JE BRULE DE PARTOUT (1978) MHVF Archived Review

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Thanks to John Charles for sending me a link to the MHVF archives. I contributed a number of reviews to the Mobius Home Video Forums starting about 20 [!] years ago. I'll be posting archived Jess Franco reviews here.

 This one, discussing the 1978 JE BRULE DE PARTOUT, was published in May, 2000. This may have been the very last film Jess Franco directed for prolific producer Robert De Nesle, who died that same year.

Review: I'M BURNING-UP ALL OVER (1978)

Posted by Robert Monell , May 01,2000,18:00

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aka JE BRULE DE PARTOUT. Directed by Jess Franco (credited as Jacques Aicrag). 

Jenny Goldstone (Susan Hemingway) is abducted after a night at a popular discotheque. She is the most recent victim to fall into the hands of an international white slavery cartel. The point person is the beautiful, blond Lorna (Brigitte Lahaie/Van Meerhaegue), whom along with her henchmen bundle the girls aboard a ship fitted with an orgy room into which a sedating "love drug" is piped. They are transported to a brothel in Portugal where one of Jenny's customers will turn out to be her own father, ironically the financier behind the ring. 

One of Jess Franco's more obscure sexploitation efforts, another Captive Women scenario, but not a Women In Prison knock-off. It could be listed in the Women-In-Peril sub-genre, a low budget women in night trafficking epic most notable for the presence of Ms. Lahaie who would go on to be featured in several memorable Jean Rollin titles (FASCINATION, NIGHT OF THE HUNTED). Lahaie, like Helga Line or Rosalba Neri, is one of those Euro-cult actresses whose stunning beauty is equaled by formidable acting talent. She can play a mean bitch (as here) or a pathetic victim (cf NIGHT OF THE HUNTED), and sometimes a bit of both (cf FASCINATION).

This was shot in less than a week and really looks it. The "love drug" sequences are represented by some smoke being forced through crudely cut rubber tubes. The love drug concept also turns up in Franco as early as SUMURU 2 (1968), and is also prominent in CAPTIVE WOMEN (1980) {see the self-explanatory still on p.143 of OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO to get a taste of the latter title}. 

Lahaie apparently quarreled with Franco on set and she doesn't look like a happy camper, but she does look terrific! Franco would later give her better roles in DARK MISSION and FACELESS (1988), both much higher budgeted productions than this no-budget erotica. My favorite part was the opening, set in a glittering disco. Franco pans up from Lahaie's black leather boots to the blinding colored-light show and you immediately know you're in Jess Franco territory (despite the use of one of his rarer pseudonyms during the amusing spoken credits). Franco even tries to work in his trusted Al Pereira private eye character, but Jean Ferrere's thug-like visage is no match for the more ambiguous mug of Antonio Mayans. Daniel J. White's moody trumpet score adds a dash of much needed atmosphere. This women-in-peril oddity was one of three hardcore quickies produced by the late Robert de Nesle and directed by Franco in 1978, one of the director's less than favorite years.
--modified by Robert Monell at Mon, May 01, 2000, 18:04:23