Elisa Montes Movies
- 1983
The true story of a young would-be pilot is fictionalized in this film about flying that has a hard time taking off as it should. Franz Xaver Stannebein (Joerg Gundzuhn), a small child at the turn of the 20th-century, wanted to do nothing more than fly and he carried his dreams into his years at an orphanage and into adulthood as a merchant in Spain. He eventually invests everything he has in his own version of an airship and the airship is a total failure (as most of his experiments in flying have always been). Then the Nazis in Germany ask him to build an airfield in Spain and when he does so, it is used by the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War and he goes to Germany to protest. At that point, he is thrown into an insane asylum and is never allowed out again. Later on, after the war, his grandson begins to go through his papers to try to discover what his grandfather was all about, and the story of Franz Stannebein emerges. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisa Montes, Gudrun Ritter, (more)
- 1972
This strange comic-thriller was one the final entries in the West German "krimi" series based on the mystery novels of Edgar Wallace and his son. Fred Williams plays Scotland Yard detective Robert Redford, who is hunting a mysterious knife-throwing murderer through London. His search leads him to the Flamingo nightclub and a drug-dealing doctor named Blackmoor (Siegfried Schuerenberg) whose secretary's supposedly dead husband Charles (Horst Tappert) is posing as a dead mystery writer while "ridding the streets" of undesirables. Luis Morris provides comic relief as a photographer who mistakenly hands people nude photographs instead of evidence, and there are some slapstick moments involving London's Finest. The film is undeniably amusing, but Manuel Merino's photography is too dark in many places and it isn't as gripping as Werner Klingler's 1963 version of the same story, Das Geheimnis der Schwarzen Koffer. There are some odd scenes typical of director Jesus Franco, however, such as the cartoon-like "boing-g-g-g" noise whenever the killer's knife finds its target, and the director appears as a knife expert, saying things like "To you he's just another murderer. To me he's an idol." ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
A Native American working for the government must investigate the Indian Commissioner's death. Soon he uncovers the schemes of a wealthy land owner and an assassination plot which will further victimize the local natives. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Van Cleef, Carroll Baker, (more)
- 1969
Jesus Franco's campy women's prison film, though both stereotypical and rare to find in its original version, is worthwhile for genre devotees primarily due to an outstanding cast. Mercedes McCambridge is unintentionally hilarious as sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz, spitting tacky dialogue with exuberant venom in a performance so overbearing that it verges on classic. The plot is standard for the genre, as three women (Maria Rohm, Elisa Montes, Luciana Paluzzi) are sentenced to an island prison off the Panamanian coast, only to encounter torture, rape, and lesbianism. When sympathetic Warden Caroll (Maria Schell) replaces Diaz, the prisoners assume that conditions will improve, but their agony only worsens until they decide to escape. Rosalba Neri co-stars, and Herbert Lom runs the corrupt men's prison nearby. 99 Mujeres was heavily censored in various prints, with versions running anywhere between 70 and 108 minutes. Edits running 84, 86, and 94 minutes are most commonly available. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Mercedes McCambridge, (more)
- 1969
From Jesus Franco, the infamous director behind such exploitation classics as Sadomania and Vampyros Lesbos, comes this low-budget erotic adventure starring Bond girl Shirley Eaton as a maniacal lesbian warlord. Eaton plays Sumitra, the bisexual leader of a clan of oversexed women bent on world-domination by forcing the earth's men into servitude. The only thing standing in Sumitra's way is a tough-guy kingpin played by Academy Award-winner George Sanders. Also known as Rio 70, Future Woman, Die Sieben Männer der Sumuru, and The Seven Secrets of Sumuru, The Girl From Rio also stars Richard Wyler and Maria Rohm. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, (more)
- 1968
Shirley Eaton stars as Sumuru, the barbaric leader of an Amazon tribe, in Jesus Franco's uninspired adventure based on characters created by Sax Rohmer. Banker Ennio Rossini (Walter Rilla) hires a detective named Jeff Sutton (Richard Wyler) to travel from Barcelona to Brazil in search of his kidnapped daughter Ulla (Marta Reves). Sutton and a hotel manicurist (Maria Rohm) team up to save the girl from Sumuru's clutches but must deal with unexpected complications in the form of Sir Masius (George Sanders), a sadistic Great White Hunter out to steal Sumuru's gold. Sanders is wonderful (in one of his final roles before his suicide) but the numerous production problems (including a lawsuit by Rohmer's estate which led to Sumuru being renamed Sumitra in several prints) keep the film from being truly worthwhile. Typical of many European genre efforts of the 1960s, this was a Spanish-German-British-American co-production. All scenes involving the banker were cut from the American print, which also heavily trimmed the torture and sex, replacing some of the missing footage with stock Rio de Janeiro tourist scenes. Versions run 84 and 79 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Right-wing U.S. Treasury Department agents try to stop the delivery of opium from China in this uneven, implausible story. Agent Kelly (Dana Andrews) declares that all opium plants are grown in China and that this drug supply is "a time bomb from Peking to destroy the moral fiber of our nation." Mike Rand (Peter Martell) is a young gun in the department who gleefully declares himself "judge, jury and executioner" as he pumps a round of bullets into the heart of an unarmed man. The agents trail the drug smugglers from Beirut to Istanbul and back. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Andrews, Peter Martell, (more)
- 1966
Mel Welles, who faced the wrath of a man-eating plant as florist Gravis Mushnik in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, moves to the other side of the camera to direct a film featuring even more specimens of carnivorous plant-life. Cameron Mitchell portrays the evil, worm-munching Von Wesser, a homicidal horticulturist on a remote island who breeds several forms of monstrous hybrid plants which feed on human blood. His routine practice of feeding wealthy tourists to the hungry foliage proves his undoing when intrepid shutterbug David Moss (George Martin) catches on. Silly but fun, this campy Spanish production benefits from some wonderfully seedy (no pun intended) character types whose unpleasant behavior makes their gruesome deaths particularly satisfying. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Elisa Montes, (more)
- 1966
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The first of two sequels to The Magnificent Seven (1960), this bloody western featured only Yul Brynner from the original picture's all-star cast. Once again, the residents of a pastoral Mexican village become enslaved by a maniacal brute, this time the insane rancher Lorca (Emilio Fernandez), who has corralled a small army of 50 gunmen to intimidate the citizenry into building a church in memory of his son. Chico (now played by Julian Mateos), an original member of the seven gunslingers from the first film, hears of the villagers' plight and sends for Chris Adams (Brynner), who rounds up another lucky seven shootists from various places of ill-repute (including prison). The new bunch, which now includes Warren Oates and Claude Akins, storms the storm, intending to restore order. This film was, in turn, followed by a pair of further sequels, Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, (more)
- 1966
Franco Nero stars in this Italian-produced variation of his popular "Django" spaghetti westerns. Borrowing a page from the repertoire of Bob Steele, Nero spends most of the film looking for the murderer of his father. The guilty party turns out to be the father of Nero's own half brother. Well, there goes the afternoon! A superb closing sequence and convincing spurts of violence along the way make up for The Avenger's dull stretches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Continental cast and scenes of intense violence may earmark Texas, Addio as a spaghetti Western, but the plot of this Italian/Spanish production unspools very much like its Hollywood counterpart. Django star Franco Nero's character provides the link; his two-fisted, taciturn Texas sheriff, Burt Sullivan, is cut from the same unwavering in-his-duty cloth as Gary Cooper's lawmen as he crosses the border to bring wealthy and sadistic Mexican crime boss Cisco Delgado (José Suárez) to justice for the murder of his father. Sullivan's body count may be staggeringly high by the film's fade-out, but his kills are strictly in defense of himself, his greenhorn brother, Jim (Cole Kitosch, aka Alberto Dell'Acqua or Robert Widmark), or later, a group of Mexican revolutionaries led by lawyer Luigi Pistilli that attempts to overthrow Delgado's corrupt regime. Director Ferdinando Baldi (whose Western curriculum vitae includes the more European-flavored Blindman [1971] and Get Mean [1975], with American ex-pat actor Tony Anthony) makes excellent use of the Almeira, Spain, locations (well photographed by future Trinity Is Still My Name director Enzo Barboni); and if his pacing is occasionally draggy, he more than makes up for it with a wealth of well-staged brawls and shoot-outs. His script (written with Django co-scribe Franco Rossetti) is lean and solid, with a hint of noir in its central dark secret regarding Delgado's relationship with Sullivan's family. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero
- 1963
European action star Eddie Constantine is the hero of this noirish thriller. Constantine plays a soldier-of-fortune, taking a well-earned vacation in Spain. It doesn't take long before he gets mixed up in an embezzling scheme. The more involved he gets in the plot, the less likely it is that he'll be able to extricate himself by fade-out time. For reasons unknown, the fairly well-distributed As If It Were Raining is frequently missing from "official" listings of Eddie Constantine's films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Constantine, Elisa Montes, (more)
- 1960
This hit-and-miss, low-budget comedy is a first effort for director Mariano Ozores and stars his two brothers Jose Luis and Antonio Ozores), two of Spain's more recognized comics. Although this generation of the family dedicated itself to humor, this tale of a fake corpse is not their best offering. The heirs to a fortune are anxious to get their hands on the money that is waiting for them, but are in no mood to wait and let nature (or mayhem) take its course. So a few amateur undertakers agree to prep a (living) body for a ceremonial burial at sea -- thereby opening the door that unlocks the inheritance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Luis Ozores, Elisa Montes, (more)
Per its title, Faustina is a distaff variation on the Faust legend. In this case, Mexican film favorite Maria Felix plays a woman who sells her soul to the Devil in exchange for beauty and wisdom. Actually, she bargains with the Devil's assistant (Fernando Gomez), who happens to be one of the woman's former lovers. The would-be demon spends the rest of the film trying to thwart the poor woman's happiness, but eventually declares that he's still in love with her. Not to be taken seriously, Faustina was an enjoyable digression from the usual portentous fare at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Felix, Fernando Fernán Gómez, (more)
