Sandra Milo Movies

Alberto Sordi plays the title character in the Spanish-Italian Lo Scapolo (The Bachelor). Forever on the verge of marriage, our hero is invariably "rescued" by an inbuilt mental quirk. He is convinced that he is thoroughly satisfied with his bachelorhood, but eventually realizes he's been lying to himself. When he finally succumbs to matrimony, it is with the woman that neither he nor the audience would ever have predicted as the winner. Weaving in and out of the proceedings as a sort of Greek chorus are bandleader Xavier Cugat and his then-wife, sultry vocalist Abbe Lane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Mirror Has Two Faces (Miroir a Deux Faces), French director Andre Cayatte takes a respite from his usual broadsides against the iniquities of the French judicial system. Michele Morgan stars as a plain, middle-aged woman, miserably unhappy with her go-nowhere existence. She submits to plastic surgery, and as the years are cosmetically removed she vows to alter her life. The first major change is in her relationship with her self-involved schoolmaster husband (Bourvil). Where once he'd taken Morgan for granted, the husband now reacts with lunatic jealousy whenever anyone comes near her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Best known for his 1978, award-winning La Cage aux Folles, director Edouard Molinaro turns to suspense in this routine psychological drama about a man (Lino Ventura) whose psyche changes into that of a serial killer. The man has been traumatized by the murder of his wife and decides to seek justice himself. So he goes out and kills his wife's assassin (her former lover), but his foul deed is witnessed by a taxi driver. Intent on never being prosecuted for his crime, he then goes after the taxi driver -- and a string of killings is set in motion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this French drama a horse dealer is quite surprised when one of his mares foals a green colt. The verdant critter brings his family fame and fortune. When the mare dies, her picture is hung in a prominent place in the house. It is not long after her death, that the dealer dies, leaving his land to his two sons. Things are well until a jealous neighbor turns them in to the Prussians. When the boy's mother gives herself to a Prussian officer to save her son, she does not realize that her son and his friends are under the bed. The lad swears to have revenge on the traitorous neighbor, and indeed he does. Fifteen years later, the boy seduces his neighbor's daughter. Unfortunately his brother, not knowing of his mother's disgrace, nominates the wicked neighbor for mayor. The vengeful brother is even more enraged when he discovers that the neighbor's family has known about the betrayal all along. To add insult to injury, his daughter has fallen in love with the neighbor's son! Unable to bear it any longer, the brother forces the neighbor's son under his bed and makes him listen to the love-making between the brother and the boy's mother (who willingly sacrifices her honor for him.) ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The long-forgotten Italian historical epic Herod the Great (AKA Erode il Grande, 1960), dramatizes the dark final years of the title figure, an evil Judean Tetrarch notorious for sending Christ to the cross in league with Pontius Pilate. The story begins with Herod (Edmond Purdom) and Antony's shared defeat by Rome (when the two men foolishly decide to form an allegiance and go head to head with the colossal Empire), and ends with Herod's slide into insanity following Christ's death. Throughout, the ruler exhibits utter lunacy, raving constantly and spewing forth torrents of unbridled anger; the picture's overtone thus remains bleak, despairing and relentlessly gloomy throughout (take it or leave it). Arnaldo Genoino directs; Damiano Damiani, Federico Zardo, Tourjansky and Fernando Cerchio co-scripted. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A criminal on the run finds going home after a decade is harder than he expects in this drama from French filmmaker Claude Sautet. Gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) is wanted for murder in France, and has been living underground in Italy for ten years. Since then, Abel has married Therese (Simone France) and fathered two sons, and he's decided it's time to come home. Abel has planed an elaborate scheme in which he'll steal a fortune to finance his journey and head home with Therese and the boys, but little goes as planned, and he arrives in Paris without his wife and running from the law with two kids in tow. An underworld boss who owes Abel some favors helps him put together a plan to travel across France in an ambulance to avoid suspicion, and recruits a headstrong young gangster, Eric (Jean-Paul Belmondo), to serve as Abel's driver and right-hand-man. En route, Abel tries to settle some old score with criminal associates who betrayed him. Based on a novel by Jose Giovanni, Classe Tous Risques was the first feature film from Sautet, who previously had worked as an assistant director for some of France's most prestigious filmmakers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An impressive cast graces the 105 minutes of Ghosts of Rome. Don't let the title mislead you: the "ghosts" are not genuine wraiths, but instead a group of disenfranchised tenants in a contemporary Roman rooming house. When the house is condemned, the various residents seek out new lodgings, resulting in a rambling series of comic, tragic and even surrealistic vignettes. Among the star names in this omnibus feature are Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, and Belinda Lee, who died shortly after the film was completed. Ghosts of Rome was originally released in Italy as Fantasmi a Roma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido Anselmi, a film director overwhelmed by the large-scale production he has undertaken. He finds himself harangued by producers, his wife, and his mistress while he struggles to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress plunges Guido into an interior world where fantasy and memory impinge on reality. Fellini jumbles narrative logic by freely cutting from flashbacks to dream sequences to the present until it becomes impossible to pry them apart, creating both a psychological portrait of Guido's interior world and the surrealistic, circus-like exterior world that came to be known as "Felliniesque." 8 1/2 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival, and was one of the most influential and commercially successful European art movies of the 1960s, inspiring such later films as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and even Lucio Fulci's Italian splatter film Un Gatto nel Cervello (1990). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Five screenwriters combined to create this two-part comedy, with the result of the gang-written script a predictably uneven feature. Part one concerns two circus performers. The midget is married to the fat lady, but he is having an affair with a diminutive dame. He tries repeatedly to kill his wife, but the large lady refuses to die. Part two has a childless wife who yearns to have a baby turning her husband into an infant. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Juliet of the Spirits is a fantastical showcase for Federico Fellini's vibrant imagery, starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, as the titular leading character. Juliet is a wealthy housewife who constantly fears her husband, Giorgio (Mario Pisu), is cheating on her. While she yearns for a peaceful intimate evening on the night of their 15th anniversary, the egotistical Giorgio has forgotten about it and instead arrives home with his eccentric friends. After a trip to a séance, Juliet is haunted by images from the spirit world, including obsessions from her past involving religion and her late relatives. With her sisters and mother prying into her life, Juliet seems to be seeking an inner peace amidst all the sexual temptations surrounding her. She meets her neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), a showy pleasure-seeker who lives in a sensual playhouse. It appears that all of Juliet's family, friends, and fantasies demand that she loosen up and embrace sexual freedom, yet she remains chaste and dowdy, lamenting over her unfaithful husband. The reasons for Juliet's repression are not clearly defined by the narrative, despite glimpses into her supposed imagination. Forced to endure the constant bombardment of sexually charged imaginings, the demure Juliet retreats on her own. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a single woman approaching 40 grows bored of her affair with a married trucker and writes to a singles column. She ends up paired with an outwardly conservative bookstore clerk. During their date, he drinks and soon turns into a rude, crude, drunken slob. She is mortified until he apologizes. She forgives him and they have sex. In the morning they resume their former lives. Perhaps they will meet again. Perhaps not. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide