One of my film studies colleagues is looking for information on Bruno Mattei.
Can anyone suggest any magazines or fanzines, that have career profiles or interviews with him, especially in English?
I have some myself somewhere in ETC or suchlike, which I'm going to look out, but am sure there are others that I'm not aware of.
Thanks in advance...
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Deep Red versions straw poll
A quick question:
If you've seen different cuts of Deep Red / Profondo Rosso, which do you prefer overall, if you have a preference, and why do you prefer it?
* The English-language version(s), which omits much of the romantic comedy subplot and interplay between Marc Daly and Gianna Brezzi.
* The Italian-language version, which includes all of this material.
* The Japanese Suspiria 2 version which, although I have never seen it myself, is apparently in between the English and Italian versions in length.
* Another version I'm maybe not aware of, e.g. in French or German; if so, can you also say a little bit about what it best compares to in content and length.
There is a somewhat obscure logic behind this question, which I will explain if anyone wants to know it before answering and once the results are in in any case.
If you've seen different cuts of Deep Red / Profondo Rosso, which do you prefer overall, if you have a preference, and why do you prefer it?
* The English-language version(s), which omits much of the romantic comedy subplot and interplay between Marc Daly and Gianna Brezzi.
* The Italian-language version, which includes all of this material.
* The Japanese Suspiria 2 version which, although I have never seen it myself, is apparently in between the English and Italian versions in length.
* Another version I'm maybe not aware of, e.g. in French or German; if so, can you also say a little bit about what it best compares to in content and length.
There is a somewhat obscure logic behind this question, which I will explain if anyone wants to know it before answering and once the results are in in any case.
Tano Cimarosa
I was watching Damiano Damiani's The Most Beautiful Wife last night and got confused at one point because there's a character in the film called Tano Cimarosa whom I was sure was being played by the actor Tano Cimarosa. I checked on the IMDB and, in addition to confirming that actor and character name were indeed identical, was saddened to learn that he had died only last week.
Tano Cimarosa, 1922-2008
For what it matters, Cimarosa's very good in the film, which is as much a drama as a crime film and was based on a true story. He plays the peasant farmer father of the girl whom a rising local mafioso decides to take for his bride. Despite all his daughter suffers, Cimarosa's character is unwilling / unable to take a stand or defend her. It's a powerful performance in which he beautifully conveys the frustration and helplessness of the character with his body language and gestures.
Tano Cimarosa, 1922-2008
For what it matters, Cimarosa's very good in the film, which is as much a drama as a crime film and was based on a true story. He plays the peasant farmer father of the girl whom a rising local mafioso decides to take for his bride. Despite all his daughter suffers, Cimarosa's character is unwilling / unable to take a stand or defend her. It's a powerful performance in which he beautifully conveys the frustration and helplessness of the character with his body language and gestures.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Ator il guerriero di ferro / Ator the Iron Warrior
After Joe D'Amato temporarily abandoned the Ator franchise after his second film failed to achieve the same heights of success as its predecessor, Al Brescia stepped into the breach to present this reinterpretation of the character.
We begin with a prologue in which Ator's brother, Trogar, is kidnapped by the power hungry sorceress Phaedra. The other members of her sorority, led by Deeva, take of dim view of this, but merely banish Phaedra as punishment.
Ator poses in front of a mirror, but where did it come from?
18 years pass and Phaedra has returned, along a the fearsome skull-masked, heavy-breathing warrior (think Skeletor meets Darth Vader, I guess) and their assorted minions to launch an attack on the King's castle on the very day of his daughter Jenna's own 18th nameday ceremony.
Though escaping the castle massacre, Jenna is captured by cloaked dwarf creatures.
Jenna, in wet t-shirt mode
Sure enough, Ator, now played by Miles O'Keeffe, comes to the rescue, while also having the first of what will be many evenly-matched fights with Trogar.
Trogar
So it continues for another hour or so in ABC-quest fashion until the forces of good and evil face off for one final battle in which rightful order is restored, or something...
Right from the opening credits, proudly announcing The Iron Warrior to be an Al Bradley film to the strains of Carlo Mario Cordio's derivative-if-heroic theme music, its obvious that this is going to be a nonpareil cheesefest.
The best things the film has going for it are the picturesque Crete locations, which do good service as the Kingdom of Dragmor, and Jenna's tissue-thin gowns.
Ator delivers a witty one-liner
The worst is that in seeking to add a soupcon more style to the proceedings, Bradley / Brescia overcompensates with the slow-motion to the point you start to imagine that the film could have been refitted for a hour-long TV spot by dint of playing everything at regular speed.
Really, however, it's the kind of film that offers predictable pleasures and which doesn't take itself too seriously anyway and, as such, is arguably immune to this kind of criticism.
We begin with a prologue in which Ator's brother, Trogar, is kidnapped by the power hungry sorceress Phaedra. The other members of her sorority, led by Deeva, take of dim view of this, but merely banish Phaedra as punishment.
Ator poses in front of a mirror, but where did it come from?
18 years pass and Phaedra has returned, along a the fearsome skull-masked, heavy-breathing warrior (think Skeletor meets Darth Vader, I guess) and their assorted minions to launch an attack on the King's castle on the very day of his daughter Jenna's own 18th nameday ceremony.
Though escaping the castle massacre, Jenna is captured by cloaked dwarf creatures.
Jenna, in wet t-shirt mode
Sure enough, Ator, now played by Miles O'Keeffe, comes to the rescue, while also having the first of what will be many evenly-matched fights with Trogar.
Trogar
So it continues for another hour or so in ABC-quest fashion until the forces of good and evil face off for one final battle in which rightful order is restored, or something...
Right from the opening credits, proudly announcing The Iron Warrior to be an Al Bradley film to the strains of Carlo Mario Cordio's derivative-if-heroic theme music, its obvious that this is going to be a nonpareil cheesefest.
The best things the film has going for it are the picturesque Crete locations, which do good service as the Kingdom of Dragmor, and Jenna's tissue-thin gowns.
Ator delivers a witty one-liner
The worst is that in seeking to add a soupcon more style to the proceedings, Bradley / Brescia overcompensates with the slow-motion to the point you start to imagine that the film could have been refitted for a hour-long TV spot by dint of playing everything at regular speed.
Really, however, it's the kind of film that offers predictable pleasures and which doesn't take itself too seriously anyway and, as such, is arguably immune to this kind of criticism.
Il 13º è sempre Giuda / The Last Traitor / The 13th is Always a Judas
Following the Civil War, retired gunman Ned (Donal O'Brien) invites twelve of his closest friends to a ranch on the Mexican border to outline his plans for their future. He is going to marry Marybelle and thus inherit an old silver mine once belonging to her father, Old Man Owens, which they will the work together, putting their pasts and differences, including fighting for different sides, behind them:
“Bellman: he has a nasty little habit of letting his hands get into the collection boxes. I don't want to know about it.”
“The Ross brothers: they have $2,000 price tags on their heads. I can't recall, I got a lousy memory.”
And so on.
The plan soon goes awry when the stagecoach arrives with all on board, including Marybelle, dead.
Worse, the other passengers are soon revealed as undercover government agents, whose deaths are sure to soon bring further unwanted attention.
Ned professes not to care about this, however, only wanting revenge against Marybelle's killer or killers, whom he suspects to be amongst the assembled party.
The most likely suspect is cardsharp Tim (Maurice Poli) who arrived late and makes a hasty exit, along with Joe the Mexican, soon thereafter.
But is everything as straightforward as it seems? What if, for example, Tim is a Judas goat?
Directed by Guiseppe Vari under his Joseph Warren pseudonym, The 13th is a Judas is an intriguing spaghetti western with a pronounced mystery element to it. Though relatively short on action, it benefits from strong central performances from O'Brien and Poli that keep you guessing as to their motives; a rousing yet tense score from Carlo Savina; a well-crafted story from writer Adriano Bolzoni, and some reasonaby clever incorporation of Christian religious references into the material, like the arrangement of the 13 men at the wedding table a la the last supper or Ned's reminding his bickering friends that the Reverend Bellman has prepared a sermon for a wedding, not a funeral.
Trivia buffs may care to note that Ted Rusoff has a credit for additional dialogue, while it sounds like Carolyn De Fonseca provides the voice for one of the Mexican women.
“Bellman: he has a nasty little habit of letting his hands get into the collection boxes. I don't want to know about it.”
“The Ross brothers: they have $2,000 price tags on their heads. I can't recall, I got a lousy memory.”
And so on.
The plan soon goes awry when the stagecoach arrives with all on board, including Marybelle, dead.
Worse, the other passengers are soon revealed as undercover government agents, whose deaths are sure to soon bring further unwanted attention.
Ned professes not to care about this, however, only wanting revenge against Marybelle's killer or killers, whom he suspects to be amongst the assembled party.
The most likely suspect is cardsharp Tim (Maurice Poli) who arrived late and makes a hasty exit, along with Joe the Mexican, soon thereafter.
But is everything as straightforward as it seems? What if, for example, Tim is a Judas goat?
Directed by Guiseppe Vari under his Joseph Warren pseudonym, The 13th is a Judas is an intriguing spaghetti western with a pronounced mystery element to it. Though relatively short on action, it benefits from strong central performances from O'Brien and Poli that keep you guessing as to their motives; a rousing yet tense score from Carlo Savina; a well-crafted story from writer Adriano Bolzoni, and some reasonaby clever incorporation of Christian religious references into the material, like the arrangement of the 13 men at the wedding table a la the last supper or Ned's reminding his bickering friends that the Reverend Bellman has prepared a sermon for a wedding, not a funeral.
Trivia buffs may care to note that Ted Rusoff has a credit for additional dialogue, while it sounds like Carolyn De Fonseca provides the voice for one of the Mexican women.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta / A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta / Blazing Magnums / A Strange Shadow in an Empty Room
This 1976 Italian-Canadian-Panamanian (!) co-production, made in Montreal with a North American cast is, not surprisingly, a somewhat difficult film to place. At times it feels like a poliziotto, with plenty of sustained hard-hitting action scenes and an alternately cool jazz and driving funky soundtrack courtesy of Armando Trovajoli, at others like a giallo, with a labyrinthine murder-mystery plot and long list of individuals to be eliminated from the inquiries by the investigators – if, that is, the killer doesn't get to them first...
The basic giallo vs poliziotto structure, broadly corresponding to an alternation between plot, character and narrative focused material alternating with dialogue free action sequences, is neatly established from the outset.
On the university campus student Louise Saitta argues with her teacher and presumed lover Dr George Tracer (Martin Landau) while some other students play frisbee and catch football nearby, including Louise's ex-boyfriend, Fred (Jean LeClerc).
Clearly distressed at something, Louise tries to telephone her brother, indicating that it's imperative that she speak to him.
Like a number of gialli, we begin with a telephone call
Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) is an inspector in the Ottawa police who is currently occupied with intercepting some armed robbers, armed with machine guns and acting very much like their Roman or Milanese counterparts despite the unfamiliar location.
Rome or Ottawa – it's all the same?
But with some local colour as well...
After a chase, Saita forces their car off the road – through a shop window – then calmly shoots three of the four with his magnum before forcing the other to surrender.
This guy is tough, so tough that the the bad guy doesn't even think about chancing whether he'd fired six shots or only five...
Unfortunately he's also perhaps not the best suited to the case about to ensue, having a distinctly poliziotto tendency to act first and worry about asking questions later, in addition to also being more like an amateur than a professional investgator in the way his personal involvement in the case about to ensue repeatedly clouds his judgements.
Yet another photo of a lady above suspicion?
Later that night Louise and Fred play a practical joke on Dr Tracer at a party also attended by all the other suspects, red herrings and victims to be, with Louise pretending to have some sort of seizure.
Then, after Dr Tracer has attended to her and the joke has been revealed, Louise does have a seizure and drops dead, despite the doctor's desperate ministrations.
Tony arrives in Montreal for the funeral, where he meets the Tracer and Cohn families along with the other suspects, red herrings and victims to be; the only one whose role is clear being the blind Julie (Tisa Farrow).
