Dorian Gray Movies
Leonora Ruffo is the exotically garbed title character in the Italian costume spectacle The Queen of Sheba. In the original Scriptures, Sheba and Israel's King Solomon merely exchanged gifts and parted company. Naturally, the filmmakers "improve" upon the story, with Prince Rehoboam (Gino Leurini), the handsome son of the ageing Solomon (Gino Cervi), falling in love with the Queen while he tries to ferret out Sheba's war plans. This results in a hot-and-heavy romantic triangle involving the Prince, the Queen, and someone named Princess Zymira (Marina Berti). All the usual Biblical-epic cliches are in attendance, including the heroine's obligatory milk bath. At one time a staple of American television Late Late Shows, The Queen of Sheba was temporarily withdrawn from circulation in 1959 to avoid competition with the Yul Brynner-Gina Lollobrigida starrer Solomon and Sheba. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonora Ruffo, Gino Leurini, (more)
- 1954
Appointment for Murder is a standard mystery yarn, complicated by the involvement of no fewer than five screenwriters. Umberto Spadaro stars as Detective Pietrangeli, who like the rest of the Roman police force is baffled by the murder of a prominent woman. Could the guilty party be Aldo (Andrea Bosic), the husband of the victim? Or was it the dead woman's daughter Silvia (Delia Scala). Barely released in the US, Appointment for Murder nonetheless showed up with frequency on the various TV Late Late Shows throughout the land. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Umberto Spadaro, Delia Scala, (more)
The grim, drab life of a man who labors in a Po Valley sugar refinery in northern Italy provides the center of this black-and-white drama from Michelangelo Antonioni. The worker lives with a married woman and their young daughter. One day, the woman learns that her legal spouse died. The refinery worker immediately proposes, but she spurns him in favor of another. Deeply depressed, the laborer begins to drift aimlessly across the northern wasteland with his daughter in tow. Along the way, he meets many people, including a woman from his past. Despite his many low-key adventures, he is unable to forget his daughter's mother and so returns to find that she lives in a new home with a new child. The story comes to its climax during a demonstration protesting the building of a U.S. airfield where the refinery stands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, (more)
Nights of Cabiria opens with Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) and her boyfriend playfully embracing by the seaside -- and then he shoves her into the water and steals her purse. Cabiria is revived by some local boys and runs off by herself, shouting. What follows is a series of similarly humiliating episodes, in which the defiantly positive prostitute Cabiria is hurt, but never broken. She gets picked up by movie star Alberto Lazzati (Amedeo Nazzari, doing a self-parody) and taken to his palatial estate. However, his mistress shows up and Cabiria gets locked in the bathroom all night with the dog. She then joins her fellow prostitutes for a blessing from the Virgin Mary, and ends up getting drunk and wandering into a local show, where the hypnotist invites her to join him on-stage. The audience heckles her, and she toughly reminds them of her independence and that she owns her own house. There she meets Oscar (François Perier), an accountant who romantically pursues her. Despite the warnings of her fellow prostitute friend, Wanda (Franca Marzi), she prepares to sell all her belongings and accept Oscar's proposal of marriage. After being ruthlessly taken advantage of once again, Cabiria walks off alone with a smirk of hope. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Amedeo Nazzari, (more)
- 1958
Domenica e Sempre Domenica (Sunday is Always Sunday) is one of several late-1950s films to be based on a successful TV series. In this instance, the program is Il Muschiere, which in 1958 was one of the most popular attractions on Italy's RAI-TV network. Il Muschiere was a game show, in which contestants returned on a weekly basis for ever-increasing cash prizes (sound familiar?) The film purports to depict the preparations made by the program's participants for their "big moment". Some of the funniest and most poignant vignettes are offered by Vittorio De Sica as a near-bankrupt paterfamilias and Alberto Sordi as a compulsive contestant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica, (more)
- 1958
Five romantic and funny vignettes comprise this Italian anthology that is set amidst the beauty and fun of the famed French coastline. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylva Koscina, Franco Fabrizi, (more)
- 1960
Vittorio Gassman showcases his comic talents in this farce by director Dino Risi about the growing success of a con artist. Gerardo (Gassman) starts out as a vaudeville performer and noting that acting abilities can be used for less legit purposes, he creatively assumes different guises in order to con people out of anything from a pair of shoes to ultimately mucho lira. In one of his escapades he passes himself off as Greta Garbo, donning an appropriate disguise, and has all manner of paparazzi ready to take the bait. He did not learn all his inventive and often spontaneous tricks alone, his cellmate Chinotto (Peppino de Filippo) was a great mentor. But even his cellmate could not coach him on how to remain single after his girlfriend Annalise (Anna Maria Ferrero) sets her heart on matrimony. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Dorian Gray, (more)
- 1960
Two gladiators are captured by an Amazon army, and are forced to fight against invading pirates. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Eddie Constantine is Lemmy Caution in everything but name in this French spy parody. Constantine has been assigned by Interpol to work as a double agent. Little does he know how many spies are on to this deception and how short his life expectancy has become. Italian comedian Renato Rascel is one of the principals involved, giving one an idea of the "seriousness" of the proceedings. Destination Fury is one of four 1961 films made by the very gainfully employed Mr. Constantine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Constantine, Renato Rascel, (more)
- 1962
In this action drama, set during the Algerian War, 1961, a Foreign Legion captain must stage a daring raid to kidnap a rebel leader. They are successful, but then the helicopter that was to pick them up is shot down. The men are forced to do an overland trek with their prisoner. Many of them do not make it across the burning desert. Those that do are shocked to learn that in their absence the political situation changed. The leader they kidnapped is now a crucial figure in helping to get the French to leave Algiers. The captain is so angry, that he thinks about killing the leader, but then cools off. He thinks of all the suffering and death his troop endured to bring the leader to safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
And Suddenly It's Murder! is a regulation Dino De Laurentiis concoction: Big stars, lavish production values, muddleheaded plot. Three Italian couples go on separate vacations to Monte Carlo. When they open their suitcases, a body tumbles out of one of the grips. The rest of the film is a macabre variation of La Ronde, with the body being transferred from room to room and the innocent being implicated along with the guilty. Among the discomfited tourists are Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, and Silvana Mangano. Originally released in Italy in 1959 as Crimen, And Suddenly It's Murder! didn't make it to the States until 1964; some English-language prints bear the title Criminals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Bernard Blier, (more)
Family ghosts, generational conflict, and the immigrant experience frame this episodic comedy-drama about a Chinese-born Canadian woman's quest for self-definition, which marked the debut of writer/director Mina Shum. Jade Li (Sandra Oh), an aspiring actress in her early twenties, lives at home with her strict father (Stephen Chang), her dutiful mother (Alannah Ong), and her sweet younger sister, Pearl (Frances You). Their older brother, Winston, has been disowned -- a fate Jade is not eager to share, both for her own sake and to spare her family pain. Therefore, although she manages to land a few bit parts on camera, Jade spends most of her time working in the shop owned by a family friend, performing the duties of a respectful daughter and suffering through arranged dates with prosperous young Chinese men. An adept cultural chameleon, though, she also leads a double life, hanging out with best friend Lisa (Claudette Carracedo) and beginning a tentative romance with Caucasian college student Mark (Callum Keith Rennie). When her father's childhood friend arrives for a visit, however, Jade must juggle her competing identities even more carefully than usual, lest her choice of professions -- and boyfriends -- shame her father. After premiering at the 1994 Toronto International Film Festival, Double Happiness won several international awards and made its U.S. bow at Sundance in 1995. Writer/director Shum -- who, like her protagonist, was born in Hong Kong but raised in Canada -- appears briefly on camera as a casting director who doesn't think Jade is Chinese enough. Oh, who is actually of Korean descent, won a best actress Genie Award (the Canadian equivalent of an Oscar) for her portrayal of Jade. The part of Dad Li marked a departure for Chang, a frequent martial arts movie villain and real-life friend of Bruce Lee. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Oh, Stephen Chang, (more)
