If films could produce offspring, Master Of Love would be the love child of two other Italian comedies with brief appearances from Barbara Bouchet, The Golden Ass and Nights And Loves Of Don Juan.  So it's not too surprising that this averages out somewhere between the two.

Master Of Love follows notorious ladies man Lorenzo del Cambio (Rossano Brazzi) as he attempts to win a bet to bed the only woman in the land who is desired by all men, Lucrezia degli Uberti (Barbara Bouchet), but who refuses the advances of them all.  Along the way he recounts tales of passion and disaster to a young man whose "aristocratic" parents request Lorenzo take him on his journey that he may introduce him to the ways of the world with the hopes of "curing" their son of his introversion, and his obsession with art and poetry, to become more interested in the fairer sex and maintain their family lineage.

On paper Master Of Love has a fair share of notable credits.  Written and directed by Brunello Rondi, a contributing writer on the Italian classic La Dolce Vita and wrote the screenplay for 8 1/2, he also wrote and directed Valeria dentro e fuori, a solid Barbara Bouchet led drama.  Throw in classic Italian actor Rossano Brazzi, and a buffet of gorgeous actresses from all over the globe and this film should have been pretty good.

For me the major issue with the film is Rondi turned the meat of the story into a anthology made up of lackluster semi-erotic tales.  A couple were mildly amusing, but a majority didn't make a whole lot of sense, perhaps the comedy was simply lost in translation.  What this format ultimately manages to do is waste the best aspect of the film, Rossano Brazzi, by reducing him to a narrator when he IS the comedic relief of a lukewarm story. 

The only thing that made most of the tales palatable was the eye candy provided by the rotating cast of actresses such as Swedish actress Janet Agren, French actress Tina Aumont, Italian actress Silvia Monti, German actress Karin Schubert, and of course Barbara Bouchet. 

Bouchet plays Lucrezia the ultimate conquest for Lorenzo, and is hinted at throughout the film as the unnamed infatuation of his young companion, but this is bizarrely tossed away at the end of the film when the two finally meet Lucrezia.  The young man says "that's her" but when they discover she's radically religious to the point she's whipping herself as some sort of purity ritual she's suddenly not of interest to either of them anymore.  Lorenzo is ready to turn tail and return home but decides to follow through with his pursuit of her after a brief ribbing from his travelling companion.

The brief encounter between Lorenzo and Lucrezia is probably the funniest part of the film as Lorenzo pretends to be a radical disciple as well, follows her into a field where she's being whipped for her sins by a young guy.  There she's complaining about how he's not whipping her hard enough and Lorenzo intervenes to show him how it's done.  The film then ends in a bizarre twist with Lorenzo's young companion taking his place as the new "Master Of Love" and Lorenzo wandering off into the wilderness to die, his final conquest being a very sexy looking woman whose supposed to be death.  

Overall, I think the film would be been more entertaining and stayed on course if the tales evolved Lorenzo, perhaps recounting of his former conquests, instead of him simply being the person narrating stories he had no involvement in.  This would have made the main plot feel less choppy and confusing.  In the end, Master Of Love, is a middle of the road Italian comedy, saved by the acting of Rossano Brazzi, and the amazing female cast.  If you're looking for a film that may introduce you to some lovely actresses that could lead you down the rabbit hole of Italian cult cinema then there may be some value here, it's simply too bad they weren't better utilized in a more cohesive story.

5/10

In the world of cult cinema sometimes the discovery is more satisfying than the consumption, and stumbling upon something featuring one of your favorite actresses that you never knew existed is the cherry on top!  Cool Million was a short lived television series that recently popped onto my radar, magically appearing on Barbara Bouchet's IMDb page where it had previously never been.  Even more surprising is how turned out to be pretty good.  

Cool Million aired on NBC during their Wednesday Night Movie Mystery production slate in 1972.  It starred James Farentino as private investigator Jefferson Keyes who catered to wealthy clients with a set fee of one million dollars.  The series failed to garner the desired ratings and was ultimately scraped after five episodes.  

The introductory episode, Mask Of Marcella, follows Keyes as he searches for the sole heir of a recently deceased, possibly murdered, tycoon named Raymond Pascal whose dying words were for his daughter Marcella.  Problem was to the best of anyone's knowledge Marcella had been missing for thirteen years.  In his will Pascal deemed that all his wealth would go to his daughter, and if she were not present to claim the funds then it would be distributed to various charities.  This news came as a shock to his arm candy "secretary" Carla Miles (Barbara Bouchet), who claimed to have recently married Pascal, and the general manager of his resort who had conveniently been one of the sole witnesses to said marriage.

Keyes becomes involved when a former teacher from the school where Marcella went missing reaches out to him. He claimed to have spotted her with an older man having a meal at the restaurant he was now employed at.  Hoping to clear his reputation, as he was the person in charge the night she went missing, he implores Keyes to take up the case, ensuring he'll be substantially rewarded by the estate if he were to locate her.  Keyes flies to Athens and comes to an agreement with the executor of the estate, if he can locate Marcella before the probate hearing in a week he'll be paid his one million dollar fee.  With that wrapped up he proceeds to the scene of the "accident", Pacal's resort Club International, where he's quickly greeted with some stiff opposition from the management and the lovely Carla Miles who are planning to contest the will. 

Things start to heat up quickly when they learn that Keyes has been hired to look for the missing daughter.  It becomes evidently clear they have something to hide and Keyes finds wooing Miles to be a good insurance policy, as the game of cat and mouse runs deeper the more he investigates, spanning multiple countries and shady individuals all possibly linked to an even larger plot. 

For a very short lived series I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed the premiere episode.  At a runtime of over an hour and a half long (without commercials) it's essentially a stand alone made for TV film.  While the story is pretty campy, it was one of the better comparable American productions to what is internationally referred to the euro-spy film genre.  With a fair amount of twists and turns, many predictable and a few not so much, Mask Of Marcella managed to not only keep my attention but be fairly enjoyable.

Barbara Bouchet plays a familiar supporting character, a beautiful and mysterious woman whose loyalties are constantly questionable.  While it's far from a unique role for her the long format of the episode lends her a longer screen time than previously seen in other American productions.  Overall, Mask Of Marcella is an entertaining diversion, the series likely failed because it was a little ahead of it's time with its long running film style format, or possibly the writers simply ran out of ideas and maybe the followup episodes, which were also over an hour in length as well, became too repetitious.  Either way if you're looking for an obscure Barbara Bouchet appearance, or an Americanized style euro-spy outing this may be worth looking into. 

7/10

It's not uncommon for actors to have a particular role or a specific scene linked to them for their entire career.  For Ursula Andress it was strolling out of the ocean in that skimpy bikini in the first James Bond film Dr. No.  For Marilyn Monroe it was standing over an air vent and her dress blowing up in The Seven Year Itch. And for Barbara Bouchet it's often a particular scene in Non si sevizia un paperino [Don't Torture A Duckling] that not only helped to solidify the giallo as one the of most popular films in the Italian sub-genre but also became the scene that will forever be one of the most memorable to fans... oh yea and the film is pretty good too!

Don't Torture A Duckling takes place in a remote Italian village where a series of brutal murders of young boys sparks massive panic among the residents.  Every time the police think they've caught the killer another murder occurs, leaving them more stumped than before.  Could it be the town's perverted peeping tom who threatens to kill the boys who caught him spying?  Maybe it's the crazy witch who fashioned three voodoo dolls of boys that are later found dead?  Or the stunning socialite who recently returned to escape her drug problems in the big city and flirtively teases the young boys.  Or maybe it's the town's local priest who seems way too involved in the lives of the town's young boys.

The success of Don't Torture a Duckling lies squarely on the fact the story keeps you guessing until the very end.  Anyone could be the killer because almost everyone is setup to look like one.  Barbara Bouchet plays Patrizia the "formally" drug addicted socialite, her character is the most interesting, receiving a very memorable introduction as she's tanning in the buff in her living room and mentally toys with a young boy who brings her something to drink, one of the boys whose later murdered.  It may be one of Bouchet's most erotic scenes in a large repertoire if not at the very least a burning introduction to her character.

Following Bouchet's performance is Florinda Bolkan in the role of the "witch" Maciara.  In terms of acting Bolkan gives the best performance in the film as a mentally disturbed woman tortured by loss in her past, a past that may have damaged her enough to turn her into a murderer?  The story puts forth a convincing case of motive but you're left with mixed emotions during a brutal scene where the father's of the murdered children enact their own "justice" upon her.

Overall Don't Torture a Duckling is the quintessential Italian thriller, leaving nothing on the table and no one off the chopping block.  It chronicles the horror of murder and the mass hysteria that incites a small town with no answers.  Definitely a giallo that hits a little harder than the standard films in the genre and that's likely due to the fact that in this case the main victims are children. 

For Barbara Bouchet fans this film may be regarded as her most popular, in terms of the role itself it's not her best.  While she has an average amount of screen time she doesn't play a huge part aside from the eye candy scene near the beginning.  While it's well worth the price of admission there's a lot better roles she's had in her vast filmography.  For strictly giallo fans this one strays away from being so over-the-top as many of the other entries in the genre, playing a much more straight murder mystery plot.  Some may find that boring, but I think to the majority that's a reason why the film always seems to be among fan's Top 10.

8/10

When it comes to giallo films there's a handful of titles that stand out as the most notable and recognizable in the genre, La dama rossa uccide sette volte (aka The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) is one of those films.  While it may not break the mold it's a solid example of a well crafted Italian thriller that checks all the boxes.

The story focuses on the legend of the Wildenbrück castle curse and the torrid relationship of two sisters known as The Red and Black Queen.  It began with one sibling (The Red Queen) continually harassing her sister (The Black Queen) when they were children, when they became older The Black Queen obtained her revenge by murdering The Red Queen.  Soon after The Red Queen rose from the dead and murdered a total of seven people, the seventh victim being her sister The Black Queen.  This was the first instance of the "curse" which would reoccur every one hundred years with a new pair of sisters who grew up in the castle. 

This story is passed down at the beginning of the film to a young Kitty and Evelyn Wildenbrück by their wheelchair bound grandfather after Evelyn steals her sister's doll and proceeds to stab it repeatedly.  Jump to present time when the girls have grown up and we learn of Evelyn's "disappearance" following a sighting of The Red Queen of the grounds of the castle after Kitty's grandfather is found dead.  It's revealed that Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) and her other sister Franziska (Marina Malfatti) have been hiding a secret, while they've been telling people Evelyn moved to America the truth is Evelyn is dead, her body decaying in the basement of the castle.  With their grandfather being the first victim of The Red Queen, tensions begin to rise that the legend is true and Evelyn has risen from the grave to claim her revenge!

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is the quintessential 1970's giallo experience that has a balanced mixture of everything you've come to expect from the genre without it going off the rails, a killer soundtrack, thrills, blood and beauties.  While the film may not break the mold like some entries (The Bloodstained Lawn) it nails the basics and gives viewers a solid Italian thriller experience.  Great performances from "Queen of Deep Cleavage" Marina Malfatti who flawlessly nails that cold personalty character she's so good at portraying.  Along side a rare Italian film appearance from a young Austrian knockout Sybil Danning who lends the film most of it's sex appeal.  It's a shame Danning went to the US and started making awful American B-movies because she was better suited for Italian films.  

As for Barbara Bouchet she's finally back in a lead role and handles it magnificently as the tortured sister waiting to be the final victim of The Red Queen.  She nails the terrified reaction over and over again, and it was nice to see her play a slightly different character than she normally does.  

Overall there's nothing overly critical that can be said out about The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, if you're a fan of the more over-the-top giallos it may come off as a little tamer, but it terms of the quality of the production, acting and story it's hard to argue that's it's not among the top.  I found myself enjoying it more this second time around than I did when I first watched it ten years ago.  Ultimately there's something for everyone here so if you're watching it for a particular actor or simply a fan of the genre I think you'll be happy either way.

8/10

Of all the films Barbara Bouchet has appeared in Forza 'G' aka Winged Devils may rank among the most unique.  It's a film I have no clue why it exists if not only at the behest of the real Gianni Orlando, a wealthy and full of himself pilot (credited as both writer and consultant) on this oddly produced film centered around him and aeronautic acrobats.

Riccardo Salvino stars as Lieutenant Gianni Orlando a wealthy flying enthusiast, who at a very young age dreamed of being an aeronautic pilot.  When he grew up he used his mother's influential connections and a lot of personal drive to squeeze his way onto the Italian aeronautic acrobats program by persistently tailing, or essentially harassing, the head of the program in his airplane until the he agree to let him join so he could finally have some peace.

But that was only the beginning of Gianni's problems.  While now a part of the program he was on the second team as the reserve to the reserve pilot, which meant he never got to fly during any of the competitions.  When the team loses the cup to the British everyone agrees it's time to come up with some fresh ideas, but no one has any.  That is until Gianni comes up with an idea of rolling the planes over each other during a fling with his one of many beautiful women.  It's an idea could definitely win back the cup and maybe finally give him the chance to fly in the solo position on the team.  That is if it passes scrutiny of the General and of course the two guys ahead of him are otherwise engaged!

Winged Devils is a very obscure film and I was surprised to stumble upon this English version.  Suffice to say if you're a fan of aeronautics this is the film for you.  It's really more a documentary of aerial shots and acrobatic flight maneuvers set to a mildly amusing yet thinly constructed plot.  While the story begins to stretch a little thin somewhere around the halfway mark, it still oddly managed to hold my attention for almost two hours, likely due to the combination of fluffy comedic moments, the amazing score by Ennio Morricone and the number of Italian cult film femme fatales that cameo.

While none of the ladies make an appearance for any longer than a couple minutes max they packed in well known Italian cult film actresses like Magda Konopka, Anita Strindberg, Kitty Swan, and of course the entire reason I sought this film out Barbara Bouchet.  Out of all the cameos Bouchet's appearance is by far the longest at around five minutes, and also the only one out of the group whose character has a name.  She plays Karin, the fling of the reserve pilot ahead of Gianni who decides to fake sick to give Gianni a chance to fly in competition since it's his idea their using to win back the up.  Karin pretends to be a nurse when Gianni shows up unannounced to make sure he's actually "sick".

Unfortunately Barbara Bouchet's scene in the English version is very edited.  The Italian version contains numerous butt shots which were removed from the English version.  In doing this they also had to try and remove the reactions from Gianni's friend and the doctor to Bouchet's butt being displayed, which is a running gag throughout the scene.  To make it even more confusing she speaks English in both cuts, so in comparison her lines in the English version don't make a whole lot of sense as she is expressing she doesn't understand what they are saying to her (because she doesn't understand Italian).  In the English version this simply comes off like she's dumb, when really it's a scene that doesn't work when everyone is speaking English.

If you're looking for a palate cleanser Winged Devils definitely fits the bill, it's not only outside the normal repertoire of Barbara Bouchet but it's quite different from any Italian film I've seen and truly deserving of the label of "cult".  With that said it's very niche, so if you're not a huge fan of aeronautics it may not be for you.  I can't say I'd likely watch it again myself but it was an interesting change of pace and for the subject matter I'm not really sure how they could have done a better job.

6/10

One of the most appealing aspects about cult films is they don't have to play by any industry rules, but at times this can also be a double edged sword as a director can get too carried away and the result is a twisted mix of concepts that simply don't complement each other.

The French Sex Murders opens up with thief Antoine Gottvalles (Pietro Martellanza) stealing a large assortment of jewels then making beeline to his favorite French brothel run by Madame Colette (Anita Ekberg) to pay a visit to his favorite girl Francine (Barbara Bouchet).  Antoine appears to no longer be a welcome patron of the brothel, but when he lays down a large wad of cash Madame Collette grants him one more brief final visit.  Upstairs he showers Francine with his recent heist of jewels and promises her much more if she leaves the brothel and is exclusive with only him.  She coyly patronizes his proposition which aggravates him and leads him to start smacking her around.  The scene ends with Antoine quickly leaving the brothel to which we quickly learn after that Francine has been murdered.

With Antoine being the last seen with Francine alive he is the prime suspect and the target of a manhunt lead by Inspector Fontaine (Robert Sacchi).  He heads to his ex-wife's apartment, Marianne (Rosalba Neri), to seek help but she's with her new lover Pepi (Rolf Eden) and his angry protests outside her door are met with denial to help hide him.  Eventually he's caught, brought to trial and sentenced to death by guillotine.  Antoine maintains he's innocent and that everyone involved in his death will meet similar fate when he returns from the dead to seek his revenge.  

No one thinks much of his threats until he escapes custody, and sends the police on a high speed pursuit, which eventually leads to a gruesome death.  Following his demise, just as he threatened, those who sentenced him began dying horrible deaths one by one.  It's up to Inspector Fontaine to try and pinpoint who the killer is before it's too late!

The best way to describe The French Sex Murders is a soap opera giallo.  Everything in the film has a soap opera feel from the lighting, the camera shots, the script and the overacting.  The scene where Antoine goes to his ex-wife's apartment and starts beating on the door when she won't open up is so hilarious because you can tell he's barely hitting the door yet he's over embellishing it and acting like he's beating it in, there are numerous scenes like this.

The acting and dubbing is awful.  While I don't expect award winning performances from actors in these types of films, I've watched enough films with Barbara Bouchet, Rosabla Neri and Anita Ekberg to know they have more talent than a soap star, but it's not evident here.  I'll give Barbara Bouchet a pass, her character once again is killed off almost immediately so she has about five minutes total in the film.  Neri and Ekberg both have more screen-time but are as stiff and bland as the rest of the cast.

Then there's Robert Sacchi, the knockoff Humphrey Bogart... I've got nothing against his performance, he's an excellent Humphrey Bogart impersonator (that's what his entire career was based on), it's the combination of him as an Inspector in France with a thick New York accent in an Italian giallo slasher film that simply doesn't work.  It's like having John Wayne in a Spaghetti Western, it may be a novelty idea on paper but on screen it doesn't match with the time period or the setting of the film.

Ultimately the failure of most of these issues has to be pinned on the director / writer Ferdinando Merighi.  Should not come as any surprise this was one of only three films he directed, although he was assistant director on sixteen others so he had some experience.  Ultimately it looks like Merighi made a very novice mistake and tried to cram everything he liked into one film (a la The Lost Empire) the result is a film that's off.  Granted The French Sex Murders is far from the worst film I've ever watched but maybe worse than hating a film is being entirely indifferent to it.

Where the film fails I guess it could be said it also succeeds, at least in the sense you'll likely have no problems sitting through it solely to see where it's going and how bad it gets.  That's great for a first time viewing but I doubt it holds up as well on a second pass through.  Ultimately it's a film for the giallo completest.  Barbara Bouchet is once again underused, Rosabla Neri is greatly wasted and Ekberg is approaching the end of her career and the period where she clearly accepted any role.  To some this may be on their "so bad it's good" list.  For myself, I'm so indifferent to this film it has literally taken me over a month since viewing it to complete this review.

5/10

If you're looking for a Barbara Bouchet film that's a little outside the norm of Italian cornball comedy and serial killer slashers then look no further than the little psychotic drama Valeria dentro e fuori (Valerie Wife Of David).  While the finer details of the film could have been a little more clearer, Valerie Wife Of David is a decent vehicle to showcase Barbara's true acting chops and not simply her physical assets.

As the title suggests, Valerie Wife Of David stars Barbara Bouchet as Valeria the emotionally disturbed wife of composer and choreographer David Rocchi (Pier Paolo Capponi).  From the start of the film it's pretty clear their marriage is on the rocks, Valeria resents her husband for constantly working and treating her like a possession, and for supposedly not being interested in having a child.  She spends most of her days locked up in their apartment going stir crazy from lack of human interaction and disturbing thoughts and dreams.

To try and recoup her sanity Valeria decides to get a job, but David is apathetic that she'll have any success in keeping one.  Things seem to go well at the start but Valeria soon finds herself being overwhelmed with sexual thoughts around other men sometimes leading her to expose herself to them.  Her breaking point is when she comes on to David's brother Marco in the elevator.  After David learns of this Valeria snaps and turns violent, leading David to commit her to a mental institution.

The second half of the film centers around Valeria's time in the mental institution, her spiral into what is diagnosed as schizophrenia with erotic tendencies, and her interaction with the residents at the facility, mainly Evi (Erna Schurer) a former model who exhibits similar behavior.  

The largest flaw with the film is the spotty back story of Valeria's illness, whether her encounters with other men are real or imagined and the confusion many people seem to have in misinterpreting that David is somehow the root cause of Valeria's insanity, with the few summaries on IMDB incorrectly stating that David refuses to have sex with her because he doesn't want a child.  While David is definitely a cold and emotionless character there's no indication that he is why Valeria goes nuts, and to the contrary David bluntly asks Valeria she wants to have sex a couple of times in the first part of the film only to be immediately turned down.

Near the middle of the film, following Valeria's encounter in the elevator with David's brother, the main reason for Valeria's state is revealed by David when he tells his brother that she wants a child very badly but "Valeria can't have children" and she "can't seem to get over it".  This seems to suggest she cannot physically get pregnant, and her inability to come to terms with this has consumed her for so long that she's gone mad, to the point that she has begun to blame David and seek out (or fantasize) other men thinking they'll give her what she longs for.

If you catch this brief explanation the film makes a little more sense and isn't something as blatantly petty as David not wanting children, despite David's seemingly cold behavior towards Valeria you have to take into consideration that it's likely his behavior towards her is due to years of having to deal with Valeria's condition and the film shows the last stage of that relationship not the journey that got it there.  Considering David pays for Valeria's treatment and frequently comes and checks up on her suggests he does actually care about her to some degree.

All that aside the silver lining of the film is Barbara Bouchet's performance.  Once again this is another rare occasion where Barbara is actually the star of the film and not simply given top billing for a five minute role.  Much like her brief role in the cult classic Colpo rovente [Red Hot Shot] Barbara proves she's more than simply a sex symbol, and shines in a role that's pretty dark and very serious.  Whether it's the bitter, emotionally distraught house wife or full on sex crazed schizophrenic Barbara Bouchet puts 100% into this role and shows her true acting talent that's not always front and center in some of her more comedic performances.  

With that said overall, Valerie Wife Of David is still a mediocre story that doesn't do a very good job setting up the backstory of the main character and quickly progresses through a mental disorder in what appears to be a matter of days.  Saved by Barbara Bouchet's performance alone, it's worth checking out if you're a big fan, but otherwise if you're looking for a really good film that explores schizophrenia then I'd suggest A Beautiful Mind.

6/10

My main critique of the many films we've reviewed in the Barbara Bouchet film series thus far has been due to the lack of screen time she receives especially in films where she's given top billing.  Those reoccurring instances where she seems to be used sparingly but at the same time is the center of the film's advertising campaign.  It's a cycle of disservice that is finally rectified with the notorious Italian thriller Alla ricerca del piacere, or Amuck.

Amuck stars Barbara Bouchet as Gretta Franklin, a hired secretary from a New York publishing company who travels to Italy to transcribe a new novel for the famous writer Richard Stuart (Farley Granger).  It's a position she requested with the secret motive of investigating the disappearance of Stuart's previous secretary, her childhood friend Sally Reece.  Up until recently Gretta had been in regular contact with Sally via letter, but there last correspondence Sally appeared to be very disturbed and frantic.    

It doesn't take very long to figure out Richard and his eccentric wife Eleanora (Rosalba Neri) are clearly hiding the truth regarding Sally's disappearance, and when Gretta trips up and reveals her connection to Sally she becomes the prey in the Stuart's game of cat and mouse.  Richard begins to dictate a new story-line one in which he details the murder and disposal of the body of someone who sounds a whole lot like Sally.  With it now clear her cover is blown Gretta scrambles to find any solid evidence that she can to provide the police as to the Stuart's involvement, but they are two steps ahead of her, toying with her at every turn as they prepare to go in for the kill!

Amuck often gets lumped into the giallo sub-genre of Italian thrillers, yet in comparison it's far from your standard giallo story-line.  For me the film has a much more comparable Hitchcock vibe with a mixture of psycho-sexual flavoring.  Unlike your standard giallo the identity of the killer(s) isn't really a mystery here, and the suspense comes from whether or not the main character (Bouchet) can expose the truth to the police, while being toyed with both emotionally and physically, and make it out alive.

In terms of performances thus far for Barbara Bouchet, Amuck is by far her best and largest film role.  It's a genre I think fits her much better than the shallow and repetitive Italian comedies she frequented later in her career.  Farley Granger and Rosalba Neri are decent adversaries, and of course the film is widely known for the fairly erotic scene where Neri's character slips Barbara a roofie and proceeds to take advantage of her.  But for most of the film Neri is more a willing accomplice to the perverted wiles of her husband and her character really never gets explored in a whole lot of depth.  This works alright because the focus of the film is really meant to be more on the progression of Bouchet's character.

Overall, if you're a Barbara Bouchet fan this is likely a film you'll find very enjoyable, one of her beefiest roles and one in which she bares all on multiple occasions.  If you're simply a giallo fan then you'll likely find less enjoyment here as in comparison to the serial killer slashers that the genre had begun to morph into around this time Amuck is relatively slow and uneventful in comparison.  While the film does manage a few twist and turns most of them are relatively predictable, or at best not that surprising.  

8/10

Strap on your sidearm, light up your cigarette, slap around a few prostitutes, and be hypnotized by the writhing of Barbara Bouchet whose hips didn't lie long before Shakira came along.  Caliber 9 is recognized by many as one of the classic Italian poliziotteschi (euro crime) films from Fernando Di Leo, one of the top directors and writers in the genre.

Caliber 9 is the first in what is referred to as Fernando Di Leo's Milieu Trilogy.  Gastone Moschin is Ugo Piazza, fresh off a three year prison sentence after foiling a robbery.  His old gang believes he got caught on purpose after allegedly stealing $300,000 in cash that went missing during a prior job, now the main boss, Americano, wants his money back and has his thugs hot on Ugo's tail the instant he's let out.  Constantly harassed by both the police and sleazy Rocco Musco (Mario Adorf) Ugo maintains he never took the money and tries to regain some semblance of a normal life, but his old gang won't let it go.

Eventually Ugo is forced back into his old crime life by his old boss Americano, and put under the service of the loud mouth Rocco Musco.  He tells his girlfriend, lounge club dancer Nelly Borden (Barbara Bouchet) the only way to get them off his back is to play along with them and eventually flush out who actually stole the money.  But getting his job back isn't a pass on his "alleged" discrepancies but more of a way for them to keep a closer eye on him, in fact a few of Ugo's old friends quickly become entangled in Ugo's problems.

For those looking for a average entry level introduction into the euro crime genre Caliber 9 is a good place to start.  With a respectable cast, catchy Italian  soundtrack from progressive rock band Osanna, and a few well executed plot twists at the end it's a pretty decent film and one of the genre's more well known entries.  For me though the film isn't amazing, while it has it's moments the story is pretty simple yet most of the film is comprised of a lot of repetitive talk, very little action and most of the characters (with the exception of Mario Adorf) are incredibly bland.

Once again (and I'm sure I'm sounding like a broken record by now) Barbara Bouchet steals the show and at the same time see's very little screen time.  There's no denying her character's table top dancing introduction scene is essentially what this film is remembered for, along with a slew of promotional photos for the film that feature her nude, which ironically she never appears so in the film. 

If it wasn't for the dancing scene and Mario Adorf's over-the-top performance Caliber 9 would be lost in the sea of Italian crime films and would likely be regarded as fairly boring.  Simply watch Fernando Di Leo's second film in the trilogy, The Italian Connection, and witness the difference.  With that said I don't think Caliber 9 is horrible, it's a decent beginning to Di Leo's trilogy and a fair representation of a standard run of the mill euro crime.

6/10

Long before mainstream internet access the Italian film industry had cornered the market on what we now refer to as "click-bait" and effectively "trolled" audiences back in the 1970's with numerous films "starring" Barbara Bouchet whose spicy five minute appearances made up the entire marketing campaign of the film.  Yet upon actual viewing you quickly realize you've once again been setup.

Set in the middle ages Una cavalla tutta nuda (aka A Naked Mare) stars Don Backy as Folcacchio de Folcacchieri, a sorta conman who returns home and ropes his friend Gulfardo de Bardi (Renzo Montagnani) into accompanying him on a journey to deliver a message to the Bishop of Volterra. 

What turns into a simple mission quickly gets out of hand as the first person they run into is a poor farmer with a stubborn mule.  The two give the farmer a ride home and meet his beautiful wife Gemmata (Barbara Bouchet).  Folcacchio is instantly infatuated with her and cooks up a scheme to get her naked.  Over dinner he spins a tale about his ability to turn people into animals, and convinces the naive farmer that he can turn his wife into a horse which will help to plow their land much more effective than their stubborn mule.

Both the farmer and Gemmata are excited at this prospect, but Folcacchio says Gemmata must be naked for the transformation to be able to take place.  Proceeding to the barn Gemmata strips down and Folcacchio proceeds to grope her as her dimwitted husband faces away from them and repeats a bogus incantation.  As Folcacchio is about to proceed in "mounting" Gemmata, her husband turns around and puts a stop to his scheme.

The next day Folcacchio and Gulfardo resume their journey, and spend the rest of the film either trying to procure clothing, bedding any woman they can or escaping death whether it be at the hands of the Bishop or a gang of priests whom they stole a bunch of gold coins from.  None of these exploits manage to be that amusing and in the entire one hour and forty minute run-time I managed to chuckle only a couple of times, the funniest scene being near the end where the two return home with the gold they stole and a caravan of priests show up and beat the crap out of them and take the money back.

Barbara Bouchet makes one more brief appearance at film's conclusion bringing the story full circle when Folcacchio returns home and the farmer desperate for a horse once again pleads that he transforms his wife.  Folcacchio takes his horse and Gemmata in the barn, dresses his horse up like her and runs off into the sunset with Gemmata both laughing at her husband's stupidity.

Overall Una cavalla tutta nuda is another Italian comedy that exploits Barbara Bouchet's presence, going as far to give her top billing in the opening credits when she's not even a minor supporting character.  Tack on the film's overly bloated run-time and it quickly becomes almost a chore to watch.  The beginning, a couple parts in the middle, and the end are decent, but as a whole this film should have been edited down to about an hour and some change to be mildly entertaining, or they should have inserted Bouchet into the plot as a tag along character as she was in Il debito coniugale to make the rest of the film watchable.

3/10

Non commettere atti impuri (Don't Commit Impure Deeds) is a film that tries to be a commentary on society while exploring the emotional roller coaster of a young man in love, all under the guise of a "comedy".  But attempting to conquer those subjects one on one is a large enough endeavor; trying to take them on at the same time, in a semi campy fashion, simply doesn't bode well.

Dado Crostarosa plays Pino a guy in his late teens to early twenties who appears to be the only bread winner in his family.  He spends his days painting flowers on plates that a local gift shop sells to tourists, meanwhile his father Damiano (Luciano Salce) spends his days spreading communist propaganda with the local rebellion.  Left alone with Pino is his father's live-in girlfriend, the overly flirtatious Nadin (Barbara Bouchet), a French exchange student on an overdue visa.  Her constant flirtatious behaviors or half naked parading around are a constant reminder to Pino what his life is lacking.

While Nadin is definitely hot, she doesn't ignite his heart like Maria Teresa (Simonetta Stefanelli), the Catholic school girl next door whose frequently sitting on the porch outside his room attempting to learn Latin.  Maria lives with her mother and grandmother, all three are extremely religious and look down upon Pino's father and Nadin's relationship, especially since Daminao is still techically married, but they seem to have a real interest in Pino.  Her mother is excited that Pino has agreed to assist Maria in her Latin studies, and they use the opportunity to try and persuade him to visit the local Priest and become baptized.

Pino has little interest in religion but Maria makes it clear that she can only be in a relationship with someone who shares her beliefs.  Eventually his feelings towards her become so strong he agrees to talk to Padre Spiridone, who puts him through a lengthy course of repetitious phrases and procedures.  All seems to be going well until Maria's uncle Giacomo (Claudio Gora) comes to visit and the overall mood drastically changes.  Giacomo seems overly threaten by Pino's presence, correcting his tutoring methods and eventually forcibly taking over the teaching of Maria.  Maria's mom is no longer happy to see Pino, and tension grows as it's clear Giacomo has some perverted hold over the family.

As Pino begins to dive into a pit of depression, he turns to his father for some comfort, but Damiano doesn't know how to be a father, he instead takes Pino to one of his radical political group meetings and introduces him as his younger brother.  At the meeting Pino gets roped into carrying a home made (non-lethal) bomb that he's supposed to drop off at a certain location the next day to send a message to a visiting politician.  Instead he follows Maria and her uncle and shockingly discovers what's going on with Giacomo and the twisted situation Maria and her family are in.  

While Non commettere atti impuri pokes a lot at the hypocrisy those many who claim to be religious (in this case Catholics) the film presents the very flawed nature of all the characters who often come off as very self indulgent, even Pino.  While the film has enough going for it to keep in mildly entertaining, the story never seems to progress much until the final thirty minutes where the writers get tired of playing cat and mouse with the characters and simply unleash the proverbial mayhem.

Barbara Bouchet is once again used as advertising bait.  Prior to watching this film I always thought from the posters and majority of stills that it revolved around the main character being smitten with her, yet in reality she's used more as a random distraction throughout the film to hold viewers attention.  It's not until the final scene, after Pino is completely fed up with everything his been through, that he makes a move on Nadin.  If Non commettere atti impuri is remembered for anything that's likely that final scene.

Overall, the ultimate problem with Non commettere atti impuri is that the story isn't that interesting.  Maria as the main love interest is bland, especially when prancing around Pino's house all day is Nadin who is not only the most beautiful girl in the film but also has the most personality of all the characters.  It was a missed opportunity to not have the film revolve around Pino falling for her, keep the father as a nutcase revolutionist and maybe throw Maria in as Pino's jealous plain girlfriend; a storyline such a this would have presented the film with a lot more comedic opportunities, Barbara Bouchet would have more screen-time and the film would have been greatly improved.  Instead the film tries to tackle too much while at the same time focusing on the least interesting characters, leaving you not caring about anyone.

6/10

With a couple hundred films in the giallo sub-genre, La tarantola dal ventre nero or Black Belly Of The Tarantula stands among the most well known films, likely due to it's all-star cast of Italian cult film contributors.  But as another film whose popularity is often centered around Barbara Bouchet's brief appearance, how does the film stand on it's own after she's quickly killed off in the first fifteen minutes?

The film opens with one of it's most recognizable scenes, Barbara Bouchet as Maria Zani, completely nude, receiving a massage from a blind masseur.  She receives a phone call and promptly returns home where's she's smacked around by her estranged husband who received a picture of her half naked with another man.  When she refuses to explain herself he storms off, later that night she's brutally murdered!

With a murder investigation now underway the main character, Inspector Tellini's (Giancarlo Giannini), main suspect is Zani's husband, but when another murder occurs soon after in the same manner it's beginning to look a little more complicated than simply a domestic dispute.  There may be a serial killer on the loose with a demented pleasure of killing women.  The killer's modus operandi is to inject a paralyzing agent into the back of the victim's neck, rendering them unable to move or speak, then to cut them open as they lay there and watch.

Black Belly Of The Tarantula is a very good standard giallo film for someone new to the genre as it's a film that optimizes, to a large part, what the genre morphed into in the 70's and early 80's.  The cast is great with quite a few recognizable faces and the writers tried to build a story around Tellini's growing inner struggle with whether or not he should continue to be a detective.  This helps to expand the story and prevents it from simply being a standard one sided slasher film.

My biggest complaint about the film is there is very little build up to the grand reveal at the end.  In fact the story seems to operate in reverse of a standard pacing format by starting off fast pace and gradually winding down.  This doesn't ruin the film but it throws most of the good scenes, and kills off the best actress, in the first fifteen to twenty minutes.  The rest of the time the film starts to become quite predictable regarding whose going to die next, who the murderer likely is and who they're coming for in the end.  While this doesn't diminish the entertainment value of the film completely, it does stifle much of the suspense.

For Barbara Bouchet fans, much like her role in Nights and Loves of Don Juan, she is used as advertising bait, her scenes are easily the most remembered, and are the scenes often featured in the film's promotional material, yet her screen time is under ten minutes.  Claudine Auger though billed as one of the main cast members also makes only very brief and sporadic appearances throughout the film with little dialog, and Barbara Bach is seemingly thrown in as an after thought both at the very beginning and very end.  So if you're going into this film thinking any of the major cult actresses are going to see much screen time be prepared for disappointment.

With that said Black Belly Of The Tarantula isn't by any means a horrible film, but aside from the recognizable cast, and the Barbara Bouchet scenes, there isn't anything about the film that really makes it stand out as a top tier giallo, at least it wouldn't be in my Top 10.  But in terms of the more easily accessible and recognizable films in the sub-genre it's definitely a film that's worth watching, and a good place to start for those looking to get their feet wet.

7/10

Barbara Bouchet leaves little to the imagination in Nokaut (aka The Rogue (US title) Donne sopra, femmine sotto (Italian title)) a low budget euro-crime film from a Yugoslavian director and writing team that often creates flashes of déjà vu of another under appreciated Italian euro-crime film, Colpo rovente [Red Hot Shot].

Lucky unknown Yugoslavian actor Milan Galovic, in his only starring film role (with credits in only two films total), is Marko a twenty something, low level con man who makes a living stealing artwork from churches, pimping himself out to female American tourists and pulling con jobs.  His parents unaware of his shady practices urge him to get a job, but he's ashamed of them and his small village and sees potential in his next con finally breaking him free of his meager upbringing.

Having recently returned from an extended stay in America where he rubbed elbows (and more) with a lovely and wealthy New York real-estate tycoon Barbara Nelson (Barbara Bouchet).  Marko has a sloppy plan to woo her on her upcoming visit to Italy, convince her to marry him and gain control of her wealth.  Of course Barbara doesn't know that Marko is nothing but a thief, so to keep up appearances and earn some quick cash to make himself look successful he gets mixed up with some big boys in the local drug smuggling ring.  

He takes the drugs he's paid to deliver and turns around and sells them to their competition, dropping off an empty box at the delivery location.  Shockingly the drug dealers don't take too kindly to being two timed, Marko plays stupid but they give him one day to find the drugs or he'll pay with his life.  To his own detriment Marko is confident that he can marry Barbara and get out of the country before then, but things quickly begin to spiral out of control as he begins to get too sloppy with all his side hustles, including a pursuance of local tour guide Olga (Margaret Lee) on top of everything else!

The Rogue is one of those films if you look close enough you can see the massive amount of potential it could have had if it had been placed in the right hands.  I couldn't help but think about Colpo rovente [Red Hot Shot] a film so similar in subject matter and execution that suffered because of the similar faults of the director / writers that are also present in this film.  But even with it's flaws The Rogue does a good job at portraying the highs and inevitable lows of someone on the adrenaline rush of making fast money, blowing it and then having to go even deeper into depravity to climb back up.  

A seemingly constant complaint about these films is flow, the lack of the director's and writer's ability to flush out the story.  The often poor, or even lack of background information into character relationships or events often leave this film layered with plot holes.  For example most of Marko's relationships are barely explained, so we witness multiple interactions with people we have zero clue who they are, or the background info is so quick and choppy it only makes it more confusing.  Margaret Lee's appearance (while I'm not complaining) simply feels out of place and her involvement in the film's conclusion seems like a rushed attempt to give her character a point, and it doesn't work.  Then the multiple cut scenes of teenagers getting mauled in the streets of Italy by adults is a bizarre side commentary that with no context will only leave viewers confused who aren't familiar with the era or culture.

The Rogue (also much like Colpo rovente [Red Hot Shot]) tries and utterly fails to replicate the artsy shots that are made famous by Italian director Federico Fellini.  Whether it be the spray painting of the two nude girls on the island (who we're supposed to know), the never ending 35mm camera footage Marko seems to always have on him, or the sporadic love making scenes where it appears the camera man is paying more attention to Barbara Bouchet than where he's pointing the camera.  After a while it all becomes a little nauseating, and as Barbara says in one of the many camera footage scenes herself "boring".

On the plus side if up to this point in the early career of Barbara Bouchet you've complained you haven't seen enough of her, that is swiftly put to rest here.  Not only is The Rogue one of her larger supporting cast appearances to this point but she bares all for 85 to 90% of the time she's on screen.  Whether it's speeding around the Italian countryside in a sports car completely nude, or the countless romps with Marko, she leaves nothing to the imagination.  With that said the love making scenes are beyond campy, and I think the amount of tongue action would actually make the French blush.  But one has to acknowledge Milan Galovic essentially won the lottery in getting this role, for only being in two films he spends 10% of the time pressed against a nude Barbara Bouchet and Margaret Lee, two of the hottest women in Italian cult cinema, not a bad way to end your brief acting career.

Overall, The Rogue is a film that's likely to appeal to hardcore obscure euro-crime fans, if you've seen and enjoyed the literal hot mess of Colpo rovente [Red Hot Shot] you're likely to find a similar amount of enjoyment here and can recognize the potential that this film could have really had.  If not you'll probably find yourself overly bored by the pace, the plot holes and the general sloppiness of the editing and direction.   

7/10

The Man With The Icy Eyes marks Barbara Bouchet's first foray into one of Italy's most famous genres in the 1970's, giallo.  Taking a vein from the genre's earlier entries the film is more of a murder mystery thriller than the macabre slasher that the genre would eventually evolve into.  

Following the murder of a senator outside his home one night Italian reporter Eddie Mills (Antonio Sabato) hopes he can crack the case and achieve something that finally leads to him getting credited for his worked instead of being snubbed by his mildly discriminatory boss.  He sets out to try and uncover clues behind the murder and manages to fall for one of the leading witnesses Anne Saxe (Barbara Bouchet) a model / prostitute who was frequently seen in the company of the senator, and also had connections with the main suspect in the crime a man by the name of Valdes.

Eddie gathers enough evidence, and Anne's testimony hammers the final death nail that appears to confirm that Valdes is the murderer, which leads to his conviction and death sentence, but something doesn't add up. Eddie begins to feel he's helped to wrongly convict a man.  As he starts casing some of the loose ends, and begins questioning Anne's motives, he finds himself getting death threats by someone calling themselves The Man With The Icy Eyes.  And Eddie's gut feeling that the killer may still be on the loose grows stronger as key witnesses in the case, who may have more information, suddenly start dying in mysterious ways.

With time running out to find proof that the man on death row is innocent, and to save his own life, Eddie's reporter skills are put to the test, this could be the story that helps make a name for himself, or this could be the last thing he ever covers!

The Man With The Icy Eyes is one of the few Italian giallo films shot entirely in the United States, specifically Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This and the film's mystery thriller physique often lend comparisons to Lucio Fulci's 1969 classic One On Top Of The Other, which also uses another major American city as it's backdrop and shares some varying similarities in terms of story-line and execution.  It's likely the director of this film Alberto De Martino, took some inspiration from Fulci's film but ultimately that's about as close as these two films get.

In comparison The Man With The Icy Eyes simply cannot match the quality of writing, acting and pacing as One On Top Of The Other.  That's not to say the film isn't enjoyable, there's simply not anything overtly special about it, it's campy in all regards, a little choppy and hard to follow at times, but it does manage to hold your attention and concludes with a decent twist at the end.

Barbara Bouchet continues the trend of the sultry femme fatale that will leave you bouncing back and forth guessing whether her character is naive and innocent, or is she playing both sides of the field and can't be trusted.  She notably gives the film some much needed eye candy, sprinkled throughout the story, giving this average story a little flavor.

Overall, The Man With The Icy Eyes is okay.  There's nothing inherently awful about the film, though it does have some pace and consistency issues, but on the flip side there's nothing great about it either.  The twist at the end is decent and a little surprising, but after it's all said and done the film is about as average as you can get and ultimately forgettable.  If you're a Barbara Bouchet fan or a giallo completest then give it a go, it's definitely not the worst film you'll watch from the genre or Bouchet, but if you're looking to dip your toe into Italian thrillers there's definitely better places to start.

6/10

Nights and Loves of Don Juan follows the famed Spanish womanizer Don Giovanni Tenorio (Robert Hoffmann), a fictional character that dates back to Spain around 1630, a wealthy libertine who devoted his life to the sexual conquest of every beautiful woman he crossed paths with.  This incarnation of the character is a much more lighthearted representation than some of the earlier writings which were more violent and had strong religious overtones to the character's fate.

For Don Giovanni it doesn't take much to win over a woman's heart, and get her into bed.  With some foolish mumbo jumbo about willing to die just for a kiss their clothes simply melt off!  Every woman wants to be with him and every man wants to be him, or kill him.  His reputation proceeds him and everyone seems to openly be aware of his behavior, yet his status, wealth and the public humiliation of openly admitting your wife cheated on you, have at this point seemingly shielded him from any repercussions.  But as the saying goes "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". 

The film opens up with a man wooing a young woman from a windowsill, it's Don Giovanni's right hand man Paco, pretending to be him to butter up the recently returned Concetta from her time at a Catholic boarding school, daughter of local nobleman Consalvo, and step-daughter to Esmeralda (Barbara Bouchet) who just a few rooms over was being seduced by the real Don Giovanni.  But his plan to have Paco setup a preceding encounter with Concetta is interrupted when the father bursts in on Concetta's and then on Esmeralda, finding the real Don Giovanni hiding the the closet.  He manages to make a quick escape, but when Esmeralda discovers that Don Giovanni was simultaneously trying to bed her young step daughter while making love to her she becomes jealous and vows to go to the King to seek judgement.

The dominoes start to drop for Don Giovanni as Esmeralda feels betrayed that he'd even be interested in her immature step daughter over her, and another socialite Isabella Gonzales (Ira von Fürstenberg) is a little peeved Don Giovanni has never made a move on her.  So she publicity acts like he's a scoundrel to get his attention, which it does, but when he learns that she's tricked him he rejects her and calls her the only woman in town to be rejected by him.  This makes her furious, and she hires some men to kill him, which leads to a close battle and him waking up wounded in a local monastery.

Waking up to the beautiful face of sister Maddalena (Annabella Incontrera) he instantly begins to try seducing her, which leads to him being kicked out and brought before the King of Seville, were he and Paco are promptly banished to Berber in Algeria.  It's here he becomes the special guest of Sultano Selim, a man with a magnificent harem, but with the pulsing desire to acquire one woman who eludes him.   The elusive Aiscia (Edwige Fenech) a woman who loves no man and is guarded inside a massive castle.  Don Giovanni is automatically intrigued by this challenge and offers to help the Sultan acquire Aisica, when in reality he wants the thrill of being the only man to bed her.

While the mission appears to be no small task Don Giovanni does finally succeed, yet once again finds that success comes with a price, the lengths he had to traverse to seduce Aisica made quite an impression and she falls head over heels in love, demanding he take her with him.  Not wanting to get caught and thrown in prison, he reluctantly agrees, but now he's in a sticky situation as Aisica wants a long term commitment, and her powerful father is on their tail, meanwhile back in Berber the Sultan won't be too happy that he's seemingly taken his woman!

Probably the most disappointing part of this film is Barbara Bouchet's role is a lot smaller than one would assume based on the film's advertising material and old magazine articles which seemed to highlight her role in the film.  This was likely due to the fact she's the only one to bare all, and it probably filled seats.  But unfortunately her character only plays a very minor role in the beginning of the film.  On the plus side the film as a whole is still mildly amusing, and while we don't get much Bouchet in the second half we get a decent amount of Fenech, who I honestly didn't know was going to be in this film as she's rarely mentioned in any material I've come across.

As a whole there's nothing great about the film, and essentially over the years it's pretty much been defined by about 45 seconds of Barbara Bouchet completely naked on the bed, which seems to have been most of the film's advertising campaign.  There are a lot of other beautiful actresses featured in the film but after a while the plot begins to get predictable and repetitive all the way till the very end.  So unless you are a huge Bouchet or Fenech fan there's not a whole lot of interest to be found here.  Oddly enough it appears to be a mildly difficult film to find and even more difficult to find a copy with subtitles.  In fact we found the film and subtitles separately and it took us months of on and off work to translate and re-time them so we could watch the film and actually understand it.  Ultimately if you're simply looking for a Bouchet comedy to watch without the work, check out The Conjugal Debt it's the better Bouchet comedy to watch that actually features her in most of the film, and is a little easier to come by.

6/10

There are fewer things that can brighten up your day than finally finding a film you've been searching for almost a decade.  Ever since I became aware of the existence of Barbara Bouchet I've been hunting down everything IMDb.com claims she's been in, and the highly elusive Italian romantic comedy Cerca di capirmi was one of the hardest ones to find on this short list.  So imagine my surprise when someone found a recording made from an airing on Italian TV, and then imagine my reaction when I sat down and watched it.

Cerca di capirmi (Try To Understand) stars Italian newcomer actor and singer Massimo Ranieri as Franco Bertoli, a young good looking guy living in Rome who falls for a visiting American named Liz Sher (Serbian stunner Beba Loncar).  What starts off as shy flirting from Franco quickly blossoms into the two moving in together.  But when Liz's parents visit and begin talking marriage, Franco moving to America, and finding him a stable job, he begins to stress out that things are moving way too fast.  While he loves Liz he's not sure he wants to change everything about his life so quickly.

There's not a whole lot out there about Cerca di capirmi, but I did find this brief critical blurb on the film from an old Italian film magazine which after translated into English says something to the effect that Cerca di capirmi is...

An insipid sentimental story, made up of clichés, dozens of humor and characters without psychological consistency.

I have to say that single sentence sums this film about as good as any, for a pretty one dimensional story with a lot of inconsistencies and characters that are simply dropped or poorly flushed out.  The film gives more screen time to Franco's poor little baby turtle that he's holding hostage in a glass of water than it ever bothers showing how Franco and Liz even met in the first place!  Also the film has a very odd fascination with portraying all Americans as loud mouth, idiotic drunks.

The biggest disappointment, was the entire reason I'd been looking for this film for almost a decade, Barbara Bouchet, she wasn't in it!  While I wasn't expecting her to play a major role in the film I did expect to see her at least pop up in a couple of scenes.  I can only assume one of three explanations for her blatant absence.

1st IMDb.com is wrong. Multiple Italian film sources on the internet do not credit Barbara Bouchet as being in this film. 

2nd her scenes were cut from the version I watched.  IMDb.com and a few other sources I found claim the original run-time of the film is 89 mins, what I watched was 79 mins so the version that aired on Italian TV appears to have 10 minutes missing. 

3rd she's in the film as an un-credited extra.  Near the end of the film there is a party scene and there's a girl they only show from the back that looks like Barbara Bouchet.  It's possible it could be her, as it's not uncommon for actresses who eventually find success to later be credited for extra work on IMDb.com.  This was also the case with Bouchet in one of her early American appearances in the film Bedtime Story where you have to pause the film to catch a split second glimpse of her.

Whatever the case may be there's nothing much more painful, when it comes to watching a film, than sitting though something in a language you already don't understand and expecting someone who never shows up!  Still it's not the worst film I've ever seen, and Italian film scores are always great, even though they reused the opening theme song over and over to the point of absurdity.  The shining light is the search is finally over, there just sadly was no payoff, unless that missing 10 minutes holds the key, but we will likely never find that out.  

4/10

Released a month after The Conjugal Debt, The Married Priest (Il prete sposato) briefly re-unites Italian comedian Lando Buzzanca and German born sex symbol Barbara Bouchet for a "comedy" that misses the mark in every way, becoming an unholy mess.

Buzzanca plays a handsome young priest, Don Salvatore, whose transferred to Rome and quickly finds himself bombarded by beautiful women.  He can't seemingly go anywhere or even perform his duties without the temptation of a beautiful woman.  It's not long before he finds himself falling in love with a prostitute named Silvia (Rossana Podestà).  This causes him to begin to fantasize about the idea of marrying her, but at the same time wanting to remain a priest.  Will his superiors allow him or will he accept the position he has chosen and learn to control his desires?

The Married Priest advertises itself as a comedy, but in comparison to your typical 1970's Italian comedy it strays far from it.  There are a couple of scenes where humor is clearly entwined into the plot, but for the most part the film is made up of bland dialogue, and uninteresting characters. The greatest fault is the one dimensional plot of Salvatore running into breathtaking women wherever he goes, who are either hitting on him or just blatantly attractive to him.  His reactions are amusing a couple of times (like his encounter with Barbara Bouchet, or the Karin Schubert cameo) but quickly it becomes a tiresome merry-go-round.  For an actor like Buzzanca, who is typically typecast in more corny physical comedy rolls, The Married Priest seems like a vain attempt at a more dramatic comedy role, and in the end leaves you feeling like you've wasted your time.

Even more unfortunate is Barbara Bouchet's limited three minute appearance.  But once again even with only a few minutes of screen time she steals the best scenes in the film, playing a bikini clad babe Signora Marchio who Salvatore finds swimming topless in a club pool, and later on has a bizarre day dream about.  

Overall, The Married Priest is a lost cause.  If it is remembered by anyone, for any reason, it's the combined three minutes Barbara Bouchet graces the screen.  The rest of the film is gristle, lacking laughs, extremely bland characters, and a plot that goes stale fast.  Even if Barbara Bouchet had been cast as the lead female character (Silvia), which would have been a vast improvement for that character, it would have only made sitting through this film bearable.  But as it stands, all it succeeds in doing is making The Golden Ass not look so bad after all.

2/10

If the 90's American comedy Dumb & Dumber was inspired by any film The Conjugal Debt seems like a reasonable candidate.  Two goofy guys striking out on their own, pulling pranks on people, meeting a hot girl with the name of a yeast infection, unable to hold their liquor against an old woman, and stuffing their faces with spaghetti and sausage until one of them almost dies.  Could be the long lost Italian relatives of Harry and Lloyd!

Romolo (Orazio Orlando) is a working class stiff who tends the local gas station that he lives above with his wife Ines (Anita Ekberg).  His life is pretty dull and his wife constantly nags him for attention.  He's seemingly lost all interest in his mundane life and his wife.  Like any other day she threatens to leave him and he doesn't care.  That's when Orazio (Lando Buzzanca) shows up on a motorcycle, with a sheep in the sidecar, and changes his life.  A former acquaintance from his army days, Romolo convinces Orazio to join him on his nomadic journey across the Italian countryside and experience true freedom.  Orazio agrees and quickly runs upstairs to take a suitcase he's had packed for sometime, unaware that his wife had just dumped all his stuff out and replaced it with her clothes, as she was planning to finally leave him!

Armed with a suitcase of women's clothes, no money and traveling in a motorcycle with no brakes, alongside a sheep, Orazio and Romolo begin their journey together of pure adulterated "freedom".  Along the way they meet Candida (Barbara Bouchet) a beautiful fisherman's wife with a reputation of sleeping around.  She's referred too throughout the film as being "sick" but no clarification is given as to whether this is referring to her implied sex addiction or if she actually has a sexually transmitted disease, but her husband is quick to sell her and a beat up truck to Romolo for 800 euros!  Candida becomes a useful money maker for the guys who use her unmistakable beauty to auction off her lingerie, and take wagers on the weight of her breasts. 

As a whole there's no denying the premise of the film is pretty shallow, but there is a gradual shift in the philosophies of the two main characters as Lando Buzzanca's Orazio slowly begins to show signs of some desire for stability in his life, while Romolo begins to fully embrace the wandering lifestyle. Barbara Bouchet acts as a catalyst in this transition between the two characters and also offers an amazing amount of eye candy in almost every scene.  Veteran Italian film actress Anita Ekberg pops up throughout the film with multiple interactions with the local priest, complaining that her husband has left her, and plays a minor role in the film's twist at the end.

In comparison to previous Barbara Bouchet films The Conjugal Debt tops them all in terms of overall enjoyment and total amount of screen time she's given.  It's a massive improvement compared to her first Italian comedy, The Golden Ass.  It's jam packed with classic scenes: the skinny dipping scene which leads a guy on his bicycle to lose control and fly off a doc, the auctioning off pieces of her clothing for food money, the ice cream cone scene (which is immortalized in all the film's posters), and taking wagers from the town's male population on how much her breasts weigh using a shop scale.

Overall, as an Italian comedy The Conjugal Debt was pretty entertaining, even if you don't understand the language the premise of the film is not too hard to follow and was often very amusing, if albeit corny.  There is a very rare English version of the film that was released in Greece under the title Easy Lovers.  It's worth hunting for if you're a Bouchet completest, it's exactly the same cut of the film but offers the added benefit of actually being able to understand everything that's going on.

7/10

Those who believe comedy transcends time and culture haven't watched, without the benefit of subtitles, L'asino d'oro: processo per fatti strani contro Lucius Apuleius cittadino romano (translated: The Golden Ass: process for strange facts against Lucius Apuleius Roman citizen).  The film is loosely based off the novel The Golden Ass written by Lucius Apuleius (also the name of the narrator and main character) published around the 2nd century AD, and regarded as the only complete Ancient Roman novel in Latin to exist.

Unfortunately L'asino d'oro (The Golden Ass) is about a man being turned in a donkey, and not the luscious rear end of cult femme fatale Barbara Bouchet, but the silver lining is she does briefly bare her derriere on a couple occasions.  In the book the main character Lucius ventures in search of magic and ends up turning himself into a donkey and progresses on a journey filled with many side stories until he ultimately regains his human form at the power of the goddess Isis.  In the film though Lucius appears more interested in making another type of magic with Pudentilla (Barbara Bouchet) who turns out to be a witch.  

His rendezvous with Pudentilla sets Lucius on a series of unfortunate events: being imprisoned by Roman guards, his friend cutting his own throat due to a witches hex, and being turned into a donkey on multiple occasions.  Many of these circumstances are very loose interpretations of the original source material's inset stories (shorter stories told by characters met along the way).  In the film many of these inset stories are instead mixed into the plot of the film and played out by some of the main characters.

In the book one of the inset stories referred to as Thelyphron's Tale, features an young man named Thelyphron who is hired to watch over a corpse during the night to insure body parts were not stolen by shape-shifting witches known to use human flesh for incantations.  That night the witches enter as small animals, put Thelyphron to sleep, steal pieces of the corpse's ears and nose and replace them with wax, so their disappearance is not quickly discovered.  In the film Lucius is put in charge of overseeing a corpse, and Barbara Bouchet comes in and "distracts" him while the corpse's "manhood" is being taken by another witch in the form of some small creature.  When Lucius awakes Bouchet is gone and he notices the missing body part and quickly scrambles to replace it with candle wax.  It's these little tweaks in the original material that attempt to provide the film some more modern day comedic aspects.

Unfortunately the comedic stunts are few and far between, and most of the film is dialog heavy with very little visual clues as to what they are discussing making the film at times quite boring for a non-Italian speaker.  If you're not familiar with the source material, reading an overview of the book will help to make some sense of what will appear at times to be a very choppy story, but won't clear up some of the more minute details.  One such detail is the multiple hair color changes of Barbara Bouchet.  Throughout the film we see her as a brunette, blonde and then at the very end with black hair.  Is she playing multiple characters, or simply testing out which hair color gets Lucius the most aroused?  In the book the goddess Isis supposedly saves Lucius from his tortured life as a donkey, and Barbara Bouchet dressed in all white at the very end seems to hint at that.  

But if you do a quick search of Pudentilla, the character she's credited as playing, you learn that in real life Pudentilla was the wife of the author Lucius Apuleius (who loosely based the main character on himself), and whom Lucius married at the behest of her son Pontianus.  Lucius was later tried in court for the charge that he had gained the affections of Pudentilla by charms and magic spells, a scene which is also in the film.  So in affect this film may actually be more of a melding of Apuleius's novel and what history records were some actual events (likely exaggerated) in his own life.

If this film ever receives a proper and quality release I'd give it one more go, but up until now it's only been aired on Italian TV, and as you can see from the few screenshots I was able to lighten up (the rest are photos from our archives) the quality is pretty poor.  Ironically I enjoyed researching the history of the film's source material, to try and decipher what I had watched, more than I actually enjoyed the film itself.  I have to be honest Greek and Roman mythology, and the fiction literature from that period have never been of much interest to me and I've rarely seen a film adaptation that's managed to change my opinion of that.  But in this case the brief overview of the book I read was more interesting than the film itself except for the inclusion of Barbara Bouchet, who has no trouble pulling off a 2nd century witch, goddess or Pantene Pro-V model.  

4/10

Kicking off the journey into cult film actress Barbara Bouchet's Italian film career is the highly elusive Poliziotteschi, or euro-crime film, Colpo rovente.  Released in some English speaking countries under the titles Red Hot Shot, and The Syndicate: A Death In The Family.  For fans of the euro-crime genre this is a rare experience that ticks all the boxes of a true Italian crime film, featuring drugs, gangs, girls, and guns.  Unfortunately the film never gained the recognition it deserved and almost appeared to be intentionally shunned.

Unknown actor Michael Reardon stars as New York City police detective Frank Berin, assigned to the case of recently murdered Pharmaceutical magnet Mac Brown, who was gunned down amidst a crowd of people on Wall Street.  With no known motive and zero suspects Brown's daughter, Monica (played by Barbara Bouchet), goes on TV and offers a reward for any information leading to the arrest of her father's murderer. 

This is not Berin's first involvement with the Brown family, years ago he tried to expose Brown as one of the leaders behind the heroin drug trade in New York City.  But his star witness, a young girl who had lost her eyesight due to the effects of their drug testing, disappeared and the case was summarily dropped.  Brown's murder opens up an opportunity for Berin to reopen the case and flush out the rest of those involved in the growing war on drugs. At the same time Monica is beginning to fear for her own safety and suspects that her fiancé may have had something to do with her father's murder, and that she may be next.

When it comes to Italian films it doesn't get much more "cult" than Colpo rovente, it almost appears to have been destined to fail, instantly forgotten, and even may have ended the short careers of both the leading man and director.  Aside from a bit part in one episode of a short lived Burt Reynolds TV series titled Hawk, this was the only film for star Michael Reardon.  In addition this was Piero Zuffi's one and only directorial role, also having been credited for writing the story and screenplay, and was the production and costume designer.  Following the film's release he vanished completely from the industry, passing away in 2006.  

Another mystery is why Colpo rovente received an X rating, essentially a death nail to any film meant for wide release.  Nothing portrayed in the multiple cuts or uncut version comes close to the violence and nudity that would later pepper Italian cinema.  Was the film's subject matter of the effects of drug abuse simply too hard for audiences to handle?  Perhaps Zuffi's film was ahead of its time and had it been released a couple years later would have been more accepted amid the giallo craze.  

For a directorial debut, Piero Zuffi probably bit off a little more than he could chew.  While the production design is quite impressive for such a low budget film, not too surprising considering that was his main profession, it's likely he stretched himself too thin by taking on so many of the responsibilities.  This strain is reflected in the film's editing and multiple versions, none of which, on their own, bring the story to a real cohesive gel.  At current count four versions of the film exist:

1. An English VHS release with Greek subtitles, which is not worth watching.

2. An edited Italian cut with English subtitles.

3. An uncut Italian release (with no English subtitles).

4. A custom cut 154 minute cut that splices together scenes from the other cuts to make the most comprehensive cut possible, but contains no English subtitles.

Unfortunately none of the cuts on their own do the film any justice, unless you understand Italian and can acquire the rare true uncut version.  For everyone else, that leaves the edited version which opens up a vast amount of plot-holes in the story, cutting out key scenes for story-lines centered around Fanny (the blind girl), the biker gang sequence, and Monica's kidnapping.  But when following up a viewing of the edited cut with the uncut, or “mega cut” versions (even though they are in Italian only), a lot of the large plot-holes are filled in, and you can begin to appreciate the vision Zuffi probably had.

With the current influx of cult Italian films receiving some proper restoration and release for the first time, it would be amazing if Colpo rovente received a similar treatment with a proper unedited high definition release. Ironically the film's soundtrack has received three pressings on vinyl over the last forty-five years, with the latest pressing being in 2015, yet the film has never received a proper or official release on any high quality format!

Overall, if you're interested in investing the time and effort into acquiring and viewing multiple versions of the film, you will discover a truly unique euro-crime experience that had high potential of becoming a real cult classic.  Rumor has it the film also features an early appearance by Hollywood starlet Helen Mirren, as well as cult British actress Margaret Lee, unfortunately we did not catch either of those in the film, so likely they were background extras if there is any validity to that claim.  As for the lovely Barbara Bouchet her appearance is fairly limited and scattered throughout the film, but it's a unique opportunity to see her as a brunette in a very sexy gypsy outfit.  She gives an impressive performance in a sequence near the end of the film when she's kidnapped buy the drug cartel, tortured and shot up with a very high dose of heroin.  This section is some of her best acting we've seen so far, unfortunately it's mostly cut from the edited version.  If you're a fan of hers, this film is worth hunting down for her performance alone, even if limited.  And of course we can't forget mentioning what appears to be the only aspect of the film that has been remembered and preserved, the funky 70's soundtrack by veteran Italian composer Piero Piccioni!  

7/10

Stoney or (The Surabaya Conspiracy) marks Barbara Bouchet's first starring role in a film.  She plays Irene Stone, a woman who travels to war torn Surabaya, Philippines with the hope of recovering a wealth of treasure hidden in a vault under the town Commissioner's swimming pool.  Filmed during the time period in American B-movie history where it was extremely popular to make films in the Philippines (because it was so cheap) Stoney suffers from a story so full of plot holes it might as well be Swiss cheese.

I've seen plenty of low budget films and watched my fair share of stinkers but Stoney certainly takes the cake as one of the worst.  There are so many continuity and plot issues it's impossible to keep track of what's going on, and when the writers attempt to provide any sort of explanation it only adds to the growing confusion.  How did this treasure end up under the Commissioner's swimming pool?  How come everyone seems to know about it except him?  While the film addresses how to access the treasure, Irene never seems to be to that intent on actually recovering it, while she sets up transports for it under the guise of exporting tea it's never indicated whose actually going to retrieve it for her.  And why was there dynamite already setup under the pool inside the vault, it's even indicated on their "treasure map"!

Character relationships also make absolutely no sense in Stoney.  In the beginning of the film some form of relationship is insinuated between Irene and Harvey Ward (Michael Rennie), the supposed mastermind behind the plan to recover the treasure.  Ward's the one who informs her of its existence, and indicates the ring he gave her is the key to the vault.  He says it would be too suspicious if he went to recover it so she offers to go, but he says she's too important to him; the next scene she's on a plane to Surabaya!  Did I miss something?  

Michael Preston plays an Aussie by the name of Steven Blessing who seems to be covertly working against Ward, who's a good friend of the Commissioner, but is also interested in stealing the treasure, so how good of a friend is he really?  Irene seems to be completely disgusted with Blessing most of the film, then all of a sudden out of the blue sleeps with him!  Never an indication why the change of heart.

On-top of the story, the editing is so awful that half the scenes on the DVD release are not even in the right order!  I'm not certain whether this is how this version of the film was actually released in the US and the studio producing the DVD didn't bother fixing it, or they simply messed up.  About fifteen minutes in Irene arrives in Surabaya and goes to introduce herself to the Commissioner to ask for his assistance in transporting tea (which is her cover for transporting the treasure).  Her meeting with the Commissioner and the twenty plus minutes that follows show up more than halfway into the film.  Which leads you to watch a story that randomly jumps ahead for no apparent reason to Irene and the Commissioner visiting the tea plant and then forty-five minutes into the film she's meeting the Commissioner for the first time.  I also watched the original version (that was only released on VHS), entitled The Surabaya Conspiracy, this version appears to be edited correctly, but ironically it didn't make the film any better!  Proving when a script is so poorly written you can scramble all the scenes up and it makes no difference! 

Overall, there's no sugar coating how horrible Stoney is.  You come to expect low budget, bad acting, and outlandish story-lines from B-movies, but when the story is this non-cohesive it leaves you scratching your head rather than entertained.  It's a shame because there definitely was potential here, and considering the film is based off a book it's baffling that the writers couldn't do a better job than this when the whole story was already laid out for them.  The one, and only silver lining in this film, and the reason I gave it the the higher score I did is Barbara Bouchet.  She provides a barrage of eye candy, and the video quality of the DVD transfer is the best out there for this film, and that beauty is well displayed.

Stoney is a film I can only see a Barbara Bouchet fan truly enjoying, and the fact she has a starring role and major screen time is the only thing that makes sitting through this worth it, and I should know, I watched two different edits!  Still even though it is a complete mess it's better than watching any of the Shirley MacLaine movies she appeared in for a few seconds.

5/10

In this brief journey through the early Hollywood years of Barbara Bouchet I've discovered something I dislike more than musicals, Shirley MacLaine. Combine the two together and it's borderline torture.  Either by some horrible coincidence or someone really liked Barbara Bouchet, she managed to be cast in three MacLaine "comedies".  Unfortunately a spoonful of the lovely Bouchet can't help me stomach a third serving of Shirley MacLaine.

Charity can't even get a job on Fantasy Island.

Shirley MacLaine plays Charity, a dancer in a trashy dive.  The film at times hints there's more than dancing going on, in an attempt to portray a tarnished background of the character, but it's hard to accomplish that when you're putting a G-rated spin on it.  Charity doesn't have much to show for her life, with no education and no marketable skills she's left in a dive she desperately wants to escape from, and every-time a glimmer of hope comes her way it's quickly snubbed out and she's brought back to reality.

Sammy Davis Jr. makes a brief and pointless appearance as a singing hippie preacher.

Sweet Charity is supposedly a musical reinterpretation of Nights of Cabiria, an Italian drama by Federico Fellini, which I can only assume is leaps and bounds better than this.  It's quite hard to think of much to say about this film because it offers so very little.  MacLaine is one of those comedians you either love or hate, and to me she's always been a wannabe Lucille Ball, constantly playing the same type of loud mouthed ill mannered characters.  Throw her into a film with numerous sub stories that recycle the same resolution, an ending that makes you ask yourself why you bothered sitting through this, and a half hazard song and dance thrown in every 25 minutes just to be able to call it a musical and you've got Sweet Charity in a nutshell.  Even by musical standards its all pretty pitiful.

Bouchet and silk sheets... you can stop the film right here, this is as good as it gets.

Barbara Bouchet's  brief appearance is at the beginning of the film.  She plays the stuck up, jealous girlfriend (Ursula) of famous Italian actor Vittorio (played by Ricardo Montalban). She throws a fit outside a restaurant Charity is walking by.  After storming off Vittorio invites Charity to accompany him for the evening at a club and eventually back to his apartment, where later Ursula shows up and Charity spends the evening locked in Vittorio's closet, while he and Ursula "wrinkle the sheets".

This or a critically acclaimed Italian drama?

Granted I went into Sweet Charity with a biased opinion on both musicals and Shirley MacLaine, and I doubt little much could have persuaded me to REALLY find a whole lot of enjoyment in this film.  But lets face it, some things simply shouldn't be reinterpreted into comedic musicals starring Shirley MacLaine, and a Fellini film should be somewhere near the top of that list.  Unless you're a die-hard MacLaine fan, or someone who'd go see about anything in musical form this one is a definite pass.

4/10

In responding to an alien distress call, Captain Kirk, Spock, Doctor McCoy, and a couple expendable "red shirts", beam down to a planet only to have their shipped hijacked and be taken prisoner by a group of aliens who have taken human form in an attempt to return to their home in the Andromeda galaxy which was abandoned by their ancestors thousands of years ago.  

With the advanced technology to paralyze and restructure the human body into a cube of salt, Kirk and the Enterprise crew are left seemingly defenseless, destined to spend the rest of their lives as captives to a alien race who are about to force them on a journey that will take generations to complete.  But the aliens unfamiliarity regarding the human experience may give Kirk and the crew the edge they need to regain control of the ship.

Barbara Bouchet plays Kelinda, the gorgeous yet cold alien whose curiosity for the human behavior leads her to fall for Kirk's advances and becomes the catalyst for regaining control of the Enterprise.  While it has been interesting watching Barbara in a various array of genres during these television guest appearances, as I've been constantly repeating, the characters she portrays all seem to be very similar.  But at least Star Trek definitely takes the win when it comes to costume design and accentuating Barbara's physique.

Ironically while overseas Bouchet is recognized for her film career, in the United States she is most famous for her small part in Star Trek. In a more recent interview she said that people still come up to her to this day and associate her with the series.  For me, By Any Other Name is an average Star Trek episode and nothing overly special in comparison to Bouchet's other television appearances.

6/10

Out of the handful of American television guest appearances by Barbara Bouchet our unlikely favorite happens to be the most obscure of them all.  Tarzan ran on NBC from 1966-1968 and followed the character after the typical film incarnations, Tarzan (Ron Ely) is now a well educated man who has returned jungle after having grown tired of civilization. 

Jungle Ransom pits Tarzan against famed South American outlaw Velasquez (Fernando Lamas), who attacks a small village, but he is quickly captured by Tarzan who plans to turn him over to the authorities.  But a young woman by the name of Angela Fraser (Barbara Bouchet) has a different plan.  She runs into Tarzan and Velasquez boarding a local ferry and decides to hitch a ride.  

As it turns out Velasquez's gang is holding her husband ransom.  Angela foils Tarzan's attempt at bringing Velasquez in by crashing the boat and taking pot shots at the criminal with a long barrel rifle.  When Tarzan finally manages to calm her down, he learns the details of her situation and agrees to help rescue her husband.  But this all may be a trap!

Tarzan wins out as the best of Barbara Bouchet's TV appearances on pure campy entertainment value alone.  It's not well written, acted or produced, but the cast of characters, guest stars (which also included Ted Cassidy, best known as Lurch on The Addams Family), and over-the-top action makes this episode easily one of the better of her guest appearances to sit through.  Up until recently this series has been nearly impossible to find, but within the last year or so they have released both seasons on DVD. 

8/10

The 1960's were they heyday for TV westerns: Bonanza, Rawhide, The Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, and likely a slew of countless others that ran throughout the 1960's but were never popular enough to warrant syndication.  One of those was The Virginian, a show I'd never heard of before that ran for an amazing nine seasons!  Supposedly the series was the third longest running western behind Bonanza and Gunsmoke, and was the first 90 minute western series.  James Drury played the lead character by the name "The Virginian", a Wyoming ranch hand foreman.

The Fortress takes The Virginian off the ranch and sends him to Montana, where he's to exchange a herd of cattle for $100,000 with a wealthy Canadian land owner by the name of Winthrop (Leslie Nielsen).  Winthrop writes him a check, which The Virginian exchanges at the bank for a bank draft.  Moments later the bank is robbed (by Winthrop's men) and the bank draft is therefore worthless.  The local authorities will do nothing to help recover the stolen funds as Winthrop has fled back to Canada, leaving The Virginian to take matters into his own hands.  The only problem is Winthrop owns his own town, and everyone is either too scared or too loyal to go against him.

In an attempt to distract Winthrop while he tries to regain his money, The Virginian enlists the help of a French storekeeper he met back in Montana by the name of Marianne (Barbara Bouchet).  She agrees to play the role of his finance, and distract Winthrop in exchange for enough money to return to Paris.  Winthrop falls for Marianne as planned, yet she ends up falling for him as well, a twist of events that could potentially ruin The Virginian's plans.

When it comes to westerns, both on the large and small screen, the extent of my enjoyment is usually gauged by the amount of action.  This is probably why aside from The Wild Wild West (the TV series not the Will Smith bastardization) and Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns I've never been able to get hooked on any of the other westerns of the 1960's, which tend to be heavy on dialog and slow on pace.  Such is the case with The Virginian, and maybe even more so as the episodes run a full half hour longer.  The Fortress was interesting to a point, but hardly warranted such an extensive run-time, at a normal hour length maybe it would have worked.  Still it was interesting to see Nielsen is a serious role, and as a villain, he actually played it quite well.

In terms of Barbara Bouchet's performance it was ironically not much different than her other TV appearances up to this point, as she plays a foreigner who ends up being a prima donna.  Aside from her stint in the episode, which is saved mostly for the second half, I would have given up about halfway through.  It's safe to say for someone looking to get a taste of the series this episode is might not be the best place to start, considering Drury is the only regular whose really featured, and it's not the usual setting of the series.  For a Bouchet fan like myself it was at least nice to see her in a different genre, one she won't revisit in the future, even if the character is a clone of past TV guest appearances.

5/10

Euro-spy takes an interesting detour in this obscure British spy thriller starring Richard Johnson and two lovely (and sorely underused beauties) Carol Lynley and Barbara Bouchet. 

Danger Route centers around British spy Jonas Wilde fresh off a mission and contemplating retirement, only to be suddenly called away again on another important job for Queen and country.  His superior agrees to file his resignation with the stipulation that he complete this final mission; assassinate a Czechoslovakian scientist defector who is being held by the Americans.  Jonas succeeds only to be captured by the Americans and learn and this entire mission might have been a setup, and that Jonas may have no one left to trust!

Danger Route breaks away from the stereotypical Euro-spy/James Bond knock-off adventure.  There's no gadgets, there's very little action (most of it's shown in the trailer below), it's abnormally serious and dark, and starts off at a rather slow pace.  Add that all up and you're looking at a film that's probably only going to appeal to the genre's hardcore enthusiasts or fans of Richard Johnson. 

If you're not familiar with Richard Johnson he was essentially a poor man's James Bond in the 60's and 70's, taking on quite a few secret agent roles.  It's even rumored he was offered the role of Bond for Dr. No but turned it down due to the requirement of signing a multi-picture deal.  He later went on to star as Bulldog Drummond in Deadlier Than The Male and Some Girls Do, a lesser known British spy novel character who pre-dated James Bond and was said to be Ian Fleming's inspiration for the Bond character.  Johnson would have made an excellent Bond, an interesting cross between Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton.

But the character of Jonas Wilde is no Bond, and Danger Route is no campy spy spoof.  Wilde is a pretty pessimistic character mixed with a sarcastic wit, a ladies man when he has to be, and extremely gifted with the one handed karate chop to the neck.  The film as a whole has a dark and more realistic take on the dangers of spy life, both leading ladies meet a rather unsettling demise and Barbara Bouchet's character is even forced to undergo torture.  While the film doesn't visually exploit much of the violence does a fine job of drawing a reaction from the audience by what it does show or infer.  Unfortunately this is another English film where Bouchet is horribly under utilized, as is Lynley.  Both are given a few scenes in the beginning and brief scenes at the end, it would have been nice to see more of them both.

I must admit at almost an hour into Danger Route I was slightly disappointed, but that was due to expecting the typical campy, action, spy adventure that most Euro-spy films are known for.  But once the film hits the final 30 mark it begins to pick up a little speed and becomes the best part of the film in terms of both entertainment and story, all helping Danger Route to end up being something quite memorable.  It's one of those films that definitely has the capability of growing on you over time and multiple viewings, on my initial watch I'd put it on par with Dr. No in terms of caliber and quality, and definitely turned out to be a better film than I expected, offering quite a few gritty surprises. 

7/10

Some franchises simply shouldn't be tampered with, attempting to duplicate success in some other form is typically a recipe for disaster.  Its a lesson easily learned by watching the bizarre attempt to turn the James Bond story, Casino Royale, into a comedy.  To attempt to explain or even understand what this film is about is a fruitless endeavor, not even the film's own cast understood it, so we certainly won't try.  Barbara Bouchet who played Moneypenny is quoted as saying... 

The movie just never makes any sense.  People ask me if I remember any scenes I filmed that didn't end up in the movie, and I can say - the whole thing was so confusing I don't remember the ones that did end up in the movie!

Produced by Charles K. Feldman, Casino Royale was simply a disaster from the beginning, whether it was all an attempt at cashing in on a name brand franchise, or the manic mind of a once successful producer whose name had been attached to films like A Street Car Named Desire, The Seven Year Itch, and Walk on the Wild Side, will forever remain a mystery. The truth is Casino Royale had the suitable makings of a very respectable Bond knockoff that might have been something worth talking about had it played it's cards straight, but Feldman's bizarre ideas, a team of directors, and a jumbled mess of a story only makes Casino Royale appear to be the after effects of a bad drug induced stooper.

Of course what usually reels people in at first glance is the seemingly stacked cast, but one must stop and realize that most of the big names in this film were in the declining years of their desirability or simply waning in their number of successes.  Peter Seller's career was thought to have begun its descent after his starring role in another Feldman mess called What's New Pussycat a year earlier.  Ursula Andress's career was almost solely held together by the success of Dr. No, and Orson Welles soon would be reduced to TV appearances and voice acting.  Most of the other recognizable names today weren't very recognizable at the time.  The only seemingly stable big name at the time was David Niven, who is one of the few high profile actors in the film who seemed to be highly regarded by most of the cast.

 3/10

Barbara Bouchet's third television appearance following her first co-starring film role in Agent For H.A.R.M. happened to be in the hit spy show The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Considering the similarities in titles, it's probably not a stretch to assume where Agent For H.A.R.M. got it's inspiration from.  Obviously there was no hard feelings from U.N.C.L.E. they knew talent when they saw it and quickly snatched up Bouchet for a co-starring guest appearance amid H.A.R.M.'s failed attempt to be made into a regular series. 

Barbara Bouchet plays the lovely Thrush operative, Narcissus Darling.  She attempts to kidnap a well respected scientist, Dr. Remington, in hopes of gaining information from him that could assist Thrush in demolishing California.  A task they plan to accomplish by drilling into the San Andreas fault with a massive drill and causing a statewide earthquake.  

Unbeknownst to her she mistakenly targets chronic gambler Buzz Conway, sneaking out of the fire escape of his apartment in an attempt to evade his landlord.  The real target, the doctor, is in the neighboring apartment being protected in by Solo and Kuryakin.  Darling's attempt to kidnap Conway is thwarted by Solo, yet U.N.C.L.E. decides to use Conway as a lure to find out what Thrush is up to, since they are now under the assumption he's the doctor.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series has been on my need-to-watch list for sometime, I even own the entire series box set, still shrink-wrapped on my shelf. The Project Deephole Affair was a nice introduction to the series, even the episode title gave me a nice chuckle!  I wonder if they were aware of the seemingly double entendre there... different times I guess!

The episode is quite entertaining and very campy (surprisingly more so than Agent for H.A.R.M.), yet most of the main characters were so deadpan serious that it actually balanced everything out quite well.  The plot of drilling into the fault line to demolish California was a little lame, but I guess I can't expect too much from a 1966 spy series.  

The role of Narcissus Darling was the typical beautiful nemesis for Barbara Bouchet, which up to this point in her career has been her main typecast, which she always plays well, and that was no different here.  Overall nothing special, but for a single television episode guest appearance it's definitely worth checking out for a small dose of Bouchet.

7/10

Sometimes campy get's a bad rap.  Obviously it seems there's a fine line between satisfying and over indulgent, and when it comes to how much it takes to cross that line seemingly depends on the person.  Or maybe B-movies and international knock-offs have finally brain washed me into losing my mind.  Whichever it may be I must say I was shocked to learn that my latest foray into the filmography of the lovely Barbara Bouchet, Agent for H.A.R.M., had received a measly 1.9 rating on IMDb.com and a lot of poor reviews.  As for me this film was not only the most entertaining of the early Bouchet films I've watched thus far, but also one of the most enjoyable American campy spy films and mildly reminiscent of the international Euro-spy genre.

Peter Mark Richman is H.A.R.M secret agent Adam Chance (think an aging version of Maroon 5 front-man Adam Levine with a little dab of grey in the front, a la reverse Jay Leno).  He's all set for a hot night out on the town when he's called in on an emergency mission.  Word has gotten out that a defected Russian, Professor Stefanik, has developed a bacteria spore that literally consumes the body, and he's developed a gun that fires it!  Its also come to their attention that the scientist is in the process of creating an antidote to protect those who might use the weapon on the United States from the effects of the spore.  If this technology falls into the hands of the enemy it could be the end of the United States!

There's no getting around the fact that Agent for H.A.R.M. is awfully campy, there isn't anything about the film that isn't, and that's probably why the film received the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.  But for me it all works because the level of camp is consistent, it's not overwhelming, and it's really nothing worse than what you'd see in most of the popular TV shows of  the 60's like Get Smart or Man From U.N.C.L.E.  In fact Agent for H.A.R.M. was originally put together as a pilot for a TV series, things obviously didn't pan out in terms of that becoming a reality so it was turned into a movie.

Of course if it hadn't been for the lovely Barbara Bouchet, I never would had hunted down this rare gem.  Bouchet has her first real large co-starring role here as Ava Vestok, the supposed long lost niece of Professor Stefanik whom Adam Chance has been sent to protect to prevent his spore from landing into enemy hands.  Up to this point Bouchet has been limited to non-credited extra work and a very brief part in the opening of In Harm's Way where her character is quickly killed off.  

Here Bouchet gets a modest co-starring role as a lovely Russian girl with a secret agenda, multiple bikini clad moments and a few archery scenes.  Bouchet in a bikini, shooting a bow and arrow, come on, that should warrant a 5.0 rating on IMDb.com alone!  Agent for H.A.R.M. also kick starts her spy genre roles, soon after she has a guest appearance on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (which was obviously some inspiration to this film), the James Bond film spoof of Casino Royale, and Danger Route.

Overall, Agent for H.A.R.M. is the quintessential film for any fan of the early career of Barbara Bouchet and an extremely underrated one in the genre of knock-off James Bond films.  If you can enjoy its overly quirky cornball quality, its style and the era it was made in, Agent for H.A.R.M. can be a thoroughly enjoyable film.  One that's enjoyable on it's own merit and not with the help of some wise cracking robots.

8/10

Irwin Allen was the master of 1960's science fiction television, creator of The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and my personal favorite Lost In Space, one of the greatest science fiction series of all-time.  But today we take a brief look at The Left-Handed Man, an episode from one of Allen's longest running series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the second TV appearance review in our Barbara Bouchet review series.

The Left-Handed Man centers around series star Richard Basehart, who plays Admiral Nelson, he's approached by Tippy Penfield (Barbara Bouchet) in an attempt to get the Admiral to bring crucial evidence to light that the President's new appointment of Secretary of Defense (her father) would be an extremely dangerous move.  She provides him with proof that her father is secretly in league with Noah Grafton a known communist sympathizer, who is using her father's position to gain secrets into the United States top secret programs such as Seaview.  This is enough information to get Nelson to act, but he quickly learns he's gotten himself deep into a situation that could cost him his life.  One of Grafton's goons, a one armed man with a poisoned dart gun for a second arm, makes Nelson his next target!

The Left-Handed Man is my first introduction to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and aside from Lost In Space I had never been overly enthused to delve into any of Irwin Allen other accomplishments.  So on that note I can't express an opinion on how well this episode represents the series as a whole.  But on its own merit it held my attention and while it didn't focus much on underwater adventures, which is what I assume the series mainly focuses on, it did have a decent amount of action centered around the man with a dart gun arm (which was quite amusing) and then of course the inclusion of the lovely Barbara Bouchet. 

Even as a still relatively unknown actress Barbara Bouchet's beauty was garnering her work, and her employers where definitely making use of it!  For instance the above promotional photograph for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is great, but unfortunately blatantly misleading.  Not only is the shows co-star (David Hedison) not even in this episode but Bouchet never once makes a Domino (Thunderball) type appearance wearing a striking white bikini and scuba diver tank.  The series of photos, one which would be featured on the cover of a Japanese movie magazine, are great but definitely leave you a bit disappointed as you expect them to actually tie into the episode!

The episode as a whole was average, the slight twist at the end was interesting but not overly surprising.  Bouchet's role was a little smaller than I had expected but still made the episode enjoyable.  Still out of her two television appearances thus far I'd go with her longer role in The Rogues as my favorite.  You can watch the full episode of below and see for yourself.  Let us know what you think!

6/10