THE FIFTH CORD

Franco Nero and Pamela Tiffin

THE FIFTH CORD (aka Giornata nera per l'ariete/aka Evil Fingers/1971). Director: Luigi Bazzoni.

After a New Year's Eve party, a young man named John Lubbock (Maurizio Bonuglia) is attacked in a tunnel by an unknown person and nearly killed. Investigating the case is reporter Andrea Bild (Franco Nero of Killer Mermaid), who has an ex-wife, Helene (Silvia Monti), a little boy, Tonio, and a girlfriend named Lu (Pamela Tiffin of The Pleasure Seekers), and who drinks way too much for his own good. Then there is a series of murders, with a doctor's wife being the first victim (in a well-handled sequence), as we hear an unidentified person on the soundtrack talking about how much he likes to kill people. The Fifth Cord is a non-bloody giallo film that has a nice look (thanks to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro) but which doesn't compare to the best of Dario Argento. The story is completely confusing (Nero's thick accent doesn't help), and the motivations of the killer seem ridiculous (and homoerotic in a strictly old-fashioned sense). There is one very creepy and suspenseful scene when the little boy winds up alone in a house with the lights out and is stalked by the killer. Wolfgang Preiss plays the inspector on the case and Edmund Purdom is a minor character. Nero began a long relationship with Vanessa Redgrave when they worked on Camelot; they married in 2006.

Verdict: Second-rate giallo with some interesting aspects. **1/2.

THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE

Alain Delon and Shirley MacLaine

THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE (1964). Director: Anthony Asquith. Screenplay by Terence Rattigan

"Oh, God. How I'm going to hate living from now on."

This is a trio of tales loosely tied to the same beautiful title automobile -- copulation occurs in the back seat of the rolls in each story, but even that doesn't make this picture entertaining. Surely a movie built around such a premise could have turned out better than this, but it's as if playwright Rattigan [The Browning Version] decided to throw together scrips and scraps from his discarded idea book to come up with this mess. The first story, starring Rex Harrison [My Fair Lady] as a member of the Foreign Office, is easily the best, and even manages to be somewhat moving in its tale of Harrison being cuckolded by his wife (Jeanne Moreau) and her lover (Edmund Purdom), who works with Harrison, on the day he should be happiest. The second and worst story has to do with a gangster (George C. Scott) traveling in Italy with his moll (Shirley MacLaine) who encounter a handsome man (Alain Delon) who makes tips selling photos to tourists; you can guess what happens. This exercise in tedium can't even be saved by the actors (including Art Carney as Scott's Man Friday) and has a flat wind up to boot. Delon and MacLaine have little chemistry. The third and last story is a contrived bit of business in which a fussy and wealthy woman (Ingrid Bergman) agrees to take a Yugoslav (Omar Sharif) across the border to aid his king and country just as the Germans are attacking. This termagant has more intestinal fortitude than anyone would ever have imagined, but her romance with Sharif is unconvincing, to say the least. (It would have been even less convincing had the more appropriate Katharine Hepburn been cast, as one critic suggested). Bergman is miscast, Scott [The Exorcist III] is excellent as the mobster, Delon succeeds at being charming, Moreau is creditable, and Harrison, with that stiff British upper lip, underplays quite satisfactorily. The best performance, however, is given by a winning and credible Sharif.

Verdict: The first episode is good, but the last two make two hours seem like ten. *1/2.

ATHENA

Jane Powell, Steve Reeves and Edmund Purdom

ATHENA (1954). Director: Richard Thorpe.

Athena Mulvain (Jane Powell) and sister Minerva (Debbie Reynolds) -- two of several siblings -- belong to a family of health nuts, vegetarians, numerologists, and body builders run by Grandpa (Louis Calhern) and Grandma (Evelyn Varden). Grandpa is seventy-eight but can swing around the parallel bars with ease. Athena and Minerva find themselves falling for men who don't quite believe in the same things they do, with the former setting her cap for Adam Shaw (Edmund Purdom), a lawyer running for Congress; and Minerva becoming involved with boyish crooner Johnny Nyle (Vic Damone). Both women already have highly muscular boyfriends, Ed (Steve Reeves) and Bill (Richard Sabre), both of whom compete in the Mr. Universe contest at the end of the movie; and Adam has a sophisticated fiancee named Beth (Linda Christian). Will true love win out in the end, or will Adam and Johnny find themselves in some crushing body blocks? Athena is a very silly and kitschy musical with some pleasant songs by Martin and Blane, the best of which is "Love Can Change the Stars," well-warbled by Powell. Powell also does a creditable job with an aria from Donizetti's "Daughter of the Regiment." Obviously wealthy, the Mulvain family come off at first as free-spirited non-conformists who are at one with the earth and all that, but in one of the better scenes Adam tells Grandpa that they are actually intolerant of (indeed obnoxious toward) others who don't think as they do. Athena is typical of so many movies in which supposedly nice people simply decide they want someone for themselves and don't give a damn for the fact that they are already involved with someone else. The actors in this are all good, but Louis Calhern, as he often did, gives the best performance, and there are notable turns from Kathleen Freeman as Adam's secretary and Ray Collins as a political associate.  Calhern and Collins appeared together in Invitation. Steve Reeves is so handsome it's a wonder he ever bothered with the beard that he wore for most of his career. He was a real-life Mr. America and Mr. Universe, and his American career could have been developed, but he didn't want to slim  down the muscles for the role in Samson and Delilah that was eventually given to Victor Mature. Reeves became a name after the Italian Hercules became a surprise hit, and he was reportedly offered the role of James Bond in Dr. No but turned it down. In all but two films, Reeve's excellent voice was dubbed. NOTE: The body builders of the fifties and sixties were a different breed from what you see today, typified by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose musculature is so overdone that he resembles something that was mutated in an H-bomb explosion. Steve Reeves had a great physique but he was in no way grotesque.

Verdict: The script is rather annoying, but there are some pleasant moments and performances. **1/2.

THE PRODIGAL

Edmund Purdom and Lana Turner

THE PRODIGAL (1955). Director: Richard Thorpe.

Micah (Edmund Purdom) of Joppa is betrothed to Ruth (Audrey Dalton), but on a trip to Damascus he takes one look at High Priestess Samarra (Lana Turner) and is instantly smitten. He asks his father for his inheritance so he can go off and claim this woman, who worships pagan gods such as Astarte and Baal, and his father gives him the money but says he is now "dead to him". But getting to Samarra as a bearded "interloper" might be a bit of a problem. MGM has taken a simple Biblical parable and "fleshed" it out with a story that is pure Hollywood, but quite entertaining on that level. Purdom is fine as Micah, but Turner, besides being a bit too old, seems to have no clue as to the inner thoughts and feelings of the (admittedly underwritten) character she's playing -- she's just saying lines. There's a host of good character actors in the film, including Cecil Kellaway, seen briefly as the governor; Neville Brand [Eaten Alive] as an evil and sadistic soldier, Rhakim; Henry Daniell as the slave, Ramadi; Jay Novello as a merchant; John Dehner as Micah's brother; and Joseph Wiseman as another slave and instigator. Louis Calhern as the High Priest Nahreeb offers one of his rare indifferent performances, as costume dramas aren't his cup of java. "You hunger for [freed slave Asham] as a pig for husks," Micah tells Nahreeb, and even Samarra tells her High Priest that she doesn't like what he does to his slaves. Francis L. Sullivan [Hell's Island] is better as the portly Bosra. Although Paul Cavanagh is listed in the cast, I couldn't spot him. Although he hasn't a line of dialogue as the mute Asham, who comes to work for Micah, James Mitchell is effective; most of his credits were on TV and All My Children. Little Sandy Descher [Them] plays the strange little girl, Jasmin, but she's not very memorable. Highlights of the film include Micah's battle with a determined vulture in a pit of skeletons and a man who sacrifices himself for Baal by throwing himself into a pool of fire. The film's religiosity never becomes overbearing.

Vwerdict: Not exactly the bible, but worth a look. *** out of 4.

THE EGYPTIAN

Edmund Purdom

THE EGYPTIAN (1954). Director: Michael Curtiz.

"You are mad, sire, but your madness is more beautiful than the visions of other men."

Sinuhe (Edmund Purdom) is a doctor to the poor who gets an appointment as royal physician when he saves the life of Pharaoh Akhnaton (Michael Wilding), whose mother Taia (Judith Evelyn) knows much more about the orphaned doctor's true history than she's letting on. Sinuhe comes under the spell of the Babylonian bitch Nefer (Bella Darvi), who essentially steals everything away from Sinuhe, including his adoptive parents' home and burial tomb [for this Sinuhe bears as much responsibility as Nefer, if not more]. Apparently not learning his lesson, Sinuhe becomes a physician only for the rich, but eventually comes into conflict with his old friend, Horemheb (Victor Mature), when the Hittites threaten an attack. Pharaoh is against violence, but doesn't understand that Egypt still must be defended. When both Horemheb and Akhnaton's cold sister, Baketemon (Gene Tierney) importune Sinuhe to poison Pharaoh, will he comply, especially after he learns the truth about his heritage ...? The Egyptian tells a good story, and mostly tells it well, even if the drawn-out ending, and Sinuhe himself, become oppressively and tediously pious. In the lead role, Edmund Purdom [The Strange Intruder] has a commanding presence, and is not a bad actor, even if there are times you wished he showed just a little more passion. Jean Simmons [Angel Face] is excellent as the woman who loves him throughout good times and bad, and Bella Darvi offers a sophisticated and mesmerizing portrait of a woman who could easily be called the "whore of Babylon." Wilding and Tierney are fine as the brother and sister, as are Victor Mature [Kiss of Death]; Peter Ustinov as the slave Kaptah; little Tommy Rettig as Sinuhe's son; and Judith Evelyn, who nearly walks off with the movie in her one scene with Purdom. The picture has impressive sets and also boasts a wonderful score composed by both Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann (and yes, you can tell who composed which section).

Verdict: Flawed but highly interesting look at ancient Egyptian culture -- with a little Hollywood soap opera thrown in. ***.

THE STRANGE INTRUDER

Edmund Purdom and Ida Lupino

THE STRANGE INTRUDER (1956). Director: Irving Rapper.

During the Korean war, Paul Quentin (Edmund Purdom) promises his buddy Adrian (Donald Murphy of Frankenstein's Daughter) that he'll make contact with his family back home if he dies. After the war, during which Adrian is killed, Paul goes to his town to meet his family, who are unaware that he has mental and emotional problems -- they take to him as a surrogate of Adrian's. For some reason Paul takes too literally Adrian's telling him that he wants his children to be with him, and interprets this as meaning he must kill them...  The Strange Intruder works as neither drama nor suspense film, although Purdom gives a decent performance, as does Ida Lupino, playing Adrian's widow, Alice. The rest of the cast is interesting, too: a nearly unrecognizable Ann Harding [The Unknown Man] as Adrian's mother; Gloria Talbott as his sister; Douglas Kennedy as Alice's lawyer; and Jacques Bergerac [The Hypnotic Eye] as an ex-lover who is out to blackmail Alice. Carl Benton Reid of Amos Burke Secret Agent is on hand as Adrian's disabled father, who is able to walk again right after he meets Paul. [This also fails as an allegory, if that was what was intended.] Irving Rapper directed much better pictures, such as Now, Voyager.

Verdict: This should have been a half hour episode of some fifties dramatic series, and even then it might not have amounted to much. **.