Saturday, August 18, 2012

EINER FRISST DEN ANDEREN - Ines Taddio - "Dog Eat Dog" (1964)

"Dog Eat Dog" is a strange cross between 1960's American Pop Culture, and WTF!? German film making, or in other words, the prefect motion picture for an audience like all you folks way out there! The title "Dog Eat Dog" has become very popular in the last decade, and has been used at least eleven more times since 2001! Woof Woof!!

Ivor Salter as Dolph Kostis/Mr. Smithopolis is a maniac to the fourth degree! Although not that well known in the U.S., Ivor was quite busy in the U.K. with movie and TV titles like "The Men from Room 13," "Bootsie and Snudge," and "Here Come The Double Deckers!" He was also Dragger in the 1961 TV show "You Can't Win!"

In this publicity still, Ivor pays off his partner, the ever present Cameron Mitchell as Lylle Corbett, for a job well done in the bank robbery they just pulled off, with a kick to the head!

In the beginning of the film as the credits are rolling and the music is jumping, Jayne Mansfield as Darlene/Mrs. Smithopolis, is tossing around 1000 dollar bills, and cranking the sounds on the radio courtesy of Carlo (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE, SPACE MEN) Savina!

There's a knock on the door, and when Jayne opens it, she is confronted by Pinkas (THE HUNCHBACK OF SOHO, THE ZOMBIE WALKS) Braun, the sleazey Hotel Americano manager, Livio Morelli, who tells her to turn the music down, but also notices that something isn't right when he finds a thousand dollar bill just laying on the floor!

When Jayne's husband shows back up, it's the dirty scumbag meets a rotten sleazeball showdown!

Livio Morelli concludes that the happy couple are the bank robbers, and sends his bad little sister Sandra to go put some explosives on their boat, figuring he'll just go out and gather the money up off the water when they're gone! Sandra was played by Dodie Heath. Dodie was also Susanna Kittridge in the "Twilight Zone" episode "Long Live Walter Jameson." Unfortunately for Sandra, Cam didn't die when Ivor kicked him off that cliff, and now he's very pissed!!

Meanwhile, back at the club, the joint is jumpin' to the swingin' sounds of Ines Taddio and her band!

Ines Taddio was an Italian born singer who won the coveted Miss Carnia beauty contest in 1945, and then went on to take second place in the Miss Friuli-Venezia Giulia contest! She sang fluently in Italian, English and German!

As everybody tries to escape and/or outfox each other, all the participants end up on this supposedly deserted island, but as fate would have it, a one Lady Xenia has come back to her old homestead on the island to die! She is joined by her butler Jannis! Elisabeth (DAS PHANTOM VON SOHO, THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE) Flickenschildt as Xenia and Werner (DR. MABUSE VS. SCOTLAND YARD, THE CARPET OF HORROR) Peters as the butler will be very familiar faces to any fans of 60's German Edgar Wallace flicks!

Cam and Jayne stay pretty beat up looking for most of the movie, and if you think this film is a joke or a comedy, you would be completely wrong!

Okay, let's just say Mr. Morelli has got himself into quite a pickle!

Cam can't stand Werner's piano playing, and slams the keyboard cover down on his hands to make him stop, and it works quite successfully!

The money is hidden somewhere, the police have started searching for them, and one by one, they start getting picked off. Dolph gets his throat slit, Jannis is stabbed, and Morelli is set on fire and tossed off a cliff!

By the time the money is located, Cam has almost lost his mind! Cameron Mitchell had an amazing 236 acting credits to his name, and probably would have had many more if he wasn't such a heavy smoker! Cam died of lung cancer back in 1994!

"Dog Eat Dog" is another verrückt film that you can find on Netflix, and if you've got nothing better to do, I'd recommend it!

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