Lisa, The Devil And You

 

 (themoviedatabase)

LISA AND THE DEVIL-1973-In Italy, Lisa (Elke Sommer) sees a mural of the devil then meets a guy (Telly Savalas) who looks like the mural. She gets lost and is a given a lift (after she seems to kill a man) by Francis (Eduardo Fajardo) & Sophia (Sylva Koscina) and their chauffeur George (Gabriele Tinti) who's having an affair with Sophia. The car breaks down at the residence of Maximilian (Alessio Orano) and his blind mom, the Countess (Alida Valli). Their manservant, Leandro, is the same guy Lisa met earlier. There also seems to be one other person in the house. 

Weird things happen and then George is killed. Max romances Lisa. His mom scolds him. Lisa seems to be pursued by the man she killed. After Sophia runs Francis over with their car (about 5 times), she's bludgeoned to death by Max who thinks Lisa is his long dead love, Elena. Later, Lisa winds up on a jet with the dead people as passengers and Leandro as the pilot. She turns into a corpse. 

Pretty crazy stuff especially when you consider it was co-written and directed by Mario Bava! When it failed to get a distributor at Cannes, the producer Alfredo Leone had Bava shoot a framing sequence with Robert Alda as priest and called it “House of Exorcism” (THE EXORCIST was big at the time). Only years after Bava's death was his original finally released.

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Herc Is Back!

 

 (imdb)

HERCULES UNCHAINED-1959-In this sequel, Hercules (returning Steve Reeves), his new bride Iole (also returning Sylvia Koscina) and a young Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini, also returning) are on their way home to Thebes. They encounter the giant Antius (Primo Carnera). Herc van-quishes him, even though he draws his power from the Earth. Soon, Hercules learns the king has been replaced by his son, Etecoles (Sergio Fantoni) who will not give the throne up to his brother Polonices (Mimmo Palmara), as he is supposed to. 

Hercules agrees to mediate but on his way to Thebes, he drinks from the water of forgetfulness and comes under the spell Queen Enfale (Patrizia Della Rovere), who convinces Hercules he's the king of the land and her lover. Herc seems happy but poor Iole frets at home. Ulysses helps Herc regain his memory and discovers the Queen's secret. She has her former lovers killed and made into statues. Fortunately, Laertes and his men show up and help Hercules & Ulysses escape. The queen kills herself. Later, Hercules fights some tigers and the brothers fight to the death. 

Director Pietro Francisici was back to make this fairly entertaining sequel which like its predecessor was a worldwide hit. Director of Photography Mario Bava may have directed some scenes as well. There were Dell Comic adaptions too.

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Hercules The First

 

 (themoviedatabase)

HERCULES-1958-The legendary hero of Greek myth (Steve Reeves) saves Princess Iole (Sylva Koscina). Her father, the king of Iolcus (Ivo Garrani) wants Herc to train his “his weak and impulsive” son, Iphitus (Mimmo Palmara) to "fortify” Iolcus so he can step down and give his son the throne. He helps a young Ulysses (Gabriele Antonio) improve his bow skills. After Herc shows up Iphitus in training, the heir to the throne is killed by a lion. The king and Iole blame Hercules (even though Iphitus set the whole thing up). Herc tells Sybil (Lidia Alfonsi), the oracle, he doesn't want to be a god anymore. Later, Jason (Fabrizio Mioni) appears and he and Herc gather up the Argonauts and go looking for the golden fleece in their ship, The Argo. Their first encounter is with The Amazons led by Queen Antea (Gianna Maria Canale). Later Jason slays a dragon and gets the fleece. 

This blockbuster movie directed by Pietro Francisci (who also made the sequel the next year) started the whole “sand and sandal” genre with countless imitations to follow.

According to some sources, the roar of the dragon that guards the fleece is actually Godzilla's roar from the original movie. Since Joseph Levine distributed both movies, it's probably right. Mario Bava was the cinema-tographer. Lead actress Koscina went on to make many more movie appearances in-cluding JUDEX (1963), Fellini's JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (1965), LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973) and many others. Of course, strongman Reeves starred in the sequel, HERCULES UNCHAINED in 1959. 

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