Movie Details
| Title: | Loaded Guns | |
| Director: | Fernando Di Leo | |
| Year: | 1975 | |
| Genre: | Comedy | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 02.07.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- The Italian Connection
- Milano Calibro 9
- Rulers of the City
- Slaughter Hotel
- Wipeout
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 02.07.07 | Weird Wednesday | Weird Wednesday tonight is a Fernando Di Leo movie that I haven't seen. Beyond that, it's a QTfest movie so that's two reasons to see it. Lars, who had expressed some anxiety about the crowd's reaction tonight, took great pains introduce the movie as sort of a train wreck that flops from random acts of female brutality to zany broad comedy. He likened it to John Huston's Beat The Devil, a movie where the story derails but the movie carries on due to the vitality and energy of the characters. I think this did a great job of preparing the audience for what kind of movie to enjoy. Instead of being confused and lost, they were immediately looking for the humor and lack of cohesion in every scene. The movie went over really well. Personally, here's what I think happened (based on my one viewing). Di Leo wanted to make a sexy gangster story with Ursula Andress and came up with his usual extremely convoluted tale of double crosses and tension but then as filming went on realized that the puzzle just wasn't coming together, so he said "Fuck it, let's have some fun" and shot a fight scene and a chase scene that are both really goofball, had Bacalov write the corniest most broadly-comedic score he could come up with, and tried to pass it off as comedy. With a different score, the first 80% of this movie could be just as serious and brutal his other crime films, but the music does so much to change the connotations that woody strode's gang beating up Andress out of the blue comes off as pretty damn funny. I was pretty surprised not to find any real comedy (aside from the cabbie) until the fight scene starts. I think the QTfest audience had massively different expectations or something. I really don't see why everyone thought it was so horrible. I mean, it's definitely not Wipeout or Mister Scarface, but hey. Anyways, here's where I should talk about how gorgeous Ursula Andress is. But you know... what am I going to say? I'm just happy that a woman that beautiful was ok with showing so much. I really think all women that hot should get naked on film... I mean, that way they'll be able to look back at it when they're 80 or whatever and remind themselves of how unimaginably hot they were. Rita Hayworth totally should've gotten naked in Gilda. Maybe that's what heaven is: getting to watch your favorite movies but with added scenes where the really hot women get naked. So Micah is right. It is good to finally know where that Woody Strode carnival fight comes from, and it's also nice to find out that the little guy who keeps jump-kicking the dude in the water that Strode plays with like a little kid doesn't have ANY context in the movie whatsoever. All in all I liked the movie. I think even when it doesn't work, Di Leo's style and fashion sense make it worth watching. I think I finally kind of understand what was happening with the plot now that I've had some time to think and sleep on it, but in the end I guess knowing what's going on doesn't really matter. also, as a ploy to not have to take them to the dump, Lars offered the first 35 or so people a free vintage film canister, which he drove the truck around after the movie and handed out. While I bet 95% of them end up in various dumpsters around the city as soon as everyone gets home and realizes there's nothing they can do with them, these things went like hotcakes. The one I got is a heavy-ass rusted corroded eroded dented banged-up piece of trash originally manufactured by Warner Brothers and most recently used to hold the first two reels of World Sex Report. I can't imagine putting anything of any sort of value into this thing - in fact I'm afraid to even open it - but damn if it isn't one cool souvenir of an era in film exhibition that I was never a part of. I'm sure I'll keep it around somewhere, maybe take a picture of the rust and degradation for a textured background or something, who knows. |
