Tino Bianchi Movies
- 1973
This Italian political satire explores a fictional attempted military/right-wing takeover of Italy. Grifondi (Ugo Tognazzi) is the main plotter in this scheme, but he also has the support of the police and the military. There was another, more sinister group waiting for just such an event, and when the first coup fails, the second one begins. Interestingly, this was the first film funded by Italnoleggio, a nationally supported production company . ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1966
In this espionage drama, a leading American spy has a miniature camera surgically implanted in his eye, unbeknownst to him, and with it photographs secrets for the Russians, helping them gather information about a newly created death ray. The scientist who created it knew the secret could fall into enemy hands and so placed his secret plans into the skull of his unknowing daughter before he died. Meanwhile another spy begins following her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brett Halsey, Anna Maria Pier Angeli, (more)
Generally considered to be the foremost example of Italian Gothic horror, this darkly atmospheric black-and-white chiller put director Mario Bava on the international map and made the bewitching Barbara Steele a star. Steele plays Princess Asa, a high priestess of Satan who is gruesomely executed in 1600s Moldavia by having a spiked mask hammered into her face. Before she dies, Asa vows revenge on the family who killed her and returns from the grave two centuries later to keep her promise. In a striking resurrection scene replete with bats, scorpions and fog, Asa rises from the tomb to claim her bloody vengeance. With vampires, bubbling flesh, dank crypts, undead servants and torch-bearing mobs, the plot is a little ripe, but the visuals are Bava's primary consideration. The atmosphere is so heavy and the imagery so dense that the film becomes nearly too rich in texture, but the sheer, ghastly beauty of it all is entrancing. Although this was only the second of Bava's twenty-six films as director, it is undoubtedly his best and the one upon which most of his considerable reputation rests. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barbara Steele, John Richardson, (more)
Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are swept up in the Austrian empire's evacuation of Italy in 1866. Valli and Granger fall in love, but Valli ultimately realizes that the officer is interested only in her wealth and prestige, whereupon she gives him over to a firing squad. Visconti had wanted Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando for his leads, but when Bergman's husband Roberto Rossellini would not permit her to appear in the film, Brando also bowed out. Originally running 166 minutes, Senso was released in a radically cut version in the US in 1968, titled Summer Hurricane; yet another recut version popped up in England as The Wanton Contessa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alida Valli, Farley Granger, (more)
- 1936
This Italian murder mystery is set against the backdrop of an exclusive girl's school. A much-hated teacher is killed, and everyone had ample reason to commit the deed. Among the suspects are two students who'd been plotting to poison the teacher for humiliating one of their classmates. Naturally, these kids aren't the guilty parties, as inspector Nino Benzoni proves in the action-packed final reel. The film was apparently designed as a group "screen test" for several promising young starlets, none of whom went on to bigger things. The title, incidentally, translates as The Serpent's Fang. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andreina Pagnani
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