Dean Martin and Ann-Margret.

Together they are very winning, albeit Ann-Margret on her own is winning enough. In Murderers’ Row (1966) she does all she can with a cardboard part (which is a lot) and has never looked more drop-dead gorgeous. But of course Martin is handsome, and he gets all the funny one-liners in this seriocomic secret-agent pic which practically drops the “serio” for the comic. Also, unlike in The Wrecking Crew, he does okay as Matt Helm.

An example of the humor: In Cote d’Azur, Helm pleads with French police not to shoot at his moving car because an innocent girl passenger (Ann-Margret) is riding with him. After the police shoot anyway, Helm murmurs, “That’s the French for you. They don’t think any girl is innocent.”

Directed by Henry Levin, the movie is dopey but also pleasurable. Before she appeared in Downhill Racer, beautiful Camilla Sparv was in Row, but has pronouncedly little to do. Karl Malden is an intriguing villain. To sum it up, it’s nice to have Martin at the Helm here as well as all the other beguiling performers.

(All the reviews are by Earl Dean)

The 1977 Russian film The Ascent opens with some remarkable snowy weather images, provided by female director Larisa Shepitko, before advancing its war story. A while later, there is a stunning scene wherein one soldier, Rybak, crawls and pushes along in the snow another soldier, the wounded Sotnikov, until the latter begins to resemble a veritable snowman. Shepitko, who died in 1979 at age 41, was a gifted cinematic artist. With Yuri Klepikov she wrote the movie’s script and filmed it wisely and resoundingly. Through medium-long shots, she shows from behind a group of individuals plodding up a hill in cold, dry weather before they espy five hanging nooses: German soldiers intend to execute Russians.

The Ascent‘s themes include sacrifice, Christ-like, on the one hand, diminishment on the other. Indeed, Sotnikov is a Christ who is not a Christ while Rybak is a Judas who is not a Judas. Another theme is a mother’s anguish when death looms, for the mother. It is a grave achievement that really works on the emotions, one of the notable artistic movies of the Seventies.

(In Russian with English subtitles)

Italy’s The Fiances (I Fidanzanti) is not a religious film, but was made by a man with a Catholic sensibility. This is the devout Ermanno Olmi, a director who loved and was gentle with his characters, religious and otherwise. The fiances of the title must separate for 18 months after the man, Giovanni, moves to Sicily for some higher paying work. Olmi creates the impression that Giovanni becomes neglectful of Liliana, his betrothed, before discreetly mistreating her. He goes back to loving her, though, but will it make a difference?

A master of film art, Olmi died in 2018, long after releasing The Fiances in 1963. The movie is devout in its own way as well as clever and poetic.

(In Italian with English subtitles)