More Beautiful Ladies From The Past

Here is the part two of the postings I started on Monday. These are some more beautiful actresses from the 50's, 60's & 70's. I didn't mention this in the other post, but if you don't know one of these girls let me know. I'll try to let you know more about who she is. Some of the women I post are more familiar than others. What do you think of these photos? Oh yeah. I do realize I posted pictures of Jayne Mansfield in both posts, but I couldn't help myself. Jayne is a perfect example of a sex kitten.

Claudine Auger:



Edwige Fenech:



Jayne Kennedy:



Brigitte Bardot:



Jayne Mansfield:



Julie Newmar:



Marilyn Monroe:



Ursula Andress:



Jane Birkin:



Soledad Miranda:

Edwige Fenech: Both Then & Now

I wanted to share some photos of the incredibly gorgeous Edwige Fenech. She appeared in many Italian films (everything from giallo thrillers to sex comedies) from the 1970's into the 1980's. She then transitioned more to television and has become a successful producer over the years. This first set of photos would be from the days of her acting career. I find Edwige to be one of the most beautiful and stunning women in the world.













Quentin Tarantino asked Edwige Fenech to make an appearance in Eli Roth's 2007 film Hostel II. Edwige played an art class professor in a cameo in the movie. It was her first acting role in quite some time. She had been on the other side of the camera for many years by this time as a producer. I think she looks fantastic in these photos. She would have been almost 60 by this time. Eli Roth's one lucky devil. I would have directed this movie for free if I had a chance to work with a goddess like Edwige Fenech.











So what do you think of all these photos? I'd love to hear from you. Thanks.

If you haven't already done so, please make sure to enter my Perricone Giveaway. You can win a free jar of Cold Plasma, which is valued at $150. You must be a resident of the United States to enter though.



Click on the above graphic to be taken to the giveaway post. Just leave a comment there if you haven't done so already to be entered. The giveaway will close on Friday, December 18th. I will soon after announce the winner. Don't delay getting your entry in. Thank you. Good luck.

Edwige Fenech Film Festival

I'm having an Edwige Fenech film festival this weekend. Anybody wanna come? You are all invited!

Edwige Fenech Loves Being Outdoors

Edwige Fenech loves the great outdoors. We first took a nature walk, then we decided to do some fishing.

Spending The Weekend With Edwige Fenech

I hope everybody will have a great weekend. I'm spending mine with Edwige Fenech. She's really excited about it. She can't quit calling me wanting to chat about all the fun we are going to have. :-)

Sugar & Spice Will Return On Monday!

Hey there! Guess what!?! Sugar & Spice will return this upcoming Monday, which will be on March 30th. I actually wasn't sure if I was ever going to come back or not. I definitely wanted to take at least a few weeks to a month break from this blog. I'll be honest with all of you. I missed it already. I also had so many people contact me and beg me to keep going with the blog. I really hated to disappoint all my readers. I consider you all my friends and not just people who read/comment on my blogs. I was already missing you guys. If I wait until Monday, that gives me a few more days to rest and relax. Thanks so much for all the great comments and warm wishes you offered me in my last post. I really appreciate it. I mean that a lot. I've had so much fun with this blog. Plus it's been great to check out your blogs and become good friends with so many of you. I'll be back visiting your blogs by the first of the week. I hope all of you will return here on Monday to check out my first post since my little break. I may take these little breaks from time to time. I won't make such a drastic announcement. I really apologize for that. I didn't mean to be so dramatic. I really thought I was going to stay away longer than what amounts to a week and a half I guess. I may just let you guys know in the future that I'll be gone for a few days or whatever. Take care. I look forward to seeing all of you on this Monday. Thanks again. Cheers!

P.S. I wanted to post a picture of the incredibly gorgeous Edwige Fenech to fulfill a request by my friend Nigel from I Spit On Your Taste. I hope he and everybody else likes it.

The Case Of The Bloody Iris

Many of my friends know that I'm a big giallo fan. Giallo is the Italian word for yellow. It's used in the context of entertainment to refer to Italian suspense thrillers (loaded with blood/gore and sex/nudity) that were all the rage especially during the 1970's. My favorite actress in giallo films is Edwige Fenech. The Maltese-Sicilian actress is arguably considered the Queen of the Giallo. She's both beautiful and talented. Edwige played in some of the most well known and popular giallo films of this era. I wanted to cover one of those films The Case of the Bloody Iris in this post.




The Case of the Bloody Iris was released in 1972. It's also been called Erotic Blue and What Are Those Strange Drops Of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body? (that's quite a mouthful of a title). It's a pretty standard film of the genre. It doesn't break any new ground. It really isn't innovative in any form or fashion. The cast of the film are a who's who of giallo regulars. If a person didn't know any better, they would think the film was directed by Sergio Martino. It reminds the viewer so much of the style and atmosphere that Martino brought to the giallo films he made. Plus Edwige Fenech starred in some films for Martino, such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971) and All the Colors of the Dark (1972). His brother, Luciano, was the producer of those films and the lover of Edwige. Luciano Martino was actually one of the producers of The Case of the Bloody Iris as well. Edwige's co-star in those films for Sergio Martino was usually George Hilton. He's her co-star in this film as well. They made a great looking couple and had wonderful chemistry together. I consider them the super couple of the giallo.




This film was directed by Anthony Ascott, the pseudonym of Giuliano Carnimeo. This is his only time directing a giallo. He's mostly known for making spaghetti westerns. George Hilton was a frequent star in his films, including Fistful of Lead (1970) and They Call Me Hallelujah (1971). Carnimeo also directed Edwige Fenech in other films like Secrets of a Call Girl and Holy God, Here Comes the Passatore! (starring George Hilton), both released in 1973. While Carnimeo might have been new to the genre, his stars and the producer weren't. The writer of the screenplay, Ernesto Gastaldi, also penned The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Case of the Scorpion's Tail (released in 1971 and starring George Hilton), All the Colors of the Dark, etc. Gastaldi had also written the screenplays for some of the westerns Carnimeo had helmed, including Sartana the Gravedigger (1969) and Run, Man, Run... Sartana's in Town (1971). Basically all of these people had worked with each other on many different films.




The film opens with the murder of a high class prostitute being slashed to death in the elevator of an exclusive apartment building. Her killer is dressed in black (hat, mask & long coat) and wearing tan gloves. Her body is found by three people, which are Mrs. Moss (Maria Tedeschi, who had played in 1970's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), Professor Isaacs (George Riguad - his credits include 1971's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin and 1972's All the Colors of the Dark) & Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait, who would play in 1973's Torso). They all act very casual about the grisly murder and go about their business like it's no big deal.





Edwige Fenech plays Jennifer Lansbury, a British model working in Italy. While doing a photo shoot for photographer Arthur (played by Oreste Lionello, who reminds me of a gay Woody Allen here), Jennifer thinks she has spotted her ex-husband. It is there that Jennifer first meets Andrea Barto (George Hilton). Andrea has come by to discuss with his childhood friend Arthur the possibiltiy of using Mizar in an ad campaign for his apartment building. He's an architect who owns the apartment building that the murder has happened in. Andrea plans to meet Mizar at the nightclub where she performs as an exotic dancer/wrestler. When Jennifer leaves the shoot, she finds an iris on the pavement. This is the symbol of the sex cult that she had been a part of with her then-husband Adam (Ben Carra). We see a trippy flashback sequence of the sex cult in action. Jennifer then finds herself face to face with Adam, who tries to force her into coming back into the fold with him.





Coming home from the nightclub she works as an exotic dancer/wrestler, Mizar finds herself the next victim of the masked killer. She is drowned in her own bath. The police investigation is led by Inspector Erici (Giampiero Albertini) and his associate Redi (Franco Agostini). To say these two are inept is putting it lightly. Erici is more interested in adding stamps to his stamp collection than anything else. He is more excited by finding a rare stamp on a letter belonging to one of the victims, than what was in the letter itself. His sidekick Redi is never able to go undercover because he's easily marked by everybody as a cop. The police investigation in and of itself in pretty weak in this film. It's almost more for comic relief than anything else.




Andrea offers a discount on an apartment to Jennifer and her model friend Marilyn Ricci (Paola Quattrini), a bimbo who makes quite a few inappropriate jokes in the film. Jennifer and Marilyn think they've scored the lucky break. It's not long before Jennifer discovers this is the apartment that belonged to the slain Mizar. She's deeply troubled by this fact and that another girl had also been murdered in the building. Marilyn seems to take it all lightly. Jennifer is frightened when she's awakened on the first night by the presence of a masked man in her bedroom. Marilyn tries to calm her down, telling her it was just a bad dream.





Jennifer soons find herself falling in love with Andrea. She continues to be stalked by Adam, who is angered when he discovers her with Andrea. He vows that no other man will possess her. She belongs only to him. He even confronts her and Andrea. Jennifer finds herself a major target of the masked killer. Is it her ex-husband Adam or someone else? The list of suspects is endless. Mrs Moss has been buying horror and crime comics. She's been hiding a secret from her neighbors. She has a deformed son that she keeps locked up. Could it be her or this son? There is also the reclusive Professor Isaacs, who plays his violin at all hours of the day and night. His daughter, Sheila, lives with him. She's a lesbian who likes to flirt with Jennifer. Could the killer be either of them? What about Andrea Barto? The police begin to focus on him as their prime suspect. He was the last person to see Mizar alive. That's a fact he had kept from them. Jennifer doesn't believe it could be him since he has an paralyzing phobia against blood. Could that be just an act? The police are very suspicious on him and that grows even more as the movie goes on. Jennifer must solve the puzzle herself before she becomes the next victim of this monster. So who else is murdered in this film? Is the killer Andrea or someone else? If you haven't seen this film, then I'm not about to spill the beans. You'll just have to see it yourself.




While this film won't be noted for its originality at all, I found it to be a very solid and entertaining giallo. It does all the giallo traditions quite well. The murders scenes have just the right mixture of suspense and tension. There's a nice amount of blood without it being gratitious. One of my favorite scenes in the film is a stabbling scene that happened in broad daylight. It's right out in public on a crowded street. We also get a chance to see some beautiful female flesh on display. We get a chance to see Edwige in little or no clothes quite often. The film is quite stylish whether it's the sets, clothes, etc. The film has a wonderful breezy and jazzy score by Bruno Nicolai. It's one of the highlights for me. I was humming the music for days after I watched it.




The Case of the Bloody Iris is really a worthwhile film to see due to its star. Edwige Fenech is not just eye candy in a 1970's Italian film. While she is gorgeous beyond belief (she looks as if she was carved out of marble by the gods themselves), she is also a fine actress. She plays her part well and the film rests on her shoulders quite nicely. If you've never seen a giallo film before, then this film is a fine introduction to that genre. Even if you've watched your share of giallos, I hope you'll give this film a shot if you've never seen it. I don't think you'll be disappointed.