LA ESCLAVA BLANCA (1985) Reviewed by Robert Monell

This low budget jungle adventure doesn't so much subvert its genre as inhabit it. A commercial entertainment and a nostalgic trip back to the 1930 and 40s Hollywood jungle fare (WHITE PONGO). Of the eight other films Franco made in 1985 (half of them hardcore porno features), this very low budget adventure stands out because of an absorbing, multi-layered script by ace Spanish screenwriter Santiago Moncada. Besides writing Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, THE BELL FROM HELL, and THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER, Moncada has written and produced screenplays for a variety of European genre directors (Manuel Cano's SWAMP OF THE RAVENS, TARZAN'S GREATEST CHALLENGE, and VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST were all based on Moncada scripts).      In LA ESCLAVA BLANCA, Moncada gives us three separate stories that gradually interweave and come together in the final scene. The first story seems to based on Macbeth. A weak-willed jungle guide is manipulated by his domineering wife into committing a series of crimes. During a safari, he leads a honeymoon couple (José Llamas and Conchi Montés) into a trap laid by the Tabongas, a Stone Age tribe that worships a giant lizard god. The bride is tied to a sacrificial altar for later sacrifice.      The second story starts out in the city, where a karate student and two of her instructors accidentally discover the secret of the Tobonga. In the third story, two expeditions make their way back to the Tabonga camp. One of these groups includes the original guide, who has been abducted by the karate instructors (they have also killed his wife). The other consists of the husband of the abducted woman and the female karate student (Lina Romay) who has split off from the school. During the long trip back, the guide has a change of heart and decides to repent, turning against his captors and helping the people he originally betrayed.    The climax of the film, expertly shot and edited despite the budgetary restrictions, may remind some viewers of a miniature version of the final scene in THE WILD BUNCH. The very last scene, in which the Tabonga gold is thrown away, echoes THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE. Franco's film, of course, is a lot less ambitious than those two classics, but maybe that's why it works so well. The massacre at the Tobonga camp, the abduction scene, and the opening safari are as well-staged as anything Franco has ever done. There's also an amusing dose of voodoo dancing thrown in for good measure. Daniel White's pulsating drum and vocal score* is familiar from some of Franco's other jungle adventures, but this is by far the best of the lot. Miguel Ros (Jose Miguel Garcia Marfa) and Mabel Escaño are both very effective as the safari guides from hell. With its karate scenes, voodoo rituals, adventure story, literary and film references, LA ESCLAVA BLANCA seems like a kind of compendium of Franco's 1980's output (minus the XXX sex material). And if one can get past his other sub-standard jungle/cannibal fare, this one is most definitely worth seeking out.  *Score credited onscreen to: Mus : J. Franco, Pablo Villa (= D. J. White) performed by Carloto Perla & The Hassigos [Carloto Perla has since been identified as a nephew of Jess Franco who actually performed the voodoo chanting vocals, previously heard in DEVIL HUNTER and other Jess Franco "jungle adventures."] Robert Monell

LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L'ATLANTIDE (Clifford Brown [Jess Franco], 1973)

LES GLOUTONNES (1973, Clifford Brown)

a.k.a. LES EXPLOITS EROTIQUES DE MACISTE DANS L'ATLANTIDE/ Sexes Au Soleli. Video title  (AMERICAN VIDEO) Maciste et les Gloutonnes.  France 1973 Portugal (When I interviewed actor Robert Woods he remembered that this film was shot  partially on the island ofMadiera, around the same time as AL OTRO LADO DE ESPEJO,  during the Summer of 1973.) Directed under his French nom de plume Clifford Brown, this is a fascinating melange due to the  fact thatde Nesle, or somebody, took a supposedly "serious" film and made it into a delirouscollage of  peplum, adventure, comedy, erotic and fantasy motifs. It's Waldemar Wohlfaartd as Maciste  vs. Robert Woods as the evil Caronte, who attempts to overthrow and kill the Queen of Atlantis,  played by Alice Arno. Arno alsoappears in what appear to be added footage of her from another (?) film  lying in bed and pleasuring herself.  Maciste prevails with the help of " Gobblers", the women of  Atlantis. Howard Vernon makes an appearance as Cagliostro (cf. LA MALDICION DES FRANKENSTEIN), the antics through a homemade portal with  his horny attendant, played by the puckishRick Deconninck/Bigitoni. Kali Hansa gives perhaps the most  memorable  performance as the vicious Parka, the consort of Caronte. A very interesting, electic score by Robert Viger [?] is a bonus. There's even a hardcore sex scene  thrown in the mix.This scene features a naked, longhaired man walking slowly down a spiral staircase  in what appears to be a theater as Alice Arno lies on the floor below. The man then hovers over her  as she excites him into ejaculating on her. Another actress, who looks something like Montserrat Prous  (LOS OJOS DEL DOCTOR ORLOFF) is also involved, but it's hard to tell who it is due to  the poor quality VHS dupe I've had to consult.Prous does appear in other non-sexual scenes.  Scenes of cult members covered in white sheets as they wander through a misty forest  seem to be outtakes from similar scenes in LA MALDICION DE FRANKENSTEIN,  the Spanish version of EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972).   Mark Forest (THE LION OF THEBES) was supposed to play Maciste, according to Franco.. The opening shot of Caronte wandering down a misty valley and the first view of the stormy coast  of "Atlantis" are outstanding images, but unless you are a Franco completist you may hate this film.  Franco also made YUKA (also 1973) with Davis/Waldemar Wohlfaart and Robert Woods again   playing the leads in another erotic "peplum" set in the Middle Ages..  (C) Robert Monell

SNAKEWOMAN (2006, Directed by Jess Franco)

A "Walk-in” is a description of a mysterious/supernatural event where the soul of one person
replaces the exiting soul of another is a generating factor in several important Jess Franco films,
 most notably his 1974 LORNA, THE EXORICST (Les Possedees Du Diable) in which the
soul a modern female demon/witch invades a young girl (Lina Romay)
after she is murdered by the girl’s father (Guy Delmore).

There’s a lot more to this 20th Century version of Faust, retold in a downmarke
t environment as a near hardcore porn item. Soul transference/metempychosis
may also be a factor in Franco’s 1967 occult sexploitioner NECROMONICON/Succubus
 in which Lorna Green (Janine Reynaud) is a disturbed nightclub performer who
 is dominated by a menacing male demon (Michele Lemoine) who forces her to
 seduce and murder a number of hipsters of the milieu. Soul invasion/mind control
also plays a role in SHINING SEX (1975) and is at the center of
MACUMBA SEXUAL (1981), a remake of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970),
in the latter two a powerful female dies and her soul invades the body
of an innocent female victim. Another film which could be linked thematically, stylistically
structurally to VAMPYROS LESBOS is the shot on HD video SNAKEWOMAN.

Jess Franco doesn't make "films" anymore, he makes video but the results are still,
 even in glossy HI-DEF, 100% Jess Franco. I spoke to Jess during the conception
 of this film and he was quite excited about attempting an updating of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970), 
which this in essence is, but it's also more than that. Carmen Montes is the title character,
 a female vampire who wears nothing but a long red lined black cape and a tattoo 
of a double headed python which curls around her torso. She dominates a netherworld 
{Malaga, Spain} where "walk-ins" appear and disappear as suddenly as her attacks.

 Her most recent victim is a female reporter (FATA MORGANA), the Jonathan Harker character,
 and Christie Levin is the demented female Renfield who is kept in a private asylum
 by the mad Dr. Nostradamus (Antonio Mayans). The reporter has come to invesitage
 the estate of the legendary actress-composer Oriana Balasz. The Snakewoman may be her 
descendant or her continuation. It begins and ends and is often interrupted by 
telezooms onto flocks of tropical birds which recall the kites in VAMPYROS LESBOS. 
The music is spectral but will not enter the imagination in the same way as the ground 
breaking score for that 1970 cult classic. Carmen Montes does evoke the late, 
great Soledad Miranda and the film is filled with captivating images.

 Franco's director credit appears over an old b&w photo of Marlene Dietrich and 
this may be another subterranean hommage to the cinema of Von Sternberg. 
There are a lot of lesbian interludes (Franco told me he wanted to call it VAMPIRE INTERLUDE
) but not as many as in some of his recent work and they don't smother the film.
 The acting is above average and it's worth seeing on the SRS DVD where it is
 coupled with DR. WONG'S VIRTUAL HELL and some still galleries

. (c) Robert Monell 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Jess Franco doesn’t make “films” anymore, he makes video but the results are still, even in glossy HI-DEF, 100% Jess Franco. I spoke to Jess during the conception of this film and he was quite excited about attempting an updating of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970), which this in essence is, but it’s also more than that. Carmen Montes is the title character, a female vampire who wears nothing but a long red lined black cape and a tatoo of a double headed python which curls around her torso. She dominates a netherworld {Malaga, Spain} where “walk-ins” appear and disappear as suddenly as her attacks. Her most recent victim is a female reporter (FATA MORGANA), the Jonathan Harker character, and Christie Levin is the demented female Renfield who is kept in a private asylum by the mad Dr. Nostradamus (Antonio Mayans). The reporter has come to invesitage the estate of the legendary actress-composer Oriana Balasz. The Snakewoman may be her descendant or her continuation. It begins and ends and is often interrupted by telezooms onto flocks of tropical birds which recall the kites in VAMPYROS LESBOS. The music is spectral but will not enter the imagination in the same way as the ground breaking score for that 1970 cult classic. Carmen Montes does evoke the late, great Soledad Miranda and the film is filled with captivating images. Franco’s director credit appears over an old b&w photo of Marlene Dietrich and this may be another subterranean hommage to the cinema of Von Sternberg. There are a lot of lesbian interludes (Franco told me he wanted to call it VAMPIRE INTERLUDE) but not as many as in some of his recent work and they don’t smother the film. The acting is above average and it’s worth seeing on theD where it is coupled with DR. WONG’S V

Written by Robert Monell Editar

15 agosto 2018 a 7:19 PM