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23 April, 2017
VENUS IN FURS: Complete Final Music Score?
I'm seeking a full accounting of the Complete final score heard in Jess Franco's VENUS IN FURS. It's not only composed by Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg. Stu Phillips also contributed, along with many uncredited sources. For instances, some cues from the score of a 1966 Jerry Cotton feature (THE TRAP SNAPS SHUT AT MIDNIGHT) are in it. If anyone has further information please contact me via email or FB ms or make any additions below this post. Thanks. monell579@hotmail.com
Below are a few cues from the IMDB.
Marco Polo
Written by Syd Dale
Performed by Syd Dale
Written by Syd Dale
Performed by Syd Dale
Theme for Love
Written by Stu Phillips
Performed by Stu Phillips
Written by Stu Phillips
Performed by Stu Phillips
The Search
Written by Stu Phillips
Performed by Stu Phillips
Written by Stu Phillips
Performed by Stu Phillips
Aggressive Jazz Theme
Written by Keith Mansfield
Performed by Keith Mansfield
Written by Keith Mansfield
Performed by Keith Mansfield
18 April, 2017
X-RATED EUROCULT BOX: VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD
Apparently, this German release has four different covers, each one has a different "bonus film" available, such as JUNGFRAUEN-REPORT and ROBINSON UND SEINE WILDEN SKLAVINNEN, among others. Has anyone seen this version of VATLD or the bonus films?
07 March, 2017
COMING FROM MONDO MACACRO: Limited Edition. Order Now!
This may be the best Jess Franco package ever! 3 films in HD, 1 CD, booklet and bonus features. Wow!
26 February, 2017
DEVIL HUNTER (1980)
Since I originally wrote this review I have ascertained that the Carloto Perla credited as a singer on the music credit is actually Jess Franco in full voodoo mode.
I should also be noted that this film is now available on Blu-ray, along with the Eurocine cannibal epic CANNIBAL TERROR, with the English and Spanish language tracks available. Onscreen title EL CANIBAL.
Credited to "Clifford Brown" this German, Spanish, French and Italian coproduction features Al Cliver [Pier luigi Conti], most familiar from Fulci's ZOMBIE, as a mercenary hired to bring back a starlet [Ursula Buchfellner] who has is being held for ransom on a tropical island. The only interesting performances are given by the intense, late Werner Pochath and Antonio de Cabo as nasty and increasingly frantic criminals. Conti/Cliver looks as bored as usual while German starlet Buchfellner looks almost anorexic and spends most of her screentime tied up nude to a tree getting abused by the criminals and a giant black cannibal. Watching Europeans like Claude Boisson as the cannibal chief is a real hoot and the film in unconvincing in just about every department. Note the equipment and details in the film producer's office; everything in this film looks cheap/bogus. But it's Franco all the way in terms of out-of-focus shots both from the marauding cannibls POV and other images, mismatched filmstock (the film was reportedly begun by BLIND DEAD auteur Amando De Ossorio), and editing between events which looks like it was meant to mean something (the paparazzi and the fashion show are intercut with the jungle pursuit of another nude female victim who is later tied to a tree, gutted and disgustingly cannibalized). Totally incomptent on the FX level, the cannibal is shown chewing on bloody meat scraps in extreme closeup, this will give no competition to the other Euro cannibal films of that era (cf CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST). It's pure exploitation for very desperate audiences. There is an interesting primitivist score by Franco himself (and Daniel J. White) with a delirious male vocal by Carloto Perla, heard in other 1980s Franco films. The stalking bug-eye giant nude cannibl has to be one of the most blatantly racist images in the history of horror cinema or a tip to the zombie in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE or both.
The Video Asia DVD of this, coupled with Manuel Cano's VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST (1972), is possibly the worst digital presentation of a Franco film yet. The opening credits are removed and the film starts in the middle of the first scene. There is digital censoring of the copious male and female nudity of the original, some extreme gore is cut and the bottom third of the image is masked presumbly to hide the presence of Japanese subtitles, video quality is significantly inferior to the more complete old TRANSAMERICA VHS: THE MAN HUNTER. I believe that this was indeed sourced from a Japanese video or disc and booted over here. The somewhat racist cover artwork reads TERROR TALES FROM THE HOOD: SPECIAL EDITION VOLUME 4. BLACK VOODOO EXORCIST (sic) plus THE GRUESOME SHOCK OF: THE DEVIL HUNTER A 170s style Afro coiffured feamle poses in a collage with a black glowing eyed gravedigger, green hands emerging from graves holding cigarettes [!], etc. The back features more dated jungle nonsense wigh some stills and amusing promo notes {"the long banned masterpiece...[!]"}. But for under 10 dollars it may be an outre collector's item for some. (C) Robert Monell 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
24 February, 2017
16 February, 2017
04 February, 2017
DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER (Jess Franco, 1964) Redemption Films Blu-ray
Onscreen title: LES MAITRESSES DU DR. JEKYLL/1964/B&W/84m/1920X1080p (1.66.1)
I noticed some details in this HD upgrade I hadn't noticed over the course of many viewings, in particular the rough textured, cracked, dry skin of Andros mentioned by Tim Lucas in the very informative commentary. The exotic-erotic dance performances in the special features folder are full strength Euro-trashy, more Eurocine than Jess Franco. It fails the Howard Hawks test of a good film--three good scenes, no bad scenes (there are a number of very bad scenes)--but it's very much worth seeing as a progress report. The main problem I have with the film itself is the beefy Spanish actor who plays Dr. Fisherman/Jekyll, he's just a very bland performer and adds an unwelcome note of unintentional absurdity which breaks the somber mood. A horror film is as good as its villain and this has one of Franco's most uninteresting villains. It's a pretty rough hewn print, with noticeable scratches and marks throughout butt the enhanced detail, commentary, corrected framing and additional footage make it a worthwhile purchase. Transfer/video & audio: B minus, Bonus material: C+; Film: B minus. The fact that it is missing an insert seen in some previous releases is the big minus and collectors may want to hold onto the IMAGE DVD release of this title which does contain that footage.*
I noticed some details in this HD upgrade I hadn't noticed over the course of many viewings, in particular the rough textured, cracked, dry skin of Andros mentioned by Tim Lucas in the very informative commentary. The exotic-erotic dance performances in the special features folder are full strength Euro-trashy, more Eurocine than Jess Franco. It fails the Howard Hawks test of a good film--three good scenes, no bad scenes (there are a number of very bad scenes)--but it's very much worth seeing as a progress report. The main problem I have with the film itself is the beefy Spanish actor who plays Dr. Fisherman/Jekyll, he's just a very bland performer and adds an unwelcome note of unintentional absurdity which breaks the somber mood. A horror film is as good as its villain and this has one of Franco's most uninteresting villains. It's a pretty rough hewn print, with noticeable scratches and marks throughout butt the enhanced detail, commentary, corrected framing and additional footage make it a worthwhile purchase. Transfer/video & audio: B minus, Bonus material: C+; Film: B minus. The fact that it is missing an insert seen in some previous releases is the big minus and collectors may want to hold onto the IMAGE DVD release of this title which does contain that footage.*
Directed by Jess Franco (Jess Franck)
Produced by Marius Lesoeru (Eurocine, Paris; Spain)
Cast: Agnes Spaak, Marcelo Arriota-Jauregui, Hugo Blanco, Pastor Serrador, Perla Cristal, Pepe Rubio, Magda Moldonado, Miguel Madrid
France/Sp[ain 1964 B&W 84 Min.
1920x1080p (1.66:1)
A
French soundtrack with optional English subtitles
English language soundtrack
Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas
Eleven minutes of alternate, erotic footage.
French, Italian theatrical trailers
Below: alternate scene included in the French version featuring a different actress as the first victim of Andros, who is also portrayed by a body double. This scene is not in EL SECRETO DEL DOCTOR ORLOFF, the Spanish version, where the fully clothed victim is strangled as she sits at a bar in a jazz club and it is not present in the English language export version, DR. ORLOFFS MONSTER, which was distributed as a television version and released on VHS by Something Weird Video. Obviously, this was inserted at the behest of French co-producer Eurocine and likely filmed by Jess Franco himself. An example of spicing up a film for a specific market.
Below: alternate scene included in the French version featuring a different actress as the first victim of Andros, who is also portrayed by a body double. This scene is not in EL SECRETO DEL DOCTOR ORLOFF, the Spanish version, where the fully clothed victim is strangled as she sits at a bar in a jazz club and it is not present in the English language export version, DR. ORLOFFS MONSTER, which was distributed as a television version and released on VHS by Something Weird Video. Obviously, this was inserted at the behest of French co-producer Eurocine and likely filmed by Jess Franco himself. An example of spicing up a film for a specific market.
* It should be noted that there are at least four separate versions of this title, including the Spanish language EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF which contains footage exclusive to this edit, including an alternate opening credits sequence, with Spanish titles, under which Dr. Fisherman is shown entering and walking through the house of Dr. Orloff as he prepares for their meeting. This footage is not in any other released version. DOCTOR ORLOFF'S MONSTER, the US television cut, opens with a still shot of a footbridge outside of the Orloff mansion over which the credits role (Directed by "John Frank"). It also does not include two "nudie-roughie" style murder sequences added for the French release.
The French version just presents the opening credits in French over a graphic background. There are two inserted scenes, shot later by Franco at the request of Eurocine, which feature alternate murder footage not seen in the Spanish or US versions. One of these additional sequences is not included on the Blu-ray, either as part of the film or in the eleven minutes of alternate, more sexually explicit, footage.
Some versions, including the one broadcast in Australia by SBS and the IMAGE DVD, have another complete murder sequence where Jess Franco appears playing a piano just before Andros (an obvious double) conducts another home-invasion murder of a woman taking a bath. Why this isn't included on the Blu-ray is anyone's guess, but it may not have been provided by the right's holder. It may be a technical issue. This insert was obviously filmed by Franco since he appears in the scene, he also appears as a different nightclub piano player in another unrelated scene.
This HD release is also more accurately framed at 1.66:1 than the IMAGE DVD, which appears to be window-boxed, losing image on all four sides.
(C) Robert Monell, 2017.
The French version just presents the opening credits in French over a graphic background. There are two inserted scenes, shot later by Franco at the request of Eurocine, which feature alternate murder footage not seen in the Spanish or US versions. One of these additional sequences is not included on the Blu-ray, either as part of the film or in the eleven minutes of alternate, more sexually explicit, footage.
Some versions, including the one broadcast in Australia by SBS and the IMAGE DVD, have another complete murder sequence where Jess Franco appears playing a piano just before Andros (an obvious double) conducts another home-invasion murder of a woman taking a bath. Why this isn't included on the Blu-ray is anyone's guess, but it may not have been provided by the right's holder. It may be a technical issue. This insert was obviously filmed by Franco since he appears in the scene, he also appears as a different nightclub piano player in another unrelated scene.
This HD release is also more accurately framed at 1.66:1 than the IMAGE DVD, which appears to be window-boxed, losing image on all four sides.
(C) Robert Monell, 2017.
27 January, 2017
Goodbye to Mike Connors/Ciudad Baja (Downtown Heat) (1994)
Television and film actor Mike "Touch" Connors died at the age of 91 in California on Thursday, January 26. He appeared in many B movies (VOODOO WOMAN), some big budget ones, and became a star with his hit television series MANNIX (1967-1975), in which he played a detective. Known for being cast as tough guys, villains, policemen, may have led to his being cast as the rogue American federal agent Steve in Jess Franco's Ciudad Baja (Downtown Heat) (1994). Connors fits comfortably into this minor Spanish thriller which does not register as a typical "Jess Franco" film.
A rather glossy production, DOWNTOWN HEAT is a gritty and pretty interesting crime flick. Mike "Touch" Connors is featured as a special agent out to bust Eurocrime Lord Radeck (Craig Hill). Connors, who started his career in such Roger Corman B film entries as the WIP SWAMP WOMEN, is his usual hard edged self and gives everybody hell. Many familiar television "Cop Show" tropes appear here. Radeck is, of course, a familiar name for villains in Franco's filmography. The film features a group of local police in a Central American country who form a vigilante group who work outside the law, including kidnapping and murder, to destroy Radeck and his international narcotics empire. Charles Chaplin's daughter, Josephine, appears as a vengeance seeking police woman. Her previous role in a Jess Franco film was as a police decoy in Franco's JACK, THE RIPPER (1976).
Philippe Lemaire (AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO) is notable as a corrupt police official. Everyone spirals into personal/professional corruption here. The film sometimes recalls such Al Pereira titles as LES EBRANLEES (1972), but Oscar Ladoire plays another detective in the lead role, while Antonio Mayans has a brief role as an undercover officer. Lina Romay sports a short, punk hairstyle and wardrobe here. A jazz score, including themes by Franco and Daniel White comprise the score. Spanish horror regular Victor Israel (GRAVEYARD OF HORROR, HORROR EXPRESS) has a small role. This film marked the end of a certain era in Jess Franco's filmography. He would return after the failure of his DON QUIXOTE (1993) to embark on his final digital period.
21 January, 2017
I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND: VAMPIRE JUNCTION
I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND: VAMPIRE JUNCTION: ONE SHOT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS VAMPIRE JUNCTION Sandra Olsen, Fata Morgana, Victor Seastrom, Paul Lapidus With Lina Romay Music by ...
2004 JF interview
Interview with Jess Franco
By Robert Monell
Conducted 9.11.04: Thanks to Lina Romay with help in translation and fact authentication and to Kris Gavin for helping to arrange the interview.
RM: Jess, as we are talking you're in the middle of editing SNAKEWOMAN. Is this a remake of an older film of yours or the literary adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne you spoke with me about?
JF: No, it's based on the classic story CARMILLA, by Sheridan Le Fanu.
RM: Yes, it's been filmed by Vadim and Hammer. I see you're working with Antonio Mayans again. He hasn't been in one of your films in over a decade.
JF: It's good to be working with him again. He's fantastic as always. A very nice and cooperative actor. Very good as Al Periera in those films.
RM: I hope to see another Al Periera film from you and him in the future.
JF: It's possible, I like to go back to him.
RM: Let's go back to the beginning of your career, particularly your association with the Mexican cinema. You have said you worked with Chano Uruerta in other interviews. What did you work with him on in Mexico?
JF: I visited Mexico in the mid 1950s as a producer's rep overseeing the Spanish side of Spanish-Mexican coproductions. I worked with Chano on a comedy. I can't remember the title. I also remember working with Tito Junco [the jpopular actor] while there and a horror film. I can't remember the titles.
RM: Understandable, since that was 50 years ago!
JF: [Laughs] Yes!
RM: How did you meet Chano Uruerta and Abel Salazar, whom you worked with on the EL COYOTE films.
JF: I met them together. They came to Spain together for the COYOTE films. I met them at the house of the famous composer, Augustin Lara.
RM: Salazar was a very popular actor and an astute producer in Mexico. He produced and starred in some key horror films later. Was he a good actor in the COYOTE films?
JF: No, he was not. Not a very good actor, but a very nice person. We became good friends.
RM: I liked him as the arrogant baron in THE BRAINIAC.
JF: No, he couldn't play that kind of role. He couldn't play the bandit either. He was an average man, he could play an average man. That's all.
RM: He played that average type in the Fernando Mendez VAMPIRO films with German Robles. The hero who defeats the monster.
JF: Yes, he could play that. But he wasn't an acting genius.
RM: When we talked before you mentioned Chano Uruerta's THE HEADLESS RIDER. That film reminds me a lot of your own EL LLANERO with it's mixture of horror, action, western motifs and musical elements.
JF: Si! I had seen THE HEADLESS RIDER earlier and was very influenced by it. Chano was mad. He would tear up the script and just shoot whatever he wanted. It was crazy working with him. I worked with some very important Mexican directors at that time, Fernado Soler and Emilio Fernandez.
RM: Fernandez directed some classic Mexican films and was also in some popular Sam Peckinpah westerns like THE WILD BUNCH.
JF: Si, he was always drinking tequila. A wild man. Totally crazy! But a good actor and director.
RM: Let's move ahead to your earliest features. THE AWFUL DR ORLOF has often been discussed by you in interviews along with your first film, TENEMOS 18 ANOS. But I would like to hear about a personal favorite, VAMPIRESAS 1930 (1960).
JF: That was one of my favorites to work on because I had the means to do it right and wonderful music by Charles Trenet.
RM: Yes, "EL MAR"...
JF: Those songs were one of the main reasons I wanted to do it. VAMPS 1930 was everything it should have been and those songs by Trenet were wonderful.
RM: In your early career who were your favorite producers?
JF: Well, Sergio Newman and Marius Lesoeur, who I did VAMPS and DR ORLOF with. In fact, they are still my all time favorite producers in my career.
RM: Why?
JF: Because they gave me the means to do them right and they cared about the films. Sergio Newman was a lovely man and Marius was very clever, a good producer when he was younger. They saw to it that I had enough money. After them, I like Silberman and Safra, who I did MISS MUERTE and CARTES BOCA ARRIBA with. Do you know those films.
RM: Yes, two of my favorites of your earlier films.
JF: Si, MISS MUERTE is one of my best films and when I made it with them they gave me very good productions elements.
RM: I want to ask you about the look of your films, which is always so distinctive and changes as your career progresses. For instance, I like the look of MISS MUERTE, very dark and brooding and the earlier LA MUERTE SILBA UN BLUES (1962).
JF: LA MUERTE... was shot by one of the best cameramen I worked with, Juan Marine. I liked his style of lighting, like "black" cinema.
RM: It's often compared to Orson Welles' film noir look in TOUCH OF EVIL.
JF: Si, it's all in the way it's lit. The lighting is everything in these type films. Also in Robert Siodmak's PHANTOM LADY and THE KILLERS, both masterworks.
RM: You often mention Siodmak. I especially like the midnight jam session in PHANTOM LADY, with Elisha Cook playing the drums as he's getting sexually frustrated over the heroine.
JF: Si! That's my favorite scene also. I call it the "Jazz style", very black, film noir.
RM: Was Siodmak your favorite Hollywood director?
JF: Orson Welles...
RM: John Ford?
JF: A master... but Siodmak was one of my favorites. You know I worked with him a few years after LA MUERTE SILBA UN BLUES on one of his last films. I spent 5 months working as assistant director and his personal assistant on CUSTER OF THE WEST (196 .
RM: I didn't know that. Robert Shaw starred in that.
JF: Yes, but I didn't like him. Not a good casting choice to play General Custer. Did you know Siodmak wanted Sterling Hayden first.
RM: An excellent actor. I can see how he could have been more compelling in that role,
.
JF: Si! A very interesting actor who would have made a great Custer. But the producers made Siodmak use Shaw, he was very unhappy about that. I didn't like Robert Shaw at all and Siodmak didn't either.
RM: So, you worked as assistant director on this big budgeted Eurowestern shot in Spain. Weren't you also working on your own films as a director? How did you find the time?
JF: Yes, it was shot in Spain in 1967. I became very close friends with Siodmak and we discussed many things. I made time in my schedule to work with Siodmak and asked him to hire me because I admired his work. Siodmak had complete knowledge about film and film history, he was a very cultured person.
RM: It's a good looking film.
JF: Yes, it's very well crafted.
RM: I wanted to get back to the look of your films. You had made a number of films by the late 1960s and, of course, have now made over 200 films. Who was your all time favorite cinematographer?
JF: First I'd like to say that I admire Vilmos Zigmond a lot. I like the way he uses light.
RM: Yes, he shot the very beautiful Robert Altman film, MCCABE AND MRS MILLER (1971)...
JF: Yes, I like the look he created...
RM: Very interesting. I see a lot of similarities between you and Robert Altman, visually and in employing a lot of improvisation. But who was the best DP you worked with on YOUR films?
JF: Manuel Merino. He was the one I felt closest too. He shot EUGENIE, HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION just the way I wanted it to look. And then Juan Marine.
RM: How about Gerard Brissaud, who is listed as DP of some of your 70s films, like PLEASURE FOR THREE.
JF: He was Polish. A technician. A lot of people worked on these films. We had to use a lot of international technicians, and sometimes changed the names. Because of coproduction status. But he was a good technician.
RM: My favorite is Juan Soler, who shot many of your early 1980s films.
JF: Si, Juan Soler Cozar was very good. But those films were too low budget. We didn't have the money to do them right. They don't look like they should. The only one we had the money to do right was BLOODY MOON. Do you know that film?
RM: Yes, I don't like it as much as MACUMBA SEXUAL or MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE. I like those a lot better even if they are lower budgeted films.
JF: I'm glad you like those films. There hasn't been much talk about my Golden Film Productions. Which ones do you like the most?
RM: Well, MIL SEXOS... and LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS (1981). Well talk about those later but I wanted to ask you about your use of Cinemascope, specifically the Techniscope system. Did you prefer and like to work in anamorphic 2.35:1 ratio?
JF: For some films I like Cinemascope or Techniscope, like in DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN. I like it because it gives you more "scope", you can show more. The castles, the landscapes. It can be beautiful and gives a mysterious look to everything. You can show more on the sides of the action. But shooting in scope in moe expensive because of the anamorphic lenses. It is more expensive to shoot and edit in scope.
RM: I think you got especially good results with using scope in MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE, a very beautiful film with gorgeous colors.
JF: Thank you. I tried to make a film like Raymond Chandler with that one.
RM: That and some of your mystery thrillers remind me of the American crime writer Jim Thompson.
JF: Si! I like him a lot. Did you know Orson Welles wanted to film one of his novels, THE KILLER INSIDE ME?
RM: No, I didn't know he wanted to film that. A great novel. Burt Kennedy ended up making a pretty good film out of it. But it wasn't Orson Welles, obviously.
JF: No, not as good as Orson would have done it. He was really enthusiastic about filming it during the early 1960s.
RM: Another film of that period which I like the look of is LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS.
JF: That showed the influence of "black cinema" on me. You know, film noir. It is a film I like a lot. A mixture of suspense, eroticism and mystery.
RM: Back to the producers of your films. Let's talk about Robert De Nesle.
JF: It's pronounced DE NELLE...
RM: Yes, thanks. You sometimes filmed "covered" versions of films he co produced with Spain, like with LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN (1972)...
JF: Yes, which version of that do you prefer?
RM: I like the shorter French version. Do you consider that YOUR preferred version?
JF: Si. It has more nudity, eroticism and horror in it. I just made an extension of it for Arturo Marcos, for Spanish distribution [Fenix Films].
RM: Yes, but I like the way those scenes in the Spanish versions are shot. Particularly those shots of the figures in white walking through the forest and I like the scenes with Lina. By the way, the Cagliostro character [Howard Vernon] mentions the writings or the sect of PANTOS or PHANTOS throughout the film. This name is also mentioned by Dr Orlof in FEMALE VAMPIRE. Is this an ancient writer or cult or something you made up?
JF: Howard Vernon, who was a very clever actor, came up with it. It's supposed to be a secret sect from Medieval times, who wrote books with forbidden knowledge. But MALDICION... wasn't my film. I did it for Arturo Marcos. The French version is the one I wanted to make.
RM: What was Robert De Nesle like as a person and a producer?
JF: A very strange man. Robert De Nesle was a madman. He was obsessed with women, he was always trying to get at the actresses in the films we made together. He was very intelligent, but timid, he loved movies. Very elegant, very nice, a very handsome man. But he was always making plays for every woman he saw. He never understood the films I was making. He loved cinema, but didn't understand what I was trying to do. He didn't have a clue. He was out of it. He was too busy playing around with the girls...[laughs]
RM: Harry Alan Towers?
JF: Could have been a better producer. A very nice fellow, but always looking for more money. He was always supportive and trying to get me more money.
RM: Did he allow you to edit and work on the post production of your flms together?
JF: They were physically cut by British editors but I was always in the editing room with them. So I supervised the final edit and post production with them.
RM: We were discussing your Golden Films Internacional productions earlier. How was Emilio Larraga as a producer? Was he good?
JF: No. I called him a soup salesman. He just wanted to use me to make a quick profit. He never gave me enough money or elements to make the films. These were made very, very quickly. Some in less than a week in very poor conditions. Then he got into trouble with the Spanish tax authorities. He tried to hide the rest of the films I made for him. Many of them were never released. He died some time ago.
RM: But did you have total freedom in preparing, shooting and editing these films.
JF: Yes, that I did have because they were so low budget. I had control of the final edit. They were completely mine: the concept, the production, the final editing. I got very little money. I got a very small salary. That's all. Just enough to live on. As I said, these films were made in terrible conditions.
RM: I like the most some of these films which you say were made with little money and under bad conditions. How did you adjust to the bigger budgeted FACELESS (198 . Of course, you must appreciate having adequate resources.
JF: I liked Rene Chateau. He gave me a very good cast with Telly Savalas, Chris Mitchum, Brigitte Lahie and Helmut Berger. I liked the photography of Maurice Fellous who shot that film, he was the brother of the famous Roger Fellous.
RM: In your ONE SHOT films you have developed a different style: shot on video, more surreal, almost cartoonish, especially KILLER BARBYS and KILLER BARBYS VS DRACULA... T
FM: Yes, I shoot on high def video because it's more like 35mm. I try to give an impression of luminosity with colors like Disney.
RM: KILLER BARBYS VS DRACULA and some of your other films have images of famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
FM: Yes, I like Donald Duck very much. The way he's always screaming and yelling a lot [laughs] And I like Goofy. I like to show them in my films. I like those old Disney cartoons. I like the color in them and I tried to use it in this film. I tried to get that Disney color, that Disney look. I like Walt Disney very much, the man himself not the business empire, he was very imaginative and ahead of his times. I like FANTASIA and THE THREE CABELLEROS. I especially like Mickey Mouse...
(C) 2004 Robert Monell: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
By Robert Monell
Conducted 9.11.04: Thanks to Lina Romay with help in translation and fact authentication and to Kris Gavin for helping to arrange the interview.
RM: Jess, as we are talking you're in the middle of editing SNAKEWOMAN. Is this a remake of an older film of yours or the literary adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne you spoke with me about?
JF: No, it's based on the classic story CARMILLA, by Sheridan Le Fanu.
RM: Yes, it's been filmed by Vadim and Hammer. I see you're working with Antonio Mayans again. He hasn't been in one of your films in over a decade.
JF: It's good to be working with him again. He's fantastic as always. A very nice and cooperative actor. Very good as Al Periera in those films.
RM: I hope to see another Al Periera film from you and him in the future.
JF: It's possible, I like to go back to him.
RM: Let's go back to the beginning of your career, particularly your association with the Mexican cinema. You have said you worked with Chano Uruerta in other interviews. What did you work with him on in Mexico?
JF: I visited Mexico in the mid 1950s as a producer's rep overseeing the Spanish side of Spanish-Mexican coproductions. I worked with Chano on a comedy. I can't remember the title. I also remember working with Tito Junco [the jpopular actor] while there and a horror film. I can't remember the titles.
RM: Understandable, since that was 50 years ago!
JF: [Laughs] Yes!
RM: How did you meet Chano Uruerta and Abel Salazar, whom you worked with on the EL COYOTE films.
JF: I met them together. They came to Spain together for the COYOTE films. I met them at the house of the famous composer, Augustin Lara.
RM: Salazar was a very popular actor and an astute producer in Mexico. He produced and starred in some key horror films later. Was he a good actor in the COYOTE films?
JF: No, he was not. Not a very good actor, but a very nice person. We became good friends.
RM: I liked him as the arrogant baron in THE BRAINIAC.
JF: No, he couldn't play that kind of role. He couldn't play the bandit either. He was an average man, he could play an average man. That's all.
RM: He played that average type in the Fernando Mendez VAMPIRO films with German Robles. The hero who defeats the monster.
JF: Yes, he could play that. But he wasn't an acting genius.
RM: When we talked before you mentioned Chano Uruerta's THE HEADLESS RIDER. That film reminds me a lot of your own EL LLANERO with it's mixture of horror, action, western motifs and musical elements.
JF: Si! I had seen THE HEADLESS RIDER earlier and was very influenced by it. Chano was mad. He would tear up the script and just shoot whatever he wanted. It was crazy working with him. I worked with some very important Mexican directors at that time, Fernado Soler and Emilio Fernandez.
RM: Fernandez directed some classic Mexican films and was also in some popular Sam Peckinpah westerns like THE WILD BUNCH.
JF: Si, he was always drinking tequila. A wild man. Totally crazy! But a good actor and director.
RM: Let's move ahead to your earliest features. THE AWFUL DR ORLOF has often been discussed by you in interviews along with your first film, TENEMOS 18 ANOS. But I would like to hear about a personal favorite, VAMPIRESAS 1930 (1960).
JF: That was one of my favorites to work on because I had the means to do it right and wonderful music by Charles Trenet.
RM: Yes, "EL MAR"...
JF: Those songs were one of the main reasons I wanted to do it. VAMPS 1930 was everything it should have been and those songs by Trenet were wonderful.
RM: In your early career who were your favorite producers?
JF: Well, Sergio Newman and Marius Lesoeur, who I did VAMPS and DR ORLOF with. In fact, they are still my all time favorite producers in my career.
RM: Why?
JF: Because they gave me the means to do them right and they cared about the films. Sergio Newman was a lovely man and Marius was very clever, a good producer when he was younger. They saw to it that I had enough money. After them, I like Silberman and Safra, who I did MISS MUERTE and CARTES BOCA ARRIBA with. Do you know those films.
RM: Yes, two of my favorites of your earlier films.
JF: Si, MISS MUERTE is one of my best films and when I made it with them they gave me very good productions elements.
RM: I want to ask you about the look of your films, which is always so distinctive and changes as your career progresses. For instance, I like the look of MISS MUERTE, very dark and brooding and the earlier LA MUERTE SILBA UN BLUES (1962).
JF: LA MUERTE... was shot by one of the best cameramen I worked with, Juan Marine. I liked his style of lighting, like "black" cinema.
RM: It's often compared to Orson Welles' film noir look in TOUCH OF EVIL.
JF: Si, it's all in the way it's lit. The lighting is everything in these type films. Also in Robert Siodmak's PHANTOM LADY and THE KILLERS, both masterworks.
RM: You often mention Siodmak. I especially like the midnight jam session in PHANTOM LADY, with Elisha Cook playing the drums as he's getting sexually frustrated over the heroine.
JF: Si! That's my favorite scene also. I call it the "Jazz style", very black, film noir.
RM: Was Siodmak your favorite Hollywood director?
JF: Orson Welles...
RM: John Ford?
JF: A master... but Siodmak was one of my favorites. You know I worked with him a few years after LA MUERTE SILBA UN BLUES on one of his last films. I spent 5 months working as assistant director and his personal assistant on CUSTER OF THE WEST (196 .
RM: I didn't know that. Robert Shaw starred in that.
JF: Yes, but I didn't like him. Not a good casting choice to play General Custer. Did you know Siodmak wanted Sterling Hayden first.
RM: An excellent actor. I can see how he could have been more compelling in that role,
.
JF: Si! A very interesting actor who would have made a great Custer. But the producers made Siodmak use Shaw, he was very unhappy about that. I didn't like Robert Shaw at all and Siodmak didn't either.
RM: So, you worked as assistant director on this big budgeted Eurowestern shot in Spain. Weren't you also working on your own films as a director? How did you find the time?
JF: Yes, it was shot in Spain in 1967. I became very close friends with Siodmak and we discussed many things. I made time in my schedule to work with Siodmak and asked him to hire me because I admired his work. Siodmak had complete knowledge about film and film history, he was a very cultured person.
RM: It's a good looking film.
JF: Yes, it's very well crafted.
RM: I wanted to get back to the look of your films. You had made a number of films by the late 1960s and, of course, have now made over 200 films. Who was your all time favorite cinematographer?
JF: First I'd like to say that I admire Vilmos Zigmond a lot. I like the way he uses light.
RM: Yes, he shot the very beautiful Robert Altman film, MCCABE AND MRS MILLER (1971)...
JF: Yes, I like the look he created...
RM: Very interesting. I see a lot of similarities between you and Robert Altman, visually and in employing a lot of improvisation. But who was the best DP you worked with on YOUR films?
JF: Manuel Merino. He was the one I felt closest too. He shot EUGENIE, HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION just the way I wanted it to look. And then Juan Marine.
RM: How about Gerard Brissaud, who is listed as DP of some of your 70s films, like PLEASURE FOR THREE.
JF: He was Polish. A technician. A lot of people worked on these films. We had to use a lot of international technicians, and sometimes changed the names. Because of coproduction status. But he was a good technician.
RM: My favorite is Juan Soler, who shot many of your early 1980s films.
JF: Si, Juan Soler Cozar was very good. But those films were too low budget. We didn't have the money to do them right. They don't look like they should. The only one we had the money to do right was BLOODY MOON. Do you know that film?
RM: Yes, I don't like it as much as MACUMBA SEXUAL or MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE. I like those a lot better even if they are lower budgeted films.
JF: I'm glad you like those films. There hasn't been much talk about my Golden Film Productions. Which ones do you like the most?
RM: Well, MIL SEXOS... and LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS (1981). Well talk about those later but I wanted to ask you about your use of Cinemascope, specifically the Techniscope system. Did you prefer and like to work in anamorphic 2.35:1 ratio?
JF: For some films I like Cinemascope or Techniscope, like in DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN. I like it because it gives you more "scope", you can show more. The castles, the landscapes. It can be beautiful and gives a mysterious look to everything. You can show more on the sides of the action. But shooting in scope in moe expensive because of the anamorphic lenses. It is more expensive to shoot and edit in scope.
RM: I think you got especially good results with using scope in MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE, a very beautiful film with gorgeous colors.
JF: Thank you. I tried to make a film like Raymond Chandler with that one.
RM: That and some of your mystery thrillers remind me of the American crime writer Jim Thompson.
JF: Si! I like him a lot. Did you know Orson Welles wanted to film one of his novels, THE KILLER INSIDE ME?
RM: No, I didn't know he wanted to film that. A great novel. Burt Kennedy ended up making a pretty good film out of it. But it wasn't Orson Welles, obviously.
JF: No, not as good as Orson would have done it. He was really enthusiastic about filming it during the early 1960s.
RM: Another film of that period which I like the look of is LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS.
JF: That showed the influence of "black cinema" on me. You know, film noir. It is a film I like a lot. A mixture of suspense, eroticism and mystery.
RM: Back to the producers of your films. Let's talk about Robert De Nesle.
JF: It's pronounced DE NELLE...
RM: Yes, thanks. You sometimes filmed "covered" versions of films he co produced with Spain, like with LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN (1972)...
JF: Yes, which version of that do you prefer?
RM: I like the shorter French version. Do you consider that YOUR preferred version?
JF: Si. It has more nudity, eroticism and horror in it. I just made an extension of it for Arturo Marcos, for Spanish distribution [Fenix Films].
RM: Yes, but I like the way those scenes in the Spanish versions are shot. Particularly those shots of the figures in white walking through the forest and I like the scenes with Lina. By the way, the Cagliostro character [Howard Vernon] mentions the writings or the sect of PANTOS or PHANTOS throughout the film. This name is also mentioned by Dr Orlof in FEMALE VAMPIRE. Is this an ancient writer or cult or something you made up?
JF: Howard Vernon, who was a very clever actor, came up with it. It's supposed to be a secret sect from Medieval times, who wrote books with forbidden knowledge. But MALDICION... wasn't my film. I did it for Arturo Marcos. The French version is the one I wanted to make.
RM: What was Robert De Nesle like as a person and a producer?
JF: A very strange man. Robert De Nesle was a madman. He was obsessed with women, he was always trying to get at the actresses in the films we made together. He was very intelligent, but timid, he loved movies. Very elegant, very nice, a very handsome man. But he was always making plays for every woman he saw. He never understood the films I was making. He loved cinema, but didn't understand what I was trying to do. He didn't have a clue. He was out of it. He was too busy playing around with the girls...[laughs]
RM: Harry Alan Towers?
JF: Could have been a better producer. A very nice fellow, but always looking for more money. He was always supportive and trying to get me more money.
RM: Did he allow you to edit and work on the post production of your flms together?
JF: They were physically cut by British editors but I was always in the editing room with them. So I supervised the final edit and post production with them.
RM: We were discussing your Golden Films Internacional productions earlier. How was Emilio Larraga as a producer? Was he good?
JF: No. I called him a soup salesman. He just wanted to use me to make a quick profit. He never gave me enough money or elements to make the films. These were made very, very quickly. Some in less than a week in very poor conditions. Then he got into trouble with the Spanish tax authorities. He tried to hide the rest of the films I made for him. Many of them were never released. He died some time ago.
RM: But did you have total freedom in preparing, shooting and editing these films.
JF: Yes, that I did have because they were so low budget. I had control of the final edit. They were completely mine: the concept, the production, the final editing. I got very little money. I got a very small salary. That's all. Just enough to live on. As I said, these films were made in terrible conditions.
RM: I like the most some of these films which you say were made with little money and under bad conditions. How did you adjust to the bigger budgeted FACELESS (198 . Of course, you must appreciate having adequate resources.
JF: I liked Rene Chateau. He gave me a very good cast with Telly Savalas, Chris Mitchum, Brigitte Lahie and Helmut Berger. I liked the photography of Maurice Fellous who shot that film, he was the brother of the famous Roger Fellous.
RM: In your ONE SHOT films you have developed a different style: shot on video, more surreal, almost cartoonish, especially KILLER BARBYS and KILLER BARBYS VS DRACULA... T
FM: Yes, I shoot on high def video because it's more like 35mm. I try to give an impression of luminosity with colors like Disney.
RM: KILLER BARBYS VS DRACULA and some of your other films have images of famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
FM: Yes, I like Donald Duck very much. The way he's always screaming and yelling a lot [laughs] And I like Goofy. I like to show them in my films. I like those old Disney cartoons. I like the color in them and I tried to use it in this film. I tried to get that Disney color, that Disney look. I like Walt Disney very much, the man himself not the business empire, he was very imaginative and ahead of his times. I like FANTASIA and THE THREE CABELLEROS. I especially like Mickey Mouse...
(C) 2004 Robert Monell: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
VAMPIRE JUNCTION
ONE SHOT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
VAMPIRE JUNCTION
Sandra Olsen, Fata Morgana, Victor Seastrom, Paul Lapidus
With Lina Romay
Music by Exequiel Cohen
Additional Music by Jess Franco
Written and Directed by Jess Franco
An erotic horror-western of the Internet Age, VAMPIRE JUNCTION can be read as a metaphor for the rising Phoenix of Jess Franco's career which seemingly crashed and burned with the disastrous reception of his labor of love, DON QUIJOTE. Rejected and forgotten by his own generation, labeled a hack and a pornographer who dared to meddle with the testament of bonafide genius, Franco would find an unimagined acceptance and fame with a new generation in the synthetic universe of the worldwide web, where everyone and anyone who posts on whatever omnipresent message board becomes instantaneously validated in every corner of that world, Jess Franco would be crowned king of his own empire. In Godard's seminal A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, Jean Pierre Melville, the father of the Nouvelle Vague, appears as a writer who is asked by the nihilistic heroine [Jean Seberg] to state his ambition. He answers, "To become immortal and then to die." This is perhaps the main theme of Jess Franco's life and career as well as that of VAMPIRE JUNCTION.
www.vampireflanagan.com... That's how you reach Father Flanagan. An ambitious 21st Century vampire just wouldn't be a player without his own website on the worldwide web. But he might be proactive and reach out to make contact. You'll be sitting at your laptop suddenly typing out like journalist Alice Brown (Lina Romay): FATHER FLANAGAN IS CALLING YOU...FATHER FLANAGAN IS CALLING YOU...
Jess Franco's best and most personal work tends to be cyclical, asymettrical, polyphonic and highly unstable. All of those terms apply to VAMPIRE JUNCTION, which can be described as a cyberpunk vampire video in Western drag. This is something more than just another Jess Franco erotic bloodsucking opus, with its fascinating subtext suggesting how the internet has affected both the way films are made and experienced. In a world of movie message boards and Jess Franco websites both his older films along with his ONE SHOT productions can be throroughly discussed at instant messaging speed complete with illustrative screen shots. Alice , the journalist who gets literally sucked into this erotic vampire vortex writes on the internet about the older civilizations which can be encountered in these southern climes. Father Flanagan (Victor Seastrom) and his vampire brides seem possessed by ancient evil spirits, they have become immortal, more incorporeal than solid. VAMPIRE JUNCTION signals that Franco has mastered an internet age, 21st century equivalent to the Gothic Expressionist Noir style of Murnau and Siodmak, both of whom made vampire films which Franco built his early cinema upon. In a world of high speed access and cellphones the distances between people are set into ironic relief. Alice is overwhelmed with anxiety from the outset while the residents overseen by the fat town Marshall (Paul Lapidus) seem frozen in pop-culture roles: Father Flanagan is always photographed as a gaunt, nearly motionless figure, looming in the distance in his long black leather coat and cowboy hat. He strongly resembles a drug pusher from a B crime movie. Vampire vixen Fata Morgana looks like a refugee from an MTV music video with her Day-Glo hair and black miniskirt. The drunken deputy (composer Ezequiel Cohen) calls himself Dean Martin, who played an alcoholic deputy to John Wayne's put-upon Sheriff in Howard Hawks RIO BRAVO (1959) and at times identifies himself as Andy Devine, who played the cowardly Sheriff in John Ford's seminal 1962 THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, a film which sought to debunk the conventional mythologies of both Western history and movie Westerns. Personality gives way to personality disorders while color and form continually evolve into startling patterns.
You are arriving in Shit City. The burned out alcoholic Dr. Spencer (Steve Barrymore) describes the place as a "strange, parallel world" we're told, "an old Hollywood B-film set." If the name sounds familiar it's also the fictional name of the corrupt coastal town in Franco's LOS BLUES DE LA CALLE POP (aventuras de Felipe Malboro, volumen 8 ) a 1983 personal favorite of JF, where he turns his love for "Black Cinema" into a live acton comic-a kind of post MTV western-noir with punk aesthetics. This time Shit City is in the Southwest, of Spain or the US, it doesn't matter because this is really Francoland where all bets are off. It's a place, according to the town physcian who has summoned the investigative journalist, where B western icons Bob Steele and Tom Tyler would have felt at home, at the same time, the mood is altered to one of post modernist dread. A deliriously composed (in Hi-Def video) synthesis of neo-noir, Cyberpunk Eurowestern* and techno-metal vampire cinema.
The opening credits sequence is alone worth the price of admission: Alice Brown drives toward this hellish wonderland through phosphorescent washes of chroma into an hallucinogenic ocean of generic icons. Marshall Joe Mendoza has posted a lowball reward for Billy the Kid and eyeballs the intruder warily. Visions of a female vampire with punk colored hair crawling down the wall. The imposing master vampire dressed in black leather duster and cowboy hat. The black countess (Samantha Olsen) emerging from a mirror, a black & white apparition with only a wash of crimson in her hair to remind us this is in color, and color, its endless permutations and possibilites is a major subject of this project. An extraordinary sonic experience with sparing, ellipitical dialogue, desultory narration, Goth organ music, electronic bleeps, distant, monotonous, malacophonous satanic litanies from a ancient vortex which coexists on the other side of the mirror. Any and all concepts of temporal normality, space and tincture are immediately shattered and replaced with an a temporal, multidimensional and iridian aesthetic. The sonic environment is oscillates between faint murmurings and jarring blasts of synthesizer generated notes and sounds.
This film is an arc, a luminous discharge of electronic current, which seems to magnetically drain the atomic structure of all visible matter into an invisible, haunted realm, a place only Jess Franco knows. His precognitive cinema, encored with crimson sex and endlessly repeating mythologies which once generated can never be let alone. Like a traditional Hollywood western, they overwhelm the trivialities of the calmer, modern world with arid vistas which lead to sudden death. In a scene as aesthetically arresting as any in a Mario Bava gothic (cf. THE WHIP AND THE BODY, OPERAZIONE PAURA) we have Lina Romay walking down hallway flooded with pools of green light toward an vampiric ambush while outside the Old West style structures bake under the implacable Spanish sun.
But Franco is intensively interested in the curvature of Hollywood genre cinema toward an unknown space which he can provide a Cubist, Abstract-Expressionist, Surrealist, Minimalist or Pop Art portal. The structure of his filmography, and the individuals film contained within, tends toward curvilinearity. The are no straight lines in Franco's universe, but there are numerous spirals which cycle backward, forward and back again. Franco's approach to the vampire film, the noir, the western is hieractic. He wants to perserve the icons, the myths in miniature while shining a bright colored light behind them transforming them into something new and unique.
Alice drives through the aquamarine rain into some kind of cognitive dissonance and, at the end, dissolves along with her molesters, leaving behind those trademark solar flares which are a kind of representation of Jess Franco's smile. She has experienced an erotic interview with a vampire conducted in the sealed off area of the Unconscious. Along the way there's time stopping, sensuous, blood-spattered encounters with the swallowers whose images seem to flicker on the surfaces these southwest desert lands. Franco has arrived, after nearly 50 years of cinema, at a totally Synthetic, personal and interactive cinema where intricate schemes of cross references become a kind of self satire designed to delight himself and those who choose to enter the grid. You have arrived at Shit City... .
Finally, the Internet gave Jess Franco his ultimate inspiration and validity, a space which welcomed and nourished him. Just as the cellphone became the tool of choice for recording the visions of Jean-Luc Godard in his equally challenging 21st Century films.
*There's also an ambitious villain in the Demofilo Fidani Spaghetti Western ERA SAM WALLASH...LO CHIAMAVANO COSI SIA (1972) named Flanagan, played by Dean Stratford [Dino Strano]. The film's protagonist is played by Robert Woods, a frequent player in early 1970's Franco-Robert de Nesle productions (AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPIJO, YUKA, PLAISIR A TROIS). Fidani was one of the one or two most prolific creator of Spaghetti Westerns. At their best they are Eurobis delights in the best JF tradition: lightning fast shooting schedules, frequently recycled sets, plots, actors and an obsession to keep churning out product despite lack of proper funding and planning.
*There's also an ambitious villain in the Demofilo Fidani Spaghetti Western ERA SAM WALLASH...LO CHIAMAVANO COSI SIA (1972) named Flanagan, played by Dean Stratford [Dino Strano]. The film's protagonist is played by Robert Woods, a frequent player in early 1970's Franco-Robert de Nesle productions (AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPIJO, YUKA, PLAISIR A TROIS). Fidani was one of the one or two most prolific creator of Spaghetti Westerns. At their best they are Eurobis delights in the best JF tradition: lightning fast shooting schedules, frequently recycled sets, plots, actors and an obsession to keep churning out product despite lack of proper funding and planning.
*Music and Jess Franco scholar Francesco Cesari points out that a cue from Franco's 1960 musical VAMPS 1930 is reused here, but reworked on a synthesizer.
Edited by: bobmonel at: 2/27/05 10:02 am
Edited by: bobmonel at: 2/27/05 10:02 am
11 January, 2017
REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES (Jess Franco & Antonio Mayans, 2013): Review of Jess Franco's final film
Jess Franco plays himself in this sly comedy in which he is engaged in directing another erotic film while the subject of his previous film, private detective Al Pereira, attempts to relate to the eccentric film making process of Jess Franco. Pereira also has difficult relationships with his son and women in general, illustrated in various amusing vignettes. He travels to Germany where he becomes accidentally involved in a sort of international espionage affair due to his presence at a Communist gathering. Lead actor-co-director Antonio Mayans introduces the film as an "Audio-visualization... based on a surreal story", which is an appropriate enough synopsis. Back in Spain director Franco continues to film the alligator ladies, Carmen Montes, Irene Verdu and Paula Davis, in extended erotic interludes. Much of the Franco-directed footage is shot through mirrors showing both the erotic action and Franco directing it. These self reflexive images are a carry-over from Franco's previous Al Pereira adventure, AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES and his 1980 surrealist science fiction parody, EL SEXO ESTA LOCO. The scenes involving Pereria and his family, friends and associates, along with the scenes filmed in Germany were directed by longtime Franco actor-associate Antonio Mayans after Franco's death in April, 2013. Pereira is gamely played by Mayans as a long-suffering victim of everyone's ridicule, especially the director and the alligator ladies, who have the last word. The irreverent tone and sharp edged dialogue sometimes evoke the droll repartee of the W.S. Van Dyke's 1934 mystery-comedy THE THIN MAN. It should be noted that classic film was made on a B budget, on a rushed schedule by Woody "One Shot" Van Dyke.
This is the last in a long running series of Jess Franco directed films about troubled investigator Al Pereira, the first being ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS/CARTAS BOCA ARRIBA (1966), in which Pereira was played by American singer-actor Eddie Constantine. A shorter, incomplete version of REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, directed by Franco himself, is more focused on the director shooting erotic scenes with Montes and co. Franco's presence is again central, the film opens with him facing the camera, delivering a comic-esoteric monologue. His image moves even further into the mirror, and now he's on the other side of the mirror.
Other recommended Franco Al Pereira titles include LES EBRANLEES (1972), with Howard Vernon in the role, DOWNTOWN (1975), which features Franco himself as the detective, BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO (1982) and CAMINO SOLITARIO (1983), in which Mayans finally took over the role.
REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES will be of interest to Jess Franco enthusiasts, cult film historians and collectors as the ultimate illustration of Jess Franco's obsession with the process of personal creation while continuing to throw himself into his work right up until his passing.
Robert Monell, 2017
REVENGE OF THE ALLIGATOR LADIES will be of interest to Jess Franco enthusiasts, cult film historians and collectors as the ultimate illustration of Jess Franco's obsession with the process of personal creation while continuing to throw himself into his work right up until his passing.
Robert Monell, 2017
07 January, 2017
ROLAND, THE WORLD'S SEXIEST MAN (1974) Updated....
(C) Robert Monell 2015
Roland, the World's Sexiest Man
1974 104 MINUTES European Trash Cinema (U.S. import) DIRECTED BY CLIFFORD BROWN (JESUS FRANCO) WITH: FRED WILLIAMS, LINA ROMAY, BIGOTINI, WILLY BRAQUE, OLIVIER MATHOT, PAMELA SANFORD, MONICA SWINN, ANNA GLADYSEK, RAMÓN ARDID, VICTOR COSTA, VICTOR MENDÉS, SUZUKI, CAROLINE RIVIÊRE.
(a.k.a. ROLAND, L'HOMME LE PLUS SEXY DU MONDE; LE JOUISSEUR; DER SEX PLAYBOY)
I once called this one of JF's "finest" De Nesle efforts but I've changed my mind as it doesn't hold up very well despite an admirable premise....
A wealthy ex-playboy, Roland (Fred Williams) tires of married life and decides to return to his old ways. He poses as a butler and becomes a servant to rich and beautiful women, but many complications ensue. His "wife" is the imposing Barbara Bolt (Brigitte Monnin) is a frisky career woman, the President of an International Organization of porno stores, whose demands cannot be met by the intimidated Count Roland. An interesting class-gender conflict ensues, allowing Roland to have numerous erotic encounters to satisfy his bruised ego, the paying porn cinema customer but not necessarily the average fan of Jess Franco's outre vision.
The title of this sly comedy of manners indicates Franco wanted to infuse this amusing trifle with a sense of irony. Roland may be handsome but as played by Williams behaves like a run-of-the-mill male model, albeit with a little more humor and liveliness than this usually dull actor musters in his other Franco roles from this period. He's especially inadequate as the hobbled super spy in THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA. Franco aims for the tone of a Howard Hawks screwball comedy, but verbal and visual puns, not physical comedy, are more his forté. And as the only available videos on the U.S. mail-order circuit are in French, those unfamiliar with that language will miss the satiric barbs at male chauvinism and upper-class arrogance.
As Roland's pudgy, mischievous manservant Malou, Richard de Conninck aka Bigotini, a familiar Franco actor who often worked as the director's assistant, just about steals the show from Williams. Most of the footage follows Roland as he is seduced by various women, and in an especially amusing scene, tries to avoid the advances of one husband who also happens to like men.
The cinematography is colorful, with occasionally interesting camera angles, but the lack of any action other than sexual may bore those who are not Franco enthusiasts. This 1974 sex farce is one of Franco's least screened Robert De Nesle features, although released on French VHS [Videobox] it is not available in anything near HD in any format. A sometimes subtle, somewhat tender look at social roles and the presence of invisible class barriers which cut people off from erotic expression. It almost makes one wonder what the result would have been played straight.... Actually, this is the kind of French bedroom farce at which Blake Edwards excelled.
Andre Benichou's swinging Jazz score is wonderful and the sun dappled, color intensive, cubist frames remind one of Cezanne with a touch of Impressionist color patterns. And no film with Pamela Stanford, Monica Swinn and Lina Romay (as Loulou Laverne) in the cast can be all bad. It remains, alas, rather tiresome at its full length. The version under review is reportedly cut from 120 m!
Don't hold your breath for a Blu ray restoration.... but you never know.
03 January, 2017
1972 Les Expn riences Erotiques de Frankenstein
French language version, with programmable English subtitles....
22 December, 2016
NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES [MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE]: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray
A delirious exercise in horror y sexo, this pitch black Film Noir is one of Jess Franco’s most visually arresting entries from his early 1980s Spanish period. NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES aka MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE is one of the series of films he made for producer Emilio Larraga’s GOLDEN FILMS INTERNACIONAL S.A., based in Barcelona. These productions were low budget films covering a variety of genres, including an outstanding follow up to GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961), EL SINIESTRO DR. ORLOFF, softcore romps like LAS ORGIAS INCONFESABLES DE EMMANUELLE, erotic crime-thrillers, BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO, and Sade adaptations, GEMIDOS DE PLACER (all 1982). There were also Poe adaptations EN BUSCA DEL DRAGON DORADO and even martial arts adventures LA SOMBRA DEL JUDOKA CONTRA EL DOCTOR WONG (both 1983). From Clasificasa S softcores to Kung Fu to children’s adventures, what locks all these films together, good, bad, or not completed, was that they are all 100 percent undiluted Jess Franco in terms of style, tone, music and content. They were not just simple jobs for hire, hack work done to pay the bills with little evidence of the director’s signature. They were films he wanted to make and he made them the way he wanted.
MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE is one of the high points of this series. Rich in oneiric atmosphere, an erotic Film Noir suffused with exotic imagery, enhanced by an eerie, resonant soundscape, it resonates in the mind long after a viewing. The plot may seem familiar to those who have seen Franco’s 1970 erotic thriller NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT. Irina, an emotionally vulnerable psychic (Lina Romay) murders a group of guests at a luxury hotel* while under the mental control of a ruthless criminal. The villain of this piece is Fabian (Daniel Katz, very ably voiced by long running Franco actor-collaborator, Antonio Mayans), the gigolo manager of Irina who travels from hotel to hotel with her, performing mind reading acts in nightclubs.
The action of the film is set over several days in a coastal resort (it was filmed on Spain’s Costa Del Sol and in Las Palmas, Canary Islands) during which Irina is mentally programmed by Fabian to seduce and murder a number of the hotel’s guests, all of whom are owed money by Fabian for assisting him in a criminal operation. It sounds like a pulp fiction set-up but is transformed into a weird psychodrama by focusing on the dysfunctional emotional ties between the co-dependent Irina (one of Lina Romay’s most intense and unpredictable performances) and the manipulative Fabian, who has much to hide from her and the rest of the world.
Irina is also being treated by a psychiatrist, played in a reserved manner by Franco himself, who will play a pivotal role in the twisting narrative. The plot is sketchy and interrupted by regular stalk, seduce and kill interludes as Irina, commanded by the disembodied voice (which sounds a lot like Jess Franco) of Fabian to isolate, seduce and eliminate his former partners. She uses an elaborate, curved blade with arcane imagery sculpted into the handle. The details of the setting are carefully studied by the director’s slowly tracking camera while the slow zoom shots into bright pools of blood oranges, lush emeralds and canary yellows immerse the viewer in the exotica by heightening the normal hues into sensuous eruptions of pure color. This is a gorgeous film.
There’s very little dialogue, the plot is illustrated by disorienting camera set-ups, frequent Dutch angles, and third degree lighting of the tropical settings which creates a series of shimmering hallucinations, an approximation of the environment as experienced by the mentally compelled Irina. Franco’s 1967 masterpiece NECRONOMICON/SUCCUBUS is also referenced in the character of Irina and the story of the Prince killed by Satan’s daughter, which is repeated here by Fabian. The viewer is given extended visits into Irina’s hermetically sealed consciousness, which is repeatedly invaded by Fabian’s commands. Encounters with mirrors and Irina’s ability in teleportation give the overall sense of a sinister alternate dimension in which she is trapped. At times the film recalls Hitchcock’s psychoanalytic thriller SPELLBOUND (1946), in which the imagery of surrealist painter Salvador Dali was used to unravel a murder mystery. Dali would also be directly referenced in Franco’s 1980 EUGENIE, HISTORIA DE UNA PERVERSION.
I had a chance to talk about this film with Jess Franco when I interviewed him in 2004, during the making of one of his digital films.* He remembered it as one of what he called his “black films”, by which he meant Film Noir, a genre which he loved perhaps more than any other. Especially the ones made in the 1940s by Robert Siodmak (THE KILLERS, PHANTOM LADY). He was surprised when I praised the film’s dense, toxic atmosphere and told me it was a very rushed and micro-budgeted film, made with little money but in complete freedom from producer interference. He noted that he was influenced by John Farrow’s 1948 similarly titled THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, which featured Edward G. Robinson and Gail Russell in the lead roles. He also acknowledged the strong influence of the crime fiction of Cornell Woolrich, on which the 1948 film was based. Franco was quite surprised that I singled MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE out for praise, thanking me and mentioning that it was one of many projects completed during a time of constant filming in absolute freedom. Ironically, the film did not make much of an impact on the Clasificada S market when released in March 1984. Hardcore had been legalized in Spain by that time and that drew the "S" clientele away from that previously reliable market.
Credited to Pablo Villa, the musical choices add another layer of fascination to the film. Irina’s sensual interludes are sometimes scored with Daniel J. White’s lovely melancholy main theme from Franco’s 1973 FEMALE VAMPIRE, while the murder sequences are scored with the jungle-voodoo cues heard in DEVIL HUNTER and MACUMBA SEXUAL (1980). The feverish drumming and native chanting (again sounding voiced by a synthesized Jess Franco) are very effective here. Bird calls, industrial sounds, electronica and the sounds of the nearby sea are always in the background, an almost subliminal presence lulling the viewing into a vaguely menacing audio environment. As in NECRONOMICON and EXORCISM and many other Franco films it opens with a performance which is not what it seems to be, acts which slowly or suddenly reveal hidden agendas. Performance and the role of the audience/viewer is the key matrix in Jess Franco’s best and most personal films.
MONDO MACABRO has given this entrancing film a deliciously detailed 2.35:1, 1080p transfer from the 35mm negative with Dolby Digital PCD 24fps mono audio which really provides overwhelming soundscapes to this 94 minute fever dream. At times the film has an almost 3D quality with the vivid hues, heated up sets and layered soundscapes reaching out to pull the viewer into this unique, disturbing world. Special features include newly created optional English subtitles (this is the film’s English friendly, as well as HD debut), a 30 minute interview about the film with Jess Franco author Steven Thrower, a vintage Eurotika! documentary on the director and a Mondo Macabro preview reel.
An overpowering visual and audio experience, this dreamlike thriller is in the style of classic Hitchcock and David Lynch. One of Jess Franco’s most delirious and sought after films finally makes its world Blu-ray debut from Mondo Macabro. Highly recommended
Thanks to Kris J. Nygaard-Gavin for making it possible for me to interview Jess Franco.
- Thanks to Nzoog for additional information used in this review.
- *The Arabic style villa which is the main setting, with its fantastic indoor decoration and elaborate fountain, is actually Bil-Bil Castle in Benalmádena, Málaga. This exotic structure also looks a lot like the villa of character played by Boris Karloff in the 1967 Spanish horror film, CAULDRON OF BLOOD.
(C) 2016 Robert Monell
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