29 August, 2013

A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD Blu-ray:

Basilio (Jess Franco), the sub-normal manservant in CHRISTINA, PRINCESS OF EROTICISM, the new Blu-ray edition of the "Director's Cut" of this milestone in the long, twisting, prolific film career of Jess Franco. I'll be adding some more comments and thoughts in future blog posts.

One question came to me after the most recent viewing: Is this babbling, sometimes childish, sometimes sinister, character actually Christina's, and the viewer's, designated spirit guide to the esoteric netherworld in which this film unfolds?http://admin.highdefdigest.com/picture/original/41597

24 August, 2013

A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD on BLU-RAY

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (Blu-ray), temporary cover art
Robert Monell ESPRESSO COMMENT: If you are a lover of Jess Franco movies then you already love this key title in his long, prolific career. An oneiric, personal project which finally projected the director into one of his best periods. There have been numerous VHS, grey market, DVD releases of various versions, all with different lengths and footage.The new REDEMPTION BLU-RAY is the one you've been waiting for

Featuring the long awaited HD debut of the Director's Cut, with a slew of Special Features including the notorious Zombie edition with inserts by Jean Rollin, alternate erotic footage, a detailed interview with the late director by David Gregory, a superb Daniel Gouyette documentary with comments by Alain Petit among other Jess Franco associates/experts, a fascinating commentary by Tim Lucas, and more! The best, most comprehensive release of this legendary film yet. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

20 August, 2013

THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF Blu-ray review

  • Hartog-1912: With the help of his deformed, blind, deranged manservant Morpho (Ricardo Valle),  Dr. Orlof (Howard Vernon), a disturbed ex-prison medic, abducts and skins music hall performers and local prostitutes, attempting  to crudely graft their facial tissue onto the ruined head of his daughter, Melissa (Diana Lorys, who also appears as Wanda Bronsky, the gorgeous girlfriend of the not-to-bright but nice Inspector Tanner [Conrado San Martin], who is not making headway in solving the serial kidnappings). Wanda proposes a daring, dangerous mission in which she will pose as a "harlot" to trap the villain. Her plan succeeds all too well, resulting in her eventual abduction and new role as the next unwilling tissue donor in Orlof's operating theater of horrors. 
Title credit card for the censored Spanish version. The  new Blu-ray contains all the nudity missing from this edit, done at the time of the regime of General Francisco Franco.

The basics of this plot would be repeated, sometimes shot by shot, in such subsequent Franco efforts as EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOF (1964), LA VENGANZA DEL DR. MABUSE (1971), THE SINISTER DR ORLOF (1982), FACELESS (1988), to name but a few, each time adding more nudity, sleaze and gore whenever allowed. ORLOF [onscreen title: L'HORRIBLE DOCTEUR ORLOF] was, of course, censored in Spain of all nudity, including a scene of Orlof cutting into the exposed upper torso of an abducted showgirl (Mara Lasso) and Morpho pawing the exposed breasts of Wanda ( a body double was used when Lorys refused to do the shot). These were shocking images then, if not today. Somehow the richly shadowed B&W cinematography of Godofredo Pacheco makes these moments seem all the more transgressive, suddenly erupting within a more charming, genteel period setting.

What remains memorable about this film is the stunning visuals which employ B&W film stock to its fullest capacity (unfortunately this is not fully apparent in this transfer, which could used a boost in the contrast, it's sometimes grey and white, instead of jet black and white. However, definition, sharpness and detail are all significantly improved from the previous 2000 IMAGE DVD). Right from the very first image, framed through a street lamp, to the final shot of the survivors walking away down an arched walkway of a Gothic castle, Franco frames his scenes with optical, almost subliminal reminders that we are watching a staged production, an artifice, something at least once removed from reality.
 Morpho, in his voyeur mode, peers at his prey while hiding in a closet. Note the bugged-out eyes which Franco would use to even more outrageous effect with the cannibal-zombie in DEVIL HUNTER (1980).

Then there's Morpho Lautner (Ricardo Valle), who is tagged, in the perceptive and informative Tim Lucas commentary, as the screen's first "oral sadist," biting into the necks and chests of his voluptuous victims, combining the attributes of a cannibal (DEVIL HUNTER), zombie (LAS TUMBAS DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES) and vampire (EL CONDE DRACULA), all in one unique, unforgettable character. This kind of thing just wasn't business-as-usual in the early 60s horror genre, leaving H.G. Lewis (BLOOD FEAST) and Georges Franju aside. The shots of the women's bleeding torsos, skinned faces, their chained bodies hanging from the ceiling of Orlof's dungeon, are the stuff of nightmares and 1960s Fumetti Neri.

This Blu-ray also presents the experimental, slam-bang, atonal, rattling, pounding, non-melodic J. Pagan-A. Ramirez Angel-Jess Franco score to its best advantage. The well-translated, very readable English subtitles (they even took the trouble to subtitle the songs in the music hall sequences) are also a welcome addition to the French langauge track

Watching the excellent documentary "The Young Dr. Orlof Chronicles" directed by Daniel Gouyette, featuring a wealth of fascinating information and insights into the making of this Jess Franco horror classic by film historians Alain Petit, Lucas Balbo, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Eurocine Exec Daniel Lesoeur. It alone is worth the price of admission to the new Blu-ray presentation of THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF from REDEMPTION FILMS.
"Welcome to the Mad, Mad World of  THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF.... such carryings-on and such carryings-out...." the vintage US trailer exclaimed. I would have loved to have seen the SIGMA III Corporation double bill of this with Riccardo Freda's THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK back in 1964, two of the most transgressive horror films of that era, both dealing with still forbidden themes of necrophilia, sadism, rape and sexual sadism, submerged in heavy Gothic aesthetics combining German Expressionism, French Fantastique, the London-Fog Hollywood excursions into mad scientist/Jack the Ripper territory and Jess Franco's own Spanish tinged, macabre-erotic artistic proclivities by way of Luis Bunuel and Edgar Neville.

The plot is an unholy stew of tropes boldly incorporating elements of Franju's LES YEUX SANS VISAGE (1959), CIRCUS OF HORRORS (1960) and countless other Euro/American models. The Owl which inhabits the Orlof household even recalls Chano Urueta's delirious Mexican sex, gore and surgery cheapo THE WITCH'S MIRROR (1960), the latter influence confirmed by the director during my 2005 interview in which he revealed an unending admiration for the Mexican maestro. It remains unclear if Franco actually saw and consciously incorporated any or all of these into his mise en scene but they somehow all pertain.

Wanda (Diana Lorys), in hooker guise, encounters herself on the other side of the mirror, the title of one of the director's best films and a recurring image throughout his long career.

I would like to cite the excellent documentary "The Young Dr. Orlof Chronicles" directed by Daniel Gouyette, featuring a wealth of fascinating information and insights into the making of this Jess Franco horror classic by film historians Alain Petit, Lucas Balbo, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Eurocine Exec Daniel Lesoeur. It alone is worth the price of admission to the new Blu-ray presentation of THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF from REDEMPTION FILMS.  These world class experts discuss everything from the impact of the film on the European cultural scene in the early 60s to the elusive "novels" of David Khune/Khunne, with Lucas Balbo nailing the source of the beard.  No one, including the late director, has ever produced one of these mysterious pulp fictions, but it's fun to speculate.  

Equally fascinating is David Gregory's "The Horror of Orlof," the last interview with the director focusing on his first horror film. Franco reveals that he did not set out to be a horror director, his first three features were the screwball comedy TENEMOS 18 ANOS and two light-hearted musical comedies.  He then failed to secure the go-ahead to film B. Tavern's novel THE REBELLION OF THE HANGED, an epic tale of exploitation and violence in the jungles of Mexico, by the author of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, that had already been filmed in 1954 by Alfredo Crevenna and Emilio Fernandez on Mexican locations. Shifting to Gothic territory after taking the Spanish and French producers to a a screening of  Hammer's THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, the director went full speed ahead on filming the first excursion into full fledged surgical horror, boosted with erotic elements, on Madrid locations. There's not much nudity/sex in LES YEUX SANS VISAGE, but there is much sensual poetry. But ORLOF goes for the jugular in both regards, making it all the more daring considering it was made in a country still under a dictatorship which was once allied with Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Franco claims to have  picked the name Orlof from a Hollywood studio musician. I would go with Tim Lucas that the Bela Lugosi Orloff character in the 1939 British horror THE HUMAN MONSTER was a more likely source. Franco contends he wanted to make films like Antonioni's LA NOTTE but ended up forced into the horror ghetto, from which he would never really emerge.

There's also an 8 minute homage to the late director by Daniel Gouyette, "Jess! What are you doing now?" A photo gallery and original theatrical trailers are also included in this HD upgrade package which certainly presents this "museum piece" (as Franco referred to it in his later years) in an expanded, improved edition, with some room left for future improvement in the contrast and restoration departments. This version also runs almost 5 minutes longer than the 83 minute IMAGE DVD,  making it the way to go, if you want to upgrade, until a full restoration arrives.

We'll be looking at the Spanish version in more detail in a future blog post. Thanks to Mirek Lipinski for the caps from the Spanish version and thanks to Nzoog for his consultative support.

PS: In his excellent commentary on THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF Blu-ray Tim Lucas cites the influence of director John Brahm, especially THE LODGER, on the visual style and atmosphere of Jess Franco's first horror film. This prompted me to review some images from Brahm's career, especially his 1940s films. Here's an image from Brahm's 1946 Film Noir THE LOCKET, showing Robert Mitchum's face obscured by shadows. Note how it compares to the image of Howard Vernon as Dr. Orlof. The expressionist use of lighting illustrates inner darkness

Jess Franco had already mastered the B&W format.
Photo

15 August, 2013

NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT Blu-ray Review

Nightmares Come at Night
 Cynthia and Anna in the hypnotic "Mirror Stage" matrix which defines their relationship and the film's plot.

The French psycho-analytic-theorist Jacques Lacan would probably appreciate the symbolic implications of this key image from Jess Franco's NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT in relation to his "Mirror Stage" theory of psychological development. And the film may be the director's most direct examination of psychological fantasy structures in the unconscious. A naive, almost child-like woman, who falls under the hypnotic spell of a manipulative adult, is used as a pawn in the final stage of  a crime. But this was, after all, an exploitation item designed for the adult film circuit which existed in Europe in the early 1970s, so we don't want to get too analytical, but Franco's obsession with mirror imagery goes all the way back to his earliest features (VAMPIRESAS 1930, GRITOS EN LA NOCHE) and the aberrant psyche of strange, seductive females is a recurring conceit in his massive filmography.

The women in the mirror are the submissive Anna (Diana Lorys) and the manipulative, sadistic Ice Queen Cynthia (Colette Giacobine), who in collaboration with Dr. Vicas (Paul Muller), involve Anna in a cover-up of an elaborate crime which they have committed. The cover-up involves the control of Anna's mind by Cynthia's hypnotic commands and drugs administered by Dr. Vicas, a conflicted psychiatrist who seems to sympathize with the hapless Anna. Cynthia seduces Anna, who will then be compelled to seduce and murder her and Vicas' partners in a jewel robbery, including Jack Taylor (SUCCUBUS), Soledad Miranda (VAMPYROS LESBOS) and Andre Montcall. Muller would play another conflicted father-figure who manipulates a similarly naive woman (Miranda) in Franco's subsequent film, EUGENIE DE SADE, also featuring Montcall. But NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT manages to come off as both conventional and Oneiric in a way only Jess Franco can manage.

The theme of mental domination by destructive forces of which the victim is not consciously aware, can be found in the director's  THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1962), MISS MUERTE aka THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z, SUCCUBUS [NECRONOMICON], to name a few predecessors. The victims in the latter two are also erotic entertainers, and Franco uses the performer-voyeur matrix which is virtually the mainstay of his universe since his very first feature, TENEMOS 18 ANOS (1959). 

Anna (played with exquisite elan by Diana Lorys [the heroines of GRITOS EN LA NOCHE, RESEDENCIA PARA ESPIAS and a memorable player in THE BLOODY JUDGE]) performs her number in an ultra sleazy Zagreb strip joint which is constructed basically with a stage flat, a ragged couch, a plaster statue and a few chairs. She faces the camera, the audience, as she does her slowed down tease. One thinks immediately of David Lynch's The Slow Club. She's going slowly to get the audience to buy more drinks and not just get up and leave. One night she notices the alluring, but somehow sinister, Cynthia eyeing her from a corner table. So begins the plot which will not unravel until the film's very last image. One of Franco's best acted films, Lorys, Giacobine and Paul Muller could not be better, or better cast, in their complex roles. Franco uses mirror imagery to introduce each and to elaborate the plot and relationship arc. Captive birds flutter around the villa Cynthia like indicators of Anna's flights of fantasy. The sensuous, poetic narration of Josiane Gibert is highly evocative and pretty much guides the film to its conclusion.

This is a tragedy wrapped in a caper nestled within a sterling example of low budget late 1960s European erotica. The fact that the legendary Soledad Miranda is on hand as a criminal cohort who lounges around bare-assed in some inserts, which seem to have been shot around the time of EUGENIE DE SADE {note that Andres Monales [Montcall] also plays her lover in that film and is her partner here in the sleazy room with LIFE IS ALL SHIT emblazoned on the wall, has been the selling point of this title on past home video incarnations. Life is Shit may indeed be Jess Franco's message here and in much of his long, twisting filmography, there's even a song with that refrain heard in several of his later flms, written by his sometime collaborator, MANACOA FILES author and film historian Alain Petit.

As pointed out by Lucas Balbo in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO this story was to be later remade as the inferior LOS OJOS SINIESTROS DEL DR. ORLOFF (1973). Yet another remake is  the rather extraordinary MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE (1981).

The thumping, eerie, sometimes rocking, sometimes abstract, jazzy, noirish Bruno Nicolai score is one of his best, and most experimental. The abrupt opening credits (credited to Nadia), made up of still images from the remainder of the film, is also highly effective.

Yet another must-have Blu-ray from REDEMPTION. Once again I must call attention to the excellent Tim Lucas commentary. I've heard many, many commentaries. They tend to be litanies of factoids and oft-told behind-the-scenes tales. Tim does something really refreshing, taking you by the hand and escorting you into the film, its style, tone and substance. He follows individual shots, appreciating Franco's oft-criticized zooms/pans/rack-focused explorations for what they are, a fearless filmmaker's personal hand writing on the spatial-temporal continuum which is a Jess Franco film. It's revealing and actually allowed me to upgrade and re examine the film from different perspectives. And yet another superb documentary from Daniel Gouyette, EUGENIE'S NIGHTMARE OF A SEX CHARADE, during which experts Alain Petit, Lucas Balbo and Jess Franco himself are allowed to expand on the context and import of this breakaway thriller. It also includes some fascinating info on Franco's lost experiment, SEX CHARADE. 

One of the most fascinating and appreciated features is a verbal-visual essay by producer Bret Wood detailing the cleaning up and reformatting of the disc after it was discovered that certain scenes were shot in different aspect ratios. It all looks very good on Blu-ray with focus and detail not seen on the previous DVD versions. Although the new detail sometimes reveal the inadequacies of the original lighting and camera work. But it's a terrific film and this is a very welcome Blu-ray upgrade. All this and more, much more. Kudos to REDEMPTION for putting Diana Lorys on the cover instead of Soledad Miranda. It's really HER film and she soars in it. Highly recommended!

(C) ROBERT MONELL 2013 

14 August, 2013

John Brahm, Jess Franco andTHE AWFUL DR. ORLOF

In his excellent commentary on THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF Blu-ray Tim Lucas cites the influence of director John Brahm, especially THE LODGER, on the visual style and atmosphere of Jess Franco's first horror film. This prompted me to review some images from Brahm's career, especially his 1940s films. Here's an image from Brahm's 1946 Film Noir THE LOCKET, showing Robert Mitchum's face obscured by shadows. Note how it compares to the image of Howard Vernon as Dr. Orlof. The expressionist use of lighting illustrates inner darkness..
Photo

11 August, 2013

The Doctor Orlof saga continues....

The new feature version of our web series now in production under the direction of Alex Bakshaev...

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Jess Franco's first Dr. Orlof film.... now on Blu-ray!
I would like to cite the excellent documentary "The Young Dr. Orlof Chronicles" directed by Daniel Gouyette, featuring a wealth of fascinating information and insights into the making of this Jess Franco horror classic by film historians Alain Petit, Lucas Balbo, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Eurocine Exec Daniel Lesoeur. It alone is worth the price of admission to the new Blu-ray presentation of THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF from REDEMPTION FILMS.

08 August, 2013

NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT on BLU-RAY!

Yet another must-have Blu-ray from REDEMPTION. Once again I must call attention to the excellent Tim Lucas commentary. I've heard many, many commentaries. They tend to be litanies of factoids and oft-told behind-the-scenes tales. Tim does something really refreshing, taking you by the hand and escorting you into the film, its style, tone and substance. He follows individual shots, appreciating Franco's oft-criticized zooms/pans/rack-focused explorations for what they are, a fearless filmmaker's personal hand writing on the spatial-temporal continuum which is a Jess Franco film. It's revealing and actually allowed me to upgrade and re examine the film from different perspectives. And yet another superb documentary from Daniel Gouyette, EUGENIE'S NIGHTMARE OF A SEX CHARADE, during which experts Alain Petit, Lucas Balbo and Jess Franco himself are allowed to expand on the context and import of this breakaway thriller. It also includes some fascinating info on Franco's lost experiment, SEX CHARADE. All this and more, much more. Kudos to REDEMPTION for putting Diana Lorys on the cover instead of Soledad Miranda. It's really HER film and she soars in it. Highly recommended!
A more detailed review of this terrific Blu-ray presentation will be added soon...

04 August, 2013

NEXT CHAT @ CINEMADROME



This rarely seen but worthy title will be discussed on JESS FRANCO LIVE @ the CHAT ROOM on CINEMADROME on Aug 10 5PM ET.