Elga Andersen Movies

In this convoluted spy thriller, a Russian ambassador places his life on the line when he steals classified documents and defects to the U.S. The papers he carries could rock the free world. Unfortunately, the C.I.A. must first prove that they are real. The film is also known as The Serpent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An Italian engineer who has been working in Sweden returns with his wife to his homeland for a short visit, and he is swiftly detained for some unspecified crime. He moves from horrid prison to even more horrid prison as he awaits trial. His sanity grows ever more shaky in the process, and he still has not learned what the charge is. After even more suffering, he eventually learns the charge against him, just as it is being dropped. This relentless indictment of the Italian prison system is leavened with some humorous moments. The film features comic actor Alberto Sordi, who won a "Best Actor" award for this role at the 1972 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This spaghetti western from director Giovanni Grimaldi stars cult favorite Robert Woods as Starblack, a swashbuckling hero who saves a Western town from the chicanery of a corrupt banker (Franco Lantieri). Beautiful Elga Andersen is Caroline, the requisite love interest, and Renato Rossini co-stars with Jane Tilden and Andrea Scotti. Grimaldi's direction is assured, but this variation on the Robin Hood legend does not compare to his wonderful All'Ombra di una Colt (1965), despite nice camera work by Guglielmo Mancori and a stirring score by Benedetto Ghiglia. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In the mid-1960s, Richard Todd starred in two British films based on Edgar Wallace's Sanders of the River. Coast of Skeletons was the sequel to Todd's earlier Death Drums Along the River. Playing insurance investigator Harry Sanders, Todd comes upon an insidious scheme to steal the valuables from the sunken ships insured by Sanders' firm. The mastermind behind the plan is one A. J. Magnus, played by the usually heroic Dale Robertson. Since we know from the get-go that Sanders will be triumphant, suspense is minimal in Coast of Skeletons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, the head of a United Nations department suddenly becomes a father when he stumbles across an abandoned baby in one of the halls. He tries to find a home for the darling and suddenly finds himself surrounded by assorted exotic beauties all trying to win the baby for their country. In the end, though, the bachelor takes the babe for his own. Songs include: "So Wide the World," "Fais Do Do," and "A Global Affair." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Georges Lautner and screenwriter Jacques Robert worked on a series of "Monocle" films together, starting with this tongue-in-cheek espionage thriller. Paul Meurisse launched his career with this film, as Dromard, the French secret agent with the black monocle. In this story, a somewhat wacko nobleman is anxiously sitting out the expected arrival of the former leader of the Nazi youth corps. The word gets out to the international spy ring, and soon German and Russian agents are snooping around, hoping to be there when the man arrives. But in the end, they might as well be waiting for Godot. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the prudish Deborah Kerr, who will not cohabit with Niven until after they're married. Feeling that her own relation with her father will be disrupted by Kerr's presence, Seberg does her malicious best to break up the relationship--only to be beaten to the punch by Niven, who despite his promises of fidelity to Kerr cannot give up his hedonistic lifestyle. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drive Kerr to suicide. Niven and Seberg continue pursuing their lavish but empty lifestyle, though both realize that their lack of moral fibre has destroyed a life. The incestuous undertones of the original Sagan novel are only slightly downplayed in the film version; the "tristesse" (sadness) is visually conveyed by filming the Deborah Kerr flashback scenes in color and the opening and closing of the film in bleak black and white. Bonjour Tristesse was codirected by Otto Preminger, who'd previously discovered Jean Seberg for his benighted 1957 filmization of Saint Joan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide