Jacques Herlin Movies
- 1971
A film in German only, this is the story of the saving of a homestead. When a student inherits a hotel in a sad state of disrepair and about to be defaulted out from under her, she uses her imagination and her friends to turn it into a money-making affair. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
Writer/director Luigi Comencini originally created Le Avventure di Pinocchio as a five-and-a-half-hour miniseries for Italian television. This 134-minute version, featuring various guest stars, was released theatrically. Pinocchio (Andrea Balestri) is a wooden puppet carved by Geppetto (Nino Manfredi), who is turned into a little boy by a magical fairy (Gina Lollobrigida). She insists that he be obedient and loving to his father Geppetto, but the rebellious Pinocchio tries to live independently -- and encounters many ordeals, from being turned into a donkey to getting swallowed by a whale. After he and Geppetto escape from the whale, Pinocchio is able to be the good son his father deserves. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Susanne (Terry Torday) is the erotic hostess who gives comfort to the visitors to her hotel. All of the vices in the country are heavily taxed, including drinking and making love. Susanne and a group of nude women try to give some relief to the beleaguered and overtaxed clientele. The feature is plagued by lowbrow humor and suggestive dialogue. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Torday, Harald Leipnitz, (more)
- 1970
In this comedy an officer is trying to get women for his soldiers, a count trying to win over an innkeeper, a man worried about keeping his job. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Torday, Glen Saxson, (more)
- 1969
Susanne (Terry Torday) is the hostess of a popular hotel on the Lahn River. When she vacations in Paris, she becomes romantically involved with the emperor Napoleon. She sets him up with a bride and manages to uncover some military secrets in the court of the amorous emperor. There is plenty of nudity and suggestive dialogue to spice up what is otherwise a routine script with little imagination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Torday, Claudio Brook, (more)
- 1968
Vittorio Gassman stars in this uneven blend of sex and comedy where animals attempt to take over the world. Satirical jabs are taken at the advertising, politics and heroes. Gassman plays a model who makes his career by appearing on billboards and loses a battle of wits with a gorilla in a zoo. Our hero watches a striptease through a telescope in Rome. He also witnesses a giant moth devouring the bathing suits of bikini-clad beauties. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Martha Hyer, (more)
- 1968
The thin plot of this film takes place during the Napoleonic invasion of Germany and is a backdrop for displaying several nude females. Susanne (Terry Torday) is the hostess of a well-known house of ill repute on the Lahn River. Susanne travels to Italy to deliver a message to Count Enrico (Jeffrey Hunter), an amorous lover under the spell of Napoleon's sister. She sets him up with a bride and manages to uncover some military secrets in the court of the amorous emperor. Folk songs were written about this actual historical hostess who dazzled young students with her legendary beauty. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pascale Petit, Jeffrey Hunter, (more)
- 1968
This erotic horror film is set in a dark medieval castle where the lusty Queen of France deflowers virgins, drains the life from them, hacks them up and tosses them in a huge tower. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
The literal English translation of the German-titled film here is "The Hostess of the Lahn." Suzanne (Terry Torday) is the beautiful redhead who runs an inn in the town of Giessen. She is the subject of many inspirational love songs by the student population. The lyrics also reflect the Germans' resentment and hostility toward the French occupation by the army of Napoleon. Suzanne appears in various stages of undress in this slow-moving feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Terry Torday, Pascale Petit, (more)
- 1967
The Stranger is a literal (but still very cinematic) adaptation of the novel by Albert Camus. Marcello Mastrioanni stars as Meursault, a man who feels utterly isolated from everyone and everything around him. This alienation results in sudden, inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder. The subsequent trial of Meursault manages to convey the oppressive heat of its Algerian setting with director Luchino Visconti's usual veneer of elegant decadence. Though set in the 1930s, the sensibilities of the film were very much attuned to the 1960s: the problem was that Camus' sentiments had been adopted by so many other filmmakers of the period that The Stranger seemed rather commonplace. The film was originally released in Italy as Lo Staniero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Karina, (more)
- 1967
A suave, sophisticated journalist gets hold of a magic ring of invisibility and obtains a secret formula. As a result he finds himself pursued by Chinese agents in this spoof of James Bond thrillers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick O'Neal, Ira Furstenberg, (more)
- 1967
Set in Italy during WW I, this war drama centers on the off-beat relationship between a Bavarian general an a peasant girl after they both end up captured by a bungling Italian soldier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virna Lisi, Rod Steiger, (more)
- 1967
Dino Risi directed this bittersweet comedy about a 45-year-old man, Francesco Vincenzini (Vittorio Gassman), who becomes a grandfather for the first time and begins to fret about old age. When his son is rejected by the flirtatious Carolina (Ann-Margaret) and tries to kill himself, Francesco pays Carolina a visit to lambaste her for her treatment of his son. Carolina responds to his tongue-lashing by seducing him. Feeling young again, he plunges whole hog into an affair with Carolina, rejecting his job and his family and devoting all his attention to her. Finally, Carolina demands that he abandon his family and take off to Paris with her. While on the train to meet Carolina, Francesco has to decide whether he is using his best judgment leaving his family for Carolina. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1966
In this espionage adventure, the "Super Dragon," a notorious secret agent, is assigned by the CIA to stop a Venezuelan drug lord from spiking U.S. gum and candy with a powerful hallucinogenic drug in order to take over the United States. The evil czar had already tested it in a Michigan college town and found it works, rendering its victims helpless. Now the Dragon must stop him before he spreads the stuff all over. The Dragon must also find the antidote for those already drugged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Danton, Marisa Mell, (more)
- 1965
"White Voices" is a vernacular term referring to Italian Castrati of the 18th century Vatican Choir. The Castrati were male children who were castrated so that they could retain their beautiful soprano singing voices into maturity. Paolo Ferrari plays a Roman youth who isn't keen on being gelded and bribes his way out of it. Even so, he trains with the choir and becomes an habitue of the houses of the rich and famous, using his supposed lack of male essentials to his advantage--especially in bed. Ferrari comes a-cropper when he impregnates a girl and is forced to go under the knife to establish an alibi! It is very, very hard to write about White Voices without making a wisecrack, so we'll cut this short (oops!). The film, a French/Italian coproduction, was originally released in France as Le Sex Des Anges and in Italy as I Castrati. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paolo Ferrari, Sandra Milo, (more)
- 1964
In this sword-and-sandal fantasy, Goliath must rescue twenty-four virgins who are being sent as a tribute to an evil conqueror. First the hero liberates one of the women. He then teams up with two other titans to save the rest. Action, adventure, and romance ensue. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Marred by controversy at the time of its release, this horror fantasy from Italy's legendary horror director Mario Bava centers on the twisted desires of a nobleman's son (Christopher Lee). Lee is ostracized by his father for his dalliances with a servant girl (who later commits suicide), but is allowed to return to the fold by his brother, whose lovely wife (Dahlia Lavi) immediately becomes the object of Lee's mad lust. Lee is later found murdered, along with several other victims from the surrounding village, leading superstitious locals to believe that Lee's evil spirit has returned to destroy them; the twist ending reveals the real evil at work. The kinky, sadomasochistic relationship between Lee and Lavi raised more than a few censors' eyebrows, leading to some harsh cuts. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee, Daliah Lavi, (more)
- 1960
Between 1951 and 1972 Bernard Borderie directed many "B"-grade films, and this low-budget, rapidly made comedy is one of them. Fernandel stars as Migonnet, a philosophy instructor who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He unintentionally ends up with the loot from a high-end robbery when the escaping thief needs somewhere to dump the evidence. The problem is that his newfound windfall is no secret from the underworld, and before he knows it, Migonnet is being chased by an assortment of greedy criminal elements. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Barbara Laage, (more)
