Back at the movies, or at least the movie posters, with our answers to yesterday's Friday Fun & Games.
After the title of each film, i've listed the artist in parentheses where the identity has been confirmed, or from the (sometimes partially legible) signature from the image. Where unconfirmed, a ? remains until suspicions are substantiated or ignorance enlightened.
Feel free to help out on either front.
All right, let's get to the answers-
01 - A Man Called Dagger (Frank Frazetta)
02 - Crime Busters ()
03 - Inspector Clouseau (Jack Davis)
04 - It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Jack Davis)
05 - Viva Max! (Jack Davis)
06 - Mad Monster Party (Frank Frazetta)
07 - It Follows (?)
08 - The Gauntlet (Frank Frazetta)
09 - Stunt Rock (Rob---?)
10 - Danger Diabolik (Frank McCarthy)
11 - The Fastest Guitar Alive (Frank Frazetta)
12 - Busy Body (Frank Frazetta)
13 - Fearless Vampire Slayers (or Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are In My Neck) (Frank Frazetta)
14 - Yours, Mine, and Ours (Frank Frazetta)
15 - Man Of The East (?)
16 - Finders Keepers (Mort Drucker)
17 - The Secret Of My Success (Frank Frazetta)
18 - Hotel Paradiso (Frank Frazetta)
19 - Devil's Express (?)
20 - Cactus Jack AKA The Villain (Jack Davis)
21 - Bamboo Gods & Iron Men (G. Akimoto)
22 - My Name Is Nobody ()
23 - Crime Busters (Jack Davis)
24 - Fitzwilly (Frank Frazetta)
25 - 8 On The Lam (Jack Davis)
26 - The Night They Raided Minsky's (Frank Frazetta)
27 - My Son, The Hero AKA The Titans ()
Kudos to TC, who offered answers to 17 of the 27, and only missed twice. And when he missed, he still hit terrific targets. Sabata for #11? Okay - it's a guitar instead of banjo, but you pull in Lee Van Cleef in an odd film like that, and it was a right fair guess that would be something i'd use. The Fastest Gun Alive was 2 years before the first Sabata film - starring Roy Orbison! Pause and reflect on that... Frank Frazetta painting posters for a Roy Orbison musical western. With Roy playing a spy with a bullet shooting guitar...
However, TC - For The Villain, you listed the stars wrong. Move Paul Lynde up, because you should always finish the list with "...and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Wyle E. Coyote"
Obviously, despite my professed ignorance of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in my reply to yesterday's comment from TC, I'm a fan of their films. Enough to include one of them twice. (Yeah - I cheated, which is probably why TC didn't have one more answer on his sheet.) Yet, oddly enough, none of them are the films folks in the USA are most likely to have seen, if they've seen the duo at all. Those would be Trinity films, of course. The "sequels" to My Name Is Nobody - They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name, and Boot Hill - in which we find even Nobody has a name. And a brother like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, played by Bud Spencer. I 'air quoted' "sequels" because although marketed on video as such, all three movies were made prior to My Name Is Nobody. I rather suspect they're actually what led Sergio Leone & Tonino Valerii to cast him in the role. (As indicated by the blurb on the poster)
Hill & Spencer have made a bunch of fun comedies in Italy, both together and solo. As you can see by the blurb on #15 (The Magnificent One!), they were very popular on the international market. Seeing either of their names on a movie is like a blinking "Buy Me!" sign to me. International comics fans might recognize Terence Hill from his Lucky Luke movie and/or TV series. Oh - and here's one that might be a shocker for some modern viewers who don't realize there was a series of films a half century prior to the modern incarnation: He played Django back in '68. (He wasn't the original Django - that was Franco Nero, two years earllier)
He's still a big star, by the way. His TV show, Don Matteo, in which he plays the title role, has been on the air in Italy since the turn of the century, and he just finished filming his latest movie, La Chiamavano Maryam, which he also directed.
Sadly, Bud Spencer died last year. He continued to be a big star, in more ways than one, as well. He starred in movies like his Flatfoot series, video games and tv shows up until a few years before he died, the last being his role as Carlo Banci on Recipe For Crime.
Okay, it might seem Odd that this has turned into a post on Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. But, not really. After all - Terrence Hill is on four of the posters; more than anybody else, right? So that kind of makes him the de facto star of the feature, doesn't it?
So, there we go - not odd at all.
We must be in the wrong place.
After the title of each film, i've listed the artist in parentheses where the identity has been confirmed, or from the (sometimes partially legible) signature from the image. Where unconfirmed, a ? remains until suspicions are substantiated or ignorance enlightened.
Feel free to help out on either front.
All right, let's get to the answers-
01 - A Man Called Dagger (Frank Frazetta)
02 - Crime Busters ()
03 - Inspector Clouseau (Jack Davis)
04 - It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Jack Davis)
05 - Viva Max! (Jack Davis)
06 - Mad Monster Party (Frank Frazetta)
07 - It Follows (?)
08 - The Gauntlet (Frank Frazetta)
09 - Stunt Rock (Rob---?)
10 - Danger Diabolik (Frank McCarthy)
11 - The Fastest Guitar Alive (Frank Frazetta)
12 - Busy Body (Frank Frazetta)
13 - Fearless Vampire Slayers (or Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are In My Neck) (Frank Frazetta)
14 - Yours, Mine, and Ours (Frank Frazetta)
15 - Man Of The East (?)
16 - Finders Keepers (Mort Drucker)
17 - The Secret Of My Success (Frank Frazetta)
18 - Hotel Paradiso (Frank Frazetta)
19 - Devil's Express (?)
20 - Cactus Jack AKA The Villain (Jack Davis)
21 - Bamboo Gods & Iron Men (G. Akimoto)
22 - My Name Is Nobody ()
23 - Crime Busters (Jack Davis)
24 - Fitzwilly (Frank Frazetta)
25 - 8 On The Lam (Jack Davis)
26 - The Night They Raided Minsky's (Frank Frazetta)
27 - My Son, The Hero AKA The Titans ()
Kudos to TC, who offered answers to 17 of the 27, and only missed twice. And when he missed, he still hit terrific targets. Sabata for #11? Okay - it's a guitar instead of banjo, but you pull in Lee Van Cleef in an odd film like that, and it was a right fair guess that would be something i'd use. The Fastest Gun Alive was 2 years before the first Sabata film - starring Roy Orbison! Pause and reflect on that... Frank Frazetta painting posters for a Roy Orbison musical western. With Roy playing a spy with a bullet shooting guitar...
However, TC - For The Villain, you listed the stars wrong. Move Paul Lynde up, because you should always finish the list with "...and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Wyle E. Coyote"
Obviously, despite my professed ignorance of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in my reply to yesterday's comment from TC, I'm a fan of their films. Enough to include one of them twice. (Yeah - I cheated, which is probably why TC didn't have one more answer on his sheet.) Yet, oddly enough, none of them are the films folks in the USA are most likely to have seen, if they've seen the duo at all. Those would be Trinity films, of course. The "sequels" to My Name Is Nobody - They Call Me Trinity, Trinity Is Still My Name, and Boot Hill - in which we find even Nobody has a name. And a brother like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, played by Bud Spencer. I 'air quoted' "sequels" because although marketed on video as such, all three movies were made prior to My Name Is Nobody. I rather suspect they're actually what led Sergio Leone & Tonino Valerii to cast him in the role. (As indicated by the blurb on the poster)
Hill & Spencer have made a bunch of fun comedies in Italy, both together and solo. As you can see by the blurb on #15 (The Magnificent One!), they were very popular on the international market. Seeing either of their names on a movie is like a blinking "Buy Me!" sign to me. International comics fans might recognize Terence Hill from his Lucky Luke movie and/or TV series. Oh - and here's one that might be a shocker for some modern viewers who don't realize there was a series of films a half century prior to the modern incarnation: He played Django back in '68. (He wasn't the original Django - that was Franco Nero, two years earllier)
He's still a big star, by the way. His TV show, Don Matteo, in which he plays the title role, has been on the air in Italy since the turn of the century, and he just finished filming his latest movie, La Chiamavano Maryam, which he also directed.
Sadly, Bud Spencer died last year. He continued to be a big star, in more ways than one, as well. He starred in movies like his Flatfoot series, video games and tv shows up until a few years before he died, the last being his role as Carlo Banci on Recipe For Crime.
Okay, it might seem Odd that this has turned into a post on Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. But, not really. After all - Terrence Hill is on four of the posters; more than anybody else, right? So that kind of makes him the de facto star of the feature, doesn't it?
So, there we go - not odd at all.
We must be in the wrong place.
