano Salce is not another mythic costume drama with Steve Reeves in the lead. Instead, those little pills mentioned in the title are Herculean in their impact on the sexual drives of anyone who takes them. According to this tale, long before Viagra became a household word, the Chinese had potent pills for the impotent of any age. The comedy follows the effects of this medicinal substance on the guests at an Italian hotel in a resort town. Up for special attention is a man, his French mistress Odette (Jeanne Valerie), and his wife Silvia (Sylvia Koscina). Nino Manfredi and Vittorio De Sica star as the principal male protagonists. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos's 18th century novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses was filmed several times. In Roger Vadim's version, Jeanne Moreau coerces her husband Gerard Philippe into ruining the reputation of pious Annette Vadim (the director's wife at the time). Philippe spoils Moreau's nasty little plan by falling in love with his intended victim. While the novel merely humiliated Moreau's character for her misdeeds, Vadim comes up with a far more painful and permanent punishment. Since the release of the 1988 Dangerous Liaisons, Vadim's film has travelled under the title Dangerous Liaisons 1960 (even though it was technically completed in 1959, and released to the U.S. in 1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mandrin is a colorful swashbuckler revolving around a "French Robin Hood." The title character is played by Georges Riviere, whose problems with 18th century tax collectors have compelled him to turn to outlawry. With a band of fellow misfits, Mandrin robs from the rich, and...you know the rest. After dallying with luscious leading ladies Jeanne Valerie and Dany Robin, Mandrin defeats the National Troops in a rousing finale. Filmed in 1958, Mandrin was not released in the U.S. until 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Free, Blonde and 21 was one of a handful of films directed by former leading man Ricardo Cortez. Two of 20th Century-Fox's busiest leading ladies, Mary Beth Hughes and Lynn Bari, head the cast of this soap opera-style yarn about life in a hotel catering to women. Hughes plays Jerry, a duplicitious wench who gets involved with gangsters ends up behind bars, while Bari plays Carol, an honest lass who is rewarded at fadeout time with a happy marriage to millionaire Dr. Mayberry (Henry Wilcoxon). Joan Davis injects a few moments of hilarity as the hotel chambermaid, while Alan Baxter is his usual steely-eyed self as a stickup man. For its original New York run, Free, Blonde and 21 was paired with Fox's The Grapes of Wrath, leading several reviewers to note that both films would have been better off with a single-feature presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide