Some random ROLLS ROYCE BABY trivia

Just a random trivia nugget regarding Rolls Royce Baby: The exterior of Lina Romay's luxurious mansion in the film is actually Villa Wesendonck, originally the home of Richard Wagner's benefactor and most important financial backer Otto Wesendonck and since 1952 is part of the Rietberg Museum in Zurich.

Eagle-eyed viewers who've also viewed Dario Argento's Phenomena will recognise the cinematic use of this historical building again, fittingly as 'The Richard Wagner School for Girls'.

What is 'He's Dead Because of the Burglars'???

An interesting little tidbit...A filmography of Jess Franco films in an early issue of the UK horror magazine Samhain (Issue 5, Sept/Oct 1987) has something called 'He's Dead Because of the Burglars' listed as one of his films from 1979, though in my years of reading Franco articles/information I’ve never seen any other reference to this extremely bizarre ‘mystery’ title. Neither have Robert Monell or Francesco Cesari. This could be either (a) an obscure retitling (b) a never-filmed project, perhaps briefly mentioned by Franco in an old interview or elsewhere (c) an error by the authors of the filmography (d) a fictitious title dreamed up by someone (e) a long-lost film (unlikely). Note that The Hot Death aka 99 Women has been erroneously included here.

Jess Franco Horror Film Countdown to Halloween...

Our continuing Jess Franco Film countdown to Halloween briefly considers the 1982 LA MANSION DE LOS MUERTOS VIVENTES, a Golden Films Internacional Production shot totally in the Canary Islands at the Tropical Hotel, which becomes a sort of late 20th Century equivalent of a zombie haunted castle. In fact, a group of 17th Century "monks' live in a nearby monastery, which does indeed appear to be 300 years old and on nights when the wind blow through the local palm trees, causing the monastery bell to toll eerily the monks appear to do their sinister work.

First there was the Spanish Inquisition, then there was the regime of Francisco Franco, then some time after his death in 1975, there was "Democracy" or a period of adjustment leading to something else. That something else is the subject of this film, which the director terms one of his most "Spanish" of films, about the Spanish Church, the ruins of Spanish Catholicism which refuse to disappear but hide angry men and frightened women, libertines and avengers, all feeling entitled. 

Mansion of the Living Dead Clip on Vimeo

▶ 2:13

vimeo.com › Severin Films › Videos

Vimeo

Oct 13, 2009

This is "Mansion of the Living Dead Clip" by Severin Films on VIMEO

But there is much more than meets the eye, as usual in the best, most personal films of Jess Franco and this is certainly one of his most idiosyncratic efforts, often mislabeled as a failed attempt at a "Blind Dead" zombie film a la his Spanish horror colleague, Amando de Ossorio. These may seem like brothers of the cloth  to the Templars of de Ossorio but they are actually a sect of modern local men, frustrated enough or bored enough, or perhaps insane with the "religious" passion of the Spanish Inquisition to punish "sinners" in this case loose women who come to the hotel for fun in the sun.

Carlos Savanorola (Antonio Mayans) is, as his name suggests, a holdover from the Inquisition who tortures his real life wife by chaining her to her bed while withholding food for days on end, humiliating and starving the poor woman, who by this time has been driven insane. He even sprays her food with rat poison at the end as the ultimate sanction for being a "bad" woman. Some critics have seen this as a misogynistic tract featuring sexual violence against sexually exploited (by the film) women. Actually, it's an attack on misogyny disguised as "religion" or conventional morality or political expediency. The "zombies" aren't undead, they are very much alive men in monk's robes and plastic zombie masks who abduct female tourist and torture, sexually mutilate, murder them to fulfill a twisted agenda. History is cyclical rather than linear in Jess Franco's equation, as often is in Spanish art, whether it be Picasso's GUERNICA, the plays of Arrabal or the epic of Cervantes. Men are locked into social and psychological roles which target women for victimization. The "erotic" scenes in the film aren't really very erotic, merely featuring a lot of naked flesh and playing to the Clasificada S market. That's the through-line in Franco's deliberately stuttered superstructure. It's not unlike one of the mad episodes in Bunuel's THE MILKY WAY (1969), although not at all in the charming Arthouse vein which the much more respectable Spanish maestro fit so comfortably into.

