LES DEMONS (1972): Vintage Lobby Cards

Here are some vintage lobby cards for Jess Franco's 1972 nunsploitation epic LES DEMONS/SHE DEMONS/THE DEMONS/DIE NONNEN VON CLICHY. I recently revisited the long 112m 59s. version, the longest extant cut of the film, and it looks stunning on the 2.35:1 X-RATED KULT DVD. It's an excellent print with luminous colors and good sound quality (German language only). You also get the "Director's Cut" (with English and Spanish language options) from 2003 with new music added (not too fond of this edition) and a grindhouse quality German print *85m. I tend to prefer this version of the Judge Jeffries story to the 1968 Harry Alan Towers produced THE BLOODY JUDGE, which has a quality performance by Christopher Lee as the Judge, a higher budget but sometimes "stars" and higher budgets inhibit the director's inspiration.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JESS FRANCO!

I Hope You Have A Wonderful Day!

CINEMADROME

CINEMADROME

CINEMADROME - HORROR RISES FROM SPAIN - Slugs: The Movie (1988) Slugs, muerte viscosa (original title)

CINEMADROME - HORROR RISES FROM SPAIN - Slugs: The Movie (1988) Slugs, muerte viscosa (original title)

QUIZ: In which JESS FRANCO movie does Patty Shepard appear? Follow the above link for a review of JP Simon's 1988 Spanish-US horror hoot featuring Patty Shepard and some other Jess Franco veteran actors.

Orson Welles-Jess Franco TREASURE ISLAND project site

http://www.western-locations-spain.com/andalucia/almeria/playa_sombrerico/index.htm

Above is a link to an interesting website about the vessel on which the Orson Welles-Jess Franco 1964 film version of TREASURE ISLAND was shot. Unfortunately, it was never completed but some scenes were shot in the Alicante harbor. 

I've always wondered what happened to the footage they shot. Was it destroyed or even printed? Is it stored somewhere? I also question if any of it was used in the 1972 Andrea Bianchi directed TREASURE ISLAND, also with Welles. 

It would have been fascinating if they had completed it. We'd have an Orson Welles film directed by Jess Franco! 

Franco's 80s actors: TRINO TRIVES

Among Jess Franco’s actors, the background of Trino Martínez Germán, known as Trino Trives, is similar to that of Antonio de Cabo. Though not primarily an actor, he was nonetheless a man of the stage who additionally gave acting performances in films by Franco – indeed, exclusively in Franco films as he appears to have worked for no other filmmaker in his life. In the world of theatre, while he did occasionally act, he mainly busied himself with direction, set design and the translation into Spanish of plays, not to the exclusion of some poetry translating. In 1998, when his career had lapsed into obscurity, he was cited in the newspaper ABC as one of the most relevant theatrical figures in Spain, where he is essentially remembered as the man who, as a translator and stage director, introduced many Spaniards to the work of Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugène Ionesco during the sixties, notably with productions of such Beckett plays as Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Happy Days.

The Valencian-born Trives also served, for a while, as the director of the National Theatre in Spain, but he was mostly active either abroad or working in the fringe. It may be that an openly gay man like him had limited chances in the Spain of General Franco, or it might simply have borne on a personal penchant on his part. Whatever the case, he alternated his activity in Madrid with work in Paris, not to mention Portugal and Brazil, both of which were also frequented by his fellow theatre professional Antonio de Cabo, with whom he thus became acquainted; it could well be, in fact, that one of these two men recommended the other to Jess Franco. 

Trives’s first recorded collaboration with Jess Franco came with his work as production designer for Rififí en la ciudad (1963), where he is credited as Trino Martínez-Trives. This was during his period  of greatest prominence in the world of theatre. By the time he returned to Franco’s cinema, in the eighties, Trives’s career was drifting towards a marginal position, in which he was engaged in acting teaching and in fringe, non-profit theatrical productions, with much of his income coming from the royalties of his translations. Franco, for his part, saw possibilities in his appearance, bald and with a Van Dyke beard, and cast him in several roles, often villainous, as in Los blues de la calle Pop and Viaje a Bangkok, ataúd incluido.  

