Jess Franco's XXX Files: VIAJE DE NOVIOS (1956); ELLES FONT TOUT (1978); CLAIRE (1979)

ELLES FONT TOUT is not a favorite of mine and I find the 1980s remake HOTEL DE LAS LUIGES a bit easier to take, but it is preferable to this rather Keystone Cops assembly, which is nonetheless a minor curio for fans of both European Trash Cinema and Jess Franco. The fact that once again a Franco 1980s Golden Films Internacional remake is as interesting and sometimes superior to the orignal confirms Franco's creative persistence rather than a lack of new ideas since what's good about HOTEL DE LAS LUIGES is that it's smarter, funnier and more stylistically layered than ELLES FONT TOUT. Considering the French adverts and this synopsis "Trois couples séjournent dans un hôtel et tous ont des problèmes sexuels. Un jour, une star du porno professionnel (Lina Romay) enseigne à tout le monde comment faire", one might expect a sophisticated and elegant display of epicurian erotica. The French do have a way with words. Fixated on visual slapstick and oral hardcore (Lina Romay literally sucks food out of the diners) this seems like a haphazardly staged orgy for gourmands only. Romay, as the randy porn star Nini, is pretty much the whole show. A key scene has her character sneaking into the bedroom of a sexually dysfunctional couple and performing oral sex on them as they sleep. This qualifies her as a succubus, referencing Franco's 1967 NECROMONICON aka Succubus, which signaled a paradigm shift in his filmography and work arena. Filmed in Portugal, Cascais, Lisbon; Portugal (Stock shot travelling of the Bay, Estoril-Sol Hotel, and the Palácio Seixas); Boca do Inferno, Cascais; Lisbon, Portugal, according to the IMDB, in what appears to be a local hotel for interiors and some exterior stock shots. This seems to have had an unusually frenetic production, even for a filmmaker famous for frenetic productions. Some charm is exhibited by the always welcome Martine Flety (Blue Rita) and the charming sprite Touxa Beni (Eugenie in COCKTAIL SPECIAL), one of three films made back to back for ailing produced Robert De Nesle, who was to pass away in 1978, the year this, along with JE BRULE DE PARTOUT would form a desperate trilogy for the legendary moneyman. Franco, ever the salesman, visited De Nesle on his death bed, attempting to make a final deal for future productions. The producer of THE THREE FANTASTIC SUPERMEN, COPLAN Eurospy films and 1960s Peplums left this plane of existence on April 21, 1978.

First, a little known parallel film to ELLES FONT TOUT was Leon Klimovsky's 1956 HONEYMOON/VIAJE DE NOVIOS, which Franco worked on as assistant director and co-wrote some of the musical score. The plot and main characters in that film were again used in ELLES FONT TOUT without credit. In that film Aurora de Alba (FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR) plays the Lina Romay role of a sexy singer who comes to a vacation spa in rural Spain where she flirts with several married men and finally leaves with the couples reconciled. Filmed in candy colored hues, Franco wrote several songs de Alba performs, among them AMOR, AMOR, later to be heard in Franco's horror debut GRITOS EN LA NOCHE (1961). She also performs a Conga song which uses the word "Cucufate" repreatedly. Franco fans will recognize the word as the name of a devil cut in his wild 1980 sci-fi-sex epic, EL SEXO ESTA LOCO. Franco once again was employing his composing and directoral skills in different contexts. VIAJE DE NOVIOS is a much better resourced, directed and performed film (including future collaborator Fernando Fernan Gomez in a key role) and is well worth seeking out.

I can verify the existence of an Italian version, QUEL CERTO SAPORE (That Certain Taste) of ELLES FONT TOUT, which would appear several years after the initial release of ELLES FONT TOUT. I had it in my Jess Franco collection for decades and had never gotten around to watching it. I finally fished it out of storage and it's a sub-par dupe, but watchable. In fact, this seems to be the only way to watch ELLES FONT TOUT, which despite a release of French video seems to presently have disappeared. The best shot in the film, and only stylish one, is the final shot of Lina's character, wearing an eye-catching sun hat, exiting the hotel, script in hand for "Sucking in the Rain", her upcoming porn film.

CLAIRE (1979): Threee Jess Franco films and at least three Joe D'Amato hardcore films composited by D'Amato make up the Italian producer's second attempt to make a commercial product out of several Franco films. This is probably one of the most difficult to find of Franco-related films, with no known DVD release. Franco's 1978 Robert De Nesle funded hardcore ELLES FONT TOUT, which featured Lina Romay as a porno actress vacationing at an exclusive sex spa, was merged with footage shot by D'Amato featuring one of his favorite hardcore performers, Mark [PORNO HOLOCAUST] Shanon (aka Manlio Certosino). The pamphlet AKA Joe D'Amato (Italy, 1995) cites footage with B. Lahaie, but she is elusive to me in the blurry print which I referenced. I guess it would be Franco's JE BRULE DE PARTOUT (1978). In addition there is footage from COCKTAIL SPECIAL, and at least three D'Amato 1980s era hardcore features edited into the mix. That would be three Jess Franco's and three Joe D'Amatos for the price of one. Basically this composite is a mess of main interest to Franco and D'Amato collectors.

Note that even though she is prominently credited, Franco icon Pamela Stanford [aka Monique Delaunay] is not present in this print version. CLAIRE seems to have been put together circa 1979 but wasn't until several years later that it was released in Italy. The print referenced was a poor video dupe in Italian. Thanks to Nzoog for alerting me to the Franco connections in LUNA DE MIEL and finding a print for me to reference. [74m 30s] (C) Robert Monell, 2025