I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND

OBSESSION on EBAY

2012-01-29T18:01:00.001-05:00

RARE OOP OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO signed by co-author Tim Lucas

www.ebay.com

RARE OOP OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO signed by co-author Tim Lucas in Books , Antiquarian Collectible |eBay

EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME Poster

2012-01-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME: Recently watched the Spanish Manga DVD of this rather important 1979 Jess Franco project (with scenes from the 1974 EXORCISM) and would recommend it since Jess Franco's real voice is used for the character he plays. It adds a lot to the film. It is also letterboxed and looks better than most other versions I've seen. No English language options, unfortunately. With a fascinating essay by Francesco Cesari as an extra. Wizard Video released a censored VHS of this called DEMONIAC back in the 1980s. It was one of the first Franco videos I ever rented. This poster was on sale for $200+ at vgmerchandise.com Thanks to Nzoog for helping me see this.

The Incredible Howard Vernon!

2012-01-19T18:51:00.002-05:00

Howard Vernon dressed to kill in his signature role as THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF

Watching the late, great Howard Vernon [born Mario Lippert] as a vicious Nazi officer in John Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN (1964). Vernon was a good vicious Nazi and seeing him here reminded me that he started his acting career also playing a Nazi (albeit a more reasonable one) in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Silence de la Mer (1949), a film I really should see some day.

Firing a deadly projectile at one of the numerous enemies of his Lord and Master, Dr. Mabuse, in THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE (1960).

From Hollywood mainstream projects like THE TRAIN to the mad Doctor Orloff (his signature role) in GRITOS EN LA NOCHE to the Nazi-like scientist in Godard's sci-fi arthouse classic ALPHAVILLE to the sinister Uncle in A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD to the henchman of Dr Mabuse in Fritz Lang's THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE (note that Wolfgang Preiss, who played Mabuse in the Lang film and its 1960s Euro sequels is also cast as a Nazi in THE TRAIN) to the creator of an invisible ape in ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN to the Mayor in ZOMBIE LAKE, the valet in SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN or the arrogant medical official in SHE KILLS IN ECSTASY, Vernon played just about every role imaginable and did it with elan and consistent professionalism.

As the bloodthirsty Dr. Eric Usher in Jess Franco's EL HUNDIMIENTO DE LA CASA USHER (1983).

He certainly had a LOOK and a style which were indelible once sampled. Like Klaus Kinski or Christopher Lee he was one of those actors who had a unique presence which always added a tremendous boost to any film he was in, even if he was playing a minor role.

Howard could also play a good person like the kindly Lord de Winter in LES DEMONS (1972).

Howard playing the word association game with Janine Reynaud in Jess Franco's 1967 NECRONOMICON.

Thanks for the memories, Howard Vernon.

Atypical Franco: VIRGIN REPORT (1972)

2012-01-09T10:50:00.002-05:00

While the typical Jess Franco film can be easily integrated in a “cycle” of some sort or at least related to some other feature of his, Virgin Report(1972) is rare in that it stands alone. Made during the director’s association with the German producer Artur Brauner, Jungfrauen-Report (as its original title reads) clearly sought to capitalise on the success of the Schulmädchen-Report series produced by Wolf C. Hartwig, for whom Franco himself was later to make Bloody Moon (1981). This Schoolgirl Report cycle followed in the footsteps of the likewise German Helga films of the sixties by serving standard softcore thrills in the guise of sex education documentaries, and Virgin Report adopts the same stance.

The results are predictable. A number of what are supposedly candid interviews are conducted with assorted passersby seen either in the street or at a disco, all questions asked bearing on the issue of virginity that is the film’s central theme. One is inclined to think that the interview segments, while almost certainly staged, were not directed by Franco, whose work may have been exclusively linked to the (openly) fictitious material. This includes the odd contemporary bit, including an almost self-contained sketch about a female teenager and her two successive lovers, one of them an ineffectual youth, the other a rather more satisfying mature man. Otherwise, most of the running time is taken up by brief set pieces set in various periods and areas and allegedly illustrating attitudes towards virginity throughout the ages.

While no historian or anthropologist, I honestly doubt the bona fides of what we’re shown, no matter how insistently a German voice-over may attempt to confer documentary status onto it all. Among the things we “learn” is that Native American women (never specified by tribe) would undergo defloration rites involving a coincidentially phallic outgrowth from a tree; and, in one of the film’s few entertaining scenes, that the Droit du seigneur actually extended to senior members of the clergy (although the existence of such a right even for feudal lords is controversial among historians). In the midst of these cod-documentary trappings, several familiar Franco players can be spotted here and there, sometimes doubling up: Britt Nichols, wearing a stole, forfeits her hymen to a huge metal dildo; within the same period, Vitor Mendes’s large body is covered by an Ancient Roman toga; the rather slenderer bodies of Hans Hass Jr. and Christina von Blanc, doing Adam and Eve, appear on full display as they frolic about in the Garden of Eden; Howard Vernon is recognizable as an inquisitor and a Victorian father.

And so on. Were it not for these actors, one would never guess this is a Franco film. In his travels through time and space, Franco profits from the associations of the Victorian segment to suddenly switch from colour to monochrome – probably for the sake of some variety, if nothing else. Otherwise, he proves either unwilling or unable to extract much variety, for exploitation purposes, from the framework given him. To be sure, the virginity premise is far more limiting than the more generic “schoolgirl report” denomination but, inasmuch as the notion of virginity is seemingly reduced here to its anatomic dimension (admittedly, the least controversial one), it is remarkable that the possibilities of fellatio are not even touched upon, as they had been in Bill Osco’s Mona: the Virgin Nymph (1970). Perhaps the subject is best suited to hardcore features such as Osco’s, but what about the lesbian activity that is almost inseparable from softcore? And in a Jess Franco film, no less! Since the filmmakers could hardly have been genuinely constrained by questions of historicity and research, they might have let their imagination run freer and make a more successful film by its own standards.

The “educational” sexploitation film (basically a German concept, later taken up by Italians and even by Spaniards who, unlike Franco, were operating within their own country) certainly wowed ‘em back in the sixties and seventies but nowadays it is far less interesting in itself than for what it is: a documentary, in fact, though not of what it purports to show but of what it really does show about popular attitudes at the time of its existence as a genre. And Franco’s film is certainly no exception. Even if it is highly unlikely that, as stated at the opening, the crew travelled to all five continents, Virgin Report is pleasant enough to look at thanks to José Climent’s photography and one assumes that making the film, with its varied settings, must have been more fun than watching it. Technically speaking, Franco has done much worse but rarely has he made anything more boring than this.

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

MONDO MACABRO DOES JESS FRANCO IN 2012!

2012-01-02T11:35:00.007-05:00

Countess Ivana Zaroff (Alice Arno) greets her guests, who will later become her prey and her dinner....

Count Rador Zaroff (Howard Vernon) signals that it's time to dine on hard hunted and freshly killed human flesh in the upcoming MONDO MACABRO DVD presentation of Jess Franco's first, and best, entry into the European Trash Cinema Cannibal genre...

If you thought Mondo Macabro outdid themselves in 2011with their definitive DVD releases of Jess Franco's SINNER (1972) and LORNA, THE EXORCIST (1974), wait until you see their 2012 releases of LA COMTESSE PERVERSE and PLAISIR A TROIS, both filmed back-to-back during a few weeks in the Spring of 1973.

In Jess Franco's LA COMTESSE PERVERSE (1973) The Woman Hunt has an unintended outcome for Countess Zaroff. The long MIA original version of this transgressive erotic adventure is being released on DVD for the first time in its original version as intended by Jess Franco. The original version was in-effect the first French Cannibal [S]exploitation feature with disturbing satire on 1970s class and sexual gamesmanship, executed in the inimitable avant garde/Horror y Sexo/ Cine Bis Jess Franco style. That is, before it was recut on orders from producer Robert De Nesle, who found the film too disturbing and edgy for his intended XXX rated venues. First inane "comedy" scenes were added and a later re-release included some crude hardcore inserts. An Italian version added ugly hardcore scenes not shot by Jess Franco. All these additions disfigured the film, based on the oft-filmed story THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, beyond recognition. It will now be brought back to its original incarnation from the original negative elements. Even in the compromised forms in which I have seen it over the years it always makes my top 10 Franco lists.

The whip crazy sadist Martine Bressac first seduces and then lashes her victims to death in PLAISIR A TROIS, Jess Franco's cubist take on Sade's PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOUDOIR. Besides deadly whippings, Alice Arno slashes, castrates, drugs, binds, hangs and displays victims in her basement chamber of horrors. One of the director's most intense and stylized Sade adapts, this is a must-see and has some brief glimpses of hardcore. This will also transferred be from the original negative elements. Extras to be announced.

Stay tuned for more information. More images will be rotated/added later.

Both DVDs are planned for the 2nd quarter of 2012.

NEW X-RATED KULT USHER DVD

2011-12-29T07:39:00.001-05:00

http://cinephiliquement-votre.blogspot.com/2011/12/x-rated-kult-jess-franco-collection-1.html?zx=ea05b8a0f0cf69db

I'm sharing the above link, originally posted on THE FRANCO LOUNGE at THE LATARNIA FORUMS, to this French site which gives more details on the previously blogged X-RATED KULT 6 DVD Jess Franco boxset. The text is in French only but this appears to be a re release of NEVROSE, the Eurocine edited/ French version of EL HUNDIMIENTO DE LA CASA USHER (1983) dubbed into German. There are also 18m of bonus scenes from the Spanish version of the film. But there were actucally two Spanish versions of the film, one never released. It will be interesting to find out just what is contained in these alternate scenes. I will update when I find out more.

If there is anyone who could provide a complete interpretation of the French text on Cinephiliquement it would be appreciated.

6 DVD JESS FRANCO COLLECTION: X-RATED HARTBOXEN!

2011-12-26T22:11:00.004-05:00

Anyone have any detailed information on the alternate versions and bonus materials offered here? This seems to be the DVD debut of ROBINSON UND WILDEN SKLAVINNEN at least. Also a DVD version of the uncut JUNGFRAUEN REPORT. Rather hefty price tag! At least X-RATED always has those nice covers taken from vintage artwork*

*[Image originally posted on THE FRANCO LOUNGE @ THE LATARNIA FORUMS]

SEASONS GREETINGS!

2011-12-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

Jess Franco celebrates the Holiday Season with his prayer beads!

Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year to all our blog readers. There will be great news about Jess Franco DVD releases in 2012!

Franco's occasional actors: AGUSTÍN GONZÁLEZ

2011-12-04T19:59:00.014-05:00

Although Jess Franco has been likened on occasions to Roger Corman, let’s face it, it cannot be said that many people on to bigger things started out with him as has been the case with Corman or, within Franco’s own country, Iquino. But there are a few exceptions, one of them being Agustín González, a now deceased actor who has had a theatrical award and a square in Madrid posthumously named after him. And indeed, despite his impressive number of film credits, it was on the stage in Madrid, where he was born, that Agustín González Martínez (1930-2005) really made his mark.

Starting out in a university theatre group during his student days, he eventually graduated to the legitimate stage in 1953. As for his film debut, González claims in a book-length interview with him that Jess Franco, “a very good friend of mine” (1) , on seeing him in a play, recommended him to Juan Antonio Bardem for a role in Bardem’s Felices pascuas(1954), on which Franco was working as an assistant director. What followed was an extremely active career in supporting roles, occasionally landing the odd lead, Julio Diamante’s Los que no fuimos a la guerra (1965) and Carlos Serrano’s Batida de raposas (1976). A regular in the cinema of Luis García Berlanga and Fernando Fernán-Gomez, he also worked for Carlos Saura, Mario Camus, Joaquín Romero-Marchent, Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, José María Forqué, Eloy de la Iglesia, José Luis Garci and other distinguished Spanish directors. He may also have served as a good luck charm as the first two Spanish films to win the Oscar to the Best Foreign Language Film featured him prominently in the cast: Garci’s 1982 To Begin Again (a poor film, but with González as a scene-stealing hotel concierge) and Fernando Trueba’s Belle Epoque (made in 1992, and featuring González in his by-then familiar manic priest act).

In the midst of all this film activity, González was essentially concentrating on a distinguished career on the stage, including the title role in Othello, Don Latino in Valle-Inclán’s Luces de bohemia (which he repeated in the film version of 1985), the lead of Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s play Las bicicletas son para el verano (which he repeated in Jaime Chávarri’s film version of 1984), Henry II in James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter and the writer in Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth.He was excellent playing the silent main role in a production of Samuel Beckett’s video-play Eh, Joe?.

Film-wise, he did not truly rise to prominence until the late 1970s, when he emerged as a bald-headed, mustached, gruff-voiced character star actor, much in demand for either comic or “straight” performances as authoritarian right-wing types. In the 1980s, he came close to becoming part of the “inner circle” of Spanish film actors inhabited by Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Paco Rabal and José Luis López Vázquez. A tendency to be typecast, along with a penchant for theatrical hamming, may have kept him from quite making it but he nonetheless remained busy in second leads and “guest star” cameos for the rest of his filmography. Other than repetitions of his stage successes, he also played some leads: cast against type as a liberal lawyer in Pedro Costa Musté’s El caso Almería (1984); a more characteristic villainous protagonist in Santiago San Miguel’s Crimen en familia (1985); a hard-nosed cop in the same director’s Solo o en compañía de otros(1991).

It goes without saying that he found himself, on occasion in Euro-genre films. The parts he played parts in this region include his maniacal character in Ricardo Blasco’s Gringo (1963) and, in another rare lead, the troubled man in the fantasy Testigo azul (Alucinema)(1989) , directed by Francisco Rodríguez Gordillo , who was later to helm the Paul Naschy film Licántropo . González was also, in fact, once directed by Naschy himself, in the comedy Madrid al desnudo (1979), playing a sleazy publisher. This is one of the very few times in which he did not dub his own voice. As a point of interest, in Pilar Miró's drama Gary Cooper, que estás en los cielos (1980), González appears as a Spanish actor who's off to Italy "to make that shitty horror film".

Gringo(1963, Ricardo Blasco)

Madrid al desnudo (1979, Paul Naschy)(Voice dubbed by Antolín García)

Testigo azul (Alucinema)(1989, Francisco Rodríguez Gordillo)(Best Actor award at the Imagfic festival for this role)

Agustín González appeared in two Jess Franco films. In the first of these, Rififí en la ciudad, he played (or, perhaps, overplayed) the gay gangster. In the second, La muerte silba un blues, he plays the shorter role of a cop, appearing early in the film. What follows are caps from his two Franco roles:

Rififí en la ciudad(1963)

La muerte silba un blues(1964)

González received the Gold medal for Contributions to the Fine Arts in 1983; he was also nominated to the Goya (Spanish Oscar) on four occasions. He died suddenly at the age of 74, while engaged in a production along with José Luis López Vázquez (seen with Soledad Miranda in Robert monell's previous blog entry) and Manuel Alexandre (the trumpeter in Franco's La muerte silba un blues). His personal partner for many years (1954-1986) was the noted actress María Luisa Ponte, also seen in several Jess Franco films.

Some of his stage roles:

As Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (Tony Isbert played Romeo)

As Don Latino in Valle-Inclán's Luces de bohemia (one of the actor's "signature" roles)

In the title role of Molière's Tartuffe (TV production)

As Andrew Wyke in Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth

Trailer for Crimen en familia, with Agustín González as the villainous lead.

Agustín González singing, in José Luis Cuerda’s Así en la tierra como en el cielo (1995)

Agustín González and Fernando Fernán-Gómez (of Rififí en la ciudad) in a scene from José Luis Garci’s The Grandfather (1998).

Agustín González’s imdb entry:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0328020/

Agustín González’s Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agust%C3%ADn_Gonz%C3%A1lez

Cover of a book of interviews with Agustín González

The inauguration of a square in Madrid named after Agustín González in 2006

(1) Lola Millás. Agustín González: Entre la conversación y la memoria (Madrid: Ocho y Medio. 1995)

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

Franco's 80s actors: ANTONIO DE CABO

2011-11-22T19:18:00.015-05:00

Although Antonio de Cabo started out with Franco in the early seventies, one tends to associate him with the director’s later output in Spain, which made better use of his easily recognizable appearance: tall and spindly, with a long, saurian face, bushy eyebrows and a heavy head of silver hair. His case is similar to that of Trino Trives – a man of the theatre who, although not fundamentally an actor, performed as such for Jess Franco and, would seem, few other directors (none at all in Trives’s case, at least from what information we have). The basic vocations of this well-educated man with a well-off family background were as a stage director, a set designer and a translator of plays. In the latter capacity, he was responsible for the translations used in the very first Spanish productions of Tennessee Williams, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which opened in Madrid in 1959, with Aurora Bautista (of Eugenio Martín’s A Candle for the Devil) as Maggie. De Cabo also translated The Rose Tattoo and Sweet Bird of Youth.

Some of De Cabo’s work for Franco, in Drácula contra Frankenstein (1972) and Eugenie (Historia de una perversión)(1980), was in keeping with his background, as a location scout and art director, although he did appear briefly in the earlier film. His first acting role for Franco, in X312 – Flight to Hell (1971) is curious. At first, we think that the presumably gay Spanish aristocrat who is among the plane passengers will be part of the main cast – then, however, he departs from the story and is never seen again. It could be that Franco, at the very last minute, shoved him into the film as an afterthought. In future, the filmmaker was to make more prominent use of De Cabo’s distinctive appearance: Other Franco roles for De Cabo at the time include a barely recognizable appearance in the docudrama Virgin Report (1972) and the notary in Virgin among the Living Dead.

Director and actor met again on a more regular basis during the crossover from the seventies to the eighties, when Franco started casting De Cabo in either co-starring or distinctive supporting parts, initially as Lina Romay’s randy father in Las chicas de Copacabana (1978); later, as the confessor in the footage of El sádico de Notre Dame (1979) that is not taken from the 1974 Exorcism; and memorably as the “drunken, decadent marquis” in Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada (1980).

Except for Franco’s movies, Antonio de Cabo’s filmography is minimal: he acted in two non-Franco films from, respectively, Brazil and Portugal, both of these being countries where De Cabo travelled as part of his theatre career - directing Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap in Brazil and Godspell in Portugal, where he resided for long. Both of them, in fact, are also countries where he was captured by Franco’s camera.And Portugal, in fact, is also the country where Antonio de Cabo died in the mid-1980s.

X312 – Flight to Hell

Virgin Report

Drácula contra Frankenstein (next to Eduarda Pimenta)

Virgin among the Living Dead

Las chicas de Copacabana

Devil Hunter (1979)

El sádico de Notre Dame

Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada

El lago de las vírgenes (1981)

A link to Antonio de Cabo’s imdb entry:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0127656/

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen (Special thanks to Ricard Reguant)

Soledad Miranda: Estudio amueblado 2P

2011-11-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Amy Brown for sending a link to this video of Soledad Miranda in a 1969 Spanish comedy.

Franco's Spanish voices: JULIO NÚÑEZ

2011-11-09T07:25:00.008-05:00

On the 17th October 2008, heart failure put an end to both the life and the sonorously stylish voice of Julio Núñez Merino, who had been born in Torrelavega, Cantabria on the 30th June 1930. His last onscreen role had been in an Isabel Coixet film, A los que aman, made ten years earlier, but feature films were not common in the career of an actor mainly devoted to the stage and the sound studio, and mostly seen (as opposed to heard) on TV performances of plays. Starting out as a stage and radio performer in Santander, Cantabria, he later settled for a distinguished career in Madrid. His stage work included texts by Sophocles, Shakespeare and Calderón de la Barca, in addition to numerous contemporary Spanish plays. His long career as a voice actor started in the fifties, remaining uninterrupted until his death. Voice work includes several Anthony Quinn and Jack Palance roles, several of Omar Sharif’s recent appearances, Stanley Baker in The Guns of Navarone, Telly Savalas in Birdman of Alcatraz, Franco Citti in Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex, Martin Balsam in Catch-22, Albert Popwell in a couple of Dirty Harry movies, Ernest Borgnine in Hannie Coulder, Adofo Celi in the Peter Collinson version of And Then There Were None films, Christopher Lee in Richard Lester's Musketeers films, Vic Tayback in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and Marlon Brando in the first Spanish dub of Apocalypse Now. He evcen dubbed his fellow dubber (and Cantabrian) Ricardo Palacios in Margheriti’s The Stranger and the Gunfighter. Another fellow dubber he did a voice-over for was Pepe Calvo in Aldo Florio's Euro-western Anda muchacho, spara! (1971). On TV, he was the Spanish voice of Claude Akins in The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, as well as taking over from an ailing Francisco Sánchez for the John Forsythe role in Dynasty. Another voice actor he took over from was regular Franco voice (and occasional onscreen presence) José Martínez Blanco; when Martínez Blanco left the Spanish vocal cast of The Love Boat, Núñez stepped in to dub the voice of Gavin MacLeod’s Captain Stubing. In TV redubs of old films, he was often the voice of Boris Karloff, including the monster’s sepulchral lines in The Bride of Frankenstein.

Also of note are the following vocal roles: Ivan Rassimov in Planet of the Vampires, Charles Bronson in Master of the World, Gian Maria Volontè in A Bullet for the General, Reggie Nalder in Mark of the Devil, Piero Lulli in José Luis Merino’s Comando al infierno, Umberto Raho in Cat o’ Nine Tails, William Berger in My Dear Killer, Harry Baird in Four of the Apocalypse and Michael Berryman in The Hills Have Eyes.

What follows is a list of those Jess Franco roles dubbed into Spanish by Julio Núñez that I’ve been able to trace. A total of three:

Howard Vernon in X312-Flight to Hell (1971)

Claude Boisson in El sádico de Notre Dame (1979)

Antonio de Cabo in Devil Hunter (1980)

Link to a partial list of Núñez’s films as a voice actor:
http://www.eldoblaje.com/datos/Fichaactordoblaje.asp?Id=163

Link to sample of Julio Núñez’s voice, dubbing Claude Boisson in El sádico de Notre Dame:
http://www.4shared.com/audio/dDmAFax6/julionuez-snd.html?

Below, a scene from an onscreen performance of Julio Núñez’s, seemingly taken from a videotaped TV performance of a play. Núñez is the man with the pipe. The moustached man is José María Caffarel (seen in the Paul Naschy film Licántropo) and the woman is Lola Herrera (of Eloy de la Iglesia’s Cannibal Man). The seated actor is Estanis González, whose voice can be heard in the Spanish-language version of The Girl from Rio.

Below, a compilation of several TV roles and cartoon voice-overs of Núñez’s. Note the presence (in scenes from the 1989 TV series Juncal) of Paco Rabal and Manuel Zarzo. Núñez, incidentally, dubbed Rabal’s performance as Ben Barka in the Spanish-language version of Giuseppe Ferrara’s Faccia di spia (1975).

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

CINEMADROME - Public Forum Name - Recent viewings (or re-viewings)

2011-11-05T16:32:00.000-04:00

CINEMADROME - Public Forum Name - Recent viewings (or re-viewings)THE DEATH RAY MIRROR OF DOCTOR MABUSE (1964): The last follow up to the series of films generated by the success of Fritz Lang's DIE TAUSEND AUGEN DER DR MABUSE (1960). A German-Italian-French coproduction (CF Jess Franco's LA VENGANZA DEL DR. MABUSE)...

Franco's lost opportunity: DOWNTOWN HEAT (CIUDAD BAJA) (1994)

2011-10-23T10:11:00.002-04:00

Opinions among Jess Franco’s followers differ wildly when it comes to DOWNTOWN HEAT. Some place it among his worst films; others feel it’s his last “real” film before he became self-conscious; and for the rest, it’s hard to encounter any opinions at all, such is the obscurity surrounding it even within the narrow confines of Franco's fanbase.

What certainly makes it untypical for a start is its standalone status amidst the densely bunched minions of his filmography. One can easily group the man’s works into periods, as part of a “batch” made for a specific production company, but DOWNTOWN HEAT, made in 1990 but shown four years later, simply appears to lie unaccompanied right in the middle of a rare productive desert in Franco’s career. Moreover, although Fernando Vidal was still behind the proceedings, and Antonio Mayans was yet again performing production duties, Franco’s surroundings this time marked a radical change from what had long become the norm in his films.

In other words, the Madrid-based filmmaker, fond of shooting in Andalusia, Valencia and the Canary islands, had found himself back in Barcelona (or, more precisely, its surroundings) for the first time since the early seventies. The production team thus includes Iquino’s collaborator Antonio Liza and much of the cast is drawn from the Marta Flores acting agency –not only Víctor Israel and Craig Hill but also Jaime Mir Ferri as one of Hill’s unsavory partners and an uncredited Francisco Jarque as a bystander seen alongside Israel’s tramp character. Even the future star actor Sergi López turns up briefly in the opera house scene – as the tenor playing Cavaradossi in a performance of Tosca.

This new environment; the time he may have had to think things over since his last, comparatively distant film; plus a reasonable budget – all these factors may have stimulated Franco into reconsidering the character of his product. If the action scenes still seem rough (albeit more polished than usual in him at the time), the formal quality ostensibly suggests a greater patience at work. What is most striking, however, is that Franco managed to eschew the increasingly alienated and self-absorbed parallel world that had characterized practically his entire 80s output – an incestuous backdrop composed of references to other films and to his own work, with the same revamped plots and recurring character names. The action is still (perhaps wisely) set in an imaginary country (somewhere in Latin America); the Melissa name turns up again (and attached, in fact, to Lina Romay); but Franco here seems intent on presenting a world that is recognizably our own, even if he draws (more discreetly than on previous occasions) from a long film noir tradition. The overall approach could be termed one of stylized naturalism and, indeed, Franco does a very good job turning Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona into a metallic-looking noir setting with the harsh aesthetic beloved to the director from the early 80s onwards. I, for one, beg to differ with those who have compared Downtown Heat to a TV movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD
However, despite some good performances (mainly from Craig Hill and Philippe Lemaire), the results are uninvolving and poorly-paced. The story tells of a group of domestic cops, an American agent (Mike Connors) and a jazz musician who, on realizing that the country’s leading drug lord (Craig Hill) has become unassailable thanks to his connections, form a vigilante commando and set him a trap by kidnapping his daughter. At the end, once all has been resolved, the camera rests on the daughter, now weeping over her father’s death, as the credits roll. This innocent young woman, hitherto a marginal character or depicted as a tease, is given her due at the end, which would have had some poignancy if it had had a well-structured storyline to grow out of. SPOILERS END

As it is, the narrative moves in a meandering, unsteady manner. Franco might have gone in for a plotless film and one with an ensemble cast but instead, he bunglingly attempts a plot and a hierarchy of characters, as if he had not bothered to revise his script once finished. At first, it looks as if Ladoire’s cop will be the lead; then the musician takes over for a while (and is given a completely irrelevant romantic involvement with the Josephine Chaplin character); then it’s the commando as a whole. And it takes two thirds of the running time for the premise to become established.

Also detrimental to the film’s enjoyment is its English-language soundtrack. Barely seen theatrically in Spain, Downtown Heat aired inconspicuously on the same country's TV in a Spanish-dubbed version called La punta de las víboras; having not seen it, I can’t help thinking nevertheless that it is probably more coherent (in more ways than one) than its Anglophone counterpart even if the latter clearly represents the standard version. Several scenes, mainly indoors, were clearly recorded with direct sound, while others are post-synchronised. The results are variable: Victor Israel is inadequately dubbed by an American actor; Lina Romay, speaking in her own voice, is barely understandable; Óscar Ladoire (miscast for a start) plods through his English lines; and the delivery of a native English speaker (one Steve Parkman) is just plain boring.

Downtown Heat is certainly not a satisfying film, but it probably looked at the time as the possible harbinger of better work from Franco than had been the norm of late, as if the director, breaking the inertia, had decided to revitalize his product by looking all the way back to his past - not to the seventies or his spell with Harry Alan Towers but indeed to his initial black-and-white period. If with Downtown Heat he was pointing in the right direction, however unsuccessfully, it’s all the more depressing that what really lay in store was Killer Barbys and the spate of One-Shot productions, not to mention the controversial version of Welles's Don Quixote.

Text by Nzoog Wahlrfhehen

RARE DRACULA PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN VHS

2011-10-22T17:26:00.003-04:00

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.ca%2Fitm%2FDRACULA-PRISONER-FRANKENSTEIN-JESS-FRANCO-MARY-FRANCIS-JPN-NTSC-MEGA-RARE-%2F350500117444%3Fpt%3DVHS%26hash%3Ditem519b6f5bc4&h=eAQGcaQIfAQELZNz-DWl7fCMjoaHf1b8iuILJnZ6Nw62ZAQ

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This rare Japanese VHS is the only video version I know of, on any format, which is anywhere near correctly framed at 2.35:1 OAR. The US IMAGE and SPANISH DIVISA DVDs are closer to 1.85:1 and cut off before the end of the end music. This also has richer color quality.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DIANA LORYS!

2011-10-20T17:55:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DIANA LORYS!

A fine underrated actress who made memorable appearances in Jess Franco's GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961), RESIDENCIA PARA ESPIAS (1967), THE BLOODY JUDGE (1970) and, my favorite of her performances, NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970). She was also very good in the Paul Naschy vehicle THE BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL (1973) and made an impression in any movie in which she appeared. She always projected a dignified sensuality and inner fire in her roles.

CINEMADROME - EXPANDED CINEMA - Jean Luc Godard's SOCIALISME (2010)

2011-10-17T19:09:00.005-04:00

CINEMADROME - EXPANDED CINEMA - Jean Luc Godard's SOCIALISME (2010)/ DON QUIJOTE

A low definition image from Orson Welles' DON QUIJOTE project which appears in Jean-Luc Godard's most recent abstract collage, FILM SOCIALISME. Or is it an image from Jess Franco's ORSON WELLES' DON QUIXOTE (1992)? The controversial compilation was roasted alive by most Welles scholars but I find some value in it and I'll be deconstructing it here at some point in the future.

CINEMADROME - FILM SCORES/COMPOSERS FORUM - Any favourite horror film composers?

2011-10-14T18:41:00.000-04:00

CINEMADROME - FILM SCORES/COMPOSERS FORUM - Any favourite horror film composers?

Any favorite film scores for Eurohorror, including Jess Franco films? Franco, of course, composes film scores. I'm still looking for the version of OBSCENE DESIRE (1978) with his score. I have an Italian version which has a replacement score. I think his score is on the Spanish only version.

TRIPTYCH: LINA ROMAY ON THE BEACH by Mick Cantone

2011-09-29T17:47:00.008-04:00

"Triptych: Lina Romay on the Beach"

painted in 2006/07

acrylic on canvas

triptych: left and right panels 20" x 24"; center panel

here is the link to my facebook page: www.facebook.com/mickcantone

In these striking canvases Mick Cantone captures the unique Jess Franco aesthetic of his best period in these studies of the iconic Lina Romay.

TAKE THE DARE! [www.ebay.ca](But, what is it?)

2011-09-21T21:16:00.002-04:00

A Jess Franco poster I hadn't seen before.
But what film is it promoting?!

BEFORE OCT 1, 2011.

Sell one like this

CHAINS AND BLACK LEATHER poster JESS FRANCO/LINA ROMAY

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From Albert Zugsmith to Jess Franco

2011-09-14T21:31:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Robert Guest for assisting me in finally catching up with Albert Zugsmith's legendary 1962 fever dream, CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER. This delirious mixture of slave girls in peril tropes, B movie surrealism, Tong war action and Allied Artists eroticism is presided over by a black clad Vincent Price as a relative of Thomas De Quincey, who wrote the book upon which this is supposedly based. I haven't read it but I did note that Robert Eisen is listed one of the editors. The name rang a bell and I realized that Eisen aka Robert S. Eisen is also credited as "Post Production Supervisor" of two Jess Franco-Harry Alan Towers productions, ISLAND OF DESPAIR aka 99 WOMEN (1969) and VENUS IN FURS (1970). Both films have some interesting similarities of the Zugsmith movie, especially the extended nightmare format of VENUS IN FURS, which like CONFESSIONS... features a befuddled protagonist (James Darren) wandering around in slow motion through a fragmented scenario.

Both 99 WOMEN and VENUS IN FURS appeared in America in versions fashioned for the culture of their time, the narration in VENUS is especially of its era and is charmingly dated. The director speaks of his reservations about the final cut in the Blue Underground VENUS IN FURS DVD interview with him included as an extras. It would be interesting to know Eisen's exact contribution.

Eisen also is credited as editor on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and THE BIG COMBO, two of my favorite 1950s genre pieces, along with many other interesting films.

An interesting double bill!

LA COMTESSE PERVERSE & PLAISIR A TROIS RESTORED!

2011-09-01T17:38:00.013-04:00

www.thelatarniaforums.yuku.com
LA COMTESSE PERVERSE & PLAISIR A TROIS restored at last!!!
[Go to The Franco Lounge for further details]

Thanks to Alain Petit for posting on The Franco Lounge at THE LATARNIA FORUMS the wonderful and long awaited news that LA COMTESSE PERVERSE and PLAISIR A TROIS, two of Jess Franco's most visually striking films, have been restored for their original negative materials. These tart black comedies were made back to back in 1973. LA COMTESSE ... has the distinction of being the first French cannibal film and PLAISIR... is one of the director's better adaptations of Sade. Both films are composed in a Cubist aesthetic reflected in the architecture of Ricardo Bofill (note the castle in the cap below) and the use of extreme wide-angle lenses.

The restoration was made by Stephane Derderian under the guidance of Alain, the noted film historian (THE MANACOA FILES), Jess Franco actor (THE MIDNIGHT PARTY, TENDER FLESH) and screenwriter. Alain wrote the script for PLAISIR... and was there as Franco was editing both films so he made sure these are the original versions as the director intended. They are presented in their OAR of 1.33:1.

I'm reposting Alain's original post below from THE FRANCO LOUNGE to help spread the good news. Thanks to Stephane, Alain and all involved as well as THE LATARNIA FORUMS for continuing to be a go-to place for Jess Franco news. I'll be adding some caps posted by Frederick Durand asap.

Hopefully these will be picked up by a reliable DVD company who can give them superior presentations with language options and All Region capability. I also hope that Alain, Jess and Lina Romay, who is featured in both films, can be gathered together to do a commentary track.

Rader Zaroff (Howard Vernon) signals that it's dinner time on Cannibal Island!

Buyers must get in touch with:

LILIOM AUDIOVISUEL

187 Rue belliard

75018 Paris

France

liliom.audiovisuel@orange.fr

phone:

33 (0) 1 42 28 50 84

ALFRED BAILLOU Image Gallery

2011-08-22T19:15:00.001-04:00

Noted the diminutive, magical, joyous presence of the late, great Alfred Baillou (PLAISIR A TROIS; LES CHATOUILLEUSES) appearance as one of the tableaux figures in the Raoul Ruiz masterful meditation on representation and Art Criticism, THE HYPOTHESIS OF A STOLEN PAINTING (1978). Termed an "intellectual thriller" this experimental 63 minute film was shot by the great Sacha Vierney (Belle De Jour) in exquisite, evanescent Black & White. Based on a novel by Pierre Klossowski, who also cowrote the script.

There are a number of interesting parallels and connections between the careers of the recently deceased Ruiz and Jess Franco which I'll be examining here and on www.cinemadrome.yuku.com on the Raoul Ruiz thread theres.http://www.cinemadrome.yuku.com/

Templar tableau in THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE STOLEN PAINTING

Alfred Baillou

Baillou was in over 40 films and his career from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Franco's 80s actors: DANIEL KATZ

2011-08-13T00:38:00.013-04:00

It was through Carmen Carrión, his partner at the time, that this Argentinean actor gained access to Franco’s cinema. If not much of an actor, at least he looked good, what with his gaunt face, long jaw, high forehead and green eyes – occasionally and perhaps significantly seen in tight close-up.

Katz’s placement in Franco’s casts was changeable, ranging from minor roles to prominent supporting ones, especially villains, for whom his appearance seemed particularly suited. On the odd occasion, as in Mil sexos tiene la noche (1984), he would be entrusted with the male lead, apparently on account of Antonio Mayans’s inability at the moment to leave Madrid and accompany Franco to the director’s favoured Andalusian or Canarian locations. It makes sense, in this respect, that he should sometimes be dubbed by Mayans.

Katz remained with Franco for long, sometimes performing other duties than that of performer. In the 1989 La bahía esmeralda, he is billed as actor (in which capacity I have not been able to recognise him there) and also credited with the wardrobe; some time later, in 1994, he acted in Downtown Heat (1994), as well as being placed in charge of the art direction.

Sangre en mis zapatos (1983)

La tumba de los muertos vivientes (1983)

El tesoro de la diosa blanca (1983)

Historia sexual de O (1984)

Mil sexos tiene la noche (1984)

Dark Mission: Flowers of Evil (1988)

Downtown Heat (1994)

On only one occasion, Katz took leave of his association with Franco. He can be seen as the sinister gardener in José Ramón Larraz’s Rest in Pieces (1987)

Daniel Katz in Larraz’s Rest in Pieces

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

Franco's Spanish voices: MATILDE CONESA

2011-07-20T23:45:00.019-04:00

The beginning of yet another new series! Now, I know you guys have mostly heard Franco movies dubbed into English, but recent DVD releases in the Anglophone world, regardless of region, either contain a Spanish option or, whenever an English-language soundtrack was unavailable, just the Spanish soundtrack, duly subtitled. In other words, many of you have been exposed to the vocal efforts of vintage Spanish dubbing actors.

Now, some background explanation may be necessary for the present series. Until quite recently, Spanish films, like their Italian counterpart, have been shot MOS (without sound) and then had a soundtrack added later on in a sound studio – indeed, only in the mid-eighties did the use of direct sound start to attain a certain regularity until evolving towards its dominance in the present day, when it has finally become the rule rather than the exception. Back in the days of post-synched Spanish soundtracks, the performers heard were sometimes the same as those seen onscreen, sometimes not. There were various reasons for two actors being used for the same role: the onscreen player not knowing Spanish or speaking the language with an accent; the actor in question having limited vocal skills; a lack of ease with the dubbing process (which even afflicted experienced stage performers); just plain unavailability… Only the latter would explain that even some career dubbers, whenever given visual roles, would find themselves with somebody else’s voice in the final film.

Jess Franco’s Spanish films were almost invariably sound recorded in Madrid: some rare exceptions include Lucky, el intrépido and The Castle of Fu Manchu, both given sound in Barcelona. Among the sound studios employed for Franco’s films we find Magna, Roma, Cinearte, Exa, more rarely Sincronía or Sago-Exa, but most commonly, especially with the passing years, the now-defunct Arcofón.

And now to the artiste of this entry, the still-active Matilde Conesa Valls, born in Madrid on 13 April 1928.A leading radio actress from 1947, she took up dubbing in 1951 and became identified, by dint of her deep voice, with strong, domineering actresses, most notably Bette Davis, but also Lauren Bacall and Anne Bancroft, not to mention Jane Wyman in the TV series Falcon Crest, Stella Stevens in Flamingo Road and Nancy Marchand’s Livia Soprano in The Sopranos. It seems inevitable that, in the context of Franco movies, she should voice prison governors in WIP flicks. Outside Franco, she also supplied the voice of the mother in Miguel Madrid’s Necrophagus (1971) and that of Paul Naschy’s formidable wife in The Devil’s Possessed. What follows is a gallery, probably incomplete, of her Franco roles.

Rosanna Yanni in Kiss Me, Monster (1969)

Rosanna Yanni in Two Undercover Angels (1969)

Mercedes McCambridge in 99 Women (1969)

Beni Cardoso in La venganza del doctor Mabuse (1972)

Rosa Palomares in Devil’s Island Lovers (1972)

Yelena Samarina in Night of the Skull (1973)

France Nicolas in El sádico de Notre Dame (1979)

Ajita Wilson in Sadomania (1981)

Sample of Matilde Conesa’s voice, dubbing Rosanna Yanni in Kiss Me, Monster:
http://www.4shared.com/audio/uiDUGHXn/besame-yanni.html?

Sample of Matilde Conesa’s voice, dubbing Rosa Palomares in Devil’s Island Lovers:
http://www.4shared.com/audio/P0qgJINE/amantesdiablo-conesa.html?

Other, non-Franco vocal roles essayed by Ms. Conesa for Spanish soundtracks include that of Jeannine Mestre in Grau’s No profanar el sueño de los muertos, Miriam Karlin's Catwoman in A Clockwork Orange, Maria Pia Conte in Merino’s Orgía de los muertos, María Kosty in Night of the Seagulls, Shelley Winters in Tentacles, the medium in Fulci’s Paura nella città dei morti viventi, Mary Freudstein at the end of the same director’s House by the Cemetery, Louise Fletcher in Flowers in the Attic and the character of Mrs. Fortune in Piquer Simón’s Slugs. In addition, she has often been heard in TV redubs of old films: Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar, Jacqueline Pierreux in Black Sabbath, Maria Ouspenskaya in Universal horror movies, Margaret Rutherford in Blithe Spirit…

A very young Matilde Conesa (right), with Rafael Rivelles and Julia Lajos in Rafael Gil’s version of Don Quijote de la Mancha (1947).

Link to a partial list of Conesa’s films as a voice actress:
http://www.eldoblaje.com/datos/FichaActorDoblaje.asp?id=240

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

Franco's 80s actors: ALBINO GRAZIANI

2011-07-20T22:47:00.011-04:00

Franco’s apparent fondness for shooting on location in the Canary Islands (usually Gran Canaria) inevitably brought him in contact with local talent, including Albino Graziani, whose craggy face (sometimes with, sometimes without a scraggly beard) obviously appealed to the director. His film experience at the time seems to have been confined to appearing in a little-known German film called Alcaptar (1978).

At the very beginning of his Franco filmography, in 1980, Graziani was offered the sole sympathetic male part in Sinfonía erotica, as well as a tough-guy coin-juggling act (inspired by George Raft?) in Ópalo de fuego. Other roles: the professor in Oasis of the Zombies (1981), the dying general in La noche de los sexos abiertos and the eccentric hotel waiter in Mansion of the Living Dead. In the latter role, he is clearly dubbed by Jess Franco himself, affecting a Canarian accent.

Sinfonía erotica (1980)

Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties (1980)

Pick-Up Girls (1981)

La noche de los sexos abiertos (1983)

El tesoro de la diosa blanca (1983)

Mil sexos tiene la noche (1984)

Mansion of the Living Dead (1985)

A link to Graziani’s imdb entry:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0337167/

Remembering Soledad Miranda (1943-1970)

2011-07-09T21:04:00.001-04:00

Soledad Miranda would have been 68 today.

Franco's occasional actors: ELENA MARÍA TEJEIRO

2011-07-07T23:39:00.010-04:00

Remember Jess Franco as the fey witness in El siniestro Doctor Orloff (1984)? Well, this very same role had been played by a woman in the same film’s prototype of over two decades earlier, The Awful Dr. Orloff (1961) The woman in question was María Elena Mellado del Hoyo, better known as Elena María Tejeiro, basically a TV and theatre actress.

Born in Murcia on 25 October 1939, she was among the very first actresses to appear on Spanish TV and in was a prominent actress in the sixties, as well as the recipient of three acting awards. The noted film directors she worked for include Fernán-Gómez, José Luis Sáenz de Heredia and Roberto Bodegas, not to mention Antoni Ribas, whose first wife she was. Ribas, in fact, was to direct her in the comedy-drama De picos pardos a la ciudad (1969, see cap below), produced by Ignacio F. Iquino, but he soon left the project and Iquino himself took over as director, showing as much of Tejeiro’s anatomy as was possible in a Spanish film of the time.

For the purposes of the present blog, it is worth noting that in 1975 , Tejeiro starred in a TV sitcom called Pili, secretaria ideal, alongside José María Prada (who was Palafox in Franco’s Night of the Blood Monster of 1969) and Venancio Muro (Janot “The Tanker” in, once again, The Awful Dr. Orloff).

Elena María Tejeiro’s TV and film work dwindled progressively in the eighties. Her last recorded appearance seems to have been her brief role in Pedro Costa Musté political thriller Redondela (1987), from which the image below is taken.

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

ISLA: THE WICKED WARDEN (1977)

2011-07-04T18:47:00.002-04:00

Revisited this 1977 Erwin C. Dietrich produced epic lensed in Switzerland and Portugal (for the jungle exteriors). It's probably the most political of Franco's WIP's with the director himself playing a dissident Physician who attempts to expose the horrors of the prison system which has employed him.

US version

This is not really another of the ILSA series but was originally titled GRETA: HAUS OHNE MANNER, with Dyanne Thorne playing Greta Del Pino, the sadistic, depraved wardress. This is actually a better written, photographed, scored, directed and acted film than any of the ILSA films.

Bathroom antics

The real thing...

The cannibal climax with Greta as the main course at the flesh feast while the meal is turned into a snuff film by her own strong arm man (Eric Falk) is high genre satire. Or could it be a self-critique of his own participation in the WIP/Cannibal subgenres?

Jess Franco as Doctor Milton Arcos plots to expose Greta's crimes...

A Jess Franco film (Who else?)...

Italian advert

DVD

IMPERIAL VIDEO CORP. VINTAGE VHS

2011-06-27T20:02:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Bruce Holecheck for this scan of a 1983 IMPERIAL VIDEO CORP. VHS release of Jess Franco's BARBED WIRE DOLLS [FRAUENGEFANGNIS-1975]. This was the only Jess Franco film on their short releasing list. Check out Bruce's highly recommended CINEMA ARCANA blog for the details. I actually rented this from a local Mom & Pop video store way back when and copied it. The video quality is not ideal but it brings back memories. Of course this is now available in pristine condition from original elements transferred by the film's producer Erwin C. Dietrich, on his VIP-ELITE OFFICIAL JESS FRANCO COLLECTION.

http://bruceholecheck.blogspot.com

The VIP DVD

Not my favorite Franco WIP, but it has that memorable faked slow motion sequence with Jess and Lina which is a classic.

Pallardy on CINEMADROME

2011-06-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

The French master of Low-Budget Erotic Adventures of the 1970s and 80s is Jean Marie Pallardy. The Halopark DVD of his EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK will be discussed on the PRIVATE SCREENINGS FORUM on

http://www.cinemadrome.yuku.com

THE HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS

2011-06-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

Watching the sleazy 1967 Harry Alan Towers-AIP Eurocrime-adventure, THE HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS, starring Vincent Price going Eurotrash as Felix Manderville, a magician who fronts for an international white slavery operation. His wife, played by Martha Hyer, helps him arrange for ad hoc abductions during his stage performances. George Nader investigates and Maria Rohm (VENUS IN FURS) is featured as a victim, along with Kitty Swan.

This was meant to be a star-studded international thriller but it looks like executive producer Louis M. Heyward had to do it on the cheap. Maybe they spent all their budget on Price. They should have gotten Jess Franco to direct, instead of the dull, conventional Jeremy Summers. Nonetheless, it's still fun and I have retained my old HBO VIDEO prerecord for decades. Look out for Franco regulars Herbert Fux (JACK THE RIPPER) and Yelena Samarina (LA FILLE DE DRACULA) in supporting roles.

Watch for Vincent Price's reactions during the mud-wrestling sequence. What could have been going through his mind while appearing in this thing? I hope he used his salary to acquire some good paintings.

Where was Jess Franco when he was really needed?! He would have been perfect for this.

WOMEN IN PRISON!

2011-06-16T18:52:00.002-04:00

Jess likes to keep them locked up, stripped for action and ready for rebellion. Favorite JF WIPs

One of my favorites is the under-appreciated, no-budget, made-in-secret during the shooting of FRAUENGEFANGNIS (1975) item, DES DIAMANTS POUR L'ENFER. Check out Lina Romay's "escape" from the slammer and Jess Franco's amusingly casual appearance as the hitman, "Bill.".

Double Trouble!

DVD

I Like this cover

Shot in Nice, Beaulieu & Antibes. I actually visited one of the film's locations way back in the 1970s! NS!

So let's hear about some favorite Jess Franco WIPs in the comments below!

Franco's occasional actors: LUIS CIGES

2011-05-29T11:31:00.015-04:00

Not to worry guys, I’ve not given up on the 80s actors series. Just thought I could begin another one. The present series will deal with Spanish actors of at least some distinction who have appeared in a Jess Franco film on a very occasional basis.

Now, the first name in the series may surprise some. I mean, Luis Ciges? Wasn’t he a Paul Naschy man? Well, yes, he did more Naschy than Franco; he also did more Iquino than Franco; and he was basically associated with the cinema of Luis García Berlanga, BUT he did appear in one role for Jess Franco, that of one of the evil monks at Jack Palance’s monastery in Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969). To this one could add one his first acting roles, an uncredited part in Ramón Comas’s Historias de Madrid (1958), which Franco co-scored.

In reality, this was just one of many roles, scores of roles, the small, gaunt actor played in the cinema and on TV, starting on an occasional basis in the late fifties and steadily from the late sixties until his death from a heart attack at the age of 81, by which time he had long gained a place as one of the most beloved character actors in Spanish cinema.

He also had a rather varied life, in which he stumbled into acting by sheer accident. Luis Ciges Martínez (1921-2002) was born in Madrid, his father being the writer and Republican politician Manuel Ciges Aparicio, who had begun to act as the civil governor of Ávila when he was shot (1936) by Nationalist forces during the Civil War. At the time, the young Luis had already graduated in Accountancy at the age of 14.

After the Nationalist victory in the war, he and two of his brothers, despite the family’s left-wing credentials, joined the Blue Division, an element of Spanish volunteers created to aid the German war effort in Russia. On returning to Spain, he studied medicine for two years in Ávila, while working as an intern at a clinic for the tubercular. Due to his wife’s unwillingness to stay in Ávila, he moved to Madrid and studied at the Institute for Film Research and Experiences (IIEC), where he graduated in film directing (“I liked acting but was too ugly”). Following some experience on TV in Madrid, he settled in Barcelona. Amidst much directing of TV programmes and commercials, and numerous technical tasks, he had already started to appear as an actor in many films. His liberal politics had already got him into trouble, first on account of a documentary he had made on Spain’s urban poor and later, for his protests against the Burgos trials. This led to his being fired from TV in 1970 and his subsequent concentration on acting roles. He was seen in all manner of roles until the late seventies, when he came to specialise in the roles of spacey eccentrics with which he became well-known.

In 1995, he received the Goya to the best supporting actor for José Luis Cuerda’s Así en el cielo como en la tierra (1995). Three years later, in his late seventies, he played a rare lead role in Javier Fesser’s El milagro de P. Tinto(1998). Prior to that, he had played another lead long before, as the vagrant in Jaime Chávarri’s segment in the supernatural compendium Pastel de sangre(1971). In addition to all the above, he became much in demand in shorts, including one, Franco no puede morir en la cama (1998), in which he was cast as General Franco, no less!

Prior to dying, when he left his flat to go to an old people’s home, he donated his personal collection of 6,000 books and numerous videos to the town of Islantilla, Huelva, where he had been paid tribute in 2000. In return 2009, the Islantilla film festival posthumously created the Luis Ciges award.

Luis Ciges with Mabel Escaño, an 80s Franco regular, in Luis García Berlanga's Nacional III (1982)(In the background, Amparo Soler Leal and José Luis López Vázquez).

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

LES CROQUEUSES (1974) XXL VHS: recently added to THE JESS FRANCO ONLINE VIDEO DATABASE

2011-05-23T18:45:00.001-04:00

French Video of an alternate version of LA COMTESSE PERVERSE (1973)

Approx. 82m PAL

Letterboxed @ Approx 1.66:1

Produced by Robert De Nesle FR CFFP/Paris
Directed by Clifford Brown [JF]

Music: Jean Bernard Raiteux

Cast: Lina Romay, Robert Woods, Howard Vernon, Alice Arno, Kali Hansa.

This is the first shot of the original LA COMTESSE PERVERSE (1973)....

The opening image of LES CROQUEUSES (1974)....

FW: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS FRANCO!

2011-05-12T19:02:00.000-04:00

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS AL TIO JESS!

I can't thank you enough for all the movies and memories....

View image on Bing

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS FRANCO!

2011-05-12T17:01:00.000-04:00

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS AL TIO JESS!

I can't thank you enough for all the movies and memories....

View image on Bing

Franco's 80s actors: JOSÉ LLAMAS

2011-05-10T17:14:00.009-04:00

In 1979, Antonio Mayans, who had previously acted with Jess Franco on an occasional basis six years before, was part of a theatre company that was putting on a play at the Alfil theatre in Madrid. When, two months later, the production got into money problems, Mayans quit the company on a Saturday. On Sunday he got a call from Alicante to appear in Franco’s first version of Poe’s The Gold Bug (unreleased as yet). The rest, as they say, is history.

Among those Mayans left behind in the acting company was a dark, slender, boyish actor named José Llamas. It seems to have been through Mayans that Llamas, three years after that failed stage production, was to become one of Franco’s regular 1980s players. According to Mayans, Llamas “was very good friends with my wife and daughters, so after a while we had him join the group. He was a very nice man, and almost like an older brother to my daughters. He was also a very good actor, he could dance and sing…” (1).

As part of “the group”, Llamas was assigned anything from minor roles to leads, sometimes on the heroic side, as in Viaje a Bangkok, ataúd incluido (1985) and several antagonists, such as his “Macho Jim” in Los blues de la calle Pop (1983). Strangest of all was Franco’s decision that he fill in the shoes of Bruce Lee in some of the pseudo-martial arts features the director was occasionally and inexplicably turning out in the eighties despite an absolute lack of demand in Spain for homegrown product of this kind, not to mention Llamas’s lack of an appropriate background. The actor certainly looked athletic, had black hair and, as Mayans has said, could dance, but in the words of David Domingo “he’s hopelessly clueless about martial arts” (2). These words are in reference to La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong (1982-85), with Llamas credited as “Bruce Lyn” and the real Bruce Lee featuring on the film’s poster!

Since Llamas flourished in Franco’s cinema in 1982, and given his youth and looks, it’s not altogether surprising, perhaps, that he should “graduate” (if that’s the word) to appearing in several of the hardcore features that engaged the filmmaker throughout much of the 80s. In this respect, the actor’s roles include that of the Russian seen dancing to In the Steppes of Central Asia in the 1982 screwfest Una rajita para dos (“What’s the matter?” he tells the girls. “Don’t you like Borodin?”). In the credits of these flicks, Llamas’s name was usually replaced by the facetious porn moniker “Pepito Tiésez”, which might be translated as “Joey Hardon”.

It was these, of all of Llamas’s Franco films, that led to roles for other directors, more specifically in porn movies made by Ismael González and Manuel Mateos, and occasionally in the company of Mabel Escaño and Verónica Arechavaleta, both of whom had acted for Franco.

1987 is the year in which Llamas’s filmography seemingly comes to a halt, unless we count the 1984 El abuelo, la condesa y Escarlata la traviesa, not released until 1992. Both Franco and Mayans are on record as stating that Llamas died in London, and the former adds that he had been suffering from an AIDS-related illness at the time (3). His date of death is, as yet, unknown, but it might have been towards the end of the eighties. He appeared in at least 26 films within a film career spanning half a decade.

José Llamas's imdb entry at:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0515635/

(1) Interview with Antonio Mayans conducted by Ferrán Herranz and Francesco Cesari in book Il caso Jesús Franco (2010). Ed. Francesco Cesari. Granviale Editori.

(2) Review of La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong by David Domingo (5 June 2008) in blog La abadía de Berzano at: http://cerebrin.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/las-artes-marciales-en-el-cine-espanol-iii-la-sombra-del-judoka-contra-el-doctor-wong/

(3) Interview with Jess Franco conducted by "Chus" and "Al Pereira" (3 March 2002)for Francomanía website at http://members.fortunecity.es/francomania2/

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

Orloff's missing link: SÓLO UN ATAÚD

2011-04-26T22:25:00.006-04:00

Ever since Jess Franco decided to lift the name of Bela Lugosi’s surname in The Dark Eyes of London (1939) to christen his villain for The Awful Dr. Orloff (1961) probably the filmmaker’s first distinctive film, the Orloff moniker has become something of a recurring motif in Franco’s filmography, whether applied to title characters or supporting roles. In the midst of all this we find two “apocryphal” Orloff movies – with Howard Vernon in the role but not under Franco’s direction. Of these the most familiar by far is Pierre Chevalier’s Orloff and the Invisible Man (1971), which feels like a project Franco himself might have undertaken. As for Santos Alcocer’s Les orgies du Dr. Orloff (finished in 1966, released in 1969), this appears to have been seen by mighty few people. Some might regard it beforehand as a missing link in the Orloff filmography; on closer inspection, this is debatable as it inhabits quite a different world from that of Franco and even Chevalier (a contemporary British setting, in fact). And moreover, it only marginally qualifies as an Orloff film at all.

The film that was screened before French patrons as Les orgies du docteur Orloff is really called Sólo un ataúd (aka El enigma del ataúd), basically a Spanish production with some French financing, written and directed by the Spaniard who was later to give us the belated Karloff vehicle Cauldron of Blood (1970) and, as based on a novel by the comic book writer Enrique Jarber, certainly not intended to link with Franco’s Orloff films. Indeed, although Vernon may be present once again in the ubiquitous Coracera castle outside Madrid, the Spanish soundtrack clearly identifies his character – not, by the way, a physician or scientist of any kind – as Dan Gaillimh. Whether this Irish surname was replaced with that of Orloff in the reportedly racier version that played in France is something I don’t know but in any case the French distributors did choose to name it “The Orgies of Doctor Orloff”.

Even if not visibly inspired by anything Franco had made at the time, it may, paradoxically, have inspired Franco himself into making La noche de los asesinos (1976) the following decade as the storyline betrays a distant kinship with The Cat and the Canary. Vernon’s eccentric millionaire, diagnosed with liver cancer, invites his much-hated relatives to his sinister castle (the ubiquitous Coracera, which had also housed Vernon in The Awful Dr. Orloff) to announce that, since he has dissipated much of his fortune, his inheritors will simply share the insurance resulting from his death. Some time after Gaillimh has gone to lie in his coffin, where he is not expected to awaken, the castle guests discover that he has been stabbed in the chest. Whether this has been suicide or murder, either possibility precludes the effectiveness of the insurance and the duly heirs go out of their way to conceal the fact and hasten the burial. Soon, the castle’s remaining inhabitants become subject to various mysterious goings-on: Gaillimh is briefly seen alive by his widow; his corpse reappears mysteriously in sundry places; one of his nephews is shot dead by a mysterious hand but his body immediately disappears; the police receive anonymous calls to the effect that Gaillimh was murdered…

On the whole, this is less a horror film than a mystery thriller whose talkative script is made all the more objectionable by Alcocer’s ponderous direction. The top-billed Howard Vernon is confined to a few scenes while the film itself is dominated by Danielle Godet (the scheming woman from Franco’s Devil’s Island Lovers of 1974), who plays one of the few inheritors not characterised by alcoholism, by religious fanaticism (as in the case of Tota Alba’s role), some colourful neurosis or just plain malice. Most of the characters assembled, in fact, appear to be defined with some broadly stated character trait likely to make them instantly recognizable with each reappearance. Given the convolutions of the plot, maybe this is just as well.

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

MORPHO ATTACKS!

2011-04-21T18:49:00.005-04:00

The scientifically created Wolfman, Morpho (Michel Lemoine), attacks Diana (Janine Reynaud), one of the Labios Rojos in Jess Franco's EL CASO DE LAS DOS BELLEZAS (1967) aka TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS. A favorite scene which often makes me wonder if this is qualified as the first Spanish werewolf film, edging out Paul Naschy's LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO. Franco would bring a more traditional werewolf to the screen in DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971).

Interesting that both this and the Naschy films were coproduced by W. Germany. The Spanish version of this is about 15 minutes longer than TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS and has an alternate musical score.

LA CASA DE LAS MUJERES PERDIDAS

2011-04-19T19:36:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Nzoog I finally go the chance to screen one of Jess Franco's more obscure, but worthwhile, titles, the 1982 Golden Films Internacional production, LA CASA DE LAS MUJERES PERDIDAS. A difficult to describe blend of social satire, melodrama, erotic interludes, thematic and character references to Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST and KING LEAR, Cervantes' DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA and even Ingmar Bergman's "island" films. That's a heady blend for sure and Franco would remake it, as BROKEN DOLLS, in 1999. After a cursory view I would say I prefer LA CASA... but the final scene of the demise of the father in BROKEN DOLLS is, for me, one of the most memorable scenes of the director's digital oeuvre.

CLASIFICADA "S"

A haunting piano sonata co-written by Franco and Rebecca White weaves through the film which opens and closes with shots of the Ocean. One could say the director's invocation of the Oceanic quality of cinema and his own oeuvre. It concerns the degeneration and final destruction of the Mendoza family. It's a kind of chamber cinema piece with only five characters excellently played by Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay, Carmen Carrion, Tony Skios [Antonio Rebello] and especially Susana Kerr [Asuncion Calero] whose developmentally disabled shrieks maker her one of the most indelible characters in the Franco canon. Franco developed the script with Bunuel's collaborator, Jean Claude Carriere, who also adapted CARTES SUR TABLE (1966), but he remains uncredited on the print I saw.

Desde (Lina Romay) and the mysterious hunter (Tony Siios)

The main problem with this film is it attempts to infuse what is essentially a CLASIFICADA "S" item with ambitious literary/dramatic elements. That could be seen as a good thing, or very misguided. In fact, the film presents the director as his most inspired and misguided. Did the target audience appreciate it? Who exactly was the target audience? The use of limited space, the Techniscope framing, and the flow of images, however, are arresting. I will have a lot more to say about this film in the future.

The print Nzoog sent came from the Barcelona Channel but the film can also be downloaded. I would suggest to try and find an English subtitled, high quality, OAR print because the dialogue, aspect ratio and use of colors are key to appreciating this. Franco has said this is one of his most iconoclastic films (that's saying something!).

According to Franco "...it's a story of manners...bad manners! It looks like Bunuel's THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, yet it's different totally different. It mostly concerns la petite bourgeoisie" [Jess Franco, 1986. Quoted from OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO--p.153.]

Thanks again to Nzoog for helping me to see this.

Franco's 80s actors: CÉSAR ANTONIO SERRANO

2011-04-11T17:28:00.005-04:00

In Franco’s adventure film En busca del dragon dorado (1983), this one-movie actor was assigned the arguably thankless task of combining the spirit of Bruce Lee with that of Anne Libert’s birdwoman Melissa from La maldición de Frankenstein (1972). Although given top billing, under the fake Chinese-sounding name Li Yung, Serrano, has relatively few scenes as the ghostly “martial arts genius” who emerges deux ex machina to provide the two girls who are the film’s central characters with some help. When he does appear, it is in the form of the disconcerting (some would say unwittingly comical) figure of the “kung fu eagle”, who, accompanied by overdubbed bird screeches, either outstretches his arms into a wing-like flutter or essays some vague kind of cod-martial arts when confronted with villains.

In En busca del dragon dorado, set in an indefinite or imaginary country in Eastern Asia, with myriad Spanish actors (including Franco himself) doing their best to look Oriental, Serrano at least was a bona fide Asian, and moreover from a country once under Spanish dominion. Antonio Mayans, who dubbed in the voice of Serrano’s character, has said the following of him:

“It was me who chose the main actor [of En busca del dragon dorado]. I once went to the Rock-Ola disco to see Alaska [singer] and he worked as the doorman there. He was a Filipino, although we were looking for somebody Chinese. At first he took it as a joke and did a little karate number on me. I later took him to a gym for an audition and we finally hired him.”*

Caption: César Antonio Serrano, immersed in his grotesque “Kung Fu eagle” act.

• Interview with Antonio Mayans by Chus and Al Pereira for the Francomanía website at http://members.fortunecity.es/francomania2/entrevistamayans.html

[Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen]

Franco’s 80s actors: RAQUEL EVANS and LYNN ENDERSSON

2011-04-03T16:13:00.016-04:00

This entry may need a bit of contextualization. After the virtual abolition of censorship brought about by the Spanish constitution of 1978, but with hardcore still awaiting legalisation, Spanish cinema came to be increasingly dominated by softcore flicks exhibited under the government-imposed “S” certificate. Following the decline of popular genres that had previously been the staples of the industry, the softcore film acted as a reliable source of income and employment for professionals of the cinema until its demise in 1983, in which year the hardcore movie was legalized. In its last years, the “S” film had come to represent about a third of the national film output.

There were four basic production sources to be found in the Spanish “S” film, two of them being the respective film industries of Madrid and Barcelona, to which one should add a third category consisting of foreign films (French, German, Swiss, Greek…) with a minority Spanish participation, emanating from either of the two cities mentioned above. A fourth source may be found in the individual figure of Jess Franco, who, existing in a category of his own, was responsible for an approximate quarter of the Spanish “S” movies made in the 1978-83 period, not counting those films of his that were unreleased or unfinished.

Although Franco often worked at the time for Golden Films Internacional, whose quarters were located in Barcelona, his softcore output at the time might be placed, with some hesitation, within the Madrid tradition in terms of the talent employed on either side of the camera. In addition to several obscure actresses who appear to have worked only for him, Franco relied heavily on performers who may also be found in Madrid-made “S” fare directed by others: Rocío Freixas, Alicia Príncipe, Andrea Guzón, not to mention other Madrid-based actresses (Carmen Carrión, Mabel Escaño) whose beginnings go back to the “destape” (nudie) cycle that had served as a forerunner for the softcore film in the early to mid-seventies.

Meanwhile, the Barcelona pool of talent, of which Lina Romay cannot be said to have been a part despite her provenance, was largely left untouched by Franco but for two notable exceptions. Both Raquel Evans and Lynn Endersson, two familiar faces in skinflicks and girlie magazine pictorials, made respective isolated appearances in a Franco film. While neither of them was born in Barcelona (or indeed in Spain), they did live there and both, moreover, were members of the then-powerful Marta Flores casting agency, which represented much of the city’s acting talent, from prestigious figures such as Fernando Guillén to such softcore performers as Andrea Albani.

Character actress Marta Flores, agent of both Raquel Evans and Lynn Endersson.

Raquel Evans

Raquel Evans, whose real name is Arlene Guevara Gatica, was born in Santiago de Chile in 1956 and arrived in Spain in 1973 in the company of her brother, the filmmaker Enrique Guevara Gatica. At the time of her film debut in 1978, she had been working as a night club stripper in Lloret de Mar, Girona and in Barcelona. She is noted for appearing in the very first Spanish “S” movie, Una loca extravagancia sexy (1978), which was also the first of a series of films in similar vein produced by Enrique Guevara and nominally directed by him.

The willowy, angular Ms. Evans continued to appear in some twenty erotic films, several of them under the direction of veteran Ignacio F. Iquino, usually for Barcelona companies, but not to the exclusion of occasional Madrid efforts. By the time she landed a Jess Franco role in Linda / Orgía de ninfómanas (1981), she had already co-starred with Antonio Mayans in Iquino’s Emmanuelle y Carol (1978) and one presumes that it was Mayans, Franco’s regular production manager and lead actor, who suggested casting her as the film’s lead villainess. Since the making of Iquino’s film, Evans had undergone a nose job that made her features daintier and she now sported darker hair, as if in consonance with the part given her, much darker than one tends to associate with her. Her role in Linda, in fact, may represent something of an anomaly among the roles entrusted to Evans, who was usually required to project glamour and/or vulnerability.

Following the demise of the “S” film, and its replacement by hardcore, Evans gradually faded from the cinema. Now she reportedly works as a telephone operator.

Raquel Evans, prior to her nose job

Raquel Evans, between Bernard Seray and Antonio Mayans in Ignacio F. Iquino's Emmanuelle y Carol

Raquel Evans in Franco's Linda

Lynn Endersson

Lynn Endersson was in marked contrast with Raquel Evans in both appearance and personality. Whereas Evans was all grace and elegance, Endersson, who was already middle-aged at the height of her career, traded on a deliberate and exaggerated tawdriness that brought her screen persona within the realm of camp, abetted by her exaggerated performances in either comic or villainous roles. A typical Endersson role would find her wearing very high heels, gaudy clothing and heavy make-up, and she herself would supplement all this with mannered, expansive gestures and, whenever she did her own dubbing, a high-pitched, undulating delivery. Not unusually, she played roles named Lynn and in one film – the 1980 Un permiso para ligar, made by Enrique Guevara and Ricard Reguant – she actually played herself, and as an affected, highly-strung neurotic.

That a Catalan Frenchwoman, born Lina Nadal in Perpignan (on a date as yet undetermined), should have adopted a Swedish-sounding acting name adds to the campiness of her image and she herself was reportedly far from insensitive to humour. Trained as a painter, she started acting in films in what presumably were her thirties, under the direction of her partner, the Basque filmmaker Juan Xiol Marsal. She made her debut in Xiol’s Los farsantes del amor (1971), and subsequently contributed both the lead performance and the singing the title song (!) in El precio del aborto (1975), one of several anti-abortion exploitation films being produced in Spain at the time. After Sexy, amor y fantasia (1976), the last film made by the pair, Xiol died.
Working on her own, she effected the transition from “destape” to “S” cinema, usually working for Raquel Evans’s brother Enrique Guevara, but also for Manuel Esteba and the Madrid-based filmmakers Amando de Ossorio and Germán Lorente. In Las alumnas de Madame Olga (1981), José Ramón Larraz gave her a “straight” role (non-comic, non-campy, non-melodramatic) with good results. Amidst all this activity, she also got to appear in Porno girls (1977), a grey-market hardcore effort made on substandard gauge by Jordi Gigó and Ricard Reguant long before such fare was legalized in Spain. By the time she disappeared from the cinema in 1986, she had also played supporting roles in a couple of crime films, a Catalan comedy and an independent Majorcan feature. And, of course, one Jess Franco film – as in Raquel Evans’s case, this was in 1981.

If Jess Franco found a new facet in Raquel Evans in Orgía de ninfómanas, the same cannot be said of the use he made of Endersson in El sexo está loco (1981). Of the four main actors accorded various roles in that film (the others being Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay and Tony Skios), Endersson is given the least to do and is basically reduced to an onlooker (which she literally is in the nightclub scene involving Lina Romay and the two Argentineans). And this is one of her films in which she didn’t dub herself. With a more assertive role and her own voice, she might have come off as an apparent relative of the likewise plump, screechy-voiced, pop-eyed and histrionic Lina Romay.

Lynn Endersson in El sexo está loco

Evans and Endersson notwithstanding, Franco found no roles for any of those actresses from the Marta Flores agency: Carla Dey, Andrea Albani, Concha Valero, Berta Cabré, among several others. Too bad, as Berta Cabré might have come in useful in the event of Katja Bienert not being available.

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen