THE BEST JESS FRANCO DVDS OF THE DECADE!

Jess Franco talks to deep sea creatures in MACUMBA SEXUAL: SEVERIN FILMS DVD






MONDO MACABRO DVD THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z


X RATED KULT R2 DVD Set of LES DEMONS



EUGENIE ... THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION: BLUE UNDERGROUND DVD

Exactly how many Jess Franco DVDs were released in all regions worldwide between Jan 1 2000 and Jan 1 2010?

For more selections and comments go to JESS FRANCO ON DVD thread @
http://www.cinemadrome.yuku.com

Please post your favorites in the comments section.


Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays

(C) Robert Monell 2009

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A Christmas Eve Movie by Jess Franco

Jess Franco's Robot Monster is coming home for the Holidays!

The ghastly, and probably close-to-home for survivors of dysfunctional families/children of alcoholics, Christmas Eve depicted in Jess Franco's DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER is one of the best scenes in this bleak family-centered science fiction thriller from 1964 and one of the most sobering Christmas Eve scenes ever. It makes one grateful for what one has in life. A good double bill with Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE... really!


I have had the experience of seeing the rare, Spanish language EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF off a projected film print. Thanks to Francesco Cesari and Alain Petit. I wish them and all the blog readers a wonderful Christmas Holiday!


I'll be back in the following days with my selections for the Best Films/DVDs of 2009. It looks like 2010 will be a much better year for Jess Franco on DVD than 2009 was.


Robert Monell (c) 2009

RECYCLING BRUNO NICOLAI

LISTEN to the music on this US version of Paul Naschy's first werewolf epic...






And you'll hear cues from this magnificent score...

Two recent discoveries: Bruno Nicolai's excellent score for the 1969 Italian war movie LA BATTAGLIA DEL DESERTO can be heard in Jess Franco's 1972 LOS AMANTES DE LA ISLA DEL DIABLO aka DEVIL'S ISLAND LOVERS (main theme & cues) His legendary score for EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970), perhaps his masterwork, has some of its most recognizable cues integrated into the replacement track for FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR, the Sam Sherman-INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL US version of Paul Naschy's first Waldemar Daninsky film, LA MARCA DEL HOMBRE LOBO (1968). Watching this in the wake of Paul Naschy's passing was an especially poignant experience. Maestro Nicolai's cues were often recycled and they tend to work well wherever they are integrated.

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EL SEXO ESTA LOCO: R1 vs R2 DVDs-Comparison

CINEMADROME - THE WORLD OF JESS FRANCO FORUM - Jess Franco on DVD

Thanks to Mike Robert for putting this link up on my website's JESS FRANCO ON DVD thread to his eye-opening comparison of the R2 MANGA and R1 SINFUL MERMAID DVDs of Jess Franco's science fiction sex comedy, EL SEXO ESTA LOCO.

Here is a link to the comparison DVD.

THE GIRLS OF THE COPACABANA DVD

The 2006 Manga R2 DVD is the real thing...

But what about this one?

I finally got a look at the "Televista" DVD, THE GIRLS OF THE COPACABANA. It has been speculated on this blog by some readers than this is a port of the 2006 Manga R2 LAS CHICAS DE COPACABANA DVD by JEF Films using the Televista name as a cover. The title THE GIRLS OF THE COPACABANA only appears as the title on the box cover, on the print itself the onscreen title is LAS CHICHAS DE COPACABANA.

The first thing I noticed is that there is no DVD company name on the box, the Televista logo is printed on the DVD itself but is so small that it's impossible to make out the name. That's enough to make one suspicious. The logo does appear onscreen before the menu screen and the Televista name appears at the end of the presentation with a 2009 Copyright trademark .

I didn't know what to expect but the Menu screen raises more questions. It's in Spanish, including the main title, menu options [which include English subtitles, a slide show of a few dozen fair quality stills and scene selection guide [all the individual scenes are also titled in Spanish]. English translations of the main title and menu options are provided in parenthesis. The menu screen artwork shows the three main characters, Juan (playing a guitar), Juanita and Hans (the latter two nude and in bed together with Juanita's image vibrating over Hans). Their images are superimposed over a vista of Rio's famous coastline seen from the sky. Since I haven't seen the R2 disc I can't report if this is the same as that menu screen. It suggests a US 1980s era sex comedy, which I guess the film itself was made in response to. The theme song, which plays an important thematic role in the film is heard over the menu.

Reading some reviews of the R2 disc which noted a 1.66:1 aspect ratio I was somewhat surprised to see that this disc is dysfunctionally displayed with very thin, irregular black bars at the top and bottom. At least that's the way it plays back on my monitor. It's certainly not 1.66:1 and will appear full frame or 1.33:1 to the untrained eye.

The color and general video quality is highly variable, ranging from fairly good to washed out. It's not exactly bursting with primary colors and as razor sharp as the best Severin Franco DVDs have been (cf Severin's MACUMBA SEXUAL). And the transfer, or the print, lacks detail and is rather dark/grainy at times. This may have something to do with the shooting conditions. OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO reports the film was shot in 16mm and reconstituted in another format two years later!

LAS CHICAS DE COPACABANA was a low-budget French (Eurocine)-Spanish (Triton P.C./Madrid) co production which includes a lot of inconsistently graded stock footage of the Rio Carnival, but the film certainly deserves a less questionable presentation. The print does appear to be complete. I'm awaiting the Spanish R2 DVD to make a more definitive comparison. If the fault lies with the film itself, that's one thing, but I did enjoy it even though it's obviously not a candidate for tier one.

I'll be returning soon with my comments on the film itself.

Thanks to Robert Guest and Francesco Cesari.


(C) 2009 Robert Monell

Coming from MONDO MACABRO in 2010!

LA COMTESSE PERVERSE


SINNER: INTIMATE DIARY OF A NYMPHOMANIAC


 
LORNA, THE EXORCIST
 
 
Need I say more?

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PAUL NASCHY: (1934-2009)

One of the many faces of Paul Naschy.

Jacinto Molina Alvarez aka Paul Naschy died today in Spain after a battle with cancer. He was 75. He has been known as El Hombre Lobo and the Lon Chaney of Spain but I have always considered him the King of Spanish Horror.

As an actor, director and writer he was kind of the polar opposite of another famous Spanish genre-film artist, Jess Franco, but his films are equally passionate and feature a unique, personal vision. His epic cycle of Waldemar Daninsky-werewolf films spanned over 30 years and 12 titles.

Some of my personal favorite Paul Naschy titles include his under appreciated medieval fantasy EL CAMINANTE, the macabre HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE and his eccentric vampire opus COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE.

Thank you, Paul Naschy, your work brought a great deal of joy and entertainment into my life over the years. You will be missed. RIP....