La Noche De Los Sexos Abiertos

La Noche de los Sexos Abiertos 1981 90 MINUTES Video Resources: European Trash Cinema and others (U.S. import); King Home Video (Spain); Severin Films-Blu-ray DIRECTED BY JESS FRANCO WITH: ROBERT FOSTER (ANTONIO MAYANS), LINA ROMAY, EVA PALMER, ALBINO GRAZIANI, TONY SKIOS, JESS FRANCO =======================================

This sadistic-comedic Eursopy/crime cocktail has become a favorite since I acquired it about 20 years ago from European Trash Cinema. It has since made it to Blu-ray from Severin Films, deservedly so since it's one of the director's most visually dazzling films. I reviewed and discussed this film in past posts but it continues to fascinate and entertain on repeat viewings. I even had the chance to praise it to Jess Franco when I interviewed him in 2005. He humbly thanked me, sounding surprised I actually knew of, watched and appreciated what he called his "black cinema"/film noir.

Moira (Lina Romay) is a sexy cabaret stripper by night and a secret agent by day. She is attempting to gain information on the Segunda Guerra Mundial, an international criminal group who are about to locate a hidden consignment of gold bars which was secreted beneath the desert during the last days of the Nazis. Private detective Al Crosby is also on the trail of the gold and teams up with Moira. Eventually, Prof. Von Klaus provides a complex code which, when deciphered, will reveal the location. Moira is briefly captured by the opposition, tortured, and then freed by Al. They make a concerted effort to break the word puzzle, and finally succeed in locating Von Klaus's desert villa, in which there is a secret room containing the gold. First though, the right notes have to be played on an organ which will electonically trigger the lock mechanism. It involves musical notation from a Liszt composition. When Moira performs the piece, the door opens and the treasure awaits them. The only problem is that the counteragents have pursued them by helicopter and plan to relieve Al and Moira of their newly found fortune.

It opens with soldier-of-fortune Al Crosby (aka Al Pereira) driving along the balmy coast of the Canary Islands location on his way to a rendezvous at a rowdly nightculb. At the club Moira (Romay) does a hot dance in which she acts out having hot sex with a classic American car, or shall we say dry humps the vehicle anticipating the 21st century post-feminist thriller, TITANE. Romay really throws herself into the action, literalizing the concept of exotic dancing. This deliriously filmed sequence is Franco at his best, doing what he most likes, filming erotic performances in nightclubs. The latin club beats, familiar from previous Franco films, are contrasted with the serene vocals of Carlos Franco which accompany Crosby's evening drive. Music, as always in the cinema of Jess Franco, drives the action, characters, and is as important as the imagery. Of course, the performance of a very different piece of music will resolve the plot and end the pursuit of gold bars by Crosby, Moira and another team of fortune hunters.

Considering the fact that Jess Franco has returned to Euro-spy genre again and again throughout his career, it would seem the genre holds a special fascination for him, as well as providing the profilic director with narrative action that functions as a necessary backdrop to his trademark erotic scenes, personal touches, visual spirals, and private jokes. It is impossible to separate the sex from any generic conventions at this point in Franco's career. His later Euro-spy feature DARK MISSION (1988), offers evidence that he could leave aside the obsessive focus on eroticism and make a relatively straight commercial product, but that film is dull as direct compared to this gliettering gem. As this more personal early 80s period and his recent films show, Franco is at his best when he is allowed to be himself.

There are many shootings, double crosses, torture sessions (one outrageously borders on a XXX level of sado-erotic intensity), exotic locales, and Lina Romay has never looked sexier. She's as hot as the color scheme and 3rd degree lighting. In the end the plot is not as important as the style in which it is shot, it's too late to be called Pop Art or Op Art, it is best described as art object which celebrates its triviality by treating it as a hidden treasure. Robert Monell 2022