NINE GUESTS FOR A CRIME

Arthur Kennedy at the wheel 

NINE GUESTS FOR A CRIME (aka Nove espiti per un delitto/1977). Director: Ferdinando Baldi.

Liberto (Arthur Kennedy of Impulse) takes members of his family for a two-week vacation on his private island. His guests include his young, unfaithful wife, Giulia (Caroline Laurence), who only married him for his money; his sons Lorenzo (John Richardson of Torso) and Michele (Massimo Foschi); their wives Greta (Rita Silva) and Carla (Sofia Dionisio); psychic Patrizia (Loretta Persichetti); son-in-law Walter (Venantino Venantini); and Aunt Elisabetta (Dana Ghia). For the first few hours they spend their time on the island berating each other and cheating on their spouses. Then one of the members of the party drowns. A killer begins stalking the others, and Elisabetta talks hysterically of how her lover Charles was murdered and buried on the island twenty years before ... 

John Richardson

Nine Guests keeps you watching, but the film has absolutely no style and very little tension. Characterization only consists of people being bitchy with each other and talking about how much they all hate each other -- to say these people are unsympathetic is an understatement. The gore is minimal, and a severed head that tumbles off a bed looks just like the phony prop it is. Some of the murder scenes are actually comical, and when the killer is revealed you can't quite imagine that this particular person could be responsible for all of these deaths. 

Verdict: Mediocre giallo. **1/4.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

The Proteus in a capillary

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966). Director: Richard Fleischer.  

After an important scientist is attacked and nearly killed by "the other side," his bodyguard, Grant (Stephen Boyd), is called in to the HQ of CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces). There he learns to his horror that an operation on the scientist's brain must be performed from the inside. That's right -- the entire medical team, along with a queasy Grant, will be shrunk to microscopic size, inserted into a blood vessel, and sent via submarine, the Proteus, on a "fantastic voyage" to save the man's life. But is it possible the lead surgeon, Dr. Duval (Arthur Kennedy of Impulse), is a traitor? Or is it one of the others -- the pilot, Owens (William Redfield), Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence of Circus of Horrors), or Duval's shapely assistant, Cora (Raquel Welch)? 

Pleasence, Kennedy, Boyd, Welch

With its totally absurd premise and situations -- surely the scientist's brain could be operated on in the normal way? -- one has to suspend disbelief from start to finish when it comes to Fantastic Voyage. Once you accept that, you're in for an unparalleled thrill ride, with one startling emergency situation after another: a tear in a vessel's tissue causes a whirlpool that nearly shakes the sub apart; Grant is nearly lost in a wind-blown lung cavity; a noise in the operating theater when the Proteus must proceed through the inner ear causes anti-bodies to attack Cora; and so on. The special effects for the movie, combined with impressive and well-dressed sets, done in the days before CGI, still hold up all of these years later. The film is a visual knock-out -- especially in widescreen -- and although the pace is on the deliberate side, the suspense and tension is continuously sustained.

A tense moment on board the Proteus

On the debit side, all of the characters are one-dimensional, although in general the acting is solid. Welch never seems quite real, however, almost like a walking Barbie doll. Monitoring the sub via a tiny radioactive particle are Edmond O'Brien and Arthur O'Connell as General Carter and Colonel Reid, respectively. These two manage to get across the stress they are undergoing while the actors on the Proteus may, at times, seem a little too cool under pressure. But none of that really matters: Fantastic Voyage is a fun and eye-popping ride and one of the most original movies ever made. 

Verdict: Excellent sci-fi/fantasy -- a remake is not in order. ***1/2. 

IMPULSE

Constance Smith and Arthur Kennedy

IMPULSE (1954). Director: Charles de Latour (Cy Endfield.)

Alan Curtis (Arthur Kennedy) is an American real estate man with a British wife named Elizabeth (Joy Shelton). Alan feels that his life is in a rut, and asks Elizabeth to forget her plans to go see her mother and go off for a second honeymoon in Paris on impulse. Elizabeth refuses, making Alan more susceptible to the charms of a pretty songstress with car trouble named Lila (Constance Smith), whose brother, Harry (Bruce Beebe), is in some kind of dire straits. Alan keeps doing whatever Lila asks and he gets wound up in some crooked business Involving diamonds, police inspectors asking questions, and a few bad guys who are up to no good. 

Constance Smith

Impulse features a typically good performance from Kennedy but the movie -- another bad British so-called suspense film with an American lead -- never really catches fire. As I've said before, this is the kind of movie that fades from memory even while you're watching it, and nothing of great import and excitement ever happens even when Alan becomes convinced that he's killed someone. A scene that almost becomes amusing occurs when the nosy, horse-faced neighbor, Miss Birchington (Jean St. Clair), comes calling when Lila is parading around Alan's house in a towel. The life of Constance Smith, who showed much promise in the beginning but wound up being thrown in jail more than once and tragically died an alcoholic, would undoubtedly been more interesting than this mediocre picture. Smith also appeared in Otto Preminger's 13th Letter. 

Verdict:  The very definition of "minor." **.