However obscurely, Trino Trives remained active as a stage director towards the end of the century, gaining a 1998 award in Japan for his production of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano. Interviewed in 2002, Jess Franco said of Trives: “I’ve lost track of him but we’ve always been very, very good friends” (1). Trives, at the time, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and returned to his hometown, namely Orihuela, Alicante. In the summer of 2003, he refused to give an interview, saying: "Forget it. Those who've tried to rehabilitate my name by writing about me have merely screwed up. Anyway, with no sex and no work, death is a relief" (2). He died on 28 September 2003. His ashes lie buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, in Paris.  . 

 Los blues de la calle Pop (Aventuras de Felipe Marlboro, volumen 8) (1983)

                              En busca del dragón dorado (1983)

                                           Bahía blanca (1983)

                          Viaje a Bangkok, ataúd incluido (1985)

                           La chica de los labios rojos (1986)

Dark Mission: Flowers of Evil (1988)

Trino Trives's imdb entry:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0873205/ 

(1) http://members.fortunecity.es/francomania2/entrevista.html

(2) http://www.orihueladigital.es/orihuela/puntos/puntos_2_131003.htm

Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen (Special thanks to Ricard Reguant)

CINEMADROME - FAVORITE ACTORS/CULT MOVIE ACTRESSES - VOICES

CINEMADROME - FAVORITE ACTORS/CULT MOVIE ACTRESSES - VOICES

Follow this link and listen to Soledad Miranda's real voice!

THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF

GRITOS EN LA NOCHE/THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962): Following up a Georges Franju centenary visit with LES YEUX SANS VISAGE (1959) with Jess Franco's first horror project, which has a very similar mad plastic surgeon storyline and characters but a totally different tone and aesthetic. I think what really makes THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (one F) unique is the jarring, abstract music score by J. Pagan and A. Ramirez Angel. Two of the most influential films of the era and both in glorious black and white.

The awful Dr. Orlof (Howard Vernon) obsesses over his disfigured daughter (Diana Lorys).

I'm also looking for the Spanish version of this GRITOS EN LA NOCHE with English subtitles available, if possible. The Image DVD contains the French version with no English subtitles and the English language track. 

AN INTERESTING COMPARISON. EL COLECCIONISTA DE CADAVERES

CAULDRON OF BLOOD aka BLIND MAN'S BLUFF

MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE

EL COLECCIONISTA DE CADAVERES, a Spanish-US coproduction was shot in 1967 by Santos Alcocer (ORGIES OF DR. ORLOFF aka Solo un Ataud) in Southern Spain. Note that the plot point of a sculptor who uses the skeletons of murdered women as armatures (cf MYSTERY OF THE WAS MUSEUM, HOUSE OF WAX, BUCKET OF BLOOD, CRUCIBLE OF TERROR) is the same as Jess Franco's ROTE LIPPEN/TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS filmed the same year and that it was shot using what appears to be the same villa near Malaga which was the setting of Franco's 1982 thriller MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE, sometimes utilizing the same camera set ups. An interesting double bill, ultimately in Jess Franco's favor. Thanks to Francesco Cesare for sending an excellent quality DVD-R of EL CASO DE LAS DOS BELLEZAS which is about 10 m longer than the English language version, TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS and has a different musical score. 

COMING ON DVD IN JUNE 2012 FROM MONDO MACABRO!

I never thought it would happen but MONDO MACABRO has finally put together the Director's Cut of this essential Jess Franco cannibal adventure!

Franco's Spanish voices: DELIA LUNA

The slightly abrasive soprano voice of Adelina Luna Gómez, better known as Delia Luna, was heard in numerous Spanish-dubbed soundtracks produced by Arcofón, Cinearte and Magna, the most frequented sound studios in the career of Jess Franco, in whose long  filmography Luna, who passed away in the late nineties, made numerous incursions over the course of about two decades.

The niece of the noted character actor Manuel Luna, she made her onscreen debut in 1952 and went on to appear in some 18 films over the following decade, almost invariably dubbing herself except for some occasional films whose soundtracks were created in Barcelona. Dark-haired, with a roundish face and a slightly upturned nose, she landed female lead parts in two Antonio Molina vehicles, but was otherwise usually seen in supporting roles, sometimes as nuns. Her career dubbing others started shortly after her screen debut and from 1963 onwards she concentrated almost exclusively on her voice acting, remaining active in the profession until her death c. 1997. In the seventies and eighties, she worked extensively on many TV redubs of classic films whose original Spanish-language soundtracks were unavailable or in poor condition; in this capacity, she was frequently assigned to supply to dub Maureen O’ Hara. Other assignments of hers include several secondary Bond girls (Shirley Eaton, Martine Beswick), some voices for Patty Shepard, the voice of Bárbara Rey whenever Rey herself was not available (including Amando de Ossorio’s El buque maldito), Linda Kelsey in the whole Lou Grant TV show and Linda Grey in the first seasons of Dallas (the role was later taken over by Pilar Gentil, who had dubbed Pilar Cristal in The Awful Dr. Orloff), not to mention what, to many Spaniards, may be her most familiar vocal role on TV, that of Rue McClanahan's character Blanche Devereaux in the sitcom The Golden Girls. To all this one should add occasional jobs involving Anne Bancroft, Claudia Cardinale and Mary Steenburgen, among many other works. 

What follows is a list of several of Delia Luna’s dubbing efforts, including some that may be of interest to readers of the present blog: 

Bibi Andersson in The Seventh Seal

Mary Maude in The House That Screamed (great job)

Imma Ippoliti in Satanik

Samantha Eggar in The Light at the Edge of the World

Marilù Tolo in My Dear Killer

Maria Rohn in Black Beauty

Annalisa Nardi in Murder Mansion

Loreta Tovar in The Return of the Blind Dead

Susan Taff in Curse of the Vampyr

Maria Perschy in Hunchback of the Morgue

Ingrid Garbo in Dracula’s Great Love

Betsabé Ruiz in El espectro del terror

Helga Liné in The Dracula Saga

Susan Taff in Curse of the Vampyr

Patty Shepard in A Man Called Noon

Lone Fleming in A Candle for the Devil

Ewa Aulin in The Legend of Blood Castle

Dianik Zurakowska in The Vampires’ Night Orgy

Lois Chiles in The Great Gatsby

Marcelle Bichette in The Swamp of the Ravens

Julia Saly in Muerte de un quinqui

Bárbara Rey in The Ghost Galleon

Jennifer O'Neill in The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

Maria Marx in Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

Cirsitna Galbó in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Galbó often dubbed herself but not here)

Anne Francis in Eugenio Martín’s Pancho Villa

Joan Collins in The Cry of the Wolf

Barbara Bouchet in Don’t Torture a Duckling

Kataharine Ross in The Voyage of the Damned

Sandra Mozarowsky in Night of the Seagulls

Lynne Frederick in The Four of the Apocalypse

Susan Strasberg in The Manitou

Patty Duke in The Swarm

Janet Margolin in Last Embrace

Olivia Hussey in Death on the Nile 

Trish Van Devere in The Changeling

Helen Mirren in The Long Good Friday 

Louise Marleau in Alien Contamination

Alexandra Delli Colli in Dr. Butcher M.D.

Jennifer O’Neil in Scanners

Sabrina Siani in Ator, The Fighting Eagle

Paola Senatore in Lenzi’s Eaten Alive

Cinzia Monreale in The Beyond

Dagmar Lassander in House by the Cemetery

Zora Kerova and Cinzia de Ponti in The New York Ripper

Robin Groves in The Nesting

Lorraine de Selle in Cannibal Ferox

Jennifer Ashley in Inseminoid

Maryam D’Abó in Xtro (the theatrical version, not the DVD dubbing)

Ronee Blakley in Nightmare on Elm Street

Barbara Crampton in Re-Animator

Valentina Cortese in The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (not the original theatrical dub but one made for Spanish TV)

Cassandra Peterson in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Kelly McGillis in Cat Chaser

Janet Agren in Night of the Sharks

Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish

What follows is a list, possibly incomplete, of Delia Luna’s Jess Franco efforts. It must be said that most of her vocal roles for Franco are in stark contrast with the “wholesome” characters (nuns, nurses, housewives, “good” girls) she would usually play onscreen.

                          Lucía Prado in The Diabolical Dr. Z (1965)

Beni Cardoso in The Girl from Rio (1968)

                                                       
                            Luciana Paluzzi in 99 Women (1968)

Magda the convict (actress unidentified, behind Maria Schell) in 99 Women (1968)

Soledad Miranda in Vampyros Lesbos (1970)

                Mara Lasso in El muerto hace las malestas (1971)

              Eva Garden in La venganza del doctor Mabuse (1971)

               Glenda Allen in Un silencio de tumba (1972)

Inge (actress unidentified) in Los ojos siniestros del doctor Orloff (1973)

              Ada Tauler in Al otro lado del espejo (1973)

                            Evelyne Scott in Night of the Skull (1973)

Alice Arno in Mais qui donc a violé Linda? (1973) (dubbed into Spanish in 1984, for its VHS release)

                     Nadine Pascal in Las chicas de Copacabana (1979)

                       Nadja Gerganoff in Bloody Moon (1981)

                        Raquel Evans in Linda (1981)

                         Andrea Guzón in Sadomania (1981)

                        Analía Ivars in Juego sucio en Casablanca (1984)

                Ana María Espejo in Viaje a Bangkok, atáud incluido (1985)


                    Stéphane Audran in Faceless (1988)



                      Carole Keeper in Fall of the Eagles (1990)



Link to Delia Luna's imdb entry:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0526018/

Link to an online list (incomplete) of Delia Luna's vocal filmography:

http://www.eldoblaje.com/datos/Fichaactordoblaje.asp?Id=1595

Delia Luna and Manolo Morán (of Franco's 1960 Labios rojos) in Luis Lucia's Aeropuerto (1953)

Delia Luna (right) and Elena Espejo in Jerónimo Mihura's Maldición gitana (1953)

Delia Luna with Francisco Javier Martín "Blaki" in Fernando Palacios's Marisol rumbo a Río (1963)

They've all done Jess Franco! Delia Luna (far right), probably in the 1980s, at the Arcofón studios, in the company of with three other voice actors: Rosa María Belda, Jesús Nieto and, on the far left, Juan Antonio Castro (Remember him in Amando de Ossorio's Night of the Seagulls? He was Teddy the misfit)


Voice Samples of Delia Luna:

- D.L.'s voice for Soledad Miranda in Vampyros Lesbos:
http://www.4shared.com/music/05JK_F9U/delsoledad.html?

- D.L.'s  voice for Evelyne Scott in Night of the Skull:
http://www.4shared.com/music/nQupgd9H/delia_luna3.html?

- D.L.'s voice for Raquel Evans in Linda:
http://www.4shared.com/music/y_YU7dWT/delraquel.html?

- D.L.'s voice for Susan Taff in José María Elorrieta's Curse of the Vampyr:
http://www.4shared.com/music/3H_cj7PI/delia_luna.html?



Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

A MEMOIR OF LINA ROMAY BY MONICA SWINN

[Thanks to Monika de l'Epinay (aka Monica Swinn) for writing these memories of the late Lina Romay for this blog. Monika is a Belgian actress (born Monika Swuine) who appeared in a number of Jess Franco directed films featuring Lina Romay. Her most well known role is probably as the strict wardress in FRAUENGEFANGNIS aka BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1975). Other Franco titles in which she appeared along with Romay were LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973), SHINING SEX-LA FILLE AU SEXE BRILLANT and MIDNIGHT PARTY (both 1975),  DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976),  LES NONNES EN FOLIE and CELESTINE (both 1974) among others. She has since worked as an editor, writer and sculptress.]

The news of Lina’s death has struck me down. I was not prepared : it could not be true... For me, Lina has always been associated with an image of life. She was full of life, she was life itself...

I met her in 1973, during the making of “La Comtesse Noire”, Alain Petit was already on the set (I met him on that occasion), and I can testify that she was exactly as he describes in the beautiful homage I just have finished reading on your blog : obviously, we both saw the same girl, and some forty years after, we have the same feeling of enormous loss in the wake of her death.

It means something... Among the people who happened to meet Lina I never heard a single bad word about her. Everybody was conquered by her simplicity, her kindness, her sense of humour... She could be very funny, and the word “problem” was apparently not in her current vocabulary. I suppose she had her dark side, her shadows, everybody has, but she kept that inside. She had an extreme discretion about herself. In fact, she was bright and strong minded but did not feel the need to show in every day life the weight of her personality. She had a healthy brain. No ego disease. She had the gift of make people feel comfortable with her; she was easy to be with, to work with. 

Writing that, I suddenly realize that I can’t find the words, the words I should need to describe her. Perhaps, because what I am trying, to share, is somewhere beyond words. Beyond words, like her relationship with Jess, like the way they were together, their amazing complicity. In fact, in my heart and my memory, I am unable to dissociate Lina and Jess. That is the story, the big thing: Lina and Jess. They were an entity. You could feel it at every moment you spent in their company. And it was a sweet, delightful feeling. There was a kind of magic in it. And that magic culminated when they were working together. It was a kind of dance, with Lina under the lights and Jess behind the camera... She was transfigured, illuminated, as she was suddenly totally awake. It was more than acting: at that moment she gave the best of herself and it was pure pleasure. For both of them. So, if you ask me what she was like in "real life," I can say that real life for her began when Jess used the magic word, “Action” (or, kidding, when the scene had to be hot, “And now, message! ”)
Monika with Lina Romay in a striking image from SHINING SEX : LA FILLE AU SEXE BRILLANT(1975).

It was the key to that otro lado de espejo, that other dimension where everything became possible, where the only rules were freedom and pleasure. In that world, Lina and Jess had so much fun and they were so happy. That is why I am so sad to-day. Even if I know that Lina is still living that “real life” on the screen. In the movies they made together.
And forever in my heart.

Monika de l'Epinay - Feb 26, 2012

LINA ROMAY: A MEMOIR BY ALAIN PETIT

[I would like to thank Alain Petit for being kind enough to write this memoir of the late Lina Romay. Alain is a noted film historian who wrote the essential Jess Franco study, THE MANACOA FILES. He also was a close friend and collaborator with Jess and Lina since the early 1970s. Alain contributed to the scripts of several Jess Franco films featuring Lina, including PLAISIR A TROIS (1973) and LES NONNES EN FOLIE (1974). He also appeared as an actor (billed as Charlie Christian) opposite Lina in MIDNIGHT PARTY, DE SADE'S JULIETTE (both 1975) and TENDER FLESH (1997)]

    **********************************************************************************

Yesterday I heard about Lina's death. For a moment, I just couldn't believe it . When I read the official newspaper report I can't explain how sad I felt and still do...

I met Lina during the winter of  1973 when Marius and Daniel Lesoeur invited me to the shooting of LA COMTESSE NOIRE. I immediately fell under her charm, as did everyone else on the set. She was so beautiful, so simple, she illuminated every place she went. I remember one scene, she was naked in a crypt and it was freezing. When the shot was over, I  put my coat on her shoulders. More than 20 years later, she still remembered that moment, telling me "No one else except you had the idea I was dying from the cold." I was very moved by the fact she did not forget. She was like that, an example of fidelity in friendship. We became friends, and later I had the chance to be take part in several films in which she was the undisputed Star: DE SADE'S JULIETTE, MIDNIGHT PARTY.. I also witnessed the shooting of SHINING SEX, one of her best dramatic roles, and later in 1997 : TENDER FLESH.

The last time we met was in Paris when Jess and her came for a special screening of MIDNIGHT PARTY at the Cinémathèque. She was the same, always joking, mocking me (but so gently), full of life and so much in love with Jess. Once, in a Torremolinos restaurant, in front of Jess, she told me she felt in love immediately with him. They were riding in the same elevator. "I knew the minute I saw him he was about to become the one and only man in my life". The love they had one for each other was evident in all of their acts and words. Jess and Lina were the irrefutable proof that True Love exists and defies the terrible march of time.

A few weeks ago, the restored version of CELESTINE was shown on a French TV channel. Each time I watch this film, I fall immediately under Lina's spell. CELESTINE is a celebration! It's something magic. She has never been so beautiful, so bright. She is the right one at the right place: SHE IS CELESTINE!!! Last night we had a little email conversation with dear friend Francesco Cesari and he had such a nice feeling about CELESTINE. You know how I feel today and as words cannot explain it, I prefer leave the final words to Francesco:

"CELESTINE is her sunniest rôle, and maybe her best. The way she leaves the house at the end of the film is something incredible...the way she looks around, the kiss...I agree, it's absolutely touching, even being a comedy."

Lina has left the house, but I am sure that, like Celestine, she sent a kiss to all her fans and friends all around the world before she left. 

Alain Petit, Feb. 24, 2012
*********************


*IMAGE: Silvia (Lina Romay), a ditzy stripper, addresses the audience  in Jess Franco's 1975 interactive spy-erotic comedy-thriller MIDNIGHT PARTY/LA PARTOUZE DE MINUIT/LADY PORNO/LA COCCOLONA.