COCKTAIL SPECIAL (1978): Jess Franco's XXX Files

Christopher Lee, in his memorable crimson smoking jacket, as the vicious Sadean perpetrator/narrator, Dolmance, seen in this vintage advert for Jess Franco's first version of Sade's 1795 literary outrage, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM.

COCKTAIL SPECIAL is a hardcore remake of EUGENIE, THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970). Actually, the second remake after PLAISIR A TROIS (1973), which also featured some hardcore action, but much less than in this entry.

This may have been chronologically the last film Franco made for the prolific producer Robert de Nesle, who is credited with the script. De Nesle reportedly died in 1978.

The titular drink may be especially disgusting but there are reasons to examine this film, outside of its interest to those who must see each and every film Franco made during his 50 year and still ticking directorial career. Visually exotic, with bizarre masks, strobe lighting, esoteric set-ups, this brief, ingeniously composed adult programmer is interestingly scored by Franco and Daniel White (as Pablo Villa, these delirious cues would be heard in many of his 1980s period films).

Touxa Beni is an olive, bright, rather mysterious Eugenie and a makes an equally compelling protagonist as the other actresses (Marie Liljedahl; Alice Arno; Katia Beinert) who have played the role for Franco.

I disagree with the review in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO, which dismisses this film while pushing the suggestion that Franco did not direct it. There may have been some inserts added but there are many trademark Franco images and plot details.

With Karen Gambier as the most significant eye candy, outside of Ms. Beni, in the film, there's little to behold outside of the endlessly interesting ways Franco finds to illuminate the penniless production, often large lamps are just placed directly behind the actors as the camera shoots into them, breaking one of the cardinal rules of "well made" cinema.

Shot in Portugal, one wonders if this was the film Franco offered to to Brigitte Lahaie in the wake of another de Nesle Portuguese-lensed hardcore, JE BRULE DE PARTOUT [type the title in the blog's search engine for my archived review]' she summarily refused the offer.

One wonders why Franco kept returning to the original Sade story, published as seven "Dialogues" in 1795. Female characters reading books (Sade/erotic pulp) is another activity given special attention in his Sade films.

Reading it is a shocking experience as one realizes, with reference to the five Jess Franco versions, it's much, much more explicit and transgressive than any or all of them put together. Note the way Franco uses the languid images of character's smoking cigrarettes as punctuation between the extended hardcore scenes. Smoking is always an activity which attracts special attention in the Franco filmography. Given the director's own habit of chain smoking for virutally every possible moment it registers as some kind of miracle that he lasted a few years past 80.

The final twist in COCKTAIL SPECIAL is that Eugenie's own father is tricked into incest during the climactic masque, but in the Sade original it's Madame de Mistival who ends up as the victim of a brutal physical-sexual assault by Eugenie under the close direction of Dolmance, played by Christopher Lee in the the 1970 version. Eugenie's subsequent dialogue highlights her delight in her role as multiple transgressor.

The final dialogue concludes with the lines which Lee speaks (with acidic irony) in a key scene: "I never dine so heartily, I never sleep so soundly as when I have, during the day, sufficiently befouled myself with what our fools call crimes." That's Entertainment, Sade style.



*[There is only the main title and a FIN card on the print I screened]; most of Franco's de Nesle backed films of this period were signed as Clifford Brown or Jacques Garcia.

Thanks to Francesco Cesari for helping me to see this rarity via DVD-R.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025

MIDNIGHT PARTY (Lady Porno) 1975

American-European Films presents LADY PORNO aka La Coccolona (Italian release), Porno Pop, Sexy Blues, La Partouze de Minuit, Sylvia la Baiseuse, Heisse Beruhrungen (German version) LADY PORNO (Spanish version) Directed by Tawer Nero (Julio Perez Tabernero) for Titanic Films, Spanish version. James Gardner (Jess Franco), English language version. Based on a story by David Khunne. 75 min, Spanish version. 90 min, English language version. MIDNIGHT PARTY version produced by Eurocine/Paris, Brux Interfilms/Brussels. Production Mgr. Daniel Lesoeur.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the production of Jess Franco's ultra-minimalist Eurospy-sex comedy. Filmed in what Pamela Stanford once wrote to me was "the celestial city" i.e. the futurist/geometric Southern France resort Le Grande Motte in what appears to be just a few days in a hotel rooms also seen in several other Franco films made back-to-back (SHINING SEX, DE SADE'S JULIETTE),\. Franco himself appears in the central role as Agent #008. Lina Romay is Syvia, a frisky stripper working at the hotel. This is an interactive sexy spy film filmed without excuses and possibly scripted on hotel napkins. It was a typical Franco strategy that he shot two other films at Le Grande Motte using the exact same rooms, casts and crews. The version under consideration here has the onscreen title LADY PORNO, a Spanish variant of Franco's original, MIDNIGHT PARTY. Credited to Tawer Nero aka Julio Perez Tabernero, an actor turned producer-director (he can be seen in Franco's own SADISTEROTICA/Two Undercover Angels) acquired it for his Titanic Films (Julio, your company needs a new handle!) and reconstructed it as an "American-Belgian" co-production. It's very amusingly redubbed and rescored with lewd comments, bawdy music and direct-to-the-viewer takes.

--Sylvia is a very hot stripper who carries on an affair with a cheap detective, Al Pereira (Franco regular Olivier Mathot) behind the back of her longtime lover, jazz musician Red Nicholas (longtime Jess Franco friend, actor, film historian, Alain Petit). This is not really another of Franco's Al Pereira episodes, as he is mainly a player in Sylvia's story. This is kind of like a live action cartoon (cf LUCKY, THE INSCRUTABLE) with Lina Romay giving it all she has as the resourceful Sylvia. This might actually be my personal favorite of her performances, she mercilessly teases the viewer directly as the interactive approach allows her to pose, stick her tongue out, and make alluring remarks to the audience before turning back to the scene and players at hand, resuming in the traditional fourth wall mode. It's all a lot of good natured fun. Except that the subject is torture. Torture that really hurts! Sylvia is taken by Radeck/Agent 008, a spymaster and professional torture mogul who takes his business very seriously indeed. Look at the way he abuses poor Sylvia: after being stripped and sexually abused by henchpersons Monica Swinn and Ramon, she's poked, punched and cigarette burned by the ingrates under the very close supervision of Radeck. They take her to the "torture clinic" which, this being a Jess Franco shoot, merely means another hotel room (or the same hotel room slightly redressed and shot from a different angle). Choosing a metal tool they try pulling out her toenails, as Radeck is beginning to lose his patience.

At this point one of my favorite moments in Franco's monumental filmography occurs, and it only lasts a few seconds--Radeck simply puts a cigarette in his mouth and lights it. That's it! The exact way which actor Jess Franco jabs the smoke into his mouth and fires it up has to be experienced first hand. It's a grand bit a business, something small made into something very special by a seasoned professional. Radeck drops the pose at the end, as Sylvia and Al are escaping he faces the camera and admits to us that it was all an illusion. We have been spectators. But what are we doing at this venue? Of course, that question is implied rather than asked. Alain Petit is very droll as the Marxist jazz singer. Billed as "Charlie Christian" (cf JUSTINE, the 1979-80 Joe D'Amato composite where he is likewise billed as his footage here is rolled over with scenes from SHINING SEX into a unique reedit) he performs his infamous "La Vie est un Merde", also heard in a blues rendition during Franco's 1982 EMMANUELLE EXPOSED and in Petit's documentary THE MAKING OF TENDER FLESH (1997).

The Spanish language version which was screened for this review (subtitled in English) is very much in keeping with the joker/trickster impulses which frequently bubble to the surface of Franco's work. The finale, a shootout with the cops (a minimalist debacle) followed by shots of birds flying in the distance as our couple floats away on a pleasure craft, is post-ironic in the sense that it delivers on expectations which Franco obviously considers bogus while gleefully curving past the generic demands of representational, grade B sexploitation production methodology. In other words: don't worry, be happy, it's only a Jess Franco movie. (C) Robert Monell, 2025

LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/THE EROTIC EXPLOITS OF MACISTE IN ATLANTIS (Clifford Brown, 1973

LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/THE EROTIC EXPLOITS OF MACISTE IN ATLANTIS (1973) According to legend, a group of women escaped from Atlantis just before the destruction of the continent. They took refuge on a mysterious island, and founded a kingdom. Men who dared approach the island, were devoured by these sexually voracious Atlanteans, and thus they were called “gobblers”... Crew: Robert De Nesle (Producer), Robert Viger (Music) Details Genres: Peplum, Erotic, Fantasy, Adventure Releases: 1975 (Franco) Cast: Wal Davis Alice Arno Robert Woods Montserrat Prous Lina Romay Kali Hansa Chantal Broquet Howard Vernon Richard Bigotini Caroline Rivière Pamela Stanford Roger Sarbib Thanks to Mario Giguere..

MACISTE ET LES GLOUTONNES/LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L’ATLANTIDE (1973) 32531-les-gloutonnes-0-230-0-341-cropro Here’s an update of my review of LES GLOUTONNES, Jess Franco’s Z budget peplum from 1973. Actually, this and YUKA/THE LUSTFUL AMAZONS were shot back-to-back or, since it’s Jess Franco, simultaneously, with same cast, on the same locations. They’re odd wonderments, unpretentious, no-budget fun. Originally published by the wonderful Club Des Monstres in 2008.

Directed under his oft employed beard, Clifford Brown, this is a fascinating mess due to the fact that Robert de Nesle and co. took a supposedly «serious» movie and made it into a delirious collage of peplum, adventure, comedy, erotic and fantasy patterns. It’s Wal Davis as the legendary Maciste (first seen in the 1913 Italian epic, CABIRIA) vs. Robert Woods (LA COMTESSE PERVERSE) as the explorer Caronte, who, turned by the evil sorceress Parka (Kali Hansa), attempts to overthrow and kill the Queen of Atlantis, played by Alice Arno. Maciste prevails with the help of «the gobblers», the lost women of Atlantis. Howard Vernon makes an appearance as Cagliostro (cf LA MALDICION DES FRANKENSTEIN), who, along with his puckish assistant (Richard De Conninick), views the erotic adventures via a magical globe. A very interesting, eclectic score, credited to Robert Viger [?], is a bonus. The shot-on-Madeira locations are rather intoxicating, especially explored by the director’s trademark telezoom lens in the manner of the much more somber LA COMTESSE NOIRE, also 1973.

There’s even a hardcore sex scene thrown in the mix, with a nude man descending a spiral staircase to ejacute Arno and another actress with pent up white fluid which looks like mayonnaise. Mark Forest was originally supposed to play Maciste, according to Franco, but another actor was mistakenly engaged. Davis (rn Wadlemar Wohlfart) ending up as a goofy looking Maciste. The opening sequence of Robert Woods exploring a misty valley and the first view of the stormy coast of «Atlantis» are outstandingly atmospheric, but unless you are a Franco completest you may hate this film. The emergence of a platoon of white sheeted ghouls looks like outtakes from the alternate Spanish version of EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN while some additional footge of Alice Arno reading a book (a Jess Franco novelization of the film?) looks like alternate footage from one of the many versions of THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA. Franco also made YUKA (also 1973 with Davis / Wohlfahrt Waldemar and Robert Woods playing the leads), another erotic «peplum» set in the Middle Ages. Both would make a nice double bill on a High Def restoration,but don't hold your breath. I could watch this film on a 20 hour loop or as an endlessly expanded termite epic. It’s the kind of film Robert Siodmak (an idol of Tio Jess) would make late in his career and everyone would dismiss as an absurdity. But it’s sublime in its unapologetic absurdity. Made even more absurd by the commercial demands of Robert De Nesle which deformed this intended "somber" peplum into delirious adventure made on the far-side of Franco's own genre specifications.

But anything featuring Howard Vernon as Cagliostro can't be all bad. (C) Robert Monell 2010-2024

UNA RAJITA PARA DOS (Jess Franco, 1984)

UNA RAJITA PARA DOS (1984)

Credited to «Lulu La Verne» UNA RAJITA PARA DOS (rough translation: A PUSSY FOR TWO) would qualify, with its numerous close-ups of objects being removed from rectums, as Jess Franco’s most disgusting film. Nevertheless, it is not an uninteresting dip into the sordid waters of scatological hardcore. Below: Jess Franco as the hotel voyeur in UNA RAJITA PARA DOS.

Spy (Emilio Linder) in UNA RAJITA PARA DOS (Lulu La Verne, 1982)

Everyone is a spy in this film, including Jess Franco himself as a hotel clerk-voyeur. The most amusing character is a happy-go-lucky spy nicknamed «The Queen» (Franco regular Antonio Mayans). His spyware includes the kind of audio pick-up that James Bond might have used in one of his classic adventures, enjoying the sounds of the various erotic adventures in adjacent hotel rooms. Tommy Proculi aka Antonio Mayans practices audio voyeurism as a gay Russian spy named «The Queen»….. The setting is the Flamingo Hotel located on the exotic Costa del Sol. Linda is a female spy who is attempting to recover some stolen microfilm secreted in the rectum of a male agent (Johnny Poyales aka Jose Llamas). Her team includes such 1980s Franco players as Maria del Carmen Nieto (MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Emilio Linder (DIAMONDS OF KILAMANJARO). The Queen is also on the trail of the microfilm. [Below: the gay spy]

Lina Romay, who co-directed with Franco, and Mayans look like they had a lot of fun making this very minor hardcore which is mostly made up of grind footage, money shots and gynecological close-ups featuring the most disgusting images Franco even filmed, detailing the insertions and extractions of the microfilm into a spy’s nether region. To drive home his satirical point, Franco shot these scenes through a magnifying glass. It's as if the magnifying glass were the equivalent of his frequent "vaginal zooms" which are omnipresent in such 1970s erotic epics as LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973). His philosophy seemed to be to give «too much information» along with a self referential nod to the raincoat crowd, who just expected the typical cheap thrills. Franco's filmography is full of visual essays on the art of "seeing" rather than just looking at a film. [Below: Agent 69 (Lina Romay) studies the microfilm.

I guess Jess Franco figured if he had to make a film like this he might as well have some fun with hermetic in-jokes and a sarcastic toned overview of the hardcore product which flooded the Spanish market at that time. Another mixture of self references (note the frequent zoom shots from above into the hotel swimming pools, linguistic and cultural satire which launched a series of 1980s hardcore mini-epics produced by Fernando Vidal Campos’ FERVI FILMS, Madrid. My own personal favorite of the Fervi hardcores, and also a favorite of Jess, is the 1985 EL MIRON Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA, which features magnetic interactions between these typical close-ups, a thriller undercurrent and a cubist mise-en-scene.

