American Actors In Italy

 

 

THE VISITOR-1979-At an Atlanta Hawks basketball game a little girl named Katy (Paige Connor) seems to make an opposing player lose the game. She's a snot-nosed brat and after having sex her mother Barbara (Joanne Nail) confesses to her boyfriend Raymond (Lance Henriksen who was in OMEN 2 the year before) that she's afraid of her daughter. It turns out Raymond actually works for a cabal led by Dr. Walker (Mel Ferrer) who says the mother carries the genes of “Sateen”. They want the boyfriend to impregnate mom so Katy will have a brother. For some reason Katy gets a revolver for a birthday present and she accidentally shoots mom who winds up paralyzed. A character who may be Jesus Christ (Franco Nero) sends a visitor (John Huston) to check up on Katy. And a weird housekeeper (Shelly Winters, no stranger to horror and exploitation) also hangs around. Meanwhile a detective (Glen Ford who had played Pa Kent in the SUPERMAN movie the year before) investigates until he is killed. Later after Raymond and Katy kill Barbara the visitor sends a flock of birds to kill Raymond and Katy is whisked away to a heavenly place where (now bald) she joins other hairless children under the protection of the Christ like figure.

This Italian/US co-production THE OMEN inspired tale was filmed in and around Rome by Guilio Paradisi (a former actor) under the more American sounding Michael J. Paradise. It's no paradise when viewing this disjointed, badly dubbed horror tale despite the name cast. It could be the US version was badly cut and dubbed making the story fairly incoherent. For example director Sam Peckinpah appears in one scene as a doctor named Collins (Katy and Barbara's last name). It seems in the uncut version it's explained that the doctor is actually Barbara's ex-husband but here it's reduced to a weird cameo by an American director (Peckinpah would make this last movie THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND a few years later). Actor/director Mel Ferrer was in several European horror films around this time and the same year as THE VISITOR was in added US scenes for an Italian horror film SCREAMERS.

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My Last For 2010..if you are lucky!

TENTACULES-1977-This Italian production from director Ovidio G. Assonitis features several name American stars and a lot of tedium. After several underwater incidents involving a conglomerate called Trojan Inc, , a local reporter Ned Turner (John Huston) investigates. It seems there is a giant octopus hanging out ready to munch locals. Henry Fonda is the company owner and Cesare Danova is his flunky. Shelly Winters plays Turner’s sister who wears a huge sombrero. Claude Aktins is the local sheriff trying to contain (cover-up) the trouble. Bo Hopkins shows up as a famous scuba diver who’s expression barely changes. His bland plea to a few killer whales to help him destroy the monster is pretty funny. A fat guy goes swimming and gets killed and then the boat he was on is destroyed. It all has to do with a tunnel the company is digging. Meanwhile there’s a kid boat race that’s going to take place and Turner’s nephew is in it. Since it’s actually a Italian production many of the secondary actors’ voices are dubbed but for some reason Danova’s seems to be too! The SFX (including toy boats) are pretty cheesy.

Director Assonitis also made the "Exorcist" rip-off BEYOND THE DOOR and FOREVER EMANULLE. in 1974 and later produced James Cameron's first directorial effort PIRANNA 2: THE SPAWNING.

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Max Twice

Sweden's Max Von Sydow is great actor but having him in your movie doesn't mean your movie is going to be great!



THE KREMLIN LETTER-1970-This all-star cold war spy drama directed by John Huston isn’t very good. There’s a lot of talk and it’s overly complicated. Old spies get together for some dirty work. Patrick O’Neal is the ex-navy man recruited to impersonate a Russian male prostitute. He has an affair with Bibi Andersson who’s husband is a sadistic Russian officer (played by her THE SEVENTH SEAL co-star Max Von Sydow) but the underrated Richard Boone steals the show as O’Neal’s “uncle” despite his bad blond dye job.

The always-interesting George Sanders plays a gay agent called Warlock. Nigel Greene is The Whore, Dean Jagger is Highwayman and Michael MacLiammoir is Sweet Alice. Huston tries hard to make this brutal tale work but it really doesn’t. Orson Welles, Barbara Parkins, Raf Vallone and Huston himself round out the cast.





MINORITY REPORT-20th Century-2002-Steven Spielberg blows it again with this sci-fi tale based on a short story by the late Phillip K. Dick.

In a futuristic society authorities use a Pre-Crime Unit to prevent murder. Three “pre-cognitive freaks” help predict when violent crimes will happen. Tom Cruise heads a squad that then must arrest the pre- guilty party before they commit the crime. He takes drugs and watches hologram images of his dead son. Turns out he’s about to become the next pre-killer…. Sounds fascinating, right?

Yeah, right. There’s too much talk, too much over acting, the SFX are pretty bad considering the budget and you’d think SS would have learned from his mistakes after the boring depression of AI but Mr. Hollywood is so hung up on his massive “genius” he could put a bag of shit on film and it would get released.

Fortunately Colin Farrell is on hand to chew the scenery actually making Cruise’s performance a little easier to take than usual. Max Von Sydow plays the Pre Crime director.

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