• ión
• Enlaces
• Trailer
• Críticas

Our heroines are German barmaids who have rented a suspiciously cheap bungalow on the beach under the bilious gave of Carlos, who is the hotel's owner, manager and tour guide. But you don't want to go on one of his tours because they lead to the... bloody monks. The women are all loud, rude and ready for action... with each other. Fun loving lesbians who hang around nude as meat cleavers fall from the sky. It's Jess Franco surrealism all the way, and the empty hallways of the hotel are lit with expressionist care. Somehow, there's a palpable aesthetic here as the monks file past the camera and the women are pursued, stripped, raped with daggers thrust into their vaginas as the monks pray over their dying, bleeding bodies. The screams mingle with the tropical winds which gently shake the palms, the monastery bell tolls over the unheeded cries in the night.

This is much more of a personal project for Jess Franco than the cheap zombie thrills of LA TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES (1981), where the undead are Nazi zombies guarding treasure, and the supernatural is interrupted by WWII war movie stock footage from a hack Italian vehicle (Alfredo Rizzo's I GIARDINIE DEL DIAVOLO). The gore effects are no better in MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD, but they don't have to be because it's not literal but figurative violence which is being examined. A history of sexual violence displayed as exploitation but developed as genre satire where cultural signifiers abound in an oneiric atmosphere where nothing and everything is real.

*Above painting is (C) Amando de Ossorio

(C) Robert Monell, 2015

THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU was released on September 24, 1969

Happy Anniversary to Jess Franco's THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU, which was released theatrically in the US on September 24, 1969. KISS AND THE KILL is the alternate title, also an alternate version with a different, tighter edit and some new music added under the opening credits? Does anyone know the composer of that alt score? I actually prefer this version, which moves with dispatch and doesn't seem to sag in the middle, as does the uncut, longer version. I also believe the new opening of this version was borrowed, consciously or unconsciously, by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK for the opening scene in that mega-hit.

8 Madrid TV showing of LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS: Caps

Thanks to Alex Mendibil for these fantastic looks caps from this showing. Hope to see this appear in HD asap!

+3

This Saturday on 8 Madrid TV: 23.40

A personal favorite to be shown on Spanish TV this weekend. Hopefully this will be a new HD remastering from the original camera neg. It's a visually stunning film, which I've had on KING VIDEO for years, in Spanish language, and would be a perfect candidate for a HD uprade.  

An Erotic Eurospy thriller about a ruthless search, by Antonio Mayans and Lina Romay, for a hidden cache of gold bars. Only playing a Liszt piano piece can reveal the location of the gold. Someone please tape this!

A rare Clasificada S, no budget masterwork, from the man who loved secret codes and private jokes.

COMING SOON: The Definitive Jess Franco Book!

C'est Worth becoming a subscriber at any level. I've read Alain Petit's THE MANACOA FILES in French. Now this essential work on the career of this tyro filmmaker has been greatly expanded, updated and will be available as a huge 700 plus page book in French, as an English ebook, with numerous bonus materials included. Alain is the internationally respected film historian who collaborated with Jess Franco as a writer and actor in a number of his films [THE MIDNIGHT PARTY, TENDER FLESH] and has an intimate, exhaustive knowledge the man and his filmography. Click on the link and you can examine the contents, see images, watch videos and preview the book's layout.

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DEVIL HUNTER-CANNIBAL TERROR HD package

OK, here's the story. A sleazy Hollywood producer hires a mercenary (Al Cliver) to find a missing blond starlet whom he has heavily invested in.... Stop right there! This could be the story of the latter part of Jess Franco's career, after he was a "promising" young talent with a hit under his belt, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1961) and had parted ways with enterprising producer Harry Alan Towers after EL CONDE DRACULA (1969). Jess Franco was always seeking producers and producers were always seeking him to make cheap, sexy thrillers/comedies/adventures/horror films with alluring international sex starlets. He made them with dispatch and delivered them on demand. In this case the starlet was German and she was playing the victim of a kidnapping. By the time DEVIL HUNTER [onscreen title: EL CANIBAL] came to his table in 1980, a Eurocine-Lisa Films-JE Films coproduction with Italian genre icon Al Cliver in the lead, Franco was back in Spain and looking to keep steadily employed.

