Mamma Roma
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by Pier Paolo Pasolini
1962/Italy
Arco Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

I loved my introduction to director Pier Paolo Pasolini.  I’m looking forward to the rest of his work.

Mamma Roma (Anna Magnanni) is a successful streetwalker and force of nature.  She finally ditches her pimp who has gotten married.  Mamma now has saved enough to buy a nice flat and market stall and to bring her son back from the countryside where he has been raised by a respectable family.

Unfortunately, Mamma’s pimp is not cut out for married life and will not leave her alone. The story follows the journey of her son from innocent to criminal and Mamma’s heartbreak.

I didn’t know what to expect and was a little nervous knowing that Pasolini also directed Salo.  I needn’t have worried.  This is a beautiful combination of sublime classical music and cinematography with unflinchingly gritty real life. It is one of the few movies where the largely non-professional cast is totally convincing.  I thought this was one of Magnanni’s best performances in a career full of great ones.  Recommended.

Clip – no subtitles but not really needed

Siberian Lady Macbeth
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Written by Sveta Lukic, story by Nikolai Leskov from a play by William Shakespeare
1962/Yugoslavia
Avala Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

This is more like The Postman Always Rings Twice than Macbeth but doesn’t work all that well as either.

Beautiful Katerina lives on a pig farm with her cranky father-in-law who berates her constantly for having no children.  Her husband is away on business.  The farm is always looking for strong workers and hires serf Sergei when he shows up looking for work.  He is a likely lad and soon is having an affair with Katerina.  At her instigation, the couple systematically does away with anybody who gets in the way of their love or money.

I’ve loved everything I’ve seen so far by director Wajda but this left me cold.  The characters aren’t well developed and it drags. He seems to have been meant for his native land and contemporary themes.

Clip (no subtitles)

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
Directed by Joseph Green
Written by Joseph Green, original story by Green and Rex Carlton
1962/USA
Rex Carlton Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

Not the best in the “brain-in-a-bottle” genre.

Dr. Bill Cortner is a hot-shot young surgeon.  His father cautions him against experimenting on humans but he disregards all advice.  He has been doing horrific operations at the family’s summer place.

Bill is engaged to surgical nurse Jan.  He is called out to the summer place to deal with an emergency and takes her with him.  He is driving way over the speed limit when he crashes into a barrier and down a cliff.  Bill is ejected from the car, which explodes in flames.  He manages to save Jan’s head …

This movie had real potential to be bad movie gold.  The best and most ludicrous part is the doctor’s speedy rescue of the head which he does without a knife or scalpel.  There are also some nice moments with a “creature” and Jan is pretty good.

Unfortunately, the film has been padded out to fill its 82 minute run-time.  This means we have to sit through interminable bad driving sequences, burlesque dancing, etc. before we get to the good stuff.

The Pirates of Blood River
Directed by John Gilling
Written by John Hunter and John Gilling; story by Jimmy Sangster
1962/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

The highlight of this movie is Christopher Lee and his French accent.

A couple of generations ago, French Huguenots fled to the Isle of Devon in the Caribbean to escape religious persecution.  The ideals of their forebears have been corrupted and the island is now run by religious fanatics.  As the movie starts, Jonathan Standing (Kerwin Matthews), is caught kissing one of the elders’ wives.  He is tried by a panel including his own father, who is also an elder, and sentenced to 15 years in the penal colony.  This is tantamount to a death sentence as the jailers are brutal.

Jonathan manages to escape and runs into pirates headed by Capt. LaRoche (Christopher Lee). Jonathan makes a deal with LaRoche so that the pirates will take him back to the village to organize a rebellion.  Unbeknowst to Jonathan, the pirates are actually nterested in treasure and will kill until its location is revealed.  This might be a problem as Jonathan is convinced there is no treasure.  Mayhem ensues.   With Oliver Reed as one of the pirates.

Hammer Studios was not known for its pirate movies but the gore carries over from the better-known Gothic horror films.  There are plenty of swordfights and other brutality to be had.  It’s mildly OK.

Trailer

These Are the Damned (AKA “The Damned”)
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Evan Jones from a novel by H. L. Lawrence
1962/UK
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Hammer Studios/Swallow Productions Ltd.
First viewing/Netflix rental

The story is an uneasy mixture of JD movie with sci-fi thriller.  Director Joseph Losey keeps all of it powerful, if not coherent.

