Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The Diamond, finally!

OK, let’s start by saying that what hooked me was the cover art for the audio-drama version of Louis L’Amour’s The Diamond of Jeru.
Apart from the power of the author’s name – I don’t need to tell you that L’Amour is a legend in popular fiction – the artwork suggested this was just my kind of story.

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So I came to the web page of the audio project, where I was able to learn more about L’Amour’s lost story, its audio adaptation and the movie.

What?
A movie?!
I had to see it.

And as I explained a few days back, it was not an easy hunt.
But finally, thanks to the good people of Das Filmsyndikat, a fabulous specialty shop in Germany, I got me a copy of the DVD for 1.95 euro.
Bingo. Continue reading →


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Tits & Sand Movies: Bagdad (1949)

bagdadpstrAnd so I went and watched again Bagdad, the 1949 Maureen O’Hara movie that was at the origin of the Tits & Sand movie genre1, at least according to the fiery-headed star.

But despite the risque definition, this is a romantic adventure, featuring exotic locales, a meringue-light plot and the required amount of chases, swordplay and Arabian Nights clichés – despite pretending (without any conviction) to be a historical film.

Anyway – reader, I watched it.
Was it any good?

Continue reading →


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One Thousand

This is the thousandth post on Karavansara.
It’s been along ride from the twentieth of January of 2013.
And there’s still a long way to go.

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Right now, I just wish to say Thank You! to all the readers of this blog.
To all those that commented, to all those that offered advice, to those that donated their guest posts.
Thank you!

I hope you had as much fun reading these pages as I had writing them.
See you in post 1001.
Cheers!


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Fedora

$T2eC16Z,!)oFIem9qvv,BSPwymvbP!~~60_35One of the perks of living in a rural area in depressed Northern Italy is the easy availability of cheap, high-quality hats.
People hereabouts still wear a hat every day – and if the dread agrochemicals-sponsored baseball cap is spreading as the standard working headgear of tractor-riders, slowly replacing the straw trilby with a sponsored band, out of the fields a lot of people still favor what goes under the name of lòbia.
The standard Borsalino hat.
What’s universally known as a fedora hat1.
And this is good, because in these autumn days I need a new fedora.
Continue reading →


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Bagdad (1949)

Today, in loving memory of Maureen O’Hara, the trailer of a movie of hers she was not particularly fond of – the highly pulpy 1949 adventure Bagdad: a Bedouin princess returns home after being schooled in Britain, and has to unravel the intrigues surrounding the death of her father.
Nice and smooth.

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The movie features a wonderful bad guy played with gusto by Vincent Price, as a bonus.

Talking about this feature, O’Hara coined the category of Tits & Sand movies – and I find it just wonderful.
We’ll have to talk about them, and maybe do a series of posts reviewing a few of these… ehm, lost classics.


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Maureen O’Hara, R.I.P.

I just learned about the passing, at the age of 95, of legendary Hollywood star Maureen O’Hara.
Nicknamed “Miss Technicolor” for her fiery red hair, she was the heroine of many swashbuckler and adventure movies, and one of the icons of my misspent youth at the parish cinema, in such swashbuckler films as The Black Swan, The Spanish Main, Sinbad the Sailor and Against all Flags.

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