More Spaghetti

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT SILENCE-1968-Somewhere in the old west (Italy), bounty hunters like Loco (Klaus Kinski; in I BASTARDI the same year)) are out of control and the governor wants to put a stop to it. Roaming the countryside is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant from A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966)), a gunfighter who's hired by families to kill bounty hunters to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. A widow (Vonetta McGee; later in BLACULA (1972)) hires Silence to kill Loco who murdered her husband. Meanwhile, a store owner hires Loco to kill Silence. In recent years critics go on and on about this western allegory that tries way too much to be like Leone (Ennio Morricone scored it) and director Sergio Corbucci (also one of the screenwriters) needs a history lesson. 

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Bounty Hunters In Italy

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT SILENCE-1988-Somewhere in the old west (Italy), bounty hunters like Loco (Klaus Kinski; in I BASTARDI the same year)) are out of control and the governor wants to put a stop to it. Roaming the countryside is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant from A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966)), a gunfighter who's hired by families to kill bounty hunters to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. A widow (Vonetta McGee; later in BLACULA (1972)) hires Silence to kill Loco who murdered her husband. Meanwhile, a store owner hires Loco to kill Silence. In recent years critics go on and on about this western allegory that tries way too much to be like Leone (Ennio Morricone scored it) and director Sergio Corbucci (also one of the screenwriters) needs a history lesson.

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Horror Remake

 

 (imdb)

WEB OF THE SPIDER-1971-An American reporter Foster (Anthony Franciosa) meets Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) in England and winds up making a bet to spend the night in a haunted castle. After investigating the place he meets two women, Julia (Karin Field) & Elizabeth (Michele Mercier). They don't seem to like each other. It's clear that something is going on. After Elizabeth seduces Foster, a man breaks in and seems to kill her. Foster shoots the man but his body disappears. Then Elizabeth's body also vanishes. While searching for the missing bodies, Foster meets doctor Carmis (Peter Carsten) who vanished years before. He proves through some apparitions/flashbacks that everyone in the house is dead. 

This stylish remake of NIGHTMARE CASTLE directed Antonio Margheriti (under the pseudonym Anthony Dawson) is good but I prefer the original. This was one of 10 films Klaus Kinski made in 1971.

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Kinski on Saturn

 

 (imdb)

CREATURE-THE TITAN FIND-1985-During a space race between the USA and W. Germany, two astronaut-scientists are killed by an "Alien" type creature. Then their spaceship crashes into a station orbiting the moon. Some genius decides to send a bunch of dorks and airheads to investigate the find on Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn. After a woman is killed and things slow down, the mysterious astronaut Hoffner (Klaus Kinski) shows up to explain what's going on. After he's killed, he comes back as a reanimated zombie. 

This turns into an ALIEN rip-off with characters being picked off one by one and bloody sfx ranging from very good to not so good. Co-writer/director William Malone later made the big-budgeted HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake.

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Klaus The Shrink

 

 (imdb)

SCHIZOID-1980-Julie (Mariana Hill; THE BABY), an advice columnist, receives threatening letters. Her hot headed ex-husband (Craig Wasson) is also her editor. She belongs to a therapy group run by a weird perverse psychiatrist Peter (Klaus Kinski). Someone is killing the patients in the group with a pair of scissors. Peter has trouble with his weird daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes; future star of ANGEL) who has a gun and rants to dad about her mother when Julie is invited to dinner. An ineffectual cop (Richard Herd) investigates the murders but doesn't think much of Julie's letters. 

This typical for the time slasher movie (which would inundate the '80's) has a dumb finale where the murderer is revealed. Christopher Lloyd on TV's “Taxi” at the time plays a red herring handyman and Flo Gerrish from DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE plays Julie's friend Pat. After this writer/director David Paulsen became a TV producer.

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International

I BASTARDI-(THE BASTARD)-1968-In New Mexico, Jason (Giuliano Gemma) and Adam (Klaus Kinski) are jewel thieves brothers. When the milk drinking Jason won't give up the jewels he stole Adam has him beaten up and tricks him into revealing where the stash is. It also turns out Jason's girlfriend Karen (Margret Lee) is Adam's lover. Adam has Jason's shooting hand maimed and leaves him to wander in the desert where he's taken in by ranch owner Barbara (Claudine Auger) who teaches him to write with his other hand. They become lovers but all the while Jason is plotting his revenge. After they rob an armored car Jason visits his weird alcoholic mother (Rita Hayworth). He goes for revenge but there's an earthquake. While Karen is killed, Adam survives, rescued by his baby brother who then shoots Adam to death. Jason is in turn shot (soundlessly) by his mother. 

This Italian German France co-production directed by Duccio Tessari isn't very good but any movie with Klaus Kinski playing the son of Rita Hayworth is all right with me. Joan Crawford was originally suppose to play the Hayworth role but dropped out over complaints about the script.

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Kinski In America

CRAWLSPACE-1986-This was one of the unfortunate starring roles for German actor Klaus Kinski in the US.

He plays Karl, an ex-doctor whose father was a Nazi. He runs a boarding house where four co-eds stay and has an elaborate duct through the place so he can spy on them. He also has a son (?) in a cage in the attic and collects various body parts from some other victims (eyes, a finger, a tongue). After a lot of peeping and acting weird Karl freaks out, puts on make-up and rants while a film of Hitler plays (“Hail Karl”, he exclaims.). Though the eccentric Kinski gives his all in the role of Karl, it’s a terrible movie. Talia Balsam plays a potential victim.

Director David Schoeller made the first (and best) PUPPET MASTER movie and directed episodes of the cable crime show SILK STALKINGS. In 1999 he made a 9-minute short PLEASE KILL MR. KINSKI about working with the nutty actor.

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