Feb 3, 2008

Tim Lucas On Eddie Constantine

Mario Bava biographer, Video Watchdog publisher and cult movie blogger extraordinaire Tim Lucas has announced his latest obsession on his blog, and it's a name that will be familiar to Eurospy lovers: Eddie Constantine. Personally, I haven't seen any of Constantine's spy movies, or of his proto-spy "Lemmy Caution" films (well, except for Alphaville, but I don't really think that counts...), but I'm familiar with his work through its coverage in Matt Blake and David Deal's excellent Eurospy Guide. "Apart from Lemmy Caution," the Guide tells us, "his most notable characters, spy-wise, were Nick Carter and Jeff Gordon." The Guide covers those movies, as well as several Lemmy Cautions and two Jess Franco movies that Constantine starred in, Attack of the Robots and Residence For Spies. Lucas provides an excellent introduction to the actor and overview of his career, which, combined with the positive mentions in The Eurospy Guide, really make me want to see more of his work! Lucas has already done the work for curious parties such as myself by rounding up a bunch of Constantine YouTube clips in a follow-up posting. Included is a trailer for the incredibly intriguing Hot Money Girl co-starring Christopher Lee and Dawn Addams! Like Lucas, I really want to see that. Read his posts and learn more about Constantine. It was largely Lucas' one-man crusade that brought Bava to the masses, resulting in most of the Italian director's work becoming available on DVD in America; perhaps he'll be able to do the same for Lemmy Caution...
at

4 comments:

  1. Tim Lucas11:49 AM

    Wow, Tanner -- very flattering, muchos gracias. I wish I had the pull to interest some companies in releasing some Eddie Constantine pictures. The fact that the '50s spy and action pictures are in black-and-white won't help their case, unfortunately, but the two Franco films may have a chance. I hope so. Actually, I think it would be great if Anchor Bay adapted their battered pulp fiction cover design that they're using for their reissue of KIDNAPPED and launched a whole series of genuine Euro pulp movies, for which the Eddie movies would grandly fill the bill. In the meantime, Sinister Cinema offers a half-dozen or so titles on DVD-R.

    Terrific poster art, too -- what's that from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tim Lucas1:04 PM

    I just noticed that Eddie's name is misspelled on the poster!

    ReplyDelete
  3. David11:32 AM

    Like you Tanner, Alphaville is as far as I've ventured into the world of Lemmy Caution or Eddie Constantine.

    But it appears RRD on the Eurospy Forum has done a bit of research on the different versions of Eddie's films, and (paraphrasing at best) the English dubs aren't too good and change the tone of the films. But that's not uncommon.

    Cheers
    D.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tanner1:09 AM

    Thanks for your comments, guys. Don't underestimate yourself, Tim! I'm positive that coverage in Video Watchdog must influence some of the specialty houses in their releases! Still, I fear you're right about black and white Euro-pulps not being too likely... Fingers crossed on the Francos, though. With zillions of his horror titles now widely available, maybe Blue Underground or someone will show some interest in putting out some more of his spy stuff.

    Thanks for that link, David! Somehow I missed RRD's post the first time around. That's some very in-depth coverage, and he certainly sells me on seeing these movies in their original language.

    ReplyDelete