Italian Film DVD's again
Well it's Tuesday already, yay! So far this week we have seen (apart from Smallville - the episode with Aquaman, oooh hi fishy):
'Knife of Ice' ('Il Coltello di ghiaccio' Directed by Umberto Lenzi 1972)
Finally got around to watching the Japanese DVD I've been wanting for ages and ages. Was it worth the wait? Well, not really, I mean it's a good enough giallo but it's not very fizzy. Carroll Baker plays a mute (caused by witnessing the death of both of her parents) which I found frustrating, you just know at some point she's going to scream. Familiar player Evelyn Stewart is in it too as Baker's singer cousin, but her role is wasted and she looks bored. There are some nice touches though, like the inclusion of a gang of devil worshippers, an English drug addict with gorgeous contact lenses, three funerals (yes, three! all with the same congregation that keeps getting smaller) a black gloved killer with a knife, a wind-up Donald Duck and a hoard of red herrings.
'The Cursed Medallion' ('Il Medaglione insanguinato' Directed by Massimo Dallamano ('What Have They Done to Solange?' & 'What Have They Done to Your Daughters?') 1975)
Picked this DVD up in Turin, minutes after we had booked into our hotel! Really, really loved this. Superb opening shots and a fantastic score from Stelvio Cipriani (who's becoming my favourite composer, even after my obsession with Bruno Nicolai). A young girl 'Emily' (scary Nicoletta Elmi), who's mother died burning to death, slowly becomes possessed when she wears a satanic looking medallion. She lives with her father and nanny (lovely Evelyn Stewart in the drabbest outfits ever) in London, so you get to see loads of typical shots of it in the 70's - you know, London Bridge, Houses of Parliament etc. Anyway her father is doing a documentary film for the BBC on the depiction of Satan in old paintings. He goes to Spoleto (middle of Italy) to research some paintings and track down one that he saw on a slide that a certain Contessa Cappelli (Lila Kedrova) has mistakenly sent him. The painting is hung on a wall in a creepy abandoned house and the Contessa warns him to leave Spoleto as there is a force of evil that comes from contact with it. Of course he doesn't believe her...
The Contessa was fantastic (!), she looks like she belongs in a Dario Argento movie from the 70's. Emily (Nicoletta Elmi) just needs a bloody good slap. Joanna Cassidy ('Six Feet Under') is in it too, as the love interest looking very foxy.
The DVD has some trailers as a special feature: 'What Have They Done to Solange?', 'Planet of the Vampires', 'The Cursed Medallion' and one other I've forgotten (already).
Right, I'm off. More DVD's to watch.
'Knife of Ice' ('Il Coltello di ghiaccio' Directed by Umberto Lenzi 1972)
Finally got around to watching the Japanese DVD I've been wanting for ages and ages. Was it worth the wait? Well, not really, I mean it's a good enough giallo but it's not very fizzy. Carroll Baker plays a mute (caused by witnessing the death of both of her parents) which I found frustrating, you just know at some point she's going to scream. Familiar player Evelyn Stewart is in it too as Baker's singer cousin, but her role is wasted and she looks bored. There are some nice touches though, like the inclusion of a gang of devil worshippers, an English drug addict with gorgeous contact lenses, three funerals (yes, three! all with the same congregation that keeps getting smaller) a black gloved killer with a knife, a wind-up Donald Duck and a hoard of red herrings.
'The Cursed Medallion' ('Il Medaglione insanguinato' Directed by Massimo Dallamano ('What Have They Done to Solange?' & 'What Have They Done to Your Daughters?') 1975)
Picked this DVD up in Turin, minutes after we had booked into our hotel! Really, really loved this. Superb opening shots and a fantastic score from Stelvio Cipriani (who's becoming my favourite composer, even after my obsession with Bruno Nicolai). A young girl 'Emily' (scary Nicoletta Elmi), who's mother died burning to death, slowly becomes possessed when she wears a satanic looking medallion. She lives with her father and nanny (lovely Evelyn Stewart in the drabbest outfits ever) in London, so you get to see loads of typical shots of it in the 70's - you know, London Bridge, Houses of Parliament etc. Anyway her father is doing a documentary film for the BBC on the depiction of Satan in old paintings. He goes to Spoleto (middle of Italy) to research some paintings and track down one that he saw on a slide that a certain Contessa Cappelli (Lila Kedrova) has mistakenly sent him. The painting is hung on a wall in a creepy abandoned house and the Contessa warns him to leave Spoleto as there is a force of evil that comes from contact with it. Of course he doesn't believe her...
The Contessa was fantastic (!), she looks like she belongs in a Dario Argento movie from the 70's. Emily (Nicoletta Elmi) just needs a bloody good slap. Joanna Cassidy ('Six Feet Under') is in it too, as the love interest looking very foxy.
The DVD has some trailers as a special feature: 'What Have They Done to Solange?', 'Planet of the Vampires', 'The Cursed Medallion' and one other I've forgotten (already).
Right, I'm off. More DVD's to watch.
posted by trainsmash at 10:33 AM
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