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johnguenet
Reviews
5 Branded Women (1960)
jeanne moreau and silvana mangano in classic italian war drama.
I can remember walking past the uk poster hoarding in1960 for this movie,really wanted to see it but as an eleven year old was taken to see something more appropiate, when the time came for my weeky cinema treat... however i never forgot this movie.i did eventually catch up with it on uk tv in1978 on late ,and as far as i know never shown again. the film itself is excellent and typical of the war product that was coming out of the de laurentiis studios a that time. it has an extraordinary number of famous and talented american and italian and french actors.i love this movie and cannot believe the negative reviews it had over the years. jeanne moreau is quoted as saying she only made it to pay her tax bill !! i have a number of public domain copies obtained over the years, but it should be re-mastered ...originally released by paramount,but i guess the key to this now lies with the de laurentiis organisation.
Les magiciennes (1960)
double deception aka frantic aka les magiciennes 1960
First saw this movie on a double bill with seddok-son of satan (atom age vampire) in 1963 when i was about 13 at a west london cinema.it was called frantic and was clearly the better movie, dubbed into english,i guess. i caught it again a couple of times later in 1964 and 1965 in cinemas in the bayswater area of london. then it just dissappeared. i just loved it . i was really impressed with the deception. the puzzling and trickery of the plot coming from writers boileau and narcejaq ,the story line and the two main female parts,the kessler twins.the poor guy thought there was only the one performer. and when the other twin appeared on the scene, he got very confused they deliberately tricked him so much that he could not tell who he was with at any one time.this is really what the premise of the movie was about, the trickery.the double deception things not being quite what they seem to be etc.I always remembered this film and hoped one day it would show on vhs or dvd. after waiting 57 years i am happy to report it is available as a gaumont release thru amazon / fr as of jan 2020. .i have a copy... it was a blast to see it again.