SUGAR COLT, Franco Giraldi's 1966 Spaghetti Western will be shown as one of 40 films in a sidebar tribute to that once popular genre; some of the films have been restored and will be projected in 35mm, at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Soledad Miranda, the smoldering Jess Franco object of attraction in EL CONDE DRACULA, EUGENIE DE SADE and VAMPYROS LESBOS, is second billed with US actor Hunt Powers. She appeared in several mid 1960s shot-in-Spain westerns. I haven't seen this one. Any comments?
Another Jess Franco actress, Emma Cohen, can also be seen at the festival's big screen projection of CUT THROATS NINE, a 1972 ultra violent Spanish western directed by former Jess Franco colleague Joaquin Romero Marchent (1955's EL COYOTE was co written and co directed by JF, along with its follow up). In 1973 Cohen gave an award winning, haunting performance as a woman lost AL OTRO LADO DEL ESPEJO, Franco's essential 1973 occult thriller. Numerous other actors seen in JF films of that era also appear in CUT THROATS NINE, including Alberto Dalbes and Jose Manuel Martin. Marchent was Spain's most prolific and vital Eurowestern specialist. It's a very powerful film and highly recommended.
Jess Franco admirer Quentin Tarantino will be on hand to introduce some of the Eurowesterns.
(C) Robert Monell, 2007
The orig. trailer of SUGAR COLT was on youtube a while ago and it appeared to be a comedy.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Franco Blog, Kaya. Thanks for that information. I didn't know it was a comedy. I like Hunt Powers in his Miles Deem westerns. Can't imagine Soledad Miranda in a comedy. I'm also trying to locate her in WHITE COMANCHE, but I haven't been able to find her in it.
ReplyDeleteThis is the one Giraldi western I have yet to see, if memory serves. Giraldi made it between the two MacGregors films and, according to hsw own remarks, it is a more personal work than those films.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of comedy-westerns but I did enjoy 7 GUNS... because of the style of humor and the style of the film. I hate the slapstick of the TRINITY films and only enjoy the ironic humor of Leone and the dry humor of Carnimeo.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Soledad and comedies: Actually, thruout her acting career, she appeared in more comedies than any other kind of movie. I've watched one (SOLTERA Y MADRE EN LA VIDA) and she was quite pretty and adorable in that. Even though I also think her roles as the dark&melancholic femme fatale in Franco movies are far more memorable, her presence in mainstream Spanish cinema wasn't really "the idiotic doll" Franco wants us to believe it was.
ReplyDeleteRe COMMANDO BLANCHE: I didn't really watch it on screen, but I have its photo-novel and I hadn't spotted her either how hard I looked. I doubt she is in it. Is there any source other than IMDb which says she is in it? I wonder where that IMDb got that info from. Unless there is a known reliable source, we can assume she isn't in it. It doesn't make sense that she would appear in an uncredited bit role as she was fairly well-established in Spain at the time.
I agree that she's probably not in CB, probably another imdb mistake. The closest thing to a comedy I've ever seen her in is THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA!
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