Sylva Koscina Movies

In this spy comedy, a jet-setting playboy takes time off from his daredevil endeavors to help a seductive FBI agent save a nuclear scientist from a nefarious megalomaniac with designs on controlling the world. The sexy agent and the playboy are also pursued by a ring of Chinese agents who also want the scientist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tony (Horst Buchholz) is an international adventurer who is called on to find a kidnapped scientist in this Bond-style spy saga that never sags. After being deported from the U.S., he leaves his gambling club to find the missing man and collect the million dollar reward. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A veteran sea captain (Lino Ventura) is blamed for the disappearance of a ship when the vessel is hijacked by gunrunners. Mrs. Osborne (Sylva Koscina) is a pretty American widow who helps the accused captain search for the missing ship. Leo Gordon plays the menacing heavy, Morrison, and co-stars with Alberto Mendoza as Pablo. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Four different takes on the meaning of love comprise this Italian anthology. "Love and Language," the first tale, centers on the difficulties of a Sicilian immigrant who is unable to master proper Italian. the second tale "Love and Life" centers on a jealous and unhappy wife who becomes so desperate to be free of her constantly philandering husband she takes on a lover of her own. When that doesn't work, she hires a gorgeous maid in hopes of finally getting proof that he is cheating. Unfortunately, things don't turn out quite the way she'd planned. In the third episode, "Love and Art" a nearly exhausted screenwriter hires a secretary to help manage his typing. She's a pretty lass and this makes his insecure wife crazy until he fires the female and hires a male secretary. Unfortunately, he too wants to write for the movies and soon begins making significant improvement to his boss's work making him a big success. The first screenwriter is so happy about this that he doesn't mind when his secretary begins having an affair with his wife. "Love and Death," the final episode centers on the love affair between a middle-aged widower and the grieving young widow he meets at the cemetery. Unfortuantely for his bank statement, the young, impoverished beauty isn't as bereaved as she seems. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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

Risqué and bawdy, this sex comedy is by Italian director Lucio Fulci, who is also known for his horror films. The story centers around a prostitution ring in which the hookers pose as masseuses, something that was making the headlines in Italy at the time this film was released. A businessman arrives in the big city and is caught up in the prostitution front which at first looks like it will seriously undermine his ability to bring down the business deal he is working on. But exactly who he is negotiating with becomes clearer, indicating he can dismiss all his worries. Comedy arises from classic situations like quickly hiding in a closet to avoid a sticky wicket, or mistaking a person for someone else. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Tibere (Sami Frey) is a small-time hood who tries to get one of three airline hostesses to help him in his gold-smuggling operation in this light comedy. One woman is a snob, the second is adventurous, and Melanie (Mylene Demongeot) is sentimental about love. When Melanie and Tibere fall for each other, he is inspired to give up his life of crime for the woman he loves. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Dirk Bogarde plays one of those "reluctant spies" so common to adventure films of the 1960s. A poverty-stricken author, Bogarde is sent to Czechoslovakia by the British government as an unofficial "goodwill ambassador" to an industrial firm. It soon dawns upon him that his real assignment is to gather facts for his government's secret service; unfortunately, neither Bogarde's bosses nor his adversaries let him in on just how much danger is involved. After an excellent--and quite funny--opening, the film bogs down into an uninspired James Bond parody (we should have been warned what was coming by the very first scene, in which Agent 007's file is marked "Deceased"). Also known as Agent 008 3/4, Agent 8 3/4 was originally screened in England as Hot Enough for June; the British version ran nearly twenty minutes longer than the American release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The four "truths" are in this instance, four different romantic or dramatic vignettes in a slightly uneven compilation film. All four segments are loosely related to fables by the 17th-century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. In the first fable "Death and the Woodcutter" directed by Luis Berlanga, a well-adjusted, normal organ grinder runs up against the obstacles of torpidity and bureaucracy combined, driving him to the brink of despair. In the second story "The Crow and the Fox" directed by Hervé Bromberger, an insecure husband keeps his beautiful wife locked up, though an amorous neighbor is determined to outsmart him and get to her. In the third fable "The Tortoise and the Hare" directed by Allesandro Blasetti, a wife is unwilling to share her husband with a mistress. In the last fable "Two Pigeons" by René Clair, a fashion model (Leslie Caron) and a lowly worker (Charles Aznavour) are thrown together by unexpected circumstances. The American release of this film cut the first segment, reducing the fable parodies to three. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The oddly featured poet Cyrano De Bergerac(Jose Ferrer, reprising an Oscar-winning role in Michael Gordon's Cyrano De Bergerac), he of the enormous nose, and musketeer D'Artagnan (Jean-Pierre Cassel) lend a hand to put down a revolution in 17th-century Paris. While they bravely fight for the monarchy, the men dally with two comely courtesans (Sylva Koscina and Daliah Lavi). Though paired off with satisfactory partners, the couples find that a switcheroo might afford them each true love. Director Abel Gance and Nelly Kaplan wrote the screenplay, which united period characters Cyrano, from Edmond Rostand's play, and D'Artagnan, from Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers, in this romantic swashbuckler. Though French cinema pioneer Gance was near the end of his career, Kaplan was just beginning. She would go on to write, edit and direct several more films. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide