Walter Rilia Movies

The story centers on a sailor who returns to shore to discover that his uncle has been capturing dying Greek gods and sewing them into human flesh. He then holds them hostage on an Ionian isle. Trouble ensues when the sailor falls in love with the Gorgon. Unfortunately, she turns him into stone. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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

Martin (Robert Hirsch) is a member of a comedy troupe who is captured by American soldiers when he is in costume as a German officer in this World War II comedy. He escapes and joins the Free French Army only to be captured by the Nazis while he is wearing a general's uniform. The British use him as an undercover agent to capture the Germans. Martin then is recruited in a plot to kill Hitler and is acclaimed as a hero by the resistance movement. His bravery earns him an audition with the coveted Comedie-Francaise troupe in this offbeat feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This crime drama is a remake of Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). This time, the malignant Mabuse attempts to enact his evil schemes by hypnotizing another to do them in his stead. A series of strange crimes sets a detective on the case. The hapless detective soon finds himself captured by Mabuse's evil pawn who tortures the investigator with electroshock treatments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this action film, an American detective is hired by an aging millionaire to investigate the murder of his valet. The detective journeys to South Africa and discovers that the murder is linked to Nazi POWs who never went back to Germany. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

William C. Barton (Peter Van Eyck) is an Allied pilot who is shot down over Belgium during World War II. With the country crawling with Nazis, heroic resistance fighters try to smuggle William and some escaped prisoners of war into Spain, but when he is seen writing a letter with a German address, he is mistaken for a spy and shot. Marie Versini plays a member of the resistance, with Walter Rilla as her father. Fritz Wepper plays a U.S. pilot who is also shot down and tries to escape. The feature was awarded the Federal Film Prize in 1964 and was the country's official entry at the Locarno Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Death Drums Along the River was the come-on American title for this 1963 remake of 1935's Sanders of the River. Both films were loosely based on a very popular Edgar Wallace novel. Richard Todd assumes the leading role of Harry Sanders (originally R. G. Sanders), a British police investigator working in Africa. While counting the clues in a hospital murder case, Sanders is led to hidden diamond mine. The patronizing racial attitudes prevalent in the first Sanders of the River have been muted and altered out of respect for the ever-changing Africa of the 1960s. Sanders did well enough to inspire a 1964 sequel, Coast of Skeletons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Evil genius Dr. Mabuse hypnotizes the director of an insane asylum in this remake of Fritz Lang's 1933 cinematic landmark. Noted German actor Wolfgang Preiss stars. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Shortly after Soviet tanks crush the 1956 Hungarian uprising, adventurer for hire Mike Reynolds (Richard Widmark) goes to communist Budapest to rescue one of the revolt's leaders, Professor Jansci. There's just one big problem; the professor doesn't want to go. While the plot is minimal, this simple actioner conveyed the dark atmosphere of Cold-War Hungary very well -- and it gave American audiences their first look at a ravishing young Senta Berger. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

Hoping to recapture the success of its 1945 Frederic Chopin biopic A Song to Remember, Columbia Pictures concocted the 1960 Technicolor costume drama Song Without End. Dirk Bogarde is cast as musical genius Franz Liszt. Bogarde's piano scenes are dubbed with another's singing voice, but this hardly matters in that the film is preoccupied with Liszt's infamous romantic entanglements. The crux of the matter is Liszt's desire to wed the already married Russian princess Carolyne (Capucine), which will necessitate an unpleasant breakup with his current lover, Countess Marie (Genevieve Page). Director Charles Vidor died after only a few weeks on the picture; he was replaced by George Cukor, who graciously insisted that Vidor be billed in letters larger than his. The chief selling point of Song Without End is its wall-to-wall music; the film won an Oscar for "best musical arrangement." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This was popular tenor Mario Lanza's last film before he died in Rome of a heart attack at the age of thirty-eight. The story follows the career and love interest of opera star Tonio Costa (Lanza), who is careless in regard to his professional engagements. Being more than a little irresponsible, he is his own worst enemy when it comes to his singing future. That is true until he meets a deaf woman, Christa (Johanna von Koczian), and falls in love with her. She turns his life around, as he dedicates himself to performing all he can in order to raise the needed funds to help her to hear again. Several highlights from well-known operas are included in the performance segments of the story, showing to full effect Lanza's stunning tenor voice. First thrown into the spotlight in the 1958 film The Student Prince, Lanza's performance in films got him unjustly banned from the stage at the Metropolitan Opera. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Filmed in England, The Gamma People is a strange blend of "Prisoner of Zenda" type adventure, comic opera, cold war paranoia and science fiction. The film is set in Gudavia, a mythical European country ruled by scientists. These misguided intellectuals have been utilizing gamma rays to create a race of genius-level supermen, Instead, they wind up either with emotionless automatons or hulking, mindless brutes. American newsman Paul Douglas and British photographer Leslie Phillips, literally stumbling into this situation, attempt to save the day. Also battling the Gamma People is Eva Bartok, the sister of one of the human "experiments". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide