LA RAGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO - Roberto Nicolosi/Adriano Celentano - "The Evil Eye" (1963)

I recently watched Mario Bava's "La Frusta e il Corpo" and even though everybody else in the world swoons over it, I didn't think it was all that, and I'll be letting you know about it real soon, but this film, "The Evil Eye" is a different story, it's a story I like a lot, and one of my favourite Mario Bava films!!!

Letícia Román is Nora Davis, and Nora's on her way to Rome! Nora likes to read mystery novels! Letícia Román's next role was as Fanny Hill in Russ Meyer's "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," then she would do a couple more movies, and wound up her career on American TV shows like "I Spy," "The Andy Griffith Show," and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." At one point, she was engaged to Aaron Spelling!

Nora makes casual contact with a stranger on the plane, who seems to be looking out for her best interest! This two-faced character De Vico/Paccini is played by Milo Quesada. If Milo has a sleazy but familiar face, it's because he was in some pretty cool flicks like "Black Sabbath," "The 10th Victim" and "Night Of The Blood Monster!"

De Vico/Paccini seems like a right nice feller all right, except for the fact that he's a drug smuggler of some notoriety! Oops, Nora's vacation isn't getting off to such a good start!

Nora realizes that the pack of cigarettes De Vico/Paccini gave her on the plane is laced with ganja, and tries to casually dispose of it to no avail!!

When Nora finally gets to her destination, Ethel Windell Batocci's house, a dear old friend of her Mother, she finds out the old lady is very sick, in fact she's so sick, she dies that very night! Things are just not going very well for Nora, and you don't get the idea that it's going to get any better any time soon!! Chana Coubert puts in her first and last movie career credit as Ethel Windell Batocci!

Nora needs to clear her head, so she goes out to find Ethel's Doctor, when she is attacked by a filthy little purse snatcher who knocks her out!!

When Nora comes to, she witnesses a horrible murder, and blacks out again!!

The next time she comes to, she's in the hospital and she's faced with this sight!! What a wild ride, and basically, the movie just got started!

Now here's some solid advice from the local authorities after Nora tells them what has happened to her so far!!

John Saxon plays the lead of Marcello Bassi, the Doctor that was taking care of Ethel Windell Batocci, before she passed away!! John Saxon is still working today, and has almost 200 acting credits to his name! What an incredible career! Thanx John!!

The music for "The Evil Eye" was composed by Roberto Nicolosi who besides composing the music for "Black Sabbath" and a score of Barbarian and Amazon flicks was also a practicing dentist!! The theme song is entitled "Furore" and it was sung and composed by Italian Pop star Adriano Celentano!! Adriano was also in a bunch of low budget Italian comedic movie roles, and was a very popular actor in the 70's and 80's!

Almost overnight, Nora's life has turned into a living Hell, and now she's getting anonymous phone calls from some freak, so she comes up with an elaborate way to protect herself from intruders at night!

I must confess, I'm feeling a little guilty myself!!

Headfirst into a morass of despair, and even more deaths, how much more can this young lady take? I'm not tellin'!!

I find it incredulous that nobody smelled the pot laced in with the tobacco when she was smoking it on the plane, everything else made sense!! To confound things even more, if you want to try and rent or buy "The Evil Eye" in the U.S., you will have better luck searching for the title "The Girl Who Knew Too Much." And remember kids, Don't take cigarettes from strangers!!

DESTINATION SPACE / Paramount TV - 1959

Tonight we have a sci-fi TV pilot that failed to score a series. Although fairly ambitious in scope, it was just plain old boring. Plus, it relied heavily on stock footage from another movie from 1955 for it's space scenes and hardware!

The space music was composed by Van Cleave. Although Van worked mainly for TV, he also composed music for these movies: WHITE CHRISTMAS, CONQUEST OF SPACE, THE SPACE CHILDREN, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and William Castle's PROJECT X!

Rightee-O then, here's that lil' 4-eyed hunchback freak Dungeon pet, Ralphie The Tarantula, to push that big red 'GO' button wonst again to start the show!! Here's tonight's Eariffic Earclip to... DESTINATION SPACE!

Rocket ship... spinning wheel, seeming nothingness, yadda yadda, 500 miles... BB...

If the scene looks familiar, that's because it's from George Pal's CONQUEST OF SPACE!

Hey look, it's the same guys working in front and in back of John Agar and Harry Townes!

They're talking to these bozos back on Earth. There's Cecil Kellaway on the left, you'll remember him as Prof. Thurgood Elson in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

Holy crap, look at the size of that blip!.. And, it's coming right at us!!!

Whoa!! Dude's got three legs!.. No, but seriously, I bet he's really glad he wasn't a girl in a short skirt in that shot!

Dealer, put all my chips on... hiccup!.. 23 red...

Sadly, this role is completely wasted on John. Exactly 10 days later, INVISIBLE INVADERS was released. Check out the hair cut, exactly the same as Major Jay's!!

Aww, ratz!

It'd be funnier if they had put... 'BENEDICT'S BILLIONS BLASTED, BATTERED & BELTED BY BIG BURNING BOULDER'

What do you mean, there's a picture stuck to the top of my head?

Here, Benedict tries to pitch his 'awesome' new sci-fi TV pilot... DESTINATION SPACE!

The problem was that CBS wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to have a series about the US space program where everything was always blowing up!

So, for punishment, it's back to space for Benedict!

Son of a bitch!!.. I cannot for the life of me, figure out what the hell time it is!.. ARRRGGH!!!

Four nice stills from CONQUEST OF SPACE.

In the future, Mini-Men will have their own charging units and can even go potty in privacy!

Babbitt...

Oh... BABBIIIIITT!!

Hmmm, I'll just chip away the ice on the dilithium modulator box here, and we'll be on our merry way!.. Hey, I know, I'll tell 'em I had to fight off a monster!!

Dude, it's official, like, we're cancelled!..

Benedict gives the bad news to Edward Platt, Ed's probably best known for his role as 'Chief' in GET SMART.

Ghoulnight Everbloody!..