The first time I saw SEXO CANIBAL/JUNGFRAU UNTER KANNIBALEN it was the poorly dubbed English language version on the vintage Trans World Entertainment VHS, THE MAN HUNTER, a literal translation of its Italian release title, IL CACCIATORE DI UOMINI... It seemed like a completely impersonal, poorly/quickly made cannibal-sleaze-gore knock-off with a repellent racist subtext and a misogynist tone illustrated by the continuous torment, bondage and rape Ms. Buchfellner suffers. Cut to 90 minutes, in full screen and with a unstable image it wasn't a good introduction to the work of Jess Franco, who eventually vocalized his disdain for the cannibal genre (i.e. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST). Basically, he saw this paycheck as a way to make a "monster movie" and that's exactly what it is. Except that the "monster" is a towering black man who walks around the tropical locations nude, seemingly drugged out (the out-of-focus/smeared POV shots suggest a starved-for-tender-flesh delirium) and in search of fresh human meat. Then there's the budget VIDEO ASIA [Terror Tales Vol.4] DVD release, as THE DEVIL HUNTER, on a double bill with another Spanish horror co production, Manuel Cano's zombie-gore 1972 VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST, the English language version of a slightly different Spanish version. It seems to be a slam from VHS. The problem with this DEVIL HUNTER release is that it cuts the entire opening credits sequence and features a print from a digitally censored Japanese source. The bottom quarter of the frame is cut off to block out the Japanese subtitles. The audio track is English. Given the digital censoring, the cut-off framing and inferior dubbing it's barely watchable but acceptable as is the TWE tape. Severin's DVD also had its problems with a color drained image which at times improved and a some scenes had a fogged look. On the plus side it was the longest (102m) release about 12 minutes longer than the previous videos and DVDs. A German DVD from X RATED KULT also exists which I haven't been able to screen but it is also reportedly in the 90s minute range. The new Blu-ray is a 1080p Full HD Resolution upgrade of the Spanish print previously released by Severin, featuring the Spanish language track as an extra, replacing the additional French track on the DVD.

DEVIL HUNTER is not Jess Franco at his worst and it is far from his tier one efforts but it does have the "Jess Franco" feel, aesthetic and thematic unity. I find it a kind of fascinating self portrait if one can see the mercenary played by Cliver as Jess Franco in the new 1980 film market place, back in Spain, trying to make films, but having to depend on Eurocine, Spanish producer Julian Esteban and the German Lisa Films company for material, financing, actors and locations. Having to hunt for a job of directing, dealing the the Devil (producers) for the sake of the joy of making cinema and a bag full of loot. The deliberately out of focus shots from the "monster's" POV were a good idea, unfortunately many other shots are also similarly "out-of-focus"--as if the monster's consciousness had somehow taken control of the mise-en-scene. This is the kind of fascinating accident which can only happen on a Jess Franco shoot.  There are also striking shots of the flora around Puerto Santo and the film opens with a colorful plant bud, zooming back to an array of jungle greenery flecked with red growth. Then we cut to the native woman being pursued by the local cannibal tribe, which is intercut with American starlet Laura Crawford (Playboy Playmate Ursula Buchfellner) being pursued by the international press for a photo shoot.* As in Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1979), the press are also the cannibals.

Adding to the primitive atmosphere are the occasional guttings and the vocal delirium of Carloto Perla's voodoo style moaning of cues credited to Jess Franco and Daniel J. White. Al Cliver is a reliable actor when it comes to playing stoic adventure protagonists (Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE) and Franco associate Antonio De Cabo makes for a suitably loathsome lead villain, as the head kidnapper who spends his idle time raping his chained up victim. Unpleasant stuff, for sure, Franco made sure to hit all the exploitation angles. Everything appears to have been shot in one take by the usually more stylish DP Juan Soler Cozar (GEMIDOS DE PLACER). The KING KONG finale, with the nude devil fighting our white hero Cliver for the possession of the almost always nude Buchfeller, combines the most racist/misogynist tendencies of this sub genre and Franco serves it up without art or hesitation. It's almost cowboys and Indians, or white Vietnam vet tough guys vs people of color, or white extras in black face. The 7 foot tall cannibal has ping-pong balls welded over his eye sockets and drools blood to make him more disgusting. In the cannibal attacks he munches on what looks like lunch meat bits smeared with ketchup while the "cannibals" in CANNIBAL TERROR seem to be pigging out on a slaughtered hog smeared with hot sauce.

Both films on this set seem to have come directly from the pen of Eurocine, which in one case is confirmed by Alain Deruelle in his CANNIBAL TERROR interview. Eurocine founder Marius Lesoeur wrote the story, according to the director, and let him sink into the blood and mud of a cheap production on unsanitary locations. Both films open with kidnappings carried out by sleazy criminals who rush into the bush with their hostages until the victims are released as the criminals are either killed by the heroes or devoured by the cannibals. At least the villains in DEVIL HUNTER are played by interesting actors (Antonio De Cabo and Werner Pochath). The only interesting players in CANNIBAL TERROR are the legendary Pamela Stanford (LORNA, THE EXORCIST) and Olivier Mathot, another Jess Franco regular. The capable Antonio Mayans is wasted in both features. The screenplay for DEVIL HUNTER is credited to Franco and producer Julian Esteban, but it could well have been an outline set by Eurocine in advance which was shot on the fly.

Speaking of the totally unwatchable CANNIBAL TERROR, it manages to look more colorful and sharp in  a 1080p Full HD resolution transfer than DEVIL HUNTER and its previous Severin DVD, although one wonders if this scraping-bottom bottom-feeder deserves the Blu-ray treatment. The plot, acting, music, direction are all abysmal, the cannibals sport 1970s sideburns and were left overs, as are the locations, from Jess Franco's slightly better (anything would be) WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN/CANNIBALS/MANGUERS DE HOMMES (1980), also featuring Cliver, who is sorely missed in CANNIBAL TERROR. A new bonus on the Blu-ray in a 20m interview with director Alain Deruelle who reveals why he changed his name to Allan W. Steeve, how badly he was treated by producer Marius Lesoeur during and after the production, and how he deliberately shot everything "flatly" (it looks like it).  Too bad the superior 2.0 French track for CANNIBAL TERROR and 2.0 Spanish track for DEVIL HUNTER weren't provided with English subtitles. But both films still should be watched with those tracks since there's not much dialogue anyway, they are easy to follow and they play much better that way.

It should be noted that the Spanish track for DEVIL HUNTER seems to have been the "mother track" according to my colleague, Spanish dubbing expert Nzoog, which was then replaced by the gratingly inferior English dubbing for export. The original Spanish dialogues are sometimes quite different. For instance, the scene set in the boat's hold Mayans and Cliver are discussing the producer, women and Hollywood in Spanish which is replaced with something totally inane in English. The Spanish dubbing voices are much more appropriately cast and deliver their lines with professional skill.

Also in the CANNIBAL TERROR extra menu is an Easter Egg interview with Jess Franco, mainly about how he didn't direct any of Eurocine's ZOMBIE LAKE or CT, the complete DEVIL HUNTER interview with him carried over from the DVD is featured on DEVIL HUNTER along with an interview with actor "Burt Altman" [Bertrand Altman] about his work for Eurocine. On the CANNIBAL TERROR special features menu there's also a "Spicy Deleted Scene" from CANNIBAL TERROR showing Pamela Stanford stripping and dancing provocatively for the edification of the kidnappers. Poor Pamela also has to act out getting tied and raped by kidnapper "Robert Foster" [Jess Franco regular Antonio Mayans] The original theatrical trailer for CANNIBAL TERROR is also included.

Pure European Trash Cinema at its most raw and unpalatable. All told it's a good package, two certified "Video Nasties" in HD, and a recommended upgrade for both films, if you can stomach them. CANNIBAL FEROX and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST these are not! And if you want much more interesting, well made Jess Franco cannibal films then make sure to see his 1973 LA COMTESSE PERVERSE, aka COUNTESS PERVERSE (please release this on Blu-ray, Mondo Macabro) and his mid 1990s US co-production, TENDER FLESH.

*Most of this footage is blocked out with English language title cards on the TWE tape and is totally cut from the Video Asia DVD.

NOTE: Some reviews claim both films on this HD double feature are 1.66:1, others say 1.85:1. Go figure. 

Thanks to Nzoog.

(C) Robert Monell, 2015

COMING FROM SEVERIN FILMS

Finally, the uncut Jess Franco-Christopher Lee classic in HD!

First Look: DEVIL HUNTER in Full HD Resolution!

SEVERIN FILMS Bluray of Jess Franco’s relentlessly trashy 1980 cannibal epic, DEVIL HUNTER reveals a sharper, crisper video quality without the fogging of the previous SEVERIN DVD, along a bump up in terms of color. In Full 1080p HD resolution. Audio: English/Spanish 2.0.
Also included is the rarely heard Spanish language track, along with the English language option and an interview with Eurocine actor/stuntman “Burt Altman”…  I much prefer this Spanish alternate track to the French one on the previous SEVERIN DVD. To me, this particular film plays much better in Spanish, with more appropriate voice casting, while the English dub is somewhat problematic due to some voice casting of the supporting cast and poorly scripted English dialogue, although the English track is also included.
Given the presence of this superior Spanish track and the noticeably improved video quality over the DVD, this is a recommended upgrade. The Jess Franco interview SEXO CANIBAL is also included.

Eurocine’s CANNIBAL TERROR  is also included in HD with French and English tracks, along with a featurette on director “Allan W. Steeve”, more on that in the future when a more detailed, illustrated review will appear here asap..
(C) Robert Monell, 2015
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Written by Robert Monell Editar
14 agosto 2015 a 11:03 PM

Publicado en I'm in a Jess Franco state of mind

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Coming Aug. 18, 2015

DEVIL HUNTER aka THE MAN HUNTER: this 1980 German-French-Italian-Spanish coproduction is a guilty pleasure. An unapologetically sleazy, ultra gory affair. An unintentionally hilarious cannibal adventure, set on a steamy island populated by a native tribe and a 7 foot tall black cannibal who stalks and eats beautiful women targeted as human sacrifices by the locals. The towering flesh eater has to be seen to be believed... as does this go-for-the-edible-parts-first epic, directed in dynamic "low-style" from the maestro of European Trash Cinema: Jess Franco!

And you get CANNIBAL TERROR (one of the worst-ever cannibal films!) as a bonus....

Devil Hunter / Cannibal Terror Blu-ray

Severin Films | 1980 | 2 Movies | Not rated | Aug 18, 2015 (1 Week)

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Video Codec: See individual releases Resolution: 1080p Original aspect ratio: see individual releases Audio Subtitles See individual releases Discs Blu-ray Disc Single disc (1 BD) Playback Region A (B, C untested)

(Blu-Ray All Region)

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Devil Hunter / Cannibal Terror Blu-Ray Double Feature (Blu-Ray All Region) CANNIBAL TERROR- “A Catalogue Of Perversions Such As Voyeurism, Rape, Cannibalism AndA Euro Soundtrack That’s An Absolute Blast!” -SEX GORE MUTANTS Even by the sleaziest standards of ’80s EuroTrash, it remains a film that must be seen to be believed: When a pair of criminal knuckleheads and their busty moll kidnap the young daughter of a wealthy tycoon, they foolishly choose to hide in a local jungle infested with ferocious cannibals. What follows is a mind-roasting exercise in atrocious acting, gratuitous nudity and gut-munching mayhem by a ravenous tribe of flesh eaters who inexplicably sport comb-overs and Elvis sideburns. Robert Foster (Inconfessable Orgies Of Emmanuelle), Pamela Stanford (White Cannibal Queen) and Burt Altman (Zombie Lake) star in this infamous Spanish/French co-production that was banned in Britain as one of the original “Video Nasties” and is now presented uncut, uncensored and mastered in Hi-Def for the first time ever in America! DEVIL HUNTER- “OVER-THE-TOP PERVERSITY! A Film Than Manages To Tap Into Race Exploitation, Sex Exploitation, Cannibal Exploitation And Shock Exploitation!” -BLACK HORROR MOVIES King Of EuroSleaze Jess Franco (Bloody Moon, Macumba Sexual) takes on the ’80s Cannibal genre and delivers a jungle sickie like no other! When a safari of sexy babes and violent boneheads ventures into native-crazed wilderness, Uncle Jess unleashes a deluge of relentless nudity, dubious anthropology and his own brand of cut-rate carnage. Ursula Fellner (Sadomania), Al Cliver (Zombie), Robert Foster (Cannibal Terror) and Gisela Hahn (Contamination) co-star in this original “Video Nasty” – also tastefully known as Sexo Cannibal and Mandingo Manhunter – with something to offend everyone, now fully restored from the original Spanish negative and presented uncut and uncensored for the first time ever in America! Blu-Ray All Region CANNIBAL TERROR- Spicy Deleted Scene The Way of all Flesh: An Interview with Alain Deruelle aka Allan W Steeve Theatrical Trailer DEVIL HUNTER- Sexo Canibal – Interview with Director Jess Franco Spirit of the B Hive: An Interview with Bertrand Altman

- See more at: http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/Preorders/Devil-Hunter-%5Bsl%5D-Cannibal-Terror-Blu~Ray-Double-Feature-(Blu~Ray-All-Region).html#sthash.saO5m7uU.dpufved, as does this appalling adventure, directed in low-style by the master of European Trash Cinema: Jess Franco!

(Blu-Ray All Region)

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Devil Hunter / Cannibal Terror Blu-Ray Double Feature (Blu-Ray All Region) CANNIBAL TERROR- “A Catalogue Of Perversions Such As Voyeurism, Rape, Cannibalism AndA Euro Soundtrack That’s An Absolute Blast!” -SEX GORE MUTANTS Even by the sleaziest standards of ’80s EuroTrash, it remains a film that must be seen to be believed: When a pair of criminal knuckleheads and their busty moll kidnap the young daughter of a wealthy tycoon, they foolishly choose to hide in a local jungle infested with ferocious cannibals. What follows is a mind-roasting exercise in atrocious acting, gratuitous nudity and gut-munching mayhem by a ravenous tribe of flesh eaters who inexplicably sport comb-overs and Elvis sideburns. Robert Foster (Inconfessable Orgies Of Emmanuelle), Pamela Stanford (White Cannibal Queen) and Burt Altman (Zombie Lake) star in this infamous Spanish/French co-production that was banned in Britain as one of the original “Video Nasties” and is now presented uncut, uncensored and mastered in Hi-Def for the first time ever in America! DEVIL HUNTER- “OVER-THE-TOP PERVERSITY! A Film Than Manages To Tap Into Race Exploitation, Sex Exploitation, Cannibal Exploitation And Shock Exploitation!” -BLACK HORROR MOVIES King Of EuroSleaze Jess Franco (Bloody Moon, Macumba Sexual) takes on the ’80s Cannibal genre and delivers a jungle sickie like no other! When a safari of sexy babes and violent boneheads ventures into native-crazed wilderness, Uncle Jess unleashes a deluge of relentless nudity, dubious anthropology and his own brand of cut-rate carnage. Ursula Fellner (Sadomania), Al Cliver (Zombie), Robert Foster (Cannibal Terror) and Gisela Hahn (Contamination) co-star in this original “Video Nasty” – also tastefully known as Sexo Cannibal and Mandingo Manhunter – with something to offend everyone, now fully restored from the original Spanish negative and presented uncut and uncensored for the first time ever in America! Blu-Ray All Region CANNIBAL TERROR- Spicy Deleted Scene The Way of all Flesh: An Interview with Alain Deruelle aka Allan W Steeve Theatrical Trailer DEVIL HUNTER- Sexo Canibal – Interview with Director Jess Franco Spirit of the B Hive: An Interview with Bertrand Altman

- See more at: http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/Preorders/Devil-Hunter-%5Bsl%5D-Cannibal-Terror-Blu~Ray-Double-Feature-(Blu~Ray-All-Region).html#sthash.saO5m7uU.dpuf

Jess Franco's Last Movie Coming in October on DVD!

Coming in October ....2 versions. 90 m Theatrical Cut and Director's Cut, edited by Jess Franco. 2 hours of Special Features. From Vial of Delicatesses. Spanish with English subtitles.

Coming from BLUE UNDERGROUND

Anyone know exactly what the 3 discs will include in the LE releases? I'm assuming BD, DVD & CD.
Waiting to hear about Special Bonus Features also. These should look tremendous in HD!

Franco on Spanish television

Jesús Franco programa Nuria Roca presentación Memorias del tío Jess

 

Thanks to Francesco Cesari for finding this!

Happy Birthday, Soledad Miranda

Happy Birthday, Soledad Miranda (9 July 1943--18 August 1970)

DEVIL HUNTER Blu-ray and...Tibi Costa?

The giant cannibal carrying Ursula Buchfellner (Below image) is not "Burt Altman" as my published review incorrectly stated in this 2002 book, EATEN ALIVE. The real Burt Altman has been discovered and will be interviewed on next month's DEVIL HUNTER Blu-ray from Severin (See image at top). Thanks to Nzoog for tentatively ID-ing the actor in the pic below as "Tibi Costa", the Portuguese gymnast Jess Franco discusses in the bonus interview on Severin's previous DEVIL HUNTER DVD. Previous publications have ID'd him as Burt Altman "a zombie" and he does look like the tall, thin living dead man in the 1943 Val Lewton classic I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, complete with bugged-out eyes.

The Severin Blu-ray will also feature Eurocine's cannibal epic, CANNIBAL TERROR (1981), featuring Pamela Stanford! I look forward to meeting the real "Burt Altman" in August...

Coming on Blu-ray on July 28, 2015

Jess Franco's The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein Blu-ray Detailed

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blu-ray.com

Click on cover/link for details, screencaps and trailer

LABIOS ROJOS (1960) is here...

A message from Labios Rojos, the Red Lips female detective team, in LABIOS ROJOS. I never thought I would see it, but now I finally have.  I'll be adding a review of the new Spanish DVD in the future. 

THE SECRET CODE OF JESS FRANCO--AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO (1972)

 THE SECRET CODE OF JESS FRANCO--
(C) Robert Monell--6/12/15

A familiar and repeated image throughout Jess Franco's long, twisting filmography is of a small boat or a large ship on the water/at sea. Many of his films open with shots of ships (BROKEN DOLLS, to name one prominent example). We also see zoom ins and out from various sized vessels in LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973), BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) and others.

Below is an example of this in his 1973 masterpiece AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO. First we see Ana (Emma Cohen) from a child's Point of View, playing with a picture book image of a small boat being eaten by a whale.
CUT TO... a large, actual tanker ship in the bay outside of the family villa. What is the meaning in this montage? Is this one of the secret codes of Jess Franco? More on this in the future...

TOP: Interior. Ana's villa. Flashback--A day in her childhood during which she plays with a paper boat in a book.
BOTTOM: CUT TO-Exterior. Ana's villa. Present Day--A large tanker in the bay seen as she meets her fiance.

Ciudad Baja (Downtown Heat) ( Jess Franco,1994)

An upmarket Jess Franco film, complete with crane shots, direct sound (!), exploding cars and numerous extras, Downtown Heat reunites Jess Franco with his Jack the Ripper star Josephine Chaplin for one last stab at mainstream filmmaking.
Reasonable budget aside, Downtown Heat is very Franco, with odd, jagged editing rhythm (courtesy of Lina Romay), lingering shots of the sea and Daniel White's ever-present music. Craig Hill is excellent as the villain, showing class and intelligence in a part that would have befitted Howard Vernon. Busy behind the camera as production manager, Antonio Mayans appears in what amounts to a cameo. Lina Romay is memorable as the leader of a street gang while cult actor Victor Israel pops up early on as an alcoholic tramp.Franco had a gift for shooting simple things in a confusing way - some of the dialogues are framed in disorienting, tight close-ups while potentially elaborate scenes, such as shoot-outs, are treated as throwaway or filmed in the most basic manner imaginable.
Following Downtown Heat, Jess would make the entertaining but poorly received Killer Barbys, before embracing the digital medium and unleashing a bevy of abstract art oddities often shot in his living room.

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An analysis of this delightful, multi-narrative epic which presents brief episodes in the lives of a number of very different tourists to the Costa Del Sol city of Benidorm. A place Jess Franco loves to ridicule! Performance is the focal point of Franco's filmography and it plays a unique role here. If you've seen Robert Altman's NASHVILLE you might appreciate this film... 

Forthcoming Review.

www.franconomicon.wordpress.comComing soon: Review of the Redemption Blu-ray presentation of THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS. Recently published articles on the the wordpress.com sister blog include reviews of the Severin Blu-ray editions of VAMPYROS LESBOS and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY. 

The Inner Sanctum Mysteries 3 Dead man's eye 1944 VOSTF

A key to understanding Jess Franco is that he doesn't want to be Orson Welles, he really wants to be Reginald Le Borg.

Lust for Frankenstein (1998)

*version under review is the 87-minute Spanish-language cut 

Solarised footage of incestuous sex scenes set to the dark Ubangis score, naked bisexual monsters prowling the bushes of Malaga, messages from the afterlife etched into the heavy metal vinyl records -
Lust for Frankenstein is loaded with patented Franco strangeness. Aided by the joint talents of Lina Romay, Michelle Bauer and Analia Ivars, Jess crafts a highly peculiar mixture of DIY horror and kitsch melodrama.

Lina Romay stars as Moira Frankenstein, a recent divorcee whose dreams are haunted by visions of orgies and who inherits a sex-frenzied monster from her late father. Lust for Frankenstein isn't the first time Jess Franco concerned himself with a female Dr. Frankenstein. Already in Erotic Rites of Fr ankenstein, the good doctor (Dennis Price) was succeeded by his equally determined daughter. While a number of approximations and blatant inconsistencies stemming from obvious scarcity of recourses make this One Shot Production an easy target for criticism from 'quality cinema' point of view, it would be unfair to dismiss Lust for Frankenstein as an insignificant entry in Franco's filmography. A closer look reveals a consistently-directed and highly poetic work with Franco seemingly embracing and transcending his limited means.

Franco masterfully arranges and captures the space in a scene where a dreadlocked dr. Frankenstein appears behind a blood-streaked windowpane. During his digital period, Franco was more then ever interested in colours, Lust for Frankenstein being prime example  - glowing amber lights when Lina discovers the creature (Michelle Bauer) her father has created, cold blues during the transfusion scenes of Lina feeding the victims' life energy into her sex-starved monster. As Lust for Frankenstein was partially shot on actual film, we're treated to rich colour  hues, especially lovely in the cutaway exterior shots of the foliage Jess seemed so fond of interspersing his stories with.

The shorter Spanish-language cut appears less soporific with the slow-motion simulated copulation interludes mercifully truncated. This version also benefits from an additional voice-over (by Franco himself?) during the softcore flashbacks, narrated by the deceased dr. Frankenstein and giving some background to the sketchy characters. Lust for Frankenstein is one of the most accomplished works - both visually and aurally - from the filmmakers' least-appreciated creative period.

Cuadecuc, Vampir (1971)

Maria Rohm and Soledad Miranda appear ethereal and impossibly sophisticated in Pere Portabella's granulated black-and-white ciné-mirage. Portabella uses the occasion - filming of Jess Franco's Count Dracula - as a launch pad for his own journey towards the fantastic and the supernatural. Possessing at once some features of a documentary and a remarkably dreamlike quality, Cuadecuc is of much interest to Franco scholars and those with a taste for gothic imagery. While many sequences have amazing rhythm and impact, the film does drag as a whole at the relatively short 66 minute running time, partially due to very sparce score and almost total abscence of sound effects. Possible Godardian influence can be traced in the form of extraneous sounds (an aeroplane taking off, roadworks) layed over the images at deliberately inappropriate moments.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead

One of Franco's better-received efforts, A Virgin Among the Living Dead (Franco's intended title was Night of the Shooting Stars) can be described as an extremely low-budget cross between the Addams Family films and Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad. Appropriately named Christina Von Blanc retains a rather blank expression during her many encounters with a family of mischievous spectres populating the baroque Monteserate castle. Franco's skilful use of wide angle lens and an occasional welcome dolly shot lends this somewhat plodding affair a unique visual identity. Nicolai's distinctive score helps liven up the bizarre proceedings another notch. Seeing Howard Vernon wearing a busy shirt while singing hymns (actually proverbs) in Latin during the strange liturgy episode is worth the price of admission alone. A Virgin Among the Living Dead is one of the few Franco projects not to be remade by the man himself in the following decades. Perhaps Jess was satisfied with the film? 

Happy Birthday Jess!

The legendary filmmaker (seen here in Pere Portabella's poetic Cuadecuc) would have been 85 years old today.We´ve decided to write a few words about his Midnight Party on this occasion:

Midnight Party aka Lady Porno

Sloppily shot in Cinemascope and semi-plotless, this Eurociné presentation opens with Lina Romay addressing the viewer (foreshadowing similar 'interactive' moments in Franco's final digital films Paula-Paula and Crypt of the Condemned) while writhing naked in a hotel bedroom bathed in crimson light.

Gorgeous Lina Romay is the film's main attraction, here allowed to shine in a comic part. Eurociné regulars Pierre Boisson, Olivier Mathot and Pierre Taylou are at hand, taking turns frolicking in bed with Lina Romay, all set to Daniel White's mild score. Midnight Party was later  chopped up (together with Shining Sex) and re-scored by Joe D'Amato to make the hard-to-see Justine de Sade film.

The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (Theatrical Trailer)

One of Jess Franco's most outlandish cocktails of Gothic atmosphere, classic movie monsters, nudity, cannibalism, sadism, outre camerawork, psychotronic music and psychiatric ward dialogue comes to Bluray from REDEMPTION this Summer! A personal favorite Jess Franco Creature Feature. More to follow...

The The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein Blu-ray cover artwork

Jess Franco's XXX Files

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A new review of the 1987 hardcore DYNASTY parody, FALO CREST, has been added on the new blog.