This obscurity received a Spanish video release on the Valfer label. Don’t expect a restored Blu-ray edition anytime soon. The hotel and Costa del Sol exteriors shimmer with candy colored flora and there are a few sight gags which might produce a guffaw from the completest. My favorite scene is the ending where Franco’s voyeur passes off the microfilm to «The Queen» who skips his merry way back toward the Soviet Union. The upbeat Hot Jazz/80s funk score* is credited to Victor Chichi Nabeira, presumably a beard for the director. More sexually related pseudonyms in the credits include Francesco Del Pi Trofuera (out with your cock) as DP (also Franco), Tony Procula (stick it up the rear), Mele Metes (stick it in) and Cheno Manboliques (sounds like something bizarre) as exec producer.

The runtime is 84 minutes, four minutes longer than the time noted in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO. *The score also contains excerpts from Daniel White’s LA COMTESSE NOIRE (1973) music and other soundtracks credited to Pablo Villa. Thanks to Nzoog for the translations and helping me see this ultra obscure title. (C) Robert Monell 2024

JUNGLE OF FEAR (1993): The secret writing of Jess Franco, Part 1.

LOS BLUES DE LA CALLE POP (.... AVENTURAS DE FELIPE MALBORO, VOLUMEN 8) 1983

Los Blues De La Calle Pop 1983 80 MINUTES Galan Video (Spain) European Trash Cinema (U.S. import). Written, Photographed and Directed by Jess Franco. Cast: Robert Foster (Antonio Mayans), Candy Coster (Lina Romay), Jose Llamas, Trino Treves, Mary Sad, Analia Ivars, Jess Franco, Augustin Garcia. -------------------------------------------------------------------- (a.k.a. AVENTURAS DE FELIPE MALBORO, VOLUMEN 8) Felipe Marlboro, ideally incarnated by Franco mainstay Antonio Mayans ("Robert Foster"), is a seedy private investigator who takes up a missing person case in punk infested Shit City, a sub-Fellini nightclub world in which all the males seem to hang out in a smoky bar decorated with posters of Bogart and Mae West, waiting for trouble to erupt. The residents of this corrupt town all look like they base their fashion sense on MTV. The men look like either Sid Vicious or a member of A Flock of Seagulls, and the women sport the slutty attire and pouty sexuality of Robert Palmer's female back-up in his music video "Addicted to Love." Likewise, (as the visual style of the film is a whacked-out array of shimmering primary colors and weird camera angles.

The plot has Marlboro enlisting the aid of piano player Sam Chesterfield (played by Jess Franco himself) in an all out effort to bust the town's drug and dirty money kingpin Saul Winston (Trino Trives). This witty and visually striking neo-noir parody is one of Franco's personal favorites, and it's easy to see why. Almost every shot in the film is a loving homage to 1940s private eye cinema (such as THE MALTESE FALCON and THE BIG SLEEP) filtered through a 1980s MTV-style lens. It's also retro-punk and looks forward to more familiar cine-comic books, such as SIN CITY. Franco has stated that he attempted to sustain a comic-book look in many of his genre efforts. He totally succeeded in this film as he did in his amusing 1967 spy spoof, LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE. He also pulled it off in his 1971 answer to a 1940s Universal Pictures monster rally, DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN. Our guide through the punk nightmare world of POP STREET BLUES is the director's trusted actor-collaborator-friend Antonio Mayans, who is the perfect fall guy in Franco's off-world of pimps, whores, killers, and thugs. Sexy Analia Ivars makes for a perfect lean and mean femme fatale.

Franco stages the well worn private eye cliches in his usual iconoclastic fashion. For instance, when Marlboro gets a beating for asking too many questions, the guy who kicks the living daylights out of him is a flashy flamenco dancer who performs his dance steps in between each punch and kick. Most amusing of all is the twisted ending, which finds Marlboro seduced by the woman who has set him up for extinction.

Franco adorns this very personal project with a quick-paced editing style, brightly colored comic book frames, seedy locations shot through diffusion lenses, and a rousing New Orleans style jazz score by longtime Franco friend-collaborator Fernando Garcia Morcillo. LA BLUES DE LA CALLE POP is a continual delight to see and hear. Franco's experimental deployment of colored filters is especially interesting (as is Franco's stylistically similar 1986 punk-Eurospy adventure ESCLAVAS DEL CRIMEN) and makes me wonder why he didn't continue in this style. Instead, his next several films (leaving aside such purely commercial projects as FALO CREST and FACELESS), such as DARK MISSION (1987), ESMERALDA BAY (1989), FALL OF THE EAGLES and DOWNHEAT HEAT (1990), mostly display much more conventional visual aesthetics with very few, if any, of the familier Fracno "touches".

Seen in today's cult-music/movie friendly age, LOS BLUES DE LA CALLE POP could be designated as "retro-punk" in style, tone and theme. One gets the feeling that Muddy Waters would have understood it. There's even a touch of CASABLANCA, including the iconic Bogart poster from that 1943 classic. With the director himself as the reliable piano man, Sam Chesterfield. One waits for someone to say, "Play it again, Jess." LOS BLUES A}LA CALLE POP...certainly deserves at least a

Blu-ray release for the Franco collectors. (C)Robert Monell, 2024

An Interview with Paul Muller/EUGENIE DE SADE

This interview was conducted in 2005. Paul Muller passed away in September, 2016. I thank him for his patience with my questions.

(C) Robert Monell

Patience is the term which comes to mind first when attempting to describe the character of Paul Muller, tempered by a distinct Swiss formality which, in time, dissolves to reveal a very warm, kind human being who has seen it all, been there and done that, but remains humble about his own considerable gifts. There's a certain very low key frustration about his career, a certain wistfulness and sadness which is very difficult to describe in written words. Like his layered performances, he simultaneously and subtly, very subtly, suggests all the burdens and possibilities of human creativity in a world and business where extraordinary sensitivity can be a stimulus or a curse... Paul Muller (b. 1923 in Switzerland) has appeared in well over 200 films since 1948 and still has an agent. He has been in Hollywood mainstream productions, obscure European genre films, TV dramas and has been a recognizable visage in Italian Cinefantastique from the seminal I VAMPIRI (1957) to the not so hot GATE OF HELL, the eminently forgettable Umberto Lenzi satanic adventure from 1990 where he appears very briefly as a murderous monk stalking scientists in a haunted cavern. Our conversation covered the films he made with Jess Franco from 1968 to 1975. "Pronto!" the voice was both high pitched and full of undefined emotion. Paul Muller speaks VERY loudly and clearly and shifts immediately to perfect English when I indicate I can't speak Italiano. But he can't understand a word I am saying... I report our conversations from the outset to give a feeling of the man himself and perhaps for entertainment value, as it seemed that at times Paul Muller was interviewing me:

PM: "Where are you from?" RM: New York, well upstate New York. PM: You have an American accent which is hard to understand. RM: Yes, I've been told that. I'm sorry. PM: No, don't be sorry. You'll have to speak slowly. RM: I am writing a book about Jess Franco and wanted to interview you about your work in his films. PM: You are writing a script about me? RM: A book about Jess Franco. PM: Ah, yes, Jessie. How old is he? RM: He's about 75 now. PM: Ah, that's younger than me [laughs]. Is he still making films. RM: Yes, he just completed one. PM: Does he still make them in the same way? RM: Well, he still makes them quickly and inexpensively and in his own way. PM: I thought so. What do you want to know about the films I made with him? RM: Well, first of all, I'd like to say I'm an admirer of your extensive acting career. You are a very impressive actor. PM: I don't understand. RM: Well, I meant you are very good in all the films I have seen you in, but let me ask you about Jess Franco. PM: What years do you want to know about? What exactly do you want to know? RM: About your feelings about him as a director and the experiences you had while making these films. PM: Jessie could have been a very good director. But he was never prepared. I think if Jessie had taken time to prepare, to work on the scripts he could have been a good director. But he never had the time or the money. These films never, ever had a script. There were all just ideas he had. He had plenty of ideas, but you need more than ideas. He had good ideas but they were never developed properly. He never shot with a script and he was trying to get the production money as they were being shot. He was very busy and the films were lacking many things. RM: So, there was never any finished script or secured completion funds on ANY of the films of his you were in? PM: No, never. That was the problem. RM: Let's start at the beginning. I believe your first film for him was VENUS IN FURS in 1968? Do you remember that one? At this point Mr Muller excuses himself and when he returns appears to be reading something which he often consults during the conversation. PM: No, I only remember the years and the titles Jess called them by when we were shooting. RM: That one was also called BLACK ANGEL or Paroxismus... in Italy, I believe. PM: No. I was in DE SADE 70 first then THE TRIAL OF THE WITCHES and THE NIGHT HAS EYES then DRACULA and EUGENIE. Later, in Germany I was in DR JEKYLL AND MRS HYDE and AKASAVA. RM: I'm trying to get a correct chronology and I appreciate it that you have records. When was VAMPYROS LESBOS shot? With Soledad Miranda. PM: I don't know that title. I made a film Jessie called UNDER THE SIGN OF THE VAMPYRE with her in Germany and Spain and then JULIETTE. RM: Right, that's it. But lets go back. PM: I'll try my best. RM: Thanks. Now you don't seem to remember VENUS IN FURS but.... PM: No, I remember DE SADE 70 in 1969 as the first with Maria Rohm, Jack Taylor and Christopher Lee. RM: OK, good, that's got a different title now, EUGENIE... HER JOURNEY... but was DE SADE 70 the shooting title? PM: Yes, that was shot in Spain.These first films I made with Jessie were shot partially in Madrid, then in Barcelona and someplace else in Southern Spain. RM: THE BLOODY JUDGE was shot partially in Portugal. Do you remember that? And where, exactly, in Southern Spain? PM: All I remember is in southern Spain. RM: Do you recall the cast of DE SADE 70: Christoper Lee or the lead, Marie Liljedahl? PM: I don't know who Marie Liljedahl is. RM: She played the leading character, Eugenie. PM: I don't remember her. I remember being there with the cast who were all very nice, that's all. These films were made very quickly and sometimes he would make two films at the same time. And later they were all made in a row, one after another. RM: I understand. What came next? PM: Then there came THE NIGHT HAS EYES with Diana Lorys and Jack Taylor. RM: Good, you remember the exact casting. That's also known as NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT. Diana Lorys is very good in that one. PM: I don't remember her at all. That was also shot very quickly in Spain. RM: How quickly. PM: Maybe a week, maybe less. I don't remember much about that one. RM: THE BLOODY JUDGE and EL CONDE DRACULA had more prominent casts including Christopher Lee. Were they bigger budgeted? PM: I remember Soledad Miranda from DRACULA, THE VAMPIRE. RM: I wanted to ask you about her. PM: She died in a car accident. She could have been a great actress, a big star, if she had lived. RM: Mr. Muller, which films do you remember the most about and which actors? PM: EUGENIE, made in 1970 with Miranda, then UNDER THE SIGN OF THE VAMPYRE and DR JEKYLL AND MRS HYDE, also with her. She was called Susan Korda in those films. Then, later I made AKASAVA with her in Germany. Part of DR JEKYLL was also shot in Germany with Horst Tappert. Earlier I made SEX CHARADE with her and Jack Taylor. RM: OK, let's go back to SEX CHARADE and EUGENIE. Were these the first of the series of films you made with her in 1970? PM: Yes, I think so. But these two were made almost at the same time. I remember EUGENIE was a good film which could have been a very good film if he had more time to prepare the script. This was shot all in Germany. RM: In Berlin. PM: Correct. Also shot very quickly. I remember Jessie was writing all the lines on the set for the next scene as we were shooting. We would take a half an hour break and then shoot the scene he had just written. RM: Dialogue and blocking? PM: Yes, everything was written just before it was filmed. RM: Talk about the day to day filming of EUGENIE. Was it all hectic, as you have suggested.? PM: Yes, we didn't have any preparation or any rehearsal time. And no money for anything. It was all made up on the spot. As I said, Jess was writing as he was shooting.. He would be dictating lines which we would shoot shortly a half hour later. He was never sure about anything, never sure about thematic things. He had very good ideas but never had the time to work on them. RM: Was EUGENIE filmed MOS? And what language did you speak your lines in? PM: EUGENIE was shot in English. Miranda and I were given our lines by Jessie in English and we spoke them in English. They recorded our dialogue in English. RM: That surprises me. I thought it may have been filmed in French. PM: No, Jess spoke to me in French on the set. He spoke in German, French, Italian on the set to the crew when giving directions. I spoke to Jess in French and I spoke in Italian on the set to everyone else, but my lines were always given and delivered in English. RM: "Given" by whom? PM: Jessie, he always gave the lines in English but other directors to me in French. RM: It sounds like the Tower of Babel? How did you commnunicate with Soledada Miranda? Did she speak English or Italian? PM: No, she spoke just Spanish. But I talked to here in Italian, which she seemed to understand. There wasn't any trouble between us. She just spoke her lines of dialogue in Engllish. She was good, as I said, and would have become a better actress had she lived RM: On the EUGENIE set, did she speak her lines phonetically? PM: Yes, she just repeated the way they sounded in English if that's what you are asking. RM: She's very good in that. What did you think of her performance? PM: She was very good, she was a very good actress in that, not timid. RM: Can you discuss her as a person? How was she offset? PM: A nice person, a very good working partner. Very friendly. RM: Was VAMPYROS LESBOS filmed right after EUGENIE. PM: Yes, if you mean UNDER THE SIGN OF THE VAMPYRE. We shot that in Germany and Spain. RM: And Istanbul. PM: No, just Germany and Spain. RM: There's a lot of scenes set and shot on location in Istanbul. PM: I haven't seen it and I didn't go there then. This and DR JEKYLL were shot close together in Germany and Spain. Fred Williams was also in DR JEKYLL and Howard Vernon. RM: What do you remember about them? PM: I just have it written down that they were there. I don't remember them. RM: DR JEKYLL also has a different title now, SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY about a Doctor who is driven to suicide and how his wife avenges him. PM: Yes, that was called DR JEKYLL on the set by Jessie. You must understand I had forgotten about these films until you called. Look, they all could have been good films! But I keep telling you that he didn't take the time or didn't have the time to prepare or develop them or film them. I really can't tell you anymore than that, but thank you for asking about them. RM: I wanted to ask you about the others.... You spoke of JULIETTE... PM: Yes, that was filmed by never released. I think it was left unfinished at the time because of money problems. That's all I remember. RM: You also made one with Christina Von Blanc called VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD in English. Do you remember her or that film? PM: No, I don't remember her, I only remember making one called THE NIGHT THE STARS CRIED in Spain after the ones with Soledad Miranda. I don't recall anything about filming it, though. That's the last one I remember. I apologize but I think I have given you what you wanted to know and I'm sorry I didn't understand you at first. I wish I remembered more, but these were made many decades ago. Then Mr. Muller said "Goodbye", a final bow shaded with that mysterious mixture of wistfulness, wisdom, sadness and humanity which we all remember from his many cinema incarnations. Below is my first impression of EUGENIE DE SADE, published 25 years ago in the international website, DARK WATERS: 1970 85 MINUTES -BLUE UNDERGROUND- DIRECTED BY JESS FRANCO WITH: SOLEDAD MIRANDA, PAUL MULLER, ANDRE MONTCALL, GRETA SCHMIDT, ALICE ARNO, KARL HEINZ MANNCHEN, JESS FRANCO -------------------------------------------------------------------- (a.k.a. EUGENIE; EUGENIE DE FRANVAL; DESADE 2000; EUGENIE DE SADE)

EUGENIE DE SADE is the story of Eugenie Radeck, the young daughter of a writer of erotic literature (Paul Muller). It is told from Eugenie's deathbed, as she recounts a tragic encounter with criminality. She is persuaded by her twisted father to first enter into a forbidden relationship with her, and the hook up with a film director, Tanner (Jess Franco), which leads to a no-holds-barred murder spree of various "loose women." One of these women is an S&M prostitute (played by Alice Arno in her first appearance in a Franco film) who they first photograph and then strangle in a sleazy Brussells bordello. This outrageous scene mimics the filmmaking process itself, with the father acting as director and the daughter as lead actress/murderess. Reality and illusion constantly blur in this film, as in Franco's somewhat similiar SUCCUBUS (1967), which was shot on some of the same locations in Berlin. Eventually, Muller brutally murders Miranda in a fit of rage, and then committing ritual suicide by disemboweling himself. All of this is watched over by Tanner, who hears Eugenie's last confession, and the film's last shot of him, looking mournfully down at the dead woman, is one of Franco's finest moments as both actor and director. (Miranda, who was killed in a car accident only months after appearing in this film, made several other erotic thillers and horror titles with Franco.) She is the film's tragic victim, albeit complicit in her father's crimes. Muller is the Sadean protagonist par excellence. An intelligent, menacing figure, an auteur of Sadism who makes films of his crimes, only of which is watched by Franco in the film's opening credits. Franco himself stands in for the viewer, who brings a rational point of view into the otherwise obsessive mise-en-scene. EUGENIE DE SADE benefits from the powerful chemistry between Muller and Miranda, two of the most instense performers in Franco's acting stable. They are at the top of their game here, with Muller especially effective as the sinister, tormented sadist. Franco based his screenplay on Sade's "Eugenie de Franval", and it remains the closest any film has come to capturing the spiraling contradictions of Sadean philosophy, as well as the dry wit of the notorious author. An jazz infused score by spaghetti western composer Bruno Nicolai (who also scored Franco's EL CONDE DRACULA (1969) evokes a bittersweet mood, which often swings unexpectedly into a Euro-pop female vocal. The Video Search of Miami video version of this movie is incorrectly listed as DESADE 70, which was an alternate title for another Franco Sade adaptation, EUGENIE, THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1969).

Although still mentally focused when I spoke with him, Muller had forgotten VENUS IN FURS (1969) as his first appearance in a Jess Franco film. He had also forgotten DOWNTOWN (1975), his final collaboration with Franco, produced by Erwin C. Dietrich. He did mention A VIRGIN FOR ST. TROPEZ as a Eurocine project which started shooting right after the completion of THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA (1973). He did remember working in Spain (Portugal?) with Franco on THE NIGHT THE STARS CRIED (aka VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD). He also mentioned that A VIRGIN FOR ST. TROPEZ and being directed by Franco in his scenes for that film. He noted there were other Eurocine directors working on the shoot simultaneously when he and Franco arrived. Several interiors familiar from previous Franco films are featured in this production, credited to Eurocine director/editor/screenwriter Georges Friedland, who would to on to script Franco's DARK MISSION (1987) and THE FALL OF THE EAGLES (1990). The settings in question are seen in Franco's 1974 EXORCISM and the basement torture chamber setting previously used in Franco's LA COMTESSE NOIRE and HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA (both 1973). Although it is unlikely that Franco directed the entirely directed A VIRGIN FOR ST. TROPEZ, Franco was obviously tapped by Eurocine to lend a hand in this film's production.

The images below are all from A VIRGIN FOR ST. TROPEZ:

Thanks to Kit Gavin for helping me locate Paul Muller. (C) Robert Monell, 2024

Jess Franco's Digital Apocalypse, Part 2: FLORES DES PERVERSION (2003)

"Forewarned, said she, of all that was destined to take place at the home of the libertine to whom I was being sent, I dressed myself as a boy, and as I was only twenty, with pretty hair and a pretty face, that costume very well became me."

The above quote, from Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom (1785), is a good example of the writing style of "The Divine Marquis", matter-of-fact, formally stylized with his droll pen. Throughout the epic Sade favors a dry, verbose approach, detailing clothing, rituals, lists of torments and witty conversations between the libertines, the narrators and the victims. Repititive, static and episodic, constantly interrupted with sidebar stories, he is less interested in narrative, pacing and psychology than an obsessive, episodic, irony-rich tapestry of perversion from contemporary taboo. One can easily see from a few sentences in any work of Sade why he would immediately appeal to the filmmaker Jess Franco. Especially the Franco who directed the torture sequence in THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS and the entirety of such films as NECROMOMICON/SUCCUBUS (1967) and such Franco adaptations of Sade as EUGENIE DE SADE, PLAISIR A TROIS and EUGENIE, UNA HISTORIA DE UNA PERVERSION (1980).

"I abhor nature. I detest her because I know her well." This Sadean statement, spoken by the female narrator of Franco's HELTER SKELTER (2002), is repeated again and again throughout its length. A film's female voice addressing a female nature. The Francoverse has been steadily female since his very first feature, WE ARE 18 (1959). If anything, Franco's universe becomes more female as his career progresses in digital. It's no accident that Sade's epic novels, JUSTINE (1791) and JULIETTE (1797), both are built around female protagonists. Franco first read Sade at a young age and it stayed with him throughout his 60 years career. HELTER SKELTER quickly shifts downward into a blurry, slow motion,d magenta and citron tinged fantasia between Lina Romay and a partner for the first half of its runtime. The players are always 100 percent involved in the softcore erotica but nonetheless are also aware of the camera's presence and often gaze at the viewer in the midst of ecstasy. That gaze, making the film interactive, is crucial to the director, he paces his film with regular interactive moments in the midst of his delirious mise-en-scene. It's as if to say directly to the viewer that this is not representational cinema. There's also, as in FLORES DE PERVERSION, a naked, bound male, waiting to be abused, hanging up with a view of the coast through a large window. This film was a warning directly from Sade: "Take me as I am, for I shall not change."

*FLORES DE PERVERSION is based on the posthumous Sade text "Augustine de villeblanche, ou le stratageme de l'amour: HISTORIETTES: CONTES ET FABLIAUS de Donatien-Alphonse-Francois, marquis de Sade, publies pour la premiere fois sur les manuscrits autographs inedits par Maurice Heine. A Paris, pour les members de la Societe du Roman Philosophique, 1926. 4to , 340 pages. 

A Manacoa Film Production Filmed in Malaga, Spain PAL R2 X-Rated-Kult DVD Spanish & German language options with removable English subtitles. Photo Gallery Original Trailer X-Rated Kult Trailers.  

 Mme Villeblanche (Lina Romay) operates an upscale prostitution empire located in a office tower somewhere in Spain. She spends most of her days frolicking in bed with her assistant (Rachael Sheppard), occasionally interrupted by business calls on her cellphone. Two new hookers are hired to lure clients into the torture chambers of Mme... a one-way trip for the customers. Jess Franco has returned to Sade again and again since JUSTINE in 1968. That adaptation of Sade's infamous 1791 novel was scripted by producer Harry Alan Towers, this 21st Century shot-on-Hi-Def direct-to-DVD item, along with its 2005 [onscreen (C) 2003] sister project FLORES DE PASION, has yet to make it to R1 Blu ray. 

 Just as he brought Sade into the 20th Century with works like EUGENIE DE SADE (1970), PLAISIR A TROIS (1973) and EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970), he's now brought him into the early 21st Century, an age of cellphones, shaved pubic hair and the Internet. This is a situational rather than "plot" film, with Fata Morgana, Carmen Montes acting out bondage, whipping, castration scenarios which climax with sexual cannibalism under the direction of Franco's Princess of Eroticism, Lina Romay. 

This isn't a "nice" movie; approach with caution. Once again, it's all shot in anonymous apartments, hotel rooms and what looks like a brick-walled parking garage... minimalist indoor settings in which the "perverted" tableau unfold. The pubic shaving, lesbian groping and whippings go on and on until "duration" becomes just a term. Nothing often happens in Jess Franco films. That's not a typo. There's no fresh air in this perverse, enclosed universe. Sunlight is replaced by onscreen production lamps, pink, green, yellow electronica and colorized digital noise. We don't even have the comfort of continuous full color, sometimes the image turns b&w, with blood-red highlights. 

 A nude man is crucified upside down and another (Ezequiel Cohen) is flayed, then castrated before his [obviously fake] genitalia are eaten by the hungry whores of the Mme... It's an artificial paradise, a vivid, unapologetic alternate reality presented for your consideration.... the Divine Marquis would be proud.

Obsessively interactive with the ladies teasing the camera lens and the viewer beyond while the Franco favorite "Life is Shit" (THE MIDNIGHT PARTY) and other familiar JF tunes are heard on the soundtrack as if caught in a maddening loop. Will the future be a world without men, just languid, intelligent women who control finances and themselves and enjoy using sex as power? Is Jess wanting us to squirm amidst the sexual terrors? It's disturbing, amusing, boring, fascinating all at the same time. I changed my mind about it. You might hate it. You might, like myself, be unnerved to watch our blissful daughters of Sappho, their faces stained with a jet of the recently castrated victim's blood, look into the camera with an evil smile and assert, "And you...will be next." They really knows how to hurt a guy, at least in the mise en scene of movie reality. And it is only a movie.

You get the distinct impression that Franco wants you to take it personally and will break up laughing when you do. It will be knowing, conspiratorial laughter. He wants you to have an internal debate.   As I stated on my FACEBOOK homepage, I didn't enjoy it on first viewing. The film is not afraid to look us in the eye and laugh at our expectations.

But seeing it again, well... let's just say it takes repeat viewings, if you can take it ... and that's a Big if! Thanks to Francesco Cesari for suggesting I might want to think twice.... More Franco Digital Apocalypse comming in the future. (C) Robert Monell 2024