EDITOR’S NOTE: Made In Paris was on the CBS Late Movie on April 3 and November 24, 1972; October 15, 1972; October 15, 1973 and January 19 and June 17, 1976.

Everybody is in love with Maggie Scott (Ann-Margret), a charming and ambitious young woman. Ted Barclay (Chad Everett) is the son of the department store owner where she works, and he is smitten by her. Fashion designer Marc Fontaine (Louis Jourdan) is captivated by her unique style and elegance. Fashion designer Marc Fontaine (Louis Jourdan). Journalist Herb Stone (Richard Crenna) is intrigued by her story. She’s working as the store’s representative for the annual fashion shows of the prominent European fashion designers,

Both Maggie and her boss, Irene (Edie Adams), wear great fashions in this, designed by MGM costumer Helen Rose, who also designed Princess Grace’s wedding dress. The film’s fashion, designed by Helen Rose, is a significant aspect of the movie, reflecting the elegance and style of the era. Ann-Margret had it in her contract that she could keep any of the clothes made for her for this movie.

Despite its Parisian setting, the movie was actually shot on the MGM studio’s backlot, adding a unique twist to the film’s production. The soundtrack, featuring the legendary Count Basie and his orchestra, further enhances the movie’s allure.

It was directed by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man) and written by Stanley Roberts (The Caine Mutiny).

An invisible woman — actually, Invisible Woman as played by Michelle Yeoh — is stealing newborn children who are destined to be world leaders for her boss, the Evil Master. He needs to be stopped but Invisible Woman owes him her life after leaving behind an abusive father. Luckily, she has two other heroes to push her to the path of righteousness — Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), who is the mild-manner wife of a cop by day and a sword and knife-wielding heroine by night and Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung), a motorcycle-riding, bomb-throwing mercenary struggling to also find her good side.

It was produced by Ching Siu-tung (who directed A Chinese Ghost Story) and directed by Johnnie To, who was also the director for its thematically different sequel, Executioners.

Let me be perfectly clear: this movie is everything that I want in a film, with monstrous bad guys, unstoppable women and plenty of kinetic martial arts. Sure, it’s often style over substance, but that’s quite often exactly what I’m looking for.

I watched this film as part of The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN). You can learn more at their official site.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cry of the Banshee was on the CBS Late Movie on April 10, 1973, 

“Who spurs the beast the corpse will ride?

Who cries the cry that kills?

When Satan questioned, who replied?

Whence blows this wind that chills?

Who walks amongst these empty graves

And seeks a place to lie?

‘Tis something God ne’er had planned,

A thing that ne’er had learned to die.”

That poem is Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells,” which sets the tone for this unique movie, the last of the American-International Pictures Poe movies. Directed by Gordon Hessler, this film, unlike its predecessors, had nothing to do with the Baltimorean author, offering a fresh take on the horror genre.

According to Peter Fuller on  Spooky Isles, AIP promoted this movie as the hundredth film that its star, Vincent Price, was in. The truth is that it was probably his seventy-sixth. Undaunted, AIP did the same publicity for his next movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

This movie is a visual treat — it was shot in the Grim’s Dyke House, the same location as Curse of the Crimson Altar and The Devil Rides Out. The film opens with an incredibly excellent animation by Terry Gilliam, a visual masterpiece that, unfortunately, was cut from the American print, leaving the audience captivated from the start.

If you enjoyed Vincent Price’s portrayal as a witch hunter in Witchfinder General, you’re in for a treat! In this film, he plays the role of Lord Edward Whitman, a character who has taken it upon himself to rid England of every witch. His relentless pursuit leads to the disruption of Black Masses and the death of many witches, until one of them, Oona, possesses his loyal servant Roderick, complicating his mission.

The movie also inspired a band to name themselves Siouxie and the Banshees. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Biggest Bundle of Them All was on the CBS Late Movie on March 24 and July 26, 1972; September 13, 1973; March 24 and August 30, 1976.

It’s easy for us in 2023 to forget just how big of a deal Raquel Welch was. I was born in 1972, so by the time I hit puberty, she was playing the role of the former sex symbol. But once you see her in this film, it all makes sense.

In this, she’s Juliana, the girlfriend of criminal Harry Price (Robert Wagner). Price’s gang has taken former Chicago gangster Cesare Celli (Vittorio De Sica, yes, the director of Bicycle Thieves) captive. Yet none of the older man’s fellow bosses try to save him. No one is more insulted by Cesare, who decides to teach Price and his gang how to steal $6 million in plutonium.

Ten days before shooting, director Ken Annakin realized he’d read a similar script called The Happening. That movie was being made by Sam Spiegel at Columbia, who got 15% of the profits for this, got to approve the script, changed the title from The Italian Caper and delayed it for six months after his movie.

There’s a great cast in this, with Edward G. Robinson as a professor of crime, plus Godfrey Cambridge, Davy Kaye, Francesco Mulé, Mickey Knox and Victor Spinetti. The soundtrack is also a pretty choice because Johnny Matthis sings “Most of All There’s You,” with music written by Riz Ortolani.

It’s funny reading interviews with Annakin and Robinson, as they both didn’t think much of Welch. They either said she winged all of her lines and didn’t learn them or that she was just using her body instead of being an actress. Robert Wagner wrote that she was late so often that Robinson cut a ten-minute promo, leaving Welch in tears.

She was late again the next day.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Illustrated Man was on the CBS Late Movie on July 14, 1972 and October 11, 1973.

Beyond Bird with the Crystal Plumage, there’s one movie my mother has already brought up that she hated. And that would be this one.

The book that these stories come from has eighteen of them, but Howard B. Kreitsek and Jack Smight picked these three for the film without ever speaking to Ray Bradbury, the author of the book. The tattooed man who appears in the book’s prologue and epilogue would become this film’s main story and be played by Rod Steiger.

The funny thing is that when Steiger takes off his glove to reveal his hand, it’s tattooed and played off as a horrific moment. A half-century after this movie was made, nearly all my friends have this many tattoos.

Carl, the tattooed man, meets Willie and uses his skin illustrations to tell tales throughout time. The ink came from a mysterious woman named Felicia. At the end of the film, Willie sees his death at Carl’s hands in the only bare patch of skin on the Illustrated Man.

The stories that are told include “The Veldt,” which takes place in the future and involves children who study within a virtual version of the African veldt. Soon, the lions will solve this issue of their parents. “The Long Rain” has solar rains* that drive an entire crew to madness in space. And “The Last Night of the World” predates The Mist, with parents who must decide if their children should survive the end of the world.

The final story—and its bleak ending—is exactly why my mom hates this movie. The fact that she may have told me all about it when I was a kid may have given me nightmares.

This movie did poorly critically and financially. Rod Serling, an expert on adapting short stories to film, called it the worst movie ever made.

*Their spaceship is recycled from Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Escape from the Planet of the Apes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Vatican Affair was on the CBS Late Movie five times, airing on March 14, 1972; March 19, June 10 and December 29, 1975 and June 22, 1988.

Emilio Miraglia is best known to readers as the director of The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times.

Professor Herbert Cummings (Walter Pidgeon) seems like no threat to anyone. After all, he’s blind. But in a surprising turn of events, he’s also looking to rob gems from St. Peter’s and has hired Clint Rogers (Klaus Kinski) to help get the job done. Richard (Marino Masé) and Pamela Scott (Ira von Fürstenberg) complete the crew.

The plot is similar to Operazione San Gennaro, directed by Dino Risi, and Operazione San Pietro, the sequel, directed by Lucio Fulci. It’s like another movie with Kinski, Ad ogni costo (Grand Slam). However, the true star of the film is the captivating soundtrack, composed by Luis Bacalov, which adds more excitement than what’s happening on screen. Bacalov, known for his work on Django, The Great Silence, The Designated Victim, Il Postino and Hell of the Living Dead, delivers a score that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Source

Emilio Miraglia – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Miraglia