Capucine Movies

Jacques Becker's Rendez-vous de Juillet has been credited as the first postwar European film to accurately depict the Continental "youth culture." Teenaged Lucien (Daniel Gelin) aspires to become a filmmaker, and to that end organizes his friends into a film unit. The young cineastes hope to make a journey into Africa, there to film an uncompromisingly realistic documentary. Amusingly, Lucien and his friends are shown to be rather ill-equipped for "real life," shuttling as they do between theatre classes, jazz bars and coffee houses. Also, Lucien will have to overcome some family problems before he can embrace the responsibilities of adulthood. The winner of a critics' award at the Cannes Film Festival, Rendez-vous de Juillet was released in the U.S. as Appointment with Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released in some markets as The Toy Wife, the French Frou-Frou stars Dany Robin in the title role. The heroine is a WW1-era cigarette girl who captures the hearts of four wealthy, middle-aged cabaret patrons. The jovial foursome take it upon themselves to pluck Frou-Frou out of her tawdry surroundings and transform her into "a lady". Through their sponsorship, she emerges as one of the top singing attractions of the Roaring Twenties--and, eventually, as the wife of one of her "fairy godfathers." A few early scenes, in which Frou-Frou is shown living without benefit of clergy with one of her benefactors, were trimmed for American consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to recapture the success of its 1945 Frederic Chopin biopic A Song to Remember, Columbia Pictures concocted the 1960 Technicolor costume drama Song Without End. Dirk Bogarde is cast as musical genius Franz Liszt. Bogarde's piano scenes are dubbed with another's singing voice, but this hardly matters in that the film is preoccupied with Liszt's infamous romantic entanglements. The crux of the matter is Liszt's desire to wed the already married Russian princess Carolyne (Capucine), which will necessitate an unpleasant breakup with his current lover, Countess Marie (Genevieve Page). Director Charles Vidor died after only a few weeks on the picture; he was replaced by George Cukor, who graciously insisted that Vidor be billed in letters larger than his. The chief selling point of Song Without End is its wall-to-wall music; the film won an Oscar for "best musical arrangement." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This moody and controversial drama takes place in Depression-era New Orleans. Dove (Laurence Harvey) has traveled by bus from Texas to find his wayward lover Hallie (Capucine). He meets young Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda) as the two get off in the crescent city. Teresina (Anne Baxter) gives him a job at her small cafe. In his free time, Dove searches for Hallie and finds her at work as a prostitute in the Doll's House. Dove implores Hallie to return to him but she refuses. When the lecherous lesbian madame Jo (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers Dove's intentions towards Hallie, she has him beaten to a bloody pulp by her hired goons. He is found by Kitty, now a happy hooker at the Doll House, and is taken back to the cafe where the compassionate Teresina heals his physical and emotional wounds. The film taken from the novel by Nelson Algren is much tamer than the original text. The title track, sung by Brook Benton, was nominated for an Academy Award. The "black-cat stalking" opening and closing sequences (by designer Saul Bass) is a perfect little "film-within-a-film." This footage, with its superb lighting, framing, panning, and editing, should be appreciated by anyone who wants to know more about the art of cinematography. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Curt Jurgens stars as a middle-aged playboy, living by his wits on the Riviera. Among the ladies with whom Jurgens dallies are Martine Carol, Capucine and Mylene Demongeot. Released in Europe in 1962, Beach Casanova didn't make it to American shores until three years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, William Holden plays Ferris, an American soldier who led troops in Malaya during World War II. After the end of the war, Ferris opts to stay in Malaya to seek his fortune. He invests in land there and does quite well, but soon his new life with his girlfriend, a local girl named Dhana (Capucine), is disrupted by local politics. Candace (Susannah York), the daughter of Malaya's British governor, is infatuated with Ferris, which puts a crimp in his relationship with Dhana. And one of his old buddies from the war, Ng (Tetsuro Tamba), reemerges with some disturbing news -- following the war, he spent several years in the Soviet Union and is now working with Communist-backed guerilla forces. Ferris doesn't want to help the British capture his old friend, but his friend seems to have no such scruples about framing his buddy Ferris. The Seventh Dawn was adapted from the novel The Durian Tree by Michael Koen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This melodramatic Italian and French anthology is comprised of four unrelated short films directed by four different directors. The first vignette, "Queen Sabina" (or "The Hitchhiker") chronicles the sexual misadventures of a teenage girl on the road home. "Queen Armenia" (aka "The Room with a Juke Box") centers on a self-serving opportunistic gypsy babysitter who uses her employer's kids for her own gain. The third episode, "Queen Elena" (aka "The Digestive Tablet") centers on a husband who learns a lesson about the perils of infidelity after he succumbs to the wiles of the seductive wife next door. The last vignette, "Queen Marta" (aka "Giovanni") centers on a wealthy woman who, when drunk, uses her butler as an outlet for her lust. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Federico Fellini's last theatrical film Intervista, he appears on camera as the subject of a fabricated filmed documentary. This took place for real back in 1969, and the result was the entertaining (if not too enlightening) 55-minute Ciao Federico! Fellini Directs Satyricon. We watch as Fellini assembles his actors, bit players, clowns, jugglers, and technicians to put together his own special squint at the 1st century works of Roman satirist Petronius. Documentary director Gideon Bachmann keeps a respectful distance, but does his best to pick Fellini's brain concerning the director's unique creative process; and, as usual, Fellini offers conflicting, contrary information whenever it amuses him to do so. A piquant moment in Ciao Federico! is the presence of the late Sharon Tate, who visits the Satyricon set in the company of her husband Roman Polanski; this may well be the last-ever film footage of the tragic Tate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two German spies and a woman physician (Suzy Kendall) are taken by submarine to Scotland where they enter the country at nightfall. Their mission is to assassinate the British Field Marshall Lord Kitchener. The woman's male companions are captured, but she escapes with the knowledge of what boat the Marshall is on. Boarding the submarine, the Germans make plans to bomb the boat with a series of strategically placed land mines. She travels from Russia to Germany to Britain and Spain as she double-crosses double agents in a cat-and-mouse game of espionage. A gruesome scene shows a German gas attack that peels off the flesh of the Allied soldiers as they writhe in agony. James Booth, Capucine, and Kenneth More also star in this World War I drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In what was billed as "The First East-Meets-West Western," Toshiro Mifune plays Kuroda, a samurai warrior who accompanies a Japanese diplomat to the United States. The diplomat has brought with him a golden, jewel-encrusted sword to present as a token of good will to the president, but as they travel by train through the west, they're ambushed by a pair of outlaws, Gauche (Alain Delon) and Link (Charles Bronson). Gauche and Link steal the sword, but Link leans the hard way about his partner's trustworthiness when Gauche double-crosses him and makes off with the booty. Since both Kuroda and Link have a grudge against Gauche, they warily join forces to track him down and return the sword to its rightful owner. Along the way, they have to deal with cultural conflict, Indian attacks, and encounters with beautiful women (played by Capucine and Ursula Andress). Given its cast and theme, Red Sun was predictably enough a major box-office success in Europe and Japan, but it passed through with little notice in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gay Talese's bestseller Honor Thy Father is given a superb, albeit slightly expurgated, treatment in this made-for-TV movie. Joseph Bologna plays Bill Bonanno, the son of New York City Mafia-don Joe "Bananas" Bonanno (Raf Vallone). When his father disappears in 1964, Bill is compelled to take over the "family business." This proves well-nigh impossible as several Mafiosi fall over themselves trying to stake their own claims within the Bonanno empire. Lewis John Carlino, the script writer for the 1968 Mafia flick The Brotherhood, adapted the Talese novel for television. Joseph Campanella "appears" as the slyly noncommittal off-screen narrator. Honor Thy Father was first telecast March 1, 1973. The producers sagaciously withheld the film from the critics until that night to make certain no reviewer would spoil the audience's enjoyment by prematurely cataloging the differences between the film and the book. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide