Claudio Mancini Movies
- 2006
Few American film enthusiasts were even aware that anyone made westerns in Italy before Sergio Leone's breakthrough film, 1964's Per un Pugno di Dollari (aka A Fistful Of Dollars), made Clint Eastwood a worldwide star and introduced audiences to the forbidding beauty and troubling morality of Leone's unique vision of the American West. A Fistful of Dollars was an international hit, as were its follow ups Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (aka For A Few Dollars More) and Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (aka The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), and Leone's striking visual sense and complex storytelling established him as one of the masters of genre filmmaking, though in later years his ambition would outstrip his ability to bring his projects to the screen. Sergio Leone: Il mio modo di vedere le cose (aka Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things) is a documentary which takes a loving look at the highlights of Leone's career in cinema, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how several of his best films were made through interviews with actors and technicians who collaborated with him as well as archival footage of Leone discussing his pictures. Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things received its American premiere at the 2006 Cinequest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eugenio Alabisio, Nino Baragli, (more)
- 1988
Davide (Daniel Ezralow) is a young psychiatrist who is tormented by his own dreams in this psychological drama. Maddalena (Beatrice Dalle) is a beautiful but disturbed mental patient who resembles a woman Davide dreamed was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft. Davide soon has trouble dividing fantasy and reality when he falls for Maddalena. A well-orchestrated dance scene and simulated orgy with clothed participants are the big production numbers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Ezralow
- 1987
- R
An agent newly retired from the CIA (Scott Glenn) agrees to become an Italian businessman's bodyguard in this adventure film. Things fall apart though, when terrorists kidnap the Italian's daughter and the agent must rescue her. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Jade Malle, (more)
- 1986
Momo (Radost Bokel) is a ten-year-old orphan girl who tries to save her village from the evil clutches of the Grey Men in this uneven children's story. Led by Chief Grey Man (Armin Muller-Stahl), the Grey Men have managed to make the villagers give up all their leisure time. Momo must get to the rococo palace where the time guardian Hora (John Huston) stands in her way. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radost Bokel, John Huston, (more)
Though some viewers might be put off by its length, graphic violence, and absence of likable characters, Sergio Leone's final film is also a cinematic masterpiece. Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles' 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the truth about the fate of his friends and again confronts the nightmare of his past. The acting, the re-creation of the time period, the cinematography, and the music are all superb. However, even more important is Leone's ability to make the film work on so many different levels: it's both a criticism of gangster-film mythology and a continuation of the director's exploration of the issues of time and history. Strange as it may seem, the violence and gore in the first half of the film turn into a sad elegy about wasted lives and lost love. The film's strengths emerge only in its full 229-minute version -- the 139-minute and other edited versions don't make nearly the same impact. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, James Woods, (more)
Following the surprising success of his cheapjack Star Wars knockoff, Star Crash, Italian director Luigi Cozzi was given the helm of this cheapjack Alien knockoff. An alien cyclops causes a man to cover the Earth with nasty eggs (sometimes made of silicone, sometimes close-ups of common olives). The eggs release gelatinous gunk which makes people explode, and it's all part of the alien's plan to take over the world. Cozzi, a less-talented protégé of Dario Argento, at least gets a good soundtrack by using his mentor's house band, Goblin, but delivers a bad film nonetheless. The director admits that the ludicrous monster was made of badly painted papier-mache, requiring 96 separate cuts to look convincing in its big scene. It didn't work. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McCullough, Louise Monroe, (more)
Trinity series star Bud Spencer returns to the Wild West in director Michele Lupo's comic tale of an outlaw drifter, Buddy, who is mistaken for a doctor after his Indian companion inadvertently steals a bag of surgical instruments. When a band of murderous outlaws attempts to overrun the small town Buddy is passing through, the presumed medico shows that his true talent is cracking skulls. Music is composed by Ennio Morricone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
An amiable con man sets out to land a big score from a man even less honorable than himself in this comic spaghetti western. Joe Thanks (Terence Hill) is a swindler and quick-draw artist who wanders into a dusty little town after literally falling out of a stagecoach while asleep. After besting card-sharp Doc Foster (Klaus Kinski) in a public shootout, Joe reconnects with his old friend Steam Engine Bill (Robert Charlebois), who is traveling with his beautiful but dizzy-headed girlfriend Lucy (Miou-Miou). Joe has learned that Major Cabot (Patrick McGoohan), an officer in the U.S. Cavalry, is escorting a $300,000 fortune that's been earmarked for Indian relief efforts; however, Cabot has no intention of actually delivering the cash, so Joe hatches a scheme to take it for himself. Bill, who bears a slight resemblance to Cabot, will pose as the officer and intercept the money, but when Bill and Lucy are found out and jailed, Joe must come to their rescue. While his name does not appear in the credits, Sergio Leone is said to have co-produced Un Genio, Due Compari, Un Pollo (aka A Genius, Two Partners, and a Dupe) and directed the pre-credit sequence, with Damiano Damiani helming the rest of the picture and receiving screen credit. In Germany, the film was released as Nobody ist der Grosste (aka Nobody is the Greatest) and marketed as an unofficial sequel to Il Mio Nome e Nessuno (aka My Name Is Nobody). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miou-Miou, Robert Charlebois, (more)
Spaghetti-Western star Terence Hill achieved international fame with 1974's My Name Is Nobody. A soldier of fortune, Nobody (Hill) is hired to gun down veteran outlaw Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda). Before long, however, Nobody and Beauregard are bosom companions. When Beauregard announces his retirement, Nobody insists that the old man go out in one last, glorious shooting spree and tries to arrange for this to happen. The film was cut down to 117 minutes for the American release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda
- 1973
Italian Director Elio Petri, best known for his film Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, here tells a complicated tale about a bank clerk who is literally allergic to money. Not only that, the clerk (Flavio Bucci) doesn't like the effect money has on people. For some reason, he steals things from a dishonest butcher (Ugo Tognazzi). This gives the butcher a convenient opportunity to file huge insurance claims for the thefts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Originally titled Giù la Testa, Duck, You Sucker! is a Mexican-revolution yarn, filmed in Italy by spaghetti Western maven Sergio Leone. James Coburn is top-billed as John H. Mallory, an Irish soldier of fortune with a penchant for explosives. Rod Steiger plays Juan Miranda, another mercenary who wants to utilize Mallory's specialty to blast into a bank. Despite his avaricious intentions, Miranda becomes a hero when the hole he blows in the bank wall frees dozens of political prisoners. Duck, You Sucker originally ran 150 minutes, with U.S. release prints heavily trimmed. Taking into consideration the previous "Man With No Name" films masterminded by Leone, the distributors of Duck, You Sucker! reissued the film as A Fistful of Dynamite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Steiger, James Coburn, (more)
In Sergio Leone's epic Western, shot partly in Monument Valley, a revenge story becomes an epic contemplation of the Western past. To get his hands on prime railroad land in Sweetwater, crippled railroad baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) hires killers, led by blue-eyed sadist Frank (Henry Fonda), who wipe out property owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family. McBain's newly arrived bride, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), however, inherits it instead. Both outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and lethally mysterious Harmonica (Charles Bronson) take it upon themselves to look after Jill and thwart Frank's plans to seize her land. As alliances and betrayals mutate, it soon becomes clear that Harmonica wants to get Frank for another reason -- it has "something to do with death." As in his "Dollars" trilogy, Leone transforms the standard Western plot through the visual impact of widescreen landscapes and the figures therein. At its full length, Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's operatic masterwork, worthy of its legend-making title. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
