Prof. Albert Von Klaus (Howard Vernon), recently escaped from the Soviet Union, has developed a blueprint for a ICBM which could be targeted at the United States. Secret Agent Carlos Rivas (Antonio Mayans) attempts to foil the Professor's plan to supply it to Russia and, with the help of frisky night club singer Lina Romay, turn it over to American military instead. This rather generic plot is supposedly based, evidenced by the Spanish poster, on Edgar Wallace's SANDERS COME FROM THE RIVER. Not having read that novel I cannot confirm or deny any influence. The fact of the matter is that it's a rather light hearted blend of Eurospy adventure and generic satire, Jess Franco style. It mostly is set within the confines of a few suites and the music lounge of a not exactly luxurious hotel in Alicante. Or is it Benidorm? It remains uncertain since production was obviously done in both cities, with maybe some detours to Calpe.
The presence of Argentine born Daniel Katz as a malcious counter agent adds to the suspense, and sometimes the slapstick comedy, if not to the versilmultitude. The luminous cinematography of Juan Cozar is also a plus and he also apppears as a sometwhat bumbling comrade of Rivas. Actually this is kind of a primer for the 1984 spy comedy CUANTO COBRA UN ESPIA?, which also features camera work by Cozar as a composer of musical encoded military formula. That title appears rather toothless in comparison to SANGRE... which at least has a few impressive set pieces. Impressive by Franco standards, that is. A sequence set at an outdoor carnivals where Rivas has a life and death struggle with a counter agent atop of ferris wheel could almost be described as Hitchcockian, abeit on a Franco scale. Lina Romay also has an impressive musical interlude as she leads a sing-along on her Korg of a popular song. All these inclusion of musical codes go all the way back to the 1968 KISS ME MONSTER and were further ultilized in the visually dazzling, sado-erotic 1981 spy thriller LA NOCHE DE LOS SEXOS ABIERTOS.
Equally Hitchcock-like is the climactic scene where Katz pilots of small aircraft which bombards the fleeing Rivas and singer with high explosives. One thinks of the the crop dusting sequence in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, which I discussed about 10 years ago on my much missed Madrid podcast with Elena. It's obvious that Franco was having a lot of fun with this shoot. If the film lacks the sometimes atmospheric delirium of Franco's other mid 1980's Edgar Wallace epic, VIAJE A BANGKOK ATUAD INCLUIDO (1985), another comedic Wallace "adaptation", featuring Howard Vernon as Col. Blimp, an eccentric agent sent to the Far East to battle more counter agents who are involved in an assassination spree of A class diplomats in a plot based on Franco's 1966 CARTES SUR TABLE. This film however is much more visually interesting in its use of reflective surfaces along with smoke and mirrors in its representation of a sinister murder sect. Franco does have a tendency to repeat his scenarios, though sometimes with fascinating and layered results. Thanks to Nzoog.
For further discussion of Franco's ongoing use of musical, visual and literary codes see my essay THE SECRET CODES OF JESS FRANCO in Nocturno Magazine #60, Anno XII, Luglio 2007.
(C) Robert Monell, 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment