Giovanni Petrucci Movies
Italian horror icon Riccardo Freda directs I Spit on Your Grave star Camille Keaton in this gory shocker concerning four hippies who seek shelter from a summer storm in a seemingly-abandoned villa, only to realize that they have stumbled into a satanic sacrifice. Frightened away by the gruesome orgy of violence, the hippies waste no time in beating a hasty retreat. Things quickly go from bad to worse, however, when the innocent peaceniks are subsequently accused of committing a massacre that eclipses that of even the Tate-LaBianca murders. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Camille Keaton
- 1971
- R
In this spaghetti western, set during the last days of the Civil War, an outlaw finds a dying Confederate officer. As the officer expires, he tells the outlaw about a cache of gold hidden in his blind father's home. The enterprising thief takes the dead man's clothes and tricks the father and his housekeeper into believing that he is the son. He is just about ready to begin looking for the gold when an outlaw gang comes to town and forces him to help them rob an army payroll wagon. He then tries to abscond with the loot. The bandits torture him, shoot him, and leave him for dead. Then they shoot the blind father. The hero gets better and gets grisly revenge upon the outlaws. He saves a special treat for the gang leader. First he uses mud to blind him. Then he puts a gun in his hand and kills him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Bill (John Phillip Law) grows up to seek revenge on the gang that killed his parents. He meets up with Ryan (Lee Van Cleef), a veteran gunslinger seeking his own revenge for the ones who put him in prison. The two proceed to shoot everything that moves in this violent spaghetti western. Bill eventually discovers Ryan was there when his parents were killed and is torn between killing Ryan and letting him ride off into the sunset. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Phillip Law, Lee Van Cleef, (more)
- 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)
This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro's emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and -- when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever -- become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L'avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, (more)
