Ira von Fuerstenberg Movies

Luigi Bazzoni (Le Orme) directed this outstanding giallo thriller starring Franco Nero as a hard-drinking newspaperman who gets involved in a string of brutal murders. After he investigates the first, he becomes a suspect himself but eventually manages to unravel a complex plot involving blackmail, adultery, and private sex shows. Wolfgang Preiss plays a creepy doctor, and Edmund Purdom is around as well. The impressive score is by Ennio Morricone, and the film looks great thanks to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, on his way to his triumph with Last Tango in Paris. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1953 El Alamein (beyond a common "real life" source), The Battle of El Alamein was a French-Italian coproduction, largely lensed in Spain. Set during the titular desert battle of 1942, the film departs from expectation by concentrating on the Axis point of view. Though they mistrust one another, the German and Italian troops are forced to work shoulder to shoulder to ward off the British. And talk about revisionist history: Rommel (Robert Hossein) is the hero of the piece, and Montgomery (Michael Rennie) is the villain! Battle of El Alamein would make a fascinating triple feature with Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and The Desert Fox (1953). Incidentally, the "Calvin Jackson Padgett" credited with the direction is really Giorgio Ferroni. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This espionage story finds Laura (Ira von Fuerstenberg) as the wife of a ringleader of international spies arriving in Berlin for a holiday. While her husband (Paul Hubschmidt) is away, she falls for the British photographer Roger (Gerald Blain). They share a cab -- and eventually each other -- in an adulterous affair at a posh hotel. The two soon jet off to Nice, but word of the affair has reached Laura's ruthless and now Laura-less husband. The spies -- who are now being blackmailed by Roger and figure he knows too much -- go after the couple. Her husband rightfully figures Laura has told Roger enough to warrant them both targeted for execution. The title of the film comes from the DeLuxe Negresco apartment the paramours rented in their ill-fated trip to France. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide