02 July, 2007

BESAME MONSTRUO: Spanish DVD


Here's an image from the new Spanish FILMAX DVD of Jess Franco's 1967 sci-fi tinged spy spoof, known in the US as KISS ME, MONSTER. You won't see this image on the BLUE UNDERGROUND DVD, though. Why? Because the distributor put footage of a car chase from another film under the credits. A film Jess Franco had nothing to do with. KMM also has other footage included NOT generated by the director, including the long jazz fest scene.
The Spanish version is the covered version, while the English language shows above the waist nudity. But I much prefer the Spanish, which retains numerous personal and arcane audio jokes/references which have been removed or changed in the English language variant, which also replaced the original score besides dubbing it into English. This last point is significant since the whole point of the film is a search for a secret formula in which the clues are in musical notation from a score we are not hearing!
Our Spanish reader Nzoog reports that there is no English subtitle option or any other extras on this and the other new FILMAX discs.* I would still recommend this disc to those who have only experienced the English language variant.
*See the June 30 blog: the 5th Filmax Jess Franco DVD release is 1989 action/adventure/political melodrama, LA BAHIA ESMERALDA, one of Franco's larger budgeted productions featuring the veteran US character actor George Kennedy.
Thanks to Bloody Planet, Orlock, Francesco Cesari and Nzoog W.
(C) Robert Monell, 2007


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the English dubbing makes it a little more entertaining, especially Janine Reynaud's voice :-)

Robert Monell said...

I think it's more entertaining to an English speaking audience. I know the Spanish version seems somewhat slower paced.