As our story begins American tourist Simon Wells (McDonald Carey) is visiting an English seaside resort.  Joanie (Shirley Anne Field) gives him the eye and he picks her up only to be brutally mugged by a gang of “teddy boys” headed by King (Oliver Reed), her brother. King has an unhealthy obsession with his sister’s virtue (think Scarface).  But Simon is the only man who has ever treated her like a lady and she cannot stay away from him.

We are also introduced to a bureaucrat and his estranged artist wife and learn that the former has some kind of sinister secret.

Simon and Joanie sail down the coast in Simon’s boat and happen to hide out in the bureaucrat’s house, which has been long vacant.  But the estranged wife arrives to spend the summer there and they are found out.  Before too long, Kind and his gang come looking for his sister and trouble.

Simon and Joanie escape and eventually find themselves in a cave with some children who are desperate to escape their current situation.  The bureaucrat’s secret, which involves these children, gradually unfolds over the remainder of the story.  Simon and Joanie are now in danger from both King’s gang and the bureaucrat’s assistant.

The story is really all over the place and does not bear scrutiny.  There were too many coincidences for me.  Also, I don’t want to give away the secret but it is insufficiently fleshed out.  I wish the movie had ditched a lot of the JD parts, particularly the “Black Leather Rock” song.  That would have given some more time to explain.

Setting the story aside, the film is beautifully and powerfully filmed.  Oliver Reed’s acting makes up for Carey’s inherent dullness and the rest of the cast is fine.  Recommended to sci-fi fans.

It was not until I was doing research for this film that I realized Oliver Reed was director Carol Reed’s nephew!

Trailer

The Awful Dr. Orlof (Gritos en la noche)
Directed by Jesus Franco
Written by Jesus Franco
1962/Spain/France
Hispamer Films/Leo Lax Production/Ydex Eurocine
First viewing/Netflix rental

Though the version I watched left a lot to be desired, there was a much to like about this take on the Eyes Without a Face plotline.

The movie is set at the turn of the last century.  As it begins, we see a blind, scarred zombie-like figure murder a woman in her bedroom and take the body away.  Segue to the police force and we find out there has been a string of missing women.  At first, it was assumed they had run off with men but now it is surely murder.  Soon after, we learn that the blind man is the faithful servant of a doctor who is trying to restore his daughter’s lost beauty.

Naturally, the police inspector assigned to the case has a fiancee who is the spitting image of the doctor’s daughter.  She is eager to help and does the most stupid things imaginable.

Although it is no match for the film it ripped off, there is some really beautiful camerawork in this film.  The horror parts are enjoyably lurid but there is some comic relief that brings the movie down a notch.  This was one of Franco’s first films.  I’m interested in seeing a few of the other 202 films he directed.

Unfortunately, the DVD contained only a dubbed and a French-language version of the film.  I had to watch the dubbed version since there were no subtitles .  Between the poor sound quality and the lack of a match between the dialogue and the lips, I had a hard time understanding the English and it made the acting seem really wooden.  The dissonant score was also an irritant.

Trailer

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Zoku Zatôichi monogatari)
Directed by Kazuo Mori
Written by Minoru Inuzuka; story by Kan Shimozawa
1962/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
First viewing/Filmstruck

The filmmakers keep the standard high in the second of the “Blind Ichi” films.

This is truly a continuation of the story with many of the same characters reappearing.  Ichi is wandering the land.  The mild mannered masseuse cannot seem to help attracting the attention of every sword-happy samurai he meets.  He dispatches about 20 of them in the first five minutes of the film.  Then he is asked to massage a Lord.  In doing so, he is privy to the secret that the noble is a half-wit and the retinue send out a couple of thugs to silence him.  I do not need to tell you what happens to the thugs.  The Lord’s retainers do not give up on doing away with Ichi and hire a local gang boss to slay him.

It is the one year anniversary of Ichi’s duel with the consumptive samurai from the first film and Ichi returns to the same setting to pay his respects to the only man he was able to call friend.  The boss from the first film does not have fond memories of Ichi.  Finally, he encounters women old and new who are attracted to his goodness and his own no-good brother.

This has way more action than the first film.  I was less surprised by the story but equally entertained.  You can see the entire series on Filmstruck but multiple complete versions are also currently available on YouTube.

Clip with extraneous soundtrack – would recommend muting!