Daniele Noel Movies

Falling somewhere between the Beyond the Fringe school and the Monty Python league, Bedazzled is an irreverent Faust take-off, written by and starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Moore also composed the music). Moore plays a short-order cook at a London Wimpyburger restaurant, who falls hopelessly in love with waitress Eleanor Bron. About to commit suicide, the broken-hearted Moore is approached by Satan (Peter Cook). The Fallen Angel offers to purchase Moore's soul in exchange for seven wishes--the first of which is squandered when Satan buys Moore an ice cream bar (something over which the two stars quarrel throughout the film). Enticed by living personifications of the Deadly Sins--Raquel Welch, wearing next to nothing, is "Lillian Lust"--Moore allows Satan to grant him his heart's desire, utilizing the magic words, "Julie Andrews!" But with each wish, Satan, being Satan, can't help but gum up the works with a double-cross. The desperate Moore ultimately wishes to be allowed to spend the rest of his life with Eleanor in an environment with no other men--whereupon Satan transforms both Eleanor and Moore into nuns! Finally Satan has a change of heart, allowing Moore and Eleanor to fall in love in more orthodox surroundings and permitting Moore to regain his soul. Satan hopes that God will appreciate this good deed and allow him to re-enter Heaven. But God doesn't buy this; He's satisfied with Satan remaining mankind's "necessary evil". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ingrid Thulin plays a Polish inmate of the Dachau concentration camp who is liberated at the end of the war. Presumed dead, Ingrid returns to visit her husband (Maximillian Schell) She finds that his grief was fleeting at best; his new mistress is his "deceased" wife's daughter (Samantha Eggar) from a previous marriage. Since Ingrid's identity is masked by plastic surgery, she subtly re-enters their life without undue stress for either husband or daughter. But when the husband figures out the ruse, he murders his young paramour in the bathtub (a moment lavishly exploited in the print ads for this film) and plots to kill Ingrid for her money. A textbook case of implausibility, Return from the Ashes was adapted from an equally unbelievable novel by Hubert Monteilhet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi