THE KILLER NUN

Joe Dallesandro and Anita Ekberg

THE KILLER NUN (aka Suor Omicidi/1979). Director: Giulio Berruti.

Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg) is the head nurse in a hospital that also seems to function as a convalescent home. Gertrude is convinced that she is dying, even though there is no medical evidence to suggest this, and she seems to be unraveling in other ways. She causes the head doctor, Poirret (Massimo Serato) to lose his job, and Dr. Roland (Joe Dallesandro) takes his place. Periodically Gertrude ditches her habit, goes into town, and picks up a man for hot sex, but of more concern is that she seems to be murdering the patients at the hospital. Is she losing her mind, or is someone else responsible for the deaths? The Killer Nun has a good idea but its execution is poor, as the film is saddled with weak direction, slovenly editing, a poor musical score, and a lack of basic coherency. As for the cast, any film that boasts both Anita Ekberg [Back from Eternity] and Joe Dallesandro [Wiseguy] in the same picture has to have its interesting moments, and it does. And the Mother Superior, whom Gertrude calls a bitch at one point, is played by no less than Alida Valli of Hitchcock's The Paradine Case! The Killer Nun might have been a superior horror picture but it has absolutely no style, and the murder sequences have no suspense or panache. Ekberg is okay, and still looks great, if a little more zoftig, at 48; she did a few more films after this one. The film introduced Paola Morra, who plays Sister Mathieu, a nun who is in love with Gertrude but has sex with Dr. Roland when he discovers she's stolen some morphine. Gertrude tells Mathieu that she prefers men, but will sleep with women if they wear silk stockings! If Dario Argento had directed this picture, it might have amounted to something.

Verdict: Anita Ekberg as a nun! Not since Frank Sinatra as a priest in Miracle of the Bells (which also starred Alida Valli) has their been such delightfully absurd casting. If only the movie were better! **.

THE WHITE TOWER

THE WHITE TOWER (1950). Director: Ted Tettzlaff.

In Switzerland a beautiful young woman named Carla (Alida Valli, billed just as Valli) wants to climb the mountain upon which her father died while struggling to reach the top. Others interested in accompanying her include old friend Nicholas (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), the guide Andreas (Oscar Homolka), a writer named Paul (Claude Rains), and a "superior" Nazi-type named Hein (Lloyd Bridges). All of these people are driven for one reason or another, but the main character is Martin Ordway (Glenn Ford), who only goes along because he's fallen for Carla [not an unrealistic motivation, of course, but weak as compared to the others]. Mountain climbing movies can certainly be suspenseful and exciting, and The White Tower does have a couple of white knuckle moments, but the picture seems more interested in "saying things" in a heavy-handed manner than in providing consistent dramatic tension. Also, the mountain is called "the most unclimbable in Europe" yet Ford -- with not one bit of experience -- decides to climb it anyway. Frankly, when the obnoxious but highly-fit Hein shows contempt for him it is hard not to agree. Ford and the others give good performances, however, and Rains is, as usual, excellent. Striking scenery and a good score from Roy Webb are added pluses.

Verdict: Only in Hollywood can you climb an icy mountain without even wearing gloves. **1/2.

SAMSON VERSUS THE TURKEY MONSTERS

SAMSON VERSUS THE TURKEY MONSTERS (1962). Director: Federico Fellini.

Although Fellini has denied for decades that he ever directed a sand and sorcery epic, this picture has finally surfaced and has many of Fellini's directorial touches. The movie was filmed in the early fifties as The Loves of Samson and was meant to be a fairly serious epic with psycho-sexual pretensions. The studio deemed it unreleasable -- not only because it ran over four hours -- and it was put in the vault. In 1962, the film was cut down to eighty minutes, and what was meant to be a brief humorous scene involving Samson's capture of a wild, giant turkey was expanded into a whole movie about Samson saving a village from an attack of carnivorous turkeys thirty feet tall. New, very bad footage was shot and inserted into the film. Although it's called Samson versus the Turkey Monsters plural, there is actually only one giant turkey terrorizing the villagers. Some atmospheric shots and fascinating faces are all that's left of Fellini's original vision. A no-name cast except for Alida Valli as a horny sorceress.

Verdict: A giant turkey indeed. *.

WALK SOFTLY STRANGER

WALK SOFTLY STRANGER (1950). Director: Robert Stevenson.

Chris Hale (Joseph Cotten) is a small time gambler and hood who enters into a relationship with crippled beauty Elaine Corelli (Alida Valli) in a small midwestern town. He becomes a surrogate son for his kindly landlady, Mrs. Brentman (Spring Byington), and holds up a casino with a buddy, Whitey Lake (Paul Stewart). This character study of redemption through love holds the attention and has interesting facets, but it doesn't quite work as either drama or thriller, and the romance between the two leads is never quite convincing. However the acting is, for the most part, quite good -- Byington and Stewart come off best, in fact -- and there's a suspenseful car ride sequence near the end. Adroitly directed by Stevenson, and with a pleasing score by Friedrich Hollaender. Although Valli is not Ingrid Bergman and isn't exactly passionate in her playing, her performance in this is decent and Cotton is as solid as ever. Future talk show host Jack Paar is pleasant as a co-worker of Cotten's. 

Verdict: At least it's different. **1/2.

LA LUNA aka LUNA

LA LUNA (1979) . Director: Bernardo Bertolucci. Released as Luna in the U.S.

Jill Clayburgh stars as opera singer Catherina Silveri, whose husband (a briefly seen Fred Gwynne) drops dead, leaving her alone with her fourteen-year-old son Joe (Matthew Barry, who was actually 17 at the time). Before long, they are living in Italy, where Silveri sings in Verdi's operas. (When Clayburgh sings by herself in her home early in the film, one can't imagine she would ever be able to sing in an opera house. During the opera scenes, of course, her singing voice is dubbed.) Joe makes his way by himself through Rome as his mother essentially neglects him, until halfway through the movie the two begin a sexual relationship that starts with them making out in her car, then hitting the sheets -- yuck! This (unfortunately) non-judgmental incest drama could have gone in far more interesting directions but instead becomes a ponderous, pretentious mess about the mother of all bad mothers -- incest and pedophilia, no less -- and is far too repellent to sustain serious interest. A sub-plot with Joe meeting his real father doesn't help matters much. One of Bertolucci's all-time worst movies. The acting isn't bad, but common sense should have told Clayburgh -- and young Barry's parents -- to stay away from this movie! This also goes for Alida Valli, who appears in a small role.

Verdict: Yuck! *.

IL GRIDO

IL GRIDO/THE OUTCRY (1957). Directed by Michael Antonioni.

A dubbed but reasonably effective Steve Cochran plays Luigi, a worker in a small Italian city who wants to marry his lover Irma (Alida Valli) upon finding out that her husband has died, but discovers that she's fallen in love with another man. He takes off to forget her, encountering a number of women he treats even more insensitively than Irma treated him. These include his broken-hearted ex, who has mixed emotions about seeing him; a lady who runs a gas station; and a free spirit who seems borderline batty. Luigi is a stoic man who holds his pain all inside until it comes out in what we are presumably meant to see as an act of inescapable self-violence. No doubt the film is fraught with significance of a sort, but the end result – while it holds the attention – seems to be much ado about nothing. Cochran's performance isn't at all bad, but the film would have been better off with a more sensitive type who could at least register some of the character's inner torment. Some good performances, atmospheric photography, but this lacks the brilliance and emotional resonance of the best of Fellini and De Sica.

Verdict: **1/2.

THE PARADINE CASE

THE PARADINE CASE (1948). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. NOTE: This review contains important plot points.

The Paradine Case is essentially a film about a middle-aged barrister undergoing a mid-life crisis. He falls for his beautiful client and is so convinced of her goodness and innocence that he virtually drives an innocent man he accuses of the crime in court to suicide. When his client confesses on the witness stand, he is emotionally shattered and wants to quit the bar. Okay. The trouble with The Paradine (pronounced Para-deen) Case is that this middle-aged lawyer is played by Gregory Peck with two streaks of gray in his hair which do absolutely nothing to make him look any older than a man in his thirties, which he was at the time. Although Peck can deliver his lines with authority, he is not good at displaying emotion or vulnerability (Jimmy Stewart would be have much better, as his performance in Vertigo indicates) so that much of the power of the film is completely lost. This is truly a shame because the film boasts excellent performances by a large ensemble cast, superb Selznick production values, a wonderful score by Franz Waxman, and has many good scenes and fascinating details. (Alida) Valli, as the accused murderess Mrs. Paradine, has such an expressive face that she doesn't really have to act. Charles Laughton and Charles Coburn are excellent as the judge and Peck's law partner, respectively. Ann Todd scores in a sensitive performance as Peck's wife, trying to be brave and mature as she watches her husband falling in love with an immoral woman, and Joan Chandler, so fine in Rope, offers another expert performance as Coburn's snappy daughter. Louis Jourdan, who was “introduced” in this film along with Valli, is also excellent as the man Mrs. Paradine loves with all her passion. The Paradine Case is certainly worth a look despite the fact that it isn't the masterpiece it could have been. [Hitchcock wanted to use Laurence Olivier and Greta Garbo for the lead roles!]

Verdict: Not great but definitely under-rated by many. ***.