(1961)
Dir - Sergio Corbucci/Giacomo Gentilomo
Overall: GOOD
Switching to Italy after his five year run as Tarzan in as many film, muscle-bound actor Gordon Scott took on another frequented cinematic property as Maciste in Goliath and the Vampires, (Maciste contro il vampiro, The Vampires). The name change in the American International Pictures dub is hardly of importance since Masiste/Goliath is the same infallible hero with superhuman strength, here squaring off against an undead tyrant who controls sultans, destroys villages, and kidnaps the women to harness their blood. Standard bad guy stuff and along the way we witness a pit of scorpion monsters, an army of blue men, and mannequin robot zombies. There are also some gruesome set pieces like women being fed to sharks, prisoners forced to climb a pole only to fall onto a pile of spikes, and Goliath getting tortured by a giant bell being rung while he is standing inside of it. Scott's lean physique may not be as Herculean as one would expect, but he makes a charming, one-note good guy, plus directors Sergio Corbucci and Giacomo Gentilomo keep the pacing brisk while utilizing well-decorated sets and some inventive costume/creature design. It may not be as weird or unintentionally hilarious as other peplum spectacles, but it gets the job done.
(1965)
Dir - Ernesto Gastaldi/Vittorio Salerno
Overall: MEH
The directorial debut from screenwriters Vittorio Salerno and Ernesto Gastaldi, (the latter who specialized in a number of horror films throughout the 1960s), Libido is a standard, manipulative thriller with sluggish pacing despite some decent atmosphere here or there. The story was conceived of by Gastaldi's wife Mara Maryl, (who also appears as one of only four actors on screen), and the results were allegedly shot in eighteen days, making sufficient use out of a spacious mansion and a rocky, seaside cliff which of course spells doom for at least someone to plummet to their death by. As one could guess judging by the premise of a young married man with a traumatic past who is set to inherent his sadistic father's wealth, the plot throws suspicion on the small amount of characters on screen since it is likely that all of them are after the money. Things grow more convoluted than that with the cliche thrown in of making one of them grow insane, where every unnatural thing that he witnesses can be logically explained once other people rush into the room to see all evidence having disappeared. Well shot with a handful of tense moments, the performances are mostly stiff and Gastaldi and Salerno fail to keep up the momentum as things progress to their melodramatic, back-stabbing conclusion.
(1968)
Dir - Cesare Canevari
Overall: GOOD
A stylish crime-caper giallo from filmmaker Cesare Canevari, A Hyena in the Safe, (Una jena in cassaforte), turns a formulaic set-up of a bunch of diamond thieves who have reconvened in a spacious mansion to retrieve the loot, all into a stylish romp with endlessly engaging cinematography from Claudio Catozzo. Many of the personnel involved have few if any other movies on their resumes, including most of the cast which is unusual for international genre cinema that frequented the same recognizable players. Maria Luisa Geisberger is a dead-ringer for Ingrid Pitt and turns in the most memorable performance as a seducing widow, constantly in motion with her borderline outrageous costumes and glammed-out makeup. Every character is shady to the tilt which renders none of them as "likeable", but this is hardly a problem as Catozzo rarely lets the camera sit still and each shot is maximized for the best possible engagement. Style over substance perhaps, but the substance itself is of a knowingly campy variety which is extenuated by Gian Piero Reverberi's ridiculously catchy musical score that bounces between sinister, romantic, and up-tempo jazz that seems squarely fit for a comedy. This is appropriate though since the movie delivers its humor in a dark fashion and has a convoluted pay-off full of double-crosses and whatnot, as any self-respecting giallo should.
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