Ivan Scratuglia Movies
- 1970
- R
The English-language title and the Anglo-Saxon name of the director (Alex Burks) of this film would tend to lead one to surmise that A Long Ride From Hell is a Hollywood western. But wait! That terrain looks awfully Italian, and it so happens that Alex Burks is really Camillo Bazzoni. You'll probably catch onto the film's country of origin the moment Steve "Hercules" Reeves rides into view; Reeves (who co-wrote the screenplay) plays a rancher framed on a train-robbery charge. "Long" and "Hell" are the operative words here. Originally titled Vivo per la Tua Morte, this sleep-inducer was Steve Reeves' cinematic swan song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Reeves, Wayde Preston, (more)
Terence Stamp is known only as "The Visitor" in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema. The mysterious stranger insinuates himself into the home of a wealthy Italian family, where he exerts a curious, sensual spirituality over everyone in the household. He then proceeds to seduce everyone in the family (male and female) including the maid, which gives each person some sort of unique epiphany. Because he reveals so little about his innermost thoughts, "The Visitor" becomes all things to all people. What it boils down to is this: Is the enigmatic visitor Christ, or is he the Devil? Matching Terence Stamp's multi-textured performance every step of the way is Laura Betti as the family's maid; Betti, in fact, won the "Best Actress Award" at the 1968 Venice Film Festival. Director Pasolini adapted the screenplay of Teorema from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp, (more)
- 1968
Vittorio Gassman stars in this uneven blend of sex and comedy where animals attempt to take over the world. Satirical jabs are taken at the advertising, politics and heroes. Gassman plays a model who makes his career by appearing on billboards and loses a battle of wits with a gorilla in a zoo. Our hero watches a striptease through a telescope in Rome. He also witnesses a giant moth devouring the bathing suits of bikini-clad beauties. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Martha Hyer, (more)
- 1968
In this drama, a Neapolitan lad travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. He is successful, but then he finds himself caught in a bidding war between a wealthy steel heiress and an rich old homosexual. Though the homosexual wins, the gigolo decides to make it with the heiress. Time passes and he ends up falling for a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, he discovers that she is his half sister. He then remembers a bit of advice from one of his father's friends who said "It's better for a young man to attach himself to a rich homosexual." The young gigolo heeds that advice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Clémenti, Beba Loncar, (more)
- 1967
- R
- Add A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die to QueueAdd A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die to top of Queue
Clay McCord (Alex Cord) is a former outlaw determined to live the life of a law-abiding citizen. Colby (Arthur Kennedy) is the town marshall who keeps law and order. Not far from the peaceful town is a haven for criminals led by Kraut (Mario Brega), a trigger happy outlaw who welcomes those who are wanted by the law. McCord worries that he may have the epilepsy that plagued his father and hastened his demise. He battles the sadistic gunman while hoping for a pardon from the sympathetic governor (Robert Ryan). He also falls for the lovely Laurinda (Nicoletta Machiavelli) as he walks between the two worlds of the law and the lawless in this action-packed and often bloody western adventure. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Cord, Arthur Kennedy, (more)
In this spaghetti Western, Joseph Cotten stars as Jonas, an ex-Confederate soldier who robs a Union freight train in order to re-ignite the Civil War. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Norma Bengell, (more)
- 1966
In this extra-violent spaghetti western, a nameless, enigmatic stranger wanders into a dusty town and causes all kinds of trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Anthony, Frank Wolff, (more)
- 1966
Ruthless Four follows four prospectors who are out to strike a big lode in the Nevada gold rush days. When one of the four hits the riches, he finds the other three are out to partake of the hard-earned find. ~ All Movie Guide
Sergio Corbucci crafted one of the most popular and widely imitated of the Italian "spaghetti westerns" of the 1960s with this violent but stylish action saga. A mysterious man named Django (Franco Nero) arrives in a Mexican border town dragging a small coffin behind him. When he attempts to save a woman who is being attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Mexican gangsters and racist Yankee thugs, with the innocent townspeople and a fortune in Mexican gold stuck somewhere in between. Django becomes a force to be reckoned with when it's discovered his coffin actually contains a Gatling gun. Django proved so popular in Europe that over 30 sequels and follow-ups were produced, though Franco Nero would not return to the role until 1987's Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (the only sequel endorsed by Corbucci, which proved to be the last film in the series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, (more)
- 1966
A Civil War vet returns home to his home in the South and witnesses the outdated attitudes of his family--particularly those of his domineering father. This western drama was filmed on location in Argentina. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Gordon Scott, (more)
The Continental cast and scenes of intense violence may earmark Texas, Addio as a spaghetti Western, but the plot of this Italian/Spanish production unspools very much like its Hollywood counterpart. Django star Franco Nero's character provides the link; his two-fisted, taciturn Texas sheriff, Burt Sullivan, is cut from the same unwavering in-his-duty cloth as Gary Cooper's lawmen as he crosses the border to bring wealthy and sadistic Mexican crime boss Cisco Delgado (José Suárez) to justice for the murder of his father. Sullivan's body count may be staggeringly high by the film's fade-out, but his kills are strictly in defense of himself, his greenhorn brother, Jim (Cole Kitosch, aka Alberto Dell'Acqua or Robert Widmark), or later, a group of Mexican revolutionaries led by lawyer Luigi Pistilli that attempts to overthrow Delgado's corrupt regime. Director Ferdinando Baldi (whose Western curriculum vitae includes the more European-flavored Blindman [1971] and Get Mean [1975], with American ex-pat actor Tony Anthony) makes excellent use of the Almeira, Spain, locations (well photographed by future Trinity Is Still My Name director Enzo Barboni); and if his pacing is occasionally draggy, he more than makes up for it with a wealth of well-staged brawls and shoot-outs. His script (written with Django co-scribe Franco Rossetti) is lean and solid, with a hint of noir in its central dark secret regarding Delgado's relationship with Sullivan's family. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero
