OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES: Redemption Blu-ray

Video of  he Spanish language version of OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, directed by Jess Franco for Eurocine. This version is in Spanish language only, note the different music, credits, cast members and alternate scenes. I'll have some comments on the new Redemption OASIS Blu-ray up here later.

la tumba de los muertos vivientes - www.dalealplay.com

www.dalealplay.com

terrroorrr

OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES [aka L'Abime des Morts Vivants, La Tumba de los Muertos Vivientes, Bloodsucking Nazi Zombies] 

REDEMPTION FILMS Blu-ray

France 1982

85mn [1hr 24m 55s]

Color 1.66:1/1020x1080p

Directed by A.M. Frank [Jess Franco]

Produced by Marius Lesoeur

Associate Producer: Daniel Lesoeur

Written by A.I. Mariaux [Marius Lesoeur & Jess Franco]

Director of Photography: Max Monteillet, Juan Soler Cozar [uncredited on French version]

Two young, scantily clad women drive their jeep into the small oasis in search of thrills and World War II artifacts. As they examine battle debris from Rommel's desert legions . Suddenly, the women are attacked by rotting zombies who appear out of the sand, living dead sentinels still protecting a buried Nazi treasure.At another desert location former Captian Blabert (Javier Maiza) is visited by Kurt (Henri Lambert), another former Allied officer who fought the Nazis in North Africa. After discovering the whereabouts of the oasis where they believe the treaure is buried, Kurt murders Blabert and sets off to claim the prize for himself. Sometime later Blabert's son, Robert (Manuel Gelin), convinces his girlfriend and a group of college friends to accompany him to North Africa to find out how his father died and conduct their own search for the treasure

This is not the first Nazi zombie film, that may be Steve Sekely's REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES, a B minus mid 1940s John Carradine horror item.  By the time this Eurocine effort went into production the zombie trend had ramped up again with the world wide success of  Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE 2 (1979). The Nazi zombie sub-genre had also reappeared with Ken Wiederhorn's atmospheric SHOCK WAVES (1977) and the Jean Rollin directed Eurocine coproduced Z minus epic, ZOMBIE LAKE (1980), the latter  also now available on BD from Redempton. Jess Franco was actually set to direct ZOMBIE LAKE and had completed a treatment (using plot elements from his 1963 EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF) and scouted locations. But budgetary disputes with Eurocine led him to eventually decline directing, but did subsequently make this Nazi zombie film for the French production company, along with an alternate Spanish language version, with a different score, cast and some alternate scenes which was produced and distributed by Marte, a Spanish company. 

I first encountered this French language version via the legendary Wizard VHS back in the mid 1980s, and later found another US VHS version titled BLOODSUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES, which ran around 75 minutes and was in extremely poor video quality. This version has been released on DVD by Cheezy Flicks. while IMAGE released a 16X0 upgrade, from original Eurocine elements with French and English language options, but without English subtitles available. This disc, released in 2001, did not contain the alternate Spanish language version, which has been released in Spain on VHS and on a Divisa DVD. There is also another US DVD version available on the Mill Creek CHILLING CLASSICS 50 movie pack. Having seen all of the above home video incarnations, I can report that the new Redemption Blu-ray is definitely the only way to go. This BD [onscreen title: OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES] features stunning colors, razor sharp resolution, fine detail and superior luminosity. The nocturnal zombie attacks in the final reel, the best staged/photographed part of the film, featuring atmospheric back lighting of the zombies as they mass atop the dunes before the final attack, are much more effective because they are not reduced to a murky haze as they are in all the previous video versions. And the figures are much more menacing seen in silhouette as opposite to close ups where the cheap FX make-up is sometimes amusingly apparent. One zombie, for instance, is represented by a skull attached to a stick, a kind of crude puppet effect, made all the more visible in HD. One would think that the desert doesn't offer much opportunity for striking color, but the BD reveals startling bursts of green foilage, explosions of hot red, electric blue, canary yellow desert flowers and a dazzling array of sand tones. The colors are impressive even seen reflected in the aquamarine pool at the center of the oasis.

As or the film itself, I've always wished the presence of  Franco's talented Spanish DP Juan Soler, appearing as a cameraman who wants to document the zombies ("This ain't Hollywood"), were made more of and that the possibility of a self reflexive/film-within-the-film element were expanded to give the proceedings a unique Jess Franco-interactive quality. Given that the only acting honors go to Anthony Mayan's dignified desert Sheik and that the alternate casting of Lina Romay and Eduardo Fajardo, along with the wailing voodoo score featuring singer Carloto Perla, composed and performed on the synthesizer by Jess Franco (as Pablo Villa) are preferable but aren't available on this version, the Redemption BD maximizes the impact of this French cut. The French track allows the film to play much more effectively as a zombie horror set in an exotic locale (both versions were shot in the Canary Islands) and the English subtitles are most welcome. 

A 2m 58s vintage theatrical trailer is also on the bonus menu along with trailers for the Redemption BDs of ZOMBIE LAKE, FEMALE VAMPIRE and EXORCISM.

I'll be exploring the film itself and the alternate Spanish language LA TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES in a future blog post. 

(C) Robert Monell 2013

CINEMADROME - PRIVATE SCREENINGS - The films of Jean-Marie PALLARDY

CINEMADROME - PRIVATE SCREENINGS - The films of Jean-Marie PALLARDY UPDATED REVIEW of the Halo Park Pictures DVD--EROTIC DAUGHTERS OF EMMANUELLE aka EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK [Le Journal Erotique d'un Bucheron (1974)]

COMING SOON: A review and video of Jean-Marie Pallardy's Robert Ginty-Fred Williamson action adventure, Turkish-US-French co production WHITE FIRE [1984]. A cult classic!

CINEMADROME - PRIVATE SCREENINGS - The films of Jean-Marie PALLARDY

CINEMADROME - PRIVATE SCREENINGS - The films of Jean-Marie PALLARDY UPDATED REVIEW of the Halo Park Pictures DVD EROTIC DAUGHTERS OF EMMANUELLE aka EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK [Le Journal Erotique d'un Bucheron (1974)]

Mick Cantone's JESS FRANCO ART SHOW

. 
MICK CANTONE'S 5 NEW JESS FRANCO-INSPIRED PAINTINGS AT GREENPOINT GALLERY

8 March at 20:00

Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn, New York

AL PEREIRA VS. THE ALLIGATOR LADIES (2013)

Jess Franco's AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES qualifies as another Daughters of Fu Manchu adventure. Previous entries into this canon include his 1968 Harry Alan Towers produced THE GIRL FROM RIO/FUTURE WOMEN/SUMURU 2 and the tropical colors drenched ESCLAVAS DEL CRIMEN (1986). The world has heard from them again! At least Al Pereira has. The Alligator Ladies are informed by this mysterious Asian character that they are indeed Fu Manchu's daughters and they are here to kill or be killed! Bad news for Jess Franco's favorite private detective...

Look deep into the mirror and you will understand. The man in the mirror is, of course, Jess Franco directing his newest film from the other side of the mirror (also the title of his essential 1973 psychoanalytic thriller AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO). AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES is not only his most recent visit to his favorite PI, it's also the most anarchic, or as the director has recently indicated, an attempt at a totally free type of cinema. One thing is for sure, it is the work of a totally free man who we have the pleasure of seeing enjoying himself making the very film we are watching. 

Opening with Al (Antonio Mayans) thrashing about in bed in the midst of a nightmare. The remainder of the film projects the viewer into his dream state, populated with with whores, crazy nuns, doppelgangers, hangers-on and the director himself as either himself or a director making a very amusing, Surrealist/Dadaist* detective film. If you're looking for a "plot" keep on moving. What we have here is another cyclical, experimental genre busting charade along the delightful lines of EL SEXO ESTA LOCO (1980), another dream journey into the unconscious of Jess Franco, who also appears as a director making the film we are watching. 

The mirror cinema of Douglas Sirk, Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy and Luis Bunuel's THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY come to mind, but APVTAL is One Million Per Cent Jess Franco! There's a lot of nudity and erotic dancing (Carmen Montes is especially entrancing here as the brunette Alligator Lady), but sex isn't really the point here. Sex is crazy in the sense that it's another state of being, a transcendent activity which brushes aside phenomenological reality. Jess Franco's most personal and memorable works take place in a world which is an imitation of life rather than a replication of it. Whether it's the comic book worlds of LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967) and LOS BLUES CALLE POP (1983) or the Hollywood Gothic Bis of DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971) or the all nude Fumetti Neri antics in THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972), Franco creates alternate realities and populates them with figures from his own cinema drenched imagination. In APVTAL he is now working almost totally within negative space and even physically inhabits that space. It's a place of pleasure and creativity and where he obviously feels the most empowered and comfortable.

Longtime Jess Franco actor/production manager/associate Antonio Mayans knows the character well enough to indicate his hidden fears, impulsiveness and existential isolation from the rest of the world. The not-so-hardboiled detective was first played by the immortal Eddie Constantine in Franco's CARTES SUR TABLE [Attack of the Robots] in 1966 and has since been portrayed by Howard Vernon in 1972's LES EBRANLEES and the director himself in DOWNTOWN 1975). In this incarnation Al Pereira is the detective as voyeur, as stand up comedian in world which might have been designed by Salvador Dali and staged by Jean-Luc Godard. At the end, in the large hotel dining room which suddenly becomes the site of a Fellini 3 ring circus (cf 81/2), the actor Antonio Mayans and the character Al Pereira seem to be simultaneously enjoying the wild ride as Jess shouts directors from the the off space. With musical cues chiming in across the director's 50 year filmography (and APVTAL marks 60 years working in the film industry) the sounds of Jess Franco are as familiar as the characters and imagery, yet this film breaks through the boundaries of the Fourth Wall of cinema, the fiction/documentary dichotomy and conventional modes of representation. It also continues to utilize what I term the Secret Code of Jess Franco. For instance, the very first shot is a zoom shot of a boat at sea. This is an image which recurs almost obsessively in various places in such films as LA COMTESSE NOIRE to GEMIDOS DE PLACER to BARBED WIRE DOLLS to AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO. An image of escape? Romance? A reference to the aborted seafaring adventure TREASURE ISLAND, which Orson Welles and Franco planned to film in the mid 1960s? Who knows? The point may be that it doesn't matter. All that  matters to Jess Franco is to love cinema... and make films.

I smiled all the way through AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES. It's a relaxed experiment in pure cinema, personal cinema, no budget cinema. Some might say it's not cinema at all. An anti-masterpiece of anti-cinema. 

*Jess Franco scholar Francesco Cesari suggested that the film may be in the Dadaist modality after reading this review. 

(C) Robert Monell 2013

AL PEREIRA VS. THE ALLIGATOR LADIES (2013)

Look deep into the mirror and you will understand. The man in the mirror is, of course, Jess Franco directing his newest film from the other side of the mirror (also the title of his essential 1973 psychoanalytic thriller AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO). AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES is not only his most recent visit to his favorite PI, it's also the most anarchic, or as the director has recently indicated, an attempt at a totally free type of cinema. One thing is for sure, it is the work of a totally free man who we have the pleasure of seeing enjoying himself making the very film we are watching. 

Opening with Al (Antonio Mayans) thrashing about in bed in the midst of a nightmare. The remainder of the film projects the viewer into his dream state, populated with with whores, crazy nuns, doppelgangers, hangers-on and the director himself as either himself or a director making a very amusing, Surrealist/Dadaist* detective film. If you're looking for a "plot" keep on moving. What we have here is another cyclical, experimental genre busting charade along the delightful lines of EL SEXO ESTA LOCO (1980), another dream journey into the unconscious of Jess Franco, who also appears as a director making the film we are watching. 

The mirror cinema of Douglas Sirk, Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy and Luis Bunuel's THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY come to mind, but APVTAL is One Million Per Cent Jess Franco! There's a lot of nudity and erotic dancing (Carmen Montes is especially entrancing here as the brunette Alligator Lady), but sex isn't really the point here. Sex is crazy in the sense that it's another state of being, a transcendent activity which brushes aside phenomenological reality. Jess Franco's most personal and memorable works take place in a world which is an imitation of life rather than a replication of it. Whether it's the comic book worlds of LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967) and LOS BLUES CALLE POP (1983) or the Hollywood Gothic Bis of DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971) or the all nude Fumetti Neri antics in THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972), Franco creates alternate realities and populates them with figures from his own cinema drenched imagination. In APVTAL he is now working almost totally within negative space and even physically inhabits that space. It's a place of pleasure and creativity and where he obviously feels the most empowered and comfortable.

Longtime Jess Franco actor/production manager/associate Antonio Mayans knows the character well enough to indicate his hidden fears, impulsiveness and existential isolation from the rest of the world. The not-so-hardboiled detective was first played by the immortal Eddie Constantine in Franco's CARTES SUR TABLE [Attack of the Robots] in 1966 and has since been portrayed by Howard Vernon in 1972's LES EBRANLEES and the director himself in DOWNTOWN 1975). In this incarnation Al Pereira is the detective as voyeur, as stand up comedian in world which might have been designed by Salvador Dali and staged by Jean-Luc Godard. At the end, in the large hotel dining room which suddenly becomes the site of a Fellini 3 ring circus (cf 81/2), the actor Antonio Mayans and the character Al Pereira seem to be simultaneously enjoying the wild ride as Jess shouts directors from the the off space. With musical cues chiming in across the director's 50 year filmography (and APVTAL marks 60 years working in the film industry) the sounds of Jess Franco are as familiar as the characters and imagery, yet this film breaks through the boundaries of the Fourth Wall of cinema, the fiction/documentary dichotomy and conventional modes of representation. It also continues to utilize what I term the Secret Code of Jess Franco. For instance, the very first shot is a zoom shot of a boat at sea. This is an image which recurs almost obsessively in various places in such films as LA COMTESSE NOIRE to GEMIDOS DE PLACER to BARBED WIRE DOLLS to AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO. An image of escape? Romance? A reference to the aborted seafaring adventure TREASURE ISLAND, which Orson Welles and Franco planned to film in the mid 1960s? Who knows? The point may be that it doesn't matter. All that  matters to Jess Franco is to love cinema... and make films.

I smiled all the way through AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES. It's a relaxed experiment in pure cinema, personal cinema, no budget cinema. Some might say it's not cinema at all. An anti-masterpiece of anti-cinema. 

*Jess Franco scholar Francesco Cesari suggested that the film may be in the Dadaist modality after reading this review. 

(C) Robert Monell 2013

Lina Romay: One Year Gone; But Not Forgotten

One year ago Lina Romay left us too soon....

Fourteen Jess Franco Films Heading to Blu-ray

Fourteen Jess Franco Films Heading to Blu-ray

Posted February 13, 2013 05:58 PM by Webmaster
Cult label Redemption Films has revealed that it is planning to bring to Blu-ray fourteen films directed by Jess Franco. Amongst the films that will get the HD treatment are A Virgin Among the Living Dead, The Demons, The Awful Dr. Orloff, The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, Nightmares Come at Night and the never before released Les Chatouilleuses a.k.a Crazy Nuns.


This news was announced on Blu-ray.com by REDEMPTION Films. Specs and bonus materials will be announced in the future. I'm hoping to see the French, uncovered versions of THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN as an estra on that disc. The rarely seen period comedy CRAZY NUNS (1974) is an especially welcome addition to the Franco Blu-ray collection.

Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies (2012) - Theatrical Trailer

Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies (2012) - Theatrical Trailer

Jess Franco's newest shot-on-HD movie marks his most recent foray into the wild world of  the wonderfully sleazy, cheap Spanish P.I., Al Pereira, whom the director has been tracking for 50 years. The character was first introduced, as an INTERPOL agent played by Eddie Constantine, in  the 1966 Eurospy CARTAS BOCA ARRIBA (US title ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS).

The character has also been played by Howard Vernon (LES EBRANLEES-1972) and Jess Franco himself (DOWNTOWN--DIE NACKTEN PUPPEN DER UNDERWELT-1975). He is played here by longtime Franco regulaR, Antonio Mayans, who also played the character in my own personal favorite, BOTAS NEGRAS-LATIGO DE CUERO (1982), among other entries in the series.

Producer Ferran Herranz informs me that this is the first Jess Franco film to open theatrically in Spain since KILLER BARBYS (1996), and will premiere on March 22 at select theaters in Madrid and Barcelona.

TWO FEMALE SPIES WITH FLOWERED PANTIES - The Spanish soundtrack

Below you will find the acting and Spanish dubbing credits of this Jess Franco film. Although it is known in the Anglophone world as Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties under which guise it has circulated in the DVD-R trading market, it may be better known now among Jess Franco fans the world over via the Spanish-language version, known as Ópalo de fuego (Mercaderes del sexo), released on DVD by Manga. For this reason, I have thought that some of the following may be at least of some interest to Franco followers regardless of mother tongue. 

Made in 1978, legalized in 1979 and eventually premiered in Spain in 1980, Ópalo de fuego appears to be the first film Jess Franco made on returning to his home country in 1978. The credits on the Spanish version, the only one known to me, state that it is a co-production between Spain and Portugal, although other sources and much of the cast suggest a participation from France’s Eurociné outfit. This is not acknowledged in the Spanish credits. The English-language version appears to stem from the French cut, which is reportedly different in some details from the Spanish equivalent. I am only familiar with the latter.

Among Franco’s films with a Spanish soundtrack, about a third were given sound at the Arcofón studios, and this includes both his Spanish (or partially Spanish) films and a number of entirely foreign productions that got shown on Spanish home video in the 1980s. In this, his homecoming debut, however, Arcofón had no involvement. Either on Franco’s decision or that of the production company Tritón P.C., the studio chosen for the occasion was Sincronía, which had already provided Spanish-language versions of Kubrick’s films, with that director’s personal supervision, and was at the time busying itself with the Spanish-language soundtracks of the Charlie's Angels TV series – itself, like Franco’s film, concerned with female investigators. Sincronía does not figure often in Franco’s filmography: to my knowledge, only two other films of his were dubbed there: the Swiss production Love Letters from a Portuguese Nun and, much later, the eighties spy movie Dark Mission (Flowers of Evil). 

In Ópalo de fuego, none of the actors, even those who had Spanish, were recalled for post-production. Although Lina Romay was eventually to act as her own preferential voice in the 1980s, the woman we hear in her part here is Paloma Escola – among other occupations, the Spanish voice of Kate Jackson. 

Now, Paloma Escola (whose dad, the late Joaquín Escola, can be heard as the voice of Albino Graziani) may come comparatively closer in this role to Romay’s real tones than any her other vocal substitutes – including, in fact, Escola return to the same actress in Aberraciones sexuales de una mujer casada, let alone the high-powered likes of Mari Pe Castro (of El sádico de Notre-Dame) or María Luisa Rubio. It could well be that a guide track was recorded during the shooting of Ópalo de fuego or perhaps it is sheer coincidence but the vocal performance occasionally introduces some high-pitched mannerisms of the sort one would associate more with Romay than Escola. 

For many, of course, the most distinctive voice will be that of Víctor Agramunt, who essays the part of Milton, played onscreen by the presumably Portuguese actor Mel Rodrigo. Milton starts out as a screeching caricature gay man until he is later revealed to have been a “straight” undercover agent all the way through, using his effeminate manner as a disguise, whereupon Agramunt’s natural voice can finally be heard – indeed, I was unable to recognize him until this point. Prior to this revelation, audiences had no reason to doubt that Milton was indeed what he appeared to be, particularly in one scene so idiotic as to border on the sublime, wherein Nadine Pascal’s Brigitte attempts to “rape” the poor man on a couch (“Ooooh, how indecent! I’m a virgin and this wicked woman is perverting me!”). I have no record of what comments were made between the voice artists (Agramunt and María Dolores Díaz, who doubles up as one of the kidnapped women) and the other staff present during the dubbing of this scene. It does look, incidentally, as if there was a change of mind during post-production about which of the two personae Milton should be enacting in at least one particular moment: in the epilogue, with Milton at the wheel, Agramunt is heard in his usual voice but Rodrigo is clearly performing the gestures of the character’s fey alter ego. Agramunt, in any case, was later to be heard in more typical form, directing himself as the voice of José Llamas in Viaje a Bangkok, atáud incluido (1985). 

Other voices of note include those of the esteemed Claudio Rodríguez, Juan Miguel Cuesta, Luis Porcar and Francisco Arenzana, whose delivery is attached to the character of the police inspector. Arenzana, who was later to dub Franco himself in the video release of Female Vampire, had performed in a film Franco had worked on long before, namely León Klimovsky’s Miedo (1956), starring the Portuguese actor Antonio Vilar with Arenzana’s voice. 

As opposed to all of these players, mainly free-lancers, the rest of the vocal cast consists mainly in the in-house talent of Sincronía at the time, starting with its star dubber Luis Carrillo (Olivier Mathot and a very minor waiter role), plus Federico Guillén, Juan Antonio Gálvez (sometimes unrecognizable in the different roles he voices), and Celia Honrubia, who, back in the early sixties, had done narration work in one of Franco’s documentary shorts, acted as the voice of Diana Lorys in The Awful Dr. Orloff). The very deep-voiced Miriam De Maeztu (in real life, incidentally, a former political prisoner) dubs three roles - among them, the Forbes' two female bodyguards (a rare case of doubling up within the same scene, which forces her to slightly distort her natural voice when dubbing the blond henchwoman). María del Puy, no longer a Sincronía exclusive artist but still a regular, is heard briefly as the largely unseen woman held captive in a mansion. The regular voice at the time of Jaclyn Smith and Laura Gemser, among many others, María del Puy also appeared onscreen as the lead in Jorge Darnell’s horror film Devil's Exorcist (1975). Her vocal work for Franco was infrequent: she had dubbed Dina Loy in Rifif in la ciudad and was later to do the same with Catherine Lafferière in Habitación prohibida, the 1980s Spanish release of Les nuits brûlantes de Linda (1975).

After Ópalo de fuego, Franco’s filmography was briefly linked to Fernando Mateo’s Magna studios, this time with more vocal participation from the original actors, not least Franco himself, whose El sádico de Notre-Dame  featured what may have been his first vocal performance in Spanish except for his turn in Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s El extraño viaje back in the sixties. After his term at Magna, Franco turned to Arcofón and there he was to remain for most of the remainder of the eighties. 

Anyway, here is the list of the actors, vocal players and characters of Ópalo de fuego. They are arranged in the following order from left to right: onscreen actor / voice dubber and character. Most of the film’s characters are listed here, except for a few. I haven’t been able to determine the voice of the guy reading the newspaper at the beginning, the hotel employee who exchanges a few words with Milton after the latter has been talking to the receptionist, the small role of a hippy wearing a beret and the background hippy voices. Acknowledgements to NGL for helping me with this listing. 

LINA ROMAY / PALOMA ESCOLA / Cecile Lepaine 
NADINE PASCAL/ MARÍA DOLORES DÍAZ/ Brigitte Lemoine 
OLIVIER MATHOT/ LUIS CARRILLO / Senator Connolly 
MEL RODRIGO/ VICTOR AGRAMUNT/ Milton 
JOËLLE LE QUÉMENT/ CELIA HONRUBIA / Irina Forbes 
CLAUDE BOISSON/ LUIS PORCAR/ Ralph Forbes 
ALBINO GRAZIANI/ JOAQUÍN ESCOLA / Carlos Morales
DORIS REGINA / MIRIAM DE MAEZTU/ Dark Forbes henchwoman
(VOCAL ROLE)/ JUAN MIGUEL CUESTA/ Cecile’s boss 
(VOCAL ROLE)/ FEDERICO GUILLÉN / Voice-over presenting Irina’s act 
(VOCAL ROLE)/ JUAN ANTONIO GÁLVEZ/ Morales’s mad son
(ACTOR UNKNOWN) / MARÍA DOLORES DÍAZ / Estrella Shelby
(ACTOR UNKNOWN) / MIRIAM DE MAEZTU/ Blonde Forbes henchwoman
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ FRANCISCO ARENZANA / Inspector 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ CLAUDIO RODRÍGUEZ/ Consul Baxter 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ JUAN RAMÓN TORREMOCHA/ Juan, Milton’s hippie friend 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ JUAN ANTONIO GÁLVEZ/ Elder hippy 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ MARÍA DEL PUY/ Joan Simon 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ FEDERICO GUILLÉN / Agent Hernández 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ MARI LUZ OLIER/ Hippy girl who brings dress
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ FEDERICO GUILLÉN / Morales bodyguard 1
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ JUAN ANTONIO GÁLVEZ/ Morales bodyguard 2
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ ÁNGEL EGIDO/ Recepcionist
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ MIRIAM DE MAEZTU/ Lesbian audience member 
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ JUAN ANTONIO GÁLVEZ/ Porter
(ACTOR UNKNOWN)/ LUIS CARRILLO / Waiter

- Text by Nzoog Wahrlfhehen

JESS FRANCO ON BLU-RAY? NEW POLL!

NEW JESS FRANCO BLU-RAY POLL: What Jess Franco films do you want to see on Blu-ray? We have a wide variety of choices and you can vote for more than one title. Results will be sent to all the usual suspects among DVD companies! VOTE HERE: www.robertmonell.blogspot.com NEW JESS FRANCO BLU-RAY POLL: What Jess Franco films do you want to see on Blu-ray? We have a wide variety of choices and you can vote for more than one title. Results will be sent to all the usual suspects among DVD companies! VOTE ON THE SIDEBAR TO THE LEFT!

PATTY SHEPARD (1945-2013)

American actress who moved to Spain in the 1960s and appeared in films there. Probably best remembered as the vampire Countess in Leon Klimovsky's LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS (1970). Here's an image of her and Eddie Constantine in Jess Franco's 1966 Istanbul lensed Eurospy  RESEDENCIA PARA ESPIAS.

She has a very small role, but she makes an impression. 

She died on January 3, 2013, reportedly from a heart attack.

 

SPANISH SADOMANIA!

EL INFIERNO DE LA PASION: Watching the Spanish Cine 7 VHS of Jess Franco's SADOMANIA (1981). I prefer this version over the annoying English dub [released by BU DVD]. Here you get to hear the distinctive real voices of Jess Franco (as the flaming queen brothel man) and Antonio Mayans. Ajita Wilson is dubbed by Delia Luna, who is better than the English dubber.

I have collected numerous, usually cut, versions over the years. From the censored HELLHOLE WOMEN VHS, to a longer German language version from VHS, but still missing footage. I believe this was sourced from TOPPIC VIDEO. EL INFIERNO has a slightly different musical score from the BU DVD and I appreciate the Spanish language soundtrack. We'll be adding this to the JEFF FRANCO ONLINE VIDEO DATABASE with scores for FILM VIDEO AUDIO and runtime PAL, of course. 

Thanks to Nzoog for dubbing information.

(c) Robert Monell 2013

 Thanks to Nzoog.

DEMONIAC is coming!

Full Moon: Grindhouse (2013) by: Full Moon Fan Page

Full Moon: Grindhouse (2013)

by: Full Moon Fan Page

DEMONIAC, the US video version of Jess Franco's 1980 EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME, is coming in 2013 from FULL MOON: GRINDHOUSE. This is not to be confused with EXORCISM, a 1974 feature which Franco reworked into EL SADICO, along with new footage featuring the director as the maniac killer of women in Paris, or the shorter version of that film, also titled DEMONIAC, which is now available on Blu-ray from REDEMPTION.

 Thanks to Eric Cotenas for alerting me to this release. More details as they become known. It will be interesting to see if this is the censored version once released by WIZARD VIDEO on VHS in the 1980s or the full, uncut version. I'll have a review of that uncensored version up as soon as possible here. 

OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES Blu-ray Cover

Listening to....

BAHIA BLANCA (1984) Madrid Filmoteca Screening

BAHIA BLANCA, Jess Franco's rarely seen 1984 crime melodrama, screened today at the Filmoteca in Madrid, Spain as part of a tribute to the late Lina Romay. Hopefully, a future HQ DVD/Blu-ray presentation of this excellent film will appear.

OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES coming to Blu-ray

Oasis of the Zombies (Jess Franco) (Blu-Ray) SYNOPSIS: Robert, a student at an English university, receives word of his father's unexpected death and returns home to Africa. While reading his father's dairies, Robert learns of the obsession that led to his death: $6,000,000 in Nazi gold that remains buried at an oasis in the Sahara desert, protected by the restless, rotting souls who died protecting it. Using his inheritance, Robert bands together with three fellow students to wrest the unclaimed

Amazon.com: Oasis of the Zombies: Remastered Edition [Blu-ray .

Blu-Ray Region A (For Playback in North America) LANGUAGE: FRENCH w/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES ASPECT RATIO: 1.66:1 (16x9) THIS IS A PREORDER DVD THAT IS DUE TO BE RELEASED ON OR ABOUT 2/26/2013 ORDER NOW AND YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED UNTIL THE ITEM SHIPS YOU CAN ORDER OTHER ITEMS AS WELL AND CHOOSE TO SHIP THEM NOW SORRY, BUT WE CANNOT ACCEPT CANCELLATIONS OF PREORDERS ALL DETAILS, INCLUDING RELEASE DATE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE Price: $19.9

BEST OF 2012

Nice to have this favorite on Blu-ray with the French language track, English subtitles and EROTIKILL as an extra!

We also bid a sad farewell to Lina Romay in 2012. Her magical presence made this film what it is, along with many other Jess Franco films. She is irreplaceable and will be missed.

Karzan contro le donne dal seno nudo (1973, Jesus Franco) www.youtube.com Film del 1973 con Robert Woods, Alice Arno, Wal Davis, Lina Romay, Kali Hansa, Montserrat Prous,

I hope that the two Jess Franco Maciste adventures are released on R1 Blu-ray asap.I find them delightfully unhinged entertainment with a minimalist, cubist aesthetic and a porno era deconstruction of the Peplum.

DRACULA 0.9: COMING SOON!

Interview: Jess Franco & Dracula 0.9 (A film by Emilio Schargrodsky) www.youtube.com Interview: Jess Franco & Drac

4 DVD Jess Franco Collection available in December from Artus

FB-collection-franco.jpg €46,00 Offre spéciale comprenant : - La comtesse perverse - Célestine, bonne à tout faire - Plaisir à trois - Venus in Furs 46 euros + 3 euros de frais de port Valable jusqu'au 31 décembre 2012. Idéal pour les fêtes de Noël !!!

€46,00
 http://www.artusfilms.com/

Offre spéciale comprenant :
- La comtesse perverse
- Célestine, bonne à tout faire
- Plaisir à trois
- Venus in Furs
46 euros + 3 euros de frais de port
Valable jusqu'au 31 décembre 2012. Idéal pour les fêtes de Noël !!! 

EXORCISM: REDEMPTION Blu-ray Review

EXORCISM:Blu-ray review Redemption/Kino-Lorber “The motives for these murders has something to do with our quest for excitement in the realm of black magic,” Raymond Franval (Pierre Taylou), publisher of the S&M magazine, speculates after being questioned about the brutal murders of several of his clients. The victims are actually paying customers, upscale Parisian socialites, at the Black Masses, which include human sacrifices, staged by Franval in the lower environs of the lavish castle of the Duke (Claude Sendron). After one such performance the Countess (France Nicolas, rn France Roche) is brutally murdered, stabbed to death and disembowled, in a hotel room with her lover. The killer is actually one of the stable of writers who contribute to Franval’s weekly sadomasochistic oriented publication, “The Dagger and Garter.” Paul [Mathis] Vogel, a deranged, ex-priest, wanted by Interpol for sexually related crimes, a murderous religious fanatic now targeting the members of Franval’s pseudo-satanic sect for bloody purification rituals, one of which he has secretly witnessed. What Vogel doesn’t realize is that the ritual sacrifices are simulated with spring bladed knives and fake blood. Vogel’s “exorcism” rites, as he calls them, will not be spurious, though, as he stalks, tortures and murders dancer-hooker Gina (Caroline Riviere, the daughter of Franco’s first wife, Nicole Guettard), dominatrix Maria (Monica Swinn) and sets his sights on Anne (Lina Romay, Franval’s beautiful secretary-lover. The only clue that Franval and the investigating Inspector Tanner (Olivier Mathot) have is Vogel’s manuscript, “The Torture Chambers of the Inquisition.” :”We must know evil to be able to fight it,” Vogel declares to Franval, who also wants to publish the writer’s biography, “Memoirs of an Unfrocked Priest.” This sort of repartee, halfway between theological satire and naked sexploitation, is what characterizes EXORCISME as Jess Franco’s jet black, Sadean (the name Franval is out of Sade’s 1788 “Moral Tale” EUGENIE DE FRANVAL, filmed in 1970 as EUGENIE DE SADE, with Soledad Miranda in the title role) crime film with splatter elements (in the softcore EXORCISM) version, hardcore scenes (in the 1975 alternate SEXORCISMES), a police procedural type investigation and perhaps a personal allegory on the nature of the director’s position within the industry at the time as a Spanish filmmaker working abroad grinding out nudie-roughies at lighting speed to make money and make cinema. This last aspect would be much more fully explored in the 1979 variant of this film, EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME, which contains much footage from EXORCISM interacting with new scenes shot in Paris 5 years later, including a different opening and closing. Academically trained police inspector Malou (a name which often recurs in the Franco filmography) speculates the pattern of the murder wounds indicates they are modeled on the early exorcism rites of the Inquisition and the killer is a modern day Torquemada (cf MANSION DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES). This, of course, is close to the truth in that Vogel is deluded into thinking he is “saving” the souls of his victims by murdering them for their sexual license. One thinks of the censorship of Francisco Franco’s Spain at the time, which the director was attempting to avoid by making films in France. Most importantly, EXORCISM, is yet another Jess Franco examination of the dynamics of performance, particularly sado-erotic performance, the matrix of many important films in the director’s career from GRITOS EN LA NOCHE to RIFIFI EN CUIDAD to MISS MUERTE to NECRONOMICON to VENUS IN FURS to LOS BLUES CALLE POP to the more recent FLORES DE PERVERSION. Vogel is “watcher” of the performances by the perverted sect which he takes as “reality” when they are actually come ons for what really matters to Franval, the “box office take.” Franco would make many films for producers only interested in that aspect, which is understandable since it is their money invested. It can also be seen as a study of a certain type of horror movie icon, the religious fanatic. Vogel exclaims, “I delivered them from evil…I am the sword of the Lord,” when confronted by Inspector Tanner at the end. Sick as it is, he really believes in what he’s doing Franco is extraordinarily credible as the character while the other actors play in a more realistic vein, especially Mathot’s tough cop and Pierre Taylou’s superficial hedonist. Considering the director's presence as Vogel one is tempted to see the character's Sadean texts "scripts" which will be acted out or after-the-fact mini novelizations of his crimes. The obsessive nature of the character and his crimes could even be compared to the director's own obsession to commit film and film to celluloid as quickly as possible, as if time were running out. Except for a few odd, elaborate telezoom shots of Parisian architecture this is all filmed in a rather flat, obviously rushed manner with little attempt at any kind of arty blocking or compositions. The director was also the cinematographer, helped by Ramon Ardid and Rick De Connick (both whom have small roles) when he was on camera. This is not a visually stylish experience (cf VENUS IN FURS, NECRONOMICON, VAMPYROS LESBOS). It’s gritty, almost TV Cop Drama style often devolves into a kind of hypnotic minimalism during the staged rituals. The opening credit sequence plays out like a scene straight out of Sade as a nude (in the softcore/hardcore versions) Lina Romay is whipped and smeared with dove’s blood as she squirms tied to a wooden restraint. The funereal organ score of Andre Benichou reinforces the atmosphere of blasphemy and transgression. It’s S&M porn heavily tinged with Catholic iconography and guilt. Franco the actor puts much more effort into his work than Franco the director. There are some arresting images, such as the aforementioned sacrificial rituals watched by an audience peering out of dark corners in a dungeon like retreat. Speaking of darkness, this is a sometimes under-illumated film which probably needs a full restoration from the negative. VIDEO/AUDIO: Some scenes on the Redemption Blu-ray (98m 8s) of the softcore are too dark, some are color faded and there is noticeable print damage in the form of lines, marks and speckling throughout. The English dubbed track sounds rather hollow at times but is otherwise acceptable. The Blu-ray remastering does wonders for the color (note the electric blue carpets in Vogel’s bedroom and fluorescent green light over his bed), sharpens the images and reveals detail not available in previous video presentations. SPECIAL FEATURES: The most significant bonus is the shorter horror version (69m 41s) DEMONIAC, which attempts to lose all the nudity and tones down the more violent murders. There are still a few full frontal nude shots left of Lina Romay and Lynn Monteil and, most surprisingly, the decapitation of a dove in the opening scene is shown in all of its disturbing, bloody detail (repeated twice!). This animal gore detail is elided in the more explicit EXORCISM version. There are also covered takes which replace the nude takes in the softcore version The opening scene with Romay getting whipped is about half its original length with both participants covered on top and bottom, a reel length orgy scene is completely cut and one scene absurdly shows Taylou and Monteil making love in bed covered from head to foot with a white sheet. Both versions are presented with the English dub tracks only, but the superior French track can still be heard in the very first sacrifice scene which plays under the opening credits with Romay and Monteil audibly speaking in French. The remainder of the film defaults back to the English track. The French track is superior both in terms of sound quality and voice casting and it’s unfortunate that it could not be furnished for both versions here. Curiously, neither version retains a director’s credit (Franco is credited as J.P. Johnson on some prints, including the 80m French VHS of the hardcore version). Generally the DEMONIAC transfer looks better than the EXORCISM transfer in terms of sharpness, luminosity and consistency, although at times a bit too bright/overexposed Both versions are well worth seeing and clearly illustrate both the director’s strengths and weaknesses. A very rough looking 3m 22 s trailer for DEMONIAC, sporting water damage and a reddish tinge, is included. Once again, it’s a pity the French track or the Franco commentary available on the 2001 SYNAPSE DVD couldn’t have added as additional audio options. Redemption/Kino-Lorber has informed me of planning a possible June 2013 date for the hardcore version, SEXORCISME, which has some interesting non-hardcore footage not in any other version. *THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME (1979) was a Eurocine-Triton Films French Spanish coproduction released in the US in the 1980s as DEMONIAC, a WIZARD VIDEO VHS running just over 79 minutes, it cuts much of the nudity/sadism of the softcore EXORCISM but is not as censored as the DEMONIAC horror version on the Blu-ray. But it should be noted that the WIZARD DEMONIAC and the one here are two completely different films as are EXORCISM and THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME. Redemption/Kino-Lorber has informed me of planning a possible June 2013 date for the hardcore version, SEXORCISME, which has some interesting non-hardcore footage not in any other version. [One hopes that the 1979 variant EL SADICO DE NOTRE DAME can be released on Blu-ray in the future as it's one of the director's key works. It's not to be confused with the DEMONIAC variant on this disc, though, even though that title was used on the mid 1980s WIZARD VIDEO VHS, which was actually a censored 79m version of EL SADICO... .] - France/1974/75 1.66:1 1920X 1080p, Mono. (C) Robert Monell 2012

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 We wish our blog readers a happy, fun, safe Halloween. A review of the new Redemption Blu-ray presentation of Jess Franco's EXORCISM is coming soon (with a few surprises)!

FEMALE VAMPIRE Blu-ray

 FEMALE VAMPIRE: Redemption-Kino Lorber
 Blu-ray: 1920 X 1080p/2.35:1


Countess Irina Karlstein (Lina Romay) roams the misty mountains on the island of Madeira in search of victims to satisfy her thirst for body fluids (semen in the erotic versions; blood in the horror version) which sustain her unhappy, lonely existence. She seduces her victims through a kind of sexual hypnosis and takes their fluids at the point of climax, which she also makes into the point of their death. Le Petite Mort meets DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, the 1936 UNIVERSAL film which may be a predecessor of this, could be a quick way to describe this seminal Jess Franco film (originally shot as La Comtesse Noire and released in numerous versions with many different titles). Love and Death are intertwined for Irina and when she meets the Austrian writer Baron Von Rathony (Jack Taylor), who is also a lonely seeker of love and death, they instantly recognize a kindred spirit in each other and fall into a love which can only end in.....

FEMALE VAMPIRE is a rather banal title for this infamous blending of porno, vampire attacks, existential longing, melancholia, extended bi-sexual seductions leading to even more extended softcore/hardcore interludes, reeling telezooms of the magnificent vistas of Madeira, a police procedural subplot featuring the writer-director-DP as the investigating coroner and, most importantly, a transcendental love story between two lost souls. Those who first encounter it may see only an arty porno loop with a vampire conceit at its center or they may find it a boring attempt to meld porn, art, grade C vampire antics and pretentious dialogue and narration. I first encountered this film via the 1985 PRIVATE SCREENINGS VHS,  LOVES OF IRINA, which was a full-screen presentation, incomplete and containing a surprising glimpse of hardcore (which was eliminated from both the previous IMAGE DVD and this presentation along with about a minute of surrounding footage of Lina Romay and Ramon Ardid making love in a luxury hotel suite). I found it rather boring, incompetent and repetitive. "Why is this almost all out of focus?" I kept asking myself. It's a question that many viewers and critics have asked over the years and this release at least partially answers that query. .

One of the most interesting aspects of Franco's filmography is that each of his films offer an array of portals in which one can enter into their world. Just as Irina takes her victims to the land "behind the mist" (in the writer's phrase) this films takes us into a sort of deconstruction of the vampire genre. This isn't the stylish, psychedelic, jazzy version of Bram Stoker that VAMPYROS LESBOS is. Downbeat, mournful, featuring characters lost in emotional/sexual frustration, seemingly endorsing the possibility that the pleasure is worth giving ones life for, as the hippie-metaphysical investigator Dr. Orloff (French film critic-actor Jean-Pierre Bouyxou) suggests to Dr. Roberts during an autopsy. Rathony wants to be taken to the world "behind the mist:."  Ironically, the writer falls in love with Irina, who is the instrument of his demise and she will follow him behind the mist. What's more Romantic than that? Romantic with capital R. Some of the mirror imagery and the concept of a poet falling in love with a woman who is Death and who falls in love with him are evocative of Jean Cocteau's poetic fantasy ORPHEE (1950). That film, though, employed the more socially acceptable fantsy/film noir/melodrama/war movie matrix as a launching point rather than the sleazy, if highly marketable, 1970s European softcore romp genre.

 Jean Marais (Orpheus) and the Dark Princess, Maria Caseres (his Death) in Jean Cocteau's landmark film Orpheus (1950), a possible predecessor of LA COMTESSE NOIRE.


This is also, like all other Jess Franco titles, a film about watching and performing, how we as the audience watch a horror film and what our expectations are. Within the context of the film, Jess Franco is the watcher/voyeur (the director admits "I'm a watcher" on the documentary extra DESTINY IN SOFT FOCUS: JESS FRANCO REMEMBERS FEMALE VAMPIRE) as Dr. Roberts, obsessed with his target, Irina/Lina Romay, the actress whom the director had recently fallen in love with. The look on Roberts' face as he watches Irina drown in her bloodbath at the end speaks volumes without resorting to a word of dialogue, similar in effect to the finale of EUGENIE DE SADE (1970), in which the director also plays an investigator/voyeur who witnesses the last moment of performer/object of desire/dark haired transgressor Eugenie, played by the fated Soledad Miranda.

Then there's the stylistic aspect, or perhaps the lack of style which is characterized by the dependence on slow paced, dilatory scene structures, an obsessive use of the telezoom (particularly what has been termed the "vaginal zoom"), the inclusion of many soft focus and plainly out-of-focus images. The most outrageous example of this is Lina Romay walking forward from an out-of-focus shot and seeming to crash directly into the camera lens. Bumping into the camera happens to actors on film sets all the time, of course. Usually the result of rushed blocking/chaotic shooting conditions. It doesn't only happen on low budget films. But, invariably these shooting accidents are cut from the final release prints. The question always asked is why it was left in. I wonder if it was indeed accidental. Looked at another way it can be taken as a transgressive breaking of the "fourth wall" of cinema which the audience always takes for granted. It throws us out of the context of the film and allows us direct "contact" with the performer/character. It doesn't matter if it was an accident or an arty experiment or the result of sloppy editing of quickly shot footage. Perhaps they confused rushes meant for the bin with what were designated as printable takes. Who knows? In the contest of this particular film, though, it works as an [involuntary?] reality check. And in a film with little or no recognizable reality a bump in the aesthetic road can be seen as an interesting development. I always find it both amusing and a way to enter into this vague, poetic, dream world while holding on to the reality that it's only a film. It's a moment which would never have appeared in, say, a Hammer lesbian vampire movie. They would have immediately trashed it forever. I, for one, find it a refreshing slap in the face to the concept of the "well made" horror movie. At over 100 minutes, the film may seem slow and repetitive to many, becoming even more static during the regular lapses into softcore sex preceding the orgasm and death of the victim. But these lapses are also indicative of its special fantasy matrix of sex and death within a format of a 1970s Euro softcore epic.

FEMALE VAMPIRE succeeds for me as a tragic love story at the center of a no-budget Euro vampire project which dares to be experimental and different; Shot in a week of frantic filming on Madeira, with subsequent shooting in Brussels and France, this is not by any means a handsome looking, fast moving, breezily entertaining horror romp. It takes some getting used to, and repeat viewings, to fully appreciate its subtle and varies pleasures. This is also a near silent film in terms of dialogue. Irina is mute as is her towering he-man majordomo (Eurowestern regular Luis Barboo). Her silence seems to give her a kind of power over the humans she encounters. Lina Romay, only 19 and in her first starring role for the director, captures the melancholy, the terror, the allure and the mystery of the character in a completely natural (some would say unprofessional) manner. She doesn't "act." She simply is the character. Daniel White's eerie, lyrical score featuring a moody female vocal acts as a kind of musical representation of Irina's romantic longing and becomes her voice.

VIDEO: The Redemption presentation did not go through any sort of restoration and is taken from the same element as the previous IMAGE DVD. The many examples of print damage remain. Vertical scratches, horizontal marks, flecks, frame and sprocket damage abound from first to last image. Some sequences are color faded while others are too dark or grainy. The remastered Blu-ray, significantly sharpens most of the images and adds a world of detail, note the detail in those long lensed shots of the forests of Madeira and the surrounding sea or the fact that one can read the cards with which the Inspector plays solitaire while conferring with Dr. Roberts. The colors are significantly improved. What just seemed like an endless blur of faded greens and blues is now alive with bursts of bright natural hues. Note the electric green of the foliage in the outdoor lounge where Von Rathony and Irina have their first meeting. The aquamarines the hotel swimming pool and nearby ocean sparkle with sunlight, and now its possible to appreciate the flashes of  floral arrangements bursting with primary colors along the byways of the tropical island.


EROTIKILL, the 71m horror version, which has both covered inserts and alternate vampire attacks where Irina bites her victims on the neck and drains blood instead of sexual fluid, looks slightly better in terms of print quality, with less scratches and speckling and is certainly a brisker watch while eliminating much of the film's intended extra-narrative drift and blank verse aesthetic. It should be noted that about 30 minutes of mostly erotic footage is missing, including the famous opening vaginal zoom and aforementioned camera bump. It's good, though, to finally have both versions available on HQ DVD for comparison/contrast sake if nothing else. If FEMALE VAMPIRE is poetry, EROTIKILL is prose. Onscreen title: LA COMTESSE AUX SIENS NUS (The Bare Breasted Countess).

AUDIO: Both the English and the [superior] French soundtracks are included. The French dialogue is more literate, leaning toward the poetic, while the voice casting is much, much better than the risible dubbing heard on the English track. Both tracks sound fine to me in terms of technical quality, but the French track has a bit more atmosphere, clarity and detail. The better written and delivered French dialogue is rendered in easy to read English subtitles. .

EXTRAS include two short documentaries. In David Gregory's moving and fascinating "Destiny in Soft Focus: Jess Franco Remembers Female Vampire" Franco describes his desire to make a film "based on the strange love of a vampire lost in Madeira who falls in love... and the love happens,,, she needs to kill... and she does."  He stresses he wanted to make a film "with heart" about a "nice" vampire. Admitting that he may be an unconscious "watcher" with a preference for lesbian vampires, he confesses that he's not proud to have made a film about a vampire who suck sexual fluids of victims but wanted to do something different. He wanted to make a love story first and foremost. He also confirms that original shoot lasted for a week on Madeira with some pick up footage shot in France and Belgium. Franco points out that he deliberately kept dialogue to minimum to leave motivations in the "shadows" and in an attempt to create a special mood. This is a crucial point since much of the film's strength is due to its almost silent-film quality.  The interview concludes with a detailed description of his first meeting with Lina Romay, the experience of falling in love with and working with her over four decades and how her untimely death set his resolve to continue to make films no matter what. The 13m 35s segment is punctuated with well-chosen clips from the film to illustrate key points. Franco also notes a planned female vampire film with a cannibal twist! There's a lot of insight and information packed into this interview, and it's worth the price of admission.

 Daniel Gouyette's "Words for Lina" is a personal memoir of Lina Romay by critic-actor Jean Pierre Bouyxou, who acted opposite her as Dr. Orloff in FEMALE VAMPIRE. Bouyxou notes his shock at learning of her death and how she was the primary, lifelong personal and professional support for the prolific filmmaker.. He reminisces about the real character of the non-conformist actress and her witty upbeat nature. He speaks in French for the interview, English subtitles are provided as they are for Franco's interview, although he speaks, heavily accented, English. An 1m 15s original theatrical trailer, for LA COMTESSE AUX SIENS NUS (the onscreen title of the covered EROTIKILL) is also included as well as trailers for Franco's EXORCISM as well as Jean Rollin's THE RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE, THE NUDE VAMPIRE and REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE, all of which have been released on Blu-ray by Redemption.

This much anticipated Blu-ray version is a welcome HD upgrade and improves on every single previous video version and is several notches sharper, more colorful and detailed than the DVD version, supported by the welcome bonus package of EROTIKILL and two new documentaries.

[Other variants of LA COMTESSE NOIRE include the 59m THE BARE BREASTED COUNTESS (UK release); the Italian Un Caldo Corpo di Femmina-video title: EROTIKILLER; the French Les Avaleuses, an 82m hardcore version; the Force Video EROTIKILL (which is actually slightly longer than the horror version on this presentation);  the Finnish video Verentahrima Morsian; the German variants, Entfesselt Berlerde and the 2001 Code 2 release LADY DRACULA 2, the X-Rated Kult disc which is also hardcore with a run time of 105 +9 m. Other titles include Jacula, The Last Thrill.

(C) Robert Monell 2012

A Review Will Be Coming Soon!

NOW AVAILABLE!

Today Jess Franco's signature film from 1973, originally titled LA COMTESSE NOIRE, streets in its first Blu-ray edition with English and French language tracks, English subtitles available along with two documentaries on the film, Jess Franco and the late Lina Romay among other bonus material. The rarely seen horror version, EROTIKILL, is also a welcome bonus feature. 
 
I remember when I first saw this film in the late 1980s via the vintage PRIVATE SCREENINGS VHS retitled THE LOVES OF IRINA. I thought there was something wrong with the VCR or the TV! "Shit! The whole damn movie is out of focus!" Little did I realize that I would end up collecting hundreds of videos, DVD, et al of Jess Franco films, eventually publishing numerous articles in various books and magazines in several different languages and create a blog about a director who by design or accident couldn't keep his camera in focus! There must be something wrong with my eyes... or with my head....

MISS MUERTE PAL DVD with Tim Lucas commentary!

I thought this might be of some interest to readers. Tim posted this on Alex Mendibil's FACEBOOK PAGE: EL FRANCONOMICON. Tim's English language commentary should make this a must have. Also 30 Franco trailers! Tim Lucas This two-disc set from Subkultur Entertainment (Germany) is available now. It's PAL Region 0 and looks great. I recorded an audio commentary for this -- I believe it's the first critical/historical Franco commentary, at least in English, and I'm thinking it may be my best to date, thanks in no small part to the editing team at SE. The film is offered only in French and German, for licensing reasons, but as added incentive, there is a special introduction with Franco and Antonio Mayans on Disc 2, as well as a Filmography including more than 30 hidden Franco trailers! I'm told this is a good source for it: http://shop.dtm.at/product_info.php?products_id=48891&language=uk

GEHEIMNIS DES DOKTOR Z, DAS (s/w) Enlarge... GEHEIMNIS DES DOKTOR Z, DAS (s/w) Enlarge... FSK VÖ-Datum Ungeprüft 28.9.2012 Regie Darsteller Extras Jesus "Jess" Franco Antonio Jimenez Escribano Guy Mairesse Howard Vernon Mabel Karr Jesus "Jess" Franco Cris Huerta Alberto Dalbés * Booklet DVD 1: Französische Kinofassung * Audiokommentar von Tim Lucas (engl. mit optionalen deutschen Untertiteln) * Originaltrailer * Bildergalerie DVD 2: Deutsche Kinofassung * Deutscher Kinotrailer * Bildergalerie * Filmographie von Jess Franco * ...und mehr Ländercode Produktion Laufzeit 2 PAL 1966 Frankreich/Spanien 83min & 84min - Uncut Untertitel Bildformat Audio Deutsch 1,66 (16:9 Anamorph) Deutsch Dolby Digital 1.0 Französisch Dolby Digital 1.0

Sitges Film Festival » Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies

Sitges Film Festival » Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies

Álex Mendíbil

AL PEREIRA VS. THE ALLIGATOR LADIES estreno en Sitges Film Festival!

Sitges Film Festival » Al Pereira vs. the Alligator Ladies

sitgesfilmfestival.com

Al Pereira, era un detectiu seductor i amoral, ha anat fent-se cada vegada més de dretes amb el pas dels anys,

Sinopsi: Al Pereira, era un detectiu seductor i amoral, ha anat fent-se cada vegada més de dretes amb el pas dels anys, fins a convertir-se en un banderer de la moral i la cautela. En el seu camí es creuen les Alligator Ladies, unes germanes lliurades al pecat i el desvergonyiment, enviades pel seu pare, el doctor Fu-Manchú, per portar de tornada a Pereira al costat fosc. «Al Pereira was a detective and amoral seducer, which over the years has increasingly turned into a champion of morality and caution. On his way he encounters the Alligator Ladies, sisters devoted to sin and lack of scruples, sent by the father – Dr. Fu-Manchu-to resurrect the murky side of Al Pereira.» (Translated by Bing) Fitxa tècnica / Fitxa artística: Director Jess Franco Producció Jess Franco, Ferran Herranz, Antonio Mayans Guió Jess Franco, Antonio Mayans Fotografia Fernando Barranquero Muntatge Dani Salama Música Pablo Villa So Luisje Moyano Intèrprets Antonio Mayans, Debbie Logan, Carmen Montes, Paula Davis, Luisje Moyano, Naxo Fiol, Mariví Carrillo, Jess Franco Any 2012 Durada 81 minuts

Thanks to Alex Mendibil

COMING SOON TO YOUR BLU-RAY PLAYER!