Friday, July 31, 2015

Marte, dio della guerra (1962)

Italian Locandina Poster

Marte, dio della guerra (aka The Son of Hercules vs. Venus), directed in color by Marcello Baldi, is one of Jocelyn's early 1960's sword-and-sandal Italian films.  A group of African warriors are attacking a great walled city, and the defenders call out for help from one of their gods, Jupiter.  As an answer to their pleas, a lightning bolt delivers the god of war, Mars (Roger Browne) into the fight where he almost single-handedly fights off the attack and saves the city.  Mars immediately takes a shine to Daphne (Jocelyn, as Jackie Lane).  Unfortunately, the ruler's daughter, Ecuba (Linda Sini), wants Daphne out of the picture.  She suggests to her father that they should provide a sacrifice to the gods in return for the great victory, by sending the most beautiful and pure virgin in the city to be a sort of nun in a temple to the goddess Venus.  Unsurprisingly, that is Daphne.

So smitten with Daphne, Mars asks his father on Olympus to let him return to earth as a man so that he can be with Daphne.  His father reluctantly agrees and allows him to return, along with a few gold lightning-bolts that will allow Mars to return to Olympus, unless he uses them all up.  The rest of the film follows Mars and his efforts at freeing Daphne, as well as intrigue in the city and some battles.  Ridiculously, the film ends with a planned sacrifice to some kind of man-eating plant monster, Daphne getting shot with an arrow during a fight at the sacrifice scene, and her being revived from the dead to ride off into the heavens on a chariot with Mars.

Simply put, this film is a 98-minute labor in silliness.  Roger Brown looks OK physically in the part of Mars, but let's just say that his acting skills are limited, and the material is not good.  Jocelyn performs OK, I suppose, but it's not like she had much to work with here, and her hairstyle is probably one of the least attractive that she ever had on film.  The straight bangs just looked odd.  I watched an Italian-language version of the film because of the superior picture quality, but through the years there has also been a poor-quality English-dubbed VHS version from Sinister Cinema.  So, in the version that I watched, Daphne's voice is not that of Jocelyn, but for all I know, she may not have even done her own studio dubbing for the English release.  I have no plans to watch the English dubbed version at this point.

Unless you're just a Jocelyn Lane completist, don't bother with this one.  It is probably the worst film in which she appeared in a leading role, though the blame doesn't fall on her shoulders.  She had very little to work with here.

IMDB shows a release date in Italy of March 24, 1962, so my presumption is that the film was shot in late 1961, after Jocelyn had completed her work on Operation Snatch.  I have seen no indication of a theatrical release in the U.S.  By 1964, the film was being shown on television in the U.S. (as evidenced by television newspaper listings for the film in March and August of that year).

Here are some Italian fotobustas:














A French poster:

  
A studio still:


A soundtrack CD:



Thursday, July 30, 2015

Operation Snatch (1962)

British Poster

Operation Snatch, is a British comedy directed by Robert Day in black and white.  Day was mostly a television director.  Interestingly, it was co-produced by Peter O'Toole.  It does not appear to have been a particularly well-regarded film, but since it starred the likes of Terry-Thomas, George Sanders, and Lionel Jeffries (along with Jocelyn), you would think that it would not be so incredibly difficult to find.  However, it does not appear to have been released on home video anywhere in the world through the years, and I have not even seen any indication of someone having recorded it on TV after the advent of the VCR.  It is the only feature length film with a confirmed appearance by Jocelyn that I have never been able to view.  As a Jocelyn fan, it looks like her appearance is significant enough to make for interesting viewing, so let's hope that one day some company will see fit to release it on DVD.

Here's a synopsis of the film, as reflected on the back of a promotional flyer used for it in the U.S.

"Legend has it that if the Barbary apes ever leave Gibraltar, the British Empire will crumble.  It is World War II, England is about to invade North Africa and the last male ape has died.  The females have grown very listless and much against his will, Major Hobson, Intelligence Officer on the Rock is forced to call on Lt. "Piggy" Wigg, England's foremost authority on apes.

The apes must be removed to sick bay for observation and, as a stop-gap measure, Lt. Wigg is to train short men to cavort as apes on Gibraltar.  The Germans, however, are suspicious and a male ape must be found.  One is discovered in a German circus and Wigg, with his faithful orderly, Evans are sent off to kidnap it.

They are rowed into Germany from Switzerland and then deserted.  They find the ape, drug it with a doped banana but now, must get back across the border.  Using a pantomime horse as an escape hatch, they set off a stampeded of the circus horses across the bridge and then try to keep up with them.

As the horses go over the bridge, they go under safety; now they can rest.  However, the legend is that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London...."

Jocelyn plays a character named Bianca Tabori, but I don't know how she fits into the plot.

Production on Operation Snatch started September 11, 1961 in Gibraltar before moving to Associated British Elstree studios and winding on November 3, 1961.  The film opened in the UK in March 1962, with one report that I've seen from April showing a decent box office return.  It premiered in the U.S. in some cities in mid-September of 1962, with a New York City opening on September 24, 1962. It appears to have generated respectable returns at the box office in the last quarter of 1962 and on into 1963 at various theaters running foreign films.  It received a weak review, however, in the Kansas City Times on November 23, 1962.  The reviewer (with no specific mention of Jocelyn), concluded that:  "The idea is clever enough, but the film tries to stretch it beyond its potential.  This leads to some pretty thin gags, the weakness of which is compounded by the introduction of all sorts of extraneous plot matter. Terry-Thomas, of course, is a very funny man. ... the other performers are never better than routine."

Here are the U.S. miltary (courtesy of emovieposter.com), one sheet, and half sheet posters, along with the lobby card set:



Here are some U.S. stills:









A Danish poster (courtesy of emovieposter.com):


A poster from either Belgium or France:


A British poster and pressbook:




Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Two and Two Make Six (1962)

British Quad Poster

Two and Two Make Six (aka The Girl Swappers) is a British comedy directed in black and white by Freddie Francis.  Larry (George Chakiris), a U.S. airman, is a ladies man that also likes to bet on the horses.  He seems to always been in trouble with his Sergeant (Bernard Braden), and his current fling is Julie (Jocelyn, as Jackie Lane).  Larry gets a tip from a young girl who works at a horse stable, and he wins 250 pounds at the track.  Unfortunately, the girl's mother considers him to be a "molester" and reports him to the Sergeant, which results in a confrontation in the lady's home.  When Larry pushes the Sergeant down, a vase falls on his head, and the lady starts screaming that Larry has killed him (though he is really only unconscious).  Larry panics and flees the scene, seeking help from Julie to flee the country and return to the U.S.

Julie loans her brother's motorcycle to Larry, but she insists that he take her with him to the U.S., and Larry reluctantly agrees.  The couple stops at a roadside cafe, and that's where the complications get worse.  When policemen arrive at the cafe, Larry gets worried and hurries outside to get on the motorcycle.  A fellow named Tom (Alfred Lynch) is also outside getting on his motorcycle, and the two guys are dressed the same (and have helmets, goggles, etc. that mostly cover their faces).  While Alfred is examining his motorcycle and not paying attention, his girlfriend, Irene (Janette Scott) hops on the back of Larry's motorcycle as Larry hurries away.  Julie then comes out and gets on the back of the motorcycle with Tom.  

Each guy gets down the road a ways before realizing that the wrong girl is on the motorcycle with him.  They try returning to the cafe to straighten it out, but the policemen are still present, so they do not stay there.  Larry was traveling to Westport to hop a ship out of the country, so he decides to go there, thinking that Julie will come there and find him.  Meanwhile, Tom and Julie decide to go to his Aunt's house in Seven Hills, because they think that Irene will take Larry there (although Irene does not know where his aunt lives).

Predictably, the couples at first deal with the situation by arguing, but they eventually start falling for their new traveling companions.  Athene Seyler is particularly good as Tom's saucy Aunt Phoebe.  After much confusion and effort, the couples eventually reunite but decide to remain with their new partners.  Larry returns to the base to accept his punishment, and Irene convinces the Colonel there to go easy on him.  In the final scene, we see both ladies strolling their babies together, presumably with Julie having married Tom and Irene having married Larry.

Two and Two Make Six is a pretty good movie, overall, and it is definitely a must-see for Jocelyn fans.  Janette Scott was an attractive lady in this film, but for my money, she was not in the same class as Jocelyn.  Jocelyn and Janette had both been amongst the crop of starlets seeking attention in the UK in the 1950's.  Jocelyn clearly does not have black hair in this film; it is either red or brown.  She had probably moved to the red color based on the British quad poster at the top of this post.  She wears some sexy outfits, with Julie being a character that is interested in money and is very forward with the shy Tom.  The character of Irene, on the other hand, seems to be a girl next door with a heart of gold.

This is the type of role that fit Jocelyn's skill set very well.  She was good at light comedy, and I think that this role was one of her better acting jobs.  She gets to smile and be happy a lot, but also gets to use some of her sly, sexy, petulant attributes, as well.  I noticed that at times, her generally light British accent seemed to be a little more pronounced than at other times.  That caused me to wonder if perhaps Jocelyn was a better actress than even I give her credit for being, because she was acting more "British."  I have often wondered what type of accent she had in her everyday life, because she seemed to fairly easily have a light British accent, or no British accent, in her roles.  Since she spent most of her formative years in New York, my presumption would be that she only had whatever degree of British accent she may have picked up after moving to England in her mid-teens.

Chakiris did a good job as Larry in the film, and it should be noted that he had just recently turned in his Oscar-winning performance in West Side Story.  I thought Lynch and Scott did well also.  

All-in-all, Two and Two Make Six is a modestly budgeted film that is worth viewing by any lover of retro cinema, but it's one that should not be missed by Jocelyn fans.

Filming commenced in Bristol, England in June of 1961 under the title Change of Heart, and it was finished by August, based on reports in Variety.  The UPI wire service circulated a photo of Jocelyn on a fountain in Bristol with the caption:  "What red-blooded man wouldn't put actress Jackie Lane on a pedestal?  Actually, the statuesque British star climbed up on this herself in the historic English port city of Bristol, where she's filming 'A Change of Art.'  Called 'Nails,' the waist-high bases were used as places where money changed hands between busy traders of the past, giving rise to the British expression, 'Paying on the Nail,' meaning paying immediately."


Re-titled Two and Two Make Six, the film was released in the U.K. in May of 1962.  Based on reports in Variety, it seemed to perform fairly well at the box office over the rest of the year.  Variety reviewed the film in its June 6, 1962 edition based on a viewing at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on May 29 (with a running time of 89 minutes), generally concluding that it was a "[f]limsy, but pleasant, comedy drama with a couple of engaging performances by young players which could help out satisfactorily as a dualer." As for Jocelyn, it assessed that she "was not in the same thesping league as her colleagues."  It went on to praise Scott's work in the film, which baffles me as to how it was considered by the reviewer to be any better than Jocelyn's.  

Two and Two Make Six was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2008 as The Girl Swappers, a title which makes the film sound more risque than it really is.  The only extra on the DVD is a slideshow of scenes from the movie.


Here is a U.S. one sheet poster and lobby card set (courtesy of emovieposter.com):


Here are some U.S. stills:








A still of unknown origin:

Two and Two Make Six still

A British lobby card:


A British mini-poster:


A Belgian poster:


An Italian locandina: