Mirko Ellis Movies
An Irish journalist (Lynn Redgrave) will do anything she can to support a peasant revolution in Mexico. The rogues played by Franco Nero and Eli Wallach will do almost anything for money, but they will also do a lot for a charming lady: particularly when she has saved one of them from certain death in front of a prison firing squad. After arranging Wallach's prison escape, the trio heads for Mexico, where incredible things happen. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn Redgrave, Eli Wallach, (more)
This is an English-dubbed version of the Spanish and Italian-made 1967crime action feature, also released with the name The Narco Men. It stars Tom Tryon, who shortly after this period left acting completely and went on to become a quite successful novelist. Harry Bell (Tryon) is an Interpol agent who has been framed and sent to prison. On his release, he finds work with a gangster who is desperate to recover some stolen heroin. If he fails to find the drugs, he will be killed. Along the way, Harry seeks to find the woman who framed him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
This drama, based on Alexander Dumas' novel, chronicles the doomed love between Lord Horatio Nelson and the scandalous Lady Emma Hamilton. The tale begins when luscious country girl Emma, who possesses feminine charms no man can resist, uses her beauty to charm her way into the inner circle of the social elite, eventually marrying the prominent Lord Hamilton. She then has an affair with the naval hero, Nelson, whom she marries after her first husband dies. She even has a child with her new man. When he dies, however, she is deeply hurt to discover that her aristocratic "friends" will not allow her to attend the honored man's funeral. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michele Mercier, Richard Johnson, (more)
In this spaghetti western, a bank robber becomes friends with the enigmatic Sabato by giving him back the money that he had just put into the bank. Trouble ensues when the robber discovers his murdered wife. He immediately suspects that Sabato did it, and rides off to get revenge. Sabato is innocent and when the robber realizes this, they team up to discover that it was Sabato's ex-partner that did the deed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Sabato, Fernando Sancho, (more)
In this drama, a CIA agent must race against time to find a purloined nuclear bomb, "Bloody Mary", which had been taken by a ring of foreign spies. He soon finds himself aboard an Athens-bound freighter where he encounters Russian and Chinese agents. Will he find the weapon in time? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this mystery, a gang of drug smugglers kidnap the ex-girlfriend of a journalist. The journalist begins looking for her. When the woman is found dead, the journalist gets some help and eventually justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This Italian/French/Spanish sagebrusher stars Giuliano Gemma as the Arizona Colt, a notorious bandit. Imprisoned in a desert town, the Colt is sprung by gang leader Gordon Watch (Fernando Sancho). Instead of galloping off into the sunset, Our Hero elects to stay in town to defend its citizens from the film's real bad guys: Watch's gang. Had Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone had anything to do with it, Arizona Colt would probably be hailed as a classic; as it stands, it's just another spaghetti western. The film was also released as Man From Nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this sword and sandal epic, a slave saves an enslaved princess from Roman invaders. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This film represents the first spaghetti western to gain world-wide notoriety. It chronicles the adventures of Buffalo Bill who was assigned by General Grant to create peace between the settlers and the Indians. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this adventure, a dozen imprisoned women are sent to America to become slaves. The year is 1675, and the women must sail aboard the ill-fated Albatross. A few well-heeled passengers are also aboard the ship, and among them is a political prisoner. Somehow the prisoners escape and commandeer the ship. Exciting mayhem on the high seas ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Purdom, Ivan Desny, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Rita Gam, (more)
In the 1950s, French films were considered the ne plus ultra in naughtiness by certain impressionable filmgoers. It was to these movie fans that the American distributor of Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes (Elena and the Men) catered when it provocatively retitled the picture Paris Does Strange Things As further grist to the mill for American publicity hacks, the film starred Ingrid Bergman, who had recently returned to Hollywood after her career was nearly ruined by a marital scandal. Actually there was nothing overtly erotic about Paris Does Strange Things. The film was a sweet romantic comedy wherein Bergman plays a poverty-stricken Polish princess, who is wooed by eligible admirers Mel Ferrer and Jean Marais. Will she marry for love, or merely to restore her wealth? The suspense is bearable. Inexpertly cut to 86 minutes for its American showings, Paris Does Strange Things was restored to its full 98 minutes in 1986 and its title reverted to Elena et les Hommes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, (more)
Stendhal's brilliant but difficult novel Le Rouge et le Noir all but defies transfer to film, but adaptor/director Claude Autant-Lara comes within shouting distance of full success. Stripped to essentials, the plot concerns Julien Sorel (Gerard Philipe), a carpenter's son who becomes a tutor. While his duties do not include the seduction of his employer's wife (Danielle Darrieux), Sorel offers this service free of charge. After this episode, Sorel becomes a priest...and the story isn't over yet. Though the director is too doggedly literal in his adaptation at times, and despite the fact that Gerard Philipe was about ten years too old for the part of Jean Sorel, Le Rouge et le Noir manages to hold the audience in its thrall for 2 hours and 50 minutes (most American prints, retitled The Red and the Black, run only 140 minutes). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gérard Philipe, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
Melody of Love was designed as a showcase for the splendid singing of Roman radio star Giacomo Rondinella. The star plays an impecunious young man whose romance with Maria Fiore is jeopardized by Maria's wealthy father Giovanni Grasso. Papa has selected handsome, apparently respectable Mirko Ellis as a potential son-in-law, but Maria is steadfast in her love for Rondinella. When it turns out that Ellis is actually a notorious drug smuggler, Grasso has an instantaneous change of heart. There's also a "funny" subplot involving an obscure Italian comedy team, of which the less said the better. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Fiore, Giovanni Grasso, Jr., (more)
This film is comprised of three vignettes focusing upon women and war. The first episode, set in WW II, chronicles the sad journey of an American woman who goes to Italy to bring her husband's body home. In Italy she makes a heart-wrenching discovery: he had been living with an Italian family and had impregnated their daughter and sees the child. The second story chronicles the abandonment of Joan of Arc, by her king and her soldiers. The third episode is a humorous adaptation of "Lysistrata," the Greek play where Athenian wives refused to sleep with their husbands until they stopped making war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Failing to make a dent in Hollywood, actress Constance Dowling was more successful in Italian films. Constance heads the cast of Stormbound as a plucky girl reporter. During torrential downpour, our heroine finds herself sharing a shack with notorious bandit Aldo Silvani-the very man she'd been sent to interview. The crook graciously gives Constance an exclusive story, then bids her adio. A heavily edited version of Stormbound was released in the US by Republic Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Constance Dowling, Andrea Checchi, (more)














