Milly Vitale Movies

A dying desert town becomes a flashpoint for racial violence in this bizarre, over-the-top drama from France. Cicada is a fetid, arid Dogpatch that had been slowly drying up ever since a nearby river was dammed up, sending the town's farmers packing. These days, Cicada has become home to a motley band of alcoholics, petty criminals, and prostitutes, with Bob Stanley (Jacques Richard), the town's solo war veteran, one of the few with any interest in improving himself. Cicada is racially segregated, with the town's black population living under a curfew, but Bob ignores that when he invites Bessie Vance (Toto Bissainthe), an attractive African woman whom he meets at the town's ramshackle school, to join him for a dance in town. Bob is more interested in making time with Bessie than making a case for racial tolerance, but enough of Cicada's rednecks are outraged by his dalliance with a black woman that he's brutally beaten later that night. One of the culprits decides to blame the near-fatal beating on the town's black citizens, and it's not long before Cicada is on the verge of a race war. Also known as Les Tripes au Soleil, Checkerboard was written and directed by Claude Bernard-Aubert, who would later offer a more measured view of race relations with My Baby Is Black. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Yet another in a spate of historical costume dramas by Italian filmmakers, Hannibal tells the story of the famous general's battles and his ill-advised march across the snowy Alps. To make life that much more interesting, violence, gore, sex, love, and personal issues are thrown in for good measure. The great general is played by Victor Mature and his main love interest Sylvia by Rita Gam. As Hannibal's successes in battle increase, it seems like he is fated for ultimate victory, but his own failings are his undoing in the end. Unevenly paced and unconvincing in parts, this offering by director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (best-known for the "Toto" series of comedies) is geared more for audiences out for spectacle and entranced by history, no matter how it is interpreted. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Unseen Heroes, along with Missiles from Hell, represented the US titles of the British The Battle of the V1. Set in wartime Poland, the film involves the secret Nazi missile installation at Peenemunde. British guerilla fighter Michael Rennie leads a group of Polish partisans on a mission to destroy the base and cripple the German war effort. The basic storyline is a good one, though it is muddied by several arbitrary plot transitions. Further undermining Unseen Heroes is the editing, which at times seems to have been accomplished with a paper shredder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With his movie career fading in 1955, Bob Hope was amenable to writer/director Mel Shavelson's suggestion that Hope try something different. The Seven Little Foys was the first of Hope's two "straight" biopics (the second was 1956's Beau James). Though not completely abandoning his patented persona, Hope does an admirable job of impersonating legendary Broadway song-and-dance man Eddie Foy, right down to the soft-shoe shuffle and affected lisp. A successful "single" in vaudeville, Foy meets and marries lovely Italian songstress Madeleine Morando (Milly Vitale). The union results in seven children, moving the Foys' priest to comment "we're running out of Holy water" after the seventh baptism. Hardly an ideal family man, Foy leaves Madeleine and her sister Clara (Angela Clarke) behind in their Connecticut home to raise the kids, while he rises to spectacular career height. Returning home after attending a testimonial for George M. Cohan (James Cagney, who played this unbilled cameo on the proviso that Hope turn over Cagney's salary to charity), Foy discovers that his wife has died of pneumonia. Months pass: Foy sulks in his rambling house, while his seven kids run roughshod. Foy's manager (George Tobias) suggests that the entire family be assembled into a vaudeville troupe called The Seven Little Foys. Though the kids are profoundly bereft of talent, the act gets by on its charm, and before long Foy is a bigger success than ever. But when Foy and the kids are booked into the Palace on Christmas Day, Aunt Clara decides that the kids are being cruelly exploited, and arranges for the authorities to arrest the act on charges of violating a state law barring children from singing and dancing. The authorities decide to drop the charges when the kids rally around their father, declaring their genuine love for him--but the deciding factor is a quick demonstration that the kids can't sing or dance to save their lives! The Seven Little Foys is a standard Hollywood whitewash job, emphasizing Eddie Foy's virtues (including his on-stage heroism during the infamous Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903) and soft-pedaling or ignoring his faults (e.g. his capacity for alcohol). Wisely, the scenes between Bob Hope and the seven children playing the Little Foys (including Father Knows Best's Billy Gray, The Real McCoys' Lydia Reed and Leave It to Beaver's Jerry Mathers) are refreshingly free of cloying sentiment. Also, Hope is a good enough natural actor to convince us that he deeply cares for his children without gooey effusions of emotion. The film's hands-down highlight is the "challenge dance" between Foy (Bob Hope) and Cohan (James Cagney)--a lasting testament of the superb terpsichorean talents of both men. The Seven Little Foys was narrated by Eddie's son Charley Foy, a fine comedian in his own right. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this espionage film, Mata Hari's daughter takes the mantle from her notorious mother and entangles her self in an Asian web of intrigue and war. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Italian/Spanish swashbuckler was released in Europe as La Vendetta Del Corsaro. In some English-speaking markets, it bore the name Pirates Revenge. No matter how you spell it, this is a strictly formula affair, right down to the Korngoldesque music whenever the pirates attack. Its one distinction is historical. Revenge of the Pirates stars former Hollywood luminary Maria Montez, in what must have been her last film role before her untimely death. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Exiled Marco of Amalfi heads a revolution to free his people from the conquering Normans. ~ Rovi