MIDNIGHT PARTY/LADY PORNO (1976-1982)

Review: MIDNIGHT PARTY (1975)/LADY PORNO version Posted by Robert Monell , Apr 02,2000,09:56 post reply top message newest index New Version (2023) (C) Robert Monell aka Porno Pop, La Partouse de Minuit, Sylvia le Basleuse, Sexy Blues (Production/prerelease titles), La Coccolona (Italian release), Heisse Beruhrungen (Erwin Dietrich/Swiss version). LADY PORNO (76 minute Spanish version) Directed by Tawer Nero (Julio Perez Tabernero) for Titanic Films. "A Belgian-Spanish co-production" is credited onscreen in this Spanish language cut. The longest (94m) cut is presumably Franco's own preferred cut and listed as a French-Belgian production.

This is a sexy spy film once directed by Jess Franco in just a few days, at least it looks like a few days, mostly at a hotel in Southern France (some exteriors of the astral pyramids of La Grande Motte are glimpsed). A typical Franco strategy. Around the same time, he shot two other films there (Le Grand Motte) with the exact same rooms, casts and crews (DE SADE'S JULIETTE, SHINING SEX). The version under consideration here has the onscreen title Lady Porno, a Spanish variant of Franco's original MIDNIGHT PARTY. Julio Perez Tabernero, an actor turned producer-director (he can be seen in Franco's own SADISTEROTICA/Two Undercover Angels)acquired it for his Titanic Films (Julio, your company needs a new handle!) and reconstructed it as an "American-Belgian" co-production. It's very amusingly redubbed and rescored with lewd comments ("I'd like to fuck her in the ass!"), bawdy music and direct-to-the-viewer takes. --Sylvia is a very hot stripper who carries on an affair with a cheap detective, Al Pereira (Olivier Mathot) behind the back of her longtime squeeze, Red Nicholas (film historian-critic-actor-musician-screenwriter-Franco friend, Alain Petit). This is not really another of Franco's Al Pereira episodes, as he is mainly a player in Sylvia's story. This is kind of like a live action cartoon (cf LUCKY, THE INSCRUTABLE) with Lina Romay giving it all she has as the resourceful Sylvia. This might actually be my personal favorite of her performances, she mercilessly teases the viewer directly, the interactive takes allow her to pose, stick her tongue out, and make alluring remarks to the audience before turning back to the scene and players at hand, resuming in the traditional four wall mode. The longest version of this film opens with Romay in full interactive mode, addressing the viewer as she twists and turns in erotic self pleasure.

It's mosty a lot of good natured fun for the initiated, except that the subject of interest is torture. Torture that really hurts to watch! Sylvia is taken by Radeck/Agent 008 (Jess Franco himself), a spymaster and professional torture mogul who takes his business very seriously indeed. Look at the way he abuses poor Sylvia: after being stripped and sexually abused by henchpersons Monica Swinn and Ramon Ardid, she's poked, punched and cigarette burned by the ingrates under the very close supervision of Radeck. They take her to the "torture clinic" which, this being a Jess Franco shoot, merely means another hotel room (or the same hotel room slightly redressed and shot from a different angle). Choosing a metal tool, they try pulling out her toenails, as Radeck is beginning to lose his patience. At this point one of my favorite moments in Franco's monumental filmography occurs, and it only last a few seconds: Radeck simply puts a cigarette in his mouth and lights it. That's it! The exact way which actor Jess Franco jabs the smoke into his mouth and fires it up has to be experienced first hand. It's a grand bit a business, something small made into something very special by a seasoned professional, Franco, the actor, is much more flamboyand here than Franco, the director. Radeck drops the pose at the end, as Sylvia and Al are escaping he faces the camera and admits to us that it was all an illusion. We have been spectators. But what are we doing at this venue? Of course, that question is implied rather than asked. It's a comedy of torture, after all.

Alain Petit is very droll as the Marxist jazz singer, Nicholas. Billed as "Charlie Christian" (cf JUSTINE, the 1979-80 Joe D'Amato composite where he is likewise billed as his footage here is rolled over with scenes from SHINING SEX into a unique reedit) he performs his infamous "La Vie est une Merde", also heard in a blues rendition during Franco's 1982 EMMANUELLE EXPOSED and in Petit's documentary THE MAKING OF TENDER FLESH (1997).

The Spanish language version which was screened for this review (subtitled in English) is very much in keeping with the joker/trickster impulses which frequently bubble to the surface of Franco's work. The finale, a shootout between Petit, the villains and the cops (a minimalist debacle of dutch angles and snap zooms accompanied by light-hearted jazz,) followed by shots of birds flying in the distance as our couple floats away on a pleasure craft, is post-ironic in the sense that it delivers on expectations which Franco obviously considers bogus while gleefully curving past the generic demands of representational, grade B sexploitation production methodology. In other words: don't worry, be happy, it's only a movie. Franco places the absurd action as film within a film within a role play since the party itself turns out to be a spy game. When the director-actor breaks the fourth wall again to dismiss the concocted reality he has just created he's getting the last laugh and word, reminding us that his films represent nothing but meditations on represention.

It's especially interesting to watch this "comedy" lon a double bill with the intense, morbid SHINING SEX, made the same year, with the same main cast, on the same locations in Southern France, sometimes using the same hotel rooms, shot from the same camera angles. There is a perverse atmosphere of toxic sexuality, perhaps anticipating Franco's unreleased SIDA, LA PESTE DEL SIGLO XX (1986), a sci-fi/drama about the dissemination of an AIDS like plague. The secret agents in SHINING SEX are extra-dimensional invaders investigated by a paranormal scientist, played Jess Franco again. A truly mind-bending experience would be to view both and then JUSTINE, which composites footage from SHINING SEX, MIDNIGHT PARTY and Franco's lost JULIETTE DE SADE into one Sadean blow-out, courtesy of post-production producer-editor, Joe D'Amato. REVIEWED BY ROBERT MONELL NOTES: MIDNIGHT PARTY was released in Germany on January 23, 1976, in France on December 7th, 1977; LADY PORNO carries a 1982 Spanish copyright date. The IMDB lists Brussels Belgium, Madrid, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana Spain and Cote Bleue, Bouches-du-Rhone France as additional locations. (C) Robert Monell--2023 NEW VERSION

THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA (aka DER TEUFEL KAM AUS AKASAVA) 1970

Directed by Jess Franco. With Soledad Miranda, Fred Williams, Jess Franco, Howard Vernon. A Spanish-West German co-production. Available from European Trash Cinema.

My initial reaction to this 1970 film was negative. I have since reevaluated it. I first experienced it as totally inept rush-job, a belated cash-in on the Edgar Wallace franchise. It was, sadly, Franco's last collaboration with the legendary Soledad Miranda. She would die in a car accident shortly after the completion of this supposed Edgar Wallace adaptation. The plot evokes some of the later Edgar Wallace films from Germany as the series was on a downward spiral, generic eurospy cliches strung end to end with the only interesting aspect being Miranda's participation. A more interesting was to view it as a "Jess Franco" iteration of pulp material. I haven't read the Wallace novel which I understand is quite different than the film. British Agent Jane Morgan (Miranda) joins forces with a Scotland Yard investigator (Fred Williams) to locate a stolen mineral which has the capacity to transform base metal into gold. The downside is that it emits rays which turn all those who come into contact with it into mindless zombies.

After a trip to the tropical country of Akasava, where the stone was discovered, the agents discover two eminent physicians (well played by Franco regulars Paul Muller and Horst Tappert) have secured the element and are planning to sell it to a corrupt philanthropist. The men are murdered by a counteragent (Howard Vernon), who is blown up along with the stone in a plane crash while attempting to flee the country. It's obviously from the opening, a flurry of zoom shots in and out of a flock of flamingos in a tropical grotto, that Franco is more interested in the environment than plot. The seeminly compulsive use of zoom shots would continue until the end of the film. Would another director have suddenly panned away from the action to zoom up to the tops of the local palm trees? The point is this is a Jess Franco film. He's shouting at us to look up to something were taking for granted, those towering palms. He's in full tourist guide mode here.

and the viewer is the tourist. Miranda's participation in this enterprise is highly erratic — she pops in and out of the story and her main role is to provide a romantic interest for the hero, indifferently played by German actor Fred Williams, a handsome, rather dull performer, who spends most of the film limping around in a debilitating leg cast and crutches. He has a winning smile and an easy going nature but never manages to engage with the other actors or his role. He may as well been playing a waiter. Miranda doesn't really get a chance to project the obsessed sensuality which burned up the screen in her stunning turns in VAMPYROS LESBOS and EUGENIE (both 1970). She does get to perform some abstract strip teases during which she barely moves and doesn't even remove any clothing. No strip and a lot of tease, which might leave her fans feeling somewhat disappointed and ripped off. She is simply miscast in a role any actress could have done, and she never turns on that mysterious aura of narcotic eroticism which surrounds those indelible performances. Howard Vernon and Franco himself appear in small roles as agents and lighten up the proceedings with some humorous asides. The film does lack the esoteric qualities of Franco's earlier collaborations with Miranda. One can only imagine what her career would have been like if she had lived past the age of 27.

What saved the film for me were the whirlwind vocal and brass score by Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab (available on CD) and Franco's frenetic camera style and pacing. The director really goes over the top with the zoom lens here (as many critics have complained), moving in and out of the action (or non-action) or suddenly zooming up to the top of palm trees and back down again for no particular reason. These rather desperate directorial moves become kind of amusing to watch for the sheer unpredictabilty of what Franco is going to focus (or unfocus) on next. The wild camera work is accenuated by the fast paced editing (unusual in a Franco film from this period) and heady music. Franco obviously knew he was involved in a lost cause and at least produced film with a few of his personal touches, a Eurospy quickie which his longtime fans can laugh at while regretting the fate of the doomed Miranda. ************************************************************************************************************************* Franco would return to the world of Edgar Wallace in the 1980s with two questionable "adaptations." VAIJE A BANGKOK: ATAUD INCLUIDO is a rarely seen spy adventure set in the Far East. cult seen through Asian pottery, curtains and smoke and mirrors. A closer looks reveals an uncredited source, Franco's own 1966 Eurospy epic starring Eddie Contantine, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS (CARDS ON THE TABLE). Despite a lackluster performance by can't be bothered Constantine that did have some good scenes detailing the creation of human cyborgs in a giant test tube (see Below).

Produced by Jess Franco/Manacoa Films--Directed by Jess Franco--Screenplay by David Khunne (Jess Franco), based on a novel by Edgar Wallace--DP: Joan Soler/Juan Soler Cozar--Music: Dennis Farnon/Jess Franco (Ed. Harmony, Madrid)--Asst. Dir: Rosa Maria Almirall (Lina Romay), Carlos Aguilar-- Editor: Rosa Maria Almirall (Lina Romay)--Art. Dir: Carlos Spitzer--Ma: Juana de la Morena--Production Asst: Angel Oriales, Enrique Diaz--Prod. Mgr: J. Antonio Mayans--92m. Eastmancolor. Widescreen. Locations: Alicante, Canary Islands. Spain. 1985. Based on "novel" by Edgar Wallace... But what novel or story?A brainwashed assassin breaks into a diplomatic reception, cuts the throat of the British Ambassador and is quickly shot down. The aging but still sharp M1 agent, Colonel Daniel J. Blimp (Howard Vernon) arrives to conduct an inquiry. He is joined the a younger, brash Australian agent, Philip Sanders (Jose Llamas) and the victim's daughter (Helena Garret)  in uncovering a strange cult under the mental domination of the blind Professor Tao (Albino Graziani). More terrorist style murders of political figures occur but Blimp's trusty cane and trick tobacco pouch save the day, along with bursts of machine gun fire directed by the young Sanders. Basado en la novela de Edgar Wallace according to the poster, this is actually an on-the-fly remake of CARTES SUR TABLE (1966), with Howard Vernon playing the Eddie Constantine role. Without sex, nudity or significant action scenes this looks like a by the numbers reboot of an earlier low-budget film on an even slimmer contract which doesn't have a significant female foil like Francoise Brion or Sophie Hardy in the template. Like CARTES SUR TABLE it's an uneasy, highly personal blend of rushed looking action scenes, Jess Franco in-jokes (the Ambassador is named after the editor of several Harry Alan Towers-JF collaborations), but the Romantic intrigue just isn't there nor are the charmingly dog eared scrap ups. What is here are some strikingly composed sequences set in the hidden lair of the "cult of ultimate knowledge" executed by mere clever placement of a few vases, geometric blocking along with typical Jess Franco smoke and mirrors effects. The "robots" look more than mid 1980s lounge lizards than Manchurian Candidates. The robot killers are controlled by a sinister cult. Jess Franco has a throwaway cameo as a hotel clerk.

Spanish film historian Carlos Aguilar, who would eventually write several books on the director, was assistant director, and appears in a small role as the hotel clerk. The name of Sanders appears to be the main element taken from the work of Edgar Wallace. Jess Franco, looking somewhat bored, appears as an inquisitive hotel agent. Nevertheless, it's a sometimes fun trifle, features some amusingly inept Kung Fu interludes and German actor Christian Bork (Bork Gordon) from the somewhat similar Golden Films Internacional no-budget action epic BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE(1985), which was made in an overlap with this film according to the director* Actually, the best shot in the film is in the first scene where the diplomatic reception is reflected in the sunglasses of the robot-assassin who is lurking in the night just outside the window.  Jess Franco, when up against it, is sometimes better at making scattered memorable images like this than he is at writing original stories or compelling characters, but he obviously was more concerned this time in making yet another film and moving on to the next. The secret code of Jess Franco lives on in even obscure commercial knocks offs. The director would return to hardcore in 1985-1987, with such tiles as EL MIRON Y EL EXCIBICIONISTA, EL OJETE DE LULU and ENTRE PITOS ANDA EL JUEGO. This film was preceded by the 1983 SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS, a fast-paced actioner supposedly based on Edgar Wallace's SANDERS COME FROM THE RIVER [!], a book I have never read, so I can't testify to its faithfulness to the credited source. This one features Howard Vernon as an absconding Soviet scientist who has fled his homeland with a high-tech nuclear homing device. An International espionage would be thriller which has numerous amusing scenes involving a duo of agents played by Antonio Mayans and Lina Romay. It all ends with a NORTH BY NORTHWEST style air to ground pursuit where the couple are bombed by an airborne menace. An unusual and very welcome action-adventure turn by the director, with a lot of subversive humor, personal touchstones and a musical code. Released on Spanish video-Basic Home Video S.A., according to OBSESSION THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO. This film also had Internet broadcast on a Spanish site some time ago and looked to be in good shape.

(C) Robert Monell (New Version) 2023.