Reviews

The television of the GDR (Fernsehen der DDR) produced this mini in 3 episodes about the life of Leutnant Martin who arrives in his new block of East-Berlin, called 'Schwanenkietz'. At first he is not happy with his moving into this area but soon he gets acquainted with all the inhabitants and their own stories. He falls in love with the teacher Karin Lindau who has her own troubles with the high school students. He supports former criminal Eule in finding a new job in the building brigade and tracks down Eule's pal Tatze who always lands in jail and won't learn a lesson. Jürgen Zartmann portrays the title role of the 'ABV' (Abschnittsbevollmächtigter) and there are more lovable characteractors from the GDR. Still in black and white we get a very atmospheric view of the 'other' Germany. Here the Volkspolizei is featured as they really were: the helping hand of the Republic, always in action to secure the safety of the people. Throughout the series we learn about the true nature of a socialist state and the blessings of this non-materialist country. A must-see for everybody who wants to see how happy life was in the GDR!

This is really another beauty of Edward D Wood jr's oeuvre: it brings back to the screen his former star Duke Moore, introduces a gay couple (a lovable and...weird pair of boys!), a girl who performs some kind of an oriental dance and lots of nudity of course. Linda Colpin repeats her role from Wood's "The photographer" and you just can see that all the people working on this picture had a hell of a good time. Watch it!!!

When I read the text for this movie on the videobox it said "more suspense than a tv screen can take" and "the most explosive and shocking movie" I thought that it naturally would be exaggerated, but this IS quite a horrifying picture. It deals with the Japanese occupation during WWII, and shows graphically for instance torture, rape (although there is no nudity) and gouged eyes, impaled bodies, broken necks etc I don't know whether this movie, which bares the English title "Blazing battle", was meant as an eastern (there is a lot of karate) or as a horror. It may even be historically accurate: both the Japanese and the Indonesians are cruel in their way of fighting the war. It was a bit overlong (when the Japanese surrender we continue in battle scenes as the allies are now the enemy) but the general message is clear: this was Indonesia's struggle for independence!

Although this comedy is more Italian than German (it was directed by the Austrian comedyspecialist Franz Antel, here billed as Francois Legrand) the scenes were actually shot in Yugoslavia (look at the cars, you see Zastava, Yugo's national automobile). Caroll Baker plays the part of the nagging actress wonderful and Arthur Kennedy is great as an ex-gangster, who makes Baker his moll! Curd Jürgens has a small guestrole as the blackmailed American senator. Gag follows gag in this lovely AND funny seventies Euro-coproduction.

This Italian movie cannot be taken seriously, but it isn't a great comedy also: it's just a confused mess of stitched together sexscenes who all follow the same pattern. Nothing really happens, of course it is all fake, and that shows! The characters are NOT handsome and the story about Betty Blue, a female novelist who tries to solve a "murdermystery" is very thin. This flick even contains 'sex' with two 70+ men and a woman who urinates on a toilet and afterwards has 'sex' on this same toilet!!! How worse can it get??

I believe this movie was shot on Fireland, it has very beautiful photography, the story is rather mediocre and I didn't like the sheep getting their throats cut at a sheep farm but the film has a certain charm.....

This movie has got it all: stunning photography, excellent (character) actors, bikinis, superb underwater-scenes......and: a great musical score! Although the story could have been more exciting this off-beat pearl of 60s UK-crime is definitely worth an 8 out of 10.

Just what the audience could expect from director Newman: a routine action-packed western with veteran Joel McCrea as the legendary Bat Masterson. It is not so much the story that makes this film worth watching, but the appearance of Timothy Carey (uncredited-unbelievable!) as one of villain Haggerty's henchmen.

Although the special effects are nice and the music by Nico Fidenco is excellent this sci-fi doesn't really move on. More monsters and a bigger performance by Gordon Mitchell maybe could have saved "Star Pilot" but now it is only an overlong talkie technical adventure.

Although this warstory has some fine actors: Guy Madison, Anthony Steel, John Ireland (the latter unfortunately in a VERY small part) it still isn't quite what it promises to be in the beginning; starting off excitingly in the battle between Americans and Germans in the North-African 1943-desert, we are given a sensitive portrayal of the comradeship between two enemies (a German "Hauptmann" -played very fine by Venantino Venantini- and US-Captain Madison) who meet again one year later in occupied France, so this movie is actually divided in two different stories, one in the desert and the other in Europe. However, in the second part the usual battlescenes appear and "War Devils" becomes another routine actionflick. At the end (of course) the German, who even in Italian (!) pictures obviously and finally has to be the "bad guy" gets killed by resistance men and US-soldiers. This I found very weak: once you get sympathy with Venantini, he is killed! However, all in all compared to the American efforts on warfilms this is a superiour must-see!

Pardon me, I meant this movie is better then "Beast of the dead", I saw these two Phillipine movies short after another and since the word "Beast" seems to come across Eddie Romero's filmtitles quite often, I mixed them up :-)

John Ashley has a much more demanding part to play in this horror from the Phillipines then in the "Blood Island-movies". He is the victim of a horrific transformation into a bloodsucking monster! He was picked out by the devil to be the double for a US-army deserter in the forties, the devil then gave him eternal life, but the monster keeps claiming victims even after 24 years.... Good performance of the tortured soul by Ashley and.....a much better story then for instance that other Eddie Romero-classic "Beast of the night".

The long running crime series of the German Democratic Republic was seen as an "Eastern twin-brother" of the West-German series "Tatort" but "Polizeiruf 110" is of far better quality: it combines ideologic thoughts with suspense! Every episode was checked by the state for political correctness, and thus "Polizeiruf 110" is free of western decadence. The main figures are the policemen Fuchs (Peter Borgelt) and Hübner (Jürgen Frohriep), especially the latter is excellent in portraying the "Genosse Oberleutnant" as he should be. This episode is worth watching because it shows handsome Jörg Hengstler in one of his few roles for TV. He makes a sexy appearance in tight swimming shorts, don't miss it!!

This is a film of incredible beauty, without doubt one of the most dramatic and moving pictures ever made. The wonderful Agfacolor-photography is astonishing, the main figures Äls, Albrecht and Octavia are played marvellous by Söderbaum, Raddatz and von Meyendorff. Director Veit Harlan once again surpasses himself!

I thought that this was going to be a serious report about the Nuremberg trials, with some original testimonies in full length but no, already in 1958 this "documentary" (that was based on an article in newspaper/magazine "Illustrierte") had the same non-critical approach to the juristic main event of 1945/1946 as in our days. No in-depth character analyses, no interviews, just a sensation story. Overlong warsequences and the very disturbing hanging of Sudeten-SS Karl Hermann Frank in Prague in 1946 make it not recommendable.

Every time the pirates march into new adventures the main theme is heard, which is a very good one! Not only arch-villain Alberto de Mendoza (who is, like queen Annabella Incontrera, in a dual-role) gives "act de présence", also DDR-star-to-be Dean Reed shows his indifferent but definitely goodlooking face. Some comic relief is added as well.

This comedy, starring the great Rolf Herricht himself, is not only funny, it gives also a great picture of East-Germany in the late 50s. Words like "Volks Eigener Betrieb" (VEB) and "Genosse" really come to life and explains us how even the German socialism in the East was worth living.

I think this L&H-movie was definitely one of their weakest. The background of nearly-war makes this almost a stereotype American propaganda flick, nothing more. There are some funny moments but in all, I guess Stan and Ollie weren't proud of this one.

What a pleasant surprise: this musical, little Italian piece of classic comedy not only contains some of the finest characteractors but also a major English star: Anthony Steel! The story is fine, the dialogue excellent and the settings on the Cote d'Azur wonderful.

This Italo-erotic movie certainly ranks among the better efforts of the genre, it has a nice, romantic yet simple story, goodlooking actresses (Malu, Micaela) and very handsome men! The stylish look of the settings are great and the music is beautiful.

Here it becomes clear that Alberto Sordi is certainly a great comedien: he is without doubt the most funny character in the entire movie. His moviestar-dreams and his "c'est si bon" are unforgettable. There is even a great scene in which he dances with a gay director! The other crew make it a wonderful romantic comedy too, on the beautiful Cote d'Azur.

This early German Democratic Republic-comedy had some fine character actors and a nice setting in a ski-winterland. Two fashion design-companies, Saxonia from Leipzig and Berolina from East-Berlin, are both sending a few of their employees to a ski holiday-resort. They quarrel about who may win the prize in the coming contest but in the end they realise that cooperation is better than competition. Because "that is in the interest of the people", as the director of Saxonia explaines. How true this message is, the film delivers us a true socialist item in a light way.

Rudolf Prack plays the title role as the countryside-doctor in a small village on the heath in Lower-Saxony. Strangely the series turns to colour half way (colourised or real?). A fine and cosy atmosphere is created with such characters as the burgomaster (KURT GROSSKURTH) and Opa Stockmann (Henry Vahl), both semi-regulars. There are some notable guest appearances by Viktor Staal (in the thirties a leading man in German cinema), Heinrich Gretler (the Swiss "Heimatfilm"-regular) and even a young Horst Janson (yes, "Captain Kronos", the vampirehunter!).

THIS TIME RIGHT!

This could just as well have been an American tv-movie, the characters are very similar to those of US-soaps about doctors, patients and their relationships. It's fun to see former "Winnetou" Pierre Brice in one of his sporadic later appearances (he talks German, that's great!). The story is not too realistic but there is certainly some excitement and a lot of sentiment: the part in which Dr. Hofmann loses his Chinese girlfriend as she has cancer is really touching when he tries to save her from death, but every time I ask myself: "Why don't men ever REALLY cry in movies?(you almost never see tears with them)". Nevertheless, the scene is very emotional and well played, I nearly cried myself!

A couple of handsome teenage boys were the only reason for me to vote a "7" for this rather disappointing kids-adventure. With Matt Boston ("Ghosts that still walk", also by Flocker) in the cast, you would expect a traditional "Flocker-Trash-Movie", but this one turns out to be a rather dull and mediocre television-adventure.