A line (up) of some of the suspects
Learning of Louise's desperate and frightened state from Julie, Tony has his contact in the local police, Sergeant Matthews (John Saxon) arrange for an autopsy to be performed, which reveals traces of poison...
In the meantime, Tony follows up leads, learning that Louise was seeing Dr Tracer. Seeing motive in the respectable doctor's need to avoid a scandal and an opportunity, Tony puts things together and, after Margie Cohn refuses to corroborate that she could be certain what Tracer administered Louise, has him arrested on suspicion of murdering his sister. (To add to the suspicion and sleaze Tony finds Margie (Gayle Hunnicutt), whose name is apposite insofar 'she spreads easily' for just about everyone except her husband, in bed with Tracer's son, Robert.)
The question that eventually emerges is whether Tony has added two and two to come up with three or five.
A bottle of nail varnish found on the mangled remains of a transvestite found in a rock crushing machine leads Tony, via a sex shop (?!), to a transvestite club, one of those cross-dressing fight scenes that cropped up with surprising regularity in Italian films of this time, and the revelation that Margie's brother, Terry, was mixed up in the case and knew too much, specifically about a necklace Louise was wearing in one of the last photographs taken of her. Either Dr Tracer is innocent or has a co-conspirator...
The key to the mystery?
The quest leads Tony to a locker and a quest to track down three fences.
The first, whom he chases through the underground station and proceeds to interrogate via water torture in the men's room, proves to know nothing...
The second, whose car he pursues recklessly through the streets of downtown Montreal in one of those ridiculously over-the-top chases, choreographed by none other than Remy Julienne, at least knows something, thus dragging us back into the giallo plot for the third act after this second dominated by a succession of poliziotto action sequences...
Stunt cars!
Imagine a cross between The Bloodstained Butterfly and Violent Naples if you can and you have a fair idea of what you're in for here. A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta perhaps won't work as well as either of these films for the purist, having too many plot convolutions for the poliziotto fan and insufficient opportunity to engage with the mystery for oneself for their giallo counterpart, but which never lets up and delivers 100 per cent entertainment for those willing to ascribe to the simpler taxonomy of dividing films into the two camps of the good and the bad.
A giallo style blade in the dark, but not from a black-gloved hand
A poliziotto cop with his big, loud weapon
This said, while the film's greater emphasis on action inhibits the extent to which Alberto De Martino can engage in directorial sleights of hand, there are nevertheless enough subtleties to his direction to reward a second viewing.
The same can also be said of Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino's writing providing one is willing to overlook the question of exactly how Saitta, outwith his jurisdiction and pursuing what increasingly comes across as a personal vendetta, is allowed to get away with it all, with a number of telling exchanges and seemingly throwaway lines that gain renewed significance with the benefit of hindsight:
“I've just left Tracer's colleagues.”
“And?”
“As far as they're concerned he's a good doctor, a straight shooter and a family man. Can you believe that? He's a guy that's been living a double life and all this time he's been getting away with it.”
Stuart Whitman's no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners approach to the role is appropriate, conveying his confidence and certitude that he is in the right, regardless, while Martin Landau's more nuanced portrayal of Dr Tracer works nicely as a counterpoint, conveying an apparent ambiguity and uncertainty that his erstwhile nemesis lacks.
John Saxon's role is a largely thankless one in that he doesn't really get involved with the action scenes and remains a largely peripheral figure in the investigations. Still, even walking onto the scene from time to time, his is always a welcome presence.
The overall message of the film might perhaps be summed up as there being “none so blind as those who would not see”. Even if its cross-filone compromises mean it perhaps fails to convey this as convincingly or consistently as the likes of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage or Deep Red, A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta remains, like De Martino's work as a whole, well worth a look from any Italian popular cinema enthusiast willing to go beyond the more familiar names.
The basic giallo vs poliziotto structure, broadly corresponding to an alternation between plot, character and narrative focused material alternating with dialogue free action sequences, is neatly established from the outset.
