This Italian crime film is interesting at first, but the pace never picks up. Fabio Testi is a good-hearted robber stranded at the "Last Chance Motel", Ursula Andress is the beautiful (but somewhat stiff) wife of the motel's owner, and Eli Wallach is Testi's partner, who comes after him when the diamonds they stole somehow disappear. You'd expect that the appearance of Wallach would help increase the tension, but that doesn't happen. Some of the night scenes (including the sex scene) are so dark you can't see anything! (**)
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gridoon24 July 2002
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Bezenby31 July 2018Notable actors: Ursula Andress! Eli Wallach! Fabio Testi! Barbara Bach! Howard Ross! Carlo De Mejo!
Most of the plot of this film occurs because Fabio Testi's character is such a dumbass. Really, if you were just released from prison and told to leave Canada, then take part in a jewel heist and sent over the border by your violent partner, would you then start making your car 'dance' all over an icy road because you heard a song you like on the radio? That's what Fabio does, and of course he crashes and ends up not meeting his partner and even more stupidly losing the diamonds he had with him.
The young Ursula Andress stays in the hotel with older husband Fred and step-daughter Barbara Bach. Barbara is going out with a local cop and Ursula seems to be getting it on with a local mechanic (Howard Ross), so Fabio's just walked in on a bloody soap opera. Ursula also makes a beeline for Fabio once he shows up, but when everyone in the hotel catches a news report detailing the heist, some folks figure out what's going on...and violent mobster Eli Wallach is getting impatient for his share of the loot...
Part Eurocrime film, part old school giallo, this one might not have enough nakedness and gore for more folk, but it's an interesting film anyway. It's one of those 'someone has loads of money and everyone is out to get it one way or another' films, like those late sixties Umberto Lenzi gialli. It's got a fair few twists and turns but might just be a wee bit too laid back for its own good.
It probably didn't have enough Eli Wallach when I think about it. How can you underuse Tuco? Especially with that mighty combover he's sporting in this one. -
sol-kay14 November 2004***SPOILERS*** Terribly dubbed into English Canadian movie where the actors look and sound like their a bunch of ventriloquists without having dummies to throw their voices at. Even the non-spoken sounds and noises in the movie aren't even synchronized to where they come across like far away echos.
Floyd, Fabio Testi, is just released from a Montreal jail after serving six months for car theft and is given 48 hours by the Canadian Government to leave the country. Floyd is picked up by his criminal associate Joe, Eli Wallach, then in what seems like ten minutes the two of them hold up a jewelry store shoot one of the costumers, critically, and are chased by the police all over the city of Montreal. After all that they split up in two cars and head across the Canadian border to Newport Maine.
They split up all right but for some strange reason Joe let's Floyd keep the entire amount of jewels that they just robbed, some $500,000.00 worth that they both agree to meet in Newport to split them up between themselves; why didn't they do it right there? Floyd driving on the icy and frozen highway like an idiot runs his car off the road and breaks it axle leaving him stranded at the "Last Chance Motel" just across the border from the state of Main in Canada leaving Joe in Newport left waiting for him and his share of the jewels.
The unbelievable story goes on with Floyd stuck at the motel and not being able to get across the border to Portland to get to Joe with the jewels. This has Joe thinking that Floyd is trying to take off with the entire load of stolen jewelry. At the motel Floyd falls in love with the motel owners wife gorgeous Michelle Nolton, Ursula Andress, who's, unknown to Floyd at the time, a bit flaky. The local cops come to the motel to check out Floyd and anyone else there trying to cross the border in connection to the Montreal jewel robbery and are then told by the police radio that the two robbers were caught, obviously a false alarm.
Earlier in the film Floyd and Michelle had a roll in bed and when Floyd comes back from the police and checks his motel room he finds that the jewels are missing! who took them? Michelle? Or was it the other half dozen or so people in the motel at the time? If Floyd doesn't find them and split them up with Joe who's getting a little restless waiting he'll end up with his head split in half.
if it wasn't for the aforementioned bad dubbing the movie "Stateline Motel" would have been a pretty good crime drama. The fact that we see Ursala Andress undressed and nude in a really hot and sizzling love scene with Floyd was more then worth the rental coast alone. The ending was pretty bland but very unintentionally funny with the final confrontation between Joe Michelle and Floyd. The shooting of Joe by both Michelle and Floyd looked and sounded as if their guns went off some 5 to 10 or so miles away; thats how long it would have taken for the sound waves to reach the audience. But in reality the gun shots that did Joe in went off at point blank range no more then ten feet away from him. -
entomol718 June 2010Floyd (Testi) just out of prison arranges a robbery with an accomplice. They steal a huge amount of diamond from a jeweller's. Immediately they are chased by Canadian police but Floyd who has a powerful Ford Mustang, is able to shake them off. The two accomplices take different streets because Canadian government issued a warrant of expulsion to Floyd so he has to leave the country in 48 hours. He goes toward the border with an old Chevrolet but the street is frozen and he goes off the road. Walking he arrives in a Hotel called the "Last Chance". He gets a room and hides the loot under the bed. Michell (Andress) a beautiful hotel's owner hearing the TV notices about a robbery in the town, finds out that Floyd is one of the robbers. After a sex night with her, Floyd doesn't find the diamonds because Jack, Michelle's lover, has hidden them. He cannot leave Canada without recovering the diamonds so he threatens Michelle with death in order to force her to reveal the hiding place. After being mistreated, Michelle tells Floyd she hasn't the diamonds but Floyd doesn't believe her. He goes on to find the diamonds without results. In the meantime Joe the second accomplice, receives a telephone call from Floyd and not believing him decides to go to the hotel. Just arrived he orders a room and together Floyd begins to search in Michelle's room and again without results. Floyd realizes that he is suspected by Joe of an arrangement with Michelle, so he plans an escape. Michelle leaves the hotel by bus and Floyd catch her up later. When Michelle sees the Chevrolet (Floyd's car) jumps in but discovers the driver is Joe. He beat her up in order to force her to reveal where the diamonds are but he strangles her out of rage . Then he searches in Michelle's bag finding a puppet that contains inside the diamonds. Meanwhile Floyd comes and seeing Michelle dead out of the car, chase Joe and kills him. Unfortunately inside the puppet there are only some stones.
The film ends this way. It's clear it is cut because is impossible for me thinks that the story doesn't explain where the diamonds are. Indeed looking up in some cinema books I discovered the film lasts 105 minutes while my personal copy (recorded by TV channel) is 97 minutes. It is possible that in those missing minutes it is told where the diamonds have ended up. By the way the film runs well with a good screenplay and good actors. I think this it is better than others Italian crime films. In a town that I cannot recognize (we cannot be sure the movie has been shot in Canada like the plot tell us) there is a long chase between a Mustang (Floyd's car) and three police cars. Watching well we can see a stuntman driving the Mustang while in the close ups backs Fabio Testi. There is Ursula Andress older-looking to tell the true, but always gorgeous, Massimo Girotti in the role of husband of Andress, Eli Wallach as the accomplice of Fabio Testi . Even if Testi has started as a stuntman is also a fairly good actor. The car used in this film are: a Chevrolet impala model 1962, a Ford mustang coupè and a Wolkswagen beetle of seventies. Sound strange but the film was shot in English language then dubbed in Italian. The dubbing is not very good especially for the synchronism. Why doesn't exist a copy in direct sound for the English market given that the actors speak a good English? What is the point of dubbing a film into Italian and delivering it for the foreign market dubbed again and badly, sticking to the public opinion written in IMDb?
I give it 5.5 of 10 -
grybop11 February 2002L' ultima chance is one of those Italian films overdubbed in English in order to appeal to english-speaking audiences. It's about the love of a woman for a criminal who stays at the motel she owns. Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but it's an interesting plot. The movie, however,is poorly made, complete with lousy acting (Andress being an exception). Suspense is maintained throughout the movie, which is certainly a plus.
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mark.waltz29 April 2021Slow and static loses the race in this badly dubbed Canadian movie (allegedly filmed in Italian) about a recently released car thief (Fabio Testi) who, along with Eli Wallach, robs a bunch of jewels, and hides out in a hotel at the border, finding out that the money belt that contains the jewels he stole have in turn been stolen. He believes that the beautiful Ursula Andress robbed him after a fling, and after confronting her, they end up hiding out together.
The highlight of this film is a chase through the very empty highways of Montreal, including some jumps across dividers that will make you say "woh!" While Andress it certainly beautiful, her character isn't exactly someone that I would call trustworthy, and at times there are conflicting feelings whether she has the jewels or not, as well as what her true motives are. In certain moments, she resembles a young Cloris Leachman or Glenn Close.
Testi is rather bland, and Wallach, one of the great actors of the 20th Century, is completely wasted, although his character does play an important part in certain twists. A mixed bag of action and romance with absolutely no comedy, the fact that prints of this are rather poor makes it difficult to get through as well. -
Stateline Motel is an Italian crime film shot in Montreal, featuring Fabio Testi and Eli Wallach as the criminals, and Bond girl Ursula Andress as the femme fatale, who throws a wrench into their plans.
After being released from a Canadian prison, where he was holed up for stealing a car, Floyd (played by Testi) is picked up by his partner Joe (Wallach), as the two petty criminals plan on robbing a bank before fleeing back over the border to America.
They manage to pull the job off, but Joe shoots a guy in the process.
So they split up, with plans of meeting back up in New England to split the loot.
However, on his way to the unattended border crossing, Floyd crashes his car, and ends up stuck in the Last Chance Motel, as he waits for his car to be repaired.
But things aren't exactly going smoothly.
Because after a news report airs, with CCTV footage of the robbery, a number of people in the town begin to suspect him of the crime, and want to cash in on the reward for turning him in...that is...if they can't manage to steal the jewels from him, for themselves.
Meanwhile, the wife of the motel owner (Andress) becomes infatuated with the dangerous allure of this mysterious man, and instigates an affair with him, in hopes he will whisk her away from her mundane life in this small border town.
But before he gets a chance to leave, the jewels mysteriously disappear from his room.
He thinks the promiscuous young woman has honey trapped him...but he can't be sure.
While he's trying to figure out who the culprit is...his partner Joe returns in an attempt to track him down.
Thinking he is trying to take the whole score for himself.
So a situation has developed where everyone is paranoid of everyone else, and trying to play each other, in one way or another.
Floyd thinks that if he and Joe work together, they can solve the mystery as to who actually stole the jewels, get them back, and make their escape over the border.
But Joe is suspicious, and thinks that Floyd is trying to make off with the jewels- and the motel owner's wife- for himself.
Now Floyd thinks their lives are at risk.
Believing that Joe is willing to kill them both, so that he can take the whole cache for himself.
So, thinking the motel owner's wife has the jewels- but won't give them to him unless he runs away with her- Floyd agrees to do so, after trying to distract Joe.
But everyone is way off.
As the whole thing ends up a comedy of errors, with a bit of a twist at the end, that leaves everybody a loser.
It seems like this film was shot in both English and Italian, dubbed for the Italian market, then redubbed in English for the American market...and poorly at that.
Because the audio is so out of sync with the video, that it's kind of distracting.
On top of that, none of the acting is very good.
And the twist is rather predictable.
So the whole thing comes off as rather bland.
4.5 out of 10. -
Leofwine_draca20 November 2018STATELINE MOTEL is a low rent slice of Italian crime that plays out more as a drama than a thriller. There's some action but the focus is very much on the drama between the main characters, all of whom seem to be trying to constantly outwit or double cross their supposed allies. This one has a Canadian setting and is suitably chilly, although let down by languid pacing and dull behaviour. Eli Wallach and Fabio Testi play a pair of jewel shop robbers who flee their latest heist before holing up at the titular motel. Ursula Andress comes into the story at this point and is inevitably called in to supply sex and nude sequences, although she does have a little bit of character depth too. The lovely Barbara Bach, another Bond actress, has a small role alongside THE OTHER HELL's Carlo De Mejo. The story seems to take an age just to get anywhere, and by the umpteenth twist at the climax, you simply won't care anymore.
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For reasons wholly obscure, and not just a trifle baffling, most appraisals of, Maurizio Lucidi's profoundly entertaining Poliziottesco, 'Motel of Fear' (aka) 'L'ultima Chance' (1973) are somewhat lukewarm affairs, this is a dismissive reading I happily don't share, since, Lucidi's lively, jewel-heisting, dangerously double dealing actioner remains a prime example of punchy Italian exploitation, with solid performances from two legitimate icons, the eternally sleek and moistly fabulous, Fabio Testi, and indelible cult hero, Eli Wallach playing a querulous pair of hard-boiled jewel thieves on the lam who discover to their considerable cost that hot rocks and a hotter blonde are too much for them to handle!
Tougher than a butcher's stropping belt, 'L'ultima Chance' is all about the devious machinations of hard-nosed wise guy, Joe (Eli Wallach), and slickly scheming, funky-looking baller, Floyd, played with a singular machismo by the tremendously testicular tearaway, Testi! The hopped up hoods fretful flight to the Stateline Motel is propelled by robust filmmaking, and a booty-boppin' deluge of righteously funky 'action-riffs' from the funk-master general of B-Movie cool, Luis Bacalov! While much of the amusingly pulpy narrative feels overly familiar, its reliance on all the bellicose, bullet-blasted poliziotteschi clichés works to its advantage.'Stateline Motel' is well worth a visit, the decor's a bit dingy, but who cares about the skeevey upholstery when you can eyeball dazzling screen sirens, Barbara Bach & Ursula Andress? -
suisse_nut16 September 2002Ursula's performance is definitely brilliant in this movie. She proves not only is she beautiful, but given the right role she can act the hell out of it.
Fabio Testi looks good, but isn't the greatest actor, though he does try to hold his own.
An interesting plot that keeps you interested to the end. -
dougdoepke10 March 2019So who's got the stolen jewels and what's with the motel owner's glum-looking wife. She may be sexy but she's a little weird. Seems someone at the motel has stolen the jewels from Floyd who's stolen them from a jewelry store. So Floyd better figure it all out or his crime partner Joe will figure a double-cross and use that pistol he's always caressing. If this sounds a little difficult, so's the screenplay. Reviewer sol-kay does a good job pointing out holes in the narrative, which undercut logic.
In terms of the cast-- well-known actor Eli Wallach may be headlined, probably for marquee purposes, but he really only turns up in the last third, bringing some much needed energy. Instead, bland Italian actor Testi gets the most screentime among the male performers. And of course there's Andress who gets to show her sexy body (as expected), plus a shot at being more than just that. Then there's cutie Barbara Bach who could have stolen the movie with a little more screen time.
For all the plot holes, the mystery surrounding the jewels manages to hold interest. Also, Michelle's dark psychology forms something of the movie's subtext. Unfortunately, Andress is not quite up to conveying this in effective form. Too bad, because a more nuanced turn could really set the movie apart from just a standard guessing game. To me, the movie squanders what's really promising material, namely, a study in Michelle's perverse psychology. Meanwhile, I'll be getting snow tires next time I travel north.