Francesco Mazzei Movies
- 1973
Longtime Italian producer Francesco Mazzei had plenty of help from thriller specialists like Marcello Aliprandi (Morte in Vaticano) and Mario Bianchi (La Bimba di Satana) for this downbeat giallo, his sole directorial effort. The story concerns a priest, Don Giorgio (Maurizio Monuglia), who is having simultaneous affairs with two women, Giulia (Eva Czemerys) and Orchidea (Bedy Moratti). Eventually, he decides to renew his faith and returns to the church, at which time he is brutally bludgeoned to death and Giulia has her throat cut. That brings in the type of quirky police investigator familiar to genre viewers (in this case Renzo Montagnani on a motorcycle), who promptly falls in love with Orchidea, the main suspect in the crimes. Montagnani's investigation centers on both his paramour and a young boy (Arturo Trina), who is cruelly imprisoned in a convent. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Peter Strauss, six years removed from his Rich Man Poor Man stardom, stars in the Italian-Spanish Man of Legend. Strauss plays a WW I-era German soldier, who barely escapes being wrongly executed as a spy. He escapes to the French Foreign Legion, then enjoys a torrid romance with Tina Aumont, daughter of a Moroccan rebel leader. Before he knows what hit him, Strauss has become a hero of the rebellion Man of Legend bears no relation to truth, but it goes down easily on a rainy afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
This romantic and sometimes ribald historical farce finds nobleman Guerrando (Tony Curtis) knighted in the days before the Crusades. He inherits a castle, tax-collecting rights, first choice of all the fair young maidens of the region, and a draft notice from the King. Boccadoro (Monica Vitti) is the liberal-minded forest woman who catches the eye of the young nobleman. Courtship, love and marriage follows, but the wedding night is interrupted by a call to arms. Guerrando and Boccadoro are unable to consummate the marriage, and a chastity belt is used to insure her virginal status. The young bride follows her husband's troop at a distance hoping to get her hand on the coveted key to the lock. Comedy ensues as the key changes hands several times before Guerrando ultimately regains possession and is able to unlock the passions of his love-starved wife. This overlong film can best described as a punchline in search of a joke. One gets the feeling that the producers had wanted to title the film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Crusades. As it stood, On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... was too unwieldy for most theater marquees, necessitating the film's title-change to The Chastity Belt. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Monica Vitti, (more)
- 1966
The funny side of sex provides the basis for this comical Italian anthology that is comrpised of four vignettes. In "The Unkindest Cut" a veterinarian falls in love with a professional pig castrator and asks to marry her. The wedding day arrives and vet's nerve fails him. Now he must watch more than his back for the jilted bride is out for revenge. The second story "Veni, Vidi, Vici" is set before the fall of Rome and postulates that the only reason Nero went mad and burned the city was because he was jealous of his philandering wife who frequently entertained lovers during her luxurious milk baths. The third tale, "Suicides Anonymous" adds a tragic note that begins when the teenage mistress of a prominent Milanese businessman leaves him. The fourth story "The First" tells the weird tale of a young womanizer who finds himself pregnant after a one night stand with a Japanese stripper who refuses to acknowledge that she is the mother of his child. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandro Dori