On the university campus student Louise Saitta argues with her teacher and presumed lover Dr George Tracer (Martin Landau) while some other students play frisbee and catch football nearby, including Louise's ex-boyfriend, Fred (Jean LeClerc).
Clearly distressed at something, Louise tries to telephone her brother, indicating that it's imperative that she speak to him.
Like a number of gialli, we begin with a telephone call
Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) is an inspector in the Ottawa police who is currently occupied with intercepting some armed robbers, armed with machine guns and acting very much like their Roman or Milanese counterparts despite the unfamiliar location.
Rome or Ottawa – it's all the same?
But with some local colour as well...
After a chase, Saita forces their car off the road – through a shop window – then calmly shoots three of the four with his magnum before forcing the other to surrender.
This guy is tough, so tough that the the bad guy doesn't even think about chancing whether he'd fired six shots or only five...
Unfortunately he's also perhaps not the best suited to the case about to ensue, having a distinctly poliziotto tendency to act first and worry about asking questions later, in addition to also being more like an amateur than a professional investgator in the way his personal involvement in the case about to ensue repeatedly clouds his judgements.
Yet another photo of a lady above suspicion?
Later that night Louise and Fred play a practical joke on Dr Tracer at a party also attended by all the other suspects, red herrings and victims to be, with Louise pretending to have some sort of seizure.
Then, after Dr Tracer has attended to her and the joke has been revealed, Louise does have a seizure and drops dead, despite the doctor's desperate ministrations.
Tony arrives in Montreal for the funeral, where he meets the Tracer and Cohn families along with the other suspects, red herrings and victims to be; the only one whose role is clear being the blind Julie (Tisa Farrow).
A line (up) of some of the suspects
Learning of Louise's desperate and frightened state from Julie, Tony has his contact in the local police, Sergeant Matthews (John Saxon) arrange for an autopsy to be performed, which reveals traces of poison...
In the meantime, Tony follows up leads, learning that Louise was seeing Dr Tracer. Seeing motive in the respectable doctor's need to avoid a scandal and an opportunity, Tony puts things together and, after Margie Cohn refuses to corroborate that she could be certain what Tracer administered Louise, has him arrested on suspicion of murdering his sister. (To add to the suspicion and sleaze Tony finds Margie (Gayle Hunnicutt), whose name is apposite insofar 'she spreads easily' for just about everyone except her husband, in bed with Tracer's son, Robert.)
The question that eventually emerges is whether Tony has added two and two to come up with three or five.
A bottle of nail varnish found on the mangled remains of a transvestite found in a rock crushing machine leads Tony, via a sex shop (?!), to a transvestite club, one of those cross-dressing fight scenes that cropped up with surprising regularity in Italian films of this time, and the revelation that Margie's brother, Terry, was mixed up in the case and knew too much, specifically about a necklace Louise was wearing in one of the last photographs taken of her. Either Dr Tracer is innocent or has a co-conspirator...
The key to the mystery?
The quest leads Tony to a locker and a quest to track down three fences.
The first, whom he chases through the underground station and proceeds to interrogate via water torture in the men's room, proves to know nothing...
The second, whose car he pursues recklessly through the streets of downtown Montreal in one of those ridiculously over-the-top chases, choreographed by none other than Remy Julienne, at least knows something, thus dragging us back into the giallo plot for the third act after this second dominated by a succession of poliziotto action sequences...
Stunt cars!
Imagine a cross between The Bloodstained Butterfly and Violent Naples if you can and you have a fair idea of what you're in for here. A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta perhaps won't work as well as either of these films for the purist, having too many plot convolutions for the poliziotto fan and insufficient opportunity to engage with the mystery for oneself for their giallo counterpart, but which never lets up and delivers 100 per cent entertainment for those willing to ascribe to the simpler taxonomy of dividing films into the two camps of the good and the bad.
A giallo style blade in the dark, but not from a black-gloved hand
A poliziotto cop with his big, loud weapon
This said, while the film's greater emphasis on action inhibits the extent to which Alberto De Martino can engage in directorial sleights of hand, there are nevertheless enough subtleties to his direction to reward a second viewing.
The same can also be said of Gianfranco Clerici and Vincenzo Mannino's writing providing one is willing to overlook the question of exactly how Saitta, outwith his jurisdiction and pursuing what increasingly comes across as a personal vendetta, is allowed to get away with it all, with a number of telling exchanges and seemingly throwaway lines that gain renewed significance with the benefit of hindsight:
“I've just left Tracer's colleagues.”
“And?”
“As far as they're concerned he's a good doctor, a straight shooter and a family man. Can you believe that? He's a guy that's been living a double life and all this time he's been getting away with it.”
Stuart Whitman's no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners approach to the role is appropriate, conveying his confidence and certitude that he is in the right, regardless, while Martin Landau's more nuanced portrayal of Dr Tracer works nicely as a counterpoint, conveying an apparent ambiguity and uncertainty that his erstwhile nemesis lacks.
John Saxon's role is a largely thankless one in that he doesn't really get involved with the action scenes and remains a largely peripheral figure in the investigations. Still, even walking onto the scene from time to time, his is always a welcome presence.
The overall message of the film might perhaps be summed up as there being “none so blind as those who would not see”. Even if its cross-filone compromises mean it perhaps fails to convey this as convincingly or consistently as the likes of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage or Deep Red, A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta remains, like De Martino's work as a whole, well worth a look from any Italian popular cinema enthusiast willing to go beyond the more familiar names.
L'Isola degli uomini pesce / Island of the Fishmen
1891: en route to an island prison, the French transport the Cayenne is sunk, leaving one member of the crew, ship's doctor Claude de Ross (Claudio Casinelli), with six of the convicts on a lifeboat.
After seven days and nights drifting in the ocean a current catches the liferaft and smashes it to pieces just off an island. In the chaos one of the prisoners is killed by a mysterious creature, assumed by the others to be an giant octopus.
Of those who make it ashore one dies as a result of drinking from a poisoned pool, a third after going off alone and being attacked by another one of the creatures, now seen to be some sort of fish-men, while a fourth falls into a spike-filled pit that almost also does for de Ross.
Continuing on their way de Ross and the two surviving convicts – the superstitious, frightened José and the bullying, antagonistic Peter – find a cemetery with empty graves and signs of voodoo rituals:
“There are zombies here”
“Stop it José, you're talking nonsense. Zombies don't exist. They have never existed.”
The living dead don't appear, which is probably just as well given the range of dangers the island has already presents and those soon to emerge as the real story gets underway after de Ross is saved from a poisonous snake by the timely intervention of the beautiful Amanda Marvin (Barbara Bach).
Contrary to appearance, not a zombie hand
Keeping her distance, she advises the men leave the island immediately. It is the property of one Edmund Rackham (Richard Johnson), who does not take kindly to intruders.
This is easier said than done, however, with the men having little choice but to continue on their way regardless, eventually happening upon Rackham's plantation style house. He proves surprisingly welcome given Amanda's warnings, inviting De Ross to join him at their table while accommodating the two convicts in an outbuilding.
After Amanda leaves, Peter follows after her with rape on his mind, only to be himself attacked and slain by one of creatures.
One of the fishmen
The next morning José decides he has had enough and flees. Rackham says to let him go, but de Ross goes off in pursuit. He doesn't find José but is knocked unconscious by one of the creatures and only saved from certain death due to Amanda's intervention. Awakening back at Rackham's estate, he finds her denying all knowledge and saying he must have been suffering from hallucinations – an interpretation Rackham also seems keen to foster, but which doesn't accord with de Ross's physical wounds.
Just what is going on? Let's just say it doesn't really get much clearer, though with a mad scientist and his experiments (think The Island of Dr Moreau in reverse); the lost continent of Atlantis; a fortune in treasure; a volcanic eruption, and all manner of pulp villainy and derring do still to come, there's is plenty more to keep you entertained.
Johnson's Rackham is a great villain, sadistic, superior, sneering and seemingly relishing every moment of it. Maybe not appearing on stage for Royal Shakespeare Company as Iago or Richard III but somehow comparable in its own little way...
Cassinelli again impresses as a thinking man's action hero, equally adept at using brain as brawn. The one noteworthy exception is when he destroys the mad scientist's greatest / most questionable achievement, where instinctual revulsion takes over and ironically makes him into just about as much of a criminal as those he was once transporting. (“In one moment you've destroyed the results of a lifetime's work. That was the only specimen with full human intelligence!”)
Bach is primarily there as eye candy and love interest and proves adequate to both tasks. At the level of prurient interest the absence of nude scenes, as distinct from wet, diaphanous dress ones, may however disappoint the male members of the audience – especially compared to Mountain of the Cannibal God, where Ursula Andress again displayed her charms.
Note the way in which Martino and Geleng co-ordinate the primary colours of the test tubes to provide a nice little visual touch; it's the kind of thing which shows they care and which helps elevate the film that little bit
Sergio Martino's direction is assured, helping, along with Eugenio Alabaso's crisp editing and Massimo Antonello Geleng's designs (including the fishmen, made with Rocchetti Carboni make-up) to overcome most of the obvious budgetary limitations. There are also some nice underwater sequences, along with a bit of model work and some stock volcano footage.
The dynamics of Rackham's black servants (including Beryl Cunningham as a Haitian voodoo priestess, Shakira) and the fishmen strongly resemble those of the cannibals and zombies in Zombie Holocaust, with 'primitive' practices in both cases having been encouraged by the white colonial master intent on exploitation. (Rackham's boat is ironically titled The Enterprise.)
Zombie, of course, presents a neat through line connecting them thanks to the presence of Johnson there and its sets in Zombie Holocaust. The key words, in line with the origins of the fishmen themselves, are perhaps mutation and hybridity, the thinking presumably that of refusing to stay confined and defined by one filone when three provide a wider palette of ideas and images to draw from.
The film also features some curiously forward thinking / anachronistic remarks for 1891 about the neo-malthusian threat of population outstripping food supply, a theme also seen in the contemporaraneous Hell of the Living Dead with decidedly more apocalytic consequences.
The future of mankind?
The soundtrack further suggests zombie or cannibal connections, with plenty of percussive jungle / voodoo drum type cues reminiscent at times of Nico Fidenco's work.
Mention must finally be made of the film's complicated distribution history in the US: Initially receiving a limited released in a dubbed version, the film was later bought by United Pictures Organisation who, together with Roger Corman's New World, recut it and added in new scenes featuring Mel Ferrer and Cameron Mitchell. This version, released as Something Waits in the Dark, wasn't a success, however, prompting the Screamers retitling and a more exploitative advertising campaign promising that viewers would actually “see a man turned inside out”.
Though they didn't, in truth there was already more than enough for it not to matter. If exploitation cinema is about selling the sizzle and not the steak, as David Friedman puts it, Island of the Fishmen was already a steak, with side dish of onions.
After seven days and nights drifting in the ocean a current catches the liferaft and smashes it to pieces just off an island. In the chaos one of the prisoners is killed by a mysterious creature, assumed by the others to be an giant octopus.
Of those who make it ashore one dies as a result of drinking from a poisoned pool, a third after going off alone and being attacked by another one of the creatures, now seen to be some sort of fish-men, while a fourth falls into a spike-filled pit that almost also does for de Ross.
Continuing on their way de Ross and the two surviving convicts – the superstitious, frightened José and the bullying, antagonistic Peter – find a cemetery with empty graves and signs of voodoo rituals:
“There are zombies here”
“Stop it José, you're talking nonsense. Zombies don't exist. They have never existed.”
The living dead don't appear, which is probably just as well given the range of dangers the island has already presents and those soon to emerge as the real story gets underway after de Ross is saved from a poisonous snake by the timely intervention of the beautiful Amanda Marvin (Barbara Bach).
Contrary to appearance, not a zombie hand
Keeping her distance, she advises the men leave the island immediately. It is the property of one Edmund Rackham (Richard Johnson), who does not take kindly to intruders.
This is easier said than done, however, with the men having little choice but to continue on their way regardless, eventually happening upon Rackham's plantation style house. He proves surprisingly welcome given Amanda's warnings, inviting De Ross to join him at their table while accommodating the two convicts in an outbuilding.
After Amanda leaves, Peter follows after her with rape on his mind, only to be himself attacked and slain by one of creatures.
One of the fishmen
The next morning José decides he has had enough and flees. Rackham says to let him go, but de Ross goes off in pursuit. He doesn't find José but is knocked unconscious by one of the creatures and only saved from certain death due to Amanda's intervention. Awakening back at Rackham's estate, he finds her denying all knowledge and saying he must have been suffering from hallucinations – an interpretation Rackham also seems keen to foster, but which doesn't accord with de Ross's physical wounds.
Just what is going on? Let's just say it doesn't really get much clearer, though with a mad scientist and his experiments (think The Island of Dr Moreau in reverse); the lost continent of Atlantis; a fortune in treasure; a volcanic eruption, and all manner of pulp villainy and derring do still to come, there's is plenty more to keep you entertained.
Johnson's Rackham is a great villain, sadistic, superior, sneering and seemingly relishing every moment of it. Maybe not appearing on stage for Royal Shakespeare Company as Iago or Richard III but somehow comparable in its own little way...
Cassinelli again impresses as a thinking man's action hero, equally adept at using brain as brawn. The one noteworthy exception is when he destroys the mad scientist's greatest / most questionable achievement, where instinctual revulsion takes over and ironically makes him into just about as much of a criminal as those he was once transporting. (“In one moment you've destroyed the results of a lifetime's work. That was the only specimen with full human intelligence!”)
Bach is primarily there as eye candy and love interest and proves adequate to both tasks. At the level of prurient interest the absence of nude scenes, as distinct from wet, diaphanous dress ones, may however disappoint the male members of the audience – especially compared to Mountain of the Cannibal God, where Ursula Andress again displayed her charms.
Note the way in which Martino and Geleng co-ordinate the primary colours of the test tubes to provide a nice little visual touch; it's the kind of thing which shows they care and which helps elevate the film that little bit
Sergio Martino's direction is assured, helping, along with Eugenio Alabaso's crisp editing and Massimo Antonello Geleng's designs (including the fishmen, made with Rocchetti Carboni make-up) to overcome most of the obvious budgetary limitations. There are also some nice underwater sequences, along with a bit of model work and some stock volcano footage.
The dynamics of Rackham's black servants (including Beryl Cunningham as a Haitian voodoo priestess, Shakira) and the fishmen strongly resemble those of the cannibals and zombies in Zombie Holocaust, with 'primitive' practices in both cases having been encouraged by the white colonial master intent on exploitation. (Rackham's boat is ironically titled The Enterprise.)
Zombie, of course, presents a neat through line connecting them thanks to the presence of Johnson there and its sets in Zombie Holocaust. The key words, in line with the origins of the fishmen themselves, are perhaps mutation and hybridity, the thinking presumably that of refusing to stay confined and defined by one filone when three provide a wider palette of ideas and images to draw from.
The film also features some curiously forward thinking / anachronistic remarks for 1891 about the neo-malthusian threat of population outstripping food supply, a theme also seen in the contemporaraneous Hell of the Living Dead with decidedly more apocalytic consequences.
The future of mankind?
The soundtrack further suggests zombie or cannibal connections, with plenty of percussive jungle / voodoo drum type cues reminiscent at times of Nico Fidenco's work.
Mention must finally be made of the film's complicated distribution history in the US: Initially receiving a limited released in a dubbed version, the film was later bought by United Pictures Organisation who, together with Roger Corman's New World, recut it and added in new scenes featuring Mel Ferrer and Cameron Mitchell. This version, released as Something Waits in the Dark, wasn't a success, however, prompting the Screamers retitling and a more exploitative advertising campaign promising that viewers would actually “see a man turned inside out”.
Though they didn't, in truth there was already more than enough for it not to matter. If exploitation cinema is about selling the sizzle and not the steak, as David Friedman puts it, Island of the Fishmen was already a steak, with side dish of onions.
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