LE SOMBRA DEL JUDOKA CONTRA EL DOCTOR WONG: Jess Franco's Martial Arts Holocaust.

Anyone viewing Jess Franco's 1982 crime/martial arts epic LE SOMBRA DE JUDOKA CONTRA DR. WONG over 40 years after it was filmed on Canary Island locations will be confronted by a very curious spectacle. The shadow of judo refers to Bruce, the main charater who works to bust drug smugglers in his tropical city. It was one of the first "martial arts" films made in the 1980s, a series of crime-action films made with sparse resources for Emilio Larraga's Golden Films Internactional. The martial arts action performed by "Bruce Lyn" aka actor Jose Llamas is not impressive and is mostly rendered in Lo-Fi B-movie style slow motion. But Llamas was not the only actor performing martial arts in the film. First, a bit about the late Jose Llamas from a post created by Nzoog here some time ago: "[In his work in Jess Franco films] Llamas was assigned anything from minor roles to leads, sometimes on the heroic side, as in Viaje a Bangkok, ataúd incluido (1985) and several antagonists, such as his “Macho Jim” in Los blues de la calle Pop (1983). Strangest of all was Franco’s decision that he fill in the shoes of Bruce Lee in some of the pseudo-martial arts features the director was occasionally and inexplicably turning out in the eighties despite an absolute lack of demand in Spain for homegrown product of this kind, not to mention Llamas’s lack of an appropriate background. The actor certainly looked athletic, had black hair and, as Mayans has said, could dance, but in the words of David Domingo “he’s hopelessly clueless about martial arts” (2). These words are in reference to La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong (1982-85), with Llamas credited as “Bruce Lyn” and the real Bruce Lee featuring on the film’s poster!"

There were numerous Bruce Lee clones appearing in a variety of 1970s and beyond would-be martial arts films. Bruce Li, Bruce K.L. Lea are just a few of the immitators Then there's the odd spectacle of Jess Franco himself playing the titular Doctor Wong with oriental eye make-up and speaking in a very high pitched variant of his real voice. Of course such esteemed actors as Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee had already played the oriental villain Fu Manchu in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) and Franco's own Fu Manchu entries. Butt his 1982 oriental villain romp is decades beyond those and approaches high camp levels of absurdity.

Beside scenes of "Bruce" battling local drug smugglers and teaming up with dubious tourists played by Franco regulars Lina Romay and Daniel Katz Franco inserts footage from at least two Asian martial arts epics to pad out the runtime and provide extra actioin. One of these is the 1973 SEVEN TO ONE, starring Polly Kuan as a high kicking female martial artist, the other seems to be a Shaolin Temple style period piece from the same era.

It all ends with Bruce foiling the devious hijacking plans of the tourists and Doctor Wong attempting to escape only be intercepted by Kuan's character in an inserted car chase. An oddity to be sure, but Franco's Doctor Wong would return in his Digital era. Bangkok provides the backdrop for another Franco martial arts actioner, BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE (1985), credited to Cliffor Brawm! BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE is fascinating to the serious Jess Franco student but may not engage interest as a serious action film with Jess Franco-style martial arts interludes included. The formulaic plot combines drug running, Thai pirates (led by Lina Romay), karate fighting, kidnapping, comic relief and tourist footage which on first viewing looks cribbed from an unknown source.*  [Update: the DoP of this film, Juan Soler Cozar, read this review and kindly informed me that he was actually sent to Bangkok to shoot some street footage, and that it does appear in the film. I was very surprised that they went to the expense and trouble to do this, especially considering the production’s obvious micro-budget.] The yacht-going daughter of a millionaire is kidnapped by pirates. Her father (Eduardo Fajardo) hires a bumbling private eye named Panama Joe (Bork Gordon) to locate her. The daughter’s boyfriend is also on the kidnappers’ trail. Panama Joe discovers the crooks are led by a drug smuggler (Antonio Mayans), who is in turn being double crossed by Queen Amania (Lina Romay). The detective roams around the faux Asian locations, tries to play both sides against the other, while uncovering deeper layers of corruption and double dealing. BANGKOK... is dialogue and plot heavy to no good end, and Gordon’s imitation Inspector Columbo ramblings just do not spark enough interest. The characters are shown talking in cartoon dialog balloons during the opening credits a la LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967), but Franco unaccountably drops this unusual device immediately and never picks it up again. What’s left is a C-minus adventure with some comic relief and hastily staged karate stand-offs, in which the participants miss each other by miles. Then again, given the budget and assumed rushed shooting schedule this could be understandable. It also could indicate the director's disdain for those perfectly choreographed martial arts films of Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, etc. Gordon (Christian Borck) just seems a disheveled guy, actually a German comedian/television actor, who wandered in. Like the karate stuff, comedy-parody needs timing. The lines and martial arts blows rarely connect. Actually, I managed to find some amusement in the martial arts showdowns where the fighters miss contact with each other by such obvious distances that it looks like children playing at karate fighting. This is all likely due to a crushing schedule/lack of budget. Nonetheless the colorful cinematography frames the locations with skill and makes the Canary Islands seem like Southeast Asia, at least for 90 minutes. BANGKOK, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (VSOM dupe from Spanish television broadcast), ends up as a colorful, amusing mix of Kung Fu fighting, faux Asian aesthetics, modern day pirates, BANGKOK, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (1985) mixes comic book-style imagery with crime film elements, some self parody and a adventure plot with a not-so-happy ending. Franco has tried this before, notably in the delightful LOS BLUES CALLE POP…. (1983) and the above mentioned La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong (1982). Lina Romay has a few touching moments as the aggresive pirate leader. In one embarrassing scene, shes dances around in a tight swimsuit accompanied by a mechanical band. The result might been cute in 1973, but at this late date it is unflattering to the talented Ms. Romay. Veteran character actor Fajardo (DJANGO)  turns in a professional but unexceptional performance as the millionaire.

The movie benefits from its luminous cinematography and occasionally hectic energy but needs a more interesting focal point.. The Far Eastern locations, represented via the aforementioned stock footage are given an atmospheric boost by Pablo Villa’s (Franco and Daniel White) brassy score, some of which recalls music heard in Franco’s earlier FU MANCHU AND THE KISS OF DEATH/KISS AND KILL (1967). Given the negatives I’m at the stage where I can still engage with and enjoy even an understandably flawed genre mashup such as this one. It’s obvious that Jess Franco took it serious enough to attempt to deliver a multi-faced entertainment package under impossible circumstances. As he told me when I interviewed him on his Golden Films Internacional period, these productions were “poor”, i.e. made at very low coast, with little or no resources and rushed out to theaters or hidden away in the offices of producer Emilio Larraga to be lost forever. I had some fun watching it but have no idea where one could see it outside of fan websites. I am not aware of any DVD release, although it may have appeared on Spanish VHS.

The version I saw was from the wretchedly unreliable VSOM and had no English subtitles. A good quality HD transfer from a print or negative with  language options is required for a more in-depth consideration, but it’s an example of Franco’s 1980s exotica.

*Thanks again to Juan Cozar for additional information on the production of this film. Given the furious production pace of Franco's GOLDEN FILMS INTERNACIONAL period EN BUSCA DEL DRAGON DORADO, another Franco martial arts adventure, this time casted and shot as a children's film of all things, may have been shot back-to-back with LA SOMBRA DEL JUKODA CONTRA DOCTOR WONG. This time the featured martial artist was "Li Yung", no clones of "Bruce Lee" this time around. Presented as a daydream of Almond Eyes (Flavia Hervas) it could have been a delightful lark.

Exclusive new Interviews with Jess Franco stars Pamela Stanford and Monica Swinn!

DELIRIUM #40 features exclusive new interviews with Jess Franco femmes fatales Pamela Stanford and Monica Swinn, conducted by Michael Orlando Yaccarino. These actresses lit up the screen in a number of 1970s Jess Franco films such as LORNA,THE EXORICST, BLUE RITA, FEMALE VAMPIRE and DORIANA GRAY.

The interviews take us behind the scenes of such Franco titles as LORNA...THE EXORCIST, DAS FRAUENHAUS (BLUE RITA) and DORIANA GRAY. These are in- depth interviews about the making of these films, the actresses' accounts of being directed by Franco, stories about on-set memories about the actors, producers, locations of each of the films. Highly recommended reading. A longer version of this article with additional comments, information and notes will be avaiable this summer. More information can be found here: https://www.dorianavilla.com/

Jess Franco Europsy Files # 69

29 April, 2025 I love costumed superhero films (especially with spy and science fiction twists) from the 1960s from Gianfranco Parolini's THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN to the Japanese giant, ULTRAMAN. Jess Franco's 1967 Eurospy spoof LUCKY, EL INTREPIDO featuring Ray Danton (along with Jess Franco in two amusing cameos). Beside the non-stop quips, delivered in high style by Danton, the element I like most in LUCKY is the typically quirky, high-spirited Bruno Nicolai score (see if you can find it on CD). The main theme, with its crazy vocals and thumping two note refrain is great fun and I never get tired of revisiting it.

Preceded by the frenetic, some might say silly, monochrome spoof, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS, Franco's second Al Pereira feature, and the somber, underestimated RESEDENCIA PARA ESPIAS, LUCKY is stuffed with visual and verbal gags, and the secret agent protagonist seems in on the joke this time, whereas Eddie Constantine/the characters he plays in ATTACK... and RESDENCIA... seemes baffled by the action and ambiguity surrounding him. Constantine does well with double takes in ATTACK but seems less comfortable with the numerous pratfalls, including the final backward fall off of small fishing boat which ends the film. Godard keeps him straight and sober throughout ALPHAVILLE, except for a few bursts in sudden laughter. When you're a spy in a dystopia you don't have much to smile about.

Franco's first Eurospy thriller, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES (1962), is an immersion into a jazz milieu in which the director himself plays the saxophone with the Whisky Jazz band. The nightclub is the site where the musical code, Terrado Blues, is transmitted to those in the know, first by Julius Smith and then by Moira Santos (Danick Pattison), the latter on a secret mission of vengeance. Betrayal of friendship here, as in RESIDENCIA PARA ESPIAS, trumps betrayal of country. The spy spoof sub genre would be a default which Franco would employ into such 1980s efforts as UNA RAJITA PARA DOS (within a hardcore context), SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS (1983) and CUANTO COBRA UN ESPIAS? (1984).

Franco himself appears as a spymaster, Agent 008/Radeck, in the minimalist 1975 spy spoof MIDNIGHT PARTY aka LA COCCOLONA/LADY PORNO, who directs the torture of kidnapped stripper Lina Romay by Monica Swinn and Ramon Ardid. Shot in several hotel rooms at Le Grande Motte, the film is so threadbare that the fact that it's also interactive, at least in it's complete 90 minute version, that the fact that both Romay and Franco break the fourth wall and speak directly to the viewer becomes its most interesting aspect. One can imagine Franco writing down the synopsis on a napkin during a meal at the casino. It opens with the stripteaser Sylvia rolling around naked and taunting the viewer and ends, after interruptions by her hippie boyfriend (Alain Petit) and Franco's favorite detective Al Pereira (Olivier Mathot), with Agent 008 taking off his glasses, turning to camera, and informing the viewer that he is not a spy, but merely an actor in a film.

LADY PORNO [Porno Dama], 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 company (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, bawdy music and more direct-to-the-viewer takes. Sylvia is a very hot stripper who is introduced dancing in a glittering silver costume. Off stage she carries on an affair with a cheap detective, Al Pereira (Olivier Mathot) behind the back of her longtime squeeze Red Nicholas, a Communist musician frenetically embodied by French film historian and Jess 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 as the interactive approach allows 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 fourth wall mode. It’s a lot of good natured fun. Except that the subject is torture. Torture that doesn’t draw blood but really hurts! 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 henchmen Monica Swinn and Ramon, 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 pliers 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 suddenly jabs the cigarette 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. It will bring a smile to the face of all Franco enthusiasts. Franco drops the Radeck pose at the end, as Sylvia and Al are escaping he faces the camera and admits to us that it was all an illusion, only a movie. It is Jess Franco talking to us now. We have been spectators. But what are we doing at this venue? Of course, that question is implied rather than asked. Alain Petit is very droll as the Marxist jazz singer. Billed as «Charlie Christian» (cf JUSTINE, the 1979-80 Joe D’Amato composite where he is likewise billed. His footage in that and MIDNIGHT PARTY 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 with the cops (a minimalist debacle) 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. Tabernero seems to have simply reedited, cut down, dubbed/ rescored the director’s cut. There is also the 90m THE MIDNIGHT PARTY, in English, which may be the best way to ascertain the director’s intent since it includes the interactive opening in which Lina Romay frolics on a queen size bed while she lasciviously addresses the viewer. The longer version does stretch the very broad humor to its absolute limits. But at least it never crosses over into hardcore terrain. The gangling Tabernero can be seeAn as a supporting plalyer in such 1960s Eurowesterns as FURY OF THE APACHES (1964), SEVEN GUNS FOR THE MACKENNAS(1965) and in Eurospy titles such as RIFIFI IN AMSTERDAM (1966) as well as in his own SEXY CAT (1972), his best film as a director , a highly entertaining Spanish giallo done in the style of cine-comic strip complete with a black clad villain who kills with long, razor ship fingernails a la Franco’s MISS MUERTE (1965). Private Investigator Al Pereira would appear in more Jess Franco directed features, including his final completed film, AL PEREIRA VS. THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, his ultimate interactive experiment, with the director himself placed at the center of the action. An equally interactive spy spoof, LES GRANDES EMMERDEUSES (1974), is even more outrageously outre, opening with Lina Romay and Pamela Standford (Monique Delauney) romping around totally naked on queen sized beds in some hotel room, identifying themselves as Interpol agents. Franco's obsession with the "Red Lips", a team of sexy female detectives/secret agents goes all the way back to his second feature film, LABIOS ROJOS (1960). Here they're no longer identified as the Red Lips and they are involved in criminal smuggling of diamonds (guess where they hide them) as they encounter other smugglers, a mad scientist and a grotesque, hairy creature called the Durenstein monster. Filmed in Paris and Portugal, standing in for Istanbul, it's all good fun with Franco returning as another spy master.

There are even spy movie references in the 1980 surreal sex comedy EL SEXO ESTA LOCO, in which sex club performer Lina Romay is questioned about missing plans for an "air-submarine" (a reference to Ishiro Honda's 1963 ATRAGON?). Spy movie formats continue in the Franco-verse with CUANTO COBRA UN ESPIA? (1984) and several supposed Edgar Wallace adaptations including SANGRE EN MIS ZAPATOS (1983) and VIAJE A BANGKOK ATAUD INCLUIDO (1985), along with his straight and sober DARK MISSION (OPERACION COCAINA) (1987), the later starring Christoper Lee, Brigitte Lahie and Chris Mitchum as a CIA agent. I'll be discussing these in a future blog, along with the 1970 THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA, starring Soledad Miranda as a secret agent in her final film before her untimely death.

(C) Robert Monell 2025

PHOLLASTIA (1987) (original title) Phollastía France Fellations sauvages(new title) Spain Phollastía

Directed by "Betty Carter" [Jess Franco & Lina Romay]/Screenplay by Chuck Evans [Jess Franco], Lulu Lavere [Lina Romay]/DP: Terry De Corsia [Jess Franco]/Music: Daniel J. White/Editor: Jess Franco/83m 15s/Video: Fil a' Films [France] Additional cast: Carlos Quiroga, Bruce Leduc-rn A. Bartolos Velasco, Rex Robinson-rn C. Gonzalez Ordi, Traci King-rn Elisa Mateo, John Olms-rn Saez Montoro. [Credits from OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO which also lists an alternate French video title, Fellations Sauvages]

Produced by "Phalos Films", Madrid, this is rather upscale for a Jess Franco hardcore. Hiring a cast of experienced Spanish hardcore professionals and featuring some gleaming, mirrored sets, this shot-in-Benidorm sex comedy parody of the 1980s ABC primetime soap opera, DYNASTY (1981-1989),  has some interesting images and is staged with the kind of care a slightly more than average budget allow The Carrington family, including the cheating husband Blake and his scheming wife, are at odds over cosmetic expenditures. In the meantime their dysfunctional spawn go their own sex soaked ways. It's wall-to-wall hardcore orgies of handjobs, blowjobs, group sex and more sex. Franco pulls his camera back more than usual but some of the clever verbal puns were lost on me since my French is nil and I only had access to a poor dub of the ancient French video. It all suggests that by the late 1980s the hardcore novelty was beginning to wear on Spanish clientele as well as Jess Franco. Sarcastically referencing DYNASTY's Joan Collins, Lina Romay isbilled as "Jean Collins" and along with Jose Miguel Garcia Marfa (EL MIRON Y LA EXHIBICIONISTA-1985) are the only faces familiar to me in this show. But this is a film not really interested in..... faces. The costumes look surprising upscale given the genre. Apparently, the money spent on the cast and production made sure that it wasn't profitable after the box-office was exhausted.*

Treating this as a full feature production with a higher budget and pro porn players to be paid backfired on Franco according to Antonio Mayans, who declined to be in this film and FALOCREST, another hardcore parody shot back-to-back in Benidorm, but acted as the film's sales agent in the Barcelona market. According to Mayans, in an interview in the defunct FRANCOMANIA WEBSITE, "I wasn't around when Jess made them. He went to Benidorm and shot them there. It's different if you happen to be making a movie and - say, after lunch - you start filming a little porn film as well with the same available technicians, the same available actresses. It's a matter of shooting some porn footage, editing it and then selling iit. Fernando Vidal would put up some money and then he'd do the selling. But to go to Benidorm to make two porn movies, with people, with the structure of a real movie - that simply doesn't work out and I told him."**

Also, Franco scholar Francesco Cesari points out that Follar in Spanish = "to fuck" and the Ph, as in Phollastia = F. Yet another subterranean Jess Franco linguistic "joke" buried beneath the layers of hardcore action. Speaking of linguistic jokes and references, PHOLLASTIA and other 1980s Franco hardcores can be considered the director's own Lingua Franco. A lingua franca, also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication here takes the form of films which are often classified and rejected by Franco critics as only ways open to the director to remain active and generate income. But being a director who imbues everything he films with his own personal magic one has to look at them and scrutinize them as "Jess Franco" films, projects which did indeed generate income and did keep him active while forcing him to translate his visions and obsessions into the language and structures of commercial pornography. The orthological games, the ditzy (even for Franco) photography, the frenetic attempts at Bunuel type comedy, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeiosie meets DYNASTY or FALCON CREST, all exmplify this.

*Spanish ticket sales amounted to  29,693, not enough to show a real profit after productions costs are factored into the equation.  [Thanks to Francesco Cesari] ** Thanks to Nzoog for the translation of this interview, conducted by "Chus" and "Al Pereira" Reference print: XHAMSTER video This is part of a continuing series on Jess Franco's 1980s hardcore record. FALOCREST (1987), made at the same time and on the same locations as this film, will be covered next. (C)Robert Monell 2025

LA CRIPTA DE LAS CONDENADAS-- Jess Franco, 2012

LA CRIPTA DE LAS CONDENADAS

LA CRIPTA DE LOS CONDENADAS (2012) When I interviewed Jess Franco in 2005 he described this video project as being inspired by the writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne and was to be titled THE HOUSE NEXT TO THE CEMETERY. It obviously evolved unyil it finally appeared on Spanish DVD* as LA CRIPTA DE LOS CONDENADOS. Here is an except from Alex Mendibil’s essay on the film, written in 2008, which appears in another blog post here. It also appears in Alain Petit’s essential critical study: Ou les prospérités du bis. “The 80's Golden Films productions showed how the Franco universe could rid itself of some of its essential elements without losing its essence. In films such as MACUMBA SEXUAL (1981) or EL SINIESTRO DR. ORLOFF (1982), we deal with familiar themes and classic gothic characters like the vampire or the mad scientist but without all the acting, set-ups or typical wardrobes. Castles, candles, crucifixes, cemeteries and sci-fi lab equipment were replaced by extravagant beach houses, fashionable clothing and everyday objects. The result was disconcerting, but somehow managed to articulate a less figurative and more abstract language in which the renewed versions of Orloff, Al Pereira, Radek or Red Lips still made sense. With the shift to video in the late 90's, the destruction of the traditional cinematic codes was definitive: no set-ups at all or overtly fake sets, natural lighting, direct sound, video distortion effects, and above all, non-professional actors hamming it up or, on the other hand, a very naturalistic, almost cinéma vérité feel. Any device used to maintain the illusion of cinema is removed or deformed to the point of parody, as if Franco wanted to emphasize the death of that former cinema and suggest an unrepresentative cinema, a cinema abstract (*), if you will. In LA CRIPTA DE LAS MUJERES MALDITAS, the rupture with mainstream cinema is complete. The film takes place in closed-off rooms, half-empty and white, and the only things we are allowed to see are a few looped images of a cemetery, and the blurred image of an angel shaped statue that illustrates the final battle against the cursed women. We know about that battle only through the voice- over since the images are only abstract and difficult to decipher at times. Adding to all of the above (lack of set-ups, costumes, performances, video effects, etc), Franco finally gets rid of the last two pillars of classic cinema: the director and the screenplay. As stated above, this is a story without story but Jess Franco goes even further and invents a funny trick to show that he too disappears from the set, letting the characters shoot the film with video cameras and, thanks to some strategically placed mirrors, discovering that nobody is directing them on the set. Fata Morgana, the real protagonist of the film, assistant director and cinematographer, directs the film literally in front of our eyes, shooting it while playing one of the cursed women at the same time. Nothing is hidden, everything is shown: lightning, cables, the boom mic and even the back of the camera. It is not a video documentary, no video-creation, no experimental video, it is something that still has no name. The only overbearance to the genre resembles a William Castle-style joke: at the half point, there is a "To be continued…" title card, then a fade to black, and then the movie starts up again with a “Part 2” title card on screen. According to Jess Franco, this is his own version of the double-bill features in the GRINDHOUSE (2007) style. Despite being shot on video, SNAKEWOMAN was an exception to this trend since it was made following the traditional cinematic standards.

Alex Mendibil (2008) Dr. Mendibil’s observations are well taken in this context. Some may see the film as a plotless porn epic wallowing in nudity and lesbian sexual activity. Franco has gotten to the point here where plot is of no interest, as his article points out, there is only a seemingly eternal present. This seemingly eternal present is populated by several nude women, some seen via carefully placed mirrors, taping the action/non-action with cameras. As Mendibil notes, plot is irrelevant here, as is the concept of director. The performers are the directors, the auteurs, a concept which will be unsettling to some viewers and critics. One immediately thinks of Warhol’s experimental features of the mid 1960s, or the jarring moments of naked human interaction in various films of John Cassavettes. But Franco goes even further, there are no dialogues here, no tortured monologues or confrontations as in the cinema of Cassavettes.

Here is what I thought of the film in 2015. Since then my thoughts have evolved: "Bless you, tremulous, throbbing flesh» a female narrator intones over a sensual interlude between several women in a room flushed with orange light. Yes, we are in the realm of Jess Franco and this is just one interlude in a two part 150 minute epic poem of joyous, mysterious, interactive, nonstop sensuality and erotic sensation. One doesn’t want to call it Sex, at least not of the traditional sort. It’s more a display of erotic signs and motifs in the cinema. Once again, as Mendibil points out, there are no "performances", no male authoritarian director and no screenplay outside of a general outline or notes Franco may have used as a starting point. It's something unnamable and might be titled, apologies to Samuel Beckett and HP Lovecraft, The Unnamable. As I wrote in my infamous review of Franco's following film, AL PEREIRA VS THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, it's an anti-masterpiece of anti-cinema. It occupies a space between eroticism and pornography, without being particularly erotic and not including hardcore footage. We watch the film as it watches us. A nude actress points a video camera at the camera shooting the scene, breaking through the «fourth wall» of cinema. The group of Sapphic lovers often look at the camera, the viewer, who becomes part of the «action» or matrix of figures pleasuring each other in a no-budget labyrinth of mirrors, wicker chairs and television monitors on which the encounters are caught from other angles and reflected in strategically placed mirrors. One is reminded of Dr. Jacques Lacan's famous mirror stage.

The interiors are obviously someone’s (Franco's?) apartment in Malaga, but it represents the crypt of our Lesbos lovers obsessively, and with obvious joy, loving each other in lieu of the Exterminating Angel (Bunuel’s?) who will arrive for the judgement which makes up LA CRIPTA DE LAS CONDENADAS II. LA CRIPTA... is illustrated by the music of Bach, Hindemith, Ravel and Stan Kenton. Additional music by Daniel J. White. Originally scored and edited as films made in 2007 and screened at the 2008 Cinematheque Francais Jess Franco retrospective under the title A BAD DAY AT THE CEMETERY aka La Cripta de las mujeres malditas, an earlier two part version with somewhat different music and editing. It should be noted that this experimental epic, which uses the erotic cinema format as a commercial handle, is as obsessively personal and unapologetically expansive as the cinema of 1960s LBGT auteur Jack Smith (Flaming Creatures), more New York Underground than Los Angeles porn. A totally immersive experience which imposes alternate spatial-temporal coordinates on the viewer. There is no There there, as Gertrude Stein famously wrote of a storied city. Now available on 2 DVDs with English, French, Italian and German subtitle options. Bonus features include a Jess Franco interview, 3 short films including Lina Romay tras la camara and more. PAL, will play ALL REGIONS. Widescreen Anamorphic 1.78:1/Audio DD 2.0 Spanish. From VIAL OF DELICATESSENS. http://www.vialofdelicatessens.blogspot.com.es"

But that was then. This is now, 2025, and I have watched the film a number of times since finding further layers in a film which at first seem no deeper than the tender flesh of its actresses. The action, or non-action, unfolds in a timeless place, several rooms with shag carpeted floors and fitted with numerous mirrors and several television monitors. Time has stopped. The 150m runtime of both parts could take place in a split second or over a long night or a thousand and one nights. Aside for the opening shot of a large rock being battered by the surrounding sea and several shots of a generic cemetery exterior, the actresses are trapped (or liberated) in a hermetically sealed space, represented perhaps by the director's apartment. There is very little movement by players. It is like watching the gradual melting of a long frozen world.

Although it is a plotless, non linear, non representational film there is a narrative spoken by a male narrator on the soundtrack. The narrator is the only male actor in the film. The narative will be familiar from Franco's 1967 masterpiece NECRONOMICON/SUCCUBUS, where it is told to the female lead Lorna by the character played by Jack Taylor, her lover and ultimate victim. The narrative tells of a wealthy prince who marries a beautiful young woman who has no memory of her past. After a year of being happily married the wife stabs her husband to death in a garden. When the dying prince asks her why she has done this his wife speaks of a castle in the depths of Hell. Although the story pertains to the characters and narrative of that film it is heard several times in La Cripta... as kind of a counterpoint/backstory to the action, adding another layer of context to the matrix. It is crucial to remember that the 1967 NECRONOMICON became the way in which Franco escaped the prison of being a commercial director operating within the boundaries of 1960s Spanish cinema and its censorship. It garnered the positive attention of Fritz Lang, AIP Pictures and, most importantly, producer-writer Happy Alan Towers who would contract Franco to direct a series of international co-productions for the next several years. These co-productions would give him access to such world renowned actors as Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Klaus Kinski and take him to such locations as Brazil and Istanbul with larger budgets and resources never before available to him. NECRONOMICON resulted in a paradigm shift in his life and career and LA CRIPTA... executes another paradigm shift, albeit one at the very end of his career. It's very instructive to watch both films back to back for these reasons. La Cripta, however has never gained a wide release out of showing at the Cinemateque Francaise retrospective and a limited edition Spanish DVD. What we are left with is something without a comfortable focal plane, no breakaway scenes, no compass to guide us, there is only the fascinating X ray of what was once the cinema of Jess Franco.

LILIAN (la virgen pervertida) Clifford Brawn (sic) 1983

An image which sums up the hard-boiled dimension inhabited by Al Pereira (Antonio Mayans). Cigarettes, a gun, a few drinks, suggesting a minimalist pattern of a gritty life and a story which ends with Al executing the club owner (Emilio Linder) who drugged, raped, and turned out Lilian (Katja Bienert). In the opening scene of this neo-noir the young, naive Lilian opens a door to the upscale villa in which she is staying and confronts a hardcore scene between Lina Romay and Jose Llamas. That perfectly sums up the issue with this project, which began as Clasificada "S" thriller which had to be upgraded/downgraded to a hardcore feature, necessitating the removal of some 20 minutes of the original's runtime (84m). The reason was a Spanish law which had been suddenly imposed restricting the showing of "S" product in Adult houses. Jess Franco had to scramble and add this footage since his film would not be playable in more mainstream locations.

I assume the film did reasonably well, probably due to those grudgingly added hardcore scenes, and may disappoint those who look for something more than another hardcore. Franco took advantage of the sudden legalization of hardcore in Spain during the film's production. He was, after all, making a film for the commercial Spanish marketplace, now expanded to hardcore palaces. LILIAN... tells the downbeat story of a young woman (Katja Bienert) who collapses while staggering though a desert-like area. She has been drugged, held prisoner and forced to be the abused party in an S&M show staged for the edification of the local police official (Daniel J. White) who is supposed to be leading investigations. Instead he takes detective Al Pereira off the case when he gets too close to the truth.

Al has discovered the comatose Lilian, who recounts her terror in a delirium at the residence of retired cop and friend Bernardo (Jess Franco), who counsels Al to forget it. He doesn't. Corruption is endemic here as in LES EBRANLEES (1972) and BOTAS NEGRAS, LATIGO DE CUERO (Golden Films Internacional, 1982), two very similar Al Pereira episodes. As in those films, Al Pereira  is depicted as a hotheaded, high minded loser who will ultimately trigger his own exile from the human race. The villains, the drug lord (Emilio Linder) and his wife (Lina Romay). who fetches him party girls and druggies at her nightclub, are oh-so-chic, part of the local glitter scene. Franco shoots this as a 1980s Film Noir, a virtual encyclopedia of noir references and visual quotes.

Using long takes and wide angle lenses in the style of Sam Fuller (UNDERWORLD USA) and Robert Aldrich (KISS ME, DEADLY), but also incorporating his personal favorites THE KILLERS (Robert Siodmak version) and Howard Hawks' THE BIG SLEEP in the flashback structure of the former and the opening credits of the latter, which are recreated in the penultimate scene when the camera lingers on a pack of cigarettes (American, of course), two whiskey glasses and a pistol on a table. The drug lord had just been sitting there having a drink when Al Pereira burst in and summarily executed him, Dirty Harry style. Al leaves his pistol as a calling card, knowing the police will trace it to him. Then he quickly hops into his car and drives away into a future life of assured damnation. One evil bastard is done away with, but the corporate  evil of the big combo will continue under the averted attention of the corrupt police official. And the principled avenger and seeker of justice Al Pereira will suffer the punishments of our sinful, fallen world. The film has a brutal, nihilistic tone which is mediated by one of Daniel J. White's most breathtaking scores, incorporating a kind of funk theme and an ethereal line. Some of these cues can also be heard in the director's 1985 Jungle adventure, L'ESCLAVA BLANCA, a Manacoa production.

If one can forgive or fast forward the hardcore scenes there's a good film in there. Franco and Antonio Mayans are superb as the world weary receivers of Lilian's sad story. This element of delirious confession to authority figures evokes EUGENIE DE SADE (1970) and Sade's theater piece, DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PRIEST AND A DYING MAN (1782). The Spanish "kiosk" DVD version was screened for this review. It has very good video quality, sharp and colorful with acceptable Spanish only audio.  This version lasts approximately 73 minutes. We're left with a moral vacuum, set in the glitter scene, which is made into a sexual hell by the insertion of much routine hardcore footage, taking advantage of Spain's newly liberalized censorship. With strong performances by Lina Romay, Jess Franco as the retired cop, and Daniel J White as the corrupt police official. This was released on Spanish VHS before it appeared as a "kiosk" DVD.

The opening beach escape by the delirious heroine is the film's best scene. Filmed on locations in Madrid and Huelva.The Spanish sunlight seems withered in this downbeat neo-noir where fear,anxiety and violence seem omnipresent.

LA TUMBA DE LOS MEURTOS VIVENTES (1982)

If you are a serious fan of the films of Jess Franco, or a zombie movie completest, it's likely you have seen the director's 1981 Nazi zombie effort, OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES/L'ABIME DES MORTS-VIVANTS, which is out on Blu-ray from REDEMPTION FILMS. It is less likely you have seen the notably superior Spanish version of the same film, LA TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES, which had a Spanish DVD release.

Robert Blabert and his friends use their holidays to find a treasure left by Rommel's soldiers in North Africa, and to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Robert's father. On their way, they run into a man who is also looking for the treasure, was digging around for the treasure and awakened its guards, a group of flesh-eating zombies. This is a long-lost Spanish-language Franco movie, parts of which were used to create the Nazi-zombie quickie known as OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (a.k.a. BLOODUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES). OASIS was completed and released by Eurocine magnate Marius Lesoeur (under the name A. M. Frank). Franco's version recently resurfaced on Spanish television.

Though LA TUMBA DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTS is a completely different film from OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, it uses the same basic story line. Adding to the confusion, Franco's original production company shot French and Spanish versions simultaneously. Pieces of the French version were subsequently used in other Eurocine movies, of which OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES is the most well-known. LA TUMBA incorporates World War II battle scenes from some Italian productions, of which only Alfredo Rizzo's I GIARDINI DEl DIAVOLO (1971) has been identified. The checkered history of LA TUMBA is more interesting that the movie itself, although it is obviously an essential Franco collector's item. It looks and plays a lot better than OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, mostly because Juan Soler Cozar's atmospheric cinematography has been retained. The actors are more interesting, too -- namely Eduardo Fajardo, an experienced character actor who appeared in many Italian westerns and thrillers (DJANGO, etc), and Lina Romay, looking as sensual as ever and eventually falling victim to the bloodsucking Nazi zombies.

The superior performances of Fajardo and Romay (compared to the actors who play the same roles in the French version), along with Franco's sharper editing, help this version play a lot smoother than the relentlessly schlocky OASIS. Also interesting are the effectively tilted camera angles used during the zombie attacks (which are not used in the OASIS version), as well as gorgeous long shots of the Canary Island desert locations. Best of all is the delirious, eerie score by Pablo Villa (performed by Carlos Franco), which is absent from the other versions and adds a sense of menace which is so obviously lacking in OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES. Daniel White is credited with the score for OASIS, although with different, more conventional cues. An all region HD release of LA TUMBA.... would be welcome. It should be noted that Franco also did some initial scripting work on another Nazi zombie project for Eurocine but did not show up for the first day shooting, ZOMBIE LAKE (1980). The scenario of that film has some interesting parallels with Franco's 1964 EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF. But Franco dropped out of that project and Jean Rollin ended up handling the direction. Franco remains uncredited on the finished film. (C) Robert Monell,2025

COCKTAIL SPECIAL (1978): Jess Franco's XXX Files

Christopher Lee, in his memorable crimson smoking jacket, as the vicious Sadean perpetrator/narrator, Dolmance, seen in this vintage advert for Jess Franco's first version of Sade's 1795 literary outrage, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM.

COCKTAIL SPECIAL is a hardcore remake of EUGENIE, THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970). Actually, the second remake after PLAISIR A TROIS (1973), which also featured some hardcore action, but much less than in this entry.

This may have been chronologically the last film Franco made for the prolific producer Robert de Nesle, who is credited with the script. De Nesle reportedly died in 1978.

The titular drink may be especially disgusting but there are reasons to examine this film, outside of its interest to those who must see each and every film Franco made during his 50 year and still ticking directorial career. Visually exotic, with bizarre masks, strobe lighting, esoteric set-ups, this brief, ingeniously composed adult programmer is interestingly scored by Franco and Daniel White (as Pablo Villa, these delirious cues would be heard in many of his 1980s period films).

Touxa Beni is an olive, bright, rather mysterious Eugenie and a makes an equally compelling protagonist as the other actresses (Marie Liljedahl; Alice Arno; Katia Beinert) who have played the role for Franco.

I disagree with the review in OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO, which dismisses this film while pushing the suggestion that Franco did not direct it. There may have been some inserts added but there are many trademark Franco images and plot details.

With Karen Gambier as the most significant eye candy, outside of Ms. Beni, in the film, there's little to behold outside of the endlessly interesting ways Franco finds to illuminate the penniless production, often large lamps are just placed directly behind the actors as the camera shoots into them, breaking one of the cardinal rules of "well made" cinema.

Shot in Portugal, one wonders if this was the film Franco offered to to Brigitte Lahaie in the wake of another de Nesle Portuguese-lensed hardcore, JE BRULE DE PARTOUT [type the title in the blog's search engine for my archived review]' she summarily refused the offer.

One wonders why Franco kept returning to the original Sade story, published as seven "Dialogues" in 1795. Female characters reading books (Sade/erotic pulp) is another activity given special attention in his Sade films.

Reading it is a shocking experience as one realizes, with reference to the five Jess Franco versions, it's much, much more explicit and transgressive than any or all of them put together. Note the way Franco uses the languid images of character's smoking cigrarettes as punctuation between the extended hardcore scenes. Smoking is always an activity which attracts special attention in the Franco filmography. Given the director's own habit of chain smoking for virutally every possible moment it registers as some kind of miracle that he lasted a few years past 80.

The final twist in COCKTAIL SPECIAL is that Eugenie's own father is tricked into incest during the climactic masque, but in the Sade original it's Madame de Mistival who ends up as the victim of a brutal physical-sexual assault by Eugenie under the close direction of Dolmance, played by Christopher Lee in the the 1970 version. Eugenie's subsequent dialogue highlights her delight in her role as multiple transgressor.

The final dialogue concludes with the lines which Lee speaks (with acidic irony) in a key scene: "I never dine so heartily, I never sleep so soundly as when I have, during the day, sufficiently befouled myself with what our fools call crimes." That's Entertainment, Sade style.



*[There is only the main title and a FIN card on the print I screened]; most of Franco's de Nesle backed films of this period were signed as Clifford Brown or Jacques Garcia.

Thanks to Francesco Cesari for helping me to see this rarity via DVD-R.

(C) Robert Monell, 2025

MIDNIGHT PARTY (Lady Porno) 1975

American-European Films presents LADY PORNO aka La Coccolona (Italian release), Porno Pop, Sexy Blues, La Partouze de Minuit, Sylvia la Baiseuse, Heisse Beruhrungen (German version) LADY PORNO (Spanish version) Directed by Tawer Nero (Julio Perez Tabernero) for Titanic Films, Spanish version. James Gardner (Jess Franco), English language version. Based on a story by David Khunne. 75 min, Spanish version. 90 min, English language version. MIDNIGHT PARTY version produced by Eurocine/Paris, Brux Interfilms/Brussels. Production Mgr. Daniel Lesoeur.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the production of Jess Franco's ultra-minimalist Eurospy-sex comedy. Filmed in what Pamela Stanford once wrote to me was "the celestial city" i.e. the futurist/geometric Southern France resort Le Grande Motte in what appears to be just a few days in a hotel rooms also seen in several other Franco films made back-to-back (SHINING SEX, DE SADE'S JULIETTE),\. Franco himself appears in the central role as Agent #008. Lina Romay is Syvia, a frisky stripper working at the hotel. This is an interactive sexy spy film filmed without excuses and possibly scripted on hotel napkins. It was a typical Franco strategy that he shot two other films at Le Grande Motte using the exact same rooms, casts and crews. The version under consideration here has the onscreen title LADY PORNO, a Spanish variant of Franco's original, MIDNIGHT PARTY. Credited to Tawer Nero aka 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, 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 (Franco regular Olivier Mathot) behind the back of her longtime lover, jazz musician Red Nicholas (longtime Jess Franco friend, actor, film historian, 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 as the interactive approach allows 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 fourth wall mode. It's all a lot of good natured fun. Except that the subject is torture. Torture that really hurts! Sylvia is taken by Radeck/Agent 008, 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, 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 lasts 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. 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. Alain Petit is very droll as the Marxist jazz singer. 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 un 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 with the cops (a minimalist debacle) 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 Jess Franco movie. (C) Robert Monell, 2025