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Reviews
Jules (2023)
Light comedy with a message; not-bad
Ben Kingsley is almost unrecognizable as a 78-year-old Pennsylvania man, living alone but worried over by his nearby daughter, who gets a surprise visit from a mute, docile alien being after it crash-lands its spaceship into the senior's garden. Meanwhile, the government is out to find "a satellite" that fell to Earth, and two of the man's female acquaintances in town are eager to know what's going on. Light comedy dotted with pathos juggles at-times facile humor with "something to say" about older folks and aging. Pithy Jane Curtin gives her role as a former-partyer a dash of salt, but Kingsley looks like a mummified Woody Allen. The alien, played by Jade Quon without benefit of CGI, is a sleepy, puzzling creation--rather like a bar of soap with a face. **1/2 from ****
Pink Angels (1971)
From a technical standpoint, a mess...from a cultural standpoint, not terrible
"Pink Angels" is likely better-made than it has any right to be. Six biker drag queens, traveling down the California coast on three vintage motorcycles with sidecars, plan to attend a drag cotillion in Los Angeles but run afoul of an Army general with an unspecified axe to grind. The first 12mns of the movie (which include a portion of the ending in advance and a food fight at an A&W walk-up) are garbage; however, when the gang gets pulled over by two overzealous cops, the mood gets surprisingly prickly. Though the scene runs on too long, it gives hint that maybe director Larry G. Brown had a little chutzpah to go with his bravado. Eventually, these Pink Angels get dolled up for the party--becoming the ugliest queens in creation--and this is where Brown lets it slip that he is not a forward-thinking filmmaker (gay or straight) but just an exploitative hack trying to make a shockable buck...and if the sight of these galumphing dudes in dresses isn't depressing enough, the final shot of the film will leave most audiences mortified. * from ****
Tales of the City (2019)
A bit trendy and PC, but often nutty, sexy and enjoyable
Armistead Maupin's series of "Tales" books, which began life as fictional columns he penned for the San Francisco Examiner in the mid-1970s, first became television fare in 1993 with a miniseries produced by Britain's Channel 4 and broadcast Stateside in early-'94 on PBS. Showtime (with assistance from Channel 4) took over from PBS in 1998 with an adaptation of Maupin's second book, "More Tales of the City," followed by "Further Tales of the City" (without Channel 4) in 2001. Finally, we have this 10-ep installment of Maupin via Netflix, and the results are haphazard, to say the least. Bringing Maupin up to date has rendered San Francisco's Barbary Lane with trendy international couplings (so as not to leave anybody out of the fray) and in-your-face, PC-messages of acceptance (which is fine unless it's being force-fed to the audience). The overall theme this time--indeed, the main point of contention for these new and returning characters--is that old Generation Gap. Anna Madrigal's tenants seem stuck in an ageist rut: the young blithely indifferent to the old, the old frustrated by this new era of correctness (which is seen as a threat by the elders of the gay community, erasing their progress, their history, and the days of struggle pre-AIDS). Utilizing different writers and directors to tell this new Tale, the episodes often creak with self-importance and the need to spout off and say everything in under 60mns. Laura Linney's Mary Ann, a former Barbary Lane resident, arrives from Connecticut with her husband (initially a stuffy fish-out-of-water type, later revealed to be a pretty nice guy) for matriarch/landlady Anna's 90th birthday. Olympia Dukakis is back as Anna, and nearing 90 herself in real-life, which may be why the directors keep giving the actress entrances worthy of royalty. Dukakis, her face a constant cloud of inner-conflict, also collapses quite often in her lawn chair, and one keeps waiting for her to check out for good (but not before we have some plaintive music on the soundtrack!). Anna is being blackmailed by someone who knows a dark secret from her past. They want the property deed to Barbary Lane or they will expose her as a "fraud". This is an example (though often an enjoyably nutty example) of the Idiot Plot: if just one person said what was on their mind, most of the tumult which follows would be rendered unnecessary. Anna won't breathe a word of her dilemma to anybody, but Mary Ann (who has a secret of her own, an adoption secret that stretches all credibility) suspects the worst when a senior-reader comes calling (Victor Garber, whose theatricality and nowhere-British accent are somewhat annoying here). Nobody gets much 9-to-5 work done during the week, and so the constant question of "Where is the money coming from?" is always at the ready, though Ellen Page as Linney's daughter does bartend while having sex with both men and women (her on-again/off-again relationship with a slack-faced female documentarian isn't something one looks back on comfortably after all has been resolved). There's a gay male couple having the usual where-is-this-relationship-heading? Issues; a transgender Hispanic boy having the same issues with his girlfriend, an Asian lesbian; a bored, middle-aged socialite who finds herself amusedly involved sexually with the Asian girlfriend; a pair of Instagram influences who do performance art and are generally a nuisance; also the assorted drag queens, a grating lesbian comedienne who 'sings' on-stage in a suit and tie, and Page's interesting hook-up with a seemingly caring heterosexual couple who are into three-ways (and are, like many of the secondary characters, rendered sour or useless by the writing in later episodes). There's a big reveal involving the blackmailer that didn't make much sense to me--nor did it make sense why Anna was (momentarily) taken in by this opportunist (so much so that the wrecking ball almost comes down on Barbary Lane). As a respite from the soap suds, we are offered a genuinely touching flashback chapter in Ep. 8 that is like a welcome gift. Transgender actress Jen Richards is a perfect match for Dukakis as the young Anna, and her romance with a cop (the terrific Luke Kirby) in volatile '60s San Francisco is lovely and touching and bittersweet--everything, in fact, the rest of these "Tales" generally are not.
Una gota de sangre para morir amando (1973)
Partially-dubbed mishmash...just whacked-out enough to be interesting
Spanish-French co-production with international cast opens with nurse Sue Lyon dodging come-ons from doctor Jean Sorel just before scenario morphs into a futuristic horror with four men in a dune buggy--wearing helmets, jumpsuits and brandishing whips!--who specialize in car and home invasions à la "A Clockwork Orange" (which gets an amusing plug here). Meanwhile, Lyon (in shocking blue eyeshadow) appears to be a caring administrator to everyone but the local population of young men ages 18-25, many of whom are turning up dead. Partially-dubbed mishmash is just whacked-out enough to be marginally interesting. Director and co-writer Eloy de la Iglesia loves comic book colors and TV commercial satire, and he isn't afraid to be a little kinky. *1/2 from ****
End of the Road (1970)
Everyday nightmares...
The seemingly random lunacy and violence of the era has benumbed a college graduate (Stacy Keach) into a catatonic, zombified state. He spends time in a new-fangled sanitarium (headed by an overacting James Earl Jones in a white Nehru jacket), where therapy for the "insane" (i.e., victims who have not been given the opportunity to feel) is anything-goes sexual expression. Upon release, Keach drives a car without a key and rents a warehouse-apartment without a job, but soon connives his way into a teaching position by flirting with the faculty. Absurdist adaptation of John Barth's novel continually toys with an offbeat, bracing rhythm yet is derailed at nearly every turn by Aram Avakian's heavy-handed direction. The film is almost salvaged by Keach's beguiling performance, as well as by Gordon Willis's wonderful cinematography. *1/2 from ****
Circus of Books (2019)
A lovely story of perseverance while turning a blind eye
Documentary for Netflix by Rachel Mason, daughter of longtime West Hollywood bookstore owners Barry and Karen Mason, uses home movies, photographs, newsreel footage and interviews with family and friends to tell the story of her parents' secret journey to success in the gay porn industry. Originally a gay bar before it became Book Circus, Barry (a past wizard at electronics and a special effects tech on both "2001" and the TV series "Star Trek") and business-savvy but deeply-religious Karen took over the now-renamed bookstore on Santa Monica Blvd., catering to a gay male clientele of which they showed no bias against (they were in business, they sold a product, and gay men were their bread and butter). In these recent times of internet-caused strife, the bookstore (and its sister store in nearby Silverlake) was forced to close, but not before Barry and Karen's youngest son came out to them as gay, causing Karen to reassess her Jewish faith (where homosexuality is considered "an abomination") and supporting her son by becoming a leader alongside Barry in PFLAG, an organization uniting parents of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered. Moving story of perseverance, if not mad passion. The Masons looked but never saw; taking part in the pornography business without being actual participants, they put their children through school but never told them or anyone else how they managed it. The best part of "Circus of Books" is in seeing how this self-blinded, now-elderly couple eventually came around to supporting the community who long supported them. *** from ****
The UFO Incident (1975)
An intimate, small-scaled film rather than a sensational TV event...
Adaptation of John G. Fuller's book (the uncredited "The Interrupted Journey") gets into the intense emotional reaction of a close encounter with aliens, and has the solid performances and direction needed to draw us in. Fact-based story of Barney and Betty Hill, an interracial, middle-class married couple in 1960s New Hampshire, who were thought to have been the victims of double amnesia after claiming they'd had contact with a flying saucer while driving from Niagara Falls into Montreal. Psychological portrait of two people, married just one year--both deeply disturbed by an unfathomable circumstance--has been given an intimate, respectful treatment (particularly for television) by director and executive producer Richard A. Colla. As the couple who first sought help from the US Air Force before undergoing hypnosis with a doctor, James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons deliver remarkably open, candid performances (they turn this into a first-rate acting piece). A small-scaled film rather than a sensational TV event, yet a good dramatization of the psychological aspect of an other-worldly encounter. **1/2 from ****
Wild Wild Winter (1966)
It snowballs, all right...
When a group of guys get off the bus near the Alpine ski lodge, they smile and bow to the passing girls, who pass them right up. Turns out, all the girls are part of a sorority from nearby Alpine College and under the thumb of their housemother, who has a low opinion of the opposite sex. Universal's no-sex-on-the-slopes teen comedy apes the "Beach Party" pics from American-International, which by this time had started to fade in popularity themselves. Notable only for the musical appearances of Jay and the Americans, Dick and Dee Dee, The Beau Brummels, and cutie-pie singing duo Jackie and Gayle (incongruously singing "Our Love's Gonna Snowball" in bathing suits at the beach!). Stick with Columbia's "Winter A-Go-Go" from 1965--at least that one had a legitimate acting lead in James Stacy. * from ****
King Cobra (2016)
Pointless excursion into the seamy side of show biz...
Gay porn producers in a tug-of-war over participation of new "twink" star Brent Corrigan (born Sean Lockhart), leading to murder. Director Justin Kelly also penned this dramatization of real-life crime case, an adaptation of Andrew E. Stoner and Peter A. Conway's book "Cobra Killer: Gay Porn, Murder, and the Manhunt to Bring the Killers to Justice". Features a great deal of simulated sex, but to what avail? Kelly appears to be testing the current boundaries of mainstream cinema, but it's a stultifying non-experience with uncomfortable or amateurish performances. Absolute junk. NO STARS from ****
A Very Natural Thing (1974)
Honest and moving
One of the most honest films ever made about a homosexual relationship. 26-year-old gay English teacher in New York City, a former monk who left the church, falls for a 23-year-old bisexual man he meets in a gay bar. Boy-meets-boy story was directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Larkin--who, indeed, gets very natural performances from his leads, Robert Joel and Curt Gareth. When Arthur Hiller's bashful "Making Love" was released in 1982, audiences gasped when the two male actors kissed; this film is targeted towards gay audiences in general, not the mainstream, thus affording Larkin and his actors the opportunity to be frank, casual and honest about homosexual coupling--what starts the romance, what keeps it going, and what ends it. Although considered a landmark drama today, the picture curiously didn't break a lot of ground in 1974, and Larkin never worked on another picture. Some gay audiences reportedly felt the filmmaker was merely mimicking heterosexual love stories while downplaying big, dramatic moments (such as an interesting argument in the park that starts to get heated before Larkin cuts away). Others may be grateful for the lack of histrionics in favor of conversation and sexual (and romantic) exploration. *** from ****
Muscle Shoals (2013)
The imperfect perfectionist
Beautifully-produced documentary on (first) the FAME Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama (who broke Aretha Franklin as an R&B artist--and whose husband at the time almost broke them) and then a competitive recording studio down the road founded by the FAME studio's in-house rhythm section. The man who started it all, Rick Hall, is an interesting old cuss: a white man with an ear for rhythm and blues whose life was dogged by tragedy at nearly every turn. Hall, an "imperfect perfectionist", isn't a particularly likable guy (his melancholia seems to give way to anger), which is in contrast to the beautiful rural land around him on the edge of the mystical Tennessee River. Lots of music and good times here, but also forsaken friendships, hurt feelings, bruised egos. **1/2 from ****
Bang! The Bert Berns Story (2016)
"The 'white soul brother'...that's what they called him."
Bert Berns, a kid growing up in the Bronx in the '30s and '40s, suffered rheumatic fever as a youngster, which damaged his heart and didn't give him hope for a long life. Stuck at home, he studied the piano and developed an ear for mambo music and rhythm and blues. It took several years for Berns to get his songwriting noticed, but he finally did manage a hit--"A Little Bit of Soap" by the Jarmels, penned under a pseudonym--which led to a staff job at Atlantic Records. Berns later wrote or co-wrote the hits "Twist and Shout", "Tell Him", "Hang on Sloopy", "I Want Candy", and many others, eventually gaining the partnerships needed to start his own label, Bang!, which signed a young Neil Diamond and Van Morrison. Exciting, family-produced music biz documentary doesn't shy away from Berns' mob affiliations and rocky relationships, with interviews by many of the musicians who either knew Bert Berns or benefited from his talent. *** from ****
Kraft Suspense Theatre: The Machine That Played God (1963)
Lie Detectors on trial!
S01-E07 is an effective courtroom melodrama from behind the headlines: entering the new freeway from the exiting offramp and hitting an oncoming truck, wife and stepmother Anne Francis kills her ne'er-do-well husband and has to hire a lawyer. She's released on $5K bail but still has investigators suspicious: why was her husband drunk after leaving a bar and not she? And why was his seatbelt fastened but not hers (leaving her free to jump from the car)? Turns out Anne's hubby left behind a $100K insurance policy "with the usual double indemnity clause", while the polygraph test she takes (twice!) shows she's lying when she answers she's not suicidal. Breathy, exaggerated performances make this one enjoyable: Francis is a bundle of conflicting emotions, Gary Merrill is her busy-faced attorney, Malachi Throne is the no-nonsense prosecutor, Josephine Hutchinson is Anne's unyielding former mother-in-law, Mary Wickes is a sure-of-herself witness to the accident, and Morgan Mason is Anne's stepson. Good fun!
Kraft Suspense Theatre: The Deep End (1964)
Talented cast is worth a look
Routinely-directed and written adaptation of the uncredited novel "The Drowner" by John D. MacDonald (his name misspelled in the credits). Shapely blonde Ellen Burstyn (credited as Ellen McRae) drives up to the scenic private lake owned by boyfriend Aldo Ray for some swimming, but she's pulled under by a masked scuba-diver (lying--er, swimming--in wait). Turns out she was heavily insured, but the insurance investigator who comes snooping around is really a private detective hired by the woman's sister (also played by Burstyn). Quickie mystery has enough meat on its bones to satisfy the curious or nostalgic. Ray, big and beefy and about to pop the top button on his pants, seems a bit stiff, but Tina Louise has a juicy role as Ray's devoted secretary. Question-asking Clu Gulager has to put together this crime case in record time to fit the TV time constraint, and yet his stony face never changes expression. MacDonald's novel was used again for TV, on a Season 3 episode of "Run For Your Life" in 1968.
The Polka King (2017)
It needs the Michael Ritchie touch...
Broad satirical character portrait with a cuddly star but no sting. Jack Black plays real-life Polish immigrant and band leader Jan Lewin, who came to America in the 1970s (via Canada) and worked odd-jobs in Hazelton, PA while building a local following with his polka music. Well-liked by his loyal senior fans, Lewin takes on investors in a gift shop run by he and his wife, unwittingly violating US laws. He was quickly singled out by the State Securities and Exchange Commission, who ordered him to return all the money back to his investors, thousands of dollars he had already spent. Black comes on like a roly-poly sweetie-puss; with a comic Polish accent, he's all eager smiles and funny faces, but I don't think he's found the character here--and he gets no help from director Maya Forbes (doing tepid work). After a Sundance premiere in 2017, this was picked up by Netflix, but even on the tube it feels flabby. *1/2 from ****
Breakout (1975)
"I've never been raped!" ... "We should all be so lucky."
Charles Bronson vs. The Mob! After an innocent man is framed by mobsters and sent to an impregnable Mexican prison, his wife hires a small aircraft pilot for 50 G's to bust him out. Based on the real-life helicopter rescue of Joel David Kaplan in 1971, this arduous, stunt-accented adventure from flaccid director Tom Gries and three screenwriters has sketchy action sequences and variable performances (although Sheree North, hired by Bronson as a "screaming wh*re", does liven things up a bit). Lots of talent in evidence, including the great Lucien Ballard as cinematographer, but results below-average. *1/2 from ****
Green Book (2018)
A good-looking film, but hardly a convincing one...
Italian-American bouncer in 1960s New York City, out of work after his last gig ended with a fistfight, is recommended for a driver's job, but the client isn't what he was expecting: a meticulous "Negro" classical pianist of fine manners who is touring venues down South. "Inspired by a true story", this tepid critics' darling is just the type of film the Academy of Motion Pictures loves: men of different races in a quiet clash of personalities, slowly forming a begrudging friendship with moral redemption substituting for a character arc. Viggo Mortensen and Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Mahershala Ali do fine work in the leads, but the movie works overtime trying to soften us up. Director Peter Farrelly also co-wrote the Oscar-winning original screenplay and picked up a second statue in the Best Picture category as one of the film's producers. ** from ****
Give a Girl a Break (1953)
Happy and innocuous...
Broadway diva takes offense to one of her show's producers and walks out during rehearsals; the three men put out an ad in Variety for one lucky, talented girl to replace her, and naturally each man has his own personal favorite. Happy, innocuous MGM musical directed by Stanley Donen was another attempt by the studio to make marquee names of Marge and Gower Champion; unfortunately for the dancing duo, Bob Fosse (courting Debbie Reynolds) and Kurt Kasznar walk away with the picture. Ira Gershwin and Burton Lane composed the songs, but only Bob and Debbie's "In Our United State" has a catchy melody. ** from ****
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
Good-hearted, well-made, but ridiculous...
Action-adventure with acerbic asides stars a very fit Fred Ward as a patrol officer in New York City who is ambushed one night by thugs near the East River; he and his squad car are pushed into the water to make it look like a murder, but instead he is rescued by a member of a very small underground operation who need him as an assassin (why they picked a cop from Brooklyn isn't necessarily explained, except that he served time in the Marines during Vietnam). He's given plastic surgery on his face (although I only noticed the absence of a mustache), new fingerprints, and a new identity as Remo Williams (perhaps named after a New York hospital bedpan!). Based on the book series "The Destroyer" by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, the film's producers (including Dick Clark!) were hoping for another franchise in the 007 mold, but the movie only grossed $14M at the box office. Ward is exceptional in the lead, Kate Mulgrew is fine as an Army Major (almost a love-interest), but Joel Grey is iffy as a Korean martial arts master named Chiun who teaches Remo the (fictional) art of Sinanju. Lengthy but not overlong at 121mns, there are three major set-pieces that hold interest: a wowser atop the Statue of Liberty (undergoing renovation), a chase through a top secret site involving a group of vicious Doberman guard dogs, and a mountainside battle that unfortunately gets too silly. Craig Safan's score (which sounds like five parades happening at once) dates the picture, and Grey isn't really an effective casting choice, but the production is solid and Ward, Mulgrew, and J. A. Preston as the recruiter are worth-watching. ** from ****
Belushi (2020)
Sensational aspects of his life ignored...but what we do get is choice
Audio interviews, incredible home movies, photographs, film clips and rather superb animation propels this intimate biography of John Belushi who, in 1978, was at his peak appearing weekly on TV's late-night hit "Saturday Night Live" as well as being the star of the number-one comedy "Animal House" and one-half of The Blues Brothers, who had the number-one album. Growing up in Wheaton, IL, John Belushi was a football player also interested in drama and doing impressions. He was "special", as a classmate calls him: the Homecoming King at the senior prom who rode a motorcycle and played drums in a local rock-and-roll band. John's teenage sweetheart and future wife Judy recalls thinking he was Italian when they met, only to learn John's father was an immigrant from Albania--a moody man into cowboy movies and the proprietor of a local diner. Trying his hand at Summer Stock after high school, Belushi became smitten with improvisational comedy after seeing a performance by the Second City theater troupe. Second City eventually came calling but was a stepping stone to better things, namely National Lampoon's satirical "Lemmings" revue, which also featured Chevy Chase (and introduced cocaine into John's life). Documentary from writer-director R. J. Cutler for Showtime is well-researched, entertaining and, finally, heartbreaking. ***1/2 from ****
Supernova (2020)
"I'm becoming a passenger...this thing is taking me somewhere I don't want to go."
Celebrated British pianist has taken a leave from his work to care for his life-partner, an author and amateur astronomer struggling with early-onset dementia. Lovely actors' piece for Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci from writer-director Harry Macqueen comes unadorned with affectation or melodrama. It's a simple-yet-complicated treatise on life, on love, on selfishness versus selflessness, on the desire to never be left alone and the strength it takes to finally let go. There are a couple instances where I didn't feel the writing was up to the level of the actors (and that old "If you really love me, you'll let me do this" ploy isn't acknowledged for being the emotional blackmail tactic it is). However, for the most part, a tender and beautifully-realized human story. *** from ****
The Sessions (2012)
Unusual character piece: tender and careful yet straightforward
A touching, very careful but also unblushing, straightforward story of a 38-year-old poet in Berkeley, CA who wants to lose his virginity even though his muscles (but not his libido) have been atrophied by polio. Portraying real-life writer Mark O'Brien, actor John Hawkes is sweet but not treacly; he's an immature kid in a man's non-functioning body, and at times he's a pain. Living by day on a respirator and at night in an iron lung, Mark is asked to write a story on the sex lives of the handicapped, prompting him to hire a sex surrogate of his own. Helen Hunt's Cheryl is an unusual character, a married woman who is paid almost like a prostitute but with a difference: she's there as a sex technician. Hunt gives a brave, upfront performance without any of her TV-perfected mannerisms; she's found this character and delivers nearly flawless work. Writer-director Ben Lewin, working from O'Brien's article "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate", goes right for our heartstrings near the finish (with a voiceover that I didn't much care for--it's too calculated), but otherwise does a lovely job introducing us to some interesting and compassionate people (including William H. Macy as a neighborhood priest who turns confession into friendship). One Oscar nomination: for Hunt as Best Supporting Actress. *** from ****
August: Osage County (2013)
"I am running things now!"
After her husband walks out the door and doesn't return (only to drown), the matriarch of a large family--battling mouth cancer and hooked on pain pills--calls her kin back together at the old homestead in Oklahoma. Tracy Letts' adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play from 2007 is an actors' dream, certainly, and yet these fussin', cussin' family members merit little interest. We learn who was daddy's favorite, whose marriage is on the rocks, and who gets what in the will; in the meantime, all the laughing fits and sudden angry blow-ups are flawlessly performed by Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, and Margo Martindale in particular. The dialogue is prickly, but with theatrical "truth", and the 121mn length is self-defeating. ** from ****
Hotel Artemis (2018)
A limited idea...
In riot-strewn Los Angeles 2028, a gray-haired, persnickety nurse, haunted by the death of her son and now an agoraphobic, runs a members-only hotel for the criminal element. Shot up? Near death? This lady has all the right drugs to ensure a quick recovery. Writer-director Drew Pearce doesn't get very far with his limited idea, and making Jodie Foster look old and baggy wasn't good for the movie--nor for the actress (most people will just think she's lost her looks). In his directorial debut, Pearce gives us an interesting (if by now familiar) dystopian L. A., and some of his touches--such as the rules of the hotel, its history and the naming the crooks after famous cities or locations--are original, though none of these characters merit much interest. * from ****
Le streghe (1967)
Hit-and-miss quintet
Italian-French co-production from Dino De Laurentiis is a hit-and-miss (mostly miss) quintet of female portraits from five different directors, each featuring Silvana Mangano in the lead. As Gloria in the lengthy opener from director Luchino Visconti, Mangano is an Italian movie star who is less than the sum of her parts. In the amusing second story from Mauro Bolognini, she's a "Lady in a Hurry" who uses an accident victim as a way to get through afternoon traffic, while in Pier Paolo Pasolini's wonderfully odd third episode, Mangano plays a deaf-mute picked to be the wife of an eccentric widower and his son (all with cartoony hair). This section of the movie is the highlight, and almost makes the rest of it worth-seeing (although the star is terrific in all five stories). Mod Italian cinema--distributed Stateside in a dubbed print by Lopert Pictures--is more arty than incisive, though it does feature a young Clint Eastwood in the final tale from Vittorio De Sica, looking somewhat uncomfortable while dancing down a runway. ** from ****