Olivier Mathot (1924-2011)

Real Name: Claude Albert Plaut 
Born: June 22, 1924 in Paris, France

 

Olivier Mathot as the member of a gang of criminals which includes Paul Naschy, in CRIMSON (1973).

I've just been informed by the actress Monika Swinn that the prolific French actor/director Olivier Mathot (Claude Plaut) died in December, 2011. She had no further details on the cause, place or exact time/date of his demise.

A familiar face in numerous Eurocine coproductions from CRIMSON,  (1973), in which he played alongside Paul Naschy, to DEVIL KISS (1975), a Spanish French Eurocine coproduction in which he appeared with the late Silvia Solar, MANIAC KILLER (1988) with Chuck Connors, to numerous Jess Franco directed-Eurocine produced thrillers such as EXORCISM (1974) and its reedited 1979 version (EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME), KISS ME KILLER and SHINING SEX (1975) (in which he appeared with Ms. Swinn). He also appeared in Michel Lemoine's DESIRE UNDER THE SUN, Franco's THE MIDNIGHT PARTY and CONVOY OF WOMEN, among many other titles. His acting career began in 1945 and his last listed role, according to the IMDb, was in the rarely seen Jess Franco/Jean Rollin crime/kidnapping adventure CHASING BARBARA (1991), also featuring the late Peter Martell. [BTW, if anyone reading this has a VHS/DVD copy of CHASING BARBARA please contact me here of by PM. 

Mathot also directed a number of films as well as scenes in alternate [French] Eurocine versions of Jess Franco films, such as CECILIA (1980) and THE DIAMONDS OF KILIMANDJARO (1983). A reliable actor with a distinguished appearance he could effectively play criminals, mad scientists, police offiers and comedy.

Also known as Oliver Mathews, Oliver Matthau, Claude Plaud, 

Franco's occasional actors: CRISTINA HIGUERAS

1988 was an unusual year for the actress Cristina de la Asunción Higueras: this striking brunette, most of whose acting has been on TV and the stage, appeared in two full-length theatrical films. One of them was Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón’s Malaventura, in which the actress (born on May 14, 1961) was strangely cast as the mother of the character played by Miguel Molina (born, like Higueras, in Madrid, and on November 27, 1963). Higueras’s other film that year was Jess Franco’s Dark Mission; Flowers of Evil, featuring her as Christopher Lee’s swearing daughter, also the love interest for Chris Mitchum.

Higueras’s other work in the cinema has been sporadic. Her acting career, starting in 1981 and still ongoing as of writing, comprises a mere nine feature films, the first being Francisco Lara Polop’s Dallas spoof J.R. contraataca (1983) and the rest including occasional films in English, which language Higueras is conversant in: the two 1992 productions Hostage, starring Sam Neill, and Shooting Elizabeth, with Jeff Goldblum, Mimi Rogers and a host of distinguished Spanish players (Juan Echanove, Simón Andreu, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Ernesto Alterio, etc.).

These films appear to have been interludes in a career whose preoccupations have clearly lain elsewhere. In 1981, she was part of the cast of a TV production of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, and soon after this, she spent a period as one of the hosts of the Spanish edition of Sesame Street. In 1992, tired of depending on others for her career, she created her own theatre company, Nueva Comedia, for which she subsequently found a co-manager in the actress Fiorella Faltoyano. Higueras, often with Faltoyano, has since starred in her own stage productions of Wait Until Dark, Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour and Agnes of God.

Images of Higueras’s role in Franco’s Dark Mission: Flowers of Evil:

Higueras’s imdb entry:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0383699/

Higueras’s Videobook:

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

Frank Brana RIP

Frank Brana, as a pipe-smoking member of Henry Fonda's outlaw bunch, interrupts a land auction in Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969).

Francisco "Frank" Brana, whose baleful presence and bushy eyebrows graced many [55!] a Spaghetti Western, and Jess Franco's RIFIFI EN LA CIUDAD (1963) died in Madrid today. He was 77. He also appeared in numerous Spanish horror and genre films. Some favorite Brana roles were as Dr. Lexter in Miguel Madrid's GRAVEYARD OF HORROR (1971), the cop in PIECES (1981) and as Fernando Sancho's thug in RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD (1973).Thanks to Tom Betts for the additional info below which he posted on FACEBOOK. I still haven't been able to place him in the Jess Franco film, but I'll keep trying...

om BettsSWDB - The Spaghetti Western Database

RIP Frank Brana. Legendary Spanish character actor and stuntman Frank Brana died in Madrid, Spain today Monday February 13, 2011. He was 77. Frank appeared in over 55 Euro-westerns and over 150 films and TV appearances. He had been suffering from lung problems the last few years and still made an appearance at the 2011 Almeria Western Film Festival. Another of the great Spanish character actors has left us. RIP Frank and thanks for the memories.

OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO on Ebay! Auction Continues...

Howard S. Berger This auction has been relisted for another week: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-OOP-OBSESSION-FILMS-JESS-FRANCO-signed-co-author-Tim-Lucas-/300660362045?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item4600c10b3d

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

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

REVISITING THE WITCHES' MOUNTAIN

Raul Artigot, the Spanish cinematographer, lensed such early 1970s Jess Franco films as LES DEMONS, EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN, among others. The same year (1972) he directed his first film, the highly atmospheric erotic witchcraft thriller THE WITCHES' MOUNTAIN. Here are some images from three scenes cut by censors of the time. This is an obscure but worthwhile film which  features a unique, eerie score by Fernando Garcia Morcillo, who also composed music for Jess Franco's LOS BLUES CALLE POP. This really deserves a good DVD release if a good print can be found.

OBSESSION on EBAY

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

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