Eleanora Brown Movies
- 1968
Plenty of campy humor enlivens Antonio Margheriti's tame giallo thriller about murders at a prestigious girl's boarding school. Mark Damon (The Fall of the House of Usher) is the studly riding instructor having an affair with one of the students (Eleonora Bron), an heiress who is the killer's primary target. Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still) investigates the crimes, as women are murdered in showers, thrown into pits of quicklime, and terrorized in aviaries. Other than copping out by featuring yet another overly obvious transvestite killer, it's not half bad. Genre stalwarts Luciano Pigozzi and Marisa Longo also appear. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rennie, Mark Damon, (more)
- 1967
Dino Risi directed this bittersweet comedy about a 45-year-old man, Francesco Vincenzini (Vittorio Gassman), who becomes a grandfather for the first time and begins to fret about old age. When his son is rejected by the flirtatious Carolina (Ann-Margaret) and tries to kill himself, Francesco pays Carolina a visit to lambaste her for her treatment of his son. Carolina responds to his tongue-lashing by seducing him. Feeling young again, he plunges whole hog into an affair with Carolina, rejecting his job and his family and devoting all his attention to her. Finally, Carolina demands that he abandon his family and take off to Paris with her. While on the train to meet Carolina, Francesco has to decide whether he is using his best judgment leaving his family for Carolina. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1961
An episodic, funny, though uneven spoof of human manners and foibles, this comedy by Vittorio de Sica begins in Naples when a disembodied voice announces to the city's residents "The Last Judgment will begin at 6:00 p.m." Naturally, not all are immediately willing to accept this statement -- but not for long. As comic vignettes unfold, the good citizens soon become even better as they try to undo past and present sins, just in case. There is a long list of top actors that show up briefly in the story, everyone from Alberto Sordi to Jimmy Durante, Melina Mercouri, Anouk Aimée, Vittorio Gassmann, and many, many others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Renato Rascel, (more)
Normally, an actor or actress in a foreign-language film was not the ideal candidate for an Academy Award, inasmuch as his or her English-language "performance" was often dubbed in by an anonymous third party. Such was not the case of Sophia Loren in Two Women (La Ciociara), who did her own English dubbing. Adapted by director Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini from the novel by Alberto Moravia, Two Women is the semi-neorealist account of widow Cesira (Loren) and her teenaged daughter, Rosetta (Eleanora Brown), as they struggle to survive in war-ravaged Italy. A conventional romantic triangle between mother, daughter, and Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), is barely under way when the war rears its ugly head once more. Seeking shelter in a bombed-out church, Cesira and Rosetta are attacked and raped -- a horrifying sequence, capped by a freeze-frame close-up of Rosetta, her face a taut mask of terror (this image was enough to prompt a virulent "anti-smut" editorial in The Saturday Evening Post). Once they've recovered from this appalling experience, mother and daughter are offered a ride back to Rome by friendly truck driver Florindo (Renato Salvatori). Though Cesira had hoped to keep her daughter from compromising herself as a means of survival, she is crushed to discover that Rosetta has given herself to the truck driver in exchange for a pair of stockings. When Cesira and Rosetta finally reconcile, it is a grievous occasion, mourning the death of their mutual love, Michele. A last-minute replacement for Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren brought hitherto untapped depths of emotion to her performance in Two Women; she later stated that she was utilizing "sensory recall," dredging up memories of her own wartime experiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Eleanora Brown, (more)
Judy Garland was originally slated to star in MGM's film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, but she was forced to pull out of the production due to illness (recently discovered out-takes reveal a gaunt, dazed Garland, obviously incapable of completing her duties). She was replaced by Betty Hutton who, once she overcame the resentment of her co-workers, turned in an excellent performance--perhaps the best of her career. Hutton is of course cast as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who ascends from dirty-faced backwoods gamin to the uppermost rungs of international stardom. Her mentor is Buffalo Bill, played by Louis Calhern (like Hutton, Calhern was a last-minute replacement: the original Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan, died before production began). Annie's great rival is arrogant marksman Frank Butler (Howard Keel) with whom she eventually falls in love. She goes so far as to lose an important shooting match to prove her affection--a scene that hardly strikes a blow for feminism, but this is, after all, a 1950 film. Of the stellar supporting cast, J. Carroll Naish stands out as Sitting Bull, whose shrewd business acumen is good for several laughs. Virtually all the Irving Berlin tunes were retained from the Broadway version, including "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "Anything You Can Do", "The Girl That I Marry", "My Defenses are Down", "They Say It's Wonderful" and the rousing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which was later tantalizingly excerpted in MGM's pastiche feature That's Entertainment II. Alas, due to a complicated legal tangle involving the estates of Irving Berlin and librettists Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun hasn't been shown on television in years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, (more)
