Erno Crisa Movies

A pretty lady in waiting from the court of King Louis XIV is sold to an evil Sultan. Angelique (Michele Mercier) is separated from her husband and suffers the indignities of sexual assault. She manages to survive until her husband (Robert Hossein) comes to her rescue. Although the Sultan's encampment is heavily armed, he manages to trick the greedy Sultan by giving him a mythical recipe to change ordinary ore into gold. The ending of the film leads one to believe there will be further adventures starring the beautiful and resourceful Angelique. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this South Sea island romance, a professor, his daughter and his assistant are shipwrecked upon an island when their scientific expedition goes awry. After a decade there the professor dies and the two young people decide to become "husband and wife." The jealous husband worries that he will lose his bride if they go back to the real world. When a ship is at long last sighted on the horizon he "forgets" to light the signal fire. The ship, filled with smugglers, moors offshore anyway. The smugglers find the couple and decide to kill the man and keep the woman for themselves. The husband, desperate to save his wife, leads the crooks to a large cache of pearls. The greedy smugglers begin fighting amongst themselves and they all die. Later the captain, learning of an impending typhoon, comes ashore to find his crew. He finds the bodies, but the husband has disappeared. He tells the woman that he was probably killed and she goes with him to the boat. As they are leaving, she sees him standing on a cliff. Without hesitation, the woman dives overboard to join her man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the 1850s in Czar Alexander II's Russia, this routine costume drama and adventure film focuses on the strife between the Circassian Muslims, led by Shamil (Edmund Purdom) and Czar Alexander (Massimo Girotti). As a condition of an early truce, Shamil's young son Jamal (John Drew Barrymore) is sent to be raised and trained in the elite Imperial School of Cadets. The plan partially works, since Shamil grows to manhood enjoying the aristocratic life, but he is still drawn to his roots like iron filings to a magnet. His interior conflict is made all the worse when a princess, Tatiana (Georgia Moll), falls for him. At the same time, the exterior conflict between the Circassians and the Russians is heating up toward an explosive conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

René Clément's thriller Purple Noon stars Alain Delon as Tom Ripley, an American who travels to Europe on an all-expenses-paid mission to convince his friend, the errant playboy Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to travel to San Francisco at the request of the wealthy Greenleaf family. Initially, the pair enjoy the good life in Italy, often to the anger and dismay of Philippe's much put-upon fiancee Marge (Marie Laforet). However, as Tom's funds begin to run dry, it becomes more and more apparent that Philippe has no intentions of returning to the U.S., forcing Tom to consider more nefarious means of maintaining his extravagant lifestyle. Purple Noon is adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, and like Alfred Hitchcock's classic Strangers on a Train, also based on Highsmith's work, the theme of identity transference is dominant. The subject even extends to the homoerotic undercurrents which simmer below the surface of Tom and Philippe's relationship, setting into motion a love/hate tension which explodes during a high seas journey. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

It took over thirty years for D. H. Lawrence's "forbidden" novel Lady Chatterly's Lover to make it to the big screen, courtesy of director Marc Allegret. Updated to the 1950s, the film stars Danielle Darrieux as Lady Constance Chatterly, comfortably married to wealthy invalid Lord Clifford Chatterly (Leo Genn). Despite her husband's incapacitation, Lady Constance doesn't feel that anything is lacking in her life--until she meets handsome, earthy caretaker Mellors (Erno Crisa). Her sexual awakening is the nucleus of the story, though the film strives hard to avoid overt eroticism, a surprising creative decision for a French film of the mid-1950s. Even so, the dialogue in Lady Chatterly's Lover was ripe enough to be heavily bowdlerized when the film was translated into English. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Affairs of Messalina is a French/Italian historical spectacle produced in the wake of the internationally successful Fabiola (1949). Mexican film luminary Maria Felix essays the role of Messalina, the scheming wife of Roman emperor Augustus who searches for love by walking the streets of the Eternal City. Also in the cast is an Italian specialist and silky seductresses, Gianna Maria Canale. It is difficult to believe that any producer/director could go wrong with lavish sets, exotic costumes, and two of the most glamorous actresses on Earth, but Carmine Gallone (who previously helmed the 1937 Fascist-financed epic Scipio Africanus) achieves the impossible: Affairs of Messalina makes Roman decadence as dull as dishwater. Originally released in Europe in 1951 under the deceptively short title Messaline, Affairs of Messalina was mercifully cut to ribbons by its American distributor Columbia Pictures in 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

This Italian crime melodrama may remind some viewers of the methodical American TV series Dragnet. In trailing a gang of counterfeiters, the authorities follow the trail of clues to a small town. Here the creation of "funny money" is the principal industry --and the job is made easier because the counterfeiters have been able to get their hands on the same type of paper used for legal tender. Police inspector Moroni (Fosco Giachetti) continues to dog the criminals' trail to Naples, where the film comes to a rousing conclusion. A few arbitrarily inserted dance sequences involving a sexy young girl were added to hype the film's box-office appeal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide