Gastone Moschin Movies

In this comedy, a bungling gang leader and his henchmen attempt to swipe a suitcase full of loot from a soccer pool. The task seems simple enough, but the gang suffers a variety of zany mishaps before the leader finally gets hold of the money. Just as he gets it, he is arrested by the police for jaywalking. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Romance, sex, and marriage are the themes of this episodic Italian comedy. The first of the four vignettes, "The Women" tells the story of a bored adulterer who feels ignored by his gaggle of mistresses and decides to obsess upon seducing an old conquest one more time. He later inadvertently deflowers a virgin. In "The Serpent" an ignored wife endeavors to get her husband to pay attention to her while they are on a Sicilian holiday by faking an encounter with a poisonous snake. She later pretends that two helpful truck drivers, who picked her up after a breakdown, raped her causing their arrest. Later the husband arrives, explains his wife's behavior and promises to be more mindful of her. In "The Soldier" a soldier attempts to seduce a lovely widow during a train ride. She ignores him until all the other passengers leave then in utter silence makes passionate love. Later when the train reaches its destination, the soldier tries to follow her, but her relatives stop him. She gets into a car and disappears down the road. ~ Sandra Brennan, 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

The bulk of this amusing crime film consists of a plan to steal a fortune in gold from the supposedly impregnable vaults of Geneva's Credit Suisse Bank. A criminal genius (Philippe Leroy) watches from across the street as his six henchmen -- whose names all begin with the letter "A" -- carry out the caper. Among the burglars are such familiar actors as Gabriele Tinti and Gaston Moschin, while Rosanna Podesta appears as Leroy's mistress, the scheming Giorgia. After the heist itself, which consumes nearly an hour of screen time, the group becomes fraught with mistrust and suspicion, only to lose out on their wealth when the stolen gold ends up scattered in a public square. Leroy and the rest returned in director Marco Vicario's Il Grande Colpo dei Sette Uomini d'Oro the following year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Pietro Germi's funny anthology combines the standard sex comedy format with some unexpectedly subtle observations about village life. The film centers on three stories exposing the sexual secrets of the Italian town of Treviso. Toni Gasparini (Alberto Lionello) pretends to be impotent in order to wrangle an illicit affair with his doctor's wife. Bank clerk Osvaldo Bisigato (Gastone Moschin) leaves his shrewish wife (Nora Ricci) to move in with his mistress Milena (Virna Lisi), a cafe cashier, but Treviso's jealous husbands unite to cost the lovers their jobs and have them arrested. Meanwhile, most of the village's men are busy seducing a promiscuous teenager (Patrizia Valturri), whose father eventually reveals that she is underage. Franco Fabrizi, Beba Loncar, and cult filmmaker Giulio Questi are among the cast, and Carlo Rustichelli provided the score. Signore e Signori won the Best Film award at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this espionage drama, a leading American spy has a miniature camera surgically implanted in his eye, unbeknownst to him, and with it photographs secrets for the Russians, helping them gather information about a newly created death ray. The scientist who created it knew the secret could fall into enemy hands and so placed his secret plans into the skull of his unknowing daughter before he died. Meanwhile another spy begins following her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Marco Vicario's sequel to his own Sette Uomini d'Oro, this similarly lighthearted crime film begins with The Professor (Philippe Leroy) and his men captured by American agents during a plot to steal a vault from a moving train. They are assigned to kidnap Castro-like Latin dictator Enrico Maria Salerno in order to avoid prosecution, and The Professor uses the mission as a convenient excuse to jack $7 million in gold from a nearby ship. Rosanna Podesta returns as the sexy Giorgia, and Vicario fills the film with campy setpieces including flying jet-packs and a bizarre ending circling back to the start of Sette Uomini d'Oro. Armando Travajoli's score is typical of its time, featuring a breathy female voice humming "oo-wah" to elevator music. This sequel seems unfocused compared to its tightly-knit predecessor, and is slightly disappointing as a result. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this anthology, six French filmmakers each contributed a vignette, offering their take on the history of prostitution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this satire, former Italian Resistance hero Natalino (Nino Manfredi) finds himself a total failure as a civilian. He becomes a mercenary when U.S. agents hire him to assassinate a neo-Nazi spy attempting to sneak his soft-drink formula to the communists. The Americans are to pay him $100,000 for the hit. His wife Elvira (Francoise Prevost) finds someone willing to do the job for half the amount. What should have been one gunman turns into five, each one chasing the other and the former Nazi for a coveted secret formula. The comedy comes full circle when the ex-Nazi is hidden in Natalino's apartment and makes love to his wife. After all assassination attempts fail, the spy confesses and kills himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This spaghetti western features hippie outlaws battling French singer Hallyday. ~ All Movie Guide

This Swiss-made film, in the '70s Disney vein, concerns a scientist (Dean Jones) looking for the cure for the common cold. Instead, he discovers the secret of invisibility, and must struggle with his faithful sheep dog to keep the formula from being captured by evil forces. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

While Michele Lupo's skillful thriller is certainly Italian, it is more of a traditional mystery than most of its contemporaries. The plot is the standard one involving greedy heirs being killed off in a country house following the reading of a will. Daughter Anna Moffo gets everything, and before too long, the cast starts dropping like flies. Ida Galli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, and sexy maid Orchidea DeSantis are among the suspects and victims, while Lance Percival and Gastone Moschin appear as comic-relief cops from Scotland Yard. The ending is fairly clever, although regular followers of the form may find it a bit obvious. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide