Luis Davila Movies

This Spanish/Italian melodrama concerns the rivalry between a mother and her daughter for the affections of a rakish drifter. The mother has known his affection before, but on this particular journey through their town, he is drawn to the girl instead. He takes her to his favorite assignation place, a nearby whorehouse, and they begin to see one another regularly, until one day the mother takes her place. The girl's response to this is somewhat drastic. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This bunch is none other than the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest and their feisty leader, Robin Hood. This is a '70s release of the often-played Robin Hood story. ~ All Movie Guide

One of two thrillers starring Carroll Baker and directed by Umberto Lenzi, this one was released in the United States as Paranoia, the original title of the second one. Katherine West (Baker) is a wealthy alcoholic who travels to her late husband's Italian villa from New York. Soon, a slimy conman named Peter (Lou Castel) and his girlfriend Eva (Colette Descombes) move in on Katherine, taking advantage of her confused state with sex, drugs, and blackmail. One scene has the hapless Katherine served a toad for dinner, and there are some interesting moments, but this is clearly the lesser of the two films. The annoying score was composed by Piero Umiliani. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Gravel-voiced Aldo Ray stars as Sgt. Cloadec in the Italian-Spanish Suicide Commandos. As you've probably already guessed, the film takes place during World War 2. Cloadec is one of the many Allied guerilla fighters assigned to destroy an enemy airport deep within occupied territory. Pamela Tudor is on hand to do the Lili Palmer bit as a resistance fighter. Based on a novel by Piet Legay, Suicide Commandos was also released in the US as Man Without Mercy (and guess who that man is!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This amusing spaghetti western from prolific director Alfonso Balcazar is set during the American Civil War. Luis Davila stars as Dynamite Jim, a Northern spy smuggling Mexican gold through Rebel territory to an Iowa fort. Jim's journey includes betrayal by a greedy cohort (Fernando Sancho), a showdown with an evil bandit (Aldo Sambrell), and other standard encounters, well-photographed by Victor Monreal. Cult-film fans will be pleased by the lovely Rosalba Neri (as a dancehall floozy) and amused by a particularly ludicrous soundtrack by Nico Fidenco. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Secret Agent 077 (read that carefully!) is back on the scene when a high-tech weapon goes missing in this spy thriller. Professor Graff (Alfonso Rojas) is a scientist working with the International Atomic Energy Agency when he comes up with a powerful innovation in defense technology -- a molecular disintegration ray that can make objects instantly disappear. The works for Graff's disintegration ray are contained in a small metallic plate, and not long after he demonstrates the weapon for the first time, it's stolen by a team of masked martial arts experts. Globetrotting super spy Mike Murphy (played by Luis Dávila, and named Marc Mato in the Spanish language prints) is called in to find the plate before it can fall into the wrong hands, and when he's not busy romancing beautiful women, Murphy tracks the valuable gizmo to Rigo Orie (Alberto Dalbes), a suave thief with no scruples and an appetite for money and danger. However, things become complicated when several buyers begin vying for the deadly ray, and Mike has to find out not only who has the plate, but who is willing to pay the price for its power. An Italian and Spanish co-production helmed by a Greek director, Espionage In Tangiers (ala Marc Mato, Agente S. 077) features a brief appearance from George Lazenby; it was Lazenby's film debut, four years before he would play the ultimate super-spy, James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted from a play by Alfonso Paso, this conventional drama about the characters in a woebegone rooming house is characterized by diction that is right off the theatrical stage. Each lodger in the ramshackle house has his or her own sad story to tell and it does not look like there is much hope for redemption in any of these cases. Among this group of hard-luck pensionners is a retired army officer whose way of handling his poverty is to think about other things. Then one day Fate decides to smile on the group as a whole and suddenly there are new ways of solving everyone's troubles as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow materializes with no forewarning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide