Anita Ekberg Movies

They don't really go to Mars, they go to Venus, but first they go to New Orleans. While working at a missile base, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello inadvertently launch a rocket ship with themselves aboard. After a wild ride around New York City (the Statue of Liberty ducks when the rocket heads her way), Bud and Lou land in the outskirts of New Orleans. The boys are convinced that they've reached Mars, and their faith in this supposition is affirmed when they come across several strangely costumed "creatures" (actually revellers at the Mardi Gras). Meanwhile, bank robbers Jack Kruschen and Horace McMahon stow away on A&C's rocketship. When Bud and Lou return, the crooks force them to make a quick getaway into outer space. After several days of weightlessness, the four space travellers land on Venus, a planet populated by the gorgeous winners of the Miss Universe contest (including Anita Ekberg). Venusian queen Mari Blanchard falls in love with Costello, only to order him and his companions to return to earth when Lou proves to be unfaithful. Reportedly, this bizarre melange of sci-fi and slapstick was based on a story by Charles Beaumont, who received no screen credit (it's worth noting that Beaumont's later Queen of Outer Space boasts a remarkably similar plotline). Long considered the team's worst film, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars ("and about time!" quipped the New York Times' TV-movie reviewer) is rather likeable in its own incoherent way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director John Farrow's Back From Eternity is a virtual scene-for-scene remake of Farrow's 1939 film Five Came Back. The earlier film is the better of the two, if only because it is 22 minutes shorter. The plot concerns a small passenger plane that crashlands in South America, square in the heart of headhunter country. Pilot Robert Ryan is able to get the plane back into flying condition; unfortunately he discovers that the plane will only be able to carry five of its eleven passengers to safety. Who will have to be left behind: condemned murderer Rod Steiger, socialite Phyllis Kirk, her weak-willed fiance Gene Barry, copilot Keith Andes, elderly married couple Beulah Bondi and Cameron Prud'homme, songstress Anita Ekberg, foul-tempered cop Fred Clark, soft-hearted crook Jesse White, or tousle-haired kid Jon Provost? Rod Steiger is just fine in the role orginally played by Joseph Calleia, but Ekberg is no match for the original's Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Wayne teaches those dirty Commies yet another lesson in Blood Alley. Wayne plays a veteran seaman who comes to the aid of Lauren Bacall, the daughter of a missionary doctor killed by the Red Chinese. It takes no little persuasion, but Bacall finally convinces Wayne to smuggle a group of villagers past the Communist forces and into the safe harbor of Hong Kong. Though there are many close calls, Wayne proves to be a shade smarter and more resourceful than the minions of Mao. Lauren Bacall plays her stock character with cool professionalism, though this sort of fare isn't really her cup of tea. Far better within the framework of the film are Paul Fix, Berry Kroeger, and Anita Ekberg, who aren't the most convincing "Chinese" in the world but who seem to fit right in with the blood-and-thunder proceedings. A. S. Fleischman adapted the screenplay of Blood Alley from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's Bob Hope as phony explorer Matt Merriwether, who promotes himself as an expert on the dark continent, basing his exploration of the African subcontinent on old diaries of his uncle. When an American space capsule crashes in an uncharted region of Africa, Merriwether, based on his alleged expert knowledge of the region, is selected to recover the capsule. Joining Merriwether and his pre-Kervorkian suicide kit, is security agent Frederica Larsen (Edie Adams). Hot on their heels are Russian agents Luba (Anita Ekberg) and Dr. Ezra Mungo (Lionel Jeffries), who want to get to the space capsule first. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Right-wing U.S. Treasury Department agents try to stop the delivery of opium from China in this uneven, implausible story. Agent Kelly (Dana Andrews) declares that all opium plants are grown in China and that this drug supply is "a time bomb from Peking to destroy the moral fiber of our nation." Mike Rand (Peter Martell) is a young gun in the department who gleefully declares himself "judge, jury and executioner" as he pumps a round of bullets into the heart of an unarmed man. The agents trail the drug smugglers from Beirut to Istanbul and back. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt tracks down many high-profile Italian movie folks for the documentary portrait Federico Fellini: Through the Eyes of Others. Actresses Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, and Sandra Milo provide commentary about the director's behavior on and off the set. Other interview subjects include screenwriter Tullio Pinelli, producer Dino de Laurentiis, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, biographer Tullio Kezich, and novelist Gore Vidal. The film also employs archive footage and film clips. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their last joint film appearance in the girl-filled musical Hollywood or Bust. The thinnish plot finds inveterate film fan Jerry making a cross-country journey to Tinseltown for the purpose of meeting his favorite screen star, the buxom Anita Ekberg (the film's title, need it be added, has a double meaning). Dean goes along for the ride, hoping to expand his bankroll during a Las Vegas stopover. The boys are joined by a third traveller, an enormous Great Dane named Mr. Bascomb; along the way, the trio becomes a quartet when pretty Pat Crowley hitches a ride. The finale takes place in Hollywood, naturally, as Jerry wreaks havoc at a film studio which looks suspiciously like Paramount. All reports indicate that Hollywood and Bust was an unhappy shoot, with Jerry Lewis behaving so obstreperously that director Frank Tashlin ordered him off the set and told him to go home until he learned to behave himself; to this day, Lewis cannot bring himself to watch the film. Happily, the animosity between the two stars never comes across on screen, and as a result Hollywood or Bust is a most enjoyable diversion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Years before, the millionaire Pierre (Alain Flick) destroyed the wealthy nobleman Count Max's fortune. In the present, Alfredo (Christian De Sica), a restless young mechanic who resembles the count, has fallen in love with a model (Ornella Muti) and wants some new adventure in his life. In return for his agreement to get revenge on the Count's old foe, he gets lessons in how to behave like the count himself. He tracks down the model, woos her successfully, and persuades her to join forces with him to go to Morocco and confront the nefarious millionaire. Once there, they lose all their resources. Oddly enough, the so-called villain of the story has fallen in love with Alfredo, and the mechanic allows himself to be joined in matrimony to the other man in an unusual Arab ceremony. This is a remake of a film made popular twice before by Christian De Sica's father, famed actor/director Vittorio De Sica. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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

The search of the mythical Glass Sphinx, said to contain an elixir of immortality, provides the action in this adventure. The hunt is lead by a renowned archaeologist who travels to Egypt. He is accompanied by his secretary, who, unbeknownst to him is involved with a gang that also wants the potion. They also want to kill the archaeologist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide