Tony Kendall
1936 - 2009Born as Luciano Stella, Kendall was formerly a model for Italian Fumetti, comics done in photographs.
He changed his name to Tony Kendall at the suggestion of Vittorio De Sica in the fashion of many Italian actors whose films were shown in countries outside of Italy in the days when European films proliferated. Stella made his film debut in Femmine Tre Volte in 1959 but didn't make another appearance until he used his new name of Tony Kendall in Brennus, Enemy of Rome (1963) one of the sword and sandal craze of films popular in the early 1960s.
Kendall is most famous for his various teamings with Brad Harris, with the two predating Terence Hill and Bud Spencer as a popular and prolific action team. In the derivative world of the European cinema of the 1960s, Kendall and Harris first teamed up in two sauerkraut western films "inspired" by the successful German Karl May Winnetou series with Harris as a Lex Barker clone and Kendall as a Native American "Chief Black Eagle" in The Pirates of the Mississippi (1963) and Black Eagle of Santa Fe (1965).
With the international success of the James Bond films and the German Jerry Cotton series, Kendall became best known for his role as private detective Joe Walker in the seven films of the Eurospy Kommissar X series where he played opposite Brad Harris in the role of New York Police Captain Tom Rowland. The popularity of Batman (TV series) led to Harris and Kendall appearing in The Three Fantastic Supermen (1967) the first in a long series that had stunt work performed by a young Jackie Chan (“The Three Fantastic Supermen in the Orient”).
Kendall has prominently appeared in other varieties of European cinema in the 1960s and 1970s such as Giallo horror (The Whip and the Body, 1963), spaghetti westerns (as Django in Django Against Sartana, 1970, and Gunman of 100 Crosses, 1971), crime movies such as Machine Gun McCain (1969), and adventure films such as Oil! (1977). He also appeared in European versions of women in prison (The Big Bust Out, 1972), zombie horror (Return of the Blind Dead, 1973), and films inspired by The Godfather (Corleone, 1978). Aside from an appearance in Alex l'ariete (2000), Kendall's last film role was in On the Dark Continent in 1993.
Source: Article "Tony Kendall (actor)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
The Invisible Wall
Marco Risi
Corso Salani, Angela Finocchiaro
June 27, 1980, an Italian DC 9 flying from Bologna to Palermo falls in the sea close to the Ustica island. 81 people die. The official version is "structure failure" of the airplane, but a number of clues lead the journalist Rocco Ferrante toward a different truth. Thanks to his perseverance against the invisible wall erected by air force officers, politicians, judges, secret agents, we come to know that, with all probability, the DC 9 has been mistakenly shot by a missile during a sort of air fight among U.S., French and Libyan top guns.
The Invisible Wall
Cop or Hood
Georges Lautner
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Georges Géret
When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard , one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde.
Cop or Hood
El ojo del huracán
José María Forqué
Analía Gadé, Jean Sorel
Ruth and Michel separate after Ruth finds another man, Paul. Ruth and Paul go to her sunny, idyllic beach side villa to spend summer. They are having a great time together, and then things start happening. The brakes of the car fail, and Ruth narrowly escapes death. The driving equipment goes faulty, and Ruth almost drowns. Michel turns up at their doorstep for an uninvited social call, and Paul asks him in. Ruth suspects Michel of being the person behind the mechanical faults of the car and the diving equipment, but Paul dismisses such a possibility - but he does suggest it to Michel. Then, the heat does go up.
In the Eye of the Hurricane
Machine Gun McCain
Giuliano Montaldo
John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland
After serving 12 years behind bars for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed and abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Not blood, nor lust, nor wedding vows can come between McCain and his money...or his machine gun.
Machine Gun McCain
Cuibul salamandrelor
Mircea Drăgan
Ray Milland, Stuart Whitman
When a huge fire erupts at an oil field in the wilds of the Sahara Desert, an American who specializes in fighting oil-field fires and his team are called in to put it out. As the fire rages out of control, the expert finds that he not only has to battle the fire but greed and political corruption as well.
Oil
Serenade for Two Spies
Michael Pfleghar
Hellmut Lange, Tony Kendall
An international gang of gun dealers in the USA has stolen the prototype of a laser rifle from a German laboratory. The FBI agent Cormoran is being sent to recover the state-of-the-art and highly effective weapon. But there are some indications that he has defected to the enemy. Since agent 007 is currently on another mission, the chief of intelligence has to fall back on his second best man, the previous number 006. And so the German secret agent John Krim is given the assignment to get the rifle back, find evidence of Cormoran’s treachery and finally eliminate the colleague. Krim’s journey takes him across the ocean, and there he experiences incredible adventures in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Two women get in his way, and Krim can’t be sure whether he can trust them or whether they too are working for the other side.
Serenade for Two Spies
Attack of the Blind Dead
Amando de Ossorio
Tony Kendall, Fernando Sancho
500 years after they were blinded and executed for committing human sacrifices, a band of Templar knights returns from the grave to terrorize a rural Portuguese village during it's centennial celebration. Being blind, the Templars find their victims through sound, usually the screams of their victims. Taking refuge in a deserted cathedral, a small group of people must find a way to escape from the creatures.
Attack of the Blind Dead
Voce del verbo amore
Andrea Manni
Giorgio Pasotti, Stefania Rocca
Ugo and Francesca have been married for ten years, but mutually decide to break up in a graceful way. They start singles' life again, having to deal with their children, their jobs and social relationships alone. They even both start seeing someone else, until jealousy arises. Perhaps their love is not over yet...
Voce del verbo amore
