KISS AND KILL: Fu Manchu and beyond representation.

This post represents the 20th anniversary of this blog. When I started in in June. 2006 I had just relocated from an apartment in the city to a 100 year old house in a rural area. I had just finished a series of interviews with Jess Franco and wanted to have a place where I could regularly discuss his filmograph, or rather my evolving perception of his massive output. I want to express my thanks and appreciation to my followers and their valuded feedback in the comments section. Hopefully we'll have another 20 years here if the internet still exists in the age of AI and I can make it to the age of 95.

The exotic universe of Fu Manchu holds a continuing fascination in the Franco multiverse. Wether it's the films, both Franco's and other director's approach to the character, or Franco's own deep dedication to representing the exoticism of that world, which spans a 50 year period, from 1967 to his 21st century digital period. But we have to loop back to his youthful obsession with the 1930s, 40s and 50s serials, films, magazines, novels and images based on the works of Sax Rohmer. The director himself speaks of his delight with that world and the formats in which is was presented to the public. He talks about how happy he was while directing his first Fu Manchu film in later 1967 for producer Harry Alan Towers, who wrote the script for the project. After the paradigm shift which the success of his 1967 NECRONOMICON (Succubus) had imposed on him he had found a way to become a commerical director making an entertainment for an international audience, rather than having to continue to make comprosed films within the barriers of Francisco Franco censorship which had imprisoned him for the first years of his career.

I remember seeing THE FACE OF FU MANCHU in a downtown movie theater in 1965. Colorful and action-packed to my 13 year old eyes, it impressed me on the big screen. It had been imported to America by SEVEN ARTS. It was a Harry Alan Towers-German co-production and the first of 5 films starring UK actor as Fu Manchu which would be made over a period of 4 years. It was capably directed by Don Sharp. The mold had been set. For a variety of reasons by the time Franco got his hands of the directing reins the series ran out of some its commercial steam and exotic ambience. The were two export edits of this 4th iteration, THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU 93 minutes and KISS AND KILL, which was re-edited and shortened. I first saw this on a VHS tape circa 1989 via the 1988 American Video Corp. prerecord.

I actually perfer this reedited version which at least moves with a certain dispatch and doesn't seem to sag as much in the middle. The new opening scene commences with a high angle shot of the Brazilian jungle, which seems shot from an airplane and may be stock footage. It then proceeds to shots of Gotz George cutting his way with a machete through the thick jungle foilage.This seems more in the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK universe with Harrison Ford cutting his way through the jungles. Inspired, consciously or unconsciously, by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK for this 1988 video release or was the opening of that mega-hit, showing the hero cut his way through the thick jungle inspired by BLOOD....? I doubt it. .

This American Video 1988 VHS lists a 91 minute runtime on the back cover  (it's actually shorter than THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU version and plays much more efficiently with a new opening scene featuring Gotz George leading an expedition toward Fu Manchu's hidden jungle city, which actually looks more like a large cave. Credited to Peter Welbeck, producer Harry Alan Towers, this first Franco-Towers collaboration is somewhat more coherent, but less colorful than the Franco-Towers THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1969).

The back copy on the Kiss and Kill VHS (Rated PG) reads like a promo for a 1970s kung fu epic: " The great Christopher Lee explodes in this kung-fu classic! Playing a Japanese (?!) mercenary, he's intent on righting  the evils that roam the land [actually, he's playing the Chinese super villain Fu Manchu!] He's in top form, fighting off his enemies with lots of sizzling high energy, high-kickin' action! As one of the most exciting films of its genre, KISS AND KILL will keep you on the edge of your seat!" But even trimmed by 10 or so minutes it's somewhat of a slog and won't keep anyone on the edge of their seat. And there is no high kicking kung fu fighting in any version which I've seen. Immediately beyond BLOOD.... lay two more Rohmer installations. And "installations" is an appropraiate term for THE GIRL FROM RIO and THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU. And there would be returns to Rohmerland in the 1980s. But first let's look at the sources of this pop culture madness.

Franco himself mentions the Republic serial as a primary inspiration, noting that anything which elongated the atmosphere was delightful for him.

Thanks to Mario Giguere. MACISTE ET LES GLOUTONNES/LES GLOUTONNES /THE GREEDY/LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L’ATLANTIDE (1973) Here’s an update of my previous review of LES GLOUTONNES, Jess Franco’s Z budget peplum from 1973. This and YUKA/THE LUSTFUL AMAZONS were likely shot back-to-back. They register as odd wonderments, unpretentious, no-budget fun. [Originally published by the wonderful Club Des Monstres in 2008]. Directed under his Clifford Brown beard, 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 long haired, baby faced version of the legendary Maciste (first seen in the 1913 Italian epic, CABIRIA) vs. Robert Woods (LA COMTESSE PERVERSE) as the explorer Caronte, who bewitched 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 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 shot in 1973. I conducted a still unpublished interview with actor Robet Woods about these Maciste films and he immediately indicated that they were fun to make and gave him some time to engage in fishing along the island's coastline, a relaxing indulgence of a favorite sport during production downtimes. He felt that AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO was the best of his Franco films because of the quality of Emma Cohen's award winning performance in the lead role and that it gave him the chance to disply his skill on the jazz trumpet as the musician lover of Cohen's character.

There’s even a hardcore sex scene thrown in the mix, with a nude man descending a spiral staircase to spray Ms. 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 Waldemar Wohlfahrt) 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 outstanding images, but unless you are a Franco completest you may resist the bizarre delights of this film. The emergence of a platoon of white sheeted ghouls looks like outtakes from the Spanish version of LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN.

The final battle between Maciste and Woods' Caronte takes place on what appears to be a huge sandpit filled with rocks and black stones which seem leftover from an ancient eruption on the volcanic island. It's a surreal finale which features Maciste causing an avalanche by throwing boulders into the pit. Some additional footge of Alice Arno writhing around in bed reading a book which appears to be literary iteration of the main narrative. Her scenes look like alternate footage from one of the many versions of THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA. Even if it was hijacked by De Nesle LES GLOUTONNES still registers as one of the director's most delirious efforts, a no-budget fantasia which draws the viewer into a strange, mythical world. Franco also made YUKA (also shot in 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. I could watch this film on a 20 hour loop or as an endlessly expanded termite epic. It’s an oneiric peplum which defies the familiar coordinates of time and space into a Jess Franco state of mind. (C) Robert Monell, 2026

LILIAN (la virgen pervertida) : Jess Franco, 1983

EL FRANCONOMICON / I'M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND Robert Monell & Alex Mendíbil Blog Alliance LILIAN (la virgen pervertida) Clifford Brawn (sic) 1983

An image which sums up the hard-boiled dimension inhabited by Al Pereira (Antonio Mayans). Cigarettes, a gun, a few drinks, suggesting a minimalist pattern of a gritty life and a story which ends with Al executing the club owner (Emilio Linder) who drugged, raped, and turned out Lilian (Katja Bienert).

In the opening scene of this neo-noir the young, naive Lilian opens a door to the upscale villa in which she is staying and confronts a hardcore scene between Lina Romay and Jose Llamas. That perfectly sums up the issue with this project, which began as Clasificada «S» thriller which had to be upgraded/downgraded to a hardcore feature, necessitating the removal of some 20 minutes of the original’s runtime (84m). The reason was a Spanish law which had been suddenly imposed restricting the showing of «S» product in Adult houses. Jess Franco had to scramble and add this footage since his film would not be playable in more mainstream locations. I assume the film did reasonably well, probably due to those grudgingly added hardcore scenes, and may disappoint those who look for something more than another hardcore. LILIAN… tells the downbeat story of a young woman (Katja Bienert) who collapses while staggering though a desert-like area. She has been drugged, held prisoner and forced to be the abused party in an S&M show staged for the edification of the local police official (Daniel J. White) who is supposed to be leading investigations. Instead he takes detective Al Pereira off the case when he gets too close to the truth. Al has discovered the comatose Lilian, who recounts her terror in a delirium at the residence of retired cop and friend Bernardo (Jess Franco), who counsels Al to forget it. He doesn’t. Corruption is endemic here as in LES EBRANLEES (1972) and BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO (Golden Films Internacional, 1982), two very similar Al Pereira episodes. As in those films, Al Pereira is depicted as a hotheaded, high minded loser who will ultimately trigger his own exile from the human race. The villains, the drug lord (Emilio Linder) and his wife (Lina Romay). who fetches him party girls and druggies at her nightclub, are oh-so-chic, part of the local glitter scene. Franco shoots this as a 1980s Film Noir, a virtual encyclopedia of noir references and visual quotes. Using long takes and wide angle lenses in the style of Sam Fuller (UNDERWORLD USA) and Robert Aldrich (KISS ME, DEADLY), but also incorporating his personal favorites THE KILLERS (Robert Siodmak version) and Howard Hawks’ THE BIG SLEEP in the flashback structure of the former and the opening credits of the latter, which are recreated in the penultimate scene when the camera lingers on a pack of cigarettes (American, of course), two whiskey glasses and a pistol on a table. The drug lord had just been sitting there having a drink when Al Pereira burst in and summarily executed him, Dirty Harry style. Al leaves his pistol as a calling card, knowing the police will trace it to him. Then he quickly hops into his car and drives away into a future life of assured damnation. One evil bastard is done away with, but the corporate evil of the big combo will continue under the averted attention of the corrupt police official. And the principled avenger and seeker of justice Al Pereira will suffer the punishments of our sinful, fallen world. The film has a brutal, nihilistic tone which is mediated by one of Daniel J. White’s most breathtaking scores, incorporating a kind of funk theme and an ethereal line. Some of these cues can also be heard in the director’s 1985 Jungle adventure, L’ESCLAVA BLANCA, a Manacoa production. If one can forgive or fast forward the hardcore scenes there’s a good film in there. Franco and Antonio Mayans are superb as the world weary receivers of Lilian’s sad story. This element of delirious confession to authority figures evokes EUGENIE DE SADE (1970) and Sade’s theater piece, DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PRIEST AND A DYING MAN (1782). The Spanish «kiosk» DVD version was screened for this review. It has very good video quality, sharp and colorful with acceptable Spanish only audio. This version lasts approximately 73 minutes. We’re left with a moral vacuum, set in the glitter scene, which is made into a sexual hell by the insertion of much routine hardcore footage, taking advantage of Spain’s newly liberalized censorship. With strong performances by Lina Romay, Jess Franco as the retired cop, and Daniel J White as the corrupt police official. This was released on Spanish VHS before it appeared as a «kiosk» DVD. The opening beach escape by the delirious heroine is an excellent, atmospheric overture to a film which overlaps the Classificada S rating the legalized of hardcore sex films in 1984. Filmed on locations in Madrid and Huelva. (c) Robert Monell, 2026 Deja un comentario Escribe un comentario...

LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (Jess Franco, 1985)

LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (Clifford Brown/Jess Franco. 1985)- source: Video Search of Miami (Spanish VHS-U.S. import) DIRECTED BY "CLIFFORD BROWN" (JESS FRANCO) WITH: JOSÉ LLAMAS, MABEL ESCAÑO, JOSE MIGUEL GARCIA MARFA, AUGUSTÎN GIL, LINA ROMAY, CONCHI MONTÉSa, JAMES TALL. 87 minutes Of the eight other films Franco made in 1985 (half of them hardcore porno features), this very low budget adventure stands out because of an absorbing screenplay, if you're in the mood for Saturday afternoon jungle adventures, by ace Spanish screenwriter Santiago Moncada. Beside writing Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, Claudio Guerin Hill's THE BELL FROM HELL and Juan Antonio Bardem's THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER, Moncada has written and produced screenplays for a variety of European genre directors. Manuel Cano's SWAMP OF THE RAVENS, TARZAN'S GREATEST CHALLENGE and VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST were all based on Moncada screenplays along with the ultra-violent Spanish western CUTTHROATS NINE (1972). LA ESCLAVA BLANCA was co-produced by Moncada and Franco's Manacoa company.

Above: Prolific Spanish screenwriter Santiago Moncada As for Jess Franco, 1985 wasn't his best year, but it was a busy one, offering a variate of micro-budgeted genre projects. In LA ESCLAVA BLANCA, Moncada gives us three separate stories that gradually interweave and come together in the final scene. The first story seems to have elements of MACBETH and B movie programmers. A weak-willed jungle guide is manipulated by his domineering wife into committing a series of crimes. During a safari, he leads a honeymoon couple (José Llamas and Conchi Montés) into a trap laid by the Tobonga, a Stone Age tribe that worships a giant lizard god. The bride is tied to a sacrificial altar for later sacrifice. The second story starts out in the city, where a female karate student (Lina Romay and two of her instructors accidentally discover the secret of the Tobonga. In the third story, two separate expeditions make their way back to the Tobonga camp. One of these groups includes the original guide, who has been abducted by the karate instructors (they have also killed his wife). The other consists of the husband of the abducted woman and the female karate student (Lina Romay) who has split off from the school. During the long trip back, the guide has a change of heart and decides to repent, turning against his captors and helping the people he originally betrayed.

The climax of the film, shot and edited with dispatch despite the budgetary restrictions, may remind some viewers of a miniature version of the final scene in THE WILD BUNCH. The very last scene, in which the Tobonga gold is abandoned by the survivors, echoes THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE. Franco's film, of course, is a lot less ambitious than those two Hollywood classics, but maybe that's why it works so well. The massacre at the Tobonga camp, the abduction scene, and the opening safari are as well-staged as anything Franco has ever done. It's as if everything were contained in quotation marks. Franco took everything he shot, no matter how rushed or threadbare, will equal seriousness. The intention is to locate a method of representation. No message, that's for Western Union. There's also an amusing dose of voodoo dancing thrown in for good measure. He takes it all seriously, even though it's bascially juvenile comic-strip pulp. But, then again, Jess Franco had a life long passion for comics and pulp fiction. That doesn't mean, however, that there's not an encoded intent which often emerges as his trademark brand of sly humor as he immerses the viewer in genre cliches.

Daniel White's pulsating drum and vocal score is familiar from some of Franco's other jungle adventures (MACUMBA SEXUAL, DEVIL HUNTER), but this is the most unpretentious of the lot, never breaking out of its generic tropes. Jose Miguel Marfa and Mabel Escaño are both very effective as the safari guides from hell. With its karate scenes featuring Lina Romay, voodoo rituals, adventure story, literary and film references, LA ESCLAVA BLANCA seems like a kind of boundary marker in Franco's multiverse. Lerger budgeted projects like FACELESS and his eventual digital era were in sight. If one can get past his sometimes sub-standard jungle/cannibal fare (cf WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN), this one definitely provides 90 solid minutes of undemanding entertainment. As Franco investigators we must keep in mind, though, that there are numerous ways to read his extensive filmography. As facts become more accessible there is also the tendency to do qualitative classifications, "best" and "worst" lists and create misleading arcs. What I have intended to do here in this blog, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is to do a quantitative survey, free of conventional standards which don't really apply to the kind of artist Freanco was. He deliberaty defies and discourages conventional analysis. He has often stated that he only wants to entertain audiences. Implying that he has no "messages" or hidden agendas. But there are layers of hidden agendas throughout his twisting career. LA ESCLAVA BLANCA perhaps becomes more interesting in relation to his uncompleted JUNGLE OF FEAR (1993), based on Poe's THE GOLD BUG. Then there are other iterations of that story (LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS), There are threads and threads within threads. One just has look and look again to perceive the entanglements which may be partially or totally invisible to first time viewers.

I would be pleasantly surpised if this forgotten mid 1980s programmer showed up on a Blu-ray release, but stranger things have happened. I had some behind the scenes photos of the shoot supplied by Senor Marfa but haven't yet been able to transfer them here. The Spanish "jungle" locations will be very familiar to serious Jess Franco collectors. I put jungle in quotation marks because everything which he filmed at this point in his career is surrounded by imperceptible quotation marks. It's like studying a foreign language with its own inflections, pronunciations and notations. (C) Robert Monell

THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA (1970): Franco's Edgar Wallace Files.

Directed by Jess Franco. Screnplay: Ladolos Fodor With Soledad Miranda, Fred Williams, Jess Franco, Howard Vernon. A Spanish-West German co-production. Available from IMAGE DVD.

My initial reaction to this 1970 film was negative. I have since reevaluated it. I first experienced it as totally inept rush-job, a belated cash-in on the Edgar Wallace franchise. It was, sadly, Franco's last collaboration with the legendary Soledad Miranda. She would die in a car accident shortly after the completion of this supposed Edgar Wallace adaptation. The plot evokes some of the later Edgar Wallace films from Germany as the series was on a downward spiral, generic eurospy cliches strung end to end with the only interesting aspect being Miranda's participation. A more interesting was to view it as a "Jess Franco" iteration of pulp material. I haven't read the Wallace novel which I understand is quite different than the film. British Agent Jane Morgan (Miranda) joins forces with a Scotland Yard investigator (Fred Williams) to locate a stolen mineral which has the capacity to transform base metal into gold. The downside is that it emits rays which turn all those who come into contact with it into mindless zombies.

After a trip to the tropical country of Akasava, where the stone was discovered, the agents discover two eminent physicians (well played by Franco regulars Paul Muller and Horst Tappert) have secured the element and are planning to sell it to a corrupt philanthropist. The men are murdered by a counteragent (Howard Vernon), who is blown up along with the stone in a plane crash while attempting to flee the country. It's obviously from the opening, a flurry of zoom shots in and out of a flock of flamingos in a tropical grotto, that Franco is more interested in the environment than plot. The seemingly compulsive use of zoom shots would continue until the end of the film. Would another director have suddenly panned away from the action to zoom up to the tops of the local palm trees? The point is this is a Jess Franco film. He's shouting at us to look up to something were taking for granted, those towering palms. He's in full tourist guide mode here. Or is it his way of adding production value? CCC Executive Producer was notably penny pinching with production funds.

and the viewer is the tourist. Miranda's participation in this enterprise is highly erratic — she pops in and out of the story and her main role is to provide a romantic interest for the hero, indifferently played by German actor Fred Williams, a handsome, rather dull performer, who spends most of the film limping around in a debilitating leg cast and crutches. He has a winning smile and an easy going persona but never manages to engage with the other actors or his role. He may as well been playing a waiter. Miranda doesn't really get a chance to project the obsessed sensuality which burned up the screen in her stunning turns in VAMPYROS LESBOS and EUGENIE DE SADE (both 1970). She does get to perform some abstract strip teases during which she barely moves and doesn't even remove any clothing. No strip and a lot of tease, which might leave her fans feeling somewhat disappointed and ripped off. However, I found this miminalist "dancing" rather erotic. It's more erotic posing than actual dancing. Acting wise, she is simply miscast in a role any actress could have done, and she never turns on that mysterious aura of narcotic eroticism which surrounds her most indelible performances. Howard Vernon, Horst Tappert, Paul Muller and Franco himself appear in supporting roles and lighten up the proceedings with some humorous asides. The film does lack the esoteric qualities of Franco's earlier collaborations with Miranda. One can only imagine what her career would have been like if she had lived past the age of 27. Shortly after she completed shooting she would die in a tragic car accident while on the way to sign a lucrative contact with the German movie mogul and co-producer of this film, Artur Brauner.

What saved the film for me were the whirlwind vocal and brass score by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab (available on CD) and Franco's frenetic camera style and pacing. The director really goes over the top with the zoom lens here (as many critics have complained), moving in and out of the action (or non-action) or suddenly zooming up to the top of palm trees and back down again for no particular reason. These rather desperate directorial moves become kind of amusing to watch for the sheer unpredictabilty of what Franco is going to focus (or unfocus) on next. The wild camera work is accenuated by the fast paced editing (unusual in a Franco film from this period) and heady music. Franco obviously knew he was involved in a lost cause and at least produced film with a few of his personal touches, a Eurospy quickie which his longtime fans can laugh at while regretting the fate of the doomed Miranda. Perhaps the surface banality of the adventure/mystery plot is due to the fact that the screenplay is credited to Hungarian novelist and screenwriter Ladislas Fodor, a reliable Artur Brauner hack who wrote scripts for numerous Brauner productions including Krimis THE PHANTOM OF SOHO, Dr. Mabuse mysteries, THE RETURN OF DR. MABUSE, DR. MABUSE VS SCOTLAND YARD and even to manage to pem a John Wayne adventure, NORTH TO ALASKA (1960) and the 1968 Orson Welles historical epic THE LAST ROMAN, the final film of 1940s Film Noir ace Robert Siodmak. There is little character developement, literate dialogue or plot intrigue in Fodor's movie portfolio.

************************************************************************************************************************* Franco would return to the world of Edgar Wallace in the 1980s with two questionable "adaptations." VAIJE A BANGKOK: ATAUD INCLUIDO is a rarely seen spy adventure set in the Far East. The most memorable scenes invlove some of Asian cult seen through Asian pottery, curtains and smoke and mirrors. A closer looks reveals an uncredited source, Franco's own 1966 Eurospy epic starring Eddie Contantine, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS. Despite a lackluster performance by can't be bothered Constantine that black and white Eurospy epic did have some good scenes detailing the creation of human cyborgs in a giant test tube (see Below).

Produced by Jess Franco/Manacoa Films--Directed by Jess Franco--Screenplay by David Khunne (Jess Franco), based on a novel by Edgar Wallace--DP: Joan Soler/Juan Soler Cozar--Music: Dennis Farnon/Jess Franco (Ed. Harmony, Madrid)--Asst. Dir: Rosa Maria Almirall (Lina Romay), Carlos Aguilar-- Editor: Rosa Maria Almirall (Lina Romay)--Art. Dir: Carlos Spitzer--Ma: Juana de la Morena--Production Asst: Angel Oriales, Enrique Diaz--Prod. Mgr: J. Antonio Mayans--92m. Eastmancolor. Widescreen. Locations: Alicante, Canary Islands. Spain. 1985. Based on "novel" by Edgar Wallace... But what novel or story? A brainwashed assassin breaks into a diplomatic reception, cuts the throat of the British Ambassador and is quickly shot down. The aging but still sharp M1 agent, Colonel Daniel J. Blimp (Howard Vernon) arrives to conduct an inquiry. He is joined the a younger, brash Australian agent, Philip Sanders (Jose Llamas) and the victim's daughter (Helena Garret)  in uncovering a strange cult under the mental domination of the blind Professor Tao (Albino Graziani). More terrorist style murders of political figures occur but Blimp's trusty cane and trick tobacco pouch save the day, along with bursts of machine gun fire directed by the young Sanders. Basado en la novela de Edgar Wallace according to the poster, this is actually an on-the-fly remake of CARTES SUR TABLE (1966), with Howard Vernon playing the Eddie Constantine role. Without sex, nudity or significant action scenes this looks like a by the numbers reboot of an earlier low-budget film on an even slimmer contract which doesn't have a significant female foil like Francoise Brion or Sophie Hardy in the template. Like CARTES SUR TABLE it's an uneasy, highly personal blend of rushed looking action scenes, Jess Franco in-jokes (the Ambassador is named after the editor of several Harry Alan Towers-JF collaborations), but the Romantic intrigue just isn't there nor are the charmingly dog eared scrap ups. What is here are some strikingly composed sequences set in the hidden lair of the "cult of ultimate knowledge" executed by mere clever placement of a few vases, geometric blocking along with typical Jess Franco smoke and mirrors effects. The "robots" look more than mid 1980s lounge lizards than Manchurian Candidates. The robot killers are controlled by a sinister cult. Jess Franco has a throwaway cameo as a hotel clerk.

Spanish film historian Carlos Aguilar, who would eventually write several books on the director, was assistant director, and appears in a small role as the hotel clerk. The name of Sanders appears to be the main element taken from the work of Edgar Wallace. Jess Franco, looking somewhat bored, appears as an inquisitive hotel agent. Nevertheless, it's a sometimes fun trifle, features some amusingly inept Kung Fu interludes and German actor Christian Bork (Bork Gordon) from the somewhat similar Golden Films Internacional no-budget action epic BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE(1985), which was made in an overlap with this film according to the director* Actually, the best shot in the film is in the first scene where the diplomatic reception is reflected in the sunglasses of the robot-assassin who is lurking in the night just outside the window.  Jess Franco, when up against it, is sometimes better at making scattered memorable images like this than he is at writing original stories or compelling characters, but he obviously was more concerned this time in making yet another film and moving on to the next. The secret code of Jess Franco lives on in even obscure commercial knocks offs. The director would return to hardcore in 1985-1987, with such tiles as EL MIRON Y EL EXCIBICIONISTA, EL OJETE DE LULU and ENTRE PITOS ANDA EL JUEGO. This film was preceded by the 1983 SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS, a fast-paced actioner supposedly based on Edgar Wallace's SANDERS COME FROM THE RIVER [!], a book I have never read, so I can't testify to its faithfulness to the credited source. This one features Howard Vernon as an absconding Soviet scientist who has fled his homeland with a high-tech nuclear homing device. An International espionage would be thriller which has numerous amusing scenes involving a duo of agents played by Antonio Mayans and Lina Romay. It all ends with a NORTH BY NORTHWEST style air to ground pursuit where the couple are bombed by an airborne menace. An unusual and very welcome action-adventure turn by the director, with a lot of subversive humor, personal touchstones and a musical code. Released on Spanish video-Basic Home Video S.A., according to OBSESSION THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO. This film also had Internet broadcast on a Spanish site some time ago and looked to be in good shape.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025

BLOOD ON MY SHOES (SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS) Jess Franco, 1983

Prof. Albert Von Klaus (Howard Vernon), recently escaped from the Soviet Union, has developed a blueprint for a ICBM which could be targeted at the United States. Secret Agent Carlos Rivas (Antonio Mayans) attempts to foil the Professor's plan to supply it to Russia and, with the help of frisky night club singer Lina Romay, turn it over to American military instead. This rather generic plot is supposedly based, evidenced by the Spanish poster, on Edgar Wallace's SANDERS COME FROM THE RIVER. Not having read that novel I cannot confirm or deny any influence. The fact of the matter is that it's a rather light hearted blend of Eurospy adventure and generic satire, Jess Franco style. It mostly is set within the confines of a few suites and the music lounge of a not exactly luxurious hotel in Alicante. Or is it Benidorm? It remains uncertain since production was obviously done in both cities, with maybe some detours to Calpe.

The presence of Argentine born Daniel Katz as a malcious counter agent adds to the suspense, and sometimes the slapstick comedy, if not to the versilmultitude. The luminous cinematography of Juan Cozar is also a plus and he also apppears as a sometwhat bumbling comrade of Rivas. Actually this is kind of a primer for the 1984 spy comedy CUANTO COBRA UN ESPIA?, which also features camera work by Cozar as a composer of musical encoded military formula. That title appears rather toothless in comparison to SANGRE... which at least has a few impressive set pieces. Impressive by Franco standards, that is. A sequence set at an outdoor carnivals where Rivas has a life and death struggle with a counter agent atop of ferris wheel could almost be described as Hitchcockian, abeit on a Franco scale. Lina Romay also has an impressive musical interlude as she leads a sing-along on her Korg of a popular song. All these inclusion of musical codes go all the way back to the 1968 KISS ME MONSTER and were further ultilized in the visually dazzling, sado-erotic 1981 spy thriller LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS.

Equally Hitchcock-like is the climactic scene where Katz pilots of small aircraft which bombards the fleeing Rivas and singer with high explosives. One thinks of the the crop dusting sequence in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, which I discussed about 10 years ago on my much missed Madrid podcast with Elena. It's obvious that Franco was having a lot of fun with this shoot. If the film lacks the sometimes atmospheric delirium of Franco's other mid 1980's Edgar Wallace epic, VIAJE A BANGKOK ATUAD INCLUIDO (1985), another comedic Wallace "adaptation", featuring Howard Vernon as Col. Blimp, an eccentric agent sent to the Far East to battle more counter agents who are involved in an assassination spree of A class diplomats in a plot based on Franco's 1966 CARTES SUR TABLE. This film however is much more visually interesting in its use of reflective surfaces along with smoke and mirrors in its representation of a sinister murder sect. Franco does have a tendency to repeat his scenarios, though sometimes with fascinating and layered results. Thanks to Nzoog.

For further discussion of Franco's ongoing use of musical, visual and literary codes see my essay THE SECRET CODES OF JESS FRANCO in Nocturno Magazine #60, Anno XII, Luglio 2007. (C) Robert Monell, 2025

FURY IN THE TROPICS/OUTLAW WOMEN (Jess Franco, 1983-1986)

FURY IN THE TROPICS (1983) was Jess Franco's final attempt at a Women-In-Prison film, a genre which proved commercially successful for him with the release of 99 WOMEN (1969), written and produced by Harry Alan Towers. A hit in America and other territories, it spawned numerous imitations from Europe and other territories, including from Franco himself. It was sometimes double billed with Robert Altman's psycho-thriller THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969) in North American Grindhouses and Drive-ins. Even a decade and a half later both FURY IN THE TROPICS and its reworked version OUTLAW WOMEN (1986), would exhibit numerous plot elements and characters introduced in 99 WOMEN. There were three distinct versions of this film, including the re-edited OUTLAW WOMEN (1986), and a hardcore porn version, ORGASMO PERVERSO, another reworked version which included hardcore material for that market and was released in Spain on video by Valfer Video, according to OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO. According to FLOWERS OF PERVERSION, VOL.2 THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESS FRANCO neither of the non-hardcore versions found any theatrical release in Spain or anywhere else. In other words, give up all hope of any versions of this obsure project coming out on DVD or Blu-ray. Nonetheless, both of the non-hardcore versions have been available on bootleg VHS from such companies as EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA VIDEO in the U.S..

The corrupt, sadistic prison Governor (Ricardo Palacios), the even more sadistic prison matron, modeled on Mercerdes McCambridge in 99 WOMEN, the guard who sides with the inmates (Antonio Mayans), they're all here. The huge Palacios has a bestial quality and enjoys raping the inmates in his private office. Not the most brutally sadistic of Franco's WIP's, that would be THE WOMEN OF CELLBLOCK 9, which focuses on sexual torture, or GRETA, HAUS OHNE MANNER, featuring Dyanne Thorne as a pathological fan of torture. Both of the 1977 films were feeding the torture porn cycle of the mid 1970s which included Nazi-xploitation items mostly made in Italy. Franco continued on with SADOMANIA, EL INFIERNO DE LA PASION (1980), featuring Ajita Wilson as Magda, the lean, mean administrator of the Hacienda Blanca, where female inmates are forced to work under the hot sun clothed in tight shorts and topless. This one is probably the most "entertaining" of the bunch simply due to it's surreal outrageousness, including an inmate raped by a dog.

The most interesting aspect of FURY IN THE TROPICS is its non-linear structure. It opens with the prison escape of Marga (Lina Romay), who has murdered the lesbian prison wardress. The rest of the films is flashbacks to her arrest and abuse by the wardress, focused mainly on her private parts. These graphic scenes are trimmed from the 1986 reworking, OUTLAW WOMEN. This version flips the the "happy" ending of FURY IN THE TROPICS into a downbeat, poetically edited climax as Marga, revealed as a contact of a revolutionary padre, is shot dead on the orders of the Governor while the priest's demise is represented by a final montage of streams of blood flowing toward a crucfix intercut with the sun being covered by dark storm clouds. A much more memorable closing than the one in FURY IN THE TROPICS. Another "Franco" moment occurs during a brief montage of a very Catholic display of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the home of Father Rodrigo. These are very minor, very guilty pleasures which may or may not be compelling to those outside the circle of Franco completists. The atmospheric cinematography is the work of Juan Soler Cozar, according to OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO.

A Franco related WIP would appear in the 21st Century with the 2007 release of WOMEN BEHIND BARS 4, ANGEL OF DEATH 2, PRISON ISLAND MASSACRE, produced and directed by Franco friend Andreas Bethmann. Filmed in the Dominican Republic, Lina Romay is top billed as a twisted prison wardress, dressed in military fatigues, who orders hideous tortures of inmates. Jess Franco has a small role as inmate/janitor. Romay sports of military buzz cut while overseeing forced sex between two female inmates in one scene, masturbating with her pistol with which she finally shoots one of the inmates in the forehead. Another grisly scene shows the torture of a male inmate by another male who anally rapes him before pulling out his teeth with pliers. It also features hardcore sex scenes such as the opening in which a female hitch hiker is forced to peform oral sex on a prison associate. It's all rather nauseating Eurotrash of the lowest order. The gore effects were skillfully designed by the notorious Olaf Ittenbach. How Jess and Lina decided to partner with Bethmann is a profound mystery.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025