Akim Tamiroff Movies

Childhood sweethearts Jolanda (Virna Lisi) and Franco (George Segal) meet once again after a separation of nearly 15 years. The two immediately rekindle the romance on an adult level. Franco is a dedicated physician working hard to have a successful career and longtime security, while Jolanda is a free-spirited woman who embraces radical causes and lives from day to day. Comedy ensues when this odd couple experiences life from each other's point of view. Jolanda releases animals from a research hospital in protest over their capture. Franco is always chasing the fast-moving Jolanda around in order to extricate her from the consequences of her many activities in this convulsively funny romantic comedy. The exasperated Franco is torn between the love for Jolanda and the stoic professionalism of his medical career. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This pilot film for the 1969-1970 TV series Then Came Bronson stars Michael Parks in the title role. A young, ambitious journalist, Bronson realigns his priorities after his best friend (Martin Sheen) commits suicide. Borrowing a page from Kerouac, Bronson gives up the rat race for the road. He mounts his friend's motorcycle, speeding up and down the California coastline in search of life's meaning. Along the way, he meets a runaway bride (Bonnie Bedelia) who briefly joins him on his odyssey. The best sequence takes place in a nomad encampment, presided over by Zorba-like Akim Tamiroff. Everyone who grew up in the late-'60s seems to have fond memories of the series; why, then, was the show canceled after only one season? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also released under the title Manutara, this sci-fi film features scientist Professor Koniglich (Akim Tamiroff) as he attempts to seek revenge on the descendants of the 18th-century family who killed his ancestor. When his atomic experiment goes wrong, Koniglich finds himself transformed into a giant vulture with the face of a man, and he sets out to exact his revenge in his new horrific form. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

All available information indicates that Manutara was a working title for the infamous horror-rama The Vulture. Broderick Crawford plays Brian Stroud, the scion of an accursed Cornish family. Two hundred years earlier, a Spanish seafarer, buried alive with his pet vulture, placed an onus on the heads of everyone in Stroud's family. Stroud's scientist brother-in-law, Dr. Eric Lutens (Robert Hutton), is worried that the curse will strike again, especially after discovering a huge vulture's nest. Sure enough, Akim Tamiroff, the descendant of the unfortunate sailor, has developed a hideous mutant -- an enormous vulture with the face of a human being. The best scene occurs when Brian Stroud (or Broderick Crawford's stuntman) is carried aloft by a pair of papier-mâché talons. Filmed in color but released in the U.S. in black-and-white, The Vulture was restored to its full-hued splendor (if that is the word) for its ubiquitous late-night TV showings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A betrayed wife decides to teach her philandering husband a lesson in this riotous farce. Marta (Catherine Spaak) discovers that husband Franco (Nino Manfredi) has been stepping out with her own best friend (Maria Grazia Buccella), and gets revenge by inventing an imaginary lover. Franco takes the bait, leading to improbable but hilarious complications. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

With Peter Sellers as star, Neil Simon as screenwriter, and Vittorio DeSica as director, how could After the Fox miss? Miss it did, however--though the film, patchy and inconsistent though it might be, definitely has its moments. Sellers plays an Italian master thief who can't seem to stay out of jail. His latest scheme involves moving $3 million worth of stolen gold bullion from Cairo to Rome. To cover his tracks, Sellers pretends to be a "nouvelle vague" movie director, filming a crime picture. Britt Ekland, Mrs. Sellers at the time, plays his movie-struck sister. The film is effortlessly stolen by Victor Mature, who is unbearably funny as a vainglorious hasbeen Hollywood star. Director DeSica shows up in the film as "himself"-at least until all his camera equipment is stolen by Sellers and his partner-in-crime Akim Tamiroff. Never as hilarious as it should have been, After the Fox nonetheless manages a few isolated belly laughs. Outside of Mature's performance, our favorite bit in the film is the final gag: "Ze wrong man has escaped!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Co-directed by French filmmakers Noël Howard and Denys de La Patellière, La Fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo is a star-studded, epic retelling of the story of the famed thirteenth-century Venitian explorer. Filmed on location in France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Egypt and Afghanistan, the film stars Horst Bucholz as Polo, the ambitious young voyager who, along with his faithful servant Akerman (Orson Welles), ventures to China, where he joins Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan (Anthony Quinn) in his fight against rebelling forces. Also starring Omar Sharif, La Fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo was released in the United States and Great Britain under the title Marco the Magnificent. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, to wealthy men, whose money came from blackmail schemes find themselves stalked by a former victim. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jealousy between the men in love with one woman cannot be contained by the woman. ~ All Movie Guide

In Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard fuses a hardboiled detective story with science fiction. Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine), a hero Godard borrowed from a series of French adventure films, comes to Alphaville, the capital of a totalitarian state, in order to destroy its leader, an almost-human computer called Alpha 60. While on his mission, Lemmy meets and falls in love with Natacha (Anna Karina), the daughter of the scientist who designed Alpha 60. Their love becomes the most profound challenge to the computer's control. Void of any flashy special effects, Alphaville uses 1960s Paris to depict the city of the future. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Much of Orson Welles' latter-day reputation as an "unfathomable" genius rests upon his seeming unwillingness to tell a story in clear, precise fashion. Sometimes, as in such films as Touch of Evil, Welles' spotty storytelling skills can be forgiven in the light of the excellent visuals. In other cases, as in his 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, Welles'style comes across as empty virtuosity, precious and petulant when it should be profound. Anthony Perkins plays Joseph K, a man condemned for an unnamed crime in an unnamed country. Seeking justice, Joseph K is sucked into a labyrinth of bureaucracy (Welles once described the character as being a "little bureaucrat" himself, who deserves to be punished. This is never clearly expressed in the finished film). Along the way, he becomes involved with three women -- Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli -- who in their own individual ways are functions of the System that persecutes him.

While Welles considered The Trial one of his finest films, this enthusiasm is not universally shared; even his most fervent admirers have been known to emerge from a screening of the film with quizzical, disappointed expressions on their faces. On the plus side, Welles and his cinematographer Edmond Richard perform miracles in transforming an abandoned French railway station into the headquarters of a totalitarian, red tape-ridden society. It's also fun to hear Welles' voice emanating from several of the supporting characters (his post-dubbing budget was nil). All in all, however, The Trial never truly works; it is unfair, however, to lay the blame for this entirely on Welles, inasmuch as the 1948 and 1994 attempts to cinematize the original Kafka novel likewise came a cropper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide