LES DEMONS: X RATED KULT

This 2004 R2 two-disc set was for its time, now 20 years ago, the best ever presentation of a Jess Franco project, the 1972 French Spanish co production, LES DEMONS
Three different international versions 114 m, longest vintage version.

101m, "Director's cut" this is the 2003 Jess Franco remix.

85m, the vintage German language version [looks about 2.50:1].

16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1; DD 2.0: Code 2.

An elderly woman tortured and burned as a witch hurls a curse at Lord Jeffreys (Cihangir Gaffari) promising that she will be avenged by her daughters. Kathleen (Anne Libert) and Margaret (Britt Nichols) are convent bound young women whom Lord Jeffreys is informed are the spawn of the exectuted witch. He sends out Lady de Winter (Karin Field) and Renfield (Alberto Dalbes), the girl's real father, to find them and bring them back to face the Inquistion. More nudity, lesbian interludes and torture than Franco's first film about Lord Jeffreys, THE BLOODY JUDGE, LES DEMONS is now available on an essential 2 disc box set from X RATED KULT DVD. Disc 1 contains the longest 114 minute version with German and French language options, original trailer, alternate scenes and other bonus materials. This version, presented in a colorful 2.35:1 transfer finally reveals the films as the Sadean epic that it is: post-modern erotic Fantastique which comments on the Inquisition and nunsploitation genres of that era (cf THE DEVILS). Franco's use of the widescreen ratio is simply stunning, with an impressive use of multiple fields of action and the colors are gorgeous. All the sex, nudity and violence is present in this uncut print.

In a way, THE DEMONS could be considered a remake of Jess Franco's 1970 THE BLOODY JUDGE, also featuring a witchburning judge played by a very different actor, Cihangir Gaffari, here credited as John Foster, whose interpretation of the role. In an inteviewed included on the 2023 Mondo Macabro disc of THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN, Gaffari complains that Franco, as Spanish co-producer of the film just disappeared at the end of shooting, forgetting to pay the actor for his performance. This was after Gaffari had already donated some of his own money to the film's production! Disc 2 contians a new "Director's Cut", reedited and rescored by Franco in 2003. He replaces the t Franco himself dubbing Howard Vernon's character! At 101 minutes it cuts Doris Thomas' masturbation scene in the long verions (over 3 mn!) to 1mn and also loses some expository scenes but still has an epic scope. The print looks slightly crisper and more colorful than the longer 114 mn version but the Spanish dubbing is technically limited and somewhat hollow with a "studio" ambiance. As with many Franco "alternates", it consistutes a separate new film in itself. Onscreen title: LAS POSEIDAS DEL DEMONIO. Finally, there is the Original German 85 minute version, which censors some of the sex, nudity and torture. English language option included. This is the only version with the original credit sequence intact, the other two have new video generated fonts. The video quality of this print can only be described as "Grindhouse" and the directed is credited to Franco's "Clifford Brown" beard. As noted above the aspect ratio appears to be closer to 2.50:1 on playback. The score by Jean Bernard Raiteux can only be described as early 1970s "prog rock" in style and is perfectly anachronistic and likely the idea of post production editor Gerard Kikoine. Franco would criticize this score in later interviews, missing the point. All three versions are letterboxed at 2.35:1 and have multiple language options. The oversized box is lavishly and lasciviously illustrated with four potential covers. "The X-Rated Nunsploitation Series 5" Available from Xploited Cinema. "Sex und Gewalt hinter Klostermauern" is emblazoned on the back cover over a close-up of a male nipple being clipped off and full frontal nude shots of female characters masturbating and stretched out on a torture rack. I guess one would term this 2004 release a collectors item. R2 (C) Robert Monell: New Version.

WOMEN BEHIND BARS (1975)

BLUE UNDERGROUND DVD: "BAD GIRLS BEHIND BARS" 5 Women-in-Prison film set.

Directed by Jess Franco (credited to Rick DeConninck). Cast: Lina Romay (Shirley Fields), Roger Darton (Milton Warren), Martine Stedil, Ronald Weiss, Ramon Ardid(Perry Mendoza), Denis Torre, Jess Franco (Bill, a hitman). aka: UNA SECONDINA IN UNA CARCERE FEMMINILE (Italian version). --Perry Mendoza, a smalltime hood, orders a raid on the yacht of millionaire Rufus Hackerman. His men escape with a cache of diamonds. Mendoza eliminates his associates and keeps the diamonds for himself. When he returns to his club, girlfriend Shirley Fields (Romay) summarily executes him and immediately turns herself in to the police.

This is a legendary Franco title, not so much for what it is, but for how it supposedlycame into being. While shooting FRAUENGEFANGNIS (BARBED WIRE DOLLS) for Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich's Elite Film, Franco decided to clandestinely shoot another WIP film simultaneously utilizing some of the same cast members and sets. The story was that he simply shot the alternate film as slightly different takes, using short ends and leftovers of the film he had been allotted. He then cut it together and sold it to Italian producers to whom he owed money behind Dietrich's back. What actually happened was Franco shot a totally different film, using some cast members from FRAUENGEFANGNIS, which was a considerable success for Dietrich. When the producer discovered Franco's subterfuge he managed to forgive him, while deciding to keep a closer eye on the wayward director during future shoots. However, both films have totally different stories and characters. Also there are no alternate takes or short ends or footage from BARBED WIRE DOLLS. The main location was down the coast from the fort where FRAUENGEFANGNIS was shot. A small town on the Southern coast of France where people who can't afford Nice congregate. A number of exposition scenes are set in the low rent Hotel De Gregorio, which was obviously a convenient production center for this termite Women-in-Prison affair.

WOMEN BEHIND BARS is as amusing as the tale behind its production. A kinder, gentler version of Franco's previous WIP formulae; it's a breezy parody of Euro grade Z crime films. The opening raid on the Chinese junk by masked gunmen is indicative of what is to come-- a wild montage of fitful zoom shots of the bandits running in and out of compact cars, down stone steps onto a beach where a hastily staged shootout occurs. Everything looks like it was filmed in single takes, and probably was. The prison sequences mostly consist of sado-sexual encounters between Lina Romay (looking trim and tricky here), the catlike Martine Stedil, and the oafish Ronald Weiss (the philosophical warden who ends up getting shot by Franco himself, appearing as a nervous hitman). There are all kinds of odd visual details here which continue to register after viewing, like an oversized telephone in Weiss'office, or the electric torture device used on Romay, which looks like a soundboard hijacked from the editing studio. Roger Darton turns in a droll performance as Milton Warren, a corrupt insurance investigator sent to get back the diamonds. His dry narration gives the rather predicatable storyline a much needed ironic spin.

My favorite sequence is a minimalist prison break which begins with Romay teasing Weiss to distraction, then marching him out past his heavily armed guards with his own gun pointed at his head. It's a sexual variation on the classic breakout scenes from the old Warners prison dramas. Daniel J White's elegant, modulated piano and organ score (which was recycled for some 1980's Franco productions) keeps the action percolating, providing atmosphere and versimultitude to a venture which seems mostly have been shot in a hotel room and a prison cafeteria set. Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable trifle which may actually make you want to rush off and check in at the Hotel Don Gregorio. Note that prolific English language dubber and Rome based dubbing director Richard McNamara voices the hit man played by Jess Franco. McNamara was also responsible for the English language dub of Franco's 1971 DRACULA PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN> Reviewed by Robert Monell (New Version: 2023)

The Sinister Dr.Orloff --Blu-ray

This 1982 Golden Films Internacional Production is my personal favorite of Jess Franco's Dr. Orloff series. It replaces the heavy Gothic look of GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961) (the Spanish version) with a glittering, full color semi sci-fi look. EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF (1964) looks more like an Alfred Vohrer Krimi and the Gothic element is more reserved. THE EYES OF DR ORLOFF (1972), the first in color, totally eliminates the Gothic look and has a much more realistic look and feel, sort of more like a typical 1970s Spanish Giallo. By the early 1980s Franco's style has again morphed into something quite different than those monochrome thrillers of the early 1960s.

The new Blu-ray from MONDO MACABRO further enhances those colors and aesthetic choices of Franco which distinguish this from all his previous Dr. Orloff (Orlof, with one f, in GRITOS EN LA NOCHE) films. SINISTER could be titled The Son of Dr. Orloff. Antonio Mayans plays the mad doctor's biologist son as a sexual psychopath who kidnaps local women in Alicante, Spain to restore the comatose body of his mother through an electronic form of soul transfer. His brother (Raf Smog) is a blind beast with skin grown over his eyes, a victim of young Orloff's unethical experiments.The film details the monstrous looking hulk stalking and kidnapping young, attractive women for the macabre expriments of Alfred Orloff. This iteration of a favorite Franco character definitely earns its Classification "S" rating.

Some of the stalk and kidnap sequences are shot-by-shot reconstructions of similar scenes in GRITOS EN LA NOCHE. The final experiment of young Orloff is sabotaged by Orloff Sr. (Howard Vernon), repeating his role in GRITOS EN LA NOCHE, only playing a wheelchair bound, elderly version of the mad scientist, now wiser and reprentant for his sins. He is aware of Alfred's sexual sadism and questions his scientific motives. It all ends in complete scientific and criminal disaster with everyone either dematerialized or the wrong soul going into the wrong body. Only the sarcastic laugh of the senior Orloff resonates as the end credits roll.

Or is that Jess Franco laughing?

ABOVE: Frequent Jess Franco composer and actor, Daniel White.**** BONUS/VIDEO/AUDIO: Beside the audio commentary (see below) and a Stephen Thrower talk on the film, a visit with frequent Franco collaborator Antonio Mayans is included. He speaks fondly of his experiences on this film and other Franco productions over the four decades they worked together, depicting the director as a trickster who would complete two films in four weeks alloted for one film and flee shooting locations just ahead of the landlord. The film is a revelation in HD, with bold colors and layered reflections which give it a cyber-punk aesthetic at times. With a fascinating soundscape by Jess Franco himself, wildly interpreting the Pablo Villa score on a Profeta-5 synthesizer, a versitale five-voice polyphonic synth, used by Kraftwerk and other popular bands in the 1980s to create unique sounds. It's a film with a unique soundscape and look, which at times recalls his futurist styled BLUE RITA (1976) or the ultra- dimensionality of his sci-fi-sex-satanic-spy fantasia, EL SEXO ESTA LOCO (1980).

We should also consider in future blogs such Orloff related films as ALONE AGAINST THE TERROR (1983) and FACELESS (1988), both of which have a Dr. Orloff character and deal with psychological and scientific transgressions. This region free release is the US premiere of the film and its worldwide Blu-ray debut. DISC FEATURES Region free 1080p presentation from a new 4K restoration of the film In Spanish with optional English subtitles Brand new interview with Antonio Mayans Brand new interview with author Stephen Thrower Brand new audio commentary by Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson LIMITED EDITION FEATURES 20 page full color booklet by Francesco Cesari and Roberto Curti; reversible sleeve with new and original art; 1500 numbered copies in the usual red case (C) Robert Monell,2023

HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN (PLAISIR A TROIS) 1973

Plaisir a trois 1973 85 MINUTES: MONDO MACABRO (Blu-ray; Jess Franco Triple Bill); European Trash Cinema (U.S. import) DIRECTED BY "CLIFFORD BROWN" (JESS FRANCO) WITH: ROBERT WOODS, ALICE ARNO, TANIA BUSSELIER, HOWARD VERNON, ALFRED BAILLOU, LINA ROMAY --------------------------------------------------------------------

(a.k.a. HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN) In 1973, Jesus Franco directed at least 12 movies. PLAISIR A TROIS stands out for its clever plotting, above-average performances, and carefully constructed visual style that takes an almost Cubist approach to imagery. For instance, in the first scene Alice Arno's character, Martine Bressac, departs from a mental hospital. As she is debriefed by the head psychiatrist note how her bright green bandana and rectangular shapes of the windows behind her head result in a disturbingly, off balance cubist composition which subtly signals us of the woman's dangerous tendencies and mental imbalance. These type of compostions recur throughout the film.

There's a game going in throughout the course of this film. A game created by the Marquis de Sade, played by the four main characters. It's kind of a 3D chess game, a game of Life and Death. The winners take all, the loser dies a horrible, extended death. Who is the loser? Who are the winners? They won't be who you think they are. The plotline here, adapted from a story in Sade's Philosophy in the Boudior, has been used in many other Franco projects. Martine is an artist who paints impressionist style nudes. Her hidden occupation, though, combines art, perversion, murder and a secret torture chamber underneath her villa. Women she has seduced, tortured, and murdered are arranged in sado-erotic poses as living dead sculptures. Arno's spine-chilling performance give this "horrors in the wax museum" scenario considerable psychological depth. She is the embodiment of pure, selfish lust. Arno (real name: Marie-France Broquet) was one of Franco's best performers, but she disappeared from the Euro-exploitation scene sometime in the mid 1970s. Robert Woods, veteran of countless spaghetti westerns, has a good role here as Arno's double-dealing husband. Howard Vernon is amusing as a smug chauffeur, and diminutive Alfred Baillou plays a snooping gardener who seems somewhat deranged.

ABOVE:Producer Robert De Nesle C.F.F.P. Paris**** PLAISIR A TROIS does not concentrate on the story's horror element. The basement of women frozen in poses of death has been done in such films as MYSTERY IN THE WAX MUSEUM, HOUSE OF WAX and MILL OF STONE WOMEN (1960), it instead follows a potential victim (Tania Busselier) into Arno's unholy lair. A handful of stylized sex scenes between Busselier, Arno, Woods, and Lina Romay (as Arno's slightly deranged slave) sets up a surprising twist (but very Sadean) ending, in which Martine becomes a victim of her own sick escapades. Once again a hermetically sealed world is created by the use of an 18mm lens range to shoot the interiors of the villa which the scheming protagonists inhabit. This lens was often used by Orson Welles to open up claustrobic spaces in such films as TOUCHE OF EVIL and THE TRIAL. He also uses some fairly elaborate lateral tracking shots, as when the basement chamber of horrors is first introduced or to subtly distort the distances between characters. After all, Franco himself has said his films are about the distances between people.

In addition, Franco offers a consistently perverse and obsessive world within Arno's villa -- Rooms bathed in red light, strip teases using mannikins, slow-moving sex action, and his trademark voyeuristic motifs. Busselier's midnight bedroom antics (spied on by Arno and Woods through a telescope) are some of the most erotic scenes Franco has filmed, without becoming overly explicit.

The reveiwed print contains some very brief XXX shots, but they are handled with an unusual grace and discretion, considering Franco's more graphic forays into hardcore sex movie terrain. The Franco biography, Obsession: The Films of Jess Franco, lists the running time of this film as 80 minutes, but some U.S. mail order companies offer a French language version which runs approx 87 minutes, as does the highly recommended MONDO MACABRO Blu-ray. The colors, seen in HD, are richly saturated and often display clashing, but gorgeous, patterns. The color of the 1950s melodramas Douglas Sirk directed at Universal come to mind.**** BELOW: Douglas Sirk's IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)****

****ABOVE: Clifford Brown (1930-1956)**** Given the number of versions Franco made of this story, this once again underlines that the style he uses to tell the same stories over and over is always completely different than the previous iterations. His style is constantly, gradually evolving as he moves on to different locations, casts and budgets. He's like a pianist or a jazz trumpeteer usuing different keys, notes and tempos to play the same tune, each time renewing it for his audience. Clifford Brown, the jazz trumpet stylist used a specific "approach pattern" on the notes he played to arrive at his unique sound. It's no accident that this film, as many other Franco films, is credited to "Clifford Brown", one of the director's favorite beards and musicians. (C) Robert Monell, New Version--2023