" WANTED: ABLE-BODIED MAN FOR DEPRAVED WOMEN. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. A dark and dreary old house occupied by demented women is the lurid scene of bizarre occurrences. But there may be rooms for rent when the love-starved women trick a good-looking ex-convict into working for them..."
I just dug out my old prerecord of the 1973 Carlos Aured directed Paul Naschy vehicle, HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN Ojos azules de la muñeca rota, Los (1973) which was distributed in North American in 1975 by Independent-International Pictures Corporation. The video is dated 1988 VidAmerica Inc, which released it under their "World's Worst Videos" TM. It actually looks pretty decent in this dubbed fullscreen presentation. The color styled flashbacks of the disturbed sex offender protagonist (one of Naschy's most realistic performances) are quite vivid. Some of the other colors look faded and I hope that the plans I had heard about for a future BCI-ECLIPSE SE pan out so this fast paced and twisty Spanish thriller can be fully appreciated.
Jess Franco starlets Diana Lorys (THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, THE BLOODY JUDGE, NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT), Eva Leon (MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD, BAHIA BLANCA) and the late Maria Perschy (THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU) are the psychotic women of the title. sexually frustrated spinsters who make life Hell on Earth for Naschy. You have to appreciate the above video cover, a classic schlock image. Although it's not the VidAmerica VHS box I have, the artwork of the man being flayed is the same and the copy on the back amusingly notes that it's filmed in "Psycho" Color. The acting is all excellent and another campy, catchy score by Juan Carlos Calderon (VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES) adds greatly to the entertainment value.
Amando de Ossorio's HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES (GHOST GALLEON) and two Al Adamson epics [HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS, BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR] also could be found on Mom and Pop video store shelves in the late 1980s under the "World's Worst Videos" banner. I also have those prerecords and I'm not planning on trashing them even though I have superior DVD versions.
Hopefully, the uncut Spanish version of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN will be get a R1 HD DVD release in the near future.
"WITHIN THEIR DOORS AWAIT THE MOST UNSPEAKABLE ACTS"
(C) Robert Monell, 2007
Bear in mind that the VidAmerica presentations of HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES and HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN are further edited from their US R rated versions. In fact, VidAmerica's version is the TV print of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN. The older Super Video release was longer (though still cut for an R-rating - Super's HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES was also longer).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, ecom. Yes, the WWV VidAmerica print I have is probably the cut TV print, although it does contain some violence. I don't have the Super Video of it. Do you know what that has that the VidAmerica doesn't. I hope this comes out from BCI in the Spanish language longest version.
ReplyDeleteSome nudity was cut from the TV version (of course) although I don't know how much gore (I haven't seen the TV cut I've just read about the differences in Video Watchdog - I'll dig it up). I think a shot of a pig getting slaughtered was also cut from the R-rated version, too.
ReplyDeleteI've only seen the World's Worst Video version and the pig scene isn't in it. I'm not sure if this is the TV version or not. It will be interesting to see what BCI releases.
ReplyDeleteBCI is set to release it on January 22 with HUMAN BEASTS and BluRay double feature of NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF and VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES (http://www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=5172)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the movie "Bahia Blanca" from Jesse Franco?... Since I was born in a place called like that (in Buenos Aires), I was interested in reading some review about it...
ReplyDeleteThanks!