Gia Scala Movies

In this political satire, a bearded Marxist takes over a Caribbean island, and the rest of the democratic world wants him ousted. To do this, they assign the owner of a razor company to lead a covert operation. He enlists the aide of a sexy stripper. Their mission is to shave the leader's beard so that he will no longer be identifiable as a Marxist. The woman dances her way into the leader's boudoir, but soon discovers that his beard is false and the new leader is really the old one in disguise. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Christopher Lee is sublimely typecast as Karl Jorla, a European horror film star who has arrived in Hollywood to make his first American picture. But Jorla has no intention of drawing attention to himself; he not only keeps his production schedule secret, but he also refuses to let anyone know where he is living during his Hollywood stay. The reason? Jorla has run afoul of a cult of devil worshippers, who fear that he intends to expose them in his upcoming film -- and who will stop at nothing to prevent this. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lee Philips stars as con artist Ben Conant (alias Freddie Sheldon), whose latest pigeon is wealthy Mrs. Lisa Talbot (Gia Scala). Together, Ben and Lisa plot the murder of her husband, Peter (Les Tremayne), only to find that a private detective seems to be wise to their scheme. Not only that: the PI has been hired by an "interested party" determined to see that Ben and Ben alone feels the full weight of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The career of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun (Curt Jurgens) is the focus of this film. Supposedly bullied by the Nazis into working for the Third Reich, the end of the war leaves the rocket man with a decision to take his talents to either Russia or the United States. He chooses the U. S., but controversy follows the gifted scientist wherever he goes. Some resent his collaborations with the Nazis, while others in the government are more than willing to turn their heads in deference to his genius. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This WWII espionage drama is based on the true tale of a British spy, as told in the story by J. Alvin Kugelmass. Alex Schottland (Jack Hawkins) is a career agent for England, having served during WWI. He is assigned to Nazi Germany and rises to the rank of general as WWII breaks out. His contact is Cornaz (Felix Alymer), who pretends to be a clock seller. But Cornaz's identity is discovered, and he is brutally murdered. Schottland overcomes suspicions and makes contacts with a new British agent, Lili Geyr (Gia Scala), who is a nightclub singer. His love for her is first feigned as part of the spy game -- then becomes real. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Though very tame by contemporary standards, Tunnel of Love was considered the last word in racy comedy back in 1958. Adapted from the Broadway hit by Peter DeVries and Joseph Fields, the film stars Doris Day and Richard Widmark as suburbanites Isolde and Augie Poole. Isolde and Augie desperately want a child, but for diverse reasons have never been able to conceive. They decide to adopt a child, prompting a visit to the Poole home by pretty adoption-agency officer Estelle Novick (Gia Scala). Through a series of misundertandings, Estelle decides that Augie isn't a likely candidate for fatherhood, a notion he tries to dispell by taking her out to dinner. One thing leads to another, and the next morning Augie wakes up in a strange motel room with a monstrous hangover. Months later, Estelle pays a visit to Augie, informing him that she's pregnant and in dire need of a great deal of money. Certain that he's the father, Augie goes to great lengths to hide his "indiscretion" from his wife. But Isolde begins to suspect that something is amiss when the adoption agency shows up with a baby that looks disturbingly like her husband. Nothing is quite what it seems, of course, but neither the characters nor the audience find this out til the very end. As comic contrast to the childless Pooles, Elizabeth Fraser co-stars as the couple's eternally pregant next-door-neighbor Alice Pepper, whose husband Dick (Gig Young) looks appropriately worn out. Tunnel of Love was Gene Kelly's first directorial assignment on a film in which he himself didn't appear. (As a footnote, it's worth noting that during the original Broadway run of Tunnel of Love, Augie Poole was briefly portrayed by Johnny Carson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Obviously inspired by such service comedies as Mister Roberts and Operation Mad Ball, Don't Go Near the Water is a tribute to those "unsung heroes" of WW2: the men and women of the Navy's Public Relations Department. Thousands of miles away from the shooting war, Lt. Max Siegel (Glenn Ford) and the rest of the PR staff spend their time issuing colorful reports of Naval heroism and sucking up to visiting US dignitaries on a tiny South Sea island. Siegel and company also battle the anal-rententive pettiness of such superior officers as Lt. Cmdr. Clinton T. Nash (Fred Clark) and such potential foes as abrasive war correspondent Gordon Ripwell (Keenan Wynn). The feminine angle is provided by Gia Scala as Melora, a European-educated local girl, Anne Francis as by-the-book nurse Lt. Alice Tomlen, and Eva Gabor as women's magazine writer Deborah Aldrich. Particularly amusing is Mickey Shaughnessy as foul-mouthed seaman Farragut Jones, whose periodic barrages of profanity are invariably drowned out by the sound of a ratchet-horn (this was, after all, 1957). Don't Go Near the Water was based on the comic novel by ex-PR man William Brinkley. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Vincent Sherman replaced an uncredited Robert Aldrich as director of this noirish and atypically pro-union film from the 1950's. Tulio Renata (Robert Loggia), an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, campaigns to unionize the employees of dress factory owner Walter Mitchell (Lee J. Cobb). Viscerally opposed to the union, Mitchell has hired Artie Ravidge (Richard Boone) to thwart Renata's efforts. In a complex oedipal sub-plot, Walter's son Alan (Kerwin Matthews) returns home and joins the firm following the suspicious death of his father's partner. Alan is more sympathetic to the union and attempts to persuade his father to sign a contract. Only after Ravidge kills Renata, and the elder Mitchell finally admits to himself that Ravidge is a thug who also killed his partner, does he agree to negotiate with the union. Before he can do so, however, he, too, is murdered by Ravidge's goons. It is then left to Alan, increasingly involved with Renata's widow Theresa (Gia Scala), to run the business, bring Ravidge to justice, and settle with the union. Similar to Herbert Biberman's Salt of the Earth (1954) in its overt support of the labor movement, The Garment Jungle is clearly a liberal, not a radical, film. Rather than advocate class warfare, it asserts that honest unions and decent capitalists can work together honorably. The film's real fire is found in the personal conflicts between Tulio and Theresa and Walter and Alan. Cobb, Loggia, and Scala perform with intense and multi-dimensional passion. Particularly noteworthy is Theresa's fury at her husband for taking excessive, and ultimately fatal, risks. ~ Steve Press, Rovi

This emotional drama concerns a WWII medic who marries a German woman but leaves her in a jealous rage, taking their baby with him. They lose touch after she is arrested behind the Iron Curtain after the war. Eight years later, she sees him in a Chicago cafe, rushes across the street to see him, and is hit by a truck. He operates on her and saves her life, and they get back together. Eventually, the daughter accepts her mother, and the whole family is reunited. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

One of director Douglas Sirk's best and most successful romantic soapers of the 1950s, All That Heaven Allows is predicated on a May-December romance. The difference here is that the woman, attractive widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), is considerably older than the man, handsome gardener-landscaper Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Sirk builds up sympathy for Cary by showing how empty her life has been since her husband's death, even suggesting that the marriage itself was no picnic. Throwing conventionial behavior to the winds and facing social ostracism, Cary pursues her romance with Ron, who is unjustly perceived as a fortune-hunter by Cary's friends and family--especially her priggish son Ned (William Reynolds). Amusingly, Conrad Nagel was to have had a much larger part as Harvey, an elderly widower who carries a torch for Cary, but his role was trimmed down during previews when audiences disapproved of an implicit romance between a sixtyish man and a fortysomething woman! All That Heaven Allows was remade by unabashed Douglas Sirk admirer Rainer Werner Fassbinder as Ali--Fear Eats the Soul (1974), in which the age gap between hero and heroine was even wider. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi