Giovanni Tarallo Movies
- 1967
A handsome prince searches for love in this whimsical fairy tale. Prince Ramon (Omar Sharif) has been pledged to an arranged marriage by the Queen Mother (Dolores Del Rio), but he balks at marrying a woman whom he doesn't love, and rides away on his horse rather than face the altar. While riding in the woods, Ramon is thrown from his mount, and the wounded prince finds refuge at a nearby monastery presided over by Brother Joseph (Leslie French). Unlike most monks, Joseph has magical powers and can fly when the spirit moves him. The Prince confesses to Joseph that he's been unable to find true love, so the monk puts his powers to work; soon Ramon finds himself awestruck by the beautiful servant girl Isabella (Sophia Loren). Ramon and Isabella fall in love, but her status as a commoner would preclude a marriage between them -- that is, until Brother Joseph does some rummaging through his bag of tricks. More Than a Miracle (also released as C'era una Volta and Cinderella -- Italian Style) was Dolores Del Rio's last dramatic screen appearance for 11 years; she was to act in only one more film, The Children of Sanchez. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Omar Sharif, (more)
- 1967
A couple with marital problems hopes to find new spirit living in a haunted house in this arcical comedy. Pasquale (Vittorio Gassman) and Maria (Sophia Loren) are a couple who are married, but not at all happily; he's a chronically unemployed musician, she can't stand her husband, and they've both decided they'd be better off dead. However, when their suicide pact goes wrong and both are still alive, Maria decides to pay a visit to Alfredo (Mario Adorf), who ran the orphanage where she was raised. Alfredo has had a lustful eye on Maria ever since she was a teenager, and he sees the current turn of events as a perfect opportunity to break up her marriage. Alfredo offers to "help" the couple by having them housesit at an old mansion which is said to be haunted; unknown to them, Alfredo has secreted himself away in the house in order to drop clues that ghosts walk. Adding to the confusion, Pasquale decides to make some extra money by renting out one of the rooms to a streetwalker, Sayonara (Margaret Lee), which leads Maria to suspect that her husband is either the new lodger's customer or her pimp. Marcello Mastroianni also makes a cameo appearance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Vittorio Gassman, (more)
Originally Uccellacci e Uccellini, The Hawks and the Sparrows was adapted by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from his own novel. Italian comedian Toto plays a dual role, as "himself" and 12th century monk Brother Ciccillo. In modern times, Toto and his son Ninetto Davoli come across a talking crow who insists upon asking them where they're going. The answer, it turns out, is eight centuries into the past, where Toto and Davoli become monks, employed by Francis of Assisi to convert the birds of the world to Christianity. Unfortunately, every sparrow that they win over to God is devoured by a hawk. Back in the present, Toto and Davoli face a similar situation when their landlord threatens them with eviction. After various and sundry misadventures, the two human protagonists, growing weary of the philosophical crow's loquaciousness, eat the bird and move on, prepared to face whatever life brings them without the "help" of their feathered friend. The symbolism in The Hawks and the Sparrows is so obvious as to be funny, which was Pasolini's intention all along. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Totò, Ninetto Davoli, (more)
This pulse-pounding follow-up to Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars brings back Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cigar-chewing "Man With No Name." Engaged in an ongoing battle with bounty hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), the Man joins forces with his enemy to capture homicidal bandit Indio (Gian Maria Volontè). Both the Eastwood and Van Cleef characters are given understandable motivations for their bloodletting tendencies, something that was lacking in A Fistful of Dollars. In both films, however, the violence is raw and uninhibited -- and in many ways, curiously poetic. Leone's tense, tight close-ups, pregnant pauses, and significant silences have since been absorbed into the standard spaghetti Western lexicon; likewise, Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score has been endlessly imitated and parodied. For a Few Dollars More was originally titled Per Qualche Dollaro in Più; it would be followed by the last and best of the Man with No Name trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, (more)
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