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I had the chance to do an extensive (still unpublished) interview with Jess Franco in which we discussed many topics. I quickly learned to expect the unexpected when interviewing the man. When he suddenly told me that he had been involved with a film I had seen at the drive-in decades earlier I was at a loss for words. Franco has been indirectly and directly involved with several European westerns in his career, from co-writing and assistant-directing Joaquin Romero Marchent's EL COYOTE and LA JUSTICIA DEL COYOTE in 1954 to his own EL LLANERO (1963), a sort of South American western set in 1863 Venezuela. Such later films as LES CHATOUILLEUSES (1974) and the "bandido" semi-western SCARLET (1983) [anyone want to see a print of that?] and VAMPIRE JUNCTION (2000) also have "western" elements.
He had offers to direct "spaghetti westerns" when they were popular but they didn't pan out. One of the episodes in his long career which he remains most proud is his self-described stint as "personal" assistant to one of his favorite directors, Robert Siodmak. Franco recounted to me at some length how he put his own career on hold in to work for the veteran director of PHANTOM LADY (one of Franco's favorite films) on the CINERAMA western CUSTER OF THE WEST (1967). This is not one of Siodmak's best or most personal films but it is a very interesting semi-revisionist take on the legendary character and, of course, ends with Custer's one-way journey into the Little Big Horn. It's a visually impressive, dramatically and historically muddled film, but I got the sense that Jess enjoyed working with one of his inspirations and he seemed more interested in talking about it than his own films.
I saw CUSTER OF THE WEST at the drive-in during the summer of 1968, hardly the best venue for a CINERAMA production. I also have it on DVD, but the film probably needs to be seen in its OAR for full impact.
Here are the somewhat complicated technical specs on the filming ratios and release history taken from the IMDB. I also didn't realize until after I had interviewed Jess that Jack Taylor was in CUSTER... . At least he's listed in the cast. But I can't find him in the film!
Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm (horizontal)
Cinematographic process
Super Technirama 70
Printed film format
35 mm
70 mm (Super-Cinerama)
Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm (horizontal)
Cinematographic process
Super Technirama 70
Printed film format
35 mm
70 mm (Super-Cinerama)
In any case, it was a pleasure to hear the excitement in his voice while describing the experiences of working with one of his masters.
