Evelyn Kraft Movies
- 1979
Hoping to cash in on the popularity of Charlie's Angels, Pao Hsueh-li spins this low budget girls with guns actioner. As the film opens, Hong Kong finds itself terrorized by a gang of gun-totting jewel thieves who then traffic their ill-gotten stones out of the colony using attractive young women as their couriers. Once they reach their destination of Japan, the women are promptly killed and disposed of. In response to this particularly brutal crime syndicate, the Hong Kong government, headed by Scotland Yard agent Eve (Evelyne Kraft of The Mighty Peking Man fame), recruit willing policewomen to infiltrate the gang by becoming their mules. Soon Eve and a quartet of beautiful but deadly women (Yen Nan-his, Shaw Yin-yin, Dana, and Chin Cheng-lan) are working out the gang's hideout, a disco run by a vicious knife-wielding madman. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
This campy Hong Kong version of King Kong played at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival (in the Midnight Madness sections), as well as the Toronto Film Festival. Mighty Peking Man is an over-the-top retelling of the great ape story in classic Hong Kong action style. A giant ape (called Mighty Peking Man) has emerged following an earthquake in the Himalayas, and has made its way to the Indian jungles. Lu Tien and Johnny Feng plan to capture the ape and exploit it, so they head out on an expedition to catch the beast. After violent encounters with elephants and other wild creatures they turn back, except for Feng, who on his own meets Samantha, a Tarzan-like woman in a leopard skin who was raised in the jungle. Feng and Samantha fall in love, capture the ape, and take it to Hong Kong. There, of course, the ape escapes its shackles and ravages the city. The big guy eventually climbs the Connaught Centre, the city's tallest building, where he soon meets his demise. ~ Chris Gore, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Li Hsiu-hsien, Evelyn Kraft, (more)
- 1974
This comedy adventure from Germany features that lovable Volkswagen bug, Dudu as he and his drivers have many fun adventures on racing across Europe. Unlike his competitors, Dudu comes equipped with a number of ingenious gadgets to help him overcome the journey's many obstacles. This is the fourth entry in the "Dudu" series and like the others is aimed at children. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A lesser-known but memorably bizarre giallo thriller from Italian filmmaker Ferdinando Merighi, directing here under the pseudonym of "Fred Lyon Morris," this unusual shocker has a petty thief named Antoine falsely sentenced to death for the murder of a high-class prostitute (Barbara Bouchet) at a brothel run by Madame Colette (Anita Ekberg). The first of the film's risible plot machinations has the wrongfully condemned Antoine putting a curse on his accusers, escaping as he is about to be guillotined, and then being decapitated anyway after leading authorities on a motorcycle chase. One of the judge's friends is a doctor named Waldemar (Howard Vernon) who does experiments on the deceased non-killer's eyeballs; when the judge is murdered, everyone is sure that Antoine is getting revenge from beyond the grave. It certainly seems coincidental that everyone who is being murdered was at Madame Colette's brothel on the night Antoine was arrested, but the real killer was there too, and gorily claims several more victims before being chased up the Eiffel Tower in the film's mind-boggling conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1944
Oriental Dream is the TV title for the 1944 Technicolor version of Kismet. Ronald Colman plays Hadji, "king of beggars" in the days of the Arabian Nights. Posing as a prince, Colman woos Marlene Dietrich, the favorite wife of the evil Wazir (Edward Arnold). Meanwhile, Colman's daughter Joy Ann Page falls in love with handsome Caliph James Craig--while the Wazir connives to get Page into his own harem. Several plot convolutions later, Colman ends up with Dietrich, Page winds up with Craig, and the Wazir winds up six feet under. Kismet was based on the war-horse stage play by Edward Knoblock, previously filmed in 1920 and 1930 with the play's original star Otis Skinner. The title Oriental Dream was bestowed upon the 1944 Kismet when it was remade as a musical in 1955. The earlier version had its musical moments as well, notably a delicious dance number spotlighting Dietrich, painted gold head from head to toe; an additional dance sequence was cut, but later showed up in the Abbott and Costello comedy Lost in a Harem (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, (more)
