José Gutiérrez Maesso Movies

Order to Kill was originally shipped out to Spanish-speaking theatres under the title El Clan de los Immorales. The story concerns a mob family, headed by gambling czar Jose Ferrer. When one of family's hit men (Helmut Berger) fails to come up to expectations, Ferrer orders the man's execution. This turn-the-tables circumstance manages to sustain the audience's interest for nearly 2 hours. Besides, it's always fun to watch the lofty Ferrer let his hair down in a cheapie. The same applies to Kevin McCarthy, who likewise appears in Order to Kill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Mitchum's son Christopher heads the cast of this Italian melodrama. Despite the horrific title, the film is actually a Mafia yarn. Arthur Kennedy shows up as a WASP-ish Godfather type, while Barbara Bouchet is the love interest. The presence of Hollywood names in the cast was supposed to create a market for Cauldron of Death in the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this chiller from Italian director Mario Bava, Elke Sommer stars as Lisa, a young tourist who keeps running into a strange bald man who carries around a mannequin. The bald man is Leandre (Telly Savalas), the butler at the estate of a blind Countess (Alida Valli) and her slightly off-kilter son Max (Alessio Orano). In a bizarre turn of events, Lisa kills a man in self-defense and winds up hitching a ride with Frances Lehaf, his wife Sophia (Sylva Koscina), and her chauffeur/lover George. Car troubles land them at the Countess' estate where Lisa is plagued by strange dreams and visions of the man she killed. More troubling for Lisa is that both the dead man and Max appear to know her. Meanwhile, the other guests begin to die: George is murdered by an unseen assailant, Sophia runs over her husband with the car, and then is dispatched herself by a killer who is revealed to be Max. Lisa awakens in Leandre's room full of dummies and runs off through the house. She encounters Max, who shows her the skeletal remains of Eleanor, the lover he killed for having an affair with his stepfather. Max believes that Lisa is Eleanor reincarnated. After an odd sex scene, he is confronted by his mother whom he winds up stabbing to death. Moments later, she reappears and the shock sends Max falling to his own death. Lisa awakens in the house, which now appears to have been abandoned for decades. She boards an airplane to head home, but in a chilling climax, she discovers the plane devoid of all passengers...except for a few old friends including the diabolical Leandre. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

In this spaghetti Western, Joseph Cotten stars as Jonas, an ex-Confederate soldier who robs a Union freight train in order to re-ignite the Civil War. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Sergio Corbucci crafted one of the most popular and widely imitated of the Italian "spaghetti westerns" of the 1960s with this violent but stylish action saga. A mysterious man named Django (Franco Nero) arrives in a Mexican border town dragging a small coffin behind him. When he attempts to save a woman who is being attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Mexican gangsters and racist Yankee thugs, with the innocent townspeople and a fortune in Mexican gold stuck somewhere in between. Django becomes a force to be reckoned with when it's discovered his coffin actually contains a Gatling gun. Django proved so popular in Europe that over 30 sequels and follow-ups were produced, though Franco Nero would not return to the role until 1987's Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (the only sequel endorsed by Corbucci), which proved to be the last film in the series. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A little talkative but otherwise up to par, this western by director Michael Carreras in cooperation with a Madrid studio, is set in the Mexican valley of Sonora not that far south of the state of Arizona. The time is just after the American Civil War, and a former Confederate officer, Mike Summers (Don Taylor) has taken refuge in a small town in the valley. He has married and is hoping to live in peace the rest of his life. Instead, he and his wife and the rest of the town are suffering the depredations of a brutal gunman, Danny Pose (Alex Nicol), and his gang of outlaws. Summers holds off picking up a gun because of his personal vow of non-violence. But the situation deteriorates and a new ally comes into the picture, Steve Fallon (Richard Basehart), a wandering gunslinger who may not be able to handle the bad guys alone. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi