MARISA MELL

"El Tigre Andrajoso"

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

The mid '60's were a very busy time for Marisa Mell rushing from one movie set to the next. Having only worked in previous years on native Austrian or German movies she found herself now working in England. Her international career was taking off. "French Dressing" directed by a still very young but already established tv-director Ken Russell was just the beginning. Her next movie kept her also working in England. It was a James Bond-spoof called "Masquerade" directed by Basil Dearden, who was almost at the end of his movie career but would go out with a bang when he directed a year later hero Charlton Heston in the block buster epic "Khartoum". Masquerade was partly shot in England for the interiors and Spain for the exteriors. There are not many behind-the-scene pictures of Marisa Mell relaxing between takes so this photo series from 1964 makes it extra special. During the shoot in England of this movie Marisa Mell found the time to make a photo shoot for a Spanish glamour magazine together with her co-stars Norwegian actor Tutte Lemkow and the little man of the movie Spanish extra Jose Burgos. In this movie Marisa Mell would also make for the first time acquaintance with French actor Michel Piccoli whom she would meet again a few years later in "Danger: Diabolik!" playing the role of inspector Ginko, Diabolik's arch nemesis.

Because it was for a Spanish magazine what better subject to choose than the flamenco danse and playing "El Toro" for the photo camera. Although Tutte Lemkow was a quite accomplished actor, dancer and musician in his time the general movie audience hardly recognizes his name anymore. He worked with a lot of great names from that era like John Huston, Terence Fisher, Peter Sellers and even Steven Spielberg on "Raiders of the Lost Ark". He is still best known for his part as the fiddler in the classic "Fiddler on the Roof". Little is known about Jose Burgos. He only made 2 feature movies, this one, and another rather well known cult movie "The Valley of Gwangi", famous for the Ray Harryhausen stop motion dinosaurs. Then he disappeared completely from the movie scene to be surfacing again in 1995 for an role in a short movie.

So three actors killing time on a movie set between takes. What is also interesting to know is that during the production of the movie "Masquerade" the production title of the movie was called "The Ragged Tiger" or in Spanish "El Tigre Andrajoso". After the production the Spanish title became in the end "Agentes Dobles".

Walter Giller dies at age 84!

2011-12-17T00:53:00.000-08:00

On December 15th 2011, one of Germany's most beloved actors "Walter Giller" died at age 84 due to lung cancer related complications. Walter Giller is regarded as one of the post WOII titans in German cinema and television with more than 137 credits in this field to his name next to his other works in theatre, on radio and other media platforms. More than 55 years he was married to another German grande dame in movie and television making the actress "Nadia Tiller". Walter Giller died surrounded by his close family in a retirement home. Fans of Marisa Mell will remember him as "Woody Johnson" in the 1964 movie "Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz" where he portrayed a rather cowardly man who had to face the bandits on the run. On this very rare behind the scene picture from 1963 we see from left to right: Thomas Fritsch, Marisa Mell, Walter Giller, Marianne Koch and Mario Adorf! Marianne Koch would one year later become "Marisol" in Sergio Leone's über cult classic "A Fistfull of Dollars" with Clint Eastwood. Mario Adorf would meet Marisa Mell again four years later in the Italian comedy "Le Dolci Signori" with Ursula Andress. Although this picture is a happy behind the scene setting it is a rather revealing picture when you look at the body language of the actors. First you see three groups of people: on the left you have Thomas Fritsch standing alone, then you have Marisa Mell and Walter Giller close together standing higher than the other actors and finally the third group of Marianne Koch and Mario Adorf. When you look deeper into the picture you can see clearly that Marisa Mell and Walter Giller are lovers at the moment of the production of this movie! Although he was married to Nadia Tiller at the time he clearly is in love with her and most of all she is also with him. The love affair is being kept secret to the public at large but the insiders know it very well and the body language reveals it! How??? First they are standing together as a couple a little higher? Secondly they are standing very close to each other, Walter Giller is touching with his right arm the left breast of Marisa Mell which is a very intimate gesture that she would not have accepted if it were otherwise. Compare that posture with the other couple on the picture Marianne Koch and Mario Adorf who are also standing very close but keep each to themselves as they are not lovers but good friends. Marianne Koch has even the tumbs of her hands in the pocktes of her trousers which means that she protects her personality like when people make a fist around their thumbs with their fingers. Another giveaway that Marisa Mell and Walter Giller are lovers is the fact that they deliberately touch each other with their legs in an intimate way. Walter bends his right leg to touch the wall, but Marisa Mell crosses her right leg over her left leg being able to touch Walter's which is not an innocent gesture! And finally the ultimate gesture of Marisa Mell in connecting with her man is that her hips or the centre of her womenhood is connecting with the hips of Walter Giller meaning that she is completely infatuated with this man. Compare this gesture with the other couple where you can clearly see a gap between Marianne Koch and Mario Adorf. The fact that they are not looking at each other is just a little diversion to distract their secret relation. So it is clear that at picture can say more than a thousand words!
/
Thanks to André Schneider for signaling the sad news of Walter Giller's death!

Sir! Please be kind to my movies!

2011-12-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

It is always nice to hear from other Marisa fans in the world. It is even better to read their opinions about the movies that she made during her most active years in Eurocult cinema during the 60's and 70's. Jim West is one of those fans who has undertaken the task to write several critical reviews about the Marisa Mell movies that he has seen in recent past and will see in future months. Jim West is not a beginner in this field and has a great and very interesting site called "Common Sense Movie Review" (www.commensensemoviereview.com) where he has published dozens of interesting movie reviews ranging from James Bond, Hammer Movies, Twilight Zone to actor and actresses like Russell Crowe and another Eurocult star Barbara Bouchet! I wonder what movies that he will review next on his "Marisa Mell Marathon"?

"Hallo! Hier spricht Edgar Wallace!" auf Arte

2011-12-06T13:14:00.001-08:00

A few months ago during the month of September 2011 the Franco-German cultural network "Arte" had an Edgar Wallace "Krimi" night. During that night they showed two on Edgar Wallace crime novels inspired movies together with a special about the Edgar Wallace craze during the 60's and early 7o's. What is so special about this programme is the fact that stars from that series like "Joachim Fuchsberger", best known for the giallo "What have you done to Solange?", "Karin Dor", best known as bond girl in "You'll only live twice", "Karin Baal" also known for "What have you done to Solange?" and German music composer "Peter Thomas" have been interviewed together with Italian director Umberto Lenzi, known for so many cult movies but in this entry for the giallo "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" for their contribution to this German cult movie series. In this programme all the characteristics of an Edgar Wallace movie are analyzed and commented by the people that played an important part at that time in their success worldwide like the famous driller killer sequence with Marisa M

ell as victim from the movie "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" which a few years later would be copied for the movie "Driller Killer" by Abel Ferrara.

2011-12-06T13:13:00.001-08:00

2011-12-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

2011-12-06T13:12:00.001-08:00

2011-12-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

8mm

2011-12-03T10:20:00.001-08:00

Living in the present day has a lot of advantages that people only a few decades ago had not! Can you imagine living in a world that has no computers, no internet, no HD- or 3D-television, no DVD's, no cell phones,.... hardly I guess! Everybody is so used to this that it would be very hard to go back to that time! Living in present day times is for genre fans like living in genre heaven! Everything what makes a genre fan's heart skip a beat is today available only a klick away! Instant gratification!

At the end of the 60's and in 70's it was another story. If you where a genre fan there were not that many venues to cater your hobby. You went to the movies, bought movie magazines, went to conventions if you were lucky enough to live close enough to city that held these conventions or bought the records with the original soundtracks of all the movies that you loved so much. Through the music you could recreate the movie in your mind. And that was probably it! So die hard fans were looking for a means to see a movie again and again when recreating in their minds was not enough anymore! Enter 8mm movies!

Developed by Kodak Eastman during the early 1930's in America, 8mm became the home movie standard format for the home movies market. In the decades after the launch of the 8mm format it was mainly used to film home activities like weddings, birthday's, parties.... or the killing of J.F. Kennedy in Dallas, filmed by a man named "Zapruder" with his 8mm camera. During the 70's the demand by genre fans to have a copy of a favorite movie grew more and more. The idea that people would never see a movie again when they had seen it was replaced by the wish to be able to build a movie library of favorite movies. So in those pre-video days the 8mm movies appeared on the market for fans that could be projected at home on a screen or white wall with the same projector that was used to project the home made movies.

All the genres that are today still popular were also popular in those days but the number of movies offered where very limited to the blockbusters of those days! Another problem was that you could not buy these movies very easily. It was often a real adventure to get them. You could order them through the mail on the basis of ads in trade papers or movie magazines or you needed to travel to the nearest town to buy them at the local photographer's store or in a shopping mall. And then it was not guaranteed that you could buy all the parts of a movie to have a complete set. For a genre fan it was a lot of hassle to have a certain movie! Another disadvantage was the fact that those movies were limited in footage to around 20 or 30 minutes for each part so you had a heavily cut movie. In the end the 8mm movies became not very popular and stayed in a niche of movie fandom and almost completely disappeard with the rise of the video format at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's.

For Marisa Mell fans there are almost no 8mm movies in existence. The illustration with this entry comes from a 8mm Spanish copy of the Umberto Lenzi movie "Milano Rovente". I know of an 8mm copy of the German movie "Der Brave Soldat Schwejk" and that is it! Fortunately it became much better with the video craze and nowadays with DVD's and the internet you can have almost a complete series of Marisa Mell movies at your disposal!

Kenn Russell dies at age 84!

2011-11-28T03:26:00.000-08:00

On November 27th 2011 one of Britain's most prolific directors "Kenn Russell" died at age 84! Kenn Russell was born as "Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell" on July 3rd 1927. He was best known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his controversial style. Kenn Russell was criticised as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church as seen in his movie "The Devils" from 1971. His subject matter was often about famous composers, or based on other works of art which he adapted loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he did creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios. The director is best known for his Oscar-winning film "Women in Love" (1969), "The Who's Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film "Altered States" (1980). To fans of Marisa Mell he will be fondly remembered as the director of the 1964 movie "French Dressing". Although a big flop at the British and international box office this movie is for me one of the most hilariously funny movies that I have ever seen in the vain of the "Comedy Capers" from the silent era! It also shows Marisa Mell from a very different angle as a very funny comedic actress rather than the sexy starlet that she portrays in the movie. Sadly after this movie Marisa Mell never again did such a comedic role again in her career!

Amori, Letti...e Tradimenti!

2011-11-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

When you are trying to collect all the movies of Marisa Mell you can devide her movies in several categories. "Category I"-movies are the most common ones like "Danger: Diabolik!" or "Una Sull'Altra". Those movies are readly available and can be optained via the usual DVD merchants in every DVD territory of the world. Then you have the "Category II"-movies. Those movies are also readly available but mostly restricted to one territory or another, often having a different DVD cover depending on the region of the world where it has been issued but the content is often the same like "Casanova 70" or "Casanova & C°"! You can buy those movies on the internet at regional DVD merchants. Then it is getting a little more difficult with the "Category III"-movies. Those are the movies that have not been officially issued on DVD, anywhere in the world but are only available through the help of other Marisa Mell fans! They have optained these movies from several different sources like commercial broadcast, satelite-television or rips of old VHS-tapes. Those movies are often heavily cut, out of sync, grainy, hard coded subtitled... In this category you have movies like "Le Dolci Signore" or "City of Fear". Next you have the "Category IV"-movies! These are the really hard to get ones! Never on DVD, VHS-tape or even broadcast on local television. And if they had a broadcast on television it was way before the common use of videorecorders! Finding a copy of these movies like "Einen Mann im schönsten Alter" or "La Tempesta" is like striking gold! And then... you have the Holy Grail! For me it is having a copy of the German quiz show "Dalli Dalli" from the beginning of the 80's broadcast on the second German TV-station ZDF. Unfortunately the ZDF could not find a copy of this programme in their video archives but in German they say "Die Hoffnung stirbt zu letzt!" So I keep my fingers crossed that one day I can hold a copy of that quiz show in my hands.

Since a few weeks you can order through the Italian DVD merchants a copy of the "Category II-movie "Amori, Letti... e Tradimenti" from 1975. This movie was since decades not available and can be labeled under the "Italian Sexy Movie" category in the vain of the other Marisa Mell movie "La liceale al mare con l'amica di papa".

Thanks to André Schneider for pointing out the availability of this movie in Italy!

Alors, Chérie, tu crois me connaître?

2011-11-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

CARTE D’IDENTITE

Date et lieu de naissance?

24 février 1941, à Vienne (Autriche)

Signe du zodiaque?

Poissons

Taille?

1m70

Poids?

89 kilos

Cheveux?

chatain foncé

Yeux?

verts

Domicile?

Paris (XVI) et Bâle

Maison de campagne?

en Autriche

VIE PRIVEE

Situation de famille?

célibataire

Etudes?

commerciales

Etablissement scolaire?

couvent des soeurs de Vienne (Autriche)

Langues étrangères?

Allemand, Anglais, Français et Italiens

Club?

Diner’s Club

Voiture?

taxis

Sports?

equitation et escrime

Jeux?

interdits

Violon d’ingres?

les antiquaires

Caractère?

presque optimiste

Qualité dominante?

trés bonne

Défaut?

trop bonne

Aptitudes diverses?

dessin et danse

Manie?

horreur des maniaques

Complexes?

timidité

Loisirs?

dormir

Vacances?

le soleil et la mer

Qu’est-ce qui vous exalte?

la musique

Qu’est-ce qui vous revolte?

l’avarice

Que craignez-vous?

la mort

Que fumez-vous?

Winston

Quels bijoux portes-vous?

ceux que j’ai

Quelles fourrures?

deux visons, un leopard, deux breitschwanz, un chinchilla

Avez-vous un fétich?

il s’appelle Baby Mell

Avez-vous un devise?

dévorer la vie à belles dents

Quelle est votre tenue préférée?

robe tahitienne et mini-jupe

Votre moyen de locomotion favori?

mes jambes

(j’ai horreur de l’avion)

Etes-vous matinale?

à partir de midi

Etes-vous noctambule?

pas du tout

Quelle collection faites-vous?

aucune

Etes-vous superstitieuse?

affreusement

CARRIERE

Cours dramatiques?

ecole Max Reinhardt à Vienne (Autriche)

Impressario?

Olga Horstig

Carrière au théâtre?

Antigone (Anouih), Cléopâtre (Shaw), La Voix Humaine (Cocteau), Comme Il Vous Plaîra (Shakespeare) et L’année du bac (Lacour)

Au cinema?

Das Nachtlokal zum Silbermond et une dizzaine de films en Autriche et en Allemagne, Masquerade, Casanova 70, Train d’Enfer et Objectif 500 Millions

A la television?

Grüne Kakadu

Vos trois roles préferés?

Casanova 70, Train d’Enfer, Objectif 500 Millions

Prix, Oscars?

pas encore

Vos joies professionnelles?

tourner

Vos ambitions?

jouer “Anna Karenine”

Vos étonnements?

rien ne m’étonne plus

Vos projects?

un film avec Peter Sellers

une comédie en Italie

deux films avec Mastroianni

Vos voyages?

Canada, Amérique du Sud, Afrique du Sud, Europe

ART ET LETTRES

Quels sont vos romanciers préférés?

Rilke et Balzac

L’ouvrage?

L’idiot de Dostoievsky

Les poètes?

Hugo, La Fontaine, Walter Von der Vogelweide

L’ouvrage poétiques?

La Tortue et les Deux Canards

Le philosophe?

Lao-Tsé

Les peintres?

Modigliani, Gaugain, Velasquez, Bosch, Breughel et Cézanne

La toile que vous admirez le plus?

“La Fille” de Modigliani

Vos compositeurs favoris?

Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Haendel, Bruckner et Ravel

Les virtuoses?

Menuhin et Richter

Le chef d’orchestre?

Karajan

L’oeuvre musicale?

La 2e symphonie de Beethoven

L’instrument de musique?

piano

Les chanteurs?

Les Beatles

Les chanteuses?

Piaf et Barbra Streisand

Le disque?

Richter interpréte Schubert

Vous interessez-vous aux sciences?

les sciences spirituelles

Votre savant préféré?

Von Braun et Nietzsche

Le personage historique?

Elizabeth 1e et Napoléon

Le personage de fiction?

Vènus

A BOIRE ET A MANGER

Quel est votre aperitif préféré?

vodka

Le hors d’oeuvre?

blinis

La viande?

tournedos béarnaise

Le poisson?

sole grillée

Le crustacé?

calamari en su tinta

Le légume?

salade verte

Le fromage?

roquefort

Le fruit?

cerise

Le dessert?

café

La boisson?

bordeaux rouge

L’alcohol?

cognac

SCENE, ECRAN ET TELEVISION

Quels sont vos auteurs dramatiques préférés?

Dostoievsky, Shaw, Schiller, Cocteau et Molière

La piece de theater?

Beckett

Les réalisateurs de films?

Truffaut, Wilder et Bergman

Les films?

Jules et Jim, La Silence

Les acteurs français?

Gérard Philipe et Bruno Cremer

Les acteurs étrangers?

Mastroianni, Brando, Von Sydow, Trevor Howard

Les actrices françaises?

Bardot et Moreau

Les actrices étrangères?

Geraldine Page

Les comiques?

Darry Cowl, Jerry Lewis et Mastroianni

La salle de théâtre?

Schoenbrun Schloss Theater, Vienne, Austria

L’émission de television?

connais pas

Le présentateur?

connais pas

La speakerine?

connais pas

DES GOUTS ET DES COLEURS

Quelle est votre heurer préférée?

crépuscule

Le jour?

pas le lundi

Le mois?

pas février

La saison?

automne

La lettre?

Le ciffre?

2 millions de dollars

La couleur?

noir et blanc

Le parfum?

“Mademoiselle” de Venet

La fleur?

camélia

L’arbre?

le saule pleureur

La pierre?

emeraude

Le metal?

platine

Les bruits (naturels ou articificiele)?

Le vent

Le mammifère?

guépard

L’oiseau?

hibou

Le poisson?

dauphin

L’insecte?

libellule

Le magasin?

antiquaires

La ville étrangère?

Londres

Le pays étranger?

Espagne

La place, le monument ou quartier de Paris?

Montmartre

La periode historique?

Renaissance

Le style?

Renaissance

Le champions sportifs?

Glenn Robinson

(This questionnaire was first published on May 27th 1966 in the French movie magazine "Cinemonde", issue 1653)

Room of Fear!

2011-10-30T09:11:00.001-07:00

This week I got a nice email from "Marisa Mell" fan James West. James has send me this nice picture of a room in his house containing a framed Italian locadina from the 1966 movie "City of Fear" also known in the latin countries as "La Diabolica Spia". This movie poster is for a lot of Marisa Mell fans one of the best, if not the best, painted picture of her. The framed movie poster is huge, measuring 140 cm in length x 200 cm in height, so you need a big wall to hang this little baby! By the look of it, the poster is in very good condition which is quite rare because copies of the posters where often glued to the movie marquee with wall paper glue above the entrance of the cinema being confronted during several weeks with the elements of nature like burning sun, heavy wind or rain, dirt.... When the movie had run its course the movie poster was torn down or overglued with a new movie poster for next weeks programme. In the end not many posters survived in prestine folded never used condition or better known as "mint" condition.
How did James West became involved with Marisa Mell and Italian cinema bis in general?

" I used to just be into mainstream films but a couple of years back I got interested in B-movies after watching "Nightmare Castle" with Barbara Steele and Helga Line. I became smitten with Helga Line and that started to peak my interest into Italian cinema which led me to Barbara Bouchet and...Marisa Mell...who are now two of my favorite international actresses of the 60's & 70's. I came across that poster and it just blew me away, not only the artistic beauty of Marisa Mell and the fact it's probably the best rendering of her on any poster, but as a whole it's simply a classic looking piece of Italian cinema art that I can imagine being out in the small Italian cinemas of the late 1960's! " And so can I, James!

As James West mentions he has a great movie site called:You can visit his site at: http://www.commonsensemoviereviews.com/

Thanks James for the contribution to this entry!

Body Double with Sybil Danning!

2011-10-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

This week I was watching an episode of the cult German krimi series "Derrick" played by former Edgar Wallace movie actor Horst Tappert as inspector Stephan Derrick and Fritz Klein as his eternal side kick Harry Klein. The episode was called "Zeichen der Gewalt", first broadcast in 1975 on May 4th by the commercial state television station "ZDF". The episode was part 8 in a very long running series of 281 episodes covering 25 seasons (!) from 1974 untill 1998. This German krimi was and still is one of the most succesfull television series ever being broadcast in more than 100 countries in the world. Even today in countries like France there is still on one channel or another a re-run of Derrick and Italy is probably a country having the most Derrick fans knowing every episode by heart, who did what to whom and why and connecting every episode with every guest star.

And guest stars there were a lot during its run! Although Derrick was a fairly common detective series it came in a time in the mid 70's when a lot of actors and actresses made, more or less out of necessity, the transition from cinema into television. And they were not only B-actors or actresses. During its run you could see parts played by Curd Jürgens, Horst Buchholz, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Gunther Stoll, Götz George, Lili Palmer, Karin Baal, Judy Winter, Ushi Glas, Maria Schell, Cornelia Fröboes,... and exciting was the fact that one of those stars could be the murderer which was fairly new at that time in part a trend the American crime series "Columbo" with Peter Falk had started at the beginning of the 1970's.

The episode "Zeichen der Gewalt" tells the story of a Bavarian gangster played by beefcake Raimund Harmstorf, fresh from his mega success "Der Seewolf", escaping from prison by black mailing a lawyer into giving him a gun in prison after which he kills a guard while breaking free! On the run he hides in a night club which he used to run as a manager. So after the killing of the guard Derrick comes in to investigate the murder and trying to find the gangster. Obviously the trail of the killer leads Derrick to his previous work place and while Derrick is there the lights go down... and a striptease begins performed by the wife of the gangster.

After having seen this striptease I was silent for some time, not quite realising what I had just seen. Ok, the striptease was fairly dull and uninspired but I had some kind of déjà vue. The actress I had recognized as a very young Sybil Danning, later to become a major B-star in American action movies during the Reagan era of the mid 80's in the same vein as Birgit Nielsen. What was it that stunned me??? I had to look again at that part of the show. In the back of my mind, a suspicion began to form. Oh, my God! This could not be possible??? Could it??? After having seen the striptease for several times I was fairly sure that my suspicion was correct! It had to be!

The part of stripper performed by Sybil Danning was a part that originally had been offered to Marisa Mell. Now I was certain! Sybil Danning was so much looking like Marisa Mell, almost a body double! The same length of hair, the same cut, the same make up, the same body language, the same movements and look in the camera... everything oozed Marisa Mell only she was not on screen... it was a body double! My whole being knew that this was correct only how to prove it??? My first instinct told me to look in the direction of the Edgar Wallace movies. After the collapse of the Edgar Wallace franchise in the mid '70's, a lot of directors like Helmuth Ashley, director of Marisa Mell's Edgar Wallace movie "Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee" or the ultimate Edgar Wallace director Alfred Vohrer with 14 movies, switched trades to Derrick. They knew how to make a good krimi like in the 60's but now updated for television. But... it was no use! There was no connection. But who was the director of this episode??? It was Theodor Grädler! And then I knew!

Theodor Grädler was the second director on the 1972 made for television movie "Elisabeth-Ich möchte ein Möve sein!" After the ZDF rejected the first cut of the movie by Jörg Eggers it was partially reshot with a second director none other than Theodor Grädler. So there you had it! Theodor Grädler knew Marisa Mell very well after having worked with her on this tv movie which had a lot of flack during its production days! Once he got the script for the episode "Zeichen der Gewalt" in the series Derrick, he must have thought of Marisa Mell for the part of the wife and stripper. He knew she had done several memorable stripteases in her movie career like in "Le Dolce Signore" or in "Una Sull'Altra". She was perfect for the role! I am certain that the part was offered to her. One reason or another, she did not accept it! Was it that she thought she was to old to do it??? Was it that she did not wanted to do television anymore after the debacle of the Elisabeth movie??? Was it because she found the role to lean and not worthy of her talent??? Or was it that she had enough of being again a stripper??? Who knows??? She did not do it in person but the whole scene in the episode has the spirit of Marisa Mell! In the end Marisa Mell did not ever appear as a guest star on the Derrick series like other more famous stars did. Personally I find this a pity, rather strange knowing her talent and screen presence and a hole in the filmography of Marisa Mell. I would have so much have liked to have seen her opposite Horst Tappert playing a victim or a murderer with her husky voice, emerald green eyes and sensuous looks. That would have been grant. Fortunately there are other stripteases of Marisa Mell to marvel at like the one from Una Sull'Altra, her most famous one!

Would you like to know more about Derrick, the stars and the episodes?

The Derrick Fan-blog is your one and only stop:

http://derrick-fan.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the use of the pictures in this entry!

Tee with Marisa Mell at Zara's in Graz!

2011-10-08T02:23:00.000-07:00

Although Marisa Mell left us almost 20 years ago, and not being that famous like other actresses like Marilyn Monroe who have also gone to the other side, she is still, as I have often written, very present in the conscience of a group of people, mostly those who are fascinated with Eurocult movies, especially the Italian ones or who are working in the creative business like movies, television, art or... in this case the fashion industry. So it was nice to see that the global Spanish fashion house "Zara" sold this spring 2011 in her stores a black T-shirt with the image of Marisa Mell on front of it.

The image on the T-shirt comes from the 1969 giallo movie "Una Sull' Altra" directed by cult director Lucio Fulci with Jean Sorel and Elsa Martinelli as the other protagonists next to Marisa Mell. As you can imagine the image of a kneeling Marisa Mell in front of Jean Sorel trying to open his trousers' zipper to have oral sex was, and still is, one of the most shocking images to be seen in this movie, lobby card or billboard even at the end of the 60's when the sexual liberation in the Western world was in full swing. It was not a sight that was often seen in a movie at that time even in any kind of movie! You had to wait untill the 1972 X-movie "Deep Throat" with Linda Lovelace to take it to a new level in oral erotica on the silver screen.

So powerfull was this image that the American distributor of the movie changed the title into "Perversion Story" to accommodate the image with a appropriate titel. Thus making this film look like a very sleazy movie. Everything for the box office!

With or without a sleazy title the movie did very well in the world and is now regarded among giallo fans as one of the top 10 movies of the genre!

Thanks to Jochen from Graz for pointing this one out in his home town. Jochen is a big Eurocult fan covering every aspect of the genre. He is also closely connected to a phantastic site called:

www.deliria-italiano.de

The image of Marisa Mell on the tram was not in Graz but was a photo composition made by me with a tram photographed in Amsterdam.

The photo of Marisa Mell used on the tram to make the photo composition was sent to me by André Schneider from Berlin! Thanks buddy!

Marlies & Erika!

2011-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

At the end of her life when she was diagnosed with throat cancer Marisa Mell was living back in Vienna (Austria) after having lived in Rome (Italy) for decades. It was not a free choice of hers but out of necessity having no more money to spend and live "la dolce vita", the life of the rich and famous as she had done so many years in the highest political and cultural circles. The lights of showbizz had been dimmed a long time ago, friends had gone on to other places and showbizz friendships and even a devoted partner for life was nowhere to be seen. Marisa Mell was all alone except for a few very devoted friends like Father Laun, at that time a parish priest in Vienna, now Bishop, who helped her to earn some money by working for him and others and her agent Agnes Rehling was tried to book new roles in movies, theatre or television productions. And then of course there was a long time friend "Erika Pluhar", who wrote a wonderful book about her deep friendship with Marlies Moitzi, who later became the international film star "Marisa Mell". In this clip, Erika Pluhar tells about the time when she and Marlies went to theatre school, how stunningly beautiful she was and how, when she had survived till today, would probably had regained her career to take more mature roles like for example Michelle Pfeifer did!

The above clip comes from the DVD "Gaslicht", a made-for-TV remake of a Ingrid Bergman film from the 1940's with Erika Pluhar as "Bella Manningham". Next clip is for many Marisa Mell fans one of her best and most beautifuly shot movies the giallo "La Encadenada". Here you can clearly see what Erika Pluhar is talking about when mentioning the beauty of her best friend.

Thanks to Marisa Mell filmographer André Schneider for the clips of Erika Pluhar and Marisa Mell in "La Encadenada"'. André Schneider has written a great in depth review for this movie and many other Marisa Mell movies on his blog

"http://marisamell.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/1-la-encadenada/

"Mata Hari"-Dress Rehearsal (World Exclusive!)

2011-09-18T03:47:00.000-07:00

Since the inception of the Marisa Mell Blog several entries have been dedicated to the musical "Mata Hari" from producer David Merrick, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Marisa Mell and "Bonaza"-star Pernell Roberts. Fresh from the success in movies like "Le Dolci Signore" or "Danger: Diabolik!" in the second half of the 60's the powers that be found it time to transfer Euro-beauty Marisa Mell from Italy to the USA in the wake of other Italian sirens like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Virna Lisi.... The fact that she was not Italian but Austrian did not matter. Her appearence was all Italian-like with thick auburn hair, big emerald green eyes and lush voluptious lips. What could you ask for more??? After several appearences in magazines like Vogue and McCall's introducing her to the American audience it was time to throw her into the deep end of the showbizz waters, ready or not! And ready she was not! Being trained as a theatre and movie actress she had no idea what it required to be a musical actress. Although there is a lot in common between the two disciplines its major requirement is that, next to being a stage presence, you need to be trained as a musical singer. Not a common singer of pop songs or classical pieces but in the specific technique of using your singing voice on stage while acting. So you need to master two disciplines. And Marisa Mell was no singer. That was a talent she had not! She could dance, sword fight, ride a horse,... but singing she could not! Compare the 1995 re-recording of the musical sung by professional musical singers with the 1967 bootleg recording then you know what I mean. So the whole adventure in the USA turned into a disaster for her. After a try-out in Washington, D.C., the whole show was canceled and never got to Broadway much to dispair of Marisa Mell. She had high hopes that this production of "Mata Hari" would be her ticket to the USA and showbizz. It did not! She came back one year later very disappointed and desperate. People close to her mention that in fact she never recovered from it and was scarred for life! Others clame that this gave her carreer a whole other direction and was the beginning of her downfall as an A-list actress, once starring opposite Marcello Mastroianni in "Casanova 70".
"Mata Hara" is only a footnote in the musical dictionaries mentioning the musical flop that it was. So there is not much material available on the memorabelia market. Luckily there is the bootleg recording of the production with the voices of the entire cast, including Marisa Mell, speaking her role as Mata Hari with a singing pitch! We are still waiting for original film footage of the production to appear. And now there are these pictures. In my knowledge they have never been published before in any magazine in the world since the days of the production. They show Marisa Mell during a dress rehearsel of the musical on stage. From today's point of view and even from the 60's point of view they are horrible. Marisa Mell had a very sexy slime figure in those days but by the looks of it the producers did everything to cover and distract from it. They are big, dark, depressive and formless cloths. Maybe they should have reflected the poverty of the character or the dispair from World War I. Even Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady", starting out as Eliza Doolittle, the poor flower girl in Victorian London, had more beaufitul cloths than this. If these pictures give some kind of impression of the production quality than it is no wonder that, with everything else we know at the moment, this production was a faillure from the beginning. What is even more a mystery is that these cloths were drawn and made by Irene Sharaff, a 5-time Academy Award winner for productions like West Side Story, The King and I and... Cleopatra with Elisabeth Taylor. Maybe she had a headache the morning when she drew these cloths after a long night of partying and boozing in town? Who knows!

The pictures come from the personal archieve of Marisa Mell thanks to Guido from Italy!

Masquerade's Cliff Robertson Dies at Age 88!

2011-09-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Cliff Robertson has died at the age of 88 on September 10th 2011, one day after his birthday! He played a young John F Kennedy in the biographical 1963 film "PT-109" and won an Academy Award in 1968 for his performance in "Charly" as a mentally disabled man. Robertson remained a popular TV and film actor from the mid-1950s onwards. He later found a new generation of fans as Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man movies. His secretary said he had died in New York state of natural causes. "My father was a loving father, devoted friend, dedicated professional and honourable man," his daughter Stephanie Saunders said. "He stood by his family, friends, and colleagues through good times and bad. We will all miss him terribly." Robertson was blacklisted by Hollywood for several years after blowing the whistle on a studio chief who was subsequently accused of embezzlement. In 2002, Robertson was cast as Peter Parker's kindly uncle Ben in Sam Raimi's adaptation of Spider-Man. Despite being killed in the first film, he appeared in flashback in the following two movies. Marisa Mell fans will fondly remember Cliff Robertson in the 1965 Basil Dearden directed spy-spoof movie "Masquerade".

"Death Will Have Your Eyes!" Reprise

2011-09-07T23:55:00.001-07:00

"Edgar Wallace" by Tobias Hohmann

2011-09-06T03:31:00.000-07:00

As a Eurocult fan I often dream about the perfect book regarding my passion! Once in a decade that book does come along and you've got to have it no matter what price! In the last decade it was Tim Lucas' opus maximus about Italian movie maestro "Mario Bava". Although this decade is still young it will probably be the book about "Edgar Wallace" written by German author Tobias Hohmann. This book has it all about the German movies based on the crime novels of British writer "Edgar Wallace" and those by his son "Bryan Edgar Wallace"! The book clocks at a whopping 866 pages full of... well, everything you ever wanted to know and see about these German cult movies of the 60's and early 70's. The next examples of pages should give you quite a good idea what I am talking about. And when you know that some of the movie memorabelia have been given for this book by some very die hard German fans you know that you are going to see many items never been seen since the release of the movies so many years ago!And of course, the fact that Marisa Mell appeared in two movies of the series "Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee" and "Das Rätsel des Silbernen Halbmonds" is the icing on the cake!Thanks to Holger Haase for pointing this one out! Holger has a phantastic blog about the Edgar Wallace-movies: http://krimifilm.blogspot.com/

"Anyone Can Play" with Netflix!

2011-09-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

One of the lost movies of Marisa Mell, never having had an official VHS or DVD release, made in 1968 with other Eurostars Ursula Andress, Virna Lisi and Claudine Auger is the movie "Le Dolci Signore" or "Anyone Can Play". This comedy has been hardly ever seen since those days except on some local television stations during the red eye broadcast hours and mostly in a cut version.
So I was very pleased to hear from Marisa Mell fan "Dan" from Chicago that the movie-on-demand "Netflix" in the USA made this movie avalaible in her catalogue for the American audience. Knowing the quality of the prints and mostly the uncut versions of a movie they use this is really a treat for all Marisa Mell fans to see this movie for the first time in more than 40 years as it should been!

Thanks Dan from Chicage for pointing this one out!

"Eva" by Justin Coffee.

2011-08-13T23:16:00.001-07:00

Although Marisa Mell never had the status of Marilyn Monroe after her death, she is still around in the conciousness of fans around the world until this day. And that is amazing to me after almost 20 years since her passing. Other more famous actors and actresses than her are almost completely forgotten like Rock Hudson, Rex Harrison, Lana Turner..., you name them if you can remember them! So it is always nice to see some kind of rendition of Marisa Mell in any art form. Justin Coffee has made this beauftiful pop-art version of Marisa Mell called "Eva" in her role as "Eva Kant" from the movie "Danger: Diabolik!" Justin is a free-lance artist living in Pennsylvania (US) who loves to draw in a cartoonish style. He has a very beautiful blog called "Cream and Sugar" where you can see his amazing art work and the best is that you can purchase the pieces that you like.

http://creamandsugartheartofjustincoffee.blogspot.com/

The basis for the art work of Marisa Mell as "Eva" was taken from a publicity picture for the movie "Una Sull'Altra" shot a year later after "Danger: Diabolik!". The photographer was Angelo Frotoni.

Movie Marquees!

2011-07-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

While in Paris (France) last week and the beginning of this week, I was walking one night along the Boulevard de Strassbourg. During this walk I was happy to see that some traditions have not (yet) died out in our present day society! What am I talking about? Well, along the Boulevard there is a nice little cosy theatre, as there are still many in Paris, but this one still had a big old style marquee on its front wall like in the old days with the name of the actress/cabaretière on it in bright big lights together with the name of the programme that she was bringing. In the last century, theatre and movie marquees were "the" way to announce a programme. Sadly, when a lot of theatres and cinemas were replaced by modern movieplexes and big concrete theatres these often beautiful crafted marquees disappeared to be replaced by dull displays.
So during my walk I wondered what it would be like to see a Marisa Mell film on a movie marquee during the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 70's when these were still around. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there excist no pictures of these movie marquees with a Marisa Mell movie on it but thanks to the magic of the internet I created these marquees to get a sense what they might have looked like in the past!

Meet me in Paris!

2011-07-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Today I am leaving for Paris (France) to take a little break untill next week. So I found it quite appropriate to publish for this entry a beautiful rare behind the scene picture of Marisa Mell during her stay in Paris in 1967 in the month of February during her shoot of the movie "Le Dolci Signore" with other Eurostars Ursula Andress, Claudine Auger and Virna Lisi. The picture is dated February 23rd 1967. It is part of the Granger Collection hence the watermark on the picture!

Graz (A): a city with a short memory?

2011-07-09T01:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I got a nice letter from a fellow "Marisa Mell"-fan Jochen. Nothing unusual here except that this fan is living in Graz, Austria. As many of you know, who are following this blog for years, Graz was the home and birth town of Marlies Theres Moitzi, before she became the actress Marisa Mell. She lived together with her mother in this town, among other places at the "Trondheimgasse 12", untill she went to Vienna, the capital of Austria, to study at the world famous theatre school "Max Reinhardt Seminar", situated on the grounds of the castle "Schloss Schönbrun". In another entry on this blog (dated October 25th 2008) I wrote about Graz "...becoming in 2003 "Cultural Capital of Europe" for that year and the women of the "WOMENT" organisation decided to honor some women from Graz who had some kind of historical importancy for Graz and her history. In honor of these women, the organisation decided to dedicate 23 plates to these women in a project called "20+03". On march 8th 2003, on International Women's Day, these plates were revealed and during April 2003 they were put on the walls at their distinctive places. Each plate of the 23 plates has a different look and color scheme but they all share the same concept so that they have a common feeling and look about them....The text on the plate for Marisa Mell goes as follows: "Zur Würdigung von Marisa Mell (1939-1992)-Schauspielerin - Schön war sie und sie hatte Talent. Sie genoss ihre Berühmtheit und Männer lagen ihr zu Füssen. Ein Traumleben voller Glamour - die Liebe kam zu kurz. Der Film riss, als sie nicht mehr makellos sein konnte. Trondheimgasse 12-Ehrmaliger Wohnort". Now we are almost 10 years later after this project. Jochen wrote me that at the moment this commemorative plaque is removed from the building situated at the Trondheimgasse 12. More so, he tells me, there are at the moment NO other incentives in the city of Graz that remind us of Marisa Mell or Marlies Theres Moitzi as a daughter of that town. He was very sad in noticing that the city has done nothing to honor once one of her famous citizens. She has completely disappeared into the trenches of history as if she has never lived in that town. Which is rather strange to me because Vienna still remembers her by having named a street in honor of her the "Marisa Mell Gasse", together with other famous Austrian people like "Romy Schneider". So I wrote a nice email to the mayor, the city council representitive for tourism and the tourist office asking them what kind of commemorative in Graz there is at the moment in honoring Marisa Mell. The next day I got a nice email back from the city council representitive for tourism confirming that he got my email and would answer as soon as possible. After 5 days I still have to receive an email telling me where in Graz I can find some traces referring to Marisa Mell which would be nice to honor her by putting some flowers there. I wonder how long it will take to answer me and aknowledge that sadly there are no such places in Graz. Maybe that is why it took so long to answer me? I'll keep you posted!

Thanks Jochen from Graz for the information and pointing this one out!

"A Walk In The Park..."

2011-06-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

A walk in the park
I've got to get some sense back into my head
I'm in the dark and I can't see where I am being led
I'd give the world to set the clock back and act like a woman
Where can I turn to save myself from this confusion
I'm getting away escaping today

Not for Marisa Mell on March 29th 1965 soaking up the sun in London's Berkeley Square as a guest at the British Film Academy Award dinner promoting her latest movie "Masquerade" for the British market.

Haphazard Stuff: "Danger:Diabolik!"

2011-06-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

For more great reviews of Superhero movies and excellent James Bond movie analyses with an in-depth view, please, visit his great website: http://haphazardstuff.com/

La Diabolica Spia

2011-06-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes other Marisa Mell-fans ask me what my favorite movie poster is of a Marisa Mell movie. Well there are several movie posters that are in my top 10 like the mega posters for "Una Sull'Altra", both versions, the black one and the green one, where Marisa Mell and co-star Elza Martinelli are both depicted in stunning art work and very life like or the giallo version of the movie poster for the excellent "La Encadenada" with another beautiful rendition of Marisa Mell in a vortex of fear. But when you ask me what is in my opinion the best set of movie posters and lobby cards then it has to be the Italian locadine of the 1966 cold war spy movie "City of Fear". This set of movie posters and lobby cards has it all. Stunning art work of Marisa Mell on two of the three movie posters, vibrant colors, action scenes, vintage cars and in the vein of the James Bond craze from that moment a mega gun with a silencer. Can you ask for more? Although the movie was shot in black and white the lobby cards are all re-colored in lively colors almost all depicting a beautiful Marisa Mell as she appeared in the movie! Simply the best set!

G-Man Jerry Cotton

2011-06-08T09:35:00.001-07:00

Being a fan of vintage pop culture and cult paraphernalia like books, magazines, comics, movies,... from the early 50's untill the end of the 70's gives you a broad scope of material that can fit into your cult addiction and collections. Very early on crossovers between these paraphernalia became a general rule rather than the exception. A very good example is the crossover between lobby cards of Marisa Mell movies like "Stuntman" from 1968 and "Una Sull'Altra" from 1969 for the covers of the German romanheften issued by publisher Bastei Verlag for their crime series "G-Men Jerry Cotton". G-Man Jerry Cotton from the FBI office in New York is the fictional character in a series of crime novels written by many different writers in Germany. In 1954 the first novel appeared as no. 68: "Ich suchte den Gangster-Chef" in the series "Bastei Kriminalroman".
The pseudonym "Jerry Cotton" was developed in 1956 and the first novella with this name on the front-page appeared with the title "Ich jagte den Diamanten-Hai". In 2005 the series reached the 2500th edition. Total circulation since 1954 is about 850.000.000 (!) issues. A group of over 100 authors have written during the past decades for the series which are today still sold in many kiosks and newsagents all over the country. Even though Jerry Cotton novels are considered trivial literature by some people, the FBI agent has a faithful fan community, just like his equally long-lived German science-fiction counterpart , "Perry Rhodan". Several Jerry Cotton novels were adapted as German movies with Hollywood actor George Nader as Jerry Cotton when he was banned from Hollywood in the 60's as a gay actor and boyfriend of Rock Hudson.

Cheesecake!

2011-05-31T00:09:00.000-07:00

Marisa Mell was a child of the "Flower Power" era of the 60's and early 70's when being totally nude as an established actress was still very revolutionary and mainly not done! Together with other famous actresses of that moment like Ursula Andress, Silva Koscina, Elke Sommer, Virna Lisi,... and many others she had no problem in being photographed in the nude by famous art photographers like Angelo Frontoni for magazines like Playboy, Hustler, Mayfair.... So when the promotion of her latest movie "Historia de una Traicion" from 1971 was discussed by the producers, they asked her, in the vain of the steamy love scenes in the movie, to do a nude photo shoot to draw the attention to their latest product! This was not a problem as you can see by the enclosed pictures in this entry. These pictures have not been seen in 40 years and have surfaced only recently. They show a very relaxed and playfull Marisa Mell completely at ease with her own nudity in front of the camera.

Hommage à Pablo Picasso!

2011-05-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

On october 25th 1966, Spain's and the world's greatest living modern artist, Pablo Piccaso became 85 years old. This was a historic event that needed to be celebrated by the arts community and the international jet set. Pablo Picasso was regarded in 1966 as a living legend. The "legend" status was confirmed after his death several years later in 1973 when he left a legacy of estimated 50,000 pieces, comprising 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. So the French government found it her duty to honor this man by giving him an international exhibition compromising of more than 100 pieces of his best work gathered all over the world from private collectors, musea and even from Picasso's own private collections. Mounting this exhibition was logistically as an enormous task a nightmare, not to mention the security risks and the steep insurance fee to be payed to cover all these art works against theft, agression and arson. But finally on October 25th 1966 the exhibition "Hommage à Pablo Picasso" held in the Grand Palais and Petit Palais in Paris not far from the Champs Elysée as a retrospective of his artistic career could open its doors and welcome the man in who's honor all this was done. The complete beau monde of the 60's was invited on opening night starting with the French president and his kabinet members over other famous creative artists down to actors and actresses on the A-list, including Marisa Mell.
Although located in Rome, Italy and mostly working for the Italian movie industry, Marisa Mell had in the spring of 1966 a French movie "Objectif: 500 millions" premièred on the Champs Elysée. Although not a financial success it still had drawn attention in the public eye to the fate of the French soldiers and mercenaries who had fought in the Algerian war and the way the French state had treated them once back from Algeria often with no means to survive than starting a criminal career. The part of Marisa Mell was not overlooked by the yellow press who always could use a new fresh beautiful face to write stories about. So she was invited to attend this exhibition. What not many people know is that Marisa Mell had always been interested in painting and paintings since early childhood and meeting Pablo Picasso must have been a joy for her.

The exhibition was a huge success during several months until February of 1967 when it closed its doors in Paris to be moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands to have a second life during several months in the Dutch capital.

"Marisa Mell" by Alfred Cermak

2011-05-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

The year 1972 was a busy year for Marisa Mell. One of her prestigeous productions that year was the made-for-TV-movie "Ich möchte eine Möwe sein!" about the life and death of Austrian Empress Elisabeth von Österreich. Romy Schneider had gained world fame during the 1950's with her interpration of this icon and gave her a definitive face and image. Marisa Mell had high hopes about this movie to boost her career but the end result was very disappointing. The critics had a feeding frenzy with this movie! Not only was the direction of the movie by Jörg A. Eggers, later replaced by Theodor Grädler very stale and the script by Willy Fritsch very boring as life must have been at court during that time, but what really drowned and killed this movie was the very...very...very slow pace of the movie! Altough the movie runs for about 80 minutes it looks like an eternity in hell, and even the theatrical acting abilities of Marisa Mell could not save this movie. The only thing that makes this film worthy is seeing Marisa Mell in a historical gown in a magical setting at Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna, Austria. Although this movie is a made-for-TV there is not many behind the scene material available like for other movies. During the production Austrian freelance photographer Alfred Cermak from Vienna took some behind the scene photo's of Marisa Mell and her counter part Peter Fröhlich, playing her husband the Austrian Emperor Franz Jozef von Habsburg. As you can see the above picture shows a rather tired heavy looking Marisa Mell with harsh facial features. During the production of the movie she had probably to cope with a lot of strain. So the picture is not very flattering but still important enough for the Austrian National Library to keep it in their archives together with the second picture in the entry.

"Cinema Italiano" by Howard Hughes

2011-05-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Uncovering a treasure trove of Italian films from "The Leopard" to "Puma Man" Italian filmmakers have created some of the most magical and moving, violent and controversial films in world cinema. During its twentieth-century heyday, Italy's film industry was second only to Hollywood as a popular film factory, exporting cinematic dreams worldwide. With international finance and multinational stars, Italian filmmakers tackled myriad genres with equal gusto and in inimitable style. Cinema Italiano is the first book to discuss comprehensively both Italian 'popular' and 'arthouse' cinema of this golden age. Appraising over 400 movies, Cinema Italiano unearths the best of Italian cinema. Dario Argento's 'gialli' thrillers and Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns are explored alongside the best films of Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Chapters discuss the rise and fall of genres such as mythological epics, gothic horrors, science-fiction, spy films, WWII movies, costume adventures, zombie films, swashbucklers, political cinema, spaghetti westerns and 'poliziotteschi' crime films. The book also traces the directorial careers and key films of such luminaries as Mario Bava, Sergio Corbucci, Francesco Rosi, Lucio Fulci, Duccio Tessari, Enzo G. Castellari, Bernardo Bertolucci and Gillo Pontecorvo. An essential guide for DVD and video collectors and aficionados alike, it is illustrated throughout with rare stills and international posters from this revered era in world cinema. Films include: La dolce vita, Hercules Conquers Atlantis, The Leopard, The Horrible Secret of Dr Hichcock, Contempt, The Gospel According to St Matthew, Castle of Blood, Fists in the Pocket, Django, Battle of Algiers, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blowup, Diabolik, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Conformist, They Call Me Trinity, Violent City, The Marseilles Connection, Illustrious Corpses, Suspiria, The Big Silence, The Mask of Satan, Maciste in Hell, Blood and Black Lace, Hercules Against the Moon Men, The Last Man on Earth, The Wild, Wild Planet, Special Mission Lady Chaplin, Django Kill!, Fellini Satyricon, Deep Red, Sons of Thunder, Tentacles, The Inglorious Bastards, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Puma Man, 1990: Bronx Warriors, 8½, Once Upon a Time in the West, L'Avventura, Black Sabbath, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Amarcord, Two Women, Planet of the Vampires, Death in Venice, Starcrash, Salvatore Giuliano, Hercules Unchained, Kill, Baby...Kill!

Diabolik-Time does not stand still!

2011-05-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

"Les femmes de ma vie" by Alain Delon

2011-05-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

On November 8th 2010, the French cult actor Alain Delon became 75 years old. A milestone for the ultimate male sex symbol from France for more than 50 years since his debut on the silver screen at the age of 23. Alain Delon occupies a major place in the history of French and world cinema working with directors among others Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle. Contrary to other male sex symbols of that time like Rock Hudson, Richard Chamberlain, Helmut Berger, Jean Marais... Alain Delon was primarely straight loving the most beautiful women of his era. To mark his 75th anniversary Alain Delon has written a book about the 200 (!) most influentual women in his life!

About those women he says:"Je ne serais rien sans les femmes, les actrices, les personnages, les héroïnes qu’elles incarnent. Dans ma vie, comme au cinéma, nous nous sommes aimés. Elles m’ont fait pleurer, elles m’ont fait crier!" Of all those women there are 4 women who became very important. First of all there was the Austrian actress Romy Schneider. “Avec Romy, les souvenirs sont doux et chaleureux. Ce que je garde à jamais dans mon cœur, c’est son sourire. Quand elle souriait, tout s’éclairait, se métamorphosait. En 1958, je suis débutant. Elle est déjà Sissi, star européenne. Elle n’a que 20 ans. Moi, j’étais un jeune loup que l’Indochine avait durci. Tout nous séparait. J’ai fait des essais concluants, et elle m’a choisi pour être à ses côtés dans Christine. Et puis, avec la complicité de mon ami Jean-Claude Brialy qui me manque tant, nous sommes devenus amants.” Then there was the French actress Mireille Darc. “Elle occupe une place à part dans cet album. C’est sans doute, parmi toutes les femmes que j’ai aimées, celle qui me connaît le mieux. Nous nous sommes connus en 1968 pendant le tournage de La piscine. J’étais séparé de Nathalie et je traversais une période compliquée avec des soucis extraprofessionnels. Elle a été là, m’a aimé, m’a soutenu, et ça a duré quinze ans. Et je peux dire que ça dure toujours. Elle reste quelque part la femme de ma vie parce que nos liens, notre complicité, sont inoxydables. Nous avons vécu tant de choses ensemble.”

Or other women like French sexy super star Brigitte Bardot or the Egyptian-French cult singer Dalida. "Nous nous sommes connus dans les années 50. Je vivotais, je travaillais la nuit et au petit matin je m’écroulais dans la petite chambre d’hôtel, rue Jean Mermoz, près des Champs-Élysées. Au même étage, dans une autre mansarde, habitait une certaine Yolanda Gigliotti. Elle venait du Proche-Orient avec, comme seul bagage, un titre de Miss Égypte 1954. Nous rêvions de gloire et de lumière. Dix ans plus tard, elle est devenue Dalida et moi Delon. Nous nous sommes retrouvés à Rome. Nous nous sommes aimés loin des regards et des paparazzis, et les rares témoins de notre liaison restèrent discrets pendant des années. Et quand Eddie Barclay et Orlando, le frère de Dalida, nous proposèrent d’enregistrer le fameux duo "Paroles", paroles, notre complicité était intacte. Je n’ai qu’un regret, qu’un remords, ne pas l’avoir eue au téléphone avant qu’elle ne décide d’en finir avec la vie.” And what about Marisa Mell?

In her own autobiograph "Coverlove" Marisa Mell opens her book with a long first chapter devoted to her liaison with Alain Delon which started in 1962 when both actors where on a plane to Belgrad, Yugoslavia she filming the movie "Dr." while he was on his way to film "La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo", a movie that he did not finish, and was recast with German actor Horst Bucholz, a main rival to Alain Delon in beefcake department at that time. On first sight Marisa Mell noticed the enormous sex appeal of the French actor and his iron will to seduce all the beautiful women around him. So she was also on his list! At first she tries to resist him but after five weeks even she could not and they became lovers. In her autobiography she then describes in detail her love affair with him, how passionate and animalistic he was in bed. But very soon Marisa Mell discovered that Alain Delon was not an one-women man. Very quickly she was replaced by other famous and non-famous beautiful women who adored him. During the next years they met occassionally during movie premières for movies he played in like "The Yellow Rolls-Royce" with Shirley McLaine in London. Marisa Mell even claims that Alain Delon was in her bed before and after he made a press-conference to announce his marriage to his fiancee Nathalie Barthélemy, later better known as Nathalie Delon. I wonder if there is a photo of Marisa Mell in this book among the 200 other women taken from his private photo archive?

UPDATE July 28th 2011: There are no photos of Marisa Mell in the book "Les femmes de ma vie" by Alain Delon.

Pier Luigi Torri dies at age 85!

2011-04-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

On March 19th 2011, according to IMDB, one of Marisa Mell's major protagonists in her life, has died at age 85 in Rome, Italy. Pier Luigi Torri is a name that for ever will be connected to Marisa Mell's life in good but more often in bad ways. They were at that time during their romance (!)between 1967-1971 known as the "Number One"-couple in reference to the hot spot nightclub "Number One" in Rome. The nightclub was partially owned by Torri and some of his friends, connected to the high society of Rome but also, often to the darker regions of society, in Italy, it means "organized crime". The romance and some say marriage, which probably took place in Barcelona, Spain, around 1969, was to say the least very tumultuous with a lot of drama, violence and in the end a miscarriage for Marisa Mell in 1969 during the Cannes Film Festival. The couple was "gefundenes fressen" for the Italian and world yellow press. Marsia Mell has often stated that she was regularely hit by Pier Luigi Torri. Nevertheless she stayed with him untill his drug connections blew up in his face and he had to escape to London, England in 1971, in an attempt to stay out of jail. The relationship with Pier Luigi Torri had a major impact on the life of Marisa Mell, which in my opinion, she never recovered from and which derailed her entire life and future because in her heart she really loved the man as her soul mate. For Pier Luigi Torri she was the trophy movie star and taken for granted. After his jail time, Torri returned back to Italy, Romy and started a new family resulting in a son and a daughter. Pier Luigi Torri survived Marisa Mell for 32 years! More in detail can be read on this Marisa Mell blog in previous entries!

Thanks to André Schneider for the information about the death of Pier Luigi Torri!

And now...a commercial break with Lambretta!

2011-04-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am on holiday for several weeks on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, situated in the Northern Atlantic ocean, about a 100 kilometers from Marocco. The Canary Islands belong to Spain. Although it is still early spring in the northern hemisphere, the temperature on Tenerife is between 25-30°c with a steady cooling ocean breeze. In short the weather is phantastic not only to sun on the many beaches of the island and swim in the sea but also to do trips all over the island with cabriolets, jeeps and...motor scooters. And that I find quite remarkable that after more than 40 years after the heydays of the motor scooters, especially in the southern countries of Europe like Italy, Spain and Southern France, they are still very popular with the youth as a means of easy transportation. You would think that the youth are aiming now a days at having a car as soon as possible but clearly that is not the case they still appreciate a lesser means of transportation. So the motor scooter is still very prominent visible in the streets and along the beach promenades. During the second half of the 60's when Marisa Mell took residence in Italy she did several photo shoots for the Italian motor scooter brand "Lambretta", manufactured by the company "Innocenti". She was not alone in advertising for this brand. Almost every known movie and record star was one way or another connected to the motor scooter craze from that moment. It was just "the" way of transportation for the teens and adolescents during hot summer days and nights. From today's point of view these photo commercials look rather silly and very staged but a motor scooter is not really an easy object to market. Personally I like the photo commercial for the "Vespa" motor scooter much better. Although shot in the same vain as the "Lambretta" commercial it is a little more glamorous and tends more to the personality of Marisa Mell than the other two photo's but that is a question of taste! And now back to "La Dolce Vita"!

Campo Santo dei Teutonici e dei Fiamminghi

2011-04-10T05:25:00.000-07:00

In the live of most women there comes a time when they want to experience the blessed state of pregnancy and joys of motherhood. Although Marisa Mell was known as a vamp, sex kitten or man eater, Marlies Moitzi was not! She loved to be at home far away from the spot lights and the red carpets and do homely things like cooking, painting, reading in a cozy chair in front of a fireplace, be with friends... So it is not strange that Marlies Moitzi also wanted to find unconditional love, marry a faithfull man and become the mother of his children. Although her profession as Marisa Mell did not allow her to have much time as Marlies Moitzi, in her heart she still longed for this normal life! During the 60's, Marisa Mell thought that she had found the man who could give her the family life of a common women. Sadly for her, Pier Luigi Torri, an Italian playboy and womenizer, could not and would not how hard Marisa Mell tried to live her life according to his rules and whimps. He wanted the adored glamorous beautiful Italian movie star Marisa Mell as his partner, not the Austrian girl from Gratz civily known as Marlies Moitzi. After some very violent and tumultuous years at the end of the 60's Marisa Mell got pregnant from him but lost the baby during the Cannes Film Festival. (More about that pregnancy and her life with Pier Luigi Torri as the "Number One" couple can be read elsewere on this blog).

Being emotionally drain from that relationship and miscarriage Marisa Mell focused the next years of her life on her career by making more than 20 movies untill 1977. In November of that year the paparazzi were able to catch Marlies Moitzi being visabley pregnant during a walk in the park in Rome on a rainy sunday afternoon in the company of fellow actor Gianni Macchia. (More about this part of her life can also be read elsewere on this blog) At the end of that entry it was not clear what has happened to the baby or the pregnancy of Marlies Moitzi. Now we know!

On November 26th 1977 Marlies Moitzi gave birth to a baby girl in Rome, Italy. She named her child "Louisa Erika" in reference to her mother Louisa who was a major and stable influence in her life at that moment and her life long best friend the Austrian actress and writer Erika Pluhar who would become in later years her tower of strength when her movie career came to an end and poverty settled in. Marlies Moitzi never revealed who the father was of this baby. Several names were mentioned in the yellow press but nothing got confirmed. Sadly the baby girl was not strong enough to be viable on her own. She died on the same day leaving a desperate Marlies Moitzi behind who had hoped so much to hold this baby in her arms. Several days later the baby girl was laid to rest in Rome at the cemetery "Campo Santo dei Teutonici e dei Fiamminghi" or "Teutonic Cemetery".This cemetry is situated in Rome in the south of the Vatican state. On the original grounds the Roman emperor Nero had build his circus. After the fall of the Roman Empire Nero's circus was destroyed and replaced around the year 8oo by the present cemetery. The founder of the cemetery was Charlemagne, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, with the blessing of Pope Leo III. Only subjects of the Charlemagne who died in Rome could be buried on this cemetery. Untill this day it is still the rule that only German or Dutch speaking people from countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland or Flanders can be buried on this cemetery. Even visiting the grounds is not simple! The pope's private guards the "Swiss guards" are still guarding the gate to this cemetery only allowing entrance to Germans, Austrians, Dutch or Flemish people, in other words, people originating from countries once important members in the Holy Roman Empire. Thanks to André Schneider for the information.

"Agente Kim" by Carlos R. Martinez

2011-03-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

Marisa Mell was during the height of her movie career not only popular in Europe but also in almost all the latino countries in the world, especially South America. Due to this popularity she became among others model for the Argentinian comic heroine or secret agent "Satanka." as mentioned in a previous entry. But that is not enough, it seems. Argentinian journalist, comic book artist and collector Carlos R. Martinez tells us more about the other adventures of Marisa Mell in comic book land. "Otro personaje de comic inspirado en la figura de Marisa Mell"

by Carlos R. Martinez.

Básicamente el cine pero también la televisión, la prensa gráfica y la fotonovela fueron en su momento los principales vehículos de difusión de la belleza y la sensualidad de Marisa Mell. A esa lista habría que sumar otro medio considerado “menor” que también se inspiró en ella para algunas de sus creaciones y, de alguna manera, ha contribuido a perpetuar su recuerdo. Hablamos del comic, palabra que poco a poco va desplazando al término que inicialmente se usó en muchos países de habla hispana: historieta. Los seguidores de este blog habrán leído seguramente el post dedicado a la historieta “Satanka”, una parodia de las películas de espías y agentes especiales que se publicó en la revista chilena El pingüino en 1966 con guiones del argentino Héctor Oesterheld y dibujos de un compatriota suyo, Angel Alberto Fernandez. Las imágenes de dicha historieta no dejan lugar a ninguna duda de que el rostro de “Satanka” está inspirado en Marisa Mell.

Hay sin embargo otro antecedente al respecto, el de un comic (o fumetti) italiano aparecido casi veinte años después del cual brindaremos algunos detalles en base al ejemplar que poseemos en nuestro archivo y los escasos datos disponibles en Internet. KIM, LA COMPAÑERA DE KONDOR La editorial italiana Edifumetto, especializada en comics para adultos, publicó a inicios de los años ochenta una línea de revistas cuya particularidad consistía en que los rostros de los personajes protagónicos correspondían a los de conocidos actores de cine y televisión, tales los casos de Tom Selleck (Magnum), Silvester Stallone y Alain Delón. En los casos de Delón y Stallone los personajes de ficción eran “Yambo” y “Chacal” respectivamente (al menos en su versión española), mientras que el protagonizado por el símil de Selleck era Jody J. Baldwin conocido como 4-4. Pero existió un cuarto actor cuyos rasgos fueron utilizados para dicha colección y es el que nos interesa a los efectos de esta nota. Ese actor era Telly Savalas -el intérprete de la serie Kojak- y el personaje para el cual se utilizaban sus rasgos se llamó en su versión original “Kondor”, mientras que para la edición española pasó a llamarse “O’Jack”. Además del parecido de los actores, algunas de las historietas que estamos recordando mantenían los elementos principales de las series o películas que éstos habían protagonizado. Así el protagonista de Mágnum 44 seguía siendo un detective privado mientras que Kondor-O’Jack era también un teniente de la policía metropolitana de Nueva York a quien en sus diferentes aventuras acompañaba la agente Kim, co-protagonista de la serie y cuyos rasgos eran precisamente los de Marisa Mell. Hasta aquí los pocos datos de que disponemos sobre la versión italiana de esta serie, lo que lamentablemente nos impide brindar información sobre su dibujante, de cuyo trabajo destacan una muy detallada ambientación de exteriores e interiores, trazo vigoroso y seguro y un prolijo pasado a tinta. LA VERSION ESPAÑOLA En España las revistas de Edifumetto fueron publicadas por Ediciones Zinco, entre ellas Mágnum 44, Sukia, Azafatas y Flamingo Street. A diferencia de lo que sucedía en Italia donde tenía su propio título, en la versión española el personaje rebautizado ahora como O’Jack formaba parte de Mágnum 44, compartiendo en partes iguales las 64 páginas que conformaban cada número. Según el completo catálogo de la página especializada Tebeosfera, en España se editaron en total 13 números de Mágnum 44 entre 1985 y 1986 (1983-1984 en Italia). Más detalle de esta catalogación pueden verse en

http://www.tebeosfera.com/obras/series/o%60jack.html

SOMBRA EJECUTORA El material gráfico que acompaña esta nota pertenece al episodio “Sombra ejecutora” que con un total de 32 páginas integró el Nº 2 de Mágnum 44, historia cuyo “plot” podría sintetizarse así:

Harto de las argucias legales mediante las cuales quedan libres los de lincuentes que el captura, O’Jack renuncia al cargo pero su jefe lo convence que se tome unas breves vacaciones. Enterado de ello Kim promete que se le unirá luego. El policía viaja a Montana y en el hotel donde se hospeda conoce a Helga, una hermosa alemana con la cual de inmediato mantiene un fogoso encuentro sexual. Posteriormente O’Jack sorprende a un hombre que ha estado siguiendo sus movimientos y que resulta ser un colega suyo ya jubilado, quien le informa que la mujer ha sido utilizada para entrar a Estados Unidos un poderoso explosivo, aunque ella ignora el contenido del bolso que transporta. Ambos acuerdan vigilarla para descubrir quien retirará el peligroso elemento y así desbaratar un posible atentado. En el ínterin llega Kim pero O’Jack la despacha hacia otro hotel, lo que provoca la furia de aquella. Luego de un nuevo encuentro amoroso Helga acude a la cita con el hombre al que debe entregar el bolso, quien la asesina y parte hacia una central nuclear cercana con el propósito de sabotearla. Pero el trío O’Jack, Kim y el policía retirado están ya tras sus pasos y luego de una persecución logran matar al terrorista cuando este había ingresado ya a su objetivo. Si bien se trata de historietas eróticas la proporción de escenas de sexo es reducida, en este caso apenas seis paginas sobre algo más de treinta. Tal en síntesis algunas de las características de esta serie que en los años ochenta convirtió a nuestra recordada actriz en involuntaria protagonista de estas aventuras para adultos. La carencia de material que ya hemos apuntado nos impide saber si finalmente el calvo policía reparaba en los encantos de su compañera o seguía prefiriendo la compañía de las ardientes mujeres que condimentaban cada episodio de la saga, aunque en definitiva lo realmente importante es haber recordado este nuevo tributo que el comic rindió a la belleza de Marisa Mell. Carlos R. Martinez* (*) Diseñador gráfico, periodista y coleccionista. Ha colaborado en distintas páginas sobre historietas y actualmente está a cargo de TOP COMICS, Blog dedicado al estudio de la historieta argentina. "

Thanks Carlos for this entry! It is highly appreciated!

If you would like to read more about comics in Argentina, Carlos R. Martinez has an excellent blog called

TOP-COMICS

http://luisalberto941.wordpress.com/

"The Lonesome Road of Jesús Franco!" by Carlos Aguilar

2011-03-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

During the mid 60's untill the mid 70's Marisa Mell was at the height of her movie career in Europe and South America. She was one of the most beautiful and demanded actresses of her time by producers and directors alike. As top of the bill she asked and earned top money for being part of your movie. In the end she made during that decade around 30 movies in all kind of genres, you name it she did it.At the same time on the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and later in France, there lived a man who became in later years an icon and living legend with a large cult following. His name: Jesús "Jess" Franco! As a director, writer, cinematographer, musician and actor he made during the before mentioned period in time around 50 (!) movies, often more than 5 movies a year, many of them unfinished due to low financial backing. He was a man with thousand ideas at the same time not knowing which idea to execute first on film. His filmography is around 200 movies! To know more about the life and work of this prolific artist on the internet you need to visit the excellent and always interesting blog: "I am in a Jess Franco state of mind" http://robertmonell.blogspot.com/So it isn't strange that many fans of both cult cinema stars sometimes asked themselves "Did Jess Franco and Marisa Mell have ever worked together on a production?" And that is a very good question but not so simple to be answered. Fortunately for us in Spain there is an award winning man by the name of "Carlos Aguilar" who knows it all, the in's and out's about everything connected to Jess Franco and his movies. Last month publisher "Catedra" has published in her series of monographies "Signo e Imagen/Cineastas" his latest book titled "Jesús Franco". More about that later. Carlos Aguilar was born in Madrid in 1958 as the son of the doctor and writer Miguel de Aguilar Merlo. A cinemaphile and avid reader since he was a teenager, he began writing unpublished short stories, film reviews and articles while still in school. In 1976, he enrolled in the psychology program at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, and in 1978 he began publishing articles in the "fandom", in both Spain and France. In 1980 he edited the first Spanish fanzine in the Fantasy and Horror genre "Morpho" of which four issues would later appear... In 1982, as a result of Morpho´s succes, Aguilar received two offers to work professionally: to write in various cinema magazines in Barcelona and to collaborate in the "Festival de Cine Imaginario de Madrid". Thus, while studying cinema in the Taller de Artes Imaginarias, Aguilar´s long and multi-faceted career began. His facets include cinema critic, journalist, collaborator with entities such as the Fimoteca Española, AISGE, and Federacion Nacional de Cineclubs. He has directed conferences and cinema forums. He has worked as assistant director and press agent on various films and has been a member of the executive committee of several fim festivals. (Madrid, Cadiz, Tenerife, Trieste...) Carlos Aguilar lives in Madrid with his beautiful and also very talented wife, the Canadian writer "Anita Haas".
The Marisa Mell Blog is very honored that Carlos Aguilar was willing to answer the question about a possible working relationship between the cinematographic beast Jesús Franco and beauty Marisa Mell.

Here is Carlos Aguilar with his answer to this question:

"MARISA MELL CON JESÚS FRANCO?
No te extraña que Marisa Mell nunca trabajase para Jess Franco, en la época dorada de ambos? Pues bien, esta colaboración estuvo a punto de producirse!. La revista española “Pantallas y Escenarios”, en su número 115, aparecido en Febrero de 1972, publicó la noticia, en su página sobre proyectos. La película iba a titularse The Lonesome Road, y como co-protagonista figura Barbara Bouchet. Evidentemente, el rodaje nunca tuvo lugar, y de este modo el cinéfilo sufrió por partida doble: 1) el sentido del erotismo de Jess Franco y la especial sensualidad de Marisa Mell se habrían entendido muy bien 2) Marisa Mell habría añadido otra entrega a su magnífica mini-filmografía sobre roles dobles, rubia y morena, en la misma película. Cómo puede saberse esto segundo? Porque diez años después Franco rodó esa historia, pero con distintos intérpretes, producida por él mismo en España, Camino solitario (literalmente, el mismo título en español). Así, se advierte que el trabajo previsto para Marisa Mell lo desempeñó la propia mujer de Franco, Lina Romay, puesto que sus personajes son dos, la bellísima y elegante esposa, rubia platino, de un millonario, y la hermana hippie de ésta, morena y grunge. Del mismo modo, el rol previsto para Barbara Bouchet (la ex amante lésbica de la protagonista/rubia) lo retomó otra modesta actriz española, Carmen Carrión. Por último, el detective protagonista, que se llama Al Pereira, en 1972 iba a interpretarlo Mark Damon, y en la película definitiva lo personificó Antonio Mayans, tan inseparable como Lina Romay de la filmografía de Jess Franco en los 80. Camino solitario no está mal, sobresale dentro de las últimas décadas de la obra de Jess Franco. Pero cuando ves esta película y te imaginas a Marisa Mell en los dos roles que interpreta Lina Romay… sufres mucho!"

"Marisa Mell and Jesús Franco?

Have you ever wondered why Marisa Mell and Jess Franco never worked together during the golden years of their careers? Well, they almost did once!
This news appeared on the ‘new projects’ page in issue 115 of the Spanish magazine Pantallas y Escenarios in February 1972. The film was going to be called The Lonesome Road and would co-star Barbara Bouchet.
Obviously, the shoot never took place, and so the film buff suffers on two counts: 1) Jesús Franco’s special sense of the erotic would have gelled exceptionally well with Mell’s unique sensuality. 2) Marisa Mell would have added yet another piece to her collection of blonde-brunette double roles in the same film.
How do I know this last bit? Because ten years later, Jess Franco filmed and produced the exact same story, but with different actors. It was called Camino Solitario, literally the same title as the original poject, but in Spanish.
Jess Franco’s wife, Lina Romay, plays the part that would have been Mell’s, and she plays both the beautiful, elegant platinum blond millionaire’s wife, and her dark-haired, grunge, hippy sister.
On the same token, Barbara Bouchet’s would-be part as the elegant blonde’s ex-lesbian lover, went to little-known Spanish actress Carmen Carrión.
And lastly, the part of the detective, which Mark Damon was supposed to play 1972, ended up going to Antonio Mayans. Like Lina Romay, Mayans was another regular in Jess Franco’s filmography of the 80s.
Camino Solitario isn’t a bad film, in fact it stands out among the last few decades of Franco films. But, to be honest, when you watch Lina Romay playing the part, and you imagine Marisa Mell in the same role, you suffer!"It would have been very interesting to see what kind of movie it had become when Marisa Mell did made it with Jess Franco but as so often in movie making there are a lot of projects that are being discussed, planned and produced untill the first day of shooting and than fall together for some strange raison so as a film maker you are glad that once in a while a film does get made as visioned. The above mentioned series edited by Spanish publisher "Catedra" called "Signo e Imagen/Cineastas" is a wonderfull informative series of monographies about the most important contributors to Spanish and world cinema ranging from Fritz Lang, Frederico Fellini, Jean-Luc Goddard over Steven Spielberg, Pedro Almodovar, Woody Allen to Serio Leone, Julio Medem, Tim Burton and many many many more. More than 80 titles have appeared in this series of beautifuly edited books of more than 400 pages each with hunderth's of photo's often published for the first time in history from the private archieves of the people involved in the professional careers of the subjects written about. And now you have the latest entry in this series written by Carlos Aguilar.

The back cover of this books says it best what this book is all about:"Carlos Aguilar, premiado historiador cinematografico y novelista, aborda tan insolito caso mediante un minucioso ensayo que auna la cronica historico-biografica con la valoracion cinéfila, incluyendo la glosa de professionales vinculados en particular con el cine de Franco, no menos "de culto" and "(Franco) Entroncado con una familia de ilustre tradicion cultural, Jess Franco supone una figura absolutamente anomala en historia de cine espanol. Tanto por llamatives cuestiones estéticas (su obra aborda una serie de géneros, sobra todo el fantastico y el policiaco, des planteamientos muy personales, con progressivo hincapié en el erotismo) cuanto por inauditos factores industriales (su filmografia roza la cifra récord de doscientos largometrajes y se ha desarrollado en diversos paises europeos à largo de cincuenta anos). Justifica, pues como ningun otro cineasta espanol el califcativo "de culto"!

The book has been divided into various sections:

1. A description of the unique case of Jess Franco in the flm industry;
2. An analysis of the aesthetics and different aspects of Franco’s cinema like sex, his love of cinema, jazz, mystery...;
3. A chronological journey through the various stages of Franco’s career from his early beginnings as an assistant to his last film in 2010. There is also an important part about his colaborators like the stunning Soledad Miranda or Howard Vernon, Jack Taylor, Harry Alan Towers and many more;
4. To complete this book you have a very indeep filmography and bibliography of his work.
Could you ask for more? After reading this book Jess Franco as a person and his work are no longer a secret any more for you!

As a fan of Marisa Mell I hope that one day such a thorough work about the life and work of Marisa Mell would be available in such a beautiful edition. That would make me a really happy camper!

Would you like to know more about Carlos Aguilar and his work than you can visit his website:

http://www.carlosaguilar.net/

If you would like to order this book or any other book written by him you can contact Carlos Aguilar directly at:

caguilar1958@yahoo.es

Thanks Carlos for this great entry and to me unkown information about Marisa Mell and Jess Franco! Gracias Mi Amigo!

UPDATE BY CARLOS AGUILAR FOR ALL THE JESS FRANCO FANS LIVING IN SPAIN

El miércoles que viene, es decir el 30 de marzo a las 19.30, se presentará mi libro sobre Jesús Franco en el Cine Doré-Filmoteca Española. La película que hemos seleccionado es "Necronomicon", por ende el acto lo presentará su protagonista, mi viejo amigo Jack Taylor. ¡Velada sexy! ¡Os espero!

2011-03-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Cinesex and all the others!

2011-03-06T04:21:00.000-08:00

There was a time not long ago that Euro Cult fans had not the access to the various multimedia gadgets that we now have at present day like the Internet, Computer, Iphone, Ipad, DVD to see and re-see a beloved movie or social networks like Facebook to connect fans all over the world. The world was a lot smaller and simpler then. The options for entertainment after a hard day of work were limited to televsion, radio, books or going to the movies. If you were a fan of a certain movie the next best thing you could do to revist the film that you loved was buying the original soundtrack and if you were lucky you could buy a novelisation of the movie based on the original script which was often a cash in and hardly worth buying.

Another way to cash in on a movie, especially in Italy, were the cine photo magazines. Italy has always been the home to a special kind of entertainment known as the "Foto Romanzo". These photo romance novels were during the 60's and 70's very big in that country read by millions of women and very often stars and starlets from the Euro Cult scene switched between their movie work and the foto romanzo work.

During the sexual revolution in the 60's, especially at the end of this decade, another kind of photo novels appeared on the news stands in Italy. Their prime target audience were not the romance hungry women but men. Contrary to the photo romance novels which were specially created by the publishers with original storylines the cine photo novels were photo strips of popular movies at the time that were running in the movie theatres. To cater to the male audience not just any kind of popular movie but movies that had as central theme a lot of sex and/or violence, better yet a combination of both in one storyline. So the covers of these magazines like Cinesex, Bigfilm, Cinestop... were always centered around a very sexual situation mostly women in some kind of sexual act with a lot of T's and A's showing. And what sold the most copies for publishers was a lesbian act on the cover. Nothing beats two women going for it! These photo fumetti's were always taken from the negative print of the movie in black and white, even if it was a color movie. To further the story these photo's were highlighted with word balloons.

Marisa Mell has never been an actress in a photo romance novel for publishers like Lancio but indirectly some of her movies from the early 70's became cine photo novels like her 1971 movie "...dopo chi che uccide il maschio e lo divora" or better known in English as "Marta" with then real time lover and co-star Stephen Boyd in the november 1971 issue of Bigfilm. Stephen Boyd was at that time still best known as the counterpart of Charlton Heston in the homo erotic movie "Ben Hur" but his career in the 70's was dwindling very fast so he had to make movies abroad like Spain or Italy to keep the much needed money flowing. Notice that Stephen Boyd is credited on the cover of this Bigfilm issue as "Stephen Body". Comparing the cover of this cine photo magazine with the orginal Spanish movie poster the difference could not have been bigger!

Death Will Have Your Eyes!

2011-03-01T00:08:00.001-08:00

On March 22nd 2011, the Italian based DVD company "Mya Communications" will release one of the rarest and much sought after giallo's from the golden age of this still much loved movie genre. The English title of the movie is "Death Will Have Your Eyes" but to fans of the genre it is better known under the Italian title "La Moglie Giovane" or in Spanish "Infamia". Untill now this movie was only available on DVD as a bootleg copy from a dark and grainy video print in Italian language without subtitles. This print is in Italian with English subtitles if wanted. Mya Communications has to be applauded for giving us in the past years access so many rare out-of-print Italian genre movies. The only problem with this company's (re-)issue of movies is that a) often announced releases get postponed or never published; b) you will never know in advance what the quality will be of the print or what kind of master was used to transfer the movie to DVD and c) if the movie is cut or uncut. So it remains to be seen when the DVD is issued in a few weeks what the quality will be of this print. I hope not that they used the video master of the previous mentioned bootleg because that would be very sad to giallo and Marisa Mell fans who deserve better for a first official release ever of this rare movie. The movie is an Italo-Spanish production from 1974 directed by Giovanni d'Eramo with Marisa Mell, Farley Granger and Helga Liné in the main parts. Music is by one Italy's best composers Stelvio Cipriani so that is also a plus. Marisa Mell plays a young women named "Louisa" who wants to make a living for herself in Rome, but soon falls prey to some very shady characters that force her into prostitution. While struggling to keep herself afloat, she meets a fascinating doctor played by Farley Granger who is also a would-be poet. When Louisa gets involved in murder, blackmail and violence ensue, untill the shocking final relevation. There are no bonus items like interviews or behind the scene footage except the standard trailer and a poster gallery. The cover of this DVD has nothing to do with this movie but was taken from another Marisa Mell movie called" Masquerade" from 1965 showing us an eleven years young Marisa Mell while in this released movie she was already 35 years old. The cover picture was selected by Mya Productions because it is one of the best pictures of Marisa Mell highlighting her beauftiful eyes in reference to the English title and Spanish poster of this movie!

A little R&R Maroccan Style!

2011-01-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

After a year of hard work at my daytime job it is time for me to have a little R&R during the month of February 2011 as you can see in a place that is dear to my heart in Marocco. Marrakech is a mysterious city on the border of the desert and an excellent place to recharge the batteries! Before I go I would like to thank the many thousands of readers coming back each and every day, week or month in the past year and making the month of January 2011 the best month that this blog has ever seen! Although Marisa Mell left us many years ago the dedicated visitors prove that she is not forgotten and still alive in the many hearts of her fans. And that is a good thing to know! Untill March 1st 2011 when the doors of this blog will open again with a new entry honoring the life and work of Marisa Mell! Sincerely Yours Mirko.

Je cherche le soleil au milieu de la nuit!

2011-01-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

J'ai la tête qui éclate
J'voudrais seulement dormir
M'étendre sur l'asphalte
Et me laisser mourir

Stone

Le monde est stone
Je cherche le soleil
Au milieu de la nuit

J'sais pas si c'est la terre
Qui tourne à l'envers
Ou bien si c'est moi
Qui m'fais du cinéma
Qui m'fais mon cinéma

J'ai plus envie d'me battre
J'ai plus envie d'courir
Comme tous ces automates
Qui bâtissent des empires
Que le vent peut détruire
Comme des châteaux de cartes

Laissez-moi me débattre
Venez pas m'secourir
Venez plutôt m'abattre
Pour m'empêcher d'souffrir
J'ai la tête qui éclate
J'voudrais seulement dormir
M'étendre sur l'asphalte
Et me laisser mourir

Le monde est stone

(Michel Berger-Luc Plamondon)

La Compagna di Viaggio!

2011-01-28T14:35:00.001-08:00

The most difficult thing in an artistic career is to keep up the momentum in one's career! Having several hits or blockbusters is not a garantee to have a great career untill the end of days! Often the opposite is true! Sadly! Take for instance the Italian director-screen writer "Ferdinando Baldi". During the height of the Spaghetti Westerns in the 60's Ferdinando Baldi was one of the top directors in this genre. Several of his movies have since become classics of the Italian western genre like "Blindman", "Texas Adio", "Preparati la Bara" or "Il Pistolero del'Ave Maria"! All terrific movies!

But when the hype is over and the audience wants something new or fresh it is not easy to have a follow up to an once beloved genre. It is not only difficult to find that follow up but the next thing has also to be material that interests you or creatively challenges you! And that is often not the case! So you take the next best job out of necessity and make a run of the mill movie. This is what happened to the movie "La Compagna di Viaggio" from 1980 with Marisa Mell in a cameo role. Marisa Mell was once one of the highest payed actresses in Italia but now her movie career is almost distinct. She isn't even mentioned any more on the movie posters or promotional material. Her sex appeal is over and she is no money magnet anymore! And to top that her character has no name in the movie and is only credited as "the women with the veil". Sigh! The only thing she has to do in this movie is trying to seduce a young body builder and adoring his chest muscles. Time has moved on. Other and younger Italian starlets want their place in the spotlight like Serena Grandi. This is her second role in a movie and the beginning of a big career thanks to her big assets. She is still working in the movie business in Italy today. The movie "La Compagna di Viaggio" belongs to the movie genre Italian Sexy Comedy or Vizietto all'Italiana. Marisa Mell made several of those movies but not anymore as the sexy kitten but more the older women who is still sexy but whose time has come and passed like in "La Liceale al mare con l'amica di papa" as the fustrated sex obsessed wife! For Ferdinando Baldi this movie was just a job to survive and that you can clearly see on the screen. This movie is so bad that you wished that the train where all the characters are travelling on to Paris, France would crash so that this movie ends prematurely so you do not have to endure it anymore. I love Eurocult trash movies very much but this movie is so flat on every aspect from acting, directing, story wise that it is hardly possible to top that. To make my point, here is the trailer of this movie:

Giallo Radio - Music with a bloody edge!

2011-01-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

The internet is this day and age flooded as everyone knows with millions of sites tackling as much subjects which are of little or no intrest to you. But once in a while you stumble on a site that keeps you glued for many hours to your computer screen and when the site produces also some of the best music ever composed by music maestro's like Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Claudio Simonetti, Piero Umiliani, Stelvio Cipriani and many others than you can not believe your luck! That happened to me several months ago discovering the site with music of one of my most favorite film genre's: the Giallo. The site is called "Giallo Radio", hosted by a wonderful man named Mark Hammon.

Marisa Mell Blogspot (MMB): How did you came to be such a soundtrack fanatic?

Mark Hammon (MH): I am first and formost a film fan followed by a soundtrack fanatic. I have been listening to soundtracks since my father turned me on to them in the 60's. My first soundtrack purchase was from the war movie "Patton" in 1970. My favorite films/scores are for horror films.

MMB: Are you now as an adult professionelly involved with movies or soundtracks?

HM: I work for a U.S. soundtrack company as a contractor. I started out as a customer and over the years, built a website, maintained it and now I am as much of the company as the employees.

MMB: Were you from the beginning familiar with the Eurocult movies and the wonderful music that it has produced during the height in the 60's and 70's?

MH: In the 80's-90's I discovered VideoWatchDog. I learned about the whole European Horror genre. I learned of Argento, Fulci, Franco, Rollins... I had a Laser Disc player and rented and purchased foreign horror films and noticed the music always seemed to be good in the films, but when I purchased the CDs it seemed like it wasn't horror music. With the likes of Argento I learned about the 'thrillers' (not knowing the term "Giallo"). I liked how the music, plots and characters worked together. I am amazed that people don't recognize "Basic Instinct" as an American "Giallo" film. MBB: What is the composition of your home theatre?

MH: I own an all region DVD-player, certified "THX Surround" sound set up (Boston Acoustics, Pioneer - 700 Watts of intense surround). I just got rid of my HD 65" Mistubishi Rear Projection and now have a 55" Sony HD LCD. I tend to watch at least 10 movies a week.MMB: What do you think about Marisa Mell and her career?

MH: I think Marisa Mell is a beautiful actress, but I don't have a lot of movies with her in them.

MMB: I noticed that the "Giallo Radio" site is not updated regularely but sporadic?

MH: As for my "Giallo Radio" site I had such big inspirations but just don't have the time to do much with it. I have a family, two jobs and want to spend my time watching movies instead of updating my website.

MMB: Thanks Mark for the interview!

Giallo Radio has several scores of Marisa Mell's giallo's to discover by you!

You can find the "Giallo Radio" website at http://www.gialloradio.com/index.html

You can find the "VideoWatchDog" magazine at

http://www.videowatchdog.com/home/home.html

Glamour Puss!

2011-01-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

In the March 1st 1968 issue of the American edition of fashion magazine "Vogue", Marisa Mell had a fashion photo spread as lead up to her American adventure as one of the stars in the musical version of the life of spy "Mata Hari". The picture was taken by then very famous photographer Bert Stern. Bert Stern gained notority at the beginning of the 60's when he was able to photograph Marilyn Monroe during a three day shoot six weeks before her tragic death. He became one of the most celebrated photographers in the States untill recently having had almost every star and starlet before his camera's. This photo shows clearly that Marisa Mell, when she had not been a movie star, had all the qualities of becoming a top fashion model during the 60's like the then glamour pussies Verushka, Wilhelmina, Jean Shrimpton, Lauren Hutton, Ingrid Boulton or Karen Graham. I love this picture because it shows Marisa Mell's personality in a complete different styling than usual. Bellissima!

SATANKA.

2011-01-16T08:43:00.001-08:00

During the height of the Spy Craze in the 60's around the world ignited by the monstrous success of the James Bond movies and franchise a new genre of movies surfaced build around the concept of the secret agent. Very quick in all segments of the media like television, books,... the secret agent appeared to save the world. The secret agent was not only restricted to the male agent but also the sexy female secret agents started to mingle in the deadly game to save the world. Best known from the 60's are "Honey West" played by Anne Francis, "Fathom Harvill" played by Raquel Welch or "Irma Eckman" played by Elke Summer.

Everybody tried to cash in on this money making machine so comics could not stay behind and soon the James Bond novels written by Ian Fleming were adapted into comics for news papers. Even in this medium, the secret agent concept wrecked havoc and was a run of the mill success. All over the world, secret agent comics were popping up. South America was no execption.

And where something in pop culture is a success, making fun of it soon follows so in 1968 a comic magazine in the style of the American magazine "Mad" under the name of "El Pingüino" based in Chili wanted a spoof comic making fun of the sexy female secret agent. Hence secret agent SATANKA. was born.

Satanka. is the sexy top secret agent working for an organisation called "C.I.D.R.A". In her quest to save the world from the evil organisation "SRONIA" she is helped by two other female agents known as "Rock" and "Roll".

Satanka. is the brain child of the Argentinian creator Hector German Oesterheld with the help of fellow Argentinian artist Angel "Lito" Fernandez. Herctor German Oesterheld or also known as "HGO" was one of Argentina's top comic book script writers. He was member of the Venice group who's members were also Mario Faustinelli, creator of "Kolosso", Hugo Pratt, creator of "Corto Maltesse" or Dino Battaglia, creator of "Ispettore Coke".

The sexy secret agent Satanka. was quite a succes in South America. So one day a journalist asked the creator Hector German Oesterheld where his inspiration came from to create his heroine. HGO answered that his femme fatale was modeled after the Austrian actress Marisa Mell. He told that Marisa Mell embodied physically everything that a secret agent should have and be to save the world. So Marisa Mell became Satanka. in the comics of the comic magazine "Pengüino". And this is not strange. Not many people in Europe and even the rest of world know that Marisa Mell in the 60's was a big star in South America. Her movies like "Danger: Diabolik!" or "Le Dolci Signori" were big hits in countries like Argentina and Chili. Her face and name were house hold. Like in Spain at that moment in time, she appeared almost every week on the cover of a magazine or in articles in the yellow press. Probably the 1965 movie "Masquerade" made quite an impression on HGO because in this movie Marisa Mell was the template for Satanka. as seen on the photo above.

And here this entry should have ended! Unfortunately it does not! Next to his profession as a comic book scripter, Hector German Oesterheld was also a critical journalist in Argentina situated on the left hand side of politics. In that capacity he wrote among others one of the best biographies of "Ernesto 'Che' Guevarra" also in 1968, the year that he created Satanka. or one of the most critical biographies of Evita Perron in 1970 making an end to the pop cultural idolization of her life. During the 70's, it is believed that HGO and his four adult daughters joined the leftish political organisation "Montoneros".

In 1976 Oesterheld disappeared to be never seen again. A year later his daughters, Diana (21), Beatriz (19), Estela (25) and Marina (18), were arrested by the Argentine armed forces in La Plata, and were also never seen again. Next his daughters' husbands were also among those that vanished. The dictorship in Argentina removed each and everyone against them. Only a grandson, Martín, born in captivity and recovered from the government by Oesterheld's widow, Elsa Sánchez, was rescued and raised by her. A second grandson, Fernando, born earlier, was raised by his paternal grandparents. When a journalist asked a member of the dictatorship what had happened to Oesterheld he aswered: "We did away with him because he wrote such a great biography of Che Guevara!" (Sigh!). Nobody knows what happened to Oesterheld, how he was tortured and ultimately died a cruel death around 1977-1978 but several other journalists in prison at the same time claim to have seen him alive in january of 1978. After that date all traces dispear in the mists of time! Sadly this is one story of many many many stories in Argentina. In our memories Hector German Oesterheld will always be remembered as a great artist and journalist. And that is something that no political regime can take away how hard and bloody they try to do. R.I.P.

UPDATE - March 8th 2011
In this entry about the comic heroine "Satanka." I mentioned that: "He (HGO) was member of the Venice group who's members were also Mario Faustinelli, creator of "Kolosso", Hugo Pratt, creator of "Corto Maltesse" or Dino Battaglia, creator of "Ispettore Coke"."

I got a nice mail from an Argentinian journalist, comic expert on everything Argentinian comics and artist Carlos R. Martinez telling me that: "Osterheld was not a member of the Venice group. He worked with Hugo Pratt when this artist came to Argentina in 1950." Thanks Carlos for this clarification and info.

Carlos has a great own blog called

"Top-Comics: Blog sobre la historieta argentina y mundial creado por Luis Rosales (1944-2009)"

You can visit his blog at : http://luisalberto941.wordpress.com/

Highly recommended.

No Way Out!

2011-01-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

Movie making and movie business are a strange profession where back stabbing is often the rule of the day than the exception if you ask people working in that field! Why would someone trying to work in such an environment populated with super ego's is often a mystery to outsiders. So it is not strange that during the production of a movie this movie undergoes a complete transformation from original script to final product shown at the première of the movie. Script rewrites, changing production firms, casting and re-casting of stars and starlets, new film titles, scenes being cut or entered without knowledge of key production people... you name it, it has been done all for the higher good of making a masterpiece in someone's vision or trying to save the ruins and one's investment.When you are fan of Euro cult movies you are familiar with this kind of movie bashing! Most of these movies have been tampered with one way or the other. This is mostly done by the producers of the movie because they are the ones giving the money to pay the whole product and so have the final word in the end. Distributors of a movie in a certain movie market are the next group of people who often molest a movie to fit the product into their vision or making the biggest buck in a short period without respect for the artistic vision of the director or movie maker. So each Euro cult star has in his or her filmography prime examples of this.
Althoug there are other movies on the filmography of Marisa Mell which fit the bill a good example is the 1970 movie "Senza Via D'Uscita". On first sight this is a run of the mill Euro cult movie but when you delve a little deeper this movie is a real gem. The movie is an Italio-Franco-Spanish production so that does not bode well. This movie has as official Italian title "Senza Via D'Uscita" but is also known in Europe as "Las Fotos De Una Mujer Decente" in Spain , "La Machination" in France (not to be mixed up also in France with a movie with the same title "La Machination", another Marisa Mell movie with original title "Una Sull'Altra), "Terrori" in Finland or "No Way Out" in England.In the US this movie is sometimes known as "Diabolical Mistress"
but the movie is best known as "Devil's Ransom".And I am sure that it has a lot more other titles on video boxes during the height of the video nasties in the rest of world.
Another point of discussion could be what kind of movie this really is: a giallo, a horror movie, an action movie,...? What is it going be, bub??? Depending on the domain the movie is all of the previous and none of it! You are free to pick what you like best! When you ask fans of the movie than the pendle would swing in the direction of a "giallo" above all the rest.
What is certain (!) is the fact that this movie was produced by Pierluigi Torri or better known at the end of the 60's beginning of the 70's as Mr. Marisa Mell. On this blog is enough written about the tumulteous relationship between those two people. This movie was a gift of love from Pierluigi Torri to his wife Marisa Mell. Torri was always credited in the papers and yellow press as a movie producer in regard to Marisa Mell so it was only fitting that he should produce a movie for his beloved (!) wife. Unfortunately he had to flee Italy before the movie was finished and hitting the theatres on criminal charges.
The movie is credited to be written by Tiziano Cortini, Julio Salvador and Piero Sciumé. The first two have several movies to their credit as actors and/or writers but the last one is a little bit of a mystery.Officially Piero Sciumé is credited also as the director of this movie next to being the screen writer.

When surfing the internet there is no picture of him to be traced or much more information for that matter than some info on IMDB. He has one credit as an actor in a 1968 German production "Die grosse Treibjagd", two credits as writer next to this movie for another Italian movie called "Riuscirà il nostro eroe a ritrovare il più grande diamante del mondo? in 1971 and finally as script supervisor for the movie "La Tumba dela Isla Maledita". And that is it! After that this man vanishes from the Earth, never to be heard of again! No problem until you look closely on the ads for the American distribution of the movie under the title "Diabolical Mistress" and "Devil's Ransom" you see that the movie had as "executive producer and director Ray Danton"! "Ray Danton" - What the f*ck! Where did he come from?

Ray Danton , also known as Raymond Danton, was a radio, film, stage, and television actor, director, and producer whose most famous role was in "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond" in 1960. He was married to actress Julie Adams. In the 60's he had two careers on both sides of the pond. He played in many American television series like Hawaii Five-O, Cannon, Matt Helm... and at the same time starred in several Euro cult movies like "Corrida pour un Espion" and "New York Chiamo Super Drago", starring non other than Marisa Mell in the female leading part.

So how does this all fit together, my dear Dr. Watson? In 1966 the Italian James Bond clone "New York Chiama Super Drago" was released with Ray Danton and Marisa Mell in the lead roles. During the production of that movie both actors became friends and kept in touch after the end of the movie production. When Pierluigi Torri was on the look out several years later for a possible director for his movie starring his then wife Marisa Mell she reminded him that her one time co-star Ray Danton always wanted to be a director of movies next to his movie career. It would also be a nice back up if his movie career might dwindle. Both parties got together and a deal was made but there was an unsurpassable hurdle to conquer. Italian law and trade unions at that moment prohibited non-Italians to work on an Italian movie production behind the scenes. The Italian film trade was closed for foreigners. Therefor the producer had to make a ruse for the autorities. Officially the movie would be directed by Piero Sciumé but unofficially the director would be Ray Danton. Because this was his first directional debut he was also willing to participate in the funding of the movie and became also unofficially "executive producer". So everything was in order for the powers-that-be in Italy. All the official Italian commercial ads, press books,... would always mention Piero Sciumé as director of the movie! For the American market there was no problem to mention that the movie was executive produced and directed by Ray Danton. Hence it was even a bonus in promotion of the movie because the audience knew Ray Danton as an actor of beloved American series so they would certainly go see the movie that he directed. As a thank you for Piero Sciumé to be the beard for Ray Danton the actor played the next year in 1971 a leading part in the next movie written by Piero Sciumé which also had him as an assistant director "Riuscirà il nostro eroe a ritrovare il più grande diamante del mondo?" For Ray Danton was this directoral debut the beginning of a very succesfull career as a televsion director from 1970 untill 1984 with series like Dallas, Dynasty, Incredible Hulk, Quincy M.E., Cagney and Lacey, Fame, Magnum.... Case closed.

Simsalabim Bam Bum (200th Entry)

2011-01-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

Synchronicity is a wonderful occurrence in one’s life. And I always love it and feel special when it happens in mine! Yesterday, on the last day of the year 2010, was again such a marvelous day when everything comes together in an unusual but natural way. Since my last entry for this blog I was looking for a subject regarding Marisa Mell’s life to write about for the present entry. Not only was it going to be the first entry in the new year 2011 but it would also mark the 200th entry after 2 ½ years of blogging about the life and work of Marisa Mell. So the entry had to be special or unusual to mark the occasion. After several hours of going through my Marisa Mell collection on paper and digital I still had nothing that appealed to me to write about although there is still a lot of material to cover but nothing, in my eyes, that had that “je ne sais quoi” for a 200th entry. So I was a little in despair but I was going to give me a last chance and started again to search the internet for ideas and new angles. And that lead me to the wonderful subject of this entry: “Simsalabim Bam Bum” with Marisa Mell. “Simsalabim Bam Bum” or “Der Barometermacher auf der Zauberinsel” is a theatrical play written between October 15th and November 15th 1823 by Austrian play write and actor Ferdinand Raimund. The base for his play is a fairy tale called “The princess with the long nose”. This fairy tale is part of a larger collection of fairy tales collected by Christoph Martin Wieland and published between 1786 and 1789. In 1823 the play was put to music by Wenzel Müller. In 1985 the Austrian state television ORF and the German commercial state television ZDF recorded an adaptation of this play for children to be broadcast on the respective networks. And it was finding this play on the internet that put a huge smile on my face and was for me the perfect unbelievable year ender. 2010 could not have ended better. Why? First of all of course it is a theater play with Marisa Mell which is very rare in her career but the main reason for my happiness was that finding the broadcast of this play is so rare, since it's original date, that not many people in German speaking countries remember the play on televsion and if so, they remember it as having seen it only as young children and do not remember much of it! This production was not publicly available on any medium during the last 25 years. You could get a copy from the television station ZDF or its cultural pendant SAT3 but only for a whopping 200 euros. The story is about a very clever young man Barholomäus Quecksilber who's profession it is making barometers. One day he is cast on a magical island. The fairy Rosalinde grants him three magical objects: a wand turning everything it touches into gold, a cloak enableling him to make dimensional journeys anywhere he wants to and a horn that can call an army to his help when needed. "If I have this much power I can ask for the hand of a princess!" Bartholomeus thinks but can he or are there hidden traps to conquer when using the magical objects?
This production was broadcast on December 1st 1985. In this play Marisa Mell incorporates the important character of the fairy Rosalinde. She has the body of a sfinx and is constantly weaving threads of destiny for the people on Earth. Because this was mainly an Austrian prodution, co-financed with the ZDF, Marisa Mell got the part because she lived already then in Vienna out of necesssity and knew some key people involved in the production of this play. Simsalabim Bam Bum is one of the last productions she worked on in a major capacity. What is also refreshing after many years of being dubbed into Italian is hearing her speak in her own husky voice. This production is so rare that not much is known about it or what happened behind the scene's. The complete production is for the moment available on the internet but maybe not for long due to copyright reason's. So if you would like to own a rare Marisa Mell starred staged production for television this is the moment to download it before it is gone again maybe forever from the public domain.

2011-01-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

Diabolikal Year Ender!

2010-12-16T05:19:00.000-08:00

For the 1967 Mario Bava directed movie "Danger: Diabolik!" with John Phillip Law as Diabolik and Marisa Mell as Lady Eva Kant the promotional department of the production company took a lot of photographs of its stars. Many of these photo's were only taken for publication in newspapers, movie and fashion magazines and had little or nothing to do with the content of the movie. This is one of those pictures that shows Marisa Mell dressed as Eva Kant in a very high fashion outfit of that time! The picture comes from the archives of "United Press International", a press agency situated originally in Chicago (USA), now in New York City. Fashion in the 60's was daring and fun. This is a prime example of that attitude from that time. The photo has hardly been seen in more than 40 years!

///

The Marisa Mell Blog now closes its 3rd calender year of blogging and will return in January 2011. I wish everybody of the many thousands who have kept coming back this past year again and again to read up on the life and work of Marisa Mell a "Merry X-mas" and a "Happy New Year".

"Can I be a Bond Girl, Mr. Broccoli?"

2010-12-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

This could be a question that Marisa Mell asked her partner Albert R. Broccoli during a black tie event in 1971. Not much is known about this picture but Albert R. Broccoli was at that moment in time one of the most important producers in the movie business, if not "the" most important one, with the James Bond franchise as his most important asset. Marisa Mell's previous movie partners like Ursula Andress or Claudine Auger in the movie "Le Dolci Signore" had already been Bond Girls in his films so why not she. Her role as Lady Eva Kant in the movie "Danger: Diabolik!" proved that she had the looks, character and stamina to play a major part in the next Bond movie. And wasn't Broccoli in the stage of re-vamping the Bond franchise with a new James Bond for the 70's after Sean Connery's latest outing in "Diamonds are Forever" and the fiasco with George Lazenby in "On His Majesty's Secret Service"? Sadly for Marisa Mell fans it didn't happen! I wonder if she tried out for the role?

La Voce del Western Italiano! (Free Documentary)

2010-12-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

When you are a genuine fan of the Italian Western then you are certainly familiar with the excellent: Spagehettiwestern database - Il database del Western Italiano.

http://www.spaghettiwestern.altervista.org/western.htm

This site is a real treasure trove for everything connected to the Italian Western which is a huge undertaking knowing that during the height of this genre there were around 800 westerns made in Italy and Spain. So they have a lot of material to cover. Marisa Mell could not escape during her career this very popular movie genre in the 60's and 70's and made thus several spaghetti westerns.Now the people responsable behind the Italian Western Database have made a documentary about their beloved movies. It took a while to complete this film but the first part of the triology is at last available. Let's hear what they have to say about their work of love:
"Destinato ad influenzare per anni, e ancor oggi, tanti altri generi, il Western italiano non ha mai avuto una voce. La voce di una critica più ampia. Questo documentario vuole essere quella voce. Vuol essere un lungo plauso a un genere poco conosciuto, poco capito ma soprattutto troppo poco amato per quanto invece esso non abbia fatto per il Cinema non solo italiano ma anche estero. Il Western italiano ha avuto molto più di una storia, ha avuto una identità. E come tutte le identità la sua storia non è mai finita. In un appassionante viaggio tra la filmografia di svariato genere, il documentario mette in luce le contaminazioni che il Cinema Western ha saputo dare ad opere divenute poi di prestigio e ricoperte di premi. Un'influenza avvenuta sempre in silenzio. Quello stesso silenzio che tanto caratterizzava certi suoi tipici eroi dagli occhi di ghiaccio. I premi per molti di questi grandi film Western non sono però mai arrivati. La Voce del Western, con un velo di provocazione ma con tanto amore verso questo genere, intende raccontare di come a volte i premi dimentichino di dare merito alle fonti di tante ricchezze, solo perchè sono fonti silenziose. Dedicato agli amanti del genere ma pensato per chi quel genere non lo conosce, forse non lo ha neanche mai apprezzato, convinto che dietro i mantelli dei cowboy della produzione italiana ci fossero solo pistole e cavalcate. Questo viaggio vi mostrerà quant'altro c'era da scoprire. La follia, la distruzione, la vendetta, la pietà, la rinascita, l’amore e poi la vita del West che rendeva tutto più difficile e la violenza che sembrava essere l'unica risposta possibile. Il Cinema deve tanto alla sofferta onestà con la quale il Western sapeva parlare di temi così distanti mescolandoli, come del resto voleva la grande lezione della tragedia greca, in un’unica complessa trama che è l'uomo.La critica cinematografica per anni ha sottovalutato una lettura più approfondita di molti di questi film, ma soprattutto ha ignorato come molti registi da Tarantino a Jarmusch si siano ispirati a questi film. Ha ignorato come ogni regista italiano raccontava nei suoi western, il suo mondo, il suo viaggio,le sue passioni. Perchè il West, con quel deserto che anche la critica dimenticava, con i suoi spazi aridi per molti di questi grandi autori è stata una sfida e alcuni di essi proprio li, vi hanno lasciato le loro opere migliori."

You can download the first part of the trilogy here FOR FREE:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XZ5SUMNO

The Voice of Thousands!

2010-12-02T06:40:00.001-08:00

A few months ago, I had an entry about the life of one the best known female voice actresses in the Eurocult realm by the name of Carolyn de Fonseca. She was the English voice of almost all the known Eurocult actresses like Dagmar Lassander, Anita Ekberg, Rosalba Neri, Barbara Steele and... of course Marisa Mell in "La Belva col Mitra".

What few people know is that she was married to probably the biggest male voice actor in the history of the Eurocult movie business: Ted Rusoff. In the November-December 2010 issue of Video Watchdog # 159, John Charles has an in-depth interview with this voice giant about his life and career during the past 40 years as the voice of actors in more than a 1000 movies (!). The article has several exclusive photo's of him together with his late wife Caroline de Fonseca. Fans of Marisa Mell might remember his voice of a priest in the giallo "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" from 1971 directed by Umberto Lenzi. After reading the article you know the in's and out's of (Eurocult) voice dubbing and it's history. Highly recommended.

Komödien, so bitter wie das Leben! Mario Monicelli (1915-2010)

2010-11-30T12:11:00.001-08:00

Casanova '70

Virtuose der Revolution: Mario Monicelli, einer der großen Regisseure der italienischen Nachkriegszeit, ist im Alter von 95 Jahren verstorben. Von schwerer Krankheit gezeichnet, beging er Selbstmord in einem Krankenhaus in Rom. Eine Handvoll kleiner Diebe und Herumtreiber will ein Pfandleihhaus in Rom überfallen. Um in den Raum mit dem Safe zu gelangen, verschaffen sie sich Zutritt zur angrenzenden Wohnung zweier alter Damen, deren venezianische Hausangestellte mit Peppe (Vittorio Gassman), dem Herzensbrecher der Gruppe, ein Techtelmechtel hat. Doch der Coup, zum dem Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni) mit eingegipstem Arm erscheint, geht schief. Statt durch die Mauer zum Safezimmer brechen die Gauner nur durch die Zwischenwand zur Küche, in der das Hausmädchen einen Topf mit Kichererbsenpasta vorbereitet hat. Statt an den Reichtümern des Leihhauses laben sie sich an der Pasta, bevor der Morgen graut und das Idyll beendet. Ein Wecker, die einzig greifbare Beute des Raubzugs, schrillt ausgerechnet in dem Moment los, als Peppe und sein Kumpel Capannelle von zwei misstrauischen Carabinieri ins Auge gefasst werden. „I soliti ignoti“, der Film, der diese Geschichte erzählt - auf Deutsch hieß er „Diebe haben's schwer“ - war der Überraschungserfolg des Jahres 1958 und ein Wendepunkt des italienischen Kinos. Er bewies, dass man die soziale Wirklichkeit der Nachkriegszeit auch mit komödiantischen Mitteln zeigen konnte - und dass Filmkomödien keine lebensfernen Schwänke sein mussten, sondern der erschlaffenden Bewegung des Neorealismus neuen ästhetischen Schwung geben konnten. Er verhalf seinen bis dahin nur mäßig bekannten Hauptdarstellern Vittorio Gassman und Marcello Mastroianni zu internationalem Ruhm. Und er sicherte seinem Regisseur, der zuvor hauptsächlich als routinierter Handwerker von Farcen und Melodramen hervorgetreten war, einen Platz unter den Meistern des italienischen Kinos: Mario Monicelli. Sophia Loren und Luigi Proietti in Monicellis „Mortadella” von 1971

Für Monicelli, 1915 als Sohn eines Theaterkritikers im toskanischen Viareggio geboren, war die Commedia all'italiana ein Geschenk des Schicksals und eine Last zugleich. Sie entsprach seinem zwiespältigen, aus Sarkasmus und Resignation gemischten Verhältnis zur Gegenwart seines Landes, aber sie setzte seinen künstlerischen Ambitionen auch enge Grenzen. In „La grande guerra“ („Man nannte es den großen Krieg“), seinem nächsten Projekt nach den „Soliti ignoti“, trieb er das Wechselspiel aus Komik und Tragik so weit, dass es die Form fast sprengte; auch deshalb ist die Geschichte zweier Überlebenskünstler (gespielt von Alberto Sordi und Vittorio Gassman) auf den Schlachtfeldern des Ersten Weltkriegs vermutlich sein bester Film.

Claudia Cardinale in der Episode: „Gespielin Armenia oder: Zimmer frei mit Musikbox” von 1966

Monicellis Versuch, mit „I compagni“ („Die Peitsche im Genick“) eine politische Parabel über Solidarität und Klassenkampf zu erzählen, wurde dagegen vom Publikum abgelehnt. Mit „L'armata Brancaleone“ und „La ragazzo con la pistola“ kehrte er deshalb Ende der sechziger Jahre zu den Stoffen zurück, die man von ihm erwartete: lebenspralle, mit Sprachwitz gesättigte Alltagsgrotesken, die aus den Versatzstücken anderer Kinogenres - hier der Mittelalter-, dort der Mafiafilm - szenische Funken schlugen.

Marisa Mell und Marcello Mastroianni in Casanova '70 von 1965
/
Sein zweiter großer Kinoerfolg gelang Monicelli dann 1975 mit „Amici miei“ („Ein irres Klassentreffen“), einem sarkastischen Gruppen- und Generationenporträt, das erkennbar an den berühmten Vorgänger von 1975 angelehnt war. Als er die Geschichte sieben Jahre später weitererzählte, war die hohe Zeit der italienischen Filmkomödien schon wieder vorbei; „Amici miei atto II“ („Meine Freunde“) wirkte wie ein Abgesang. Sein Land, hat Monicelli in einem seiner letzten Interviews gesagt, brauche eine Revolution, nur so könne es zu sich selbst zurückfinden. Als Regisseur ist er dieser Revolution auf virtuose Weise aus dem Weg gegangen. Am Montag hat sich Mario Monicelli, der wegen Prostatakrebs in einem römischen Krankenhaus behandelt wurde, aus einem Fenster in den Tod gestürzt. Er wurde fünfundneunzig Jahre alt. (c) FAZ-Andreas Kilb

Thanks to André Schneider for sending me this information!

The Films of Suso Cecchi D’Amico

2010-11-26T04:29:00.000-08:00

On July 31st 2010, one of Italy's greatest screenwriters Suso Cecchi D’Amico died at the age of 96! To fans of Marisa Mell, she is best known as the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of the 1965 Mario Moncelli directed movie "Casanova '70" with Marcello Mastroianni as leading man Andrea Rossi-Colombotti and Marisa Mell as Thelma. In honor of this great lady of Italian movie making the Film Society of Lincoln Centre in New York is showing this week from November 26th untill December 1st 2010 several of her majestic movies like among others "Rocco and his brothers" with a superb Alain Delon, "White Nights" with the always reliable Maria Schell and Jean Marais or "Conversation Piece" with Marisa Mell friend Helmut Berger, all movies directed by Lucino Visconti.

Richard Peña, director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, talked to David Savage of Cinema Retro about this talented screenwriter:

Cinema Retro: A tribute organized around a screenwriter is fairly rare. Why did you choose this specific screenwriter for a tribute?

Richard Pena: Perhaps, but Suso was an extraordinarily special screenwriter. Having recently done a lot of work on Italian cinema, I was startled to see how often her name figured in the credits of so many masterworks. She was an extraordinary talent, and her passing is a loss for all who love film.

CR: Do you think her career was overshadowed by her collaboration with such auteurist names in Italian cinema, such as Visconti, Monicelli, et al? It seems as though a woman would have a hard time holding her own against such huge egos?

RP: My sense is that this had as much to do with the contemporary lionization of film directors as it did plain old sexism. From what I've heard about her, she held her own with the boys.

CR: Can you identify a common thread or characteristic style that belongs to Cecchi d’Amico’s dialogue or characterizations?

RP: With over 100 screenplays to her credit, that becomes difficult; moreover, I've seen at best 50% of them. I think she often likes to focus on a character who takes a decisive action and then study the consequences of that action on those around him/her.

CR: Do you consider her an innovator in screenwriting?

RP: I'm not the best person to answer that question. I think she had a good sense of when to let the action play out on its own rhythms--to under-script, as opposed to an overly determined writing style.

CR: Can you trace any effect she had on any one American screenwriter in particular?

RP: A certain group of American filmmakers have tried to capture the spirit or even adapt "Big Deal on Madonna Street. Whit Stillman would be someone who I'm sure really admires Suso's work.

CR: Do you know how much control she exerted over her own screenplays in terms of the liberties the directors were allowed to take, i.e., was she territorial about her dialogue?

RP: I'm frankly not sure about that, but why hire Suso Cecchi D'Amico if you don't want her work?

CR: Aspiring screenwriters will come to this program, hopefully. What are you hoping they take away?

RP: I hope they sense how carefully structured her screenplays were. There's always a good sense of architecture to her screenplays, even when they leave lots of space for the director.

CR: If you had to choose one film in the line-up that is a definite don’t miss, what would your choice be? Why?

RP: I would say Violent Summer, as it's really an amazingly great film and not that well known. A chance for people to discover not only Suso's work, but that of Valerio Zurlini, a wonderful yet little-known filmmaker as well.

"Who am I?" (Can you solve this mystery?)

2010-11-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last night I saw for the first time the Austrian 1961 production "Der Ruf der Wildgänse" based on the then famous book by Martha Ostenso.

It tells the story of an immigrant family living in the outback in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century. The father rules his family and the nearby trading post with iron hand untill disaster strikes. Marisa Mell, in her early twenties, played the eldest daughter "Judith" having enough of the tyrany of her father. It's what the German's call a "Heimat"-movie. The exterior scenes were completely shot in Canada which at that time was very expensive to do and an absolute rarity for an Austrian movie production to fly all the way to the other side of the world to shoot on location. The interior scenes were shot in Vienna on a sound stage! The cast was made up by mainly Austrian and some German actors and actresses like Horst Janson, Gertraud Jesserer and...Hans H. Neubert.

Wenn you follow the career of Marisa Mell you come across a lot of known names of Eurocult stars in her filmography like John Phillip Law, Adolpho Celi, Robert Hossein, Jean Marais, Ursula Andress, Virna Lisi, Claudine Auger, Ushi Glass, Bruno Cremer, Antonio Sabbatto sr.... the list goes on and on... but then... you stumble across a name that you have never heard off: "Hans H. Neubert". Who???

Thankfully in this day and age you have the internet as a never ending source of information on everything that your heart desires. So a quick check on IMDB, Wikipedia and some specialised cult movie sites will give you a quick answer who this guy is, where he comes from and what he has done in his life at that point in time to gain a place in a movie with Marisa Mell. Mmmmm! Strange! There is not much to be found about this actor! Only IMDB gives him about 8 acting roles where 4 of them are roles in television movies and 4 are roles in cinema movies that hardly anybody remembers to this day. Of them all the best known film is a 1961 French western directed by Robert Hossein called "Le Goût de la Violence" with Robert Hossein and Mario Adorf in the main parts. For the rest there is not much else to be found about him. No date of birth or death, no reasons why he stopped filming around 1967, no mentioning what he did after his film career or what he is doing now! This actor is to me a complete mystery.

CAN YOU SOLVE THIS MYSTERY???

Death of a Legend-Dino De Laurentiis dies at age 91!

2010-11-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

Dino De Laurentiis, an Academy Award-winning film impresario and producer who helped revolutionize the way movies are bankrolled and sold, has died. He was 91. The Academy Award-winning producer's daughter said her father was surrounded by family when he died Wednesday night at his home in Beverly Hills. The statement from Raffaella De Laurentiis did not give a cause of death. De Laurentiis was a legend of Italian New Wave filmmaking. His works also included "Bitter Rice," "La Strada", "Barbarella" and of course the cult movie "Danger: Diabolik!" with among others Marisa Mell as Lady Eva Kant, the partner in crime with the dark hero Diabolik.

He was tiny, but tough, a veritable Napoleon on the set and utterly tireless. "Such a little lion," was how his second wife, producer Martha De Laurentiis, put it when he turned 80. Like any larger-than-life movie figure, De Laurentiis went through boom times and busts. But he always bounced back and his passion for movies never dimmed. His career spanned hundreds of films, including several Oscar winners and he worked with some of the biggest stars and best directors in the business. His credits include box office and/or critical successes such as "U-571", "War and Peace," "Ragtime," "Three Days of the Condor" and "Blue Velvet." A pivotal figure in postwar Italian cinema, De Laurentiis moved to the United States in the 1970s, becoming a citizen in 1986. But this son of a Neapolitan pasta maker never lost his thick Italian accent and tried to spend a month in Capri and Rome each year. The Academy Award-winning "Serpico" in 1973 with Al Pacino was De Laurentiis' Hollywood debut. But by then, he already had two Italian-made Oscar-winners, Federico Fellini's "La Strada" and "Nights of Cabiria" to his credit. One of the first producers to understand the box-office potential of foreign audiences, he helped invent international co-productions, raising money by pre-selling distribution rights outside North America. Throughout his career, he alternated lavish, big-budget productions with less commercial films by directors such as Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch, and he's often package the blockbusters with art films to secure distribution for the smaller films. He got off to a strong start in the United States with "Serpico", then followed it up with another success, "Three days of the Condor," (Robert Redford). But he was also battered by flops, including the infamous "Dune", in 1984 and "King Kong" sequel. Personal tragedy also took its toll. In 1981, his son Federico was killed in a plane crash. "My father still to this day can't speak of him...He told me that every morning he wakes up and thinks of him," De Laurentiis' daughter Veronica said nearly 30 years after Federico's death.

"Esci Diabolik!" by Fabrizio Canciani and Stefano Covri

2010-11-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

The Italian comic "Diabolik" and his "Mario Bava" directed movie counterpart "Danger:Diabolik!" hold, after more than 40 years, still a firm grip on the cultural scene all over the world. This blog has often reported about the influence of this black hero and his partner in crime "Lady Eva Kant", played by Marisa Mell in the before mentioned movie, on the arts.
This time Italian singers/songwriters Fabrizio Canciani and Stefano Covri tackled this subject in their song "Esci Diabolik" from their album "Delitti e Canzoni"-Il Giallo In Musica. The song is the second title on the album. The musicians used the familiar "Wa Wa Wa" title from the original movie soundtrack by Ennio Morricone to open their song. After the intro the song becomes a very likeable jazzy inspired song with a lot of musical reference and style to another Italian jazzy singer "Paolo Conti". The video is a collage of the giallo a fumetti Diabolik and the movie that it spawned. Enjoy!

Back out of hell!

2010-11-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

On november 10th, it will be 45 years ago that the 1965 movie "Train D'Enfer" had its French première. The film is directed by Gilles Grangier starring Jean Marais, best known for his Fantomas trilogy with Louis de Funès, as Antoine Donadieu, a French secret agent à la James Bond and Marisa Mell as Frieda his counterpart in this espionage story. Outside of some rare tv broadcasts, this movie has been rarely seen and never had an official DVD release. So I was very pleased to see that a clip from this movie appeared on the Net yesterday giving me a glimpse for the first time of this rare Marisa Mell movie. In this version of the movie Marisa Mell has been horriblely dubbed with a high pitch French voice while her own voice was very husky and seductive.

Thanks to "Drayton64" for uploading this clip!

This is not a movie!

2010-10-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

The 70's were not entirely a fun period in Italy and Europe with new music, new bands, new film trends and fashions but it was also a period of great political upheaval especially in Italy with the Red Brigades and Germany with the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF). Two (extreme) left groups trying to destabilize the political and civilian order at that time in Italy and Germany by planning and executing terrorists attacts on governmental and civilian targets.
It was a time of a lot terrorist attacts in both countries. This was one of the reasons why in Italy a new film genre became a runaway success called the "Poliziottesco movies". What people saw in the movies happened in real life on their streets in front of their eyes and front porches of their homes. Killings, violence, blasting bombs, car chases in city streets... you name it - it happened. The evening news was often full of those stories again and again. Sadly reality is that it is not a movie so the spiral of violence reached its peak in 1978 in Italy when on March 16th 1978 the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro got kidnapped by the Brigate Rosse.

The tension in Italy during that time among the politicians, civilians and army was extreme. The political establishment did not know how to handle this crisis and the fear of complete chaos and revolution was very real. The entire country was in a state of alert. All the major roads into the major cities in Italy had road blocks with police and army garding and inspecting the traffic in and out these cities. Rome was no exception. In the week of March 31st 1978, Marisa Mell decided to make a trip to the country side with her mother when, around 50 kilometers outside Rome in the village of Cerveteri she was halted and ordered to open the trunk of her Mercedes. After inspection she could continue her trip. So even she could not escape the political reality in Italy. On May 9th 1978, Aldo Moro was found dead in a parked Renault 4 after 55 days of being kidnapped!

Life is not like a box of chocolates more like a stable full of shit!

2010-10-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

If Marisa Mell knew this famous sentence from the movie "Forrest Gump" she would have surely thought it while modeling for this photo shoot but that was not the case since the 1994 "Tom Hanks" movie came out after her death in 1992. Nevertheless this photo is one of the most strange pictures ever taken of Marisa Mell as a model. Whenever fans are talking about Marisa Mell in relation to photographers almost always the name of Angelo Frontoni comes up. His name will eternally be linked to hers but there is also another very famous photographer who worked with her and was the brain (!) behind this picture. His name was "Howell Conant". Howell Conant (1917-1999) was a photographer mostly working for the ultra American life and life style magazine called "Life Magazine". He rose to world fame when he became in the 50's the court photographer of the Grimaldi family in Monaco when one of his best friends actress Grace Kelly became Princess Gracia after her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco.
So for the January 28th 1966 issue of this magazine the editor had the brilliant idea of making an article about the rising European female stars and starlets. Hence entered staff photographer Howell Conant. He got the assignment to shoot these beautifull women like Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françoise Dorléac, Susannah York, Marilu Tolu, Stephania Sandrelli and many others for the article in an unusual setting. In the article you can see the ladies lying between water melons, around dogs, in the grass, between windows... and Marisa Mell was so lucky to be shot in a cow stable dressed to the hilt in a black gala dress surrounded by cows.

I always wondered how she might have felt that day while posing for Conant. What went trough her mind? Nothing can be deducted from her face which is rather icy cold looking into the lens but she surely must have hated it. Nevertheless everything for showbizz so... Luckily for Marisa Mell this article was some kind of opening for her to Hollywood, which she later rejected, and from all the competing actresses in the spread she was first in the picking order and got two pictures in the article with the most accompanying text. Probably the editor also thought that this picture was way over the top and wanted to make a gesture to the actress for enduring this shit.

"Everybody Has Something To Hide" (Mata Hari)

2010-10-08T23:47:00.001-07:00

In December of 1967, Marisa Mell starred in the musical Mata Hari. The try-out in Washington D.C. was a disaster. For example, Marisa Mell as Mata Hari was executed at the end of the play and "died" but before closing curtains she rised again making the audience laugh out loud! And there were other goofs so that the producer David Merrick decided to cancel the whole production even before it went to Broadway, NY, leaving behind a devistated Marisa Mell. In hinsight she never got over this faillure in her career. To my knowledge there are no film tapes available of this production but only bootleg audio tapes. Here is an example of Marisa Mell as Mata Hari singing the song "Everybody Has Something To Hide" referring to her spy activities during World War I in Europe. You will notice that Marisa Mell is not really singing but more or less talking her lyrics with a melodious voice. She could definitely not sing! Note: because this is a bootleg audiotape of the try-out with audience the quality is not that good but it is at the moment the only 43 year old recording of that production.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Summer of '64

2010-10-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

Summer 2010 is finally over on the Northern hemisphere and autumn is upon us but Marisa Mell is still enjoying the summer of '64 on a Mediterranean beach relaxing after a busy movie year and preparing for her next shoot in the fall as this staged photo shows!

Trivia: this is one of very few close-up pictures where you can see clearly the teeth of Marisa Mell. In most of her close-up pictures her mouth is closed.

Tony Curtis dies at age 85!

2010-09-30T08:37:00.001-07:00

On September 29th 2010, one of Hollywood's last living legends Tony Curtis died at his Las Vegas home from a cardiac arrest at age 85. Tony Curtis shaped himself from a 1950s movie heartthrob into a respected actor, showing a determined streak that served him well in such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Defiant Ones" and the mega hit "Some Like It Hot" with Marilyn Monroe. Curtis began in acting with frivolous movies that exploited his handsome physique and appealing personality, but then steadily moved to more substantial roles, starting in 1957 in the harrowing show business tale "Sweet Smell of Success." In 1958, "The Defiant Ones" brought him an Academy Award nomination as best actor for his portrayal of a white racist who escaped from prison handcuffed to a black man, Sidney Poitier. The following year, he donned women's clothing and sparred with Marilyn Monroe in one of the most acclaimed film comedies ever, Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot." His first wife was actress Janet Leigh of "Psycho" fame; actress Jamie Lee Curtis is their daughter. "My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," Jamie Lee Curtis said in a statement today. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world." Curtis struggled against drug and alcohol abuse as starring roles became fewer, but then bounced back in film and television as a character actor. His brash optimism returned, and he allowed his once-shiny black hair to turn silver. Again he came back after even those opportunities began to wane, reinventing himself as a writer and painter whose canvasses sold for as much as $20,000. "I'm not ready to settle down like an elderly Jewish gentleman, sitting on a bench and leaning on a cane," he said at 60. "I've got a helluva lot of living to do." And that he did. (A.P.)
For fans of Marisa Mell, he will be mainly remembered as the "other" Casanova in the movie "Casanova & C°" from 1977 with a bunch of Eurocult actresses like Marisa Berenson, Sylva Koscina, Andrea Ferreol, Britt Ekland and... Marisa Mell as the Dutchess of Cornaro. The movie is an erotic comedy film with many... many titles: Casanova & Company (Italy), Casanova - sänkykamarivaras (Finland), Enas trellos, poly trellos Kazanovas (Greece), Hilfe, ich bin eine männliche Jungfrau (West Germany), Sex on the Run (USA) (reissue title), Some Like It Cool (USA), The Amorous Mis-Adventures of Casanova (USA) (video title), The Rise and Rise of Casanova (UK), and Treize femmes pour Casanova (France)). The plot revolves around the adventures of Giacomo Casanova with various women, and a visit to the Republic of Venice by an Ottoman delegation, including a Sultana and her retinue. To me he will always be remembered as the partner of Roger Moore in the British series "The Persuaders" from the early 70's.

Equus

2010-09-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

On March 28 1964, the "Strudel"-western "Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz" had it's German premiere. The movie was a German take on making an "American" western in Europe. The outside scenes were shot on Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands in Spain, substituting for Mexico. The movie, directed by actor-writer-director Rolf Olsen, had as main cast Edmund Purdom, Klaus Kinski, Mario Adorf, Marianne Koch (who would become in the same year world famous alongside Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's opus "A Fistful of Dollars"), and Marisa Mell as Juanita. The story is a standard revenge story, so nothing special, but what makes this movie remarkable in her career is the fact that Marisa Mell rides a horse in several scenes, what she has never done again in any of her future movies.Not many people know that Marisa Mell was, not only classical theatre trained in Vienna's prestitious Max Reinhardt Seminar, but was also a quite good horse rider. So privately she often went horse riding whenever she got the opportunity, especially in the 60's.This is a rare picture of Marisa Mell horse riding during the production of the French movie "Objectif 500 millions" published in a Spanish newspaper on March 23rd 1966, a few days before the French premiere of the movie.

As told the movie was shot on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. So whenever Marisa Mell had some free time during the production of the movie, she went horse riding alongside the shores of the island. During one of those rides she encountered a car driving along the sea road. The horse startled by the roar of the engine. Marisa Mell was not able to keep the horse under control and she was thrown to the ground. A young man left the car and hurried to help her get up again when he noticed that she was bleeding out of her nose very badly. So the best thing he could do was take her to the nearby hospital on the island to check on her situation. Thankfully nothing was broken so Marisa Mell could leave the hospital the same day. After the ordeal Marisa Mell and the young man kept in touch and became even friends. One year later, Marisa Mell had the now famous auto accident and was hospitalised for several months. The young man heard of this ordeal and went to visit her with a large bouquet of flowers telling her that he would take care of her whatever the cost. According to the information at hand during her recovery they became lovers for a short while.

Whose orchid is it anyway???

2010-09-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today I went shopping in my home town because the weather was very nice and I needed some new stuff for the autumn and winter that is coming upon us very soon. Driving into town with my car during a saturday afternoon is not a very good idea but I had to do at the same time some errants so I needed the trunk of my car. The road into the city center is normaly a 10 minutes drive but today it took me more that 45 minutes to reach my destination. It was a lot of stop and go and bumper to bumper. What do you do while waiting in line to enter a city? Listen to the radio, text some messages to friends, thinking about meaningless things, looking at the many tourists that are still in big numbers in town hurrying along the boardwalks like grasshoppers in a corn field... Then I needed to stop the car again at a traffic light that was close to my end target. Finally. This traffic light is situated near a very big perfume store from a very well known chain of perfume stores. While looking at the big displays in the windows I saw a lot of advertising for perfumes from all the major brands like YSL, Boss, Gucci... and also the photo above with a beautiful lady in perfect make-up. She had grand eyes, very lush red lips and her right eye was decorated with a blood red orchid. "What an original concept", I thought to tell a message! I had never seen that ad before. The traffic light went to green and I entered city center. The strange thing was that during an entire day of shopping the picture above kept popping up in my mind. Who was that women and what was the name of the perfume she was advertising? But there was also another thing that was bothering me but I was not able to put my finger on it! What was it about that picture that struck me and made me uneasy?

Back home I found the picture on the internet. The women was Italian actress Monica Bellucci advertising the perfume "Hypnotic Poison" and lipstick "Rouge Dior" by Dior.

And then it hit me why I was so intrigued by this picture. The image of a women's eye in a blood red orchid I had seen before although not very often but the image was struck into my subconscious as a poster for a Marisa Mell giallo movie called "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" or in French "Le Tueur à l'Orchidee" directed by Umberto Lenzi in 1972 with Antonio Sabato and Uschi Glass.

What coincidence I thought that after more than almost 40 years the same image was used for an ad campaign to promote the newest perfume of fashion house Dior. The only thing missing in the Dior campaign was a tear of blood dropping from the eye but that was maybe to much even for Dior. A little more research learned that the man responsable for this image was make-up master for Dior for more than 30 year called "Tyen". He started his job at Dior as a make-up artist and then in later years became their fashion photographer and stylist for their ads. And as you can see on the picture below he puts more on women's faces than just orchids.
I wonder if he is a giallo fan or even an Eurocult fan? It could be possible while living in Paris, France that he came across the poster of "Le Tueur à l'Orchidee" and that the image has struck him one way or the other. So when one day the new ad campaign for the Dior perfume was needed this image of an eye surrounded by orchid petals came back to him. Who knows? Nevertheless it makes for a strong image and a beautiful campaign.

Eurocult Looney Tunes!

2010-09-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Marisa Mell was one of the most beautiful actresses of her time! During her reign in the Eurocult scene a lot of photo's where taken from her. This one is from March 1964 when she attended in Argentina the Buenos Aires "Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata" . Already early on Marisa Mell had a lot of success with her films in the Spanish speaking countries appealing to a lot of latino men. So Spanish language newspapers started to cover the movies she made often accompanied with a review of that movie. Because the internet and desk top publishing are still decades away the editors of the newspapers asked often cartoonists to make a little drawing of the content of the movie so to liven up the review a little bit. This week's entry shows some cartoons of that time as being published during the 60's and 70's. You will notice the cartoons are not very flattering to the beauty of Marisa Mell.

DIAMOND WALKERS (1965)

TRAIN D'ENFER (1965)

CHE NOTTE, RAGAZZI (1966)

X

DANGER: DIABOLIK! (1968)

X X

SENZA VIA D'USCITA (1970)

LES BELLES AUX BOIS DORMANTES (1970)

MARTA (1971)

X X

AMICO, STAMMI LONTANO ALMENO UN PALMO (1972)

LA ENCADENADA (1975)

Tell Me On A Sunday!

2010-09-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Marisa Mell in Rome with her beloved Afghan hound Rocco not looking very happy that she was discovered by paparazzi in her pregnant state and rather dull outfit.

The year is 1977. Marisa Mell is 38 years old and living partly in Rome and partly in Madrid. She is still working in the Eurocult movie business, mostly doing Italo-Spanish movies, but her reputation as a man hungry women and her age is slowly affecting her career. Although her beauty was still untouched at that time, her soul was not. She once said "Every man wanted me, but no man wanted to keep me." And that was the harsh reality of her life untill the very end. Like almost every women she also longed to have a faithfull husband and some children to come home too when a days job on the movie set was over or when coming back from an engagement abroad. She had high hopes to reach that goal with two men in her life: Pier Luigi Torri from Italy and Espartaco Santoni from Spain. But both men disappointed her heavyly. Torri became a fugitive and went several years behind bars in London (UK) after the "Number One" Nightclub fiasco with drugs and an organized crime involvement; Espartaco Santoni declared several times in the yellow press that Marisa Mell was the women of his life and that they without any doubt would get married in the near future. Fact was that after a two year relationship, after Marisa Mell was single again when Pier Luigi Torri fled Italy, that he also left Marisa Mell in 1975 for another starlet/model named Carmen Cervera. ("Who is that???", you might ask! Well, look her up on Wiki and you'll see that her life is much more interesting than even Alexis's life on the soap "Dynasty" as a gold digger! She reached fame and extreme fortune in the end when she married and than became widow of the extremely wealthy high society Baron Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza.) So once again she was single and on drift. Although Marisa Mell was regarded by the yellow press as a strong modern women in reality she was very insecure and longed to have a strong man in her life that she could depend on. Several months after her seperation from Espartaco Santoni rumour started to spread among the Italian-Spanish incrowd that Marisa Mell was pregnant. Problem was that she was not a socialite at that moment so confirmation was very hard to get untill one sunday morning in the autumn of 1977 when paparazzi found Marisa Mell walking with her beloved Afghan hound Rocco and a young man in a park in Rome. The paparazzi did not let escape this golden opportunity and took several photo's of her clearly showing her belly as a pregnant women. There was no doubt about that. Marisa Mell was pregnant again. This was not the first time. At the end of the 60's, in 1969, when she was with Pier Luigi Torri, Marisa Mell got pregnant but during the Cannes Film Festival she lost her baby due to a miscarriage, she always claimed. Other people claim that she had an abortion. Taking pictures of Marisa Mell in her blessed state was not enough for the paparazzi. They wanted to know who the father was of the child. During that conversation with the press Marisa Mell refused to tell it. The journalists recognized the man she was with as actor Gianni Macchia, but was he the father or was it another lover in her past? Several months before this meeting in the park, Marisa Mell had a relationship with a pianist called Maurizio Libardo. Problem was that he was 20 years old, or 18 years younger than Marisa Mell. Could he be the father of the baby? In the yellow press at that time, speculation went wild. The magazine "Lecturas" headlined: " Marisa Mell espera su primer hijo a los 38 años". Untill this day nothing, to my knowledge, is known about the father of the child. It becomes even more mysterious. How did the pregnancy end? Fact is that Marisa Mell did not give officially birth to a child during her life. Did she had another miscarriage or did she deliver the baby but gave it up for adoption or was the baby during the course of pregnancy still born? A lot of questions with no answers for the moment! Maybe to be continued!

Marisa Mell with Italian actor Gianni Macchia in an staged embrace.

What is also strange is the fact that Marisa Mell is smoking while pregnant hence the ever present cigarette in her right hand.

Giallo Scrapbook #3

2010-08-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

Midnight Media is a British publisher of the highly popular independent film magazine "Is It Uncut?" and special publications dedicated to the world of wild cinema bis with titles including: "Slash Hits", "Blazing Magnums", "Hispanic Horrors" and the phantastic "Giallo Scrapbook"-series. This fall Midnight Media is going to publish part 3 of this series with Marisa Mell on the cover from the movie "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" directed by Umberto Lenzi. Like the previous two publications the Giallo Scrapbook #3 will be another collectable tribute dedicated to the flashy and trashy world of Italian Giallo Cinema with more than 40 movies reviewed in style - including: BLOOD LINK, CALLING ALL POLICE CARS, A CAT IN THE BRAIN, CRAZY DESIRES OF A MURDERER, DEADLY INHERITANCE, THE DEADLY SWEET, DEATH FALLS LIGHTLY, DEATH OCCURRED LAST NIGHT, THE DESIGNATED VICTIM, THE DEVIL HAS 7 FACES, DON'T LOOK NOW, THE DOUBLE, EYE OF THE LABYRINTH, THE FLOWER WITH PETALS OF STEEL, THE FOURTH VICTIM, GIALLO, GIALLO A VENEZIA, THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A, THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS, IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH, THE KILLER IS ON THE PHONE, KILLER NUN, THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS, MADHOUSE, THE MURDER CLINIC, MURDER OBSESSION, NOTHING UNDERNEATH, OASIS OF FEAR, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER, AN OPEN TOMB... AN EMPTY COFFIN, PENSIONE PAURA, RED RIDING HOOD, SMILE BEFORE DEATH, SO SWEET SO PERVERSE, SPIRITS OF DEATH, THE STUDENT CONNECTION, THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, TWO FACES OF FEAR, THE WEAPON THE HOUR THE MOTIVE, THE WEEKEND MURDERS. Whaw! The publication is written by Nigel J. Burrell and designed and edited by Paul J. Brown. It has been designed to look like one of the deranged killers has put it together, with blood splats, smeary fingerprints and torn out text and will be full colour throughout and lavishly illustrated with many rare images from these amazing movies. Highly recommended - Format is A5. Publication date will be announced shortly. Here is a look at the covers of the other publications. I have them all and they are joy to read and mostly a great way to discover new movies that you have never heard off.

More information at http://www.midnight-media.net/index.html

Cannes Film Festival-May 8th 1969

2010-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

On May 8th 1969, almost every star and starlet from the end of the sixties had a rendez-vous on the Côte d' Azur in Cannes for the 22nd Cannes Film Festival. The clip is from the opening night when the guests of honor like Sylva Koscina, Omar Shariff, Romy Schneider, Vanessa Redgrave and... Marisa Mell arrived at the opening diner. Marisa Mell's career was gaining momentum with movies like "Danger: Diabolik" and "Una Sull'Altra" so she was in the centre of attention together with fellow eurocult star Sylva Koscina. In this clip Marisa Mell arrives at the diner and is being photographed by paparazzi. In another part of the clip she is sitting at her diner table with husband of that time Pier Luigi Torri. Marisa Mell probably got her invitation to the festival via her friend Helmut Berger whose lover Luchino Visconti was President of the Jury for the film competition.

The clip has no sound, bad lightning and picture quality.

"Danger: Diabolik!" - Rare cinema screening - Rio Cinema - London (UK) - September 11th 2010

2010-08-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

On September 11th 2010, Cigarette Burns Cinema presents a special screening of the cult classic psychedelic movie "Danger: Diabolik!" directed by Mario Bava with John Phillip Law as Diabolik and Marisa Mell as Lady Eva Kant at the Rio Cinema in London (UK) at 11.15 P.M. Entrance: 7 British Pounds. There will be an intro and dj set after the screening. The cinema is situated at 107 Kingsland High Street London E8 (Corner John Campell Road). More information: http://www.riocinema.ndirect.co.uk/index.htm.

La Chute d'un Géant!

2010-08-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

On August 7th 2010, France lost one of its biggest and most loved stars from film, television and theatre in the form of Bruno Cremer. Bruno Cremer, best known for playing Georges Simenon‘s Inspector Jules Maigret in the long-running French television series Maigret from 1991 untill 2005, died in a Paris hospital. Cremer, a heavy chain smoker during his life, had been fighting cancer of the tongue for a number of years. He was 80. Cremer’s acting career spanned half a century. He began appearing in bit parts in films in the ’50s; following a slow ascent, he landed several major roles in French productions of the ’70s. Most notable among those was Claude Sautet‘s Academy Award-nominated drama "A Simple Story" from 1979, co-starring Romy Schneider. Cremer kept himself busy in the ’80s, but from the early ’90s on his film/tv work was almost exclusively restricted to playing the pipe-smoking Maigret. To fans of Marisa Mell, Bruno Cremer will always be fondly remembered as the strong headed military officer Jean Reichau, who tried to steel 500 millions French Francs with the help of a model Yo, played by Marisa Mell in the movie "Objectif: 500.000 millions" from 1966 directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer. After hearing the news of the death of his friend Pierre Schoendoerffer told the press that "Les grands comédians ne meurent jamais".

Don't cry for me Argentina!

2010-08-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

Marisa Mell with some fans wanting an autograph of her. Notice that Marisa Mell is holding a cigarette in her left hand and the girl's strange look on her face at the right hand side.

In March of 1964, at the dawn of her blosssoming movie career, Austrian born actress Marisa Mell, together with fellow German movie star Erik Schumann, went all the way down to Argentina to be a guest of honor at that year's "Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata". The festival was founded in 1954 as a showcase for new movies and not as a competition. The original name of the festival at it's conception was "Festival Cinematográfico Internacional". Some of their guests in the early days of the 50's were Gina Lollobrigida or Eroll Flynn. In 1959 the festival was taken over by the "Asociación de Cronistas Cinematograficos" and became a member of "FIAPF" or "Fedération International des Associations de Producteurs de Films". This federation supervises and owns almost all international film festivals in the world like Cannes, Berlin and Venice to name the most recognizable ones. The year that Marisa Mell went to Argentina the festival was relocated to Buenos Aires and got again a name change into "Festival Cinematográfico Internacional de la República Argentina". Two years later, Argentina had a bloody revolution. In 1968 and 1970 the festival fell into the hands of "Instituto de Cine". There was no festival in 1967 and 1969 because of another festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the 60's the festival was quite popular with actors and actress from Hollywood and Europe although traveling from those places to Buenos Aires at that time by plane was not as easy as it is now. The lists of guest of honor is quite impressive: Paul Newman, Alberto Sordi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vittorio Gassman, Toshiro Mifune, François Truffaut, Karel Reisz, Catherine Deneuve, Juan Antonio Bardem, Anthony Perkins, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Maria Callas, Cantinflas, Andrzej Wajda, Jacques Tati, Lee Strasberg, George Hamilton and Marisa Mell. In the 70's the festival fizzled out and died. Since 1996 the festival is again alive and kicking and since 2001 it has become an A-status festival like all the other prestigeous festivals. The statue given to the winners in their respective categories is called "Astor" referring to the famous Argentinian tanguero "Astor Piazzolla" who was born in Mar del Plata and has died in Buenos Aires. The original name of the statue before Astor was "Ombú".

Marisa Mell and Erik Schumann entering a social event during the festival.

BTW the girl on the top photo on the left hand side is in complete awe of Marisa Mell, not only the way she looks at her but her body language says so much more especially the way she has folded her hands and arms like in a prayer to the Virgin Mary!

Driller Killer!

2010-08-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

"Revenge in the House of Usher" is a 1982 gothic movie directed by Spanish cult directeur Jess Franco as a very loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The House of Usher." As it opens, Dr. Alan Harker (Antonio Mayans) receives a distressed letter from his former university professor-cum-mentor, Dr. Eric Usher (Howard Vernon), that prompts him to travel to Usher's castle. Once there, Dr. Harker discovers, to his utter horror, that Usher is trapped in the jaws of madness, obsessively attempting to resurrect his comatose daughter Melissa with the blood of abducted young girls. So far, so good but is this a movie with Marisa Mell? No, nope, nada! So why is this movie then subject for an entry on her blog then? Well, glad you asked. It isn't so much the movie that is interesting but the cover of this movie on the video box as pictured above. More specifically the women on the ground being menaced by a black gloved hand holding a drilling machine. (A scene that to my knowledge is not part of the movie.) That iconic image has been lifted right out a very famous Marisa Mell movie! The movie in question is a giallo called "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosse" from 1972 directed by also cult director Umberto Lenzi, famous for his cannibal movies "Mangati Vivi" and "Cannibal Ferox" or his other excellent giallo "Spasmo". You can see clearly that the artist responsable for making the cover of the video box for video distribution company "Wizard Video" in 1985 has lifted this scene from the Lenzi movie to spice up his cover and make the movie probably more interesting than it really is. In other words, as so often happened in the straight to video market of yesteryear, connecting a movie to another movie that was a success around that time. Strangely enough the movie that he is referring to is not "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" as one might suspect but another famous video nasty of the era. The slasher movie "Driller Killer" from 1979 directed by and starring in the lead role of Reno Miller gore maestro Abel Ferrara. And this movie was also part of the Wizard Video portfolio.

Reno Miller is an artist slowly losing his mind as he and his two female friends scrape to pay the bills. The punk band downstairs increasingly agitates him, his art dealer is demanding that he complete his big canvas painting as promised, and he gets into fights with his girlfriends. When the dealer laughs at his canvas he snaps, and begins taking it out on the people responsible for his pain and starts his revenge by killing while drilling.

Wizard Video was a motion picture distribution company created by B movie veteran Charles Band, who would later go on to found the famous "Full Moon" movie company. The company was best known for the VHS-releases of "Zombie 2", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and the ultimate video nasty "I Spit on Your Grave" (A remake (sigh!!!) of this movie will hit the cinema's this fall). The company was also well known for its very detailed, and often lurid, box art, especially after the switch to the "big box" format. Here are some other famous video box covers! And like everything from years gone by the Wizard Video movie boxes are at the moment very high in demand and collectors all over the world are quickely snatching them up to complete their collections often at very steep prices around 75 USD or more on Ebay per title. The demand is so high that even Charles Band is re-issueing them again never letting a deal go sour!